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Ricky Turcios has come out and thrown doubt over UFC plans to have him rematch Raul Rosas Jr. on next week’s UFC Apex card.

Raul Rosas Jr. vs. Ricky Turcios didn’t end up going down in Mexico City as planned due to a last minute illness suffered by Rosas. And we’re talking last minute: by all accounts, the fight was scrapped less than five minutes before both men were set to make the walk.

Announcers on the broadcast teased that the fight may be re-booked for next week’s event back at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. UFC CEO Dana White confirmed that was the plan, with the re-booked bout happening at a catchweight so both men wouldn’t have to happen again. The official UFC News twitter account confirmed it would go down March 2nd at UFC Fight Night: Rozenstruik vs. Gaziev.

But no one bothered to confirm this with Ricky Turcios, it seems.

Instagram – Ricky Turcios

“FAKE NEWS,” Turcios declared on his Instagram. “No fight contract has been signed yet for a new date. Last night Rosas Jr. said no fight literally five minutes before the walk out to fight in the octagon. Rosas Jr. said no to facing me in the octagon in front of his 20,000 Mexican fans in Mexico City. Rosas Jr. disrespected the Bushido code… very unprofessional.”

From there Turcios seemed to imply he was considering the last minute cancellation by Rosas as a victory for him.

“Ricky ‘TheUltimateFighter’ wins in Mexico City!” he declared. “Viva Mexico! Thank you to all my friends, family, and all the fans. ALL LOVE.”

Since then, Turcios has deleted the message, which leaves things in a state of limbo. Has the UFC come back and made things right with Ricky? Will they swap him out for someone else? We’ll have to wait for another official announcement … and then see if the fighters confirm that announcement, since the UFC keeps announcing fights without everyone locked in properly.

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The UFC antitrust lawsuit is nearing a trial date on April 15, and several prominent fighters and managers are set to testify on behalf of the promotion in the court case.

A brief filed on Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada revealed several names the UFC put forward as witnesses ahead of the trial for a case that’s been slowly moving toward that date since first being filed all the way back in 2014. The list of witnesses includes two former UFC champions and three more past title challengers testifying for the UFC.

Bloody Elbow first released information on the brief.

The names included are ex-UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping, former women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate, as well as Michael Chandler, Donald Cerrone, and Chael Sonnen.

The managers expected to serve as witnesses for the UFC include Ali Abdelaziz, who runs Dominance MMA and represents fighters such as UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev; Jason House, the head of Iridium Sports Agency, which has ex-flyweight champion Brandon Moreno on its roster; Josh Jones, who works with fighters such as Cerrone and Tate; Dan Lambert, who owns and operates American Top Team in Florida, and also manages fighters; and finally Ed Soares, who previously managed fighters such as Anderson Silva and Glover Teixeira.

Additional testimony will also be provided by former Bellator president Scott Coker, Invicta FC founder Shannon Knapp, former IFL founder Kurt Otto, and boxing promoter Lou DiBella among others.

Current or former UFC employees who could be called to testify include UFC CEO Dana White, matchmakers Mick Maynard and Sean Shelby, and former head matchmaker Joe Silva, as well as Marc Ratner and UFC chief operating officer Lawrence Epstein.

At the heart of the UFC antitrust lawsuit, fighters such as Cung Le, Nate Quarry, Jon Fitch, Brandon Vera, and others accuse the promotion of engaging “in a scheme to acquire and maintain monopsony power in the market for elite professional MMA fighter services,” and use three components to achieve this goal including acquisitions — like buying up former rivals such as Strikeforce and PRIDE FC — as well as exclusive contracts and coercion.

As for the UFC’s defense, the promotion claims that the lawsuit is misguided and this is “no antitrust case at all, but an attack on success.”

Because the case was eventually made a class action lawsuit, any fighter competing in the UFC between Dec. 16, 2010 to June 30, 2017 would be eligible for compensation if the plaintiffs win in trial or a settlement agreement is reached. None of the fighters eligible opted out of the lawsuit, which includes witnesses such as Bisping and Sonnen, who were competing in the UFC at the time.

The plaintiffs are seeking damages between $ 894 million and $ 1.6 billion.

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Francis Ngannou offered his take on the differences between ‘The Gypsy King’ and his next opponent.

After nearly ending the undefeated reign of Tyson Fury in October, Francis Ngannou will return to the squared circle for a clash with the WBC’s top-ranked heavyweight contender, Anthony Joshua. The fight will go down on March 8, emanating from Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, the same venue that hosted Ngannou’s critically acclaimed professional boxing debut last year.

Ahead of his second fight in the sweet science, ‘The Predator’ shared his thoughts on the key differences between facing Fury and the former two-time unified champion.

”Anthony Joshua never trash talks, his personality is more serious, unlike Tyson Fury who is more like a playboy,” Ngannou told The Mirror. “I think when it comes to fighting, they both know how to fight and that’s what I’m focused on. He might have been nervous but that doesn’t mean anything. In fact, I think being nervous means he is taking things very seriously. It’s very important because he’s going to do his best to show up on the day with everything.”

Anthony Joshua Seeking his fourth straight win against Francis Ngannou

Anthony Joshua goes into the contest with a 27-3 record, 24 of those victories coming by way of knockout. After suffering back-to-back losses against Tyson Fury’s next opponent, Oleksandr Usyk, the Watford, England native has won three straight, including knockouts against Robert Helenius and Otto Wallin in his last two outings.

Ngannou, on the other hand, is just 0-1 as a professional boxer, but a strong debut performance and his undeniable drawing power have made him a priority opponent for many of the sports’ biggest stars.

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Raul Rosas Jr. will not get the chance to fight in front of an adoring crowd at UFC Mexico City.

The highly-touted bantamweight prospect suffered an illness that left him unable to compete, and his fight with Ricky Turcios was scrapped just before the two were scheduled to walk to the octagon. The news was announced during the UFC Mexico City broadcast.

While certainly not the best circumstance possible, there is hope that Rosas won’t have to long to compete, as it was also announced that his fight with Turcios has been rescheduled for the UFC Vegas 87 card this Saturday at UFC APEX in Las Vegas. UFC CEO Dana White later confirmed that the fight is expected to take place at a catchweight since Rosas and Turcios already made weight for the Mexico City card before the bout had to be postponed.

On Sunday, however, Turcios disputed that the re-booking was official. In an Instagram Story, Turcios wrote the following:

“Fake news. No fight contract has been signed yet for a new date. Last night Rosas Jr. said no fight literally five minutes before the walk out to fight in the octagon. Rosas Jr. said no to facing me in the octagon in front of his 20,000 Mexican fans in Mexico City. Rosas Jr. disrespected the Bushido code… very unprofessional.”

It’s an unfortunate turn of events for Rosas, who talked about his excitement to perform in front of friends and family as the UFC landed in Mexico City for the first time in nearly five years. Now, he’ll ll have to wait at least a week to return to the octagon.

So far in his early UFC career, the now 19-year-old fighter has posted a 2-1 record through three fights, including victories over Jay Perrin and Terrence Mitchell.

See Turcios’ full response to the news below.

@rickyturcios, Instagram

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