UFC/MMA in 2016

Phragle

wild card bitches
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Jan 1, 2009
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Carmine's closet
I don't have a place right now. I just saw ppl on Twitter discussing that some places have LR minus 1000-1200 and some have him minus 400-600
 

Infield Infidel

teaching korea american
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Jul 15, 2005
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So Ariel Helwani breaks that Brock Lesnar is returning for UFC 200, then UFC security escorts Helwani and other people from MMAFighting.com out of the arena, takes their credentials, and tells them they are banned for life. the others were a photographer and videographer who weren't even involved in the Lesnar report. Way to take away from Bisping's night. Helwani is one of the biggest, most respected reporters in MMA. His weekly show is huge. Until a few months ago, he also worked for UFC, and was a commenter on set for many events. This is really shitty, I can't wait till Zuffa sells.
 
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rembrat

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May 26, 2006
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How is Bisping a champion? That dude was a can 3 years ago. I don't want to say PEDs but... PEDs.
 

Zomp

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Yeah Rockhold didn't look like he wanted to be there. We noticed it as he was walking out.


GREAT great card. I've only been watching for a few years but that is the best event I've seen.
 

Phragle

wild card bitches
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Jan 1, 2009
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Carmine's closet
So Ariel Helwani breaks that Brock Lesnar is returning for UFC 200, then UFC security escorts Helwani and other people from MMAFighting.com out of the arena, takes their credentials, and tells them they are banned for life. the others were a photographer and videographer who weren't even involved in the Lesnar report. Way to take away from Bisping's night. Helwani is one of the biggest, most respected reporters in MMA. His weekly show is huge. Until a few months ago, he also worked for UFC, and was a commenter on set for many events. This is really shitty, I can't wait till Zuffa sells.
That's so fucked. This is like Goodell's NFL if he had even more power. I hope he's not banned. Whatever that means.

It's also a little weird that we don't know Lesnar's opponent. Idk if he has been training, but if he hasn't been this seems like one of those freak show Kimbo fights. I think all the "good" heavyweights are scheduled already. I saw Josh Barnett angling for it, and I'm not sure there are many left. JDS and Arlovski?

How is Bisping a champion? That dude was a can 3 years ago. I don't want to say PEDs but... PEDs.
When you take the PEDs away from everyone, the clean guys perform like they're on PEDs

I don't think so. I think it was simply Rockhold taking him for granted. Being overconfident.
Yeah. 185 is so thin right now I wonder what they do next. Jacare has to be the favorite, I think. I'd give it to Tim Kennedy, but I', a fanboy and I think he's serving right now.
 
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Mueller's Twin Grannies

critical thinker
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Dec 19, 2009
9,386
UFC was PISSED about the Lesnar news getting out. Threw Ariel Helwani and his crew out of UFC 199 before the main event and pulled his press credentials for breaking the story. According to his Twitter account, he's been banned for life and is taking it kind of hard.
 

Pxer

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Amazing card. The past year has been killer for the UFC. Now that we've got McGregor-Diaz 2 booked, and Lesnar is added to 200, and the MSG card in the pipeline, things look good for the rest of the year, too.

The Helwani stuff is terrible, unless for some reason the UFC dropped this info on him and told him not to leak it, which I highly, highly doubt. Helwani is really good at his job.
 

Marciano490

Urological Expert
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Nov 4, 2007
62,312
Amazing card. The past year has been killer for the UFC. Now that we've got McGregor-Diaz 2 booked, and Lesnar is added to 200, and the MSG card in the pipeline, things look good for the rest of the year, too.

The Helwani stuff is terrible, unless for some reason the UFC dropped this info on him and told him not to leak it, which I highly, highly doubt. Helwani is really good at his job.
That can't be it; Dana was accusing him of having a mole.
 

Infield Infidel

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http://awfulannouncing.com/2016/ariel-helwanis-ufc-ban-still-creating-waves-throughout-industry.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Man Helwani is everywhere today, Dan Patrick, Dan LeBetard, Yahoo, SI. Also coincidentally on Jonah Keri's podcast which was taped before the weekend.

Helwani confirmed on Patrick that Fox dropped him because UFC told them to. He had been covering up for Fox and UFC by saying it was a mutual departure. Also said Lorenzo Fertitta made the call to ban him.

Dana accused him of having a mole, told him to "Go cover Bellator". Helwani says he confirmed both Lesnar and McGregor stories with at least two sources each, and said

“I never go off one source anyway, so I guess they’re saying now there are two moles,” Helwani said. “But with God as my witness, there is no ‘mole.’ Honestly, I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around this. I’m almost embarrassed because people are saying, ‘You’re standing up for journalism.’

“I’m not doing any great investigative journalism here. This is not ground-breaking stuff. I’m not going to win a Pulitzer for this.”
 

mikeford

woolwich!
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Aug 6, 2006
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Kudos to Brock for agreeing to fight someone who could do serious damage. I'm sure if he wanted a can for his return, they'd have arranged it.
 

Infield Infidel

teaching korea american
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This is gripping TV. I've caught this show a couple times, but damn, he's really breaking it down. It's really emotional

edit - serious tears - he said maybe taking the Fox gig was flying too close to the sun
said Rich Eisen asked if he'd cover something else, he said he's not going anywhere. That his family was kicked out of their country and settled in Canada, they didn't back down so neither is he.
 
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Vinho Tinto

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For a guy who has the well crafted persona of being a non-nonsense Alpha Male, it's unsurprising to see Dana White can be reduced to being a corporate weasel. On one hand, he's saying that Ariel will never get a credential as long as he is with UFC, but to Ariel's face he claims that this is Lorenzo's decision. I've seen people on social media suggesting that ESPN should look into bringing him on board. Sure, if there's one thing ESPN has shown recently is that they want reporters who will ruffle feathers.
 

Marciano490

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Nov 4, 2007
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Man, I remember watching his youtube clips back in the day. Dude was scary. I still laugh at that fight he had with Officer Smiley though.
 

Vinho Tinto

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Sounds like the UFC is more wrong here but even from Helwani's side of the story you can see he made mistakes
He compromised himself by taking checks from UFC, but frankly, when seeing him on broadcasts and UFC Tonight I assumed he was a UFC employee. The primary aspect of this story for me is that the UFC still has a strong strain of being a small time operation, despite being an international operation. The story of him being choked by UFC security is even beneath Goodell (Or is it?). In the press release where they rescind the ban, they are still holding their moral high ground of banning him for doing his job.
 

Pxer

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I'm on Team Helwani for sure here, but credit to the UFC for reacting to the backlash and quickly lifting the ban.
 

Infield Infidel

teaching korea american
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Caught the last round of Fedor/Maldonado, Fedor more or less dominated that round, and won by majority decision. According to twitter, he got sloppy in the first and took a lot of damage
 

Pxer

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Was it just me or was the Wonderboy/Rory fight a total snoozefest? I'm glad Wonderboy will get his shot now, but I expected bigger things from that matchup.

Interesting to see how long Rory's negotiations last now that he is out of contract. Coming off a bad performance isn't going to help the cause. I hope he doesn't go the Bellator route.
 

Infield Infidel

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Yeah it wasn't great. Ring rust made Rory look even more robotic than usual. Thompson mainly wanted to keep it on the feet anyway. Rory also got his nose broken again.

Rest of the card was a bit better. Cowboy TKOd Patrick Cote, which no one had done before. At women's 125, Calderwood/Letourneau was interesting in that it should have been stopped since Letourneau turned around to quit after big body shots, leaving herself defenseless three times but the ref kept it going. think she also had an apparel malfunction. She took a lot of shots after she tried to quit and the ref didn't stop it. It was frankly uncomfortable to watch. Anyway, I'd never seen Calderwood before but she's got serious knees and kicks.
 

kelpapa

Costanza's Hero
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Feb 15, 2010
4,637
There has been nothing confirmed by the UFC, but there are some reports from Jeremy Botter that the UFC sold for $4.2B.

Multiple sources confirmed with FloCombat on Monday afternoon that a bid of $4.2 billion from a group consisting of WME-IMG, the Dalian Wanda Group, The Kraft Group and Tencent Holdings was accepted by Zuffa brass. While this does not mean the entire company is officially sold, it is a strong likelihood that the sale will be completed shortly.
 

Gunfighter 09

wants to be caribou ken
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Was it just me or was the Wonderboy/Rory fight a total snoozefest? I'm glad Wonderboy will get his shot now, but I expected bigger things from that matchup.

Interesting to see how long Rory's negotiations last now that he is out of contract. Coming off a bad performance isn't going to help the cause. I hope he doesn't go the Bellator route.

Yep, snoozefest. I hope Rory stays in the UFC, but if he leaves, I would love to see him fight Askren and give us a gauge for just how good Ben is.

I also think Cowboy should stay at 170, he looked awesome. This is the second straight fight where he has looked faster to the punch and much slicker on the ground than a big 170.
 

Zomp

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This blows. Fucking Jones. He's out two years minimum but I wouldn't be surprised if UFC bans him for life. He's not going to be the money fight in two years time.

Hopefully they can work something out and Cormier can still fight. There is a line of guys wanting to get on this fight. Let Bisping take it. Fuck it.
 

Infield Infidel

teaching korea american
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Holy hell does it suck. I'm going to reserve judgement on Jones because there have been some testing fiascos in the past couple years. Yoel Romero had a two year ban reduced to six months because a PED in a supplement wasn't on the label. But if he took something for real Jones is huge dummy.