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Sage Northcutt isn’t on the same page as ONE Championship when it comes to his recent fight withdrawal.

“Super Sage” was supposed to fight Japanese MMA legend Shinya Aoki at a ONE event this past January. However, on fight day, it was announced that Northcutt had been forced to withdrawal due to “unforeseen circumstances with his cornermen,” according to the broadcast. Aoki went on to submit John Lineker, who stepped in for Northcutt at the last minute.

On Thursday, Northcutt took to social media to dispute ONE’s claims that the issue couldn’t have been avoided.

“ONE Championship is implying that I pulled out of the Shinya fight for unforeseen circumstances,” Northcutt wrote. “That is completely inaccurate. I sent ONE Championship the necessary paperwork they required to get my coaches visas 48 days ahead of the event. I was told by them over the phone and by text my main jiu-jitsu coach Fabio Prado did not need a visa since I paid for his airfare flights and trip so he was not classified as a working employee that needed a visa and that my other coach could get in as a tourist so he didn’t need one either.

“My coaches were there for almost a week, and I was not informed that two of them could not coach until hours before my match. I received a text from an unknown number that texted me for the first time that day that was a ticket salesman asking me about getting my two coaches complimentary tickets to watch my fight in the audience. I personally believe that ONE Championship was not going to inform me that my coaches were not allowed to corner me until I arrived at the arena to fight if I did not hear from a ticket salesman hours earlier.”

The fight with Aoki was to be just Northcutt’s second appearance with ONE. The 27-year-old returned to action this past May, defeating Ahmed Mujtaba in just 39 seconds via heel hook submission.

Aoki was to be the most decorated challenge of Northcutt’s career, but not only did the opportunity fall through, the fighter claims that his coaches were in danger of facing legal action because of ONE’s mismanagement.

“We were also told hours before my match that if my coaches violated the visa requirements and were caught on camera, they could be arrested and there was a 99.8 percent conviction rate on all arrests,” Northcutt wrote. “I made it clear to ONE Championship that I was not flying from America to Japan if I didn’t have my three coaches. I was told before I left to Japan by an executive that I would not have to fight without my coaches. They knew before I left that I would not be able to have two of my coaches. They never told me my coaches could be thrown in prison for any visa violation.”

Northcutt went on to write that “there has been a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes with ONE Championship with what caused me to withdraw from my last fight as well as other things,” noting “drug testing,” “weight cutting/policies,” “active athletes/roster” and the promotion’s “stability.”

MMA Fighting has reached out to Northcutt’s team and ONE Championship public relations for further comment.

See Northcutt’s Instagram post below.

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Rising lightweight contender Renato Moicano knows the where, the when, and the who when it comes to his next opponent. He’s just waiting for the UFC to give it their seal of approval.

Money’ returned to the Octagon on Saturday night (Feb. 3) for a co-main event clash with division standout Drew Dober. The two fighters engaged in an entertaining and bloody brawl for three rounds, but in the end, it was Moicano’s grappling that scored him a unanimous decision victory — his 10th under the UFC banner.

The win has Moicano holding tight in the No. 13 spot on the rankings and hoping that his next fight will offer him an opportunity to break into the top ten.

Speaking with Mike Owens in a LowKick MMA exclusive interview, Renato Moicano revealed that No. 7 ranked Beneil Dariush is on his radar and he already has the perfect location for their proposed scrap.

“I think that Beneil Dariush is a fight that makes sense,” Moicano said. “The UFC, I think they always try to do matchups that make sense, and me versus Dariush is the fight to make. Especially in Brazil for UFC 301. I think it’s going to be amazing. I want to fight in Brazil.”

Riding the momentum of eight wins in a row and on the cusp of his first UFC title opportunity, Darish suffered a massive setback when he fell to former lightweight world champion Charles Oliveira in the opening round of their UFC 289 confrontation.

Since then, ‘Benny’ added another loss to his resume via a 64-second knockout at the hands of Arman Tsarukyan in December. With back-to-back defeats, Dariush now likely finds himself in a position where he’ll have to fight down in the rankings to re-establish himself as a viable contender for the 155-pound crown.

“I think he’s not in a position where he can choose his opponents,” Moicano continued. “He’s coming off two losses. He’s not that young anymore and people are trying to fight him all over. I don’t know what the UFC is going to do, but I don’t think Beneil Dariush has that many choices. But let’s see what the UFC thinks because, at the end of the day, they choose.”

Watch the full exclusive interview with Renato Moicano below:

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Earlier this week, Gina Carano shocked the world after announcing that she would file a lawsuit against Disney and Lucasfilm.

According to Carano, the actor saw her time on The Mandalorian end after she was unreasonably targeted by Disney and Lucasfilm. Since her firing, she has only appeared on screen twice, with one coming in a lead role for Terror on the Prairie, featuring fellow MMA veteran Donald Cerrone.

Shortly after revealing her intentions to sue the corporate powerhouses, Gina Carano went into further detail with Fox News’s Jesse Watters. The 41-year-old shared her views on why she believes she was used as a scapegoat.

“I think maybe because I’m a bit unassuming. I’m easy to work with,” Carano stated. “If you asked anybody on that set they would say I was the most noncontroversial person.”

“But, I think, like we’ve seen all over America, a lot of us are getting sick and tired. So I think that I was a bit unassuming in standing up and I think that’s why I was targeted.”

Carano later claimed that if they would comfortably throw her under the bus, nobody is safe when working for companies like Disney and Lucasfilm.

“What I’ve learned is that if this can happen to me, this can happen to anyone. I am easy to work with and I am passionate about what we do.”

“I’m always excited to be on set. I even worked with them as much as I possibly could to resolve any issues that they had but, you know, eventually, you have a line.”

“And when that line gets crossed, you just have to say, ‘Enough! Enough is enough.’ And if I look back on if I would have caved and I would have done something that disrespected myself, then I wouldn’t be doing any favors to the next generation. To my nieces, to your children.” 

“I felt like since I didn’t have any children, I was a person that could stand up and say some things. The things that I said were so gentle. They weren’t aggressive, they were never with ill intent. They were never malicious.”

“That’s how I know because I was so conscious that if this can happen to me, this will happen to you. And if we just pass this along to the next generation, it’s just going to get worse and worse.”

Related: Gina Carano drops bombshell lawsuit on Disney and Lucasfilm with Elon Musk’s help

The martial artist-turned-actor later spoke about the support she has been getting from both Elon Musk and her loyal fanbase during her trials and tribulations in recent years.

“I have people at these fan expos that I absolutely love. I have them coming up in tears, mass amounts of people come up in tears and just thank me for taking a stand. Thank me for saying the things that I said.”

“That has made it all worth it. No matter what happens, that has made it all worth it. I really applaud Elon Musk and X for championing me in this lawsuit. I appreciate all your love and support out there and I hope I make you proud.”

Watch Gina Carano’s interview with Fox News below.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

The majority of the MMA fanbase is looking for answers to two questions — what will headline UFC 300, and when is Conor McGregor making his UFC return? On Wednesday, UFC CEO Dana White says he hopes it happens in the fall, which doesn’t line up to what McGregor and potential opponent Michael Chandler have said recently.

On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel will discuss White’s update on McGregor, why it’s taking so long, and if Chandler should consider moving on since he’s approaching nearly two years out of the octagon. Additionally, topics may include Dustin Poirier’s Hokey Pokey move a week ago ahead of his UFC 299 bout with Benoit Saint Denis, this past weekend’s UFC Vegas 85 fight card, this Saturday’s UFC Vegas 86 event headlined by Jack Hermansson vs. Joe Pyfer and much more.

Host Mike Heck will be joined by MMA Fighting’s Jed Meshew to discuss these topics and more.

Watch the show live at 12:30 p.m. ET / 9:30 a.m. PT in the video above.

If you missed the show live, you can still watch above, or listen to the podcast version, which can be found below and on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your pods.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

UFC will begin negotiations on a new TV deal later this year just as the landscape of sports programming and streaming take a dramatic shift in 2024 and into 2025.

On Tuesday, ESPN announced that the network will partner with FOX and Warner Bros. Discovery on a new sports specific streaming service that will combine channels from all three networks under one umbrella. The package will include all ESPN channels along with FOX, FS1, FS2, TNT, TBS, and other channels that carry sports programming from the three networks.

The new streaming service will launch in fall 2024, ahead of the start of the next NFL season.

In addition to those plans, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced on Wednesday that a completely standalone ESPN streaming service will be launching separately, most likely in late August 2025. That service will include all linear ESPN channels on a streaming service for the first time ever.

Right now, ESPN is only available through cable or satellite subscriptions, or other live streaming services like YouTube TV or Sling TV. ESPN+ does not have access to the linear ESPN channels without a subscription to one of those other services, but that will all change in 2025.

The cost for the combined streaming service and the standalone ESPN service have not been revealed yet.

So what does this all mean for the UFC?

Well, the promotion will begin negotiations on a new TV broadcast fights deal later this year, with the current ESPN deal set to expire in 2025. Many analysts believe the UFC will be seeking a much bigger package than its last contract, which initially paid $ 1.5 billion over five years, before the two sides agreed to another two-year extension along with the inclusion of pay-per-view broadcasts that now air exclusively through ESPN+.

Consider first that the UFC’s partners at WWE — both companies operate under the united TKO Group Holdings — just inked a massive $ 5 billion, 10-year deal to move its flagship program Monday Night Raw from the USA Network to Netflix starting in 2025. That’s a sizable increase over the previous deal and only accounts for one show owned by WWE.

It’s almost certain that the UFC will be seeking at least double the previous deal signed with ESPN, which means a blockbuster rights package for all programming that will likely balloon to $ 3 billion or even higher depending on the length of the contract.

Thanks to the growth that ESPN+ has experienced, largely due to UFC programming, it’s tough to imagine that the higher ups at Disney won’t want to renew the deal with the largest MMA promotion in the world. But it’s also impossible to ignore the skyrocketing costs related to live sports programming, especially with experts hinting at the NBA potentially seeking an eye-popping deal for the basketball league’s next contract, which could end up at triple the cost of the current contract that runs through the 2024-2025 season.

Right now, the NBA earns an average of $ 2.67 billion per season, with games broadcast across Disney-owned networks like ESPN and ABC, as well as Warner Bros. Discovery properties like TNT. Other players like Apple TV or even NBCUniversal could take a shot at the NBA’s rights, but there’s no chance that ESPN didn’t team up with FOX and Warner Bros. to give the three networks some combined leverage when it comes to major sports rights deals like this one or what the UFC will be seeking soon enough.

Rather than bidding against each other, ESPN, FOX and Warner Bros. Discovery now have a vested interest in working together with this new streaming service, which means package deals with a league like the NBA or possibly the UFC will likely attempt to keep some costs down.

That could also force an outside entity like Amazon to overpay to land a viable product like the UFC just to stay competitive when going up against a streaming juggernaut that combines ESPN with FOX and Warner Bros. Discovery.

Executives at TKO have stated that the UFC’s relationship with ESPN remains strong, but there’s no telling where the broadcast rights deal will end up once negotiations begin again. There’s also the chance that the UFC seeks multiple partners for a split broadcast deal, with shows airing on numerous networks across linear or streaming channels.

A UFC Fight Night event could air on ESPN one night and then the next week would be on Amazon Prime Video. Anything is possible.

The landscape for sports broadcasts will change dramatically over the next two years, especially with ESPN really taking a deep dive into the streaming side of the business. What that will mean for the UFC long-term remains to be seen, but interesting times lie ahead as negotiations for that new TV deal prepare to kick off later this year.

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UFC

White has said the first early prelim for UFC 300 is so good you’ll say ‘holy s—!’ Now he’s announced what it is, and he wasn’t lying.

UFC CEO Dana White has been hyping up UFC 300 for months now, promising a card that delivers from the very first fight to the very last.

We still don’t know what the main event will be, and a lot of judgement is being reserved until we find that out. But we can now confirm: the first fight that kicks off the event is pretty insane, as promised.

White confirmed who was scrapping in the first early prelim during an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Radio Row.

“It’s been challenging because obviously, I want to deliver the best card that’s ever been built,” White said about UFC 300. “Every fight on the card right now could be a main event on either a Fight Night or a pay-per-view. I mean, we are opening the card, the first prelim of the night is Garbrandt and Figueiredo. I mean, what does that tell you?”

Cody Garbrandt vs. Deiveson Figueiredo is a pretty wild fight to open UFC 300 with. Both men are former champions — Garbrandt ended Dominick Cruz’s six year reign as bantamweight champ, and Figueiredo is a two-time flyweight champion.

But let’s be real, here: them opening the card is a bit of a stunt. There are way less decorated fighters booked above Cody and Deiveson. Jim Miller vs. Bobby Green comes after them — neither man is in the top ten and neither has tasted UFC gold. Bo Nickal vs. Cody Brundage is another — Nickal is a hot NCAA prospect and potential future champ, but his opponent is 2-3 over his last five.

We’re not trying to downplay the overall quality of UFC 300. It’s a great card! As White pointed out, every bout could be a Fight Night main event. Pay-per-view? That’s a stretch, as is suggesting Cody Garbrandt vs. Deiveson Figueiredo’s placement has to do with the quality on the card only growing as the event continues.

Now let’s see what they have in store for the main event, and then we can debate how the matchmaking stacks up against what fans were hoping for.

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