Maryna Moroz was 14 years old the first time she got into a real fight. In a many ways, it was inevitable. While other young girls in Ukraine played with dolls or traded gossip, the self-described hooligan from Volnogorsk waged wars with the…
Maryna Moroz was 14 years old the first time she got into a real fight. In a many ways, it was inevitable. While other young girls in Ukraine played with dolls or traded gossip, the self-described hooligan from Volnogorsk waged wars with the neighborhood boys whenever she wasn’t stuck working the fields on her parents’ farm. Over time, one common theme emerged from all those minor scuffles: the slight farmgirl with the dark brown eyes and unkempt ponytail, yeah, she could hit like a truck.
The funny thing about Moroz’s 90-second upset over the then sixth-ranked strawweight in the world at UFC Fight Night 64 was not the cruel chaos of the game we play, nor the myriad of excuses that followed. It was the fact that for one woman in the arena, it was all so damn unsurprising.
A few rights and a few lefts to get Calderwood on the ropes. A guard pull straight into an armbar, down goes the next title contender. And there’s Moroz, the anonymous debutant, perched upon the cage wall, talking noise to the UFC’s bloodlust queen inside her own backyard. The bold, 23-year-old with the stones to call out the champ while the rest of Poland tries to process exactly what the hell just happened and who is this girl owning the mic.
“My driving motive is to be a UFC champion,” Moroz told MMA Fighting through a translator. “To stop such idle talk, give me the most powerful fighters. Give me the fight with the champion, [and we’ll] know who is who.”
In the age of MMA globalization, stories like Moroz’s are becoming increasingly common. How an unbeaten Ukrainian woman can appear, as if from thin air, and upend divisional truths in less than two minutes. It’s all so oddly enigmatic in a way, though for the unknown prospect turned No. 8 strawweight in the world, it’s just the culmination of lifelong conviction.
When Moroz was a teenager, her penchant for fisticuffs landed her in the Department of Boxing at the Institute of Physical Education and Sports in Kiev. By 19 years old, she was among of the country’s most decorated female pugilists, a national team member and Master of Sport in both boxing and kickboxing. Training camps, tournaments, and cold sweats were her life. Mike Tyson was her idol.
But for however much she enjoyed the thrill of competition, boxing for women in Ukraine lacked in opportunities to make actual, legitimate money. So Moroz’s gaze began to wander, and that’s when her husband introduced her to mixed martial arts, and the blazing trail that was beginning to be ignited by Ronda Rousey.
“I liked [what I was doing], but it was too hard to implement a boxing career in Ukraine, even for the talented girls,” Moroz said. “Just at that precise moment my husband proposed me to try myself in MMA. So the hard work began. There were tears, blood, sweat, but my husband always believed in me. Nobody believed that the boxer could become a UFC fighter. But now I’m in UFC, as you can see.
“Every year more and more girls come in MMA, [wanting to be] just as top fighters such as Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano.”
Moroz was the biggest underdog on the card when she danced with Calderwood. The oddsmakers won’t make that same mistake again. Already as high as a two-to-one favorite, sporting the makings of a rivalry with the division’s champion, Moroz strolls into her sophomore effort Sunday at UFC Fight Night 74 with genuine star potential.
All six of her professional victories have been finishes. Five of those wins ended in less than four minutes, just as five of those wins ended with an armbar. Calderwood can attest to that. Considering Moroz’s age, the UFC appears to be taking the road of a slow build. Her opponent, Valerie Letourneau, is a perfect 2-0 inside the Octagon, but is unranked and has fought only to decisions against lesser competition.
The makings are certainly there for a showcase performance, allowing Moroz the chance to prove the Calderwood fight wasn’t just some fluke against a 50-percent there fighter. The momentum is there too, and aside from No. 1 contender Claudia Gadelha, the division is wide open for the taking. Moroz has only to reach out and grasp it.
“I am going strong,” she said. “I’m [coming] for the champion’s belt and no one will stop me.”
Six years after his last Octagon appearance, Tamdan McCrory is once again a UFC fighter. The cult figure inked a deal to return to the eight-sided cage earlier this week, parlaying his dazzling second life with Bellator into another chance with the promotion he once called home. But while the decision to split with Bellator ended up working in McCrory’s favor, it wasn’t exactly expected.
“I could say a lot of things about Bellator,” McCrory told MMAFighting.com. “I can’t knock them too bad because they definitely gave me a platform that I didn’t have otherwise. I mean, they gave me a shot. But I think I was brought in to be the victim, and then when things went the way they did, I think they were like, ‘oh crap, what do we do with this guy now?’ I don’t know if I played into their narrative.”
According to McCrory, the move to the UFC is the result of a lengthy and ultimately unresolvable contract standoff with Bellator officials, one which began in February after McCrory cruised to a 66-second victory over Jason Butcher. The win was McCrory’s second in Bellator, and completed a stunning career turnaround that few saw coming in 2014 when the promotion snapped McCrory up from a five-year hiatus and signed him to a one-year, three-fight deal.
McCrory said that after the Butcher fight, Bellator officials approached him about fighting for the promotion’s vacant middleweight title, but since he only had one fight remaining on his contract, the first priority was nailing down a new deal. And there didn’t seem to be any urgency to do that.
“What aggravated me is that it took five months before we even got down to the nitty-gritty and actually were like, okay, let’s make a deal come together,” McCrory said. “There was always just talk. There was a talk here and a talk there.
“Then they came at us and said, we’ll give you the title shot, but we’re only going to pay you just horrible money. And I was like, dudes, I’m not going to take that money. You guys know that’s not even close.”
McCrory declined to elaborate on specifics, but described the offer as an “all-or-nothing deal,” with escalators on the back-end that would take effect if he won the middleweight title, but would also reduce his purse to a much smaller sum if he failed in that effort. Such clauses are not uncommon in mixed martial arts, but after trading a few unsuccessful counteroffers and growing frustrated by the process, McCrory ultimately asked for and was given his release.
“Even if they were to come at me with a deal, by that point I was like, dude, I’ve been dicked around for so long for whatever,” McCrory said. “Are these really the people who have my best interests (at heart), in building me and my brand? I had to ask myself, what is going on, man?
“It boggled my mind. I mean, to this day, I still think it was a dream. I was shocked. I’m literally like, did this really happen? Like, did I sleep through the past six weeks? What happened?”
The way the situation played out still surprises McCrory considering Bellator’s demand for name fighters. McCrory may not be the most popular middleweight, but his is a face many longtime MMA fans remember from his barn storming days in the UFC. McCrory was assumed to be retired after spending five years away from the sport, but in reality those five years were spent trying to get his life back to a place where it could support professional fighting.
Once he finally did so, he announced his return by utterly crushing Brennan Ward with a spectacular 21-second knockout just months after Ward challenged for the Bellator middleweight title, yet McCrory’s next fight ended up on the online-only prelims, while Ward secured a Spike TV slot on the very same card.
“My personal opinion is that they didn’t know how to use me,” McCrory said. “I thought they would say, ‘hey, this dude took five years off, he comes back and basically puts two guys in the dirt in less than 90 seconds. What mythical powers does this guy have? Like, what happened in those five years? Did he go train with some monks in Tibet or something?’ I don’t know, I figured they’d be able to sell that a little bit better, because I think that Bellator is more an entertainment business.
“They’re not really building talent,” McCrory continued. “I mean, I can list off every champion in the UFC. I can’t do the same thing about Bellator. I don’t know half of the fighters in Bellator. I don’t think they do a good enough job of building guys up, and I think that maybe they weren’t willing to do that and invest in me, or they didn’t like my story, or whatever. Because I guarantee the UFC is going to use it for them. It’s going to look great for them. When I come back in there and I start stomping in the UFC after what I did in Bellator, that’s a great narrative. Everybody wants to see somebody who got cast aside and comes back out of nowhere with the RKO and just takes the world by storm. I don’t really know what the deal is with Bellator.
“It doesn’t make any sense to me, man. Maybe I’m not a good enough entertainer. I don’t know. I’m a good fighter and I’d rather be remembered as a good fighter than a good entertainer. I’d rather be remembered as a guy who wins than the guy who jumps up and down and spews expletives and whatever. I don’t know. I just shake my head, but at the end of the day I have to be thankful for the opportunity they gave me.”
McCrory now enters a UFC far different than the one he left in 2009. Year-round random drug testing is the norm, while the Reebok uniform deal has effectively nuked the sponsorship landscape. McCrory said he isn’t bothered by either change, and he actually is encouraged by the Reebok switch. While some UFC fighters have complained of losing six-figure sponsorships, McCrory has long detested the game of finding, securing, and hunting down sponsorship checks from sometimes unreliable sources.
With six fights already on his UFC ledger, McCrory enters the Octagon earning an even $5,000 clip from Reebok, a sponsorship figure comparable to what he earned with Bellator. That, plus the opportunity for $50,000 post-fight bonuses — which he most surely would’ve won for at least one of his two most recent fights — is why McCrory said he had to “go where the opportunity was” and chase his second Octagon run.
“If I had those two performances in the UFC, I’d have six figures in my pocket, plus any other bonuses they throw at you,” McCrory said. “For as much as everybody wants to talk poorly about the UFC, they take care of people who need to be taken care of. You know who complains about the UFC paying them? Losers. That’s who. The winners don’t really complain.
“I always knew that when I left the UFC, it was on decent terms. I never wanted to released. Nobody does. I never wanted that to happen, but at this point it’s been nothing but a benefit. I didn’t get five years of wars or getting my head knocked in. I’m 28. This is usually when people are getting their first run going, if they get their first run going. So I have plenty of time left and my body is still there and ready to get going.”
No one can say for sure how McCrory’s unexpected second MMA life will play out, simply because there’s not many parallels for it. The man who now calls himself “The Barn Cat” is a far cry from the baby-faced, bespectacled welterweight who seemingly doubled as an IT advisor back in the mid-aughts. Whoever that kid was, he’s no longer around — replaced instead by a 6-foot-4 middleweight with a growing highlight reel and miles of life experience, someone who’s finally ready to give this whole fighting thing at least one proper shot.
“I wouldn’t be back in the UFC if I didn’t think I [belonged],” McCrory said. “I’ve been there once, had some mixed success. I’m a little bit older and a lot wiser now. This is a four-fight deal. By the end of these four fights, I’m going to string four wins together and then be looking to chip away at that top-15, top-10 and work my way up. There’s no thought about it, I know I have what it takes to be in the top-10 and eventually rise to the top. It’s just going to be the grind of getting there. And if you don’t know my story, I’ve been grinding the past five years to come back to this point. What’s a little bit more?”
Six years after his last Octagon appearance, Tamdan McCrory is once again a UFC fighter. The cult figure inked a deal to return to the eight-sided cage earlier this week, parlaying his dazzling second life with Bellator into another chance with the promotion he once called home. But while the decision to split with Bellator ended up working in McCrory’s favor, it wasn’t exactly expected.
“I could say a lot of things about Bellator,” McCrory told MMAFighting.com. “I can’t knock them too bad because they definitely gave me a platform that I didn’t have otherwise. I mean, they gave me a shot. But I think I was brought in to be the victim, and then when things went the way they did, I think they were like, ‘oh crap, what do we do with this guy now?’ I don’t know if I played into their narrative.”
According to McCrory, the move to the UFC is the result of a lengthy and ultimately unresolvable contract standoff with Bellator officials, one which began in February after McCrory cruised to a 66-second victory over Jason Butcher. The win was McCrory’s second in Bellator, and completed a stunning career turnaround that few saw coming in 2014 when the promotion snapped McCrory up from a five-year hiatus and signed him to a one-year, three-fight deal.
McCrory said that after the Butcher fight, Bellator officials approached him about fighting for the promotion’s vacant middleweight title, but since he only had one fight remaining on his contract, the first priority was nailing down a new deal. And there didn’t seem to be any urgency to do that.
“What aggravated me is that it took five months before we even got down to the nitty-gritty and actually were like, okay, let’s make a deal come together,” McCrory said. “There was always just talk. There was a talk here and a talk there.
“Then they came at us and said, we’ll give you the title shot, but we’re only going to pay you just horrible money. And I was like, dudes, I’m not going to take that money. You guys know that’s not even close.”
McCrory declined to elaborate on specifics, but described the offer as an “all-or-nothing deal,” with escalators on the back-end that would take effect if he won the middleweight title, but would also reduce his purse to a much smaller sum if he failed in that effort. Such clauses are not uncommon in mixed martial arts, but after trading a few unsuccessful counteroffers and growing frustrated by the process, McCrory ultimately asked for and was given his release.
“Even if they were to come at me with a deal, by that point I was like, dude, I’ve been dicked around for so long for whatever,” McCrory said. “Are these really the people who have my best interests (at heart), in building me and my brand? I had to ask myself, what is going on, man?
“It boggled my mind. I mean, to this day, I still think it was a dream. I was shocked. I’m literally like, did this really happen? Like, did I sleep through the past six weeks? What happened?”
The way the situation played out still surprises McCrory considering Bellator’s demand for name fighters. McCrory may not be the most popular middleweight, but his is a face many longtime MMA fans remember from his barn storming days in the UFC. McCrory was assumed to be retired after spending five years away from the sport, but in reality those five years were spent trying to get his life back to a place where it could support professional fighting.
Once he finally did so, he announced his return by utterly crushing Brennan Ward with a spectacular 21-second knockout just months after Ward challenged for the Bellator middleweight title, yet McCrory’s next fight ended up on the online-only prelims, while Ward secured a Spike TV slot on the very same card.
“My personal opinion is that they didn’t know how to use me,” McCrory said. “I thought they would say, ‘hey, this dude took five years off, he comes back and basically puts two guys in the dirt in less than 90 seconds. What mythical powers does this guy have? Like, what happened in those five years? Did he go train with some monks in Tibet or something?’ I don’t know, I figured they’d be able to sell that a little bit better, because I think that Bellator is more an entertainment business.
“They’re not really building talent,” McCrory continued. “I mean, I can list off every champion in the UFC. I can’t do the same thing about Bellator. I don’t know half of the fighters in Bellator. I don’t think they do a good enough job of building guys up, and I think that maybe they weren’t willing to do that and invest in me, or they didn’t like my story, or whatever. Because I guarantee the UFC is going to use it for them. It’s going to look great for them. When I come back in there and I start stomping in the UFC after what I did in Bellator, that’s a great narrative. Everybody wants to see somebody who got cast aside and comes back out of nowhere with the RKO and just takes the world by storm. I don’t really know what the deal is with Bellator.
“It doesn’t make any sense to me, man. Maybe I’m not a good enough entertainer. I don’t know. I’m a good fighter and I’d rather be remembered as a good fighter than a good entertainer. I’d rather be remembered as a guy who wins than the guy who jumps up and down and spews expletives and whatever. I don’t know. I just shake my head, but at the end of the day I have to be thankful for the opportunity they gave me.”
McCrory now enters a UFC far different than the one he left in 2009. Year-round random drug testing is the norm, while the Reebok uniform deal has effectively nuked the sponsorship landscape. McCrory said he isn’t bothered by either change, and he actually is encouraged by the Reebok switch. While some UFC fighters have complained of losing six-figure sponsorships, McCrory has long detested the game of finding, securing, and hunting down sponsorship checks from sometimes unreliable sources.
With six fights already on his UFC ledger, McCrory enters the Octagon earning an even $5,000 clip from Reebok, a sponsorship figure comparable to what he earned with Bellator. That, plus the opportunity for $50,000 post-fight bonuses — which he most surely would’ve won for at least one of his two most recent fights — is why McCrory said he had to “go where the opportunity was” and chase his second Octagon run.
“If I had those two performances in the UFC, I’d have six figures in my pocket, plus any other bonuses they throw at you,” McCrory said. “For as much as everybody wants to talk poorly about the UFC, they take care of people who need to be taken care of. You know who complains about the UFC paying them? Losers. That’s who. The winners don’t really complain.
“I always knew that when I left the UFC, it was on decent terms. I never wanted to released. Nobody does. I never wanted that to happen, but at this point it’s been nothing but a benefit. I didn’t get five years of wars or getting my head knocked in. I’m 28. This is usually when people are getting their first run going, if they get their first run going. So I have plenty of time left and my body is still there and ready to get going.”
No one can say for sure how McCrory’s unexpected second MMA life will play out, simply because there’s not many parallels for it. The man who now calls himself “The Barn Cat” is a far cry from the baby-faced, bespectacled welterweight who seemingly doubled as an IT advisor back in the mid-aughts. Whoever that kid was, he’s no longer around — replaced instead by a 6-foot-4 middleweight with a growing highlight reel and miles of life experience, someone who’s finally ready to give this whole fighting thing at least one proper shot.
“I wouldn’t be back in the UFC if I didn’t think I [belonged],” McCrory said. “I’ve been there once, had some mixed success. I’m a little bit older and a lot wiser now. This is a four-fight deal. By the end of these four fights, I’m going to string four wins together and then be looking to chip away at that top-15, top-10 and work my way up. There’s no thought about it, I know I have what it takes to be in the top-10 and eventually rise to the top. It’s just going to be the grind of getting there. And if you don’t know my story, I’ve been grinding the past five years to come back to this point. What’s a little bit more?”
“The Barn Cat” is back. Six years after his final Octagon appearance, Tamdan McCrory announced Tuesday that he has left Bellator and re-signed with the UFC.
McCrory told UFC.com that he turned down a Bellator middleweight title shot in …
“The Barn Cat” is back. Six years after his final Octagon appearance, Tamdan McCrory announced Tuesday that he has left Bellator and re-signed with the UFC.
McCrory told UFC.com that he turned down a Bellator middleweight title shot in order to re-sign with the promotion that gave him his big break in 2007.
“I left a title shot in [my last promotion] to come to the UFC,” McCrory said. “If I wanted to win that belt I could have stayed and done it, but I wanted to be back in the sport of MMA, not the MMA entertainment business.”
Still just 28 years old, McCrory (13-3) built his name in the early TUF era of the sport. He debuted with Zuffa as an undefeated welterweight and quickly made a splash with a triangle choke over Pete Spratt. He collected two more victories against Luke Cummo and Ryan Madigan before dropping a split decision to John Howard in 2009 at UFC 101.
That loss ultimately ended McCrory’s first run in the sport. The UFC released “The Barn Cat” with a 3-3 UFC record, and McCrory wound up spending five years on the shelf battling a litany of injuries and personal issues.
But on Sept. 2014, McCrory’s career unexpectedly roared back to life.
The MMA veteran returned at Bellator 123 and knocked out previous Bellator middleweight title challenger Brennan Ward with a memorable salvo of punches in just 21 seconds. That momentum carried over into his next contest, which saw McCrory submit Jason Butcher in just 66 seconds with a textbook armbar.
Now McCrory is ready to test himself against the best middleweights in the world. He told UFC.com that he hopes to fight in either October or November, and he plans to remind fight fans exactly what happens when “The Barn Cat” is free to play.
“I wouldn’t have come back if I didn’t believe wholeheartedly that I could come back and just wreck house,” McCrory said.
Chris Weidman always knew he’d end up fighting Luke Rockhold, he just didn’t expect to wait so long. The UFC’s reigning middleweight champion is slated to put his belt on the line Dec. 12 against Rockhold in the co-main event of UFC 194. It’…
Chris Weidman always knew he’d end up fighting Luke Rockhold, he just didn’t expect to wait so long. The UFC’s reigning middleweight champion is slated to put his belt on the line Dec. 12 against Rockhold in the co-main event of UFC 194. It’s a match-up even Weidman admits has been a long time coming, and now that it’s finally official, all bets are off.
“I’m excited to go out there and just really run through Luke,” Weidman said Monday on The MMA Hour. “I just really cannot imagine myself losing to him. I know he’ll talk the same way, but I think he’s just kind of faking it. I don’t think he really believes he can beat me, but he knows what to say.
“These guys know in the weight (class), I think they’re starting to get it. And he’s one of the guys who knows. I think he’s a little insecure about himself, and I feel like that’s why he has to pump his chest up all the time and go a little overboard. I think he’s just insecure and I think he knows what’s coming. I think he’d much rather be fighting anyone else besides me.”
The match-up presents one of the most fascinating stylistic title clashes in recent memory. With his rangy striking and slick submission work, Rockhold has looked nigh unstoppable on his climb back to contention. His recent mauling of Lyoto Machida served as the exclamation mark to a four-fight win streak that saw the former Strikeforce champion finish a quartet of ranked opponents, all inside the first or second rounds.
Likewise, Weidman’s reign of dominance over the UFC middleweight division has been as electric as it has been decisive since the New Yorker dethroned Anderson Silva with a pair of stunning victories in 2013. Weidman dispatched another pair of Brazilian legends in Machida and Vitor Belfort in his latest title defenses — the latter of which took less than three minutes — and like Rockhold, he appears to be hitting his prime as he rides into one of the most anticipated events of the year.
“We came up, we were both prospects together around the same time. I was usually No. 1, he was always kind of No. 2 or No. 3 coming up. And I know he’s had his eye on me,” Weidman said of Rockhold.
“This is not a fight that I can allow to go the distance with the judges. I have such a great opportunity here to run through him and truly make, I think, more of a final statement in this division. He’s beaten a good part of the division. I’ve beaten a good part of the division. I think after this fight, the question marks are gone. And I think it’s going to be a huge part of my career, a huge part of my legacy, this fight. I know that, and I just have to run through him. Absolutely run through him.”
Weidman and Rockhold have always maintained a friendly rivalry of sorts, with the pair trading good-natured trash talk on FOX Sports 1 after Rockhold’s latest victory over Machida. Those barbs continued as Rockhold waited to find out whether he or Ronaldo Souza would get the next title shot — Rockhold’s teammate Daniel Cormier even got into the mix and ghostwrote a few tweets.
But while the cheekier side of the game has rarely been Weidman’s modus operandi, the champion has never been shy to speak his mind, either. He called out Belfort repeatedly for the Brazilian’s history of PED abuse before UFC 187, and after demolishing Belfort in less than a round, Weidman called out his detractors in a memorable “join the team” post-fight speech.
That confidence now carries over into Dec. 12. It’s not lost on Weidman that for a second straight fight, he’s been relegated to the co-main event. Just like UFC 187 was headlined by Cormier vs. Anthony Johnson, a long-awaited featherweight grudge match between Jose Aldo and Conor McGregor is scheduled to headline UFC 194. This time though, Weidman more than happy to share the stage.
Aldo-McGregor is projected by many experts to be the biggest fight of the year, if not the biggest fight in UFC history. Weidman gets pay-per-view points on his UFC contract, so he admits he’ll be making “good money” once the final numbers come in.
And just like UFC 189, when McGregor shouldered the lion share of the event’s promotion while Robbie Lawler and Rory MacDonald relished their roles in the background, Weidman will be able to focus his attention solely on defeating the man many believe to be his toughest stylistic test.
“The good thing is that [Rockhold] has no idea what I’m bringing to the table for this fight,” Weidman said. “I could just stand and try to knock him out. I could take him down and submit him. He has no idea what I’m going to bring, and that excites me. And I really could go either direction. I feel like if I wanted to, I could stand and knock him out. And I feel like if I wanted to, I could take him down and submit him. So I just feel like I have such a great opportunity no matter where this fight goes.
“It’s just a really exciting fight, and he’s a talented kid, so it’s going to look good. I’m going to look good doing it. Sometimes you fight sloppy guys and it doesn’t look as good. But this kid, he’s athletic, he’s good looking, he’s got a great body, and it’s going to be fun beating him up.”
Josh Thomson isn’t wasting any time. Bellator’s latest free-agent signing is expected to make his promotional debut on Sept. 19 against former Fightmaster runner-up Mike Bronzoulis, Bellator officials announced Monday. That fight will round …
Josh Thomson isn’t wasting any time. Bellator’s latest free-agent signing is expected to make his promotional debut on Sept. 19 against former Fightmaster runner-up Mike Bronzoulis, Bellator officials announced Monday. That fight will round out the main card of Bellator: Dynamite.
Thomson (20-8, 1 NC) inked a deal earlier this month with Bellator after losing a trio of fights to finish out his contract with the UFC, joining the likes of Phil Davis and Josh Koscheck as recent fighters to jump ship upon reaching free agency.
The 36-year-old Thomson ended his second Octagon run with an overall record of 1-3. A former Strikeforce lightweight champion, Thomson knocked out Nate Diaz with a devastating high kick in his first back in the UFC. That win earned Thomson a title shot against then-champion Anthony Pettis, but injuries led to a replacement fight against Benson Henderson, which Thomson lost via narrow split decision.
Thomson dropped another split decision to Bobby Green before losing a lopsided but gritty decision to Tony Ferguson last month. A veteran of the sport for over 14 years, Thomson holds notable wins over Gilbert Melendez, Pat Healy, and Gesias Cavalcante, among others.
Now he’ll meet the streaking Bronzoulis (18-8-1), a 36-year-old striker who took second place on Bellator’s only season of Fightmaster. Of late, Bronzoulis has turned his career around with a three-fight win streak which culminated in a victory over Dave Burrow for the vacant Legacy FC lightweight title.
Bellator: Dynamite takes place at the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif. The event is co-promoted by Bellator and GLORY kickboxing, and will feature both a ring and cage in the arena. The main card will air live on Spike TV.
An updated Bellator: Dynamite fight card can be seen below.
Liam McGeary vs. Tito Ortiz – for the Bellator light heavyweight title
Saulo Cavalari vs. Zack Mwekassa – for the GLORY light heavyweight title
Gabriel Varga vs. Serhiy Adamchuck – for the GLORY featherweight title
Phil Davis, Emanuel Newton, Linton Vassell, Muhammed Lawal – one-night Bellator light heavyweight tournament
Paul Daley vs. Fernando Gonzalez – GLORY welterweight fight
Josh Thomson vs. Mike Bronzoulis – Bellator lightweight fight
Jon Jones may be persona non grata in UFC circles right now, but Chris Weidman hasn’t forgotten about the former pound-for-pound king.
“I know for a fact, I’m not leaving this sport without fighting Jon,” Weidman said Monday on The MMA Hour….
Jon Jones may be persona non grata in UFC circles right now, but Chris Weidman hasn’t forgotten about the former pound-for-pound king.
“I know for a fact, I’m not leaving this sport without fighting Jon,” Weidman said Monday on The MMA Hour. “Unless he’s not coming back at all. But if he’s there, and I’m here, people are going to want to see it happen. And I want to see it happen.”
Weidman (13-0) is expected to defend his UFC middleweight title on Dec. 12 against Luke Rockhold at UFC 194. Another win would mark the fourth defense of Weidman’s strap since the undefeated American dethroned the legendary Anderson Silva with a second-round knockout in 2013.
A superfight against Jones is one that Weidman has desired for several years now, dating back to the days before he was the UFC’s middleweight champion. Weidman memorably offered to move up a weight class and step in on two week’s notice against Jones once Dan Henderson dropped out of UFC 151 in 2012.
The fight never materialized and Jones ended up defending his light heavyweight belt against Vitor Belfort, but Weidman still has eyes on the challenge.
“That’s nothing against Jon,” Weidman said. “It’s just because I’m a competitor. I want to fight the best possible people. I want to have the biggest challenges in front of me and conquer them.
“That’s why I wanted to fight Anderson Silva when nobody else wanted to fight him. I want the biggest challenges. I want to beat people who people think I can’t beat. And Jon is definitely going to be one of those guys.”
Jones (21-1) is currently out on indefinite suspension while awaiting resolution for the felony hit-and-run that led to him being stripped of his long-held light heavyweight title.
The 28-year-old was arrested on April 27 after allegedly running a red light in a rented SUV and striking a car driven by a pregnant woman in Albuquerque. Jones allegedly fled the scene on foot, before returning to retrieve cash from his vehicle then fleeing once more.
The incident brought an end to what was shaping into one of the greatest title runs in UFC history. Jones defended his belt eight times over the course of four years, culminating in a decisive victory over current champion Daniel Cormier at UFC 182. That win cemented Jones as the No. 1 ranked pound-for-pound fighter in the sport.
A timetable for Jones’ return is still unclear, and the middleweight division is its own beast with Rockhold on tap and contenders like Ronaldo Souza and Yoel Romero waiting in the wings. But Weidman still sees a day when he and Jones meet in a battle for New York supremacy.
“He’s an amazing athlete and he’s accomplished so much,” Weidman said. “So I hope he gets his stuff together and he comes back.”
