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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
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 lames 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
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
UFC Fight Night on ESPN+ debut breaks records
Last night’s UFC Fight Night on ESPN+ debut led to a record-setting night with 568,000 new subscribers for ESPN+ on Friday and Saturday combined – over 525,000 Saturday alone. It marks the largest event and subscription catalyst for ESPN+ thus far. The Prelims card aired on ESPN and averaged a 1.4 metered market rating, making it the highest-rated UFC Fight Night Prelims on cable since at least 2013. On Saturday, there were also more than 1.8 million unique visitors to MMA-related digital content across ESPN digital platforms (ESPN App, ESPN.com, etc.), which was the most-trafficked Saturday for MMA content on record. This was the first fight card of the five-year media deal between UFC, The Walt Disney Company’s Direct-To-Consumer & International segment and ESPN. h/t ESPN Media • ESPN+ (Free 7-Day Trial) is available through iTunes, Google Play, and your web browser.
The Sweet Science
T.J. Dillashaw breaks down his ink
Glover Teixeira wants to fight Shogun Rua next
“Fighting in Brazil is my goal, especially if it could be the main event. … And I’d love to have that fight with [Mauricio Rua]. If ‘Shogun’ accepts that fight, I’d love to take that fight. The way he fights, the way I fight – you know, we’re going to go in there and brawl. ‘Shogun,’ he’s a legend. We’re in this sport for this. We want to fight those guys. We want to fight the legend like Shogun. Dangerous, experienced guys. Everything, everything. He’s a legend, man. Who doesn’t want to fight ‘Shogun’?”
Dana White: Conor McGregor wants Nurmagomedov rematch, but will fight anybody
“When a guy starts to make crazy money, life-changing money, and he’s in one of those positions where he’s not just making it from the fights – he’s making it in other businesses that he has going on right now – you find out what people are all about, how passionate they are about what they do, when the money comes. Conor and I still communicate regularly and he’s very fired up about coming back and becoming a world champion again. ... He’ll fight anybody. Obviously he would love the rematch with Khabib, but he’ll fight anybody.” h/t MMAjunkie
Jessica Eye gets next shot at UFC flyweight champ Valentina Shevchenko
Jessica Eye went 1-5 with 1 NC at bantamweight, before returning to the new flyweight division, where she has now won three in a row, and is the #1 contender, and will apparently get her shot at champion Valentina Shevchenko. “I think we said that we were going to do a fight with Jessica Eye. I think Eye is next.' h/t MMAWeekly
