The stark contrast between the two largest fight cards of the year is almost palpable. Just last weekend, fans witnessed the most marketed, expensive, and hyped billing that MMA has seen in its short history. Did it deliver? Most are saying no. Of course I’m referring to UFC 200, the mammoth-sized, stacked -to-the-brim event that
The stark contrast between the two largest fight cards of the year is almost palpable. Just last weekend, fans witnessed the most marketed, expensive, and hyped billing that MMA has seen in its short history. Did it deliver? Most are saying no.
Of course I’m referring to UFC 200, the mammoth-sized, stacked -to-the-brim event that had more lean mass than Brock Lesnar himself. Unfortunately, all that size didn’t transfer very effectively as the card fell flat on several fronts. Obviously the fights had star power and most turned out well, but for a card with expectations built through the roof, turning out ‘well’ just doesn’t cut it.
The second of the two aforementioned fight cards is UFC 202. The tip-top show is scheduled to touch down in Las Vegas this August, and recent promotional surges have been building the momentum on what looks to be one of the best fight cards ever made.
In this list, we dive into five critical reasons that UFC 202 will out-do it’s over-hyped sibling and steal the show with some of the most incredible and well-strategized matchmaking the fight game has ever seen.
The UFC featherweight division was altered once again at UFC 200. After being knocked out cold by Conor McGregor at UFC 194, Jose Aldo returned to action on July 9 to rematch his old rival Frankie Edgar. Although many felt ‘The Answer’ should have been getting a shot at the undisputed belt, McGregor’s exploits at
The UFC featherweight division was altered once again at UFC 200. After being knocked out cold by Conor McGregor at UFC 194, Jose Aldo returned to action on July 9 to rematch his old rival Frankie Edgar. Although many felt ‘The Answer’ should have been getting a shot at the undisputed belt, McGregor’s exploits at welterweight meant the fight with ‘Scarface’ was the best option. The interim belt was introduced for the second time in three fights for the division, and once again the Brazilian felt gold around his waist after five rounds.
This opened the door to a rematch with ‘The Notorious,’ although no solid time has been placed on that do-over, but could there be another potentially pivotal bout brewing in the meantime? UFC bantamweight boss Dominick Cruz spoke up yesterday with a rather interesting challenge. Claiming he wanted to fight Jose Aldo and Conor McGregor, ‘The Dominator’ made clear his intentions to greatly further his status in the promotion.
After numerous injuries and surgeries saw Cruz vacate the bantamweight belt and fight just once in the space of nearly five years, he made a fairy tale comeback against TJ Dillashaw this past January. Winning back the title and defending it against Urijah Faber at UFC 199, ‘The Dominator’ said he’s now eyeing fights with McGregor or Aldo. His comments have struck a nerve with streaking featherweight Max Holloway though, as he voiced his displeasure on Twitter:
Currently on a nine fight winning streak which includes victories over Cub Swanson, Jeremy Stephens and Ricardo Lamas, ‘Blessed’ may have a point here. What’s important to consider in this argument though is the attraction of a super fight. Those extremely rare bouts where champions take on fellow champions, something that the promotion places very high in their monetary prioritisation.
Although Max Holloway is clearly quite deserving of a title fight, it’s also apparent that Aldo probably wants McGregor or bust. Now factor in that Dominick Cruz could potentially jump the queue, could we see another streaking featherweight contender snubbed by champions changing divisions?
Newly minted UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez put in a great show at last Thurday night’s (July 7, 2016) UFC Fight Night 90 from Las Vegas. Facing previously rampant former champion Rafael dos Anjos in the evening’s main event, ‘The Silent Assassin’ of old re-emerged and the results were devastating for ‘RDA.’ To be fair
Newly minted UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez put in a great show at last Thurday night’s (July 7, 2016) UFC Fight Night 90 from Las Vegas.
Facing previously rampant former champion Rafael dos Anjos in the evening’s main event, ‘The Silent Assassin’ of old re-emerged and the results were devastating for ‘RDA.’ To be fair to dos Anjos, he looked on point from the word go, but Alvarez only needed to land that one shot to mark the beginning of the end. A sharp right hand to the temple wobbled the Brazilian, then a flurry of merciless punches saw the referee call a stop to the action.
‘Don’t bring out the dog in me!’ declared a jubilant Alvarez in the post fight interview, as the MMA world welcomed yet another new face into the history books of UFC titleholders. The former Bellator 155-pound boss had made a disappointing debut at UFC 178 in 2014, losing a decision to Donald Cerrone, but scored back-to-back decisions over Gilbert Melendez and Anthony Pettis to set up his title fight against ‘RDA.’
Jul 7, 2016; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Eddie Alvarez lands a hit against Rafael Dos Anjos during UFC Fight Night at MGM Grand Graden Arena. Mandatory Credit: Joshua Dahl-USA TODAY Sports
So now the world is Eddie Alvarez’s oyster, what does his future hold? During last night’s (Monday July 11, 2016) appearance on The MMA Hour, the newly crowned ruler of the lightweights said he plans on trolling Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz when they rematch at UFC 202.
“Hell yeah, I plan on being there at UFC 202 with my bull horn. I’m bringing my bull horn to that freak show. The least best lightweights in this division, highest paid, it’s bullsh*t. These guys are making the highest dollars out of all of us. You got guys like dos Anjos, myself, Donald Cerrone. These two guys need taking out viciously so we can get that money. Me and Nate almost got in a fight in Mexico, Nate got a bit emotional because he was mean mugging me at the weigh-ins. I approached him about it and he didn’t like the way I approached him.“
“Conor’s Conor, I thought Conor was good at the one thing he does, but this is mixed martial arts. You can’t fight Dennis Siver and get a title shot. You can’t get knocked out by Nate Diaz and then you offer out Mayweather? This is turning in to a circus. Nate Diaz is a .500 fighter at lightweight. What kind of nonsense are we dealing with?
“Money (is the reason for wanting to give these guys a title shot). When you have the belt, that’s the best share in pay-per-view buys you can get. This division is so stacked, I didn’t have to fight Dennis Siver to get a title shot. I legitimately fought my way to a title shot. I didn’t fight top 30 guys I fought the best. I think Nate takes (the rematch). I don’t think you can become a five round fighter in that amount of time. I see Conor dumping out and just rolling over, I don’t see Conor take Diaz out. I see it going down the same exact way (as the first fight).”
Wow, seems like Eddie Alvarez is shunning the nickname ‘Silent Assassin,’ or at least the first part!
Ahead of his clash with Nate Diaz at UFC 202 next month, UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor had a lot to say at the UFC 202 press conference during International Fight Week Thursday (July 7, 2016). McGregor feels he is heading into his bout with Diaz fresh, and expects to take Diaz out come fight
Ahead of his clash with Nate Diaz at UFC 202 next month, UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor had a lot to say at the UFC 202 press conference during International Fight Week Thursday (July 7, 2016).
McGregor feels he is heading into his bout with Diaz fresh, and expects to take Diaz out come fight night:
“The last contest was a great fight. I have my reasons why I feel the fight went the way it went, and now I have the opportunity to prove what I am saying — like I have proved many times before — that what I say is correct. So I look forward to August 20th where I will come in correct, prepared, sharp, and I will take this man out.”
When asked why he thinks a second go-around with the Stockton native will be any different, the Irishman affirmed everyone that he is preparing for Diaz’s specific style, something he’s never done before in his UFC career:
“You know I’ve simply prepared a little bit more specific. Usually I don’t prepare for a specific opponent, and the reasons are clear to everybody, everyone I face pulls out. They pull out all the time. Last minute pull outs have been a staple in my career.
So I just carried on training, even though I was preparing for Dos Anjos in the last contest. I didn’t even bring a southpaw into the camp, so this time I prepared for a long, tall, lanky, ugly, Mexican south paw. And that’s it. A lot more specific, I’m going to go in, I’m going to put this man away, that’s it.”
While many in the 145-pound division agree that McGregor has been ‘holding the division hostage’ during his welterweight tenure in his brief rivalry with Diaz, they also believe that he will never return to the featherweight division again:
McGregor said he finds this belief amusing, and that when it’s all said and done against Diaz, he’ll return to dominate both the 145 and 155-pound divisions:
“I giggle, I giggle when they try and take that credit from me. For going up this weight and fighting at 170-pounds. They try and say ‘No it’s just a fight where he’s not cutting weight’ or all this bullsh**.
Make no mistake I am the undisputed UFC 145-pound champion, and that is my division, a division that I have destroyed. Saturday night now two fighters get to fight (Aldo and Edgar), and rise up and see where we are, but make no mistake that 145-pound division is my division. I am the world champion at that weight, and I will continue to dominate that division.
I have other business that has presented itself, that I must handle first. But make no mistake 145, 155, these are all my divisions and I will continue to come back and dominate them.”
As most of you may remember, Diaz and McGregor were originally slated to headline the massive UFC 200 card. McGregor, however, refused to attend a media event in Vegas to promote the bout, leading to the beginning of a brief feud between him and the organization.
The initial beef between McGregor and the UFC spiraled out of control, leading to a social media pariah along with his removal from the UFC 200 card. When asked if he would change anything during that brief period of time, the Irishman said he wished he had communicated with the promotion better:
“I witnessed a tragedy inside the cage, my teammate was involved in a horrific incident — a very sad incident and it affected my whole team and everyone involved in the sport in my country in a different way. So theres a lot of stuff going on.
We just wanted to get out and get away, and focus, and go back to doing what we love, training and studying martial arts. So we picked up and we went to Iceland. What I would have done differently was communicated a little bit better, I messed up the way I communicated it.
If I had reached out and said it the way I should have said it, man to man, and not in public it would have played a little bit better.”
While he feels he himself could have handled the situation a little better, McGregor also feels like the UFC played it wrong as well. McGregor stated that he deserved a little bit of ‘leeway’ after all he’s done for the company, and feels he is the reason a price tag of $4.2 Billion has been placed on the company amongst rumors of a potential UFC sell:
“I feel I played it a bit wrong but they also played it wrong. I’ve done an awful lot for the company, I feel I carried 2015 on my back. I feel like the reason there is a $4.2 Billion price tag on the company is because of me, I believe that is what the Chinese estimated my net-worth, at $4.2 Billion.
I felt I deserved a little bit of leeway. But I have to understand that I didn’t communicate my point well, and that was it. It is what it is, it’s in the past, here we are. August 20th UFC 202, I’m happy to put it behind me and get back to competing and training for a contest.”
McGregor stated that he plans on beating Diaz, returning to the featherweight division to defend his title, and then going on to a trilogy bout with the Stockton native. ‘Notorious’ also once again addressed speculation that he won’t return to the 145 pounds, reminding everyone that he would make championship weight even when he wasn’t competing for the title:
” I feel it will enter into a trilogy fight. Why not? It was a great fight the last time, I really enjoyed it. I will correct that win, I’ll reclaim this (featherweight title), let all those featherweights know –that are praying that I don’t come back– I don’t understand how they could say I’m not coming back.
Like I’ve never missed weight before, I’ve never missed weight in my life. Not only have I not missed weight, I’ve actually made championship weight when I’m not even fighting for the championship belt.
I’ll beat Nate, get that win back, dominate my division again, and then we’ll re-talk for the trilogy fight with Nate. I believe this will be a trilogy fight.”
UFC 200 is sure to do huge numbers when it comes to pay-per-view (PPV) buys, however, McGregor doesn’t believe it will take the No. 1-spot that he says he currently holds with UFC 196:
“I’m happy with my number one spot currently, it’s the number one pay-per-view (PPV) in the company’s history. People think UFC 100 done more PPV buys, but it didn’t. Know that.
I feel this will do well, even though Jon Jones and Cormier was off they’re last contest done 750,000 buys. It was a five rounder, it wasn’t the best contest, I didn’t feel, it was okay. I don’t feel that was the attraction, I think bringing Brock back is the attraction to the card.
So I think it will do okay numbers, but it still won’t take UFC 196 off the top spot. And it certainly won’t take 202 off the top spot, no bout, no way.”
McGregor and Diaz will meet in the main event of UFC 202 live on pay-per-view (PPV), from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on August 20, 2016.
The dust had hardly settled on Eddie Alvarez’s emphatic first-round stoppage of former champ Rafael dos Anjos in the main event of last night’s (July 7, 2016) UFC Fight Night 90 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, and talk had already shifted to just whom Alvarez would fight next in the stacked
The dust had hardly settled on Eddie Alvarez’s emphatic first-round stoppage of former champ Rafael dos Anjos in the main event of last night’s (July 7, 2016) UFC Fight Night 90 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, and talk had already shifted to just whom Alvarez would fight next in the stacked UFC 155-pound fray.
Sure, there were top-level contenders like Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson awaiting their shot at gold, but the predictable choice for the biggest event was obviously a fight with featherweight champion Conor McGregor, who’s set to rematch Nate Diaz at welterweight in the main event of August 20’s UFC 202.
There are still several roadblocks to get past in order to make McGregor vs. Alvarez a reality, but if a realistic chance does indeed arise, “The Underground King” is certainly all for it. He compared the deep UFC 155-pound talent pool to McGregor’s skills at the post-fight presser, and needless to say, it added up to Alvarez dubbing the ‘Notorious’ an easy fight.
He even told the Irish trash talker that he welcomes it directly:
“For me, I think by far, the best lightweight in this division is Rafael dos Anjos. I had the better night for sure, but this can go either way. There’s great competitors and there’s a real small margin for error. And if you mess up once, it could be me on the other end of that punch. So, this guy to the right of me is the best in the division, so to be able to come out with a win over him, and before him was Pettis, and before him was Gilbert, these are the best guys in the division. I’m not taking on Top 15, so I would ask Dana White to give me an easier fight like Conor McGregor. I deserve that, I’ve been fighting the best guys, so I would like a gimme fight, so Conor, I more than welcome that.”
Alvarez expounded upon that notion, adding his thoughts that McGregor has simply been given favorable match-ups throughout his undefeated run of the featherweight division, which stopped when he moved up in weight to take on a late replacement in Diaz only to be brutally submitted at March 5’s UFC 196.
Believing McGregor to be a one-trick pony, he offered the opinion that the UFC’s biggest star would be exposed in short order if he was ever to face a top 155-pound like himself or dos Anjos:
“There’s a lot of guys in the UFC who are good at one thing and they get matched up stylistically well and they make their way to the top without ever going against the best guys. The true best guys like Rafael dos Anjos and the best guys in the division. They sneak their way around them and they live on perception, not what really is. He’s one of ’em. So I think he could get found out, if he was ever to fight Rafael dos Anjos or myself, he would get found out very quickly.”
The UFC 200 main event between light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier and interim champ Jon Jones has unfortunately fallen through, after Jones was flagged for a United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) out-of-competition drug test in June. Now the former 205-pound kingpin could be starring down the barrel of a potential two-year-suspension as well as putting
The UFC 200 main event between light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier and interim champ Jon Jones has unfortunately fallen through, after Jones was flagged for a United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) out-of-competition drug test in June.
Now the former 205-pound kingpin could be starring down the barrel of a potential two-year-suspension as well as putting a huge dent in the action stacked International Fight Week.
Oddly enough this is the second planned main event for the blockbuster event to fall through, as UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor and Stockton native Nate Diaz were originally set to headline the July card. McGregor, however, was removed from the card after failing to honor his media obligations for the event, leading into a temporary beef with the company.
Now McGregor and Diaz are set to go toe-to-toe in the main event of UFC 202, a card that is looking rather stacked itself, and when asked of his thoughts on how things have played out since being removed from the card, the Irishman said he is reluctant to gloat on the UFC’s recent misfortunes:
“I could sit up hear and say ‘well well well’, but I am a successful human being and successful human beings do not celebrate in the adversity or misfortune of others,” McGregor said.
“So I wish Jon well, I wish everyone backstage well, I know they’re running around like headless chickens trying to get everything together. But all I missed was a press conference. If I look at the facts, the main event of the fight and the co-main event of the fight weren’t even at that press conference. It is what it is, August 20th is my date — UFC 202, the real 200, and I will have my redemption.”
When asked if he is willing to step in and miraculously save the card, while being just a month out from his clash with Diaz in August, McGregor said all the UFC has to do is ask:
“You know, Im here, and I’m in shape. All they have to do is ask.”
UFC 202 will no be headlined by Brock Lesnar taking on Mark Hunt live on pay-per-view (PPV), from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada this Saturday (July 9, 2016).
![nate-diaz-conor-mcgregor-mma-ufc-196-mcgregor-vs-diaz-4[1]](http://cdn.lowkickmma.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/nate-diaz-conor-mcgregor-mma-ufc-196-mcgregor-vs-diaz-41.jpg)
While many in the 145-pound division agree that McGregor has been ‘holding the division hostage’ during his welterweight tenure in his brief rivalry with Diaz, they also believe that he will never return to the featherweight division again:
While he feels he himself could have handled the situation a little better, McGregor also feels like the UFC played it wrong as well. McGregor stated that he deserved a little bit of ‘leeway’ after all he’s done for the company, and feels he is the reason a price tag of $4.2 Billion has been placed on the company amongst rumors of a potential UFC sell:
UFC 200 is sure to do huge numbers when it comes to pay-per-view (PPV) buys, however, McGregor doesn’t believe it will take the No. 1-spot that he says he currently holds with UFC 196:
Oddly enough this is the second planned main event for the blockbuster event to fall through, as UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor and Stockton native Nate Diaz were originally set to headline the July card. McGregor, however, was removed from the card after failing to honor his media obligations for the event, leading into a temporary beef with the company.
When asked if he is willing to step in and miraculously save the card, while being just a month out from his clash with Diaz in August, McGregor said all the UFC has to do is ask: