Former UFC lightweight champion Anthony “Showtime” Pettis will return this weekend (January 17, 2015) in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night 81 from Boston, Massachusetts for the first time since losing his title last March Coming off of a brutal loss at the hands of current champion Rafael dos Anjos, Pettis is set to
Former UFC lightweight champion Anthony “Showtime” Pettis will return this weekend (January 17, 2015) in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night 81 from Boston, Massachusetts for the first time since losing his title last March
Coming off of a brutal loss at the hands of current champion Rafael dos Anjos, Pettis is set to meet former Bellator champion Eddie “The Silent Assasin” Alvarez in an attempt to jump back into the title picture.
Not only did “Showtime” suffer a huge loss, but he was also faced with yet another injury setback that has forced him out of the Octagon for the last 10 months.
Injuries have seemed to be the constant downfall for the ex-champ, but now seemingly healthy, Pettis feels as if he’s the best in the world:
“I don’t feel like these guys are on my level when I’m 100 percent. When I’m 100 percent, I don’t think anybody in the world can beat me.” Pettis told MMAFighting.com.
As far as the fight goes, “Showtime” currently sits at No. 1 in the 155-pound rankings while Alvarez is currently ranked No. 4. “The Silent Assassin” is also coming off of a hard fought win over Gilbert Melendez last June, meaning that this scrap could potentially have major title implications.
According to Pettis, he was actually guaranteed a title shot with a win over Alvarez, although he’s not sure he wants to sit around and wait:
“Yes, I was told [that I’d get a title shot], but I don’t know if I’m going to wait anymore. I feel like I have been waiting for belts. I have a new contract with the UFC. I’m getting paid what I want to get paid and I feel like now is the time to get out there and just keep fighting.”
Dos Anjos is slated to defend his title next in a mega fight with featherweight boss Conor McGregor at March 5’s UFC 197 from Las Vegas.
Should he get passed Alvarez in Boston, should “Showtime” get a chance to reclaim his title?
Brash and outspoken Irish UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor has already begun his patented trash towards his next opponent, 155-pound title holder Rafael dos Anjos. The two men will do battle in the main event of March 5’s UFC 197, as McGregor attempts to become the first fighter in UFC history to hold two belts
Brash and outspoken Irish UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor has already begun his patented trash towards his next opponent, 155-pound title holder Rafael dos Anjos.
The two men will do battle in the main event of March 5’s UFC 197, as McGregor attempts to become the first fighter in UFC history to hold two belts simultaneously. The “Notorious” one came into the UFC as a two-weight world champion in Cage Warriors, but dos Anjos doesn’t appear to be impressed with McGregor’s “amateur” accomplishments:
“UFC lightweight division isn’t the belt he got in Ireland when he fought a guy with a record of 2-7,” Dos Anjos told MMAFighting.com. “It’s a different world. He fought guys that don’t even have Sherdog pages. He holds belts off his amateur show in Ireland. It’s a different story to hold two UFC belts.”
As far as the talking goes, the Brazilian champion feels as if once he hits McGregor, it’s a whole different story:
“Lightweightdivision is a different story. We’ll see. Everybody talks. Anthony Pettis talked before the fight. Donald Cerronetalked before the fight. See what happened? I’ll let him talk and we’ll see what happens. I hope he’s training hard. I think he’s going to be scared once I hit him.”
The Irishman completed his triumphant rise to the pinnacle of the 145-pound division last month, shockingly knocking out former long-time boss Jose Aldo in a mere 13-seconds. Now hungry for more, McGregor has decided to play his card against the big boys, and dos Anjos admits that the “Notorious” one has nothing to lose.
Despite this, RDA doesn’t feel any pressure, as he’s just excited with the fight coming to fruition:
“He doesn’t have anything to lose,” said Dos Anjos. “He’s a smart guy. He knows that if he loses to [featherweight contenders] Jose Aldo or Frankie Edgar, he doesn’t have anything. But at lightweight, if he wins, he’s the man. If he loses, he still has his belt.
“I don’t feel any pressure. I have to take care of my family, my team and my legacy. It’s one more fight. There isn’t anything special in this fight. I’m just happy to put my hands on this guy and make him humble. I think the toughest part of this camp will be not putting my hands on him before the fight happens.”
The bout was confirmed earlier this week, and McGregor wasted no time spitting out a controversial comment, calling dos Anjos a traitor to his country, and dedicating the bout to Brazil. As far as the champion is concerned, the Irish star is simply crazy:
“It doesn’t make any sense,” Dos Anjos said of McGregor’s comments. “We have a lot of Brazilians in the United States. It doesn’t mean we’re traitors to our country. I’ve got kids and I had to move for different things like better wrestling training partners here. I think that was a frustrated way to try to win the Brazilian fans. This guy is out of his mind. He’s going to try to do his best to try to mess with my head. I don’t hate him, but the Brazilians do. Brazil is on my side.”
Who will take over the lightweight division come March?
Former legendary UFC middleweight champion Anderson “The Spider” Silva is set to make his return to action after serving out a year-long suspension at February 26’s UFC Fight Night 83 against Michael Bisping. Originally, however, it was thought that “The Spider” would be rematching Vitor “The Phenom” Belfort at March’s UFC 197 in Brazil. The
Former legendary UFC middleweight champion Anderson “The Spider” Silva is set to make his return to action after serving out a year-long suspension at February 26’s UFC Fight Night 83 against Michael Bisping.
Originally, however, it was thought that “The Spider” would be rematching Vitor “The Phenom” Belfort at March’s UFC 197 in Brazil.
The promotion was aiming to have heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum defend his title against former champion Cain Velasquez at this card, but that rematch has now been scheduled for next month’s UFC 196 in Las Vegas.
With the moving of the heavyweight title tilt, the plan was to have the two Brazilian legends square off in their native land, but obviously the situation fell through.
According to UFC senior vice president Giovani Decker, “The Spider” had accepted the bout, but it was Belfort who had turned it down:
“With the card losing a title fight as big as that one, we thought this card would fit better at the Arena, no longer at a soccer stadium,” Decker told Combate. “But we couldn’t get the deal done with Vitor Belfort. Anderson accepted the fight, but Vitor decided to wait to see what would happen in the fight between Chris Weidman and Luke Rockhold (at UFC 194), and he was right, because Rockhold won and called him out at the UFC 194 post-fight press conference, which was a good sign for him.”
Continuing on, Decker made it clear that “The Phenom” didn’t necessarily not want the fight with Silva, but apparently his eyes are on a title shot, leading the UFC to bump Werdum vs. Velasquez up a month earlier:
“Many people said Vitor didn’t want this fight, and that wasn’t the truth,” he continued. “He wants it, he made it clear it will happen at some time, but for him, thinking about his career and what he has ahead of him at this moment, this fight wouldn’t make sense. We were running out of time, and the UFC needed to announce the UFC 196 main event in Las Vegas. That’s why the fight between Werdum and Velasquez ended up there.”
UFC 197 has now been moved to Las Vegas, and has been turned in to a blockbuster event. Featherweight champion and mega star Conor McGregor will jump up a weight class to challenge for his second title against 155-pound boss Rafael dos Anjos. Newly minted bantamweight champion Holly Holm will also defend her crown against Miesha Tate.
As for Belfort, it’s currently unclear as to what we’ll be next.
With the news that UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor is officially moving up to lightweight to take on 155-pound champion Rafael dos Anjos in the main event of March’s blockbuster UFC 197 event from Las Vegas, it’s hardly a secret that the polarizing ‘Notorious’ has become the most discussed name in combat ports by a
With the news that UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor is officially moving up to lightweight to take on 155-pound champion Rafael dos Anjos in the main event of March’s blockbuster UFC 197 event from Las Vegas, it’s hardly a secret that the polarizing ‘Notorious’ has become the most discussed name in combat ports by a wide margin.
Taking over that role from former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey due to her devastating UFC 193 knockout loss to Holly Holm, McGregor has proclaimed that he ‘is the fight game,’ and based off of how the UFC has been willing to let him do essentially whatever he wants, it’s hard to argue with him there.
However, it allegedly wasn’t supposed to play out like that after UFC 194, as former featherweight champ Jose Aldo recently told Portal de Vale Tudo (via MMA Fighting) that there was an apparent agreement in place for the winner of their fight to move up to lightweight while the other fighter stayed put at featherweight to take on consensus No. 1 Frankie Edgar, a deal that McGregor supposedly reneged on. What’s more, Aldo was supposedly going to move up to lightweight as he’s long been rumored to do if he won:
“Right after the fight, Dana went to the locker room and told us our next fight would be against Frankie Edgar for the belt, because Conor would move up for the lightweight division since he couldn’t cut weight anymore.
“When we signed the contract, the intention was that the winner would fight at lightweight, but we would need to abandon the featherweight belt,” he said. “That was the plan, that’s what they told us. If we fought at lightweight, win or lose, and then had the opportunity to fight at featherweight again, it would be for the title immediately.”
It appears that the UFC’s plans were thrown a bit of a curveball by the massive drawing power of McGregor, who shocked the world by flooring Aldo in 13 seconds and ending his 10-year unbeaten reign. Aldo is clearly not headed for a rematch with McGregor just yet, but that’s understandably what he’s aiming for. The Brazilian veteran still thinks McGregor was lucky to knock him out and there wasn’t a fight. Aldo said that when they do finally throw down once again, he’s going to win. Find out what Aldo said about his jaw-dropping loss on the following page…
Since capturing the women’s bantamweight championship from Ronda Rousey at UFC 193, much of the discussion about Holly Holm has focused on how much she now has to lose.
Conventional wisdom dictated that Holm should wait for Rousey to lick her wou…
Since capturing the women’s bantamweight championship from Ronda Rousey at UFC 193, much of the discussion about Holly Holm has focused on how much she now has to lose.
Conventional wisdom dictated that Holm should wait for Rousey to lick her wounds and return before taking another bout. A rematch with Rousey—most likely at the enormous UFC 200 event scheduled for July—would be so lucrative that Holmwouldn’t want to risk losing it by accepting a different fight in the interim.
Her bosses appeared to agree.
“If we didn‘t make the [Holm vs. Rousey] rematch, [we] should probably lose our promoters’ license,” UFC President Dana White said on ESPN’s Mike and Mike in early December (via MMAFighting.com’s Hunter A. Homistek). “That fight’s going to happen. I don’t know when, but that’s the fight that will happen.”
Credit Holm, then, for sticking to her guns. The new 135-pound champion said all along she didn’t want to sit on the sideline waiting for Rousey, and now she won’t. We learned this week Holm will instead take on former Strikeforce champion and longtime Rousey nemesis Miesha Tate at UFC 197 on March 5, according to an initial report by Bleacher Report’s Jeremy Botter.
Their matchup will be the co-main event of the Las Vegas-based card, along with ConorMcGregor’s bid to move up to lightweight and take the 155-pound crown from Rafael dos Anjos.
So, all in all, not a bad landing spot.
UFC 197 was originally scheduled for HSBC Arena in Rio deJaneiro, with a rematch between Brazilian stars Anderson Silva and VitorBelfort rumored as the main event, according to the Jornal O Globo‘s LauroJardim (via Bloody Elbow’s Nick Baldwin). But then Silva unexpectedly got booked to fight Michael Bisping at UFC Fight Night 83 and spilled the beans during a recent conference call that UFC 197 in Rio had been canceled.
We didn’t know if the event had any future at all until Botter broke the news of Holm’s and McGregor’s returns last week. In one fell swoop and on very short notice, the promotion turned a struggling, possibly doomed pay-per-view into an out-and-out blockbuster.
And maybe—just maybe—all the chaos surrounding UFC 197 worked in favor of Holm and McGregor, too. Perhaps the company’s desperate need to book promotable fights on a more or less emergency basis left UFC brass with no choice but to give them both exactly what they wanted.
And you know what? It seems like it’s going to work out just fine.
Now that we all sit back and squint at this thing a little bit, maybe it’s not quite as big a risk for Holm as we first thought.
For starters, some of us have come around to the new champ’s way of thinking. Maybe fighting Tate actually makes more sense than sitting around waiting for Rousey to decide when and where (let alone if) she ever wants to come back.
At 34 years old, Holm entered the MMA ranks fairly late in her athletic career. She’d already had an entire career as a professional boxer before ever donning four-ounce gloves. She’s not exactly dealing with an unlimited window of opportunity here, and that was sort of her point all along.
“The only thing about July is that it’s eight months away from my last fight,” Holm told MMA Junkie’s Steven Morrocco in December. “That’s the biggest thing. I don’t like to wait that long. … A fight in between now and then, I feel like, yes, let’s stay active. In boxing, I did 10 years straight of having four fights a year, and so to wait eight months, it’s out of my norm.”
The prevailing logic said a potential bout with Rousey at UFC 200 would be worth so much money—to Holm, to Rousey and to the UFC itself—that it didn’t make sense for Holm to jeopardize it with any other booking. With the top of the revamped UFC 197 card now looking the way it does, that’s not entirely true anymore, either.
Teaming up with McGregor is as close to a guaranteed financial windfall as there is in this sport right now. His battle with dos Anjos is going to be huge in its own right. Having Holm on the card as well makes UFC 197 a bona fide mega-event. It’s not going to be as big as UFC 200, but it stands to be among the organization’s top-selling PPVs of the year.
If Holm can catch a piece of that, then it will be worth her while.
Also, this fight with Tate? Early indications from oddsmakers are that Holm is probably going to win it.
She opened as more than a 3-1 favorite, according to Odds Shark. While Tate has the tools to be a handful for anyone in the division, if the version of Holm who dropped Rousey in November also shows up to this fight, it’s a good bet the belt is staying right where it is.
Lastly, let’s discuss Holm’s doomsday scenario, which—now that we really think about it—doesn’t seem all that bad after all.
Let’s pretend she loses her shiny new women’s bantamweight title to Tate at UFC 197.
Cue dramatic music.
What happens then?
Our previous way of thinking led us to believe this would be a disaster, but maybe that’s not the case in practice. Losing to Tate wouldn’t be as good as beating her, but it might not be the end of the world.
There is plenty of evidence—in the form of two previous fights—to suggest that Tate most likely turns around and loses the title right back to a returning Rousey. If that happens, what opponent immediately makes the most sense for Rousey as she begins her second reign atop the division?
Why, Holly Holm, of course.
In any world where both Holm and Rousey go on being active fighters in the same organization at the same weight, they’re going to fight again. Nothing Tate can do to Holm on March 5 likely changes that.
In fact, once you consider the entire equation here—Holm, McGregor, Tate, the odds and inevitability of a Rousey rematch no matter what happens—it starts to feel like we have focused too much on what Holm has to lose and not nearly enough on what she has to gain.
Conor McGregor is slated to fight Rafael dos Anjos for the UFC lightweight title at UFC 197 on March 5. Assuming the UFC meets McGregor’s enormous financial demands, the fight will go ahead. It will be the first matchup of reigning cham…
Conor McGregor is slated to fight Rafael dos Anjos for the UFC lightweight title at UFC 197 on March 5. Assuming the UFC meets McGregor’s enormous financial demands, the fight will go ahead. It will be the first matchup of reigning champions under the UFC banner since BJ Penn and Georges St-Pierre met at UFC 94 almost seven years ago.
The newly minted featherweight champion will move up to 155 pounds, or to be more precise, he will cut a slightly less drastic amount of weight. The Irishman was one of the biggest featherweights in the division and walked around at over 170 pounds between fights.
The move up could be permanent, or it could be a sometime thing, and in either case the stacked lightweight division offers him a cornucopia of interesting challengers. How do the 155-pound elite stack up with the featherweight champion? Steven Rondina and Patrick Wyman will break it all the way down.
Patrick Wyman: Barring McGregor asking for the actual moon to go along with the boatload of cash he’ll presumably make, the new featherweight champion will move up to 155 pounds to face reigning champion Rafael dos Anjos.
We previously wrote about what a ballsy move this is for McGregor: Dos Anjos is a scary dude, and on first glance, seems like a tough matchup for the Irishman. Who wins that one and why?
Steven Rondina: Well, my conclusion in that roundtable still stands. My head says dos Anjos has this without much difficulty.
RDA has long been a smart fighter with a big toolbox. Over the last 18 months, though, he has established himself as a smart fighter with legitimate knockout power and an oppressive wrestling game. I can’t see any 155-pounder beating him, nevermind a featherweight doing it.
My heart, though? That’s telling me this is McGregor’s fight to lose. Jonathan Snowden and Jeremy Botter discussed“New Thought philosophy” and the “Law of Attraction” relative to Mystic Mac ahead of UFC 194.
While I’m not going to say he is flat-out bending reality to his will, I’m probably not going to take issue if you imply that he is!
Patrick: I favor dos Anjos in that fight. He’s a huge lightweight with real pop in his strikes, great pressure footwork to push his opponent toward the cage and functional wrestling skills, particularly near the fence. Most of all, though, he fights smart, with unbridled aggression and a nasty edge that suit his skill sets.
I could easily see him walking through McGregor’s counters, kicking the crap out of his legs and body and then taking him down and beating him up from the top. Nobody has ever succeeded in walking McGregor down, but if anybody can do it, a pressure fighter of dos Anjos’ caliber will be the one to do it.
Alternatively, McGregor’s power, which will probably translate to lightweight, could dent the durable dos Anjos on the way in. If McGregor can keep the fight in open space and keep his back off the fence, the size difference and depth of his striking skill could come into play.
The former scenario seems a little more likely to me. Even in that case, however, there would still be lucrative and interesting fights for McGregor at lightweight. What would you think of a matchup with Anthony Pettis, assuming the former lightweight champion gets past Eddie Alvarez this weekend?
Steven: McGregor vs. Pettis would be a pure striking contest against a similarly sized opponent and, honestly, I’m struggling to envision him losing under those circumstances.
That isn’t to say Pettis would be a cakewalk for McGregor (Pettis is just too dynamic a finisher to be considered an easy out), but Pettis wouldn’t be able to physically bully him and would be forced to absorb some of those deadly left hands. That’s not a recipe for success.
The most intriguing hypothetical matchups, for me at least, are when we start looking at McGregor against the bigger lightweights, guys like Donald Cerrone and Nate Diaz.
Diaz looked better than ever against a dangerous Michael Johnson at UFC on Fox 17, and I’d love to see how McGregor adjusts to that Stockton Boxing style. While he lost to dos Anjos in devastating fashion, I would absolutely love to see Cerrone try to work his knees and clinch strikes against McGregor. The thought of a UFC 189-style world tour certainly doesn’t hurt, either.
I’d have to sit back and watch a lot of tape to venture a pick for either of those fights, but those are easily the most exciting and most competitive opponents for McGregor at 155 pounds in my mind.
Patrick: I’m with you in that I can’t really see Pettis having much success against McGregor. The kind of smooth pressure the Irishman showed against Dennis Siver and Chad Mendes would probably be enough to pin Pettis against the cage, where he struggled so badly against Rafael dos Anjos.
That problem is endemic to Pettis’ game: He had trouble there against Gilbert Melendez before he found the guillotine in the second round, and McGregor does that better than anyone he’s fought except for dos Anjos.
I don’t buy Cerrone as a particularly competitive matchup. Like Pettis, Cerrone is a defined out-fighter, which means he needs space and his opponent’s respect to work his preferred game. Dos Anjos didn’t give him either both times they fought, and neither will McGregor. He would crowd Cerrone, take away his kicks and drop a steady diet of left hands until the referee stepped in.
Nate Diaz, though. Now we’re cooking. I’m not saying I think Diaz would win that fight, but I’d certainly be down to watch him try. He’s long and rangy, more so than anybody McGregor has ever fought, and can match him for volume and cardio. Against a puncher like the featherweight champion, durability is also a factor, and we know Diaz has that.
All of those three would be intriguing stylistic matchups, and McGregor could bring the promotional heat to any of them.
Who at 155 pounds do you think could really give McGregor problems? My vote is for the long-sidelined Khabib Nurmagomedov, but does anybody else stand out to you?
Steven: While we’ve moved past the time where “Well, what happens when Conor fights a wrestler?” is a serious discussion, McGregor’s defensive grappling skills remain something of a mystery. That, of course, makes any fight with a formidable wrestler a dicey endeavor, and Nurmagomedov was a few steps past “formidable” before destroying his knees.
The 2014 model of dos Anjos wasn’t as good as 2015’s, but he was still a very solid, very smart fighter. The pre-injury Nurmagomedov flat-out dominated him, though, and dos Anjos wasn’t undersized at 155 pounds. I could see Conor getting the better of him with a Holm vs. Rousey-like “stick him with a left and then slip away” strategy, but the margin for error there feels very small.
The good thing for McGregor is that, outside Nurmagomedov, there aren’t too many of those smothering wrestlers who are on-paper nightmares for him. It wasn’t all that long ago that the lightweight division’s top 10 was overrun with Clay Guidas and Gray Maynards.
Today, however, the lightweight division has a really interesting mix of styles at the elite level. Because of that, I could easily foresee McGregor having sustained success at 155 pounds.
Patrick: You’re right. There are far fewer of the big, overpowering top-control guys who once populated the lightweight ranks. It’s a division populated mostly by slick strikers, and that type of opponent is much more favorable for McGregor.
The exception is Nurmagomedov. He’s athletic, enormous and a once-in-a-generation kind of control-wrestling talent. He’s the worst-possible matchup for the Irishman: Unlike Chad Mendes, McGregor won’t be getting back up if gets caught underneath the Russian.
Whether he beats dos Anjos or not, there are many compelling matchups waiting for McGregor at 155 pounds. You certainly have to respect his chutzpah.
Since capturing the women’s bantamweight championship from Ronda