Lightweight champion Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Khabib Nurmagomedov said the UFC 249 duel against Tony Ferguson would not occur in the United States because of the corona virus pandemic or Covid-19.
The battle of Khabib vs Ferguson at UFC 249 is still a hot topic of conversation as it approaches the implementation date, April 18th.
The duel is planned to take place at the Barclays Center, Brooklyn New York, United States. However, the situation in the US itself is getting a massive outbreak of Covid-19.
The match in Brooklyn itself was threatened with cancellations which eventually led to a number of alternative places such as California and Florida.
However, quoted from Metro, Khabib said the UFC said the UFC 249 fight would not be held in the United States. Because of this, Khabib and his team chose to move to Russia because in that country the entrance lane would be imposed.
“The UFC told me, that this fight [UFC 249] 100 percent did not take place in the US, and it also will not be held in the United Arab Emirates. This fight will take place in the Atlantic,” Khabib said through his Instagram account.
Khabib himself returned to his hometown in Russia not because he was afraid of Ferguson or avoided the duel. The fighter nicknamed The Eagle said, all his actions were carried out after talking with the UFC.
Previously, Khabib and his team underwent a training camp in California, precisely at the American Kickboxing Academy (AKA).
“At that time I had spent five weeks of hard training at AKA. Now I do not really know what is happening,” Khabib said.
“It’s very difficult to practice and reduce your weight when the whole world is locked and you don’t know what you are preparing,” the 31-year-old fighter said.
The Dagestan-born Russian fighter said this was not the first time he had faced obstacles in his career.
Khabib said he and his team had worked hard so that the UFC 249 duel could be held. One of them is with plans to go to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, because the country is an option if UFC 249 cannot be held in the US.
“They [the UFC] said that 99 percent of it [UFC 249] will be held in the UAE, Abu Dhabi. After speaking with the UFC we decided to fly to the UAE a month before the fight,” Khabib said.
However, the information received by Khabib after landing in the UAE, the country will also conduct lockdown closure during the corona pandemic, except for those citizens. With the closure of the border, Khabib and his team will not be able to return to Russia before Covid-19 is finished.
Luckily for Khabib, after returning to Dagestan, Russia also made a lockdown, such as the United States, countries in Europe and the UAE.
“Right now I am in Dagestan and I practice and prepare myself every day. Even though I don’t know what I’m preparing. The whole world is doing quarantine right now,” Khabib said.
