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While the UFC looks to rush back to business as usual, Bellator continues to take a more cautious approach.
The UFC is expecting to be back in business by early May. The promotion has their rescheduled UFC 249 PPV card all set for May 9th in Jacksonville, FL. And while the UFC has been forced to cancel and postpone other, smaller events, it sounds like they still expect to be holding fight cards fairly regularly in the near future. Bellator, however, is far less gung-ho on a return to business as usual.
Bellator was much quicker to respond to the pandemic crisis than many others in the MMA promotional sphere, cancelling their March 13th event just hours before the fight card was supposed to take place. Soon after they announced that they would be postponing their run of May events (not having had any planned for April, already). That meant that Bellator 242: Bader vs. Nemkov, Bellator London, and Bellator 243: Carmouche vs. Bohm were all put on ice. Now it looks like the promotion will be adding their planned June 6th card in Chicago, IL as well.
Bellator 244 was set to be headlined by a rematch of the 2016 lightweight title fight between then-champion Michael Chandler and former UFC champion Benson Henderson. Chandler defeated Henderson by split decision in their first go-round, losing his title to Brent Primus via injury TKO just 7 months later. The Paramount Network based promotion announced the decision via a recent press release:
Due to the ongoing safety concerns surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak, as well as current federal, state and local government mandates, Bellator MMA officials today have announced that Bellator 244, originally scheduled to take place on June 6 at Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Ill., has been postponed.
The organization will continue to monitor the situation closely and fully intends to reschedule the event as soon as possible.
As always, the health and safety of our athletes, fans, partners and staff remains our top priority. We appreciate the understanding and patience of everyone involved during this incredibly difficult time.
The next event on the Bellator calendar isn’t set until October 3rd in Dublin, Ireland. It seems likely that many of the COVID-19 travel and event restrictions will be eased by then. But will Bellator really wait all summer to put on another fight card with states in the US looking to ease some restrictions already? Perhaps the UFC’s success or failure to put on events will help determine how fast their competition returns to business.