Tag: Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz

Floyd Mayweather Has Already Confirmed He Won’t Fight In UFC

If you thought that all the talk about Floyd Mayweather fighting in the UFC Octagon was complete and utter nonsense, well, you were right. Barely a day after UFC president Dana White confirmed he was supposedly in talks with “Money” to make a run in mixed martial arts (MMA), Mayweather himself has already put to […]

The post Floyd Mayweather Has Already Confirmed He Won’t Fight In UFC appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

If you thought that all the talk about Floyd Mayweather fighting in the UFC Octagon was complete and utter nonsense, well, you were right.

Barely a day after UFC president Dana White confirmed he was supposedly in talks with “Money” to make a run in mixed martial arts (MMA), Mayweather himself has already put to rest the talk that he started.

After recently fanning those flames by teasing a “billion-dollar” contract with the UFC, “Money” today clarified to FightHype that he didn’t actually say he was going to the UFC, just that he could make a billion if he did:

“Exactly what I said is this: If I could make over a billion dollars before, I could do it again,” Mayweather said. “If I chose to get in the UFC and fight three fights or fight four fights and then fight Conor McGregor, I could make a billion dollars. Which I can. I could do it in three fights or even four fights — I could make a billion dollars. If I choose to get in the Octagon and fight.”

Interesting, because White suggested just the opposite was true to Octagon commentator Joe Rogan, even if he thought Mayweather would get destroyed doing so:

“Floyd talked about it. This is one thing I can tell you. Dana told me that Floyd wants to make a deal in the UFC. Like legitimately. I texted him, I go ‘Is Floyd really talking about fighting MMA?’ He goes ‘Yeah, he’s f**king crazy. I told him he’d get killed. But he’s still talking about doing it.”

Photo by Mark J. Rebilas – USA TODAY Sports

A master of staying relevant in the media while not actually fighting, the boxing legend continued on about his supposed retirement by claiming he didn’t know what his next move is.

But if it was the UFC – and it’s most certainly not going to be because he “never” said that – he could make a billion dollars, and quickly:

“We just don’t know what the future holds for Floyd Mayweather,” Mayweather said. “And I don’t look forward to getting back in a boxing ring, that’s what I don’t look forward to. I’m just saying I could — I’m not doing it — but I’m saying what I could do to make a billion dollars quick, if I wanted to do that. That’s what I was saying. I never said I was gonna fight in the UFC. I didn’t say that. I said if I wanted to and what I could. Could and would do is different things. I’m not gonna do it, though.”

After reportedly making around $250 million for his August 26th win over Conor McGregor in boxing, “Money” may be putting that as his new barometer for a bout with an opponent from MMA.

Regardless of the sheer amount of cash involved, however, it’s beyond unlikely that a retired, undefeated legend would put his 50-0 record and legacy on the line to compete in an arena where he has no experience and would most likely get thoroughly worked over in a matter of seconds unless he somehow landed a lucky punch.

At least Mayweather had the common decency to shut down this farce before it gained too much momentum.

Quite the slow week in MMA news; but at least it won’t be full of any more speculation that the aging boxer is coming to the UFC.

The post Floyd Mayweather Has Already Confirmed He Won’t Fight In UFC appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Top UFC Lightweight Thinks It’s Time To Strip Conor McGregor’s Belt

As the UFC heads into 2018 following a questionable 2017 where their biggest star Conor McGregor didn’t fight in MMA once, their biggest question remains when – and if – ‘The Notorious’ will finally defend his title belt. Long regarded as possibly the most talented division in the UFC, the 155-pound fray has grown increasingly […]

The post Top UFC Lightweight Thinks It’s Time To Strip Conor McGregor’s Belt appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

As the UFC heads into 2018 following a questionable 2017 where their biggest star Conor McGregor didn’t fight in MMA once, their biggest question remains when – and if – ‘The Notorious’ will finally defend his title belt.

Long regarded as possibly the most talented division in the UFC, the 155-pound fray has grown increasingly packed with disgruntled contenders who want the weight class to finally move on. There’s no end to the current rut, however, as interim champion Tony Ferguson recently had surgery and is understandably waiting for his massive payday unification bout with McGregor.

That has the division on edge, and the growing sentiment amongst them is that McGregor should be stripped of his title if he’s unwilling to defend it soon like he said he would. One of those competitors is No. 7-ranked Dustin Poirier, once a foe of McGregor’s who was knocked out at 2014’s UFC 178. But “The Diamond” has been on a bit of a tear in 2017 after his last loss to Michael Johnson in September 2016, building a two-fight win streak that would be three if his controversial UFC 211 bout vs. Eddie Alvarez hadn’t been ruled a no contest by Herb Dean.

Poirier recently told MMA Weekly’s Damon Martin that the time was here for the UFC to strip McGregor:

“The thing is, the UFC’s pretending with Conor, but you have a list of top 10 fighters who aren’t pretending or messing around. This is their lives and their goals and their family’s future, a lot of stuff on the line here.

“So no pretending — let’s strip the belt from the guy or make him fight.”

Poirier undoubtedly raises a valid point by suggesting McGregor needs to defend the belt because the rest of the class is trying to further their careers, yet it could be highly unlikely due to the fact that the promotion’s far and away best shot at a monstrous pay-per-view (PPV) haul in 2018 rests on McGregor’s potential return.

Regardless, Poirier said the division needs to move on and the only to attain that necessary goal is to get McGregor out of the picture if he doesn’t want to compete:

“We have to [strip him] and then other fights make sense. Tony [Ferguson] gets the belt, his belt becomes the real belt and then he fights the winner out of these next few fights we have coming at the beginning of the year. We’ve got to clear it up.”

‘The Diamond’ is hardly the first fighter – or even lightweight, for that matter – to call out the UFC to take the brash Irishman’s gold, and those cries are only growing louder by the day.

As we’ve seen with the recent (and curious) case of returning former champion Georges St-Pierre, titles don’t mean anything close to what they once did in the UFC, as they’re really only an award placed on a match-up to make it seem as big as possible in today’s “money fight” era.

McGregor only wants compete in just those, and the Top 10 of the lightweight division aren’t really going to be his radar unfortunately, because they would provide fans with some entertaining action. After you fight Floyd Mayweather, most bouts don’t seem to get the juices flowing quite as much as they once did.

For the lightweight division’s sake, the fight game will have to hope the UFC finally lends some clarification to this growing cesspool sometime very soon.

The post Top UFC Lightweight Thinks It’s Time To Strip Conor McGregor’s Belt appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Floyd Mayweather Touts Big Money UFC Comeback

Floyd Mayweather may have retired a second time after he cashed in on the big payday of his overhyped circus versus UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor this August 26, but he’s already hinting at another return to the ring – or in this cash, the Octagon. After finishing off the biggest star in mixed martial […]

The post Floyd Mayweather Touts Big Money UFC Comeback appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Floyd Mayweather may have retired a second time after he cashed in on the big payday of his overhyped circus versus UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor this August 26, but he’s already hinting at another return to the ring – or in this cash, the Octagon.

After finishing off the biggest star in mixed martial arts with a 10th-round TKO, ‘Money’ told Fight Hype that he may unretire to go directly to the UFC, an offer he’s allegedly already been approached with. And like anything associated with the cash-loving boxing champion, he said it’s going to be for a ton of money (quote via MMA Mania):

“You already know I’m a money-getting motherf**ker,” he said in the video. “I’m Money May. They just called me not too long ago and asked me to come back. I can come right back to the UFC. If I want, I can go, I can come right back to the UFC, I can go fight in the Octagon. I can do a three or four fight deal in the Octagon and make a billion dollars. Remember, I’m Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather, and you motherf**kers love me, and I love you motherf**kers.”

Much of the discussion between combat sports fans from both MMA and boxing centered on the school of thought that McGregor would destroy in the cage in a lightning-quick display, just as ‘Money would quickly outlast ‘The Notorious’ in a pure boxing match.

We actually saw one of those things unfold, and with ‘Money’ retiring undefeated, it’s hard to see him actually risking his aura just to fight in a contest where he’s at a massive disadvantage; he’s made a career of always having each and every clear available advantage on his side.

So it could be all talk from the Mayweather camp, yet a possible rematch with McGregor could realistically be one of the most lucrative combat sports contests of all-time.

Welcome to 2017 fight fans.

The post Floyd Mayweather Touts Big Money UFC Comeback appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Conor McGregor Promises He’d Beat Floyd Mayweather In Rematch

Conor McGregor’s next UFC remains unknown as the Irish MMA megastar continues to make headlines for outside-of-the-cage troubles such as his referee-shoving incident at Bellator 187, his rumored bar fight with members of an Irish cartel, and his night out with singer Rita Ora. Yet to defend either of his UFC titles, ‘The Notorious’ was last seen losing […]

The post Conor McGregor Promises He’d Beat Floyd Mayweather In Rematch appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Conor McGregor’s next UFC remains unknown as the Irish MMA megastar continues to make headlines for outside-of-the-cage troubles such as his referee-shoving incident at Bellator 187, his rumored bar fight with members of an Irish cartel, and his night out with singer Rita Ora.

Yet to defend either of his UFC titles, ‘The Notorious’ was last seen losing by 10th-round TKO to Floyd Mayweather in quite possibly the most overblown combat sports spectacle in history. With most UFC fans clamoring for him to finally unify the 155-pound championship with interim champ Tony Ferguson, McGregor is apparently still focused on ‘Money,’ however.

He recently opened up to BBC (via MMA Weekly) about the technical adjustments Mayweather made during the fight, labeling the legendary pugilist a genius in the ring:

“It is what it is. I got beat. He’s a tactical genius in there. He changed his game plan three times, that’s the sign of a true champion. First, Philly shell, second rope-a-dope, third when both of those was getting picked at, he went Mexican style, hands up, knuckles above the eyebrows, dipped in low an just walked forward. It’s like an ugly boxing style.

“But he was able to change that game plan three times. It’s the sign of a true champion. He got the win, fair play to him.”

But the Irishman’s compliments didn’t go any further than that, as McGregor seemed to pine for a rematch (while insisting he wouldn’t call out a retired fighter) by offering the boast he could make a ‘simple’ adjustment himself and top ‘Money’ in a rematch:

“If it happened in a rematch, it’s a simple adjustment of me having a heavier sparring partner coming in, in the later rounds, and lean on me and walk me down. Where as in my sparring in the lead up to the camp, we were always against fast, twitchy, light on their toes opponent with a Philly shell style and their backs against the ropes. Never against forward pressure because he’s never fought like that so it took us by surprise and I got beat.

“If I had a rematch, I would correct that and I would beat him. He’s retired. I’m not going to start calling him out of retirement. I’m going to leave him to it. If it happens, maybe it will, who knows — I would beat him no doubt.”

‘The Notorious’ MMA champ doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to get back into the Octagon anytime soon, but he has a rumored $100 million reasons to already be asking for a boxing rematch with the elusive, undefeated Mayweather.

The out-of-control champion didn’t offer the legendary champion much resistance in the squared circle, however, and with only one professional boxing match on his record – a loss – it’s hard to believe anything would be different even if he faced the aging great again.

With Mayweather recently talking some trash about McGregor by saying he ‘carried’ him through the fight, a rematch might not be as far off a possibility as we may have thought. For UFC fans’ sakes, let’s hope it is.

The post Conor McGregor Promises He’d Beat Floyd Mayweather In Rematch appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Social Media Trolls Conor McGregor’s Night Out With British Singer

UFC lightweight Conor McGregor continues to make headlines for seemingly everything but actually defending his titles. Last night, the MMA superstar appeared at the British Fashion Awards with British singer Rita Ora, who tweeted that she was on a ‘date night’ with ‘The Notorious,’ who obviously has a longtime girlfriend and newborn son at home. […]

The post Social Media Trolls Conor McGregor’s Night Out With British Singer appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

UFC lightweight Conor McGregor continues to make headlines for seemingly everything but actually defending his titles.

Last night, the MMA superstar appeared at the British Fashion Awards with British singer Rita Ora, who tweeted that she was on a ‘date night’ with ‘The Notorious,’ who obviously has a longtime girlfriend and newborn son at home.

Check out the singer’s sultry get-up alongside a slick purple suit from McGregor, who’s been known to have arguably the keenest fashion sense in MMA:

It may not be the best look for the Irish knockout specialist, yet appearing at a fashion awards show is still a far cry from his alleged bar fight with Irish mob members in Dublin after he set the fight community ablaze by jumping into the catch at Bellator 187 to shove referee Marc Goddard and smack a security staff member.

Not surprisingly, Twitter took to taking McGregor to task for his ‘date’ with the famous songstress, blasting him with a variety of accusatory tweets.

Check them out via MMA Mania:

 

The post Social Media Trolls Conor McGregor’s Night Out With British Singer appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Tyron Woodley Discusses Why Nate Diaz Didn’t Want To Fight Him

For a while there, talks of a Tyron Woodley vs Nate Diaz Fight were as commonplace as the idea of the matchup picked up steam. Diaz may not have necessarily earned a shot at Woodley’s welterweight belt, but the numbers don’t lie: Nate sells well in big fights. He did so twice against Conor McGregor, […]

The post Tyron Woodley Discusses Why Nate Diaz Didn’t Want To Fight Him appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

For a while there, talks of a Tyron Woodley vs Nate Diaz Fight were as commonplace as the idea of the matchup picked up steam.

Diaz may not have necessarily earned a shot at Woodley’s welterweight belt, but the numbers don’t lie: Nate sells well in big fights. He did so twice against Conor McGregor, and since then has been considered a headlining act, making massive monetary demands for his next fight.

Woodley attempted to sign on for a big title bout versus the younger Diaz at December 30’s UFC 219, but when that didn’t materialize because ‘Diaz didn’t want to fight him,’ he was set to go under the knife and get shoulder surgery he’s required since his win over Demian Maia at July’s UFC 214.

‘The Chosen One’ has since reconsidered that, but even if he did not, he thinks Diaz made monetary demands he knew the UFC would never consider to avoid facing him:

“I was trying to get in the cage by December 30th, and that didn’t pan out dld me. So I’m considering getting the surgery and I was going to make an appointment (for the surgery), and I decided against it.

I think the game needs me right now; I’m highly considering going a different route.”

“I was offered the fight against Nate (Diaz), Nate was offered a fight against me. He asked for more money, (but) I think Nate didn’t really want the fight. He threw out some ridiculous number (amount of money to fight), a number he knew he wasn’t gonna be compensated for.”

Diaz appears to be holding out for a trilogy match with Conor McGregor, whom he submitted at UFC 196 before losing a decision in the rematch at UFC 202.

Woodley says Diaz was offered the fight with him instead, and when the Stockton native asked for an exorbitant amount of money, in a way he turned down the fight. Woodley didn’t blame Diaz for asking for more money, yet he still thinks Diaz wasn’t living up to his hardcore, Stockton life reputation:

“Do I blame him for asking for more money? No,” Woodley said. “You can’t go from fighting Conor McGregor twice to fighting other tough welterweights and making a fraction (of the money).

“But don’t be the fighter behind “Don’t be scared, homie” and then end up being scared, homie.”

What are your thoughts on Diaz’s turning down the Woodley fight? Do you think he genuinely demands tens of millions of dollars for a fight or is he possibly trying to avoid a fight with Woodley?

The post Tyron Woodley Discusses Why Nate Diaz Didn’t Want To Fight Him appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.