Dubai: For the past couple of weeks, UFC supremo Dana White has been insisting that May 9 is the day when the sport will make a return at Sao Paulo, Brazil irrespective of the status of lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
White even boasted that event will feature no less than three title bouts, including a mouth-watering contest between top-ranked women’s pound-for-pound queen Amanda Nunes and Felicia Spencer.
It fell through on Tuesday as the UFC announced the cancellation of four future events, including the May 9 showpiece.
The Nevada based mixed martial arts promotion announced on their website that the Fight Nights scheduled at Nebraska (April 25), Oklahoma City (May 2) and San Diego (May 16) were being called off. These brought the total number of cancelled fights to eight due to the ongoing pandemic.
The Nunes vs Spencer fight card was left without a venue because the site has been converted into a temporary hospital for the victims of the coronavirus pandemic.
Meanwhile, Lyman Good, the former Bellator champion from New York, became the promotion’s first active fighter to be announced a COVID-19 positive case. The fighter, however, took to social media on Tuesday to announce he has recovered now and keen to get back to action at the earliest.
Good (21 wins, 5 losses) earlier said that the positive test for the coronavirus compelled him to withdraw from a proposed UFC 249 fight against Belal Muhammad (16-3) on the April 18 card, which was originally scheduled for Barclays Centre in Brooklyn.
“It was one of those things where it wasn’t sinking in that it could’ve been that. As fighters, we’re hard-wired to train through everything. If we catch a cold or little nagging injuries here or there, we’re trained to just pretty much fight through it.
“At first I thought it was that. But there was just one day where it was bad. My body wasn’t listening, it wasn’t responding the way it normally does to sparring,” he added.
“My real concern was really just my teammates, my coaches and anyone I was exposed to,” Good said. “God forbid they get it, they spread it, and someone else gets sick really bad. I would feel responsible.”
