{"id":131555,"date":"2020-03-30T10:06:49","date_gmt":"2020-03-30T17:06:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=131555"},"modified":"2020-03-30T10:54:23","modified_gmt":"2020-03-30T17:54:23","slug":"nurmagomedov-may-not-make-ufc-249-but-dana-white-pushes-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/nurmagomedov-may-not-make-ufc-249-but-dana-white-pushes-forward\/","title":{"rendered":"No Nurmagomedov For UFC 249? Dana White May Push Ahead as Replacement Bout Rumored (VIDEO)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>UFC President Dana White says the show must go on. But now it appears UFC 249 may go on without one of its star combatants.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_131563\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-131563\" data-style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-131563\" src=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/khabib-242-242.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"677\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/khabib-242-242.jpg 780w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/khabib-242-242-142x80.jpg 142w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/khabib-242-242-768x433.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/khabib-242-242-166x94.jpg 166w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/khabib-242-242-532x300.jpg 532w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption  id=\"caption-attachment-131563\"class=\"text-description\">UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov may not be able to leave Russia and fight Tony Ferguson in April as scheduled because of travel restrictions put in place because of the COVID-19 outbreak. (Image: UFC.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>On Instagram Monday, Khabib Nurmagomedov revealed that he\u2019s unable to leave his native Russia because of travel restrictions stemming from the coronavirus pandemic. A short time later, <em>ESPN<\/em> reported that Tony Ferguson, Nurmagomedov\u2019s scheduled opponent for the April 18 card, has now been offered a fight against Justin Gaethje.<\/p>\n<p>In the video (available below), Nurmagomedov described how he got back to Russia. He claimed that UFC told him for certain that the fight would not happen in the United States and would likely take place in the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n<p>However, when he tried to depart for the UAE earlier this month, authorities in the Middle Eastern country prevented him from arriving.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"main-blockquote\"><p>Currently, I am in Dagestan and I am training and preparing every day,\u201d he said, according to a translation provided by <em>RT Sports<\/em>. \u201cAlthough I don&#8217;t know what am I preparing for. Because after we came to Russia we also learned that the borders are going to be locked. Same like in the States, same like in Europe, Emirates, everywhere. The whole world is in quarantine right now.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>A winner in all 28 of his career fights, Nurmagomedov holds UFC\u2019s lightweight (155 lb.) title, which he is set to defend against the 26-3 Ferguson, an American considered the top contender in the division.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/i7bRCyZuF3o\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>&#8220;Are We Going to Hide for Months?&#8221;<\/h2>\n<p>Even with Nurmagomedov-Ferguson now in flux, it appears White will still try to salvage the pay-per-view event. That comes as nearly every other major professional sport in the United States, Europe, Australia, and parts of Asia have postponed or canceled seasons because of the crisis.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with <em>Yahoo! Sports<\/em> columnist Dan Wetzel, the outspoken UFC frontman left no question where he stands on the issue. Beginning earlier this month, the virus forced the closures of casinos and scores of other businesses. It also led to drastic changes in other business models.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cHow long are we going to hide?\u201d <\/strong>White told Wetzel.<strong> \u201cAre we going to hide for months? Are we going to shut down the whole world for months? It\u2019s crazy.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>UFC 249 Odds<\/h2>\n<p>As of Monday, UFC 249 is still a go, even if we don\u2019t know the location.<\/p>\n<p>What we do know is, if somehow Nurmagomedov and Ferguson can fight, oddsmakers like the Russian\u2019s chances.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p>DraftKings lists Nurmagomedov as the -286 favorite, giving Ferguson +215 odds. That means, DraftKings oddsmakers think the Russian champion has a 74 percent chance of winning.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>FanDuel sees it similarly, offering -290 on Nurmagomedov and +230 on Ferguson.<\/p>\n<p>Other matches on the card have closer odds. For example, Ronaldo Souza is -152\/130 at DraftKings and FanDuel respectively, while his opponent Uriah Hall is +120\/+112. Rose Namajunas is -182\/-184 versus Jessica Andrade (+142\/+156), and Calvin Kattar is -250\/-235 against Jeremy Stephens (+190\/+196).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UFC President Dana White says the show must go on. But now it appears UFC 249 may go on without one of its star combatants. On Instagram Monday, Khabib Nurmagomedov revealed that he\u2019s unable to leave his native Russia because of travel restrictions stemming from the coronavirus pandemic. A short time later, ESPN reported that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":131563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,1074],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Nurmagomedov May Not Make UFC 249 But Dana White Pushes Forward<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Nurmagomedov is to fight Tony Ferguson somewhere on April 18 for UFC 249, but the COVID-19 outbreak may prevent the Russian from leaving his country.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/nurmagomedov-may-not-make-ufc-249-but-dana-white-pushes-forward\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" 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