UFC 249 is now less than two weeks away, and until today, the main event was completely up in the air. April 18th's PPV was scheduled to be Tony Ferguson vs Khabib Nurmagomedov for the UFC Lightweight Championship. That fight has since been cancelled as Khabib has been stuck in Russia since the Coronvirus Pandemic broke out. After wondering whether this fight would even take place and who would actually be a part of it, we now know for sure who is fighting.
As I mentioned in my last post about this fight, I mentioned there were rumors of two different fighters possibly getting Khabib's spot. It is now official that Justin Gaethje is the man to replace the Champ and will be fighting Ferguson for the Interim Lightweight Title.
What this means, is that the winner of this fight will be the Interim Lightweight Champion, essentially holding this role until Khabib is able to leave Russia and fight again. When this happens, he will have to face the winner of this fight to see who the Unified Lightweight Champion will be. It may not be the fight everyone wanted to see, but this does leave open the possibility that Khabib and Ferguson could fight at some point next year. For now, we will just focus on April 18th when the Interim Lightweight Championship is up for grabs and you can watch it on ESPN+ PPV.