Video: Jon Jones says McGregor forgets that ‘the UFC has created Conor’

Rumors of the potential UFC sale are finding their way into all parts of the sport. As more people try to grapple with the potential reality of the world’s largest MMA promotion becoming a non-Zuffa property, we’re starting to get a few more opinions as to just what they’d like that future to look like. Conor McGregor’s coach John Kavanagh recently intimated that if the UFC is interested in selling, then his star fighter may be interested in getting a piece for himself.

In a recent interview with Fox Sports Live, hosts Jay & Dan put the question to Jon Jones as to whether he felt McGregor getting a stake in the UFC made sense. The short answer? No.

“No. No I don’t,” Jones stated when asked if he thought McGregor deserved a piece of the UFC. “The UFC has created Conor McGregor. I think sometimes he forgets that. But, he is a magnificent talent and we’re all glad to have him as a part of the sport. He’s bringing a lot of attention, and just so much more recognition. And at the end of the day, when he wins, we all win. So, I’m grateful for him.”

Jones also spoke about his upcoming fight with Daniel Cormier, and their ongoing war of words, Brock Lesnar’s return to the UFC, and a few other topics. So check it out.

UFC 200 goes down Saturday, July 9th in Las Vegas, Nevada and will be headlined by a light heavyweight title fight between champion Daniel Cormier and interim champ Jon Jones. Brock Lesnar vs. Mark Hunt will serve as the evening’s co-main event. Stay tuned to Bloody Elbow for more news and updates on the UFC’s blockbuster PPV.

Bloody Elbow Cross Promotion: Brock Lesnar, what is he good for?

Without a UFC event (or really any notable MMA event) this weekend, it’s time to do something a little different. Since there’s not going to be a Vivisection, I’m starting a new show: Bloody Elbow Cross Promotion, where I’ll bring in a (usually media) voice from outside our normal group of contributors to talk about whatever’s going on in MMA outside of the fights themselves.

Obviously we’re mostly going to be hitting big topics only, and I’m going to try to keep this focused as firmly on MMA as possible, allowing for whatever other passions these guests might bring to the table with them. This week we’re looking at Brock Lesnar’s upcoming UFC debut, what it means in the context of his WWE career and his MMA legacy, and how that relates to continuing talk of Fedor in the UFC. I’m joined by Erik Fontanez, Senior Editor of Champions.co and Assoctiate Editor of MMA Weekly. He’s a born-again pro-wrestling fan and a hoops addict, so if you’re looking for a few basketball related thoughts we’ll have those too.

Check out the new show, and if you like it, give us a “Like” over on YouTube. While you’re there, consider subscribing to MMANATIONDOTCOM. That way you’ll always be the first to get the latest BE shows, interviews, and analysis.

And if you’re just here looking for audio, you can find that over on SoundCloud and iTunes.

UFC 200 – Jon Jones media scrum: ‘Any other referee’ than McCarthy, says interim champ

Not long ago Nevada State Athletic Commission officials announced the referee and judging assignments for the upcoming massive UFC 200 PPV card. And right away Jon Jones had a problem. When it turned out that “Big” John McCarthy had been assigned as the referee for the PPV headliner between Jones and Cormier, Jones’ camp was quick to file a protest with the commission and attempt to get the assignment changed. The request failed.

In a recent luncheon with the assembled media Jon Jones attempted to explain his reasoning behind his desire for a referee change. While he didn’t quite make it clear exactly what his problems with McCarthy stemmed from, he did make it explicitly clear that he’d rather see just about anyone else in the cage that night (transcript via MMA Fighting):

“I would prefer any other referee but him,” Jones said Tuesday.
…
“It’s been a mixture of many things throughout the years,” Jones said. “Just the energy. I don’t feel like we have the best energy. It’s an accumulation of some of the things that happened during some fights and just personal interactions. I just don’t feel as, you don’t need anything stacking up against you when you’re fighting a great fighter like DC.”

Jones even went as far as to propose his desires that McCarthy voluntarily withdraw himself from the bout, saying “If you’re not welcome, why would you even want to be part of someone’s big night who doesn’t want you there.”

Perhaps these comments are a holdover from McCarthy’s “You want to play the game” instruction at UFC 152, where McCarthy chided Jones when he started the fight on all fours and almost got hit with an illegal headkick. Or maybe Jones just got a look at McCarthy’s recent insistence that fighters keep their hands closed when probing towards an opponent’s face. Or maybe McCarthy’s authoritarian vibe just really rubs Jones the wrong way.

Either way, it promises to be an interesting X-factor at UFC 200, as it’s hard to imagine Big John taking a step back on Jones’ behalf.

Sage Northcutt talks sparring accusations: ‘Not sure where’ Ilya Grad got his world title

UFC fighter Sage Northcutt is one of the few figures to vault to almost instantaneous celebrity status within the insular world of combat sports. The now 20-year-old went from mid-carding Legacy FC shows to being a UFC attraction in just a matter of months. Then, in the form of Brian Barberena, he hit his first speed bump.

Since that first loss things haven’t exactly been rocky, but they haven’t had the same inevitable momentum of success that Northcutt rode in 2015. For one, Northcutt hasn’t yet returned to the Octagon. He’s currently getting ready for his bounce back to action at UFC 200, against Enrique Marin. But even time off and training camp hasn’t been without its ups and downs.

The most controversial of those downs came recently when a sparring partner of Northcutt’s went on the record to decry the role of Northcutt’s father in his son’s training camp. Ilya Grad went as far as to call Northcutt Sr. “possibly the worst coach I’ve seen.” However, on a recent episode of the MMA Hour, Sage took Grad to task for what he claims was a “completely weird” fabrication of events (interview starting at 00:44:50 of the video above):

Sage Northcutt spars with Ilya Grad.

“That was my first time training with him, and he’s supposed to be a Muay Thai world champion. I’m not sure where he got his world title from,” Northcutt said Monday on The MMA Hour. “As you could see from the fight, I actually showed up there — my jiu-jitsu coach, my grappling coach set it all up. So I was supposed to go there and spar hard, and he starts making excuses saying his neck hurts, he’s this, he’s that and he can’t spar, so we said okay.

“So I’m out there just toying around, as you could see in the video, barely touching him, just moving around, playing, pretty having fun, as you could see. And the comments he said, the things he said out there, those weren’t true. None of those were true, and you could see that from the video.”

And perhaps with that quick rise to celebrity in mind, Northcutt went on to questions Grad’s motives for supposedly creating the story he did. Northcutt posited that Grad “was just trying to get some limelight from us and get some attention and get his name out there.”

Mudslinging for personal gain is hardly unheard of, of course, but concerns regarding Northcutt’s training and the close eye his father seems to have on his fight camps didn’t originate with Grad either. Eventually only time will tell which side (if either) has the right of it.

Sage Northcutt returns to action on July 9th in Las Vegas, Nevada. He’ll be fighting Enrique Marin on the Fox Sports 1 prelim card of UFC 200. Stay tuned to Bloody Elbow for more news and notes as the UFC’s massive PPV event looms.

Transcript via MMA Fighting

UFC co-creator put together ‘tremendous’ $2.8 billion offer to buy back promotion

The UFC sale has rapidly become one of the mostly slippery and uncertain topics in the MMA world. What initially seemed like a pretty straightforward report (and may very well still be so) has become muddled by a lack of secondary sources, an obfuscation as to how much of the UFC may actually be for sale, and a few outright denials. Stepping into that sea of information is a former UFC head office man, Campbell McLaren.

McLaren is most recently known for his new MMA startup promotion Combate Americas, which promotes itself as “the first U.S. Hispanic Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) sports franchise in history, designed to build Latino fighting champions and serve Hispanic fans…” The promotion has put on five events since September of last year, but it turns out that’s not the only place the MMA entrepreneur is looking to plant his flag in the current sports landscape.

As he recently revealed in an interview with Submission Radio, when Zuffa recently took bids for a potential sale of the UFC, McLaren was part of a group of investors putting together what he described as a “tremendous offer”:

“I don’t think any of the reports are correct, by the way,” McLaren told Sub Radio. “And I looked into potentially buying the UFC too with some very famous investment groups based in the US.”

“This was this year – and I think you guys are getting the scoop on this,” he continued. “I haven’t talked about this in the media, and investment bankers and private equity firms are notoriously press-shy, so I’m gonna avoid naming names – but we had what we thought was a tremendous offer, and it was 2.8 billion. And that was sort of based on the investment bank arithmetic. The UFC did 200 million dollars in earnings before tax and depreciation, so last year they had a great year. They had Conor, they had Ronda. Great year. And they did 200 million dollars roughly in profit, so that’s tremendous. And typically, bankers, private equity firms might look at an earnings like that, and the range would be 12 to 14-times that [which] would give you the value of the company – so 2.8 (billion) was on the higher side.

“But I think Lorenzo [Fertitta] is very forward-thinking and he says, look, I’m building this tremendous platform around the world and the UFC is a great in Australia, right? Great success in the US. We’re pretty good in Mexico. Great in Canada. Real traction in the UK. But yet, they have built out a platform in Asia and Europe and the Middle East that hasn’t really come online yet. So I think Lorenzo looks at this and goes, we haven’t even seen the real value of the UFC, so I want a lot of freakin’ money. I don’t want some banker’s idea of what it’s worth. I’m a visionary, I know this is worth a lot of money. So I do think he has a super-high value on it, but when you get to that point, there’s only a few people that really can enter into that sort of purchase. Investors are typically very disciplined. Sometimes very well-to-do individuals get caught up in the glamor of something and will overbid, and that’s kind of where I think they are. I don’t think the UFC has been sold. I don’t think it’s gonna be on UFC 200. Now they may have sold off a portion at a very high evaluation, but they can come back to it later on and say, ‘this is our evaluation’.”

Now obviously, his take and the reports of a UFC sale being close to finalized can both be true, one group may not necessarily have specific knowledge of the negotiating process between Zuffa and other potential investors. But, it is interesting to hear from someone who claims to have been a serious part of the bidding process, and who believes that the media and fans have yet to hear the full story as to just how the future of Zuffa ownership will proceed.

Welcome to the UFC, Spicely & Chookagian

The UFC’s trip to Sioux Falls, South Dakota is filling out and it appears to be doing so with a lot of relatively new talent. While the top of the card has some longtime veteran faces rounding it out, the undercard is playing host to a lot of names who have yet to make their mark on the MMA viewing public. Matthew Lopez and Devin Clark were already scheduled to make their promotional debuts, but now they’ve got some company, in the form of newcomers Eric Spicely and Katlyn Chookagian. Spicely’s signing was announced by the UFC over the weekend, and CombatPress.com announced Chookagian’s debut against Lauren Murphy, so…

Who is Eric Spicely?

The 29-year-old “Dream Catcher” (shouts to Gegard Mousasi), was a recent competitor on the TUF 23 light heavyweight season, where he lost to finalist Andrew Sanchez in the semi-final round. He’ll be making his UFC debut off the finale and down a division, as he faces Sam Alvey on the upcoming Sioux Falls card. Spicely is entering the UFC with an 8-0 undefeated (officially) record, having only seen the final bell twice in his three-year pro career.

He’s training out of Tri-Force MMA alongside former WEC and current Bellator fighter Josh Diekmann and a host of other regional vets off the North East fight scene. His record isn’t overly notable, a mixture of green competition and journeyman vets; a win over regional talent Harley Beekman is probably his best on paper. On TUF he beat Kenneth Berg and Elias Urbina. Outside of MMA, Spicely appears to have also done some pro-wrestling on the regional circuit.

What you should expect:

Spicely has a brown belt in BJJ under Tim Burrill, and that seems to be much of the driving substance of his MMA game. He tends to start fights with a quick single leg, either off a strike or just a straight shot as his opponent comes forward. He does well to change angles as he shoots and often looks for quick back take opportunities if opponents try to spin out of the attempt. In general, he’s a strong, controlling wrestler on the ground, with a good ride and an eye for positional control as he hunts for submissions.

There’s really not much to see of the rest of Spicely’s game. He wants takedowns and he wants them quick. He’s aggressive enough in all positions on the ground to get finishes, including off his back, but it remains to be seen if he’s a dangerous enough grappler to make that stick in the UFC.

What this means for his debut:

I don’t think I’d bet on Spicely here. He’s a good capable wrestler and a very solid grappler, but Alvey’s takedown defense and his focus on a limited offensive gameplan are probably enough to negate that. Alvey can get beat, but he’s very good at waiting for the right opportunities to land his shots, and if that means Spicely can’t get in on an easy single-leg, then he may get stuck trading hands with a much much harder puncher.

To get us better acquainted, here’s Spicely’s recent bout against Harley Beekman at CES MMA 29:

Who is Katlyn Chookagian?

The inagural CFFC flyweight champ “Blondefighter” is a 27-year-old training out of Allstar BJJ in Kenilworth, New Jersey under IFL vet Jamal Patterson. She’s enterting the UFC with an undefeated 7-0 record, holding wins over prospect Isabelly Varela and regional vet Stephanie Bragayrac. Otherwise her record tends toward the untested newcomers that populate much of WMMA. Chookagian was also a standout on the amateur circuit winning several regional titles while going undefeated. Outside of MMA, she’s a BJJ purple belt with a background in boxing and kickboxing, having won a Pennsylvania Golden Gloves title at age 16.

What you should expect:

Probably the most notable holdover from Chookagian’s kickboxing past is a stiff jab and consistent range movement. She seems like she might be something of a slow starter, open to getting swarmed early on, until she becomes more comfortable. As fights go on, she does a much better job mixing her strikes and paying attention to her defense. It’s probably not a problem that will hinder her terribly at 135 in the UFC, where there are very few powerful, aggressive strikers, but she’s been hittable in the past.

Otherwise, she does well throwing knees in the clinch, framing well to set up power strikes. On the ground, she’s an aggressive, scrappy grappler who jumps on submissions at every opportunity. That can mean that she gives up positions pretty quickly, and in general, wrestling seems to be the missing piece of her game. She’s willing to pull guard to get to the ground if she wants the fight there, but I haven’t seen her exert a lot of control.

What this means for her debut:

The gameplan for Murphy has to be pretty clear. Start fast, shoot early and often, and then work to stifle her guard game with some of the brutal top control that Murphy has shown in the past. Chookagian has the pieces to be a decent fighter in the future, most notably she looks like a decent athlete that gets better as fights go on, but as a career flyweight she may end up physically overwhelmed at 135.

To get us better acquainted, here’s her recent bout against Linn Wennergren at HFC 9 in Hungary:

Tweet of the Day: BJ Penn looking for GSP trilogy fight at UFC’s NY PPV

Sometimes, when one door closes another opens, or so the adage and it’s variations go. That certainly seems to be the philosophy B.J. Penn is looking to capitalize on, after finding himself benched from a potential return to MMA at UFC 199. Penn was expected to face Cole Miller, when he was flagged by USADA for improper IV use.

It appears the result of his USADA run in was a six month suspension (or thereabouts) as Penn now claims that he will be “free in November.” He’s even got a fight in mind for his return, and it’s potentially a much bigger one than Cole Miller (h/t Fox Sports):

Hey @GeorgesStPierre if you can make 155 easily, I’m free in November and would love the opportunity to fight you at 155 pounds in New York.

— BJ PENN (@bjpenndotcom) June 27, 2016

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

This tweet follows close on the heels of Georges St-Pierre’s recent admission that a drop down to lightweight would be “easy” for the former welterweight champ.

Both moves to 185 and 155 were teased out several times during GSP’s title reign and in talk of a potential Anderson Silva superfight. However, the welterweight GOAT never did manage to compete outside of his home division. And while talk of his return to MMA has been more or less continuous since retirement in November 2013, everything is still very hypothetical.

If GSP can work out a deal with Reebok, if he’s still interested in continuing his fighting career, if the potential sale of the UFC doesn’t totally change his negotiating position, and if BJ Penn can keep from getting injured over the next few months of his suspension, then maybe we could see GSP vs. BJ Penn 3. Until then, who knows?

Conor McGregor still working with movement coach in prep for Diaz rematch at UFC 202

Is he shaping the future evolution of the sport, or just playing “touch-butt in the park”? Much was made of Conor McGregor’s GSP-like dedication to new and creative training methods before his last fight with Nate Diaz, back at UFC 196. And while fans and media were quick to trumpet the potential advantages of that extra coaching, Diaz was obviously less than impressed.

And maybe with good reason. While McGregor started his bout with Diaz strong, there wasn’t a lot to be seen of the creative, angle heavy movement that he’d seemingly been working on. McGregor landed a lot of shots early, but he ate a lot too. And as the fight continued and that movement went away, he ate more than he could handle.

But, McGregor doesn’t appear to be abandoning that avenue and it’s potential for growth and future success, as the featherweight champion recently posted a new video to Instagram of him doing some extra footwork training with Ido Portal over at SBG:

Working some beautiful angles and traps with @portal.ido at SBG today! Great work!

A video posted by Conor McGregor Official (@thenotoriousmma) on Jun 24, 2016 at 10:58am PDT

//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js

Now all that’s left to be sorted is whether a one-breakfast McGregor with a few more months of training under his belt will have unlocked the secrets to beating Diaz, or whether, like the first time, he’ll fall into the same traps that so many other before him have.

UFC 202 goes down on August 20th in Las Vegas, Nevada and is headlined by McGregor vs. Diaz 2. Stay tuned, as we’ll have more card updates and news as available.

The MMA Prospectus: MacDonald, Jotko, UFC Ottawa fallout and more

The MMA Prospectus is here for some non-event week coverage of regional MMA. And, since it is a lighter week for potential talent, we’re focusing a lot on the fallout of UFC Ottawa, most notably the sense of potential doom and gloom surrounding Rory MacDonald’s next loss. Is he forever going to fall short of championship status? Is he the next big case study in fighters that start too young and flame out early? Or are we just diving in over our heads by reacting to a bad fight? All this plus the rise of Krzysztof Jotko and a look at Bellator Dynamite.

As always, if you enjoyed the show, give us a “Like” over on YouTube. And while you’re there, consider subscribing to MMANATIONDOTCOM. That way you’ll always be the first to get all the latest Bloody Elbow shows, interviews and analysis.

If you’re just here for those sweet, sweet sounds, you can find our audio over on SoundCloud and iTunes.

Quick and dirty prospect list:

Shooto Brazil
Felipe Jesus

Kunlun
Sung Bin Jo

Deep
Rio Date
Taito Kubota

California Xtreme
Curtis Millender

Jackson’s MMA series
Stephen Cervantes

Jungle Fight
Rander Junior
Amanda Lemos
Handesson Ferreira

Big Guns
Luka Strezoski

Strike Off
Ahmet Kayretli *

ECC
Gavin Tucker

Thunder Fight
Markus Perez
Willian Cilli vs. Henerson Duarte

Valor Fights
Jonathan Pearce

WOCS
Bruno Korea
Carlston Harris
Oton Jasse
Wagner Maia *

MT4C
Xavier Alaoui

SHC
Uriel Albamonte
Luc Ngeleka *
Ange Loosa

Battle Royal Ascension
Ke Nan Song

Legacy FC
Manny Vasquez *
Levi Mowles

Bellator Dynamite
Satoshi Ishii *
Kevin Engel vs. Chel Erwin-Davis
Joaquin Buckley
Rashard Lovelace *
Justin Lawrence vs. Isao Kobayashi

Victory FC
Mike Rhodes

HEX Fight Series
Myles Simpson
Raphael Scott

Satoshi Ishii on Bellator & US debut: This fight is ‘very special’

It feels a bit like Satoshi Ishii has already been around for ages. When the (at the time) 23-year-old Ishii first set foot in the ring he already had some real hype behind him. The 2008 Olympic Judo gold medalist was seen by many to be a potential bright spot for the future of an already quickly fading J-MMA scene.

Nevermind that he lost his first fight, Ishii won his next four, including bouts against MMA legend Minowaman and kickboxing great Jerome Le Banner. They may not have been the most meaningful wins on the grand scale, but compared to the competition other heavyweights face early in their careers, his start seemed promising.

In 2011, Ishii fought Fedor Emelianenko. He had only been in MMA for two years and there he was, facing the HW GOAT. The fight did not go well for him.

Since that loss, Ishii has continued to face the most notable opponents that can be found. And while he’s won far more than he’s lost, a pair of stoppage losses to latter-day CroCop and a KO loss to rising LHW prospect Jiri Prochazka have stifled much of the fan optimism that Ishii started his career with.

They haven’t, however, stifled his own. Ishii recently spoke to Bloody Elbow about his upcoming fight with Rampage Jackson in the headliner of Bellator 157: Dynamite 2, and it sounds like he’s more than ready to make his stateside debut.

“This is a very important fight to me,” Ishii admitted, “because I want to become more famous in the United States. And he’s [Rampage] also a big fighter, a legend. When I was a kid, I watched him, right? I watched his fights, and it is an honor to fight against him.

“This fight is the most important fight to me than other fights. Every fight to me is big, or important of course, but this is very special. First time I fight in the United States.

“This is my dream, Ishii continued. “When I was a kid, I really wanted to challenge, to do MMA. Now, dream come true, I became an MMA fighter. And I want to be an MMA champion in the United States. This is my goal.”

As a heavyweight with a long history in another martial art, whose goal has been success in the United States, it seemed a little surprising that Ishii didn’t make the jump across the Pacific earlier. But, according to him, this Bellator fight is his first real opportunity to fight in America… well, other than an early career offer to go through TUF.

“A long time ago, when it was like 2008?” Ishii asked, trying to remember. “After the Olympics, yes, I talked [with the UFC]. But I discussed everything with my manager and I decided it was better to get experience in Japan, I thought. So, I couldn’t go. “

It’s not a decision he regrets, and while he’s already been fighting for about six years, Ishii still sees a long career out in front of him.

“10 years more, I think 15 more years,” Ishii said when asked if he’s dedicated to the sport long term. “Because as a lot of people know, the heavyweight division… heavyweight fighters have a more long term career. 40 years old, 45 years old, they can fight in heavyweight.

“You don’t have to cut weight, so more health, than other divisions.”

And speaking of cutting weight, while Ishii will be cutting to 215 lbs for his catchweight fight with Rampage Jackson, he wanted to make it clear that this is not part of a long term plan to go to light heavyweight.

“I want to fight at heavyweight, actually. Because I’m usually 245 lbs. So, I want to challenge in heavyweight. This fight, I can fight against Rampage, that’s why I went to 215.

“Bellator gave me notice to get ready,” Ishii replied when asked if the cut had been difficult. “So, I had three months, I could cut weight very slowly. It was easy to cut.”

Unlike other martial arts, such as wrestling, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, or even Karate, there seem to be relatively few Judo practitioners in MMA. Ishii explained that it’s all about the international Judo Federation, and the grip they keep on their athletes:

“Basically, Judo Federation is very tight,” Ishii explained, “they are across the globe controlling players. You know, Judo Players, if they do professional fights, they never get to go back to Judo competition. They can never compete in Judo competition. They are very controlling to Judo players. So, that’s why it’s very difficult to transition to MMA.

“I never think, ‘I want to compete in Judo competition,’ no,” Ishii continued when asked if ever wanted to go back to Judo. “Because, I’m done, I’m done with Judo.”

And while the road away from Judo into MMA hasn’t always been easy, Ishii sounded proud of the path he’d taken to get where he is now.

“I don’t think so,” Ishii said, when asked if he felt he’d been rushed in his career. “You know, they gave me the opportunities, so I don’t say ‘no.’ I’m a real fighter, so I can fight anyone, anytime, anywhere. I didn’t want to say no. That’s why they put me, always, in hard fights. I’ve fought, always, tough opponents.”

Satoshi Ishii faces Rampage Jackson in the main event of Bellator 157: Dynamite 2 this Friday, June 24th in St. Louis, Missouri. You can follow him on twitter @SatoshiIshii