Originally Posted by kstater:
Says the two guys that haven't fought in a year and a half
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yeah, I liked Nate Diaz, but his antics are starting to wear thin with me. If you have decided to retire and make money as a marijuana/BJJ celebrity thats fine, nothing wrong with that, but stop shitting on other fighters as if you are coming back any day now. [Reply]
Well, we finally made it. After a long drought where we had European kickboxing or Alaskan smokers Wednesday on fightpass, or putrid unwatchable cards in the middle of the day on FS1 (or more recently, no UFC at all), UFC 223 is this weekend.
I'm normally not this hyped about what honestly is just a pretty good PPV in normal times, but it has been a very long time since we had a card this good on paper (barring injury or weight cut disasters), and looking ahead it'll be a while before we have another good PPV.
Friday
6pm - (Fightpass) - Titan FC 49
Judging by tapology rankings, this is very good by B-level promotion standards, which probably shouldn't be surprising since Titan is arguably the best of the 2nd-tier promotions. Oh, but Bellator has something going on, lets take a look at that...
7pm - (Paramount) - Bellator 196, Henderson vs. Huerta
Yuck. This card is fucking terrible by Bellator standards. Its on tape delay so all the fights will be spoiled on twitter before this starts. Its got Benson Henderson at the top, and at this point it looks like they are trying to salvage what is now clearly a bad free agent signing by just throwing some random dude at him. Looking at the rest of the card, judging by tapology rankings this is miserable, many local promotions have better cards than this, including Titan FC. So if you have Fightpass, go watch that. If you don't.... then maybe watch baseball I guess? Or catch up on your DVR'd shows that you promised you'd watch one day, well I think that day may have arrived.
Saturday
7pm TV - (5:15pm Fightpass/7pm FS1/9pm PPV) - UFC 223, Khabib vs. Holloway
Hell yeah. Every fight on the main card is good or at least interesting if you think Holloway has no chance. The prelims have 2 compelling fights important to their divisions, and the early prelim even has a couple fun fights out of 4 scheduled. This is a very good PPV by UFC standards, which perhaps looks even better than it is considering we're in the middle of a tough stretch where the UFC seems to be holding everything back for a July blowout.
After this weekend, the rest of the spring and early summer will be at least a little bit less miserable as the UFC changes strategy from "lol, we're not competing against the super bowl or the NCAA tournament, we'll show nothing worth a damn" to "we're holding back the good stuff for July, but eh, for now we'll start throwing one or two good fights at our fans every card until July". [Reply]
Originally Posted by alnorth:
per ESPN, the UFC has scheduled a rematch between BW champion TJ Dillashaw and the #1 contender Cody Garbrandt for UFC 227 August 4th in LA.
So, that obviously means TJ vs. DJ wont happen this year, if ever.
I'm cool with that. I can't wait to see the Cody rematch. [Reply]
yeah, this isn't a surprise. I'm not sure where the "owe a favor balance" is, and if the UFC owes the WWE, or (probably) if this is just a one-shot thing as payback for letting Rousey go.
The UFC wont be able to waive the 6-month wait this time though, so maybe they plan to use him for their big December card. Lesnar will have to enter the USADA testing pool for 6 months before he can fight.
According to multiple sources, this isn’t promoter talk from White. UFC is confident Lesnar will be back after his WWE duties are wrapped up on Sunday. A deal is in place. Key now is to finalize it. https://t.co/ttaxduf15J
A lot of people on the internet are saying that Brock Lesnar is still suspended since he retired without serving it out and he'd have to serve out his 1 year suspension if he unretires. This is true, but they are missing a key detail. Someone on Lesnar's team was smart enough to have this all planned out so that he'd be able to come back in 6 months if he ever wanted to.
According to UFC/USADA rules, your suspension gets frozen when you retire, but he had already served out 7 months of it and had only 5 months to go when he retired. This was by design, he intentionally waited and allowed himself to remain in the USADA testing pool as a suspended fighter until he got under 6 months, then he retired to get rid of the hassle of random testing back when he wasn't sure if he'd fight again but wanted to leave open the option. There was no point to fully serving it out because he was going to be sidelined for a mandatory 6 month waiting period anyway. So yeah, he'll serve out the last 5 months of his suspension at the same time that he's doing the mandatory 6 month wait while being tested. [Reply]
Conor McGregor lost his shit at the Barclays center in New York just now. Threw bike racks and barricades at a bus carrying fighters, Michael Chiesa's face got cut, and the NYPD are probably arresting his dumb ass. Few details right now.
As it was unfolding it went from "oh, I guess they are hyping a future fight with backstage drama or something" to "wait no, he's just simply committing crimes now" in less than 10 seconds. [Reply]
Originally Posted by alnorth:
Conor McGregor lost his shit at the Barclays center in New York just now. Threw bike racks and barricades at a bus carrying fighters, Michael Chiesa's face got cut, and the NYPD are probably arresting his dumb ass. Few details right now.
As it was unfolding it went from "oh, I guess they are hyping a future fight with backstage drama or something" to "wait no, he's just simply committing crimes now" in less than 10 seconds.
Conor McGregor is making his presence felt here in NYC. Felice Herrig just posted this clip of him on IG going a little wild. �� pic.twitter.com/arvUJF1pV2
Probably Holloway and Khabib talking shit. Khabib said something like "Conor is not a real fighter, he's an actor. If he wants to keep his face looking the way he does he will never fight me." [Reply]
Originally Posted by Jerm:
Conor is a dumb ****...hope Chiesa can still fight.
Me too, Chiesa is a very good blue collar type fighter, I'd hate to see someone who makes his living fighting get it ruined by someone who males their living being controversial. [Reply]
Originally Posted by SPchief:
wtf was he mad about?
It was apparently about the altercation Khabib had with Artem Lobov backstage, which Khabib handled quickly and quietly I guess.
Artem Lobov is now off the card because he was part of the crew that stormed Barclays with Conor. Chiesa's status is still unknown, but Dana said his face got cut up by glass. Rose Namajunas was nearly hit by thrown objects and was upset, Dana White went straight to her hotel room after a quick interview to talk to her and that fight is still on. [Reply]