Most fans are awaiting tonight’s (Sat., January 20, 2018) UFC 220 from TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, for its massive Stipe Miocic vs. Francis Ngannou heavyweight title main event, but a stoppage that would make both hulking knockout artists proud kicked off the event. Touted rising star Islam Makhachev met longtime Brazilian veteran Gleison Tibau, who […]
Most fans are awaiting tonight’s (Sat., January 20, 2018) UFC 220 from TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, for its massive Stipe Miocic vs. Francis Ngannou heavyweight title main event, but a stoppage that would make both hulking knockout artists proud kicked off the event.
Touted rising star Islam Makhachev met longtime Brazilian veteran Gleison Tibau, who had been out of action since December 4, 2015, after being suspended for two years by USADA. It may have been that cage rust coupled with Makhachev’s no-longer-hidden talent, but no matter what the reason, the 15-1 Dagestani scored his biggest UFC win in jaw-dropping fashion to get UFC 220 started off right.
Watch the earth-shattering first-round knockout here:
Heading into this weekend’s (Sat., January 20, 2018) UFC 220 from TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, the Ultimate Fighting Championship will begin to celebrate their twenty-fifth year of existence with a live press event this afternoon. While the anniversary certainly marks a great achievement for the promotion, today’s press event has gained more hype for reportedly […]
Heading into this weekend’s (Sat., January 20, 2018) UFC 220 from TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, the Ultimate Fighting Championship will begin to celebrate their twenty-fifth year of existence with a live press event this afternoon.
While the anniversary certainly marks a great achievement for the promotion, today’s press event has gained more hype for reportedly being the place where UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor will finally be stripped of his 155-pound championship after over 14 months without any title defenses. Tony Ferguson vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov was rumored to be a done deal for April 7’s UFC 223, and UFC president Dana White confirmed that on a Boston radio show the following day.
But the status of just which belt – the interim or McGregor’s soon-to-be-vacated undisputed title – would be contested in the fight remains a mystery. We could find out in the press conference today, but as we’ve seen throughout McGregor one-of-a-kind UFC run, anything is far from certain when the unpredictable superstar is involved.
Regardless, the fight is expected to be officially announced at the 25th Anniversary Series press conference shortly. Watch the anticipated event live right here:
Stipe Miocic may have racked up five consecutive knockout wins including two title defenses, but it seems like few are picking him to retain the belt when he meets surging freight train Francis Ngannou in the main event of January 20’s UFC 220 from TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. After Ngannou’s thrilling stoppage win over […]
Stipe Miocic may have racked up five consecutive knockout wins including two title defenses, but it seems like few are picking him to retain the belt when he meets surging freight train Francis Ngannou in the main event of January 20’s UFC 220 from TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts.
After Ngannou’s thrilling stoppage win over Alistair Overeem at UFC 218, all the hype is on ‘The Predator’ heading into the most anticipated heavyweight showdown in the UFC for some time. With the UFC in desperate need of top-earning personalities, the surging star has been pushed and promoted like few fighters have – and certainly more than Miocic despite the fact that he’s a champion on the brink of setting history himself.
If you watched the admittedly entertaining promo videos for UFC 220 alone, you may think that it was actually Ngannou who was the heavyweight champion, however. Not surprisingly, Miocic has noticed that and isn’t all that enthused about what has transpired. The champion revealed he knows the UFC wants Ngannou to win and that he was feeling a bit disrespected about it on this week’s edition of The MMA Hour, but said he won’t dwell on it.
To him, his record speaks for itself, and even though Ngannou brings scary power to each of his fights, the pressure is actually on him:
“Obviously, for sure,” Miocic said. “Listen, I feel a little bit disrespected, but I’m not going to dwell on it.
“He’s got more hype on him I guess,” Miocic said. “The guy hits super hard. We’re making a big thing about it. I’ve fought some good guys, you know? That’s how we are. I’m not much of a trash talker I just like to fight, that’s what I do.
“All the pressure is on him, honestly. … The best guys he’s faced, I knocked them out two years ago. So, whatever.”
With many of the questions about Ngannou’s ability to beat Miocic based on his ability to stop the perceived takedown attempts coming his way, the champion admitted he hadn’t seen too much on the ground from the hulking ‘Predator’:
“I saw the one submission he had against Anthony Hamilton, the Kimura or whatever, I saw that, but I haven’t really seen any ground work,” Miocic said. “I haven’t really watched, I’ve seen that fight and Andrei Arlovski’s fight are what I’ve seen watching him fight.”
As usual, the unassuming champ appears to be taking a laid-back approach to his latest bout, the kind of calm that has propelled the Ohio native to the recent streak of knockouts of the very best heavyweights in mixed martial arts.
However, many would – perhaps correctly – argue that Ngannou is by far his toughest test so far. The French-Cameroonian knockout machine is a devastating force unlike any we’ve ever seen in the sport, and with his hulking, ripped physique and lightning bolt-emboldened haircut, he’s the polar opposite of the quietly dominant firefighter Miocic.
UFC 220’s main event could kickstart a turnaround of sorts because it’s a contrast of styles the UFC is thirsting for after a dismal year on pay-per-view in 2017, even if it’s painfully obvious whom they want to win.
Do you believe Miocic will channel the perceived disrespect into a record-breaking title defense, or will “The Predator” era begin shockingly soon?
With the year-ending pay-per-view UFC 219 set to go down tomorrow (Sat., December 30, 2017) from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, the UFC will look to put a strange 2017 behind them and look forward to the potential of a fresh slate in 2018. Part of that potential will start early in the year when […]
With the year-ending pay-per-view UFC 219 set to go down tomorrow (Sat., December 30, 2017) from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, the UFC will look to put a strange 2017 behind them and look forward to the potential of a fresh slate in 2018.
Part of that potential will start early in the year when heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic meets surging prospect Francis Ngannou in the main event of January 20’s UFC 220 in Boston in one of the most anticipated UFC heavyweight match-ups in memory. Daniel Cormier will also defend his title against rising star Volkan Oezdemir in the co-main event.
The card has the firepower to get 2018 started right, and the UFC will look to get anticipation going with an official press conference streaming live at 5 pm EST today. Watch the action unfold live here:
When UFC 1 took place on a cold November night back in 1993 from McNichols Arena in Denver, Colorado, it ignited the beginning of the world’s foremost mixed martial arts (MMA) competition, fueled by the concept of the best fighting the best to call themselves champion. It may have been extremely rough around the edges in […]
When UFC 1 took place on a cold November night back in 1993 from McNichols Arena in Denver, Colorado, it ignited the beginning of the world’s foremost mixed martial arts (MMA) competition, fueled by the concept of the best fighting the best to call themselves champion.
It may have been extremely rough around the edges in those ‘dark’ days where the sport having few rules and regulation had it on the precipice of doom, but the opposite is very much true today. After the Fertitta brothers along with Dana White purchased the UFC for a paltry sum and turned it into a legitimately regulated competition watched on pay-per-view the world over, the UFC exploded into a global brand that put shows on nearly every weekend.
When its popularity peaked in 2016 on the heels of the Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz rivalry, the Fertitta brothers saw an opportunity to cash in, and cash in they did. Selling the UFC to Hollywood talent giant WME-IMG (now Endeavor) for a then-record $4.2 billion, one of the biggest franchise sales in sports (of any kind) history was complete. But all was not rosy. This year has seen the advent of some truly horrific pay-per-view and television ratings, with UFC 213, UFC 215, and UFC 216 ranking as three of the lowest-watched PPVs ever, while December’s TUF 26 Finale was the least-watched UFC live event of all-time.
So while it was undoubtedly rough around the edges in its infancy, the UFC is dealing with a whole different set of problems heading into 2018, and many would argue that the UFC owners don’t exactly know what they’re doing. A growing sense is that the Hollywood agency is now trying to book the more mainstream, over-the-top spectacle fights rather than those that clearly have a more legitimate meaning based on meritocracy.
It’s lead to a steady stream of criticism that the UFC is becoming more like pro-wrestling and their WWE counterpart, obviously not the most endearing of words from fight fans. The argument, unfortunately, cannot be totally denied. Let’s take a look at the reasons why:
Jason Silva/Zuma Press/Icon Sportswire
5.) Titles Mean Next To Nothing:
Endeavor has to be commended for finally getting the middleweight division moving in the right direction by booking Robert Whittaker vs. Luke Rockhold for UFC 221, but there is one weight class that is an absolute mess in the UFC.
It’s obviously Conor McGregor’s held-hostage lightweight division, where “The Notorious” fought once and won the belt way back at UFC 205 in November 2016 before leaving to box – and lose – to Floyd Mayweather for the entirety of 2017. McGregor made the record-setting payday he was always looking for and can’t be blamed for doing it, but the fact remains the 155-pound landscape, which is still one of the most talented in MMA, has no clarity whatsoever at the current moment.
An interim belt was given to Tony Ferguson at October’s UFC 216, but without a path to a unification bout with McGregor, he opted to have elbow surgery, leaving not one but two champions on the sidelines with no real news about a return. Take into account the middleweight situation as well, where Michael Bisping was allowed to avoid the top 10 contenders by facing a retiring No. 14 Dan Henderson and an unretiring Georges St-Pierre, who had never even fought in the division. St-Pierre won and vacated the belt hardly a month later.
Interim titles are also created around much more frequently, making them seem more like the WWE titles that are handed over and won back on a never-ending cycle.
Because of these occurrences, UFC titles seem like little more than gold belts to be flaunted after a win rather than symbols of true MMA supremacy to be defended with pride.
When UFC 1 took place on a cold November night back in 1993 from McNichols Arena in Denver, Colorado, it ignited the beginning of the world’s foremost mixed martial arts (MMA) competition, fueled by the concept of the best fighting the best to call themselves champion. It may have been extremely rough around the edges in […]
When UFC 1 took place on a cold November night back in 1993 from McNichols Arena in Denver, Colorado, it ignited the beginning of the world’s foremost mixed martial arts (MMA) competition, fueled by the concept of the best fighting the best to call themselves champion.
It may have been extremely rough around the edges in those ‘dark’ days where the sport having few rules and regulation had it on the precipice of doom, but the opposite is very much true today. After the Fertitta brothers along with Dana White purchased the UFC for a paltry sum and turned it into a legitimately regulated competition watched on pay-per-view the world over, the UFC exploded into a global brand that put shows on nearly every weekend.
When its popularity peaked in 2016 on the heels of the Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz rivalry, the Fertitta brothers saw an opportunity to cash in, and cash in they did. Selling the UFC to Hollywood talent giant WME-IMG (now Endeavor) for a then-record $4.2 billion, one of the biggest franchise sales in sports (of any kind) history was complete. But all was not rosy. This year has seen the advent of some truly horrific pay-per-view and television ratings, with UFC 213, UFC 215, and UFC 216 ranking as three of the lowest-watched PPVs ever, while December’s TUF 26 Finale was the least-watched UFC live event of all-time.
So while it was undoubtedly rough around the edges in its infancy, the UFC is dealing with a whole different set of problems heading into 2018, and many would argue that the UFC owners don’t exactly know what they’re doing. A growing sense is that the Hollywood agency is now trying to book the more mainstream, over-the-top spectacle fights rather than those that clearly have a more legitimate meaning based on meritocracy.
It’s lead to a steady stream of criticism that the UFC is becoming more like pro-wrestling and their WWE counterpart, obviously not the most endearing of words from fight fans. The argument, unfortunately, cannot be totally denied. Let’s take a look at the reasons why:
Jason Silva/Zuma Press/Icon Sportswire
5.) Titles Mean Next To Nothing:
Endeavor has to be commended for finally getting the middleweight division moving in the right direction by booking Robert Whittaker vs. Luke Rockhold for UFC 221, but there is one weight class that is an absolute mess in the UFC.
It’s obviously Conor McGregor’s held-hostage lightweight division, where “The Notorious” fought once and won the belt way back at UFC 205 in November 2016 before leaving to box – and lose – to Floyd Mayweather for the entirety of 2017. McGregor made the record-setting payday he was always looking for and can’t be blamed for doing it, but the fact remains the 155-pound landscape, which is still one of the most talented in MMA, has no clarity whatsoever at the current moment.
An interim belt was given to Tony Ferguson at October’s UFC 216, but without a path to a unification bout with McGregor, he opted to have elbow surgery, leaving not one but two champions on the sidelines with no real news about a return. Take into account the middleweight situation as well, where Michael Bisping was allowed to avoid the top 10 contenders by facing a retiring No. 14 Dan Henderson and an unretiring Georges St-Pierre, who had never even fought in the division. St-Pierre won and vacated the belt hardly a month later.
Interim titles are also created around much more frequently, making them seem more like the WWE titles that are handed over and won back on a never-ending cycle.
Because of these occurrences, UFC titles seem like little more than gold belts to be flaunted after a win rather than symbols of true MMA supremacy to be defended with pride.
