The UFC has announced that “The Ultimate Fighter” will return next year, and the current middleweight champion Robert Whittaker will coach the fighters alongside contender Kelvin Gastelum. Whittaker is currently injured with a broken hand a…
The UFC has announced that “The Ultimate Fighter” will return next year, and the current middleweight champion Robert Whittaker will coach the fighters alongside contender Kelvin Gastelum. Whittaker is currently injured with a broken hand after his rematch with Yoel Romero at UFC 225. ??JUST ANNOUNCED: Team @RobWhittakerMMA vs Team @KelvinGastelum set for #TUF28 ? pic.twitter.com/jJ3BUiAzBl — […]
UFC interim middleweight champion Robert Whittaker is happy to wait for Michael Bisping and Georges St-Pierre to trash it out Despite the will they/won’t they bout now looking close to being finalized, Whittaker feels that regardless of the result, his path is still obstacle free: “It’s worked in my favor with that fight being scheduled,” […]
UFC interim middleweight champion Robert Whittaker is happy to wait for Michael Bisping and Georges St-Pierre to trash it out Despite the will they/won’t they bout now looking close to being finalized, Whittaker feels that regardless of the result, his path is still obstacle free: “It’s worked in my favor with that fight being scheduled,” […]
UFC 213 went ahead last night without its main event bantamweight title bout between Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko Nunes pulled out at the 11th hour, which led to the interim middleweight title fight between Yoel Romero and Robert Whittaker being promoted to the main event slot. There were clear winners and losers on the […]
UFC 213 went ahead last night without its main event bantamweight title bout between Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko Nunes pulled out at the 11th hour, which led to the interim middleweight title fight between Yoel Romero and Robert Whittaker being promoted to the main event slot. There were clear winners and losers on the […]
Unfortunately for the UFC and fans across the world, the UFC 213 Main Event has been scrapped. Amanda Nunes and Valentina Schevchenko were scheduled to fight tonight for Amanda’s Bantamweight title, but according to MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani, Nunes has been feeling under the weather since yesterday. Was told Nunes felt really sick yesterday, tried […]
Unfortunately for the UFC and fans across the world, the UFC 213 Main Event has been scrapped. Amanda Nunes and Valentina Schevchenko were scheduled to fight tonight for Amanda’s Bantamweight title, but according to MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani, Nunes has been feeling under the weather since yesterday. Was told Nunes felt really sick yesterday, tried […]
Demetrious Johnson will have a chance to tie a record next month. Johnson, who is the reigning Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) flyweight title holder, will defend his gold for the 10th time against Wilson Reis. The bout will take place on April 15 at UFC on FOX 24. MMAJunkie.com confirmed the news. If “Mighty Mouse” […]
Demetrious Johnson will have a chance to tie a record next month. Johnson, who is the reigning Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) flyweight title holder, will defend his gold for the 10th time against Wilson Reis. The bout will take place on April 15 at UFC on FOX 24. MMAJunkie.com confirmed the news. If “Mighty Mouse” […]
So for any of you paying attention this weekend, there’s been a major shake up in the featherweight division. The UFC has decided to strip Conor McGregor of the featherweight title and upgrade the interim champion Jose Aldo to full fledged undisputed champ. It wasn’t that the move by the UFC was the wrong one, but the way it was done certainly left people scratching their heads. But that’s not all that happened this weekend.
So for any of you paying attention this weekend, there’s been a major shake up in the featherweight division. The UFC has decided to strip Conor McGregor of the featherweight title and upgrade the interim champion Jose Aldo to full fledged undisputed champ. It wasn’t that the move by the UFC was the wrong one, but the way it was done certainly left people scratching their heads. But that’s not all that happened this weekend.
So before we get into the main topic of the article, there’s no way I can simply gloss over the UFC Fight Night 100 main event clash between Robert Whitaker and Derek Brunson. It was a battle between two highly touted prospects who have a bright future ahead of them at middleweight, but as of now only one man is moving forward while the other has to return to the drawing board. The latter in this equation is mister Brunson who had a peculiar performance to say the least.
Brunson has been on a high as of late, finishing many of his opponents by knock out in the first round. He tried to continue that trend against a more polished counter striker in Whitaker who remained patient, survived a barrage of punches, then clipped Brunson with a well timed left hook. There’s no way to excuse it. Brunson was sloppy. His head was far forward past his front knee, a big no no in high level striking, and eventually was reaching for Whitaker with every punch. Brunson’s display of sloppy striking makes you wonder how he was able to get this far in the rankings. Brunson certainly has the skills to go far in the UFC, but at this level of the game you have to be patient and controlled with a game plan in order to reap success.
Switching gears, the UFC stripping Conor McGregor unceremoniously on a Fight Night card was pretty peculiar. Sure, the event may have had a good number of eyes on it, but it just seems so strange to randomly say “hey, by the way, Conor McGregor is no longer the champion at featherweight, Jose Aldo is now” will only have the effect of throwing people off. Yes, UFC 206 needed a big fight to replace Daniel Cormier versus Anthony Johnson. Yes, upping the stakes with a championship level match does make things more enticing. But even a small press conference or press release would have been more professional.
Now, we can argue whether or not McGregor should have been stripped of the 145 lbs belt, but at this point it’s fair to say that the masses expect a certain level of professionalism from the biggest mixed martial arts promotion in the world. It’s shoddy work to say the least and we expect more.
Do you think the UFC handled the Conor McGregor situation well?
Jonathan Salmon is a writer, martial arts instructor, and geek culture enthusiast. Check out his Twitter and Facebook to keep up with his antics.
