UFC, Top Rank and others may have dodged a big bullet.
While the UFC was off in Brazil holding a Fight Night event in front of no fans, the Nevada State Athletic Commission held a meeting about the immediate future of combat sports in the state. For the next two weeks, there will be no events in the state as all combat sports licenses have been revoked until a March 25 meeting.
NSAC just voted in favor to revoke all combat sports licenses until March 25. Currently, this doesn’t affect the UFC as their next Vegas event is on 3/28. The next hearing is on 3/25. Nothing else was voted on.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) March 14, 2020
As of now, this is a big sigh of relief for the UFC, who are moving their planned Columbus event on March 28 to the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. However, there's always the possibility that NSAC will restrict them from holding that event just days before it is scheduled. Top Rank and other boxing promotions also have events scheduled shortly after the revokation period ends.
Bellator, KSW and numerous other promotions were forced to delay or cancel their events after concerns of COVID-19 spreading, even without spectators in the audience.
Fightful will keep you up to date with all the latest. As of Saturday, UFC and ESPN were still heavily promoting both UFC London for next weekend and UFC 249 for next month.
