U.F.C. 249 Won’t Happen in Brooklyn, Regulators Say

“Right now, the No. 1 priority is to take care of yourselves and your family,” White wrote.

White said fans had thanked him for holding a fight card in an empty arena in Brasília last week, two days after much of the sports world came to a standstill.

The health emergency is the latest in a series of twists that have so far kept Nurmagomedov and Ferguson from meeting in the octagon. The pair have had four previous fights canceled under progressively wackier circumstances. The first was scuttled because Nurmagomedov injured a rib, and the second because Ferguson was ill. A third matchup was called off because Nurmagomedov was hospitalized while trying to cut weight to 155 pounds, and in April 2018, their fourth bout fell apart when Ferguson tripped over some cords before a television interview, injuring a knee and prompting a cascade of replacements that left Nurmagomedov fighting Al Iaquinta.

New York has not issued a formal ban on fight events, as Nevada and California have. Brian Dunn, the president of the Association of Boxing Commissions and Combative Sports, said it was not practical to mandate a nationwide suspension of fight events, but he urged each state and provincial commission to follow federal and state guidelines and use common sense.

“The decisions are coming from up the ladder,” Dunn said. “The governors are making the decisions. We don’t really have a say.” He added, “When they give us the OK to restart, we restart.”

The prospect of an indefinite shutdown presents a problem for the U.F.C. that is familiar to many other sports leagues, yet different because of U.F.C.’s lack of a season and its model for staging large, singular events in different cities every few weeks.

The U.F.C. started this year set to generate huge revenue with two of its biggest stars back in action. On Jan. 18, the former lightweight champion Conor McGregor returned to the octagon after a tumultuous 15-month hiatus, easily beating the rugged veteran Donald Cerrone in 40 seconds in a bout that generated $11.1 million in ticket sales.

That figure was the second best ever for an M.M.A. event in Nevada, trailing only a McGregor-Nurmagomedov fight that sold $17.2 million in tickets in October 2018. McGregor and Nurmagomedov were suspended and fined after that bout devolved into a postmatch brawl, with Nurmagomedov leaping into the crowd to fight a member of McGregor’s entourage.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/sports/ufc-249-brooklyn.html