Tag: UFC News

Rory MacDonald Feels Like a Born-Again Fighter Ahead of PFL 5

PFL welterweight and former Bellator welterweight champion Rory MacDonald has had a long road to success in his illustrious MMA career, beginning with his title contention in the UFC and his infamous battles with former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler. But after earning the championship belt in Bellator, he didn’t feel like the same fighter […]

PFL welterweight and former Bellator welterweight champion Rory MacDonald has had a long road to success in his illustrious MMA career, beginning with his title contention in the UFC and his infamous battles with former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler.

But after earning the championship belt in Bellator, he didn’t feel like the same fighter he was during the early stages of his career and didn’t feel passionate about the fight game anymore.

2020 was a year of challenges, triumph, and self-reflection for many around the world including MacDonald in his native Canada. He used the downtime during the pandemic to work on his mental health and more specifically, balancing his work life with his home life.

“I won the Bellator title against Douglas Lima, just gotten married and I started to enjoy the spoils of success and take my focus off of fighting,” MacDonald said during a PFL fight week press conference. “I felt like my performances dipped and I was able to take a break during the pandemic and look internally and learn about myself. It gave me time to address these things, re-motivate, and set goals.”

Following his majority draw against Jon Fitch at Bellator 220, MacDonald raised eyebrows around the MMA community with his comments regarding his deteriorating passion for fighting. Despite being regarded as one of the best fighters in the world, he sounded like someone on the way out of the sport.

After taking some much-needed time off, MacDonald feels like a completely different fighter for all the right reasons. He’s widely regarded to be the favorite to earn the PFL welterweight championship this season and is coming off an impressive league debut against Curtis Millender, getting the submission win in the first round.

MacDonald faces former UFC standout Gleison Tibau at PFL 5 on Thursday night and is looking forward to putting on another performance for his fans to be proud of.

“I want to be the number-one welterweight in the world and put on impressive, dominant performances,” MacDonald said. “Gleison Tibau is a tough guy and I’m expecting the best from him.”

Do you think Rory MacDonald is still a world-class MMA fighter regardless of promotion?

Demian Maia Wants Nate Diaz For Last UFC Fight Of His Career

UFC legend Demian Maia wants a proper send-off from the promotion before he calls it a career, and he wants Nate Diaz to be his final opponent in the octagon. Maia had a tough time in a unanimous decision loss to Belal Muhammad at UFC 263, unable to get Muhammad to the ground and to […]

UFC legend Demian Maia wants a proper send-off from the promotion before he calls it a career, and he wants Nate Diaz to be his final opponent in the octagon.

Maia had a tough time in a unanimous decision loss to Belal Muhammad at UFC 263, unable to get Muhammad to the ground and to show off his elite grappling skills. Many around the MMA community wondered if this would be the last fight for Maia, but he has other plans in mind.

In a recent Instagram post and first statement since the loss to Muhammad, Maia expressed to fans his frustration with the loss as well as his intentions for the remainder of his career in the UFC.

“Nate Diaz, I saw your quote at the press conference, and think you’re great too. You’re a great fighter who also represents Jiu-Jitsu and you’re real, I respect that,” Maia said. “Regardless of last night, I know I still have one fight left in me, and it’s no secret that I feel like the UFC is my home, where I want to finish my career.”

“Now, I have no idea if they will give me another fight, but if they do, I would be honored to do my last MMA bout with you, someone who always comes to fight, who represents BJJ, and whom I respect.”

After UFC 263, UFC president Dana White said in his post-fight press conference that Maia is done fighting for his promotion. The 43-year-old Maia doesn’t have many fights left on his current UFC deal and would need to re-sign with the promotion if he wants a sendoff fight.

It wasn’t Diaz’s night either as he lost to Leon Edwards by unanimous decision in a five-round main card fight. Outside of the final minute of the fight when he put on a flurry of strikes on Edwards, Diaz was out-battled and Edwards was the better man in the octagon.

Do you think Demian Maia should fight one more time in the UFC before his career is over?

Leon Edwards vs. Jorge Masvidal is the fight to make – Michael Bisping

Leon Edwards Jorge MasvidalFormer UFC middleweight champion and current fight broadcaster Michael Bisping wants Leon Edwards to fight an old rival for his next UFC bout; Jorge Masvidal. Edwards is flying high after his unanimous decision win over Nate Diaz at UFC 263 and dominated the fight with the exception of the last minute of the final round. […]

Leon Edwards Jorge Masvidal

Former UFC middleweight champion and current fight broadcaster Michael Bisping wants Leon Edwards to fight an old rival for his next UFC bout; Jorge Masvidal.

Edwards is flying high after his unanimous decision win over Nate Diaz at UFC 263 and dominated the fight with the exception of the last minute of the final round. He is currently on a nine-fight winning streak with his lone blemish on his record being a no-contest against Belal Muhammad earlier this year.

Edwards and Masvidal had an infamous backstage altercation while they were both fighting at UFC Fight Night 147 in the UK. The phrase “three-piece with a soda” was born after Masvidal attacked Edwards backstage when the two welterweights came face-to-face in the back of the arena.

Although it’s been a little over two years since the backstage brawl, Bisping thinks the time is right for Edwards and Masvidal to settle their differences in the UFC octagon.

“Jorge Masvidal, man. That’s who it needs to be,” Bisping said when asked who Edwards should fight next. “Some people are saying that Masvidal needs to fight Nate Diaz again. I disagree. And Masvidal has to take that fight as well. If you go out there and you crack another man in the face who is in your weight class and you both work for a company that matches their employees against one another and puts them in an Octagon to fight, the pieces of the puzzle are there. “

“That absolutely, unequivocally, has to be the next fight for both of those men.”

Following the win over Diaz, Edwards voice his intention to have his next UFC fight be a title shot against welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, no matter how long he’ll have to wait. But if he wants to take a fight against a top contender and stay active before the Usman fight comes, it might be a plausible option to fight Masvidal later this year.

Masvidal is coming off two-straight losses to Usman in back-to-back title shots, with the most recent coming by way of knockout at UFC 261. Before that, he had been one of the hottest fighters in all of combat sports after big wins over Darren Till, Ben Askren, and Diaz in 2019.

Do you think Leon Edwards should fight Jorge Masvidal instead of waiting for a title shot?

Kamaru Usman Receives Epic Welcome During Visit To Nigeria

Kamaru UsmanKamaru Usman felt the hometown love during a recent visit to his native Nigeria. The UFC welterweight king has proudly put the soul of Nigeria on his back. Usman has repeatedly spoken of how important it is to him as a champion and a man to show love for his native country. This week, his […]

Kamaru Usman

Kamaru Usman felt the hometown love during a recent visit to his native Nigeria.

The UFC welterweight king has proudly put the soul of Nigeria on his back. Usman has repeatedly spoken of how important it is to him as a champion and a man to show love for his native country. This week, his homeland gave him the love right back.

In his first trip home since defending the welterweight title against Jorge Masvidal at UFC 261, Usman received a roaring welcome as he arrived at the Lagos Food Bank in the country’s capital city. Usman shared a video of the homecoming through his Instagram story feed, which Damon Martin captured.

The hometown crowd had much to celebrate. Usman captured a Performance of the Night bonus, knocking Masvidal out in the second round of the main event. The win put a stamp on Usman’s dominance in the sport. He’s currently undefeated in the UFC and has only one professional loss from back in 2013. As to Usman’s status as the welterweight GOAT, the debate has already begun as he looks to add another title defense later this summer.

Usman is looking to retain his title in a much-anticipated rematch with the division’s top contender, Colby Covington, later this year. Although a date is yet to be confirmed, the UFC has hinted at the rematch happening in the fall.

For his part, Covington has been very vocal about the rematch and critical of Usman. He has taken to social media to bash the champion.

With the rematch not finalized, Covington has also accused Usman of ducking him because of the rematch. Still, Usman is unfazed as Covington’s accusations join the list with others like Leon Edwards. For now, he is enjoying receiving the love as the pride of Nigeria.

Do you think Kamaru Usman will defend his title against Colby Covington in their rematch?

Israel Adesanya Reveals Reason Why He Rejected Offer To Coach TUF Against Darren Till

AdesanyaUFC middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya has revealed the reason why he rejected an offer from the UFC to serve as an opposing coach on the reboot of The Ultimate Fighter — in a season where he would have coached opposite the #7 rated contender, former welterweight title challenger, Darren Till. Adesanya headlined UFC 263 last weekend at […]

Adesanya

UFC middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya has revealed the reason why he rejected an offer from the UFC to serve as an opposing coach on the reboot of The Ultimate Fighter — in a season where he would have coached opposite the #7 rated contender, former welterweight title challenger, Darren Till.

Adesanya headlined UFC 263 last weekend at the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona — battling with Trento-born contender, Marvin Vettori in a re-run of their UFC Fight Night Glendale clash back in April of 2018. Successfully defending his middleweight crown this time around, the City Kickboxing standout overcame Vettori for the second time in his career, via a rather one-sided 50-45 (x3) unanimous decision win. 

The victory marked Adesanya’s return to the winner’s enclosure in tandem with his return to the middleweight ranks, following a brief light heavyweight excursion back in April at UFC 259, where he suffered a unanimous decision win against champion, Jan Blachowicz, in an unsuccessful bid to become a two-weight champion held simultaneously.

Reality TV show, The Ultimate Fighter recently return on network, ESPN for its 29th. installment, and features coaches, featherweight champion, Alexander Volkanovski and the #2 rated, Brian Ortega as the season’s opposing coaches, however, Adesanya claimed that he rejected an opportunity offered to him to serve as one of the season’s coaches, against the above-mentioned, brash, Till — detailing how he wasn’t happy with the prospect of a prolonged stay in Las Vegas to film the season, as well as his dislike of constant camera presence.

“I’ll tell you one thing, there’s a new season of TUF (The Ultimate Fighter) with my boy, Alex (Alexander) Volkanovski, coaching it, it’s gonna be dope, I think, it’s already, I think episode three is already coming out this week,” Adesanya said during a recent appearance on a podcast with comedians, Andrew Schulz and Akaash Singh. “They did — breaking news, leaked, it got offered to me Darren Till, and instantly I said, ‘No’.“

“Personally, I don’t want cameras in my face that much and I don’t want to be stuck in (Las) Vegas for that long,” Adesanya said. “I just feel like it would come — I mean, what does it take to make good reality tv? Drama, a lot of drama and I’m a troll, Darren’s a troll. I feel like I would have to go to the lowest form of myself. The pranks that they’d play, I could go lower. And people don’t understand like, I take the high road a lot, but when it’s time to go low, limbo.“

Adesanya had called for a rematch with former undisputed middleweight champion, Robert Whittaker following his unanimous judging win over Vettori, so it seems a pairing against the #7 ranked Till will have to wait for the time being, particularly given the fact that the Liverpudlian is currently targeted to meet with the #5 rated, Derek Brunson for a potential UFC Fight Night London event on September 4. 

Georges St-Pierre Reveals Details Of His UFC Earnings: ‘I Was Making Many Millions’

Georges St-PierreIn a new, revealing interview, former UFC welterweight and middleweight champion Georges St-Pierre has revealed how cleverly he managed his fighting career, and how he was able to leverage his ability and popularity when it came to negotiating his fight earnings, revealing that he was “making many millions of dollars.” St-Pierre, 40, is widely considered […]

Georges St-Pierre

In a new, revealing interview, former UFC welterweight and middleweight champion Georges St-Pierre has revealed how cleverly he managed his fighting career, and how he was able to leverage his ability and popularity when it came to negotiating his fight earnings, revealing that he was “making many millions of dollars.”

St-Pierre, 40, is widely considered to be one of the greatest MMA fighters of all-time, a former two-division UFC champion who reigned over the welterweight division across two title runs from 2006-13, captured the middleweight strap against Michael Bisping in 2017 following a four-year hiatus from competition, and stands as one of history’s most popular and marketable MMA stars. However, GSP certainly did not start out making massive money.

In a new piece for Wealthsimple Magazine titled, “The UFC Won’t Pay You Fairly Unless You Make Them,” St-Pierre explains that he was paid $3,000 to show and $3,000 to win in his UFC debut against Karo Parisyan in 2004 at UFC 46. When he received his first welterweight title shot that same year, St-Pierre was paid $9,000 to show after losing via first-round submission to Hughes. 

Fast-forward four years, and St-Pierre had won the trilogy against Hughes after beating him twice. With a title defence against Jon Fitch looming at UFC 87, and with his contract about to expire, GSP decided to take a risk on himself.

“There is no union in the fight game. So, for us in MMA, negotiations can become like a chess game,” St-Pierre wrote. “Other organizations wanted to have me as their poster boy and UFC knew that. So, like a poker bluff, we said, ‘We don’t want to re-sign before the fight — we want to just finish the contract.’ We took a big risk. Because it’s like a stock market. Your stock might go up if you’re successful, but it can also go down if you lose. But that’s what we decided to do.”

According to St-Pierre, his risk paid off before he ever stepped foot in the Octagon. “I took a big gamble on myself and told UFC I was not going to re-sign with them. And then, the day before my fight with Jon Fitch, the UFC came back with a big, crazy contract because they didn’t want me to become a free agent,” St-Pierre wrote.

“You read I made $400,000 a match? No. I made a lot more than that. A lot more than that. Millions. When I was at the peak of my career, I was making many millions of dollars. Because you not only get the money to show and the money to win, but you also have a percentage of the gate and pay-per-view buys — the gate and the pay-per-views are where the real money is. That’s how fighters make their money. But you need to have the power to negotiate those terms.”

GSP also noted how instead of wasting money on material things, he invested his money into himself, purchasing recovery tools such an ice bath, as well as searching for the best coaches and trainers in the world in order to keep himself ahead of the game. Had he not done so, GSP believes be would not be in the same position he is in today. 

There’s a lot of people buried in the desert for much less than what I made for that fight, my friend,” St-Pierre wrote. “For the fight with Michael Bisping, with the pay-per-views, the sponsorship and all that, I made about $10 million. Then in 2019, I got out. I’m very lucky and very privileged that I finished on top. The reality is most fighters finish broke and broken. They hang there too long. They get brain damage. They go broke.  I’m very healthy and I’m wealthy. It’s very rare to find someone that hangs up his gloves and finishes on top like this.”

St-Pierre is one of the few fighters to make such a clean exit from his fighting career. With his health nearly fully intact and with all of his faculties as well, Georges St-Pierre is certainly one of the fighters that many currently in the sport should be aspiring to. 

Are you suprised to hear Georges St-Pierre earned so much money during his career?