UFC Fight Rumors

• Frank Shamrock on UFC sale to WME-IMG: ‘Perfect time to get out‘

“Hundred percent. You know, the discord is coming, the regulation is coming, the government oversight is coming. So yeah, that’s the time to get out. The brand’s had a great run, it’s built up. The girl’s beautiful globally, no one knows what it’s really like. Perfect time to get out. I mean, I applaud their business. They’re great business men. I knew they would be super successful with it, but at the same time, I want to be respected at work, I want to be cared for, I want my values to be acknowledged.” UFC Fight Rumors

• Conor McGregor Jr. born with massive Instagram following
• Dana White shoots down Anderson Silva’s interim belt demands

Anderson Silva wants to fight Yoel Romero for the UFC interim middleweight title. Dana White isn’t having any of that.

UFC Fight Rumors

“We will not do an interim title. No. It won’t happen,” White said (transcription via MMAjunkie). “Bisping’s ready, willing and able to fight the actual No. 1 contender, who is Yoel Romero. Anderson Silva’s ranked No. 7 right now. … Anderson’s mad. I didn’t pull Kelvin Gastelum out. Kelvin Gastelum smoked weed, and now he got busted, and we’ve done everything we could to make another fight for Anderson. So it’s nothing we did.”

“Every time for the last however many years, dealing with Anderson is always interesting,” White said. “Obviously, he wants an interim title – obviously, we’re not going to do an interim title. He’s definitely coming out publicly (with his demands). You know my philosophy on that: If you ever say the ‘R’ word, you should probably do it, anyway. If you’re considering retirement, you should probably do it.”

There is no word yet if Anderson is off UFC 212, which is scheduled for June 3rd in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We understand that Silva declined fights against both Luke Rockhold and Vitor Belfort, names that are believed to be on the table to replace Gastelum are Ovince Saint Preux and Mauricio Rua. UFC Fight Rumors

• White: We just lost Conor vs Floyd date to Canelo vs GGG
• GSP has Instagram that he could be fighting at MSG on Tues May 2

Expected MSG card is November. UFC Fight Rumors.

Then he left Instagram video on Friday, May 5th saying,“Mr. Bisping, I cleared my entire schedule to get ready for training camp after the summer. So I can fight you any time after October. You pick the date. Let’s get it on.”

Jump back to last month, Bisping said:“Long story short, it looks like GSP is trying to push for a later date. I heard rumors of that a while ago from Ariel Helwani. I heard that they wanted September/October and that’s what the UFC told me as well. But I’m just throwing it out there right now, if he wants to wait until September or October, then he can go find himself another opponent, buddy. Because I call the shots. Without sounding like an a—hole, it’s my belt. I’m the champion and I’m not willing to sit around until September or October.” UFC Fight Rumors.

• Al Iaquinta acting crazy

“The stories he’s telling are not true,” a UFC official stated off the record. “The premise for his whole beef is not accurate, and I think he’s trying to justify the fact that he thinks he should still get bonuses.”

 

It has been confirmed by MMA Junkie from UFC officials that the bout was the first of a three-fight stretch for Iaquinta in which he’s not eligible to receive a $50,000 fight-night award. The order is a result of three incidents, which Iaquinta has previously discussed.

 

First, he destroyed a hotel room at MGM Grand in Las Vegas following a UFC 183 win over Joe Lauzon. In his next appearance, he cussed on national TV while addressing a belligerent crowd following a controversial split-decision win over Jorge Masvidal.

 

The final straw was no-showing a 2015 UFC fighter summit in Las Vegas. Iaquinta insisted he gave the company fair warning that he would not be attending, but UFC officials said that was not the case.

 

“His story about the summit, the part that he left out was that he never called us to tell us he didn’t get on the plane,” the UFC official told MMAjunkie. “He never called us to tell us not to send a car to the airport to pick him up. We had all these arrangements for the hotel. All these things were arranged, and he never bothered to call us to tell us he wasn’t coming, which I think would make anyone mad.

 

“We sent a car to the airport to pick him up, and he wasn’t there. He never called us to say, ‘I’m not coming.’ Not calling us, not telling us that he wasn’t going to show up, having to send a car to the airport to pick him up, literally, and him not being there – how immature is that? To not call and say, ‘I didn’t make the flight. I’m not coming.’ It’s immature.”

 

“It was a chronic injury, and since it was a chronic injury and not something that happened while training or fighting for us, the insurance denied it,” a UFC official told MMAjunkie. “There were also a number of alternatives that could have been done that would have been covered, but Al insisted on using a specific surgeon back east. The UFC paid tens of thousands of dollars to cover that out of our pocket without any obligation to do so since it was a chronic injury, which means it happened over years and years and years.

 

“Mr. Iaquinta never once called the medical team or (UFC President) Dana (White) to say thank you. Instead, he talks about how he had to beg for it, which is not true. … We agreed to do it. We paid for it. The entire medical team assisted through his surgeon getting this done and getting it paid, and Al never once called anyone to thank them. Instead he goes out on the Internet and says he had to beg for it, which is absolutely, 100 percent false. That’s a lie.”

• UFC 211

   UFC 211 Fight Card

 

   Main Card (10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT on Pay-Per-View)

Stipe Miocic (c)(16-2) vs. Junior dos Santos (18-4) – For UFC heavyweight championship

Joanna Jędrzejczyk (c)(13-0) vs. Jéssica Andrade (16-5) – For UFC women’s strawweight championship

Demian Maia (24-6) vs. Jorge Masvidal (32-11)

Frankie Edgar (21-5-1) vs. Yair Rodriguez (10-1)

Henry Cejudo (10-2) vs. Sergio Pettis (15-2)

 

   Prelims (8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT on FX)

Eddie Alvarez (28-5) vs. Dustin Poirier (21-5)

Chas Skelly (17-2) vs. Jason Knight (16-2)

Krzysztof Jotko (19-1) vs. David Branch (20-3)

Marco Polo Reyes (7-3) vs. James Vick (10-1)

 

   Prelims (6 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. PT on UFC Fight Pass)

Jessica Aguilar (19-5) vs. Cortney Casey (6-4)

Jared Gordon (12-1) vs. Michel Quinones (8-1)

Gabriel Benítez (19-6) vs. Enrique Barzola (13-3-1)

Chase Sherman (9-3) vs. Rashad Coulter (8-1)

Joachim Christensen (14-4) vs. Gadzhimurad Antigulov (19-4)

• Boxing has stepped up in the absence of MMA the past 2 weekends
• Will Conor Floyd really happen?