Author: Anton Tabuena

Photo by Christian Petersen/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Dana White spoke briefly about the reported sexual assault investigation on Conor McGregor.

Back in March, the New York Times reported that Conor McGregor was arrested by Irish authorities in January, and that he is under investigation for an alleged December sexual assault.

The earlier report stated that McGregor has neither been charged nor convicted, and parties have been silent about the investigation ever since the initial news came to light.

McGregor appeared publicly to apologize for a separate incident at a bar recently, but he wasn’t asked about these more serious allegations about him. Dana White on the other hand, briefly fielded a question about the topic during a recent media scrum.

“I know zero about that,” White told the assembled media. “To be honest with you, the back-and-forth that I’ve had with him about that is that it’s not him, it’s somebody else. So I don’t know.”

As for McGregor striking a bar patron — an incident that was caught on video — White says McGregor needed to publicly apologize for that.

“Conor and I talk at least a couple times a month, and I think he needed to do that,” he said. “I didn’t tell him to do it. He did that on his own, and good for him.”

Photo by Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images

Who is writing these things?

Henry Cejudo, the king of cringe has come up with another weird social media skit. The two-division UFC champ is sticking to character, calling out a long time bantamweight champion in Dominick Cruz in a video that has belts, diapers, and more random weirdness.

I’ve stopped trying to make sense of any of Cejudo’s “comedy” and social media postings as of late, but on this clip, he called Cruz a “tune up fight.”

“Daddy has been having really tough fights lately,” Cejudo told his UFC belts that had diapers on them. “This last year and a half, he’s fought Demetrious Johnson, the greatest of all time, beat him, T.J. Dillashaw, the greatest bantamweight of all time beat him, and also beat the killer in Marlon Moraes.

“Daddy wants an easy fight, kids. I want somebody that I could break. I want somebody that’s brittle. I want somebody easy… How bout a tune up fight? Dominick Cruz, I have a message for you. I don’t know how you can say you’re the best in the world, when you’re not even the best in the state of Arizona?!

“Dominick Cruz, you can do me a favor, and you can bend the knee to Triple C too. One last thing, wash your filthy dog.”

Cruz, like many times throughout his career, has been sidelined by injury again and hasn’t fought since losing his belt to Cody Garbrandt in 2016. Since that fight, the former WEC and UFC champion has pulled out of two more bouts due to a broken arm and an injured shoulder.

Cruz is not from Arizona.

This was very MMA.

MMA has had its share of terrible judging and officiating, and this weekend had another perfect example.

Titan FC 56 happened Friday night, and in one of the main card bouts, Landon Quinones Stewart had a win over Calvin Glover. What made the regional bout more notable though, was the blatant incompetence showed by the referee.

As he was going for the ground and pound finish, Glover eventually started tapping to strikes. Unfortunately, the referee Jorge Alonso just let the fight continue despite the attempts to tap being blatantly obvious.

In the end, Glover had to tap multiple times before the fight was either finally verbally called off really late, or Quinones just stopped on his own accord.

The broadcast team was also heard criticizing the referee’s actions. Watch the clip below. (HT: MMA Fighting)

Landon Quinones Stewart improved his record to 3-1-1 with this first round finish, while Glover dropped to 0-4.

Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Stipe Miocic addressed how he weighed the lightest ever in his fighting career.

One of the talking points heading into UFC 241, was both headliners weighing in a lot lighter for the heavyweight title rematch. Daniel Cormier tipped the scales at 236.5 lbs, while Stipe Miocic weighed 230.5 lbs, which is 9.5 and 12 lbs lighter than when they weighed in for the original bout back at UFC 226.

Miocic’s 230.5 lbs was also the lightest he has ever weighed in his UFC career, and pundits speculated whether this was designed for better cardio or speed against for the rematch. The heavyweight champion had a pretty straight forward explanation though.

“It’s what I weighed, honestly,” Miocic told Chael Sonnen. “I was eating a ton of food. I was drinking a ton of water. I was doing all the right things. I just lost the weight.

“I wasn’t really trying to (lose weight). I just couldn’t keep it on, honestly. It was really hot this summer, too. I was definitely sweating a lot more than I usually do.”

Cormier did note that he felt Miocic had better endurance this time around. So if the weight loss wasn’t strategic, it seems to have helped him regain his title, especially having to dig deep and come from behind to win during the latter rounds.

“I have the best coaches in the world. They put me through hell,” he said. “You’ve got to weather the storm. It’s a five round fight. It isn’t just five minutes, it’s 25 minutes.”

Photo by Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

After his UFC 241 win, Nate Diaz wants to defend his baddest motherf—ker title.

Immediately after his impressive win against Anthony Pettis at UFC 241, Nate Diaz said he was interested in defending his belt against Jorge Masvidal. What title is that exactly? Well Diaz calls it the “baddest motherf—ker belt”, and he wants to fight a fellow gangster like Masvidal in his first title defense.

“You have to recognize who is the best in the game, and it’s not who they’re saying it is,” Diaz said at the post-fight press conference. “It’s who I’m saying it is. It’s the guy who has been winning forever and are still on the top of the game.

“Pettis just knocked out Thompson, who just fought for the 170 title a bunch of times. He fights Pettis and Pettis knocks his ass out real quick.

“Who’s the real badass dude in the 170 division? They’re trying to pump up this dude (Askren), and Masvidal goes in there and knocks his ass out. And he’s been in here since I started fighting in 2004, I think. I think he had been there a little longer, and he just did that (to Askren). And I just did that (to Pettis). So, that’s the best fighter to me, the best martial artist who is still on top of the game.”

“No one’s showing any acknowledgement for being the best fighter in the world. Which I am, just like Masvidal. I’m the best martial artist. We’re not just some ‘hold on to me wrestlers,’ who will hold you and hopefully win a round, finding a loophole to winning these fights and put a belt on their waist,” Diaz said. “Now we’re fighting for the baddest motherf—ker in the game belt. And that’s mine!”

“So I’d like to defend that against Jorge Masvidal, so if he wants to be the baddest motherf—ker, that’s how we gonna do it.”

Diaz also mocked how other fighters address their post-fight interviews, as many try to be polite about who they want to fight next.

“Quit acting like this is a professional sport. ‘Whatever they want to give me?’ No, I’m going to take what’s mine,” he said. “That’s what I’m talking about, the baddest motherf—ker title. I need that belt made as soon as possible.”

Photo by Josh Hedges Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

This is UFC 241 in a few short tweets.

UFC 241 is in the books, and it saw the top three fights on the card deliver with some entertaining back and forth exchanges. Stipe Miocic came back from likely losing on the judges scorecards to TKO Daniel Cormier and regain his heavyweight title. Nate Diaz impressed on his return from layoff, and both Yoel Romero and Paulo Costa slugged it out for 15 mins.

Here’s a quick twitter thread with a brief recap and analysis of the event, that’s fitting for people’s social media era attention spans:

And that’s about it. For more social media musings, follow me on twitter over at @antontabuena, and of course you should do that for Bloody Elbow’s official twitter account as well.

Check out fighters’ twitter reactions along with more of our UFC 241 coverage below:

• Pros react to Miocic’s vicious TKO of Cormier at UFC 241
• Pros react to Diaz’s thrilling win over Pettis at UFC 241
• Pros react to Costa’s wild brawl with Romero
• UFC 241: Cormier vs. Miocic 2 results and post-fight analysis