Less than 24 hours after Daniel Cormier removed himself from his April 23 fight with Jon Jones at UFC 197 because of an injury, the UFC announced Saturday it found a replacement in Ovince St. Preux.
UFC President Dana White said the fight wil…
Less than 24 hours after Daniel Cormier removed himself from his April 23 fight with Jon Jones at UFC 197 because of an injury, the UFC announced Saturday it found a replacement in Ovince St. Preux.
UFC President Dana White said the fight will be for the interim light heavyweight title, per MMAFighting.com. Cormier currently holds the title.
Jeremy Botter of FloSports was the first to report the main event replacement.
Jones (21-1) and St. Preux (19-7) have never fought each other.
In an Instagram post earlier Saturday, Jones urged the UFC to find a substitute—even if it meant the former light heavyweight champion had to take on a heavyweight opponent:
Shortly thereafter, Jones’ publicist tweeted Jones would instead be fighting Anthony “Rumble” Johnson but quickly deleted the post and issued an apology for her premature announcement:
Jones avoided jail time after surrendering to a warrant on five charges related to drag racing Thursday, per Steven Marrocco of MMA Junkie.
Rashad Evans, who fought Jones at UFC 145 in April 2012, was also rumored to be in the mix as Cormier’s replacement, per Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com. Evans, however, is slated to fight against Glover Teixeira on April 16.
The UFC stripped Jones, the former light heavyweight champion, of his title in April 2015 and suspended him for six months for a hit-and-run incident in New Mexico, and Cormier claimed the vacant title.
Cormier and Jones haven’t fought since January 2015, with Jones winning, and the championship rematch between the bitter rivals was highly anticipated. But finding an immediate replacement to ensure the main event will go on is a respectable resolution.
UFC officially announced Wednesday that a rematch between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz will take place at the milestone UFC 200 event at the new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on July 9.
UFC Tonight on Twitter reported the news of the fight card’s ma…
UFC officially announced Wednesday that a rematch between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz will take place at the milestone UFC 200 event at the new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on July 9.
UFC Tonight on Twitter reported the news of the fight card’s main event, and it also posted several other bouts on the slate for this summer’s MMA showcase:
The other notable showdown not mentioned above is an interim featherweight title fight between Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar, also announced by UFC Tonight on Wednesday. Those two previously dueled at UFC 156 in February 2013, and Aldo came out on top by way of unanimous decision.
Diaz stunned McGregor in the main event of UFC 196 in early March, winning by submission with a rear-naked choke in the second round. It marked the first UFC defeat for the Irish sensation, who’s skyrocketed into the mainstream sports spotlight thanks to his boisterous style.
Now he’ll get a chance to exact some revenge on his American counterpart.
It’s possible the numbers pushed UFC to seek out the rematch. Damon Martin of Fox Sports passed along comments from UFC President Dana White, who confirmed UFC 196 was a record-breaking show for the promotion.
“These are things that captures people’s imaginations,” White said. “That’s why the thing does 1.5 million pay-per-view buys, cause it captures the imagination of fight fans and then when it lives up to the building, when it lives up to what it was supposed to be.”
He added: “Nobody left disappointed on Saturday night.”
More than anything else, those numbers show the type of attraction McGregor has become. His status as a top-tier draw could be in peril if he’s not able to beat Diaz in the rematch, though.
The way he promotes fights is entertaining, but it’s an approach that quickly loses its luster if not backed up by victories in the Octagon. He needs a win in July to solidify his place, or questions will arise about his long-term staying power.
Matt Boone of MMA News noted McGregor confirmed during an interview with TMZ Sports after the loss that he wanted another shot at Diaz.
“I think I’d like to see that, yea? I mean, it’s one that interests me, most certainly,” McGregor said. “You know, when I look at the fight I was winning the fight. I won the first round and a half, I feel. I’d love to get that one back. We’ll see how it goes. Money talks. Life is good.”
Not everybody is happy about the selection, though. Rafael dos Anjos, who was supposed to fight McGregor at UFC 196 for the lightweight title before suffering a foot injury, provided his reaction on social media:
Even though it should be a star-studded card once finalized, McGregor’s effort to level the score with Diaz will undoubtedly be one of the top storylines. It will be intriguing to see whether the increased preparation time—the first battle was confirmed less than two weeks beforehand—makes a difference.
The rematch is also a golden opportunity for Diaz. He’s fought sporadically over the last couple of years because of a contract dispute with the promotion. Beating such a high-profile opponent twice in a row would make a statement and illustrate his value.
As for now, expect plenty of verbal warfare between the fighters as they begin getting ready for July’s marquee event.
The pure grappling match between Chael “The American Gangster” Sonnen and Michael “The Count” Bisping ended in a draw Sunday night. To put it plainly, it was a glorified training session between friends, and it was boring.
The bout was part of t…
The pure grappling match between Chael “The American Gangster” Sonnen and Michael “The Count” Bisping ended in a draw Sunday night. To put it plainly, it was a glorified training session between friends, and it was boring.
The bout was part of the inaugural combat sports pay-per-view event from URShow.tv. The network is a new entity that plans to bring exclusive streamed entertainment in the world of sports, music and more. Sonnen vs. Bisping was part of a quadruple main event.
The evening also featured a mixed martial arts bout between Shannon Ritch and Mavrick Harvey, a pro-wrestling match featuring Rey Mysterio and Kurt Angle and a boxing match headlined by former pound-for-pound champion Roy Jones Jr.
The legend’s opponent was a fan named Vyron Phillips. Yes, you read that correctly. Phillips entered and won a contest that awarded him the opportunity to step in the ring with Jones.
Prior to the Sonnen-Bisping roll, Ritch defeated Harvey via submission in the first round. The other two scheduled fights were set to take place later in the evening.
The Sonnen vs. Bisping match was set up to fail from the beginning. By rule, there was no points system. The only way to win was by submission. That concept only works in professional wrestling.
Before the bout, most would’ve given Sonnen an edge, but the American Gangster couldn’t get an advantage. There was a limited amount of takedowns in the bout, and neither man was able to put his opponent in danger of submitting. Bisping managed to push Sonnen into the corner on a few occasions, but he wasn’t able to do much in those situations.
Bisping wore a black tank top and matching pressure shorts. His attire didn’t scream “serious and competitive bout,” and the action matched his getup.
Sonnen did at least look as if he were going to compete in some form of physical combat. He was shirtless with taped angles, but even his normal villainous persona was lost in this sea of nothingness.
The event’s announcers were legendary professional wrestling voice Jim Ross, former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and BellatorMMA‘s commentator, Sean Wheelock. The banter from this unlikely trio was more interesting than the action in the ring.
It was fun listening to Rampage rant about how much he hates for opponents to mount and hold him down in a match. It was especially amusing to hear during a pure grappling bout.
When the fight was over, per the URShow.tv broadcast, Bisping apologized to the crowd for the lack of action.
He attempted to explain the differences between pure grappling and mixed martial arts, but that was a task he shouldn’t have had to take on. As you can see from this video in Zombie Prophet’s tweet, Sonnen made no apologies for the thing he does best: grappling.
He did, however, reaffirm he’s done with mixed martial arts:
Grappling is a true art form, and those who practice and train in the discipline exclusively may have had a greater appreciation for the scrap. Unfortunately, that demographic probably doesn’t make up a large percentage of the folks who were watching the PPV.
The UR Fights venture isn’t a bad one, but it would probably be best if the Sonnen vs. Bisping grappling match was the last of its kind on the network.
Rashad Evans will now reportedly fight Glover Teixeira at Fox UFC Fight Night in Tampa, Florida, on April 16 after it was confirmed his scheduled opponent, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, withdrew with an injury.
According to Damon Martin of Fox Sports, …
Rashad Evans will now reportedly fight Glover Teixeira at Fox UFC Fight Night in Tampa, Florida, on April 16 after it was confirmed his scheduled opponent, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, withdrew with an injury.
According to Damon Martin of Fox Sports, “UFC officials” confirmed the amendment to the card on Wednesday.
While fans will be disappointed not to see a longstanding score settled between Evans and Rua, Teixeira has shown a lot of quality in his recent outings.
The veteran Brazilian is enjoying a renaissance of sorts as of late, with two wins in his last two bouts. In August 2015, he halted exciting prospect Ovince Saint Preux, before scoring a technical knockout win over Patrick Cummins in November.
Here is a look at the kind of qualities the former UFC light heavyweight champion will have to cope with in the Octagon on April 16:
All eyes will be on Evans when he steps into the cage next month to see if he still possesses the magic. It’ll be just the second time he’s fought since November 2013, and in his return outing at UFC 192 against Ryan Bader in October, the 36-year-old looked far from impressive as he was defeated via a unanimous decision.
Should he fall short against an in-form opponent here, you do wonder whether or not Evans could ever be considered as one of the top light heavyweights in the world ever again. While Rua is a handy competitor, his withdrawal seems to have made Evans’ route back to the summit of the sport a little harder, with Teixeira a substantial roadblock.
According to Martin, the fight will remain on the bill’s main card as planned. Topping the lineup is the lightweight bout between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson, who are each seeking to propel themselves toward a shot at champion Rafael Dos Anjos.
Conor McGregor has never backed down from a fight, but his journey into the welterweight division at UFC 196 did not work out, with Nate Diaz securing a submission victory in the second round Saturday.
UFC 196 marked just the third time McGregor …
Conor McGregor has never backed down from a fight, but his journey into the welterweight division at UFC 196 did not work out, with Nate Diaz securing a submission victory in the second round Saturday.
UFC 196 marked just the third time McGregor has lost in 22 career fights, with all three coming by submission. Diaz is a renowned submission artist, with 12 of his 19 victories a result of making his opponents surrender.
One of the first comments after McGregor’s loss came from the man he was originally supposed to fight:
Rafael Dos Anjos wasn’t the only UFC fighter tossing out some hyperbole after the fight, as Jose Aldo got in on the action and seemed to try setting up a main event at UFC 200 in the summer (Warning: Post contains NSFW language):
In a case of awkward and unfortunate timing, ESPN.com’s Darren Rovell pointed out where McGregor’s post-fight party will be taking place:
Diaz took to Instagram to reveal what his post-fight plans will be, posting the following on his personal account:
While McGregor’s loss will be the story because he’s the UFC’s biggest superstar, Jon Anik of Fox Sports 1 was quick to give credit where it belonged:
UFC 196 was shaping up to be a huge night for mixed martial arts, and it turned out to be a memorable one. Not only did McGregor fall, but Holly Holm also lost to Miesha Tate in the co-main event, prompting Kyle Lewis of SiriusXM’s Busted Open to offer a GIF of UFC President Dana White‘s press conference:
Panic may be setting in for some fans who assumed big-business matchups were on the horizon, but B/R’s Ben Axelrod noted this was hardly the first time the UFC has seen a megastar lose:
Per Odds Shark, McGregor was a 1-4 betting favorite Saturday. His loss likely left a lot of people lighter in the wallet, prompting Adam Jacobi of BlackHeartGoldPants.com to make this pun:
Sticking with Ireland, PeejeT offered the Crying Jordan meme:
Expanding things to include Ronda Rousey, 30 Second Fights figured out what the updated cover of the UFC’s video game will look like:
With McGregor’s star on the rise coming into UFC 196, especially after his knockout win over Jose Aldo at UFC 194, Chachi Gonzales of America’s Best Dance Crew fame offered this assessment:
Bleacher Report went with a greater television touchstone to describe the myriad of emotions everyone went through while watching UFC 196:
This will go down as a loss on McGregor’s resume, but it was hardly the worst defeat in MMA history. He had never fought in the 170-pound weight class in his career. It’s been more than three years since he last fought at lightweight, so this was a new task.
McGregor didn’t have to take it on, but he did. He didn’t get the result he was looking for. The UFC will learn from Saturday’s bout and put him in position to fight at a weight he’s accustomed to in the future. This is not the end of Notorious’ reign on top.
When Nate Diaz used his post-fight interview to call out Conor McGregor at UFC on Fox 17, it felt like a long shot that the fight would happen, let alone see Diaz win.
Yet that’s the reality we live in. Diaz brought a halt to the McGregor hype tra…
When Nate Diaz used his post-fight interview to call out Conor McGregor at UFC on Fox 17, it felt like a long shot that the fight would happen, let alone see Diaz win.
Yet that’s the reality we live in. Diaz brought a halt to the McGregor hype train with a second-round submission win over The Notorious in the main event at UFC 196 on Saturday.
MMAjunkie tweeted the official result:
The fight was not short on action from the get-go. McGregor was able to land solid combinations as he looked like the quicker fighter, but Diaz hung in the pocket and landed some strikes of his own. The first frame became especially interesting when Diaz scored a takedown but was swept by the Irishman.
Although Mystic Mac predicted he would stop Diaz in the first round, the fight saw a second stanza as the durable Diaz was still standing after five minutes.
The second verse was nothing like the first. McGregor became looser with his striking at the expense of his defense, and the younger Diaz brother was able to shake his opponent with good combinations of his own.
Ultimately, Diaz was able to get the fight to the ground again and took McGregor’s back. From there, he sunk in the choke and derailed the McGregor hype train.
As ESPN Stats & Info noted, poor submission defense has been the reason behind all three of McGregor’s MMA losses:
This was a shocking result. According to Odds Shark, McGregor was a 1-4 favorite to beat the Stockton, California, native.
The fact that Diaz was able to upset McGregor was impressive in itself. The fact that he did it as a short-notice replacement for lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos made it the most impressive win of his career.
Even stepping up on short notice, Diaz hinted that he might have been preparing for a matchup with the featherweight champ, per MMA Fighting:
There’s no other way. It’s no McGregor show. It’s a fight that needed to happen. I’m the biggest fight. They knew they were fighting me already. They were already training for me. They knew what’s up. But hey, don’t trip. Maybe I’ll plot back. They were plotting on me, I might have been plotting back too. You never know.
For McGregor, this was a huge blow. The Notorious has made no qualms about wanting to be a fighter who can succeed in multiple weight classes. Saturday’s loss put a major damper on those plans. Diaz isn’t a true welterweight, as his last eight fights had been contested at lightweight.
Ultimately, the UFC might have been the biggest loser of the fight. Despite the short-notice replacement, the company expected the card to bring in one of the highest gates in UFC history, per Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting:
That was the McGregor effect.
Now, it’s unclear how big of a commodity McGregor will be.
He still has value, of course. He’s the featherweight champion. A slip-up in a weight class 25 pounds heavier than his own doesn’t mean he’s done as a top-tier fighter.
However, Bleacher Report’s Jeremy Botter reported that those close to McGregor believe he will never fight at 145 pounds again, as the weight cut has become too difficult.
Will the UFC still allow him to challenge for the lightweight belt against Dos Anjos? Will people still flock to see if McGregor can back up his talk? Or is he now the fighter who cried multidivision champ?
Those questions have now replaced questions about how great McGregor could be.
Perhaps the most important question after UFC 196 is this: Is Nate Diaz finally prepared to make good on a UFC title shot?
Less than 24 hours after Daniel Cormier removed himself from his April 23 fight with Jon Jones at UFC 197 because of an injury, the UFC announced Saturday it found a replacement in Ovince St. Preux.