Russian MMA (mixed martial arts) star Khabib Nurmagomedov on Wednesday gave up on a fight scheduled for April 18 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The UFC (the most important professional MMA league) lightweight champion was to face American Tony Ferguson in the star fight of the evening UFC 249, but he declared on his Instagram account that he did not want to leave Russia.
Staying home in quarantine and reading the reaction of people to the situation around my fight, it turns out that the whole world should be in quarantine, governments of all countries, famous people around the world… https://t.co/ZLwFsdQSDQ
- khabib nurmagomedov (@TeamKhabib) April 1, 2020"I understand everything but I am much more disappointed than you to cancel this fight (...) I had a lot of plans after the fight, but I cannot control everything", writes on his account the Daguestanais, who had defeated Irish mixed martial arts superstar Conor McGregor on October 6, 2018 in an ultra-modern fight.
How we got here: Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Tony Ferguson goes 0-for-5 https://t.co/aySYaDUXiq
- MMA Junkie (@MMAjunkie) April 2, 2020The UFC has already canceled three events for lack of a place to organize the fights, because of the restrictions put in place to fight against the coronavirus pandemic. The league had not yet announced the place planned for the Khabib-Ferguson fight, but its president Dana White assured last week to have "four or five sites under the elbow" and said he was determined to organize it for " to bring back some normality in this country ".
- Sport
- Coronavirus
- Martial Arts