Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Check out a full recap of 2020’s most significant footnotes and milestones from the events, the fights and individual performances.
Now that the year has come to a close, and with a major assist from UFC research analyst and live statistics producers Michael Carroll, here are some of 2020’s most significant milestones from the events, the fights and individual performances.
Ahead of his main event Saturday, watch Aleksei Oleinik’s finish over Maurice Greene at UFC 246.
[autotag]Aleksei Oleinik[/autotag] continues to prove why he’s one of the most dangerous submission artists in the sport.
Oleinik (59-13-1 MMA, 8-4 UFC) faced [autotag]Maurice Greene[/autotag] at UFC 246 looking to avoid the first three-fight losing skid of his career.
It’s no secret Oleinik wanted to take the fight to the mat, and he did just that when he dragged Greene down straight into back mount. He transitioned into side control, but Greene actively defended from bottom, using a triangle choke attempt to get back up. But Oleinik took him right back down and transitioned into a deep scarf hold. Greene toughed out of it to survive the round.
In Round 2, Greene came out aggressively and landed several combinations on Oleinik. Both men were visibly tired, but Oleinik walked through Greene’s strikes, stacked him against the cage and took him down. After dropping some ground and pound, Oleinik moved to mount once again. But this time, he grabbed hold of Greene’s arm to secure the armbar for the submission win.
Oleinik returns Saturday when he meets Derrick Lewis (23-7 MMA, 14-5 UFC) in the UFC on ESPN+ 32 headliner. The event takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
Before he faces Lewis, relive Oleinik’s finish over Greene in the video above.
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It’s been almost three months since Conor McGregor finished Donald Cerrone at UFC 246, but that doesn’t mean “The Notorious” has stopped admiring his work.
It’s been almost three months since [autotag]Conor McGregor[/autotag] finished Donald Cerrone at UFC 246, but that doesn’t mean “The Notorious” has stopped admiring his work.
In an Instagram post on Sunday, McGregor (22-4 MMA, 10-2 UFC) issued a lengthy statement which analyzed his Jan. 18 performance, as well as his overall striking development. A highlight video of his victory over Cerrone was posted alongside the captioned breakdown.
“Lately atop my striking, I’ve been striking them where they believe they can’t be struck also,” McGregor wrote. “And with shots they don’t understand to be shots. Look at the range of limbs and bone joints I strike with here alone. The hip. The bone of the clavicle, the infamous collar bone! The knee. The foot. The fist (both). A lovely array.”
The caption continued with Ireland’s McGregor offering up advice to the “kids.” Well, sort of.
“That will be all kids now take down your notes and your homework tonight is… enter a cold bath,” McGregor wrote. “As cold as it possibly is, you do not need ice. Get in the water and then dip your head under fully and until you need to come up for air. Repeat this over and over until you can stay under for 2 minutes fully. Then Get out. Look at yourself in the mirror, And give your self two full clatters into the teeth. You silly novices, back to bed. Just kidding.”
McGregor concluded, “Respect to all the students of the game. Always remember that if it moves, you are focused on the wrong thing. Stay ready, and most importantly, stay in school.”
McGregor has not competed since his January bout. With the UFC on hiatus due to the coronavirus outbreak, McGregor’s return timeline is currently unknown. Over the past few weeks, McGregor has utilized his social media to advocate for the implementation of stronger coronavirus safety measures.
Check out Conor McGregor’s full Instagram post below:
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It’s been more than two months since Andre Fili dropped a decision to Sodiq Yusuff, but the frustration still seems fresh.
It’s been more than two months since [autotag]Andre Fili[/autotag] dropped a unanimous decision to fast-rising prospect Sodiq Yusuff, but the frustration seems as fresh as the moment the judges’ scores were read.
“That one hurt bad, dude,” Fili told MMA Junkie. “I can’t lie. I can’t pretend like, ‘Oh yeah, you earn more from your losses.’ Man, (expletive) all that, dude. That hurt bad.”
Riding the high of a “Performance of the Night” win in his hometown six months earlier, Fili entered the UFC 246 clash with Yusuff brimming with confidence. A back-and-forth clash top open steered toward Yusuff’s favor in the second. Fili dug deep in the third, but it wasn’t enough, and Yusuff was awarded a decision win.
Fili said he did take lessons from the performance, but it doesn’t make the result sit any more comfortably in his mind.
“I thought I won the fight, but I also know I had a better fight in me, and had I of just fought to my potential, it wouldn’t have been – had the whole fight looked like the third round, there wouldn’t have been any doubt,” Fili said. “There wouldn’t have been any judges (expletive) it up or anything like that. Had I of finished the fight, there wouldn’t have been any bull(expletive), and that’s on me. That’s not anyone else.
“That’s the thing about fighting – the finality of it. I really believe I won that fight, but now forever, the record book will always just say I lost that fight. It won’t say, ‘Oh, I probably actually won rounds 1 and 3.’ Like, ‘Oh, a lot of people told me it was a robbery.’ None of that (expletive) matters. It’s just the record says that I lost. Dealing with that finality as a fighter is hard. You put your heart and soul into this (expletive), and then you’ve got to just face the fact that you put everything that you have into this thing, and it doesn’t work out. It hurts bad.”
A longtime member of California’s famed Team Alpha Male, Fili (20-7 MMA, 8-6 UFC) has shown flashes of his capabilities during a seven-year UFC run. But “Touchy” says he’s not interested in just competing in the sport’s biggest promotion. He has championship aspirations, and he knows every loss along the way sets back the timeline he wants to accomplish.
While some fighters can simply accept setbacks and move forward, Fili said that’s not the way he is wired.
“Unless you’ve chased something and put your entire soul into it and come up short, it’s hard to understand that losing a fight hurts like that,” Fili said. “But I’m excited to fight again. I love this (expletive). I’ll do this (expletive) until I can’t. I just want to make good on my potential. I want to, all the people who invested in me and stood by me who see the potential I have and see that I’m a world champion-caliber fighter and I have the potential, I want to make that investment worthwhile. For myself, I just want to get back in there and get a win.”
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The ongoing coronavirus pandemic means the UFC’s schedule is anything but a certainty moving forward. But Fili said he’s staying prepared for anything and would really like the opportunity to compete on the May 16 card currently scheduled to take place in his home state.
“I’m trying to get on that May 16 card in San Diego if that still happens, which I really hope to God it happens because it’s nice and close to home,” Fili said. “San Diego is a dope city. California fans are the (expletive) best. And I don’t really give a (expletive) about an opponent. I want to fight the best guys in the world.”
And beat them, of course.
Fili knows MMA fans can be fickle, with “What have you done for me lately?” a very clear concern. But a few months shy of his 30th birthday, Fili says he’s not concerned with the opinion of others. He knows what matters most.
“I genuinely just want to fight the best guys in the world, and I want to beat ’em,” Fili said. “I want to get my hand raised. I want to show everybody and show myself that I’m the best ’45er in the world. Like, I really believe that, and I know people will hear this and roll their eyes, and I know people will comment and talk (expletive) and tag me losing this – like, I know for a fact people are going to roll their eyes and talk (expletive) when I say I’m the best ’45er in the world, but I really believe that I am. I think I’ve shown flashes of it, and I just want to get back in there and really manifest and capitalize on this potential.
“I’ve been training with the best guys in the world. I’ve beaten some of the best guys in the world already. I just want to keep going.”
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Relive the 40 seconds it took for Conor McGregor to quickly dispatch Donald Cerrone.
It took [autotag]Conor McGregor[/autotag] only 40 seconds to announce his return with authority.
MMA’s biggest star, McGregor (22-4 MMA, 10-2 UFC) returned after a year-long layoff to take on fan favorite [autotag]Donald Cerrone[/autotag] in the UFC 246 main event Jan. 18, and it didn’t take long for the former UFC dual champion to get the job done.
McGregor took the fight to Cerrone from the opening. He charged forward with a big straight left hand, but after Cerrone ducked, McGregor proceeded to throw multiple shoulder strikes in the clinch that caused immediate damage to Cerrone’s nose.
After separating, McGregor landed a head kick that wobbled Cerrone. He followed that up with some ground-and-pound until referee Herb Dean waved it off.
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SportsCenter decided to relive the masterful 40 seconds displayed by McGregor on its Instagram page. You can watch the full fight below.
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Former UFC strawweight challenger Claudia Gadelha explained her frustration at missing out at UFC 246, and said she has two potential names in mind for her octagon return.
HOUSTON – Almost one month on from seeing her fight with Alexa Grasso scrapped by commission officials at UFC 246, [autotag]Claudia Gadelha[/autotag] is hoping to get fixed up with a matchup as soon as possible. But she knows she’ll have to be patient.
Speaking to MMA Junkie while on guest fighter duty at UFC 247, former strawweight title challenger Gadelha said the disappointment from missing out on fighting in Las Vegas on Jan. 18 still hasn’t subsided.
“I’m still a little sad, you know. I’m a fighter,” she explained. “But now I’m just waiting for the UFC to see what’s next. Trying to move forward, I can’t do much about what happened, so I’m just waiting now to see what happens next.”
Her scuttled bout with Alexa Grasso came when commission officials ruled that the weight difference between the pair was too big after Grasso failed to make weight for their strawweight matchup. Gadelha made weight with half a pound to spare, at 115.5 pounds, but Grasso came in later in the session and weighed 121.5. Gadelha accepted the fight regardless, but the commission nixed the context due to the six-pound weight disparity.
“Claudinha” said that the whole issue could have been avoided if Grasso or her camp had reached out to her when they realised she was having issues with her cut, but the Brazilian didn’t receive a call and only realized that Grasso was in trouble when she hit the scale later that morning.
“The whole thing was the commission, right?” she recalled. “Because in the strawweight division we couldn’t be more than three pounds heavier than each other. If she had communicated with us the day before, or even the morning of (the weigh-ins), even before we jumped on the scale, I would have just had a drink or something and we would have been the same weight. That’s where my frustration was, because we couldn’t make it happen. But I don’t think she wanted to fight. I think she didn’t feel good and she didn’t want to fight, so I hope if that happens again with any other fighter, they communicate and they find a way to try to make the fight happen.”
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Grasso has since reached out to Gadelha and told the Brazilian that she had concerns about her own health, while the UFC has been careful about immediately rebooking Gadelha to ensure she also stays healthy moving forward. Gadelha says she’d love to return faster, but she’s happy to be guided by the UFC.
“The next morning I was in the (UFC Performance Institute) doing all the tests to see if I was healthy enough to make weight again in another couple of weeks. The P.I. was fine with everything, but the UFC – Dana and the matchmakers – want me to wait a little more. So they took care of me, they paid me, I have a great relationship with the UFC, and now I’m just waiting to see what they want me to do. Of course I wanted to fight in the next couple of weeks, you know? But they decided (and) I’m with them, you know.”
The UFC is set to head to Gadelha’s homeland in May for UFC 250 in Sao Paulo, but despite the lure of competing on a UFC pay-per-view in her home country, Gadelha admitted she’d rather get back into the cage before then.
“I wanted to fight before (then),” she said. “May seems just so long. I’m in the best shape of my life right now and I’m keeping my body in shape, I’m training every day still. I feel like nothing happened, because I didn’t fight. I’m training hard still, I didn’t go on vacation or anything. I was planning to go and see my family, but I’m back in the gym training every day and waiting to see what’s next. Probably I would like to fight in April. May seems too far, but if the UFC wants me to fight in Brazil, I’ll go.”
Regardless of where and when she fights next, Gadelha knows who she’d like to face when she eventually returns to action, with a pair of fellow strawweight contenders both on her radar.
“The fight I really wanted again was Carla Esparza,” she said. “I feel like we should do it again, especially now that I have amazing training and I feel I’ve brought my game to the next level. I feel like me and Carla should fight again, but I don’t know if the UFC wants the fight, I don’t know if she wants the fight.
“The other name we’re thinking about is Marina Rodriguez – the girl that just fought (Cynthia) Calvillo. We tried to contact her to see if she was willing to fight, but then she said she needs some time to go train wrestling and things like that. So these two names are in my mind right now and we’re waiting to see if it’s gonna happen.”
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Dana White sides with Joe Rogan and isn’t cool with what Stephen A. Smith had to say.
HOUSTON – UFC president Dana White has weighed in on the back-and-forth between longtime UFC color commentator Joe Rogan and ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith.
Rogan and Smith’s recent public disagreement stemmed from comments Smith made on the UFC 246 post-fight show in which he ripped Donald Cerrone for his first-round loss to Conor McGregor, even going so far as to say “Cowboy” quit.
Rogan took exception to Smith’s comments and made that clear during an episode of his “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast.
“For Conor to smash ‘Cowboy’ like that in front of his wife, his kid, his grandma and the whole world, you’ve got to have some respect for that man, and this sport demands a different perspective,” Rogan said. “It’s not the same thing as a ball going into a hoop. It’s not the same thing as crossing a line with a football. It’s different. It’s very intense and very personal, and it’s also very (expletive) dangerous and to play it off like it’s just a game, I don’t agree with it.”
Soon after that, Smith issued a video response to Rogan, doubling down on many of his comments from fight night.
“You have your right, just like I have my right to respond, as I’m doing right now,” Smith said. “But any time you want to talk to me about this fight, or you want to talk to me about my credentials to discuss something in the world of sports, name the time and place, Joe Rogan, and I’ll show up. It’s not a problem. It’s not a problem at all.”
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On Thursday, MMA Junkie caught up with White and asked for his thoughts on the Smith vs. Rogan rivalry and all that it entailed. White said that, while he recognizes what Smith’s job is, he isn’t a proponent of criticizing a fighter’s heart after a loss.
“One of the things when we bought and built the UFC that we always did, being fight fans ourselves … I’m a huge fight fan,” White said. “Lorenzo (Fertitta) was a huge fight fan. Joe Rogan is a huge fight fan. One of the things that we hated was on HBO boxing and some other boxing they would do. Listen, you’re tuning in and buying the pay-per-view because you love these guys and you respect these fighters, and you’re a fan of the sport. The last thing you want to do is hear somebody ripping them apart.
“I’m not into it. Rogan is not into it. You don’t see that in the UFC. There will be times where I’m pissed off at a guy, and I’ll voice my opinion on what he did or whatever – or if a fight is really bad or somebody did something. What we don’t do is, when a fight is over and a guy loses, we don’t go in and rip them apart. It’s just not our style. We’re fans. We don’t do it. I think Rogan was reacting to that. That’s our philosophy here. For Stephen A. Smith, that’s his thing. That’s what he does. It’s going to happen. You’re always going to have people who have difference in opinions, especially when you have two very opinionated guys like Stephen A. Smith and Joe Rogan.”
You can watch the full interview interview with White in the video above.
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“It’s just a well organized circus.”
[autotag]Khabib Nurmagomedov[/autotag] doesn’t think Conor McGregor’s comeback fight with Donald Cerrone was a fix, but he does believe the UFC handed the Irishman a soft reintroduction to the octagon at UFC 246.
Speaking at a press conference in Russia to promote his UFC 249 title fight against Tony Ferguson, Nurmagomedov (28-0 MMA, 12-0 UFC) criticized the UFC’s choice of Cerrone as a suitable opponent for a potential title contender fight, but the reigning UFC lightweight champion stopped short of accusing the UFC of booking a fixed fight.
“A big organization with a lot of history won’t take such risks,” Nurmagomedov told reporters, via RT Sport translation. “If someone finds out that the fight was fixed, it would be a huge blow to the UFC’s reputation. They picked a good opponent though, an opponent that never won anything serious. He could have kept winning and winning and, when it came time for a big fight, he just gave up because he’s mentally weak. It’s just a well organized circus.”
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Nurmagomedov explained his comments before the McGregor-Cerrone fight, where he had described the matchup as being like the “minor leagues,” and suggested that the UFC hand-picked Cerrone to give McGregor the perfect reintroduction to active competition while keeping casual MMA fans happy.
“I was basing it on how well they picked an opponent for his return so as to ‘wow’ people,” Nurmagomedov said. “Why? Because 90 percent of people who watch MMA have no clue about the sport. They just watch it and don’t even know the names. And the other 10 percent …
“Millions of people watch, but there aren’t a million fighters. There are 300, 400, 500 that fight in the UFC. They have trainers, so let’s say (there’s) 10,000 people that know MMA. They see who loses and under what circumstances, what moves, when he fought, where he fought, what organization. Few people know those details, others just don’t care who’s fighting and how, who he fought in the past, who the opponent is. They don’t know anything. They just watch the fight, and UFC works very well with that.
“So they picked him (Cerrone), and their plan worked, and people started to talk about it again, about a rematch and other stuff. Cerrone lost seven out of his last 10 fights. A man comes out 10 times and loses seven, and he gets called a legend? Well, let him be a legend, but his time is up.”
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Cerrone’s body of work over his two-decade career has seen him claim a host of UFC records, including the most fights, most wins, most finishes, and most post-fight bonuses. But while those achievements might make “Cowboy” a future UFC Hall of Famer, Nurmagomedov said his recent form inside the octagon meant that McGregor’s win could not be considered worthy of a title shot.
“We’re talking about a contender fight, about a contender, a person who’s supposed to come out and fight for a world title,” Nurmagomedov said. “There are other fighters who’ve proven themselves with their status, their convincing victories. There are other contenders, but (the UFC) went another route, one that’s more suitable for the media, the people, but one that makes no sense to experts. … I just wanted to reach people, for them to understand what kind of an opponent they put in front of him.”
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Donald Cerrone denies breaking his orbital bone and nose in his UFC 246 stoppage loss to Conor McGregor.
[autotag]Donald Cerrone[/autotag] was stopped in the first round by [autotag]Conor McGregor[/autotag], but he suffered no broken bones, according to “Cowboy” himself.
Shortly after UFC 246, it was reported that Cerrone (36-14 MMA, 23-11 UFC) broke both his nose and orbital bone in his 40-second TKO loss to McGregor, but Cerrone denies ever breaking anything.
Responding to fans on his Instagram post suggesting that he looked healthy, Cerrone said he’s unsure why the UFC and Nevada Athletic Commission gave the impression that he wasn’t in the first place.
“Surgery?? I didn’t have anything broken,” Cerrone responded to one fan.
And to another: “That’s because they didn’t break. Not sure why the UFC always says that.”
One of the most active fighters on the roster, Cerrone was handed a 180-day suspension following the loss.
It was McGregor’s use of the shoulder strikes that busted both Cerrone’s eye and nose, but it apparently looked worse than it actually was. It also was incorrectly alleged that Cerrone had broken his orbital bone in his doctor’s stoppage loss to Tony Ferguson at UFC 238.
The loss to McGregor was Cerrone’s third straight.
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Donald Cerrone went on the defensive against some fans who accused him of taking a dive against Conor McGregor at UFC 246.
[autotag]Donald Cerrone[/autotag] made it clear prior to UFC 246 that he would never take a dive in a fight. Given the result of his bout with Conor McGregor, though, he’s been forced to go on the defensive post-fight, too.
Cerrone (36-14 MMA, 23-11 UFC) came up short in arguably the biggest moment of his career earlier this month when he suffered a 40-second TKO loss to McGregor (22-4 MMA, 10-2 UFC) in the anticipated UFC 246 headliner in Las Vegas. The fight was short, but “Cowboy” took a fair share of damage. He nose and orbital bone were both damaged from the combination of shoulder strikes, a head kick and the famous left hand for which “The Notorious” is so well known.
It took a matter of seconds after Cerrone was beat for observers to question the legitimacy of his loss. ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith said Cerrone folded “like a cheap tent,” and the rhetoric from fans online was even worse. There hasn’t been much public interaction from Cerrone since the fight, but on Thursday he dug into his social media comments and issued responses to some outspoken followers (via Instagram):
Cerrone has not yet spoken publicly about his loss to McGregor and next moves. UFC president Dana White said post-fight at UFC 246 that he’d like to see the promotion’s all-time wins leader take some time off after this fight, and Cerrone may not have much choice as his nose and orbital heal.
For now, though, it seems his fights will be limited to the comments section of his Instagram account.
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