Welcome to the UFC, Jessin Ayari

The German market has been a tough one to crack for the UFC, but not for lack of trying. The UFC has pulled a slow but steady stream of fighters out of the country and put on four shows there since 2009. Still, a hostile climate toward MMA and it’s development in Germany has kept the sport from taking off and, perhaps, kept the UFC for making a serious push to grow into the market. However, with another expected show in Germany sometime late this year, the UFC has picked up another fighter to fill out their roster. GNP1.de first reported the news of Jessin Ayari’s signing to the UFC. His debut date and opponent have not yet be named, but in the meantime…

Who is Jessin Ayari?

The 23-year-old “Abacus” is a welterweight fighter from Nuremberg, training out of Hammers Team alongside Jarjis Danho and Gabriel Tampu, and also out of Planet Eater, home to Peter Sobotta. Both camps have a lot of veteran, high level talent, so Ayari doesn’t look like he’s got any shortage of training partners. He’ll be entering the UFC with a 15-3 pro record, stretch back to 2009, and currently on a six fight win streak. Most recently he beat recently released UFC vet Mickael Lebout. Otherwise his record is decent, with wins over a lot of well seasoned regional vets and rising fighters. His losses all come against strong competition, although a pair of TKOs is something of a troubling sign. Outside of MMA, Ayari is a purple belt in BJJ under Fabio Santos and has a background in kickboxing and combat sambo.

What you should expect:

Ayari has kind of an awkward style, perhaps stemming from his long history of MMA training into his teens, mixed with his combat sambo/kickboxing background. He will throw the occasional probing jab, but most of what he does on offense is power striking. He’s not a thoughtlessly aggressive striker, however, tending to pick his spots to flurry. Because of this, he tends to spend a lot of time on his back foot or getting pressed against the fence by more aggressive opponents.

He’s not a physically dominating infighter when he is clinched up and gets pushed around a bit. But he does have a great command of knee and elbow strikes, so when he can create even a little space, he tends to land hard shots in rapid succession. He has a habit as well, of switching stances to southpaw so that he can throw inside leg kicks to the front leg of his opponent. It’s something he goes to regularly, often changing stances just to throw the kick and then changing back.

Ayari seems to do most of his wrestling in response to his opponent, and isn’t the best offensive or defensive takedown artist. He does well to land and create ground-n-pound from top control, but this can come at the expense of his positional dominance. He’s not an unwilling grappler on the mats, just not a dominating one.

To get us better acquainted, here’s his 2015 bout with Stanislav Futera:

Rory MacDonald talks MMA business: ‘There’s a lot to be learned’ from Conor McGregor

In his current spat with the UFC brass, Conor McGregor hasn’t found many vocal supporters among his fellow fighters. Other UFC 200 competitors seem to see him as skirting the work they’re out there doing, and for the most part, if other Zuffa fighters have an opinon on the contract battle, they aren’t making big public statements about it… well, except for one.

TriStar talent and former welterweight title contender Rory MacDonald seems to have placed himself firmly in Conor McGregor’s corner, when it comes to the Irishman’s stance of playing hardball with the UFC. The way MacDonald seems to see it, McGregor is showing something of a gameplan for maximizing his own value at a key point in his MMA career.

With the end of his contract forthcoming, MacDonald has been keen to test free agency and see what kind of value he can command on the open market. In a recent interview with the MMA Report on FightNetwork.com MacDonald spoke about McGregor’s influence on his own current career decisions (transcript via MMAFighting):

“I think it’s important to get it out there. It’s a known topic about fighter pay now and I think it’s beneficial to me that I get it out there too so when it comes time to negotiate I have other sources to talk with. It’s a known thing, people are buzzing about it. It’s a good thing.”
…
“I’m a simple martial arts guy. I come from humble beginnings so I don’t require a lot to feel comfortable. But now that I have a little girl on the way, I want to be able to provide everything she’s gonna need in her life. So that’s a big motivator to start getting paid for this because it doesn’t last forever.”
…
“I look up to [Conor McGregor] in that sense. There’s a lot to be learned from his stance and sticking up for himself. Getting what he’s worth…Not just accepting what’s thrown at you. Standing up for yourself. That’s the thing martial artists aren’t used to. You’ve got to really stick up for yourself and be a tough businessman when it’s time for negotiations.”

Of course, the lesson that McGregor seems to best be delivering at the moment is, no matter how high your value, if you push back too hard, the UFC will always be willing to make an example out of you. MacDonald definitely has value. He’s a good fighter and one of (if not the) most notable active MMA fighters out of Canada today. But, will that translate into the value he wants? And if it doesn’t, will he take what the UFC offers, anyway?

Rory MacDonalds fights for the last time on his current UFC contract this June at UFC Ottawa against Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson. After that, all bets are off.

Velasquez firmly on UFC’s side over Conor McGregor: ‘Everybody else is doing it’

If you were expecting other fighters to unite behind Conor McGregor’s desire to do less PR work, UFC 200 is probably the wrong place to look. Those fighters are all out on the grind selling their upcoming event, so when Conor McGregor said that he wasn’t going to show up for a press conference and got removed from the card because of it, it’s maybe not so surprising that his counterparts aren’t rallying to his cause.

The latest fighter to speak up is Cain Velasquez. The former UFC heavyweight champion is making the rounds for his upcoming fight with Travis Browne and he spoke to the assembled media during a recent UFC press event. Here’s what he had to say when asked about McGregor’s recent spat with ZUFFA brass (transcript via MMAFighting):

“I’m doing it, everybody else is doing it,” Velasquez said Tuesday at a UFC 200 media day. “Can I see his side? No, not really. I’m doing it. Everybody else is doing it. If he had to do way more than what we had to do, OK then, yes. I could definitely see that. But if he’s not, if he’s doing the same thing, then no. We’re all doing it.”
…
“I feel that we all do have obligations to do this kind of stuff,” Velasquez said. “I’m a guy that hates doing this. When I first started to fight, I thought it was just training and fighting and that was it. ‘OK, you’ve gotta do interviews.’ [I was like,] ‘What?’ Doing it now, yeah I’m kind of comfortable with doing it. I can do it pretty easily, I feel like. I feel like it is part of the job. You’ve gotta do this and train and fight.”

Velasquez also spoke about fighting at altitude, working with injuries, and of course, his upcoming fight. So, check out the whole video. And stay tuned for more UFC 200 coverage on Bloody Elbow as we ramp up to the July 9th event.

Miesha Tate on Conor McGregor vs. UFC: ‘This is reasonable promotion’

Don’t expect Miesha Tate to rally behind Conor McGregor’s battle against the UFC for fewer promotional obligations. The women’s bantamweight champion gave her thoughts to ESPN on McGregor’s decision to skip a recent UFC press conference and the resulting UFC decision to pull him from UFC 200. And to her way of thinking, McGregor’s actions aren’t just self serving, they’re an added burden to the other fighters (such as herself) on the card.

Tate outlined how she’s had to pull extra promotional weight since McGregor is now no longer part of the UFC 200 package (transcript via MMAFighting):

“I understand that he has an obsession with beating Nate right now and he wants to stay focused and stay the course at all costs. I get it. But at the end of the day. it says in your contract when you sign that you have to do reasonable promotion. This is reasonable promotion. I have never had the UFC ask me to do unreasonable promotion. And they’re very accommodating. Whether it’s a car service to take you to where you need to train while you’re travelling. Whatever they can do to make your life easier, bringing breakfast to you, bringing lunch to you, whatever you need they’re really accommodating. They try to make this as easy [as possible].”
…
“And we’re three months out from the fight you know. It’s not unreasonable to ask to come in here for a day and give some promotion. This does huge things for the fight. They filmed the commercial the other day. and we actually ended up having to pick up the pieces of Conor not being there. We had to film more. I had to actually come back and push my training schedule to the side and scoot my stuff around to be able to accommodate the fact that Conor wasn’t there and fill up those voids.”

Of course, whether or not Tate having to “fill up those voids” is really on Conor McGregor, or the loosely defined “reasonable promotion” duties that she’s already signed up for is a whole other kettle of fish. No matter how you slice it, less Conor McGregor means more promotional work for everyone else. At least now, Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier are on the card to spread out the burden again.

UFC 200 goes down on July 9th in Las Vegas, Nevada at the T-Mobile Arena. Miesha Tate will defend her bantamweight title on the PPV card against challenger Amanda Nunes. Stay tuned for more news and updates.

Report: Kikuno and Nakai among latest fighters off UFC roster

Rough time to be a UFC featherweight, it appears. The UFC roster is going through a bit of a contraction phase. Lots of talent going out, not much going in. And the latest fighters that appear to be on their way out come from the sub-155 divisions as three featherweights and a women’s bantamweight have all apparently been given the chop.

UFCFIGHTERSINFO posted the removal of two names from the UFC’s online roster last week, Julian Erosa and Mark Eddiva.

[Deleted] Mark Eddiva (Feather)
[Deleted] Julian Erosa (Feather)https://t.co/nZfB0IsOE2

— UFCFIGHTERSiNFO (@UFCFIGHTERSiNFO) April 21, 2016

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Joining Eddiva and Erosa are Katsunori Kikuno and Rin Nakai. Both fighters have already been scheduled for new bouts in Japan, sending a strong message that their time in the UFC is done. Nakai will return to Pancrase on July 24th against a yet-to-be-named opponent and Kikuno will make his return to DEEP on June 26th.

The biggest surprise of this run is pretty obviously Julian Erosa, whose release comes off the back of a 1-1 UFC stint where he beat fellow TUF talent Marcin Wrzosek via split decision and then took a TKO loss against Teruto Ishihara. At only 26-years-old and with a strong record, Erosa seems like the kind of fighter the UFC usually keeps around. He certainly has a strong chance of working his way back to the big stage with a few regional wins.

Otherwise there aren’t many shocks with Eddiva, Kikuno, and Nakai. While Eddiva and Kikuno were both fun action fighters at 145, they never quite found ways to make their styles work consistently in the division. And with Nakai’s contract running out after a pair of losses (and some rumors that she may have been difficult to work with), it’s not hard to see why the UFC might have let her walk. Of the three of them, Eddiva probably has the best chance of making a return, his performances were almost always entertaining and if he can find more success outside the UFC he maybe primed for the promotion’s next trip to Asia/Oceania.

Coach: UFC ‘going too far’ by saying Conor McGregor can’t fight on NY debut event

It looks like the UFC isn’t about to jump back on the Conor McGregor bandwagon. Following a dispute between promoter and fighter over PR duties in preparation for UFC 200, the UFC removed McGregor from his upcoming bout, and the fighter (briefly) announced his retirement on Twitter.

Now of course, Conor McGregor is no longer retired and last words from his camp were that he’s still training for UFC 200. However all sings point to that fight not happening. And, unfortunately for his team, if Dana White’s recent press conference addressing the matter is any indication, it sounds like McGregor won’t get a shot on being a part of the UFC’s debut in New York either.

The promotion is set to have their first ever show in the Big Apple on November 12th, at UFC 205. McGregor had expressed his interest on fighting at the event, and if he no longer had a fight booked at UFC 200, it seemed like a good opportunity. But, John Kavanagh was recently on the MMA Hour, where he discussed McGregor’s plans at the moment, and how he and his fighter felt hearing that New York wasn’t going to be in them (transcript via MMAFighting).

“That was hard to hear,” McGregor’s coach told Ariel Helwani on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. “I really think that’s going too far. [McGregor] was bold, but it wasn’t anything that bad. If we get the slap on the wrist for 200, we definitely can’t be put on the naughty [list] for New York.”
…
“As an Irish guy in New York, the first card in Madison Square Garden, I think Conor would show up anyway and fight someone in a changing room if [White] doesn’t put him on the card,” Kavanagh said. “We have to be put on the New York card.”

Until the ice thaws between McGregor and the UFC however, that seems like more of a pipe dream than a possibility.

Welcome to the UFC, Devin Clark

Big men, so the saying goes, don’t grow on trees. At least, I’m pretty sure that’s what that saying is about. They’re certainly rare enough. Lately, however, it appears that the UFC has begun taking serious steps to de-stagnate their upper weight classes. The spent the last year signing just about every heavyweight they could get their hands on, and now they’ve got a new face coming to the 185 lb division. Devin Clark will make his promotional debut this July, at UFC Sioux falls, facing off against another recent pickup moving down from light heavyweight, Alex Nicholson. The Argus Leader first reported the news of Clark’s signing. So…

Who is Devin Clark?

“Brown Bear” as he’s also known, is a 26-year-old former light heavyweight fighter, making the move down to 185 lbs for the first time in his MMA career. He trains out of Next Edge Academy in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the home to former UFC welterweight David Michaud. Clark enters the UFC with a 6-0 undefeated record and the RFA light heavyweight championship around his waist. Four of his wins come via finish, with victories over Rafael Viana and Dervin Lopez representing his best competition on paper. Before starting his MMA career, Clark was a junior college wrestling champion. He also has a long background as an amateur boxer. Clark was also scouted for the UFC via Dana White’s “Lookin’ for a Fight” web series.

What you should expect:

So far as I can tell with pretty limited tape, Clark has made his way through the regionals with a pretty standard, developing MMA skill game. He looks like a pretty good athlete, and while he’s not exceptionally tall (at 6′ 0″) he seems to be very broad across the shoulders, and should carry the weight pretty well for 185.

As far as skills go, his punches look nice and crisp, but he doesn’t look like he has much head movement built into his striking game and tends to lift his chin in the air as the throws combinations. His wrestling is more powerful than technical, but he’s fast enough with a double leg to make it happen. And while he has some sharp ground and pound, he’s not a very high output ground striker, as he’s not yet adept at hold opponents down from top ride while also striking. Essentially he’s raw in the way that a fighter with less than 10 fights and less than 3 years of cage time tends to be raw. If he can get the right matchups, he should develop pretty well over his UFC career.

What this means for his debut:

Tough to say. Nicholson will be a lot taller, and while less broad, I’d be willing to bet he’ll be the generally bigger fighter in the cage. And while Nicholson is every bit as raw (if not moreso) as Clark, he’s also a pretty great athlete and may be the more consistent brawling striker. Both men tend to leave their chins up and exposed, so the chances of a KO finish could be high. Clark is definitely going to be the more technical wrestler and cleaner boxer of the two, but if he’s giving up a lot of size and reach that may not matter. Neither fighter trains out of a prestigious camp, either, so this really has the feel of a coin-flip fight to it.

To get us better acquainted, here’s Clark’s 2015 fight against William Vincent:

Report: Reebok adding color to uniforms for UFC 200

These things take time. That was the official mantra after a Reebok roll-out that was less than stellar for the UFC back in June of 2015. Fighters and fans would have to be flexbil in their expectations while Reebok worked the kinks out of a product that, even by their own admission had been somewhat rushed into development.

And over time, the Giblerts have become Gilberts, the Anderson Aldos have been split, and the UFC cut Marcio “Lyoto” Alexandre Jr. Now it appears, one of the other major and longstanding uniform complaints will finally be addressed. Reebok is going color.

No more guessing which fighters is in the White/Black and which is in the Black/White uniform, Sports Business Journal writer Bill King tweeted out what appear to be mockups of the new Reebok color schemes, scheduled to go live for UFC 200:

In today’s @sbjsbd SBJ, a look ahead at @Reebok tweaks to the @ufc fight kit, slated to hit at UFC 200. pic.twitter.com/2NTbCUIekn

— Bill King (@Bill_KingSBJ) April 25, 2016

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Now of course, the key question: Given your druthers, what color are you walking out in?

Medical condition forces Conor McGregor’s SBG teammate to retire

Just to look at Paddy Holohan fight, it’s pretty obvious that he was a fighter making every possible sacrifice to get himself into the cage. Rail thin, un-athletic looking, under-powered; Holohan won bouts by flinging himself body and soul at opponents, daring them to out-fight him moment to moment or risk getting overwhelmed by his enthusiastic aggression. A man who wasn’t physically built for fighting, making a career out of it with the power of will.

Sometimes appearances hit too close to home. It seems Paddy Holohan’s body really wasn’t made for a career of professional combat, and now he’s been forced to retire.

Holohan recently revealed, via Facebook, that a longstanding medical condition was recently disclosed to the UFC and because of it, he can no longer pass his medicals to compete:

It’s a tough blow for a fighter who, in his last bout, in October of 2015, got to headline a UFC event in his home country. Holohan lost the fight, but was embraced wholeheartedly by a cheering hometown crowd during an impassioned post-fight speech.

Much like the end of that last bout: while this isn’t good news, it isn’t all bad either. It looks like Holohan won’t be leaving the fight game entirely and already has a transition career lined up training other fighters. SBG Ireland head coach John Kavanagh gave his thoughts on Holohan’s departure from competition on Twitter:

I lose a great fighter but gain an amazing coach, time for the next chapter https://t.co/wNh2fZ0G5v

— Coach Kavanagh (@John_Kavanagh) April 25, 2016

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Holohan was scheduled to fight Willie Gates at UFC Rotterdam on May 8th. The UFC stated, via press release, that they are currently looking for a new opponent and expect to keep Gates on the card.

Why did Jon Jones flip off DC after UFC 197? ‘Just me being a jerk’

Jon Jones is done mincing words, it seems. There was a time when everything Jones did was couched in a rhetoric of upstanding behavior and respectability, even when his actions weren’t all that respectable. There are still those moments. As Jon Jones himself has freely admitted, he wants people to like him. But, he’s definitely peeled back a few layers. And that was on full display after UFC 197, when Jones gave UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier, who was cage-side to commentate on his PPV headlining bout, the bird. You can check it out on the video above.

There’s no secret that Jones and DC have a long running feud both in and out of the cage. Not only are they both fiercely competitive athletes, they just can’t seem to stand one another. So, it’s no surprise that Jones would have a little something extra for his cageside rival. But, to hear him tell it, there wasn’t anything specific about it, and Jones didn’t try to dress up his reasons. In his own words to Fox Sports post-fight, “it was just me being a jerk.” (transcript via MMAMania):

“You know what, it wasn’t even me and Daniel Cormier,it was just me being a jerk. I wanted to give him the finger, I don’t know why. I don’t know what he said, he was commentating throughout my fight and he may have been really nice and now I’m a jerk, or he could have been talking trash. Either way, I wanted to cover my end so that’s why I said; you know what I said.”

Here’s the full interview:

Jones and Cormier are now tentatively scheduled to fight at UFC 200 this summer as the headliner of the UFC’s massive benchmark event. Stay tuned to Bloody Elbow, as I doubt the next couple months of buildup will be quiet ones.