Dana White recently postponed plans to go ahead with UFC 249 on April 18th and postponed all the promotions events indefinitely after a call from ESPN and Disney executives, but it seems that he’s now targeting a new date to get the show back on the road.
ESPN’s Brett Okamoto had the scoop, revealing that White is now looking to put on an event on May 9th with many of the fighters who were intended to feature on the recently postponed UFC 249 card, but with some big additions that will make it an even more stacked line-up if it goes ahead.
As such, according to Okamoto, there will be no less than three title fights at the top end of the card.
It’s worth noting that as things stand, Khabib Nurmagomedov will remain off the card, and as such the intended headliner is an interim lightweight title fight between Tony Ferguson and Justin Gaethje.
The first newly added fight to the card is a bantamweight title fight between Henry Cejudo and Dominick Cruz.
As if that wasn’t enough, a third title encounter will see women’s featherweight champion Amanda Nunes taking on Felicia Spencer.
The two new title fight additions were both originally scheduled to take place at the also recently postponed UFC 250 event, which just so happened to also have taken place on May 9th.
As yet there’s no location confirmed for the event, but it would take place around the time that White had previously indicated that his ‘Fight Island’ could be completed, while in recent days Florida has indicated it’s willingness to go ahead with sporting events behind closed doors, which could give the UFC another potential avenue to explore.
Interestingly, Okamoto also stated his belief that if ESPN once again attempted to intervene to stop the show from happening that it’s possible the UFC President could look to look at alternative ways to air the event.
Here is the full line-up that’s currently in the works for the event according to White.
Tony Ferguson vs. Justin Gaethje
Henry Cejudo vs. Dominick Cruz
Amanda Nunes vs. Felicia Spencer
Francis Ngannou vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik
Jeremy Stephens vs. Calvin Kattar
Donald Cerrone vs. Anthony Pettis II
Greg Hardy vs. Yorgan de Castro
Aleksei Oleinik vs. Fabricio Werdum
Carla Esparza vs. Michelle Waterson
Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza vs. Uriah Hall
Vicente Luque vs. Niko Price
Charles Rosa vs. Bryce Mitchell
