Despite these unprecedented times, UFC president Dana White has managed to find a way to make sure that UFC 249 will happen, for good or bad.In the run up to this event, various things have happened which made it seem less and less likely that White would push ahead with it, including a venue change and a loss of the original main event.Yesterday, against popular expectation, White announced that UFC 249 was still going ahead, and that the new main event will be Justin Gaethje fighting Tony Ferguson for the interim lightweight  title. Although the full card has now also been released, the venue, state or nation for the event has still not been announced. Most people expect that the venue will be somewhere along the US west coast.The originally scheduled co-main event, a strawweight rematch between former champs Jessica Andrade and Rose Namajunas, will still be taking place, with both entering the match fresh off knockout losses to which they both lost their titles. Former NFL star Greg Hardy will also take on Yorgan De Castro in a heavyweight match-up, and welterweights Vicente Luque and Niko Price will face-off on the main card. Rounding off the card is a featherweight bout between Calvin Kattar and Jeremy Stephens. 

The preliminary card includes a heavyweight matchup between Francis Ngannou and Jairzinho Rozenstruik, a middleweight bout of Uriah Hall and Ronaldo Souza, a lightweight faceoff between Alexander Hernandez and Omar Morales, and finally a bantamweight fight between Marlon Vera and Ray Borg. 

On top of that, three early preliminary card matches are also scheduled, consisting of a lightweight bout between Michael Johnson and Khama Worthy, a women's bantamweight fight between Sijara Eubanks and Sarah Moras, rounded off by a light heavyweight clash of Sam Alvey against Ryan Spann.  

UFC 249 is currently scheduled to take place on April 18. We'll have to see how things progress with the virus before we're absolutely certain that it's all on.