UFC

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.

On January 18th, at UFC 246, Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone is slated to welcome the ‘Notorious’ Conor McGregor back to the Octagon. It’s the biggest fight of Cerrone’s long and storied career.

The welterweight contest with McGregor will likely earn Cerrone the biggest payday of his 13 year tenure in professional fighting. For McGregor, who hasn’t fought since October 2018 — in a lopsided loss to Khabib Nurmagomodev — the fight is viewed as an opportunity to wrestle back some relevance inside of the eight-sided cage.

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.”

The best thing that could have happened to the UFC heading into UFC Busan was a definitive win in the main event to deliver a potentially definitive #1 contender to new featherweight champion, Alexander Volkanovski. The organization got it’s wish. The Korean Zombie, Chan Sung Jung, delivered a violent beatdown of former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar, giving him enough of a potential pedigree to call for the title shot… something he called for after the fight. Given the cult status of Jung, it’s hard to believe the UFC won’t give him that shot. There may not have been many waves coming out of UFC Busan, but the waves that did come appear to be pretty damn sizeable.

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.

Henry Cejudo’s days as UFC flyweight champion are coming to an end.

Following an initial report from BJPenn.com, Mike Bohn of MMA Junkie says that the UFC intends to strip Cejudo of his title, and vying for the vacant belt will be Joseph Benavidez and Deiveson Figueiredo. It’s expected that the matchup will headline UFC Norfolk in Virginia on February 29th, with ESPN+ broadcasting the event.

A battle of welterweight strikers has officially been added to the upcoming UFC Brasilia card.

Per UFC Brasil, striking specialist Elizeu Zaleski will take on former M-1 Global champion Alexey Kunchenko.

Chris Weidman isn’t exactly known for his trash talk, but ‘All-American’ says he was pressured into channelling his inner-Chael Sonnen and talk smack ahead of his middleweight title bout with Anderson Silva at UFC 162.

According to Weidman, UFC president Dana White called him up a few weeks out from the event and instructed him to make more of an effort to promote the fight.