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Chris Weidman & Kelvin Gastelum Exchange Barbs on Twitter

Chris Weidman and Kelvin Gastelum have traded some verbal jabs. Back in July 2017, Weidman defeated Gastelum via third-round submission. “The All-American” was on a three-fight skid before pulling off the win over Gastelum. Since that time, Weidman has been sidelined due to two surgeries on his thumb. Meanwhile, Gastelum has bounced back with wins […]

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Chris Weidman & Kelvin Gastelum Exchange Barbs on Twitter

The post Chris Weidman & Kelvin Gastelum Exchange Barbs on Twitter appeared first on MMA News.

Michael Bisping Unveils New Post-Retirement Job

Michael Bisping should be a natural at this:

The post Michael Bisping Unveils New Post-Retirement Job appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Michael Bisping dealt the MMA community some at least somewhat surprising news when he announced his retirement from the sport after 14 years on May 28.

The 39-year-old former UFC middleweight champ was expected to compete in one final farewell fight following two straight losses to Georges St-Pierre and Kelvin Gastelum last November, but a new eye injury to his left eye after years of difficulty with his right persuaded him to preserve his health and ride off into the sunset a bit early.

You can’t blame “The Count,” as he’d given his heart and soul to the UFC as the winner of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 3 way back in 2006. Often overmatched in terms of sheer athleticism, the brash, smack-talking Brit parlayed his opportunities into a late-career run to the title after coming up a bit short in many of the biggest stages of his career prior to his last years.

Obviously his biggest win was his shocking first-round knockout over Luke Rockhold at 2016’s UFC 199, but he had much bigger plans to go out on top. St-Pierre put an end to that plan, however, and ‘The Count’ recently told ESPN.com that he knew he should have called it a day right there:

“When I fought ‘GSP’ and lost the belt [in November], I should have retired there and then. I kind of knew.

“My plan was to defend the belt three times. Henderson, Georges, the No. 1 contender — then call it a day. Obviously, I didn’t win the second fight, so we didn’t get that far. But that was the plan.”

Looking to rebound from the defeat instead, Bisping took a fight with Gastelum only three weeks after he fought St-Pierre in an effort to erase the bad memories, but instead met a the harsh realization that he perhaps took the fight too early when he was brutally knocked out in Shanghai.

Despite the two setbacks, Bisping was linked to a farewell fight with a who’s who of MMA talent including names such as Rashad Evans, Lyoto Machida, Vitor Belfort, and of course, a trilogy fight with Rockhold. None of the bouts ultimately materialized, and he chose his health over one last fight – certainly a decision no one can fault him for. That doesn’t mean he won’t try to wiggle out of it and un-retire, something he claimed he almost did in a conversation with UFC President Dana White:

“I’ve always wanted to leave the door open,” Bisping said. “Dana called me, and I even tried to dig my way out of it then. He said, ‘Hey, Mike, are you sure about this?’ And I almost talked myself out of it. It kind of came to a point where I had to make it final.”

So there was only one way to truly retire from the UFC, and that was to take his name out of the USADA testing pool.

When he did choose to step down, Bisping stated he was glad to finally have that monkey off his back – something he made official by withdrawing from the pool:

“The UFC emailed me and said, ‘Do you want to be left in the testing pool, just in case?’” Bisping said. “And I said, ‘No. Take me out.’

“The time was right, honestly. It feels like a massive burden has been lifted off my shoulders, because I was always second-guessing, always thinking, ‘Am I gonna fight once more?’ Now, it’s done.”

Long a fixture on UFC fight coverage on FOX Sports 1, “The Count” will move on to the role of commentator on ‘Dana White’s Contender Series’ this summer in addition to several business interests including the opening of a whopping 110 UFC gyms in his native United Kingdom.

Overall, he’s excited abut his new role on the summer series, and plans to parlay that into a bigger role calling UFC bouts – similar to how he capitalized on some of the biggest opportunities in the UFC:

“I’m ready to focus on other things, and I wouldn’t have been able to if I didn’t commit to retirement. I want to commentate for the Contender Series, and then move on to calling UFC fights. That’s the plan.”

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Where Are They Now? The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) Winners

Find out where your favorite The Ultimate Fighter winners are now:

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With the UFC having now secured a new broadcasting deal with ESPN from 2019 onwards, Dana White recently admitted that ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ show may finally be on its way out after a 27season series run.

As such, now seems like a good time to take a look back at what has become of every single one of the long-running show’s 35 ‘Ultimate Fighter’ winners to date.

Find out what your favorite past winners of TUF are up to now:

SEASON 1

Diego Sanchez

It’s a testament to Diego Sanchez’s durability that 13 years after winning TUF season 1 he remains the only fighter from that historic series to still be actively competing in the UFC, having amassed 27 fights (16-11) to date.

However, after suffering back-to-back first-round knockouts in his last two fights, it’s possible that the 36-year-old’s memorable career is now entering its final stages, though Sanchez has assured his fans that, “I’m not done yet.”

Forrest Griffin

Arguably TUF’s most iconic winner, Griffin’s fight with Stephan Bonner in the Season 1 finale was declared as the most important fight in UFC history by Dana White, while he’d also go on to win the light-heavyweight title too.

Griffin retired in 2013 at the age of 33 due to chronic injuries, but he’s since been inducted into the UFC’s Hall of Fame and now works for the UFC as their Vice President of Athletic Development.

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UFC Rankings Update: Yair Rodriguez Removed From Featherweight

Yair Rodriguez has been stricken from the UFC rankings, but another rising star debuted:

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The UFC released some shocking info last week when news arrived that formerly hyped featherweight prospect Yair Rodriguez had been released from the promotion.

The story was that the flashy ‘Pantera,’ once viewed as one of the promotion’s brightest rising stars, refused to fight Zabit Magomedsharipov and Ricardo Lamas after word came that he would be facing the former at August 4’s expanding UFC 227 pay-per-view from Los Angeles, Calif.

UFC President Dana White wasted little time in releasing the skilled but absent Rodriguez as he focused on the once-hyped talent’s lengthy layoff and refusal to fight:

“The guy’s off a year, rejects a fight with Lamas and then doesn’t want to fight a guy below him in the rankings?” White said. “He can go somewhere else. We have no use for him. He calls that fight fake news. This is real news.”

While it was thought that the pending release was perhaps a tactic to get Rodriguez to accept the fight, apparently it’s very real as Rodriguez has been removed from his No. 11 spot on the UFC rankings in the latest update. His removal allowed Mirsad Bektic and Magomedsharipov to rise up a spot each and boosted Myles Jury by two spots.

In other prominent rankings movement, surging middleweight Kelvin Gastelum moved up a spot to No. 4 for his close split decision win over Ronaldo Souza at last weekend’s UFC 224 from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, dropping ‘Jacare’ three spots in the process.

Mackenzie Dern also made her debut on the women’s strawweight rankings despite missing weight for the division by an egregious seven pounds for her UFC 224 match-up with Amanda Bobby Cooper, which she eventually won by first-round submission.

While it’s definitely an accomplishment for Dern to debut on the rankings after two UFC bouts, the promotion has reportedly already said she will be forced to move up to women’s flyweight for her next bout, making her presence on the strawweight ranks a bit pointless until she proves she can make weight.

Here are the full updated rankings courtesy of UFC.com:

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

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

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

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

LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion: Khabib Nurmagomedov
1 Conor McGregor
2 Tony Ferguson
3 Eddie Alvarez
4 Dustin Poirier
5 Kevin Lee
6 Edson Barboza
7 Justin Gaethje
8 Nate Diaz
9 Michael Chiesa
10 Al Iaquinta
11 James Vick
12 Anthony Pettis
13 Alexander Hernandez
14 Paul Felder
15 Olivier Aubin-Mercier

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

MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion: Robert Whittaker
1 Yoel Romero
2 Luke Rockhold +1
3 Chris Weidman +1
4 Kelvin Gastelum +1
5 Jacare Souza -3
6 Michael Bisping
7 Derek Brunson
8 David Branch
9 Lyoto Machida +3
10 Brad Tavares
11 Uriah Hall
12 Antonio Carlos Junior +1
12 Thiago Santos +1
14 Paulo Costa +1
15 Elias Theodorou *NR

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

HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Stipe Miocic
1 Francis Ngannou
2 Alistair Overeem
3 Alexander Volkov
4 Curtis Blaydes
5 Fabricio Werdum
6 Derrick Lewis
7 Mark Hunt -1
8 Marcin Tybura
9 Andrei Arlovski
10 Aleksei Oleinik
11 Stefan Struve
12 Tai Tuivasa
13 Shamil Abdurakhimov
14 Justin Willis +1
15 Junior Dos Santos *NR

WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT
Champion: Rose Namajunas
1 Joanna Jedrzejczyk
2 Jessica Andrade
3 Claudia Gadelha
4 Karolina Kowalkiewicz
5 Tecia Torres
6 Carla Esparza
7 Michelle Waterson
8 Felice Herrig
9 Alexa Grasso
10 Cortney Casey
11 Randa Markos
12 Tatiana Suarez
13 Joanne Calderwood
14 Nina Ansaroff
15 Mackenzie Dern *NR

WOMEN’S FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Nicco Montano
1 Valentina Shevchenko
2 Sijara Eubanks
3 Lauren Murphy
4 Alexis Davis
5 Katlyn Chookagian
6 Roxanne Modafferi -1
7 Barb Honchak
8 Liz Carmouche
9 Jessica-Rose Clark
10 Jessica Eye
11 Ashlee Evans-Smith
12 Mara Romero Borella
13 Paige VanZant
14 Montana De La Rosa
15 Rachael Ostovich

WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: Amanda Nunes
1 Holly Holm
2 Ketlen Vieira +2
3 Julianna Pena
4 Raquel Pennington -2
5 Germaine de Randamie
6 Cat Zingano
7 Marion Reneau
8 Sara McMann
9 Aspen Ladd
10 Bethe Correia
11 Irene Aldana
12 Lucie Pudilova
13 Sarah Moras
14 Lina Lansberg
15 Gina Mazany

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UFC 224 Bonuses: Kelvin Gastelum & Jacare Souza Rewarded For Close Battle

With yet another Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) card in the history books, a fresh list of bonus winners has been revealed. This past Saturday night (May 12), UFC 224 took place inside the Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The main card a…

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