Bellator 241 has been postponed due to COVID-19 outbreak.
The Bellator event scheduled to take place tonight in Uncasville, Connecticut, has been delayed due to the corona virus outbreak. The news came out today after Bellator president Scott Coker released this statement:
The health and safety of everyone involved have, and will remain, our top priority as we move forward. After carefully monitoring the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, @BellatorMMA has chosen to postpone this evening’s Bellator 241 event at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut.
— Scott Coker (@ScottCoker) March 13, 2020
Bellator 241 was headlined by the featherweight title fight between Patricio “Pitbull” Freire and his rival Pedro Carvalho. This fight was also part of the Bellator Featherweight Grand Prix tournament. However, the bout will no be put on hiatus as we await further scheduling news.
“we would like to apologize to our athletes and fans, as well our broadcast partner Dazn”
Coker concluded his announcement by stating, “we feel this is the best decision to be made at the time.”
Bellator has now joined the list of upcoming MMA events that have been canceled, postponed, or set to occur behind closed doors. ONE Championship, KSW, and ARES have all postponed their upcoming events. The UFC has elected to move UFC Columbus and UFC Portland to the UFC Apex Facility in Las Vegas. These bouts, for now, are also scheduled to happen behind closed doors.
Fighters React
Although this news was very last second, it seems that fighter’s on the card understand the reasoning. Bellator welterweight Paul Daley was the first to respond to Coker’s decision.
Paul Daley comments on the Bellator cancellation tonight. He was scheduled to fight Sabah Homasi on the Bellator 241 main card pic.twitter.com/iiJpbFnaP6
— Marc Raimondi (@marcraimondi) March 13, 2020
“they’re doing the right thing in the face of a global pandemic.”
Daley continued his praise of the promotion, saying they were “Taking care of us fighters. Right now we must all do our part to help defeat the virus. Stay blessed all.”
With a card as stacked as Bellator 241, it is a hard pill to swallow accepting this news. However, it is a great sign to see MMA promotions following suit in order to help prevent and contain this virus.
