Las Vegas is uniquely equipped to handle multiple events with ample venues, hotels, entertainment and cuisine. This year, “Sin City” hosts Super Bowl LVIII between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers at allegiant Stadium in the heart of the city.
UFC CEO Dana White believes Las Vegas should host the Super Bowl every year. During the Power Slap 6 Post-Fight Press Conference, White told NFL commissioner Roger Goodell exactly that.
“I’m super proud of Las Vegas. If anything, if you follow me on Instagram, I love this city so much. Almost every night when I drive home I film this scene from the top of the freeway to my house and I’m like, I f**king love this city so much,” said White.
“I talked to Roger Goodell today. So I was with Roger Goodell this afternoon and I said, ‘You know that this is where the Super Bowl should be every year. Right? You shouldn’t even go anywhere else,” White continued. “The Super Bowl, the World Series, the NBA finals and whatever else should be here like every single year. There isn’t another city that can compete with this city. It’s the greatest city on Earth. All the big sporting leagues are coming here now. We’re going to have a f**king ping-pong league here pretty soon. Everybody is coming here, baseball, basketball, soccer. I mean, they can’t get here fast enough. Why? Because this is the greatest city on Earth. We have the best hotels in the world. We have the best restraints, the best entertainment, the best shopping.”
Of course, White’s had a big weekend promoting Friday’s celebrity-packed Power Slap 6 event and Saturday’s UFC Vegas 86 fight card at the UFC Apex.
Despite recently announcing his return from retirement just six months after calling it a career, the one-time UFC interim title challenger promises he didn’t make an emotional decision when he decided to walk away from MMA this past July. In fact, Lee says he contemplated laying his gloves down in the cage after his loss to Rinat Fakhretdinov, but opted to take some time to make sure that was really the best decision for him.
It wasn’t until 10 days later that he confirmed his retirement from the sport, and Lee really did walk away with the intention to never fight again.
“I was pretty resolved [in that decision to retire],” Lee told MMA Fighting. “It really started with that fight in Eagle [FC]. That’s when I first re-injured myself really big and I spent like a year, almost a year and a half trying to battle back from that without having a surgery. Each day was just harder than the last. That was probably the toughest training camp, the toughest lead-up to a fight I had. Just physically my body was getting broken down.
“At that point, when I decided to retire, it wasn’t an emotional decision. I really thought about it the night of the fight when the fight didn’t go my way. I waited until that died down to see if I would feel any different, and I didn’t. I still felt like I needed to retire at that time. I don’t regret that decision. I think it was well needed.”
Lee spent the next six months completely detached from MMA.
He didn’t go back to the gym, which was a very normal routine for him. Lee didn’t even rush into surgery despite suffering another torn ACL in his knee, an injury that plagued him several times throughout his career.
Instead, Lee began thinking about new businesses he could invest in, which included building a real estate portfolio. But as much as he tried to forget about fighting, he never could.
“When I say I spent six months away from MMA, I didn’t watch no fights, I didn’t step into the gym or anything,” Lee said. “I feel like that was a good reset for me and it honestly really made me realize what I love in this world is fighting. I could do other things out here, and I thought maybe if I made money doing something else that would kind of make fighting go away for me, and it didn’t. I was still thinking about it, and the real reason I decided to retire was because of the injuries.
“The last two months, I’ve really been contemplating [a comeback]. Honestly, the final straw for me, I spoke with my mom — I had a conversation with her and she said something to me that really woke me up. She said, ‘The smile in your soul is gone.’ It made me really realize that it’s time for me, I’ve got to come back. There’s nothing that I love more in this world than fighting, and as much as I tried to separate myself from it in the last six months, for some reason it just keeps pulling me back.”
Lee announced his plans to fight again on the final day of January, but it turns out his return to action won’t happen anytime soon.
Because he suffered another torn ACL in his knee, Lee had to undergo surgery to repair the damage done, so he’s still rehabilitating and recovering from that injury. That likely puts his next fight sometime towards the end of 2024, but he wanted to make himself accountable to do the work that it will take to compete again.
Lee admits he still frets about suffering another serious injury, but that’s a risk he’s willing to take to fight again.
“I re-tore my ACL, so I had surgery Sept. 12,” Lee revealed. “Right now, I’m about four months out from the surgery date. I’m getting stronger. Even during my retirement, I stayed in a little bit of physical therapy. Nothing major or nothing crazy, but I’m getting stronger.
“Even though I’m afraid — even now as I sit here, I’m still afraid to get hurt again — but I’m willing to roll those dice if that’s what God calls me to do. The announcement was more for myself and for other people to know that I’m throwing my hat back in the ring, but that don’t necessarily mean that I’m going to take a fight in two months or three months. It’s going to be a little bit of a warming up process to get back in there.”
Lee promises there was a lot of time and thought put into his decision to return again, just as he made sure to let his emotions calm down before announcing his retirement.
He’s going to put everything into this comeback and wants to leave the sport with no regrets this time around.
“When I said I was retired, I really meant that,” Lee said. “Now that I say I’m not [retired], I really mean that. It changes my whole lifestyle when I say these things.
“I don’t want to get to 40 years old and being like, ‘Damn, if I had only really tried. If only I [hadn’t] really gotten sucked up into drinking too much and smoking weed and doing all these things and not letting the money get to my head. If I had not done that part, what could I have been?’ That’s the point where I’m at right now. What can I do? I think if I really, really focus in and buckle down on this thing, I could be a serious world champion.”
Logistically, Lee knows he’s still months away from fighting, and that includes the necessary six months of drug testing required to return to the UFC. Because he retired, Lee dropped out of the UFC’s anti-doping program, and he expects to get back into the testing pool in the near future. But right now he’s still recovering from knee surgery, so he has time to spare.
“That’s something that we’re going to kind of solve in maybe March or April,” Lee said. “Right now it’s just going to be about getting healthy and getting in really, absolutely fantastic shape, the best shape of my life, and then we’ll make decisions on signing contracts and exactly what we have to do logistically to step back into the cage.
“This isn’t something that’s going to be a two month, three month thing. It’s going to be another six months or so before you actually see me step back into the cage.”
Lee also declared that he plans to return at 155 pounds, which is where he spent the majority of his career, but also began draining him more and more as he went through severe weight cuts. Looking back now, Lee takes responsibility for some of the problems he faced getting down to lightweight, but he’s ensuring no corners get cut this time around.
“At lightweight I’m for sure one of the top five in the world, and I feel I can compete against anybody and I can make the weight,” Lee said. “With the right preparation, I can make the weight.”
At 31, Lee is actually in the prime of his athletic career even though he already has 27 fights on his résumé. He’s not looking to jump back into the fire on day one, and if he’s required to make a slow climb back up the ladder, then that’s exactly what he’ll do.
Lee is just ready to get back to work.
“Now is the time,” Lee said. “Now is the time for me to really seize it, especially if I’m still chasing a world championship. Now is the time.”
Photo by Denise Truscello/Getty Images for Carver Road Hospitality
Jones has suggested he’s interested in continuing to fight after a long-awaited bout against Stipe Miocic, making a heavyweight unification bout against Aspinall a possibility.
Jon Jones isn’t willing to step up and save UFC 300, but he might be willing to stick around and face Tom Aspinall.
That was the message the injured UFC heavyweight champion had for fans when he spoke to Submission Radio during a visit to Australia this past week.
“The Tom fight is definitely not off the table,” Jones said. “Especially with how I’ve been feeling being out here. I feel just totally reinvigorated and just re-energized being around all these fans. So, I can’t just walk away. So, the ball is rolling in a really positive direction for me to continue my career.”
Previously, all signs had pointed towards Jones fighting Stipe Miocic and then retiring. That was the plan, according to several of his training partners. But if “Bones” is convinced Aspinall is more than just another contender, he could be convinced to stick around.
“A lot of people don’t acknowledge that: there will always will be another awesome contender,” he said. “It’s the UFC’s job to build the next big thing. And it’s my job to realize when you are enough and you have done enough, you’ve provided for your family, you’ve created the life for your people.”
“And so I don’t know. I really don’t know what’s gonna be next. I’m just taking it one thing at a time. That’s my respect to Stipe, is just to take it one thing at a time, and to respect him as a challenge that he will be. As impressive as Tom is, he’s not important enough yet to determine my schedules and my decisions. That’s fair enough, huh?”
“If I were him, I would get after it, I would get after it,” Jones concluded. “If you truly believe that you’re the best in the world, then get after it. Go out there and compete. And the real fans will count your victories as champions. But don’t let me slow you down. Go out there and kick butt and make your money.”
One thing Jones is steadfast about is his desire to fight Stipe Miocic next. Miocic has the most title defenses at heavyweight and is widely considered the best champion the division has seen. Taking him out is the perfect way for Jones to prove his dominance a weight class up from light heavyweight.
Unfortunately for “Bones,” Miocic has been sitting on the sidelines a long time, and MMA is a very ‘What have you done for me lately?’ kind of sport. A win over Stipe two years ago would have accomplished everything Jones wanted. Now, many argue he has to fight interim champion Tom Aspinall if he wants to walk away without questions about his legacy.
Jack Hermansson saw the writing on the wall when the UFC matched him up with Joe Pyfer in UFC Vegas 86’s main event.
Coming off a knockout loss and 14-month layoff, Hermansson returned to face an unranked opponent backed by an inspiring origin story about perseverance over injury and personal hardship. It was a tale UFC CEO Dana White told repeatedly leading up to the card.
To add to that, Pyfer had amassed a perfect 3-0 résumé since joining the UFC roster, with all of his fights ending by knockout or submission. Everything was set up so Pyfer could have a huge coming out party in his first UFC main event, but there was only one problem — Hermansson didn’t read the script.
“He didn’t even have a ranking,” Hermansson said of Pyfer at the UFC Vegas 86 post-fight press conference. “I feel like he got more exposure than I did for this fight. I understand why. He has an amazing story, he’s coming up through the Contender Series and he has a lot of eyes on him. He should get a shot like this, but then you also need to be able to perform to take it to that next level. I was not going to be that stepping stone.”
Hermansson proved that after he endured a fast start from Pyfer, but then began slowly but surely chipping away at the middleweight prospect, especially over the final three rounds. Throughout the latter part of the fight, Hermansson battered Pyfer with a blistering series of leg kicks while feeding him a steady diet of jabs that landed at will.
When it was over, there was no doubt that Hermansson did enough to earn the victory and hand Pyfer his first loss inside the octagon.
“It feels good to show everybody that I’m up there,”Hermansson said. “I’m one of the best middleweights in the world. That’s just facts by now.”
Despite Pyfer coming up short, Hermansson still showered the 27-year-old prospect with praise and reassured that this experience would only make him better in the long run.
“I promise you he’s going to do well. I’m sure of it,” Hermansson said. “Now he has this loss and I’m sure he’s just going to grow from it. Joe seems like a great guy. He seems focused. He’s a dangerous fighter and I don’t see why he shouldn’t be great.”
As for his own future, Hermansson wasted no time looking ahead at a potential fight against Nassourdine Imavov, who just scored an impressive win of his own over Roman Dolidze at UFC Vegas 85.
“I just watch the rankings and I fought a lot of guys up there,” Hermansson said. “Obviously, I can’t come back with a fight with an unranked opponent and go direct to the top. I need to fight someone that’s closer to me in the rankings. I think [Imavov] makes the most sense at the moment.”
With many of the division’s top fighters tied up, Hermansson views Imavov as the logical next step, although he’s certainly not opposed to other options.
One potential matchup mentioned to him was Khamzat Chimaev, who Hermansson actually faced in a freestyle wrestling match back in 2021. Both fighters also routinely train in Sweden, which could set up an even bigger clash for a possible event in Europe if the UFC decides to travel there.
“Of course, I’m willing to fight Khamzat,” Hermansson said. “I know there has been talk of him and [Jared] Cannonier and some of the other top names, so we’ll see what is happening. But I would be open for that fight [against Chimaev].
“I would also love to fight Brendan Allen, but he is booked up with [Marvin] Vettori at the moment. Imavov makes the most sense.”
Reigning UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones give his opinion on controversial influencer Andrew Tate.
Since his rise to notoriety, Tate has been linked to the combat sports world after discussing his career as a professional kickboxer. Being a ‘former world champion’ in kickboxing has been made a massive part of his persona and he regularly posted footage of him training and sparring.
Tate’s kickboxing record supposedly stands at 73-9, but many of these are not documented online. Tate did win ISKA and Enfusion title, but never took the next step to fight in elite promotions such as Glory and K1.
With his manosphere content and the ‘masculine’ message that Tate has branded himself on, he has also gained a lot of fighters as fans. Tate has been pictured with serval notable UFC names such as Aljamain Sterling and Leon Edwards, with many others discussing the controversial figure online.
Jon Jones gives his opinion on Andrew Tate
In a recent interview, Jones was asked his opinion on Tate and gave a rather interesting answer, claiming he was proud of the 37-year-old.
“I’ve seen some of his training videos, I haven’t seen much of his actual work but he looks solid,” Jon Jones said. “He looks solid, I’m just proud of the person that he’s trying to be for human beings. He’s always trying to share some knowledge, he doesn’t always hit the mark but he’s trying to help men, and women, think outside the box, expand our knowledge and I’m grateful for that.”
Jones is expected to make a return later on this year and make his first defence of his heavyweight title against Stipe Miocic. The fight was originally booked for last year, but had to be postponed after Jones suffered an I jury.
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