Tag: Cyborg vs. Holm

UFC Revokes JacksonWink Photographer’s Credentials For Cyborg Insults

The gender-based insults made by a JacksonWink social media staff member and photographer towards UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg have cost him his credentials to attend UFC events. Following a highly-publicized backlash after an incendiary Instagram post where he called Cyborg a ‘dude’ and ‘he’ multiple times, Cyborg responded and understandably demanded an apology before […]

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The gender-based insults made by a JacksonWink social media staff member and photographer towards UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg have cost him his credentials to attend UFC events.

Following a highly-publicized backlash after an incendiary Instagram post where he called Cyborg a ‘dude’ and ‘he’ multiple times, Cyborg responded and understandably demanded an apology before JacksonWink MMA issued their own strange kind of non-apology statement that attempted to explain their side of the story.

Regardless, the incident was an extremely bad look for the losing team, so much so that the UFC announced in a statement today (via MMA Fighting) that photographer Marc Aragon had his ability to cover UFC events revoked:

“UFC is aware and troubled with the recent statements made by a social media representative from the JacksonWink MMA Academy in Albuquerque, New Mexico as it concerns women’s featherweight champion, Cris Cyborg.

“UFC does not condone or tolerate the remarks that were used. The organization has reached out to the JacksonWink team to inform them that the individual in question will not be granted access for future events.”

Aragon later granted Cyborg’s request for an apology, issuing the following in a very lengthy Instagram post explaining his side in great detail:

“That being said I am embarrassed by my actions and I sincerely apologize to @criscyborg and her friends, fans, and most importantly her family for posting such an ugly misrepresentation of a great hard earned championship retention. I also want to apologize to the members of team Jacksonwink who were effected by that insincere post.”

You can check out Aragon’s full post here:

As the most hated photographer in the world today, I feel its necessary to comment on the recent fall out I’m causing for both Hollys and Cyborgs camps, and their respectful friends, fans, and families. At the conclusion of UFC 219, I took the final bus out of the arena back to the hotel and ended up on the same bus as Chris Cyborg and her team. As I sat in the back I began to hear them cheer and revel in their victory and discuss small parts of the event. A couple things really bothered me. I heard them laughing and commenting on a picture that renowned photographer Esther Lin took of Cyborgs toes literally in Hollys eye from a kick. Cyborg then went on to discuss how during clinches “the bitch” just “stayed and hugged her but she did nothing”. When I got back to the hotel I posted a picture with an inappropriate caption that everyone is now talking about. I was obviously acting out of anger and frustration. My personal emotions got in the way of my professional status which I failed to adhere to. But there is more to it, Cyborg leading up to the fight through her own Social Media accounts accused Holly and our camp of being the most drug failed camp ever. This is a totally fabricated lie and can’t be based on any merit whatsoever. Only one CURRENT athlete from our camp has ever been punished for USADA related issues and I was extremely frustrated with the perception that Cyborg and her fans had painted us as cheaters and losers.  Jackson Wink had over 60 UFC fights throughout the world and hundreds of other fighters fighting all around the world at many different organizations. Every fighter has their home team based out of whatever country or state they hail from and come here for training, some of them with their own teams. We absolutely can’t be responsible for each and every one of their daily activities. That being said I am embarrassed by my actions and I sincerely apologize to @criscyborg riscyborg and her friends, fans, and most importantly her family for posting such an ugly misrepresentation of a great hard earned championship retention. I also want to apologize to the members of team Jacksonwink who were effected by that insincere post.

A post shared by Mark A. Aragon (@ma2_media) on

Cyborg accepted Aragon’s apology, but also stuck to the initial request for him to have his credentials to cover UFC events taken away, and it appears her employers listened to her.

With new(ish) UFC owners Endeavor (formerly WME-IMG) looking to make the dominant Brazilian woman one of their headlining acts, public comments like these obviously aren’t going to fly from a pure image-based stance, no matter how many names Cyborg may have called Holm backstage or in the cage.

Aragon’s apology is to be commended – he came clean about it all and admitted he was wrong and expressed remorse for his actions, which is more than we can say about many who make a mistake – yet his explanation of the reasoning for his outburst is still flimsy, and to hear both he and the entire JacksonWink team remain focused on a purely different set of supposed insults from Cyborg just makes it look like they may not really be all that sorry.

To make sure, the UFC clearly wanted to nip any potential problems in the bud, and they did just that.

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UFC Rankings Update: McGregor Somehow Rises On P4P List

Two of the UFC’s top pound-for-pound fighters picked up pivotal wins at last weekend’s (Sat., December 30, 2017) UFC 219 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, with women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg securing a decision win over Holly Holm and dominant lightweight Khabib Nurmagomedov brutally pounding Edson Barboza in an at-times hard-to-watch co-main event. For […]

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Two of the UFC’s top pound-for-pound fighters picked up pivotal wins at last weekend’s (Sat., December 30, 2017) UFC 219 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, with women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg securing a decision win over Holly Holm and dominant lightweight Khabib Nurmagomedov brutally pounding Edson Barboza in an at-times hard-to-watch co-main event.

For those efforts, Cyborg and Khabib deservedly earned a rise up the official pound-for-pound rankings, with Cyborg moving up one spot to No. 9 and Khabib finally debuting at No. 14. That’s to be expected; however, perhaps the most shocking rise up the pound-for-pound list was made by Conor McGregor, who somehow surpassed Georges St-Pierre to overtake the No. 2 spot despite not fighting for almost 14 months at this point.

St-Pierre’s drop was most likely precipitated by his recent vacating of the middleweight title hardly one month after he won at UFC 217 on November 4, yet he has fought for a UFC title much more recently than McGregor. By comparison, No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter Demetrious Johnson recently topped Anderson Silva for the record for most consecutive title defenses in UFC history with 11; McGregor has none.

There’s no doubting “The Notorious’” electric drawing power and scintillating knockout ability, but his UFC return is currently unknown – and perhaps even unlikely – after he reportedly earned $100 million to box Floyd Mayweather last August. He’s been rumored to finally defend the lightweight belt against interim champion Tony Ferguson, but those are only rumors.

His status as by far the biggest star in MMA is obviously keeping him near the top of the media-generated rankings, however, and that’s unlikely to stop until he finally returns and loses a fight – if he ever does.

Check out the full rankings courtesy of UFC.com right here:

POUND-FOR-POUND
1 Demetrious Johnson
2 Conor McGregor +1
3 Georges St-Pierre -1
4 Max Holloway
5 Daniel Cormier
6 TJ Dillashaw
7 Stipe Miocic
8 Tyron Woodley
9 Cris Cyborg +1
10 Tony Ferguson -1
11 Cody Garbrandt
12 Robert Whittaker
13 Amanda Nunes
14 Khabib Nurmagomedov *NR
15 Joanna Jedrzejczyk -1

FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Demetrious Johnson
1 Joseph Benavidez
2 Henry Cejudo
3 Ray Borg
4 Jussier Formiga
5 Sergio Pettis
6 Wilson Reis
7 Brandon Moreno
8 Ben Nguyen
9 John Moraga
10 Dustin Ortiz
11 Alexandre Pantoja +1
12 Matheus Nicolau *NR
13 Magomed Bibulatov +2
14 Deiveson Figueiredo
15 Louis Smolka -2

BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: TJ Dillashaw
1 Cody Garbrandt
2 Dominick Cruz
3 Raphael Assuncao
4 Jimmie Rivera
5 Marlon Moraes
6 John Lineker
7 Bryan Caraway
8 John Dodson
9 Aljamain Sterling
10 Thomas Almeida
11 Pedro Munhoz
12 Eddie Wineland
13 Brett Johns
14 Rob Font
15 Tim Elliott *NR

FEATHERWEIGHT
Champion: Max Holloway
1 Jose Aldo
2 Frankie Edgar
3 Brian Ortega
4 Josh Emmett +1
5 Cub Swanson -1
6 Ricardo Lamas
7 Chan Sung Jung
8 Yair Rodriguez
9 Jeremy Stephens
10 Darren Elkins
11 Dennis Bermudez +1
12 Renato Moicano -1
13 Dooho Choi
14 Myles Jury +1
15 Mirsad Bektic -1

LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion: Conor McGregor
1 Tony Ferguson (Interim Champion)
2 Khabib Nurmagomedov
3 Eddie Alvarez
4 Edson Barboza
5 Justin Gaethje
6 Dustin Poirier
7 Kevin Lee
8 Nate Diaz
9 Michael Chiesa
10 Michael Johnson
11 Al Iaquinta
12 Beneil Dariush
13 Anthony Pettis
14 Francisco Trinaldo
14 James Vick

WELTERWEIGHT
Champion: Tyron Woodley
1 Stephen Thompson
2 Rafael Dos Anjos
3 Colby Covington
4 Robbie Lawler
5 Demian Maia
6 Jorge Masvidal
7 Darren Till
8 Neil Magny +4
9 Santiago Ponzinibbio
10 Kamaru Usman +1
11 Donald Cerrone -1
12 Carlos Condit -4
13 Gunnar Nelson
14 Dong Hyun Kim
15 Yancy Medeiros

MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion: Robert Whittaker
1 Yoel Romero
2 Luke Rockhold
3 Jacare Souza +1
4 Georges St-Pierre -1
5 Chris Weidman
6 Kelvin Gastelum
7 Michael Bisping
8 Derek Brunson
9 Anderson Silva
10 David Branch
11 Uriah Hall
12 Vitor Belfort
13 Krzysztof Jotko
14 Lyoto Machida
15 Paulo Costa

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Daniel Cormier
1 Alexander Gustafsson
2 Volkan Oezdemir
3 Glover Teixeira
4 Jimi Manuwa
5 Ovince Saint Preux
6 Mauricio Rua
7 Misha Cirkunov
8 Corey Anderson
9 Ilir Latifi -1
10 Patrick Cummins
11 Rogerio Nogueira
12 Jan Blachowicz
13 Tyson Pedro +1
14 Gadzhimurad Antigulov -1
15 Jared Cannonier

HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Stipe Miocic
1 Francis Ngannou
2 Alistair Overeem
3 Fabricio Werdum
4 Cain Velasquez
5 Mark Hunt
6 Derrick Lewis
7 Alexander Volkov
8 Marcin Tybura
9 Curtis Blaydes
10 Stefan Struve
11 Aleksei Oleinik
12 Andrei Arlovski
13 Junior Albini
14 Travis Browne
15 Tim Johnson

WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT
Champion: Rose Namajunas
1 Joanna Jedrzejczyk
2 Jessica Andrade
3 Claudia Gadelha
4 Karolina Kowalkiewicz
5 Tecia Torres
6 Carla Esparza +3
7 Michelle Waterson
8 Cynthia Calvillo -2
9 Felice Herrig -1
10 Alexa Grasso
11 Cortney Casey
11 Paige VanZant +1
13 Randa Markos +1
14 Joanne Calderwood -1
15 Maryna Moroz

WOMEN’S FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Nicco Montano
1 Sijara Eubanks
2 Lauren Murphy
3 Alexis Davis
4 Roxanne Modafferi
5 Barb Honchak
6 Liz Carmouche
7 Montana De La Rosa
8 Rachael Ostovich
9 Mara Romero Borella
10 Shana Dobson +1
11 Gillian Robertson +1
12 Kalindra Faria +1
13 Bec Rawlings +1
14 Melinda Fabian +1
15 Emily Whitmire *NR

WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: Amanda Nunes
1 Valentina Shevchenko
2 Holly Holm
3 Julianna Pena
4 Raquel Pennington
5 Germaine de Randamie
6 Cat Zingano
6 Ketlen Vieira +1
8 Sara McMann
9 Ronda Rousey
10 Marion Reneau
11 Katlyn Chookagian
12 Bethe Correia
13 Leslie Smith
14 Aspen Ladd
15 Sarah Moras -1

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Team JacksonWink Issues Statement On Cyborg Instagram Controversy

In the hours after UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg’s hard-fought decision win over former bantamweight champion Holly Holm in the main event of December 30’s UFC 219, a photographer named Marc Aragon for Team JacksonWink, where Holm has trained for many years, issued some incendiary, gender-based insults toward Cyborg. Cyborg, being no stranger to […]

The post Team JacksonWink Issues Statement On Cyborg Instagram Controversy appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

In the hours after UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg’s hard-fought decision win over former bantamweight champion Holly Holm in the main event of December 30’s UFC 219, a photographer named Marc Aragon for Team JacksonWink, where Holm has trained for many years, issued some incendiary, gender-based insults toward Cyborg.

Cyborg, being no stranger to such criticism, responded that the photographer should be forced to apologize or have his credentials to attend UFC events revoked. Overall, Team JacksonWink received a ton of bad publicity and attention right after one of their main stars had lost a potentially history-making bout, and regardless of whether you agree with them, they just came out of the situation poorly.

Their reputation in tatters for the time being, JacksonWink issued a statement on the matter on their official Facebook page that told a different side of the story where Cyborg supposedly called Holm a “b***h” backstage while mocking her. They defended their ‘media guy’ by saying he was only defending Holm and they wouldn’t avoid pointing out Cyborg’s past history of steroid use, even though the ‘media guy’ didn’t mention it in his original post:
It’s a bit of backhanded congratulations, but at least it serves to explain exactly why Aragon made the mistake he did, I suppose. It’s understandable he was in an emotional state after Holm lost arguably the biggest bout in women’s MMA history, a loss that pushed her down to a tough 1-4 in her last five matches since her upset of Ronda Rousey at UFC 193.

A rematch with Cyborg – who has demolished 17 straight opponents – most likely isn’t going to be in the cards for Holm right now, even if Cyborg has few if any true challengers at 145 pounds. Holm is still ranked No. 2 at women’s bantamweight, and with that division currently lacking anything even resembling clarity, could find herself back int contention with only one or two quality wins.

As for the insults made by Aragon, it feels like JacksonWink knows it was a mistake, but they feel it was at least somewhat justified. Are you buying what they’re selling tonight?

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Team JacksonWink Issues Statement On Cyborg Instagram Controversy

In the hours after UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg’s hard-fought decision win over former bantamweight champion Holly Holm in the main event of December 30’s UFC 219, a photographer named Marc Aragon for Team JacksonWink, where Holm has trained for many years, issued some incendiary, gender-based insults toward Cyborg. Cyborg, being no stranger to […]

The post Team JacksonWink Issues Statement On Cyborg Instagram Controversy appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

In the hours after UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg’s hard-fought decision win over former bantamweight champion Holly Holm in the main event of December 30’s UFC 219, a photographer named Marc Aragon for Team JacksonWink, where Holm has trained for many years, issued some incendiary, gender-based insults toward Cyborg.

Cyborg, being no stranger to such criticism, responded that the photographer should be forced to apologize or have his credentials to attend UFC events revoked. Overall, Team JacksonWink received a ton of bad publicity and attention right after one of their main stars had lost a potentially history-making bout, and regardless of whether you agree with them, they just came out of the situation poorly.

Their reputation in tatters for the time being, JacksonWink issued a statement on the matter on their official Facebook page that told a different side of the story where Cyborg supposedly called Holm a “b***h” backstage while mocking her. They defended their ‘media guy’ by saying he was only defending Holm and they wouldn’t avoid pointing out Cyborg’s past history of steroid use, even though the ‘media guy’ didn’t mention it in his original post:
It’s a bit of backhanded congratulations, but at least it serves to explain exactly why Aragon made the mistake he did, I suppose. It’s understandable he was in an emotional state after Holm lost arguably the biggest bout in women’s MMA history, a loss that pushed her down to a tough 1-4 in her last five matches since her upset of Ronda Rousey at UFC 193.

A rematch with Cyborg – who has demolished 17 straight opponents – most likely isn’t going to be in the cards for Holm right now, even if Cyborg has few if any true challengers at 145 pounds. Holm is still ranked No. 2 at women’s bantamweight, and with that division currently lacking anything even resembling clarity, could find herself back int contention with only one or two quality wins.

As for the insults made by Aragon, it feels like JacksonWink knows it was a mistake, but they feel it was at least somewhat justified. Are you buying what they’re selling tonight?

The post Team JacksonWink Issues Statement On Cyborg Instagram Controversy appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Cyborg Reacts To Gender-Based Insults From Jackson-Winkeljohn

Cyborg may have scored her first UFC title defense over former bantamweight champion Holly Holm at last weekend’s UFC 219, but she was made to unnecessarily suffer some unneeded insults at the hands of Holm’s Team JacksonWink. A photographer for the team named Marc Aragon made an Instagram post in the hours after the fight […]

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Cyborg may have scored her first UFC title defense over former bantamweight champion Holly Holm at last weekend’s UFC 219, but she was made to unnecessarily suffer some unneeded insults at the hands of Holm’s Team JacksonWink.

A photographer for the team named Marc Aragon made an Instagram post in the hours after the fight which repeatedly called Cyborg a ‘dude’ and ‘he,’ making it seem like a serious case of sour grapes from a losing side. The post was later deleted.

Obviously it’s nothing new for Cyborg, who has been made the butt of gender-based jokes from former UFC athlete Angela Magana, whom Cyborg attacked at last year’s UFC Athlete Retreat after a long smear campaign online, and even Octagon commentator Joe Rogan, whose ill-advised genitalia joke about Cyborg in the aftermath of 2015’s UFC 193 drew much attention.

Understandably sick of it, Cyborg issued her own post on Instagram clarifying her views on the verbal assault, adding that Aragon should apologize for the insults or have his credentials to UFC events revoked:

Cyborg called Aragon’s insults ‘unacceptable’ and expressed desire for him to come clean on the transgender insults:

It is not acceptable for an official representative of @hollyholm@jacksonwink_mma to call me transgender following my Fight. Their official photographer was given a backstage credential to attend the @UFC and I expect an apology or their ability to get credentials for future UFC events to be affected by these actions. @ma2_media

As noted by MMA Fighting, Team JacksonWink has been deemed insensitive towards transgender issues before, with a Twitter account tweeting and deleting (again) a link to an old Instagram post that appeared to speak out against the controversial transgender bathroom laws:

WTF

A post shared by Mike Winkeljohn (@mmacoachwink) on

Not surprisingly, the post got a mixed bag of reactions from the community that was similar to the polarizing, divided climate on many prominent, socially-relevant issues today.

In terms of fighting, Cyborg is justified in speaking out another tired instance of being made fun of for her appearance, because it’s clear that she’s one of the most talented and dominant fighters in the sport regardless of how she looks. As for JacksonWink, well, it’s simply not a good look for a highly-regarded team that is going through a disturbing streak of in-the-cage defeats.

Perhaps that’s making them a bit on edge.

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Holly Holm vs. Cris Cyborg Full Fight Video Highlights

In the last UFC bout of 2017, women’s featherweight champ Cris Cyborg took on Holly Holm for the title in the main event of last night’s (Sat., December 30, 2017) UFC 219 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The hyped headliner was touted as being for the title of the greatest women’s MMA fighter of […]

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In the last UFC bout of 2017, women’s featherweight champ Cris Cyborg took on Holly Holm for the title in the main event of last night’s (Sat., December 30, 2017) UFC 219 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The hyped headliner was touted as being for the title of the greatest women’s MMA fighter of all time, and indeed there were arguments to be made supporting that theory – especially in the case of dominant champion Cyborg. But Holm had already toppled one MMA legend when she upset Ronda Rousey just over two years ago and set ‘Rowdy’s’ downfall into motion, so if she could do it again, and this time against a far more dangerous opponent, she should also be in consideration for the young sport’s G.O.A.T.

So much was resting on the result of UFC 219’s main event, and despite being taken into deeper waters than she ever had been in the UFC, Cyborg emerged with a convincing, hard-fought win that showed why she’s the champ and the most powerful woman to ever compete in MMA. With Holm attempting to control the clinch early on, Cyborg stayed patient to pick her spots and land with accuracy, each blow landing with her trademark power and adding up on Holm’s face.

As the fight wore on, Holm seemed to land on air far too much as she telegraphed too many shots, and Cyborg only seemed to grow stronger with her endurance appearing to be enough for far more than five rounds. It wasn’t the kind of win we’re used to seeing from Cyborg, but it showed she could go the distance with an elite challenger and still come out on top. Watch the highlights of her first UFC title defense right here:

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