Russian MMA Newcomer Debuts with Stunning Spinning Back Kick TKO to the Liver

Knockout of the Year contenders can come from anywhere, and Friday afternoon delivered one of the most spectacular TKOs you will see in 2016. 

Twitter MMA personality @GrabakaHitman posted the video of the finish:

Amir Elzhurkaev landed a beautiful spinning back kick to the liver that put his opponent to the floor at Absolute Championship Berkut 34. The event was subtitled “Young Eagles 7,” which appears to be apt name considering Elzhurkaev’s destructive finish.

On the receiving end of the highlight-reel TKO was Dmitrity Tomaev. The two lightweights were making their professional MMA debuts.

With one not-so-simple two-touch spinning back kick, Elzhurkaev put himself on the map. The Russian has a lot to live up to for his next performance after landing an unexpected Knockout of the Year candidate.

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Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey Are Responsible for the UFC's Resurgence

Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor are the UFC's two marquee attractions. Pay-per-view is a star-driven business, and nobody else on the UFC's roster comes close to matching the profile McGregor and Rousey have gained over the last two years.

The numbers bear this out. McGregor and Rousey combined to headline five of the UFC's 13 pay-per-view cards in 2015, and were responsible for 4,625,000 of the year's 7,550,000 total buys. That's a shade over 61 percent of the year's total buyrate.

If Dana White's statements to ESPN's Max and Marcellus are to be believed, the McGregor-headlined UFC 196 card blew away even those high numbers with a buyrate around 1.5 million.

Let's put those numbers in context. The 7.55 million total buys in 2015 marked the promotion's strongest year on pay-per-view since 2010, when it sold 8.805 million units.

The UFC's pay-per-view business has changed dramatically since 2010, though. It relies far more heavily on McGregor and Rousey to sell events than it did on any individual fighter in its pay-per-view heyday.

Brock Lesnar and Georges St-Pierre were the UFC's two biggest individual attractions in 2010. They headlined four of the year's 16 shows and combined to sell a total of 3.515 million pay-per-views.

That was just under 40 percent of the year's total, though. The UFC also squeezed a million buys out of the rivalry between Rampage Jackson and Rashad Evans, and shows headlined by Anderson Silva and BJ Penn all went over 500,000 buys. Even the faded star of Chuck Liddell managed to sell 515,000 units against late-notice replacement Rich Franklin after Tito Ortiz bowed out of the rubber match.

As the years passed between 2010 and 2015, the UFC became ever more reliant on a shrinking stable of stars to sell pay-per-views.

Lesnar, formerly the biggest star, fought only once more. Still, 2011 and 2012 were strong years despite injuries to St-Pierre that limited him to two appearances. The combination of Silva and St-Pierre was responsible for 29 percent and 35 percent, respectively, of the UFC's total buys in those years.

Superficially, 2013 was another strong year, but it highlighted the extent to which the UFC had come to rely almost completely on its two biggest stars to sell pay-per-views. Silva and St-Pierre headlined four of the year's 13 shows and combined to sell 52 percent of the year's total. 

Disaster struck in 2014. Without Silva and St-Pierre—the former lost due to severe injury and the latter retired—the UFC sold only 3.2 million pay-per-views in 12 events. The year's biggest show was headlined by Chris Weidman and Lyoto Machida and sold only 545,000 units. For comparison, that would have been in the middle of the pack back in 2010.

The 2015 year therefore marked a major rebound. The UFC sold 235 percent of its 2014 total with 7.55 million buys, and it peaked with two shows above the million-buy mark. UFC 189 marked McGregor's emergence as a bona fide attraction and the extensive world tour paid off with 1.2 million buys at UFC 194, while Rousey demolished expectations by selling 600,000, 900,000 and 1.1 million in her three headlining slots.

In essence, the UFC replaced Silva and St-Pierre with Rousey and McGregor. It has recreated its 2013 business model but with even more success. The real difference only becomes clear, however, when you compare 2015 with 2010.

The UFC brand just doesn't sell pay-per-views the way it used to, and it relies on the hard-won name value of its biggest stars to reach the buying public. That name value is partially of the UFC's creation—its PR operation invested tremendous amounts of time in building Rousey and McGregor as stars—but they're now celebrities in their own right, their every move covered by mainstream outlets.

NPR covered McGregor's recent retirement scare. Ronda Rousey went on The Ellen Degeneres Show to talk about life after her loss to Holly Holm. That's true stardom beyond what Silva or St-Pierre ever accomplished, and the public interest in their fights bear that out.

This marks a fundamental change in the UFC's model. They're not in the "selling UFC pay-per-views" business anymore; increasingly, they're in the business of "selling Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey pay-per-views."

Needless to say, that changes the relationship between the UFC and its star attractions, as the recent brouhaha between McGregor and the promotion bears out. Moreover, we can quantify just how valuable those two fighters are to the UFC.

The eight 2015 pay-per-views not headlined by Rousey and McGregor averaged just over 365,000 buys. Rousey's three 2015 events averaged 900,000, and her return would likely draw north of a million. If she doesn't fight in 2016, which looks increasingly possible, the UFC will be missing out on somewhere north of 600,000 buys.

The rematch between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier is now slated to headline UFC 200. Their first meeting, driven by a compelling narrative of genuine dislike and the undefeated Cormier's quest to dethrone the unchallenged king, did a respectable 800,000 buys. This was the best mark of Jones' career. Cormier's two subsequent pay-per-views, however, did only 375,000 and 250,000 buys despite well-stocked cards.

Compare that to White's claim of 1.5 million buys for the first fight between McGregor and Nate Diaz and the contrast is clear. Imagine how much bigger a UFC 200 card, with all of the attendant promotion and a stacked undercard, would be. For reference, some 360,000 people watched the Diaz-McGregor press conference. Only 30,000 watched this week's UFC 200 presser without McGregor.

The UFC will surely try to make up this difference with a huge marketing effort and a push to get Jones and Cormier, along with Miesha Tate and Frankie Edgar, placed with mainstream media outlets.

Pay-per-view, of course, is just one aspect of the UFC's business. They're holding steady with their ratings on Fox—per MMA Fighting's Dave Meltzer, the last three events on the major network have all been within spitting distance of the last two years' shows—while making serious progress on Fox Sports 1.

The January event featuring Dominick Cruz and T.J. Dillashaw was the second-biggest UFC show on the network, per Meltzer. The recent Fight Night headlined by Junior dos Santos and Ben Rothwell more than doubled what last year's Chad Mendes vs. Ricardo Lamas card had done.

There's no escaping the simple fact, however, that Rousey and McGregor are the promotion's bankable pay-per-view stars. Now more than ever, the UFC's consumers are buying stardom rather than the UFC brand when they have to fork over $59.95. This is a shift Silva and St-Pierre embodied back in 2013.

It's just more noticeable now, and Conor McGregor won't let anybody forget it.

 

All estimates of pay-per-view buys come from MMAPayout.com, which compiles totals in its Pay-Per-View Blue Book from Dave Meltzer's subscription Wrestling Observer Newsletter with Meltzer's permission.  

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Lance Palmer Discusses Why He Lost His Title, and Isn't Leaving Team Alpha Male

Things are a lot sunnier in Lance Palmer Land now than they were four months ago.

December 18 wasn’t exactly a banner day for The Party. He came out flat and stayed that way, losing his World Series of Fighting featherweight title to underdog Alexandre Almeida in a close judges’ decision that some observers believed was a made in error.

After the fight, Palmer (10-2) agreed with that assessment. But he wasn’t done. He lobbed some scalding words at Team Alpha Male, the California gym where Palmer trains and that, at the time, was reeling from the defections of top charges T.J. Dillashaw and Joseph Benavidez.

The team, Palmer said, wasn’t giving him the education and support he needed to evolve. Would the four-time All-American wrestler be the next star to leave the Alpha Male stable? In the moment, a visibly frustrated Palmer left the question open.

But now it’s April. The sun is back, flowers are blooming, bees are buzzing and Lance Palmer is in a much better mood. During a recent phone interview, Palmer was analytical about mistakes he says he made during (and before) his title loss and eager for his upcoming rematch with Almeida.

He also had conciliatory words for Team Alpha Male, where a new coaching staff, Palmer said, have him rededicated to the camp.

“I said some things I shouldn’t have said,” Palmer said in an exclusive interview with Bleacher Report. “It was a time when things weren’t going well. And that had to be figured out, and we figured it out. Things are going in the right direction now.”

A trio of UFC veterans from the Alpha Male stable—head coach Justin Buchholz, wrestling instructor Danny Castillo and grappling instructor Chris Holdsworth—have solidified the camp’s coaching roster, Palmer said. Along with boxing coach Joey Rodriguez and trainer Thonglor “Master Thong” Armatsena, not only is the actual training better, but the burden on fighters to educate their teammates is substantially lighter. Founded by Urijah Faber as a “co-op” without a formal coaching structure, the onus was, in large part, on fighters to instruct one another, even orchestrating and overseeing practice sessions for others on top of their on training.

According to Palmer, that philosophy remains to a point, but with the new coaches has come some much-needed structure. As a result, Palmer said he is now happy with Team Alpha Male and is no longer thinking about going elsewhere.

“Their sole purpose is to help people get better,” Palmer said of the coaches. “They focus on bringing up the newcomers. … When you’re solely devoted on coaching others, you can put 110 percent into that. … We’re doing things correctly as a team. Before, after [former coach] Duane Ludwig left, we were trying to train and run practice. But now if you’re a fighter, instead of having to run a whole practice, you can just do it in tidbits.”

Start the week off right! Attack the day. @TeamAlphaMale vs 🌍 http://pic.twitter.com/T30vvrCZZI

— Lance Palmer (@LancePalmer) April 18, 2016

The net result of this for Palmer is that he can focus entirely on his rematch with Almeida, which Palmer said is scheduled for July 30. The key factor in his loss wasn’t the judges, Palmer said, but rather an overextension of himself, both in training camp and in his outside-the-cage duties leading up to fight night.

“I think I did enough to win, but I’m not mad about it,” he said. “I was probably a little overtrained, and I didn’t get enough rest.”

The reason for his restlessness? Cornering commitments for three UFC teammates—Faber, Paige VanZant and Chad Mendes, to be exact—in Las Vegas just days before his own fight with Almeida.

“I always have my teammates’ back, and I loved to be there and do it for them,” Palmer said. “But it probably was not the best timing. … I went to Vegas, came back, then came right back to Vegas.”

Now, though, he said he’s corrected the issues, having learned the hard way to listen to his body more closely. The proof will be in the pudding July 30.

“We don’t have that team squabble going on. That was a rough time, but we got through that as a team,” Palmer said. “I’m kind of obsessed about this [rematch]. I’m getting my massages and getting my rest. Last time I didn’t go out with the intensity. Next time, I’m going to open up out there.”

Scott Harris writes about MMA for Bleacher Report. For more stuff like this, follow Scott on Twitter. All quotes obtained firsthand.

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Dana White Says Conor McGregor Responsible for UFC 200 Withdrawal

Conor McGregor only has himself to blame for missing out on UFC 200, according to company boss Dana White.

The Irishman’s bout with Nate Diaz was scrapped from the bill after he decided not to fulfil press obligations, with a new main event—a rematch between Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones—announced instead.

White, speaking at a New York press conference on Wednesday, said he had no choice but to take the Notorious off the card, per Ben Grounds of the MailOnline:

I didn't prevent Conor from fighting at UFC 200. Everybody, if you look at [last week's] press conference—Joanna Jedrzejczyk came in from Poland. Claudia Gadelha came in from Brazil. This is what we do. This is how it works.

I didn't prevent him from fighting at UFC 200. He knew what the deal was. I told him what the deal was. He opted to do that.

After announcing his retirement on Twitter, a subsequent statement from McGregor on his Facebook page stated he wanted to focus more on preparing for his fights and less on fulfilling the masses of media commitments.

Despite pressure to allow McGregor back onto the card for what is a landmark show for the UFC, White has stood firm in his insistence that competitors must promote their own fights. At this juncture, neither man seems willing to budge from their standpoint.

White also reiterated he has a lot of respect for the Notorious, suggesting the fight with Diaz will get done further down the line:

I've said it a million times: Conor asked to fight Nate Diaz and Conor wants to fight Nate Diaz. Conor doesn't back down from fights, man. One of the things that has made Conor popular and as big as he is, is this dude wants to fight. He comes to fight. He comes out guns blazing.

Conor is fun. Conor is a stud. I have a lot of respect for Conor. Conor and I just had—you know, you have to show up and do the PR. You have to do it.

White also revealed he did seek a compromise with McGregor, which was rejected. “I was willing to make sure there were things he needed to make it work,” he said, per Jacob Murtagh of the Daily Mirror. “Conor wouldn’t do it.”

It’s a dilemma for White and the company. Chamatkar Sandhu of MMA Junkie noted just how many fans McGregor can pull in:

The fighter’s own point of view is understandable. After all, having lost to Diaz at UFC 197, there’s little wrong with wanting to focus squarely on preparations for the rematch. McGregor has lofty ambitions to break new ground in the sport too, something which can only be achieved with a lot of tailored preparations.

White is in a tough position, though, as letting McGregor off the hook when it comes to promoting the fight would set a precedent for others to do the same. Plus, as MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani notes here, the UFC have shown they are willing to make certain sacrifices for its fighters:

This would be too much, though. Already there are sections of MMA fans who resent the way in which McGregor is catered for by the UFC and bending the rules for him again would give those cries of bias further clout. White, as the boss of the company, needs to ensure he preserves some authority.

UFC 200 may be worse off without McGregor’s vibrant personality and captivating fighting style, but whichever card he does fight Diaz on further down the line will be boosted significantly. So provided the Irishman competes again under the banner, it’s a win-win scenario for the UFC.

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10 UFC Fighters Who Have Fallen on Hard Times

Into every life, a little rain must fall. And sometimes the roof is a little leakier in MMA. 

Like a major league pitcher with a million dollar fastball, when a fighter's skills go, they go. Even when natural gifts are still fully in place, a bad night can easily turn into a bad year with the right (or wrong, I suppose) matchmaking.

It can be hard to deal with for fans, not to mention the fighters themselves. But that's the business, and everyone understands the risks, even if that doesn't make them easier to swallow once they come home to roost.

OK, enough idiom mixing. These are the active UFC fighters who have currently fallen on hard times. Since falls are worse when they occur from higher heights, most of these fighters are ex-champs or contenders. They are ranked mainly on performances inside the cage, as well as their career pinnacles compared with their current state of affairs. 

Finally, this isn't a list of fighters with the longest losing streaks. These are fighters whose careers have taken a fairly sharp turn for the worse in the relatively recent past.

Begin Slideshow

UFC 200: Jon Jones Is Loved, Daniel Cormier Is Hated & McGregor Is MIA? Uh, OK

After months of speculation and a week’s worth of utter chaos, UFC 200 finally got its main event on Wednesday and—hold on—let me make sure I have all this right…

Jon Jones is in, crashing the party at the last minute (no pun intended) to save the fight company from its own stubbornness with his much-ballyhooed rematch against Daniel Cormier for the disputed light heavyweight title.

Conor McGregor is out, after being unable to come to an agreement with the UFC on how many press conferences he would attend.

Also, Cormier is apparently the bad guy in all this. So, that’s going to take some getting used to.

Hold up, though, where’s Nate Diaz? Oh, he’s “on vacation” after refusing to make nice with his bosses and accept a fight with anyone besides McGregor? Cool. I’m glad some things never change:

The rest of this stuff is all sort of difficult to wrap my mind around.

Granted, the announcement that the Jones-Cormier rematch would serve as UFC 200’s new headliner on July 9 isn’t that surprising on its own. After Jones coasted past Ovince Saint Preux last weekend and it became clear the UFC wasn’t going to budge on its lockout of McGregor, there weren’t a ton of good alternatives.

You have to admit, though, it represents a startling, full-circle turnaround for all three of these dudes.

For starters, just think where Jones was almost exactly a year ago.

In mid-April 2015, he had just fled the scene of a car accident in his hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Jones was about to turn himself in to police on felony hit-and-run charges, which prompted the UFC to strip him of his title and place him on a suspension that at the time was termed “indefinite.”

In a larger sense, Jones was viciously—and perhaps unfairly—unpopular with a certain segment of MMA fans. He was already just a couple of months removed from the revelation he’d tested positive for cocaine during the lead-up to his win over Cormier at UFC 182, and it felt as though he had never emerged from the long shadow of UFC 151’s cancellation back in 2012.

He was the best fighter in the world, but he just couldn’t get it together outside the Octagon. Even if he did, he was never going to be Mr. Popularity.

Fast-forward 365-ish days and here Jones is, potentially the savior of the UFC’s biggest fight card of the year, poised to be (along with Jim Miller) one of only two athletes to appear at both UFCs 100 and 200, as well as on the verge of regaining his championship.

Is it possible Jones comes out of all this as—gasp!—a fan favorite? That would be perhaps the strangest development of all.

Meanwhile, an equally comprehensive change may also be afoot for McGregor, though arguably in the opposite direction.

He was the picture of a company man and was largely being heralded as the UFC’s next big star this time last year. He and featherweight champion Jose Aldo had just completed a gala “world tour” for their scheduled fight at UFC 189, and the entire industry was riding high on McGregor Mania.

Aldo would ultimately pull out of that meeting with an injury, only to be knocked stiff in 13 seconds by McGregor at UFC 194.

All seemed right with the Irishman’s world. Mystic Mac and the UFC, it appeared, would go on making beautiful music together for the foreseeable future.

Now? Things are a lot more uncertain.

UFC President Dana White has been careful not to bury McGregor since the fighter abruptly announced his retirement on Twitter last week. Even as the dispute between the athlete and the organization becomes clearer, White continues to insist that he and McGregor are on good terms and that the featherweight champion will fight soon at an upcoming event.

"Conor's his own guy, he's going to do what he's going to do but he's not fighting on [UFC] 200,” White told TMZ Wednesday, per Yahoo Sports' Andreas Hale. “Listen, he'll fight on 201, 202, 203, whatever, I don't know when, but we'll get it figured out."

That's all fine and good, but I'd be surprised if the two guys will be taking any more Ferrari rides together in the near future. And as for McGregor’s fans? Many are obviously sticking by him, though after the misinformation and PR mistakes of the last week, you could understand if some people are feeling a little fed up with the guy at the moment.

Then you have Cormier, who appears to have switched places with Jones in the court of public opinion so completely that the story of their rivalry might as well be another Freaky Friday remake.

A year ago, Cormier was one of the more universally loved figures in the light heavyweight division. He was the thoughtful veteran with the inspiring personal story—a budding TV personality who merely had the tough luck to come along at the same time as the greatest 205-pounder ever.

Something changed for DC after the UFC stripped Jones of the title. When Cormier fought and defeated Anthony Johnson to seize control of the vacant championship at UFC 187, people met the accomplishment mostly with scorn.

Jones never lost the title inside the cage, so many fans saw Cormier as an illegitimate champion. Much of the political capital he previously enjoyed seemed to disappear along with the victory.

On Wednesday, Jones' home state of New York welcomed him back as a conquering hero for the first press conference since the rematch was officially confirmed for July. Cormier spent the presser getting booed out of the building.

So, that’s different.

With all this topsy-turvy change underway, it’s getting hard to know what to believe in. Times were so much simpler a year ago when all these men appeared content to just go on playing their well-established roles in the UFC.

Jones was the unpopular MMA genius.

Cormier was the likable perennial runner-up.

McGregor was the promotional wunderkind.

Spin things forward to the present day and the only constant has proved to be change.

And Nate Diaz.

At least we’ll always have Diaz.

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Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier 2: Key Takeaways from UFC 200 Press Conference

A formal announcement by the UFC on Wednesday confirmed Jon "Bones" Jones and Daniel Cormier will headline UFC 200 on July 9 in Las Vegas, and both fighters exuded the utmost confidence in their respective capabilities to earn the title of undisputed light heavyweight champion.    

Speaking to reporters in New York, Jones and Cormier flashed their trademark bravado on the heels of Bones' unanimous-decision victory over Ovince Saint Preux last Saturday at UFC 197. 

However, it was Jones who came out swinging with some pointed verbal jams for the man he dispatched by unanimous decision at UFC 182 last January, as documented by UFC on Twitter:  

Jones also explained why he doesn't believe Cormier is elite despite the fact the 37-year-old owns a 17-1 record all-time, according to MMAFighting.com's Shaun Al-Shatti:

DC should have a lot of confidence; Outside of me, he's the next best thing. He can beat these other guys. He can't beat me. I don't believe greatness is coincidence, and I don't believe DC is great. 

If he was great, he would've beaten Cael Sanderson in college. If he was great, he would've made weight in the Olympics. If he was great, he would've beaten me the first time. I've never lost a fight. So let him be confident. He can beat these other guys all day. He's not beating me.

Cormier, though, was armed with a counterpunch as he outlined his plan of attack for revenge in advance of the rematch, via UFC on Twitter (warning: NSFW language): 

The two also sparred over their respective efforts against Alexander Gustafsson—whom Jones defeated by unanimous decision at UFC 165 and Cormier defeated by split decision at UFC 192 despite failing to take him down. 

"The moment Gustafsson walked out of the Octagon with you, he called for a rematch," Cormier said, per Al-Shatti. "He's never asked to fight me again. When I get my hands on this guy, watch, you'll see a difference."

And while Cormier reportedly said Jones wasn't able to do more damage against him than Gustafsson did during their last fight, the 28-year-old shot back with a succinct reply. 

"Oh yes I did," Jones said, according to Al-Shatti. "I made you cry."

"Last time, I foot swept you and held my hand on your head like you're my b---h," Jones said, per Al-Shatti. "And this is the guy who's supposed to be the Olympian. Come on, man. DC, you suck, bro. You call me a bum. I beat you four rounds to one. It wasn't even close. You're not even my toughest opponent. You're chump change."

And, as always, the two engaged in a staredown for the cameras, as documented by MMAFighting on YouTube:

As Wednesday's press conference demonstrated, tensions are rising between Jones and Cormier.

Not only do the two share a past, but they're undoubtedly itching to trade blows in the Octagon once again after Cormier's appearance at UFC 197 was derailed by a leg injury, according to MMAFighting.com's Dave Doyle. 

And with more than two months remaining before they're slated to clash, the war of words between Jones and Cormier assuredly isn't over.  

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Ronda Rousey Reportedly Agrees to 3-Movie Deal with Lifetime Network

UFC superstar Ronda Rousey reportedly reached an agreement with the Lifetime Network on a three-picture movie deal with a focus on empowerment projects.   

Denise Petski of Deadline first reported the news on Wednesday. Damon Martin of Fox Sports noted Rousey is going to develop and produce the features but "from the sound of things" isn't currently expected to play the starring roles.

The deal is to "bring stories that reflect her passions about empowerment to the screen," according to the Deadline report. No further information about the films was immediately released, though.

Rousey skyrocketed to stardom during during the 11-0 start to her MMA career, which featured a string of dominant performances. Only once during that stretch did her opponent survive the first round, and nine times she finished the fight within the first round.

Not only did that run of success make her one of the UFC's biggest draws, but it also opened the door to opportunities outside of the Octagon. That included appearances in Hollywood films such as The Expendables 3, Furious 7 and Entourage.

More recently, the 29-year-old California native was chosen to star in a remake of Road House and hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live.

Rousey lost her first career fight to Holly Holm back in November by second-round knockout. Even before that defeat, however, she was talking about getting away from the sport for a while, as she explained in an interview with Mike Bohn of Rolling Stone:

I would like to wait until UFC 200 to fight again. I'm going to be filming [movies] in the meantime, so I'm still going to be keeping busy. When I'm filming it's kind of weird, I'm on camera the whole time, but nothing really goes out until a year or two later. It is kind of like disappearing in a way.

The timeline has changed since those comments, though. Artem Safarov of SB Nation's Bloody Elbow noted UFC President Dana White said during an interview on ESPN last month that she isn't scheduled to make her return until "October or November." UFC 200 is set for July 9.

Clearly, Rousey is keeping her promise to stay busy during her time away from the UFC, though. She generated a lot of mainstream appeal while crushing opponent after opponent in the Octagon, and despite the loss, she's turned that into new ventures.

So, while MMA fans eagerly await her comeback, inking the deal with the Lifetime Network will allow Rousey to pursue her other passions in the meantime.

 

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Conor McGregor Reportedly Offered $2m to Fight on Fedor vs. Maldonado Card

Conor McGregor has reportedly received a lucrative offer to fight Rasul Mirzaev in the undercard of Fedor Emelianenko's heavyweight bout with Fabio Maldonado at Fight Nights Global on June 17.

Bloody Elbow's Karim Zidan relayed the news from Russian MMA journalist Alexey Safonov on Wednesday:

The Irishman's fight with Nate Diaz at UFC 200 in July has been pulled after he failed to fulfil his contractual obligations to travel to Las Vegas to promote the event. Despite McGregor tweeting on Sunday the fight was back on, UFC president Dana White told Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times that nothing had changed regarding his involvement.

On Wednesday, it was confirmed the headline event at UFC 200 will now be Daniel Cormier's second clash with Jon Jones, with MMA reporter Mike Bohn impressed with the explosive undercard also:

According to Zidan, Fight Nights could afford to pay McGregor the aforementioned major sum, but with Notorious still contracted to the UFC, the move is little more than a PR stunt:

Per TMZ Sports (h/t FS1), White expects McGregor to fight for the UFC again sometime soon after UFC 200:

As MMA Junkie's Chamatkar Sandhu noted, Notorious is now of such a high profile he can still dominate the attention of media and fans alike:

As the sport's star attraction, the UFC can ill afford a long-running absence from McGregor, and as White indicated, it seems they will be looking to get him back in action as quickly as possible after 200.

Whether the offer to fight Mirzaev is a PR move or not, it demonstrates the hype and purse the 27-year-old can now command.

Further, it gives him lucrative alternatives should he ever turn his back on UFC entirely—something that isn't beyond the realms of possibility if his dispute with the organisation over his promotional duties and lack of involvement at UFC 200 continues into the long term.  

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Daniel Cormier vs. Jon Jones 2: Early Odds for UFC 200 Main Event

UFC officially announced Wednesday that the rematch between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier for the light heavyweight championship is set to headline UFC 200 in July.

The highly anticipated clash replaces another rematch, Nate Diaz vs. Conor McGregor, as the main event after McGregor's retirement saga. Odds Shark passed along the early odds as Jones looks to pick up another victory over Cormier after winning the first bout by unanimous decision:

Jones and Cormier were originally scheduled to face off at UFC 197 last week. The light heavyweight champion was forced to pull out with a foot injury, however, so Jones fought Ovince Saint Preux for the interim belt instead and eased to victory by unanimous decision.

That triumph marked the 28-year-old New York native's first bout since his initial battle with Cormier 15 months prior. In between, he went through a series of highly publicized personal issues that kept him away from the Octagon.

Jones wasn't anywhere close to his best against Saint Preux, who merely didn't have enough weapons to compete with a top-tier opponent, even one dealing with rust after an extended break. He'll need to improve markedly in order to score a second straight win over his rival. 

Cormier certainly didn't come away from that fight impressed, per Damon Martin of Fox Sports:

He got the job done. A lot of times most guys they don't have their best performance, they lose, they don't get it done. So it shows how special Jon is.

With that being said, very disappointed that I didn't get to compete tonight because I do believe if he showed up in the form that he did tonight or if this is the new Jon Jones, there's no way that guy can beat me.

Now the MMA world is going to get a chance to find out if that forecast from the 37-year-old veteran is accurate. He won the vacant title with an impressive submission victory over Anthony Johnson while Jones was away and backed it up by beating the powerful Alexander Gustafsson by split decision.

Although UFC went through a period of turmoil while McGregor was claiming retirement and Cormier's status was unclear due to injury, it appears everything is going to work out in the end. Jones against Cormier in a unification bout is a rock-solid fight to headline the marquee event.

The biggest question will be which version of Jones shows up in Las Vegas on July 9. The one who looked beatable against Saint Preux or the formerly dominant champion who owned the light heavyweight division for years. The answer will likely determine who walks out as the champ.

 

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Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier 2 Announced for UFC 200: Full Match Card, Reaction

After pulling Conor McGregor from the card, the UFC needed to do something drastic to ensure UFC 200 would live up to its status as one of the most highly anticipated pay-per-views of 2016. The company received a lifeline in the form of a rematch between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier.

Good Morning America confirmed Wednesday the two will face off on July 9:

Jones, who won the first fight between the two, thinks he's capable of triumphing easily once again:

Cormier, the current light heavyweight champion, is happy he has a chance to avenge the loss, per MMAFighting.com's Ariel Helwani:

With the main event now sorted out, the UFC has finalized the main card, although Nate Diaz, who was originally set to face McGregor, still doesn't have an opponent:

McGregor was originally booked to headline UFC 200 with the Stockton, California, fighter. A disagreement about how much promotional work he'd do for the event led to his self-imposed exile.

McGregor is the UFC's biggest star—as shown by the massive reaction to and coverage of his standoff with the company. Nothing the company could do in response to his removal from the UFC 200 card could match having him in the main event. With that said, Jones vs. Cormier II comes close.

The two were originally supposed to fight at UFC 197, but Cormier suffered an injury in training and pulled out of the fight. Jones instead fought Ovince Saint Preux, winning a unanimous decision. It was his return to the Octagon following an indefinite suspension issued in April 2015 as a result of his involvement in a hit-and-run in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

On Jan. 3, 2015, Jones and Cormier fought at UFC 182, with the former earning a unanimous-decision victory. Cormier was a game challenger early in the fight, but the gulf between the two grew the longer the bout went on. Although Jones was the clear winner, he and Cormier were close enough that the UFC could realistically argue a rematch was warranted.

In addition, some might question whether Jones remains at the fighting level he maintained during his previous run as light heavyweight champion. He looked rusty against Saint Preux, which, to a certain extent, was to be expected after his year-plus layoff:

"I wonder if this is the new Jon," Cormier said after the fight, per ESPN.com's Brett Okamoto. "That guy that fought tonight? That guy does not beat me."

That doubt about Jones provides just enough belief that Cormier can avenge his defeat.

From a commercial perspective, the UFC had little other recourse than to fast-track this fight. The company is starved for headline-grabbing clashes, especially with McGregor at a standoff and Ronda Rousey's Hollywood commitments taking up more and more of her time. The UFC couldn't afford to pass on Jones and Cormier, who seem to have a genuine dislike of each other:

In a March interview on Tiki and Tierney (via FoxSports.com's Elias Cepeda), Jones explained how their hostility is strictly professional:

I definitely don't hate the guy. We don't like each other because we're both really elite in our sport. We're at the highest level you can get when it comes to being a UFC fighter. He's only lost to me. I've never lost to anyone. So I know that he's a capable guy [who could] possibly defeat me. He knows that I can defeat him because I've already done it. There's just a competitiveness there that only we can bring out of each other.

And even if a certain amount of their competitive rivalry is staged and played up for the cameras, they do a good enough job of creating an entertaining spectacle that it doesn't matter. Take as Exhibit A their post-interview reaction on a 2014 edition of SportsCenter, via Greg Howard of Deadspin (Warning: link contains NSFW language):

Even without the addition of Jones vs. Cormier, diehard UFC fans were going to buy UFC 200; the company did its best to stack the card from top to bottom. Pitting the two light heavyweights against each other gives UFC a chance to grab the more casual followers who didn't plan on watching the PPV or were on the fence about it.

The next few months should be an entertaining ride as Jones and Cormier exchange verbal barbs before stepping into the Octagon.

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Dana White Slammed by Don Frye over Conor McGregor's UFC 200 Spot

UFC veteran Don Frye thinks Dana White is in the wrong when it comes to the Conor McGregor dispute, which has seen the Irishman removed from the main event at UFC 200.

McGregor refused to fulfil his press obligations ahead of the summer showpiece, which has long been anticipated to be one of the biggest occasions in the sport’s history, and his bout with Nate Diaz has been subsequently scrapped.

Speaking with Submission Radio (h/t Adam Guillen Jr. of MMA Mania), Frye reckons the UFC boss must shoulder the blame:

When you're training for a fight it's a 24/7 job, and if they got you doing more interviews and promoting than they do fighting, well then you're not going to last long. You're not going to have a long career. How do I say this without being rude? I guess I can't, so I'll piss on it. You know, Dana likes everything his way and if he doesn't get his way he throws a fit, and that's what's happening. You know, and Conor's spot on, man. You can't spend more time doing interviews than training. This is a dangerous sport, okay? And the thing is, it went from a fight to a sport to a TV show. And it's still a dangerous thing.

Here’s Frye’s interview with Submission Radio in full, in which he also encourages White to seek a compromise with McGregor in order to get him back in the main event. *Warning, NSFW language*:

Previously, Frye, who fought seven times under the UFC banner in 1996, has accused White of having “ruined the sport”, per Sherdog’s Savage Dog Show.

Diaz and McGregor were set for a much anticipated rematch in the summer. The former sprung a big surprise to get the better of the Notorious at UFC 196, choking out his illustrious opponent in the second round of his welterweight debut. An immediate shot at redemption for the Irishman would have made for captivating viewing.

McGregor took to social media earlier this week to claim he was back on the card for UFC 200, although those suggestions were dismissed by White when TMZ caught up with him. Diaz himself then cast further doubts over this one going ahead, stating on Twitter that he’s off on holiday.

It’s a story that has hooked the attention of MMA fans around the world. FloSports’ Jeremy Botter summed up just how much clout McGregor has when it comes to social media:

UFC finds itself in a no-win situation. There will be pressures from plenty, like Frye, to reinstate the Notorious in the main event, and an undeniable temptation to give in to his demands when considering the lucrative benefits of getting him the bill. However, that’d be a lot of ammunition for those who accuse the company of pandering to McGregor as it is.

Either way, it leaves the preparations for UFC 200 in disarray. Many fans of the sport have been looking forward to the July date for so long and now, what many considered to be an underwhelming card already, has been robbed of its main event.

Frankie Edgar, who will fight Jose Aldo on the night, feels that had McGregor beaten Diaz last time out, this ongoing saga may not have existed, per ESPN MMA:

It’s going to be fascinating to see how things pan out between now and UFC 200. McGregor seems intent on playing games, stirring up the fans and heaping pressure on White to get him back on the biggest show of the year. Should other figures, like Frye, continue to side with the featherweight champion, it’ll be harder to resist for the UFC boss.

Still, White will maintain that every competitor has a duty to promote their fights, and McGregor’s own reputation has been forged by the platform the company has given him to build his cult of personality. Allowing a fighter to opt out of such obligations when it suits would set a dangerous precedent.    

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