Dana White 'pretty confident' UFC 169 set for Saturday, but Super Bowl card back to Las Vegas next year

NEW YORK – While the potential for treacherous weather conditions threatened to push Sunday’s Super Bowl XLVIII to Saturday – and move Saturday’s UFC 169 to Sunday – UFC President Dana White believe things will remain as they were currently scheduled.

“I’m pretty confident we’re good for Saturday,” White told MMAjunkie.

For the past several days, a severe snow storm was predicted to hit the already fridge New York area just in time for NFL’s biggest event of the year, which, at the moment, is set for Feb. 2 at Met Life Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. However, temperatures are currently on the uptick, and a high of 50 degrees is currently predicted for Super Bowl Sunday.

Meanwhile, on Saturday and 11 miles away in Newark, N.J., UFC 169 is scheduled to take place at Prudential Center. The event features two title fights: bantamweight champ Renan Barao rematches two-time title challenger Urijah Faber and featherweight champ Jose Aldo faces Ricardo Lamas.

Despite the reprieve from a potential emergency move, White said the promotion will return to its traditional Las Vegas home for next year’s Super Bowl weekend event.

However, weather concerns weren’t a deciding factor. Rather, next year’s NFL championship game won’t be broadcast by FOX, the UFC’s network television partner.

“We’ll be in Vegas (next year),” White said. “The reason we’re here is because FOX wanted us to be here with them. We had some reservations at first on whether to do it or not. It’s been awesome. The thing is a sell-out. The media here has been amazing. FOX really did a good job of integrating us with the game. It’s been awesome.

“They wanted us to be a part of this, and we appreciate it.”

Despite White’s confidence, a UFC officials confirmed contingency plans will remain in place should something change with the weather, but the promotion is currently moving forward as originally planned.

For the latest on UFC 169, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.