New Zealand's managed isolation bottleneck is likely to cost Israel Adesanya a chance to defend his UFC title at the world's most famous arena.
The Nigerian-Kiwi was penciled in by UFC officials to headline November's UFC 268 in a middleweight title rematch against Australian Robert Whittaker.
But with MIQ vouchers in November nigh on impossible to come by, Newshub understands the fight has been pushed back - potentially into 2022.
The card is booked for November 8 (NZ time) at New York's Madison Square Garden, but with no available MIQ spots in November, it would mean another extended stay abroad - in a COVID-19 hotspot - for Adesanya and members of his City Kickboxing team.
The 32-year-old has already had three MIQ stints since September 2020, and spent two months in the California at the end of last year because managed isolation facilities were fully booked.
According to Australia's Daily Telegraph, Whittaker's team have already been informed of the reschedule, although Newshub understands no new fight date has been set.
"Rob had been told he would be fighting at Madison Square Garden,” Whittaker's manager, Titus Day says.
"But there have been some issues since and it can’t happen.
"Apparently, Adesanya could get into America for the fight, but he wouldn’t have been able to get back to NZ immediately afterwards (because of quarantine restrictions).
"So while we know the fight is going to happen, it’s now become a matter of when.
"Unfortunately, given everything going on with COVID in Australia and New Zealand at the moment, it may not be until early next year."
Adesanya won the middleweight title with a 2019 knockout win over Whittaker in Melbourne.
Since then, the Aucklandlander has defended his title three times, but came up short in a bid to win the light heavyweight title against Polish champion Jan Blachowicz earlier his year.
Victory over Whittaker would make Adesanya the second most successful middleweight champion in history, behind Brazilian great Anderson Silva who defended the title an incredible 10 times in a five-year title reign.
The 2019 New Zealand Sportsman of the Year has pushed for the fight to be held at Auckland's Eden Park, but UFC president Dana White has knocked that back, saying in a COVID-19 environment, that would be logistically impossible.
