Bellator president Scott Coker says there are currently no plans in place for their future events in the midst of the coronavirus.
Bellator 241 was scheduled to take place last night (March 13) inside the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. The main event was set to feature a featherweight title bout between champion Patricio Freire and Pedro Carvalho. While the event was initially changed to be closed to the public, Bellator officials made the decision to postpone the event.
Coker Says No Plans In Place Amid Coronavirus
During a Q&A with MMAJunkie.com, Scott Coker admitted that it’s difficult to plan for the rescheduling of Bellator 241 or to think about any other event while the coronavirus pandemic is going strong.
“We’re going to monitor how this thing starts gaining momentum or losing momentum, but there’s no plans. You can’t make plans when there is uncertainty like this. It’s tough to make plans because we don’t know, but we will be monitoring. It’s a fluid scenario. What if they find a vaccine? What if they find they can contain it? What if other sports start engaging again? These are all things we’ll be monitoring. This is a certain cycle because it’s a tournament fight. Just so you know, fighters were paid. Officials were paid. Cutmen were paid. All of the producers, the lighting guys, everybody got paid. Nobody was shortchanged. We want to make sure everybody had what they thought they were going to get. Everybody gets to go home and be with their families now.”
The promotion’s next event is scheduled for May 9. It’ll be Bellator 242 inside the SAP Center in San Jose, California. The planned main event will be light heavyweight champion Ryan Bader putting his gold on the line against Vadim Nemkov. In the co-main event, Gegard Mousasi and welterweight champion Douglas Lima will compete for the vacant middleweight title.
