Tag: Conor McGregor

Meet Robert Whiteford, The UFC’s First Scottish Fighter in Promotional History

(Whiteford vs. Carl Fawcett, Supremacy Fight Challenge 6.)

Given their proclivity for turning soccer games into full scale, fight-for-your-life riots, you’d think the UFC’s roster would be packed to the brim with Scottish fighters by now. But you being you, would be wrong. While there’s a certain Irish phenom that’s been making a name for himself in the promotion lately, it turns out that the UFC has *never* signed a Scottish fighter. Ever.

(*movie trailer voice*) That is…until now.

BloodyElbow passes along the news that 10-1 Scottish up-and-comer Robert Whiteford has recently signed with the UFC, marking the most monumental occasion for the Scottish people since the release of Braveheart. That’s the good news. The bad news is that Whiteford will be debuting against submission savant Jimy Hettes. Oh, and he’ll also be stepping in as a last-second replacement for the injured Mike Wilkinson at this weekend’s “Fight Night 30” event. Oh, and he’ll also be fighting on the Facebook prelims. In other words…


(Whiteford vs. Carl Fawcett, Supremacy Fight Challenge 6.)

Given their proclivity for turning soccer games into full scale, fight-for-your-life riots, you’d think the UFC’s roster would be packed to the brim with Scottish fighters by now. But you being you, would be wrong. While there’s a certain Irish phenom that’s been making a name for himself in the promotion lately, it turns out that the UFC has *never* signed a Scottish fighter. Ever.

(*movie trailer voice*) That is…until now.

BloodyElbow passes along the news that 10-1 Scottish up-and-comer Robert Whiteford has recently signed with the UFC, marking the most monumental occasion for the Scottish people since the release of Braveheart. That’s the good news. The bad news is that Whiteford will be debuting against submission savant Jimy Hettes. Oh, and he’ll also be stepping in as a last-second replacement for the injured Mike Wilkinson at this weekend’s “Fight Night 30″ event. Oh, and he’ll also be fighting on the Facebook prelims. In other words…

Although the majority of Whiteford’s wins have come over journeymen at best and tomato cans at worst, at 5’10, he should hold a reach and size advantage over most if not all of the featherweight division. Having not lost a fight since his professional debut in 2009, Whiteford’s confidence, as well as the “nothing to lose” mentality a last minute fight can breed, should hopefully work to his advantage against a certified beast Like Hettes. Of course, Whiteford also has the luck of facing a Jimy Hettes who has been battling injuries ever since suffering the first defeat of his career to Marcus Brimage back in September of 2012. So maybe, just maybe this fight won’t be the one-sided slaughter that the bookies are predicting it will be.

We’ve thrown a video of Whiteford’s fight against Carl Fawcett from May of 2012 above. Let us know if it does anything to convince you that this man is Scotland’s answer to Conor McGregor, or at least someone who could walk away with his hand raised on Saturday.

–J. Jones

Regrettable Tweet of the Day: Conor McGregor’s Three-Way Sex Fantasy, Featuring the TUF 18 Coaches and Toe-Oral [UPDATED]


(Like a BOSS. / Screen-cap via @TheNotoriousMMA)

Irish rising star Conor McGregor is having quite an eventful year: He’s already had his first UFC victory and his first debilitating knee injury — and his first forced apology might be right around the corner.

The tweet above is what happened when a fan asked the fun-lovin’ featherweight a relatively harmless question about who he fancied more, Ronda Rousey or Miesha Tate. And man did he knock this one out of the park. Eric Holden is crying and masturbating in your honor, sir.

To be honest, the most offensive thing about this tweet is the way McGregor sticks all the extra S’s at the end of “toes,” like he’s some over-excited teenage girl who can’t wait to get the new iPhone you guyssssssss!!! I fucking hate that shit. The real question is, which TUF 18 coach would be on toe-duty?

Update: And here’s that apology…


(Like a BOSS. / Screen-cap via @TheNotoriousMMA)

Irish rising star Conor McGregor is having quite an eventful year: He’s already had his first UFC victory and his first debilitating knee injury — and his first forced apology might be right around the corner.

The tweet above is what happened when a fan asked the fun-lovin’ featherweight a relatively harmless question about who he fancied more, Ronda Rousey or Miesha Tate. And man did he knock this one out of the park. Eric Holden is crying and masturbating in your honor, sir.

To be honest, the most offensive thing about this tweet is the way McGregor sticks all the extra S’s at the end of “toes,” like he’s some over-excited teenage girl who can’t wait to get the new iPhone you guyssssssss!!! I fucking hate that shit. The real question is, which TUF 18 coach would be on toe-duty?

Update: And here’s that apology…

“I would like to personally apologize to both Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate. This morning I quoted a song on Twitter in an attempt to make a joke, which I now I see was totally unacceptable and offensive. I have infinite respect for Miesha and Ronda as individuals and as athletes. I have always been a big fan of women’s MMA and the incredible talented athletes that compete in the sport. I regret making this offensive comment and I sincerely apologize to anyone whom I offended, but especially Ronda and Miesha.“

Sexy Miesha Tate GIFs, Old-School Nick Diaz Photos, And More Highlights From the CagePotato Tumblr


(Hey, is that a Timex?)

We’re celebrating something special today, Potato Nation: CagePotato’s Tumblr has surpassed 100 followers!

We’re very grateful that our fans and many members of Tumblr’s MMA community have followed us. If you haven’t yet, here are some of the highlights from our first few weeks that you missed — and that you’ll still be missing on a regular basis until you follow us right here.

– To start off, we have an excellent GIF set of Miesha Tate from this season of TUF. This, for obvious reasons, is our most successful post to date.

– There exists a statue of one kid armbarring another kid. It’s in Germany although I’d have expected something like that to be in Brazil instead (or even Japan because of their Judo connection).

– World champions Renan Barao and Jose Aldo in a sparring match. They’re likely not going 100%, but it’s still pretty cool to watch.

See what Conor McGregor was doing with his money, as well as some sick, old-school UFC artwork after the jump.


(Hey, is that a Timex?)

We’re celebrating something special today, Potato Nation: CagePotato’s Tumblr has surpassed 100 followers!

We’re very grateful that our fans and many members of Tumblr’s MMA community have followed us. If you haven’t yet, here are some of the highlights from our first few weeks that you missed — and that you’ll still be missing on a regular basis until you follow us right here.

– To start off, we have an excellent GIF set of Miesha Tate from this season of TUF. This, for obvious reasons, is our most successful post to date.

– There exists a statue of one kid armbarring another kid. It’s in Germany although I’d have expected something like that to be in Brazil instead (or even Japan because of their Judo connection).

– World champions Renan Barao and Jose Aldo in a sparring match. They’re likely not going 100%, but it’s still pretty cool to watch.

– Legendary video maker NickTheFace made an unbelievable trailer for UFC 168: Weidman vs. Silva 2 that puts the UFC’s recent video efforts to shame.

– Another fan-made piece of UFC 168 content, this time a poster, dwarfed the UFC’s official efforts. The poster was made by Dan Goland. The same artist made a truly epic poster for UFC 166. Yeah, “epic” gets thrown around a lot but the poster he made captures the gravity of Junior Dos Santos vs. Cain Velasquez III.

– Conor McGregor shows off how much cash he has in his wallet. I think this is what he was using all that money for.

– Various members of the UG photoshopped the picture of Joe Rogan in Khabib Nurmagomedov‘s Cossack hat. We put together some of the better ones from the original thread.

– This is what Nick Diaz was doing instead of going to school so he could learn to buy houses.

– Remember that photo from UFC Magazine featuring Dana White mean-mugging as if he were a real fighter? So do we.

– Artist Chris Rini made woodwork pictures of the bout between Royce Gracie and Kimo Leopoldo at UFC 3. These are amazing. If you’re an MMA fan with loads of disposable income, pick these up.

Those are just a few of the highlights from CagePotato’s nascent tumbls, or tumblerings, or what have you. Thanks to all our readers that follow us, and a pox on all of our readers who don’t!

— Matt Saccaro

Scratch That: Conor McGregor Suffered a Torn ACL in Last Fight, Won’t Be Fighting Anybody for 10 Months


(So…back to taking public transportation, then? / Photo via Conor McGregor’s Facebook page)

Well, it looks like the Conor McGregor hype train has pulled into the station for extensive repairs. Though the Irish featherweight was originally reported to have suffered a minor ACL sprain during his decision victory over Max Hollaway last weekend,  an MRI has revealed that McGregor actually sustained an ACL tear, an MCL strain, and a posterior horn meniscal tear. (Aye…da dreaded O’Donoghue’s triad.) He will be out of action for approximately 10 months.

So no, he won’t be fighting Diego Brandao — or anybody else — at UFC 168. It’s a shame, because McGregor was on a roll, in terms of trash-talking other fighters on Twitter. A couple of nights ago, he dissed the majority of the UFC’s featherweight contenders, calling them boring (Guida, Lentz), old (Swanson, Siver), undersized (Mendes, Edgar), or unpopular (Lamas, Koch). And then, he got into a twitter-beef with Diego Sanchez, telling The Dream “You’re the fattest, sloppiest, slowest Martial Artist i’ve ever laid eyes on. I’d go up to 170 to whoop your fat ass. EASY.”

McGregor won’t be able to back up any of his words until next summer. Still, he tried to put a brash spin on his knee injury this morning, writing: “I celebrate adversity. Congratulations. Your favourite fighter is safe. For 10 months. #AintNothing I’ll do it on my back. EASY!!!!”

Our advice to Conor? Sell your watches and start shopping at Men’s Wearhouse.


(So…back to taking public transportation, then? / Photo via Conor McGregor’s Facebook page)

Well, it looks like the Conor McGregor hype train has pulled into the station for extensive repairs. Though the Irish featherweight was originally reported to have suffered a minor ACL sprain during his decision victory over Max Hollaway last weekend,  an MRI has revealed that McGregor actually sustained an ACL tear, an MCL strain, and a posterior horn meniscal tear. (Aye…da dreaded O’Donoghue’s triad.) He will be out of action for approximately 10 months.

So no, he won’t be fighting Diego Brandao — or anybody else — at UFC 168. It’s a shame, because McGregor was on a roll, in terms of trash-talking other fighters on Twitter. A couple of nights ago, he dissed the majority of the UFC’s featherweight contenders, calling them boring (Guida, Lentz), old (Swanson, Siver), undersized (Mendes, Edgar), or unpopular (Lamas, Koch). And then, he got into a twitter-beef with Diego Sanchez, telling The Dream “You’re the fattest, sloppiest, slowest Martial Artist i’ve ever laid eyes on. I’d go up to 170 to whoop your fat ass. EASY.”

McGregor won’t be able to back up any of his words until next summer. Still, he tried to put a brash spin on his knee injury this morning, writing: “I celebrate adversity. Congratulations. Your favourite fighter is safe. For 10 months. #AintNothing I’ll do it on my back. EASY!!!!”

Our advice to Conor? Sell your watches and start shopping at Men’s Wearhouse.

McGregor, Brandao Agree to a Humdinger of a Hootenanny in Vegas at UFC 168


(Seriously, the similarities are un-f*cking-believable. Photo via Getty.)

Fresh off a one-sided beatdown of Max Holloway at UFC Fight Night: Shogun vs. Sonnen, it appears as if Irish phenom Conor McGregor has his next fight lined up already. Despite suffering a minor LCL sprain midway through the second round of his eventual unanimous decision victory, McGregor’s camp has insisted that the Irishman is fine and that he would prefer to fight on the UFC’s year end card, UFC 168: Silva vs. Weidman II. His coach, John Kavanagh, then proceeded to call out TUF 14 winner Diego Brandao, who in turn accepted the fight faster than Chael Sonnen on a sightseeing tour across Brazil. If “sights” were asses and “seeing” was kicking them, that is.

Being that McGregor spends his spare time speeding down the Vegas strip with The Baldfather himself, you can expect this matchup to be officially announced in a matter of days. SIXTY G’s BABAYYYYYYY!!

Brandao is also coming off a unanimous decision victory at the TD Garden, having bested Daniel Pineda on the Fight Night 26 undercard just two fights previous to McGregor’s aforementioned shellacking of Holloway. The victory improved “DB’s” record to 4-1 in the octagon, with three of those victories coming in his past three fights. It’s at this point that we should all probably start saying that McGregor is an overrated yadda yadda will be exposed yadda yadda you know the deal.
CP Prediction: McGregor by cardio.


(Seriously, the similarities are un-f*cking-believable. Photo via Getty.)

Fresh off a one-sided beatdown of Max Holloway at UFC Fight Night: Shogun vs. Sonnen, it appears as if Irish phenom Conor McGregor has his next fight lined up already. Despite suffering a minor LCL sprain midway through the second round of his eventual unanimous decision victory, McGregor’s camp has insisted that the Irishman is fine and that he would prefer to fight on the UFC’s year end card, UFC 168: Silva vs. Weidman II. His coach, John Kavanagh, then proceeded to call out TUF 14 winner Diego Brandao, who in turn accepted the fight faster than Chael Sonnen on a sightseeing tour across Brazil. If “sights” were asses and “seeing” was kicking them, that is.

Being that McGregor spends his spare time speeding down the Vegas strip with The Baldfather himself, you can expect this matchup to be officially announced in a matter of days. SIXTY G’s BABAYYYYYYY!!

Brandao is also coming off a unanimous decision victory at the TD Garden, having bested Daniel Pineda on the Fight Night 26 undercard just two fights previous to McGregor’s aforementioned shellacking of Holloway. The victory improved “DB’s” record to 4-1 in the octagon, with three of those victories coming in his past three fights. It’s at this point that we should all probably start saying that McGregor is an overrated yadda yadda will be exposed yadda yadda you know the deal.
CP Prediction: McGregor by cardio.

In other fight booking news…

Do-or-Die Alert: British middleweight and member of a select group of fighters to score two end-of-the-night awards for a single performance, Tom Watson, has been booked to take on longtime UFC veteran Alessio Sakara at Fight Night 30 in October. On the heels of a suffocating decision loss to Thales Leites at UFC 163 and currently 1-2 in the UFC, Watson is in dire need of a win here. A loss to Sakara (who has dropped his past 3) would likely send the Brit back to BAMMA where he came from.

Sakara has not competed since caving in the back of Patrick Cote’s skull with illegal hammerfists at UFC 154. The two were scheduled to rematch at UFC 158 until an injury forced Sakara to withdraw. No, it wasn’t tuna fish this time, but Goddamn, does Sakara share a room with the ghost that’s been haunting James Irvin all these years or what?

Fight Night 30 goes down on Oct. 26, 2013, in Manchester, England.

–J. Jones

[VIDEO] UFC on Fox Sports 1 Post Event Press Conference & Fight Highlights

(Video via UFC Youtube)

Per usual, the UFC Fight Night 26 post event presser table was filled Saturday night with fighters who had plenty to celebrate as well as those that felt miserable. Some guys managed to embody both feelings.

Conor “Brock Hype Lite” McGregor won his second UFC fight in impression fashion and looked as dandy as ever afterwards wearing sunglasses and a bow tie but nonetheless said he felt like he had just loss and was filled with disappointment because he couldn’t finish Max Holloway. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua looked devastated and as though he had to dig deep into his gut to sit and face questions about his shocking first round submission loss to Chael Sonnen.

Sonnen, on the other hand, was humble when it came to talking about his win over Rua. He said the win was his biggest ever and that the shoe could have easily been on the other foot.

When it came to speaking of future opponents, however, Sonnen the troll was in fine form when said he’d beat Wanderlei Silva, Lyoto Machida and Vitor Belfort in one night. Alistair Overeem didn’t make it to the presser after getting knocked out by Travis Browne but his opponent was, and went into honest detail about the moments he was frozen by body shots by the kickboxer.

Matt Brown didn’t take his foot off the gas pedal in saying he wants a title shot and Urijah Faber and Michael McDonald talked about the possibility of fighting one another in the future.

For the complete UFC Fight Night 26 post event press conference video, press ‘play’ above. For highlights of the Brown vs. Pyle, Rua vs. Sonnen and Faber vs. Alcantara bouts, check us out after the jump.


(Video via UFC Youtube)

Per usual, the UFC Fight Night 26 post event presser table was filled Saturday night with fighters who had plenty to celebrate as well as those that felt miserable. Some guys managed to embody both feelings.

Conor “Brock Hype Lite” McGregor won his second UFC fight in impression fashion and looked as dandy as ever afterwards wearing sunglasses and a bow tie but nonetheless said he felt like he had just loss and was filled with disappointment because he couldn’t finish Max Holloway. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua looked devastated and as though he had to dig deep into his gut to sit and face questions about his shocking first round submission loss to Chael Sonnen.

Sonnen, on the other hand, was humble when it came to talking about his win over Rua. He said the win was his biggest ever and that the shoe could have easily been on the other foot.

When it came to speaking of future opponents, however, Sonnen the troll was in fine form when said he’d beat Wanderlei Silva, Lyoto Machida and Vitor Belfort in one night. Alistair Overeem didn’t make it to the presser after getting knocked out by Travis Browne but his opponent was, and went into honest detail about the moments he was frozen by body shots by the kickboxer.

Matt Brown didn’t take his foot off the gas pedal in saying he wants a title shot and Urijah Faber and Michael McDonald talked about the possibility of fighting one another in the future.

For the complete UFC Fight Night 26 post event press conference video, press ‘play’ above. For highlights of the Brown vs. Pyle, Rua vs. Sonnen and Faber vs. Alcantara bouts, check us out after the jump.

Rua vs. Sonnen Highlights:

Brown vs. Pyle Highlights:

Faber vs. Alcantara Highlights:

-Elias Cepeda