K. Nurmagomedov calls into question his presence in the UFC 249. Photo: Reproduction/Instagram @ufc
New news has called into question the title fight scheduled to take place on April 18th. One of the protagonists of UFC 249, Khabib Nurmagomedov stated that the event must take place without his presence, due to the fact that he is in Russia and the borders are closed to flights due to the coronavirus (COVID-19). The statement was made in an interview with 'RT Sports'.
See too
“I have heard that the event will happen, with or without my presence. Go ahead. We all have to follow the laws. I'm not against it, and I know that fighters have to feed their families and pay their bills. I know how hard a fighter's life is. If you don't fight, you don't make money. I heard they are looking for an opponent for Tony (Ferguson), because he is in the USA and I am in Russia. But I’m not here because I want to,” said the Russian.
The lightweight champion blamed the impasse on a lack of transparency between his team and the UFC board, which is still working to formalize the new location for his fight against the North American. The battle was initially scheduled to take place in New York, however, due to measures adopted by the state government to minimize the possibility of contagion of the disease that scares the world, the show was previously banned there.
“The UFC assured me that the fight would not take place in the USA, and even if it does not take place in the United Arab Emirates, it will take place on this side of the Atlantic. We discussed everything with the UFC. At that point, I had already done five weeks of training at AKA (American Kickboxing Academy). Today, I don't know what's happening. It's very difficult to train and cut weight when the whole world is at a standstill and you don't know what you're preparing for. But this is not the first time I have had difficulties in my career,” said Nurmagomedov.
According to the champion, upon learning that the dispute would probably take place outside the United States, he, who was in North American territory, went with his team to finish his training in his home country. However, Russia ended up adopting the stance of closing its borders to prevent the movement of large numbers of foreign people.
“We were training at AKA without any information about where and how the fight would take place. Then the UFC told us that the fight would definitely not take place in the USA, and that there was a 99% chance it would take place in Abu Dhabi. After this conversation, we decided to fly to the United Arab Emirates a month before the event. I don't remember the exact date, March 19th or 20th. However, when we got there, we discovered that they were going to close the borders, and no one could enter or leave there, except residents of the country. We had to get out of there. Today, I'm in Dagestan, training and preparing myself daily, even without knowing what for, because the Russian borders are also closed, just like in the Emirates, in the USA, in Europe and everywhere. The whole world is in quarantine now”, concluded the 'Eagle'.
Ultimate continues with the policy of not revealing to the public the new location for the tournament. UFC 249. Last week, the organization's president, Dana White, stated that he and his team had already decided on a new place to hold the show, however, it would not be released to the media and fans at that time.
Comments