Former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre is headed back to an Octagon soon.
After a three-plus-year absence from the UFC, the man many consider the greatest fighter of all time will move up in weight for the first time in his career when…
Former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre is headed back to an Octagon soon.
After a three-plus-year absence from the UFC, the man many consider the greatest fighter of all time will move up in weight for the first time in his career when he takes on current middleweight champion Michael Bisping.
St-Pierre has never been one to pull punches as far as issues he sees within within the sport. He became infamous for railing against a lack of drug testing. During his time away, the UFC instituted much stricter testing when it partnered up with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
Now GSP is speaking out about weight-cutting.
“I’m not a big fan of cutting weight. I always prioritize my health over my performance,” he said during a recent appearance on the UFC Unfiltered podcast (h/t MMAWeekly.com).
“I believe the new weigh-in in the morning (the day) before the fight, I think it’s a bad thing. Because now guys, they see it as an opportunity to cut more weight. So, I think it’s a bad thing. I told [UFC president] Dana [White] when I saw him that I don’t see it as a good thing.”
Many credit St-Pierre’s vocalness around drug testing for influencing the UFC’s behavior. Perhaps he can now have a positive impact when it comes to issues related to weight-cutting. It’s safe to say the Canadian’s legacy in MMA will extend beyond the cage long after he retires.
Unicorns do exist. Believe it or not, the double knockout is a real thing in combat sports (one of our favorite examples took place back in 2009, which you can view here).
Like unicorns, though, they are rare. When one comes along, you have to stop wha…
Unicorns do exist. Believe it or not, the double knockout is a real thing in combat sports (one of our favorite examples took place back in 2009, which you can view here).
Like unicorns, though, they are rare. When one comes along, you have to stop what you’re doing and fully appreciate what you’ve just seen, because you don’t know when another one is going to magically appear.
This past weekend at Shamrock FC in Kansas City, Missouri, the MMA gods blessed us with another unicorn.
Axel Cazares and Alan Vasquez both threw hard rights that landed at the same time—and both men fell to the canvas stunned. Vasquez, though, was awarded the victory because he was able to get back up to his feet first.
In our books, they are both winners! Or losers? When you get a double KO, does it even matter who won or lost? We think not.
When the bright lights of the UFC fade, MMA fighters have two options: hang up the gloves and call it a career, or press forward and ply their trade in less prestigious organizations.
MMA fighters have more options than ever these days as far as p…
When the bright lights of the UFC fade, MMA fighters have two options: hang up the gloves and call it a career, or press forward and ply their trade in less prestigious organizations.
MMA fighters have more options than ever these days as far as promotions go, from the well-known Bellator to countless regional promotions scattered across the country (and plenty of international promotions too).
One place you don’t automatically think of MMA fighters showing up in is bare-knuckle boxing. But the sport has seen a surge in popularity in recent years, with 73-0 Bobby Gunn becoming the face of it.
BKB, a U.K. promotion, seems to be welcoming in former UFC fighters. The promotion, which recently put up a YouTube page, has featured former UFC fighters Joe “Diesel” Riggs and Cody McKenzie. (The two actually faced off in October in an MMA fight for Z Promotions; Riggs TKO’d McKenzie in the first round.)
Riggs, who has racked up a whopping 60 MMA fights in his career, fought in the UFC as recently as February 2016, when he lost by TKO to Chris Camozzi. The organization released him shortly thereafter. He put together a 5-7 record inside the Octagon.
McKenzie, owner of 26 MMA fights, compiled a 2-5 record with the UFC. He last competed inside the Octagon in December 2013. Since then, he’s fought for seven different promotions, going 2-6 during that time.
Which brings us full circle to their bare-knuckle boxing debuts.
Riggs took on a gentleman by the name of Christian Evans in a light heavyweight title fight, and Diesel had trouble controlling his MMA impulses. Early on in the fight, the referee had to deduct points for a takedown and then throwing an elbow. Riggs later settled in and went on to win by unanimous decision.
Now a champion for BKB, it’ll be interesting to see if Riggs defends his belt or if this was a one-off thing and he returns to what he knows in MMA.
McKenzie didn’t fare as well as Riggs.
While he showed heart, he was no match for BKB middleweight champion Jimmy Sweeney. The experienced Sweeney knocked the novice McKenzie down a total of five times before the ref had finally seen enough and stopped the fight. Based on his performance, it would be best for McKenzie if he avoided any more high-level bare-knuckle boxers.
This past Saturday at UFC on Fox 23, Jorge Masvidal put on the most impressive performance of his 14-year professional MMA career. His opponent, Donald Cerrone, had been knocked out only twice in his previous 40 MMA fights before stepping into the cage…
This past Saturday at UFC on Fox 23, Jorge Masvidal put on the most impressive performance of his 14-year professional MMA career. His opponent, Donald Cerrone, had been knocked out only twice in his previous 40 MMA fights before stepping into the cage with Masvidal.
If you weren’t familiar with Gamebred heading into this fight, you’re probably not the only one. Despite his 42 professional MMA fights prior to this one, he had always come up short in his most high-profile bouts. He had yet to produce a star-making performance.
His victory over Cowboy changed all that.
Given that Masvidal’s name is hotter than ever, it’s worth looking back in time when he competed in backyard fights. His two most high-profile fights came against Kimbo’s protege. Ray was the bigger and seemingly stronger fighter, but Masvidal used his superior technique and speed to wear him down and pick him apart. In both fights, Ray was left with no choice but to quit (warning: NFSW language).
“He was going nuts. He took me out to eat dinner and at the time I was dead broke. He took me to this fancy-ass place and at the time I was like, ‘Damn, this dude’s balling.’ And it was just cool as (expletive). I thought we were going to have to do some thugged-out (expletive), like run out on the bill, but he paid for the whole thing. I was like, ‘Man, this is some crazy (expletive).'”
All these years later and Gamebred appears to be in the best fight shape of his life. Perhaps he’s finally on his way to making a title run, assuming he can string together a few more impressive wins.
What exactly is a UFC interim belt? For starters, it’s fast becoming essentially worthless.
Fool’s gold. A facade. Worth little more than the tinfoil it’s printed on. A promotional prop versus the original intent, which was to…
What exactly is a UFC interim belt? For starters, it’s fast becoming essentially worthless.
Fool’s gold. A facade. Worth little more than the tinfoil it’s printed on. A promotional prop versus the original intent, which was to act as an actual marker for being the best, when the best was unable to perform for an extended period of time.
Back in the day, an interim belt carried tacit value.
It was a useful tool for keeping a division moving along when times got tough. If a sitting champ suffered a serious injury and couldn’t defend his belt for a year or more, the UFC could and eventually would smartly set up an interim title fight between contenders No. 2 and No. 3 (more or less).
Take, for example, when former (and now current) bantamweight champ Dominick Cruz just couldn’t stay healthy. A series of injuries kept him away for nearly three years.
Knowing Cruz would be out for quite some time, given he’d torn his ACL, the UFC booked an interim title fight between RenanBarao and Uriah Faber, which Barao won. Cruz was eventually booked in a unification bout with Barao; however, Cruz tore his groin and would be unable to compete. That’s when the UFC appropriately promoted Barao to the outright and undisputed champion.
There are other examples where creating an interim belt made good sense.
Back in 2004, then-heavyweight champ Frank Mir had amotorcycle accident, breaking his femur and tearing all the ligaments in his knee. In 2010, then-heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar was gutted with an intestinal disorder that ended up requiring surgery. In 2011, then-welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre, like Cruz, tore an ACL and would be out nearly a year.
Fast-forward to today, and interim belts are being devalued worse than a Transformers film (OK, maybe not that bad). Look no further than the current Jon Jones-Daniel Cormier ordeal.
Cormier, the sitting champ, was forced to pull out of UFC 197 due to a foot injury. Current estimates have him on the sidelines for only four to six weeks, per Brett Okamoto of ESPN.com. Four to six weeks is a considerably shorter period of time than the 17 months that Cruz was initially on the sidelines.
So it makes no real sense for the UFC to do what it did…
Which was to book Jones in an interim title fight opposite sixth-ranked Ovince Saint Preux?!
Just to be clear, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that fight booking. Heck, it will be a nice tuneup fight for the former champ, who’s been out of action for more than a year. But making it for the light heavyweight interim belt?
Why?
It’s mostly about marketing.
That, and the fact that Jones may have demanded it for saving the main event and thus the pay-per-view. There’s always a certain amount of risk in taking on a random opponent on late notice, so he might as well get something shiny out of it.
As far as marketing goes, the UFC can now promote this fight as a “title” fight. There are “real” stakes. And when Jones and Cormier face off later this year, the UFC can hype it as a “champion vs. champion” fight!
It’s essentially the same gimmick the UFC employed when then-featherweight champ Jose Aldo was forced out of his UFC 189 fight versus ConorMcGregor due to a rib injury. In order to keep McGregor on the fight card and with some semblance of stakes, the UFC made his fight with Chad Mendes an interim title fight. And when McGregor and Aldo met at UFC 194, just a few months later, it was to “unify” the belt.
That’s when the interim belt jumped the shark.
And now you have Aldo facing off against Frankie Edgar for a 145-pound interim belt, not because McGregor is crippled and cannot defend it, but because he demanded a rematch two weight classes up (at 170 pounds) versus a fighter in Nate Diaz who’s a natural 155-pounder (McGregor is a natural 155-pounder too, for what it’s worth). Adding insult to injury, even though it makes sense as far as timetables go, Aldo and Edgar will go at it on the same card, UFC 200, as Diaz and McGregor.
It’s bordering on anarchy. Ham-fisted by an oligarchy.
And honestly, it’s not a bad strategy at all by the UFC brass.
Most casual fans, those who send PPVbuyratesnorth of 1 million, will take the bait. They’ll at least somewhat go along with the idea that real stakes are involved. Smoke and mirrors are an opium for the masses—at least when they aren’t fully clear on how the sausage is getting made.
My brother-in-law-texted me after he’d heard the news of the Jones-Saint Preux booking: “What a lame fight!!!. So Jones will be champ again after he wins that fight?” I replied “It’s complicated” and then proceeded to explain to him the history of the interim belt and how the current incarnation was being bastardized.
His response? “Well, that’s kinda lame.” Kinda lame indeed. An interim title fight has become as meaningful as a Tinder “date.” Just swipe right and you’re competing for, well, something.
At the end of the day, though, we still get to watch the best fighter on the planet finally return to the Octagon. If it means we have to deal with the meaninglessness of one more misguided interim belt, well, so be it.
Common sense had UFC 200 as the crown jewel of the 2016 fight calendar.
But a late-inning curveball, flung from the state of New York, looks to have common sense swing and miss. On March 22, the New York State Assembly, at long last, lifted the s…
Common sense had UFC 200 as the crown jewel of the 2016 fight calendar.
But a late-inning curveball, flung from the state of New York, looks to have common sense swing and miss. On March 22, the New York State Assembly, at long last, lifted the state’s 19-year ban on mixed martial arts.
And with that, the UFC is poised to put on what will by all accounts be the grandest event in company history. UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta spoke on the significance of this moment, via media conference call, just after the vote went through.
I think it’s going to be an epic moment for the sport and for our company. Obviously, right now all of our focus is on trying to put together the matches for UFC 200, but when we go to New York and we eventually debut at Madison Square Garden, me and Dana (White) and the rest of the team are going to be very focused on delivering for the fans. We’re going to put together the best available matches that we can. You’d have the biggest names that we can possibly put on, the biggest names that are available at the time. Believe me, we want to knock it out of the park and we want to deliver to New York in a big way. It’s going to be massive and when you do massive events it takes time, it takes runway, it’s going to be a tremendous amount of promotion, a ton of marketing assets, we’re going to have to book the fights that make sense for there, it’s going to be big. I think the fourth quarter is a good target for us. A realistic target for us.
So, first things first. The UFC will fill out the fight card for UFC 200 before planning the first event for New York, which will take place in the legendary Madison Square Garden. Only two fights have been confirmed for the main card of UFC 200, with strong speculation that the main event will feature a rematch between Nate Diaz and ConorMcGregor.
Earlier, we predicted what the pay-per-view portion of UFC 200 might look like. Take it with a grain of salt, as the UFC’s matchmaking strategy is anything if not unpredictable. So, prognosticating the PPV portion of an event that doesn’t even have a date yet, although Fertitta mentioned the UFC is targeting the fourth quarter, is like attempting to nail your Sweet 16 bracket picks.
As a result, we’ll refrain from locking in 10 fighters for the five fights that make up a main card. Instead, we’ll list the biggest fights the UFC could book if the stars align. Given that the event likely won’t take place for at least six to eight months, just about every option is on the table, barring unforeseen injuries.
We should point out that not every fight on this list will end up on the card. It’s just too much goodness to cram onto one card, even if the most historic event since UFC 1. That said, Fertitta, White and the rest of the company brass will be hugely motivated for this event go down in the annals of sports history. So what they actually decide on is going to be a treat to see.
ConorMcGregor vs. Frankie Edgar: Featherweight Title Fight
This may not be the biggest fight on the list, but we’ll start with the man of the hour.
Currently, the talk of the town is that the UFC is close to booking a rematch between Diaz and McGregor for the aforementioned UFC 200. With UFC 200 taking place in July, and the first UFC event in New York taking place in October or November, that will give McGregor a three- to four-month turnaround whether he wins or loses to Diaz.
In practical terms, a win or a loss to Diaz doesn’t affect McGregor as far as moving back down and defending his featherweight belt for the first time. But there would obviously be more interest from casual fans if he came into this fight having avenged his loss.
Edgar (5’6″, 155 lbs), albeit a much smaller fighter physically, would be a difficult out.
His combination of speed and footwork, volume boxing and pressure wrestling would likely push McGregor into uncharted waters. We saw what Chad Mendes, a similar fighter in some ways to Edgar, was able to do versus the Irishman on just one week’s notice. And in Mendes‘next fight, Edgar went out and absolutely clocked him in the first round even though he was fully prepared this time.
It was Edgar’s fifth straight win, since falling short versus then champ Jose Aldo back in 2013. Edgar and his team have been blastingMcGregor every chance they get for what they perceive as the champ ducking him. Edgar’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, recently slammed him on Instagram.
From a traditional fight-booking standpoint, McGregor vs. Edgar makes all the sense in the world. But McGregor operates by his own rules, and he’ll continue to book fights for himself that serve his agenda. Whether or not Edgar eventually factors into his plans remains to be seen.
McGregor may decide that he’s done with featherweight and is just holding onto the belt he took from Aldo until the UFC decides to strip him of it. Whether the company would do that is a whole separate story. For McGregor, holding onto the belt is both great window dressing and a great “Plan B” should things go south in the heavier weight classes.
After his win over Mendes at UFC 189, his own coach, John Kavanagh, said he didn’t want his star pupil to make the drastic weight cut down to 145 pounds again. UFC President Dana White said so during an appearance on Fox Sports 1 (via MMA Junkie).
There have been a glut of side-by-side photos of McGregor on the Internet, comparing what he looks like following a weight cut to make 145 pounds to what he looked like in the lead-up to his fight with Nate Diaz, contested at 170 pounds, where he didn’t have to cut a single pound.
Assuming that McGregor will actually go back and defend his featherweight belt any time soon (or at all for that matter) is foolish. Especially if he does rematch Diaz at 170 pounds again and his mind and body simply won’t allow him to make such a drastic cut again.
If McGregor beats Diaz in a rematch, he would have a lot more options to work with.
He could bark for a welterweight title fight versus Robbie Lawler. He could easily call for a lightweight title fight versus Rafael Dos Anjos (Dos Anjos, not Diaz, was McGregor‘s original opponent at UFC 196, but Dos Anjos pulled out less than two weeks before the fight after suffering a foot injury.) He could pretty much ask for any fight under the sun and likely get it.
If McGregor loses for a second time to Diaz, then things would get more (or less) interesting.
Diaz is a good fighter but not an elite one. He’s fought for the lightweight title twice in his career, coming up short on both occasions. He had a failed run in the UFC welterweight division earlier in his career. He’s currently ranked as the No. 5 lightweight in the division.
There’s no shame in McGregor losing to Diaz—it’s just that he’s losing to a non-champ. If McGregor lost and refused to go back and defend his featherweight belt, he’d then mostly likely become just another fighter in the lightweight division who’s looking to establish himself.
Miesha Tate vs. Ronda Rousey 3: Woman’s Bantamweight Title Fight
Rousey>Tate>Holly Holm>Rousey is the current iteration of the formula lines in the woman’s 135-pound division.
Tate has already lost twice to Rousey, once back in Strikeforce and then again in the UFC in 2013. Holm came along and ran through Rousey like a matador. Tate waited and waited before finally grabbing a hold of Holm, dragging her down to the ground and choking her out with 90 seconds left in their title fight in March.
So, where does the formula go from here? Booking Rousey vs. Tate 3 is too golden of a ticket for the UFC to not cash in on. While not a guarantee by any stretch, Rousey has a better chance of reclaiming the title from Tate than Holm. And Rousey wearing gold is best for the UFC’s bottom line.
If Rousey does beat Tate for a third time, then the UFC has a Rousey vs. Holm rematch back in its line of sight. Two back-to-back megafights in a row. And if Tate should foil that plan by thwarting Rousey, the UFC has a decent backup in Tate vs. Holm 2.
It just wouldn’t be right if the biggest crossover star in the history of the sport wasn’t competing in the biggest media market in the history of mankind. This feels like as close to a slam dunk as it gets for the UFC’s debut show in New York City.
The Return of GSP
Some folks think former welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre might show up at UFC 200. In our UFC 200 predictions piece, we put that chance at 25 percent. We wish we were feeling more confident. GSP on UFC 200 makes all the sense in the world since he helped anchor UFC 100 alongside Brock Lesnar.
But if St-Pierre is seriously thinking about making a comeback, then being on the UFC’s debut in New York City easily trumps UFC 200—he’d be a part of history.
There would be so shortage of potential options for GSP, should he decide to come back.
A superfight with former middleweight champ Anderson Silva, while years past its expiration date, would still be a huge happening. He could also make a run at getting his belt back by directly going after sitting champ Lawler.
Or he could target the winner of Diaz vs. McGregor. Perhaps that would be the most tantalizing option. GSP‘s head coach, FirasZahabi, said on The MMA Hour (via MMA Mania) both McGregor and Diaz blew a huge opportunity by not calling out St-Pierre, who was sitting cageside for their fight.
GSP has not stepped inside the Octagon since his November 2013 split-decision win over Johny Hendricks. After the fight, he decided to step away from the sport, and ever since, pundits and fans have speculated on if and when he’d return. GSP has a sense of history. If he were to ever come back, he’s not going to get a better opportunity to make a grand re-entrance than at MSG.
Jon Jones vs. Anthony Johnson: Light Heavyweight Title Fight
Jon Jones is a native New Yorker. That alone would make him a good candidate to fight on the UFC’s first event in the Empire State. And if he’s able to recapture gold versus Daniel Cormier in their rematch at UFC 197 on April 23, adding Jones to the fight card seems like an obvious move.
In fact, even if Cormier ends up beating Jones in their second go-around, it would not be out of the question to book the trilogy for Madison Square Garden. While Rousey and McGregor may be more popular than Jones, he’s the best fighter on the planet. Not having him on New York City’s fight event would actually just be wrong.
Chris Weidman vs. Luke Rockhold 3 (Middleweight Title Fight) or vs. Michael Bisping
Like Jones, Chris Weidman hails from New York. He dropped his middleweight title to Californian Luke Rockhold in the fall of 2015. The two are set to rematch at UFC 199 in June. If Weidman should win and get his belt back, it would set up a trilogy bout for New York City.
If he loses, it would still make sense for Weidman to compete on New York City’s first fight card.
That’s where Michael Bisping would fill in nicely. The British-born fighter and Weidman have never fought, and Bisping would make a marketable foe for the crestfallen New Yorker. If for whatever reason Bisping isn’t available, the UFC could tab someone such as VitorBelfort or LyotoMachida. (Either matchup would constitute a rematch.)
CM Punk vs. TBD
In our UFC 200 predictions, we put down CM Punk vs. Mickey Gall as being highly likely. Highly likely now stands at “10 percent,” according to Punk himself. When talking with Ariel Helwani on Monday’s MMA Hour (warning: NSFW language), Punk went into great detail about his recent injury woes that’s left him not knowing when he’ll actually make his promotional debut.
He did, however, express his interest the MSG card stating, “In my mind, that card at [Madison Square] Garden [in November] would be a nice second fight, but I don’t know how realistic that is, because again, I don’t want to say things that people are going to be taking to heart.”
A nice “second fight” at MSG? It looks like we’ll have to wait and see when and where his first fight lands. But for now, it appears highly likely that it won’t be taking place at UFC 200.
What are the chances that the UFC books the likes of McGregor, Rousey, St-Pierre and Jones all on one fight card? Next to impossible, right?
The UFC has only held three title fights on the same event once in company history (UFC 33). Most top-flight PPVs only boast two title fights. Even the record-breaking UFC 100 featured only two: Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir 2 and St-Pierre vs. ThiagoAlves.
But if there were ever a time the UFC would go back to three, or an inconceivable four, title fights on the same card, its first event in New York City at MSG would be the one.
Former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre is headed back to an Octagon soon.