Tag: UFC 235

Dana White: Less-Than-Flat Tyron Woodley ‘Got Outwrestled All Night’

UFC President Dana White says former welterweight champion Tyron Woodley ‘got outwrestled all night’ in his uncharacteristic performance last weekend. Its not that he lost his title but its in the manner in which Kamaru Usman thoroughly dominated Woodley that is so surprising. “The Chosen One” had proven to be a worthy champion. Having made […]

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UFC President Dana White says former welterweight champion Tyron Woodley ‘got outwrestled all night’ in his uncharacteristic performance last weekend.

Its not that he lost his title but its in the manner in which Kamaru Usman thoroughly dominated Woodley that is so surprising. “The Chosen One” had proven to be a worthy champion. Having made four successful title defenses, a fifth was not in the cards for “T-Wood”.

“He completely got outwrestled all night,” White said at the post-fight press conference (via MMAJunkie). “The reason I wanted this fight and thought it would be a great fight is because I believed Usman would go after him. Normally Woodley is so fast with his hands and he’s such a good wrestler that most guys can’t do both with him. Usman could do both. Usman could wrestle with him, but I didn’t expect Usman to go in and absolutely dominat him the entire time wherever he wants to go. No, I didn’t see that coming.”

Woodley took his defeat with class and dignity. He didn’t offer any excuses and he was careful not to take away from Usman’s masterful performance.

“Woodley looked less than flat,” White said. “I don’t know. Did he have an excuse to why he looked bad? I didn’t know if Woodley was going to come in here and say he was hurt or something happened. But yeah, he didn’t look like Woodley tonight. He looked flat.”

As for an immediate rematch, that’s what the former champion thinks he deserves but White has supposedly told Colby Covington that he has the first crack at the new champion.

The welterweight carousel carries on.

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Ben Askren: I Don’t Know What Dana White’s Problem Is

After his win last weekend, welterweight Ben Askren wants a sitdown with UFC President Dana White. “Funky” feels there is an obvious rift. “Dana doesn’t talk to me, we don’t deal with each other at all. I haven’t even talked to him at all,” Askren explained on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show. The beef between Askren […]

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After his win last weekend, welterweight Ben Askren wants a sitdown with UFC President Dana White. “Funky” feels there is an obvious rift.

“Dana doesn’t talk to me, we don’t deal with each other at all. I haven’t even talked to him at all,” Askren explained on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show.

The beef between Askren and White is deep-seeded. Both men have taken verbal shots at each other for the better part of five years. Still, the boss insists that he isn’t holding any grudge towards Askren or anyone else.

“Oh my God! This is crazy! It’s like Colby Covington saying this too. I don’t know what I do to people to make them think I hate them,” said White during the UFC 235 post-fight press conference. “That dude is nuts,” he added. “That’s crazy, he’s never asked me for 30 minutes of my time. Ever. I’ve never turned down a fighter that asked me if we can talk. Even Tito (Ortiz). Never done it, never.”

Askren has a slightly different take on Dana’s actions.

“Listen, I don’t know what this guy has against me, but he obviously had something against me in 2013 and it’s pretty obvious, even though he tries to say he doesn’t, he does now. His body language and actions speak one way, even though his words speak another. His disdain for me after the fight Saturday night was so palpable you could almost touch it,” Askren said.

“I don’t know what his problem is, I really don’t. I have tried multiple times now to sit down with him and have reasonable conversations with him to ask what his issue with me is, and he won’t even sit down with me.”

As far as what’s next for Askren, White said he would like them to run it back. However, it sounds like Askren has other ideas as he has already booked a trip to the UK to confront the winner of Till vs Masvidal. Besides, it sounds like Askren has a lot of respect for Robbie Lawler.

“No, I didn’t want to fight Robbie in the first place. Listen, I’m sorry that Dana’s guy didn’t win, and he’s pouting about it right now and he wants to run it back, but we’re just not going to do that,” he said.

“I didn’t want to fight him in the first place. How does that benefit me? If I beat him again, I’m not really in a better spot than I am right now. I’m in a spot right now where I can have a whole bunch of new fights. Me and Colby, you can put me and (Darren) Till together, it will be a huge fight. So why do I want to go take a fight, that I already won fairly and squarely?”

The “Funky” Ben Askren saga continues.

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John McCarthy Offers Opinion On Ben Askren vs. Robbie Lawler Controversy

Ben Askren finally made his UFC debut, and it came with quite a large amount of controversy. Askren fought former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler on the UFC 235 pay-per-view (PPV) main card. Right out the gate, Lawler looked like he was going to give Askren a brutal welcoming. He slammed “Funky” to the mat […]

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Ben Askren finally made his UFC debut, and it came with quite a large amount of controversy.

Askren fought former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler on the UFC 235 pay-per-view (PPV) main card. Right out the gate, Lawler looked like he was going to give Askren a brutal welcoming. He slammed “Funky” to the mat hard before busting him open on the ground. However, Askren got to his feet, established dominant position on the ground, and sunk in a bulldog choke.

In real-time, it looked like Lawler’s arm went limp and he was rendered unconscious. Referee Herb Dean stepped in and waved the action off. However, Lawler immediately shot up to his feet and began protesting the stoppage. “Ruthless” said he was never out, and even threw up a thumbs up right before Dean stepped in to pull Askren off.

Despite the controversy, Askren was officially declared the winner via first-round submission. UFC President Dana White agreed that the stoppage was a bad one. However, the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) agrees with Askren, that Lawler went limp and the stoppage was justified.

Current Bellator MMA commentator and former longtime referee John McCarthy has offered his take on the issue. McCarthy took to Twitter and agreed that Dean made a mistake in stopping the fight too early, but said we’re all human and make mistakes:

“Obviously not. We are all human and we all make mistakes”

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UFC 235 Prelims Nab 1.0 TV Rating Overnight

Overnight television ratings for the UFC 235 prelims have been released and it’s a doozy. The viewership numbers aren’t available at this time, but the ESPN portion of the prelims brought in a 1.0 overnight television rating (via MMAFightin…

Overnight television ratings for the UFC 235 prelims have been released and it’s a doozy. The viewership numbers aren’t available at this time, but the ESPN portion of the prelims brought in a 1.0 overnight television rating (via MMAFighting.com). It’s tied for the second best overnight television rating for a UFC preliminary airing since 2013. The […]

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Tyron Woodley Hints At Trilogy With Kamaru Usman

You haven’t seen the last of Tyron Woodley vs. Kamaru Usman inside the Octagon; well, at least as far as “The Chosen One” is concerned. Usman dominated Woodley for five rounds this past weekend (Sat. March 2, 2019) in the co-main event of UFC 235 on pay-per-view (PPV). “The Nigerian Nightmare” took home a unanimous […]

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You haven’t seen the last of Tyron Woodley vs. Kamaru Usman inside the Octagon; well, at least as far as “The Chosen One” is concerned.

Usman dominated Woodley for five rounds this past weekend (Sat. March 2, 2019) in the co-main event of UFC 235 on pay-per-view (PPV). “The Nigerian Nightmare” took home a unanimous decision victory and the UFC welterweight championship. Woodley detailed the defeat on “Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show” earlier today (Mon. March 4, 2019) to comment on the matter.

Woodley said he just had “one of those nights” against Usman, similar to the one he did when he was defeated by Rory MacDonald at UFC 174 in 2014:

“I just had one of those nights like I did against Rory MacDonald. It was a f—ing nightmare.”

“The Chosen One” went on to say that nothing Usman did inside the cage surprised him. He also maintained that he still believes his pre-fight comments, in which he said he’s better than Usman in every aspect of MMA. Woodley then hinted at a possible trilogy with Usman as they each continue their paths at 170 pounds:

“We might have to run this two or three times,” Woodley said.

Woodley might have to wait a while before getting that trilogy started. UFC President Dana White recently confirmed that Colby Covington will get the first crack at Usman’s throne. With Ben Askren also on the rise at 170 pounds, it might be a while before Woodley gets another title opportunity.

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UFC 235 Prelim Ratings Match Second-Best Numbers Since 2013

The UFC 235 prelims last weekend (Sat. March 2, 2019) did very well ratings-wise. According to MMA Fighting’s Dave Meltzer, the prelims averaged a 1.0 rating based on overnight ratings in the metered market. That’s the same number as the UFC 234 prelims last month, which resulted in a 1,339,000 viewership number. With that, the […]

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The UFC 235 prelims last weekend (Sat. March 2, 2019) did very well ratings-wise.

According to MMA Fighting’s Dave Meltzer, the prelims averaged a 1.0 rating based on overnight ratings in the metered market. That’s the same number as the UFC 234 prelims last month, which resulted in a 1,339,000 viewership number. With that, the UFC 235 prelims have tied several other shows for the second-best pay-per-view (PPV) overnight prelim ratings since 2013.

They only trail the UFC 205 prelims, which was the UFC’s first show from Madison Square Garden, and was headlined by Conor McGregor vs. Eddie Alvarez. The UFC 235 prelims were headlined by Jeremy Stephens vs. Zabit Magomedsharipov. Johnny Walker also had a 36-second knockout win over Misha Cirkunov. Not to mention Diego Sanchez opening the prelims with a second-round thrashing of Mickey Gall.

Audience numbers will be available on Tuesday. The report also suggests that UFC 235 did relatively normal as opposed to big PPV numbers based on Google searches for the event. The PPV was the number one searched item in the country Saturday with more than a million searches. Usually, shows like that will do between 250,000 to 400,000 buys.

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