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Justin Gaethje has been involved in two ‘Fight of the Year’ candidates in his two years with the UFC, but he feels he has little to show for it.

He was scheduled to fight Al Iaquinta in the main event of August’s UFC Lincoln, yet had to settle for James Vick when Iaquinta withdrew for a new contract. Gaethje won that fight by thunderous first-round knockout. He just doesn’t feel like it’s gotten him anywhere.

Iaquinta, meanwhile, got his new deal and faced top contender Kevin Lee at UFC Milwaukee.

When he won that fight via decision, Iaquinta shot up the lightweight ranks, even passing Gaethje. ‘The Highlight’ recently told ESPN.com he wants the UFC to reschedule a fight with Iaquinta but doesn’t think he would accept it. That has him angry about his position in the UFC, where he doesn’t feel rewarded for the exciting fights he’s fought in:

“I’m f—ing pissed, man. I’m pissed about a lot of things. I’ve been involved in Fight of the Year the last two years, and that’s all f—ing cool and it sounds good to fans, but I don’t get a damn thing for that.

“It’s bulls—. NFL players get bonuses for sacks, completions, rushing yards, whatever. I go out and put it on the line like I do, and I pretty much get s— on.”

A Big Fight Coming

Gaethje may have a good point there. It seems the sport of MMA has gotten to a sort of tipping point where fighters are ready to speak out over perceived poor treatment from the UFC. Until they are willing to organize and/or unionize, however, nothing is going to get done. In the meantime, Gaethje also knows he can’t sit around and do nothing in a division as stacked as 155.

With that in mind, he plans on facing Edson Barboza next:

“Barboza is up there,” Gaethje said. “He’s a scary fight, but I like being scared. And that’s a fight that me, as a fan, would want to see. I know how much fans would love something like that. So I’ll go out there and try to finish that dude with leg kicks.”

Indeed that would be quite the sight to witness. Overall Gaethje knows he can’t further his own legacy on the sidelines, so he’s willing to fight whomever the UFC recommends despite his current discord:

“I’m trying to create a legacy, and you don’t create a legacy by bitching. I’ll fight the next in line. Whoever they send me a contract for, I’ll fight him.”

Paid In Full?

There’s no denying Gaethje is one of the most entertaining fighters inside the cage. His bouts are almost always all-out battles due to his style of constantly moving forward. Due to that fact, he believes he should be paid his full fight purse each bout, not only if he wins. He’s brought that up to the UFC before. He acknowledged he had a good conversation with his bosses recently.

And while he is paid well for his efforts, he thinks he’s earned every penny of it:

“They should say, ‘Yes, you deserve it, congratulations,’ and put it all over the media,” Gaethje said. “Let everyone know there is a way to achieve that. They should use me as an example for that — but I’m pretty biased when it comes to myself.

“The conversation was good. They respect what I do and they pay me a lot of money. That’s the truth. But I’ve also earned every bit of it.”

Most fans wouldn’t argue with that assessment in the slightest. But in today’s uncertain UFC climate for fighters, you’re only as good as your last performance. While Gaethje’s last fight was a great win, it wasn’t necessarily over an opponent that would elevate his public status in any way.

He’s most likely justified to feel that his star power is stagnating as a result, so a win over an exciting striker like Barboza should help him get back on track.

The post Justin Gaethje Is ‘F***ing Pissed’ About Position Within UFC appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

UFC two-division champ Daniel Cormier has long hinted that his MMA career will be over soon.

The decorated pound-for-pound king said he would ride off into the sunset after facing Brock Lesnar following his UFC 226 title win over Stipe Miocic last summer. But uncertainty surrounding Lesnar’s eligibility due to drug tests has left that fight up in the air right now. In the time since, Cormier’s hated rival Jon Jones returned and won the light heavyweight title back when ‘DC’ vacated it before UFC 232.

After Jones defeated Alexander Gustafsson, hype for a trilogy bout between “Bones” and Cormier took the forefront of many discussions in fighting. Jones said he wouldn’t move up to heavyweight for the fight, however, and signed on for a reported title defense against Anthony Smith at UFC 235. That’s left Cormier’s next move uncertain. Dana White has voiced his desire for Cormier to fight three more times. His AKA head coach Javier Mendez has hinted that may be the case.

When He’s Gone

Either way, Cormier will be 40 years old in March, and his time in the sport is winding down. When he does finally step away, he’ll justifiably miss a lot about fighting. ‘DC’ touched on just what he’ll miss most during a recent appearance on ‘The Jim Rome Podcast’ (quotes via MMA News). For him, it’s the excitement that precludes a fight that he will miss most:

“The walk, the tunnel. It is just fantastic. You walk out of that locker room and it’s almost like you’re about to head to a funeral. Everybody is worried and nervous and then the music hits the speakers and all that fear turns into butterflies and your skin starts to crawl and you’re like, ‘Okay, let’s go. Let’s go do what I really know I was made to do.’

“You get to compete again, Daniel Cormier, so go out there and do it in a way that you know you can do it. Go and fight this man. Go and try to take this guy that’s trained and been living in the gym for the past eight weeks to prepare to try and beat you and take this title, you go out there and you give him no reason to believe he could ever be the champion. That just makes me shoot out of that tunnel. That’s why I run. I have a fire in my pants that tells me I need to go and do business. I’m going to miss the walk.”

Thrill Of The Octagon

For the once-champ-champ, there’s one solitary moment of solitude right before a fight that helps his define his MMA experience. It’s something few truly know about, and another aspect of MMA Cormier will miss:

“I’m going to miss stepping into the Octagon. I’m going to miss that moment that it’s me in there and it’s [Bruce] Buffer and it’s my opponent and the referee and the commission and then I take three steps back after we shake hands and I look across and I look to my left and I look to my right and nobody else is there anymore. It’s just me, that official and that guy.”

Finally, Cormier opened up about a minute detail of each UFC event that most fans don’t know about. That moment is the dropping of the pin to lock the Octagon. That signifies it’s truly him vs. his opponent for Cormier, and another part of fighting he’ll miss most:

“From day one to now, every time they put that pin in the cage. 18,000, 20,000, 13,000 [people in attendance], I’ve heard it. I heard that little ping. I’ve heard that ping of that little pin dropping into that holster. I’ll miss hearing that and then the feeling that you get when you know that at this point it’s either you or him. That’s what I’m going to miss.”

It’s apparent that Cormier has a true respect for the fight game. He’ll no doubt be missed when he does finally step down, but should be present on UFC broadcasts for some time to come. We still have a little time left to revel in ‘DC’s’ greatness, however, even if we don’t know what that means just yet.

One thing is certain. When Cormier retires, the sport of MMA will lose one of its greatest-ever competitors.

The post Daniel Cormier Details What He’ll Miss Most About MMA After Retirement appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Former interim welterweight champion Colby Covington has been on a rampage following word that Tyron Woodley would face Kamaru Usman at March 2’s UFC 235.

He first claimed he was open to leaving the UFC after he was snubbed for the title shot, but things only devolved from there. Covington then later divulged a supposed ‘power play’ between the UFC and Usman’s manager Ali Abdelaziz. He even insisted he was going to confront UFC President Dana White and ‘get up in his face’:

All of that has the UFC and White on Covington’s hit list. And as you’d expect, he isn’t letting up. He challenged the UFC’s public face on MMAjunkie Radio last night. Covington offered a not-so-subtle test for White, daring him to release him to ‘show how big his balls were’:

“Dana White’s out in the media saying ‘Colby’s not taking the fights, we don’t allow that in the UFC. He can go fight somewhere else,’” Covington said. “So what I’m saying is, OK, Dana. Let’s see if you’re a man of your balls, let’s see if you’re a man of your word. Let’s see if you can stick to what you say. You said you don’t allow that in the UFC? All right. I’m testing you, mother(expletive). Let’s see how big your balls are. Release me, b—h.”

As for Usman, Covington accused him of being a UFC stooge and talking his way into a title fight. It wouldn’t ultimately matter to Covington, however, because he said Usman would never beat him:

“He sucked off some people at the UFC and played that little role, so good for him – he gets to leapfrog the No. 1 fighter in the world. But let’s make it clear that he’ll never be the No. 1 fighter in the world because he’ll never beat me and, neither will either one of those scrubs. I’m the No. 1 fighter in the world and nobody’s (expletive) stopping me.”

With the sexual innuendos on full blast, Covington turned his attention back to White. He revealed that he doesn’t have a real relationship with White. They did go to visit President Donald Trump at the White House last year yet apparently, that was just for show. Covington closed by blasting White with an all-out barrage. He said the UFC President was a product of riding former owner Lorenzo Fertitta’s coattails and had cashed out.

Covington also claimed White has ‘no morals or values’:

“I don’t really have a relationship with Dana White, and I don’t give a (expletive) about him. He’s cashing out. He made all the money off the fans, all the fans that built this sport, and they sold for $4 billion.

“And the reason the sport even is what it is is because of Lorenzo. So Dana hasn’t even done anything. He (was) just Lorenzo’s little check boy. He holds his coat for him and stuff. Dana’s already cashed out. He got all that money, and he let it get to his head. He’s a piece of (expletive) person, and he has no morals or values.”

The post Colby Covington Challenges Dana White: Let’s See How Big Your B***s Are appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Luke Rockhold’s official UFC return is unknown, but he’s inserting himself into the light heavyweight title picture nonetheless. He recently said he was coming for ‘princess’ Jon Jones when he finally ditches the draining weight cut to middleweight.

We all know that Jones’ arch-rival is Daniel Cormier, Rockhold’s close friend and longtime training partner. Talk of a third fight between Jones and Cormier has run rampant since “Bones” won the UFC 205-pound title back by beating Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 232. Jones won’t move up to heavyweight where Cormier is currently the champ, however. It’s unlikely that Cormier, in turn, cuts back down to light heavyweight to face Jones in what could be the last year of his MMA career.

Their trilogy fight was also further put on the backburner when it was revealed Jones will face rising star Anthony Smith at March’s UFC 235. According to Rockhold on today’s episode of The MMA Hour, that’s a cop-out. He believes Jones and Cormier walk around at roughly the same weight and should, therefore, fight at heavyweight. If not, well, he’s coming for Jones at 205 pounds:

“Jones walks around 240 and ‘DC’ walks around 240, fight where you are, fight where you are naturally. If you’re the baddest man on the planet, stop trying to pick off guys like Anthony Smith and let’s stop talking about ‘DC’ the champ-champ and go up to fight him where he’s at, where he is the baddest man on the planet. If you want to talk about it, go up and fight him go up to where he’s at, otherwise stay where you are at and I will come to you.”

Doesn’t Want To Fight DC?

Rockhold claims Jones doesn’t want to fight Cormier at heavyweight anyway. In his mind, Jones is compensating for something by testing positive for steroids. That all boils down to Jones being less than confident he could topple Cormier at heavyweight, where he’s much more powerful:

“Jones does not want that fight. He doesn’t want a fight with ‘DC’ at heavyweight. He doesn’t want to give him any confidence. He’s obviously taken what he can to build his confidence to fight him at light heavyweight. We all know he’s tested dirty twice in a row now or three times, I don’t know what it is.

“Picograms, or whatever the hell they are. He is obviously compensating for something trying to build himself up. ‘DC’ at heavyweight is a much more dangerous fighter; he’s looser, moving people, I’ve seen him in the gym. Jones picked his words wisely on trying to bait ‘DC’ on trying to come back down.”

Jones may indeed attempt to bait ‘DC’ back down to light heavyweight, and it may work based on the long history the two all-time greats share with one another. That will have to wait until Jones fights Smith and Cormier potentially fights Brock Lesnar, making the resolution of their rivalry incredibly unclear right now.

They may never fight again if Jones truly won’t move up to heavyweight. Based on how Rockhold performs at 205, that could actually help him out in a way. But he’s got a lot of work to do, even if he’s doing quite a good job of laying the groundwork for that rivalry.

The post Luke Rockhold: Jon Jones Is ‘Compensating For Something,’ Won’t Fight ‘DC’ appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Earlier this morning, Dana White confirmed that Jon Jones would take on Anthony Smith at UFC 235 in the first title defense of his new reign.

As with most “Bones” bouts, the fight actually happening rests on Jones’ ability to get licensed by the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC). He’s scheduled to appear at their next hearing on January 29. The champ’s latest issue with performance-enhancing drugs stems from multiple flagged USADA drug tests this year. Jones was found to have Turinabol in his system.

With that drug being the last banned substance he was suspended for, the NSAC declined to license Jones for December 29’s UFC 232. The CSAC did, and he won the title by defeating Alexander Gustafsson. Talk of “Bones” rematching Daniel Cormier ran wild. However, momentum for Jones vs. Smith was already building. Smith called out the controversial MMA great on the UFC 232 post-fight show, and the rivalry blossomed on social media. Jones wanted to get back into the cage sooner than later, so the fight was made for March.

It’s great for the UFC to keep Jones active as one of their top pay-per-view stars. He can potentially begin building trust back with his fans and make up for the lost time of his suspensions. A fight with Cormier may not be around for much longer, however. Regardless, “DC” probably wouldn’t have fought Jones at UFC 235 anyway, so Smith was undoubtedly the most deserving next man up.

Smith’s Rise

And he is, with two knockout wins over Rashad Evans and Shogun Rua preceding a submission win over previous No. 2 Volkan Oezdemir in 2018. It was a momentous year for “Lionheart,” one that proved the merits of ditching the draining weight cuts seen far too often in MMA. He was at least one media outlet’s pick for ‘Comeback Fighter of the Year.’ It was a meteoric rise in a division that quite frankly needed a new star.

They got it with Smith, but it’s more than fair to wonder if he will keep his momentum rolling against Jones. The warning signs are there. For all of Evans and Shoguns’ past accomplishments, they were aging fighters Jones had already defeated. They simply couldn’t hang with an up-and-coming force like “Lionheart.” The more dangerous current contender Oezdemir gave him more of a fight. Yes, Smith got an impressive finish in the end, but he also had his back taken against a known striker in “No Time.”

Warning Signs

Smith also appeared to tire somewhat in that fight. If he does against Jones, who looked none the worse for wear after another long layoff at UFC 232, it could be a long (or short) night for him. It’s not to discredit Smith’s talent or accomplishments; there’s just no room for error when facing a man who would be the best fighter in MMA history if not for his out-of-the-cage troubles.

Smith appears more than mentally ready, approaching his rivalry with Jones in a tactful-yet-forceful manner. He picked his spots on social media but never made it personal like Jones’ rivalry with Cormier. Or at least, not yet. Smith doesn’t seem like the guy for much trash talk outside of some monotone back-and-forth. His response to getting the fight proves that.

But being just mentally ready isn’t nearly enough to beat “Bones.” Smith will have to show a technical mastery he’s not yet been forced to display in the Octagon. Jones may be a lot of things, and one of them is being one of the smartest in-cage fighters of all-time. Out of it is a different story, so let’s hope Jones actually makes it to the fight.

When it does happen, Smith will have to pick his spots more than wisely and avoid being taken down and controlled by Jones. He has to do all that while conserving his energy and making sure he doesn’t gas out. It’s no small task. If he can accomplish it, Smith will have one of the biggest upsets in UFC history to his name.

Until he proves he can, however, questions will remain about his ability to match up with the legendary Jones.

The post Is Anthony Smith Ready For The Challenge Of Jon Jones? appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.