As of Monday, it looked like the UFC had found a way to succeed. Dana White – who had promised for weeks that the promotion would absolutely find a way to make UFC 249 happen on April 18th – announced that Justin Gaethje would fight Tony Ferguson in a yet to be named location. That following the withdrawal of Khabib Nurmagomedov, who was stuck in Russia—with his home country’s travel ban to deal with.
More fights were announced, plans of a potential private island for future events were teased. And eventually it leaked that UFC 249 would take place at the Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino, on tribal land, in Lemoore, CA.