While Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) was able to book a highly-anticipated rematch between current lightweights contenders Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier for UFC 257 on Jan., 23, the location of the event has yet to be determined.
UFC president Dana White has made it perfectly clear that he intends to host the event on “Fight Island” in Abu Dhabi, but that isn’t official at this time. White is hoping to utilize “Fight Island” to actually bring back fans for McGregor’s return to the Octagon. The UFC boss even hinted at possibly doing an “International Fight Week” for the event, complete with “concerts, pool parties, and all kinds of cool stuff.”
With COVID-19 cases on the rise around the world, White and company haven’t been able to lock down a location for UFC 257. It remains in limbo and now appears to have a chance of going down from inside UFC’s APEX in Las Vegas.
According to the minutes of an upcoming meeting of the Nevada State Athletic Commission (via Bloody Elbow), the promotion is trying to lock down permits to host events on January 16, 23, and 30 at UFC Apex.
Unfortunately, UFC may have trouble finalizing those permits for Vegas as well. Earlier this week, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak hinted at a possible “pause” for statewide events as rising COVID-19 cases are hitting all-time daily highs.
“Just recently, we experienced a record number of daily cases — 2,416 in just one day. Our previous record was 1,619 in July. Today, we once again had over 2,000 cases reported,” said Sisolak during a press conference back on Nov. 22.
With less than two months left to finalize a location for UFC 257, promote the event for McGregor’s return, and host the first major PPV card of 2020, UFC better get moving. The promotion has been able to navigate the unpredictable coronavirus landscape up to this point, but everything is heightened when it comes to a Conor McGregor fight.
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