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Tag: UFC 200

  • Watch the McGregor-free UFC 200 press conference; news & notes

    It’s been that kind of week for the UFC, publicly dealing with one of their biggest stars retiring and then un-retiring, and announcing they were pulling him out of July’s UFC 200 event due to him not showing up for today’s press conference and other promotional events. (That’s Conor McGregor, by the way.)

    Without a main event and with Nate Diaz floating in the wind without an opponent, who knows what will be said at Friday’s UFC 200 press conference? Well, you will know if you watch the stream below.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3gTwkCutlQ

    Emanating from Las Vegas, NV, you’ll see women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate and challengers Amanda Nunes, strawweight champion Joanna Jedrezejczyk and challenger Claudia Gadelha, lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos and Eddie Alvarez, interim featherweight title contenders Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar, and heavyweight opponents Cain Velasquez and Travis Browne.

    Action kicks off at 5 PM EST/2 PM EST. You never know what surprises are in store, especially during this week.

    Here’s some notes for those watching this late via Dave Meltzer:

    – The first major news is that White announced that Nate Diaz will fight on UFC 200 and have a new opponent. White said you have to show up for the press conferences and shoot the commercials, and said everyone here has better things to do. He said they gave McGregor every opportunity to be here. 

    – White said they don’t have an opponent yet for Diaz.

    – White brought up that Jose flew in the day his sister got married, stayed here, and fighters have done this, said appearing at the press conferences is part of the job.

    – Diaz said he came to fight McGregor and isn’t interested in anyone else.

    – White said the fight is three months away which is why they did this this early.  He said he wants Conor to fight but you can’t not show up.  White said he’s ruling out Conor at this point.

    – When the rumor of Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. GSP at UFC 200 was brought up, White said as far as he knows that’s completely inaccurate.

    – Nate Diaz said that if he doesn’t get McGregor, he’s going on vacation.

    – Dana White said they’re spending $10 million on promotion and shooting a commercial and said the production crew has been shooting the commercial the last few days and McGregor didn’t come.

    – He said Aldo vs. Edgar will fight and the winner will fight Conor.

  • April 25, 2016 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Conor McGregor announces retirement, TNA sale imminent

    In just three sentences, the entire world of MMA may have changed.

    UFC was planning its biggest set of shows in history, built around a Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz fight, which was expected to be the biggest money event in company history.

    Current subscribers click here to continue reading.

  • Dana White: Conor McGregor is off UFC 200; search for new main event underway

    One of the biggest news stories in MMA history continues to evolve as UFC president Dana White announced on ESPN Tuesday night that featherweight champion Conor McGregor is off UFC 200, and that they will soon announce a new main event.

    White appeared on ESPNews after hours of silence by UFC in the wake of McGregor’s apparent retirement tweet earlier in the day, and said that McGregor was taken off the card for refusing to come to Las Vegas, NV, for a press conference to promote the show. Obviously, there is far more to that since McGregor was the key to the show.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIK1RN7ZH5g

    White claimed that the company and McGregor have a good relationship but “you can’t decide not to show up to these things.  You have to do it.”

    White described it as that McGregor was training in Iceland and didn’t want to break his preparation for the fight to come to Las Vegas, but regarding whether McGregor has really retired, White said that only McGregor knows for sure.

    White said that he would be discussing a new opponent for Diaz on Tuesday, which, given the lay of the land and the show itself, would logically have to be lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos. It will be a huge drop in quality and will badly hurt the aura of UFC 200 as the biggest show in history, but it would still be a show with three title matches if that was the case.

    Dos Anjos vs. Eddie Alvarez had been announced a few days earlier for a Fight Pass headlining title fight on July 7 in Las Vegas, two days before the UFC 200 July 9 date at the new T Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

    Obviously McGregor is playing it close to the vest and there is a story behind the story, which is already getting the obvious speculation about the sides playing a game of who holds the cards when it comes to a deal.

    Both sides would be out millions of dollars if the fight doesn’t happen. UFC can obviously survive the loss, but McGregor has tremendous leverage because the increases in UFC business over the past year are largely due to he and Ronda Rousey. Now, the future of both are speculative.

    It is always possible that McGregor will retire, but historically in these circumstances, that isn’t the case. McGregor was live at the show last week where Joao Calvalho passed away, but he had resumed training for the Diaz rematch in Iceland.

    Following McGregor’s tweet,  John Kavanagh, McGregor’s trainer, as well as other close to the situation, tweeted that McGregor has indeed retired from fighting, shortly before a fight that he had asked for and one that would have garnered him the biggest payday of his career.

  • UFC takes another gamble with UFC 200 women’s title fight

    On Wednesday night, UFC announced that women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate will defend against Amanda Nunes as part of UFC 200.

    Tate vs. Nunes will be one of the three top fights on the show, along with featherweight champion Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz II (welterweight fight), and Jose Aldo vs. Frankie Edgar for the interim featherweight title.

    The fight is perplexing on almost every level. UFC is sitting on a goldmine right now in the women’s bantamweight division with big money fights on the horizon (Tate vs. Ronda Rousey III, Tate vs. Holly Holm II). A Nunes win would hurt that dynamic since she wouldn’t have near the buzz or interest level against any of those other fighters on the level Tate would have. If Tate was a lock to fight on this show, the only logical contenders would have been Rousey or Holm.

    Nunes (12-4) has won three straight and five of her six UFC fights. She was last seen downing Valentina Shevchenko by unanimous decision at March’s UFC 196 — the same show on which Tate beat Holm for the gold.

    Earlier this week, the fight was said to be under serious consideration for either UFC 200 or UFC 201. Tate signed a new deal with the promotion earlier this week as well.

    UFC 200 is scheduled for Saturday, July 9th, in Las Vegas at the new T-Mobile Arena. It is expected to be one of the biggest UFC events of all-time, if not the biggest, in terms of PPV buys, media attention, and overall buzz.

    Bryan Alvarez and I will talk more about the fight and the news from pro wrestling and MMA on tonight’s Wrestling Observer Radio.

  • Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz 2 set for UFC 200, Edgar vs Aldo for interim belt

    UFC announced tonight two main events for UFC 200 as well as a huge advance for UFC 198.

    UFC Tonight released that Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz in a rematch at 170 pounds will headline UFC 200 on 7/9 in Las Vegas at the new T-Mobile Arena.  On the show it was stated that Dana White, Lorenzo Fertitta and John Kavanagh, the coach of McGregor, all wanted the fight at 155, but said McGregor insisted on fighting at 170.

    They also announced Frankie Edgar vs. Jose Aldo for the interim featherweight title in another five round fight.  McGregor has not been stripped of the title, but since he’s been inactive, they will have this fight and the winner will unify the title with McGregor at some point.

    At least one more championship fight will be added to the show.

    Other fights announced for UFC 200 are Cain Velasquez vs. Travis Browne in a heavyweight battle where the winner could get a title shot; Joe Lauzon vs. Diego Sanchez; Gegard Mousasi vs. Derek Brunson; Johny Hendricks vs. Kelvin Gastelum and Jim Miller vs. Takanori Gomi.

    Tickets went on sale today for UFC 198, which takes place on 5/14 at the Arena de Baixada in Curitiba, Brazil.  The show, headlined by Fabricio Werdum vs. Stipe Miocic for the heavyweight title had so much demand that ticket outlets crashed but already 38,000 tickets have been sold to the show.  They are looking at a 45,000 capacity for the event.

    The UFC 200 Card so far:

    • Conor McGregor vs Nate Diaz 2
    • Jose Aldo vs Frankie Edgar for the Interim Featherweight Title
    • Travis Browne vs Cain Valesquez
    • Derek Brunson vs. Gegard Mousasi
    • Joe Lauzon vs. Diego Sanchez

  • Nate Diaz vs Conor McGregor rematch in the works for UFC 200

    Ariel Helwani reported this morning that UFC is working toward a rematch with Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz, at welterweight no less, as the main event for UFC 200 on July 9 at the new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

    Helwani reported the UFC is close to finalizing plans for the match. 

    This would be a major blow to Frankie Edgar, as just last week Dana White indicated the match that made the most sense going forward was McGregor defending the featherweight title against Edgar.  McGregor himself, after his loss to Diaz, said he’d decide whether more people would be interested in Edgar or Jose Aldo, and that’s he was looking at defending his title against one of them.  He gave the impression that he thought Aldo would have more interest but was leery if Aldo wouldn’t pull out before the fight.

    McGregor vs. Diaz would also eliminate the possibility of Robbie Lawler vs. Diaz, a fight that both White and Fertitta talked about for the welterweight title.

    Based on the results of UFC 196, McGregor vs. Diaz would be the best drawing fight for UFC 200 even without a title at stake.  Plus, there would be longer to build the fight.  For McGregor, he’d be facing Diaz with a full camp, making his odds of winning even longer.

    It also puts the featherweight division on hold and almost forces an Aldo vs. Edgar match for the title shot, which would eliminate a contender.

  • Dana White confirms potential opponent for CM Punk debut

    Over a year after officially signing with the UFC, it appears as if CM Punk may finally have a date, location and potential opponent for his first professional MMA fight: July 9th in Las Vegas at UFC 200.

    The potential opponent is Mickey Gall, a 1-0 welterweight from New Jersey who is currently ranked at #63 on the list of northeastern United States welterweights on Tapology.com. At 5-11 and 23 years old, he will make his UFC debut at February 6th’s UFC 196 against Michael Jackson, who will be making his professional debut on the show. This clearly looks like a showcase fight for Gall, who has been told that should he win the fight, he’ll get the Punk match at UFC 200 in July.

    Dana White appeared on TSN’s Off the Record with Michael Landsberg and confirmed all of this. He also confirmed that Ronda Rousey will not be fighting at UFC 200 but did speculate on who he’d like to see on the card. Landsberg brought up the possibility of GSP-Lawler and White said that would be awesome and also speculated that Anderson Silva could be a possible opponent for GSP, should he return.

    The Gall-Jackson fight will be on the Fight Pass prelims of UFC 196. White also confirmed that Punk will be in attendance at the fight. 

    Gall has been speculated as Punk’s potential opponent for the last week or so after being featured on Dana White’s Looking for a Fight YouTube series. He trains with the Gracie New Jersey Academy and fought in front of White at a regional show at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia (the former ECW Arena in another pro wrestling tie-in).