I know Okamoto said injury but every time someone pulls out now I’ll be paranoid thinking they were on the Jon Jones diet
Right?! But it's fair to the fighters. Beats having their name to be dragged through the mud over nothing.
That sucks Poirier is out. I highly doubt Nate fights unless it’s Conor or a title shot. DC is 100% only taking this fight because he knows it’s an easy win and extra money. Or at least believes it will be. Would love to see Lewis have a crazy Matt Serra-level upset. Stipe said that he offered to face DC in a rematch on that card. He got no response.
I am not surprised they wouldn’t give him that fight. They seemed ready to get him out of the title picture and he just kept knocking everyone off. They are definitely just trying to capitalize on the buzz that Lewis just got, pretty much the only reason for this fight. Side note - damn it Dustin. Khabib must have done gone and pissed off the MMA gods.
Woof. Could you imagine if that PPV was Valentina vs. What's-her-name and then Poirier vs. Diaz fell off?
That's a real possibility. It's anecdotal, but Derrick Lewis has been getting crazy love from the casuals on my social media, so the hype is real in that sense. Will be interesting to see if it translates to sales. It's all very recent, but I actually like this fight. Lewis is a deserving opponent. DC actually defends instead of waits. We're going to get sound bytes of hot balls and Popeyes. No dollys through windows. No jumping over cages. Feels like it'll be a palate cleanser for sure, regardless of sales.
I'm leaning towards Jones, but I kind of hope Gus takes it. Arguably one of the best fighters to have never held a UFC title. And yeah, I agree with @Swoos - I thought he won as well, but it easily could have been a draw. If I remember correctly, Gus honestly had his best round in the same one where Jon landed the spinning elbow and had him hurt at the very end. Gus nearly dominated almost that entire round, but no one remembers that because Jon landed the best shot of the fight towards the end and that's all that stuck in anyone's mind. You're supposed to judge the events of an entire round, but at some point everyone has been guilty of scoring rounds solely by how they end.
That’s an interesting match up I didn’t see coming. There’s a good interview with Max Holloway on SportsNet where he discusses Khabib/Conor, his upcoming fight, and his future goals. I’m most excited for his fight next. When he brought up his almost-fight with Khabib in the summer, he said people asked why he would want to fight somebody like Khabib. He says that in his mind he was thinking what’s Khabib thinking fighting him? Lol.