Tag: UFC 218

Francis Ngannou vs. Stipe Miocic Early Betting Odds Released

As one of few up-and-coming fighters in the UFC heavyweight division to actually gain momentum with MMA fans in recent years, Francis Ngannou sent his hype train into the stratosphere by knocking out formerly No. 1-ranked Alistair Overeem with one hellacious strike in the co-main event of last Saturday night’s (Dec. 2, 2017) UFC 218 from […]

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As one of few up-and-coming fighters in the UFC heavyweight division to actually gain momentum with MMA fans in recent years, Francis Ngannou sent his hype train into the stratosphere by knocking out formerly No. 1-ranked Alistair Overeem with one hellacious strike in the co-main event of last Saturday night’s (Dec. 2, 2017) UFC 218 from the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan.

So much so, in fact, that Ngannou was immediately tabbed for the next title bout against champion Stipe Miocic, and indeed many pegged the Cameroonian-born Ngannou as the odds-on favorite to dethrone the also-surging Cleveland native. This week, early bettings odds have reflected that, as ESPN’s Brett Okamoto revealed that Ngannou debuted as a somewhat surprising -160 favorite over the +130 ruling champ:

There’s no doubting that “The Predator,” who has finished six straight fights since debuting the Octagon in December 2015, is the most promising heavyweight prospect to come along for several years in the heavyweight division. His win over Overeem, a former Strikeforce, DREAM, and K-1 champion who was deservedly billed as Ngannou’s first true top-ranked challenge, only solidified that fact, and his title shot is the only choice for a promotion needing bankable stars more than ever.

Miocic also knocked out Overeem when they met at 2016’s UFC 203, even if it did take him a bit more time – and a decent amount more danger – than Ngannou’s victory over “The Reem.” The athletic former Golden Gloves boxer has won five straights by knockouts himself, with his most recent a first-round TKO over former champion Junior dos Santos to avenge his last loss at May’s UFC 211.

That adds up to 11 straight finish wins combined for heavyweight’s top two combatants, making it quite possibly the most explosive match-up the Octagon has ever seen. Do you agree with Ngannou already being favored over the reigning champ?

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Jose Aldo’s Team Fires Back At Critics Of UFC 218 Defeat

Jose Aldo stepped up to rematch Max Holloway for the featherweight belt at UFC 218 last Saturday night, and once again fell short in his efforts. Holloway finished the former longtime champ in the third round just like he did during their first fight at UFC 212. In spite of the loss, Aldo’s team of […]

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Jose Aldo stepped up to rematch Max Holloway for the featherweight belt at UFC 218 last Saturday night, and once again fell short in his efforts.

Holloway finished the former longtime champ in the third round just like he did during their first fight at UFC 212.

In spite of the loss, Aldo’s team of coaches and trainers fired back at critics of his performance, namely Aldo’s kickboxing clash Emerson “Falcao” Viera, who took to Instagram to defend his star pupil:

“Many talk, few know. This is the truth, Brazilians are used to idolizing crooks and crucifying heroes. It’s almost cultural. Who should be supporting us is pointing fingers, criticizing and judging without having any knowledge to talk about the topic. We’re used to fighting rivals and receive critics from the ones who were supposed be on our side.

“Yesterday, our champion Jose Aldo did his part, fought bravely against a really tough opponent, who was superior in the fight and won, like [Aldo] did for many years and still has what it takes to do. Sports are like this, nothing and no one will erase your story in life and in fighting. Your friends and teammates are proud of everything you’ve already done and will still do. Nothing changed. We lost a battle, but war continues.”

Many longtime Brazilian champions have been dethroned recently, with only “Cyborg” remaining as the only current Brazilian UFC champ. Aldo, Anderson Silva, Fabricio Werdum, and Rafael Dos Anjos have all faltered as of late, leaving the Brazilian fan-base bereft of champions.

Aldo’s coach emphasized the culture surrounding Brazilian idols, and how Aldo should remain one despite coming up short at UFC 218.

With the loss on Saturday, Aldo moved to 26-4 and is only 2-3 in his last five fights. It’s important to note that Aldo had a very difficult weight cut for the Holloway rematch, and could potentially make the move to lightweight after flirting with the idea for years.

Should Aldo move to 155 pounds for a fresh start in a new weight class? Or should he work on dieting and nutrition for another go at featherweight?

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Francis Ngannou Reveals Bold Prediction For Fight With Stipe Miocic

After scoring a vicious first-round knockout victory over veteran Alistair Overeem in the co-main event of UFC 218 this past weekend (Dec. 2, 2017) in Detroit, Michigan, surging heavyweight contender Francis Ngannou earned himself a shot at divisional champion Stipe Miocic. And when that fight happens, Ngannou is predicting a similar outcome to how his […]

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After scoring a vicious first-round knockout victory over veteran Alistair Overeem in the co-main event of UFC 218 this past weekend (Dec. 2, 2017) in Detroit, Michigan, surging heavyweight contender Francis Ngannou earned himself a shot at divisional champion Stipe Miocic.

And when that fight happens, Ngannou is predicting a similar outcome to how his fight with “The Reem” ended:

“The match against Stipe, the same way. Knockout,” Ngannou told Megan Olivi in a backstage interview. “There are no (other) prognosis possible besides a knockout for me. I just get myself ready, go do an easy fight, go back home. I don’t want to make it a three, four-round fight. Just a knockout, first round, go back home.”

Ngannou is now 6-0 in the UFC with all six of those victories coming by way of stoppage. Three of those have come by way of T/KO in the first round, but Ngannou’s victory over Overeem was certainly the biggest of his career given “The Reem’s” credentials.

Although he cares about himself first and foremost in a fight, Ngannou respects Overeem and remains thankful for the opportunity to fight him:

“When they told me that Alistair Overeem accepted the fight, I was very happy,” Ngannou said. “I was like ‘Whoa, that’s a good thing’ because he was the number one contender, and then he knew that it’s very dangerous to take me as an opponent, and he accepted the fight. I was like ‘OK, thank you, let’s do this.’ I just felt like that was a gift, maybe an early Christmas gift. So I took it. But Alistair Overeem is a legend, you can’t take that (away) from him,” he added. “He’s been doing this for like 20 years, he won in many other organizations. But, I care about myself first. He’s a legend of this sport, for sure, he’s done more than I have. But now, I’m the newcomer, I’m the one who’s gonna take the championship.”

Do you expect Ngannou to continue his streak and take out Miocic when the two meet?

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Dustin Poirier Doesn’t Think Eddie Alvarez Wants To Fight Him Again

Lightweight contenders Eddie Alavrez and Dustin Poirier met in an entertaining contest last May at UFC 211, but the fight ended in a no-contest after Alvarez landed illegal knees. Due to the controversial ending, many expected the UFC to book a rematch between the two, but that ultimately didn’t happen. “The Diamond” went on to […]

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Lightweight contenders Eddie Alavrez and Dustin Poirier met in an entertaining contest last May at UFC 211, but the fight ended in a no-contest after Alvarez landed illegal knees. Due to the controversial ending, many expected the UFC to book a rematch between the two, but that ultimately didn’t happen.

“The Diamond” went on to fight and beat former champion Anthony Pettis last month, and Alvarez coached against Justin Gaethje on the most recent season of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) before finishing Gaethje in the third round of their UFC 218 bout this past weekend.

With both men back to their winning ways, Poirier is gunning for a rematch. In fact, he feels as if it ‘should’ve happened’ already:

“I felt that should’ve happened before he got that TUF gig. I was winning the fight, some foul stuff happened and we should’ve run it back,” Poirier said on a recent edition of The MMA Hour. “He shouldn’t have been rewarded with a TV show and another big fight. But, this isn’t the fair business, this is the fight business, so you keep rolling.”

And in the end, however, Poirier doesn’t actually feel as if Alvarez wants to fight him:

“I don’t think the guy wants to fight me. He can say what he wants to say, his coaches can say that they wanted the fight. Originally we both agreed, or supposedly I heard that he agreed to fight me in October in Vegas, and that’s what I was kind of started to prepare for,” Poirier said. “I was training in Florida for that, then it got moved to five weeks later against Pettis.”

Despite Poirier’s thoughts, it would certainly be an intriguing rematch. The first fight was exciting, and the two now have an intriguing back story. In fact, Alvarez recently labeled “The Diamond” as a ‘quitter’, something Poirier didn’t take lightly too:

“I’m not a quitter man. Look at my history. If he has to tell himself that to feel good about the 10 minutes he got his ass whooped, whatever. The crazy thing is, I grew up looking up to Eddie. He was a big name fighting out of Japan and HDNet used to do specials on him and I was a young fighter then and I really liked the guy,” Poirier said. “Still, now I respect him as a fighter, he’s a strong fighter and has a lot of heart. But as a person, he’s a bitch, man. He’s talking shit when I stood up for him in the heat of the moment. Maybe in the heat of the moment it was an accident, but now that I’ve gone back and watched the fight as a fan like he said, and I think it was on purpose. It was veteran move, he knew he was going out of that fight and he saw a chance to land a strike on a guy and did it. He knew exactly what he was doing, so he quit,” he added. “Fuck Eddie, fight me five rounds and let’s see who quits.”

Is this the fight you’d like to see next?

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Stipe Miocic Scoffs At Francis Ngannou’s Title Plans On Twitter

Stipe Miocic is still the UFC heavyweight champion of the world, and he’s here to remind you in case you forgot. With all the attention currently placed on heavyweight contender Francis Ngannou, Miocic took to Twitter to address the Cameroonian’s campaign for a title shot, and did so in classic Stipe fashion: And still… pic.twitter.com/IwZPxLIXpL […]

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Stipe Miocic is still the UFC heavyweight champion of the world, and he’s here to remind you in case you forgot.

With all the attention currently placed on heavyweight contender Francis Ngannou, Miocic took to Twitter to address the Cameroonian’s campaign for a title shot, and did so in classic Stipe fashion:

Ngannou took to opportunity after knocking out Alistair Overeem in the first round to make his case for a shot at Miocic’s belt. Ngannou’s performance was certainly emphatic enough to catch the champ’s attention, as the victory pushes Ngannou to an impressive 11-1 record.

The hulking Cameroonian is undefeated in the UFC and has now taken out top contenders in Overeem and Andrei Arlovski, both with punches and both under two minutes of round one.

Meanwhile, Miocic has enjoyed his championship status ever since knocking g out former champ Fabricio Werdum back at UFC 198, and has defended the belt twice since then, with first round stoppages over Overeem and Junior Dos Santos. Both Ngannou And Miocic seem to be running full-force right in to one another and appear destined to fight each other in the near future.

Miocic most recently fought in May, meaning the timing of a title fight against Ngannou makes the most sense, and with no other conceivable heavyweight contender worthy or available at the moment, dont be surprised when this fight is announced.

Who do you seeing winning between Miocic and Ngannou? Is the champion the man to stop Ngannou’s momentum and hand him his first UFC loss?

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Max Holloway Reveals His Lofty UFC Goals

UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway is on top of the world right now after finishing former featherweight champion Jose Aldo for the second time. They main evented this past Saturday’s UFC 218 at the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan on pay-per-view. As seen in the fight, Holloway was able to score a TKO victory […]

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UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway is on top of the world right now after finishing former featherweight champion Jose Aldo for the second time.

They main evented this past Saturday’s UFC 218 at the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan on pay-per-view. As seen in the fight, Holloway was able to score a TKO victory over Aldo in the third round.

The championship rematch played out almost identically to their first bout at UFC 212 with Holloway eventually overwhelming Aldo with a barrage of punches to get the stoppage in the third round.

Now, Holloway is looking towards his next fight, and he made it known after UFC 218 that he wants not just one, not just two, but potentially four UFC belts in the future. Although some might think that this is a bit too ambitious, the champion definitely has the 155-pound title in his crosshairs.

“The only thing that’s going to stop me is medically, or I can’t make the weight,” Holloway said at the UFC 218 post-fight press conference, per MMA Junkie’s Mike Bohn and Matt Erickson. “I’m not going to force my body to do something it doesn’t want to. I’ll go up to 155. I was talking to Michael Bisping and them on the (FS1 post-fight) show, and Michael was like, ‘Can you win another title?’ … I was like, ‘Michael, you’re cutting Maxi Baby short.’ Us Hawaiians love to eat. I want to go for four titles – (155), 170, 185. I might even be at heavyweight one day. You guys know our eating habits are bad in Hawaii. One day I might make history.”

Holloway plans to cement his legacy as the greatest featherweight of all time by cleaning out the division. Holloway is the only fighter to beat Aldo in back-to-back fights and has the fourth highest win streak in the promotion’s history.

“This is what champions do,” he said. “Champions defend. You’re not a champion until you defend your title. I always want to bring stability (to the division). I want to prove to people, if you want to be a champion, this is how you do it. It took me 10 fights to get an interim belt and 11 to get the undisputed. I don’t want anybody else to go through that. I want to be like (Demetrious Johnson), the guys pop up and you get sent down to the bottom of the barrel, brother. Keep trying to catch up.”

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