UFC will donate $1 million to families of Las Vegas shooting
On Monday UFC President Dana White told Adam Hill of the Las Vegas Journal of the $1 million donation.
The UFC also confirmed to Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports that UFC 216 which is scheduled for this Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas will go on as planned.
“Our focus right now is on supporting the community and those affected by Sunday evening’s events,” the statement read. “UFC 216 on Saturday, October 7 at T-Mobile Arena will proceed as scheduled until further notice.”
Grocke’s Point of View: Good on UFC for doing this. The Route 91 Harvest country music festival was held at The Las Vegas Village which is the same site of the media center for the Mayweather-McGregor fight.
Anthony Johnson to return at heavyweight?
Anthony Johnson’s manager, Ali Abdel-Aziz was on the MMA Hour and spoke about “Rumble’s” potential return.
“It has to make sense for him. He’ll come back as a heavyweight. We want him to come back as a heavyweight.
“We’re meeting with UFC this week to see what he wants to do. Dana White really loves Anthony Johnson. How can you not love Anthony Johnson? He’s terrifying.”
Grocke’s Point of View: I, along with most people was shocked when Johnson retired in the cage after his loss to Daniel Cormier at UFC 210. He seemed to have legitimate reasons for wanting to step away from fighting including, getting into the marijuana business and fearing the potential risks of concussions and CTE.
As a fan of “Rumble” I’d like to see him make a return to fighting, especially in the super-thin heavyweight division where he can make an immediate impact. Johnson would have to be in the USADA drug testing pool for six months before returning so we won’t see “Rumble” back in a UFC cage until spring or summer of 2018.
Paulie Malignaggi calls out Conor McGregor
Malignaggi spoke with EsNews and called out McGregor saying he needs to back up his words in a boxing match.
“You talked all this s**t about how you handled it in the cage, now not only are you not releasing the video, but now you want to not box either? Nah, he doesn’t want it that way. You’ve got to be a man and prove yourself. You’ve got to show what kind of balls you’ve got. It’s easy to talk all that s**t, now since it was so easy, you’ve got to box and you’ve got to prove it. No, we’re not going in a cage because that’s not where you “handled me.” You “handled me” in the ring, right? So now go and prove it.
“He’s got to man up now. He’s got to stand up for what he said or he’s gonna continue to prove what I said about him, that he’s got no balls.
“I retired in a weird year. I guess all the more reason why I should come back and smack McGregor. Or he could just play the video, and you could see that was me at 20 percent so what would happen at 100 percent? If he could do that, I’ll take that.”
The full interview can be seen here.
MMA News Notebook
Rafael Nata retired from MMA
Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal is out of his fight with Liam McGeary at Bellator 185
Bubba McDaniel replaces Lawal and now faces McGeary at Bellator 185
Conor McGregor is open to a fight against Max Holloway at 155
Volkan Oezdemir predicts a second round KO of Daniel Cormier
Alexa Grasso had successful knee surgery; her return is still undetermined
Fight Announcements
Kalindra Faria vs. Mara Romero Borella is set for UFC 216
Davis Teymur vs. Drakkar Klose is set for UFC 218
Jenel Lausa vs. Eric Shelton is set for UFC Fight Night 121
Aung La N Sang vs. Alain Ngalani is set for ONE; Hero’s Dream
Jose Torres vs. Gleidson DeJesus is set for Titan FC 46
NOW CHECK OUT THE PREVIOUS NEWS: Hendricks headS to Jackson-Wink, MacDonald unhappy with Bellator, Noke ends his retirement, Swanson back in action
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