Magana recovering
Former UFC strawweight Angela Magana is recovering after falling into a coma following an emergency surgery earlier this week. Magana suffered nerve damage during training recently and was admitted to a Puerto Rico hospital.
“Angela is responding to the treatment and is waking up.,” Magana’s coach, Gabriel Lamastus told MMAJunkie. “We are overjoyed She has been in and out of it.”
Magana suffered a herniated disc while training but continued to train through the pain with medication. She was diagnosed with cauda equina syndrome which occurs when “the bundle of nerves below the end of the spinal cord known as the cauda equina is damaged,” according to Wikipedia.
Magana was scheduled to fight on the Combate Americas card scheduled for April 26. While she is recovering, she most certainly will not be fighting on that date.
‘That’s a great fight’
Robert Whittaker has a date with Israel Adesanya staring right at him, but that hasn’t stopped him from thinking about what else might come his way.
Speaking to Submission Radio this week, Whittaker said that he’s put thought in to moving up to light heavyweight one day to challenge Jon Jones.
“Well, while I was making my run through the middleweight division and fighting in the division, it was very hard for me to plan outside of the division,” Whittaker said (transcribed by MMAFighting). “Obviously, all my focus has been on the division and doing work there and making waves and making moves there, but seeing Jon Jones looking for opponents and then the idea of moving up, I don’t hate that idea.”
There has been a trend lately of Jones fighting middleweights making the move up to light heavyweight, first with Anthony Smith last month and next with Thiago Santos at UFC 239. Former middleweight champion Luke Rockhold has even put his name out there as a potential future challenger for Jones. With all that in mind, Whittaker, the former welterweight, may actually be a logical challenger for Jones, who has few options at 205 pounds.
“Yeah man, why not?” Whittaker said. “I think I could just give him a run for his money. I surprise a lot of people and I’m full of tricks. I think the intensity I bring into a fight is something that a lot of people aren’t prepared for. But he’s a great fighter, he’s super, super dangerous. I’m under no illusion how hard it would be, and yeah, I think it would be fun.”
Thursday Notebook
–TMZ has released bodycam footage of Conor McGregor’s arrest in Miami Beach for strongarm robbery last month. The footage shows police officers speaking to two of McGregor’s associates outside of a residence. The men questioned the officers on the nature of the allegations against McGregor and how long the booking process would take. The officers answered the questions and appeared to be patient, but did make it clear that they wanted to get McGregor out of the house. McGregor eventually left the house, was handcuffed and placed in the back of a cruiser without incident.
-UFC 236 prelims average 836,000 viewers on ESPN last Saturday night, the lowest of the three PPV prelims so far this year.
-After missing weight three times in his UFC career at both flyweight and bantamweight, Ray Borg has said that he will quit MMA if he misses weight again. “I also want it to go on record that if I ever miss weight again or miss a fight due to anything other than a serious injury I will leave the sport of MMA forever,” he wrote in an Instagram post.
Fight Announcements
-Deron Winn vs. Markus Perez at UFC Greenville on June 22.
-Raymond Daniels will now fight Wilker Barros at Bellator Birmingham after Jon Durrant has been forced to pull out due to injury.
In case you missed it
–ROUNDTABLE: Are there more fights for Max Holloway at lightweight?
–NEW PODCAST: MMA Scope with Cole Henry and Patrick Shaheen – Pat’s trip to Atlanta for UFC 236
–HENRY: Poirier vs. Nurmagomedov, Adesanya vs. Whittaker, and other fights to make next after UFC 236
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