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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

UFC 303 looks a lot different than it did less than a week ago, as shown by the new poster released for the event.

UFC CEO Dana White revealed on Thursday night that the original main event between the returning Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler is no longer happening on the June 29 pay-per-view event, and that a rematch between Alex Pereira and Jiri Prochazka is the new headliner for the light heavyweight championship.

Check out the updated poster featuring Pereira and Prochazka below.

Pereira and Prochazka first met in the main event of UFC 295 this past November at Madison Square Garden in New York for the vacant 205-pound title. The former middleweight champion captured his second divisional belt when he knocked out Prochazka in the first round.

Both men returned to action at April’s UFC 300 event. Prochazka stopped Aleksandar Rakic in the second round during the preliminary card, while Pereira knocked out Jamahal Hill in the first round of the main event to retain his championship.

In the new co-main event of UFC 303, one-time title challenger Brian Ortega faces surging featherweight contender Diego Lopes.

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Conor McGregor drove a dagger through the heart of fans after he was forced out of the UFC 303 main event. Days after the unfortunate announcement, Dana White has broken his silence on the situation.

The Irishman has spent several years building hype for his eventual return to the cage, but fans will have to wait even longer to see him in action. It has been almost three years since ‘The Notorious’ suffered the injury that threatened to end his career.

Conor McGregor was originally scheduled to compete at UFC 303, but an injury got in the way of his comeback. Surprisingly, this wasn’t the only high profile fight that fell through this week.

For the first time since the news broke, Dana White has discussed the recent bad luck surrounding UFC events.

“It’s been interesting because we had to switch the Saudi main event, which is next weekend,” White said during an interview with the Sports Business Journal. “You know what I mean? It’s f***ing days away.”

“So for us to put in this guy who is 15-1, he’s Muslim and his only loss is to Khamzat Chimaev, and everyone in the division said no to fighting him except Robert Whittaker.”

Moving on from the Saudi Arabia card, Dana White then gave his thoughts on Conor McGregor being forced out of UFC 303.

Related: Conor McGregor releases first statement since UFC 303 withdrawal

“It’s the business, man. This is the way it goes. And from here on I’m not going to talk about it until when he’s healed and he’s right. Then we’ll look at the landscape and see what we can figure out.”

The rematch between Alex Pereira and Jiri Prochazka will now take center stage as the new main event of UFC 303. While it’s not a Conor McGregor fight, the light heavyweight title matchup has been well received by fans.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Alex Pereira and Jiri Prochazka are helping the UFC ensure the show goes on.

A trailer for the revised UFC 303 pay-per-view event on June 29 has been released, featuring a rematch between light heavyweight champion Pereira and rival Prochazka. The two are stepping in on short notice to give the International Fight Week capper a new main event, following Conor McGregor’s injury withdrawal from his fight with Michael Chandler.

Watch the new promo below.

Pereira defeated Prochazka in their first meeting, which took place at UFC 295 this past November. With the win, Pereira captured a vacant light heavyweight title and joined the list of fighters to earn UFC belts in two divisions. He won the middleweight title at UFC 281 with a fifth-round TKO of Israel Adesanya.

A new co-main event has also been booked after an injury forced Jamahal Hill out of a key light heavyweight bout against the surging Carlos Ulberg. Featherweight contenders Brian Ortega and Diego Lopes now co-headline, with Ulberg bumped down one spot on the card into a matchup with veteran Anthony Smith.

See the UFC 303 lineup below.

Main Card (ESPN+ PPV, 10 p.m. ET)

Alex Pereira vs. Jiri Prochazka

Brian Ortega vs. Diego Lopes

Anthony Smith vs. Carlos Ulberg

Mayra Bueno Silva vs. Macy Chiasson

Ian Machado Garry vs. Michael Page

Preliminary Card (ESPN, ESPN+, 8 p.m. ET)

Joe Pyfer vs. Marc-Andre Barriault

Charles Jourdain vs. Jean Silva

Cub Swanson vs. Andre Fili

Payton Talbott vs. Yanis Ghemmouri

Early Preliminaries (ESPN+, 6 p.m. ET)

Michelle Waterson-Gomez vs. Gillian Robertson

Andrei Arlovski vs. Martin Buday

Rei Tsuruya vs. Carlos Hernandez

Ricky Simon vs. Vinicius Oliveira

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Improvement
| BJPenn.com

UFC

The full video of the infamous ‘Tank’ vs. Haney doghouse spar is out, leading to talk of a proper fight.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. is once again getting into his former protégé Gervonta “Tank” Davis’ business.

Floyd helped build “Tank” up into a star, pushing the young fighter hard on Mayweather Production cards. But as time went on, the relationship between the two soured, and eventually Davis left Mayweather as a promoter.

Since then they’ve been taking regular potshots at each other. For example, leading into Saturday’s Gervonta Davis vs Frank Martin fight, Mayweather sent out a social media post claiming the fight was off. Davis replied to that by writing “Floyd is a bitter b—.”

“If you sign with this fraud he will f— up ya career,” Davis added in an Instagram post. “He’s not a good businessman at all.”

Following Davis’ impressive KO win over Martin, Mayweather released a six-year-old sparring video between “Tank” and Devin Haney through FightHype. The infamous ‘doghouse rules’ session has only ever been seen in snippets, but now the full 20 minute fight is online for all to see.

The video shows a 16 year old Haney hanging with “Tank” across six rounds, initially getting punched up early but turning the tide later on as Davis gets tired. Doghouse rules means someone has to quit for there to be a winner. Neither man quit.

If Mayweather is hoping this footage makes Gervonta look bad, we don’t know what to say. The whole sparring match is chaotic and “Tank” seems distracted and disinterested in the proceedings. He still gives young amateur Haney the business when he dials in.

We last saw Devin Haney fight in April when he lost for the first time ever to Ryan Garcia. That loss may not remain on his record for long after Garcia failed a drug test for ostarine. Could we see Haney vs. Davis sometime soon? This full sparring video just whets our appetite for a proper fight.

How would a grown up Haney do against a focused “Tank” in an official fight? Let us know what you think of the match-up in the comments, Maniacs!

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts