Tag: UFC 217

GSP vs. Bisping PPV Estimate Deliver Big Numbers

Earlier this month (Sat. November 4, 2017) former UFC welterweight king Georges St-Pierre made his Octagon return to make his 185-pound debut, challenging Michael Bisping for the division’s title. “GSP” ended up winning the bout via third round submission; after unleashing a hellacious shot to “The Count’s” head that would knock him down, before the […]

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Earlier this month (Sat. November 4, 2017) former UFC welterweight king Georges St-Pierre made his Octagon return to make his 185-pound debut, challenging Michael Bisping for the division’s title.

“GSP” ended up winning the bout via third round submission; after unleashing a hellacious shot to “The Count’s” head that would knock him down, before the Canadian locked in a rear-naked choke that would render the Englishmen unconscious. Some mixed martial arts (MMA) fans expected the PPV buys to do rather well, while others were skeptical about St-Pierre’s draw power to the new breed of fight fans since he has been away for so long.

Those notions can finally be laid to rest, as MMA Fighting’s Dave Meltzer reports “Rush’s” return against Bisping reeled in about 875,000 buys in North America. That’s the UFC’s highest number since Ronda Rousey vs. Amanda Nunes back in December of 2017. If fans remember, UFC President Dana White announced shortly after UFC 217 that the show was trending to blow past 1 million buys.

The 875,000 number does not include internet buys or purchases from Australia, where it’s said the event did exceptionally well also. Per Dana White, the event also broke the Canadian record for the biggest PPV event ever previously held by Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather.

As it pertains to cards that he has served as the true headliner in, this would be the second-highest of St-Pierre’s career. His 2013 successful welterweight title defense over rival Nick Diaz still ranks first.

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Duane Ludwig: Demetrious Johnson vs. TJ Dillashaw Needs To Happen

Bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw’s head coach Duane “Bang” Ludwig is more than confident in his star pupil’s ability to make 125 pounds. Now that Dillashaw is once again champion, the push for a super fight with flyweight kingpin Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson seems to be inevitable. Both Dana White and Dillashaw have actively campaigned for […]

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Bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw’s head coach Duane “Bang” Ludwig is more than confident in his star pupil’s ability to make 125 pounds.

Now that Dillashaw is once again champion, the push for a super fight with flyweight kingpin Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson seems to be inevitable. Both Dana White and Dillashaw have actively campaigned for the bout.

Now, the question is can Dillashaw make flyweight? Ludwig says he absolutely can:

“We were en route to fight Demetrious at one point and the direction he was taking with his strength and conditioning coach, T.J. was looking phenomenal on the mitts and the sparring and the training and he looked good, his spirits were good,” Ludwig said. “So obviously we didn’t make 125 and fight and compete, but when were were en route of that, nothing really changed. T.J.’s not a big ‘35er, so he can make ‘25. It’s not going to be easy, but he’s the most dedicated person that I’ve ever seen. He really is.”

Dillashaw took back the bantamweight belt after knocking out undefeated champ Cody Garbrandt at UFC 217. He had prior campaigned for the “Mighty Mouse” fight when Ray Borg had pulled out of his first scheduled fight with the flyweight champ at UFC 215. Johnson opted to wait to fight Borg at UFC 216 rather than take on Dillashaw.

With “Mighty Mouse” lacking a bit in terms of PPV sales, a super fight with the bantamweight champion could prove to be a hit for sales and PPV buys. Demetrious Johnson has also cleared out his division two times over, and is in desperate need of fresh title challengers, according to Ludwig:

“I think it needs to happen,” Ludwig said. “Demetrious, he’s fighting the top guys – this works out because (Joseph) Benavidez is out right now, he’s still having to wait a couple of months with his knee surgery, so it works out time-wise, so in my eyes I would like to see T.J. drop down, fight Demetrious, and then go back to ‘35.”

Are you behind a Dillashaw vs “Mighty Mouse” super fight? Can TJ make flyweight?

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UFC Rankings Update: GSP Now Passes Conor McGregor On P4P List

Another week of fights is in the books and the UFC fighter rankings have once again been updated. Following this past weekend’s UFC Norfolk event in which Dustin Poirier downed former 155-pound king Anthony “Showtime” Pettis in the evening’s headliner, “The Diamond” has now climbed the lightweight rankings up one spot to be crowned No. […]

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Another week of fights is in the books and the UFC fighter rankings have once again been updated.

Following this past weekend’s UFC Norfolk event in which Dustin Poirier downed former 155-pound king Anthony “Showtime” Pettis in the evening’s headliner, “The Diamond” has now climbed the lightweight rankings up one spot to be crowned No. 7. While the night’s glory belonged to Poirier, the talk of the mixed martial arts (MMA) world is the progression UFC middleweight champion Georges St-Pierre made on the pound-for-pound (P4P) list.

In the updated UFC fighter rankings, “GSP” gone up one spot in the P4P ranks to the No. 2-spot. The 185-pound champ surpasses UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor and is just one spot shy of being recognized as the best in the world – a moniker currently belonging to flyweight king Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson.

You can check out the updated UFC rankings here below:

POUND-FOR-POUND
1 Demetrious Johnson
2 Georges St-Pierre +1
3 Conor McGregor -1
4 Max Holloway
5 Daniel Cormier
6 TJ Dillashaw +1
7 Stipe Miocic -1
8 Tyron Woodley
9 Tony Ferguson
10 Cris Cyborg +1
11 Cody Garbrandt -1
12 Amanda Nunes
13 Robert Whittaker +1
14 Jose Aldo -1
15 Joanna Jedrzejczyk

FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Demetrious Johnson
1 Joseph Benavidez
2 Henry Cejudo
3 Ray Borg
4 Sergio Pettis
5 Jussier Formiga
6 Wilson Reis
7 Brandon Moreno
8 Ben Nguyen
9 John Moraga
10 Dustin Ortiz -1
11 Tim Elliott
12 Alexandre Pantoja
13 Louis Smolka
14 Deiveson Figueiredo
15 Magomed Bibulatov -1

BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: TJ Dillashaw
1 Cody Garbrandt
2 Dominick Cruz
3 Raphael Assuncao +1
4 Jimmie Rivera -1
5 John Lineker
6 Bryan Caraway
7 Marlon Moraes +2
8 Aljamain Sterling -1
9 John Dodson -1
10 Thomas Almeida
11 Pedro Munhoz
12 Eddie Wineland
13 Rob Font +1
14 Matthew Lopez -1
15 Johnny Eduardo

FEATHERWEIGHT
Champion: Max Holloway
1 Jose Aldo
2 Frankie Edgar
3 Ricardo Lamas
4 Cub Swanson
5 Chan Sung Jung
6 Brian Ortega
7 Yair Rodriguez
8 Jeremy Stephens
9 Darren Elkins
10 Renato Moicano
11 Dennis Bermudez
12 Dooho Choi
13 Mirsad Bektic
14 Myles Jury
15 Jason Knight

LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion: Conor McGregor
1 Tony Ferguson (Interim Champion)
2 Khabib Nurmagomedov
3 Edson Barboza
4 Eddie Alvarez
5 Justin Gaethje
6 Nate Diaz
7 Dustin Poirier +1
8 Kevin Lee -1
9 Michael Chiesa +1
10 Al Iaquinta +1
11 Michael Johnson -2
12 Beneil Dariush
13 Anthony Pettis
14 James Vick *NR
15 Evan Dunham -1

WELTERWEIGHT
Champion: Tyron Woodley
1 Stephen Thompson
2 Robbie Lawler
3 Colby Covington
4 Rafael Dos Anjos +1
5 Demian Maia -1
6 Jorge Masvidal
7 Darren Till +1
8 Carlos Condit -1
9 Donald Cerrone
10 Santiago Ponzinibbio
11 Neil Magny
12 Kamaru Usman
13 Gunnar Nelson
14 Dong Hyun Kim
15 Alex Oliveira

MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion: Georges St-Pierre
1 Robert Whittaker (Interim Champion)
2 Michael Bisping
3 Yoel Romero
4 Luke Rockhold
5 Jacare Souza
6 Chris Weidman
7 Derek Brunson
8 Anderson Silva
9 Kelvin Gastelum
10 David Branch
11 Uriah Hall +1
12 Vitor Belfort -1
13 Krzysztof Jotko
14 Lyoto Machida
15 Paulo Costa

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Daniel Cormier
1 Alexander Gustafsson
2 Volkan Oezdemir
3 Glover Teixeira
4 Jimi Manuwa
5 Ovince Saint Preux
6 Mauricio Rua
7 Misha Cirkunov
8 Corey Anderson
9 Ilir Latifi
10 Patrick Cummins
11 Rogerio Nogueira
12 Gadzhimurad Antigulov
13 Tyson Pedro
14 Jan Blachowicz
15 Jared Cannonier *NR

HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Stipe Miocic
1 Alistair Overeem
2 Fabricio Werdum
3 Cain Velasquez
4 Francis Ngannou
5 Mark Hunt
6 Derrick Lewis
7 Alexander Volkov
8 Marcin Tybura
9 Curtis Blaydes
10 Stefan Struve
11 Aleksei Oleinik
12 Andrei Arlovski +1
13 Junior Albini -1
14 Travis Browne
15 Tim Johnson

WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT
Champion: Rose Namajunas
1 Joanna Jedrzejczyk
2 Jessica Andrade
3 Claudia Gadelha
4 Karolina Kowalkiewicz
5 Tecia Torres
6 Michelle Waterson
7 Cynthia Calvillo
8 Carla Esparza
9 Felice Herrig
10 Alexa Grasso +1
11 Cortney Casey +1
12 Paige VanZant -2
13 Joanne Calderwood
14 Randa Markos
15 Maryna Moroz

WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: Amanda Nunes
1 Valentina Shevchenko
2 Holly Holm
3 Julianna Pena
4 Raquel Pennington
5 Ronda Rousey
6 Cat Zingano
7 Sara McMann
8 Ketlen Vieira
9 Germaine de Randamie
10 Alexis Davis
11 Liz Carmouche
12 Marion Reneau
13 Katlyn Chookagian
14 Bethe Correia
15 Leslie Smith

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Joanna Jedrzejczyk Makes Bold Promise For Next Year

Former UFC women’s strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk is staying positive after being finished by Rose Namajunas at UFC 217 on Saturday, November 4th in New York at Madison Square Garden. The finish of the bout saw Jedrzejczyk being swarmed by a barrage of strikes at 3:03 of the first round. As a result of this […]

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Former UFC women’s strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk is staying positive after being finished by Rose Namajunas at UFC 217 on Saturday, November 4th in New York at Madison Square Garden.

The finish of the bout saw Jedrzejczyk being swarmed by a barrage of strikes at 3:03 of the first round. As a result of this loss, she lost her title.

Now, the Polish fighter is promising the MMA community that she will be champion again next year.

“In May, I will be champion again,” Jedrzejczyk said on a recent edition of The MMA Hour, per MMA Fighting’s Peter Carroll. “Mark my words. May, I’m coming back. It doesn’t matter if Rose is going to hold the belt or not — I will be back in May and mark my words.”

Although she lost the fight, the former UFC champion is still oozing with confidence. In her mind, she is still the rightful champion.

Going into this fight, Jedrzejczyk was attempting to tie former women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey’s UFC record six consecutive title defenses for a female champion.

By looking back at the early betting odds, Jedrzejczyk entered UFC 217 as a sizable 6-1 betting favorite.

“I’m the greatest, and for myself, I’m still the champion,” she said. “This is just another part in the movie. She can take the belt, but I am still the champion, you know? I’m coming back. I’m coming back really soon. I’m not going to cry, I want to talk to people about that. There is something about me, there is something in my body, and nobody have it.”

Jedrzejczyk believes she is deserving of a rematch with the newly crowned champion due to her accomplishments in the sport. She also pointed out that UFC President Dana White hugged her and offered some words of encouragement after the fight.

“I believe, for what I have done for Dana and the UFC, I deserve the rematch. I will see. I saw Dana on the way back from the press conference,” Jedrzejczyk said. He hugged me, I wanted to leave him, but he was like, ‘Please, stop, I love you so much, we love you and nothing change. We love you even more for this, and your comeback is going to be bigger than all of this.’”

“For myself, I turned the page, and I felt like, ‘your comeback is going to be bigger than all of these records and bigger than this.’”

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TJ Dillashaw Denies Dominick Cruz Rematch

For newly re-crowned UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw, a fight with flyweight kingpin Demetrious Johnson is the best fight to make. While “Mighty Mouse” has been less than receptive to it, Dillashaw has ramped up the trash talk after once again becoming a UFC champion by stopping arch rival Cody Garbrandt the November 4’s UFC […]

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For newly re-crowned UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw, a fight with flyweight kingpin Demetrious Johnson is the best fight to make.

While “Mighty Mouse” has been less than receptive to it, Dillashaw has ramped up the trash talk after once again becoming a UFC champion by stopping arch rival Cody Garbrandt the November 4’s UFC 217.

Dillashaw discussed why he thinks it’s the only fight for “Mighty Mouse” to take during an interview on The MMA Hour on Monday.

“Why not? This fight makes sense. He doesn’t have anybody and this thing should’ve happened in August. He wants a big money fight. He wants to prove that he’s the pound-for-pound king.

“This is the step. I can make the weight. I wanted to stop him from breaking the record and he wanted to break it first, so he got that out of the way, he got to do what he wanted to do and he beat the record books.

“But now it’s time to man up and get this fight going. This is a fight that fans want to see. I keep hearing them say it and everyone’s loving it, so let’s get this done. There’s no reason to be scared now, you got to break the record.”

As for the bantamweight division, Dillashaw doesn’t see a rematch with Garbrandt or Dominick Cruz anytime soon, especially considering the way in which Garbrandt was dispatched by the current champ at UFC 217 and how Cruz refused to grant Dillashaw a rematch after winning the belt in a controversial split decisions UFC Fight Night 81.

Dillashaw has remained adamant before and after winning the bantamweight belt, which has surely given him an advantage in seeking a superfight with the UFC’s most dominant champion:

“He came by when I was taking photos with the belt (at UFC 217) and he said that I did the first step,” Dillashaw said. “So in my mind, that’s him saying, ‘Let’s get this on.’ I did the first step, because he said to the media that I wasn’t worthy of a title shot, that I needed to be a champion, that he wasn’t going to fight me because I wasn’t a champion. And he came by and said that I did the first step, so I think in his mind too, this is the fight that makes sense.”

And as for his old nemesis Cruz, Dillashaw was clear that he wasn’t interested in the match up as Cruz had already denied him a rematch:

“Cruz can suck it, man,” Dillashaw said. “He’s the one who made me wait forever. He knew he should’ve given me that rematch. He was scared. He thought he was cherry-picking by picking Cody. He was trying to hold onto that belt, get as much as he could. So if it’s up to me, he can wait. He can wait as long as I did. I couldn’t care less. I mean, I do want to beat that guy. I do want to smash because I know that I can, but I don’t care what he says. I’m going for the fight that makes the most sense for me right now, and that’s Demetrious Johnson, and I’ll do whatever it takes to get it.”

Do you want to see Dillashaw challenge for the flyweight belt? Or should the new champion focus solely on his own division?

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Randy Brown on UFC 217 Win: There’s Levels to MMA

Randy Brown believes he showed Mickey Gall that there are levels to mixed martial arts (MMA). At UFC 217, Brown took on Gall inside Madison Square Garden in New York City. Brown was able to earn a unanimous decision win on the opening bout of the FOX S…

Randy Brown believes he showed Mickey Gall that there are levels to mixed martial arts (MMA). At UFC 217, Brown took on Gall inside Madison Square Garden in New York City. Brown was able to earn a unanimous decision win on the opening bout of the FOX Sports 1 preliminaries. During a recent appearance on […]