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UFC Targeting Several Cities To Host PPV Events In 2021

Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

Now that the world is returning to some sense of normalcy after a year and a half of strict COVID-19 guidelines and restrictions, several states around the country are starting to open and …


UFC 261: Usman v Masvidal 2
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

Now that the world is returning to some sense of normalcy after a year and a half of strict COVID-19 guidelines and restrictions, several states around the country are starting to open and getting back to business as usual.

As a result, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is broadening its horizons and no longer restricted to staging events only in Las Vegas, Nevada and on “Fight Island” in Abu Dhabi. In fact, the promotion staged UFC 261 in Jacksonville, Fla. in April and UFC 262 in Houston, Texas earlier this month, both in sold out arenas full of fight fans.

And as more people get vaccinated and restrictions are lifted, Dana White and Co. plan on taking the show to other states. Speaking to Bleacher Report’s Tom Taylor, White revealed a couple of locations that are on his radar for future pay-per-view (PPV) events.

“We’re sort of kicking things around. I think I told you guys at the last press conference, I’m going to keep the Fight Nights here at the Apex in Las Vegas, and we’re looking at new places to open up for pay-per-views,” White said.

“In September, I’m looking at Boston, Dallas, Anaheim, Fort Lauderdale, Newark—places like that. I don’t know what’s going to open up or what’s going to work or fit for us, but we’ll see.”

While fans were allowed in the arena at UFC 261 and UFC 262, there are currently no plans in place to let them in at the Apex in Las Vegas. As far as Dallas and Fort Lauderdale are concerned, those cities will have no problem letting fans pack arenas for events, which is good for UFC’s bottom line.

When the promotion makes its return to T-Mobile Arena in “Sin City,” that arena will also be packed because UFC 264 — which features a trilogy fight between Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier — sold out in record fashion. Before then, UFC 263 will take place in Glendale, Arizona on June 12 featuring a championship doubleheader with Israel Adesanya defending his Middleweight title against Marvin Vettori, and Deiveson Figueiredo defending his Flyweight belt against Brandon Moreno a second time.

Also on the card, Nate Diaz and Leon Edwards will collide in a five-round Welterweight affair.

In August, the promotion plans on returning to Houston once more with UFC 265 which will possibly feature a championship doubleheader with a Heavyweight title fight between Francis Ngannou and Derrick Lewis leading the way. Co-headlining that event will be a women’s Bantamweight title fight between Amanda Nunes and Julianna Pena.

Artem Lobov Predicts Dustin Poirier vs. Conor McGregor III

Artem LobovArtem Lobov is backing his teammate and friend, Conor McGregor, to emerge victorious from his trilogy fight with Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 on July 10. ‘Notorious’ famously made quick work of Poirier when the pair first fought at featherweight in 2014. McGregor scored a knockout win to continue his path towards the 145lb title. […]

Artem Lobov

Artem Lobov is backing his teammate and friend, Conor McGregor, to emerge victorious from his trilogy fight with Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 on July 10.

‘Notorious’ famously made quick work of Poirier when the pair first fought at featherweight in 2014. McGregor scored a knockout win to continue his path towards the 145lb title.

Earlier this year McGregor and ‘The Diamond’ met once again at UFC 257. Poirier avenged the loss from six years ago in impressive fashion. The former interim lightweight champion mixed his wrestling with leg kicks and fast hands to get the job done inside two rounds.

McGregor immediately called for a trilogy fight with Poirier who was happy to oblige, even passing up on a shot at the undisputed lightweight title to pursue a mega-money rematch against the Irishman.

During an appearance on Bareknuckle Uncensored Lobov expressed his belief that McGregor was looking beyond Poirier at UFC 257, to a potential boxing match with Manny Pacquiao.  

“Conor is a very, very smart fighter. I just feel the last fight he maybe took it a little bit lightly and thought, ‘I’ll just show up and do what I do and destroy him.’ Not only that, he was already mentally and physically getting ready for a boxing fight so he wasn’t thinking leg kicks…No MMA. He just thought it was going to be the same way as the first fight,” Lobov said.

‘The Russian Hammer’ was keen to credit Poirier for his performance at UFC 257 but insisted McGregor would turn the tables at UFC 264.

“We have to give credit to Dustin. He’s done his homework. He’s improved a lot since the first fight and he did a good job. But I think now when Conor is switched on, he knows what’s up. His full focus is on this fight. He’s studied him, he looked at what the issues were in the second fight and honestly when Conor shows up like that? There’s no stopping him. So I see him stopping Dustin early, first, maybe second round. I want to say first. My prediction is first round but it could go into the second.” (Transcribed by BJPenn.com)

Do you agree with Artem Lobov? Will Conor McGregor avenge his loss to Dustin Poirier at UFC 264?

Jon Jones Advisor Explains How He’ll Try To Make The Ngannou Fight

Jon JonesRichard Schaefer, the man tasked with guiding Jon Jones through perhaps the biggest moment of his fight career, has explained how he plans to secure a mega-money fight with Francis Ngannou for his client. Jones hasn’t competed inside the Octagon since defeating Dominick Reyes in controversial circumstances at UFC 247 in February 2020. The former […]

Jon Jones

Richard Schaefer, the man tasked with guiding Jon Jones through perhaps the biggest moment of his fight career, has explained how he plans to secure a mega-money fight with Francis Ngannou for his client.

Jones hasn’t competed inside the Octagon since defeating Dominick Reyes in controversial circumstances at UFC 247 in February 2020.

The former light-heavyweight king has since relinquished his title and announced his intention to compete at heavyweight moving forward. Despite the fact Jones has impressively bulked up over the last year, he has been unable to come to financial terms with the UFC for his heavyweight debut.

In the midst of this failure, Jones left his long-time management team and has now linked up with Schaefer who is best known for his exploits in the sport of boxing.

During an interview with Sirus XM, Schaefer revealed his goal is to help organize a fight between Jones and the current UFC heavyweight champion, Francis Ngannou.

“There’s this big fight out there, the fight against Francis Ngannou,” Schaefer said. “That’s the fight everybody wants to see. That’s what fight fans want to see – not just UFC fans, fight fans period – and that’s really my task, is to see if there’s a way to get that fight done and represent Jon Jones the legend against UFC, to see if we can get it done.”

Schaefer pointed out that Jones and Dana White took a wrong turn when they began publicly talking about a deal.

“When you start negotiating fights in the media, and people are starting to dig in their heels and say, ‘Well, this is too much,’ and people who maybe even aren’t supposed to talk are throwing out crazy numbers, which didn’t even come from the athlete himself, and people are getting pissed off at each other, that’s not the way you get deals done,” Schaefer said. “These (big fights) don’t get done through the media and Twitter and Instagram and things like that. They get done by professionals sitting down at the table talking about the different revenue streams and negotiating a deal. … That’s really the problem, because otherwise things get out of hand.”

Schaefer is confident in making Jones vs. Ngannou due to his own track record of making big fights and his friendly relationship with Dana White.

“It’s a matter of sitting down and seeing if we can structure a deal, which everybody can live with. I don’t know the MMA managers. I don’t know who the other MMA managers are. And I frankly don’t care. I have one task, which is to deliver to Jon that fight, and I’m gonna do whatever I can to do that based on my experience, based on my great relationship with Dana, and see if we can turn out what I think can be the biggest UFC pay-per-view event of all time.”

Jon Jones’ advisor insists now is the time to make a fight with Ngannou.

“My philosophy going back into my boxing days: If you do have a mega-event (in front of you), I always try to get that mega-event done,” Schaefer said. “Because if you allow for interim fights or other fights, you never know. A guy might lose, a guy might get injured. There just are so many question marks out there. My philosophy was always to deliver the biggest fights when they can get made.” (Transcribed by MMA Junkie)

Do you think Richard Schaefer will help get Jon Jones vs. Francis Ngannou done?

Fallon Fox Makes The Case For Trans Women Fighting Cisgender Women

Fallon FoxFallon Fox has explained why some arguments made against transgender women competing against cisgender women in sports are “bogus”. Fox was assigned the male gender at birth before later transitioning to become a woman. In 2012 she began a career in MMA and controversially scored two knockout wins before revealing her gender identity to the […]

Fallon Fox

Fallon Fox has explained why some arguments made against transgender women competing against cisgender women in sports are “bogus”.

Fox was assigned the male gender at birth before later transitioning to become a woman. In 2012 she began a career in MMA and controversially scored two knockout wins before revealing her gender identity to the world.

The 45-year-old divided opinion with some prominent figures in MMA, most notably Joe Rogan, campaigning against trans women being allowed to fight cisgender women.

Fox retired from the sport in 2014 following stints with CFA and KOTC. She finished with a 5-1 record as a professional and is largely regarded as the main voice in the discussion surrounding transgender athlete’s competing in sports.

Fox recently spoke with ET Canada in an interview previewing her upcoming film. During the chat with Shakiel Mahjouri the transgender advocate explained why it’s not fair to exclude trans woman from sports.

“People like to ask me about the science behind trans athletes, and I’ll tell you what I know, but it’s not like I’m pulling all this stuff out of thin air,” Fox said. “Nowhere in the tale of the tape is bone density ever introduced. Right? Nobody ever talks about bone density.”

“There are bone density differences between men also and in women also. For instance. African-American women have more dense bones than Caucasian women do,” Fox added. “I don’t see anyone saying that we shouldn’t have African-American women competing against cisgender women.”

“Most of the time to have more dense bones than cisgender white men do. We never talk about this and I think it’s just bogus for them to even bring up bone density in the first place. Things like that that people just bring out of thin air and just say are true, that [is what] we’re fighting against.”

Fox is ready to debate the topic but doesn’t think the MMA community is willing to have a reasonable discussion about the inclusion of transgender athletes.

“I don’t think the world of MMA is ready to have an intelligent conversation about transgender athletes, but I’m willing to have that conversation and I’m always willing to stand up,” Fox said.

Do you agree with Fallon Fox? Should transgender women be allowed to fight cisgender women?