Issue 143

July 2016

Things we hear, things we see, things we know.

Prodigy Pico has KO power

The word from American Kickboxing Academy is that Josh Thomson was forced to pull out of his Bellator 154 fight with Michael Chandler because he was knocked out by teenage prodigy Aaron Pico in sparring. The 19-year-old Rio Olympics wrestling alternate is likely to make his Bellator debut later this year.

‘I told you so...’

Listen closely to the audio from Jon Jones’ corner at UFC 197 and you’ll hear some criticisms of the 205lb interim champ. Greg Jackson tells the rest of his team that ‘Bones’s powerlifting regimen was “a problem” and caused him to get tired. He added that he wanted to do “an I-told-you-so dance”.

Frye not a Cormier fan

Safe to say MMA pioneer Don Frye is backing Jon Jones to beat Daniel Cormier again. He says: “Cormier is the most overrated, under-performing, worthless trash talker I’ve ever heard. He’s acting like a badass, like he earned that belt... As far as I’m concerned that belt still belongs to Jon Jones.”

‘Notorious’ record breaker?

Conor McGregor claims UFC 196 broke the organization’s pay-per-view record. Though UFC president Dana White said the event attracted 1.5 million buys, ‘The Notorious’ tweeted it did 400,000 more buys than UFC 100, which was purchased 1.6 million times. Whoever you believe, the Irishman’s absence from UFC 200 will hurt its chances of making history.