Week in MMA & Boxing - 3/17/17
UFC Fight Night: Belfort vs. Gastelum
On 3/11, Vitor Belfort vs Kelvin Gastelum drew a sellout of 14,069 fans to the Olympic Gym in in Fortaleza, Brazil, for a show with largely good action, with a fun win by crowd favorite Mauricio Shogun Rua, and impressive wins by title contenders Edson Barboza at lightweight and Ray Borg at flyweight. the main card did 946,000 viewers, which is roughly average, probably lower than hoped for with Belfort and Shogun fighting.
Belfort was old and skinny, looking like the father of the fighter of 2013. He showed brief flashes of the hand speed and accuracy, but was finished in 3:52 in the main event, his fourth loss in five fights, all four coming via stoppage, three in the first round. Belfort announced after the show that he had one fight left on his contract, which he hoped to have on 6/3 at the UFC PPV show from Rio de Janeiro, and unless UFC started a seniors circuit at that point, he would probably retire.
Belfort was old and skinny, looking like the father of the fighter of 2013. He showed brief flashes of the hand speed and accuracy, but was finished in 3:52 in the main event, his fourth loss in five fights, all four coming via stoppage, three in the first round. Belfort announced after the show that he had one fight left on his contract, which he hoped to have on 6/3 at the UFC PPV show from Rio de Janeiro, and unless UFC started a seniors circuit at that point, he would probably retire.
Mayweather vs McGregor Update
Floyd Mayweather said he was now out of retirement and said he’d like to fight Conor McGregor in June. He pushed to make it happen. Making that deal, because UFC has McGregor under an exclusive contract, isn’t something you can snap your fingers on. For what it’s worth, Dana White told Kevin Iole that it’s “so far from being made.” There are a lot of rumors going around that they’ve got a date booked in June for it.
It’s one thing for the two guys to talk each other up to keep each other in the news, but it’s quite another to make a three-way deal where for McGregor and UFC they are basically sacrificing their sport to the general public in exchange for a likely ton of money and exposure and notoriety.
It’s one thing for the two guys to talk each other up to keep each other in the news, but it’s quite another to make a three-way deal where for McGregor and UFC they are basically sacrificing their sport to the general public in exchange for a likely ton of money and exposure and notoriety.
Weight cutting issues
Just for some more stats on weight cutting issues. With the old method of weighing in live late in the afternoon, in the first five months of 2016, there was one person who failed to make weight and no fights canceled over weight issues. For the first 13 weeks of 2017, there were five, and two more never made it to weigh-in with three fights canceled.
California is changing its regulations to where the 20 percent fine for missing weight will be out of both the show money and win money. Previously it was just 20 percent of the show money (your guarantee). They are also looking at coming up with more regulations regarding weight cutting for their 5/16 commission meeting.
California is changing its regulations to where the 20 percent fine for missing weight will be out of both the show money and win money. Previously it was just 20 percent of the show money (your guarantee). They are also looking at coming up with more regulations regarding weight cutting for their 5/16 commission meeting.
This week’s show
This week’s show is a Fight Pass event from the O2 Arena in London, England, on 3/18 starting at 1:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern.
The lineup has Lina Lansberg (6-2) going from main event to opening match vs. Lucie Pudilova (6-1), Scott Askham (14-3) vs. Brad Scott (10-4), Ian Entwistle (9-3) vs. Brett Johns (13-0), Leon Edwards (12-3) vs. Vicente Luque (11-5-1), Oluwale Bamgbose (6-2) vs. Tom Breese (10-1), Marc Diakiese (11-0) vs. Teemu Packalen (8-1), Timothy Johnson (10-3) vs. Daniel Omielanczuk (19-6-1), Francimar Barroso (18-5) vs. Darren Stewart (7-0), Joseph Duffy (15-2) vs. Reza Madadi (14-4), Arnold Allen (11-1) vs. Makwan Amirkani (13-2), Brad Pickett (25-13) vs. Marlon Vera (8-3-1), Alan Jouban (15-4) vs. Gunnar Nelson (15-2-1) and headlined by Jimi Manuwa (16-2) vs. Corey Anderson (9-2)
The lineup has Lina Lansberg (6-2) going from main event to opening match vs. Lucie Pudilova (6-1), Scott Askham (14-3) vs. Brad Scott (10-4), Ian Entwistle (9-3) vs. Brett Johns (13-0), Leon Edwards (12-3) vs. Vicente Luque (11-5-1), Oluwale Bamgbose (6-2) vs. Tom Breese (10-1), Marc Diakiese (11-0) vs. Teemu Packalen (8-1), Timothy Johnson (10-3) vs. Daniel Omielanczuk (19-6-1), Francimar Barroso (18-5) vs. Darren Stewart (7-0), Joseph Duffy (15-2) vs. Reza Madadi (14-4), Arnold Allen (11-1) vs. Makwan Amirkani (13-2), Brad Pickett (25-13) vs. Marlon Vera (8-3-1), Alan Jouban (15-4) vs. Gunnar Nelson (15-2-1) and headlined by Jimi Manuwa (16-2) vs. Corey Anderson (9-2)