Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports
If UFC 250 can’t happen in Brazil, co-headliners Amanda Nunes and Felicia Spencer want to fight closer to home.
We are just over one month away from UFC 250, and with Brazil far and away the hardest hit South American country in terms of overall coronavirus cases, it’s more than reasonable to think that this card won’t happen as originally planned. With that in mind, the card’s co-headliners have an idea to salvage their title fight.
Two-division champion Amanda Nunes and women’s featherweight title challenger Felicia Spencer both live and train in Florida, so they want to see the card moved over to the United States.
Spencer got the ball rolling by tweeting at Nunes to have the fight in “our backyard.”
@Amanda_Leoa we both live in ?? Florida, let’s get #UFC250 to our back yard . Please don’t leave!
@Mickmaynard2 @danawhite @ufc— Felicia The FeeNom Spencer (@FeeNom479) March 30, 2020
Nunes responded by calling Spencer’s suggestion “a great idea.”
Sorry. Just seeing this. I’m not going anywhere, girl. I think that’s a great idea. Let’s do this
— Amanda Nunes (@Amanda_Leoa) April 1, 2020
Now Spencer tweeted that on March 30th, while Nunes replied on April 1st. Florida governor Ron DeSantis (finally) announced a statewide “stay at home” order, effective April 3rd. This order will last at least 30 days, which is admittedly outside of the UFC 250 date of May 9th, but nevertheless makes UFC 249 even less likely to happen there. “Cagefighting” does not appear to be an essential service or essential activity that is consistent with the CDC’s physical distancing guidelines.
The other obvious issue would be travel restrictions, particularly for a card that is mostly Brazilian fighters, along with the fact that many cannot train under normal circumstances due to shuttered gyms.
UFC 250’s main event is a men’s bantamweight title bout between champion Henry Cejudo and former featherweight king Jose Aldo.