UFC 249 Cancelled

UFC 249 was scheduled to be held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn New York on April 18. The fight was supposed to be between current Lightweight champion Khabib Numagomedov and challenger Tony Fergeson. 

This was supposed to be one of the biggest fights in UFC history. Khabib has a record of 27 wins and 0 losses. In his last fight he beat UFC superstar Connor Mcgregor by submission in the 4th round. Since then his fame has risen drastically. 

The challenger Tony Fergenson is also one of the best fighters in the UFC. He has a record of 26 wins and 3 losses. He is a cardio machine which means he never runs out of energy and is very explosive. He last beat UFC great Donald Cerrone back in June of 2019. 

Khabib went back to Russia to train there due to the outbreak of Covid-19. Since the U.S had closed their borders Khabib is now stuck in Russia and would not be able to make it back in time for the fight. UFC President Dana White did not want to have to cancel the bout so he scheduled Lightweight Justin Gaejthe to fill in.

Gaejthe is another dominant Lightweight who has incredible punching power. He holds a record of 21 wins and 2 losses. He has wanted a title fight for a very long time and has been knocking out fighters left and right. When he got the call to fight for the Interim belt he jumped in. 

But now the entire event has been called off and suspended indefinitely. Dana White suspended the event due to pressure from Disney and ESPN because of the outbreak. It would take a lot of people to fly out to the event and nobody wanted to take that risk. 

Student Jonathan Osmun said, “This fight would have been really awesome to see. It’s a shame that it had to be cancelled.” They are still trying to figure out a new date that it can be rescheduled for.