Category: News

If you’ve followed MMA closely over the years, you may well have noticed that the sport has an almost bizarre number of connections to the poker world. Terrence Chan may be the first person who comes to mind when you think of this connection, because he essentially emerged on the pro poker and MMA scenes around the same time. But he is by no means the only connection.

About a decade ago, two pro poker players known as “RasZi” (LexVelduis) and “ElkY” (Bertrand Grospellier) put on an MMA exhibition as a sort of extravagant bet. It was a one-off event in which RasZi dropped ElkY in a matter of minutes, but it helped to build an early bridge between poker and MMA. And in the time since, several prominent figures have crossed the lines more regularly.

In 2019, a trio of MMA figures (commentator Bruce Buffer, Johnny Walker, and Daniel Cormier) became brand ambassadors for the PokerStars network – more or less forming an official bond between PokerStars and UFC. And in the meantime, MMA overlord Dana White has reportedly had so much success at the card tables that he’s been banned from Las Vegas casinos for winning too much. Granted, White’s winnings supposedly come mostly from blackjack, but it’s a safe bet a guy winning that much knows his way around a poker table also.

So what exactly is behind the consistent connection between these and other MMA figures and the world of poker? It may well be coincidence, for the most part. But there are also some particular explanations that make sense.

Vegas Culture

It might be as simple as Las Vegas being a sort of home base for UFC. Fighters and others connected to the sport are constantly in close proximity to the Las Vegas poker rooms, which — it goes without saying — are among the best in the world. Even if most actual MMA fights in town take place at UFC apex, venues like the Aria, Bellagio, Wynn, and more are never too far away. Indeed it’s a good bet that fighters and their teams stay at these resorts, directly above legendary gaming floors and poker rooms, quite frequently. Poker is simply part of the culture in the de facto hometown of MMA.

Competitive Release

Part of the draw of poker to MMA figures (and vice versa) may also be the simple fact that the game provides a competitive release. The kinds of people who get involved in something like mixed martial arts are not merely competitive in the octagon, but rather are competitive by nature. As is the case with athletes in many other sports, they often seek out additional ways of releasing that competitive energy when they aren’t fighting. It’s why we see so many athletes take up golf in their spare time, and may well have something to do with why plenty play poker as well.

Similar Skillsets

Poker may feed the competitive energy of a pro fighter, but it also requires some similar skills. Again, this likely explains why a lot of athletes in general turn to things like poker and golf. People in sports have to learn to focus on a task at hand, operate strategically, read opponents, and develop short memories for good and bad outcomes. The best poker players, meanwhile, thrive on the same skills. In this sense the game is often just a natural fit for an athlete, whether from MMA or elsewhere.

A Celebrity Thing

Finally, it may also just be a celebrity thing! MMA fighters have developed more and more of a presence in mainstream celebrity culture over the years — and will likely trend even further in that direction given the emergence of influencer personalities like Jake Paul in fighting circles. It’s a vague point, but celebrities simply seem to enjoy showing up at poker tables now and then. Or perhaps it’s just that we tend to notice when they do. Whatever the case, it’s not out of the question that the more recognizable MMA fighters become, the more we’ll see them playing poker.

Again, there’s undoubtedly some coincidence at hand also. But given all of the above, it’s not so surprising that we have seen and will continue to see plenty of crossover between MMA and poker.

The world has been speculating about the future of the trilogy fights that involve Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier. Some said that it has been off because of the charity donation dispute.

Back then, Poirier tweeted in his official social media account claiming that McGregor didn’t follow through with his pledge to donate half a million dollars earned from the fight to the charity.

Initially, the fight is going to happen in July.

Poirier won over McGregor at UFC 257 in January. The officials were willing to set them up again for the third time on July 10. Both fighters claimed that they had signed the contract for the particular fight.

But we have been in the dark about the official fight that would take place. McGregor said that he would find another opponent if the fight is off.

And yesterday, McGregor tweeted that he was going to fight someone else on the 10^th.  

The rumors were there but the news quoted that it was because of the failure of deliverance in donating the money to The Good Fight Foundation.

Poirier accused McGregor that the respective fighter failed to deliver the promise to donate the aforementioned fund. Apparently, the Twitter messages traded between the two sides.

Back in January, Conor McGregor was losing to Poirier. That triggered the other side to seek revenge. In the first encounter, the “Notorious” won the match.

McGregor promised that he would donate $500k to The Good Fight Foundation bank account. However, Poirier stated that McGregor failed to deliver his promise.

For those who haven’t known about it, The Good Fight Foundation is the charity set up by Poirier to help communities who are in need in the area of Louisiana.

Poirier tweeted on Sunday suggesting that McGregor didn’t keep his promise.

Conor McGregor’s reactions looked furious about it.

McGregor insisted that the trilogy fight against Dustin Poirier was off after the revelation of the donation issue.

McGregor told Poirier that he would pay with Poirier’s brain for the attempt of smearing his name. He stated the statement with anger in the later announcement.

The Irishman confirmed that he was going to fight another fighter in the upcoming fight that will take place on July 10.  

McGregor also didn’t plan to pay 500k or anything. The fight is officially off. And he is going to fight someone else on the 10^th.

Audie Attar, McGregor manager also nodded that Poirier has such a bad move. The Poirier remarks have drawn fits of anger on McGregor’s side for sensible reasons. Back then, the Notorious Steam assisted Poirier to get the better deal from the UFC.

Also read this – Joe Rogan Podcast Content is No Longer Available?

The former Bellator and ONE Champion Ben Askren has confirmed to the mass media that he would be 100% ready to take on Jake Paul on April 17^th.

Ben Askren stated it at the latest press conference he attended for promoting the upcoming PPV boxing match against Jake Paul.

It is not a new thing that the MMA Fighters cross over to boxing to meet other opponents from other disciplines. But there were also some fighters who lost in the debut such as Anderson Silva, Israel Adesanya, and Mike Perry. And then, McGregor lost to Floyd Mayweather back then.

But it is going to be different because the respective fighter’s opponent is coming from a different domain. The fighters are looking to grab the memorable win.

For Ben Askren, it will be a meaningful victory no matter who is the opponent. Askren also added that boxing training is the easiest sport he’s ever done in his life. Of course, it is much easier for him to train in boxing than MMA. For the respective fighter, boxing is literally easier than anything else. Jiu-jitsu, kickboxing, muay Thai, and other disciplines have more learning curves and stressors.

Askren also liked the training since he discovered a lot of new things. And he has been well with it. Boxing is so much easier than MMA, at least it is what Askren has been thinking.

In MMA, one would need to think about the takedown, clinching the opponent, kneeing, kicking, punching, elbowing, and so on. MMA is where a good amount of information revolves around in just a split second.

The chances might be more challenging for both fighters because they are still amateur boxers. Askren has been training for around three months. Logically speaking, it is a short time preparation for welcoming something big happening in the future of his career.

But we’ll come to get the moment of truth. It is something that most Askren’s fans will rarely see because we can’t expect this to be a long-term show.

In the official press conference, Askren also stated that he was not going to be a full-time boxer. Since he got an interesting opportunity to try new stuff while earning some experiences, why not? He is going to take the advantage of it.

It is also a great opportunity for Askren fans to see the rare gems on the boxing ring beside the octagon itself.

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• Jake Paul vs Askren live stream
• The Champion of UFC Bantamweight Aljamain Sterling will Undergo Neck Surgery

The streaming providers have deleted Joe Rogan’s podcast content without a huge announcement. There are some reasons of deletion.

Spotify has been removing the series of “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcasts from the official platform.

Besides, there are also 42 interviews that are no longer available. These interviews consist of sessions with controversial characters.

We can see this as a “quiet” action because there is no huge announcement or whatsoever to indicate the decisions to strip off the content from the huge platform.

In regard to this, Spotify hasn’t made any official statement yet about their decision. However, the mass medium has noticed that some episodes are not available any more on the platform. While some of them are deleted, some are censored.

This removal happens less than a year after the announcement of an exclusive deal between Spotify and “The Joe Rogan Experience ”.

Back then Rogan’s content was only available on YouTube. The streaming service Spotify has sourced Rogan content after the deal.

The partnership was happening last year.

Rogan stated that there were some episodes that were not suitable to get on the platform. And Rogan was okay with it and he didn’t care.  The 11-year-deal with Spotify guaranteed the worth of $100 million.

Some popular content was no longer available on the respective platform. For instance, people know about “Bulletproof Coffee founder Dave Asprey”. The Father of biohacking has the unorthodox way to propose a diet regimen for many people.

The doctors and other health experts have been criticizing his high-fat diet regimen which comes out without any serious research.

Other content that we no longer see is the episodes that feature Alex Jones, a renowned conspiracy theorist.

It is not actually a new thing that happened to Alex Jones. There are also several episodes of “Infowars” that were stripped off from the platform. For some people, Spotify’s reasoning is sensible because the kinds of topics can make the platform unneutral or procure the form of hate speech and one-sided opinions.

Spotify chief legal officer Horacio Gutierrez also claimed that they were not going to prevent someone from being a guest on another show. They can ban the content, but not the individuals. In total, Spotify has deleted 42 Joe Rogan episodes, including Chris D’Elia and Milo Yannopoulos.

also read this – UFC Vegas 23 Late Prelims Preview

Aljamain Sterling, the renowned UFC Bantamweight, will undergo serious surgery to fix his neck issue. Apparently, he has been dealing with this matter for nearly a decade.

As recorded by the mass medium, he would take this to return to the action before the end of this year.

Another good fact is that he became the first fighter in the UFC to attain the champion crown via disqualification.

Back then, he grabbed it from Petr Yan because of the illegal knee movement which automatically disqualified the former champion.

Yan downed sterling in the fourth round by illegal kneeing. Sterling wasn’t able to proceed with the fight. But then, the officials decided to disqualify Yan, resulting in transferring the title to Sterling.

There have been a lot of speculations after the fight, procuring the possibility of the rematch. According to the news catchers, the UFC is cool with the rematch that involves Yan and Sterling.

Of course, it will likely happen after Sterling recovers from his neck surgery.

Sterling stated that he would need around three months to fully heal his neck. And he could start doing cardio to get himself ready to get back to the Octagon.

The physicians wouldn’t allow Sterling to take the particular fight until his neck is fully healed. Although five months is the ideal time, three months can be safe enough to start his cardio again.

The faster he heals up, the faster he will get back to the Octagon. If you are a fan of the fighter, you surely want to see him in action again faster. Guess we’ll find out in the next three months. If he can recover fast, there’s a possibility that he will be participating in the next UFC fight card.

Besides the neck injuries, he had also been suffering from a shoulder injury, a herniated disc injury, and torn left bicep. However, the only injury that needs surgery is his neck.

If the thing goes well, he just needs to sit back and relax until October. We need to wait a little longer before the rematch happens between Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan.

The officials expected to book the rematch of the fight. No matter how we look at it, both fighters’ fans deserve a good ending of the fight: the fight which is fair. Stay tuned in the respective social media to get updated with the status of the fight.

Read this too – Holly Holm Withdraws from Bout Against Julianna Pena

The fight, entitled Holly Holm vs Julianna Pena, will no longer be available in the UFC schedule. It is because Holly Holm has withdrawn from the fight card of the UFC Fight Night clash that will take place on May 8.

The public has actually known the information first from Pena via her tweets on her official Twitter account. Back then, there have been speculations about the reasons why Holly Holm pulled off from the fight card because there was no official statement released by the respective fighter yet.

Julianna Pena stated that she had just been informed that Holly Holm was injured and had pulled from the scheduled bout. She also wished for Holm’s full recovery.

There is no confirmation whether Pena will remain on the fight card or not. Instead, Pena wouldn’t back off to respond to the bout against two-division champ Amanda Nunes. However, Nunes didn’t respond to the callout.

Nunes also said in the press conference that Pena could fight Germaine. Nunes hasher good reason. She had to get in the mix when it comes to weight. She claimed that she was pretty heavy so that she would take into consideration her diet. Nunes also added that she was going to fight whoever Dana White assign for her opponent.

So, how’s the fight going to be? The UFC Fight Night has not yet made an official headliner or location.

So, let’s get back to Holly Holm’s injury. According to a trustworthy source, Holm revealed that she has a kidney issue which forced her to pull off the upcoming fight card.

She hoped to rebook the flight with Julianna Pena. The ex-champion of bantamweight is hoping that she can put her name again on the fight card against Julianna Pena when she already recovers from her injury.

On Tuesday, Holm released an official video to explain her condition and the latest situation, as well as the possible future of the bout. She was also hoping to return sooner than later. When it comes to her comeback, she emphasized that it shouldn’t be too long to wait for her to get back to the competition.

She had super abdominal pains which needed to take care of. She explained it as a recurring situation. Her condition name is hydronephrosis. It is the condition where the kidney does not drain the bladder correctly. It happens because of the build-up of urine in her kidney.

Let’s hope for a quick full recovery for the fighter so that we can welcome her again in the Octagon.

Read this too – UFC 262: Extended Showdown or Another Beatdown?

At most recent times, the UFC and Dana White have decided to bring more Prelims fights to the channel. Therefore, those who have subscribed to ESPN and ESPN+ can really use their valuable time to watch the good prelims fights right at home or else.

The UFC Vegas 23 will take place on Saturday, April 10, 2021. The headliner of the event will be Vettori vs Holland. This fight also marked the UFC’s return to UFC APEX in Las Vegas.

Kevin Hollands confirmed the upcoming fight against Marvin Vettori just around three weeks after losing to Derek Brunson.

The UFC Vegas 23 Prelims undercard bouts are also the things that you don’t want to miss when expecting the moment of truth.

Jim Miller vs. Joe Solecki

Jim Miller started the bout with an appetizing record since he lost five of his previous six fights.  But he still had the chance to turn the table when fighting Joe Solecki later on the UFC Vegas 23. He is one inch shorter than his opponent. However, he has such an advantage in reaching his opponent.

Solecki also reserved the UFC spot after winning over Matt Wiman. The debut was a one-sided situation. In this case, Miller needs to pace up his movement so that he can finish the bout earlier.

Scott Holtzman vs. Mateusz Gamrot

Scott Holtzman has been around to make the way to the Lightweight achievement. The record of 14-4 is great enough to make him my favorite. Beneil Dariush knocked him out in the latest fight. The upcoming fight against Gamrot will be the chance to reclaim his image again. Mateusz Gamrot has remarked himself as one of the European renowned fighters in the KSW. Gamrot is not going to be an easy opponent to beat down. The prediction is Gamrot comes out as a winner via unanimous decision.

Norma Dumont vs. Erin Blanchfield

Norma Dumont has a 5-1 record in her UFC career. Her debut was losing to Megan Anderson. The upcoming fight is against Erin Blanchfield. In this case, Norma Dumont has a three-inch height advantage. Meanwhile, Erin Blanchfield comes in with a 6-1 record. She won three straight since her debut before losing one time. But then she bounced back with a three-win streak. It’s a great start for her. In this case, experts predicted that Blanchfield is going to take the victory through a unanimous decision.

John Makdessi vs. Ignacio Bahamondes

John Makdessi has rebounded with three consecutive victories. Meanwhile, Bahamondes had marked his eight by KO. Experts predicted that Bahamondes would win through a unanimous decision.

Read this too – UFC 261: The Return of Tristan Conelly

It’s been a while since the last time we saw Tristan Connelly fight on the UFC Ring. Plus the global pandemic which forces every industry to hold their activities for quite a long time. Also unfortunate For Connelly he had to undergo neck surgery which required him to take a break for months. Now for the first time after his recovery, a fight has been booked for Connelly. After MMA, this is his second fight in the UFC ring after his debut back then in 2019. This time Connelly will fight against Pat Sabatini on April 24 at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville. 

His first UFC debut was a sensational match. Connelly who had just entered UFC had to fight the famous Michael Perreira. As a name which was unknown in the UFC ring, of course he had to be the underdog at that moment. However, he fought against the odds and gave Perreira his going-to-be unforgettable UFC Loss. Connelly showed a good fight with solid fundamentals which results in his win against an unfavorable situation. Of course since his excellent fight against Perreira, people would want to see Connelly showing another spectacular performance in the UFC arena.

As for Sabatini, he is a fighter with a quite formidable MMA record at 13wins and 3 losses. His fight against Connelly came as a short notice after the scheduled fight was cancelled. Originally, Sabatini was scheduled to fight Rafael Alves at UFC Fight Night 185. It was going nicely until Alves didn’t meet the weight limit by 11,5 pounds. Sabatini himself was a CFFC champion which starts his UFC debut on a winning streak of 2 fights. In February 2020 he sustained an arm injury which caused him to lose his fight in the last six matchups. In this UFC 261, once again we will see the fight between a former champion and a sensational fighter. We hope you are ready to witness the spectacular fight.

Besides the fight between the two, UFC 261 has an intriguing lineup which consists of 3 title matches. First, Masvidal vs Usman the current champion who will fight for the welterweight title. As for women flyweight, Jessica Andrande will fight against the current Champ Valentina Shevchenko. And the third title fight will be for the strawweight class between the current champ Zhang Weili vs Rose Namajunas. The fight between Tristan Connelly vs Pat Sabatini will be the last card of the matchups.

Also read this – Marvin Vettori vs Kevin Holland as the Headliner

It was truly a bloody sight in UFC 244 back in 2019 November, Nate Diaz’s face was torn because of the hits he took. He had to lose his BMF belt because of the technical knockout loss. However, the Stockton slapper’s charm didn’t fade a bit from his fans. The fans keep insisting that if only Diaz could drag the fight longer, he would come out as the winner.

They said that Diaz’s “engine” just started to warm up before the fight was stopped due to his injuries. Because of the extent of the injuries around his right eye, the referee called for TKO on Diaz. Aside from Diaz’s fans, people should be able to predict what kind of ending would happen if the fight went on. 

And now Diaz got another chance to prove hir 5-round magic in UFC 262. The schedule is for him to fight Leon Edwards, the current top rank of welterweight. They are scheduled to fight on 15th May in Texas.

However, there are quite a number of opinions stating that this 25 minutes of fighting against “Rocky” could be worse than back in UFC 244.

The event will be on live broadcast PPV. This upcoming fight couldn’t be any easier than his fight with Masdival then. But there have always been surprises during the fight.

On the other side, his opponent for UFC 262, Leon Edwards said that he might have known Diaz’s strategy for him. Since in Nate Diaz’s previous fight against Masvidal it is clear that he started to move better during the fourth and fifth round.

Then if that is what Diaz wants to do while fighting against him, then Edwards said that he would also be going for long ones. Despite his 36 years old body and lack of matches, Diaz still has remarkable cardio. While Edwards is still at his prime 29 and energetic just like the other youngsters. 

Edwards has pretty high confidence in his upcoming fight against Nate Diaz. It is no other because of his better physique and excellent record during his career in UFC. Edwards stated that he had never been defeated in his fights and he won’t see it happens in this upcoming event. He also said that he is going to make a full use of the long rounds and make sure that everyone will see his superior fighting skills in all areas.

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