Category: MMA Confidential

Sonnen: Dana White and Ronda Rousey showed up with $150k to bail Stephens out of jail in 2012

Posted on by Zane Simon in Front Page, MMA Confidential, UFC News

Jeremy Stephens has been a cornerstone action fighter for the UFC for well over a decade now. First stepping into the Octagon at UFC 71, in 2007, Stephens has amassed a 15-15 record over his tenure with the promotion—including wins over former champions Rafael dos Anjos, Renan Barao, and Gilbert Melendez. However, the power-punching fighter out of Alliance MMA in San Diego is, perhaps, most notable for two moments outside the cage than anything else.

The most recent of those, came at a UFC 205 press conference, when Stephens answered a question aimed at Conor McGregor, asking who among the fighters on stage with the ‘Notorious’ Irishman, would give him the toughest fight. “Right here!” Stephens chimed in, only to end up lambasted by one of McGregor’s most meme-able moments.

But, way back in 2012, Stephens became synonymous with another inglorious piece of UFC press—when he was arrested the day of UFC on FX5, where he was supposed to be fighting Yves Edwards. The arrest stemmed from an outstanding warrant, the result of an alleged 2011 altercation between Stephens and another man in a parking lot. “Don’t listen to the media! Nobody ever told them Jeremy isn’t fighting. He is fighting!!” White wrote as news of Stephens’ arrest and the cancellation of his bout started to spread.

Jeremy Stephens did not fight that night.

Dana White explained his problems in trying to get Stephens out of the clink to MMA Fighting at the time, on what he says were charges that originally held a bail of $1,000 and $20,000.

“I cut the deal with people down in Des Moines, Iowa, to get him out,” he said. “I accept that deal too. They changed the deal. Every time I accepted the deal, they kept trying to make it harder and harder and harder. You know me, especially after I tweeted the media to shut up, I was devising a plan to break him out and get him over here to come out and do this fight. So, they finally made this deal for an astronomical amount of money to make the deal, and I agreed to it, and then they did it again. So they’re going to stick it to this kid big-time when he gets to Iowa.“

However, on a recent episode of Ariel and the Bad Guy on ESPN, Chael Sonnen gave viewers a few more details as to exactly how far White had been willing to go. Saying the the UFC president hauled Ronda Rousey and $150,000 down to the jail to try and get him out in time for his fight.

“Jeremy Stephens was supposed to do a fight on FOX,” Chael explained, setting the stage for the story. “The day of that fight, Ariel, he ends up in Jail! I can’t remember what happened; he’s handcuffed, he’s in jail. FOX is like, ‘Look, we’re pulling it.’ Dana says, ‘Oh no you’re not.’ Dana gets in a public fight through social media, says, ‘Jeremy Stephens will be on the card.’ FOX steps in and says, ‘We’re not putting the guy on the card that used to be in jail.’

“Dana happened to be doing business with Ronda Rousey. He takes Ronda Rousey, $150,000 in cash, goes down to the jail to get Jeremy Stephens out. Ronda told me that story herself. She said, ‘Yes, it was Dana and I and $150 grand.’ And guess what? They didn’t let him out.”

“But Ariel, picture that for a second. First off, where did he get $150 Gs on the spot? And secondly, Dana and Ronda come walking through the door!? It’s probably going to turn some heads, right? I mean, just picture that image though. ‘Hey, that’s my guy back there, I need him out.’”

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White also said that he tried to cut a deal to have Stephens escorted by armed police officers to the arena for the fight, and then back to jail afterward. Hard to see why FOX was so reluctant to go along with what could have ended up as a whole new chapter in the Lee Murray Walkout Hall of Fame.

Dana White on Conor McGregor’s bar scuffle: ‘That happened in April’

Posted on by Zane Simon in Crime, Front Page, MMA Confidential, UFC News

Turns out that Conor McGregor’s latest public fracas is actually already old news, at least to UFC president Dana White. Recently released video appears to show the former UFC champion striking a man in a bar, following what seems to have been a disagreement over McGregor’s Proper 12 whiskey brand. But, in an interview with the Jim Rome Show on CBS, White revealed that he had actually known about the incident for quite some time—since it happened back in April (transcript via MMA Fighting).

“That happened in April. I knew that happened, they just got the video. It’s pretty bad,” White said when speaking to Jim Rome on Thursday. “Not allegedly, it’s pretty clear [it’s him]. So apparently this was in a pub in Ireland, and it was an argument over whiskey. Conor has a whiskey now, and it was an argument over the whiskey. And Conor reaches out and hits him with a left hook.

“I don’t know the context of it. I don’t know the entire story, but he punches a guy, an older man, in the face.”

White explained that he hadn’t actually known any of the details of the case, prior to the video being released. “I just knew it happened.” However, even with this latest news, it sounds like the UFC isn’t about to be out of the McGregor business. “When you deal with fighters, guys who fight for a living, there’s always something.”

Rather, White seems to hope that the combat sports superstar will find his way clear of what has become a string of high profile incidents – including his infamous attack on a busload of fighters ahead of UFC 223, the destruction of a fan’s cell phone outside a Miami hotel, and an investigation into more disturbing allegations – and maybe, just maybe, stop getting in trouble.

“You get to a point where you look at a guy like Conor and you look at the bus incident in New York and the camera, the phone, the guy took the picture of him in Miami and he slaps the phone [away from him] — what’s the number?” White said. “What’s it going to cost Conor McGregor before he decides ‘Alright, this isn’t worth it. Enough is enough, I need to stop doing this’.

“The incident in New York cost him millions. Millions he had to pay out. He had to pay the guy with the phone. What’s he going to pay this guy that he hit in the bar? The list just goes on and on. I just don’t know when he wakes up and says ‘I’ve got to stop doing this’.”

No word yet on when McGregor might make a return to the Octagon. A fight between he and Donald Cerrone seemed to be materializing earlier in the year, but has apparently fallen by the wayside—with Cerrone currently preparing to fight Justin Gaethje in mid-September.

Currently, welterweight top contender Jorge Masvidal has been calling for his own ‘red panty night.’ And Anthony Pettis revealed that he had been preparing to fight McGregor at Madison Square Garden on the UFC 244 PPV in November—before ending up with his booking against Nate Diaz, this weekend in Anaheim. Whether it’s any one of those men, or someone else entirely (or maybe no one at all), for now, McGregor seems to be doing all his fighting outside of the cage.

Fighters & referee respond to viral choke video from Brazilian MMA event: ‘It was agonizing’

Posted on by Zane Simon in Front Page, MMA Confidential, MMA News

MMA is a dangerous sport. It’s built into the fabric of fighting. Two people can’t enter battle in a full contact contest – with punches, knees, kicks, elbows, and submissions – without the threat of danger. And that’s why MMA is also supposed to be a sport of checks and balances.

Fighters have rules they follow in the cage, referees are there to make sure that rules are enforced, and that fighters are kept safe. Corners watch the action, hopefully willing to step in if the referee fails to do his job. And the various regulating bodies are supposed to ensure that fighters, their corners, and the referees are all held to certain standards of training and skill.

Whether or not any of it works as intended, however, is an entirely different matter. And at a recent regional MMA event in Brazil, almost everything failed.

When Melquizael Costa entered the cage against Rafael Barbosa at Demolidor Fight 13 on August 18th, he was relatively unknown. Unfortunately, he’s found a moment in the spotlight, as the victim of a shocking moment of referee error. Costa ended up caught in an anaconda choke, one that put him to sleep almost immediately. Only referee Emerson Pereira Saez failed to recognize that fact for a full 90 seconds while Costa lay unconscious on the mat, his brain in desperate need of blood and oxygen.

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Costa spoke to MMA Fighting about the experience in a recent interview.

“He locked the anaconda choke, and when I turned to the wrong side, I went out,” Costa said. “The first thing I remember is opening my eyes and seeing my coaches and a doctor over me, calling my name, and I couldn’t breathe. It was agonizing. I only came back to normal when I got to the hospital and they gave me some serum.”

“I saw in the video that I went out and my eyes were open,” Costa said. “You might think I’m awake, but I was already out. I moved a couple of times, but I was having seizures. My corner and his corner yelled that I was out, but the referee said he would only stop the fight if I was out. And I was! Every referee touches the fighter to see if they are out, but he never touched me. My opponent stopped the fight. Otherwise, I would be dead.”

Costa’s opponent, Rafael Barbosa, gave his thoughts on the experience as well, saying that while the referee clearly made a mistake, he wasn’t the only one deserving of blame.

“I know that the referee is wrong, but [Costa’s] team wouldn’t say much either,” Barbosa continued. “He was out, and his team kept telling him to get up, to defend. They thought he was still awake. I don’t think the referee is completely wrong here.”

For his part, Referee Emerson Pereira Saez told Fighting that, in the moment, a lot of little things made him believe that Costa was still conscious. The fighter’s eyes were open, he appeared to be posting off his opponent with his free hand, trying to create space, his legs seemed to be moving. However, following public reaction to the video, he announced that he would no longer referee bouts.

“Everything happens too fast in there, it’s different than looking at the video later. You have to make a quick decision in there, and at the same time, I thought if I stop this early and he’s in the fight, it will be controversial. I let it go a little bit longer, and when I realized his eyes and his expression were changing, I stopped the fight. That’s exactly what happened. I didn’t notice him having a seizure. If I had noticed that, I would have stopped it earlier to protect the athlete.”

“My family and I think it’s time to retire,” Saez added in an interview with Combate. “I’ve done my best. I wish (Costa) and his opponent the best. They are young, and I hope they can build their dreams.”

Wrapped up in all this is the fact that, up until the last minute, Saez wasn’t even supposed to be working the event at all. In response to backlash the fight has caused, promoter Jeferson Pavanelo explained that he had contracted Brazil’s National MMA Confederation (CNMMA) to officiate Demolidor Fight 13. But, shortly before the show started, CNMMA president Marcelo Drago – who had apparently planned to oversee the card – informed Pavanelo that he would be unable to make it, and in place of their regular team he sent Saez instead.

According to Combate, Drago explained that because Demolidor Fight works with the regulating body at a discounted rate, he was unable to bring in official CNMMA referees from outside the area at their agreed upon price. However, Pavanelo says that Drago vouched for Saez’s expertise, despite him not being directly affiliated with the organization.

All of which meant, when push came to shove inside the cage, it seems nobody was ready to take charge.

Invicta champ lobs ‘disgraceful’ claim of ‘stinky strategy’ at recent opponent

Posted on by Zane Simon in Front Page, MMA Confidential, MMA News, Women's MMA

It looks like the controversy from Minna Grusander’s Invicta FC 30 bout against Jinh Yu Frey didn’t end with the judges. In a fight that had many (including cage-side commentary) questioning the eventual decision, Frey – who lost a previous title shot to Ayaka Hamasaki in 2016 – took home the vacant Invicta atomweight strap with a unanimous decision over Grusander earlier in July.

The bout was a somewhat slow affair, featuring a lot of cage grinding, sporadic ground work, and extended, slow-paced standup exchanges. Eventually judges felt Frey had done enough to win. However, not happy to simply take home the belt, Frey and her husband, Douglas, took to social media to say that they felt Grusander had intentionally avoided bathing ahead of the fight to make herself smell as bad as possible. Employing what Douglas Frey dubbed “the stinky strategy” in a since deleted tweet.

In a post on Instagram, Frey responded to critics of the judges decision noting that, “I also had never had an opponent who did the whole ‘I’m not showering for a week so that my body odor makes my opponent gag’ tactic. So that was new.”

Invicta’s in-cage interviewer, Laura Sanko, responded to the allegations on Twitter, saying that, “I stood right next to Minna after the fight and didn’t notice odor like that.” Which prompted Frey’s husband to give an unusual explanation.

He claimed that his knowledge of Icelandic allowed him to overhear a conversation between Grusander and her team, in Finnish. A conversation he claims confirmed their suspicions. His response, once again, has since been deleted (h/t MMA Fighting).

“Don’t be disappointed, Laura,” he wrote. “I took Icelandic language lessons, and can follow along in Finnish pretty well too. On the ride back to the hotel we had to ride in the same can [sic] and her and her team were laughing about it…”

For her part, Grusander spoke to MMA Fighting, where she didn’t mince words about what she felt to be a ‘disgraceful’ attempt to drag her reputation.

“I think the fact that they are even making up and shouting out this little bullshit, it’s pretty disgraceful right now,” said Grusander. “I’ve heard and seen some bad losers in sports in general and I kind of understand the trash talk in combat sports prior to an upcoming bout, but I can’t really figure out the purpose of their actions right now.

“I don’t think I’ve seen everything, I’m not really digging deep into what they’re talking about me, I’m just amazed how immature they’ve been with it.”

“With all this Icelandic stuff and ‘bad-smelling thing,’ it really sounds like some first-grader wannabe badass bully desperately trying to put down someone even when they can’t come up with anything,” said Grusander.

It sounds like Grusander is hoping, if nothing else, the ongoing war of words outside the cage helps secure her a rematch in it, where they can settle the score. Especially considering controversy already surrounding how the bout was judged. Unfortunately for her, considering Frey and her husband’s current complaints, that may not be a bout the newly crowned champion is especially interested in taking.

Dan Hardy wants to take on Gordon Ramsay: ‘He walks into every kitchen in the world like he can fight’

Posted on by Zane Simon in Front Page, MMA Confidential, MMA News, UFC Interview

For most people, their bucket list includes things like sky diving, bungee jumping, world travel, or a chance to see a famous artist or work of art, live and in-person. For Dan Hardy, it includes a list of celebrities he’d like to take a crack at in the cage.

The former UFC welterweight title contender has more or less entirely transitioned away from a competitive cage-fighting career – following the revelation of a long standing heart condition – into being one of the UFC’s best color commentary voices during live events. But, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t still dream about stepping back into the Octagon.

Hardy has often said he’d like to get a final few fights under his belt before really calling it quits on MMA. And while it seems like any kind of official plans for a return to competition have stalled out, when asked by bet365 if he had any celebrity opponents he’d like throw down against, one name sprung immediately to mind.

“I could make a list for you, to be honest,” Hardy admitted. “But, the one that I would pick straight away – and I always see him at boxing events as well, I know he’s a fan of combat sports – Gordon Ramsay. You know, he walks into every kitchen in the world like he can fight, and I would like to see if he actually can. Because, it’s unwarranted to have that kind of attitude with people, if you can’t actually throw down. So, you know, try and speak to me like that in my own kitchen and you’ll get a slap across the face.”

For his part, Ramsay appears to have other plans. The TV chef, best known for “Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares,” “Hell’s Kitchen,” and “MasterChef” has just recently announced his latest venture into entertainment cookery. Variety magazine reports that National Geographic will be airing “Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted” in 2019. A globetrotting “anthropology-through-cuisine” show that will feature Ramsay attempting to compete against local chefs among other cultural activities. A proposed fight against Dan Hardy may just have to sit on the back burner for a while.

After Brendan Schaub’s ‘Eskimo brothers’ taunt, Dana White needs to show some professional leadership

Posted on by Zane Simon in Front Page, MMA Confidential, UFC Editorial, Women's MMA

Dana White has been placed firmly in the cross-hairs. The head man for the world’s largest MMA organization appears to have made a rather unfortunate, and potentially serious mistake. He got into a war of words with someone who not only seems to know what skeletons are in his closet, but also seemingly has nothing to lose by exposing them.

When Brendan Schaub made some recent offhand comments about kickboxers trying their hand in the UFC, I doubt he thought he’d end up airing Dana White’s dirty laundry. But, the man with a penchant for letting his mouth run ahead of his thoughts found himself doing just that on Twitter yesterday. Following a spat with White across middleweight Israel Adesanya’s Instagram feed, Schaub took to other social media platforms to escalate their war of words.

The term “Eskimo brothers” at the bottom, is a slang reference to two men who have had sex with the same woman. It’s a petty, stupid way to potentially air out multiple people’s sexual history casually, and it says nothing good of Schaub that he can’t be trusted not to tell his 600,000+ followers details of his past partners’ own sex lives. Especially since there’s likely zero chance this beef ends on the tweet above.

Unfortunately for White, however, that kind of blunt threat puts the weight of being the ‘bigger man’ entirely on his shoulders. And that’s a role White’s rarely played comfortably across his career as an unabashedly unfiltered combat sports promoter. If someone is going to go low, White is usually willing to meet them exactly on their own terms. In this case, though, the collateral damage of either taunting Schaub further, or of just leaving the entire thing alone may be too volatile to incur.

Not only is White going to have to face potential questions about infidelity in his personal life (he’s been married since 1996), but the rumor mill is already in full swing, as the public tries to figure out what unfortunate woman has been plunked straight into the middle of this two-man trashfire. And for many, the most likely answer to that question is current WWE star – and former face of the UFC – Ronda Rousey.

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Rousey and Schaub had a short-lived public relationship, during his time with the now WME-IMG owned promotion. Additionally, rumors that Rousey and White were more than ‘just friends’ have been swirling, ever since Zuffa purchased Strikeforce back in 2011. She and White were often seen publicly together during the first years of her MMA career, with Rousey even accompanying White to events on his private jet. It’s an easy leap for those interested in making it, that she’s the woman in question.

In her autobiography, and in interviews following, Rousey has denied any physical relationship between herself and White, full stop. Saying instead that the time they spent together was largely due to delays in moving her out of the Showtime promotion and into the UFC. She and White made public appearances together as he tried to keep her convinced that plans were still in motion, even as they failed to come to fruition as quickly as anticipated. And while that sounds sensible enough, unfortunately for her, that’s not going to stop people from talking.

Instead it’s on Dana White to make it clear to people just what Schaub is taunting him with, who he’s hinting at, and where the truth in it lies. But not just for the sake of the woman he calls “a very good f—king friend of mine.” White also has an entire roster of talent to manage, a roster that may see this as a major reason to distrust working with him.

As the president of UFC operations – and the man who, at the end of the day, is responsible for how fighters in the UFC are promoted – the insinuation that he may have been selectively sleeping with a fighter, and that that fighter just happened to get more attention than her peers in terms of marketing, could be deeply damaging to a UFC/athlete relationship that is already often rocky at best.

Maybe it’s true. Maybe the rumors are spot on (as unlikely as that seems). But even if that’s the case, White is likely better off confronting the public with that fact on his own terms, rather than letting Schaub be the first one to tell the story.

Attempts to organize athletes into a position of collective bargaining, lawsuits accusing the promotion of monopoly practices, invasive drug testing, uniforms, and increasing battles over salary expectations & contractual obligations have created a number of tenuous relationships between UFC brass and the talent that fight under them. To let this hang, as a rumor, wouldn’t only give it the feel of truth, but let imagination run wild. Is this how one woman gets a title shot when another can’t? Is this why the UFC seems so disinterested in the future of their bantamweight division these days? Is this why White has been so quick to throw Amanda Nunes under the bus?

And of course, to let Schaub lead the way, and spill it all, is to hand the narrative over to a man with nothing invested in the outcome. A man who doesn’t have to care where collateral damage falls, because his position in the industry doesn’t depend on his relationships to anyone potentially affected.

This is a moment where White would be best served to step forward, be a leader, be professional, and put his cards on the table whatever they may be. Whether or not he can manage that is another thing entirely.

Matt Serra on ‘drunk moron’ he gave a free BJJ lesson: ‘I got a bigger applause than I did in my first GSP fight’

Posted on by Zane Simon in Crime, Front Page, MMA Confidential, UFC News

Add another accolade to Matt Serra’s resume. The first and only UFC pastaweight champion defended his title for the first time last week, right before getting inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame. It wasn’t much of a fight, with the former welterweight title holder mounting his severely intoxicated opponent until security stepped in.

Serra posted a video of the altercation and another of the lead up to it, on his Instagram page. And, in a recent episode of UFC Unfiltered (which Serra co-hosts with comedian Jim Norton), he gave a more detailed explanation of just what went down (transcript via MMA Fighting).

“I was almost out of there! I was almost in the clear,” Serra said, noting that the man and woman with him entered the restaurant extremely inebriated before the man began cursing, and throwing things at staff. “My waiter is bringing me the check and then he gets up and he goes after my waiter – just a drunk moron and he has his fists clenched. He was throwing sh-t at the other waiter, now he’s facing me and my family. So he’s drunk and something’s gonna happen. This guy is hitting him or he’s gonna throw something and my family is behind me. So I stood up and then he directed everything towards me the second I stood up. ‘You! I’ll fight you!’

“So he took his shirt off and the second he took his shirt off, I don’t know if he went to swing but I just neutralized that sh-t. I stepped right in, got him around his waist – my wife, she goes, ‘When you went in I thought that you were gonna slam him. You let him down so gently!’ Dude, he just, like, melted when I grabbed him. He folded to jelly. so I got him around the waist, basic takedown. I gave him a free jiu-jitsu lesson.”

Despite having the crowd firmly behind him, Serra made it clear that he had to stay realistic about using force against someone so clearly drunk… even if the man ‘deserves to get smacked.’

“I took him down, I got a bigger applause than I did in my first GSP fight,” Serra laughed. “The audience erupted. They were still clapping by the time my sister started filming because that dude was as obnoxious as you can get. Yelling, screaming, making a scene, being vulgar. Total f-cking d-ckhead.

“Even though he deserves to get smacked or something, the loser goes to the hospital and the winner goes to jail. I know there was no winning in beating up this guy but he definitely needed to be subdued because he was gonna hit somebody.”

No word yet on when Serra plans to defend his belt again. But, if he hangs around the Vegas strip long enough, he’s sure to find plenty of contenders.

Nikita Krylov hoping to make UFC return at Moscow event

Posted on by Zane Simon in Front Page, MMA Confidential, UFC News

Nikki Thrillz may be on his way back to the UFC. The Russo-Ukranian light heavyweight left the promotion back in early 2017, following a loss to Misha Cirkunov. However, in a rare move, he didn’t go because the UFC wasn’t interested in keeping him around.

Nikita Krylov negotiated an early end to his UFC contract claiming that he was spending too much time away from his family and wanted to compete closer to home. Soon afterward he signed a contract with Russian promotion Fight Nights Global. Krylov competed four times under the FNG banner between 2017-2018, going undefeated – with all wins coming inside the distance.

Now, MMA Fighting has confirmed a report from MMA Team Dagestan that Krylov has been released from his FNG contract in order to pursue a return to the world’s largest MMA promotion. The move was apparently prompted by the announcement of the upcoming UFC card in Moscow, headlined by Mark Hunt vs. Alexei Oleinyk. FNG president Kamil Gadzhiev spoke to Fighting about the decision.

“Krylov’s contract is up in August and the UFC is coming to Russia on September 15th,” said Gadzhiev.

“As a result of that, [Krylov’s] management contacted Fight Nights Global and asked for a release so they could negotiate a deal for him for September. As his contract was up in August, Fight Nights Global did not want to prevent Krylov from fighting in the UFC in Russia, so he has been released to allow him to negotiate.”

Reportedly, should the deal fall through, FNG will be more than happy to welcome Krylov back with a new contract.

Also worth noting, Krylov’s exit from FNG comes just a few months after the arrest of the promotion’s owner, on charges of embezzlement. As reported back in April, Ziyavudin Magomedov – one of the richest men in the Russian Federation – could be facing as much as 20 years in prison for the reported theft of $35 million dollars. The reported embezzlement is under investigation surrounding the construction of a World Cup stadium in Kaliningrad, which Magomedov’s company won the rights to build.

Magomedov is a notable figure in the Russian MMA scene. Not only as the owner of FNG, but also as the principal investor behind Khabib Nurmagomedov’s Eagles MMA fight team. Perhaps Krylov’s exit could be indicative of the ripple effects of Magomedov’s arrest.

Either way, the return of the ‘Miner’ would be a welcome breath of life into a division that needs all the fresh talent it can get.

Kamaru Usman not planning to press charges after getting jumped at PFL event

Posted on by Zane Simon in Front Page, MMA Confidential, PFL, UFC Interview, UFC News, Videos

When news broke of a brawl involving UFC fighter Kamaru Usman along with notable MMA manager Ali Abdel Aziz at PFL’s 2018 season opener, it looked bad. From the initial reports, it seemed Aziz and Usman had attacked a fan during the event, for kneeling during the national anthem. A shocking development for a fighter like Usman, who had yet to run into much controversy outside the cage – even if the same can’t be said for Ali.

However, in a recent interview with Ariel Helwani on the MMA Hour, Usman gave his side of the story. And to hear him tell it, neither he nor Ali were the aggressors that night, and it didn’t have much to do with kneeling for the anthem either. He expressed his surprise that the story ended up skewed the way it did. ”Do they not realize that I’m black? Do they not realize that I’m African-American?” Usman said, in response to a headline apparently reading ”UFC fighter and manager attack a fan for kneeling for the national anthem.”

The clip below shows part of the exchange, but Usman filled out the rest of the details as to what lead up to it.

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“Obviously, a bunch of drunk fans were coming into the auditorium from the back,” Usman said, setting the stage for the events that followed. ”Because, the way it was set up, the event was set up, it was like an auditorium style. So when you come in from the back, everyone’s back is… You come in with everyone’s back turned towards you and you’re looking down towards the cage.

“So we go out to get some water to drink, because we were thirsty. So, we were coming back in, and while we were coming in, all the sudden the national anthem’s playing. So we stop. And I’m like, ‘Hey hey hey, stop. We don’t want to walk through the crowd while the national anthem is playing. So, let’s let this thing finish out.’ It was me and my manager. So he’s standing in front of me at the top of the stairs, and I was behind him, a couple steps behind.

“And he looks back, to look at me. Just nonchalant, I wasn’t paying attention. But, there was a big guy kneeling next to us, and I hear, ‘What the f-ck are you looking at?’ And I’m like, ‘Wait, what?’ So, I’m kind of ignoring him. I’m, ‘Well I don’t know what’s going on here.’ And then he goes, ‘Yeah, I’m talking to you! What the f— are you looking at?’ And then my manager turns around and goes, ‘Hey, what’s going on? You gotta problem? Are you talking to us?’ And the guy goes, ‘Yeah, I’m f—ing talking to you. What’s going on! You got a problem with me or something?’

“At this point we’re like… And this is during the national anthem,“ Usman continued, “so I stop and I go over there and I’m like, ‘Yo, hey hey hey. Hey, chill. Chill, be respectful. The national anthem is playing.’ And then the guy turns around and looks at me and goes, ‘Shut the f— up you n-word. What are you gonna do?’ And I’m like, ‘Bro, the national anthem is playing. Chill.’ So Ali stops and we let the national anthem finish up. Meanwhile the guy is still mouthing off through that and the national anthem, he was still mouthing off. So, when he was done, I turn around to him and I’m like, ‘Bro, have some respect the national anthem is playing.’ And then the guy was like ‘What the f— are you going to do you n-word.’

“And then at this point, I’m like okay, this dude is clearly drunk, and he’s serious, and he’s right in my face. So, I’m like, ‘Back up, you’re in my space.’ And the guy goes, ‘You ain’t gonna do nothing. What, do you think you’re f—ing tough?’ So at this point, I’m thinking he’s gonna swing on me, because he’s more and more aggressive. So, I push him off me. I’m like, ‘Bro, back up.’ And, of course, my manager’s not happy with the situation. And then a guy grabs him while he’s trying to – obviously he’s going to have my back – while he’s trying to get near me. And the guy grabs him. And the guy is still coming towards me, so I push him off. I’m like, ‘Bro, you need to back up.’

“So, I turn around and we’re leaving. I grab Ali and I’m like, ‘Let’s leave.’ And I don’t know if you can see it from that angle – that video that’s online, you can’t really see it – but I turn around for us to leave, and all of a sudden, while my back is turned, I get hit in the back, boom! And then there’s like three of them, jumped on Ali and then three of them jumped on me. And now it’s like, I gotta defend myself. I’m in self defense mode. I’m trying to throw one guy off me. And then it’s just all crazy commotion. Guys are trying to jump on us. And the whole time, I couldn’t believe this situation was happening. At one point I had a smile on my face, because I was like, ‘That just happened to me!?’“

Eventually, Usman says security kicked the men out of the event and escorted Usman and Ali to their seats. They even got an apology for the whole event from event staff. When asked if Usman planned on pressing charges against the men who attacked him, the ‘Nigerian Nightmare’ said that he was happy enough just to let the whole thing be.

“I’ve got to talk to him about that,” Usman said on the potential that Ali may press charges, ”but it’s not a big deal to me. That’s not what we do. Obviously, I wasn’t there to fight and it just happened. I’m not the guy to call the cops. Some people will. A situation happened and I’m moving forward, I’m over it.”

Greg Hardy on Contender Series shot: ‘I am here because Dana White is an angel’

Posted on by Zane Simon in Crime, Front Page, MMA Confidential, UFC News

The UFC could hardly look more hypocritical with their courting of former NFL pass rusher Greg Hardy. Hardy is set to make his pro debut against fellow former football player Austen Lane on Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series. And if he can perform well enough there, chances are high that a UFC contract would follow.

Hardy’s NFL career came to a somewhat abrupt end after the 2015 season – just his 6th in the league – and a year after he was convicted of domestic violence charges for the alleged assault of ex-girlfriend Nicole Holder. According to her account of the event, Hardy threw her against a bathtub and then onto a futon, where she says he began choking her. Apparently, soon afterward he stopped and told a friend to start filming Holder while he antagonized her to attack him. He then called 9-1-1, claiming to be the victim of assault. Later Hardy would claim Holder’s injuries were self inflicted.

Eventually, Hardy was convicted of domestic violence at a bench trial in 2014. In part due to corroboration of Holder’s testimony from a witness who overheard the event. But, following an appeal to go to a jury trial, the conviction was expunged. Mostly due to Holder’s lack of cooperation with investigators, after a reported settlement with Hardy. A private investigation conducted by the NFL saw him suspended for 10 games, but that was reduced to just four in arbitration. However, due poor performance in his return to the NFL, and a 2016 arrest for cocaine possession, the league washed their hands of him.

All of which is to say that, whatever ultimately ended up on his legal record, Hardy comes to MMA with an infamous reputation. This at the same time that former UFC title contender Nick Diaz is facing his own charges of domestic violence, charges that prompted the release of the following statement:

“UFC is aware of the recent arrest of middleweight athlete, Nick Diaz. The organization does not tolerate domestic violence and requires all athletes to adhere to the UFC Fighter Conduct Policy. Every athlete is deserving of due process and this situation, as with any official allegations, will be duly reviewed and thoroughly investigated by an independent party.”

But, with the possibility of signing a supremely gifted NFL caliber athlete – who is still only 29 years old – Dana White sounded a lot less forceful on the UFC’s message during the UFC 225 post-fight presser.

“I guess he had a real bad drug and alcohol problem,” White said, in defense of Hardy. “Started to get into MMA. Cleaned himself up. If you talk to anybody he trains with, male or female, they say that he’s a very good guy. He’s very humble. Everybody deserves a second chance. And the guy was never charged with anything, he was never sentenced or anything like that. We’re going to give him a shot.”

If that sounds familiar, it’s a lot like the statement White gave on the short lived and disastrous re-signing of Thiago Silva. Silva was released from the promotion after being arrested for threatening his ex-wife with a gun – a conflict that ended with Silva barricaded in his house in a stand off with SWAT team officers – but given a new contract with UFC when she failed to appear in court, having left the country. Silva would be released again shortly afterward, when footage emerged showing him stalking around her house threateningly prior to the incident, gun in hand.

That’s the kind of mistake Hardy wants to assure fans and reporters the UFC isn’t making twice. Hardy spoke to MMA Junkie recently, where he expressed his desire for people to get to know him before judging him and his actions (transcript via MMA Fighting).

“Get to know me first,” Hardy said. “Meet me would be a good start. Talk to me, and give me the opportunity that you would give anybody else. Look forward to watching me on TV. Come out and enjoy the event – whether it’s to see me get beat up or to see me excel – and then make a decision or make your opinion and I’ll respect it as a human being. That’s honestly where I have to come from on any platform these days because that’s the reality that I have to live in.”

As for people who may never be able to look at him without seeing the charges of his past, Hardy seems to be diplomatic about their attitude.

“Honestly it’s just the burden that comes with it. Who am I to question fans? These are the people that pay my salary so they have the right to have opinions, they have the right to be who they are. Me being biased towards those people would be me being exactly who they think I am and honestly, that’s not who I am. . .

“There’s a whole lot of levels of understanding when you don’t know a person, when you don’t know any of the facts. But I do understand people do have their own opinions and if you don’t respect people’s opinions, that’s just Hitler-esque.”

And he made it clear that, however his MMA career goes, all the credit for his appearance on the Tuesday Night Contender Series lies directly with Dana White.

“I am here because Dana White is an angel, a saint that gave me the opportunity to come and put my best foot forward. I honestly couldn’t begin to explain why, I can only just express my appreciation and my gratitude for the opportunity to be here and show what kind of athlete I am.”