Tag: UFC 218

Stipe Miocic vs. Daniel Cormier Set For Huge Superfight At UFC 226

A fight that UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier said would happen because he ‘can’t beat Cain Velasquez’ is happening. News arrived from the UFC tonight that Cormier will coach the next season of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) against heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic and the two will fight at July 7’s UFC 226 from the […]

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A fight that UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier said would happen because he ‘can’t beat Cain Velasquez’ is happening.

News arrived from the UFC tonight that Cormier will coach the next season of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) against heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic and the two will fight at July 7’s UFC 226 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Cormier successfully defended his reclaimed title with a second-round TKO over Volkan Oezdemir in the main event of last weekend’s UFC 220 from Boston, Massachusetts, a card where Miocic broke the UFC record for most consecutive heavyweight title defenses at three with a dominant five-round decision win over hyped contender Francis Ngannou.

Talk after UFC 220 was that Miocic may face Cormier’s AKA teammate Cain Velasquez, who is rumored to be making his return sometime soon, and Cormier was linked to a rematch with top contender Alexander Gustafsson – even if UFC president Dana White teased a Miocic vs. Cormier superfight.

But with “The Mauler” still healing from a recent surgery and the UFC perhaps not keen on the idea of booking Velasquez in another main event after yet another two-year absence from the octagon, they instead chose to book the biggest fight they could for both divisions by pitting the two champs against one another for the heavyweight title.

It’s an interesting pairing considering Cormier was given the title back after losing to archrival Jon Jones by third-round KO in the main event of last July’s UFC 214, only to see “Bones” fail for yet another head-scratching issue with performance-enhancing drugs and have his belt stripped. If Jones had tested clean, he could very well be facing Miocic for the chance to become the fifth two-weight titleholder in UFC history and the second concurrent two-weight champion of all-time.

Instead, it’ll be Cormier, who’s paid his dues over a grueling combat sports career and could cement his spot as one of the greatest fighters in UFC history, but he’ll have to get through the upcoming season of TUF 27, which will feature undefeated lightweights and featherweights.

The finals of the show will take place the day before UFC 226 on July 6, 2018.

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Daniel Cormier Admits He ‘Can’t Beat’ Cain Velasquez

Leading up to – and especially after – Daniel Cormier’s one-sided win over Volkan Oezdemir in the co-main event of last weekend’s UFC 220 from Boston, Massachusetts, there was a decent amount of talk about Cormier moving back up to his original division of heavyweight. UFC president Dana White, who claims he ‘doesn’t make fights’ […]

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Leading up to – and especially after – Daniel Cormier’s one-sided win over Volkan Oezdemir in the co-main event of last weekend’s UFC 220 from Boston, Massachusetts, there was a decent amount of talk about Cormier moving back up to his original division of heavyweight.

UFC president Dana White, who claims he ‘doesn’t make fights’ right after fights ended, teased a potential match-up between Cormier and record-breaking heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic, who beat formerly surging hype train Francis Ngannou at UFC 220. Cormier quickly shot that hype down, however, instead pointing at his good friend and longtime American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) teammate Cain Velasquez as the man who should face the dominant Miocic next.

Former champion Velasquez has been out of action since a 2016 TKO of Travis Browne at UFC 200, and countless injuries have rendered him unable to build any sort of consistency. It’s an unfortunate situation for a man many were billing as potentially the greatest heavyweight of all-time, but the 35-year-old Velasquez apparently isn’t done yet after teasing his return earlier this year.

On this week’s edition of UFC Tonight (quotes via Bloody Elbow), Cormier offered the stance he still wouldn’t favor anyone against a healthy Velasquez. Based on his extensive training history with the former champ, he’ll be staying at his more suitable weight class of 205 pounds because he ‘can’t beat’ Velasquez:

“You know, I still wouldn’t favor anybody against Cain Velasquez but obviously I’m a bit biased. But man, you got to look at those big dudes and know that that’s really not my weight class. I’m not as big. I mean, I know my face looks really fat right now compared to last weekend but those are heavyweights and heavyweights, those are the lands of the giants, man and i’m going to steer clear of those boys. And if somebody beats Cain Velasquez, just know that they’re probably going to beat me too because I can’t beat Cain *laughs*.”

Loyalty and comradery aside, Cormier doesn’t have too many legit contenders left in the shallow light heavyweight landscape outside of a rematch with top-ranked Alexander Gustafsson, whom he beat in a razor-thin slugfest at UFC 192 that was one of 2015’s best fights, making a move back to heavyweight an exciting prospect.

But with only a few fights left in him and a target date for his retirement, the soon-to-be 39-year-old isn’t going to change anything big heading into what could be the final year of his MMA career, so expect to potentially see Cormier vs. Gustafsson and Miocic vs. Velasquez in the near future.

The former should be another match to remember; let’s just hope Velasquez can make it to the octagon for the latter.

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UFC Rankings Update: Stipe Miocic Climbs Pound-For-Pound List

The UFC delivered a-hitting pay-per-view event in the form of last weekend’s (Sat., January 20, 2018) UFC 220 from TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. While the overall card wasn’t full of title picture-changing rankings implications on the whole, the top two fights were title fights where the incumbent champs putting on dominant performances to bolster […]

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The UFC delivered a-hitting pay-per-view event in the form of last weekend’s (Sat., January 20, 2018) UFC 220 from TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts.

While the overall card wasn’t full of title picture-changing rankings implications on the whole, the top two fights were title fights where the incumbent champs putting on dominant performances to bolster their already lofty spots among the top pound-for-pound fighters in the UFC.

Heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic secured the record for most consecutive title defenses in the weight class’s history with a dominant five-round destruction of formerly touted hype train Francis Ngannou, earning a one-spot rise up the pound-for-pound list to No. 6. Some feel he may deserve to be higher on the list, however.

Not to be outdone, light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier also rose a spot after his own dominant second-round TKO over another majorly hyped contender in Volkan Oezdemir.

He and Miocic’s move pushed bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw down one spot to No.7 at pound-for-pound. The rest of UFC 220 didn’t feature a ton of movement, but rising bantamweight contender Rob Font did rise three spots to No. 11 after an exciting stoppage of Thomas Almeida, who fell to No. 12 for his latest loss.

Check out the full updated rankings from the UFC’s official website here:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Stipe Miocic
1 Francis Ngannou
2 Alistair Overeem
3 Fabricio Werdum
4 Cain Velasquez
5 Mark Hunt
6 Derrick Lewis
7 Alexander Volkov
8 Marcin Tybura
9 Curtis Blaydes
10 Stefan Struve
11 Aleksei Oleinik
12 Andrei Arlovski
13 Junior Albini
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 Carla Esparza
7 Michelle Waterson
8 Cynthia Calvillo
9 Felice Herrig
10 Alexa Grasso
11 Randa Markos
12 Cortney Casey
13 Joanne Calderwood
14 Maryna Moroz
15 Tatiana Suarez

WOMEN’S FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Nicco Montano
1 Sijara Eubanks
2 Lauren Murphy
3 Alexis Davis
4 Roxanne Modafferi
5 Barb Honchak
6 Liz Carmouche
7 Jessica-Rose Clark
8 Montana De La Rosa
9 Mara Romero Borella
10 Jessica Eye
11 Rachael Ostovich
12 Paige VanZant
13 Shana Dobson
14 Gillian Robertson
15 Kalindra Faria

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

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Stipe Miocic Reveals Why Coach – Not Dana White – Put Belt On Him

Heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic picked up the biggest win of his already decorated MMA career by dominating previous runaway freight train Francis Ngannou with a seamless display of wrestling and fight IQ in the main event of last night’s (Sat., Jan. 20, 2018) UFC 220 from Boston. In doing so, he not only secured the […]

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Heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic picked up the biggest win of his already decorated MMA career by dominating previous runaway freight train Francis Ngannou with a seamless display of wrestling and fight IQ in the main event of last night’s (Sat., Jan. 20, 2018) UFC 220 from Boston.

In doing so, he not only secured the record for most consecutive heavyweight title defenses with three but also proved he could withstand the momentum of the most promoted up-and-comer in in quite some time in ‘The Predator’ – a fighter who has hyped as almost indestructible and a near shoo-in to be the next champion as the much more nondescript Miocic was largely left in the shadows.

However, it appears the bad blood of the perceived disrespect done to him by the UFC remains.

After his dominant win over Ngannou, you may have noticed that Miocic actually took the title from UFC president Dana White, who normally puts the belts on every winning champion, and handed it to his coach Marcus Marinelli to put it on him instead.

Watch the scene unfold here:

Later at the post-fight press conference, Miocic briefly acknowledged what happened, saying that it was a matter of respect between him and his coach:

“(He’s) my dude. He respects me and I respect him. End of story.”

He didn’t say if he believed the opposite was true of White, but the now all-time great did admit he didn’t know what the outspoken executive thought about him, and he didn’t care.

To the champ, it was more about what he and his team had accomplished together:

“I don’t know and I don’t really care. Where’s my coach at? Those dudes right there are my family. They all respect me and I respect them. They come with me. We go to war no matter what – win, lose or draw. That’s my family. We all respect each other no matter what the situation is.”

Earlier during fight week, White had mentioned he and Miocic had “butted heads” on a Boston radio show, and the two sides were reportedly involved in a contract dispute after Miocic’s previous title defense against Junior dos Santos in May 2017.

While the UFC may not believe the soft-spoken, no-nonsense Miocic is all that marketable and that may be at least some part of the problem, the legendary champ said he wasn’t going to change how he promoted himself.

he’s already got enough on his hands, and to him, White wouldn’t even admit what the discord was after denying it when confronted about it:

“No man, we’ll keep doing what we do. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. I don’t really care. Honestly, I’ve got so much on my plate right now. I’m so happy with my beautiful wife and our child. I’m very lucky, I’ve got my coaches here and they’re amazing. Listen man, I don’t worry about repairing anything. I don’t know.

“I called him out when he said that we were butting heads. I called him out on that it was pretty funny. He was saying ‘What are you talking about?’ So, I don’t know. He denied it.”

It seems like the world’s MMA leader and their now record-breaking champion aren’t exactly on the same page, and it’s not really a surprise considering that much of the promotional weight was put behind Ngannou rather than the actual champion heading into UFC 220.

Is it time for the UFC to accept Miocic as one of their best and promote him even if he doesn’t conform to their entertainment-focused ideals?

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Seven Biggest Takeaways From UFC 220

With championships on the line in MMA’s two biggest divisions, last night’s (Sat., January 20, 2018) UFC 220 from TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, promised to get the UFC’s 2018 pay-per-view schedule started off right, and overall, it’s safe to say it accomplished that. Two of the UFC’s biggest hype trains were sent back down to […]

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With championships on the line in MMA’s two biggest divisions, last night’s (Sat., January 20, 2018) UFC 220 from TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, promised to get the UFC’s 2018 pay-per-view schedule started off right, and overall, it’s safe to say it accomplished that.

Two of the UFC’s biggest hype trains were sent back down to re-evaluate things in two sobering, dominant performances from two of the most workmanlike titleholders the sport has ever seen, brutal knockouts gave a big jolt to the preliminary card, and two rising featherweights met in a close and exciting slugfest.

Those are only the surface results, however. Let’s dig a bit deeper and look at the seven biggest takeaways from UFC 220.

Photo Credit: Bob DeChiara for USA TODAY Sports

7) Hype Trains Die Hard Yet Again:

In a paradoxical set of circumstances, in no sport are hype trains perhaps both created and sent crashing than they are in mixed martial arts, and UFC 220 was one of the most poignant, hard-hitting reminders of that.

Top-ranked Ngannou had run over every competitor he’d faced in the UFC and most recently knocked out Alistair Overeem, a veteran who had given champion Stipe Miocic significant trouble in their fight at UFC 203, with 2017’s clear “Knockout of the Year” at UFC 218, sending his hype into the proverbial stratosphere heading into his main event against Miocic at UFC 220.

The promotion of ‘The Predator’ was so much so that he was the betting favorite despite Miocic winning five straight fights with two title defenses.

But as the narrative goes, Miocic outclassed Ngannou with a superior strategy, one that involved all aspects of mixed martial arts rather than just knockout power. His takedowns were varied and effective, his ground control stifling, and when he needed it, his strikes much more consistent and accurate than those of a fading and eventually gassed Ngannou.

The challenger admitted he underestimated the champion’s skills, but he wasn’t the only hype train to get derailed at UFC 220.

Formerly surging light heavyweight knockout artist Volkan Oezdemir also saw his improbable three-fight run to title contention stopped in its tracks when champ Daniel Cormier put on maybe the most Daniel Cormier-like performance we’ve ever seen, grounding “No Time” in well, no time and pounding him in the crucifix until the ref mercifully stepped in to call it off.

Both Ngannou and Oezdemir had as much or more hype than any fast-rising prospect had in the relatively shallow divisions for years, but instead of gold belts, they left Boston with some legitimate questions to answer about their all-around skillsets.

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Stipe Miocic vs. Francis Ngannou Full Fight Video Highlights

Perhaps no other rising contender in UFC history had gone into their initial title shot with as much hype as top-ranked heavyweight Francis Ngannou when he met champion Stipe Miocic in the main event of last night’s (Sat., January 20, 2018) UFC 220 from TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. And though it may not have entailed […]

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Perhaps no other rising contender in UFC history had gone into their initial title shot with as much hype as top-ranked heavyweight Francis Ngannou when he met champion Stipe Miocic in the main event of last night’s (Sat., January 20, 2018) UFC 220 from TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts.

And though it may not have entailed much flash or fanfare, Miocic sent that hype train packing with a dominant, smothering, and workmanlike performance that was indicative of the Ohio-born fireman’s overall spirit and personality.

It wasn’t without some adversity at first, however, as Ngannou’s power was evident when he came roaring out of the gate and caused the champ’s eye to swell. Instead of getting caught in a slugfest with the fight game’s heaviest hitter, Miocic chose to make “The Predator” prove he could survive deep water by using a measured stand-up game with several stinging, technically precise strikes before repeatedly grounding and controlling him with an incredibly intelligent gameplan.

No, it wasn’t Miocic’s most dominant or jaw-dropping win over the course of his current six-fight win streak, but in many ways, it was his most impressive. Few could argue that Ngannou presented the toughest test, at least purely physically, of Miocic’s now-historic reign, and the champion won by having better accuracy, wrestling, patience, conditioning, and strategy against a still-learning behemoth in Ngannou.

It may just have earned him the title of the greatest heavyweight in UFC history.

Watch the highlights of Miocic’s dominant, record-breaking win right here:

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