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UFC President Dana White has confirmed to ESPN on Monday that he has secured a location in the U.S. to host UFC 249 on April 18, which will be headlined by an interim title fight between Tony Ferguson and Justin Gaethje and consist of 12 fights overall. Ferguson is a -175 favorite to beat Gaethje.
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Ferguson was initially slated to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov but Khabib announced last week he is trapped in Russia due to the coronavirus pandemic. Ferguson said he would agree to fight Gaethje provided a venue is secured.
White says that the island will be used for regular fights for the next 11 months.
"I'll tell you this, I'm this close to getting a deal done," White said. "So this place where this fight is going to be on April 18 I have locked up for two months, so I'm going to continue to pump fights out. I also secured an island. I've got an island. The infrastructure is being built right now. We're going to do all of our international fights on this island.
"So when we do this fight April 18, international and in the United States, we're going to start cranking. The UFC will be back up and running, internationally and here in the States."
White has not disclosed the location of his venue in the U.S, and he said he has no plans of doing so. The fights will be held without a live audience.
"Health and safety is something we worry about all the time, not just during the coronavirus," White said. "Obviously, this has made our jobs a little tougher, but we're going to do everything above and beyond to make sure everybody is safe, just like we always do. A lot of things will be different."
- Tyrone Black, Gambling911.com
