Sports World Starting to Awaken With NFL Draft, Three Planned UFC Events
Published on April 24th, 2020 12:15 am ESTWritten By: Dave Manuel
It's official - UFC 249 is a go. Sports fans were treated to the NFL draft earlier this week. In fact, this year's version of the draft had the highest ratings of any NFL draft ever, and by a very wide margin.
Sports fans are starved for content, and they are about to get even more.
Earlier today, UFC President Dana White announced that UFC 249 on May 9th is a go.
In addition, there are three events planned over the course of 7 days, starting with UFC 249.
Everything is set. The venue has been secured (VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida). In fact, VyStar will host all three events (May 9th, May 13th and May 16th).
The state is on board, and this will be a sanctioned event (Florida's Governor recently declared sports an essential business, paving the way for UFC 249 to go forward).
The promotion's broadcast partner, ESPN is on board. UFC 249 will be a PPV event, while the other two cards will presumably be ESPN+ events.
The matches for UFC 249 have all been signed, and the promotion is working on putting together fights for the other two cards.
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Here is the main UFC 249 card:
Ferguson v Gaethje
Cejudo v Cruz
Ngannou v Rozenstruik
Stephens v Kattar
Hardy v De Castro
Prelims
Cowboy v Pettis 2
Oleinik v Werdum
Esparza v Waterson
Hall v Jacare
Luque v Price
Mitchell v Rosa
Spann v Alvey
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There will be no fans in attendance for any of the three cards. The UFC has said that they will be going "above and beyond" to protect their fighters.
After this set of cards, the UFC is vowing to continue their schedule, even for International cards. According to Dana White, the promotion's proposed "Fight Island" will still be going ahead, at a location still to be revealed.
