In this week’s edition of the Sunday Supplement I will be looking at the biggest news of the week in MMA including Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz, the infamous press conference and then the big showdown at UFC 202, also Jon Jones and his future in the UFC after situation with the USADA.
McGregor-Diaz 2- Bad Blood
This week’s biggest news story came ahead of their rematch last night, when Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz clashed at the UFC 202 Press Conference, with Diaz walking out after McGregor turned up late, which then led to Diaz and his crew and McGregor throwing water bottles and energy drink cans at each other causing Dana White to call the event to a premature end.
This built up a lot of tension and more hype going in to their “Bad Blood” rematch which took place last night at UFC 202.
The fight wasn’t drawing as much attention as their first meeting and this incident kickstarted the build in a big way. Dana White claimed in a TMZ interview that someone was injured during the melee and some videos online from people in attendance surfaced claiming the same, drawing even more attention to the fight.
This all lead to the all out epic war last night at UFC 202 where McGregor “got his revenge” so to speak, defeating Diaz by Majority Decision after five tough rounds.
McGregor showed a new focused attitude during the fight, picking apart Diaz with well-measured strikes and knocking him down three times in the first two rounds. However, his suspect gas tank and strike defense came into play in the third round and McGregor may have regretted not putting Diaz away, who found a groove and almost finished McGregor, who made it through by the skin of his teeth as the clock ran out with Big John McCarthy looking on closely.
McGregor found a second wind in the 4th round and, after a close 5th round, the brutal fight came to a end with McGregor getting his win back.
Most people were raving about the fight and the buzz is now big surrounding a potential trilogy fight. After a bit of a lackluster build until this week for the second fight, I don’t think many saw a third fight as a good option. However, after last night’s war, the general consensus would be to let these two go at it again in a rubber match.
McGregor commented that he would want a third fight at 155 rather than 170 which could change the dynamics of the fight once again.
Diaz wants it to happen right away as his next fight. McGregor has pressing business at 145 to unify the Featherweight Titles against Jose Aldo or be stripped of his title. On top of that, he apparently broke his foot during the fight last night so the trilogy fight maybe a bit away, most likely in 2017 by the looks of things.
Until then, Diaz will either have to hold off and wait for McGregor or take another big fight. Most likely Diaz would drop down to 155 again and take a fight at that weight, his natural weight, to prepare for McGregor again.
The champion at 155, Eddie Alvarez, said before the fight that he wanted either McGregor or Diaz next. Donald Cerrone put his name in the hat last night to fight Alvarez for the belt next. However, if Diaz chooses, he may get the nod ahead of Cerrone.
Then you have the rumored return of Georges St. Pierre to take into account. Perhaps Nate Diaz could follow in his big brother Nick’s footsteps and take on another big money fight at Welterweight against GSP. It has been rumored; in fact, GSP’s manager spoke about it as a possibility earlier this year. For McGregor, it’s back to 145 for now. For Nate Diaz, he has options, and another big money fight could be on the horizon for the Stockton native.
Is The Future Looking Up for Jon Jones?
This week saw the former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones tease some good news regarding the USADA and his testing positive for a banned substance/supplement, which cost him his rematch against Daniel Cormier at UFC 200 as well as his interim UFC Light Heavyweight Title.
Jones posted a video on his Instagram account talking about his situation, saying that he felt that he would be back in the Octagon much sooner than expected despite his failed USADA test.
Jones tested positive for clomiphene, an estrogen blocker, and letrozole according to the USADA tests. However, UFC President Dana White now believes that there has been complications with the results from the USADA testing.
White discussed the situation in interviews on The Jim Rome Show and with TMZ and said that it now looks like Jones did not take the drug/supplement that everybody thought he did and that he is confident Jones did not take steroids, however he did say that it was Jones’s responsibility still to inform that USADA about what he is taking before hand.
Apparently the substance Jones was supposed to have taken was a pill for coming down off steroids. However, this substance is apparently found in other things also.
According to current UFC Middleweight Champion, Michael Bisping, Jones took a generic version of the sex aid, Cialis, and that led to the positive drug test.
Bisping claimed this on his podcast recently and explained that the generic Cialis drug that Jones reportedly took had estrogen blockers in it, which is the banned substance which Jones was flagged for by USADA.
It seems like Jones will possibly get off with a six month ban similar to what happened with Yoel Romero and Tim Means, meaning he’d be ready to return in 2017 rather than the two year ban which Jones was likely to get had this not come out.
Joe Rogan mentioned the situation and possibility of Jones returning sooner than expected after UFC 202 last night, so things must be looking up for Jones as it wouldn’t have been mentioned otherwise on the broadcast.
No matter what happens with Jones and his suspension, the next big fight at 205 will be Daniel Cormier vs. Anthony “Rumble”Johnson, after Rumble’s emphatic win over Glover Teixiera last night at UFC 202 with a huge KO early into the first round, cementing his title shot rematch against Cormier.
Both Johnson and Cormier have confirmed this on social media/interviews from last night and also that Jones will have to wait in line for a title shot no matter what happens, something which may not come right away upon his return anyway after he was removed from the official UFC rankings upon his USADA test failure. It remains to be seen how all of this plays out, but it looks like Jon Jones’s future is looking up once again.
(D.R. Webster writes “The Sunday Supplement” for MMATorch each week. He has written for Daily Record Sport, WrestleTalk TV, Sports Kings, and a variety of other combat sports sites and publications, includinv review shows and DVDs, news reporting, columns, and fantasy articles.)
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