UFC 202 went down this past Saturday August 20 and the thrilling main event is still fresh in our minds. Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz met in a rematch of their UFC 196 tilt and the result was an instant classic. For five rounds they went toe-to-toe in a clean striking battle, leaving everything they
UFC 202 went down this past Saturday August 20 and the thrilling main event is still fresh in our minds. Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz met in a rematch of their UFC 196 tilt and the result was an instant classic. For five rounds they went toe-to-toe in a clean striking battle, leaving everything they had in the octagon. The judges eventually scored a majority decision for the Irishman, evening the score between the two fierce rivals.
As with their first fight, the fun did not end in the octagon. Just moments after their highly entertaining brawl Diaz was lighting up a vape pen during the post-fight media scrum. When asked what was in the device, Diaz responded by saying it was ‘CBD oil.’ The substance is a Cannabis derived oil and known to help the healing process for a number of medical conditions.
Trouble?
It turns out the UFC’s partner in drug testing of athletes, USADA, is looking in to this potential infraction. As reported first by MMAFighting.com, USADA is currently investigating this possible violation:
“I can confirm that USADA is aware of the situation and is currently gathering information in order to determine the next appropriate steps,”
Nick’s Fight
Nick Diaz has just come off an 18-month suspension from the Nevada Athletic Commission following a highly controversial hearing in 2015. The NAC first banned the older Diaz brother for five years, and they weren’t ever able to present solid evidence to prove he was actually over the limit of 150ng/ml of Marijuana metabolites.
If Nate Diaz is found to be in violation of USADA’s strict policies, he could well face a year on the sideline for his use of CBD oil. Although he’s already stated he won’t fight again until a McGregor trilogy is made, this is not great news. That said, the doping agency can use their own discretion in terms of the punishments severity. If chosen they could actually give him a written warning.
CBD Oil
For those wondering, CBD oil does not induce phsycho-activity and is proven to contain far less side effects than THC. The substance has a proven record in treating numerous medical illnesses. USADA would still consider Marijuana a performance enhancing drug though.
Stay tuned to LowKickMMA for more updates on this story.
Plans for Conor McGregor to defend his featherweight title in November might be on hold, as the Nevada Athletic Commission has handed “Notorious” a six-month medical suspension.
Following his win over Nate Diaz at UFC 202, McGregor was seen on crutc…
Plans for Conor McGregor to defend his featherweight title in November might be on hold, as the Nevada Athletic Commission has handed “Notorious” a six-month medical suspension.
Following his win over Nate Diaz at UFC 202, McGregor was seen on crutches. After an initial report stated a broken foot, the Irish fighter disclosed that he suffered a shin injury.
The NAC informed McGregor that he will need to be cleared by a doctor for the injury or sit out until the middle of December. He also has a minimum suspension into October, making the UFC 205 card likely a no-go.
Conor McGregor: Needs left foot/ankle cleared by orthopedic doctor or no contest until Dec. 17; minimum suspension until Oct. 20 with no contact in training until Oct. 5.
Nate Diaz: Suspended until Sept. 20 with no contact in training until Sept. 11.Glover Teixeira: Suspended until Nov. 19 with no contact in training until Oct. 20.
Rick Story: Suspended until Oct. 5 with no contact in training until Sept. 20.
Hyun Gyu Lim: Suspended until Oct. 5 with no contact in training until Sept. 20.
Sabah Homasi: Suspended until Oct. 20 with no contact in training until Oct. 5.
Takeya Mizugaki: Suspended until Oct. 5 with no contact in training until Sept. 20.
Artem Lobov: Must have right leg and ankle X-rayed; if positive then must have orthopedic doctor clearance or no contest until Feb. 17.
Chris Avila: Suspended until Sept. 20 with no contact in training until Sept. 11.
Lorenz Larkin: Suspended until Oct. 5 with no contact in training until Sept. 20 due to left eyebrow and shin lacerations
Neil Magny: Must have left leg X-rayed; if positive then must have orthopedic doctor clearance or no contest until Feb. 17. Minimum suspension until Sept. 20 with no contact until Sept. 11.
Max Griffin: Suspended until Oct. 20 with no contact in training until Oct. 5.
Marvin Vettori: Suspended until Oct. 5 with no contact in training until Sept. 20 due to left eyebrow laceration
Plans for Conor McGregor to defend his featherweight title in November might be on hold, as the Nevada Athletic Commission has handed “Notorious” a six-month medical suspension.
Following his win over Nate Diaz at UFC 202, McGregor was seen on crutc…
Plans for Conor McGregor to defend his featherweight title in November might be on hold, as the Nevada Athletic Commission has handed “Notorious” a six-month medical suspension.
Following his win over Nate Diaz at UFC 202, McGregor was seen on crutches. After an initial report stated a broken foot, the Irish fighter disclosed that he suffered a shin injury.
The NAC informed McGregor that he will need to be cleared by a doctor for the injury or sit out until the middle of December. He also has a minimum suspension into October, making the UFC 205 card likely a no-go.
Conor McGregor: Needs left foot/ankle cleared by orthopedic doctor or no contest until Dec. 17; minimum suspension until Oct. 20 with no contact in training until Oct. 5.
Nate Diaz: Suspended until Sept. 20 with no contact in training until Sept. 11.Glover Teixeira: Suspended until Nov. 19 with no contact in training until Oct. 20.
Rick Story: Suspended until Oct. 5 with no contact in training until Sept. 20.
Hyun Gyu Lim: Suspended until Oct. 5 with no contact in training until Sept. 20.
Sabah Homasi: Suspended until Oct. 20 with no contact in training until Oct. 5.
Takeya Mizugaki: Suspended until Oct. 5 with no contact in training until Sept. 20.
Artem Lobov: Must have right leg and ankle X-rayed; if positive then must have orthopedic doctor clearance or no contest until Feb. 17.
Chris Avila: Suspended until Sept. 20 with no contact in training until Sept. 11.
Lorenz Larkin: Suspended until Oct. 5 with no contact in training until Sept. 20 due to left eyebrow and shin lacerations
Neil Magny: Must have left leg X-rayed; if positive then must have orthopedic doctor clearance or no contest until Feb. 17. Minimum suspension until Sept. 20 with no contact until Sept. 11.
Max Griffin: Suspended until Oct. 20 with no contact in training until Oct. 5.
Marvin Vettori: Suspended until Oct. 5 with no contact in training until Sept. 20 due to left eyebrow laceration
The next time you see Conor McGregor enter the famed Octagon, you’ll know who’s the boss before he ever throws a punch.
It will mark the end of a yearlong odyssey where he almost fought to become a two-weight world champion, then didn&rsquo…
The next time you see Conor McGregor enter the famed Octagon, you’ll know who’s the boss before he ever throws a punch.
It will mark the end of a yearlong odyssey where he almost fought to become a two-weight world champion, then didn’t and then became some sort of weird moonlighting welterweight until he finally felt his work was done. The next man up for McGregor, fistically famous after duelling Nate Diaz twice and finally, narrowly getting the better of him at UFC 202, will define Ireland’s greatest export as a company man or the game’s latest rebel.
There isn’t any secret in saying McGregor has been on rocky terms with the UFC throughout 2016. He’s been a little more vocal than it likes their athletes to be, using his considerable clout to get things he wants and refusing to recede in silence when the promotion has tried to undermine him. Never has there been a time when the biggest star in the game was so vehemently interested in getting his piece of the action, and it’s caused more than a little friction.
Still, McGregor seems to have been winning most of the battles: He got his (totally pointless) Diaz rematch after making a fortune to fight him the first time, he got to keep his featherweight title while others fought over a (totally pointless) interim belt and now he’s just set the (not at all pointless) record for guaranteed money made in a UFC fight.
The only time he scored a loss outside the cage this year was when he was pulled from UFC 200 for missing a (totally pointless) press conference, and even that might have been considered a win if you believe the event bombed without him.
Add up the points and pointlessness and you’d have to score McGregor’s struggle with the UFC in his favor to this point.
However the main event of this ongoing saga is just around the corner. McGregor has, at least temporarily, completed the Diaz portion of his career and is about to move back into more sensible, more familiar territory somewhere in the realm of featherweight or lightweight. He’s the featherweight champion, Jose Aldo’s silly paper title notwithstanding, and he’s also never shied away from his interest in returning to 155 pounds to chase a title there as well.
That means he’s heading to a date with Aldo to unify the belts, which seems to be the UFC’s preference, or he’s hunting Eddie Alvarez in an effort to jump the queue and do what he felt he was destined to do before this whole Diaz mess arrived on his doorstep, which seems to be his preference.
Plenty exists to suggest McGregor is not that interested in going back to featherweight anytime soon—or at all. To begin, he just spent most of the year at a fighting weight of 168 pounds. His coach hates the notion of him fighting at 145. He looks entirely too much like Skelator making that weight for anyone to feel comfortable.
If he’s truly not keen to make that cut again, he’ll be pushing hard for a shot at Alvarez. Likely, knowing the money involved and the appeal of being the first man to simultaneously hold UFC gold in two classes, he’ll push for that shot to come without vacating his 145-pound title, too.
But will the UFC let him make such a play? That’s where it gets interesting.
If Dana White is to be believed, the promotion is a little tired of McGregor holding up an entire division for no good reason. It wants him back at 145 and in his next fight, no questions asked. If he’s not, he’s going to vacate the belt and free everyone else up to move on with their lives.
Thus, the two sides have arrived at a bizarre impasse where the early days of negotiating through the media have commenced before McGregor’s swelling has even subsided from UFC 202. They’re all looking to get rich the next time he enters the cage, but there’s going to be a great deal of politicking and jockeying before something gets signed.
You’ll know who won out when McGregor’s next fight is announced.
Just days after his pupil’s major win over rival Nate Diaz at UFC 202, UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor’s head-coach John Kavanagh joined The MMA Hour today (August 22, 2016) to discuss the future plans for ‘The Notorious One’. When asked if the featherweight champion would compete at welterweight again, Kavanagh was quick to dismiss
Just days after his pupil’s major win over rival Nate Diaz at UFC 202, UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor’s head-coach John Kavanagh joined The MMA Hour today (August 22, 2016) to discuss the future plans for ‘The Notorious One’.
When asked if the featherweight champion would compete at welterweight again, Kavanagh was quick to dismiss a return to 170 pounds and instead eyed a new home for McGregor in the UFC’s lightweight division:
“The hell with that (chuckles). When Dana came backstage the first thing he said is ‘we have weight classes for a reason’. He’s perfect for 55. It’s a very, very easy weight cut for 55.
His power is there, we got to see a little bit of grappling in that fight, still not seen it all yet there is still a lot more to come. I would have liked to see them on the ground more in the fight, I guess just for my selfish self, because we done a lot and of course Dillon was a great help with that.
So I would have liked to see some exchanges there. But overall I’ll give em a 9.5.”
When asked on his personal opinion for what is next for the Irish phenom Kavanagh admits he leaves the decision making process up to his student, however, he will be campaigning for a shot at the 155-pound throne:
“Me personally, I will be pushing for 55. That’s just my big brother opinion, I’d like to see him at 55 I remember that Buchinger–he looked like a tank to me. I just think he was designed to be a lightweight.”
UFC President Dana White has recently gone on record stating that if McGregor fails to return to 145 to defend his title in his next bout, he will be stripped of the title as a result.
Kavanagh says he doesn’t see the point in returning to the 145-pound weight class, as he does not believe any of it’s combatants can truly challenge his protege:
“I really don’t see the point in it, with all do respect to the 145 guys, especially after that fight with Nate. What are they going to do? What’s anyone going to do to him? I just think anyone he faces at that weight class–it’s almost like he’s cheating.
“He can make the weight, don’t get me wrong on that, he might do it just to spite me. We have Lockhart on board, the 45 he made last December was the easiest one he’s ever done, so it’s definitely in him to do it. But he’s just running through people at that weight class, it would have been a nice build up–I had a little vision in my head, him and Edgar in New York maybe in November.
“Unfortunately those guys didn’t keep up they’re end of the bargain. They had to go out there and prove that they deserved it, prove that they had improved, and go out there and beat Aldo and they didn’t.
“The fight was even more one-sided that their first contest. I guess Aldo had learned from the last time.”
If McGregor does decide to make the move to lightweight next, Kavanagh would rather see ‘Notorious’ challenge for the division’s title rather than an immediate trilogy bout with Diaz, possibly setting up a massive 155-pound title defense in Dublin against the Stockton Native:
“I’d think it would be nice for him to be the champion, get the belt at 55, and then defend it against Nate. I think that would be a pretty amazing fight, maybe in Croke Park in Dublin. I’ll push for that, how cool would that be huh? We were in they’re enemy territory so let them come over to us this time.”
With UFC 205 live from Madison Square Garden in New York City looming this upcoming November, Kavanagh is confident McGregor would be prepared to fight on the massive event just three months after the conclusion of his 25-minute war with Diaz, but does believe it is a bit too soon as well:
“He could definitely do it,” Kavanagh said. “It is soon, Conor has so much going on in his life. With his many many businesses that he’s running at this stage, I know he puts a lot of them on hold for that last–everything has been on hold for the last 20 weeks.
“So I know he has a lot of catching up to do in his other interests, so it probably is too early. Although he does other businesses, I know what his interest really is in and it’s fighting.
“If there is a crazy offer and it made sense, he would again put them on hold and get ready for it. But it probably is a little bit soon.”
Following UFC 202 during his post-fight presser McGregor claimed that ‘sh** will hit the fan’ regarding what is next for his combat career, and Kavanagh noted that nothing is set in stone but as for now it is best to just ‘sit back and exhale’ before making any decisions:
“I can tell you that nothing is set in stone. There is no black and white ‘this is set, and then we’ll do this, and then this’. I think Floyd Tweeted ‘lets do business’ after the fight so there’s that. He has a lot going on, he has a busy busy head on him.
“That’s why I think the next couple of weeks he probably has to put some time and effort into his other interest and let everything build up. That fight–I sear I have a little bit more grey hairs from that 25-minutes.
“I think as a community we all need to take a deep breathe and exhale, and let everything carry on for the next couple of months, because that was a really incredible build up and to go straight from that to Alvarez or whoever– I don’t know it just seems rushed or something. Lets sit back and exhale,” Kavanagh said.
While both fighters have acknowledged that they will be meeting up in the Octagon for a rubber match, Dana White isn’t interested in going with a third fight in a row between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz.
Following the successful UFC 202 pay-per-vie…
While both fighters have acknowledged that they will be meeting up in the Octagon for a rubber match, Dana White isn’t interested in going with a third fight in a row between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz.
Following the successful UFC 202 pay-per-view in Las Vegas, Nevada this past Saturday night, the UFC President told ESPN the following about another potential immediate rematch between McGregor and Diaz.
“We’re definitely not doing this a third time right now,” White told, who scored the fight three rounds to two for McGregor on FS1. “I don’t think there’s anybody that doesn’t want to see this fight again, but Conor’s either going to go defend his title or give his title up and then we’ll figure out where to go from there.”
As far as McGregor’s reign as UFC Featherweight Champion is concerned, White said he will either have to give up the belt or defend it in his next Octagon appearance.
“Conor has to defend his title or make a decision to give it up or whatever he wants to do. I don’t know,” White said on SportsCenter on ESPN. “I gotta sit down and see what’s next.”
While many feel McGregor, who kills himself in cutting weight to make it down to the 145-pound featherweight limit, shouldn’t fight lower than 155 pounds, White apparently doesn’t agree.
When asked If he were McGregor which one he would do, the UFC President stated, “If I was Conor, I’d defend my title.”
H/T to MMAFighting.com for transcribing the above Dana White quotes from ESPN’s “SportsCenter.”
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The next time you see Conor McGregor enter the famed Octagon, you’ll know who’s the boss before he ever throws a punch.
“He could definitely do it,” Kavanagh said. “It is soon, Conor has so much going on in his life. With his many many businesses that he’s running at this stage, I know he puts a lot of them on hold for that last–everything has been on hold for the last 20 weeks. 