Issue 176

March 2019

“The world is watching” was the message that fronted the UFC’s promotion of Conor McGregor vs Khabib Nurmagomedov for UFC 229 and come fight night it didn’t seem far from the truth. Pay-per-view estimates from independent experts claim that a record number of people bought the fight and with the world watching the feud once again got out of hand.

The build-up during fight week saw the temperature rising between the two camps to the point where Nurmagomedov walked out of the pre-fight press conference after the Irishman failed to show up on time.

Some claimed McGregor had gotten into Nurmagomedov’s head as he’d done with so many of his previous opponents, but on the night the champion was calculated, ruthless and ultimately victorious.

Nurmagomedov knocking McGregor down to the mat in the second round was a scenario very few would’ve ever predicted and the Irishman later described it as “the worst round of his life.”

Nurmagomedov submitting McGregor with a neck crank in round four should’ve been the focus of all the post-fight analysis, but it was the ensuing brawl that stole all the attention.

Thankfully, no one was seriously injured in the much-publicized chaos, but both McGregor and Nurmagomedov are awaiting a hearing with the Nevada State Athletic Commission to discover their punishments.

Whilst a UFC lightweight title fight headlined the card, a pivotal clash in the division in the co-main event between Tony Ferguson vs Anthony Pettis lived up to expectations. Both Ferguson

and Pettis gave it their all and left everything they had in Octagon including a copious amount of blood.

After two epic rounds of non-stop action, Pettis was pulled from the fight by his coach Duke Roufus. Normally such an intervention would raise criticism from fans, but not a soul dared question it and both men were awarded Fight of the Night honors.

2018 was a year for buzzer-beating knockouts and Derrick Lewis scored one at UFC 229. “The Black Beast” was on the back foot for the majority of his heavyweight contest with Russian, Alexander Volkov but with 11 seconds remaining he landed a huge overhand right. Lewis double-downed with an even more epic post-fight speech where he dropped the now infamous “Cos my balls was hot” line that went viral. It was an effort that would secure him a UFC title shot just a month later.

Shortly after ONE Championship announced a new $166 million cash injection at the beginning of the month, the Singapore-based promotion secured two huge signings with both Eddie Alvarez and Demetrious Johnson. Alvarez was the first to put pen to paper signing as a free agent, but Johnson was involved in a first-of-its-kind trade deal with Ben Askren moving in the opposite direction.

Following Johnson’s departure, several UFC flyweight fighters announced that they’d been released from the organization and been told that the UFC’s 125-pound division was being dissolved.

However, just a week later, the UFC announced that UFC 233 in January 2019 would play host to a UFC flyweight title fight between the champion Henry Cejudo and the UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw who will be moving down a weight division to compete for a second title.

Bellator also ran back-to-back shows in October with Bellator 207 in Connecticut and Bellator 208 taking place in New York the next evening. The events ended with Ryan Bader and Fedor Emelianenko booking their places in the final of the Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix after Bader defeated Matt Mitrione and Emelianenko saw off Chael Sonnen.

Also this month

• Jon Jones’ return to the UFC Octagon was announced for UFC 232 whilst a champion vs champion title fight was booked for the same event with UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes taking on the UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg.
• Anthony Smith recorded his third win of the year after he defeated Volkan Oezdemir in the main event of UFC Fight Night Moncton. On the same evening, Michael Johnson handed Artem Lobov his third straight loss.