Tag: Yoel Romero

Tyron Woodley: Georges St-Pierre Should Have To Fight Me

He may have put on arguably the two most boring title fights in UFC welterweight title history with a record-setting snoozer over Demian Maia in the UFC 214 and a painfully slow defense against Stephen Thompson at UFC 209, but Tyron Woodley still believes his body of work has earned him a lofty position in […]

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He may have put on arguably the two most boring title fights in UFC welterweight title history with a record-setting snoozer over Demian Maia in the UFC 214 and a painfully slow defense against Stephen Thompson at UFC 209, but Tyron Woodley still believes his body of work has earned him a lofty position in MMA history.

Woodley was thoroughly blasted by his boss Dana White after he successfully defended all 21 of Maia’s takedown attempts in a bout that set the record for least significant strikes in a title bout, so much so that the emotional exec actually took Woodley’s promised title bout with returning all-time great Georges St-Pierre off the table, giving the fight to Michael Bisping.

“The Chosen One” understandably wasn’t happy about it, and spoke out against White’s decision at the UFC post-fight press conference (via MMA Fighting) by declaring St-Pierre should actually have to fight him to be considered the best welterweight ever:

“[St-Pierre] should have to fight me. If you are the best welterweight of all time, you’re gonna come back into the sport and go up a weight class? I guarantee you if Demian Maia would have won, he would have been talking about fighting Demian Maia. I guarantee if Stephen Thompson would have won, he’d have been looking to fight Stephen Thompson. He doesn’t want to fight me because I’m a better version of him.”

Gary A. Vasquez for USA TODAY Sports

St-Pierre will move up a weight class to middleweight to fight champion Bisping, who has caused a sea of controversy since winning the belt by only defending it against a retiring Dan Henderson before going to the sidelines with knee surgery as the many top contenders in the division were methodically eliminated by Robert Whittaker, who conveniently hurt his own knee beating Yoel Romero. That’s made the 185-pound division a mess, and Woodley took note of it before correctly pointing out he was the only champion consistently defending the title against top contenders:

“When was the last time Michael Bisping fought? Think about it. I fought four world title fights against actual No. 1 contenders. Has he ever fought a No. 1 contender? I fought the No. 1 contender twice. I fought the No. 1 contender after that. And I fought the world champion who was Robbie Lawler at the time before that. I’m the only one that’s going by the old set of rules. So if it’s not Georges St-Pierre, let him run. But guess what? Whoever you put in front of me, I’m gonna run through them, I’m gonna beat them, and if he does not fight me, by default I will be the best welterweight of all-time.”

Woodley Photo courtesy of Joe Camporeale for USA TODAY Sports

Woodley may have a strong argument from some certain points of view, yet it’s difficult to say he would become the greatest fighter of all-time in a storied division, especially over a time-honored legend like St-Pierre, without actually fighting him if he’s indeed active. However, it’s just not a fight that is going to be made until Woodley proves he can deliver exciting bouts each and every time out to the cage, not every third or fourth time.

That’s the only way he’s going to gain a reputation as a draw, and that, in turn, is the only way he might eventually get to fight St-Pierre.

But one thing Woodley is correct about is the mess the middleweight division has become. The welterweight champ went off about Bisping’s injury and why it was strange to have St-Pierre jump the entire ranks in a class he had never once competed in before:

“The clarity should just be Georges. I don’t understand, you have an interim title right? Robert Whittaker just beat Yoel Romero. . . He deserves to fight Bisping next. How long is Bisping going to milk this knee injury? Is his knee severed or what the hell is going on? He should be fighting the No. 1 contenders like I’ve had to do.”

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Dana White Rips Into Woodley, Takes Away Georges St-Pierre Fight

Dana White has pulled the old bait-and-switch on us yet again. Only days after saying that returning former welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre would meet the winner of the welterweight title fight between Tyron Woodley and Demain Maia in the co-main event of last night’s UFC 214 after GSP’s rumored fight with Michael Bisping was a […]

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Dana White has pulled the old bait-and-switch on us yet again.

Only days after saying that returning former welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre would meet the winner of the welterweight title fight between Tyron Woodley and Demain Maia in the co-main event of last night’s UFC 214 after GSP’s rumored fight with Michael Bisping was a ‘ship that had sailed,’ White laid into Woodley vs. Maia at the post-fight press conference after the bout failed to deliver in any way:

“What’d you think about watching the Woodley Maia fight? Listen, when you break a record for most for the leat punches in a five-round fight, a title fight, and you beat it by, it was 130 and these guys threw 60 or something like that, I think that sums it up.”

White was then asked if St-Pierre vs. Bisping was back on due to the lackluster nature of Woodley’s performance, to which the outspoken executive replied it was indeed was before explaining why:

“Yep. Yep. There you go. Because I know Michael Bisping will fight. Michael Bisping will show up and he will fight, so I’m gonna give it to him.”

Photo: Joe Camporeale – USA TODAY Sports

Now, it’s fair to say that the long-tenured “Count,” who’s no doubt as reliable as any fighter in UFC history, isn’t exactly known for putting on the most earth-shattering performances in the octagon, as many online have perhaps given him a reputation for having no knockout power at all.

But with his recent finish of Luke Rockhold to win the belt at 2016’s UFC 199 coupled with his close, exciting victories over Anderson Silva and Dan Henderson, it’s hard to argue that Bisping is not exciting and willing to bring the action to his opponents. St-Pierre has obviously garnered his own reputation for being a safe, calculating fighter – perhaps more so than any other competitor in MMA after his upset loss to Matt Serra.

Taking that into account, a bout pitting a safe fighter like ‘GSP’ against Woodley, a champion with all the well-rounded skills in the world who simply appears to refuse to use them at times, has correctly been deemed a fight that would not be entertaining to the fans. Of course, interim middleweight champion Robert Whittaker should be getting the next rightful shot at the UFC 185-pound belt, but a knee injury suffered in his impressive decision victory over Yoel Romero at UFC 213 will keep him out of action until 2018.

White said Whittaker would fight the winner of Bisping vs. St-Pierre, but he did not yet have a date for the bout, which was revealed at a press conference prior to UFC 209 this March, an event where Woodley ironically put on another highly tentative performance versus Stephen Thompson.

Photo by Joe Camporeale for USA TODAY Sports

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Five Reasons UFC Ratings Are Tanking In 2017

It’s no secret that the UFC is having a tough run in the first seven months of 2017. After a banner year in 2016 with multiple pay-per-view (PPV) events eclipsing the coveted one-million buy threshold, new owners WME-IMG are finding out just what it’s like to run the world’s biggest MMA promotion in a time […]

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It’s no secret that the UFC is having a tough run in the first seven months of 2017.

After a banner year in 2016 with multiple pay-per-view (PPV) events eclipsing the coveted one-million buy threshold, new owners WME-IMG are finding out just what it’s like to run the world’s biggest MMA promotion in a time of downward-trending PPVs without flagship stars Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey anywhere close to the octagon.

True, McGregor will return to the ring against Floyd Mayweather, on August 26, but that could be hurting the UFC’s actual numbers more than helping them. We’ll get to that shortly.

Regardless, both the preliminary card television ratings and pay-per-view buyrates for July 8’s UFC 213 from Las Vegas were recently revealed, and the numbers ultimately amounted to some of the most dismal overall viewership turnouts the UFC has ever seen. Now, women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes’ extremely late withdrawal from her championship bout versus Valentina Shevchenko most definitely caused the lack of buys, but the numbers are concerning nonetheless.

Things didn’t get better two weeks later when UFC on FOX 25 aired live from the Nassau Coliseum on July 22. Despite former middleweight champion Chris Weidman securing an emotional headlining win over Kelvin Gastelum in his hometown, the card had the lowest-ever ratings for a UFC on FOX event in overnight ratings, a number that rose to “only” the third-worst of all-time when the time slot spillover numbers for the main event were factored in.

That continued a disturbing decline for big FOX-aired cards in 2017, but those numbers are also simply indicative of the overall trend of the year, where pay-per-view rates have went down drastically in addition to TV-aired events and PPV prelim numbers.

There are several big underlying factors for this sharp and disturbing decline. On the eve of the biggest pay-per-view of the year, let’s take at the five most impactful.

Promoting Only McGregor & Rousey:

The UFC enjoyed their most lucrative two-year stretch in history from 2015-2016, a time when their biggest-ever crossover stars in Rousey and McGregor were winning big fights in dominant fashion. Rousey was being called the most dominant fighter in MMA, and McGregor won both the featherweight and lightweight titles while becoming the sport’s biggest star.

But that time period simply couldn’t be sustained, as Rousey infamously lost the belt to Holly Holm at UFC 193, following it up with another unsuccessful title fight in her 48-second loss to Nunes at 2016’s UFC 207, after which it appears Rousey may never fight in the UFC again.

McGregor is not gone; at least not in the same sense as Rousey. He’s obviously involved in his hyped-up boxing match with Floyd Mayweather, and while the UFC will obviously get a ton of attention and hype from that massive spectacle, it brings up one vital, overarching point – the UFC simply promoted only their top two stars in recent years, and while it clearly worked in that regard, it left them much too dependent on McGregor and Rousey for success, because their other fighters just aren’t bringing in any numbers at all.

If they ever want to get back to the level where they have their big draws and their mid-level stars; say in the time of dominant champions Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre where mid-level stars like Rashad Evans and Rampage Jackson could still sell an in-between card for 350-400,000 buys, they’re going to have to diversify their promotional strategy.

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Michael Bisping: ‘Maybe GSP, Maybe Nick Diaz’ Next For UFC Champion

UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping honestly doesn’t know who he’ll fight next. Bisping, who has been sidelined since a win last year vs. Dan Henderson, thought he was primed for a bout vs. former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre. That all changed, though, and Robert Whittaker became the next likely opponent after he won the […]

UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping honestly doesn’t know who he’ll fight next. Bisping, who has been sidelined since a win last year vs. Dan Henderson, thought he was primed for a bout vs. former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre. That all changed, though, and Robert Whittaker became the next likely opponent after he won the […]

Luke Rockhold Absolutely Destroys ‘P*ssy* Yoel Romero

Former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold will finally make his return to action in the main event of UFC Fight Night 116 on Sept. 16 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, although his opponent likely isn’t one fight fans were expecting. Instead of facing a top contender, Rockhold will face off with No. 9-ranked David Branch, who recently […]

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Former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold will finally make his return to action in the main event of UFC Fight Night 116 on Sept. 16 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, although his opponent likely isn’t one fight fans were expecting. Instead of facing a top contender, Rockhold will face off with No. 9-ranked David Branch, who recently scored a split-decision victory over Krystof Jotko in his return to the UFC.

One fighter who isn’t too pleased with the fight announcement is Yoel Romero, who took to his official Twitter account to accuse Rockhold of ducking him:

“The Solider of God” is coming off of a decision loss to Robert Whittaker in the main event of UFC 213 earlier this month. If he had won that bout, he would’ve secured an interim title, and would’ve likely been next in line to take on champion Michael Bisping.

Rockhold, on the other hand, hasn’t competed since June 2016 when he lost his title in stunning fashion to Bisping, who accepted the bout on short notice.

As far as Romero goes, Rockhold fired back, calling the Cuban a ‘p*ssy’. Rockhold also said that Romero didn’t want to fight five rounds:

Romero than got in another shot, bringing up Rockhold’s loss to Bisping:

From a rankings standpoint, it seems as if Romero vs. Rockhold was the fight to make, but fans will have to wait.

Who would you like to see Romero face in the meantime?

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Yoel Romero Says Michael Bisping Needs to Pay For Ripping Cuban Flag

Yoel Romero hasn’t gotten over Michael Bisping’s antics at UFC 213. In between rounds as Romero made his way back to his corner, Bisping was seen in the crowd ripping the Cuban flag. “The Soldier of God” fell short in an interim middleweight title bout against Robert Whittaker. With “The Reaper” potentially sidelined until next […]

Yoel Romero hasn’t gotten over Michael Bisping’s antics at UFC 213. In between rounds as Romero made his way back to his corner, Bisping was seen in the crowd ripping the Cuban flag. “The Soldier of God” fell short in an interim middleweight title bout against Robert Whittaker. With “The Reaper” potentially sidelined until next […]