Tag: UFC fight booking

McGregor, Brandao Agree to a Humdinger of a Hootenanny in Vegas at UFC 168


(Seriously, the similarities are un-f*cking-believable. Photo via Getty.)

Fresh off a one-sided beatdown of Max Holloway at UFC Fight Night: Shogun vs. Sonnen, it appears as if Irish phenom Conor McGregor has his next fight lined up already. Despite suffering a minor LCL sprain midway through the second round of his eventual unanimous decision victory, McGregor’s camp has insisted that the Irishman is fine and that he would prefer to fight on the UFC’s year end card, UFC 168: Silva vs. Weidman II. His coach, John Kavanagh, then proceeded to call out TUF 14 winner Diego Brandao, who in turn accepted the fight faster than Chael Sonnen on a sightseeing tour across Brazil. If “sights” were asses and “seeing” was kicking them, that is.

Being that McGregor spends his spare time speeding down the Vegas strip with The Baldfather himself, you can expect this matchup to be officially announced in a matter of days. SIXTY G’s BABAYYYYYYY!!

Brandao is also coming off a unanimous decision victory at the TD Garden, having bested Daniel Pineda on the Fight Night 26 undercard just two fights previous to McGregor’s aforementioned shellacking of Holloway. The victory improved “DB’s” record to 4-1 in the octagon, with three of those victories coming in his past three fights. It’s at this point that we should all probably start saying that McGregor is an overrated yadda yadda will be exposed yadda yadda you know the deal.
CP Prediction: McGregor by cardio.


(Seriously, the similarities are un-f*cking-believable. Photo via Getty.)

Fresh off a one-sided beatdown of Max Holloway at UFC Fight Night: Shogun vs. Sonnen, it appears as if Irish phenom Conor McGregor has his next fight lined up already. Despite suffering a minor LCL sprain midway through the second round of his eventual unanimous decision victory, McGregor’s camp has insisted that the Irishman is fine and that he would prefer to fight on the UFC’s year end card, UFC 168: Silva vs. Weidman II. His coach, John Kavanagh, then proceeded to call out TUF 14 winner Diego Brandao, who in turn accepted the fight faster than Chael Sonnen on a sightseeing tour across Brazil. If “sights” were asses and “seeing” was kicking them, that is.

Being that McGregor spends his spare time speeding down the Vegas strip with The Baldfather himself, you can expect this matchup to be officially announced in a matter of days. SIXTY G’s BABAYYYYYYY!!

Brandao is also coming off a unanimous decision victory at the TD Garden, having bested Daniel Pineda on the Fight Night 26 undercard just two fights previous to McGregor’s aforementioned shellacking of Holloway. The victory improved “DB’s” record to 4-1 in the octagon, with three of those victories coming in his past three fights. It’s at this point that we should all probably start saying that McGregor is an overrated yadda yadda will be exposed yadda yadda you know the deal.
CP Prediction: McGregor by cardio.

In other fight booking news…

Do-or-Die Alert: British middleweight and member of a select group of fighters to score two end-of-the-night awards for a single performance, Tom Watson, has been booked to take on longtime UFC veteran Alessio Sakara at Fight Night 30 in October. On the heels of a suffocating decision loss to Thales Leites at UFC 163 and currently 1-2 in the UFC, Watson is in dire need of a win here. A loss to Sakara (who has dropped his past 3) would likely send the Brit back to BAMMA where he came from.

Sakara has not competed since caving in the back of Patrick Cote’s skull with illegal hammerfists at UFC 154. The two were scheduled to rematch at UFC 158 until an injury forced Sakara to withdraw. No, it wasn’t tuna fish this time, but Goddamn, does Sakara share a room with the ghost that’s been haunting James Irvin all these years or what?

Fight Night 30 goes down on Oct. 26, 2013, in Manchester, England.

–J. Jones

Rustam Khabilov Faces Jorge Masvidal at ‘Fight for the Troops 3? as Brazilians Continue to Turn Down Fights


(When you see it, you’ll shit bricks. Photo via JiuJitsuMania.) 

It’s one thing when Vitor Belfort turns down an opponent — he’s a former champ, a legend in the game and the only guy who was willing to dive on the grenade against Jon Jones at UFC 152. He’s earned the right to turn down a fight every now and again, is what we’re saying. But Edson Barboza? We don’t care if had the greatest knockout of 2012; who the hell does this guy think he is, Vitor Belfort?!

What are we on about? We’re on about the fact that Barboza recently turned down a fight with Russian suplex machine Rustam Khabilov despite the fact that, you know, he shouldn’t really be in the position to do that. While head matchmaker Joe Silva would have ordered Barboza lashed to the breaking wheel for such insolence, lightweight & under matchmaker Sean Shelby is apparently more forgiving. As such, Khabilov will now face Jorge Masvidal — who is fresh off a 2nd round, buzzer-beater submission of the previously undefeated TUF 15 winner Michael Chiesa at UFC on FOX 8 — at “Fight for the Troops 3” on November 6th. The matchup was announced last night on UFC Tonight. 

It’s understandable that Barboza would turn down a fight with a grappling powerhouse like Khabilov, however. As we all know to be 100% true with zero exceptions, strong wrestlers are kryptonite to Brazilians. Khabilov has finished both his UFC opponents in under three minutes via vicious takedowns and slams (Yancy Medeiros was lucky to walk away from that fight with just a thumb injury. Lucky.). And given how notorious Fight for the Troops cards are for somehow delivering even more carnage than the average card, let’s do a little MMA Math, shall we?

Scared Brazilian + Russian Suplex Machine + “Fight for the Troops” card >….


(When you see it, you’ll shit bricks. Photo via JiuJitsuMania.) 

It’s one thing when Vitor Belfort turns down an opponent — he’s a former champ, a legend in the game and the only guy who was willing to dive on the grenade against Jon Jones at UFC 152. He’s earned the right to turn down a fight every now and again, is what we’re saying. But Edson Barboza? We don’t care if had the greatest knockout of 2012; who the hell does this guy think he is, Vitor Belfort?!

What are we on about? We’re on about the fact that Barboza recently turned down a fight with Russian suplex machine Rustam Khabilov despite the fact that, you know, he shouldn’t really be in the position to do that. While head matchmaker Joe Silva would have ordered Barboza lashed to the breaking wheel for such insolence, lightweight & under matchmaker Sean Shelby is apparently more forgiving. As such, Khabilov will now face Jorge Masvidal — who is fresh off a 2nd round, buzzer-beater submission of the previously undefeated TUF 15 winner Michael Chiesa at UFC on FOX 8 — at “Fight for the Troops 3″ on November 6th. The matchup was announced last night on UFC Tonight. 

It’s understandable that Barboza would turn down a fight with a grappling powerhouse like Khabilov, however. As we all know to be 100% true with zero exceptions, strong wrestlers are kryptonite to Brazilians. Khabilov has finished both his UFC opponents in under three minutes via vicious takedowns and slams (Yancy Medeiros was lucky to walk away from that fight with just a thumb injury. Lucky.). And given how notorious Fight for the Troops cards are for somehow delivering even more carnage than the average card, let’s do a little MMA Math, shall we?

Scared Brazilian + Russian Suplex Machine + “Fight for the Troops” card >

–J. Jones

Vitor Belfort vs. Tim Kennedy Off, Vitor Belfort vs. Chael Sonnen…On?

It’s become increasingly obvious that Vitor Belfort has taken a shining to beating up only the pastiest, whitest members of the middleweight division lately. Michael Bisping? Ghastly. Luke Rockhold? Surprisingly pale for a surfer, brah. Tim Kennedy also seemed to fit that bill, which made it all the more confusing when Belfort turned down the fight a couple days ago. But that’s what happened, as Kennedy officially broke the news that the fight was off on Twitter yesterday.

However, according to Ariel Helwani, Belfort has set his sights on yet another fair-skinned member of the middleweight division: Chael P. Sonnen.

Yes, even though Chael already has a headlining fight scheduled with Mauricio Rua at “Fight Night” in August — his last at light-heavyweight for the time being — he’s being called out by Belfort, specifically at a catchweight. It is…odd to say the least. Belfort(‘s wife) stated that he would only be accepting a title fight at middleweight next, yet he is preemptively calling out a guy (albeit at catchweight) who could potentially be on a three-fight losing streak?

It’s become increasingly obvious that Vitor Belfort has taken a shining to beating up only the pastiest, whitest members of the middleweight division lately. Michael Bisping? Ghastly. Luke Rockhold? Surprisingly pale for a surfer, brah. Tim Kennedy also seemed to fit that bill, which made it all the more confusing when Belfort turned down the fight a couple days ago. But that’s what happened, as Kennedy officially broke the news that the fight was off on Twitter yesterday.

However, according to Ariel Helwani, Belfort has set his sights on yet another fair-skinned member of the middleweight division: Chael P. Sonnen.

Yes, even though Chael already has a headlining fight scheduled with Mauricio Rua at “Fight Night” in August — his last at light-heavyweight for the time being — he’s being called out by Belfort, specifically at a catchweight. It is…odd to say the least. Belfort(‘s wife) stated that he would only be accepting a title fight at middleweight next, yet he is preemptively calling out a guy (albeit at catchweight) who could potentially be on a three-fight losing streak?

As you would expect, “The American Gangster” has already agreed to a fight with Belfort, but under even more ridiculous circumstances. On yesterday’s edition of UFC Tonight, Sonnen responded to Belfort by declaring that he would only accept the fight under the stipulation that the victor faced the winner of the Silva/Weidman rematch at UFC 168 in December. As for the event that Sonnen would prefer to face Belfort at: It’s UFC 168. Classic Sonnen!

We’d normally ask you what you think of a potential Sonnen/Belfort matchup, but what does it matter, really? Chael Sonnen is a closer, and closers get to drink coffee ground from the finest Brazilian beans while us losers fight for a set of steak knives in the unemployment line. It’s a metaphor.

–J. Jones

Do-or-Die Alert: Tim Boetsch Draws Luke Rockhold for ‘UFC 166: Velasquez vs. Dos Santos III’


(Boetsch may have won the battle, but the piece of glass Okami left on the mat surely won the war. Photo via Tracy Lee/Yahoo) 

The UFC career of Tim Boetsch has seen some incredible highs and just-as-unforgettable lows to say the least. After kick-starting his tenure at light heavyweight with one of the most savage debuts of all time (and a personal favorite fight of mine) at UFC 81: Breaking Point, “The Barbarian” would drop two out of his next three to Matt Hamill and Jason Brilz before being ousted from the promotion. It was a decision that nearly bankrupted Capital One and resulted in the pillage-related deaths of no less than 400 people, but I digress.

Three straight stoppage wins on the local circuit would see Boetsch called back up to the big leagues to face Thiago Silva at UFC 117. Although an Inner Circle concert injury would see Silva ousted and Todd Brown brought in, the result would be a unanimous decision victory for Boetsch nonetheless. It was a redemptive feeling that wouldn’t last long, unfortunately, as Phil Davis and his freaky, deeky submission skills would force Boetsch to drop to middleweight in a last ditch effort to save his career. With the help of world-renowned trainer Matt Hume, Boetsch would go on an impressive 4-fight win streak at 185, including one of the greatest comeback victories in MMA history.

Back-to-back losses at the hands of Costa Philippou and Mark Munoz, however, have once again placed “The Barbarian” in hot water. In even worse news, the man Boetsch will have to defeat to likely stay employed will be former Strikeforce middleweight champion Luke Rockhold, as the two have just been booked for UFC 166 on October 19th.


(Boetsch may have won the battle, but the piece of glass Okami left on the mat surely won the war. Photo via Tracy Lee/Yahoo) 

The UFC career of Tim Boetsch has seen some incredible highs and just-as-unforgettable lows to say the least. After kick-starting his tenure at light heavyweight with one of the most savage debuts of all time (and a personal favorite fight of mine) at UFC 81: Breaking Point, “The Barbarian” would drop two out of his next three to Matt Hamill and Jason Brilz before being ousted from the promotion. It was a decision that nearly bankrupted Capital One and resulted in the pillage-related deaths of no less than 400 people, but I digress.

Three straight stoppage wins on the local circuit would see Boetsch called back up to the big leagues to face Thiago Silva at UFC 117. Although an Inner Circle concert injury would see Silva ousted and Todd Brown brought in, the result would be a unanimous decision victory for Boetsch nonetheless. It was a redemptive feeling that wouldn’t last long, unfortunately, as Phil Davis and his freaky, deeky submission skills would force Boetsch to drop to middleweight in a last ditch effort to save his career. With the help of world-renowned trainer Matt Hume, Boetsch would go on an impressive 4-fight win streak at 185, including one of the greatest comeback victories in MMA history.

Back-to-back losses at the hands of Costa Philippou and Mark Munoz, however, have once again placed “The Barbarian” in hot water. In even worse news, the man Boetsch will have to defeat to likely stay employed will be former Strikeforce middleweight champion Luke Rockhold, as the two have just been booked for UFC 166 on October 19th.

Although not necessarily a do-or-die fight for Rockhold, a loss to Boetsch would all but completely erase any future title hopes that the AKA standout may have. After ending his Strikeforce career with 9 straight victories, Rockhold was humbled via a Vitor Belfort sharknado kick in his UFC debut, which brings both fighters to their current crossroads. Will Boetsch have Rockhold doing the “No Bones” dance, or should he start preparing to call out Maiquel Falcao in the near future?

Featuring the trilogy-completing match between heavyweight champion Brown Pride and former champion Good Guy Dos Santos as well as a co-main event hot-dog eating contest between Roy Nelson and Daniel Cormier (yes, it’s official now), UFC 166 goes down on October 19th from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.

–J. Jones

There Will Be Bear Hugs: Erick Silva vs. Dong Hyun Kim in the Works for TBD October UFC Event

(Yup, that’s Kim and Sexyama appearing in the most intricately choreographed, not to mention dark, pop music video since “Thriller.” Koreans, man.)

After suffering his first career setback at the hands of Jon Fitch last year*, Brazilian up-and-comer Erick Silva — who has always reminded me of one of those impossibly good-looking antagonists from an 80’s fight movie, just sayin’ — bounced back into the win column with a first round SOTN-earning reverse triangle armbar of Jason High (who just cannot catch a f*cking break in the UFC) at UFC on FUEL 10 in June. According to SporTV Globo, Silva will now face notorious grapplefucker Dong Hyun Kim at one of the UFC’s October scheduled events. Hint: It’s probably the one in Brazil.

In his past two contests, Kim has clung to Paulo Thiago and Siyar Bahadurzada like a shower curtain in a slight breeze en route to a pair of UD victories, improving his UFC record to 8-2-1 NC with exactly 1 stoppage victory. So let’s hope that Silva has drastically improved his takedown defense since the Fitch fight, or we’ll surely be in for another grip-n-trip clinic. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

*And by the transitive property of MMA Math, a 10-second submission to Josh Burkman as well.

–J. Jones


(Yup, that’s Kim and Sexyama appearing in the most intricately choreographed, not to mention dark, pop music video since “Thriller.” Koreans, man.)

After suffering his first career setback at the hands of Jon Fitch last year*, Brazilian up-and-comer Erick Silva — who has always reminded me of one of those impossibly good-looking antagonists from an 80′s fight movie, just sayin’ — bounced back into the win column with a first round SOTN-earning reverse triangle armbar of Jason High (who just cannot catch a f*cking break in the UFC) at UFC on FUEL 10 in June. According to SporTV Globo, Silva will now face notorious grapplefucker Dong Hyun Kim at one of the UFC’s October scheduled events. Hint: It’s probably the one in Brazil.

In his past two contests, Kim has clung to Paulo Thiago and Siyar Bahadurzada like a shower curtain in a slight breeze en route to a pair of UD victories, improving his UFC record to 8-2-1 NC with exactly 1 stoppage victory. So let’s hope that Silva has drastically improved his takedown defense since the Fitch fight, or we’ll surely be in for another grip-n-trip clinic. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

*And by the transitive property of MMA Math, a 10-second submission to Josh Burkman as well.

–J. Jones

Battle of the Bulge: Big Country Nelson vs. Daniel Cormier a Go for UFC 166


(How fucked up is it that *this* is the #1 search result when you type “Roy Nelson clean shaven” into Google? Photo via Getty.) 

In the weeks leading up to his scrap with Stipe Miocic at UFC 161, it appeared as if Roy Nelson would be headed for the greener pastures of an MMA promotion that wasn’t run by a guy who hates his fat ass. In the days following Nelson’s three round trouncing at the hands of Miocic, it was the general consensus that Bellator was a CHICK’N Crisp sandwich away from luring in one of MMA’s top heavyweights at a steal of a price. So how does Nelson now find himself in line to fight Daniel Cormier, a former Strikeforce champion who is coming off a (tepid) win over Frank Mir in his UFC debut?

Perhaps we should step back for a second. You see, prior to UFC 161, Nelson had strung together a nice little three-fight win streak (all via KO) and was looking to break himself off a piece of that Daniel Cormier hype. Imploring the classic UFC strategy of declaring that the fight “wouldn’t make sense,” then trying to turn it into a #1 contender fight for another division’s title, then bringing race into the equation, Nelson was able to successfully troll his way into a fight with Cormier despite coming off a loss. Huzzah! The likelihood of this fight coming to fruition is all dependent, of course, on how Nelson’s contract negotiations with the UFC go, according to Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports.

Then again, you could argue that Nelson was more impressive in defeat than Cormier was in victory based purely on the amount of shots he was able to absorb without being knocked out. It would be an insane argument to make, but hey, Tim Sylvia would probably have your back. In either case, the pair is tentatively set to throw down at UFC 166, which goes down on October 19th in Houston, Texas.

In other fight booking news…


(How fucked up is it that *this* is the #1 search result when you type “Roy Nelson clean shaven” into Google? Photo via Getty.) 

In the weeks leading up to his scrap with Stipe Miocic at UFC 161, it appeared as if Roy Nelson would be headed for the greener pastures of an MMA promotion that wasn’t run by a guy who hates his fat ass. In the days following Nelson’s three round trouncing at the hands of Miocic, it was the general consensus that Bellator was a CHICK’N Crisp sandwich away from luring in one of MMA’s top heavyweights at a steal of a price. So how does Nelson now find himself in line to fight Daniel Cormier, a former Strikeforce champion who is coming off a (tepid) win over Frank Mir in his UFC debut?

Perhaps we should step back for a second. You see, prior to UFC 161, Nelson had strung together a nice little three-fight win streak (all via KO) and was looking to break himself off a piece of that Daniel Cormier hype. Imploring the classic UFC strategy of declaring that the fight “wouldn’t make sense,” then trying to turn it into a #1 contender fight for another division’s title, then bringing race into the equation, Nelson was able to successfully troll his way into a fight with Cormier despite coming off a loss. Huzzah! The likelihood of this fight coming to fruition is all dependent, of course, on how Nelson’s contract negotiations with the UFC go, according to Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports.

Then again, you could argue that Nelson was more impressive in defeat than Cormier was in victory based purely on the amount of shots he was able to absorb without being knocked out. It would be an insane argument to make, but hey, Tim Sylvia would probably have your back. In either case, the pair is tentatively set to throw down at UFC 166, which goes down on October 19th in Houston, Texas.

In other fight booking news…

Fresh off a first round submission of fellow TUF 17 castmember Adam Cella at UFC on FUEL 9, Tor Troeng has been booked to take on Rafael Natal at UFC on FOX Sports 1:3. Since getting KTFO by Andrew Craig at UFC on FUEL 4, Natal has scored back-to-back wins over a couple of UFC newbies at UFC on FOX 6 and UFC on FX 8. When aliens are trying to piece together human history after it has been wiped off the face of the earth, do you think they’ll wonder why we insisted on making our UFC events as indistinguishable from one another as possible? COMING SOON, UFC on FOFX 1: 00101101 — Velasquez vs. Dos Santos IV (part II). Prelims to be broadcast on FUELbook.

–J. Jones