Tag: Garry Cook

[ARCHIVES] McGregor Continues To Steal The Show Before UFC 179

Conor McGregor is on his way to becoming the most entertaining fighter in MMA history.

Continue Reading [ARCHIVES] McGregor Continues To Steal The Show Before UFC 179 at MMA News.

[MMA NEWS ARCHIVES]

Here’s a look back to an editorial written about Conor McGregor in the middle of his rise to superstardom in 2014. The following piece was published seven years ago to this day and is presented to you in its original, unaltered form.

[ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED OCTOBER 23, 2014, 11:30 PM]

How can anyone not love Conor McGregor?

Seriously?

“The Notorious” one has been providing entertainment all week long as we head into Saturday’s UFC 179 pay-per-view in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where Jose Aldo defends his UFC Featherweight Championship in a rematch against Chad Mendes.

While Aldo and Mendes are the headliners this weekend, no one is making more headlines than Ireland’s finest.

Whether it’s Mendes claiming he wants to punch a hole through McGregor’s face, or Aldo calling him a “sh*t,” Conor McGregor is getting people’s attention.

Whether it’s Conor ranting on Twitter (which resulted in a likely January bout with Dennis Siver), or hijacking live television interviews and threatening to rest his balls on a certain Featherweight’s forehead, McGregor is the man in the spotlight.

Whether it’s calling Ben Askren a “pube head”, or stealing the show on UFC 179 Embedded, Conor McGregor cannot — and will not — be ignored.

Hell, today alone, McGregor posted two tweets that generated legitimate laughter from yours truly, as he touted “sipping fresh coconut on the beach in Rio” and then posted a photo of himself with who he called UFC’s “Head Of Operations,” Garry Cook, in the back of an “armored vehicle” while referring to himself as UFC’s “Head Of Removing Heads.”

Conor McGregor is truly a rock star.

No one was sadder than I when Chael P. Sonnen retired — but fear not — his Irish-counterpart has arrived …in style.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to “The Notorious era.” The best part? We’re just getting started!

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Continue Reading [ARCHIVES] McGregor Continues To Steal The Show Before UFC 179 at MMA News.

UFC Looks to Make Poland Debut Next October as Part of 2014 ‘European Tour’


(“What were you saying about a solar-powered flashlight, YOU SON OF A BITCH??” / Pudz-Sapp photo via Sherdog)

Long dominated by embarrassing freak show fights involving beefed-up circus strongmen, the Polish MMA scene could use an injection of legitimacy. Luckily, the UFC is looking to hold its first event there next October in the city of Lodz, according to an MMAJunkie report citing UFC executive vice president Garry Cook. A date and venue have not yet been confirmed.

The Poland event will be part of the UFC’s 2014 “European Tour,” in which Ireland, Sweden, Germany, and even Turkey will host smaller-scale events focusing on local talent. As Junkie explains:

The tour is expected to include a half-dozen European cities and will have a unique look and feel, compared to other UFC shows. Additionally, the start times won’t be geared toward North American audiences (in other words, expect late-morning/early-afternoon broadcast times in the U.S. and Canada), and local fighters will be signed to help fill out the regional cards.


(“What were you saying about a solar-powered flashlight, YOU SON OF A BITCH??” / Pudz-Sapp photo via Sherdog)

Long dominated by embarrassing freak show fights involving beefed-up circus strongmen, the Polish MMA scene could use an injection of legitimacy. Luckily, the UFC is looking to hold its first event there next October in the city of Lodz, according to an MMAJunkie report citing UFC executive vice president Garry Cook. A date and venue have not yet been confirmed.

The Poland event will be part of the UFC’s 2014 “European Tour,” in which Ireland, Sweden, Germany, and even Turkey will host smaller-scale events focusing on local talent. As Junkie explains:

The tour is expected to include a half-dozen European cities and will have a unique look and feel, compared to other UFC shows. Additionally, the start times won’t be geared toward North American audiences (in other words, expect late-morning/early-afternoon broadcast times in the U.S. and Canada), and local fighters will be signed to help fill out the regional cards.

Cook says he hopes the cards will accomplish the goal of giving fight fans around the globe a chance to enjoy the live-event experience. “We’re never short on people who want to see great fights,” Cook said. “The demand is there.”

The UFC’s new international plans mark the final shift from the promotion’s old strategy of every show being marketed as a must-see event to a new reality in which some cards are simply irrelevant for North American viewers. (Judging by the Fox Sports 2 ratings for the last Fight Night card in Manchester, it seems like most of you have already gotten that memo.)

Now we just have to figure out what this “unique look and feel” entails. A brand-new Septagon cage? The return of the Moat? And can intercontinental UFC champs be far behind?

Miesha Tate vs. Cat Zingano Was Reportedly Too Hardcore for the Swedes


(She’s a witch! Burn her! BURRRRRRN HERRRRRRRRRRR!!! / Photo via Fight! Magazine)

So here’s a weird little tidbit: The UFC’s next women’s bantamweight fight between Miesha Tate and Cat Zingano was originally supposed to serve as the co-main event for UFC on Fuel TV: Gustafsson vs. Mousasi (April 6th; Stockholm, Sweden), but it was reportedly sunk due to political concerns, and the matchup was moved to the TUF 17 Finale. After Ariel Helwani first mentioned the date-switch, Fighters Only followed up with more details:

The fight was pulled because it was felt by Garry Cook, the UFC VP in charge of UK and European operations, that it wasn’t suited to the Swedish audience.

Sweden is a new market and there is still some considerable opposition to the UFC among that infamously liberal and ‘progressive’ nation’s press. Politically it is a very left-wing country and it was only in 2007 that a 1970 ban on professional boxing was lifted.

Alexander Gustafsson has spearheaded the charge into what has proven to be an unexpectedly lucrative market for the UFC, but the potential for the national press to dislike or misinterpret a women’s fight was felt to be too high to risk.


(She’s a witch! Burn her! BURRRRRRN HERRRRRRRRRRR!!! / Photo via Fight! Magazine)

So here’s a weird little tidbit: The UFC’s next women’s bantamweight fight between Miesha Tate and Cat Zingano was originally supposed to serve as the co-main event for UFC on Fuel TV: Gustafsson vs. Mousasi (April 6th; Stockholm, Sweden), but it was reportedly sunk due to political concerns, and the matchup was moved to the TUF 17 Finale. After Ariel Helwani first mentioned the date-switch, Fighters Only followed up with more details:

The fight was pulled because it was felt by Garry Cook, the UFC VP in charge of UK and European operations, that it wasn’t suited to the Swedish audience.

Sweden is a new market and there is still some considerable opposition to the UFC among that infamously liberal and ‘progressive’ nation’s press. Politically it is a very left-wing country and it was only in 2007 that a 1970 ban on professional boxing was lifted.

Alexander Gustafsson has spearheaded the charge into what has proven to be an unexpectedly lucrative market for the UFC, but the potential for the national press to dislike or misinterpret a women’s fight was felt to be too high to risk.

For the fight to turn out to be a bloodbath would have been especially damaging…A new co-main has not been announced for the Stockholm card, but the mood on the messageboards among Swedish fans is generally one of relief that the female fight was scrapped — and not just because of the risk it poses to the sport. Progressive as they are, it seems even the Swedish fans [aren’t] particularly excited about female MMA either.

In general, Swedish support for the UFC has been fantastic so far — which makes this story even more disheartening. Keep in mind that Sweden is a country that invented a new pronoun to promote their oddball obsession with gender-neutrality. The most recent World Economic Forum report on global gender equality ranked Sweden #4 in the world out of 135 countries; the U.S. landed at a totally respectable #22. So to summarize, gender-differences don’t exist in Sweden — except in the context of cage-fighting, in which women are delicate flowers that need to be protected by men who know better.

I’m actually skeptical about this whole story, to be honest. You can look at MMA message boards in any country and find pockets of fans who don’t care for women’s MMA, and there are newspaper editorial writers in every major city who would declare a bloody fight between two women to be the end of modern civilization.

When Garry Cook made the decision to move a female fight off of UFC on FUEL 9, he had these concerns in mind. (And hell, I’ll just say it — maybe his own tastes were a factor as well.) But instead of presenting a great matchup to a crowd of enthusiastic UFC fans, he buckled under the pressure. Sure, some of those Swedish fans might have been disgusted or disinterested in Tate vs. Zingano. But maybe the fight could have helped change some perceptions.