No UFC this weekend, but starting next weekend we are going to be inundated with a shitton of UFC cards as they have lined up cards in at least 9 consecutive weekends. There's also a ONE FC event not listed below, but its Friday morning, PPV, and doesn't look that great so.... hard pass.
Thursday
8:30pm - (Fightpass) - Karate Combat
This thing called Karate Combat is very similar to MMA except there is very little grappling. Basically if you don't have a submission right away then they stand you back up.
Friday
6pm - (Fightpass) - Titan FC 52
Probably the best local promotion in the US where the UFC gets a lot of their young fighters but this card.... not so much. Looks bad by tapology rankings.
Saturday
8pm TV - (6pm Online/8pm Paramount or DAZN) - Bellator 214, Bader vs. Fedor
OK, enough of that nonsense this is what's really going on this weekend. The main event is the championship of Bellator's heavyweight Grand Prix, and this time they aren't trying to make us buy DAZN (but you can watch it there if you don't have Paramount on cable). The card is very top-heavy on paper. There's not much in the prelims but the final two fights should be good. [Reply]
The Nevada AC will meet today publicly at 11am to discuss Conor, Khabib, and Jon Jones. They apparently have reached a settlement agreement with Conor and Khabib, but no one is sure what will happen with Jon Jones.
Conor McGregor has been suspended 6 months (available to fight 4/7/19)
Khabib Nurmagomedov is suspended 9 months, but that would be reduced to 6 months if he assists in recording an anti-bullying PSA. (available 7/7/19 if he just takes the 9 months)
Khabib's 2 cornermen were suspended for a year. [Reply]
The commissioner opened by telling Jon Jones that if the commission had decided to strictly follow the book on their regulations, then this hearing wouldn't be happening and "your career would be over." He would have been looking at a suspension between 18 months and life, and it would have been closer to life.
The reason they didn't do that is because experts who they trust (presumably from USADA and maybe elsewhere) were telling them that the metabolites could have plausibly been a residual from the prior violation. They didn't think they had enough time to figure it out and let him fight in Nevada, but they weren't going to stand in the way of California.
Jones and his lawyer brought two doctors who will presumably tell the AC that this "pulsing" thing we've been laughing at is totally a thing that can happen, and a USADA doctor is also there. [Reply]