As confirmed by the organization earlier this morning, the Octagon is set to land in Macau for the first…
As confirmed by the organization earlier this morning, the Octagon is set to land in Macau for the first time since 2014 later this year – hosting a UFC Fight Night billed card in the region on November 23. at the Galaxy Arena in China.
Macau, who have hosted just three UFC events – all the way back in 2014, most recently saw a middleweight headliner between former divisional champion, Michael Bisping and Vietnamese striker, Cung Le over the course of five rounds in the night’s main event.
And according to the promotion earlier today on social media, the Octagon will land in The People’s Republic of China on November 23. in Macau for a Fight Night billed event.
UFC Macau card officially set for November 23.
“The Octagon is headed BACK to Macau,” The UFC posted on their official X account. “#UFCMacau is locked in for Nov 23 at Macau Galaxy Arena!”
The Octagon is headed BACK to Macau #UFCMacau is locked in for Nov 23 at Macau Galaxy Arena!
Most recently hosting a card in Macau over ten years ago, on that occasion, former middleweight champion, Bisping landed a fourth round knockout via knees and further strikes en route to a win over the above-mentioned, Le.
Also on that card, former welterweight champions, Colby Covington as well as Tyron Woodley turned in impressive victories back in 2014.
Hosting an event earlier that same year to boot, Dong Hyun Kim turned in a stunning, highlight-reel knockout win over British fighter, John Hathaway – finishing the Brighton native with a spectacular spinning back elbow knockout win.
Two years prior to boot, the previously mentioned, Le also headlined a Macau card against former undisputed middleweight champion, Rich Franklin at the CotaiArean – with Le landing a huge opening round KO win as he earned his second victory since his move to the Octagon.
At the time of publication, an official headlining fight for the UFC Fight Night Macau card has yet to be determined by the organization.
Who do you think will headline UFC Macau later this year?
The lineup has come together for the mixed martial arts leader’s return to China for a UFC Fight Night card inside Macau’s Galaxy Arena. November 23 will see Octagon action take place in Macau for the first time in over a decade. And the promotion is set to bring plenty of notable names along with […]
The lineup has come together for the mixed martial arts leader’s return to China for a UFC Fight Night card inside Macau’s Galaxy Arena.
November 23 will see Octagon action take place in Macau for the first time in over a decade. And the promotion is set to bring plenty of notable names along with it to the Chinese region.
And while confirming that on social media, the UFC announced a number of other intriguing matchups. Of note is the next fight for China’s own Yan Xiaonan, as well as charging light heavyweight contender Carlos Ulberg.
Seven months on from her failed title challenge against Zhang Weili (18-4, 1 NC) at UFC 300, Xiaonan will look to bounce back in front of her home fans against the #9-ranked Tabatha Ricci (11-2). “Baby Shark” has won two straight, most recently outpointing Angela Hill last month.
Ulberg (10-1), meanwhile, will be making his return after having an injury take away his chance of competing at International Fight Week this past June, where he had matchups with both Jamahal Hill and Anthony Smith fall through.
He’ll have the chance to consolidate his spot inside the light heavyweight top 10 when he takes on former title challenger and current #6-ranked contender Volkan Oezdemir (20-7) in Macau.
This will be a milestone in Bisping career. One way or the other.
On April 16th, at the TUF Nations Finale, Bisping made his long-delayed return to the Octagon against top middleweight prospect Tim Kennedy. The confrontation between the two men had been a long time in the making, with Kennedy making a proper pest of himself leading up to the fight, constantly goading his British counterpart.
The implications of this fight for the middleweight division were huge. “The Count,” while traditionally one of the UFC’s top middleweights, has never fought for the UFC middleweight title. He has reached title eliminator fights twice, losing both times: once to Dan Henderson, who left him as stiff as the proverbial British upper lip, and once to Chael Sonnen who earned a unanimous decision victory. Still, the list of Bisping’s victims is impressive. He has wins over Jason “Mayhem” Miller, Brian Stann, and Matt Hamill, and has proven himself to be the derail-er of many a title run.
(I have no idea what this is, but it was too awesome not to share. Props: @bisping)
This will be a milestone in Bisping career. One way or the other.
On April 16th, at the TUF Nations Finale, Bisping made his long-delayed return to the Octagon against top middleweight prospect Tim Kennedy. The confrontation between the two men had been a long time in the making, with Kennedy making a proper pest of himself leading up to the fight, constantly goading his British counterpart.
The implications of this fight for the middleweight division were huge. “The Count,” while traditionally one of the UFC’s top middleweights, has never fought for the UFC middleweight title. He has reached title eliminator fights twice, losing both times: once to Dan Henderson, who left him as stiff as the proverbial British upper lip, and once to Chael Sonnen who earned a unanimous decision victory. Still, the list of Bisping’s victims is impressive. He has wins over Jason “Mayhem” Miller, Brian Stann, and Matt Hamill, and has proven himself to be the derail-er of many a title run.
Despite being a good-to-great fighter, Michael Bisping has never defeated any of the truly elite middleweights in the UFC. He blamed his most recent losses to Vitor Belfort and Chael Sonnen on a detached retina in his right eye, claiming that the damaged eye kept him from defending his right side effectively. After surgically repairing his eye, he said he was confident that he would be better than ever and make a immediate run for the title.
Tim Kennedy, on the other hand, has been touted as one of the top middleweight prospects in the UFC and top imports from Strikeforce. He cruised through his first two UFC fights against Roger Gracie and Rafael Natal, and on April 16thhe lived up to his hype and trash-talk be defeating Michael Bisping in a five-round unanimous decision.
The loss marked the first time Bisping has been defeated by an opponent who was ranked lower than he was. While Kennedy took one step forward in the rankings, Bisping took a step backwards. This shakes up the entire division. With Belfort’s return date still uncertain while he kicks TRT, Anderson Silva suddenly an unquantifiable entity, and Chris Weidman‘s staying power as champion somewhat untested, the middleweight division is in a state of upheaval.
Sure, it’s possible that we we’re seeing Tim Kennedy march toward becoming the greatest 185′er in the sport. More likely, Michael Bisping has declined from consistent title contender to permanent gatekeeper of the middleweight division. Every division needs a gatekeeper. The heavyweights have Roy Nelson, welterweight has Demian Maia and Jake Ellenberger, lightweight has Diego Sanchez — it’s an important position to occupy within a division.
Bisping has reached that crossroads in his career. Something which doesn’t seem to sit that well with “The Count.”
Immediately after his loss to Tim Kennedy at the TUF Nations Finale, Bisping took to twitter to find himself another opponent and a measure of redemption. The target of his twitter attack? Luke Rockhold, the man who Bisping had been tied with as the UFC’s #6 ranked middleweight (Bisping is now #8 and Rockhold is now #5) and former Strikeforce middleweight champion.
However, after his dominant victory over Tim Boetsch at UFC 172 via arm lock/kimura/pretzel/jaws of life, Rockhold called out Vitor Belfort (the last man to beat him) instead. He seemed uninterested in a potential bout with Bisping. So, now Bisping will face Cung Le, who has been inactive for so long that he is no longer even ranked in the division.
This could be an interesting fight, as both men have sustained long layoffs recently. Prior to his loss to Kennedy, Bisping was out for a year due to his eye injury, and Cung Le — who (oddly) was never among Bisping’s twitter antagonists — has been inactive since 2012 apart from his stint as couch for TUF China. A win over Bisping would prove the unranked Le’s relevance in a division that has changed dramatically since he last fought. (Anderson Silva was still untouchable in 2012, don’t forget.)
It’s a logical fight for Bisping, as he could knock off another well-known name and confirm his relevance in the division — not as a title contender at the moment, but as the invaluable gatekeeper of the middleweight division. For Bisping, who has lost three of his last four fights, ensuring his job security in a deep division is the best outcome he can hope for at this point.
But this match-up is a good one for Le as well. His last fight in Macau in 2012 was a win over former champ Rich Franklin. The two year break has killed his momentum as a fighter. A win over Bisping could get Le’s train rolling again. (Although at 42 years old, Le’s competitive future is limited.)
This fight is make or break for Bisping’s career. A loss will see him spiraling to the periphery of a very tough division. A win will perhaps make Michael “The Count” Bisping capitalize on his great worth as a gatekeeper of the middleweights. Who better than the “The Count” to stand in the Octagon and say, “You shall not pass”?
(We don’t regret choosing this image. / Photo via Getty)
Michael Bisping has been booked to fight Cung Le on August 23rd, in the main event of a Fight Night card that takes place at the Cotai Arena in Macau. This booking was announced at the UFC 173 post-fight presser.
Le won his last match with a sudden, dramatic KO victory over Rich Franklin. Despite such a win, the 42-year-old isn’t exactly a threat to Bisping, who’s coming off a disappointing decision loss to Tim Kennedy. Looks like the UFC wants its British meal ticket back in the win column as soon as possible.
Get the details on the co-main event, and where the fight card will air after the jump.
(We don’t regret choosing this image. / Photo via Getty)
Michael Bisping has been booked to fight Cung Le on August 23rd, in the main event of a Fight Night card that takes place at the Cotai Arena in Macau. This booking was announced at the UFC 173 post-fight presser.
Le won his last match with a sudden, dramatic KO victory over Rich Franklin. Despite such a win, the 42-year-old isn’t exactly a threat to Bisping, who’s coming off a disappointing decision loss to Tim Kennedy. Looks like the UFC wants its British meal ticket back in the win column as soon as possible.
The co-main event of this Fight Night card will feature a bout between Dong Hyun Kim and Hector Lombard. Kim is on a four-fight winning streak. Most recently, he knocked out John Hathaway with a gorgeous spinning back elbow. Lombard is only on a two-fight win streak but has looked equally if not more impressive. Since dropping to welterweight, he’s smashed Nate Marquardt and sent Jake Shields out of the UFC.
It’s a shame these matches will only air on Fight Pass.
If I were to have told you before this event that a FUEL TV caliber card will have seven out of nine fights go the distance, it is doubtful that many of you would have watched UFC on FUEL 6. If I were to have reminded you that because the fights were live from Macau, China, you’d have to wake up at 9 a.m. ET to watch said card, I’m willing to bet we would have had a pretty vacant liveblog this morning. It isn’t often that a card with so many decisions is worth waking up early for, but UFC on FUEL 6 proved to be an exception.
Expectations weren’t exactly high for the evening’s main event, a middleweight contest between Rich Franklin and Cung Le. With neither fighter in the title picture – or even near it – and forty year old Cung Le bloodletting his foot just one week before the fight, this fight had a very high bust-potential. Most of us assumed that Ace would exit the cage with his first victory at middleweight since 2008, and that we wouldn’t be missing much if we started our afternoon nap a little early.
Instead, Cung Le gave us a Knockout of the Year candidate, countering a leg kick with a devastating right hand that secured the victory just 2:17 into the fight. Being the only knockout on the card, Le took home the $40k Knockout of the Night award, but even if every other fight ended in a knockout it’d be hard not to award such a brutal finish the honor. If you happened to miss it, here it is in all of its animated GIF glory:
If I were to have told you before this event that a FUEL TV caliber card will have seven out of nine fights go the distance, it is doubtful that many of you would have watched UFC on FUEL 6. If I were to have reminded you that because the fights were live from Macau, China, you’d have to wake up at 9 a.m. ET to watch said card, I’m willing to bet we would have had a pretty vacant liveblog this morning. It isn’t often that a card with so many decisions is worth waking up early for, but UFC on FUEL 6 proved to be an exception.
Expectations weren’t exactly high for the evening’s main event, a middleweight contest between Rich Franklin and Cung Le. With neither fighter in the title picture – or even near it – and forty year old Cung Le bloodletting his foot just one week before the fight, this fight had a very high bust-potential. Most of us assumed that Ace would exit the cage with his first victory at middleweight since 2008, and that we wouldn’t be missing much if we started our afternoon nap a little early.
Instead, Cung Le gave us a Knockout of the Year candidate, countering a leg kick with a devastating right hand that secured the victory just 2:17 into the fight. Being the only knockout on the card, Le took home the $40k Knockout of the Night award, but even if every other fight ended in a knockout it’d be hard not to award such a brutal finish the honor. If you happened to miss it, here it is in all of its animated GIF glory:
As for what this fight means for the UFC middleweight division, I’m still tempted to say ”not too much.” Franklin was certainly a good middleweight champion and a great company man for the UFC, but he hasn’t been a serious title contender in years. As great of a victory as it was for Le, I’d say he’s at least two more victories away from being “in the mix” for a title shot (whatever that even means these days). May I be so bold as to suggest a fight against Brian Stann?
As for Rich Franklin, retirement seems like the most logical option. I know it’s easy to be pessimistic about a fighter’s career after watching him lose – especially the way he lost – but we’re looking at a thirty-eight year old former-champion who hasn’t won back-to-back fights in four years. There’s nothing left for Ace to do except ride his company man status into a vaguely-defined post-retirement corporate career with the UFC.
The co-main event produced a very surprising finish, as Blackzilian Thiago Silva handed Stanislav Nedkov his first career loss with a third round arm-triangle choke. Silva not only picked up his first victory in three years (drug test pending), but also his first submission victory (not counting his submission via punches over Antonio Mendes at UFC 84) since heel-hooking Dave Dalgliesh back in 2006. Being the only submission on the card, the win earned Silva the Submission of the Night bonus.
Although Silva was ahead 20-18 on all three scorecards heading into the third round, Nedkov arguably took the first round and nearly finished the Brazilian late in the second round. Despite barely making it to the third round, Thiago Silva overwhelmed Nedkov with an aggressive striking display before earning the takedown. From there, the BJJ blackbelt wasted little time locking in the fight ending choke.
Silva has never been a pushover, but he’s also never been a serious contender for the light-heavyweight championship, either. At twenty-nine years old, he still has a chance at putting together a run for the title. But if he’s going to make the most of this opportunity, he needs to get back to consistently stringing together victories, and start earning them over the deep end of the UFC’s roster.
Elsewhere on the card:
– Takanori Gomi’s split-decision over Mac Danzig took home Fight of the Night honors. Little surprise here, as this fight was a back-and-forth affair that saw both men come close to earning the stoppage. The PRIDE legend improves to 34-8 (1 NC) overall, and 3-3 in the UFC. Meanwhile, Mac Danzig drops to 21-10-1 – including a not-quite-worthy 5-6 in the UFC – but earns his fourth End of the Night bonus from the promotion.
– Dong Hyun Kim took home a unanimous decision victory over Paulo Thiago in a fight that was never exactly close. After the fight, Kim asked for a rematch against Demian Maia. Considering the fluke nature of their first meeting, I’m not surprised that he wants this fight but I doubt he gets it. Also, Thiago is now 1-4 in his last five fights and 4-5 in the UFC, so expect a Paulo Thiago-themed “And Now he’s Fired” soon.
– Speaking of “1-4 in his last five and probably about to be fired,” Tiequan Zhang actually lost to TUF alumnus Jon Tuck. Yes, the only Chinese fighter on the entire card actually lost to the softball opponent he was matched up against. And not by an indefensibly terrible decision, either: Tuck was controlling the entire fight until the third round, when he made the foolish decision to stand with the guy who desperately needed a knockout. Not to throw salt in the wound here, but Zhang’s lone victory in his last five fights came over Jason Reinhardt at UFC 127. Ouch.
– Takeya Mizugaki wasn’t exactly given a world-beater in Jeff Hougland, but he still managed to look pretty impressive while taking home a unanimous decision victory. Mizugaki ground Hougland’s face into a pulp over the course of three rounds, taking all three rounds on all three scorecards. That being said…30-25?! YOU CANNOT BE FOR SERIOUSLY, BRO!
– Attendance was 8,415, who paid $1.3 million USD. This makes UFC on FUEL 6 the second highest FUEL livegate (Only UFC on FUEL 2 was higher).
#UFCMacau is locked in for Nov 23 at Macau Galaxy Arena!
