CombatSports.org

Jorge Masvidal hasn’t held back when talking about Nate Diaz ahead of their upcoming fight.

Masvidal and Diaz have put their MMA careers to the side and are now set to lock horns in the world of boxing. The former UFC stars will collide when they step into the ring on July 6.

As their fight draws near, Jorge Masvidal recently had a lot to say about Nate Diaz. Masvidal called Diaz and his team cowards for their actions during the pre-fight press conference last month.

“My coach that’s in his mid-40s and isn’t a professional fighter, getting attack by a professional fighter and one other guy and being on the ground and getting kicked and punched, to me, you guys are cowards.” Masvidal told CBS Sports’ Shakiel Mahjouri.

“Whatever bro. It’s f***ing coward sh*t. He’s fine. He’s a soldier. He comes from the hood like me so he’s alright. But you don’t do that sh*t.”

“He’s a coach. I’ve never attacked a coach in my life. Especially someone who is in their mid-40s or closer to their 50s… That’s the person you set out to attack? Two of you f***ing Nate Diaz’s gimps. It just shows what type of character that them and Nate are because Nate started that whole sh*t.”

“There was no pushing or shoving. His guys f***ing immediately tried to do his dirty work and he took off. He didn’t even come back and ride for his people. It shows what a coward of a general he is.”

“He had all his gimps there and he couldn’t even show face for his gimps. He’s probably hoping I’d get hurt, my hands, punching one of these f***ing morons.”

Masvidal continued, discrediting Nate Diaz for his lack of fight promotion despite their bout taking place this Saturday.

“If we were salesman and we were working off commission, that motherf***er wouldn’t be eating because hasn’t done sh*t.”

“From the start of it, he wanted to go on a date that was just stupid to me. I know the guy has been in a lot of wars. You can tell by the way he f***ing stutters. He can’t even get his words out.”

Related: Influencer enrages Nate Diaz, Diaz’ crew chases him in the streets | Video

“I get it, the guy is not the brightest. But holy smokes, if you’re not the brightest get out of the way and let the people that know what they’re doing do their job. This guy wanted to go when UFC was having a huge pay-per-view, Islam Makhachev vs. Dustin Poirier. Sean Strickland was also on the card. Nate was deadset on going on that day.”

“Brother, you’re not a f***ing boxer. You don’t have boxing fans behind you. You have one f***ing boxing fight against a non-boxer. You’re not a boxer. Your fanbase you f***ing dumb idiot is the UFC. So you don’t want to go up against the UFC.”

“This fight could have took place on May 25. As far as partnership and working with this f***ing moron of a person, never again in my life. I really got to find out what a diva he is and how dumb of a diva he is. I just can’t wait to f***ing fight.”

Check what Masvidal told CBS Sports’ Shakiel Mahjouri below.

MMAWeekly.com | UFC and MMA News, Results, Rumors, and Videos

submitted by /u/ikthanks [link] [comments]

MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Alex Pereira continued to add to his awe-inspiring resume after he dispatched Jiri Prochazka just 13 seconds into the second round to defend his light heavyweight title in the UFC 303 main event. The knockout happened after Pereira nearly scored a similar finish at the close of the opening round when he dropped Prochazka with a left hook that put the former champion down on the canvas.

Following that highlight reel finish, the UFC has released another look at that knockout — this time in slow motion. It’s astonishing to see how Pereira sets up the kick and then cracks Prochazka with the strike that ultimately ended his night.

The slow motion highlight reel video also showcases the back-and-forth slugfest between Andre Fili and Cub Swanson that ultimately earned Fight of the Night honors. You can also witness Jean Sliva put Charles Jourdain down and out with his knockout victory from this past Saturday night.

Check out the full slow motion video from UFC 303 above.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

Don’t Mention Him
| BJPenn.com

UFC

Jiri Prochazka has just two losses under the UFC banner, both of which came at the hands of reigning 205-pound titleholder Alex Pereira. After a questionable stoppage at UFC 295 late last year, “Poatan” erased all doubt with a thunderous head kick in their UFC 303 rematch.

So what happened?

“I believed Jiri was truly ready going into this fight. We wouldn’t have taken this short notice fight if we hadn’t believed he was ready,” coach Martin Karaivanov told TN CZ Sport. “Everything was great before the fight. In the locker room too. I don’t know what happened. Jiri himself said he wasn’t fully in the fight, that he wasn’t able to fully immerse himself in it, which was reflected by his performance. We are going to rewatch the fight, recap what happened and alter our future training accordingly.”

That future training could include a weight cut to 185 pounds.

“Personally speaking I see [middleweight] as a potential restart and a positive step,” Karaivanov continued. “He is also still at an age where he can cut weight to [185] relatively well. We will definitely talk about it. It won’t be my decision, but a team decision. Middleweight would make sense because it would be a new start, something new to focus on. A return to light heavyweight would make sense if and when it starts becoming difficult for him to cut weight to middleweight.”

It became difficult for Pereira, 36, which is why “Poatan” now fights at 205 pounds.

Prochazka, 31, is likely to make his Octagon return at some point later this year, though it remains to be seen if matchmakers keep him at 205 pounds or give “BJP” the freedom to change weight classes. To see what Prochazka would be up against in his new division, check out the middleweight Top 15 here.

MMAmania.com – All Posts

submitted by /u/ApeFromMars [link] [comments]

MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

The next major domino in the multi-billion dollar business of sports broadcast rights fees should soon fall, with the NBA expected to ink a deal worth more than $ 70 billion with ESPN, Amazon, and NBC Sports most likely footing the bill.

Despite the audience for the NBA staying somewhat stagnant over the past few years, with ratings still not recovered in a post-pandemic world, the thirst for live content continues to drive broadcast rights deals higher and higher with each new package. Once the NBA finalizes its broadcast rights deal, the next major player in the market is UFC.

Currently working through a seven-year contract at ESPN that ends in 2025, UFC is expected to begin negotiations on a new broadcast rights deal in the next several months. It’s tough to imagine ESPN won’t make a competitive bid to keep UFC, especially with reliance on the organization to continue driving viewers and subscribers to its streaming service ESPN+.

That being said, ESPN has a lot of irons in the fire right now with a new shared sports streaming service launching later this year — alongside Warner Bros. Discover and FOX — and eventual plans to launch a standalone streaming service. Of course, ESPN is also paying part of that massive $ 70 billion plus package to keep the NBA at a time when the owners at Disney have continuously spoken about controlling costs as the network continues to lose its audience, with more and more viewers cutting the cord.

If the NBA deal closes as expected with three major networks landing the rights, that would leave Warner Bros. Discovery out in the cold after the company maintained a long-running relationship with the basketball league. Assuming Warner Bros. Discovery loses the NBA, that would leave the company with major deals in Major League Baseball, NASCAR (starting in 2025), the NHL, and some college sports.

Does that mean the loss of the NBA could potentially make Warner Bros. Discovery a major suitor for the UFC broadcast rights deal?

“Listen, I think everyone is kicking the tires and is interested in making a bid,” UFC CEO Dana White told the Sports Business Journal when asked about Warner Bros. Discovery potentially snagging the broadcast rights deal.

There is no shortage of potential players who could be vying for UFC’s TV deal.

When prior negotiations were happening for UFC’s broadcast rights, Amazon made a significant bid and nearly landed the entire package. Netflix has also become a player in live sports programming after landing a Christmas day package for NFL games and inking a huge $ 5 billion deal for WWE’s flagship show Monday Night Raw to move there in 2025.

WWE is part of TKO Group Holdings, the same company that owns UFC.

While there will be no shortage of interested parties vying for UFC’s broadcast deal, White said it’s taken a lot of time but he’s actually in a really good place with ESPN right now. That doesn’t necessarily mean ESPN has a leg up on the competition, but White seems happy with his current broadcast partner.

Still, money always talks loudest in these kinds of negotiations.

“Yeah, everyone is kicking the tires,” White said. “And over the however many last years that we’ve been together, I’ve had some headbutting with ESPN, but I feel like we are in a really good place right now and I’m really happy with my relationship with them and the way that this whole thing is running. We’ll see how it plays out.”

ESPN maintains an exclusive negotiating window to try and secure a new deal with UFC starting in January 2025, although it’s unlikely the two sides reach an agreement. UFC won’t know its true value until other potential suitors begin bidding, and that can’t happen until after the exclusive negotiating window closes.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

When it rains, it pours — particularly in the world of Ryan Garcia.

‘King Ryan’ has found himself at the forefront of controversy after controversy over the last several months, all of it his own doing. After getting slapped with a one-year suspension for an anti-doping violation that also overturned the biggest win of his boxing career, Ryan has seemingly slipped back into insanity following a very brief cooldown period.

Taking to social media for another cringey confession, the former interim WBC lightweight titleholder made some rather disgusting remarks about Muslims on his Twitter spaces.

“F*ck you and f*ck Muslims that r**e little kids. Bro, f*ck all you motherf*ckers. You guys are weird as f*ck. F*ck all you Muslim ass weird ass f*ckers.”

When another voice suggests that Ryan will live to regret his comments, the Victorville, Calif native responds with: “Guess what? I will never be touched because I’m a god.”

Garcia’s comments came shortly after Sneako, a popular Rumble streamer, joined the chat. Sneako openly converted to Islam last year and explained his decision to do so while making some disparaging remarks about Catholicism.

It’s not the first time or the last time we’ll hear Ryan garcia’s unhinged commentaries

This is just the latest in a string of self-inflicted wounds for the once-respected and beloved boxer. After wading through all the insanity in the build-up to his clash with Devin Haney, the drama just kept coming. Last month, he was arrested for damaging a room and property in a hallway of the Waldorf Astoria in Beverly Hills.

Reports of the incident revealed that hotel staff had to cut off Garcia from drinking multiple times after he had become increasingly intoxicated and subsequently belligerent.

With Garcia unable to return to the ring until April 2025, expect to see a lot of him in the news and on social media as he continues his downward spiral.

LowKickMMA.com

submitted by /u/ApeFromMars [link] [comments]

MMA: Mixed Martial Arts