How to talk to casual MMA friends about the Conor McGregor vs USADA debacle

Chris Rini

Hey all, thanks for continuing to check out my videos drawing and painting all the best fights of 2022, for the book series The Fine Art of Violence. The latest video is sketching Kayla Harrison vs Larrisa Pacheco, from this weekend’s PFL Championship event (which saw Pacheco take Harrison’s 0).

I’ve also been catching up on some Paddy Pimblett vs Jordan Leavitt work from the UFC London card a few months back. Finally, I’ve been working on one of the most challenging fighters to draw: UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski. He’s so inscrutable, both in the cage and on the page.

I’m testing out a shorter, less chatty format. I update the YouTube channel each Tuesday and Thursday, so enjoy! Please remember to hit subscribe so you get my videos right in your feed. Take care of yourself and I’ll talk to you Monday.

Chris

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The ongoing spat between former friends Conor McGregor and Artem Lobov has taken another dramatic turn.

Tensions continue to heat up between former close training partners Conor McGregor and Artem Lobov. With news recently breaking that Lobov had filed a lawsuit against McGregor for a percentage of proceeds from the sale of his shares of Proper 12 whiskey, ‘The Notorious’ has come out and challenged his ex-comrade to a gym fight to settle the matter mano-a-mano.

McGregor posted a series of tweets, claiming Lobov has now also filed a defamation lawsuit against him and his father. It doesn’t seem that new legal action is about to scare McGregor from taking public aim at the ‘Russian Hammer’.

Along with the new legal action (and the very goofy photoshop), McGregor uploaded one of his trademark audio messages containing his call-out.

“This is a call-out to Artem ‘The Fanny, Fairy Pad’ Lobov,” McGregor said in a Twitter voice note. “I’m challenging you to a fight tonight—10:30 p.m.

“I’ll meet you down at SBG Concorde and we’ll fight for the whole lot. We’ll fight for the whole lot. Going through having lawyers message me about defamation and all this suing and all.

“You’re a little fair—you’re a little blouse, mate. I’ll see you SBG Concord tonight at 10:30 p.m. and I’ll fight you for the whole lot, yeah? Answer this f–ng here call out, yeah!? You little blouse.”

The feud all apparently began after Lobov claimed to be the brains behind McGregor’s Proper Twelve Whiskey, with plans to detail how he came up with the idea in a forthcoming memoir. Lobov then sued the former UFC champ-champ of the millions made when McGregor and partners sold their shares in the business, while also claiming he’s entitled to five percent of what McGregor made in sales over the years.

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A late takedown cost Brendan Loughnane a UFC contract. On Friday he won $ 1 million and a PFL title

In 2019, Brendan Loughnane looked rightfully flabbergasted when UFC president Dana White decided he was unworthy of a UFC contract. On Friday, November 25, Loughnane captured the PFL featherweight title and claimed $ 1 million in prize money in the process.

Loughnane, who had a cup of coffee with the UFC in 2012—losing a decision to Mike Wilkinson in his one fight with the promotion—went 11-2 over the next five years. During that time, he lost split decisions to Tom Duquesnoy and Pat Healy while avenging his loss to Wilkinson via knockout in 2017. In 2019, he and Bill Algeo had a spirited bout on a Dana White Contender Series card that saw Loughnane win a clear 30-27 decision. Despite landing 63 percent of his significant strikes and chewing up Algeo’s legs with heavy kicks, White did not offer Loughnane a deal. Loughnane’s sin? He shot for a takedown late in the fight.

“Great fight,” White said of the Loughnane vs. Algeo fight. “Both durable, tough guys banging it out. I have to give Brendan credit—he fought a guy who’s been a champion in two different (promotions). But, let me tell you what you don’t do: you don’t come here, you don’t fight that type of fight, and you don’t go for the double leg with 10 seconds left in the fight.”

In the aftermath of missing out on a UFC contract, a nonplussed Loughnane told Bloody Elbow, “There has to be more to the story. Come on. There has to be more to it than just that takedown. There has to be.

“Seeing how the other guy who fought on the card took a guy down for three rounds and then got a contract, it was like, ‘Wow, I took a 10-second takedown and didn’t get one, but you signed a guy that took one for three rounds.’ It’s a bit crazy, a bit of a contradiction.”

White, perhaps stinging a bit from the criticism he heard about his reasoning for passing on Loughnane, stood his ground. “If I’m wrong, he’s a free agent,” White told ESPN. “Somebody else can pick him up, and according to the people who are complaining about it, it must be a big score. So, go for it.”

A month after he defeated Algeo at the UFC Apex, the Manchester-based talent signed with the PFL. Loughnane fell short of the PFL championship in 2021, losing a decision to eventual champion Movlid Khaybulaev in the semifinal round of the playoffs. But in this latest season he claimed the featherweight tournament title with a fourth-round knockout win over Bubba Jenkins.

After scoring the belt that eluded him the previous year, Loughnane addressed his career path that low point on the Contender Series in 2019.

“From the Dana White thing and the disappointment there, PFL picked me up at a time where my career was in the balance. I’m 8-1 in PFL now, with one split decision (loss) to the former world champ. I’ve had an incredible run,” said Loughnane.

As for the comments that White made after he passed on Loughnane in 2019, those words obviously stuck with the English fighter.

“I remember an interview that was done like, ‘If I’m wrong about this kid, then show me.’ There you go. There you go,” Loughnane said. “What more can I say on that?”

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The UFC color commentator is weighing in on the upcoming super fight between Makhachev and Volkanovski. 

Joe Rogan has a couple of questions about the upcoming fight between Islam Makhachev and Alexander Volkanovski.

For the first defense of his UFC lightweight championship, Makhachev shares the Octagon with Volkanovski at UFC 284, the pay-per-view scheduled for Feb. 11 at RAC Arena in Perth, Australia. The UFC featherweight champion moves up from 145 pounds to 155 pounds, a weight class he fought in once in his UFC career.

The first question about Makhachev vs. Volkanovski that Rogan has is about the size difference. During a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience with UFC bantamweight Sean O’Malley, the UFC color commentator was curious as to how the ‘Great’ would adjust to the added weight against Makhachev.

“Do you think he’s big enough to compete against a guy like Islam, who’s a really big ’55?,” said Rogan. “Islam is big. I don’t know what he’s cutting, but he’s got the perfect physique for that weight class. He’s very, very lean. He makes the weight, and he’s obviously way bigger when he’s competing. He doesn’t look anything like a ’55-pound guy.

“The thing is the grappling,” continued Rogan. “If you look at Volkanovski, he’s got real good takedown defense. [He] can take guys down. He took Max Holloway down a bunch, but he’s not the biggest guy, even at ’45.”

Though Makhachev appears to have an advantage over Volkanovski in weight, Rogan sees him at a disadvantage in speed.

“Has Islam seen anybody that can move as fast as Volkanovski?,” said Rogan. “What if he starts catching him? What if he catches him a few times on the feet, and if he can avoid a takedown? You’re dealing with a significantly quicker guy, probably. [Makhachev has] probably never fought anybody that quick.”

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PFL’s Sheymon Moraes shared some insight on his struggles heading into his fight against Marlon Moraes.

UFC veteran and current Professional Fighters League contender Sheymon Moraes could say he had an early Christmas present. After receiving an unexpected phone call to perform at last Friday’s PFL 10, the Brazilian accepted an offer to rematch former World Series of Fighting champ Marlon Moraes and it paid off.

Heading into the last months of 2022, Moraes revealed to Ag Fight how he was struggling to save money to make training camps and support himself and his family properly. For that reason, Sheymon decided to become an Uber driver until the end of the year, and that’s what he was doing up until the PFL offered him to take on Marlon again.

“Taxes were heavy this year. I had to pay some bills, too. So I had to start driving in order to save money for the camp for next year’s tournament. So I decided to start driving during the end of the year so I can have money to pay for my trip back to Brazil, being an Uber driver. A plane ticket to Brazil is two thousand dollars a person and I have a family of three, so that’s six grand. You’d take three months to spend that kind of money here. Don’t even get me started on how long it takes to earn it,”

“So I thought ‘I’m going to Los Angeles and drive there’. I have friends there who told me money was good, what I could make three or four grand a week if I drove for 12 hours a day. That’s what I did. Some days, I slept in the car. I was able to raise some money. When I came back, I was going to spend a week in Arizona, with my family. Then I received the call to fight. It was perfect timing and thank God everything ended up working out.”

The win over Marlon helped Moraes (15-6) recover from a unanimous decision loss to Lance Palmer, back in June of this year. Before that, the 32-year-old was on a three-fight winning streak, with wins over Boston Salmon, Lazar Stojadinovic and Jesse Stirn.

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They may not like each other, but there’s a mutual respect between Pereira and Adesanya. 

The UFC returned to Madison Square Garden with UFC 281, a massive pay-per-view event topped by a trio of highly anticipated fights. In its recent edition, The Thrill and the Agony gave us a behind-the-scenes look at the aftermath of Israel Adesanya vs. Alex Pereira, Carla Esparza vs. Zhang Weili, and Dustin Poirier vs. Michael Chandler.

Poirier and Chandler delivered what was expected: a ‘Fight of the Night’ outing. Following three rounds of nonstop action, the ‘Diamond’ submitted ‘Iron’ Mike by rear-naked choke. Despite the win, Poirier was still miffed at Chandler, who he confronted for his ‘dirty’ tactics such as fish hooking and blowing his nose on him. Cooler heads prevailed, and the pair shared a brief, yet respectful moment in the Octagon.

“Respect, man. You’re a warrior,” Poirier told Chandler. “You’ve done a lot of great s—t in your career. I was scared to fight you. Coming from a…a healthy scared. I was scared to fight you bro. But without fear, there’s no bravery man. Let’s rock.”

Zhang Weili dethroned Carla Esparza to become a two-time UFC strawweight champion. ‘Magnum’ subbed the ‘Cookie Monster,’ who had her reign end six months after it began.

“Hello, Chinese friends,” said Weili. “The belt is back. We will bring the belt back to China. Let’s go!”

In our headliner, Alex Pereira stunned the world with a fifth-round TKO of Israel Adesanya to claim the UFC middleweight championship. It was the third win for Pereira over Adesanya, who he defeated twice in kickboxing several years ago.

Given their history, ‘Po Atan’ and the ‘Last Stylebender’ expressed mutual respect (and disdain?) for one another.

“You don’t like me, I don’t like you, but respect,” Adesanya told Pereira. “All respect.”

The full episode of The Thrill and the Agony is available to watch on UFC Fight Pass.

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Alex Pereira shared a personal story to explain why he thinks Israel Adesaya needs to accept that he just can’t defeat him.

The new UFC middleweight champion is a firm believer that styles making fights. Having defeated Israel Adesanya three times, two in kickboxing and the last one in MMA at UFC 281, Alex Pereira gave his thoughts on why it may be time for the ‘Last Stylebender’ to understand that his way of fighting just does not match up well with the Brazilian’s.

To drive his point home even further, Pereira shared a personal story during an interview with Super Lutas (h/t CrashMMA). In the conversation, ‘Poatan’ revealed how he lost three amateur kickboxing matches to the same man and attributes the defeats to their styles just not matching up well for him.

Although he does not name the man who defeated him three times before, Poatan believes he would lose again to said fighter even today—despite that fact that the mysterious foe is apparently already retired. The way Pereira sees it, Adesanya would benefit from accepting this mindset before pursuing another shot at revenge.

“I’m going to say something that I’ve never told anyone,” Pereira said. “I have 28 fights in amateur. I won 25 of them by knockout. I lost three fights. Three times to the same guy. In amateur, three fights. I don’t understand why. But now I do. The styles don’t match.

“The guy has stopped fighting,” Alex added. “If I fought him again today, I think I’d lose again. Even though he’s done fighting, if I fought him, I would lose. If I fought him 10 times, I’ll lose. Adesanya needs to get that, the same way Whittaker did. He just doesn’t accept it.”

Alex Pereira (7-1) became the new UFC middleweight champion when he TKO’d Adesanya at UFC 281, earlier this month. The win put Poatan on a four-fight victorious streak in the UFC, with wins over Andreas Michailidis, Bruno Silva and Sean Strickland before defeating his former kickboxing rival. The 35-year-old’s sole MMA loss remains a submission defeat to Quemuel Ottoni, back in October 2015.

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Sorry cry babies! It’s time for another of our infamous and patented Care/Don’t Care Podcasts, with your talent: Eugene S. Robinson, John S. Nash, & Stephie Haynes. The format of the show is to review the prior weeks picks & then to announce each fight on the upcoming card, commenting on which upcoming fights are HOT and which fights are NOT – for UFC Vegas 65 & UFC ORLANDO!

It’s time for another one of our infamous and patented Care/Don’t Care Podcasts, with your talent: the astounding Eugene S. Robinson, author of the ‘Eugene S. Robinson Substack’, the fight book: “Fight: Everything You Wanted to Know About Ass-Kicking but Were Afraid You’d Get Your Ass Kicked for Asking”, host of the ‘Eugene S. Robinson Show Stomper!’ Podcast, and co-host of the ‘If The Shoes Fit’ Podcast, along with the indubitable John S. Nash, our chief financials columnist and host of our brand new ‘Hey Not the Face!’ Podcast, co-host of our ‘Show Money’ Podcast; he is also one of the co-hosts of the ‘If The Shoes Fit’ Podcast. Our trio is moderated by the insightful Stephie Haynes, of Bloody Elbow’s ‘The Level Change Podcast’, & the ‘Crooklyn’s Corner Podcast’.

• John is on hiatus visiting his parents this week. He will rejoin us for our next event, UFC 282.

June M. Williams

The format of the show:

• Review the prior weeks’ picks while offering up reactions to bouts from that event.
• Announce each fight on the upcoming card, quickly commenting on which fights are “HOT”, and which fights are “NOT”. (This is based on several criteria, including relevancy to the sport as a whole).

This format of “Caring” or “Not Caring” about each bout is geared to our listeners who consider themselves to be “Casual MMA Fans”. We endeavor to steer you toward fights which affect rankings, title contention, possess significant meaning, or are sure to be “must see tv” exciting fights; therefore saving you the tedium of watching every fight on every card – or perhaps missing out on something you might have otherwise skipped.

UFC Vegas 65: Nzechukwu vs. Cutelaba REACTIONS —

June M. Williams

Formerly booked as UFC Fight Night: ‘Lewis vs Spivac’ — *Due to illness, Derrick Lewis was removed from his heavyweight bout with Serghei Spivac. As a result, this headlining bout was removed from today’s card.

Lewis vs. Spivac: UFC | Nzechukwu vs Cutelaba: June M. Williams

Overall, this now 11-bout card saw only one exciting first round finish, but four thrilling KO/TKO’s, absolutely no submissions, and a whopping seven hard-fought decisions, two of them split. Rounding things out, BONUSES were awarded for — POTN: Every finish got a bonus — Kennedy Nzechukwu, Muslim Salikhov, Jack Della Maddalena, & Natália Silva. FOTN: none.

Here’s a look at the UFC Vegas 65: ‘Nzechukwu vs Cutelaba’ fight card, updated records & full results from the event —

Official UFC Vegas 65 Scorecards

ESPN+ PRELIMS
At 3:20 — 1. 125lbs: Natália Silva (14-5) DEF. Tereza Bledá (6-1) — via TKO, Round 3, 1:27

At 4:08 — 2. 135lbs: Brady Hiestand (6-2) DEF. Fernie Garcia (10-3) — via Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

At 4:15 — 3. 115lbs: Vanessa Demopoulos (9-4) DEF. Maria Oliveira (13-6) — via Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

At 7:38 — 4. 135lbs: Ricky Turcios (12-3) DEF. Kevin Natividad (9-4) — via Split Decision: Turcios (29-28, 29-28), Natividad (29-28)

At 9:28 — 5. 135lbs: Miles Johns (13-2) DEF. Vince Morales (11-7) — via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)

At 9:46 — 6. 125lbs: Jennifer Maia (20-9) DEF. Maryna Moroz (11-4) — via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)

At 10:25 — 7. 125lbs: Charles Johnson (12-3) DEF. Zhalgas Zhumagulov (14-8) — via Split Decision: Johnson (29-28, 29-28), Zhumagulov (29-28)

ESPN+ MAIN CARD
At 11:02 — 8. 170lbs: Jack Della Maddalena (13-2) DEF. Danny Roberts (18-7) — via TKO, Round 1, 3:24

At 12:55 — 9. 170lbs: Muslim Salikhov (19-3) DEF. Andre Fialho (16-6) — via TKO, Round 3, 1:03

At 14:42 — 10. 265lbs: Waldo Cortes-Acosta (9-0) DEF. Chase Sherman (16-11) — via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)

At 17:14 — 11. 205lbs: Kennedy Nzechukwu (11-3) DEF. Ion Cutelaba (16-9) — via TKO, Round 2, 1:02

UFC Orlando: Thompson vs Holland PICKS — at 22:34

At this point in the show we offer you our ‘disclaimer’, then our trio will go about predicting the UFC Orlando Fight Night bout sheet from the bottom up, wrapping up the C/DC quick-picks portion of the show with the Main Event. This UFC on ESPN+ event will take place from the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida on Saturday, December 3rd., 2022.

Here’s a look at the fight card & records for the upcoming event via tapology.com, bout order subject to change…

UFC Orlando (19 Cares?):

ESPN/ESPN+ MAIN CARD | SAT. DEC. 3 — 10/7PM ETPT (15 CARES)
15. 170lbs: Stephen Thompson (16-6) vs. Kevin Holland (23-8) — At 42:36, 3 Cares

14. 170lbs: Rafael dos Anjos (31-14) vs. Bryan Barberena (18-8) — At 41:19, 3 Cares

13. 125lbs: Matheus Nicolau (18-2) vs. Matt Schnell (16-7) — At 39:40, 3 Cares (But Split, Eugene: Schnell)

12. 265lbs: Tai Tuivasa (15-4) vs. Sergei Pavlovich (16-1) — At 39:00, 3 Cares

11. 185lbs: Jack Hermansson (23-7) vs. Roman Dolidze (11-1) — At 34:36, 3 Cares

10. 185lbs: Eryk Anders (14-7) vs. Kyle Daukaus (11-3) — At 34:19

9. 170lbs: Niko Price (15-5) vs. Philip Rowe (9-3) — At 34:10

ESPN+ PRELIMS | 4PM/1PM ETPT (4 Cares?)
8. 115lbs: Angela Hill (14-12) vs. Emily Ducote (12-6) — At 33:36, 2 Cares (Stephie & Eugene… unsure if John picked on this bout, will update when info is obtained)

7. 155lbs: Clay Guida (37-22) vs. Scott Holtzman (14-5) — At 32:50

6. 155lbs: Michael Johnson (20-18) vs. Marc Diakiese (16-5) — At 32:27

5. 145lbs: Darren Elkins (27-10) vs. Jonathan Pearce (13-4) — At 26:26, 2 Cares (Stephie & Eugene… unsure if John picked on this bout, will update when info is obtained)

4. 125lbs: Tracy Cortez (10-1) vs. Amanda Ribas (11-3) — At 25:14

3. 155lbs: Natan Levy (7-1) vs. Genaro Valdéz (10-1) — At 24:57

2. 145lbs: Francis Marshall (6-0) vs. Marcelo Rojo (16-8) — At 24:40

1. 115lbs: Yazmin Jauregui (9-0) vs. Istela Nunes (6-3) — At 23:56

June M. Williams

Be sure to follow Eugene on twitter @EugeneSRobinson, John is @heynottheface, and of course you can catch Stephie @CrooklynMMA, and twice a week she’s on @LevelChangePod.

If you would like to catch the show on our BE Presents YouTube Channel, join the gang right here:

If you enjoy our variety of shows, give us a shout out in the comments here on Bloody Elbow, or give us a “like”, share & subscribe over on whichever BE Presents Podcast Channel happens to be your listening platform of choice: SoundCloud, YouTube, iTunes & Apple TV, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, Spotify, TuneIn, OverCast, Player FM, & Amazon Music – For previous episodes, check out our playlists on all of our BE Presents channels.

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This ain’t no Harrison ‘toon, but props to Pacheco

Chris Rini

I didn’t update my YouTube channel last Thursday due to Thanksgiving (we pulled it off in Denmark!), but I’ll be back on my Tuesday & Thursday update schedule. I’m going to experiment more with shorter videos that actually address the artwork as it’s being created. Let’s see how that goes. Take care of yourself and I’ll talk to you Wednesday.

Chris

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Israel Adesanya backs teammate Alexander Volkanovski to beat Islam Makhachev at UFC 284.

Comradery and friendship aside, Israel Adesanya thinks teammate Alexader Volkanovski is just built differently than the rest.

That’s why, ahead of Volkanovski’s jump to lightweight, ‘The Last Stylebender’ is picking the long-reigning featherweight king to usurp Islam Makhachev in their highly-anticipated champ vs. champ super-fight at UFC 284.

Adesanya is so confident in Volk’s ability to attain double-champ status that he is not only picking his teammate to win but would also bet the house on him securing the victory on Feb. 12.

“Volk used to be a fat guy. Like, a big boy, brawley, played rugby. When you walk around with that kind of body mass for years, you develop a different kind of muscle density,” Adesanya said during a recent appearance on the FLAGRANT podcast (h/t MMA News). “Even with Volk, I’ve tried to hold him down. I’m not the greatest wrestler, but even with my frame and leverage, it’s hard. He finds his way back up. (He’s) a crafty veteran. His inside leg kick, his jabs, his hand control; all that sh*t, he’s crafty.”

“Islam is great. These Dagi boys, they know what they’re doing… But I truly, gun to my head, could bet my whole house on him. Volk is just different,” he added. “Volk is the kind of guy — even when he cuts weight, the amount he cuts, for him to have the cardio he has in the later rounds… it’s mind-blowing. The man’s different.”

UFC 284, which features Makhachev vs. Volkanvski as the main event, is scheduled to take place on Feb. 12, 2023, at RAC Arena in Perth, Australia.

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