Gegard Mousasi Reacts To Official Signing With Bellator MMA

The UFC and MMA community as a whole was dealt some big – even if it wasn’t all that surprising – news earlier today when a report surfaced that top UFC middleweight Gegard Mousasi had signed with UFC rival Bellator MMA. Well, that news was just confirmed by Mousasi, who appeared on today’s (Mon. July […]

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The UFC and MMA community as a whole was dealt some big – even if it wasn’t all that surprising – news earlier today when a report surfaced that top UFC middleweight Gegard Mousasi had signed with UFC rival Bellator MMA.

Well, that news was just confirmed by Mousasi, who appeared on today’s (Mon. July 10, 2017) edition of The MMA Hour” to officially discuss his move with Ariel Helwani:

“I’ve signed a six-fight deal with Bellator, and I’m looking forward to be champion there. If I achieve that, I’m looking forward to going up a division, and get the 205 belt, but first things first, first the middleweight belt, that’s my goal.”

Mousasi was then asked why he would go to the recent UFC fighter retreat if he wasn’t going to re-sign with the world MMA leader but he said that was just to meet with Dana White and his lawyers:

“I went to the retreat just because I wanted to have the meeting with Dana White and the UFC lawyers. Other than that, yeah, we were close, we negotiated up until the end. And, yeah, I think the best choice for me was to go to Bellator at the end.”

Then questioned if the UFC’s offers, which have clearly drawn the collective ire of many a fighter in the current WME-IMG era, was too low, “The Dreamcatcher” confirmed that the promotion did in fact go up in price as talks went on:

“Eventually at the end they went up with the offers. I think they would have gone even more up but I think they decided not to compete at the end because they knew at the end I was going almost. So that’s why, that was the reason. At the end they had a feeling I would go to Bellator.”

Kevin Hoffman for USA TODAY Sports

Yet overall, Mousasi had little beef with the UFC, and as he was perceivably close to a title shot in the octagon, he was undecided if he would stay or go in the moments after his controversial UFC 210 TKO victory over former champion Chris Weidman. Ultimately, he was simply looking for the best offer for himself and his career, and knew he could find it with Bellator and their president Scott Coker, whom he had worked with in Strikeforce:

“No, I think I’m so close to the belt, I’m as close as I could be to the belt, to fight for the belt. You know, I worked before with Scott Coker, so I have no problems going to Bellator. I know how I’m going to get treated on Bellator and the opportunities I will get there. But at that moment after the fight, I don’t know, I knew all the options were open and I wanted to have the best deal for me. And that was it. At the end, Bellator was the better choice for me.”

He continued on that, with the offers becoming comparably in dollar amount, his focus wasn’t only about the money, it was also about how he would be treated. In his eyes, it was of vast importance that the honest Coker respects fighters and delivers on what he says:

“UFC was getting close to the Bellator offer at the end, but it’s not just basically the money. Like I said, I’ve worked with Scott. When Scott promise you something he delivers. He’s an honest guy, he’s a mixed martial artist himself before, so you know, he treats fighters with respect, and that’s one of the things that was also very important for me to go to Bellator. What can I say? The money wasn’t just the factor.”

To Mousasi, he’s never heard one fighter talk bad about Coker, and that’s obviously something that unfortunately could never be said about the UFC or White, for that matter:

“You have ever heard some fighter talk bad about Scott Coker? Mention me one fighter who has ever said Scott Coker is a bad guy hasn’t treated me well. I think all the fighters who have went from UFC to Bellator, they had a relationship with Scott or they’re looking forward to working with Scott and Bellator.”

Finally, Mousasi chose to clarify he had no ill will towards the UFC, and was thankful to them for helping him achieve the top ranking that earned him the new Bellator deal, noting that Dana White always treated him with praise in the media:

“UFC has always treated me well to be honest. Dana White has also talked good about me. I’m thankful to them.

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New UFC 214 Promo Reminds Us How Much Jon Jones Has Wasted

On July 29, former light heavyweight champion Jon “Bones” Jones will look to redeem over five years of mistakes and regain the title that was stripped from him two years ago when he meets current UFC 205-pound champion Daniel Cormier in the main event of UFC 214 from the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. In a […]

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On July 29, former light heavyweight champion Jon “Bones” Jones will look to redeem over five years of mistakes and regain the title that was stripped from him two years ago when he meets current UFC 205-pound champion Daniel Cormier in the main event of UFC 214 from the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

In a new promotional video for the event by the UFC unveiled during last night’s UFC 213 pay-per-view from Las Vegas, a young Jones speaks of what it means to be a champion, and how it would define him as a man. But as young Jones said, “This is will be a test of who I really am,” recollections of his many legal troubles since he won the title flash on screen, reminding us of the years that he has lost.

Watch the telling, emotional video here, courtesy of the UFC:

The former pound-for-pound king and youngest-ever UFC champion may still arguably be the best mixed martial artist ever, but overall his is a story of tragedy, bad choices and wasted potential. A hit-and-run accident that left a 25-year-old pregnant Albuquerque woman with a broken arm, cocaine abuse, violation of parole, and a DWI in the last five years kept him in and out of the octagon that he dominated with such ease during his torrid champion-finishing tour of 2011-2012 where he bested former titleholders Shogun Rua, Rampage Jackson, Lyoto Machida, Rashad Evans, and Vitor Belfort in jaw-dropping succession.

In an interview with Joe Rogan last December, Bones opened up about his life, and most recently, being flagged by USADA, the UFC’s anti-doping agency, for a banned estrogen blocker prior to his anticipated grudge rematch with Daniel Cormier in the main event of last year’s UFC 200 after he beat “DC” by decision in their initial bout.

Due to his seedy past, it is obvious that his public relations strategy has changed, since he is now open about his actions instead of pretending they never happened. For a while, he was trying to paint himself as a benevolent victim instead of owning up to his actions, and it was clear that it was affecting his mental state, as evidenced by his lackluster performance against Ovince Saint Preux last year. But Jones dropped the act and has now embraced his bad boy persona, even using his actions to taunt his opponents.

In the UFC’s Summer Kickoff press conference, Jones told Cormier, “I beat you after a weekend of cocaine” Sheesh.

The UFC has also acknowledged Jones’ honesty as great promotional material, and is using it to write up a redemption story for the troubled 29-year-old star.

At UFC 214, Jones’ reckoning could come by way of knockout, submission, or decision. His fairy tale of defeating his demons and capturing ultimate greatness might be fulfilled, but a focused champion stands in his way.

Even his father, Pastor Arthur Jones, recognizes that his son “is his own worst enemy.” At the current time, there isn’t much more of an accurate view on the subject. Jones will face a career crossroads versus Cormier at UFC 214, and he may not have too many more second chances even if he is one of the UFC’s most well-known athletes.

We’ll soon find out if he is ready to be dominant once again, or if he is destined to be a tragic story of wasted greatness. If history would serve to tell us anything, the odds seem to unfortunately rest with the latter.

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Dana White Thinks Travis Browne Should Retire Following Latest Defeat

Known best for his media-heavy relationship with Ronda Rousey, UFC heavyweight Travis Browne nevertheless had his back against the proverbial wall when he met veteran mat technicican Oleksiy Oliynyk on the preliminary card of last night’s (Sat., July 8, 2017) UFC 213 from Las Vegas. “Hapa” went into the fight with losses in his three […]

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Known best for his media-heavy relationship with Ronda Rousey, UFC heavyweight Travis Browne nevertheless had his back against the proverbial wall when he met veteran mat technicican Oleksiy Oliynyk on the preliminary card of last night’s (Sat., July 8, 2017) UFC 213 from Las Vegas.

“Hapa” went into the fight with losses in his three prior bouts and four of his last five, with three T/KO defeats. The Hawaiian knockout artist was still ranked inside the top 10, a testament to the overall lack of depth at heavyweight rather than his recent results in the octagon. He nearly got back into the win column against Oliynyk last night, yet as he’s shown in recent losses, the onetime contender seems to let his opponent back in the fight.

Browne tagged his Russian counterpart with some big shots early, but couldn’t put him away and ended up getting constricted by the longtime submission specialist when he foolishly took him on in his area of strength. A fourth stoppage in six fights now blurring his record, Browne had made an alarming fall from grace compared to his torrid stretch of three straight “Knockout of the Night” performances in 2013.

That had Browne on the edge of title contention, but a one-sided beating in an April 2014 UFC on FOX main event against former champion Fabricio Werdum sent him crashing back down to Earth. Browne then decided to leave the world-renowned Jackson-Winkeljohn MMA to go to California and train at Edmond Tarverdyan’s Glendale Fight Club. He met and found love with Rousey there, but his fighting career has clearly taken a steep dive.

Dana White spoke up about just that during the UFC 213 post-fight presser, pointing out the unforgiving nature of the UFC and its fighters (quotes via MMA Fighting):

“It’s crazy,” White told reporters at the UFC 213 post-fight conference. “Travis Browne was one of those guys that before the ‘Bigfoot’ fight – and even in the ‘Bigfoot’ fight, I mean he got injured, he blew his hamstring, something weird happened to him – in that fight, the guy looked like he was going to be a world champion. This is one of those sports that you just never know. One minute you’re absolutely unbeatable or unstoppable and the next minute you can’t win a fight.”

Kyle Terada for USA TODAY Sports

Once feared as one of the most powerful fighters in the game, Browne now appears stiff and robotic in his stand-up, and has also come to show the aforementioned tendency to let his opponents back into the fight like he did in a recent loss to Derrick Lewis and again to Oliynyk at UFC 213. Most are quick to point to Tarverdyan’s tendency to ruin MMA fighters’ records as the main culprit for the fall, but ultimately it’s on the fighter to perform, and perhaps Browne has lost some of the focus that’s required to stay at the absolute top of the UFC.

There will always be a short window to be truly elite in MMA, and as White says, you never know just when it will close. Even if “Hapa” did decide to call it quits with a long climb back to relevancy staring him in the face, his life would be just fine getting married and raising a family with the most popular women’s MMA legend of all-time. The losses building, White offered the belief that Browne should hang up his gloves:

“I think that Travis should retire,” White said.

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Valentina Shevchenko Reacts To Amanda Nunes’ UFC 213 Withdrawal

Only hours before the fight was set to go down, the MMA world was dealt a disappointing blow earlier today (Sat., July 8, 2017) when it was announced that UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes had been hospitalized and was out of her title fight versus Valentina Shevchenko in the main event of tonight’s UFC […]

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Only hours before the fight was set to go down, the MMA world was dealt a disappointing blow earlier today (Sat., July 8, 2017) when it was announced that UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes had been hospitalized and was out of her title fight versus Valentina Shevchenko in the main event of tonight’s UFC 213 from Las Vegas.

The two top-ranked women’s bantamweights in the world by a solid margin, Nunes and Shevchenko have a long history with each other after their initial match at last year’s UFC 196, a fight which “The Lioness” won on the scorecards but was in trouble as she gassed in the third and final round, opening up the opportunity for “Bullet” to score enough that most feel she would have finished the fight where it a five-round affair.

That fight made the rematch one of the best and closely-contested affairs of a down 2017 for the UFC, so losing it naturally threw fans into an upheaval.

And Shevchenko understandably feels the same way, as she was set for the biggest fight of her long and decorated martial arts career after she won her way back to a rematch with Nunes, this time for the belt, by defeating Holly Holm and Julianna Pena. She released a statement containing her reaction on her official Instagram this evening:

“Today I am 100% ready for this fight. During the last 3 months of training I did everything to be in my best shape for this fight.  Nunes couldn’t cut weight correctly and was hospitalized. She wanted to cut weight and recover rapidly to have the advantage. The end result, everything went wrong.  Even though she was medically cleared to fight, she backed out.  This fight was originally offered to take place in April and she would not accept then.

“I did my part and am very upset that I can’t fight for the title today on this great event.  I am even more upset for all my dear fans who support me every time throughout the world and to those who traveled to see me fight here in Las Vegas live.  I feel frustrated about what happened but I won’t relax, will not put down energy in my preparation, and will wait until the UFC gives us another date for the fight.”

Photo: Ron Chenoy for USA TODAY Sports

“Bullet” is admittedly frustrated at the situation, where the rising Russian had many fans coming from far-off locales to see her fight in Las Vegas, costing them much of their time and hard-earned money for what amounted to nothing more than disappointment.

The same could be said for herself, as she was headed for by far the biggest payday of her four-fight UFC career in a bout that could have seen her accomplish her ultimate goal. She should have another chance soon, however, as UFC President Dana White hinted that Nunes vs. Shevchenko II could headline September’s UFC 215 from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Either way, Nunes may have some weight cutting issues to deal with as her rival suggested, and it’s just not a good look for a UFC champion to be withdrawing the day of a high-profile summer pay-per-view (PPV(0 event. Will it motivate “Bullet” to come out even stronger when they finally do throw down in the rematch?

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Joanna Jedrzejczyk ‘Begged’ To Replace Amanda Nunes At UFC 213

The MMA world is currently dealing with the shockwave sent through the sport when it was confirmed this afternoon that UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes had been forced out of her UFC 213 main event against Valentina Shevchenko after she had been hospitalized. With the odd scenario of a UFC pay-per-view main event being […]

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The MMA world is currently dealing with the shockwave sent through the sport when it was confirmed this afternoon that UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes had been forced out of her UFC 213 main event against Valentina Shevchenko after she had been hospitalized.

With the odd scenario of a UFC pay-per-view main event being canceled the day of the fight getting odder with each development, a top-ranked pound-for-pound fighter offered to step up a la Anderson Silva at UFC 200 to save the Fourth of July card for the UFC.

In Vegas for International Fight Week, women’s strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk offered to step in for the much bigger ‘Lioness’ and battle Shevchenko, who ironically beat “Joanna Champion” three times through her decorated combat sports career. Jedrzejczyk posted she was trying to make the fight happen on Instagram:

I spoke with @danawhite and the @ufc – we are going to try and make this fight happen! #ufc213

A post shared by Joanna Jedrzejczyk (@joannajedrzejczyk) on

In the video, Jedrzejczyk plead with White as she wrestled ATT coach Mike Brown, goading her boss to ‘make it happen’ in ‘their city’ and get the medicals done:

“Come on Dana, come on UFC,” she said on a video. “Make it happen. Talk to the commission. Let’s have the medicals done. This is your city. Come on Dana, make it happen. I’m in shape.”

But while she said she was in fighting shape on the Instagram video, Jedrzejczyk addressed the camera directly to admit that while she wasn’t quite in fight shape as of now, she was still willing to step in on short notice and “break” Shevchenko if the promotion needed that before offering a hello to Ronda Rousey (transcribed by MMA Junkie):

“OK guys – I just got phone call from Dana, and of course I’m not in shape to fight, 100 percent” Jedrzejczyk said. “But I’m going to be honest with you, if they want me, they need me today, I step into the octagon today. Tonight, I just break Valentina. And I feel sorry to her. Of course, Amanda is sick, it sucks. (Expletive) happens sometimes.

“But yeah.  So guys, train hard, train smart, and prepare well for the fight. I will see you later. Let me keep some training. And best regard to Ronda Rousey. I’m so sorry I couldn’t come today. Wish I could meet you, you the champ.”

UFC President Dana White also wrote his own Instagram post praising Jedrzejzyk, heaping attention on his 115-pound champion for being a “badass”:

But it wasn’t meant to be, ultimately, as White revealed to MMA Junkie’s John Morgan that the Nevada State Athletic Commission . (NSAC) would never let the bout take place on such short notice:

If they did, however, Shevchenko was apparently ready to go and fight Jedrzejczyk for the first UF 125-pound championship, a division that has been oft-discussed this year but yet to debut or crown a champion:

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Cyborg Hopes UFC Relations Improve Following White’s Comments

On July 29, 2017, Cris Cyborg Justino will finally get the chance to fight for a UFC title when she takes on reigning Invicta FC bantamweight champion Tony Evinger for the vacant UFC women’s featherweight strap at UFC 214 from Anaheim, California. Despite her success through two UFC bouts, Cyborg’s relationship with the promotion hasn’t […]

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On July 29, 2017, Cris Cyborg Justino will finally get the chance to fight for a UFC title when she takes on reigning Invicta FC bantamweight champion Tony Evinger for the vacant UFC women’s featherweight strap at UFC 214 from Anaheim, California.

Despite her success through two UFC bouts, Cyborg’s relationship with the promotion hasn’t gone as well as she had planned. UFC President Dana White recently admitted that he has made some ‘mistakes’ when dealing with Cyborg, which gave the Brazilian slugger hope that the situation could ‘change’:

“I hope it’s gonna change,” Cyborg said on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. “The last interview, Dana White said he did a lot of mistakes with Cyborg, maybe we can work together. I love my job. If my boss and my company loves working with me, we’re gonna have a lot of success together.

“I accepted that. Let’s see what’s gonna happen after that,” she continued. “Let’s see if not going to be just words, but if the practice in business is gonna change. We just have to work together. If you want to work together, for sure we can make a lot of money together. But we need to work together. After this interview, I think he opened the door for getting better.”

With her contract expiring in October, we could see Cyborg leave the world’s largest mixed martial arts promotion if conditions don’t improve, although she claims that she is currently only focused on her upcoming title fight:

“I’m gonna fight for the belt now, and then if I get the belt, this is gonna hold me one year, probably have a couple of fights too,” she said. “I really have to think about it. If the UFC is gonna work with me, how we’re gonna work together. If I’m happy there, if they show respect for me… let’s wait and just wants to make everybody happy, all my fans happy. I think everybody is gonna watch my fight because they waited so long for that day, let’s see after. I think after, when we work together and make money together, it changes.

“I know I have a lot of doors open for me if this doesn’t happen, but all my focus is my fight in the end of the month and then we see what’s going to happen. I hope everything will be okay.”

Love or hate her, there’s no denying that Cyborg is one of the most polarizing and controversial stars in all of the sport, and fostering a relationship with her, especially in the absence of her onetime media rival Ronda Rousey, can only behoove a UFC in need of legitimately bankable pay-per-view (PPV) stars.

Based on the sheer amount of coverage and speculation for her awaited UFC 214 return alone, it’s become clear that Cyborg is one of their biggest and most dependable names, and improving their treatment of her, which could be described as ‘rough’ in the past, will only serve to gain them what they desire most – numbers.

What do you make of Cyborg’s most recent comments?

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