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France’s minister of sport, Roxana Maracineanu, announced the planned legalization of cage fighting last June, pending approval of the country’s Olympic and Sports Committee. But the date of January 2020 for said approval has now been delayed until February and according to a report from Le Parisian (via MMA Junkie), could be pushed back even further.
It’s like 2013 all over again.
That means Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) will need to have a back-up plan if it intends to move forward with a previously-rumored mixed martial arts (MMA) event in Paris this March, as that only affords the promotion three months to secure a venue and assemble a fight card, among the hundreds of other little details that go into live production.
No doubt this will be a letdown for top heavyweight contender and French-speaking badass Francis Ngannou, who was in talks to headline the UFC Paris event opposite fellow 265-pound title hopeful, Alexander Volkov.