Dana White brought excellent news for MMA fans. The president of the UFC organization unveiled the card for the upcoming UFC 249, and told that he plans more events during the COVID-19 pandemic.
White was very optimistic, adding that he has the location of the event but that he doesn’t want to reveal it yet. Furthermore, that venue will be used for even more contests in the future.
“I locked this venue for two months,” White stated. “I have this venue for two months, and we’re setting up shop here. We’re going to be pumping out fights every week.”
But this wasn’t all. The top man of the UFC revealed that he is about to “secure” as he said a private island, where it would be possible to stage international fights.
“I’m not going to be able to get the international fighters, all of them into the U.S., so I have a private island. I’m going to start flying them all into the private island and start doing international fights from there,” he told the TMZ in his interview this Monday.
In recent days, White happened to under a wave of criticism, for being stubborn in his intention to proceed according to his plan and organize the event. However, he is reassuring the public that the safety measures surrounding the event will be the highest possible.
Apart from the main fight of the night between Tony Ferguson and Justin Gaethje, and the co-headliner between Jessica Andrade and Rose Namajunas, the most exciting bout will feature Francis Ngannou and Jairzinho Rozenstruik.
Their clash was the headliner of the UFC on ESPN 8, set for March 28, which was eventually canceled due to the pandemic. In some circles, this clash was the potential replacement for Khabib vs. Ferguson, as both fighters allegedly accepted the possibility of participating at UFC 249. Eventually, that happened.
Ngannou (14-3) is one of the most dominant fighters in the heavyweight division, and the Predator is looking for a second chance to win the title. He would lose the first time against Stipe Miocic via unanimous decision, and ever since, he’s been craving for another shot at the belt.
Rozenstruik (10-0) is a tremendous puncher who is one of the most entertaining fighters in the division. One strike is all that he needs to demolish his rival, and Alistair Overeem knows that the best. Basically, this fight might be a title eliminator, and whoever wins between these two has excellent prospects of meeting Miocic.
The fans will also see Greg Hardy against Yorgan de Castro, which was the fight also planned when Ngannou vs. Rozentstuik. The former NFL star, Hardy (5-2) is coming off a decision loss to Alexander Volkov while on the other side, he has a fighter who never lost in his six MMA appearances.
Uriah Hall and Jacare Souza is another interesting matchup between two experienced stars. Jacare has three losses in the previous four bouts, but all of them were via decision, twice split. Hall defeated three of the last four, losing only to Paulo Costa at the UFC 226.
Here is the full card of the event.
- Tony Ferguson vs. Justin Gaethje – for the interim lightweight title
- Jessica Andrade vs. Rose Namajunas
- Greg Hardy vs. Yorgan De Castro
- Vicente Luque vs. Niko Price
- Calvin Kattar vs. Jeremy Stephens
- Francis Ngannou vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik
- Uriah Hall vs. Ronaldo Souza
- Alexander Hernandez vs. Omar Morales
- Ray Borg vs. Marlon Vera
- Michael Johnson vs. Khama Worthy
- Sijara Eubanks vs. Sarah Moras
- Sam Alvey vs. Ryan Spann
