UFC Eyes Return On May 9 With U.S.-Based Event

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

After Dana White and Co. were left with no other choice but to postpone UFC 249 — which was set to go down on April 18, 2020 — Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) decided to hit the pause button on a few more events planned for the weeks following. While many were expecting a lengthy hiatus, it seems the promotion is looking to get the ball rolling again sooner, rather than later.

According to MMA Fighting, UFC is looking to stage an event on May 9, which was originally reserved for UFC 250 in Sao Paulo, Brazil featuring a Bantamweight title fight between division king, Henry Cejudo, and former Featherweight champ, Jose Aldo. But it won’t be in Brazil or on “Fight Island,” as the report states the promotion is looking to stage the event stateside, with Florida, Texas and California as potential landing spots.

Before it went up in smoke, UFC 249 was set to take place inside Tachi Palace Casino Resort in Lemoore, Calif. More recently, Florida found a loophole to allow UFC to stage an event in “The Sunshine State.”

Dana White has been adamant in stating that UFC will be the first sports organization to stage an event once COVID-19 dies down a bit, but shooting for an event just three weeks after being forced to postpone one is a rather lofty goal. But if WWE can do it, who’s to say UFC can’t?

Still, UFC has yet to comment on the report, which means no concrete or tentative plans or fights are in place at the moment. Should the event go down, the promotion has plenty of fights it can go with, including Tony Ferguson vs Justin Gaethje for the interim Lightweight title, as well as Henry Cejudo taking on Dominick Cruz. That said, if the promotion wants “Triple C” to start preparing for a fight, it better be 100-percent that the event will not suffer the same fate as UFC 249.

Just don’t expect a lot of international flavor, as travel restrictions have grounded many fighters from traveling to the U.S., including Mauricio Rua, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Jose Aldo and Khabib Nurmagomedov.