He is a draw who gets a pop every time he enters the arena. There is no way in hell they cut him. Athletic merit only matters for fighters who don't bring in money and ratings. edit: unless they have what the UFC perceives to be absurd contract demands when its time to renegotiate, of course. (eg Henderson, MacDonald)

Happy Cowboy day, y'all

edit: lol, just now checked out the faceoffs from yesterday, and Yancy Medeiros came to the stage with a gift for Cowboy. (skip to 3 minutes)

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wshQ1nz2CKo" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Good to see Cowboy get back on track.

The CSAC hearing for Jon Jones is finished, and California pretty much gave him the max. Jon Jones team was hoping to get the state to give him a lesser penalty than USADA in order to set up some kind of tension or fight between the state and USADA down the road.

Instead, the state revoked Jon Jones license, fined him a ton of money, and then basically said they won't let him reapply for his license at least until USADA signs off, which means the same thing everywhere since all AC's in the USA reciprocate, and they even reserve the right to impose a suspension longer than USADA. (though they kind of suggested they wont go crazy with that unless USADA unexpectedly comes down on him a hell of a lot lighter than expected, then CA might go "oh bullshit, you are sitting out for at least this long")

edit: his tainted supplement defense did not work very well with California because he legally certified to the state in his pre-fight questionnaire that he did not take any other supplements. Saying later that your management handles the paperwork and you don't know what you are signing doesn't get you off later.

Good

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">&quot;Sometimes you look in the mirror, you don&#39;t like what you see &amp; you get a little uncomfortable&quot;<a href="https://twitter.com/MMAFighting?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MMAFighting</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/arielhelwani?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@arielhelwani</a> told <a href="https://twitter.com/davidlagreca1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@davidlagreca1</a> &amp; <a href="https://twitter.com/bullyray5150?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@bullyray5150</a> that those in the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MMA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MMA</a> community who constantly bash pro-wrestling sound a little silly.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WWE?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WWE</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RondaRousey?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RondaRousey</a> <a href="https://t.co/BkGSBMaIpJ">pic.twitter.com/BkGSBMaIpJ</a></p>&mdash; SiriusXM Busted Open (@BustedOpenRadio) <a href="https://twitter.com/BustedOpenRadio/status/969329427682349056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 1, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Last weekend I didn't have any kind of a schedule up because of a very unexpected health issue, but I was still able to watch some awesome UFC on FOX fights in the hospital. I don't need to elaborate more than that and I'm feeling a hell of a lot better now.

This weekend we have a PPV whose only real selling point is "hey come on, we're at least better than UFC 221, right?" Whether or not that means you should actually pay for the card is up to you, but it could be a chance to give your wallet a solid 2-PPV break before 223 drags us back in next month. Anyway...

Friday

8pm - (Paramount) - Bellator 195, Caldwell vs. Higo

This one is hard to judge. If you ignore the names and look at the tapology rankings for the last 4 fights its decent, maybe above average by Bellator standards. Then I look at the names and think "ok, outside of the main event, who the hell are these people?" So, I'll just say its an average Bellator card.

9pm - (Fightpass) - Friday Night Fights, Clay vs. Topic

This is not MMA, it looks like this is Muay Thai, but hey Muay Thai is cool. Its not a bad option if you don't have Paramount.

Saturday

noon - (Fightpass) - Glory 51

Its kickboxing, either you are in or you are not.

3pm - (Fightpass) - Cage Warriors 91

Judging from tapology rankings, this is about average by local promotion standards. Its one of the top European promotions so you might see a couple of these fighters in the UFC someday.

7pm TV - (5:30pm Fightpass/7pm FS1/9pm PPV) - UFC 222, Cyborg vs. Kunitskaya

So, I just outright laughed at UFC 221, did not for even a moment think about buying it, didn't care enough to even find a stream, and then read about what happened later. I don't think I even saw a gif, which is how little I cared.

I won't laugh at this PPV, but I am not happy about it either. I'm thinking about getting it anyway but thats only because I'm a crazy fan who is looking ahead at not much coming in March and that co-main fight looks pretty cool. That is in no way suggesting that paying for this is a good idea, because it probably isn't.

Anyway, enough crapping on it, the free prelims are actually pretty good. You could watch the fights with no intention of paying for the main card, shut off the TV at 9pm, and probably come away having had an entertaining evening. The UFC failed to match the good prelims with a worthy PPV though, everyone knows Cyborg will destroy that Russian chick, who was easily beaten by the last girl Cyborg wrecked, so thats not even going to be fun to watch. Edgar vs. Ortega will be great. The rest of the fights are good if they were on TV, but this is just not a good PPV.

I won't even get into Wandy vs the Russian chick but Ortega is a kid that people have been sleeping on. He's a really solid fighter with excellent ground skills. I really don't see him beating Frankie but it should be a good fight. Having said that, I'm not paying $65 for one good non-title fight.

Looks like Tony vs. Khabib is for the real 155 lbs. title...C
Conor is getting stripped, about time.

One small clarification on the 155 belt. If something happens to the fight (it doesn't happen or someone doesn't make weight and wins) then Conor keeps the belt.

If both fighters make weight, make it to the cage, and a winner is declared for the bout, then they get the belt and Conor is no longer the champion of any division.

lol, so far two winners were carried out on a stretcher while the losers walked out in disbelief.

And the craziest thing is that in both fights it was the right decision.

Wow! Freaking Ortega just shocked the world

Russian chick did better than I expected, she actually went 3 whole minutes. But, after she lost her grip on Cyborg and allowed her to reset for her 2nd gorilla charge, that was it.

Ehh, as long as Cyborg is allowed to pump juice she will keep beating the **** out of everyone.

I'm never gonna forget the moment when the solid (including the only 10-8 rounds) UD score is read out, Herb Dean looked at soukhamthath, kinda shrugged and left without raising a hand, and cut to Joe Rogan kneeling next to o'malley who is still flat on his back.