Mixed Martial Arts

[StyrbjornSterki]

Severn and Slice both tested positive for the AAS nandrolone. What tipped USADA off was Shamrock's T/E ratio was 12.4/1 and Slice's was 6.4/1. Shamrock also tested positive for methadone. Anti-PEDs in this case apparently is administered by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, which bills itself as an "umbrella" organisation for the licensing of everything from hairdressers to professional pugilists.

MMA Junkie has a short article on why Matt Mitrione decided to leave the UFC for Bellator. The short answer is it was about money, but the back story includes that Mitrione found he was being paid less in the long term for being ambitious and wanting only to fight challenging opponents.

And Nate Diaz celebrated his victory over Connor McGregor by buying a custom-monogrammed bong. His mother must be so proud.

 

[StyrbjornSterki]

I mentioned last month that Jon Jones was caught speeding and driving without license, registration, etc. He appeared in court yesterday and was given 90 days probation and fined $100, to be donated to charity. But I was wrong when I speculated it was "garden variety" speeding. He was clocked at 75 (mph) in a 35. Any doubts that the policeman either knew him on sight or recognised his name?

The Korean Zombie (Chan Sung Jung) is returning to the UFC, and might get a fight before the end of the year. I'd noticed he hadn't fought in a while but didn't know why. Turns out he's been fulfilling compulsory military service. Jose Aldo dislocated TKZ's shoulder in a UFC match in 2013 and his military service began in 2014, before he was fit to fight.

The New York legislature has voted to lift the ban on MMA in the state. The bill still needs the governor's signature to become law, but he supposedly has stated in the past that he would sign such a measure. NY is the final US state with such a prohibition in effect. According to Dana White, the reason they held out so long was political influence from the food service unions. He claims it's blowback from a long-running feud the Fertitta empire has been having with the union(s) in the state of Nevada. Lorenzo promises the UFC's first event in the state (which probably will happen before 2017) will be epic.

 

[StyrbjornSterki]

Barely a week from his most recent appearance in traffic court, John Jones has had another dust-up with the law. This time he was ticketed for drag racing and three related charges, plus having his number plate in a frame that obscured the registration sticker. Jones claims he simply was revving his engine (of his Corvette) as a gesture of appreciation to some fans who were cheering him, bit the officer saw it differently. He already was serving two probations, one for the hit-and-run incident, and another for the speeding and documentation violations. Presuming the court will consider this latest offense a parole violation, one has to wonder how much leniency he can milk his wealth and celebrity status for. To his good fortune, this incident isn't likely to imperil his rematch against Daniel Cormier at UFC 197 (23 April, Las Vegas) because the court appearance for this violation doesn't come until after.

Cyborg finally is coming to the UFC. Christiane Justino (15-1-1) has a catch-weight (140 pounds) fight against 8-6-1 bantamweight Leslie Smith at UFC 198 (14 May, Curitiba, Brazil). The UFC doesn't often make catch-weight fights not related to short-notice changes in the fight card, and I don't recall any fighter's inaugural fight purposely being laid on at a catch weight. I'm thinking they're giving her Smith as a house-warming gift.

And we can all stop holding our collective breath over the Diaz-McGregor fight results. The PEDs tests all came back cleans. Wonder of wonders.

 

[StyrbjornSterki]

Ruh-roh. Jon Jones surrendered himself when police issued a warrant for his arrest for parole violation, stemming from the alleged drag racing incident. The severity of the earlier Hit-and-Run incident was reduced from felony status in return for his guilty plea and agreement to serve probation, so a conviction for violating the terms of that parole puts the deal (and the leniency) in jeopardy. I gather he turned himself in on 28 March and I have yet to see any indication that his bail has been set or that he has been released. The UFC is standing mum on Jones's arrest's impact on the rematch and title fight against Cormier at UFC 197, understandably, because they don't yet know if Jones will be at liberty by then.

 

[pedromiguelmartins]

Wow. Just wow. Jones is unbalanced. I guess the best MMA fighter ever couldn't be normal.

 

[StyrbjornSterki]

Jones finally got to stand before the man today. The prosecutor asked for a curfew plus anger management and driver improvement courses. The judge gave him anger management, driver improvement, another 60 hours of community service, and he can only drive with the acknowledgement and consent of his parole officer. The judge warned Jones that another court appearance "won't end well" for him. Just as did the previous judge. And the one before him. In fact, the "drag racing" incident makes Jones's seventh motor code violation (the first four occurring in NY state) since 2008.

The never-at-a-loss for words Chael Sonnen asks, "Does Albuquerque have Uber yet?"


It seems everyone at the UFC have been trying to talk McGregor down from the rematch with Nate Diaz at 170 at UFC 200. Or even to hold the fight at 155, which Diaz already agreed to in principle. All to no avail. McGregor is insistent on a non-title rematch against Diaz at 170 rather than a title defence against <whomever>. So the UFC have lifted the Infamous One's featherweight belt and, just to rub a little salt in it, scheduled an interim featherweight title fight between Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar on the same card.

Aldo and Edgar fought once before at UFC 153 (2013), Aldo squeaking out a split decision win. Edgar has been on a 5-fight win streak since that loss.

Regardless of the outcome of the Diaz fight, Dana says Connor next gets a title fight against the winner of Aldo-Edgar.


The stadium venue for UFC 198 in Curitiba, Brazil, the scene of Chris "Cyborg" Justino's inaugural fight in the UFC, seats 45,000. Within 90 minutes of tickets for the 14 May event going on sale, they sold 32,000. IN MMA-crazy Brazil, an eventual sell-out probably is a foregone conclusion.

 

[jmdirt]

I think that CMc will be better at 170 with the extra time, but Diaz also has time to have better prep. I like that CMc wants to avenge his loss at the same weight. Its still a 165 fighting a 180 though so its a tall order.

 

[jmdirt]

Cormier is out (leg) for 197 so even if Jones isn't in jail, there won't be a rematch.

 

[StyrbjornSterki]

Bones gets Ovince Saint Preux as a stand-in for Cormier. The last thing Dana wanted was to promote Mighty Mouse to the main event of the evening, because his fights are overachieving if they sell 200,000 PPVs. Cormier-Jones will sell closer to 2 million. Bones-vs-OSP might sell half that, but that's still 5x what Demetrious Johnson would have sold.

R3's October/November return to the UFC now changes to November/December. And filming on "Roadhouse" doesn't start until next month. So best case, Tate-Rousey III is at least seven months out, an eight month wait for Tate from her win over Holm. And Holm gets to wait 11-12 months for an opportunity to take back the title. And filming on "Roadhouse" doesn't start until next month.

Yeah, I said that last bit twice. Because Hollywood isn't exactly known for its punctuality. And because I think circumstances might force Dana to have a conversation with Rousey about where her allegiances and future aspirations lie. The sport now has three women's stars, three hungry mouths to be fed. And Bellator have proved quite eager in the past year to snap up the UFC's discarded and disgruntled.

 

[jmdirt]

Nunes gets a title shot vs.Tate. I guess the UFC is trying to make this a four lady battle. If Tate defends her title, the UFC couild have HH and AN fight to see who gets the shot at the winner of MT & RR. If AN wins, that really makes things interesting! Cyborg still lurks too!

 

[StyrbjornSterki]

UFC 200 has one definitely stacked fight card. Tate-Nunes, Diaz-McGregor, Aldo-Edgar, Velasquez-Browne, Northcutt-Anybody, ...quite an estimable line-up.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that Jon Jones has hired a full-time driver. Humorous, eh wot? He said his past problems all have stemmed either from intoxicants or his driving. He states he now has the sobriety thing under control, so a hire driver corrects his final shortcoming as a human being.

José Aldo says he is going back to his old, more aggressive fight style. In the WEC, he was a holy terror. His fights were so lopsided, they looked like a grown man fighting a little boy, even when he was fighting the sitting featherweight champion. But he seemed to fight far more conservatively once he'd added the UFC title to his palmares. I would love to see him return to the old ways, but I don't think the rest of the division will be very keen on it.

 

[JackRabbitSlims]

a penny for yah thoughts........ http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11623766

 

[jmdirt]

Big News?!

http://espn.go.com/mma/story/_/id/15272422/conor-mcgregor-tweets-decided-retire-young

 

[gooner]

Re:

Big News?!

http://espn.go.com/mma/story/_/id/15272422/conor-mcgregor-tweets-decided-retire-young

John Kavanagh, his coach has tweeted adding substance to it.

Don't know what to make of it either. No announcement so far from the UFC.

 

[gooner]

All he really said was he was retiring young.

He never said now.

Could be just another pathetic publicity stunt by him.

 

[Billie]

Must be injured. Otherwise it makes no sense to bow out before UCF 200.

 

[StyrbjornSterki]

McGregor refused Dana's request to leave his training camp in Iceland (???) to attend the UFC 200 presser in Las Vegas. So Dana scratched him from the card. Then comes the retirement announcement (confirmed by McGregor's coach, FWIW).

The other Diaz brother did something similar in the run-up to UFC 137, a scheduled main event/title fight against GSP. Dana played musical opponents with the fight and ended up postponing the event for two weeks, but ended up with the original pairing in the headline bout. But it doesn't sound like Dana is in the mood for games as he was back then.

 

[Irondan]

Re:

McGregor refused Dana's request to leave his training camp in Iceland (???) to attend the UFC 200 presser in Las Vegas. So Dana scratched him from the card. Then comes the retirement announcement (confirmed by McGregor's coach, FWIW).

The other Diaz brother did something similar in the run-up to UFC 137, a scheduled main event/title fight against GSP. Dana played musical opponents with the fight and ended up postponing the event for two weeks, but ended up with the original pairing in the headline bout. But it doesn't sound like Dana is in the mood for games as he was back then.

If you look at Mcgregor's twitter account there's a tweet about money posted a couple weeks ago, maybe there's more to this story than we know.

https://twitter.com/TheNotoriousMMA/status/717822991875317760

 

[gooner]

McGregor has talked about himself out growing the UFC and I say Dana didn't like the talk.

This is a massive card and it's well within the rights of the UFC to want a press conference and a commercial to promote it. Especially when it's all about maximising PPV sales. McGregor needs to remember there was a time he was a happy beneficiary of the hype heaped upon him by the UFC promotional campaign when it didn't match up with what achieved inside the octagon.

 

[jmdirt]

Re:

Must be injured. Otherwise it makes no sense to bow out before UCF 200.

If that kid's death is in his head, it makes a lot of sense to retire before another fight.

 

[jmdirt]

OK, he's not retired afterall...yet...

 

[gooner]

Talking to some lady that deep down doesn't give a **** about what I'm doing, but just wants some sound bites so she can maybe get her little tight *** a nice raise, and I'm cool with that too, I've been giving you all raises.

Classy individual our Conor.

 

[StyrbjornSterki]

Chael Sonnen makes the point that one reason title fights are so unpredictable is that the belt-holder's fight preparation tends to be more encumbered by PR obligations. McGregor wants out from under that, but Sonnen also makes the point that McGregor is completely wrong when he claims he's only paid to fight. The PR appearances are part of the deal. Even when the UFC makes deals that go bad, they still pay off because a deal's a deal. Where would the sport be if all its fighters got to set their own PR schedules?

 

[StyrbjornSterki]

WARNING! UFC 197 spoilers!!

Connor McGregor is claiming his rematch with Nate Diaz has been reinstated for the headline fight for UFC 200, even giving props to Dana White And Lorenzo Fertitta for making this one happen "for the fans."

But if the UFC are aware of this change, they're not yet showing it. According to UFC 200's official webpage, the top fight on the card is To Be Announced -vs- To Be Determined.

You probably are aware that Jon Jones defeated Ovince Saint Preux at UFC 197. In rather unspectacular fashion. Jones could not finish OSP, despite breaking the challenger's arm, probably during the second round (upon hearing the news, JBJ does a happy dance). Jone's return fight after a 15-month lay-off drew a bit >200 fewer live attendance than had Diaz -vs- McGregor, which took place in the same venue (MGM Grand, Las Vegas). Considering the positive impact that Diaz-McGregor II would be certain to have on UFC 200, it certainly poses a dilemma for Dana and the UFC. Regardless, I think McGregor is precariously close to exhausting whatever good will he might have banked with the promotion.

X-Ray of OSP's arm:

An apparent transverse fracture to the distal radius


If you didn't see the Koreshkov -vs- Henderson fight at Bellator 153, I would recommend you find video of it. I don't watch a great many Bellator events but I was drawn to this one on account of Ben Henderson always having given such a strong accounting of himself in the UFC. This one was quite the lopsided affair, but both victor and loser impressed, for entirely different reasons.

 

[gooner]

Well it looks like it's a definite no-go for McGregor at UFC 200. Most likely will headline the Madison Square Garden card in November. It could work out nicely.

I notice more and more the Irish media being more critical of McGregor and his latest tiresome antics. Two excellent pieces today.

http://www.newstalk.com/Ewan-MacKenna-UFC-200-and-Conor-McGregor

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/what-conor-mcgregor-and-donald-trump-have-in-common-and-it-ain-t-pretty-1.2626753?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter