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UFC president Dana White has remained adamant that the blockbuster match up between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson at UFC 249 will happen on the scheduled date which is April 18, even though the promotion was forced to cancel three events throughout this March due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
UFC commentator Joe Rogan said that he believes that White will get it done but also revealed that he won't be a part of the event. Speaking on his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, Rogan expressed doubts over UFC pulling off the seemingly impossible feat and guessed that the event might take place inside an open arena with less than 10 people.
“The UFC is talking about putting on a fight on April 18th,” Rogan said. “I don’t know how they’re gonna do that. I don’t know if they’re gonna be able to do that in the United States. They’re talking about doing it in a place with less than 10 people, just an open arena - I guess someone’s gonna commentate it [but] it’s not gonna be me - and they’re gonna be duking it out in an empty place. And they’re gonna try to do that on the 18th.”
Rogan said that UFC now has the experience of hosting a locked down event with UFC Brasilia which was held inside an empty Nilson Nelson Gymnasium and now they will be better equipped to ensure that this event goes down smoothly inside a smaller place such as a film studio or a large warehouse since there won't be any audience in attendance anyway.
“They did it for the last card in Brazil because it was ordered by the government. The government ordered all large gatherings to break up when they started seeing the corona rising in Brazil so they had to do the Brazil card indoors, no people, weird. But they’re gonna plan Khabib and Tony this way. They’re gonna plan it, so it doesn’t even have to be a big place. They could do it in, like, a film studio. Legitimately, they could set this up in a film studio somewhere."
The fight between Khabib and Tony has already been cancelled four times in the past and that is exactly why Rogan believes White is desperate to make it happen on the scheduled date.
“This fight is so cursed! This is how Dana feels. This is why Dana’s trying so hard to make it happen even if there’s only 10 people in the room.”
