Tag: UFC 207

Ronda Rousey Hires New Nutrition Coach – Is A UFC Return To Follow?

We’ve seen hardly any word from former UFC champ Ronda Rousey save for a canned statement and cryptic social media post in the months after her first-round TKO loss to current champion Amanda Nunes in the main event of December 30’s UFC 207 from Vegas. MMA’s formerly outspoken queen did sign on for a guest

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We’ve seen hardly any word from former UFC champ Ronda Rousey save for a canned statement and cryptic social media post in the months after her first-round TKO loss to current champion Amanda Nunes in the main event of December 30’s UFC 207 from Vegas.

MMA’s formerly outspoken queen did sign on for a guest spot on NBC’s “Blindspot,” yet no official word about the future of her fighting career has been heard nor seen from her or anyone on her team. A bit of news that may suggest the superstar could be mulling another comeback to mixed martial arts surfaced this week, however, as Dan Garner Nutrition posted a welcoming post to Rousey on Instagram (via MMA Mania) last night.

Garner expressed his understandable excitement at having Rousey and on his team, and hinted at big things in the remainder of 2017:

“Wanted to give a good welcoming post to Ronda Rousey who has just recently joined the team, and is all set for the comprehensive nutritional programming process with myself. Excited to have her on board and to accomplish some great things with her this year.”

Just what those “big things” are remains unclear, however, and with Rousey’s heavily blasted head trainer Edmond Tarverdyan being dubbed the villain for most of her rapid decline, Rousey’s nutrition hasn’t exactly been discussed as a main cause after she showed up to UFC 207 looking ripped and in shape but got run over anyway.

Still, it could signal that ‘Rowdy’s’ at least ready to continue her career after two significant setbacks, and that can only be good news for the UFC and MMA as a whole.

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Dominick Cruz Wants The Next Title Shot

Dominick Cruz wants his title back. The former UFC bantamweight champ is coming off of his first loss in nearly a decade when he dropped a unanimous decision to Cody Garbrandt in the co-main event of UFC 207 live on pay-per-view (PPV). ‘The Dominator’s’ 13-fight win streak was snapped after the lopsided defeat, but Cruz’s

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Dominick Cruz wants his title back.

The former UFC bantamweight champ is coming off of his first loss in nearly a decade when he dropped a unanimous decision to Cody Garbrandt in the co-main event of UFC 207 live on pay-per-view (PPV). ‘The Dominator’s’ 13-fight win streak was snapped after the lopsided defeat, but Cruz’s confidence remained intact.

Cruz’s longtime head coach at Alliance MMA, Eric Del Fierro, says the former champ is doing well after the loss, and is focusing on getting back to 100 percent before he steps back into the Octagon (quotes via MMA Junkie):

“Whomever’s got the belt, that’s who (Cruz) wants next. Dominick is good,” said Del Fierro. “You guys have seen him around – he stays positive, he does his thing. Right now, he’s just taking care of his body. He’s training – not 100 percent, full time – but he’s here training and just kind of letting his body heal.

“With that plantar fasciitis, that seems to be the one of the most complicated injuries he’s ever had, and I say that because anybody that’s had that injury, or that condition, it just doesn’t go away. And the only thing that really helps it is rest.”

Del Fierro went on to praise Garbrandt for him composure inside of the Octagon, and believes that ‘No Love’ has not yet shown the world everything he has stored up in his arsenal:

“I think Cody’s slick,” Del Fierro said. “He’s slick, and I think what he showed is a lot of composure. I think he’s got a lot more that he hasn’t shown. Rematches are always difficult, and teammates fighting teammates is a whole different level of mental battle, so the question is who can put it aside more than the other and I would kind of give that edge to Cody – but I don’t know.”

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Coach Expects ‘Best Version’ Of Dominick Cruz Upon Return

Dominick Cruz is widely considered to be the very best bantamweight of all-time, but he surrendered his title in a somewhat shocking one-sided decision loss to Cody Garbrandt at this past December’s UFC 207 from Las Vegas, a loss that marked just the second of Cruz’s professional career. Cruz has dealt with adversity for the

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Dominick Cruz is widely considered to be the very best bantamweight of all-time, but he surrendered his title in a somewhat shocking one-sided decision loss to Cody Garbrandt at this past December’s UFC 207 from Las Vegas, a loss that marked just the second of Cruz’s professional career.

Cruz has dealt with adversity for the majority of his career due to a grueling history of injuries, but losing the title represented a set back inside of the Octagon for “The Dominator”, something he isn’t very used to. Nonetheless, his longtime coach Eric Del Fierro recently said dealing with Cruz hasn’t changed much after the loss:

“It’s no different than dealing with Dominick after a win,” Del Fierro told MMA Fighting recently. “You go back and you look at what went great, and you look at what went wrong. We do that when we win, as well. This sport is evolving everyday, and we knew this was going to be a tough fight — there’s no such thing as Dominick having an easy fight, period. Win or lose, he knows what he needs to do. He knows what little mistakes to work on, and what Cody shined on. At this point, it’s just sitting back and making the right decision on when he wants to fight again.”

Cruz’s next fight has yet to be booked, but Del Fierro is expecting the ‘best version’ of “The Dominator” upon his return. As he put it, the former champion was able to learn ‘a lot about himself’ from the loss:

“He’s learned a lot about himself and who he is. And honestly, fighting is a big part of his life, but it’s something he’s still having fun with. When it becomes a job, or when it becomes more than that, maybe it’ll be too much of him. But right now he loves it, and he’s looking forward to competing again. I think this is the best version of Dominick that’ll be coming back to fight again.”

While Cruz has seemed to take the best out of the disappointing loss, Del Fierro confirmed that he is in no way happy with how his fight with Gabrandt played out:

“Don’t get me wrong, Dominick is human like everybody else,” he said. “There’s no happiness in losing. We’re happy to be alive, happy to be competing, happy to have these gifts, but we’re all competitors here, and he is too. He’s not 100 percent happy with losing, let’s just say that.”

Do you expect Cruz to bounce back when he eventually returns to the Octagon?

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Bas Rutten ‘Truly Believes’ Movies Aided Ronda Rousey’s Downfall

After suffering back-to-back stoppage defeats at the hands of Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes, Ronda Rousey’s fighting future is currently unclear. In fact, it’s unclear whether or not she’ll ever fight again. Once a supremely dominant champion, Rousey’s downfall has been a hot topic in mixed martial arts over the last year or so, and

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After suffering back-to-back stoppage defeats at the hands of Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes, Ronda Rousey’s fighting future is currently unclear. In fact, it’s unclear whether or not she’ll ever fight again.

Once a supremely dominant champion, Rousey’s downfall has been a hot topic in mixed martial arts over the last year or so, and UFC Hall of Famer Bas Rutten ‘truly believes’ Rousey’s obligations outside of the cage aided in her fall from grace:

“I truly believe that,” Rutten told FOX Sports when asked if her career outside the cage played a factor in Rousey’s recent woes. “On the other side, her name is getting bigger and bigger and bigger and then the girls who are going to fight her, they know if they dethrone the champ, they’re going to be that known. It’s a judgment slip I think. That’s what happened there.

“Unfortunately, she hasn’t been able to pull it back together now.”

Rutten also feels as if the plethora of opportunities Rousey had simply put more and more pressure on her to perform in the Octagon:

“The problem also with Ronda was she had so many movie offers and the last fight that she had, everything was riding on that,” Rutten explained. “She knew that if she would lose, she would not only lose but she would lose all the movies, opportunities, everything would go away cause that’s how the world works. It’s unfortunate but that’s how the world works.

“Once you start losing, suddenly you’re not that interesting anymore. It’s bad that it happens, but it happens.”

Opportunities away from the cage have become common for some fighters, but Rutten says that it is the ‘dumbest thing’ because a fighter needs to be solely focused on fighting to perform at a high level:

“It’s the dumbest thing, especially as a fighter because they need to be mentally and physically prepared. They need to focus 100-percent solely on fighting,” Rutten advised. “That’s what I would do. It’s a thing where once they get an offer it’s like ‘wait a minute, I can do this and this can be a backup plan’ and then they totally forget about the consequences of acting. Then you see guys or girls who do it, they start losing their next fight. Because they aren’t focusing on the fight.

“It’s a hard job already. You’ve got to stay away from the injuries and everything else to keep the mind and body in tune while you’re doing another job on the side, it’s just not a great idea.” 

Do you agree with Rutten’s comments, and do you expect Rousey to ever return to the cage?

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UFC Champ: ‘Cash Me Ousside’ Girl Would Probably Do More PPV Numbers Than Ronda Rousey

It’s no secret that stirring up the most trash talk and over-the-top drama is the formula for success in the UFC these days. Dominant UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson is here to let you know that with a unique perspective. During a recent interview with Ariel Helwani on this week’s The MMA Hour, “Mighty Mouse”

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It’s no secret that stirring up the most trash talk and over-the-top drama is the formula for success in the UFC these days.

Dominant UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson is here to let you know that with a unique perspective.

During a recent interview with Ariel Helwani on this week’s The MMA Hour, “Mighty Mouse” said he thought that internet personality Danielle Negreli, known for her “Cash me ousside” catchphrase and appearances on Dr. Phil, could drive more pay-per-view numbers than former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey simply due to the drama that she brings:

“I guarantee you if you get her some gloves and put her in the Octagon, she would be the highest selling pay-per-view fighter in the world,” Johnson said. “She’d probably do way more numbers than Ronda. Just because she brings drama and negativity to wherever she goes.”

That may be a bit of an overstatement considering Rousey’s last PPV draw in a loss to Amanda Nunes at UFC 207, a bout where “Rowdy” made $3 million in 48 seconds. And Conor McGregor is clearly the current master of creating drama and intrigue for upcoming bouts in the UFC, something that Johnson is clearly focused on not getting involved in – and also a potential factor why he’s viewed as one of the lowest-watched champions in MMA.

But it also can’t be denied that drama is a real motivating factor in how the UFC books fights in the new (and uncertain) early days of the WME-IMG era.

“Mighty Mouse’s” view of the pay-per-view selling model is a bit overzealous, and it was intended as such to illustrate a point. It’s hard to deny that the UFC should perhaps promote more of their fighters based on their jaw-dropping skills in martial arts rather than the drama they create online, yet self-promotion is and always will be an integral part of the fight game. There’s no easy answer to find a balance as of right now.

Are you satisfied with the current direction the promotion’s going?

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Amanda Nunes Reacts To Valentina Shevchenko’s Rio Refusal

Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko are having a tough time agreeing to a date for their perceived upcoming title bout. A rematch between the two, who fought in a close bout that current women’s bantamweight champion Nunes won at last year’s UFC 196, was all but set in stone when Shevchenko submitted Julianna Pena at

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Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko are having a tough time agreeing to a date for their perceived upcoming title bout.

A rematch between the two, who fought in a close bout that current women’s bantamweight champion Nunes won at last year’s UFC 196, was all but set in stone when Shevchenko submitted Julianna Pena at January 28’s UFC on FOX 23 and Nunes gave up her quest to fight for the featherweight belt.

All that was left was to set the date, so Nunes recently (and understandably) called Shevchenko out for June 3’s UFC 212 from her homeland in Rio de Janeiro:

‘Bullet’ was quick to fire back, explaining that the UFC had offered them both a fast turnaround to fight at April 8’s UFC 210 event from Buffalo, but “The Lioness” turned it down so she made plans. Because of that fact, Shevchenko proclaimed she’d be ready anytime in July:

Finally, the champion took a bit of umbrage to her foil’s reply, noting that challengers do not pick the date of the fight, only show up and fight:

That’s an understandable response from the champ, who’s coming off a dominant first-round stoppage of former champ Ronda Rousey that lasted only 48 brutal seconds.

However, it looks like Nunes’ attempt to get her next title defense confirmed for Brazil backfired when she turned down an earlier fight day, as Shevchenko is now aiming for the festivities of International Fight Week in July.

UFC 212 still boats a high-profile title fight, with longtime featherweight champ Jose Aldo set to defend his newly-reacquired belt against streaking interim champ Max Holloway in the main event.

As for Nunes and Shevchenko, who are you picking to win the rematch, no matter when it happens?

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