Getty Image
Despite the fact that UFC President Dana White is boisterously adamant that UFC 249 will be taking place, he’s certainly got his work cut out for him after it was revealed that Khabib Nurmagomedov is stuck in Russia because of a countrywide lockdown.
“One thing I do know is I’m not wrong,” White recently told Yahoo! Sports. “I know I’m right. I know it’s the right thing to do.”
Khabib is supposed to be fighting Tony Ferguson at UFC 249. Where this fight and the others scheduled to appear on the card will be taking place is something that only Dana White knows.
Not that it matters to longtime voice of the UFC Joe Rogan. Because he says regardless of where UFC 249 takes place he will not be there.
“The UFC is talking about putting on a fight on April 18th,” Rogan stated on his podcast. “You know, 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 ten people and then, you know, just an open arena. I guess someone’s gonna commentate it. It’s not gonna be me. And they’re gonna be duking it out, like, in an empty place.”
As for where these UFC 249 fights are going to take place, Rogan has ideas.
“Legitimately, they could set this up in a film studio somewhere,” said Rogan. “Tyler Perry’s got a place in Florida. They could go down to Florida, rent one of Tyler Perry’s gigantic film studios, set up, I mean we did it when we did the fight for the troops when they did the UFC in San Diego and several other places. In Austin as well. Whenever we did it, there’s a few more there’ll I know there’s a few different ones that we did, they just would use an airplane hangar.”
Rogan did, however, have a few questions.
“The thing is, how are they going to make sure nobody has it. You know, you’re going to have to test everybody,” Rogan continued, “And if someone has it do you let ’em fight? Like, what if they have it, and they’re like Idris Elba, and they have no symptoms, but they’ve got the corona? Like, what if Khabib has the corona? Or what if Tony [Ferguson] has the corona? Does Khabib even fight him?”
Rogan believes Dana White is trying to make UFC 249 happen because if it were to be postponed it would be the fifth time that the long-awaited Khabib versus Ferguson fight will have been canceled.
The logistics of how White is going to pull this off will be interesting considering there will be two fighters, one referee, three guys in each corner (six total), a cut man, a doctor, the three judges, a timekeeper, camera operators, and we assume, him, in whatever venue these fights will take place.