Actress Meryl Streep took an apparent dig at mixed martial arts during a speech at the Golden Globes on Sunday night, so Bellator MMA President Scott Coker invited her to Bellator 170 on his Twitter page:
According to MMA Fighting, Streep criticized P…
Actress Meryl Streep took an apparent dig at mixed martial arts during a speech at the Golden Globes on Sunday night, so Bellator MMA President Scott Coker invited her to Bellator 170 on his Twitter page:
According to MMA Fighting, Streep criticized President-elect Donald Trump for a variety of things and said: “So Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners. And if we kick them all out, you’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts.”
The Golden Globe Awards shared Streep’s speech:
Coker stressed that mixed martial arts includes men and women from around the world who work to hone their skills.
If she did take Coker up on his invitation, she would get the chance to see a showdown between Tito Ortiz and Chael Sonnen on Jan. 21 in Los Angeles.
Yahoo Sports said the fight “has a chance to become the most watched bout in Bellator history.”
Ortiz is a former UFC light heavyweight champion and a UFC Hall of Famer. Sonnen was a marquee figure in UFC before he was suspended for two years in 2014 for performance-enhancing drugs.
Actress Meryl Streep took an apparent dig at mixed martial arts during a speech at the Golden Globes on Sunday night, so Bellator MMA President Scott Coker invited her to Bellator 170 on his Twitter page:
According to MMA Fighting, Streep criticized P…
Actress Meryl Streep took an apparent dig at mixed martial arts during a speech at the Golden Globes on Sunday night, so Bellator MMA President Scott Coker invited her to Bellator 170 on his Twitter page:
According to MMA Fighting, Streep criticized President-elect Donald Trump for a variety of things and said: “So Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners. And if we kick them all out, you’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts.”
The Golden Globe Awards shared Streep’s speech:
Coker stressed that mixed martial arts includes men and women from around the world who work to hone their skills.
If she did take Coker up on his invitation, she would get the chance to see a showdown between Tito Ortiz and Chael Sonnen on Jan. 21 in Los Angeles.
Yahoo Sports said the fight “has a chance to become the most watched bout in Bellator history.”
Ortiz is a former UFC light heavyweight champion and a UFC Hall of Famer. Sonnen was a marquee figure in UFC before he was suspended for two years in 2014 for performance-enhancing drugs.
UFC fighter Max Holloway saw Jose Aldo’s Tuesday interview with Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting and wasn’t happy about it.
Aldo said Holloway knew they were supposed to fight at UFC 208 in Brooklyn, New York, on Feb. 11 before he fought Anthony Pettis on…
UFC fighter Max Holloway saw Jose Aldo’s Tuesday interview with Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting and wasn’t happy about it.
Aldo said Holloway knew they were supposed to fight at UFC 208 in Brooklyn, New York, on Feb. 11 before he fought Anthony Pettis on Dec. 10. He said Holloway then backtracked after beating Pettis and asserted he himself never turns down fights from the UFC.
“I don’t know what the hell he’s talking about,” Holloway said, per Damon Martin of Fox Sports. “Telling me I knew before the fight—I didn’t know (expletive) before the fight. When they told me in the cage after I won that they wanted the fight Feb. 11, I thought it was 10 weeks away so I’d take two weeks off and then have an eight-week camp to get ready for him.”
Holloway blamed his adrenaline for initially saying he would fight Aldo on Feb. 11 after he TKOedPettis in the third round but then realized that couldn’t happen because of a severely swollen ankle that would keep him out for four to six weeks.
Holloway didn’t just take aim at Aldo’s allegations that he knew about the fight before beating Pettis, either.
“This guy is the last guy who should be talking about injuries,” he said, per Martin. “This mother (expletive) is the last guy that should be talking about injuries and being able to fight. … He got offered to fight me at (UFC) 205 and 206 and he would not fight me.”
According to Martin, injuries prevented Aldo from fighting ConorMcGregor at UFC 189, among other contests.
Holloway made it clear he thinks Aldo is engaging in trash talk because the fight isn’t going to happen on Feb. 11 like initially expected.
“Keep digging yourself a hole because one day you’re going to be standing across the cage from me and you’ll realize you’re not better than me in every aspect of MMA and you’ll start folding,” he said, per Martin.
Holloway did say he hopes to return to action in April or May after his ankle is fully healed and he can train before entering the Octagon again.
The back-and-forth will add another layer of intrigue to what will be a highly anticipated fight if and when it happens.
Helwani noted Aldo’s loss to McGregor on Dec. 12, 2015, was his first in a decade. While he didn’t get the rematch with McGregor he had hoped for, Aldo did beat Frankie Edgar at UFC 200 and became the official 145-pound champion after UFC stripped McGregor of the title in November.
Helwani said Aldo initially threatened to retire from the sport when McGregor fought Eddie Alvarez instead of him at UFC 205 but ultimately patched things up with the UFC.
As for Holloway, his UFC profile says he is 17-3 and ranked as the No. 1 featherweight.
Each fighter is among the most talented in the sport and figures to be a difficult opponent if this fight ever occurs. There is now even more motivation in place given the comments Aldo and Holloway made about each other.
Oklahoma congressman and former mixed martial artist fighter Markwayne Mullin is sponsoring the Muhammad Ali Expansion Act. Amy Dash of SB Nation’s Bloody Elbow reported Tuesday the UFC attempted to prevent former champion Randy Couture from speaking a…
Oklahoma congressman and former mixed martial artist fighter MarkwayneMullin is sponsoring the Muhammad Ali Expansion Act. Amy Dash of SB Nation’s Bloody Elbow reported Tuesday the UFC attempted to prevent former champion Randy Couture from speaking at Thursday’s scheduled hearing for the Act.
“They have threatened to walk because they didn’t want us to have Randy Couture on the panel,” Mullin said, per Dash. “We want them to participate, buy they can’t be dictating who we can and cannot have on the panel.”
Dash noted Mullin was critical in organizing Thursday’s hearing before the subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade so that the members of the House who will eventually vote on the Muhammad Ali Expansion Act will be more educated on the subject.
According to Dash, the act would expand protections from boxing to all combat sports if passed, “thereby outlawing coercive contracts lasting more than a year, returning promotional rights back to fighters after a year, providing avenues for fighters to sue promoters and creating an independent rank and title system.”
Tim Bissell of Bloody Elbow reported in November the UFC has spent in the six figures lobbying against the Muhammad Ali Expansion Act.
While the UFC initially fought the idea of Couture speaking at the hearing, Mullin said it eventually relented. Dash said Couture is the lone fighter scheduled to speak at this point.
Dash pointed out Couture has previously publicly fought with UFC President Dana White and had other legal battles over contract disputes. Perhaps with that in mind, the former UFC champion didn’t sound surprised when told the UFC didn’t want him at the hearing, per Dash:
Obviously there’s no love lost from me, certainly with regard to the president of the company and obviously the landscape for the entire sport would change if we are successful. They’ve been trying to derail this hearing and not have it happen at all. So I’m not surprised that they are gonna pull out all the stops.
Dave Doyle of MMA Fighting reported in 2013 that White said he didn’t respect Couture after the fighter moved from UFC to Spike TV and Bellator. White did not like the way Couture left the company and said he received a letter from the fighter’s lawyer notifying him of the decision.
Doyle said it wasn’t the first time the two had issues. He pointed to a “famous dustup” in 2007 when Couture came out of retirement and tried to break his contract and fight FedorEmelianenko after beating Tim Sylvia.
As for the hearing Thursday, it is just one of a number of steps the Muhammad Ali Expansion Act will need to go through before it could be expanded to UFC. Dash said it would need to go through a committee process and review before eventually going to the House for a vote.
A passed vote there would move it to the Senate and then ultimately to the president to sign into a law if it continues to pass.
Undefeated UFC lightweight Khabib Nurmagomedov wants a shot at Conor McGregor.
Brett Okamoto of ESPN.com noted on Wednesday the 24-0 fighter has campaigned for a chance at a title belt throughout the year “and was even seen demanding it from UFC Presid…
Undefeated UFC lightweight Khabib Nurmagomedov wants a shot at Conor McGregor.
Brett Okamoto of ESPN.com noted on Wednesday the 24-0 fighter has campaigned for a chance at a title belt throughout the year “and was even seen demanding it from UFC President Dana White” while he was dominating Michael Johnson at UFC 205 on Nov. 12.
Nurmagomedov posted a screenshot on Wednesday of his attempt to reach McGregor via Twitter’s direct messaging feature and said, “I am old school and try to do this man to man but the he don’t want anything to do with a real man. Time to move on:”
It wasn’t the first time Nurmagomedov made his desire to fight McGregor clear on Twitter:
However, Okamoto said McGregor didn’t appear particularly keen about the potential showdown and even called Nurmagomedov a “consistent pull-out merchant” after the lightweight missed the 2015 campaign because of injuries.
McGregor is coming off a victory over Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 and didn’t seem too concerned with Nurmagomedov or any other challenger when he tweeted on Wednesday:
Nurmagomedov took full advantage of his appearance on UFC 205 with a win over Johnson, but he also said he was on the preliminary card instead of the main fight because the UFC has “to take care of Conor” while speaking with RT Sport (h/t Jed Meshew of MMA Fighting).
Despite his frustration with a lack of promotion, Nurmagomedov is 8-0 in the UFC and among those who could face McGregor when the latter returns to the Octagon. Okamoto also listed lightweight Nate Diaz and welterweight champion Tyron Woodley as possible opponents.
UFC star Conor McGregor is fresh off an impressive victory over Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 on Saturday, but Paul Michael Levesque—otherwise known as Triple H—thinks the Irishman could thrive in WWE as well.
“He could come over, he’s got it al…
UFC star Conor McGregor is fresh off an impressive victory over Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 on Saturday, but Paul Michael Levesque—otherwise known as Triple H—thinks the Irishman could thrive in WWE as well.
“He could come over, he’s got it all, man—he’s got the personality, the skills, the talk. He’s an entertainer, for sure,” Triple H said, per Gareth A. Davies of the Telegraph. “What does he walk around at? 180 pounds? I have smaller guys now in the WWE. We have 200-pound guys who are stars. You don’t need to be 300 pounds any more.”
Triple H was at Madison Square Garden to witness McGregor handle Alvarez with relative ease inside of two rounds.
Davies noted McGregor said he has some major announcements before his fight with Alvarez, but Triple H clarified, “If his announcement has anything to do with WWE, then it’s news to me.”
Triple H mentioned McGregor’s ability to “talk,” which was on full display before Saturday’s event in New York City, as the UFC shared (warning: video contains NSFW language):
If McGregor did make an appearance at a WWE event, it wouldn’t be the first time UFC athletes crossed over. Brock Lesnar has fought in both circuits, and Ronda Rousey teamed up with The Rock to fight Triple H and Stephanie McMahon at WrestleMania 31.
Triple H referenced the pay-per-view success of boxer Floyd Mayweather’s fight with Big Show in 2008 as an example for McGregor to potentially follow. WWE shared Mayweather’s encounter on its YouTube page:
McGregor is just 28 years old and appears to be in the middle of his fighting prime. He is also immensely popular, and his teammate Cathal Pendred said “he’s probably the most popular person in Ireland right now” during an appearance with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, via Marc Raimondi of MMA Fighting.
Triple H and the WWE could capitalize on that popularity if McGregor elects to parlay his UFC success into a role or cameo with the company in the future.
Actress Meryl Streep took an apparent dig at mixed martial arts during a speech at the Golden Globes on Sunday night, so Bellator MMA President Scott Coker invited her to Bellator 170 on his Twitter page: