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Bellator boss: MacDonald broke nose, will be back maybe in February
Welterweight champion Rory MacDonald suffered another broken nose in his loss to Gegard Mousasi at Bellator 206. "He broke his nose,” said CEO Scott Coker. “I know that whatever he needed to do, he already did it. He said, ‘I’m ready to go, I’m going to start training in a few weeks.’ I said, ‘Time out. Time out. Just relax.’ He’s an animal, man. He just wants to keep training and fighting. Rory’s been texting me every day. ... He’s the kind of fighter that wants to fight tomorrow. If you ask me, he’ll fight sometime in February. If you ask him he’ll fight sometime in January. I think we have to just help him take a skip and just put the breaks on this, Rory. It’s fine. We can wait another three or four weeks for your nose to heal and due time to heal and come back and be 100 percent.” H/T MMAjunkie
Zubaira Tukhugov pulled from fight vs. Artem Lobov at UFC Fight Night 138 on 10/27
Zubaira Tukhugov was reportedly involved in the post-fight attack on SBGi's Conor McGregor at UFC 229. Dana White said anyone involved will not fight in the UFC again. Now Tukhugov has been removed from a fight vs. SBGi's Artem Lobov at UFC Fight Night 138 on 10/27 in Moncton, New Brunswick. A search is reportedly underway for a replacement. Nurmagomedov has vowed to leave the UFC if Tukhugov was fired for his role in melee. It could also be that another Dagestan vs. SBGi bout simply isn't advisable at present.
Whittaker says don't be to proud to ask for help with mental health
Khabib says he won't return to the UFC if teammate is released
Bellator Heavyweight GP Semis faceoffs
UFC 229 crushes MMA PPV record
Dave Meltzer knows more about the closely help MMA PPV numbers than anyone outside the UFC, and he says UFC 229 got around 1.9 million on traditional pay-per-view and 470,000-480,000 via streaming pay-per-view. It's likely the final number will slightly top 2.4 million, when late buys are factored in. The previous company record was 1.5 million buys at the second McGregor vs. Nate Diaz fight - UFC 202, on August 20, 2016. McGregor now has the UFC’s three biggest pay-per-view shows. The non-McGregor high point was UFC 100, headlined by Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir, which did 1.3 million buys. The previous PPV, UFC 228, headlined by Tyron Woodley vs. Darren Till, was estimated at doing 130,000 buys. H/T MMA Fighting
Bader: Where Mitrione lacks, I am best
Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix is down to Fedor Emelianenko vs. Chael Sonnen at Bellator 208 on Saturday 10/13 and Ryan Bader vs. Matt Mitrione at Bellator 207 on Friday 10/12. Mitrione earned a controversial majority decision over Roy Nelson, that did not intimidate Bader: "My takeaways from that fight in particular — Matt's cardio didn't look all that great; Matt's takedown defense didn't look all that great. He looked great in the stand-up department, he's always dangerous there. ... I'm not just a wrestler, I'm not just a striker, I mix it all together pretty well. I have a lot of power in my hands also, so it only takes one slip up and I can knock you out. For him, he's a handful, he's a great fighter. He's got power. What he does lack is in the wrestling department and the cardio department, where I just happen to be my best. I'm not afraid of where this fight goes. I do feel I'm a bad match-up for him. I think I just have more tools. I feel like he has a way to win and I have many ways to win." H/T Yahoo Sports
Coach: Conor was 'very disappointed' in himself for getting dropped
Coach John Kavanagh appeared recently on the JRE and talked his fighter Conor McGregor getting dropped by lightweight champ Conor McGregor at UFC 229: “He hates technical mistakes. So that right hand, you know… he was very disappointed he got caught with a shot like that. But it is actually funny, I was just thinking about this, you know that right hand, if you showed it to a boxing coach he would say ‘That’s horrible. Your head is down and you’re swinging.’ But again, I don’t really care about people’s opinions on things. I just care about the strike's effectiveness. It was a damn effective technique. You know it’s one of the hardest clean shots Conor has been caught with in his MMA career.” H/T BJPenn.com
Sergio Pettis fights Rob Font at UFC on FOX 15 on 12/15
It was recently announced that Sergio Pettis was returning to bantamweight. He will fight Rob Font at UFC on FOX 31 on December 15 in Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Pettis began in the UFC at bantamweight and went 3-1 before dropping to fly, where he went 5-3, most recently losing to Jussier Formiga at UFC 229 on Saturday. Font too is coming off a loss, to Raphael Assuncao at UFC 226 in July.
Why heavyweight Timothy Johnson is happier at Bellator than UFC
Heavyweight Timothy Johnson got into the UFC on an 8-1 record, and went 4-3, but let his contract expire on a win to test free agency as he felt locked into a gatekeeper role; plus the money was so short he did a gofundme to fly a second cornerman to Brazil for a fight. He signed with Bellator and fights a name, Cheick Kongo, on Saturday at the DAZN-streamed Bellator 208. “It’s more small business oriented,” he said. “They’re talking to you and not a number, so to speak.” The money is where he wants it to be yet, but there's hope. “I’m still not good at that column, but we’ve picked up some good sponsors and a win, and that will only make it better." H/T MMAjunkie
John Malkovich's UFC 229 narration repurposed for DC vs. Lewis
Let there be no sexism in MMA
Kevin Lee vs. Al Iaquinta to headline UFC on FOX 31 in Milwaukee on 12/15
Sijara Eubanks vs. Roxanne Modafferi at UFC 230
Sijara Eubanks was supposed to fight Nicco Montano in the finals of TUF 26 for the inaugural women's flyweight title, but was hospitalized while cutting weight and was replaced by Roxanne Modafferi, who she had decisioned in the semis, and Montano won. Montano was stripped after she was hospitalized cutting for her frst title defense vs. Valentina Shevchenko, and was stripped. Then Eubanks replaced former flyweight champ Joanna Jedrzejcyk vs. Shevchenko at the star-shy UFC 230, but then DC vs. Derrick Lewis was made for that card, so the women's fight was pushed until later, and Joanna had enough time to prepare and was in, replacing Sijara. Eubanks was not impressed, but now has a fight vs. Modafferi, bringing everything full circle, sort of.
Ryan LaFlare retires after decade in the sport, and 10 UFC fights
Putin meets, congratulates Nurmagomedov and and his father Abdulmanap
Lewis: Miocic deserves the title shot vs. DC
Former UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic was not impressed when Derrick Lewis got the next title shot at champ champ Daniel Cormier at the headliner-needing UFC 230 on 11/3. During a recent appearance on TMZ Sports, The Black Beast kind of agreed: "I don't know why they don't want to give it to Stipe. It'd been great for them to give it to Stipe than to me, but I appreciate them giving me the shot. I really believe that Stipe really deserves the shot, seeing as how he was the champion for a while, he defended that many times, and I guess dominant for a while. I don't know why they gave it to me before they gave it to Stipe. Everyone else, whenever they lost their belt, they got a shot to win it back. I don't know why they didn't give it to Stipe, unless he wanted some time off." H/T Yahoo Sports
