Khabib Nurmagomedov is out of UFC 249 amid the coronavirus pandemic, but Dana White is apparently still trying to put the event together.
Khabib is in Russia because of the crisis caused by the virus, and he has made it pretty clear he won’t be able to fight against Tony Ferguson April 18. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
Khabib’s Instagram live with English subs#UFC249 @DanaWhite @BigToneMMA
FULL VIDEO: https://t.co/b4URrvBVle ????pic.twitter.com/bqpojwlWv2
— Denis Geyko (@DenisGeykoRT) March 30, 2020
Despite the fact the biggest star tied to UFC 249 dropped out, there’s been tons of chatter about the fights moving forward.
Conor McGregor’s coach hinted the Irish-born star might fight and Justin Gaethje has also been mentioned. While we don’t know what White will do, he’s let it be known he won’t tell the media anything.
maybe there’s a third option…
— Coach Kavanagh (@John_Kavanagh) March 31, 2020
The UFC president told Yahoo Sports in a text, “I’m not telling the media anything about the details of the fight.”
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I’ll be incredibly surprised at this point in time if the fights ever happen April 18. Dana White has said he has multiple locations where they could happen, but it seems less and less likely by the day.
Khabib dropping out is just part of the problem. If other fighters can’t travel because of the pandemic, then I’m not sure how White could even put a card together.
He’s a great businessman and leader, but there’s only so much a guy can do.
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We’ll see what happens, but I think there’s a great chance UFC 249 joins the rest of sports in not happening. I hope I’m wrong, but it seems to be trending that way.