Report: UFC 249 will be in Jacksonville, FL

UFC 249 was originally scheduled for April 18 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, the event was relocated to tribal grounds at Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino in Lemoore, California. But that effort was thwarted by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who apparently reached out to Disney, parent company of UFC broadcast partner ESPN.

Now, UFC 250, which was scheduled for Ginasio do Ibirapuera in Sao Paulo, Brazil but was canceled due to the pandemic - the arena was eventually converted to a field hospital - been renamed UFC 249, and will  reportedly be held in Jacksonville, Florida. The state has the WWE as an Essential Business, and reached out to White about holding events there.

On Wednesday's Wrestling Observer Radio, our Dave Meltzer reported that a source has told him that UFC 249 will be held at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida.

Earlier this week, it was reported by MMA Fighting that the UFC was heading to Florida for the May 9th pay-per-view and booking flights for fighters into Jacksonville with travel to an undisclosed location.

The building has been around since 2003 and hosts a variety of sports events and concerts with a seating capacity of 15,000. The latter would be irrelevant for this event as no fans will be allowed in attendance.

The UFC has canceled or postponed six events to date, and is developing a Fight Island, reportedly in Fiji,  where fighters can train and compete, but that effort in incomplete.

h/t F4WOnline

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Awesome

I dont understand why they've never been to Jax, Fl before. We have a very nice arena and it's close to many large cities including ATL, and Orlando. We have plenty to do when the city is open as well. Hopefully they come back when the city is not on lockdown. 

need my MMA fix or any sport

Hell yeah I live in Jacksonville 

this is the first time they will have an event here. Hope Dana brings more fights here in the future

Already booked fighters

gummbie -

Hell yeah I live in Jacksonville 

this is the first time they will have an event here. Hope Dana brings more fights here in the future

I also live in Jax and I still dont get why they haven't been here yet. Pretty good market, nice arena, plenty of things to do, nice hotels within minutes from the arena, close to major cities. Were a sports town , NFL teams, arena football champions, minor league baseball.  I'm hoping they bring a big card back when we can start going back to events. 

1 Like

Luke Thomas reported this earlier this week.