Trending Content
ONE CEO Chatri Sityodtong believes Joshua Pacio won, plans rematch
On Saturday former ONE strawweight world champ Joshua 'The Passion' Pacio lost his belt via split decision to Yosuke Saruta at ONE: Eternal Glory in Jakarta, Indonesia. However, ONE Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong thinks the decision was wrong: "I was very disappointed. In my opinion, Joshua Pacio won because he won the exchanges, he landed the harder shots. Yes, he was taken down, but Saruta did nothing. In our rule set, there’s a very big difference between our rule set and the unified rule set. The unified rule set is, it’s a game. The last 30 seconds, I take you down, I win the round. If I do it enough times, I win the fight. But that’s not real martial arts, that’s just a game. Lay-and-pray is just a game. Why was martial arts first invented? For defense. Self-defense. Can your stuff work in a real fight? I will tell you this, the officials over at ONE Championship are the very best in the world. Seven years, thousands of fights, they hardly, hardly ever make an error, so I can’t say that they made an error or not, but it was a close fight. Just for me, from my perspective, I thought Joshua won, so yes there will be a rematch."
MMAjunkie's 16 greatest P4P fighters of all time
In no particular order: Georges St-Pierre, Jon Jones, Anderson Silva, Fedor Emelianenko, Demetrious Johnson, Conor McGregor, Amanda Nunes, Ronda Rousey, Daniel Cormier, Jose Aldo, B.J. Penn, Matt Hughes, Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture, Cris Cyborg, Royce Gracie. h/t MMAjunkie
Bader: Fedor is MMA
Light heavyweight champion Ryan Bader, who seeks to become champ champ in the finals of the Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix on Saturday vs. heavyweight G.O.A.T. Fedor Emelianenko: “Fedor is MMA ... You don’t know what’s coming from me. When you think I’m wrestling, I’m putting hands on you and vice versa. I’m very unpredictable out there.” h/t MMAjunkie
Dillashaw Manager: If Cejudo wants to save 125, that's where rematch should be
Tiki Ghosn: “I think it definitely needs to be run back. It needs to be run back at whatever weight – it just needs to happen again. The whole thing is unfortunate – it sucks – and that’s not to take anything away from Cejudo. Being a fighter, I know what these guys go through. I know they’re both prepared and trained their asses off for it. And if it was the flipside, too, and it was the other way around, it would suck. The whole thing’s unfortunate. ... Here’s the question, and here’s the challenge: If Henry wants to save the 125 division, then I think the rematch needs to happen at 125. You could say [he already saved the division], except for the controversial stoppage. There are two ways to look at it: Did Henry Cejudo earn his chance to become a double champ? Yeah, I think he did. But it just comes down to what [Cejudo] wants to do moving forward. What are they going to do with the 125-pound division? That’s the catch.” h/t MMAjunkie
T.J. Dillashaw: I would beat Henry Cejudo 99 out of 100 times
“Let’s be honest, I’ve never said I wasn’t a sore loser. I don’t take losing very well. I let my emotions get the best of me, that’s why I’m so competitive and that’s why I am who I am. That’s why I put that many hours into the gym and train as hard as I do. Even in practice, I get pissed when I lose. ... So obviously I was furious. It was, I mean a 30-second fight when I know I’m the better fighter. If anybody’s been in my situation or just competing in general, you know what that’s like. And I want to be here congratulating Cejudo, first and foremost, I want to make sure that comes across. That is how I feel and know he put in a bunch of hard work, I don’t want to take away anything from his victory or his accolades or what he’s done. He looked great, has a great camp and I am happy for the guy, good for him. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to beat him. If we fight that fight 100 times I will win 99 of them. This, unfortunately, was that one fight.” h/t MMA Mania • Watch The Ariel Helwani MMA Show
Bellator 214 Countdown, Episode 2
Secret footage reveals origin moment of TAM
Dennis Bermudez retirement statement
Henry Cejudo: Livin' the dream, and sleeping with it
Opponent thinks Greg Hardy knee was due to inexperience not intent
Allen Crowder: “I don’t think he was looking for a way out. I think it’s more inexperience. He’s not been doing this very long. He stepped out to the side. I believe in his mind he thought … I know he knew he’s not allowed to throw that knee with me on the ground. But I think heated up in the heat of the moment, he just forgot for a split second and threw that knee trying to get that finish. He just made a mistake. Another mistake of many mistakes that he makes. But I don’t feel like he was trying to cop out of the fight. He’s a tough dude. I think it was just an inexperience kind of thing. Had that knee not hit me in the head, I feel like I was gonna get him back on the ground. I still had more left in the tank. I feel like if I got him back on the ground, I would have finished him with elbows like I planned on from the beginning.” ... I wanted to show he wasn’t ready for the UFC yet. I feel like I’ve done that, I feel like I showed he wasn’t experienced. I showed that he still has work to do on the ground. He’s a strong guy, he got backup. Most people, when I get them on the ground they don’t get back up.” h/t MMA Fighting • Watch The MMA Hour
Coach blames himself for Greg Hardy’s UFC debut DQ
Din Thomas: “I kind of blame myself. Sometimes I underestimate the magnitude of the UFC because I’ve been doing it so long. When you really put it in perspective, being locked inside of a cage to fist-fight another human being is a pretty intimidating experience. Hardy’s been training for two years. At NAGA tournaments, that’s still a beginner level, and he’s the co-main event of a UFC event. By no means do I think he did this intentionally. He’s just a guy who saw an opportunity and didn’t have the awareness or the experience to know. He wants to be one of the good guys. For this to happen, it was just unfortunate. I know he can fight at that level. He just didn’t show it fully that night because of all the distractions, the crowd, the media – just all week having to deal with so much. I always look towards the positives. I think is a going to be a good thing for him, in the long run, to say, ‘You know what, there’s a lot of things about the fight game that I didn’t understand, and now I do after being in those situations.” h/t FanSided • Watch the Slip 'n Dip podcast
Cejudo coach: Result would be the same with later stoppage
Eric Albarracin: "The result might’ve been the same, would’ve been the same, probably just more damage on him. Henry was hurting him. He hit him with the kick, the head kick. He hit him with the left. I think one behind the ear, he got a straight right over the ear. And there’s a YouTube [video] that’s called ‘What Really Happened With T.J. Dillashaw vs. Henry Cejudo,’ and they break it down perfectly, how many shots he took and how he wasn’t defending himself intelligently, how the wrong hand was up, Henry was over here but he was looking over here. So, he explains it perfectly and I’d rather have — that’s probably the best video for us to watch, because he breaks it down blow-by-blow.” h/t MMA Fighting • Watch The MMA Hour
Fight Night Brooklyn: Fight Motion
It's coming
PFL president Carlos Silva moving to Tennis
Rogan details his UFC plans going forward
Joe Rogan plans to call North American PPVs only, until the day is night and night becomes the day: “I cut way back. Cause first of all I was doing too many of them. At one point I was doing 24 a year, it was way too many. It was like half of the weekends of the year, I was flying somewhere to go to the UFC. It was too much. That was before the UFC really started adding a bunch of people and it took a lot of the weight off of me. I don’t think about retiring because I like what I do. So I don’t think about ‘oh I need ‘X’ amount of money in the bank so I’m not going to do this very much longer’. I like all that stuff. I think it keeps me from going crazy. I think being active keeps me from losing my marbles.” h/t MMA Weekly • Watch
Rachael Ostovich: It was a bad day, not a bad life.
"I'm grateful to be here. I'm grateful to be standing here, even though the outcome wasn't what I wanted or expected out of myself. It sucks, losing sucks. But it's life. And we learn a lot in this sport. ... That's just how fights are sometimes. You can be winning the whole time and, in a scramble, it happens. That's MMA for you. ... "It's definitely been a whirlwind, this past couple of months. And I just keep taking it day by day. And that's just what it is, today, just another day. It's not a bad life, just a bad day." h/t MSN
Latest 10 UFC fight announcements, today's in bold
•Gian Villante vs. Michal Oleksiejczuk at UFC Fight Night 145 on 2/23 in Prague
•Randa Markos vs. Angela Hill at UFC Fight Night 148 on 3/23 in Nashville
•Maycee Barber vs. JJ Aldrich at UFC Fight Night 148 on 3/23 in Nashville
•Alexis Davis vs. Jennifer Maia at UFC Fight Night 148 on 3/23 in Nashville
•Rustam Khabilov vs. Diego Ferreira at UFC Fight Night 145 on 2/23 in Prague
•Jussier Formiga vs. Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC Fight Night 148 on 3/23 in Nashville
•Jorge Masvidal vs. Darren Till headlines UFC on ESPN+ 5 in London on 3/16
•Leon Edwards vs. Gunnar Nelson co-headlines UFC on ESPN+ 5 in London on 3/16
•Curtis Blaydes vs. Justin Willis at UFC Fight Night 148 on 3/23 in Nashville
•Edson Barboza vs. Justin Gaethje is in the works for UFC on ESPN+ 6 on 3/23 or UFC on ESPN 2 on 3/30
