dumbest shit ever.

Alienate the fighters first, now the fans. Smart move

T.J. Dillashaw failed a drug test in New York (not USADA), and is suspended for 1 year. He has been stripped of the bantamweight championship. He could be suspended longer by USADA depending on exactly what he took.

We now know that ESPN dumped a tremendous amount of money on this, so they will be incentivized to promote the shit out of PPV's for the next 5 years. Numbers are hazy, but apparently its only a bad deal for the UFC if they averaged more than 500k per PPV, which lol is not happening. They paid the UFC a huge premium.

The NCAA tournament is not stopping Bellator and UFC this weekend

Friday

8pm - (Paramount) - Bellator 218, Sanchez vs. Karakhanyan

This is about average for Bellator, but nothing really standing out.

8pm - (Fightpass) - Island Fights 54

For those who may still have fightpass and didn't just simply switch to ESPN+, this is about average for a local promotion.

Saturday

4pm - (ESPN+) - UFC Fight Night, Thompson vs. Pettis

Pettis has decided to step up to welterweight, and his first opponent up there is Wonderboy. This fight is very top-heavy, not much in the prelims. Only the last two fights are compelling, but the main card starts at 7pm

lol, thats the first time I've ever seen someone get knocked out by a jumping superman punch. Pettis KO'd Wonderboy in a fight he was losing.

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**** my espn app ****ed up I missed the last fight

Conor McGregor retires... and now Conor McGregor is under investigation for alleged sexual assault.

Does anyone actually believe he's retired? This is just contract negotiations.

I do like how Dana called his bluff. That was pretty good

Conor does have a right to be pissed off though. The top level UFC guys get PPV points and now UFC is cutting that pay drastically and keeping if for themselves with that ESPN+ deal. UFC is still going to use Conor and everyone else to sell the ESPN+ service but they don't get any of the benefits.

Wouldn't be surprised if this is what drives the fighters to unionize. Top guys have never really had a reason to 0lay ball. Until now.

Top fighters have never had a real reason to leave either.

I would be shocked if they unionized, they've made it pretty clear that they are too scared of the UFC's owners.