I had no idea GSP could be funny

According to Sports Business Journal, FOX was not happy at all with the UFC's streaming deal with ESPN. They wanted exclusivity, or if they had to share rights then they at least wanted it to be with someone other than ESPN. Last week they reduced their offer in response to the UFC signing their ESPN streaming deal and also wanted more events. ESPN responded by saying "hey, we'll pay what they are offering for just those other 15 fight cards and exclusivity, we dont really need you on every week", which is understandable because they also have the NBA, college football, etc to juggle on their weekend schedules.

This is a pretty decent weekend schedule

Friday

8pm - (Paramount) - Bellator 200, Carvalho vs. Mousasi

This is a pretty good card by Bellator standards, and the last 3 fights are interesting.

Saturday

nothing

Sunday

10am TV - (9am Fightpass/10am FS1) - UFC Fight Night, Thompson vs. Till

This is on at an odd time because its in the UK, and unlike Bellator, the UFC does not do tape delay. The prelims are not great with a lot of local fighters, but the main card has a few interesting matches and the main event is great. Wonderboy vs. Darren Till is an important fight for the WW division. You can probably wait until about 1pm to tune in and you won't miss much.

I had been looking forward to Cro Cop vs Roy Nelson even though both are past their expiration date.

Maybe you already know, but if not then I have bad news for you...

He's generally right other than the audience is about 50% white and 50% minorities the thing is though it's not a ton of black people, the minority is mainly Mexicans. The WWE is a huge Mexican fan base. And honestly hes the WWE to advertisers has never been viewed greatly, to put it nicely the WWE is viewed as worse than Nascar.

Because of the fact that it has a high minority audience and it skews younger you're looking at very limited things to advertise. They can't run the alcohol ads that Nascar does because the age range is younger. They don't get high end sponsors because they are viewed as poor etc etc.

I said had been.

Wondered if this is even MMA news since he doesn't seem interested in fighting anymore, but the UFC put out a statement, so I guess it is. Nick Diaz was arrested for domestic violence, and apparently also choked out the woman who called the cops.

So weird I was just listening to this today randomly.

Darren Till missed weight badly for tomorrow's fight, at 174.5 pounds. Wonderboy agreed to a catchweight under 2 conditions, first he insisted that Till give up 30% of his purse, and 2nd Till can't weigh more than 188 pounds tomorrow at 1pm local time.

edit: Till has already flat-out said that he's probably going to weigh more than 188 tomorrow, so I guess we'll see what happens, maybe Wonderboy will demand more money.

This week we have a rare Friday night UFC card (which will probably become more common in 2019 since ESPN will often have a packed Saturday schedule)

Friday

7pm TV - (5:30pm Fightpass/7pm FS1) - UFC Fight Night, Rivera vs Moraes

This is a very good main card (the prelims are OK) which will probably not get great ratings because most casual fans will look at it and go "I don't know who most of these fighters are". I'm expecting a lot of TKO's and violence in this one, the matchmakers have done a pretty good job.

Saturday

1pm - (Fightpass) - Glory 54

Kickboxing

8pm - (Fightpass) - Island Fights 58

Judging by tapology rankings, this is pretty bad even for a local promotion. Its only a little better than typical Wednesday Alaskan cards.

midnight - (Fightpass) - Bangkok Nights

Muay Thai

Bangkok nights ROFL

I not only double-checked the name of the promotion on Fightpass, I even looked for an independent non-UFC source on the internet to verify, thinking maybe some dumbass at Fightpass mispelled "Bangkok Fights", but no thats what they unironically called their own promotion.

Question for all you hardcore MMA fans. How do you keep up with all the fighters? Like up and comers and that kind of stuff? I'm amazed how much people know about this stuff because it seems like there's 3 fights a week now with a bunch of fighters and women. Hard to keep up on like the NFL.

I watch every fight I can, I read mma blogs and sights, shit like that but there's always some guy fighting on a regional circuit who will come up and be in the UFC making noise that I've never heard of. It's just too wide spread.

Interview with Megan Anderson on 810 this morning. She's fighting Holly Holm at UFC 225 and trains in Lee's Summit.

<iframe src="https://omny.fm/shows/the-border-patrol/megan-anderson-4/embed" width="100%" height="180px" frameborder="0"></iframe>

She was popular in Invicta because even though she's an Aussie, Megan Anderson's second home has been in the Kansas City area and most Invicta shows are in KC.

She is a very big girl (6 foot), and a natural featherweight. So, she's really the only potentially interesting challenger for Cyborg right now. A win over Holly Holm probably gets her the title shot.

I think she has an excellent shot to beat HH. She's got very good stand up and she's better on the ground than Holly. Besides, the last fight Holly won she fought someone who couldn't throw a competent strike.

Looks like Yair Rodriguez was able to get Dana White to take him back

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">BREAKING: The Yair Rodriguez/UFC situation has apparently done a 180. Rodriguez vs. Zabit Magomedsharipov is now verbally agreed to for UFC 228 in September.</p>&mdash; Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) <a href="https://twitter.com/bokamotoESPN/status/1002608545446023168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 1, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Is that the fight he initially turned down?

One of them

Sounds like the grass was not very green in the Bellator yard.

He thought he had leverage, and had to find out the hard way that he doesn't.

It might not seem fair, but if he was a heavyweight he probably could have gotten whatever pay bump or favorable opponent he wanted. Bantamweights and featherweights don't have much bargaining power unless they have the belt or they become as popular as Urijah Faber or TJ Dillashaw, and even if you are a champ in a little division, ask Mighty Mouse how much you can push Dana. The fans collectively don't care very much about most smaller guys unless they are at least a lightweight.

**** yes.

We have a pretty good PPV this weekend.

Friday

nothing

Saturday

7pm TV - (5:15pm Fightpass/7pm FS1/9pm PPV) - UFC 225, Whittaker vs. Romero 2

So, we have CM Punk who is still relevant for some reason, but then Arlovski is pretty fun, an important fight (lol) for the WFW top contenders, and then a very good Welterweight IC bout followed by a great MW championship fight.

There's nothing to complain about here. The prelims are also astounding, with Overeem shockingly fighting on free TV, and.... yeah all of the prelim fights are good, and even most of the fightpass prelims are astounding. Most of those fightpass prelims could co-main or main event a fight night.

There's nothing else on this weekend and no Bellator, but we don't need anything else.

Tuesday

7pm - (Fightpass) - Dana White's Tuesday Night Contender Series

So this is starting up again. Looking ahead the schedule is pretty bare for the next month or two aside from international fight week, so its probably a good time for this. This was a fun little card to watch every week last year, and Michael Bisping is going to be a commentator.

Wow. The Fight Night in Lincoln later this year has a really nice main event.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Justin Gaethje vs. Al Iaquinta will headline the UFC Fight Night event scheduled on Aug. 25 in Lincoln, Nebraska. UFC had this one targeted for weeks, and it’s been agreed to I’m told.</p>&mdash; Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) <a href="https://twitter.com/bokamotoESPN/status/1004562241226772480?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 7, 2018</a></blockquote>
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I might have to make that trip to Lincoln!

That's gonna be a good fight.

I forgot about the Professional Fighters League. PFL 1 is tonight on NBC Sports Network with their first "regular season" matches. Their prelims will be streaming on facebook.com at 5pm, and their television broadcast is 8pm.

The way their gimmick works, is everyone gets the same number of "regular season" fights, you earn points for wins and early finishes, and the best go to a playoff. The champion in each division gets a $1 million prize. As far as the quality goes, their roster looks comparable to Bellator on tapology, so they are going to be better than most local promotion's shows.

Is that the 2016 Z06 and do you own it?

Former UFC heavyweight Sean Jordan had his fight scrapped because he weighed in at 275

It's a 17 Z06 and I owned it for thirteen months. A couple weeks ago I swapped it for a Lexus LC500 though. When I traded it in it had 2700 miles and the rear tires were done LOL.

The first two matches of the Calcio Storico will be played tomorrow afternoon and Sunday afternoon. Calcio Storico is an ancient version of football played in Italy and is probably the weirdest combat sport in the world. There are 3 matches a year between four teams, with the winners playing later this month.

I'm not completely clear on the rules, to the extent that there are any rules, but basically each team has 27 roided-up Italian men who line up and start beating on each other in a massive brawl, where elbows, punches, choking, etc are all legal. ("sucker punches" are illegal, plus whatever else the referees arbitrarily dont like). Its 50 minutes, there is a ball and whichever team has the ball is trying to beat up on the other team until they see a clear path to the goal, which is a small net. A successful shot on goal is worth 1 point, and a missed shot on goal is worth a half point for the other team. The winning team gets bragging rights for a year and a white cow.

There should be a link to the stream, which I'll put up tomorrow if I find it.

edit: Here's last year's finals https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSQ9KXh4NXw

Why did you sell it?

My understanding is they had problems with overheating. It's almost like you didn't drive it enough to find out.

I like the looks of the LC500. I am just not sure it has enough horsepower. I have a 2001 m3 with low mileage so I don't see myself in the market right away but I am starting to look. I love that car but again I would like more horsepower even though I have made some mods.

Yoel Romero has lost his battle against the scale for the 2nd straight time (he also failed to make weight for an IC bout earlier this year). He weighed in at 185.2, and missed weight even with the extra 2 hours.

If the fight still happens, then it now can't be a title fight.

Unbelievable...

Hopefully the bout still happens and Bobby Knuckles crushes Romero. If its not a title fight anymore, then he's got nothing to lose, and there's good money to be made.

So he missed weight by 3 ounces?

Knuckles will still fight, he loves to fight

The main event will go on as scheduled as a 5 round non-title bout.

I assume Romero is done at 185 after missing weight again.

I'm not sure exactly. I guess I just didn't find enough excuses to drive it. I'm hoping the LC is different and I actually drive it. It just seems more practical as crazy as that sounds. It does feel slow after my last few cars but man oh man is it ever comfy.

Calcio Storico is streaming on facebook this year

https://www.facebook.com/rtv38/videos/1964656976879725/

Shit fight until that bloody finish!

Did CM Punk get his ass whipped again?

Currently in process.

Embarrassing doesn't even begin to describe it...

That's likely it for him in UFC.

He spent half the match pulling his stupid hair out of his face.

He made the first round competitive, but then he got wrecked. His opponent could have, and should have finished the fight but he was obviously holding back just enough so the ref wouldn't stop the fight, like he was playing with him or torturing him.

If someone told me that Mike Jackson was taking money under the table to let the fight go the distance, I would believe it.

The commentators were right, Whittaker broke his hand during the 1st round.

https://i.imgur.com/BkZrdWcl.png

Must've missed on that punch

Holy ****. That is disturbing. His corner kept yelling for him to throw it, too.

Cool, thanks for the info.

I don't know why people think they can train for awhile and make it in the UFC. The caliber of fighter and the time it takes to get there should be obvious. I went to some super fights in San Jose this weekend. It's basically grappling without rules, 32 fights. They had one kids fight with traditional jiu-jitsu rules. 15 year old world champion in Jiu-Jitsu and a challenger. These kids coming up in California now are unbelievable. The level of talent is off the charts. In MMA the evolution has been incredible. You are not just going to train for awhile and come in and expect to win.

lol, nice to see that she has a sense of humor. During her fight, Joe Rogan said that Megan Anderson is one of those huge avatar-looking women.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I see you <a href="https://twitter.com/joerogan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@joerogan</a> 😂😂 <a href="https://t.co/B5tWpTffEc">pic.twitter.com/B5tWpTffEc</a></p>&mdash; Megan Anderson (@MeganA_mma) <a href="https://twitter.com/MeganA_mma/status/1006267111185018880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 11, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Would be cool to see her as a guest on his podcast.

Reminder that Dana White's Tuesday Night Contender Series is on soon, including the controversial fight with Greg Hardy

I can think of 500,000 reasons why.

Cause that was Punks payday. $500,000 to go out and look like that. Nobody would turn that down. Blame Dana/the UFC for paying him that much for a freak show on the main card.

Oh and Mike Jackson only got 23k for his effort. I wouldnt have gave a shit either if that was the pay difference.

Let the hand-wringing and the moral outrage begin. Greg Hardy KTFO his opponent early in the 1st round, and now he'll probably be signed by the UFC.

Not much on this weekend

Friday

9pm - (Fightpass) - Friday Night Fights

Muay Thai

Saturday

2pm - (Fightpass) - Cage Warriors 94

The top B-League for MMA in Europe. Based on tapology rankings, this is about average quality for them.

Tuesday

7pm - (Fightpass) - Dana White's Tuesday Night Contender Series

lol

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Tune in July 14th on FS1 <a href="https://t.co/yAJEfwzxKx">pic.twitter.com/yAJEfwzxKx</a></p>&mdash; Sage Northcutt (@sagenorthcutt) <a href="https://twitter.com/sagenorthcutt/status/1008047713542258688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 16, 2018</a></blockquote>
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They didn't need the judges tonight. 3 KO's and 2 submissions.

Gonna have to wake up early Saturday if you want to see Cowboy.

Thursday

8pm TV - (5pm Facebook/8pm NBC SN) - PFL 2: 2018 Regular Season

Saturday

3:30am - (Fightpass) - UFC Fight Night, Cowboy vs. Edwards

This event is not on TV, and the prelims start in the middle of the night from Singapore on Friday night/Saturday morning. Main card starts at 7am, and Cowboy will probably walk out at around 8:30. So, it might be worth it to wake up in the morning for this, but there's no reason to watch any of the prelims at all, they are all local fighters who I never heard of, and more than likely all but a couple of them will be cut after this weekend.

Sunday

7pm - (Fightpass) - EBI 16

Submission-only no-gi jiu-jitsu tournament with no scoring and no judges. The Eddie Bravo Invitational is a fun little grappling event.

Tuesday

7pm - (Fightpass) - Dana White's Tuesday Night Contender Series

Nice

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Breaking: Gegard Mousasi vs. Rory MacDonald superfight for Bellator middleweight title set for September -- <a href="https://t.co/kAO1YWyjMp">https://t.co/kAO1YWyjMp</a></p>&mdash; Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) <a href="https://twitter.com/arielhelwani/status/1009854286610747397?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 21, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Machida is going to Bellator

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Breaking: Former UFC light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida agrees to join Bellator -- <a href="https://t.co/xw5h5debcS">https://t.co/xw5h5debcS</a></p>&mdash; Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) <a href="https://twitter.com/arielhelwani/status/1010228882715435009?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 22, 2018</a></blockquote>
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The final match for this year's Calcio Storico is starting soon

https://www.facebook.com/pg/rtv38/videos/

HERE

WE


GO

This probably won't come as a shock to anyone, but Gastelum says Dana White lied about the UFC relying on him to be the back-up plan for Romero.

He was willing to stay ready in case they needed him, but he wasn't going to diet and train for free, he wanted money to be the backup plan, and the UFC wanted him to stay ready for free. So Gastelum told the UFC he wasn't going to stay ready if they weren't going to pay, and he went to Cancun. The UFC called him Wednesday night because they were worried Romero wouldn't make weight, but Gastelum was about 205 at that point, and couldn't cut that much weight in 1.5 days.

Low ratings and guys pulling out of fights is going to cost the MMA a tv deal with Fox or ESPN

The UFC is going dark this weekend before international fight week. (If UFC 226 survives the weigh-in, then I'll probably post a separate thread on that day) This weekend belongs to Bellator and a couple random fightpass cards.

Friday

6pm - (Fightpass) - Titan FC 50

Based on tapology, this looks about average by local promotion standards.

8pm TV - (Paramount) - Bellator 201, Macfarlane vs. Lara

Judging by tapology rankings, this card is roughly average.... or maybe a bit below average by Bellator standards, with the night capped off with the W125 Bellator championship.

Saturday

midnight - (Fightpass) - Pancrase 297

I don't want to shit on Pancrase, but I'm afraid that once again I have to do it. This is an awful card even by low-level promotion standards. There is no good reason to watch this pile of shit unless you just can't sleep and are bored.

Al Iaquinta is out on the main event in Lincoln, he did not want to fight Gaethje unless he was paid more money.

The UFC has replaced him with James Vick, which honestly.... thats a better fight. This is on paper an upgrade for the fans, so if you were thinking about buying tickets for Gaethje vs Iaquinta, you should definitely keep your plans for Gaethje vs Vick.

Hell yeah.

I don't know what it is but I've looked more forward to the Bellator fights than UFC this past year.

Iaquinta is not doing himself any favors here. He only fights once every couple of years and he just had a great showing against Khabib. He could have capitalized on some momentum and gotten some run.

This is a bit of a major surprise, and I'm not a labor lawyer so I don't know where this goes from here, but Leslie Smith won in her complaint with the NLRB against the UFC. I assume the UFC will appeal to the national NLRB board, or to court, or both.

If after whatever happens from here all the various boards and courts eventually say that its final that UFC fighters are employees, then its hard to say what that'll mean for the sport of MMA, but that would be very, very bad for WME.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Chuck Liddell vs Tito Ortiz III to take place under Golden Boy Promotions (via <a href="https://twitter.com/NikBos?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NikBos</a>) <a href="https://t.co/hJlpLRpbbs">https://t.co/hJlpLRpbbs</a> <a href="https://t.co/R0P6lSJaDY">pic.twitter.com/R0P6lSJaDY</a></p>&mdash; FanSided MMA (@FanSidedMMA) <a href="https://twitter.com/FanSidedMMA/status/1013838731579539456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 2, 2018</a></blockquote>
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I read that yesterday. It's just sad.

It's sad and I'll probably still watch it.

Holloway is out of Saturday's fight....unbelievable...weird circumstances as well...

http://www.espn.com/mma/story/_/id/2...ht-title-fight

If he came into fight week showing bad concussion symptoms, then its probably a simple explanation. He probably got rocked bad by someone at the end of his training camp.