Former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos knows he will have his hands full when he meets contender Curtis Blaydes at UFC Raleigh’s main event. However, that notion does not stop ‘Cigano’ from thinking about his future after the Saturday night fight, which he, of course, expects to win.
Former two-division champion, Conor McGregor, had a return to form at UFC 246—stopping Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone in a swift 40-seconds. Now, the big question surrounding the Irish icon is naturally, who will he face next?
Online gambling site SportsBetting.ag has released betting odds for McGregor’s next opponent, including rematches with Floyd Mayweather or Khabib Nurmagomedov, and new territory against Jorge Masvidal or Justin Gaethje. The site also offers up prop bets on how many times the ‘Notorious’ competes in 2020, and whether or not Conor will hold a UFC title by the end of the calendar year.
If the bulk of Conor McGregor’s UFC 246 fight camp is being kept under wraps, it certainly doesn’t sound like Donald Cerrone is expecting anything different from the former two division champion as a result.
In a recently released mini-doc series for Amazon Prime, Cerrone’s wrestling coach Jafari Vanier spoke about the expectations around ‘Cowboy’’s camp heading into UFC 246. Most notably, Vanier feels that Conor McGregor has a lot more to worry about from Cerrone than Cerrone has from McGregor. Vanier noted Cowboy’s submissions, kicking game, and even ability to win decisions, in comparison to his ‘Notorious’ opponent.
Conor McGregor secured a very clean 40-second dismantling of Donald Cerrone at UFC 246. The former two-division champion landed 20 strikes to get the TKO win, without a single strike landing on him.
This UFC 246 training camp has been a different one for Conor McGregor. And this isn’t just in regards to Owen Roddy’s recent admissions that they’re running a different schedule and focusing on different things at SBG this time around.
In the past, the lead-up to Conor McGregor fights has been marked by a steady diet of highly selective training footage and highlights. Against Khabib Nurmagomedov, McGregor’s team released footage highlighting his pressure and wrestling work. Against Mayweather, videos of him dropping sparring partners circulated like wildfire. In the run up to his Diaz fights, videos highlighting his work with movement coach Ido Portal, as well as numerous videos showing off his hand-speed and bag-work made the rounds.
Accepting a short notice fight against Korean Zombie was a risk that didn’t pay off for Frankie Edgar.
Edson Barboza will look to get his career back on track, but in a different weight class.
Following an initial report from Combate, Barboza’s manager Alex Davis confirmed with MMA Fighting that the longtime UFC lightweight striker is going to move down to featherweight for his next bout. Barboza has never competed at 145 lbs, but Davis says the new weight cut “shouldn’t be hard at all. But we will see.”
It didn’t take long for Kamaru Usman to respond to Conor McGregor after the Irishman teased of a welterweight title fight against ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ in a recent interview with The MAC Life.
“I like the look of Kamaru Usman, I like the look of Colby (Covington),” McGregor said earlier this week. “I’m open to it all at 170. … I want the gold. I’m after the gold – 155, 170, they’re the belts I am chasing now.”
Despite being 1-5 in his last six fights, and losing his last two bouts by way of knockout, former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman has no intention of hanging up the gloves anytime soon.
In fact, the Serra-Longo product would like a rematch with Luke Rockhold who, like Weidman, has struggled to find his groove since losing the middleweight title to Michael Bisping back in 2016.
