Following White’s attendance yesterday at a news conference in Utah, where UFC 278 is to be held on the 20th of August, he had this to say to The Mac Life on the topic of Diaz’ ‘games’:
I like Nate. Let’s be honest, Nate’s won one fight in the last five or six years… we’re trying to do the best we can. We’re trying not to s*** on anybody and disrespect anybody, but it’s not like we’re talking about Kamaru Usman here…. we’re trying to figure this thing out with him. He probably should go on and fight Jake Paul. That’s a fight that makes sense.”
Dana White to Oscar Willis of The Mac Life
Diaz heard the comments not long after the interview went live and took to Twitter, again asking to be released from his contract.
Paul also took to the social media platform in an attempt to make a deal with White, claiming he’d fight for free if his terms were agreed to.
The AllStar MMA roundup
- The AllStar’s Best Bets for UFC Vegas 57: Tsarukyan vs. Gamrot
- Keep up with John Hyon Ko’s journey as he trains for an amateur fight with the Fight or Flight Blog Series: Phase 2
- Bryan Barberena predicts ‘bloody’ brawl against Lawler at UFC 276 – “it’s gonna go until someone falls over”
The best of the rest
- Israel Adesanya ‘can’t wait to drive’ MMA gloves through the face of Alex Pereira ‘after I go through Jared Cannonier’ at UFC 276 – MMAFighting.com
- Alexander Volkanovski: Max Holloway trilogy a ‘legacy fight,’ not to shut doubters up – MMAJunkie.com
- Alex Pereira Confident He’ll Get The Next Title Shot, Backs Jared Cannonier To KO Israel Adesanya – MiddleEasy.com
- Dana White says it’s “undeniable” that Kamaru Usman is the greatest welterweight ever: “He’s lapping guys” – BJPenn.com
- Carla Esparza: Marina Rodriguez deserves title shot over Zhang Weili — ‘She’s proven herself’ – MMAMania.com
The call
The AllStar’s Fight Analyst is back with his Best Bets for this weekends UFC card after sweeping the board last week going 3-0. Here’s what he has to say about a fun match-up between Chris Curtis and Rodolfo Vieira:
I expect the experience of Curtis to play a massive role in this fight, making Vieira work for his takedowns and ultimately knocking him in the latter portion of this fight.
Garrett Kerman
Chris Curtis (28-8) vs Rodolfo Vieira (8-1)
The soapbox
Kevin Holland is happy to send Nate off:
Cejudo still gunning for the title shot:
Arnold Allen doing Arnold Allen things:
The morning view
Adrian Yanez give his take on a possible future match-up with Sean O’Malley:
The ever knowledgeable Dan Hardy breaks down this weekends UFC main event:
Uncle Chael’s two cents on the Adesanya vs Pereira chatter:
Done deals
This week
- Marcin Tybura to fight Alexandr Romanov at UFC 278 on August 20th (per UFC)
- Amir Albazi to fight Francisco Figueiredo at UFC 278 on August 20th (per UFC)
- Lucie Pudilova to fight Wu Yanan at UFC 278 on August 20th (per UFC)
- AJ Fletcher to fight Ange Loose at UFC 278 on August 20th (per UFC)
- Leonardo Santos to fight Jared Gordon at UFC 278 on August 20th (per UFC)
- Dominick Cruz to fight Chito Vera at UFC San Diego on August 13th (Per Carlos Legaspi/ESPN Deportes)
- Nasrat Haqparast to fight John Makdessi at UFC Paris on September 3rd (per Marcel Dorff)
- Shamil Gamzatov to fight Misha Cirkunov at August 6th UFC event (per MMA Fight Universe)
- Randy Costa to fight Guido Cannetti at October 1st UFC event (per Carlos Legaspi/ESPN Deportes)
On this day in MMA…
On June 22, 2002, at UFC 37.5, Joe Rogan would make his first appearance inside the commentary booth as a color commentator for the promotion. He’d previously only conducted backstage interviews with fighters, beginning with UFC 12.
Rogan would be absent for the following two events due to his commitments hosting Fear Factor, but would return again at UFC 40.
Some brave soul has uploaded the main event between Chuck Liddell and Vito Belfort to YouTube, so here’s that, sans a photo of Rogan from the event.