UFC State of the union

Joey La Cava & Nick D'arcy

Ready to Roll !!!!!!!!

Message from Fundie:

Yeeeeeeooo! D'arcy is gonna learn ya'll some knowledge with this article, this is the first ever Fundie Spotlight. I',m spot lighting my buddy Nick's love for the UFC, and he gives you guys his UFC "State of the Union."

     There is no secret that life as a sports fan in 2020 has been tough; traditional sports (baseball, basketball, hockey, and football) have been gone since March 12th. There is one organization that has powered through in these tough times and that is the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). The UFC has been back for a little over a month, producing events every single weekend and they’ve only had one hiccup with COVID-19. They have laid out the blueprint on how all sports can eventually come back in 2020. The fighters, coaches and commenters get tested twice throughout fight week, once when they arrive and again after the weigh in on Friday. Is it a ton of protocol and annoying to everyone involved? I’m sure it is, but five events with only one single flair up sounds like everyone involved is safe and they have a system that works.

     No other sport quite gives you the highs and lows that Mixed Martial Arts does. A big pay-per-view fight night or your favorite fighter fighting has just a different feel to it. You have so much invested in this individual from emotions, pride, or even gambling money. He or she is about to put their life on the line against another trained killer in a cage in front of millions of people.  Any other team in sports could not match the combination of nerves and excitement felt. Even if you’re a “just bleed” type of guy who loves violence and enjoy two guys or girls trying to rip each other’s heads off for 15-25 minutes that is a great reason too! If none of that convinces you just check out this video; this guarantees to get your juicing flowing a little bit. It is a perfect time to give it a try. What else you going to watch right now anyway? Korean Baseball? Bundesliga? I think not. Jump on the bandwagon, always room for more fight fans!

     If those two paragraphs could not convince you enough to give UFC a chance what if I told you the president of the UFC Dana White rented an entire island to hold fights on. Many probably question, what’s the need for the island if there already holding events at the UFC APEX in Las Vegas? The UFC wanted to secure a place where international fighters could reach without complication due to the restrictions from coronavirus. Now there will be no issues booking international champions to defend their title such as Israel Adesanya, Khabib Nurmagomedov etc.

​     After months and months of not disclosing its actual location, Dana White finally announced Fight Island or UFSEA (this makes it sound like a government agency) is located on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. Oil money is a different type of money because this place is legit one big amusement park. When I first though of Fight Island I though of a little tropical island probably in the Bahamas with a bunch of palm trees and maybe a few buildings, not a whole ass tourist attraction. This island has a massive water park, Warner Brother amusement park, golf courses and resort hotels. Now Dana White gets to stay there for the whole month of July catch some rays with that tomato ass head, golf and watch some fights? Rich just keep getting richer.   

     The UFC is starting off Fight Island with a Mike Breen sized bang. Three title fights on one card? You kidding me? The UFC has existed since 1993 and this is only the FOURTH TIME, they have had three title fights on one card. It is rare that all five fights on the main card are cannot miss but this is one of those rare exceptions.

      The main card gets kicked off with women flyweight (125lbs) contender Amanda Ribas vs Paige VanZant. (If you do not know who Paige VanZant is, I linked her Instagram view at your own risk, I’m sure you’ll be following very quickly.)
The next fight is a rematch between two former Women’s Strawweight Champions (115lbs) in Rose Namajunas vs. Jessica Andrade. Their last fight was for the Strawweight Title, which resulted in a slam, KO win for Andrade after Rose dominated the first round.

     The first of the three title fights kicks off for the vacant Bantamweight title (135lbs) pitting Russian assassin Petr Yan vs. one of the all time greats in Jose Aldo. Former champ Henry Cejudo just recently vacated the Bantamweight title after he abruptly retired after his win over Dominick Cruz at UFC 249.

     A rematch for the Featherweight Championship (145lbs) is the Co-main event slot where Alex Volkanovski battles Max Holloway. The two first squared off originally in December at UFC 245 where Volkanovski wrestled the title away from Holloway in a very close fight. I expect the rematch to be even closer between two high-class 145ers.

     The maiiiiiiin event of the evening is for the Welterweight Championship (170lbs) of the world (Bruce Buffer voice) Kamaru Usman takes on his former teammate in Gilbert Burns. If Burns defeats Usman, he will complete maybe the greatest championship run in history of the UFC. Going from generally unknown to champion in less than four months.

     I will be writing a more in-depth blog about each main card fight as UFC 251 gets closer it will include gambling lines, backstory on each fighter, preview, and predictions. So, make sure to look out for that!    

     I wanna end this Fundie Spotlight with a Conor McGregor retirement yet again. If you somehow didn’t hear, after UFC 250 Conor went on twitter to announce that yet again he is retiring from fighting. This is the third time Conor has done this in his career. The First time was in 2016 when he did not want to do all the promotion for his rematch against Nate Diaz. What eventually happened? The UFC gave in by letting him do less promotion and he fought again in August of 2016. The second time was in 2019 when he used it as a bargaining tool to try to get equity in the UFC. He did not end up receiving equity, but he did get his whisky brand “Proper 12” as a main advertiser with the UFC. Now for the third time on Sunday, he was yet again retired. The reason this time is that he wants to remain active after his win vs. Donald Cerrone at UFC 246 in January. Conor referred to 2020 as his “season” stating he wanted to fight three times this calendar year. Once in January, July and November or December. The issue is that the UFC wants him to wait and fight the winner of the Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Justin Gaethje that is going to take place in September. This means that Conor’s next fight wont be until roughly December which does not fit his personal timeline.

     Conor spoke with UFC insider, Ariel Helwani of ESPN stating, “The game just does not excite me, and that's that, all this waiting around. There is nothing happening. I'm going through opponent options, and there's nothing really there at the minute. There's nothing that's exciting me.”

     As one of if not the biggest Conor McGregor fan boys known to man, even I got a little annoyed with the whole “retirement” tweet again. By now everyone knows this is a just a bargaining tool, there is no way he retires. If Conor wants to fight, book him a fight it’s as simple as that. I understand Dana and the UFC are afraid of ruining the big pay day that a second Khabib vs. Conor fight will bring but you must keep the biggest star in the whole sport happy.

     Book the trilogy between Conor and Nate they both want it. I would even be happy with a Conor vs Jorge Masvidal fight. An active Conor McGregor is a scary thing, just look at 2016. The second Nate Diaz fight and the Lightweight Title (155lbs) fight against Eddie Alvarez are his two best performances in the octagon. His best chance to beat Khabib or Gaethje is for him to stay fresh and focused. Plus, McGregor fights are like nothing else, and they are truly spectacles. Who would not enjoy a bunch of them in your life? Get him a fight ASAP Dana. 

I hope you guys enjoyed this post by Nick. Amazing insight on the current events of the UFC. 

As always, Stay Frosty and enjoy your #FundieFriday !