So..... if you haven't been paying attention to the goings-on in the MMA world this week... well....
Let's just say that this meme summarizes things perfectly:
UFC 223 was supposed to be a good fight card with two belts up for grabs, but nothing out-of-the-ordinary. By the end of fight week, however, things got waaaaaaaay out of the ordinary.
For a thorough timeline of events, please refer to this thread:
https://www.bgol.us/forum/threads/b...-following-rampage-at-barclays-center.996883/
For the TL/DRs, here is a brief summary of the events so far:
And.... Now you're up to date, as of Saturday morning. So this is what we are looking at for tonight:
We went from 12 fights down to 9. Let's hope that we can keep these. I'm fully invested in the outcome of all of this now, given all that has happened.
Also, I'm glad that the Thug Rose fight is still on. I was looking forward to that rematch.
What do y'all think, fellers? Also, please post links if you got 'em.
Let's just say that this meme summarizes things perfectly:
UFC 223 was supposed to be a good fight card with two belts up for grabs, but nothing out-of-the-ordinary. By the end of fight week, however, things got waaaaaaaay out of the ordinary.
For a thorough timeline of events, please refer to this thread:
https://www.bgol.us/forum/threads/b...-following-rampage-at-barclays-center.996883/
For the TL/DRs, here is a brief summary of the events so far:
- Beginning of fight week, Tony Ferguson (interim lightweight champ and 1/2 of the main event) trips over a cable during a press event and tears a ligament completely off the bone. Now, obviously, he's out, and now there's no main event.
- Max Holloway (guy who won McGregor's featherweight belt after McGregor got stripped of it) volunteers to step up and face Khabib Nurmagomedov (the other half of the main event) for the lightweight title. He plans to show up Conor McGregor by taking BOTH belts that got stripped from McGregor (the lightweight belt has not, at this point, been officially stripped from Conor, though)
- Conor McGregor gets officially stripped of his lightweight title
- Max Holloway begins a grueling weight cut to get down to 155 pounds by Friday
- Khabib Nurmagomedov (who has been desperately trying to get a fight with McGregor by any means), along with his team, run into Artem Lobov (Conor McGregor's close friend and training partner), who is all by himself (Conor and most everyone else are in Ireland). Khabib decides to take this opportunity to roll up on Artem and smack him around a bit, trying to intimidate him and bait Conor McGregor.
- Conor McGregor hears about this and IMMEDIATELY summons at least 20 of his goons and they all hop in the private jet and head directly to New York.
- Thursday press conferences go off without a hitch, everyone's getting ready to go home in a rented bus..... Then the hooligans show up:
- Conor McGregor and his goon squad were let in by some of the guys that work for him who had been given press credentials. Once they were in, they tore through Barclays Center looking for Khabib. They found him on the bus about to leave. The hooligans surround the bus and, as the bus tries to exit, Conor grabs a dolly and smashes it through the bus window. Khabib is on the bus, but he never gets off.
- The flying glass from the broken window lodges in the face of two fighters on the bus. They go to the hospital, and BOTH of them are deemed medically unfit to compete on Saturday, so both of those fights get scrapped.
- Artem Lobov, Conor's boy, gets banned from competing on Saturday also, due to his involvement in the bus fiasco.
- If you're counting, that's four fights that have been canceled, with only one of them having a chance to be saved.
- Conor McGregor turns himself in to NYPD after an arrest warrant was issued.
- The NYSAC (New York State Athletic Commission) doctors examine Max Holloway and deem him medically unfit to compete on Saturday. He isn't even allowed to weigh in. The main event is now off the table once again.
- Anthony Pettis, who was already fighting on the card at 155 lbs, is offered the main event. He turns it down because they cannot agree on the money.
- Al Iaquinta, a famously ignored fighter from Long Island, accepts the offer. This guy was not even given a name card during press events (even though he was fighting on Saturday), but now he's in the main event.
- Iaquinta weighed in at 155.2 during the official NYSAC weigh-ins, which was acceptable since, at the time, he was not fighting for a title. UFC asks NYSAC to allow Iaquinta to weigh in again so that he can make 155, which is required in order to compete for that weight class' championship. NYSAC says no, so now only Khabib can win the lightweight title. A Iaquinta win means the title is still up for grabs.
- Conor McGregor gets arraigned and charged with two misdemeanors and one felony count of criminal mischief. He's looking at possibly seven years. Judge allows him to go back to Ireland until June 14th, his court date.
- Dana White says "fuck the commission" and decrees that Al Iaquita WILL earn the lightweight title if he wins, essentially breaking their own protocol.
And.... Now you're up to date, as of Saturday morning. So this is what we are looking at for tonight:
We went from 12 fights down to 9. Let's hope that we can keep these. I'm fully invested in the outcome of all of this now, given all that has happened.
Also, I'm glad that the Thug Rose fight is still on. I was looking forward to that rematch.
What do y'all think, fellers? Also, please post links if you got 'em.
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