In an interview done on April 2, 2020, Khabib talked with Brett Okamoto to clear the air about UFC 249. The interview is a little short of 25 minutes but it is extremely clarifying as to what happened to the lead up to Khabib being (all but) officially out of the contest.
More...
In Khabib fashion, Khabib was very direct, succinct, and unintentionally hilarious. Essentially, Khabib left the United States because the fight was not going to happen in the United States. So he flew to Dubai because the fight was likely going to be there. Upon arrival, he was not allowed to deplane due to the pandemic lockdown and so had to flight back to Dagestan. In Dagestan, he was also not allowed to fly out of Russia due to the same reason.
To this day, there has been no additional clarification on a firm location for the fight.
In addition to the clarification, there are definitely a few zingers in here that made me laugh, Specifically, two statements he made in the last 4 minutes had me chuckling. One was saying Tony is a "little bit stupid guy" and the other saying Conor is an "old prostitute who want attention." The whole interview is worth watching though. Take a peep below.
