Team Yadong throws doubt on Tampa Bay clash with Nurmagomedov

We’re less than two months out from the UFC’s return to Tampa Bay and the card still does not have a locked in main event.

MMAMania.com confirmed reports earlier this week that the promotion had moved on from trying to coax Colby Covington into a home state main event against Ian Garry. Instead, they were looking to lock in Umar Nurmagomedov vs. Song Yadong — a surprising matchup considering Umar was already promised a title shot against new champ Merab Dvalishvili.

Nurmagomedov recently accused Dvalishvili of trying to duck him by making himself unavailable until Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting. Rather than wait for Merab until spring or summer, Umar said he was willing to fight again in December. That would help fill the hole at the top of Tampa’s ESPN broadcast card, but according to Song Yadong’s coach Urijah Faber, nothing has been signed and the date they like is January for UFC 311 in Los Angeles.

“We don’t have a date for that yet, I don’t think December 14th is the date we’ve talked about,” Faber told Helen Yee in a new interview. “I think January is what we’re looking at. But we like that fight. I think Umar and Song are both guys that people don’t want to fight, so they’re both willing to step up.”

“We’d fight [Sean] O’Malley, we’d fight [Deiveson] Figueiredo, we’d fight any of these guys. We’ve been seing all sorts of stuff being posted about that fight but nothing’s been signed. A date has not been agreed upon. If that fight does happen, it’d most likely happen in January [at UFC 311 in Los Angeles].”

That leaves UFC on ESPN 63 in a bit of a lurch, but it’s not like the UFC is above just promoting a Mackenzie Dern vs. Amanda Ribas rematch to the main event slot. We’ll keep you updated as the Tampa Bay card coalesces, and who ends up headlining.