Author: Anton Tabuena

Duke Roufus says MMA coaches need to protect their fighters more.

With aging veterans like Glover Teixeira and Lauren Murphy taking an exorbitant amount of damage for multiple rounds at UFC 283, the clear lack of corner stoppages in MMA was once again highlighted.

Fighters will naturally always want to fight, and Duke Roufus reiterated that it’s the coaches job to protect their athletes. The veteran MMA coach called for a culture shift in the sport, while also pointing to his own mistakes and regrets.

“I’ve been on the wrong end too. I’ll tell you two fights that I’ve messed up on, and I’ve learned a lot from,” Roufus told Jimmy Smith at Sirius XM. “Anthony (Pettis) broke his orbital against RDA, and we kept trying to have a song and dance and a prayer that he pulled something out. And you know what? He ended up getting thrashed for many rounds, which was detrimental to his career at that time.”

“Paul Felder, when he broke his arm against Mike Perry, I should have stopped that fight. I learned a lot from those two experiences. When I had to live with the regret of that, it’s something I bring now into my coaching skill set is empathy, sympathy.”

Roufus believes there’s two reasons why MMA coaches don’t really throw in the towel, especially compared to their counterparts in boxing.

“The title is so hard to get in MMA that sometimes our passion for glory is too strong for our wits and humanity in doing what’s the right thing,” he said, noting how that’s why he made the mistake about not stopping the Anthony Pettis vs. Rafael Dos Anjos title fight.

“The other problem — what I’ve got going for me is I’ve gotten my ass kicked,” Roufus said. “I’ve been destroyed, been wrecked in fights. I know what it feels like. I think there’s a lot of coaches who’ve had some success coaching, but they’ve never got their heart torn out and destroyed in the ring like some of these kids are getting, and I think we’ve got to shift that culture. Again, it’s your job to protect the fighter.”

Apart from lack of corner stoppages, Roufus also notes that there’s a real lack of focus on “striking defense” in MMA, and calls it a “disservice to these kids” over their long careers.

Several former UFC employees have spoken out against Dana White and Endeavor.

Three weeks after Dana White was caught on video slapping his wife, Endeavor, UFC, ESPN and TBS all remained silent, with the UFC President announcing himself that there won’t be any punishments or repercussions for his actions.

White then basically said he’s rich enough to not get affected by any sanctions, and claimed his absence would only hurt the UFC.

“What should the repercussions be? I take 30 days off? How does that hurt me? I told you guys when we were going through COVID, COVID could last 10 years. I could sit it out.” White said in his first public appearance since the incident. “Me leaving hurts the company, hurts my employees, hurts the fighters. It doesn’t hurt me. I could’ve left in 2016.”

Now that it’s clear that White won’t be held accountable in any kind of way, “several” former UFC employees have spoken out on the condition of anonymity. Each of them stated that they were “shocked” as they never saw White get violent, but they weren’t surprised with the inaction from Endeavor.

“Those inside knew nothing was going to happen,” one former UFC employee told A.J. Perez of Front Office Sports. “Dana is that powerful. In any other sport, a league president putting his hands on his wife would lead to immediate action. It’s sad and disgusting at the same time.”

“He’s convinced Ari that he has the secret sauce,” another former employee said. “Endeavor thinks that there’s nobody but Dana who can run UFC.”

As reported in-depth in Bloody Elbow, the UFC is Endeavor’s cash cow, carrying about 90% of the company’s “Owned Sports Properties” division that brought in $1.1 billion in the past year. The other Endeavor property responsible for about 10% of that is the Professional Bull Riders or PBR.

“In theory, Endeavor really only owns two tangible assets: UFC and PBR,” one former employee said. “You think they’d let the head of the PBR hit his wife — on video — and keep his position? Hell no. Compared to UFC, Endeavor makes nothing with PBR. It’s disappointing and sad at the same time.”

Even without suspensions or true professional repercussions, an ex-employee also noted how White wouldn’t go along even with minor punishments like anger management sessions.

“He’d never accept, let alone seek out, therapy,” the source said. “The only way he’d ever go to counseling would be if a judge ordered it.”

Front Office Sports’ sources also gave insight on White’s outlook concerning the controversial issue of low pay, with fighters shown to be getting less than 20% of the revenue—a far cry from the 50% athletes get in other major sports.

“Dana will tip a doorman of a hotel $1,000, but if anyone comes to his office and asks for a raise, that pisses him off,” one former UFC employee said. “It’s so bizarre. To Dana, money is love. It’s not seen as an instrument to buy goods or services. If you are asking for money, it means you don’t love him. It’s very primitive.”

During this whole incident, numerous public figures have spoken out about White being handled with kid gloves, and the uneven treatment compared to other sports. The list includes Senators, Hollywood actors, and sports stars, but as the ex-UFC employees alluded to, none of these were from the voices of those who actually wield power over White and his business.

Jon Jones reveals details on how it led to the vacant heavyweight title bout.

After a three-year layoff, Jon Jones is scheduled to return for a vacant UFC heavyweight title bout against Ciryl Gane.

The longterm light heavyweight champion spent years in the sidelines dealing with personal and legal issues, along with a long and very public contract dispute with the UFC. Unlike Francis Ngannou, who walked away from the UFC as champion, Jones was able to come to terms with the promotion and sign a lucrative new eight-fight deal.

Jones, who says he now feels “valued” by the company, shared a few details on how this planned heavyweight debut came together. He reveals being offered three heavyweights, and claimed that Dana White wasn’t really being truthful about a previous planned bout with Stipe Miocic.

“Dana said that there was never a Stipe fight on the line, but there was, there was,” Jones told The UG. “They just couldn’t come to an agreement.

“So I’ve been trying to prepare for Francis, I did a whole training camp preparing for Stipe, and now we got Ciryl Gane,” Jones said. “I’ve been ready for a long time. I’ve been training non-stop for three years, some days, three times a day.”

Jones ended up with a fight with Gane for the vacant heavyweight belt, but also notes how he preferred to face the other two heavyweight stars instead.

“It does (take something away),” Jones said about not having to fight Ngannou anymore. “I feel like Francis is the more intimidating of the two. I feel like he’s more known in America. Francis is this big scary intimidating man, where Ciryl is relatively unknown. Obviously Francis has the belt, so taking it from him would have been nice.

“The fight that meant the most to me was fighting Stipe Miocic, because Stipe is the greatest heavyweight of all time,” he continued. “I’m very honored to fight Ciryl Gane, and I knew that would be happening eventually, inevitably, but that’s the fight that I was really bummed didn’t happen.”

While he didn’t get a shot at Miocic, Jones says he’s already eying him next if he beats Gane and wins the heavyweight belt.

Former UFC champ Eddie Alvarez, Gray Maynard and Big John McCarthy are not fans of Dana White’s recent comments on Francis Ngannou.

While the UFC has been typically known to have highly restrictive contracts for title holders, Francis Ngannou became the first in this era to walk away as the champion.

After not being happy with the UFC’s offers, the popular knockout artist will now test the open market with multiple lucrative opportunities likely available to him. Unsurprisingly, Dana White has already tried to change the narrative by claiming that Ngannou just doesn’t want to fight high level fighters anymore.

“I think Francis is at a place right now, where he doesn’t want to take a risk,” White said. “He feels like he can fight lesser opponents and make more money.

“The guy weighs over 300 lbs, just had knee surgery, hasn’t had a real training camp. I think that probably has a lot to do with it. He doesn’t know what’s going to happen with his knee, he’s not getting younger,” White said. “It’s not like this is something that has never happened before. There’s been other guys that have come to us and said I don’t want to compete at this level anymore.”

Former UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez wasn’t a fan of the disrespect showed, saying it’s hilarious for White to claim that Ngannou is afraid.

“UFC simply lost the bid for Francis, instead of admitting that, they go with the narrative the the scariest motherf***** alive is afraid to fight in the UFC. Hahahahahahahahahahaha. These jokes write themselves,” Alvarez wrote on twitter.

“Nobody in the UFC is “afraid” of anyone. The men who fight there are there to fight the best… The UFC is afraid to pay fighters, this is the only reason people leave,” Alvarez also wrote on Instagram. “Fighters don’t give a f*** who the next opponent is, they do care about what the pay will be. Keep it real and just say, ‘We lost the bid, someone is paying more,’ and end it there.

“It’s counterintuitive to pay fighters large purses because they become less cooperative and more [independent]. The business works perfect when everyone is broke and begging to fight at the drop of a hat. Cooperation is key. Large purses disrupt their own business.”

Similar sentiments were shared by former UFC title contender Gray Maynard, and veteran referee turned MMA commentator, “Big” John McCarthy.

Another former champion in Daniel Cormier also disagreed with White’s narrative, saying he would’ve “fought Jon Jones on any day of the week.”

As the four MMA staples have alluded to, it’s comical to accuse “the baddest man on the planet” of being afraid to fight at a high level. Apart from destroying multiple UFC champions like Stipe Miocic, Cain Velasquez, Junior dos Santos, he also beat one half of the current vacant title fight while injured, and has been asking to fight Jon Jones for over a year.

Interestingly enough, in 2021, White insisted it was Jones that was afraid of Ngannou, and that they could book the fight immediately if he “really wanted to fight.”

Now, it’s the opposite. So what changed?

Well, as Alvarez noted, it’s all about the money. For over a decade now, Dana White’s go to move against those trying to negotiate for better terms is to question their character and claim that they simply “don’t want to fight.”

Jones was having contract issues with the UFC then, but has since agreed to a new eight-fight deal. Predictably, in Dana White terms, he has recently been upgraded to not afraid and “ready to fight” status.

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About the author: Anton Tabuena is the Managing Editor for Bloody Elbow. He’s been covering MMA and combat sports since 2009, and has also fought in MMA, Muay Thai and kickboxing. (full bio)

Jon Jones and Ciryl Gane is set, and Dana White uses his old “doesn’t want to fight” line about Francis Ngannou.

Shortly after an earlier botched leak spoiling the match up, Dana White has officially announced that Jon Jones will fight Ciryl Gane for the vacant heavyweight title at UFC 285.

“This is for the official heavyweight title,” White said about Jones vs Gane.

The UFC couldn’t come to terms with Francis Ngannou, who will now be the first from this era to walk away from the UFC as champion.

“We offered a deal to Francis that would’ve made him the highest paid heavyweight in the history of the company, more than Lesnar, more than everybody. And he turned the deal down,” White claimed.

“We’re going to release him from his contract, give up our right to match,” White said. “He can go wherever he wants, do whatever he wants.”

White unsurprisingly took jabs at Ngannou as well, using his old “doesn’t want to fight” line about people who negotiate for more money.

“I think Francis is at a place right now, where he doesn’t want to take a risk,” White said about Ngannou. “He feels like he can fight lesser opponents and make more money.

“The guy weighs over 300 lbs, just had knee surgery, hasn’t had a real training camp. I think that probably has a lot to do with it. He doesn’t know what’s going to happen with his knee, he’s not getting younger,” White said. “It’s not like this is something that has never happened before. There’s been other guys that have come to us and said I don’t want to compete at this level anymore.”

White specifically mentioned Brock Lesnar, and how Ngannou was offered the highest ever “heavyweight” purse. It’s worth noting how Lesnar’s previous purses were made public through the UFC antitrust lawsuit, and it isn’t exactly a high figure, especially in 2023. As a champion in 2011, he would’ve made $1.65 million plus his base purse, which was $400,000 at UFC 116. As a non-champion in his final bout in 2016, Lesnar’s base purse was $2.5 million, with a $5.5 million side deal, according to BE’s business expert John Nash.

As White noted, there has been a couple of fighters outside heavyweight with bigger purses. The question also would be if being paid “more than Lesnar” is guaranteed, or only for a Jones bout, which would likely be the biggest drawing fight the UFC can put on right now. Ngannou seems to want to look towards boxing as well, where fighters earn far more than the sub-20 percent revenue share UFC gives.

With White’s ludicrous claims after negotiations, Ngannou now joins Georges St-Pierre, Jon Jones, Cris Cyborg, and Dustin Poirier in a hilariously long list of killers and talented fighters that all just don’t want to… fight.

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About the author: Anton Tabuena is the Managing Editor for Bloody Elbow. He’s been covering MMA and combat sports since 2009, and has also fought in MMA, Muay Thai and kickboxing. (full bio)

The bout isn’t 100% confirmed yet.

A T-Mobile Arena employee is probably in trouble, after posting a banner and accidentally leaking a Jon Jones vs Ciryl Gane announcement. The graphic outside the Las Vegas arena read that the bout will be for the “world heavyweight championship” and will happen at UFC 285 on March 4.

Soon after the photo made the rounds on social media, MMA Fighting’s Steven Marrocco reported that the announcement was premature and the banner has been taken down.

Although the leak was premature, the bout appears to really be in the works, with Jones himself confirming Gane is next and Ariel Helwani reporting that the bout could be announced very soon.

“This is a very real thing,” Helwani reported. “Not quite 100%, but could be announced as early as tonight, I’m told.”

With Francis Ngannou still not agreeing to terms and re-signing with the UFC, the promotion reportedly has plans to strip him of his heavyweight title once everything is made official.

“If they make this fight on March 4th, it will be for the vacant title. On the table right now is to strip Francis Ngannou of the belt, and make that fight for the vacant title,” Helwani noted. “Again, not 100% just yet, but moving in the right direction.”

Jones, now 35, hasn’t fought in three years, and has had contract (and legal) issues of his own since then. The former light heavyweight champion has been teasing a heavyweight move for over a decade now, but will this really be the time it actually happens?