Tag: UFC 227

Chael Sonnen Says UFC Title Contender Has To Go ‘Full Heel’

Chael Sonnen knows a thing or two about being the ‘heel.’

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Chael Sonnen wants to see Henry Cejudo unleash his inner heel.

UFC flyweight champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson is set to defend his title against Henry Cejudo at the UFC 227 pay-per-view (PPV) in Los Angles on August 4th. It’ll be a rematch of the pair’s initial meeting back in 2016 where Cejudo was finished in the first round.

In a recent episode of “Beyond The Fight,” former UFC middleweight and light heavyweight title challenger Chael Sonnen explained how he’d like to see Cejudo bring out his inner heel to promote the fight (quotes via MMA Mania):

“He just wouldn’t come out of his shell,” Sonnen said. “He just simply wouldn’t do it. He just wanted to be the good and likeable guy, no matter how many times we try to grab him by the collar and say ‘Henry, that spot’s taken — the good guy is taken by Demetrious — but there’s another seat in the car.”

Sonnen believes that Cejudo’s recent campaign on Twitter was able to land him the fight:

“He came out of his shell this much [gestures] in a few Tweets on social media guess what? He got the fight.”

One thing Sonnen fears, however, is that Cejudo is already complacent with simply getting the fight. He’d like to see the former Olympian take some extra initiative to help promote the bout:

“I worry as a fan that that was his goal, and his only goal: to get the fight,” Sonnen said. “I worry as a fan that he’s not going to do his part to bring attention to this. That’s irresponsible of him. He will think it’s sportsmanlike of him, he will see it as sportsmanship. That’s also why he’s broke,” said Chael, who wrote the book on how to channel your inner-bad guy to promote a title fight.

“He just refuses to see what we’re doing here. This is a world title fight, which is a big deal. This is a rematch which historically speaking, is big business — and it’s the co-main, which is the industry’s way of saying ‘we know you can’t do your part.’ That’s not on Demetrious. A little bit of it is,” he said.

“Demetrious is involved in this too, but he’s the champion. He’s the one that gets to be himself. He’s the one that gets to be in that spot because he’s got 12 pounds of gold wrapped around his waist. He’s the guy who gets that opportunity, because he’s the number-one ranked fighter in the world. It’s incumbent on the challenger, and in this case, it’s Cejudo.”

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TJ Dillashaw Reveals Why He Accepted Fight Against Cody Garbrandt, Not Demetrious Johnson

TJ Dillashaw has discussed his decision to fight Cody Garbrandt once again instead of Demetrious Johnson.

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UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw has discussed his decision to fight Cody Garbrandt once again instead of UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson.

If you recall, their first fight went down at the UFC 217 pay-per-view event at Madison Square Garden in New York City in November where Dillashaw finished Garbrandt to win back the bantamweight title.

Now, the promotion has booked the rematch between these two fighters for the upcoming UFC 227 event.

Johnson and UFC President Dana White frequently exchanged words in early 2017 over this bout. The reason for that was due to Johnson not being receptive to a fight with Dillashaw even though White and other UFC officials were pushing for it last year. White came out and mocked Johnson for taking it.

This led to Johnson firing back and claimed that White threatened to shut down his entire division. White denied that and gave Johnson the fight he wanted, which was against Ray Borg that was almost guaranteed to do low PPV numbers.

Apparently, though, that’s water under the bridge as White has moved past his issues with Johnson.

“I don’t really know,” Dillashaw said (transcript courtesy of MMA Fighting). “I think that’s a good question for Demetrious Johnson. Maybe he wanted some guaranteed money. Maybe he wasn’t willing to gamble on himself on the pay-per-view numbers. But as far as I was concerned, the fans wanted it, the UFC wanted it. Everyone knows I wanted it. I respect Demetrious Johnson as a person and as an athlete and that’s kind of why I was chasing him down. He’s got that target on his back. He’s got that pound-for-pound spot that I want to come in and take. Not only to make the big bucks on a big fight, but for the legacy. Chasing that spot down. So really I think it’s a question for him why it didn’t really happen.”

Now, Johnson will defend his flyweight belt against Henry Cejudo at the UFC 227 card.

“I was chasing that Demetrious Johnson fight,” Dillashaw said. “It just really didn’t seem like it wanted to work itself out. So I feel like the next biggest, hyped up fight was Cody. The one that kind of made the most sense for the attention. There was a lot of drama behind it, so run it back.”

“He’s got that spot and I’m looking to take it,” Dillashaw said of Johnson. “Our fight is ahead of us that we gotta worry about. And we’ll talk about it after the fight.”

“I would love to do it at ’25, because I don’t want the excuse of me being the bigger man,” he said. “‘Oh, the only reason why he beat me is because he’s bigger than me.’ I can make your weight, I’m not bigger than you.”

The UFC 227 pay-per-view event is set to take place on August 4, 2018, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.

The main card will air on pay-per-view at 10 p.m. ET while the preliminary card will air on FOX Sports 1 at 8 p.m. ET and the promotion’s streaming service, UFC Fight Pass.

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GSP’s Team Reacts To Dana White Suggesting He’s Retired

Georges St-Pierre’s team responded to Dana White’s latest claim:

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Earlier today UFC President Dana White made yet another of his infamous headlines by suggesting that legendary former two-division champion Georges St-Pierre was once again retired from fighting.

The statement raised some collective eyebrows around the mixed martial arts (MMA) world considering that White had previously suggested that St-Pierre ‘didn’t want to fight’ before he promptly returned to win the middleweight title with an emphatic submission win over Michael Bisping at last year’s UFC 217.

It was also curious due to the fact that St-Pierre had recently discussed returning when he was fully healed from the injury that forced him to vacate the 185-pound title, in addition to the fact he had not removed himself from the USADA testing pool required for active fighters in the UFC. But White was insistent that St-Pierre had turned down a bout with Nate Diaz at August 4’s UFC 227, so that equaled he was once again retired.

However, that’s simply not the case according to Rodolphe Beaulieu, St-Pierre’s manager, who reiterated to MMAjunkie that St-Pierre told both Joe Rogan and Ariel Helwani why he turned down the Diaz fight but never mentioned anything about retiring during recent appearances on both shows:

“He was on Ariel (Helwani’s) show a few weeks ago and on Joe Rogan’s podcast a couple weeks ago and during a three-hour interview he never said he was retired,” Beaulieu said. “He mentioned on both what would interest him. On both interviews he said exactly why he had no interest for the Diaz fight. He explained all his reasoning.”

St-Pierre did explain his reasoning for not wanting to meet Diaz, focusing on his continued attempt to get back to full health in addition to his belief that the fight was a one-sided match in terms of benefits, as Diaz stood to gain everything while he would have only beaten a fighter he was supposed to destroy.

That may be true in some sense, and potential megafights with Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov certainly don’t hurt, either.

We’ve also heard White say one thing was true and see it proven false days later many times, and vice versa. So St-Pierre may be on the sidelines again, yet it appears he isn’t done quite yet.

Is a blockbuster announcement regarding the superstar coming soon now that White has claimed he’s retired?

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Dana White Insists Georges St-Pierre Is Retired

The Dana vs. GSP drama just got fired back up again:

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It looks like the Dana White-Georges St-Pierre drama has been fired back up.

Slightly more than seven months after St-Pierre returned from a nearly four-year layoff to submit Michael Bisping in the main event of last November’s UFC 217, the legend’s status is currently unknown. What is known is that he won’t be fighting at 185 pounds, as GSP vacated the belt hardly a month after winning it, citing a bout with colitis due to the increased caloric intake required to fight at middleweight.

He’s been linked to a bout with Nate Diaz at August 4’s UFC 227 but has denied it vehemently, and there were whispers of an unofficial lightweight tournament also featuring Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov that ultimately fell apart. Word is St-Pierre may just want to fight McGregor or Khabib, or perhaps both.

However, UFC President Dana White is up to some old tricks. He asserted that St-Pierre didn’t actually want to fight when rumors ran rampant he would return last year, almost goading the legendary former two-division champion into a run. In an interview with TSN (via MMA Junkie) this week, White proclaimed that ‘as far as he was concerned,’ St-Pierre was retired:

“We’ve been talking about a fight with ‘GSP,’ but ‘GSP’ is retired. As far as I’m concerned, ‘GSP’ is retired right now. He’s not interested in fighting anybody.”

St-Pierre recently had a lengthy appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast where he didn’t mention retirement but did affirm that his health was still giving him problems, putting his status at below one hundred percent and making an August fight with Diaz highly unlikely.

White took the fact that GSP wouldn’t be ready to face Diaz in August as a confirmation he didn’t want to fight at all:

“We were trying to do a fight with him and Nate Diaz in Los Angeles, and ‘GSP’ doesn’t want the fight. ‘GSP’ doesn’t want to fight right now. He’s not interested in fighting.”

Aside from White’s assertion, however, there is no evidence whatsoever that St-Pierre is considering retirement, even though he was obviously out for almost four years prior to his emphatic return against “The Count” at Madison Square Garden. St-Pierre remains in the USADA testing pool, indicating that he is at least contemplating yet another UFC return.

Is White just challenging his onetime top draw in the media once again so he comes back for a huge PPV?

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UFC Reportedly Finalizing UFC 227 Return For Demetrious Johnson

The return of Mighty Mouse is on the horizon:

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The UFC is reportedly close to finalizing a deal surrounding the return of flyweight champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson to the Octagon at UFC 227.

Johnson hasn’t fought since October when he pulled off a ridiculous back suplex-into-armbar submission over Ray Borg in the fifth round. In addition, Johnson broke the UFC record for most consecutive title defenses in UFC history at 11.

For some time, it was rumored that a super fight with bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw could be next for Mighty Mouse, but a deal was never able to be agreed upon for that fight.

Now, Dillashaw is set to defend his title against Cody Garbrandt at UFC 227. Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting reports on Twitter that the UFC is close to finalizing a deal that will have Johnson return to defend his crown against Henry Cejudo:

Cejudo and Johnson have met inside the Octagon before. Johnson became the first man to defeat the former Olympic gold medalist in his mixed martial arts (MMA) career back in April 2016 via first-round TKO.

Since the loss, Cejudo suffered his second career defeat to Joseph Benavidez via controversial split decision, before racking up a two-fight win streak over names such as Wilson Reis and Sergio Pettis.

Cejudo has shown strides of improvement since his last meeting with Johnson, and their rematch this time around should certainly prove to be an interesting one.

UFC 227 will go down live on pay-per-view (PPV) from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California on August 4th. If Johnson vs. Cejudo II is added to the card, it will be the second title fight on the PPV.

UFC 227 is shaping up to be one of the better cards of the year, and even UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley wants to get in on the fun. 

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Demetrious Johnson vs. Henry Cejudo II Reportedly Being Finalized For UFC 227

It looks like the return of UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson is being finalized for later this year. Johnson hasn’t competed since his amazing October win over Ray Borg, in which he broke the UFC’s all-time consecutive title defens…

It looks like the return of UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson is being finalized for later this year. Johnson hasn’t competed since his amazing October win over Ray Borg, in which he broke the UFC’s all-time consecutive title defense record, where he pulled off one of the most amazing submissions in UFC history. After negotiations […]

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