Jake Paul is persistent. You have to give him that at the very least.

The YouTube star is not taking his foot off the gas in his campaign to land a boxing match with former UFC lightweight and featherweight champion Conor McGregor, who currently has much bigger fish to fry in the form of a rematch with Dustin Poirier on Saturday at UFC 257.

Nevertheless, Paul released a video Tuesday on his social media platforms, roasting McGregor from inside a Raising Cane’s restaurant. In it, Paul orders a “Conor McGregor sandwich” (a chicken sandwich) and challenges him once again to a boxing contest. This is Paul’s latest attempt at picking a fight with the McGregor as he’s been heavily pushing for a bout with tweets, photos and videos responses over the past several weeks.

The callouts began after Paul won his second professional boxing bout by knocking out former NBA star Nate Robinson this past November. They haven’t stopped ever since.

Below is the video of Paul’s latest callout of McGregor:

A post shared by Jake Paul (@jakepaul)

The Blue Corner is MMA Junkie’s blog space. We don’t take it overly serious, and neither should you. If you come complaining to us that something you read here is not hard-hitting news, expect to have the previous sentence repeated in ALL CAPS.

Article source: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2021/01/jake-paul-calls-out-conor-mcgregor-raising-canes-chicken-ufc-video

ABU DHABI —Daniel Rubenstein isn’t like some of his peers in the MMA management game.

At times, a few of his contemporaries mistake themselves for being the stars of the show instead of their clients, and you see more of them in the media than you do the fighters themselves.

Rubenstein, however, has built a successful and enduring agency by spotlighting his fighters first and foremost and staying out of the limelight. So when he makes a rare media appearance, his words carry more weight than those you hear from nonstop.

An occasion such as Michael Chiesa’s first UFC main event since moving up to welterweight would be one example. Rubenstein is out on “Fight Island,” for the UFC’s run of three events in eight days to kick off the year, and as Chiesa gets set to take Neil Magny in the main event of Wednesday’s UFC on ESPN 20, it was a chance to explain what he’s been up to since we last saw him in January 2020, when he defeated former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos.

“I think the last year has been good for Mike,” Rubenstein told MMA Junkie. “The pandemic allowed him to take some time off, and not really try to force him into a fight that didn’t really make sense. He had some injuries that he had to recover and he had surgery that he was able to take the appropriate time to heal from. He did a little bit of snowboarding, did a lot of the ESPN desk work, which I think is good for him, it allows him to keep his mind in fighting while not being in fight camp and then obviously when the Magny fight came up, he loved it.

“I think we tried to get him in there in December and Sean (Shelby) kind of said January made more sense. We didn’t know it was going to be ‘Fight Island’ at that point. It worked out well for Mike, he was able to recover and be ready to fight.”

Rubenstein believes that Chiesa has thrived at welterweight in large part because he no longer has to contend with large weight cuts.

“I think him moving up to 170 allows him to spend the eight weeks of fight camp not just getting down to 155,” he said. “He can actually go in there and train for this specific opponent try to learn things throughout the whole camp instead of, you know, I wrestled my whole life, he’s competed his whole life. If you’ve ever been in a sport where you cut weight and you’re not at the right weight class, you’re basically spending your entire career just trying to diet down. I think we’ve seen a lot of fighters not just go up in weight class that make a little more sense, but make it have a little more sense.

“Jorge Masvidal, he had amazing welterweight career since he moved up. I think it helps these guys. … I think Mike being 6-3, cutting to 155 probably wasn’t the smartest idea, he was ranked at 155 it’s hard to step away from that.”

If Chiesa can pass his next test, which is a considerable one in the highly skilled Magny, then Rubenstein believes there are several potential interesting options as Chiesa works toward the top of the welterweight division.

“I think it’s good that division people has a lot of names in it that people do want to fight, there are superstars in that division,” he said. “I think for Mike it’s the next fight for him, he gets past Magny, he’s called out Colby (Covington) before, I could see him calling out Colby again I don’t know if that fight with Masvidal is done, that’s probably what they want, but its a fight that makes sense for us. I think the Wonderboy fight makes sense for us I think Leon Edwards makes sense. Someone who is ranked above us. Someone ranked above us is who we’re going to want.”

Article source: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2021/01/ufc-on-espn-20-michael-chiesa-daniel-rubenstein-explains-170-success

Article source: https://www.mmaweekly.com/ufc-fight-island-8-chiesa-vs-magny-weigh-in-face-offs-video

UFC 257 Embedded follows Dustin Poirier as he flies to Abu Dhabi alongside Bruce Buffer, Dana White, and a PAW Patrol good luck charm. Michael Chandler, Matt Frevola, Arman Tsarukyan and Marlon Vera exercise in Vegas. Conor McGregor arrives in style with his family.

UFC 257 takes place on Saturday, Jan. 23, in Abu Dhabi, where Conor McGregor rematches Dustin Poirier in the main event. Former Bellator champion Michael Chandler makes his promotional debut in the UFC 257 co-main event opposite Dan Hooker.

Take a look behind the scenes in UFC 257 Embedded, a deeper look into what the athletes are facing during fight week.

(Video courtesy of UFC)

TRENDING Rankings Review: Does Conor McGregor deserve his UFC ranking?

Flashback: The first Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier face-off from UFC 178

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Article source: https://www.mmaweekly.com/ufc-257-embedded-conor-mcgregor-arrives-im-gonna-show-the-world-something-special

ABU DHABI – Coach Mike Brown thinks that at this point in her career, Joanna Jedrzejczyk should only be competing in big fights.

Former strawweight queen Jedrzejczyk may be enduring the roughest stretch of her career, but remains the most accomplished 115-pounder in UFC history. After five successful title defenses, Jedrzejczyk lost her title to Rose Namajunas in 2017 and has lost four of her past six overall.

But despite her losing skid, Jedrzejczyk (16-4 MMA, 10-4 UFC) proved that she’s still in top form. In her past outing at UFC 248 in March, Jedrzejczyk was narrowly edged by current strawweight champion Zhang Weili in a grueling and entertaining battle, which earned MMA Junkie’s 2020 “Fight of the Year” honor.

It’s been almost a year since Jedrzejczyk has last competed, but Brown thinks it’s going to have to be a worthy fight to get the former champion back in the octagon.

“She’s been there, done that, done it all,” Brown told MMA Junkie. “She was a UFC champion for many years and is maybe tied for most title fights – she’s up there for one of the most decorated female fighters of all time, and it’s gotta be something big to draw her in. She’s not gonna fight some small rinky-dink fight that doesn’t mean anything.

“I think it’s going to take something to excite her, something significant to get her off the couch and get her into the cage. But she’s definitely willing and ready and eager and wanting that, but I don’t think at this point in her career she’s going to fight for peanuts or to prove herself. She has nothing to prove. She was a world champion for years, and it has to be something to excite her.”

Jedrzejczyk expressed interest in running things back with Weili, but it appears the UFC has other plans for the champion. Weili’s name has been linked to the likes of Namajunas and Carla Esparza, but Brown is confident that Jedrzejczyk is still in the title picture – even if she’s not next in line.

“I think she’s got a good shot at getting another title shot to be honest just because that fight was so close, she’s a draw, she’s charismatic, people want to see her fight, and I think that’s what she wants,” Brown said. “But I think for that to happen, we need things moving. I think she’s not next, I’m not sure who will be next, whether it’s Rose or whoever it is, but that needs to happen. We need the champion to be fighting, and then I think she’ll get her turn, but I think they want to give some other fights to Weili.”

Article source: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2021/01/mike-brown-joanna-jedrzejczyk-has-nothing-to-prove-wont-take-rinky-dink-fight