“While the organization was fully prepared to host the UFC 249 tournament, ESPN asked to postpone this event and all subsequent events indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic. The UFC is looking forward to resuming the full tournament schedule as soon as possible, ”the UFC statement said on Twitter.
Initially, the UFC 249 tournament was to be held on April 18 in New York, and the main event was to be the title fight of UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson.
Nevertheless, due to quarantine in New York, the tournament was moved to another place, which was not called until the last. On April 1, Nurmagomedov withdrew from the battle due to the impossibility of relegation from Russia, and on April 6, UFC head Dana White called Justin Gatzy a Ferguson rival to the tournament.
Earlier it was reported that the UFC canceled the tournament, where Nurmagomedov was supposed to defend the title.