Tag: UFC 230

Report: Jon Jones Won’t Fight At November’s UFC 230

It looks like Jon Jones really won’t be fighting on the UFC 230 PPV in November.

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Jon Jones won’t be fighting at UFC 230 come November.

Should he want to, everything would fit perfectly in place. Jones’ United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) suspension is up next month on October 28th. “Bones” was given a 15-month suspension for a failed drug test last year after his third-round knockout win over Daniel Cormier.

The UFC is heading back to Madison Square Garden in November in Jones’ home state of New York. Unfortunately, it seems pretty clear that the former 205-pound champion won’t be headlining the card. UFC President Dana White and Jones’ manager have both confirmed he won’t be on the card.

Instead, reports have emerged that Jones is in talks for a rematch with Alexander Gustafsson at a later date. Despite these facts, fans are still holding out hope. Jones’ coach, Mike Winkeljohn, spoke to Submission Radio about the matter.

He himself said he doesn’t expect Jones to fight on the MSG card:

“I wouldn’t put money on him being there for the Madison Square Garden card. You know what, Jon is so smart that he wants to come back and do it right. He’s not in any rush to jump in there and do it ill-prepared.

“He wants to make sure he trains for the opponent once he finds out what that opponent is and do his homework. That’s what people don’t understand about Jon Jones, is he does his homework. Hours and hours and hours of studying tape, and hours and hours hitting these unpredictable things that he uses in the fight.

“But they’re really predictable for him because he’s put so much time into practicing. Jon is a student and a master of the game at reading his opponent. He knows what his opponent’s gonna do before they do it because he studies them.

“So, I would think Jon would want to find out who that is and have a good training camp for it.”

Currently, UFC 230 is co-headlined by a lightweight fight between Nate Diaz and Dustin Poirier. With top stars such as Conor McGregor, Jones, Brock Lesnar, Ronda Rousey, and any others ruled out – it should be interesting what ends up headlining the card.

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Quote: Jon Jones Is ‘Scared To Eat Out’ Because Of Tainted USADA Test

So many people are supposedly out to get him, Jon Jones is scared to eat out at restaurants. Jones recently received a 15-moth USADA suspension. He was suspended for failing a drug test prior to his UFC 214 knockout over Daniel Cormier. The banned substance in question was anabolic steroid Turinabol. But the troubled former champion maintained […]

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So many people are supposedly out to get him, Jon Jones is scared to eat out at restaurants.

Jones recently received a 15-moth USADA suspension. He was suspended for failing a drug test prior to his UFC 214 knockout over Daniel Cormier. The banned substance in question was anabolic steroid Turinabol.

But the troubled former champion maintained his innocence throughout. The situation was somehow floating before USADA for over a year. The UFC’s anti-doping partner finally made the call and caused widespread controversy in MMA.

Jones and his team still claim someone tainted his supplements or even food. Jones is apparently so worried that he won’t even eat out in public.

Public Out To Get ‘Bones?’

That’s the case according to Jones’ longtime coach Mike Winkeljohn.

The JacksonWink head coach recently told Submission Radio (via MMA Mania) that his troubled star is afraid to eat out because of fear someone might contaminate his food:

“Well, I think [USADA] should have made a deal a long time ago. There’s no doubt something got in there somehow, but it’s scary now. Jon’s even scared to eat out, he’s scared to be anywhere. He’s like, gosh, what if that waiter doesn’t like me, the bus boy doesn’t like me? You know? Who knows what’s going to happen out there. And it is kind of scary that way if you think about it.”

Many wondered why USADA took so long to hand Jones his punishment. Jones received a lengthy reduction of his possible four-year suspension for informing USADA about other fighters using ******** and other PEDs. At one point he had only been tested once by USADA in 2018. Controversy swirls.

Either way, Jones swears he never took Turinabol. His team hasn’t said what supplement was tainted, just that he is innocent. He’s eligible to return on October 28 of this year. Speculation is running wild that he’ll finally rematch Alexander Gustafsson.

Jones may be off the hook for now in terms of legal suspensions, but one more mess-up could see him banned forever.

The criticism of his response to the issue was that he never owned his mistakes and always claimed someone else would out to get him. It seems that hasn’t changed much based on Winkeljohn’s words. Will they be proven true in Jones’ umpteenth comeback?

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Luke Rockhold Reveals Why He Accepted Chris Weidman Rematch Before 205 Move

Rockhold put plans to move to light heavyweight on hold for this fight.

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Luke Rockhold reveals why he decided to put a move to light heavyweight from middleweight on hold to accept this rematch with someone he knows well.

Rocky Road

The former UFC middleweight champion was looking to make a big change to his pro-MMA career after his latest fight, which was a weight class change. Rockhold is coming off a devastating loss to Yoel Romero in the main event of UFC 221 in Australia.

If you recall, Rockhold was originally slated to fight Robert Whittaker for the middleweight title at the event. However, the promotion had to make changes to the card once Whittaker pulled out with an injury. Thus, the UFC booked Rockhold vs. Romero for the interim title.

Luke Rockhold Reveals

His plans changed once the UFC offered him a rematch against fellow former champion Chris Weidman at the UFC 230 PPV event. In a recent interview with Submission Radio, Rockhold noted that he couldn’t pass up a big middleweight fight at the most famous arena in the world. He did make it clear that he still does plan to make the weight class change in the near future.

“Simple enough, it’s a big fight in a big arena,” Rockhold said (H/T to MMAFighting). “It’s a place I’ve always wanted to go and a perfect match-up. It’s a very fitting situation. It’s something that gets me up, gets me excited, and makes me want to drop that weight. And there’s a hold up. There’s a hold up in the [light heavyweight] division. Obviously I’m very close to ‘DC’ [Daniel Cormier.] I know his standing, where he’s going and what’s going on right now. So there’s a lot of things that need to be cleared up before I make that move and run up on the light heavyweights.”

“It’s Weidman at Madison Square Garden,” Rockhold continued. “He’s an incredible fighter, man. He put away Kelvin Gastelum. People want to discredit Weidman because he’s had a couple of rough fights since we encountered but he showed up. You’re only as good as your last fight, they say. He showed up and put Gastelum away like nobody else has. He’s very relevant in the division. He’s No. 3 in the world so going in an putting him away again speaks volumes.”

“I was seeking this fight,” Rockhold said. “I thought that we could make this thing happen. We were trying to get the Madison Square Garden fight originally so it’s a fitting situation. It’s time to end this thing. We were supposed to have that rematch after the first fight. He thought certain ways about it and it’s time to silence everything, everybody. There was nothing else happening but me dominating that fight. I’m gonna go out there and prove that. Spinning heel-kick, whatever the f**k you guys want to talk about, it doesn’t f**king matter. I’m gonna go out there and I’m gonna put an end to this thing. I’m gonna put a stamp on it.”

The UFC 230 pay-per-view event is set to take place on Saturday, November 3, 2018 at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, New York City.

The main card airing on pay-per-view at 10 p.m. ET while the preliminary card will air on FOX Sports 1 at 8 p.m. ET and the promotion’s streaming service, UFC Fight Pass.

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Nate Diaz Looking Shredded Ahead Of UFC 230 (Photo)

Nate Diaz looks ready for Dustin Poirier at UFC 230. Despite rumors the fight could be for a inaugural 165-pound title, Diaz and Poirier are booked for a lightweight contest. Diaz and Poirier are likely fighting for the next crack at the lightweight ti…

Nate Diaz looks ready for Dustin Poirier at UFC 230. Despite rumors the fight could be for a inaugural 165-pound title, Diaz and Poirier are booked for a lightweight contest. Diaz and Poirier are likely fighting for the next crack at the lightweight title. Just one month before they fight, Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov […]

The post Nate Diaz Looking Shredded Ahead Of UFC 230 (Photo) appeared first on MMA News.

Pic: Nate Diaz Is Super Ripped Heading Into UFC 229

Nate Diaz is in amazing shape heading into his anticipated return against Dustin Poirier at November 3’s UFC 230 from New York. Late last night (Tues., September 25, 2018), Diaz and Poirier stirred up a bit of controversy when they claimed they’d be fighting for the all-new UFC 165-pound title at UFC 230. The notion […]

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Nate Diaz is in amazing shape heading into his anticipated return against Dustin Poirier at November 3’s UFC 230 from New York.

Late last night (Tues., September 25, 2018), Diaz and Poirier stirred up a bit of controversy when they claimed they’d be fighting for the all-new UFC 165-pound title at UFC 230. The notion was soon rebuffed by UFC President Dana White. That doesn’t necessarily mean it isn’t happening, however.

Regardless, Diaz appears to be taking his MMA return seriously. Diaz posted a photo of himself looking rather ripped during training before all of the title commotions went down last night.  Check it out right here:

Diaz was last seen losing a closely-contested majority decision to Conor McGregor in their rematch at 2016’s UFC 202. The fight came after Diaz submitted McGregor in their short-notice first match at UFC 196 earlier that year.

But he never appeared to be in this good of shape for either fight. The last time we saw Diaz look this good was for his highly-entertaining decision win over Michael Johnson in December 2015. That win earned Diaz his shot at McGregor – at least in a roundabout way.

Diaz called McGregor out in his now-infamous post-fight speech. The gesture arguably created the biggest rivalry in the history of mixed martial arts. You can bet Diaz will be looking to get his oft-discussed trilogy match with McGregor.

He’ll have to past the surging “Diamond” first, however. Diaz looks to be up to the task. Will it be enough at Madison Square Garden?

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Alexander Gustafsson vs. Yoel Romero Being Considered For UFC 230

This fight would be for a title.

The post Alexander Gustafsson vs. Yoel Romero Being Considered For UFC 230 appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Alexander Gustafsson vs. Yoel Romero is a fight that the UFC has been discussing to book for the upcoming UFC 230 pay-per-view event.

Alexander Gustafsson vs. Yoel Romero Considered

As of this writing, this show has no main event, which is a problem considering that tickets for the show that will no doubt be expensive go on sale this week. However, the Las Vegas-based promotion does have a fight in mind for this show, which is between Gustafsson and Romero.

ESPN reporter Ariel Helwani mentioned in several tweets that the UFC is going over this possibility and that it would be a 205 pounds. Also, it was noted that they would compete for the light heavyweight title.

Whether that would be for the interim or real belt remains to be seen. It should be noted that UFC light heavyweight champ Daniel Cormier has wanted to defend the title before defending the heavyweight strap against Brock Lesnar in 2019. The longtime MMA reporter wrote the following:

“UFC seriously discussing booking Yoel Romero vs. Alexander Gustafsson at light heavyweight for the MSG card on 11/3, according to multiple sources,” Helwani said. “The fight isn’t finalized, though. A title would be on the line with both interim and official options discussed.”

The Event

The UFC 230 pay-per-view event is set to take place on Saturday, November 3, 2018 at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, New York City.

The main card airing on pay-per-view at 10 p.m. ET while the preliminary card will air on FOX Sports 1 at 8 p.m. ET and the promotion’s streaming service, UFC Fight Pass. Here is how the card looks as of now:

Nate Diaz vs. Dustin Poirier
David Branch vs. Ronaldo Souza
Luke Rockhold vs. Chris Weidman
Israel Adesanya vs. Derek Brunson
Sultan Aliev vs. Lyman Good
Matt Frevola vs. Lando Vannata
Brian Kelleher vs. Domingo Pilarte
Karl Roberson vs. Jack Marshman
Shane Burgos vs. Kurt Holobaugh
Julio Arce vs. Sheymon Moraes
Jason Knight vs. Jordan Rinaldi

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