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April 18th’s UFC 249 is still in a state of major flux with fights being dropped and added daily. Here’s the latest changes.
Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Tony Ferguson may be a long shot for UFC 249, Dana’s white whale of a PPV card set to (maybe) go down on Saturday April 18th from a location TBA. But as fast as the card is losing bouts, the UFC is adding new ones … or in this case, bouts from other cancelled fight cards.
Francis Ngannou vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik was originally set to headline a UFC Fight Night card in Columbus, but is now on UFC 249. And now another heavyweight from that Columbus card is teasing the idea that his fight may be taking place on April 18th as well. Yorgan De Castro’s latest social media post certainly implies he and former NFL player Greg Hardy have been confirmed for the card.
See you soon pic.twitter.com/r5tySHMSpM
— Yorgan”the mad titan”Decastro (@DecastroYorgan) April 4, 2020
There sure is room for them to step in. We expect a number of fight changes and cancellations as the Coronavirus pandemic affects travel ability and fighter readiness. The most recent UFC 249 fight to fall apart: Lyman Good vs. Belal Muhammad, cancelled due to an injury to Good. We’ll see whether the UFC can find a late replacement for Muhammad, but there’s no shortage of fights from other cards (or fighters in general, for that matter) to throw onto the card.
Now all the UFC has to do is find a place where it’s legal to hold the fights, and then get all the participants there as safely as possible.