It has been a busy few weeks for the UFC – after the initial few months leading up to 249 with cancellations, postponements, and uncertainty around just who might be fighting, three very successful events were held within the space of a week, with 249 being the most bet on event in the history of the company as this list of betting sites suggest – but following that with the retirement of the Triple C himself and another event with a bad showing from former champ Tyron Woodley, there has been a little drama within the sport over the past week.
Jon Jones, Ngannou, and a vacant title
The first comes from the king of drama himself, Jon Bones. He had recently announced that he had a desire to move up to heavyweight and was looking for a catchweight bout to test the waters and of all the monsters that could have accepted, Francis Ngannou had stepped forward saying he would be the one to take the fight – talk about jumping into the deep end. If the event were to take place, it would certainly be a trial by fire for Jones, but in some post fight press conferences, UFC boss Dana White suggested that Jones had been asking for too much money amongst other stipulations, leading Jones to suggest he would vacate the light heavyweight title, as there was ‘nothing really to gain’ from fighting the contenders he had already beat. Now whether or not this is just a ploy to secure more money from the next fight is something only Bones can answer, but it wouldn’t benefit anyone to have one of the best fighters in the organisation vacate and leave.
Struggles for Usman –
The welterweight division did have some excitement for a little while, after Usman had beat Woodley to capture UFC gold many had hoped for a rematch which would never happen, and after Woodley’s most recent defeat, it seems his heart may not be in the game anymore. Colby Covington as always throws in his two cents but it is looking less likely that he may get another shot as he is starting to rub a lot of people the wrong way, this has led to champ Usman stating that he is finding it hard to get a fight, there aren’t many in position to argue for a title shot right now either and with recent complaints of his own, it seems Usman isn’t too happy with the position he’s in either.
The next big event is with UFC 250 which comes this weekend, we’ll see featherweight champ Amanda Nunes defend her belt in what looks like an exciting card to watch. There are some other exciting names on the card too as we see Cody Garbrandt step back into the octagon after a little time away, and others such as Sugar Sean O’Malley who many are hoping will take a step up in competition as his professional record currently stands at 11-0, looking to be one of the more promising up and coming prospects that has a string of exciting fights behind him.
