A high-profile rematch is nearly set for the UFC middleweight division.
ESPN’s Brett Okamoto reported today that sources have confirmed the UFC is close to finalizing a Luke Rockhold vs. Chris Weidman rematch for November 3’s UFC 230 from New York City, New York.
Both men are decorated former champions, with Weidman infamously ending Anderson Silva’s historic run as champion via shocking second-round knockout at 2013’s UFC 162. He defended the belt three times before losing the title to Rockhold in a brutal fourth-round stoppage at UFC 194 in December 2015.
Weidman has been out of action since an impressive submission victory over current title contender Kelvin Gastelum last July, a fight after which he experienced complications with hand surgery that have kept him sidelined ever since.
Rockhold was last seen losing to Yoel Romero via brutal knockout at February’s UFC 221. The former UFC and Strikeforce 185-pound champ teased a move up to light heavyweight in order to bypass the draining weight cut to 185 pounds but apparently reconsidered the move in order to take the Weidman rematch.
A main event has not been officially confirmed for UFC 230 as of now.
Right around the time when Conor McGregor was preparing for his UFC 194 showdown against former featherweight champion Jose Aldo, a video emerged of “The Notorious” sparring with a literal “mountain” of a man.
That gigantic, tattooed sparring partner was none other that Game of Thrones actor Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, better known by his nickname “The Mountain.”
McGregor says he “folded” the massive 400-pound, 6-foot-9 strongman, but the video only showed some playful light sparring:
The strongman told Off The Ball he would be happy to give it another go with “The Notorious, claiming he had to hold back the first time for fear of crushing the relatively diminutive Irishman:
“Bring me some shorts and put us in a cage, I’ll fight again. I had him a few times, but I just didn’t want to break him. I was like, ‘Fuck this, I’m not going to run after this small guy!’ He’s running around, you know? I don’t have cardio for running around after small guys.”
McGregor would ultimately go on to win that featherweight title fight against Jose Aldo in 13 seconds, and even managed to capture the UFC lightweight belt shortly thereafter. Since winning the 155-pound title, McGregor made a brief foray into professional boxing, where he took on legend Floyd Mayweather in a losing effort last year and hasn’t stepped into the cage, or the ring, for that matter, since then.
“The Notorious” is currently embroiled in a legal issue stemming from his assault on a bus carrying a bunch of UFC fighters days before UFC 223 and will return to court in New York City on June 14.
Could an untrained, massive super-heavyweight like “The Mountain” defeat a smaller mixed martial artist through sheer size alone?
Following four straight victories, many MMA fans thought No. 4-ranked UFC featherweight Cub Swanson was deserving of a title shot. That reportedly won’t be the case, however, as Swanson posted on Instagram today that he was headlining a December 9 event from Fresno, California, versus unbeaten No. 6-ranked contender Brian Ortega: Main Event vs Brian Ortega […]
Following four straight victories, many MMA fans thought No. 4-ranked UFC featherweight Cub Swanson was deserving of a title shot.
That reportedly won’t be the case, however, as Swanson posted on Instagram today that he was headlining a December 9 event from Fresno, California, versus unbeaten No. 6-ranked contender Brian Ortega:
Rebounding from a down stretch in late 2014-early 2015 where he was finished by current champion Max Holloway and perceived top contender Frankie Edgar, Swanson has won four straight fights by decision, the most recent an impressive beating of Artem Lobov at UFC Fight Night 108 in April.
He won ‘Fight of the Night’ for the bout, but it paled in comparison to his previous win, a UFC 206 decision over prospect Doo Ho Choi that was dubbed 2016’s “Fight of the Year.”
Swanson brings the action each and every time out to the cage, and his losses have only come to the absolute cream of the featherweight crop such as Holloway, Edgar, and longtime champion Jose Aldo.
He’ll meet a fighter who does the same, as the 12-0(1) Ortega was last seen submitting Renato Moicano in the “Fight of the Night”-winning bout at July 29’s UFC 214. The Torrance, Calif.-based fighter has won four straight bouts himself (five if you including his stoppage of Mike De La Torre that was overturned for a positive drug test), but all of his wins have come by some form of finish.
It’s not the title shot Swanson called out for after declaring Edgar had already had multiple chances to win the belt (which is true in a sense), but it is a top-ranked opponent that would make Swanson tough to deny if he does win.
Will the longtime veteran be able to stop the surge of “T-City?”
The last 18 months have been quite a whirlwind for UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo. After losing his title in absolutely brutal fashion to Conor McGregor at UFC 194 in Dec. 2015, Aldo made it clear that he wanted an immediate rematch. After realizing that he wouldn’t be granted that wish, Aldo’s relationship with the […]
The last 18 months have been quite a whirlwind for UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo.
After losing his title in absolutely brutal fashion to Conor McGregor at UFC 194 in Dec. 2015, Aldo made it clear that he wanted an immediate rematch. After realizing that he wouldn’t be granted that wish, Aldo’s relationship with the UFC became rocky. He would then, however, agree to take on Frankie Edgar at UFC 200 last July, dominating “The Answer” to become the interim 145-pound titleholder.
Mandatory Credit: Joshua Dahl-USA TODAY Sports
After the win over Edgar, Aldo once again expressed interest in a rematch with the Irishman, but Aldo’s longtime head coach Andre Pederneiras told ESPN.com that McGregor ‘wouldn’t accept the fight’, which led the Brazilian to explore other options:
“It was just difficult because after his fight with Frankie, he wanted Conor,” Pederneiras said. “But Conor wouldn’t accept the fight, and after that, Aldo started to think about retirement. We flew to Vegas to meet with Dana, and Dana said, ‘I can give you some freedom to box, and if you want to retire, OK, but your UFC contract will continue.’ Aldo started to think again, if he wasn’t given full freedom to box, still under contract, waiting for a chance to fight Conor, maybe he would try to fight at 155 pounds. That’s when we tried to fight [lightweight] Khabib Nurmagomedov, but his dad did not want him to accept. And then Holloway accepted to fight us after he beat Anthony Pettis in December, but said he needed to take his son to Disneyland and needed to do a movie, so now, finally, he has the time to fight.”
Continuing on, Pederneiras admitted that Team Aldo has a plan to secure a rematch with “Notorious” one, although the head coach also revealed that UFC President Dana White has told Aldo that McGregor does not want to fight him:
“Always. Always. We want a fight with Conor McGregor,” he said. But it’s hard to get. We know that. We know he doesn’t ever want to fight Aldo again. Maybe in boxing. Maybe he’d accept a boxing match. When we were meeting with Dana, he told us, ‘Conor does not want to fight you. I tried everything to put him in to a fight with you. I can’t put a gun to his head.’ That’s the word, from Dana to us. Dana told that to Aldo, directly.”
While a rematch with the outspoken Irishman may be a major goal of his, Aldo has a tough test sitting in front of him, as he’s currently set to defend his title against current interim champion Max Holloway, who’s riding an incredible 10 fight win streak, in the main event of UFC 212 this Saturday (June 3, 2017) in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.
Pederneiras confirmed that Aldo is focused solely on Holloway:
“That’s the best thing about Aldo. When he signs a contract, he forgets about everything and concentrates on his next fight. He doesn’t want to lose any fight, you understand? Right now, he does not think about fighting Conor or boxing,” he added.
UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo is gearing up to defend his 145-pound title against surging contender Max Holloway in the main event of this weekend’s (June 3, 2017) UFC 212 from Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Aldo, a man considered to be amongst the very best fighters of all-time, is coming off of a dominant decision […]
UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo is gearing up to defend his 145-pound title against surging contender Max Holloway in the main event of this weekend’s (June 3, 2017) UFC 212 from Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.
Aldo, a man considered to be amongst the very best fighters of all-time, is coming off of a dominant decision victory over Frankie Edgar last July, but prior to that he was famously knocked out by Conor McGregor in just 13 seconds at UFC 194 in Dec. 2015. “Scarface” recently said that McGregor will never accept a rematch with him, but that doesn’t stop the questions regarding the Irishman from surfacing.
In fact, UFC color commentator Joe Rogan recently said that Aldo’s legacy will always be ‘tarnished’ by his fight with the “Notorious” one:
“Aldo’s legacy and his reign is always gonna be tarnished by that 13 seconds against McGregor,” Rogan said on his podcast. “Which is so crazy because you take away that fight and he’s got one brutal war with Chad Mendes where he got rocked and stunned, which is a tough fight – the second one – great fight. And those are the only hard moments he’s had inside the octagon other than maybe round five against Ricardo Lamas. Lamas had him down and was doing a little bit of ground and pound in the fifth round and that was Aldo was too drained making that weight, but he’s smaller now. He generally looks smaller. He definitely chose to slim down because he was having unbelievably brutal weight cuts early in his career. He was just too big for the weight class so he just chose to slim his body down.”
With McGregor now holding the lightweight title and campaigning for a boxing match with Floyd Mayweather, Aldo is atop the 145-pound division once again and ready to start his second title reign.
Do you agree with Rogan’s comments or will Aldo have the chance to erase that memory?
Jose Aldo is set to defend his UFC featherweight title against red hot interim champion Max “Blessed” Holloway in the main event of June 3’s UFC 212 from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, but he still receives questions about bitter rival and former champion Conor McGregor, who knocked Aldo out cold in just 13 seconds at […]
Jose Aldo is set to defend his UFC featherweight title against red hot interim champion Max “Blessed” Holloway in the main event of June 3’s UFC 212 from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, but he still receives questions about bitter rival and former champion Conor McGregor, who knocked Aldo out cold in just 13 seconds at Dec. 2015’s UFC 194.
Aldo, however, appears to be focused on the featherweight contenders coming up the ranks, as he recently said that McGregor will ‘never’ accept a rematch:
“It’s good that this subject is being brought up, because nowadays everybody talks about something, and I don’t really understand why,” Aldo told reporters (Via MMAJunkie) in his native Portuguese. “Conor, on the one hand, was good, let’s say. And it’s good to explain that to everyone, because he brought a lot more visibility, both to the division and to me. But, on the other hand, talking about the fight? That’s in the past.
“Everybody goes back and talks about this, if I want (a rematch) or not. It’s not up to me. It’s up to the UFC. And we know that it’s never happening. I don’t even know if he’s fighting again. I ask not just the reporters, but everyone who talks about ‘Aldo …’ This doesn’t exist anymore. The UFC tried to make that fight, and he didn’t accept it, and he never will. Because what happened is never happening again. It’s good to make that clear for everyone.
“I see athletes, reporters, UFC people saying that ‘Aldo wants to fight (McGregor) … Man, there’s no way. He doesn’t want to fight me anymore, and it’s never happening again. And that’s good, because then nobody ever talks about my name or his. I don’t give a damn about what Conor is or isn’t doing. I’m a UFC athlete fighting in the featherweight division. So whoever is coming up the ranks, these are the guys I need to fight, that I have to train for, and get better and better to defend the belt.”
The build-up to UFC 194’s main event between Aldo and McGregor was sensational, and although the outcome of the fight was both shocking and thrilling, it left some fans wanting more.
The “Notorious” one, however, never ended up defending the 145-pound strap, instead electing to take on Nate Diaz in back-to-back bouts before closing out 2016 with a dominant knockout victory over Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205. The win over Alvarez made McGregor the first fighter in promotional history to hold two titles at one time, but he was later stripped of his featherweight belt.
Aldo, on the other hand, bounced back from his loss to McGregor with a one-sided decision victory over Frankie Edgar last July at UFC 200 to become the interim champion, but he was later promoted to undisputed titleholder. Now ready to defend that strap against Holloway, who’s won an incredible 10 straight fights, Aldo knows he has a ‘big challenge’ in front of him:
“Max is a big challenge,” Aldo said. “He’s an opponent I already imagined I could fight. I’m a reference. I’m the target. Everyone wants to be the champion. So I’m always studying every up-and-coming athlete in the division. This will be a test for me, because he’s a young guy, hungry to win, but he’ll be one more to try and not succeed. To me, that’s certain.”
