There is a good UFC freebie on Fox Sports right now, Overeem vs Arlovski headlining

Fights this afternoon have been very entertaining. Skyscraper just TKO'd bigfoot in like 15 seconds

They have a lot of time to kill now. This isn't scheduled to end for another 45 minutes, and they only have the main event left.

Overeem dropped Arlovski with a jumping front kick to the chin. All the Dutch fighters on the main card dominated, the crowd was going bananas.

Bigfoot needs to retire and Reem looks like a killing machine, def. think he gets the next HW title fight.

More he stunned him with the kick. Overoid really dropped him with a huge punch.

I felt a bit bad in that one ladies fight. The Germandie? ladies striking did look explosive but the other girl didn't look like she belonged in that weight division.

No shit lol...looked like a mother fighting her teenage daughter.

If Cain beats Browne he gets it, if not Overeem gets it

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">BREAKING: <a href="https://twitter.com/TJDillashaw">@TJDillashaw</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/RaphaAssuncao">@RaphaAssuncao</a> collide again at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/UFC200?src=hash">#UFC200</a>!! 👉 <a href="https://t.co/lEH56WBaah">https://t.co/lEH56WBaah</a> <a href="https://t.co/npkva0bRR4">pic.twitter.com/npkva0bRR4</a></p>&mdash; #UFC198 (@ufc) <a href="https://twitter.com/ufc/status/730197241516806144">May 11, 2016</a></blockquote>
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Zuffa is selling the UFC.

Vinny Mac time?

I am not going to believe they will give up control unless it happens. The Fertittas still have 81%, they could be wanting to sell another minority share like with the deal with Flash Entertainment.

Supposedly they are selling it for 3-4 billion

I don't think it's a minority share.

I read the story. Before you can sell a minority share, you still need to value the entire business. If they think the UFC is worth 4 billion, then 10% is 400 million.

The UFC is a successful business that is going to benefit from a bidding war between FOX and ABC/ESPN when their TV contract comes up in less than two years, and the Fertittas are very big fans of the sport. I do not believe they will cash out and sell the entire business unless they are afraid that something may happen soon that would impact the value of the business.

I was going to miss UFC 198 because of a conflict with something else I'd be doing saturday night. Its not a stacked card, but I still wanted to see it.

Now I feel a lot better about missing 198, because Anderson Silva is out. He had severe abdominal pain, and doctors think he may need gall bladder surgery.

What if new ownership fires Uncle Dana?

For what its worth, Dana White denied the ESPN story, which he'd probably do if it were true, but he was unusually (or is it typically?) harsh with the reporter. Dana White owns 9% of Zuffa, so he'd be aware of any sale.

I'm guessing that they are not looking to sell, but they'll always listen to any offers in case someone comes in with something insane like 25 billion or something, and the reporter somehow heard that they got 4 offers.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/sports/...-fighters-safe

Starting at UFC 200, the UFC is implementing a new set of weight-cutting guidelines. They are asking their fighters to be within 8% of the target weight when they check in on fight week. If you are not within 8%, the fight won't necessarily be cancelled (unless you are severely dehydrated after weigh in), but they will closely monitor weight and vitals through fight week and the fighter will be required to attend a weight management counseling session before their next fight.

edit: Novitzky also said that after the IV ban, most fighters have been coming in within 8% anyway, and extreme weight cuts don't happen very often anymore. Before the IV ban, they were often over 8%.

According to Jeremy Botter, the Fertittas are looking to sell about 11-15% of Zuffa. They still want to retain control of Zuffa and the UFC.

Let's start a CP gofundme and see if we can raise 500mm!

Im in for $5

Anderson Silva out this weekend, had his gallbladder removed...damn that sucks, was really looking forward to that fight.

TUF 24 in the Fall will be Henry Cejudo vs Joseph Benavidez. Winner (of TUF) fights Mighty Mouse.

eh, I understand why they are doing it, they have to keep the flyweight division going for Mighty Mouse, so they need to use the show to find more talent for that division.

interesting twist: all 16 competitors are flyweight champions in other MMA promotions.

Title history updated, all hail the new king of MMA.

Mighty Mouse signed a new 8-fight deal with the UFC. (the champions clause only binds the fighter for 3 more fights, and he was in the process of fighting out his contract)

Not sure about the money, but I assume its worth at least a few million for all 8 fights

Chris Weidman is hurt, and out of UFC 199. UFC is looking for a replacement for Rockhold.

The obvious candidates to get the Middleweight title shot are Jacare or Michael Bisping. (Romero is suspended until at least mid-July)

UFC 201 is Lawler vs Woodley

Rockhold would emasculate Bisping, Jacare would give him a good fight.

Jacare is going to be examined by doctors tomorrow. If he is medically cleared, then he will probably be the replacement for UFC 199. If he is not cleared to fight, it'll probably be Bisping.

I hope it's Jacare, if it's Bisping I wouldn't really feel like he earned it. He beat Silva after getting ktfo early but no one else even in the top 5 IIRC

Weidman has a very badly herniated disc in his neck, and needs surgery to fuse it. He was going to just take painkillers and fight through it, but his coaches basically told him "no, don't be an idiot"

Uriah Hall is ready to go. I'd rather see him vs. Rockhold than Bisping and if Jacare isn't cleared.

The smart thing to do since Jacare just fought and said he had a banged up knee, would probably be to let Bisping have it as his reward for being a loyal company man, and then after he loses, set up Jacare vs Rockhold with a full camp.

If Bisping somehow wins, then obviously the UFC gets an opportunity to bring in more European fans, but thats unlikely.

Dana White will be on ESPN in a few minutes, so I think we're about to get news on 199.

edit: Ariel Helwani says that Jacare is not an option, so I assume he wasn't cleared.

and its official. UFC 199 is Rockhold vs Bisping

edit: Dana confirmed that Jacare was their first choice, but he's hurt.

Dana and Lorenzo Fertitta are flying out to LA to meet with Conor McGregor tonight.

That seems rather important. The last time Lorenzo flew out to meet with a fighter was when they suspended Jon Jones.

I'm guessing they are going to tell Conor that he needs to fight at UFC 202 or be stripped.

He needs to stfu about boxing Floyd. The UFC will never allow that

Apparently in an interview with British media, Bisping said he thinks he'll need to go for a quick finish, because he won't be in shape for a long 5 round war with just 3 weeks notice. He also said that he'll need to go on an extreme diet to make the weight.

Mighty Mouse vs. Wilson Reis will be the co-main of UFC 201. Also Cyborg vs Germaine de Radamie

edit: sounds like the Cyborg fight is off. She is, oddly, insisting that her next fight must be to defend her flyweight Invicta title, a fight and a promotion that almost no one gives a damn about and which will bring her basically no money.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CUOfq7D3a6...0/10000792.gif

Is Bisping confirmed?

yes

Man they are scraping the bottom of the barrel for Mighty Mouse now...Wilson Reis??? Holy Christ...

and after that, the TUF 24 winner.

I think the best theory here is that Mighty Mouse really wants to break the title defense record, so the UFC is going to hurry up and let him do that ASAP, then have him go for the bantamweight championship.

lol, that idiot Mayhem Miller missed weight for Venator 3 by 24 pounds. He weighed in at 209 for a Middleweight fight. Not surprisingly their middleweight champ refused to defend his belt against a heavyweight and the fight was called off.

Gonna look forward to seeing that idiot get humbled. I enjoy watching Conor fight, but this is getting out of hand. Nate Diaz is going to KO Conor again, then he'll probably decide not to cut to 145, and when Conor dives into the shark tank that is the lightweight division, he'll win some, lose some, and probably fall down to "pretty good standup fighter, might win the title someday, but can't really grapple" status.

This whole ship goes down without you? Bullshit, the UFC is going to find new stars, new draws. Sometimes it takes a while and they go into a lull, but they always find the next compelling fighter.

BJ Penn is out of 199 because he is an idiot.

Also, because he thought the IV ban only applied to rehydrating after weigh-ins. During a random OOC test, on a questionnaire USADA asked him if he used IV's, and he said yes. I assume he won't get the full 2 years, but he's suspended.

199 isn't a strong card but BJ being put on the shelf doesn't really matter to me.

Nate Diaz is apparently giving an epic interview on Ariel Helwani's show. I'll have to listen to it when I get home.

From what I'm seeing on twitter, Nate wants a lot of money to fight Conor at 202, even more than he would have gotten at UFC 200, and he's verbally lighting Conor up.

edit: So much hype on twitter

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This is peak Nate Diaz. These are the moments we live for. Savor it. Soak it in.</p>&mdash; Jeremy Botter (@jeremybotter) <a href="https://twitter.com/jeremybotter/status/735568259739570176">May 25, 2016</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This is honestly one of the all-time great MMA interviews.</p>&mdash; Jeremy Botter (@jeremybotter) <a href="https://twitter.com/jeremybotter/status/735571062755196928">May 25, 2016</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Diaz says a big payday for the McGregor rematch will be a reimbursement for all the money he should’ve made in the past.</p>&mdash; Jeremy Botter (@jeremybotter) <a href="https://twitter.com/jeremybotter/status/735571568420487168">May 25, 2016</a></blockquote>
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More hype. It'll probably be at least another hour or so until the replay is posted.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I’ve been involved in MMA in some fashion for 10 years and that was one of the best interviews I’ve ever heard. Minimum top 5.</p>&mdash; Jeremy Botter (@jeremybotter) <a href="https://twitter.com/jeremybotter/status/735579007089967104">May 25, 2016</a></blockquote>
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I'm almost done watching this, and its awesome. They really get started about 6 minutes in after technical difficulties, and its entertaining as hell.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AP1B0sSW704" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The diaz boys , for being crazy idiots, are ****ing awesome.

6 through about 28 minutes is mostly trashing Conor, transitioning into the Conor/Mayweather rumors.

After 28 minutes or so, Nate gets a little more philosophical about how fighters, once they have established themselves, need to treat it like a business. In particular, he calls out Cowboy for being stupid, always willing to fight with little or no negotiation or demands, he thinks Cowboy is underpaid which then hurts other fighters who don't get paid, etc. Lot of interesting thoughts from a guy most people think of as an idiot.

After 38 minutes, talking about Conor again. He was very skeptical that Conor really wanted to fight after 2 months in UFC 200, he thinks Conor has a lot to work on. He kinda understood why Conor would want more time to train.

After 48 minutes, random funny stuff and banter

Pretty sweet card on FS1 Sunday night. Not a lot of huge names, but most of those guys are entertaining fighters.

Thanks for the heads up Alnorth I will set the DvR

Thanks for the interview link, Al. Gonna listen on my way home from work.

Main card starts in about 20 minutes, and there are at least 4 interesting fights on the schedule. This is being overlooked because of the PPV next week and UFC 200 is looming in July.

Was impressed with the Collier kid from Cuba MO, ate a killer knee that broke his nose and didnt go down... even came back to win the fight, that kick to the stomach dropped the Brazilian like a sack of potatoes

That was an awesome fight. Most of the prelims were good.

The featured prelim though was one of those terribad women's MMA fights where when you are arguing with a troglodyte who says that "chick fights suck".... that shitty fight between Eye and McMann was what they are probably thinking about. That "fight" was so bad, that McCarthy had to tell both fighters before the 2nd round that he needed to see more effort.

Yep, lame chick fight... "we're good friends"

good lord, these fights have been great so far, and we're only 2 fights into the main card.

Awesome fight. I have a feeling that they are going to have a hard time figuring out FOTN and performance bonuses for this event.

fighters beware: Adelaide Byrd is in the house, and she has been on the wrong side of splitting 2 clear decisions now. You better go for a finish.

The fights were awesome tonight. A+

Main card of UFC 199 starts in an hour. Looks like a pretty average PPV, which is good enough for me to buy.

Both champions are heavy favorites, but I'd love to see Faber or Bisping win tonight.

All 3 prelim fights have been fantastic so far. 1 great fight that went the distance, a TKO, and a KO

anyone have a good stream? thx

The old man is up next. Hopefully Hendo looks competitive.

In other news, there are 3 rumors out there tonight.

1) This isn't a rumor, its actually confirmed. The UFC will stream Fedor's next fight on their fightpass service.

2) It looks like the UFC has reached an agreement with Nate Diaz to fight Conor at UFC 202. Nate Diaz and Dana White were seen walking into the Forum together on Saturday, and Nate posted a video of him giving Dana White the "Stockton Slap", saying the deal is done, and he got his money.

3) Ariel Helwani is reporting that the UFC is close to a deal to bring Brock Lesnar back to the UFC for UFC 200.

xmeforums for $5

Fedor Lesnar.

OK, I guess Old Man Hendo can keep fighting if he wants to.

oh, and Nate Diaz vs Conor 2 is basically confirmed now for UFC 202

I already got my money's worth out of this PPV. Seeing Hendo get another spectacular highlight KO was just magnificent. The title fights could both be shit and its still worth the money.

What a beaut of a fight by Max Holloway.

I wonder who that TBD is going to be. :D

Brock Lesnar is confirmed for UFC 200

Fight of the night coming up. So ****ing excited.