Variety is reporting that FOX and ESPN have made a joint offer to the UFC for a new TV rights deal. ESPN is offering between $120-180MM/year and plans to air most of their share of events on a subscription streaming service ESPN+. FOX is offering a little over $200MM for their share of events for FS1 and FOX. Its unclear what this would mean for Fightpass and PPV if the UFC accepted the offer.
Putting this up now because there's fights in alaska tonight. We've got a great card this weekend, and then there will be nothing for a few weeks.
Wednesday
11pm - (Fightpass) - AFC 139
Judging from tapology rankings, this would be a bad card for a B-level promotion, but by Alaska's very, very low standards its a really good card for them because there's one or two guys who might make it up to one step below televised matches someday. If the season premier of TUF doesn't quite do it for you tonight, then you could stay up for this too.
Saturday
7pm TV - (5:30pm Fightpass/7pm FS1) - UFC Fight Night, Barboza vs. Lee
Wow. This is a fan-fucking-tastic free card. All 6 fights on the main card are interesting and/or important for their divisions. This could end up being, on paper, the best free TV card of the year. There's really no excuse to miss it unless you already made plans to do something else this night (you poor bastard), and the prelims look decent, too. [Reply]
Weigh-ins are done, and we've only lost one fight on tomorrow's card. One of the prelim fights (which wasn't particularly interesting or compelling) is off due to some medical issue with back pain. The other fights are all on for tomorrow.
Kevin Lee missed weight for the main event and weighed in at 157. That bout will go on as a catchweight and 20% of his purse will go to Barboza.
edit: The female bantamweight fight that was on the fightpass prelims is also off. (This was not an interesting or compelling fight, so no big loss) Aspen Ladd missed weight by almost 2 points, and Leslie Smith would not accept a catchweight even with 20% of her opponent's purse. There might be other things going on though, Smith is the lead organizer trying to convince the UFC fighters to form a union, and she only has one fight left on her contract. She probably decided to ask the UFC to reschedule the fight which would give her more time to organize. If she accepted the catchweight and lost, the UFC may have been inclined to not offer her a new contract, which looks better than cutting her.
edit2: lol, apparently the UFC paid Smith her show and win money, which means her current contract with the UFC is completed, and they declined to offer her a new deal. So, the message is clear: don't try to organize a fighter's union if you are a fighter on their roster. [Reply]
His 3 amateur fights all ended in quick 1st round KO's, 2 of them in under a minute. Yeah, at heavyweight if he looks even sorta good with potential, Dana White will sign him.
Reports: Ex-NFL standout Greg Hardy to make pro debut with UFC's Dana White's Contender Series https://t.co/9MKLFPC1CP
I’m not bent out of shape with that call, I think his arms went limp with 15 or so seconds left even though his legs were kicking. And I maintain he tapped twice with 45 or so seconds left, he tapped on Simons back and he waved his arm a second after that
Originally Posted by kstater:
I’m not bent out of shape with that call, I think his arms went limp with 15 or so seconds left even though his legs were kicking. And I maintain he tapped twice with 45 or so seconds left, he tapped on Simons back and he waved his arm a second after that
Originally Posted by kstater:
I’m not bent out of shape with that call, I think his arms went limp with 15 or so seconds left even though his legs were kicking. And I maintain he tapped twice with 45 or so seconds left, he tapped on Simons back and he waved his arm a second after that
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
I don't think those kicks were a response to being out. You could see he was kicking while blinking and giving a thumbs up to the ref before the bell, he was kicking on purpose to let the ref know he wasn't out. Unfortunately, either it didn't work, or by a weird coincidence he actually went out the moment the bell sounded. He should have immediately sat up after the bell (assuming he could), by chilling and relaxing he cost himself a win.
edit: He also didn't tap, but I know what you were talking about. Both times he single-tapped and both times the ref saw it and was getting ready. Single-taps don't count because that could also be reaching for another grip. [Reply]
Paul Felder interviewing the winner: "so, whats next for you in the lightweight division?"
Dan Hooker: "I would like to have a fight against someone in the top 10, and.... well, there's someone in the top 10 who doesn't have a fight scheduled that is standing right in front of me." [Reply]
Khabib is taking a short break and wants to defend his belt in November or December. He said he doesn't care who he fights and wont pick his opponent, he'll agree to fight whoever the UFC chooses.
(sarcasm)7-8 months is such an enormous amount of time that I assume the UFC will decide that an interim LW title is needed.(/sarcasm) [Reply]
We got a couple more weeks till the UFC is back, but Bellator is making some noise about holding an event they are proud of. Lets see whats going on this weekend...
Saturday
2pm - (Fightpass) - Cage Warriors 93
This is the B-level promotion from where European fighters reach the UFC, and this card looks about average for them.
8pm - (Paramount) - Bellator 198, Fedor vs. Mir
Oh, ok. Yeah sure, I'll definitely watch that main event. Below that, it looks about average for a Bellator card. If you are only interested in the freakshow fight, then maybe check in closer to 10pm. [Reply]
Looks like the Fall season of TUF will be trashweights of both genders
UFC just sent out a press release stating they are looking for male heavyweights and female 145ers for the next season of TUF. Tryouts are May 22 in Las Vegas. Films in July. Must be between 21-34 years old, have at least 3 pro fights and have a winning record.