OFFICIAL! Dana White Finally Confirms UFC 249 Main Event

After weeks of back and forth, the UFC and Dana White have finalized an opponent for Tony Ferguson. The headliner of UFC 249 will now witness Justin Gaethje take on Tony Ferguson.

Dana White announced the news via Twitter. The UFC President added that the fight will take place for the interim UFC Lightweight belt. However, he hasn’t disclosed the venue of the fight.

The name of Justin Gaethje was one of the first ones to come up as a replacement for Khabib Nurmagomedov. However, the news came without making any noise. This was probably because Dana White had decided to control the information regarding UFC 249 that goes out to the media.

Dana has been pretty pissed off with the media amidst the whole Coronavirus issue. His reluctance to go on with the events in the face of the pandemic has garnered him a lot of negative publicity. Consequently, he lashed out at the people covering the sport, calling them “weakest and wimpiest”. Subsequently, he felt that the lesser the people covering the sport know the better.

Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Tony Ferguson probably makes a UFC record for being cancelled

Fans of the MMA world will be having mixed emotions right now. If Dana’s confidence is to be trusted, then the UFC will be the first major promotion to resume work amidst the Coronavirus pandemic. Fans are currently satisfying their hunger of action by watching throwbacks. In such times, a scarp between, arguably, the two most exciting fighters in the 155-pounds division is nothing short of a delight.

However, the fans know that the fight comes at a cost. And the cost being the fact that they will be denied of a promised bout between Khabib and Tony for the fifth time. No other fight has been more cursed in more than 25 years of the UFC’s existence. The fact that the fight is for supremacy in one of the deepest divisions makes it even more frustrating.

Unlike the previous four times, it took more than the health of the two fighters to bring down the fight. Khabib was training in the USA since December. However, once the lockdown began, he flew back to Dagestan. Uncertainty also had a major role to play regarding why “The Eagle” flew away from the States.

With multiple states placing a ban on any kind of gathering altogether, UFC 249 was never a hundred per cent certain. However, at last, Dana White did manage to stick to his words and the fans finally have an event to watch.