Conor McGregor is beefing with USADA
Conor McGregor made a surprise appearance on a primetime version of “The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani” on Wednesday and confirmed that he’s still not in the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency testing pool. McGregor dismissed the idea of needing to be in the testing pool for six months before returning to action.
He told Helwani that he has a meeting scheduled with USADA and he needed just two clean tests to return to action. McGregor exited the USADA testing pool to treat the leg break injury he suffered against Dustin Poirier in July of 2021. Though he dismissed having to partake in a six-month testing period, USADA disagrees.
USADA confirmed to TSN Sports that they want McGregor in the testing pool for the full six-month period before he can return to action against Michael Chandler. McGregor can only bypass this rule if the UFC exercises its right to make an exception. Brock Lesnar was previously granted an exception to this rule before he returned to action against Mark Hunt at UFC 200 in 2016. It’s a decision that will likely come down to the discretion of the UFC brass.
https://twitter.com/aaronbronsteter/status/1636387322488066049
Merab Dvalishvili breaks a Cain Velasquez record
Merab Dvalishvili put on the best performance of his career last weekend when he drowned Petr Yan in a five-round unanimous decision win. He smashed the all-time record for the most takedown attempts in a UFC fight, going 11 of 49. This broke Cain Velasquez‘s previous record of 33 takedown attempts against Junior Dos Santos at UFC 155. That’s a 48 percent increase by Dvalishvili and an average of almost 10 takedown attempts per round.
With a decisive win against Yan, Dvalishvili proved he might just be the best bantamweight fighter in the world. The question now becomes, what’s next? He’s the No. 1-ranked bantamweight and has no plans of challenging for the title anytime soon as his friend and training partner Aljamain Sterling holds the title. The only feasible option is to fight the winner of Marlon Vera vs. Cory Sandhagen, as the UFC wants Sean O’Malley to challenge for the title after Henry Cejudo. The problem with that is, if Vera wins, how can you give O’Malley a title shot over Vera, considering Vera finished him by first-round TKO? It’s interesting times in the most stacked division in the sport.
Quick Hits
- Alex Pereira warns Drake not to bet against him again.
- Glover Teixeira is open to box against someone his age.
- Cejudo believes a fight against Dvalishvili would be easy money.
- Dana White believes Jon Jones would have finished Francis Ngannou.
- UFC 294 will take place in Abu Dhabi in October.
- Ngannou says Deontay Wilder is the frontrunner for his boxing debut.
- Demian Maia practiced commentary on 1,000 fights to prepare for his official commentary debut.
- Alistair Overeem is suspended for one year by GLORY Kickboxing for PED’s.
- Justin Gaethje believes he’s the most exciting fighter in MMA history.
- Saul “Canelo” Alvarez will compete in Mexico for the first time in 12 years this May.
Verdict is the mixed martial arts platform for fan engagement. Available on iOS and Android. Verdict’s mission is to increase engagement of the MMA viewing experience. Primarily, using innovative data collection methods that are shared with the community. We’re increasing transparency within the MMA community and its thoughts by aggregating crowd-sourced data and sharing it back. By leveraging a user focused design, we’re bringing fight data to the community’s finger tips.
