Hopefully Mark Hunt.

I don't know if anything more epic is even possible. LOL.

here we go. Come on Faber....

Dom is such a mystery to me. He's so easy to hate, but at the same time, he's so eloquent and smart, I sometimes can't help but like him.

Having said that, I hope Faber smashes him.

Urijah just looked defeated in his corner. :(

welp, Uriah Faber got whooped and might retire.

Well, lets go Bisping. (please don't get destroyed)

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

HOLY ****ING SHIT!!!!

$$$?

Michael Bisping so deserves this. He has been a loyal company man for all this time, never getting his shot, but always fighting whoever the UFC pointed him to, finally, he gets his shot, and he gets it, and celebrates among his family. That was beautiful. The UFC can make bank off this, let Bisping defend his title in England in a big overseas PPV

No, just a distaste for Rockhold.

Oh. Yea yea, gotcha.

LOL, Michael ****ing Bisping knocked out Luke Rockhold. Whaaaaaat? Never bet on MMA, lololol!

No one worked for a championship harder than that guy, I am so happy that this silly shit really happened.

Happy as hell for Bisping....can't believe that though TBH lol. Rockhold laid it out after the fight, he overlooked Bisping and was too confident.

Assume Bisping/Jacare next....Weidman/Rockhold for the next shot?

Was so hoping Cruz was gonna call out MM...that's the fight I want to see more than any right now in the UFC.

200 is gonna be BONKERS...bet Brock fights Rothwell.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I was escorted out of the building by Zuffa staff before the main event. Credential taken away, too. Didn&#39;t see Bisping realize his dream.</p>&mdash; Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) <a href="https://twitter.com/arielhelwani/status/739324103061032960">June 5, 2016</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">My long-time colleagues <a href="https://twitter.com/ekc">@ekc</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/allelbows">@allelbows</a> were also escorted out of the building w/ me. Sorry to report no post-fight coverage tonight.</p>&mdash; Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) <a href="https://twitter.com/arielhelwani/status/739324596999032832">June 5, 2016</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I love this sport &amp; this job with all my heart. Did nothing unethical. I reported fight news. That&#39;s it. &amp; then told we&#39;re banned for life.</p>&mdash; Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) <a href="https://twitter.com/arielhelwani/status/739325375923269633">June 5, 2016</a></blockquote>
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UFC has their best night maybe ever and of course they run it with archaic, antiquated anti media bullshit....

What happened with Helwani? White was pissed he broke the Lesnar news?



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After the post fight PC feed cut off, Bisping and Rockhold got into it again and Bisping called him a f@ggot....

Ho boy...

Sign Henderson to one more fight so he can knock out Bisping again 8 years later.

YES

Well, that really kinda deflates the balloon.

If the UFC wants to be looked at and treated like a real sport, then they need to act like a real sport. Banning Ariel Helwani for life for literally doing his job is just absurd, petty bullshit.

that Ariel thing is such childish crap. That would be like the NFL banning Schefter for life for reporting how many fingers JPP lost.

Those bastards at the UFC will get no more pay per view $ from me until Ariel and his co-workers get their media credentials fully reinstated. On a magical night of fights the UFC and their outrageous douchbaggery is the story that will resonate.

You just made me shit my pants. It's such a mind **** that Hendo vs Bisping was SEVEN ****ing years ago. Wow.

So now lesnar is going to work for wwe AND ufc at the fake time?


They are taking everything that used to make it great...

lol, the UFC banned Esther Lin too, that is just madness. You could argue that banning her from UFC events is a lot worse than banning Ariel Helwani.

edit: Helwani will be on the Dan Patrick show tomorrow. This is kinda getting out of hand, the UFC doesn't really need this a month out from 200

In the post-fight presser it looked like Hendo was giving Bisping the look of death. I was waiting for Hendo to take the mic and ask Bisping if he was ready for a rematch.

Bisping got under Hendo's skin so bad during that season of TUF. I just remember Hendo saying just wait until the fight. 100 UFCs later and his KO of Bisping is still magic.

I at the fight last night. My first UFC event. Pretty fun. Much better to watch on TV, but it was cool to be there and see it. The crowd energy was pretty electrifying as well.

That's cool. I at home normally. :D

How close were you?

Interesting....Dana needs a cash cow badly. As good as Jon Jones is, he doesn't bring the viewership that Lesnar does. Not to mention his rep/image has tanked. Only thing now though is people have seen Lesnar fight so the hype and the "what if" factor is no longer there.

5 weeks until the fight, and really that's 4 weeks to train because the week of the fight, and esp w/ it being UFC 200, there's going to be promos and appearances and all of that shit that week, with probably minimal time to train at all other than just some light stuff.

5 years of ring rust, and really he wasn't a veteran by any means, he's really just an amateur that uses his freakish athletic ability, size, and strength and wrestling background in attempt to overwhelm opponents and getting them to the ground for ground n pound, and we all know his stand up defense is shit, and he doesn't like to take hits. He's a great shape, always has been but he's not going to be a fighting shape at 38yrs old in 1 month's time. He doesn't have the normal wear n tear of your normal 38yr old MMA fighter, but 38 is 38, and is his heart going to be in it or is this just a money grab? I'm thinking it's the latter. He made about $5-6M a fight (if he won) w/ UFC after all of the endorsements and fight bonuses, base salary and % PPV revenue sharing.

White needs a cash cow for this big event and UFC has a big name problem. Anderson Silva is old and has to have gallbladder surgery, GSP is retired for good, Jon Jones is their main guy but that guy's rep/image has taken a brutal hit IMO, and Connor McGregor came off a loss and now is wanting to (box) Floyd Mayweather Jr? lmao what ****in' clown dude's going to get killed if that ever were to happen. And Ronda Rousey won't be back til next year, maybe their New Years fight, and she's hasn't been women's champ for some time now, and as hot Meisha Tate is, she doesn't hold a candle to Rousey's overall marketability and platform. (Tate has an unbelievable body, WAAAAY better than Rousey, Tate's ass is a ****ing 10).

Lesnar is/was the company's biggest draw but IMO this is a last ditch effort by Dana and Brock is getting paid a truckload and so is the WWE I can assure you that. I bet UFC agreed to pay WWE, Lesnar's full contract amount so in case something happens, and he's going to be out some time, WWE isn't out much money. Maybe not, but some arrangement has definitely been made on that account. Wonder if WWE will advertise for UFC 200 at their events and on Raw etc?? Wonder if Lesnar walks out to his own WWE's music now? I actually happen to think that'd be amusing.

Who's Lesnar going to fight? Surely they can't expect to put him w/ Mir again given how back Mir sucks in the octagon now, he's slow overweight fat pos. That's not a money draw IMO. Him and JDS never got to have their match because of Lesnar's illness w/ diverticulitis but that IMO is no longer a draw for a main event non title match, Is Cain Velasquez still hurt w/ a back injury? If Lesnar comes back for one more fight is that going to be w/ him? Why? Does he fight Werdum for non title match? I mean if Werdum loses but doesn't lose the belt and then whether it's the end of the year NYE or SB weekend next Feb, all of the HW's should all be available to fight for the title then. But that would look bad, stupid even, and I don't know how that would even play out, most likely something like that is not on the table due to the possible outcome.

What if this isn't Lesnar's last and only fight in UFC 200? What if he won a fight w/ Werdum for title then does he fight a couple months before Wrestlemania? A guy who's 38? Surely not. So that's probably not in the cards. And I'd see a lot of heat coming if Dana just gave Brock a title shot after 5 years out of fighting w/ 1 month's notice, not going to happen...hmmm

Does he fight Fedor? Would that draw? 8-9 yrs ago that was a hot topic but Fedor is a shell of his former self and Lesnar hasn't fought anyone or trained for a fight in half a decade. Is that a stale product. Gonna be interesting to see what plays out here. Carwin/Lesnar II ??? Where does Lesnar fit?

Not the closest sections, but we were on the floor. Close enough to voices from the ring, impact sounds, etc. My wife's boss is a higher up at the forum so he got us in. In fact we're going to see Zac Brown Band tonight. :)

Maybe Josh Barnett or Roy Nelson?

ROFL

The UFC has certainly become a lot more interesting in the last 24 hours

Fyi, Stipe Miocic is the HW champ, not Werdum.

LMAO

I honestly don't care to see Lesnar in the UFC.

Yeah...it's pretty ****ed up all around. Was it someone here that said if the UFC wants to be a real sport, then they need to act more professionally? I couldn't agree more. What did Helwani do wrong? He's an MMA reporter. He would be a pretty shitty one of he didn't investigate a story like that one.

I find it so annoying that it actually makes me want to boycott the UFC, but....ya know....UFC 200.

So is lesnar gonna be required to do the all the pressers leading up?

Ohhh, wouldn't it be great if he wasn't required to do so, and Connor McGregor called him out on it? I'd tune in to see Connor vs Lesnar at heavyweight.

ROFL, more like call out Dana over it.

It's just funny that over him not wanting to do ALL the media days they let that fight falll apart. Now they are stooping to having a wwe contacted wrestler who is then going to SUMMER SLAM! next be the big draw for 200.

Sell outs.

Yeah. The McGregor incident was very unfortunate. If they had the McGregor-Diaz fight on this card rather than a Lesnar fight, the card would be insane.

I just can't believe lesnar is going dual and the ufc somehow feels good about it.

I think they are trying to cash in as big as they can before selling it.

And it's definitely a sellout move by the UFC. All the people that seem to be hyped about it are the same WWE fans that were hyped about it the first time he came to the UFC. All of my friends on FB that are WWE fans are sharing the promo and going nuts. Meanwhile, people that I know are actual MMA fans don't seem to care. Money grab for Dana and Zuffa, but kinda crappy for fight fans.

And might hurt the sport forever, last thing they need is people thinking it's set up.


If they actually care about the sport.

Had the guy stuck around and put in the time to refine his game, he might have really accomplished something

But this one off deal sounds like a complete clown show... has he even been training for UFC competition the last several years?

Just a name to grab PPV buys and I have no issue with it. The UFC is a business designed to make profits not prevent MMA purest from being butt hurt.

Yeah, I don't think anyone is particularly upset about it. It's just hard to care or get excited about him returning.

It's just ignorant.

For some reason I do enjoy watching his freakish athletic ability on display even though he lacks true MMA skills. He is a nice add for 200... just not as a top 2-3 fight. I think he gets a tomato can anyways.

Kevin Iole just dropped this article on the Ariel Helwani situation. As always, its very well written and insightful.

Brock Lesnar is going to fight Mark Hunt.

Unless there's something wrong with Hunt.... thats probably not going to work out very well for Brock.

I hope the super Samoan makes quick work of this sideshow

Shocked Brock took that fight. Horrible match-up for him.

Indeed, its tough for me to think of a worse matchup. Mark Hunt is like the fantasy fighter I would design in a video game to beat Lesnar. Basically push the sliders for rock-hard chin, stamina, takedown defense, and punches harder than hell as high as the game will let you go, and forget everything else.

It kinda feels like the UFC is using Brock Lesnar (since this is just a one-time thing on loan from WWE) to set up Hunt for a title shot, which makes good business sense. Having someone from the Australian/New Zealand area be the heavyweight champ is a good way for them to grow that market, just like Bisping is probably going to help them out now in the UK.

....and the MMA hour is done, Ariel spent 2 hours talking about quite a lot. He mostly held it together for about an hour 45 minutes, but the last 15 minutes are difficult to listen to.

This guy is the managing editor for NBC sports, and almost never covers MMA

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Ariel Helwani says UFC told him not only that he was banned but that they would &quot;do everything to ruin my career.&quot; True, <a href="https://twitter.com/danawhite">@danawhite</a>?</p>&mdash; Michael David Smith (@MichaelDavSmith) <a href="https://twitter.com/MichaelDavSmith/status/739891719760707587">June 6, 2016</a></blockquote>
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I can definitely see Dana saying that

That will be on YouTube?

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Uncle Dana's regime reminds me of Obama's admin.

Pretty sure UFC is going to face terrible backlash for the Helwani move, a completely awful thing to do... they're going to be forced to relent IMO

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">It has been confirmed that Kimbo Slice has passed away from heart failure. Let keep his family in our prayers. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RIP?src=hash">#RIP</a> <a href="https://t.co/bliLEmWKan">pic.twitter.com/bliLEmWKan</a></p>&mdash; BeyondTheFight™ (@BTFMMAPodcast) <a href="https://twitter.com/BTFMMAPodcast/status/740012315584696320">June 7, 2016</a></blockquote>
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woah, that was quick. This guy is a reputable reporter for the LA Times

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">UFC has lifted the ban on <a href="https://twitter.com/arielhelwani">@arielhelwani</a></p>&mdash; Lance Pugmire (@latimespugmire) <a href="https://twitter.com/latimespugmire/status/740012100089565184">June 7, 2016</a></blockquote>
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We'll see if this ends up panning out, but I assumed Ariel would be hung out to dry for at least 2 more PPV's.

Wow.

Speaking personally, I was seriously considering cancelling my UFC Fightpass subscription over this. A LOT of people have been tweeting out screenshots of them cancelling their fightpass subscription and vowing to boycott UFC 200, so if this ended up being a lot of people, maybe the UFC decided "ok screw it, wow, we didn't expect this, but now this isn't worth it. Let Ariel do whatever stupid annoying thing he wants"

Holy shit, its real. The UFC just put out a formal statement that basically amounts to "whoops, our bad, we ****ed up. We're sorry, Ariel is welcome to report on our sport."

ok, just to clarify, it looks like this wasn't a total capitaulation. The UFC is basically saying "OK, Ariel didn't know that we wouldn't accept this, but now he does, so now he knows".

Probably just another angle UFC is pushing.

Dana is going full blown heel and Shane-O-Mac will appear to fight him for control.

It probably wasn't just the fans though, Rich Eisen basically stated on his show today that he was going to go dark on the UFC and not ever talk about anything about the sport again unless Ariel was reinstated. A lot of big national sports journalist figures who usually only cover the NFL and NBA were beginning to rise up on this story, so maybe that also had something to do with it.

Brock Lesnar will smash the dogshit out of Mark Hunt.

This is a stupid fight. Lesnar gnp for the win 2nd rd.

OK! Back to normal.

I have to admit that I'm a huge fan of Ariel Helwani, I listen to at least parts of his MMA hour show every Monday, so this drama was a bit gut-wrenching for me, but I'm glad to see that cooler heads apparently prevailed tonight.

Hanging with Jon Bones Jones on my Birthday...

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Hanging with Jon Bones Jones on my Birthday

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Ariel just got done with a segment on sportscenter where he was basically feted as a journalism hero. Ariel was humble as always, saying he only wants to cover the sport, and the ESPN host congratulated him for his reinstatement.

Did he hook you up with some party favors?

Sounds awesome either way.

He was celebrating his anniversary with his fiance who are soon you be married after UFC 200. We actually live on the same street just two blocks from each other. Holly Holm lives two streets just north of us.

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