US MMA fans were not impressed when PPVs were put behind a double paywall - you first had to buy the ESPN+ app and then the PPV. It just got worse in England. Fans there bought the BT sports app which included big UFC events, but starting with UFC 239, there is an extra £20 ($25) fee, possibly for at least four events a year. Senior VP of International and Content Dave Shaw explained the league's thinking: “As part of the renewal and part of the rebuild of the partnership with BT Sport was giving them the ability to have a limited number of events on pay-per-view. For us, it seemed to, on paper, make a lot of sense. The UK is historically a pay-per-view market with sports, especially with combat sports. BT Sport has a lot of experience in that, most recently with Fury and Wilder match which I think was pay-per-view. There's still a number of details that need to be sorted out. There's more information coming in the next couple of weeks. Everything else will be available on the BT Sport package as normal. I don't want to say it's necessarily a test period, we just don't know yet what strategy they're going to pursue. But certainly, the lions share of numbered events and contest are going to continue to be offered on broadcast.” h/t The Express

Douglas Lima wanted a September Bellator welterweight GP final vs. MacDonald for the million dollar payout, but that's not happening. “I have to take some time and heal some things up after back-to-back fights and training camps. [September is] not realistic for me," said MacDonald. "I mean I wish I could make it come true. I had a feeling they would want that but it’s just not possible with what’s going on in my life right now. I need to take some time to heal from these fights, from these training camps, so I can be ready for a guy like Douglas. Like December maybe November. When you’re training every day, you kind of have to have the eye of the tiger. It’s like eat, sleep, you’ve got to be like chewing on steel kind of thing for six weeks. It hardens your body, hardens your mind. Something about that just gets you in that mind frame of just being able to push through low points where if you were just kind of training so-so, in good shape, you might slack off a little bit.” h/t MMA Fighting • Watch post-fight press conference

Yaozong Hu, 24, of Beijing, China, has accepted a 10-month sanction for a violation of the UFC Anti-Doping Policy after testing positive for androsta-3,5-diene-7,17-dione (arimistane) and its metabolite 7β-hydroxy-androst-3,5-diene-17-one as the result of a urine sample provided out-of-competition on March 9, 2019.  Following an investigation into the circumstances of Hu’s case, USADA concluded that Hu’s positive test was caused by his use of a dietary supplement and that he was eligible for a minor reduction to the otherwise applicable one-year period of ineligibility for a doping offense involving a Specified Substance. The minor reduction is based on Hu’s cooperation throughout the results management process and efforts made to investigate the safety of the supplement prior to use, even though he subsequently realized that the product listed a prohibited substance on the label. Hu’s 10-month period of ineligibility began on March 9, 2019, the date his positive sample was collected. h/t USADA

"What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Everybody see what happen in Vegas, victory on my side, we smash [McGregor], we smash all his team. I don't want to fight in Vegas anymore because they take his [McGregor's] money and they take my money - ten more times his money. This is not about money this is about how all process going, I don't want to fight in Vegas. If some great fights happens in Vegas I'm going to go and just watch, but I don't want to fight anymore in Vegas." ... Right now I'm not interested [in a rematch]. Why do I need the rematch, for what? Money is not bad but when you have too much money, it's no good." h/t The Express