Bellator MMA cancels Friday show due to coronavirus concerns

A day after announcing tonight’s show at Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun would still be held but without fans in the seats, Bellator MMA changed course mid-Friday afternoon, postponing Bellator 241 due to the ongoing coronavirus epidemic.

The news was first reported by Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp. 

We would like to apologize to our athletes and fans, as well as our broadcast partner DAZN, but we feel this is the best decision to be made at this time.

— Scott Coker (@ScottCoker) March 13, 2020

The main event was scheduled to be featherweight champion Patricio “Pitbull” Freire vs. Pedro Carvalho in addition to Daniel Weichel vs. Emmanuel Sanchez, both featherweight Grand Prix bouts. They did not announce a makeup date.

Bellator’s schedule lightens up considerably after Friday with no scheduled shows until May 9th which kicks off a three event month for them. 

As of this writing, UFC is powering ahead with their schedule of shows, holding Saturday’s Brasilia, Brazil, ESPN event in an empty arena. Dana White said in a video Thursday night that their March 21st London event is moving ahead as planned while their Columbus, OH, event (March 28th) and Portland, OR, event (April 11th) will be moved to their Las Vegas-based APEX facility.