Tag: UFC 209

Quote: Ferguson Fight Can’t Be Taken Away From Khabib

No. 1-ranked UFC lightweight contender Khabib “The Eagle” Nurmagomedov was slated to meet No. 2-ranked Tony Ferguson at March 4’s UFC 209 for the interim 155-pound title, but he was forced to withdraw from the bout just a day prior after suffering from weight cutting issues that caused him to be hospitalized. Nurmagomedov and Ferguson

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No. 1-ranked UFC lightweight contender Khabib “The Eagle” Nurmagomedov was slated to meet No. 2-ranked Tony Ferguson at March 4’s UFC 209 for the interim 155-pound title, but he was forced to withdraw from the bout just a day prior after suffering from weight cutting issues that caused him to be hospitalized.

Nurmagomedov and Ferguson have now been scheduled to meet multiple times, although the bout has yet to come to fruition. With lightweight king Conor McGregor’s future uncertain, Nurmagomedov vs. Ferguson is the fight to make, and according to ex-middleweight champion Luke Rockhold, who trains with “The Eagle”, the UFC should re-book the bout:

“(It’s) unfortunate,” said Rockhold during a recent appearance on Submission Radio. “That was the fight I was really looking forward to for Khabib and it’s been a long time working with that man and I know he’s put in the time and the effort and deserved it, so it just sucks.

“From what I understand he wasn’t getting any blood to his liver and something went wrong with the weight cut. It was very similar to his last fight from what I understand and just something went wrong. You never know with these weight cuts I guess. But I think he’s ready to go and we can re-book that thing.”

Rockhold even went as far to say that the fight ‘can’t’ be taken away from Nurmagomedov, despite his history with injuries and weight cutting issues:

“I don’t think it should take much time. I think he’s hungry, I think he’s ready,” added Rockhold. “What other choice do you have? Khabib is undefeated, he’s beaten everybody, he’s done more than anybody. You can’t take that fight away, you can’t take the title away. It just needs to be re-booked. I think it should be re-booked as soon as possible”

Do you agree with Rockhold’s comments?

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Quote: No Way Khabib Will Fight Conor McGregor Now

Middleweight champion Michael Bisping doesn’t have high hopes for an eventual fight between 155 pound kingpin Conor McGregor and lightweight contender Khabib Nurmagomedov. Khabib’s unceremonious exit from last Saturday’s UFC 209 co-main event against Tony Ferguson for the interim lightweight championship harkens back to when McGregor took on former featherweight champ Jose Aldo. Aldo pulled

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Middleweight champion Michael Bisping doesn’t have high hopes for an eventual fight between 155 pound kingpin Conor McGregor and lightweight contender Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Khabib’s unceremonious exit from last Saturday’s UFC 209 co-main event against Tony Ferguson for the interim lightweight championship harkens back to when McGregor took on former featherweight champ Jose Aldo.

Aldo pulled out of their scheduled bout several times, even after a world tour and heavy promotion and advertising for his title defense against the Irishman, leaving McGregor with a short-notice opponent in Chad Mendes back at UFC 189.

While “The Notorious” won that fight and eventually dethroned Aldo in 13 seconds at UFC 194, the middleweight champion believes that Conor will be skeptical going into a potential fight with Khabib, who himself has pulled out twice now in scheduled bouts against Ferguson.

“One million percent, it kills his chances of ever fighting Conor and into puts the UFC in a very difficult position,” Bisping said during his podcast on Monday. “If they make that rematch between Khabib and Tony, and Khabib wins, there is no way Conor is going to accept that because he isn’t going to say, ‘I’m not going to take that risk of having an entire fight camp for him to not make it to the Octagon, so I’m not going to do it.”

Bisping went so far as to call Khabib a “pull-out merchant following the undefeated lightweights hospitalization just a day before he was set to take on Ferguson at UFC 209.

While McGregor has been criticized for not defending his featherweight belt (which he eventually relinquished after taking the lightweight title from Eddie Alvarez), Khabib’s pulling out of UFC 209 certainly did not do himself any favors in angling for a title shot.

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Watch UFC 209: The Thrill And The Agony Preview

The latest edition in the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s (UFC) “Thrill and The Agony” series is here. While the full version is only available on UFC Fight Pass, the official YouTube channel of the UFC posted a preview. This edition showcased UFC 209, which took place this past Saturday night (March 4) inside the T-Mobile Arena […]

The latest edition in the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s (UFC) “Thrill and The Agony” series is here. While the full version is only available on UFC Fight Pass, the official YouTube channel of the UFC posted a preview. This edition showcased UFC 209, which took place this past Saturday night (March 4) inside the T-Mobile Arena […]

Tony Ferguson Says He Was Paid Less Than Half His Show Money For UFC 209

Tony Ferguson’s first shot at UFC gold did not go according to plan. In fact, he never made it to the octagon in Las Vegas last Saturday night — but not for lack of trying. While Ferguson weighed in, and made weight, opponent Khabib Nurmagomedov did not. Instead, “The Eagle” landed in hospital, and the […]

Tony Ferguson’s first shot at UFC gold did not go according to plan. In fact, he never made it to the octagon in Las Vegas last Saturday night — but not for lack of trying. While Ferguson weighed in, and made weight, opponent Khabib Nurmagomedov did not. Instead, “The Eagle” landed in hospital, and the […]

Nick Diaz Goes Off On Tyron Woodley In Hilarious Interview

Polarizing bad boy Nick Diaz may not have a date for his awaited MMA return, but that doesn’t mean he won’t offer his opinion on the heavily blasted UFC 209 main event between Tyron Woodley and Stephen Thompson from Las Vegas last weekend. Most believe the elder Diaz brother should have been involved on the

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Polarizing bad boy Nick Diaz may not have a date for his awaited MMA return, but that doesn’t mean he won’t offer his opinion on the heavily blasted UFC 209 main event between Tyron Woodley and Stephen Thompson from Las Vegas last weekend.

Most believe the elder Diaz brother should have been involved on the card that bore his infamous home area code’s number, but the UFC couldn’t book hi nor his brother Nate after reportedly offering Nick fights with Tyron Woodley and Robbie Lawler.

So Diaz watched the welterweight title bout between Woodley and “Wonderboy,” and like most MMA fans, he came away with a sour taste in his mouth. The longtime star told TMZ Sports his opinion of the lackluster fight:

“Can you believe how f***ing boring that fight was? That was a boring fight. Were you excited? I heard a lot of boos. I heard a lot of boos. All I heard was boos.”

The Stockton slugger moved on to address his next fight, discussing how he wanted a bout with both middleweight champ Michael Bisping and returning former welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, who will be fighting one another later this year, but they both “ducked” him:

“Listen, you want to know the truth right now? I talked to Michael Bisping already in New York about doing this fight. So, there’s more money for him if he takes the fight with me. We were talking about a catchweight fight, he’s talking about it like it’s going to be hard to make the weight. I’m like, come on. You know, it would be a non-title fight.

“So after I whoop his ass, he still keeps the belt. So that’s more money, then you go fight GSP. Same with Georges. I’m just doing more numbers than he is, so you can do more money to fight me. It makes sense because they haven’t fought me.”

From his own standpoint, it make make sense; but St-Pierre has indeed fought Diaz once before , throughly dominating him in their monstrous UFC 158 meeting that ranks as St-Pierre’s biggest pay-per-view (PPV) headliner.

There’s no doubt Diaz brings in the numbers, yet it also cannot be denied how many numbers it takes to get him into the Octagon despite him not scoring a win since he beat current featherweight BJ Penn in 2011.

Still, none of us would be surprised to see the older Diaz return right into a title fight versus Woodley. “The Chosen One” did a good deal of talking himself up to the point of even deeming himself the “best welterweight of all-time,” but Diaz closed the interview by shutting that down with a quickness:

“No he ain’t. Did you see that fight?”

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UFC 209 Preliminary Card Delivers Big Ratings

There was definitely a buzz surrounding UFC 209, which helped out the prelims. The viewership numbers for the event are in. The prelims, which were headlined by Marcin Tybura and Luis Henrique, drew 1,033 million viewers, which is up from the 874,000 viewers that UFC 208 prelims drew. UFC 209 took place on Saturday, March

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There was definitely a buzz surrounding UFC 209, which helped out the prelims. The viewership numbers for the event are in. The prelims, which were headlined by Marcin Tybura and Luis Henrique, drew 1,033 million viewers, which is up from the 874,000 viewers that UFC 208 prelims drew.

UFC 209 took place on Saturday, March 4, 2017, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. There was three preliminary bouts airing on UFC Fight Pass at 6:30 p.m. ET while the rest of the prelims aired on FOX Sports 1 8 p.m. ET. The main card featured five bouts and will air on PPV (pay-per-view) at 10 p.m. ET.

The pre-fight show drew 453,000 viewers while the post-fight show did 205,000 viewers. The weigh-in show drew 207,000 viewers on Friday. With the post-fight show doing good numbers is a good sign for PPV buys as that meant that a lot of people were interested enough to hang out and catch the results/highlights of the actual PPV main card after the event aired. Usually when a PPV event does a good/great PPV buyrate, then the prelims and the post-fight show does good viewership numbers.

The UFC returns to FOX Sports 1 this weekend with UFC Fight Night 106 on Saturday, March 11, 2017, at the Centro de Formação Olímpica do Nordeste in Fortaleza, Brazil. A middleweight bout between former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Vitor Belfort and The Ultimate Fighter: Team Jones vs. Team Sonnen middleweight winner Kelvin Gastelum will serve as the event headliner.

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