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Aldo Takes Shot At McGregor: “Some Of Us Can Train While Still Promoting The Fight”

After kicking him while he was down by mocking him immediately after his first UFC loss to Nate Diaz back at UFC 196 in March, former UFC Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo is back to capitalize on the attention the latest Conor McGregor situation is get…

Aldo, the former UFC 145-pound champion who was knocked out in 13 seconds by McGregor last December, took to social media on Friday to take a shot at McGregor for his refusal to promote UFC 200 as expected, a move that ended up resulting in UFC pulling the plug on the scheduled McGregor-Diaz II fight.

“Training here in Vegas last night,” wrote Aldo. “Because some of us can train while still promoting the fight. @ufc @Reebok”

Jose Aldo makes his Octagon return at UFC 200, as he fights Frankie Edgar in a rematch for the interim UFC Featherweight title.

UFC 200 takes place on Saturday, July 9, 2016 from the brand new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Training here in Vegas last night. Because some of us can train while still promoting the fight. @ufc @Reebok pic.twitter.com/vRIb5DDRVS

— Jose Aldo Junior (@josealdojunior) April 22, 2016

Nate Diaz Reacts To Conor McGregor’s Latest UFC Callout….And It’s Hilarious

In a week absolutely dominated by the hasty retirement and then un-retirement of UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor, we’ve heard precious little from Nate Diaz, the man who recently destroyed ‘The Notorious,’ at March’s UFC 196 and was set to rematch him in the main event of July’s UFC 200 until McGregor was unceremoniously pulled.

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Diaz quickly spoke up this Tuesday when McGregor issued his original puzzling retirement tweet, but other than that he had remained relatively quiet on the subject as countless top fighters were prodded for their opinion on McGregor while the drama overshadowed every bit of coverage for this weekend’s UFC 197.

That is, until now.

When McGregor issued a response boasting his accomplishments and putting the ball in the UFC’s court last night, Diaz tweeted and deleted his own response, but it still showed up on Jake Shields’ Instagram. Check it out here:

A photo posted by Jake Shields (@jakeshields) on Apr 21, 2016 at 9:36pm PDT

That’s certainly going to draw the ire of McGregor fans everywhere, who believe that the UFC asked him to do far too much promotion for his fights which in turn prevented him from training like he needed to in order to win. However, Diaz has the right to talk a bit of smack himself, because even though McGregor is still the most talked-about personality in MMA, he did slay him.

We were going to have a chance to see if McGregor could avenge that loss at UFC 200, but the promotion has apparently decided to pull McGregor off the card altogether. Will we ever see Diaz rematch MMA’s most polarizing star?

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Joe Rogan Reacts To Conor McGregor Being Pulled From UFC 200

The post Joe Rogan Reacts To Conor McGregor Being Pulled From UFC 200 appeared first on LowKick MMA.

In case you’ve been absent for the past few days, here’s a brief update on the crazy circumstances surrounding Conor McGregor. The UFC featherweight champion set the internet ablaze with a Tweet announcing his sudden retirement, and since then it’s been sheer mayhem. Speculation erupted in the mixed martial arts community, and was further fuelled by the announcement he’d been pulled from his UFC 200 rematch with Nate Diaz. In just a matter of hours, the promotion’s stance on McGregor had changed massively, as UFC president Dana White made clear his feelings on ‘The Notorious.’

White claimed he couldn’t make exceptions for any fighter, and that McGregor had refused to attend the first media obligations for UFC 200, leading to the eventual rift we are seeing today. His retirement was short lived though, as the Irish star clarified in his recent statement, declaring himself as still looking to fight at UFC 200. By all accounts, that window of opportunity is now closed as the promotion seeks a replacement to face Diaz. White even dropped in a USADA (United States Anti Doping Agency) implication during his interview with UFC on FOX, adding to the rumours surrounding McGregor’s reasons for becoming embroiled in this saga.

The world is once again fixated on McGregor, the cameras keep rolling and the mics keep recording, but will the brash Irish striker keep fighting? His rise to prominence and sensational engulfing of the UFC is truly a first, with no one, not even greats like GSP or Anderson Silva ever having as much star power as McGregor. Perhaps this posturing by the UFC is the promotion trying to finally put a lid on the monster they created before he starts to take the limelight off of them. The UFC is clearly all about the promotion, and not the fighters, and maybe McGregor’s plight will actually help improve working conditions for future fighters.

Who knows, perhaps there really is more to this than we realise at this stage, but whatever the case, it’s one of the most publicized, mainstream included, MMA happenings ever.

Joe Rogan went on his awesome podcast last night and gave his opinions and feelings on the whole drama surrounding Conor McGregor and UFC 200.

As usual, it’s incredibly accurate and also thought provoking…

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UFC Officially Calls Off Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz Despite Statement

It looks like the UFC isn’t buying Conor McGregor’s in-depth statement about his ‘retirement’ earlier this week. McGregor took to Facebook earlier today to state that he wasn’t retired and to clear the air with his employers in a sense, but according to a report from TMZ, the promotion won’t keep him in the main

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It looks like the UFC isn’t buying Conor McGregor’s in-depth statement about his ‘retirement’ earlier this week.

McGregor took to Facebook earlier today to state that he wasn’t retired and to clear the air with his employers in a sense, but according to a report from TMZ, the promotion won’t keep him in the main event of UFC 200 against Nate Diaz.

In his statement, McGregor repeatedly stressed the rigors of the nonstop promotional whirlwind that he feels partly lead to his shocking and disappointing defeat to Diaz at March 5’s UFC 196.

McGregor wanted more time to focus on his training coming off of a loss, and went to Iceland to isolate himself. When his management was told he would have to make it to the presser, he balked and issued his now-infamous retirement tweet on Tuesday. While he’s obviously debunked what many thought was a myth in the first place, it isn’t enough to save his headlining spot on arguably the UFC’s biggest card ever.

It’s highly debatable if the event will reach that lofty status without McGregor, yet the early indications are the UFC is done with letting McGregor call the shots regardless of how their media schedule interferes with his training.

UFC President Dana White appeared on ESPN stating that they had pulled McGregor from the event because he refused to take part in a press conference, but said the UFC would listen to McGregor and possibly let him fight on the July 9 blockbuster from Las Vegas if he contacted him.

He must not have contacted him, and the UFC apparently didn’t feel that his lengthy statement on Facebook was enough of an explanation.

There are going to be multiple viewpoints on this one, as McGregor’s many legions of fans are certainly going to understand that he just wanted some time to get better to avenge his most disappointing defeat, and then the opposing side will insist that the brash Irishman should do what is required by his employers due to the many millions he makes.

Which side are you on?

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Conor McGregor Could Reportedly Still Fight At UFC 200

With the collective mixed martial arts (MMA) world still trying to make sense of Conor McGregor’s cryptic retirement tweet and subsequent removal from July’s massive UFC 200 card yesterday, UFC President Dana White appeared on ESPN’s ‘The Herd’ with Colin Cowherd today (Wed., April 20, 2016) to give his side of what transpired and what

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With the collective mixed martial arts (MMA) world still trying to make sense of Conor McGregor’s cryptic retirement tweet and subsequent removal from July’s massive UFC 200 card yesterday, UFC President Dana White appeared on ESPN’s ‘The Herd’ with Colin Cowherd today (Wed., April 20, 2016) to give his side of what transpired and what direction the UFC would now head:

The strange proceedings of the past few days would definitely suggest that McGregor and the UFC are at odds in a big way, but White insisted to Cowherd that simply wasn’t the case, insisting that things never got combative (quotes via MMA Fighting):

“It never got combative, and I was talking to his manager,” White said. “They were asking to move all this stuff to May, and you can’t move this. This stuff is in motion. All fans care about is the fights, and that’s all they should care about. Any fan of the UFC [knows] that this happened once before when I pulled Nick Diaz from the fight.

“Everyone likes to talk about how I coddle Conor, and I baby Conor, and Conor can do whatever he wants and all this stuff. No, no you can’t. We do give Conor a lot of leeway because Conor delivers. He wasn’t planning on delivering this weekend and I had to pull him. That’s what had to be done.”

As for the wide-held rumor that McGregor was merely making a power play for more money in his previously scheduled welterweight rematch with Nate Diaz at the midsummer spectacle, White said that again was not true, instead blasting online outlets who had suggested that was the case:

“[It’s] not a money issue. That’s false,” White said. “That’s the problem with the Internet. You have all these hacks out there who just make stuff up for clicks. Never, ever was this about money. It was never about money. Conor makes a lot of money, and Conor’s very happy about the money he makes. Conor for the most part is a stand-up guy. He’s never come back after agreeing on a deal, and the fight is announced, and he comes back for more money. Conor is not that type of person.”

And in terms of the UFC’s relationship with their Irish featherweight champion, White insisted that their business relationship had not been damaged at all:

“Our relationship isn’t damaged at all,” White said. “…I’m not even mad a little bit. I had pretty smooth day…. When Conor went out, 10 other people called asking to go in. It’s going to be a massive event. It’s still a big fight. No, I’m not mad at all.”

Finally, White admitted that if McGregor were to contact him today and clarify the situation, then all might be forgiven and he could still fight at UFC 200, even if he already said that Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar could fight for McGregor’s vacant featherweight belt on the card if ‘Notorious’ doesn’t give them a solid idea of his plans very soon.

The promotional machine for UFC 200 must roll on with millions having been spent, and White insisted McGregor is obviously an integral part of that, which makes his refusal to show up for the media event a non-negotiable obligation:

“Yeah, if he called me after this interview, we would probably still do it,” White said. “The problem with this whole thing is you have to be here to promote your fight and you have to shoot this commercial. We’re spending $10 million in promotion for UFC 200, and all that money is motion. You can’t do this. I don’t care who you are, or how big you are, you can’t do this.”

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Did Nate Diaz Send Conor McGregor Into Retirement?

It’s not long now (hopefully) until we see Conor McGregor fight Nate Diaz at UFC 200. The two colorful characters first faced off at UFC 196 back in March, and it was a typical cult hero vs. theatrical villain kind of affair. McGregor had rallied ticket sales in al his previous fights using his razor

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It’s not long now (hopefully) until we see Conor McGregor fight Nate Diaz at UFC 200. The two colorful characters first faced off at UFC 196 back in March, and it was a typical cult hero vs. theatrical villain kind of affair. McGregor had rallied ticket sales in al his previous fights using his razor sharp wit and excellent ability to break his opponents just using the power of speech. He tried his old tricks against Diaz when Rafael dos Anjos fell out from the original booking, but it turned out the Stockton grappler wasn’t going to be playing those games.

Diaz stood firm in the midst of a barrage of trash talk from McGregor in the 11 days leading up to their fight, and made the Irish star eat his words when they eventually collided in the octagon.

McGregor gassed coming in to the second round of their highly entertaining bout, and Diaz smelled ‘red panty night’ in the making. ‘The Notorious’ had thrown everything at Diaz, yet the chin was holding up just fine. Just as the Diaz brothers had predicted, McGregor shot for the takedown, and it was just over from that point on. Diaz sunk in the fight finishing rear naked choke, and suddenly the UFC’s plans had been shattered, or so it seemed.

So win or lose, surely it’s back to the featherweight division for McGregor after this fight. Of course there’s always the possibility the UFC will see cash signs in a potential lightweight title fight, but surely the circus at the top of the 145-pound category needs sorting out first. So if he indeed does go back down, but loses his title, what happens next?

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