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Anthony Pettis Says He Was ‘Fat Dude’ At Featherweight

Anthony Pettis will make his welterweight debut against former title contender Stephen Thompson in the main event of tonight’s (Sat., March 23, 2019) UFC on ESPN+ 6 from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. Former UFC champion ‘Showtime’ has finally ditched the draining weight cuts down to lightweight and even featherweight. He’s understandably feeling rejuvenated […]

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Anthony Pettis will make his welterweight debut against former title contender Stephen Thompson in the main event of tonight’s (Sat., March 23, 2019) UFC on ESPN+ 6 from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.

Former UFC champion ‘Showtime’ has finally ditched the draining weight cuts down to lightweight and even featherweight. He’s understandably feeling rejuvenated in doing so. Following an up-and-down run the past few years, Pettis is going the path many fighters have and ditching a huge cut. But there was a time shortly after he lost the 155-pound title that he thought dropping down to 145 pounds was a good idea.

Pettis opened up to MMA Fighting about how bad that was for his body. You may think that cutting down to featherweight would make him skinnier, but he said it actually made him fat. He became constipated because of it and felt the effects for months:

“At 45, I was really, really bad. I only did it for the title. I thought, if I could be champ in another division, let’s do it. But that was really rough on my body, man. It probably took me a couple months before I could even like digest my food right. When I ate, I just felt like I was in a constant constipated state. I couldn’t like digest my food. It just held everything. I was just looking fat, looking chubby. I’m not usually a fat dude. I think that weight cut just hurt my body.”

Welterweight Debut

‘Showtime’ then discussed his move up to welterweight. He claims that he felt confident in his skill level in the division, so he just needed a big fight. He discussed it with his coach Duke Roufus and decided the No. 4 Thompson was the perfect match.

Pettis got the fight. The only thing left, he said, was to recoup his energy after stopping his weight cuts:

“I already know the skill level is there,” Pettis said. “I just gotta get that energy back to where it’s supposed to be at, I think the weight cut has a lot to do with it, I told Duke I wanted to fight at 170, we looked at the roster. ‘Wonderboy’ made sense. Ranked No. 4 in the world. If I’m gonna try it, I might as well do it right.”

To him, the biggest difference is that he could actually work out for his fights now. He described the weight cut as making his brain foggy from dehydration. Now, however, he has his energy back:

“The biggest thing is the mental,” Pettis said. “Your brain isn’t foggy because you’re dehydrated. You’re not zapped of your energy. You can work out. I have energy to get ready for this fight.”

Wrestling Defense

Weight cut aside, Pettis has obviously been susceptible to wrestling offense in his rollercoaster run of the past four years. That was once a knock on Thompson, too, yet ‘Showtime’ praised him for adapting in a talented division:

“My style has been hindered because of the wrestling and I think he adapted to it well. He made these guys fight his style, at his range. He has great takedown defense. And he’s not like an offensive wrestler. So I think that leaves us with a stand-up fight. A whole lot of ninja shit will be happening — spins, jumps, flashy kicks. For us, it’s normal. It’s not like we’re trying to be flashy. That’s just how we fight.”

But his praise stopped there, with Pettis insisting Thompson couldn’t do much he hadn’t seen before:

“I just feel like there’s not much he can do to me,” Pettis said. “The side kicks, the round kicks, I’ve seen that so many times. He’s gonna throw straight punches and try to get my head to lean back for the traditional round kick. It’s offspeed, that’s why it throws all these kickboxers off. No one throws those kind of kicks in sparring, because it’s kickboxers usually sparring with us.”

Ultimately, the difference, at least for Pettis, was the fact that he actually trained to fight in Nashville:

“I got ready for a fight this camp,” Pettis said. “I didn’t get ready for a weight cut. The results will show.”

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Dustin Poirier: UFC Didn’t Give Me Fights That Made Sense

With three straight stoppage wins against elite competition, Dustin Poirier finally has his UFC title shot. Poirier will face featherweight champion Max Holloway for the interim UFC lightweight belt in the main event of April 13’s UFC 236 from the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia. It may not be the official title bout he […]

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With three straight stoppage wins against elite competition, Dustin Poirier finally has his UFC title shot.

Poirier will face featherweight champion Max Holloway for the interim UFC lightweight belt in the main event of April 13’s UFC 236 from the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia. It may not be the official title bout he desires, but it’s a step towards securing that (hopefully).

‘The Diamond’ has been out of action since an electric TKO win over former rival Eddie Alvarez at last July’s UFC Calgary. He believed that victory – his third finish in eight months – had earned him a title shot at the winner of UFC 229’s Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Conor McGregor main event. But when both ‘The Eagle’ and the infamous MMA megastar were suspended for their post-fight brawl, the division was thrust into even more uncertainty.

At The Pinnacle

That set Poirier’s long-running quest for a UFC title back by an indefinite amount of time. He finally arrived at his goal, however, and he’s ready to climb that mountain. It’s been a long road, true, but Poirier told MMA Junkie Radio that he is a unique individual. Because of that, his next fight is the culmination of his life’s work to this point:

“I just feel like I’m different than a lot of these guys. When I set my mind to something, I find ways to make it happen by any means. Since I was 17, 18 years old, I set the goal to be a world champion in mixed martial arts, and in my amateur career, I won some small belts. In my pro career, I won some small belts, and now we’re at the pinnacle. It’s time to collect this one.”

He’s at the relative peak in a sense now, yet the work is far from done. Still, it’s a welcome departure from the spot he was in just months ago. He believed he was being put on ice because of other fighters’ mistakes while he was simply winning his fights:

“That’s just the business of what we do at the highest level,” Poirier said. “I was just in a rough spot, I felt like I was being put on the shelf for other people’s actions. I did nothing but show up and fight, make weight, and leave it all out there every time I went in.”

No Fights

Khabib and McGregor toiled in limbo as they awaited their brawl punishments from the NSAC. Poirier said he was receiving no real fight offers as a result. When they did receive said punishment, the clarity he thought would follow wasn’t there immediately. All he wanted, he claimed, was a big match that made sense for where he was:

“I wasn’t getting fights that made sense, I thought. I wasn’t getting any offers, actually, and I felt like that was because of the whole situation at the top of the division with the champion and the top-ranked guy, Conor, being suspended. We were all waiting for that hearing to happen, and when it finally happened, I was assuming there would be some clarity at the top of the division immediately after, and then a couple of weeks went by and there was still no – nothing started moving.

“So I was like, ‘Dude, what’s going on here?’ you know? I just got really frustrated and wanted to fight and wanted a fight that made sense.”

A Lot To Prove

But despite that relative low point in the game, Poirier said he still loves fighting. Poirier is in a good place mentally, but he’s not done. He’s pumped up about his next fight and believes he still has a lot to accomplish in fighting:

“It’s still a rush, and it’s still – I’m anxious for this fight, and I still have all those feelings I always had, so this is still a lot of fun to me, but at this point in my career, I’ve made a decent living for me and my family. I have a daughter now, and I’m just happy for all the sacrifices that I have made along my career, and the ups and downs that helped make me into the person that I am right now. I’m just good.

“I’m happy with what I’ve done in mixed martial arts, but I’m not satisfied. I’ve got more to do, and I’m just enjoying the journey.”

Fighting Holloway

Taking that next step in his nearly nine-year career under the Zuffa banner will require defeating the surging Holloway. There’s no denying that “Blessed” is one of MMA’s most complete rising stars. Poirier believes it only takes one mistake to change all that, however. He thinks he can take on and finish the Hawaiian champion anywhere the fight goes:

“He seems really well-rounded, honestly, but I have a lot of belief in myself and my ability to make things happen in combat and in the fight,” Poirier said. “All I need is one – one mistake – for him to dip his head the wrong way or to grab me the wrong way or to get up off the ground the wrong way or take a shot. I can finish the fight anywhere.

“I feel like I’m very well-balanced and there’s not a place the fight can go that I don’t have an answer to something he’s doing. All I need is one mistake or one opportunity, and I’m going to take full advantage of it, and I can finish the fight again.”

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Kamaru Usman Plans On Putting ‘Immigrant’ Style Beatdown On ‘Entitled’ Colby Covington

Recently crowned welterweight champion Kamaru Usman plans on putting an ‘immigrant’ style beatdown on Colby Covington. As a new UFC champion, you have to make your rounds. There’s the increased amount of media obligations as well as the increased fan appearances. But in mixed martial arts, you haven’t mad it until you have sat opposite […]

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Recently crowned welterweight champion Kamaru Usman plans on putting an ‘immigrant’ style beatdown on Colby Covington.

As a new UFC champion, you have to make your rounds. There’s the increased amount of media obligations as well as the increased fan appearances. But in mixed martial arts, you haven’t mad it until you have sat opposite Joe Rogan on his podcast.

And that’s exactly what the new welterweight champion did on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast on Monday (March 18, 2019). As a potential fight between he and Covington looms, Usman, who comes from a family of immigrants, looks forward to putting a life-changing beatdown on the outspoken title challenger.

“Part of what this next fight symbolizes to me is the attitude that a lot of people have towards immigrants,” Usman told Rogan (h/t MMAJunkie). “A lot of people forget that Americans are immigrants. People are forgetting that, to where people have this attitude, ‘We’re Americans, go back to your country. Go back. This is a free country.’ I always heard that growing up. I always heard that.

“The more I research it’s like, ‘What? What are you talking about’ This whole attitude? When you walk into a nail shop to get your hands and feet and nails done – who are the majority of the people who run those nail shops? Asians. I’m not saying all of them in the country, but a majority of them are Asians. But there’s a whole bunch of people who look down on them like, ‘I’m not washing your feet. I’m not going to do your nails.’ Those people do that because they take pride in that, it helps them. They do that. That’s not a job people want to do it.

“When you go to hotels, who are the maids who work at most of those hotels? A lot of them are immigrants. We take pride in that because we’re in a better place and want to provide for our families. Those are jobs a lot of people, the so-called ‘Americans,’ the whole Colby Covington persona are like, ‘I’m above that.’

“That’s the persona.”

Usman believes that Americans claim immigrants are taking their jobs when they are jobs they don’t even want to do. Because of that attitude, Usman wants to bring the energy of every immigrant down on Covington in the fight:

“But at the same time, people want to cry, ‘They’re taking our jobs, let’s build a wall, let’s keep them out, they’re taking our jobs.’ No, they’re providing, they’re helping this country get to its height. The fact you can come here and have someone do your nails, have someone clean your house, someone wash your car, someone do all this for you, is part of what makes America so great. One of the greatest nations in the world. The fact they want to build a wall, they want to keep these people out, ‘you can’t come here, you can’t bring your culture.’

“It saddens me and it upsets me. Its part of when this fight happens, this fight represents for me, because I feel like this is the attitude this young man has. He’s entitled to, ‘I should be UFC champ, you’re a soy boy, you can’t handle me, boy.’ That’s his attitude, ‘You can’t do this boy.’ First of all, who’s your boy? I’m a grown ass man. Don’t (expletive) talk to me like that. That’s the attitude he has.

“He’s entitled to this: ‘I should be the champion, I’m American.’ Bro, we’re all American here. This fight is greater than just a guy who is talking (expletive). This fight means a lot to me. So when I get the chance to put my hands on this guy, just know that it’s the wrath of every immigrant in this country that I’m going to put on him.”

The mild-mannered Usman is yet to find himself in a situation where he personally dislikes an opponent. However, that all may change if “The Nigerian Nightmare” does defend his title against Covington. And if that happens, the champ doesn’t like the challenger’s chances.

“I haven’t been in a fight yet where it was malicious, where I was maliciously trying to hurt someone,” Usman said. “I haven’t been in that fight. My mind is strong. I don’t compete, ‘Oh, I want to kill this guy.’ Then you swing five punches and miss and you’re dead tired. I don’t compete like that. This one, I’m still going to compete like myself, but there’s a little extra, ‘Oomph’ behind those elbows now. I’m going to filet your face. This win is going to be one I really enjoy.”

As for when Usman will make his first title defense, that remains to be seen. He is just days removed from a serious surgery, so a return to the Octagon is not likely any time soon. Besides, now that he is the top dog in the welterweight division he needs to make sure his body is in tip top shape. After all, Usman does turn 32 in May.

“I have to get healthy first,” Usman said. “For a long, long time I’ve been fighting hurt. I’ve been fighting hurt for so long. There’s been training camps where I could barely walk. For the last two years, my daughter has been laughing at me because I walk down the stairs backwards. It relieves pressure on my knees. My daughter laughs at me. There was a time I couldn’t walk.”

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Ben Askren Claims Jorge Masvidal Is Ducking Him

Ben Askren flew to last weekend’s London with the hope of facing the winner of the Jorge Masvidal vs. Darren Till main event. Of course, it seemed like he wanted Till to win. Now that Masvidal has, however, Askren claims the rising star is ducking him. The vet picked up a shocking second-round knockout over […]

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Ben Askren flew to last weekend’s London with the hope of facing the winner of the Jorge Masvidal vs. Darren Till main event. Of course, it seemed like he wanted Till to win. Now that Masvidal has, however, Askren claims the rising star is ducking him.

The vet picked up a shocking second-round knockout over hometown favorite Till, flooring him with a perfect overhand left to silence the crowd. After the win, Masvidal called for a title shot in his post-fight interview with Dan Hardy. “Funky” believes that’s a way to avoid fighting him. He revealed his opinion on the post-fight show (via MMA Fighting) that Masvidal doesn’t deserve a title shot after one huge win following two straight defeats:

“I would love to fight [Masvidal], but like I said, you heard that post-fight speech, I think he’s trying to find reasons not to fight me. He’s talking about fight for the belt — prior to this fight, he had two losses in a row. You don’t go from losing two [in a row] to winning one and then all of a sudden you have a belt when there’s all these guys in front of you. It just doesn’t work that way.”

Similar to Masvidal, however, Askren called for his own title shot against newly-crowned champion Kamaru Usman after his UFC debut win over Robbie Lawler at UFC 235. He most likely won’t get that shot, as it’s slated to go to former interim champ Colby Covington. Askren said he’d love to bypass Covington but also doesn’t think Usman wants to fight him either:

“No one likes Colby,” Askren said. “I don’t like Colby. I would love to skip over him and fight Usman, but it doesn’t seem like Usman wants that either. He’s not keeping that same energy, as the kids say. I would love to have him call me out. He didn’t. So, again, I thought Till was going to win tonight. I think we’ll go reevaluate. I’d love to fight Masvidal.”

It’s plain to see Askren was hoping to fight Till soon, especially after “The Gorilla” crashed his fan Q&A last Friday. While it would have been a great match-up, Askren’s next fight is now up in the air. Many including Dana White have detailed how he should rematch Lawler after his UFC debut ended in most likely the most controversial UFC moment of 2019 thus far. To that, “Funky” said he always wanted to face Till and only accepted Lawler when they offered.

He doesn’t see how a rematch improves his positioning:

“The first guy I asked [the UFC] for was Darren Till actually, and then they said how about Robbie Lawler,” Askren said. “I said, ‘Listen, I’m here to fight everybody, so if you want me to fight Robbie Lawler, I’ll fight.’ It didn’t take more than a phone call, right? I’ll fight Robbie Lawler, no big deal. But I didn’t want to. And so now I did it once and they want me to go do again. I just, I don’t see how that moves me farther up, and that’s where I want to go, I want to move farther up.”

Now that the welterweight waters are a bit murkier, Askren doesn’t know who his next fight will be against. He’ll have to discuss things with the UFC and go from there:

“I genuinely don’t know,” Askren said. “They haven’t brought the fight to me yet. They haven’t asked me to do it. I said I’d reevaluate after tonight, so I guess tomorrow maybe we’ll be talking to them and we’ll figure out what’s going to happen.”

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Ben Askren Claims Jorge Masvidal Is Ducking Him

Ben Askren flew to last weekend’s London with the hope of facing the winner of the Jorge Masvidal vs. Darren Till main event. Of course, it seemed like he wanted Till to win. Now that Masvidal has, however, Askren claims the rising star is ducking him. The vet picked up a shocking second-round knockout over […]

The post Ben Askren Claims Jorge Masvidal Is Ducking Him appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Ben Askren flew to last weekend’s London with the hope of facing the winner of the Jorge Masvidal vs. Darren Till main event. Of course, it seemed like he wanted Till to win. Now that Masvidal has, however, Askren claims the rising star is ducking him.

The vet picked up a shocking second-round knockout over hometown favorite Till, flooring him with a perfect overhand left to silence the crowd. After the win, Masvidal called for a title shot in his post-fight interview with Dan Hardy. “Funky” believes that’s a way to avoid fighting him. He revealed his opinion on the post-fight show (via MMA Fighting) that Masvidal doesn’t deserve a title shot after one huge win following two straight defeats:

“I would love to fight [Masvidal], but like I said, you heard that post-fight speech, I think he’s trying to find reasons not to fight me. He’s talking about fight for the belt — prior to this fight, he had two losses in a row. You don’t go from losing two [in a row] to winning one and then all of a sudden you have a belt when there’s all these guys in front of you. It just doesn’t work that way.”

Similar to Masvidal, however, Askren called for his own title shot against newly-crowned champion Kamaru Usman after his UFC debut win over Robbie Lawler at UFC 235. He most likely won’t get that shot, as it’s slated to go to former interim champ Colby Covington. Askren said he’d love to bypass Covington but also doesn’t think Usman wants to fight him either:

“No one likes Colby,” Askren said. “I don’t like Colby. I would love to skip over him and fight Usman, but it doesn’t seem like Usman wants that either. He’s not keeping that same energy, as the kids say. I would love to have him call me out. He didn’t. So, again, I thought Till was going to win tonight. I think we’ll go reevaluate. I’d love to fight Masvidal.”

It’s plain to see Askren was hoping to fight Till soon, especially after “The Gorilla” crashed his fan Q&A last Friday. While it would have been a great match-up, Askren’s next fight is now up in the air. Many including Dana White have detailed how he should rematch Lawler after his UFC debut ended in most likely the most controversial UFC moment of 2019 thus far. To that, “Funky” said he always wanted to face Till and only accepted Lawler when they offered.

He doesn’t see how a rematch improves his positioning:

“The first guy I asked [the UFC] for was Darren Till actually, and then they said how about Robbie Lawler,” Askren said. “I said, ‘Listen, I’m here to fight everybody, so if you want me to fight Robbie Lawler, I’ll fight.’ It didn’t take more than a phone call, right? I’ll fight Robbie Lawler, no big deal. But I didn’t want to. And so now I did it once and they want me to go do again. I just, I don’t see how that moves me farther up, and that’s where I want to go, I want to move farther up.”

Now that the welterweight waters are a bit murkier, Askren doesn’t know who his next fight will be against. He’ll have to discuss things with the UFC and go from there:

“I genuinely don’t know,” Askren said. “They haven’t brought the fight to me yet. They haven’t asked me to do it. I said I’d reevaluate after tonight, so I guess tomorrow maybe we’ll be talking to them and we’ll figure out what’s going to happen.”

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Max Holloway Destroys Conor McGregor’s Late-Night Callout

Conor McGregor was clearly in a sort of nostalgic mood when he pumped up the Boston Bruins before their NHL game last night. After doing so, he took to social media to remind Max Holloway about his victory over him almost six years ago. Now it’s time Holloway destroys that flimsy callout, however. McGregor got […]

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Conor McGregor was clearly in a sort of nostalgic mood when he pumped up the Boston Bruins before their NHL game last night. After doing so, he took to social media to remind Max Holloway about his victory over him almost six years ago. Now it’s time Holloway destroys that flimsy callout, however.

McGregor got the ball rolling by posting two pictures of a 21-year-old Holloway from their fight in August 2013, one during the bout and one after he lost to McGregor:

Holloway wasn’t having it, though, calling out McGregor for attempting to “relive his best years in Boston.” He reminded McGregor that he was only 21 for that fight, and also what he has now become:

Holloway brought up the fact that the recently retired Dennis Bermudez also beat him that summer as well:

So beating the 21-year-old version of ‘Blessed; was a small trophy on its own. Holloway then pointed out the much better trophies he shares with no one else because of his recent record of accomplishments:

Holloway seemed to be incredibly fired up as a result of McGregor’s latest callout. He closed by offering his view that he would also beat the 21-year-old Holloway due to his noted improvement.

Holloway claimed he would have finished his younger self. He also wouldn’t have torn his ACL as McGregor did as a result:

The gloves seem to be off between these two former and perhaps current rivals. McGregor has hinted at a return this July. Holloway, meanwhile, will face Dustin Poirier for the interim title in the main event of April 13’s UFC 236.

It may not happen, but a rematch would be big business thanks to their history.

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