Dana White Looking To Make UFC 249 The Baddest Card Ever

UFC president Dana White is adamant that UFC 249 will happen on its scheduled date of April 18. He’s not saying where it will take place, only that it will happen.

On Tuesday, White, who was speaking to Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports on Instagram live, said, “We have two or three options in the U.S. and three or four options outside the country. So I’m not going to tell you. Everyone is on a need-to-know basis, and nobody needs to know right now. There’s still a few details that need to be worked out, but I have a lot of options.”

The scheduled headliner for the UFC 249 pay-per-view card is a matchup between lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and former interim champ Tony Ferguson. The matchup between the two, who are both on 12-fight winning streaks, has been booked and fallen apart four times in the past, mostly due to injuries.

On Wednesday, White, who told Iole UFC 249 would be a closed event with no fans on hand, said he had big plans for the event.

“We’re building a card where people can still maneuver and still get in,” White told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto during an Instagram Live chat. “We’re trying to build the baddest card that’s ever been done in the history of the sport. … Some of the things are going to work out, and some of the things might not work out. We’re trying to figure out if they don’t, what do we do? … Actually, Francis (Ngannou) is one of the guys we’re looking at, too. Yes, yes, yes (against Jairzinho Rozenstruik).”

Ngannou and Rozenstruik were booked to headline UFC on ESPN 8, which was scheduled for the March 28 fight card at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, OH. That card was one of the three events postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic and limits being put in place for public gatherings. 

UFC 249 was initially booked for Barclays Center in Brooklyn, but the March 12 announcement from New York governor Andrew M. Cuomo indicated “events with 500 or more individuals in attendance to be cancelled or postponed.”