Saturday, at UFC 216, the UFC awarded an interim 155-pound belt to Tony Ferguson following a third-round triangle choke of Kevin Lee. It was a wild, action-packed, back-and-forth fight between two legitimate talents in MMA’s deepest and most compelling division.
“I guess if you win both fights,” said Daniel Cormier, “there is no rivalry.”
I’ve never seen Conor McGregor fight. I don’t watch or care about MMA. That’s not a statement about, or condemnation of, McGregor or MMA; it speaks only to my own preferences and biases.
It’s really happening.
In championship-level combat sports, as with generations of inbred European royalty, there’s never really an interregnum. The end of one reign is simultaneously the beginning of another. The moment the new champion’s hand is raised and the belt fitted around his waist, we’re officially living in a new era.
Every so often, a play-by-play announcer will make a call that can’t be improved on—the kind that resonates years later, evoking all the drama and immediacy of a perfect and memorable moment. AGÜERRRROOO! ... Auburn’s gonna win the football game! Auburn’s gonna win the football game! ... In a year that has been so…
Imagine the NBA having Adrian Wojnarowski escorted out of a game in the third quarter and banning him for life for having reported a trade rumor. Ridiculous as it seems, a scenario exactly like this just happened at a UFC show.
Conor McGregor—a loudmouthed troll; a genuinely brilliant fighter; and the UFC’s biggest draw and 145-lb. champion—is due to face Nate Diaz at 170 lbs. on July 9. The proposed fight, a rematch of a bout McGregor famously lost last month, is set to headline a card the promotion hopes will be its biggest ever. Whether…
Conor McGregor is a blowhard troll who’s been terrorizing the top ranks of pro fighters lately, while Nate Diaz is a lovable dirtbag who’s lost more than he’s won over the last couple of years. McGregor says things like, “I’ve got world titles and multi millions of dollars, you got 20 thousand to show at your last…
It’s late February and not much is going on in sports, so the press conference the UFC held today to promote Conor McGregor’s upcoming fight against Nate Diaz was the most entertaining happening of the day largely by default. Even so, it was really something, every bit as dumb as could be hoped.
This morning, MMA Fighting dropped an exclusive hour-long interview with former UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones. As you may remember, Jones had his belt stripped in April after he got in a car accident, fled the scene, and was subsequently arrested, just four weeks before he was set to defend his title…
