After months of waiting, years in terms of the legal process, UFC New York is FINALLY here… Facing off in the main event of the evening are lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez and featherweight boss Conor McGregor. The Irishman is seeking two-weight title glory in his potentially record-breaking bid, but ‘The Silent Assassin’ is locked and
After months of waiting, years in terms of the legal process, UFC New York is FINALLY here…
Facing off in the main event of the evening are lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez and featherweight boss Conor McGregor. The Irishman is seeking two-weight title glory in his potentially record-breaking bid, but ‘The Silent Assassin’ is locked and loaded. Much has been said about the contrasting styles of each champion, and the conversation of striking seems to be the one that crops up most.
Sitting down on his punches, the former Bellator and current UFC lightweight boss Alvarez is a power puncher in the traditional sense. Taking out Rafael dos Anjos with a powerful flurry this past July, the Philadelphia representative warned his opponents about ‘bringing out the dog.’ Choosing a much more calculated and fluid type of striking, McGregor likes to utilise kicks and pinpoint accurate straight punches to the chin and temple. Obviously wrestling is a big strength if Alvarez chooses to take it there.
Alvarez’s Wrestling Comments/Dana White’s Warning…
Way back in February of this year, Eddie Alvarez told ‘The MMA Hour’ exactly how to defeat McGregor. Check out the comments he made before ‘The Notorious’ was meant to fight dos Anjos:
“There’s a simple way to win against this guy and nobody seems to be doing it. It’s really frustrating to watch. For me, it’s a very simple fight for RDA to win, but he needs to implement a ground attack. If he don’t, I honestly feel like he can get knocked out, just like the other guys Conor was able to knock out. But he can’t allow it to be mostly of a striking,”
Make no bones about it, Eddie Alvarez sees that Conor McGregor’s striking is very dangerous. He also went on to point out that to implement a wrestling gameplan, a fighter must be conditioned to this as the main focus in their camp. According to UFC president Dana White, as quoted by MMAMania, Alvarez should ‘fear the hands’ of McGregor:
Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
Don’t Bang, Bro
“I think Eddie Alvarez is going to come out and fight the way he did in the Anthony Pettis fight,” said White during an appearance on Jim Rome’s SiriusXM show earlier this week. “I think he’s gonna try to get Conor up against the fence and take him down, or just push him against the fence and try to work on the fence. I don’t think he’s gonna come out in the middle of the Octagon and trade with Conor and start throwing punches.”
“You better fear his hands,” added White regarding McGregor’s punching power. “He touches guys. He dropped Nate Diaz at a higher weight class. All the other guys he’s knocked out. He knocked out Jose Aldo in 13 seconds. If he touches you, you’re in trouble, you get hurt.”
History will be attempted tonight (Saturday November 12, 2016) when UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor takes on lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez in an effort to become the first dual-weight champion in UFC history, when the two champs meet in the main event of UFC 205. In our co-main event welterweight champion Tyron Woodley makes his
History will be attempted tonight (Saturday November 12, 2016) when UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor takes on lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez in an effort to become the first dual-weight champion in UFC history, when the two champs meet in the main event of UFC 205.
In our co-main event welterweight champion Tyron Woodley makes his first career title defense against the surging No. 1-ranked Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson. And in our third title bout of the eventing women’s strawweight champion Joanna J?drzejczyk will attempt to defend her title once again against fellow countrywoman Karolina Kowalkiewicz.
It all goes down inside the legendary Madison Square Garden arena in New York City, and everything you need to know about the event can be found here:
Event: UFC 205: “Alvarez vs. McGregor” Date: Sat., Nov. 12, 2016 Location: Madison Square Garden in New York, New York Broadcast: Pay-Per-View (PPV)
MAIN CARD (PPV) 10 P.M. ET:
(C) Eddie Alvarez vs. (C-FTW) Conor McGregor
(C) Tyron Woodley vs. Stephen Thompson
(C) Champ Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs. Karolina Kowalkiewicz
Middleweight bout: Yoel Romero vs. Chris Weidman
Women’s bantamweight bout: Raquel Pennington vs. Miesha Tate
PRELIMINARY CARD (FS1) 8 P.M. ET
Featherweight bout: Frankie Edgar vs. Jeremy Stephens
Lightweight bout: Michael Johnson vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov
Middleweight bout: Tim Boetsch vs. Rafael Natal
Welterweight bout: Vicente Luque vs. Belal Muhammad
PRELIMINARY CARD (UFC Fight Pass) 7 P.M. ET
Catchweight bout (163 pounds): Thiago Alves vs. Jim Miller
Women’s bantamweight bout: Liz Carmouche vs. Katlyn Chookagian
The UFC went all out on making the organization’s New York debut a memorable one.
Now fans get to reap the benefits.
The word “stacked” gets thrown around a lot to describe a UFC card, but this one truly lives up to the adjective.
Not…
The UFC went all out on making the organization’s New York debut a memorable one.
Now fans get to reap the benefits.
The word “stacked” gets thrown around a lot to describe a UFC card, but this one truly lives up to the adjective.
Not one or two, but three belts will be on the line in a six-fight main card that should challenge UFC 200 as the most well-put-together card of all time.
Here’s a look at the complete lineup with predictions for all three of the title fights:
Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs. Karolina Kowalkiewicz
Aside from being the most difficult to pronounce championship fight in UFC history, this should also be an exciting way to kick off the string of title shots.
Carla Esparza was the original champion of the women’s strawweight division, but Joanna Jedrzejczyk spent very little time in taking it from her and has been the dominant champion ever since. She’s already strung together three title defenses, with her last one coming over rival Claudia Gadelha.
With Gadelha now out of the way, Jedrzejczyk can go back to cleaning out the division, and Kowalkiewicz happens to be the next in line.
The champion doesn’t just have eyes set on winning this one, though. She envisions ending her career with an unblemished record as one of the greatest of all time, per Shaun Al-Shatti of MMA Fighting:
I want to be a legend. I want people to talk about me in five, 10 years, 20 years, that I was one of the best female MMA fighters, that I was one of the best UFC champions in the world back in the day. This is what I want. I just want to retire as an undefeated champion. This is my goal. This is my dream, and I want to make this dream become (real) life.
Kowalkiewicz might be just another bump in the road for the champion, but she could be the kryptonite that she hasn’t found yet.
The Polish contender has an undefeateed record of her own heading into this fight. The muaythai specialist might be the only fighter the champion has fought that can claim to even be close to being as polished on the feet.
Both like to set a blistering pace in the stand-up game. Jedrzejczyk averages 6.36 significant strikes per minute while Kowalkiewicz isn’t far off at 5.98, according to FightMetric.
The difference is likely to be the Joanna Champion’s defense. Not only does she rock opponents with her volume, she does so in a way that she is still hard to hit. She only absorbs 2.32 significant strikes per minute.
Kowalkiewicz is much more likely to open herself up to counters with her attack as she averages 3.87 absorbed strikes.
Expect that gap in defense to be the difference as the fight wears on.
Prediction: Jedrzejczyk by 4th-round TKO
TyronWoodley vs. Stephen Thompson
It isn’t very often that a challenger who has never held a UFC title before comes into a bout as the favorite over the reigning champion.
Such is the case for Stephen Thompson when he goes to challenge for TyronWoodley‘s belt in the co-main event.
According to Odds Shark, Thompson comes in as a 49-100 favorite, while the comeback on Woodley sits at 33-20.
That’s because it’s easy to write a narrative that dismisses Woodley as the champion of 170. While he’s always been an explosive fighter, his first-round knockout victory over Robbie Lawler can easily be looked at as the culmination of all the wars that Lawler has been involved in over the years. We knew his chin couldn’t last forever, and it finally buckled.
That’s not fair to Woodley, but his resume leading up to his title shot was marked by a split decision win over Kelvin Gastelum and almost a year-and-a-half layoff.
Meanwhile, Thompson has proved that he’s the most dangerous contender at welterweight in that time span. He added three wins to his seven-fight streak against top competition with knockout victories over Jake Ellenberger and Johny Hendricks and a decision win over Rory MacDonald.
Thompson’s karate-based striking game is going to be hard for Woodley to figure out. T-Wood likes to close the distance quickly so that he can throw bombs, but Wonderboy is generally light on his feet and ready to cut off angles quickly.
Still, this fight comes down to Wonderboy’s ability to avoid the bomb from Woodley and pick him apart at distance.
According to Reed Kuhn of Fightnomics, Woodley has the best knockdown rate on the card:
That might not matter, though. Thompson has shown his ability to stifle powerful strikers in Hendricks and MacDonald recently. Look for him to patiently pick Woodley apart and come away with a late stoppage.
ConorMcGregor is the most intriguing fighter in the UFC, and he’s looking to do something that would cement his legacy as one of the best fighters in the history of the organization. Holding two belts would be an accomplishment that puts him in rarefied territory.
Doing that won’t be easy, though. Alvarez has been criminally underrated in his time with the UFC. A loss to Donald Cerrone in his promotional debut took the steam out of the Alvarez hype train, but he’s since recovered to go on a three-fight win streak that included shocking the world with a first-round finish of former champion Rafael dos Anjos.
McGregor is a much different challenge than Dos Anjos, though.
While Dos Anjos is a forward-moving bulldozer who was always going to be open to the counters that Alvarez destroyed him with, McGregor is a much more intelligent fighter. This matchup will be a game of violent chess, and given the emotion that’s gone into the pre-fight festivities, it’ll be one with bad intentions.
That’s a matchup that favors McGregor. We’ve seen this song and dance from him before, and with the exception of his first fight against Nate Diaz where he gassed himself going for an early knockout, he’s shown that he can keep his cool despite showing emotion before the fight.
As long as McGregor can remain off the fence, his striking should carry the day in this matchup.
Fighting at 155 is uncharted territory for the Irishman, but it might actually be his best weight class. The cut to 145 usually leaves him gaunt and downright scary looking at the weigh-ins. However, the cut to 155 doesn’t look as taxing, and he’ll still be the bigger man on fight night with a five-inch reach advantage.
Well, when Conor McGregor had his brief confrontation with Tyron Woodley at the official UFC 205 morning weigh-ins on Friday, apparently he was only getting warmed up.
Featured above and below are videos posted by the official UFC Espanol Twitter page, which shows two new face-to-face confrontations that “The Notorious” one had with UFC Lightweight contender Khabib Nurmagomedov and UFC Welterweight Champion Tyron Woodley backstage at the official UFC 205 “Ceremonial Weigh-Ins” from Friday evening.
Well, when Conor McGregor had his brief confrontation with Tyron Woodley at the official UFC 205 morning weigh-ins on Friday, apparently he was only getting warmed up.
Featured above and below are videos posted by the official UFC Espanol Twitter page, which shows two new face-to-face confrontations that “The Notorious” one had with UFC Lightweight contender Khabib Nurmagomedov and UFC Welterweight Champion Tyron Woodley backstage at the official UFC 205 “Ceremonial Weigh-Ins” from Friday evening.
UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor has quite the task ahead of him tomorrow night when he takes on Eddie Alvarez for the lightweight title, but his list of adversaries continues to be growing by the minute. Earlier today McGregor and UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley got into a Twitter beef that has caught the attention
UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor has quite the task ahead of him tomorrow night when he takes on Eddie Alvarez for the lightweight title, but his list of adversaries continues to be growing by the minute.
Earlier today McGregor and UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley got into a Twitter beef that has caught the attention of many mixed martial arts (MMA) fans worldwide, sparking rumors that ‘The Notorious One’ may be after 170-pound gold next.
Woodley, who will be defending his welterweight title against Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson in the co-main event of UFC 205 tomorrow night, didn’t hear the last of it there, however, as video footage has surfaced of McGregor going off on him backstage at the UFC 205 weigh-ins earlier today:
McGregor continued his verbal assault by then engaging in a heated conversation with No. 2-ranked lightweight Khabib Nurmagomedov, who will also be competing tomorrow night against No. 6-ranked Michael Johnson on the stacked Madison Square Garden card.
In the video below you can see McGregor and Nurmagomedov being separated by security as they jaw off at one another, moments before they are due to hit the scale in front of the packed MSG crowd:
Regardless of whether or not these two men could be next in line for ‘The Notorious One’ we will have to take it one fight at a time, as McGregor currently has his sights set on making history in attempt to become the first dual-weight champ in UFC history.
It all goes down live on pay-per-view (PPV) from the Madison Square Garden arena in New York City tomorrow night (Saturday November 12, 2016).
Everyone wants a piece of Conor McGregor these days. Everyone. So it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that not one, but three different fighters had words with him at different stages of the weigh-ins to UFC 205.
The one everyone expecte…
Everyone wants a piece of Conor McGregor these days. Everyone. So it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that not one, but three different fighters had words with him at different stages of the weigh-ins to UFC 205.
The one everyone expected was his UFC 205 opponent, lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez. The two had the standard weigh-in staredown and promo opportunities, and unsurprisingly, they also had some pointed words for each other (warning: NSFW language in all videos and links below):
What wasn’t seen on stage, however, was how McGregor was involved in dust-ups with two other fighters on the card. Before the festivities started, McGregor had words with UFC 205 preliminary card fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov. The two have exchanged barbs on multiple occasions in the past, and with Nurmagomedov still frustrated over not getting a title shot Saturday, he vented a bit at Conor:
That’s not all, though!
After the weigh-ins, McGregor had words with welterweight champion and UFC 205 co-main eventer Tyron Woodley:
Woodley has been subtly picking at McGregor all fight week, jeering him over his on-stage scuffle with Alvarez at the pre-fight press conference and exchanging fake pleasantries with him at the official weigh-ins Friday morning. That was followed by an ugly exchange on Twitter, and seemingly, it came to a head at the weigh-ins.
Of course, McGregor has to deal with Alvarez at 205 before he starts worrying about either Nurmagomedov or Woodley.
That said…don’t be all that surprised if these fighters get paired off in an official way in 2017.
The UFC went all out on making the organization’s New York debut a memorable one. 