That's odd - I assumed once there was an official statement/graphic that it was a done deal. I do think a lot of times, people from different camps "leak" information about a fight that is being negotiated or even just talked about so that they can get a buzz going. The whole Till/Woodley fiasco comes to mind as a recent example - someone got everyone talking about Till taking Colby's spot and pressuring Tyron into taking the fight via social media even though Tyron had absolutely no idea what was going on.
See, it seems like they start devising plans and hope that people jump on board as an extra way of pressuring fighters into accepting. Not mad about this fight but it seems really fishy to cut Colby out for wanting to hold off another month or so, but who knows.
That Romero tweet from Ariel was kinda lame. Okamoto broke the story and him downplaying it was ehhhh. Especially since they’re both w/ ESPN lol
So Till vs Woodley is now set. And Dana told Brett Okamoto that Covington will be stripped of the interim title the moment Woodley/Till takes place
Luke Thomas had a good point - one of the upcoming PPVs really needed an additional title fight and literally every other division is off the table (already booked, injured, just fought, etc.) That’s why they were adamant that Woodley fights in September instead of waiting any longer...the only way they could get it to work is by stripping Colby. Even though the interim title now means even less than it used to.
It was a joke that they gave Colby/RDA the interim fight in the first place, so it's only fitting that they make it a joke in stripping it. Think Woodley beats Till fairly easily and Colby after that.
Till is a more interesting fight anyways and anybody who’s as big of a douchebag as Colby makes it easy for me to not care about him missing his title shot. Ariel’s tweet is pretty accurate considering there are UFC ad posters going around about Romero and Costa (even on Costa’s own instagram page) and Romero’s camp came out tonight saying he hasn’t accepted the fight yet. I’m a Rockhold fan for the most part. He’s been a bit of a sore loser as of more recent times but still an impressive and stylistic fighter. Weidman I feel was always a bit overrated tbh but a pretty even match up for both at this point in their career.
I love this match up because I believe each guy wins 50% of the time, regardless of what actually happens. Their respective strengths are the other one's weaknesses. Khabib is actually pretty easy to hit (relatively speaking) so I have no doubt Conor can land that left hand at will, but obviously, if Khabib gets him down even once, that might be enough to gas Conor out from there on out. In my opinion, I would be more interested in Khabib winning because I think they will give Conor an immediate rematch but wouldn't give Khabib the same respect. Side note, I wouldn't even call myself a Conor fan, but I do think it's crazy that he's clowned 3/4 of the fighters in the main and co-main events from this weekend's card. Stephens is the only one who hasn't fought him, yet Conor still made a meme out of him.
Matt Riddle will be going to the WWE soon. Dude has been killer as a wrestler if you guys are into that kinda thing. He had his own event called Matt Riddle's Bloodsport that had no ropes and where wrestled Minoru Suzuki (one of the creators of Pancrase)