Listening about this now. Sounds like Francis has given a verbal to another promotion, had the meeting with ONE and was fully transparent about that. ONE was just getting ahead of it and making it look like they withdrew rather than Francis choosing another promotion.
He won't sign with anyone, then years down the line he'll re-sign with the UFC and they'll make him fight his way back via The Contender Series as punishment.
Bummer to see a Wonderboy fight postponed. Rare occurrence. Also looks like it was confirmed Peña broke a rib in camp sadly.
All these fight night main events at the APEX falling through and them simply bumping the ‘co-main’ events up to the main events as if they’re worthy of a main event slot really shows how much they don’t give a fuck about those shows.
Apex fights arnt must watch but they keep the divisions low and mid rankings moving with sensible match ups without the pressure to sell out crowds
For sure, and it’s important to get five round experience. But co-main events used to be main event worthy for this exact situation.
These types of cards worked when Covid was around and fans were starved for live sports. Now that there are so many other things to do or watch on the weekends, it’s super easy to skip the Apex cards except for one or two fights that have relevancy. The fight nights in arenas have been pretty great at least and the PPV’s have been solid for the most part. I think they should do mid week apex cards with a lot of these fights. I’d be more down to watch randoms off of the contender series if it wasn’t on a Saturday at the same time as other primetime sports. It’s all on ESPN+ so it doesn’t really matter if they move the events to midweek. I used to love when the UFC would do mid week cards on Spike or Versus.
I don’t like that Paddy call-out at all. Just beat the 14th ranked guy and then call-out someone unranked?
I don’t think we need to see another Gracie in the UFC ever again. Embarrassing shit MMA passed the Gracie family by so quick due to their giant egos lmao
Yeah that’s the 2nd fighter I’ve seen tonight who absolutely had no place fighting in the UFC, let alone on the main card of a PPV. Absolute garbage. The dude who fought Parker Porter gassed out after one minute. There’s no way he should be fighting in the UFC.