Tag: Manny Pacquiao

Coach: Conor McGregor ‘Puts Max Holloway Away’ In Rematch

Conor McGregor is still on the sidelines reaping the monetary windfall of his boxing match with Floyd Mayweather last year, but his longtime striking coach is still speculating about a fight that’s most likely far off. McGregor has been linked to a rematch with Mayweather in the UFC octagon, but his most likely return bout […]

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Conor McGregor is still on the sidelines reaping the monetary windfall of his boxing match with Floyd Mayweather last year, but his longtime striking coach is still speculating about a fight that’s most likely far off.

McGregor has been linked to a rematch with Mayweather in the UFC octagon, but his most likely return bout (at least hopefully) is an awaited title unification bout with the winner of April 7’s Tony Ferguson vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov UFC 223 main event.

With featherweight champion Max Holloway, whom McGregor outlasted by unanimous decision at 2013’s UFC Fight Night 26, apparently owning the inactive ‘Notorious’ on social media as of late, McGregor’s longtime striking coach Owen Roddy discussed a potential rematch with ‘Blessed’ during a recent spot on Submission Radio (transcribed by MMA Fighting) and offered a less-than-surprising prediction.

According to Roddy, Holloway, who won the featherweight title from legendary champion Jose Aldo last June and defended it against him again last December, is now a bit overconfident in his skills and would ‘go to sleep’ were he to face McGregor again:

“I think Conor would probably put Max away,” Roddy said. “I think Max would probably be way more confident in his ability, and if you go in there a little bit overconfident with Conor you’re gonna go to sleep. Whereas, he was a little bit more… he stood back in the first fight — and obviously Conor injured himself, he couldn’t put him away — but yeah, I think it would be a great fight.

“Max has done, he’s done so well since the Conor fight. He’s been on a tear, and even John Kavanagh said it back in the day, he called that Max would have been the next champion after that fight with Conor. You could see it in Max, and I think everyone sees it. He’s a great fighter, but I think Conor’s on another level compared to him as well.”

conor mcgregor ufc 178
Mandatory Credit: Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

McGregor was briefly linked to a supposed short-notice bout with Franke Edgar after Holloway was forced out of March 3’s UFC 222 with a leg injury, but the validity of him offering his services at the last minute was disputed by Edgar’s manager Al Abdel-Aziz, who claimed McGregor wanted the UFC to book him for a new 165-pound belt in order to compete on the card.

Roddy disputed that and said McGregor was excited to potentially fight Edgar, and indeed the infamous Irish superstar has claimed he will return to fight again because he’s ‘the best.’

With many doubting – and growing extremely tired of – his boasts as his streak without a title defense pushes closer to three years, McGregor and his camp seemingly need to give fans something of substance rather than endless interviews claiming he would beat this or that top contender.

As Dana White loves to say, we’ll see what happens.

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Khabib Promises ‘Easy Fight’ With Tony Ferguson

Long touted as the future of the UFC lightweight division, dominant Dagestani grappler Khabib Nurmagomedov will participate in the biggest fight of his career when he meets interim champion Tony Ferguson in the main event of next month’s (April 7, 2018) UFC 223 from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. There’s certainly some trepidation […]

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Long touted as the future of the UFC lightweight division, dominant Dagestani grappler Khabib Nurmagomedov will participate in the biggest fight of his career when he meets interim champion Tony Ferguson in the main event of next month’s (April 7, 2018) UFC 223 from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

There’s certainly some trepidation from the MMA world given that the high-profile bout has been booked three times before only to fall apart, most recently at last March’s UFC 209 when Khabib failed to show up for weigh-ins while hospitalized.

But that’s far from the only uncertainty surrounding what could quite possibly be the most anticipated fight in MMA right now.

The other shadow of ambiguity cast over UFC 223 is the situation surrounding Conor McGregor’s lightweight title, which he has yet to defend since winning it from Eddie Alvarez in November 2016. UFC president Dana White insists Ferguson vs. Khabib will be for the ‘real belt’ but hasn’t officially stripped McGregor.

Nurmagomedov put things in his own much simpler terms in a recent interview with Yahoo’s Kevin Iole (transcribed via MMA Mania), suggesting the UFC has never put together a fight of this magnitude:

“Only four weeks before fight, tough opponent, real belt on the line. 10 win streak versus nine win streak. UFC never make this fight. 25 years UFC history, they never make fight like this fight. This is high level fight. This is going to be very good for fans, for guy who gonna take this belt, UFC gonna make money. Everyone gonna be happy because this fight very high level fight and this fight most important fight in UFC today.”

Nurmagomedov held fast in his insistence that he would be fighting Ferguson for the real belt, not the ‘fake’ interim one ‘El Cucuy’ has or the one McGregor has held hostage for almost a year-and-a-half (not the nearly three years Khabib suggests):

“First of all it’s about real belt, this is not interim championship, this is not Tony Ferguson belt, this is not Conor McGregor belt, this is real belt,” said Nurmagomedov. “I’m not going to fight Tony Ferguson fake belt. I’m not going to fight Conor McGregor belt when he win this fight almost three years ago. I’m going to fight real belt and this is big motivation. Five round, big fight. We are supposed to fight three times now.”

But even with a seemingly endless amount of controversy following the pivotal match-up, Khabib claims he would make defeating Ferguson, who has won 10 straight fights in the UFC’s talented 155-pound arena, just as easy as he has defeating other high-profile opponents:

“I’m going to make this fight easy,” Nurmagomedov continued. “People gonna talk about this fight, ‘Wow, nobody do this before with Tony Ferguson.’ Like I do with Michael Johnson, like I do Rafael dos Anjos, like I do with Edson Barboza, with everybody. Who beat them like this? I’m gonna do this again with Tony Ferguson.”

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Quote: GSP Will Return Against Conor McGregor For ‘Biggest Fight In MMA History’

Recently, former UFC middleweight and welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre revealed he would return to MMA if the right opportunity to ‘elevate himself’ arose – even if it was all the way down at 155 pounds. The statement prompted speculation that “GSP” was looking for a lucrative match-up with current UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor, a […]

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Recently, former UFC middleweight and welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre revealed he would return to MMA if the right opportunity to ‘elevate himself’ arose – even if it was all the way down at 155 pounds.

The statement prompted speculation that “GSP” was looking for a lucrative match-up with current UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor, a bout that many, including St-Pierre’s longtime coach Firas Zahabi, touted as potentially the biggest MMA fight of all-time.

But Zahabi then went on record shortly thereafter saying that he didn’t think the fight would actually happen. 

However, there’s a prominent name in MMA who disagrees with that sentiment, and not surprisingly it’s Chael Sonnen. The former UFC title contender recently offered his opinion on his “Beyond the Fight” podcast (via MMA Junkie), stating that St-Pierre will return against McGregor and it will be the biggest fight in history:

“It will be against Conor in what will be the biggest fight in MMA history.”

The decorated MMA great returned from a nearly four-year absence late last year to submit Michael Bisping and win the 185-pound title at November’s UFC 217.

It was one of MMA’s feel-good moments at the time; however, St-Pierre incited a bit of controversy when he vacated the middleweight title shortly thereafter, claiming that he was suffering from colitis due to the increased food intake consumed to fight at 185. Several accused him of picking and choosing his fights – and finding an ‘easy’ one in Bisping – but at this point in his decorated career, it doesn’t seem like he’s trying to hide that fact.

He claimed it wasn’t only because of the money that a fight with McGregor would bring because he’s more focused on furthering his legacy at this point, yet Sonnen wasn’t buying that in the slightest.

According to ‘The American Gangster,’ St-Pierre’s saying the right things and still wants the monster payday a bout versus McGregor brings:

“Conor doesn’t have the belt, and George wants to come back, and George only wants to come back for Conor. And they both want to do this legacy and all this other … a check, guys. That’s what you’re getting in this. Forget about how we think about you in the future, let’s talk about tonight. That’s the fight.”

“Making a statement like, ‘Hey, that does nothing for me,’ that is condescending, it’s rude, it’s mean-spirited, and it’s extremely appropriate if you’re Georges St-Pierre. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t want that fight.”

With McGregor still enjoying his $100 million purse to box Floyd Mayweather last August, his MMA return remains unknown – if he even returns at all.

It’s largely thought he will finally make his first defense against the winner of UFC 223’s Tony Ferguson vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov main event this April, but nothing feels guaranteed when it comes to McGregor and his ongoing contract talks with the UFC. He’s teased a rematch with Mayweather in the UFC, and there’s little doubt a super fight with St-Pierre would be the most lucrative fight the UFC could book.

But the topic of what weight class it would be at would be a minor hurdle to surpass. Sonnen believes it would be at a new weight of 165 pounds after McGregor supposedly asked the promotion to create a new belt in the class for him to save last weekend’s UFC 222 on short notice:

“I know that George would do it. He’s made that clear. And I also know contrary to what some fans will say about, ‘Well, what wait class? You can only ask Conor to go up so much.’ Georges will go down. Now that it has come out that Conor talked to Dana and wanted to do a 165-pound fight, George will go down to 165. I’ll speak for him. I’ll tell you he for sure will. I’m not speaking for him; he shared that with me. But I will pass it on to you. He will go to 165 if it means Conor.”

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Video: Conor McGregor Is The Face Of Burger King’s New Chicken Sandwich

UFC lightweight champ Conor McGregor has his fair share of haters due to the fact he’s never defended a UFC title. So much so, in fact, that, with his MMA return currently uncertain, “The Notorious” has been labeled a ‘chicken’ by a large contingent of the MMA fanbase. On the sidelines enjoying the spoils of his […]

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UFC lightweight champ Conor McGregor has his fair share of haters due to the fact he’s never defended a UFC title.

So much so, in fact, that, with his MMA return currently uncertain, “The Notorious” has been labeled a ‘chicken’ by a large contingent of the MMA fanbase.

On the sidelines enjoying the spoils of his $100 million payday to box Floyd Mayweather last August, McGregor’s latest venture is going to garner a lot of unfavorable comparisons.

This morning (Mon., March 5, 2017) Burger King debuted a new commercial for their spicy chicken sandwich starring McGregor living it up on a plane. Perhaps not the best choice of food item for a champion who is tirelessly accused of being scared to defend his belt, but the pay was assuredly high.

Are you a fan of McGregor becoming a mouthpiece for Burger King? Check out the spot right here:

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Max Holloway Has Another Classic Troll For Conor McGregor

Max Holloway is back with another jab at absent UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor. Last week “The Notorious” posted on Instagram that he was definitely returning to MMA, and had even offered to replace Holloway and fight Frankie Edgar in the main event of this weekend’s (Sat., March 3, 2018) UFC 222 from the T-Mobile Arena […]

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Max Holloway is back with another jab at absent UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor.

Last week “The Notorious” posted on Instagram that he was definitely returning to MMA, and had even offered to replace Holloway and fight Frankie Edgar in the main event of this weekend’s (Sat., March 3, 2018) UFC 222 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

However, the bout never materialized due to the UFC supposedly not having enough time to promote the event, and that left Edgar’s manager Ali Abdel-Aziz and coach Mark Henry blasting the claims in their own respective social media tirades.

Andel-Aziz claimed McGregor did truly offer to fight at UFC 222 but only if he could compete for a newly-created 165-pound belt, a division that has never been in the UFC.

Edgar soon revealed that McGregor’s post was the first he had heard about it, offering his own doubts that it was ever a realistic possibility considering he hadn’t heard from his employers about the potentially massive fight. But McGregor’s longtime training partner and friend Artem Lobov insisted that their camp was preparing to train and that the fight was “very, very close.”

“The Russian Hammer” reiterated that stance on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani on Monday, but the featherweight champ isn’t buying it whatsoever. After recently trolling McGregor with a photo of him being stopped by Floyd Mayweather after “The Notorious” had posted a photo of their 2013 match-up where he defeated a young Holloway, “Blessed” fired back with another comedic response.

Although he’s injured and unable to compete this weekend, Holloway blasted McGregor’s claims that he would fill in on the card by offering a laughable scenario where he would amputate his leg in order to fight 125-pound champion Demetrious ‘Mighty Mouse’ Johnson for a newly-created 115-pound belt:

Solid work from “Blessed,” who was many fans and media members’ pick for 2017’s “Fighter of the Year” after two impressive third-round stoppages of all-time great Jose Aldo.

He no doubt wants a rematch with McGregor, and with stinging social media barbs like this, he could have an outside shot at getting one.

Of course, the infamous Irishman will have to commit to returning first, and even though he appeared to do just that on social media, nothing is close to confirmed.

UFC 222, meanwhile, will go forward with a short-notice women’s featherweight title fight between Cris Cyborg and Yana Kunitskaya from Las Vegas this weekend.

 

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Frankie Edgar Reacts To Conor McGregor’s UFC 222 Fight Claims

Last week, absent UFC lightweight champ Conor McGregor ‘confirmed’ his MMA return with the mere flick of an Instagram post before taking it a step further and claiming he even offered to fill in for featherweight champ Max Holloway against Frankie Edgar at this weekend’s (Sat., March 3, 2018) UFC 222 from Las Vegas. Even […]

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Last week, absent UFC lightweight champ Conor McGregor ‘confirmed’ his MMA return with the mere flick of an Instagram post before taking it a step further and claiming he even offered to fill in for featherweight champ Max Holloway against Frankie Edgar at this weekend’s (Sat., March 3, 2018) UFC 222 from Las Vegas.

Even though the potentially monstrous comeback fight never came close to materializing due to the UFC saying they didn’t have enough time to capitalize, the claim understandably set a big news-starved MMA world (with much of it due to ‘The Notorious” hiatus) afire for at least one night.

Both Edgar’s manager Ali Abdel-Aziz and boxing coach Mark Henry were quick to fire back at McGregor with seething responses to the outlandish news, but “The Answer” stayed relatively mum on the dream match-up. Until now, that is, as the former lightweight champ spoke up about the never-to-be fight to Ariel Helwani on today’s episode of The MMA Hour. The New Jersey ironman said he awoke to see rumors of it online, but that was the fist he had heard of it:

“I woke up from a nap and I saw it on Twitter. That’s the first I heard of it.”

Apparently, word later arrived that McGregor did offer to fight at UFC 222, but wanted it to be for a never-before-contested 165-pound belt, something Edgar called ridiculous considering McGregor was yet to defend either his lightweight or featherweight belt:

“I mean, come on, there is no 165-pound belt. You know what I’m saying? I want to fight on the moon. You know what I mean? Come on.

“He doesn’t want to defend his own belt. What, he wants to fight me? I mean, hey, that’d be great. That’d be great for me. Let’s be real. I’m not scared to fight anybody. Come on, I’ve been doing this too long to be scared to fight anybody. I mean, if anything, that would be very good for me, to fight Conor McGregor.”

Mandatory Credit: Steve Flynn-USA TODAY Sports

And while Edgar would love to face McGregor and the payday he brings in the Octagon, he didn’t believe it was close to true because Dana White didn’t call him – even if he would fight McGregor at any weight:

“I would’ve fought him in any weight class, to be honest with you.

“I think if it was real, Dana would’ve called me personally. He’s done it before. With something like that, Dana would’ve called me personally, and he didn’t, so I have to think that it wasn’t real.”

To “The Answer” – and many others – McGregor was simply keeping his name in the news, something he does perhaps better than any fighter other than his forever-rival Floyd Mayweather.

With that taken into consideration, Edgar said he wouldn’t let the Irishman get him sidetracked. He has his hands full with Ortega – a hungry, rising contender who is active in the UFC unlike ‘The Notorious’:

“I don’t know, I think Conor’s just being Conor, man. He’s the best at it, right? He’s the best at making news and staying relevant. I don’t mean relevant, he’s the most popular guy in our sport, this and that, but staying in the news cycle. He does it better than anybody, except maybe Floyd Mayweather.

“I’m not surprised by it, and I’m not getting sidetracked by it because it doesn’t matter,” Edgar added. “It’s non-news to me. Because the news is I’m fighting a guy who fights in the UFC right now, Brian Ortega.”

Despite the drama, Edgar doesn’t believe he and McGregor will ever fight because of the opportunities they’ve had to do so when McGregor was actually at featherweight and it didn’t happen.

So ‘The Answer’ put the talk about the unlikely payday with McGregor aside because he is aware of the dangerous challenge he has waiting in only five days:

“If we’re going to fight, we’ll fight. But I doubt it,” Edgar said. “I really don’t think we’ll ever cross paths. I really don’t. … We’ve had many times it could’ve been real, and it just never materialized. And if it didn’t materialize then, I just don’t see why would it happen now.

“I’m putting it totally aside, because it’s easy with this whole Conor news and Max, it’s easy to get sidetracked and think about Max, think about Conor,” Edgar said. “I’ve got to focus on Ortega, man. It’s a dangerous fight. Everyone says, ‘Oh, it’s a risky fight,’ and they’re right. I’m putting a lot of the line and that’s my focus.”

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