Conor McGregor’s career is set to kick back into gear in Abu Dhabi on Jan. 23 when he takes on Dustin Poirier in the main event of UFC 257.

It’s the latest chapter of a remarkable fighting timeline that saw him make his name with a remarkable four-fight run with U.K.-based promotion Cage Warriors to earn himself a shot in the big time with the UFC.

McGregor’s Cage Warriors stint saw him claim four finishes, with three of them coming in the first round. He kicked off his Cage Warriors stint with a first-round TKO of Aron Jahnsen in September 2011, then followed up with another first-round finish, as he stopped Steve O’Keefe with elbows at Cage Warriors 45 in February 2012.

Those wins put him in line for a shot at the vacant Cage Warriors featherweight title, and the Dubliner finished Dave Hill via second-round submission to pick up his first major title. He then moved up to lightweight and spectacularly knocked out Ivan Buchinger at Cage Warriors 51 in Dublin to become a two-division champion and put himself firmly on the radar of Dana White, who subsequently signed him to the UFC.

The rest, as they say, is history. McGregor claimed interim featherweight gold at UFC 189 with a TKO of Chad Mendes, then knocked out Jose Aldo to become the undisputed 145-pound champion at UFC 194. He then went on to become the UFC’s first simultaneous two-division champion at UFC 205 when he finished Eddie Alvarez to win the lightweight belt at Madison Square Garden.

However, McGregor (22-4 MMA, 10-2 UFC) hasn’t won a title fight since that night, and the Irishman plans to push himself one step closer to another shot at the lightweight title when he takes on old rival Poirier (26-6 MMA, 18-5 UFC) on “UFC Fight Island” later this month.

Ahead of his return to the octagon on Jan. 23, relive McGregor’s four-fight run in Cage Warriors via the video above.

Article source: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2021/01/ufc-257-relive-conor-mcgregor-cage-warriors-success

The UFC kicks off 2021 with a three-event, eight-day run on Fight Island in Abu Dhabi. The UFC Fight Island stint will also welcome fans into the arena for the first time since emerging from the pandemic induced lockdown in the spring of 2020.

The three events start with UFC Fight Night: Holloway vs. Kattar on Jan. 16, followed by UFC Fight Night: Magny vs. Chiesa on Jan. 20, and culminates on Jan. 23 with UFC 257, which features Conor McGregor’s return to rematch Dustin Poirier.

There had been discussions of allowing a limited number of fans to attend UFC events during the promotion’s second stint on Fight Island, which took place in September and October. That didn’t happen.

The Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism were able to put procedures in place for January’s events, however, which will still allow a limited crowd, not the full rooms for which UFC president Dana White has been waiting.

“I’m pumped to start the year with a straight week of great fights — Saturday, Wednesday and Sunday — for fight fans all over the world with FIGHT ISLAND Triple Header,” UFC president Dana White said in a released statement, published on ESPN.

“Following two highly successful editions of UFC Fight Island and the recent Formula One Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Abu Dhabi has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to host major international events in a safe and secure environment this year.”

Unlike the UFC’s first two trips to Fight Island, this third iteration will take place not at the Flash Forum on Yas Island, but at Etihad Arena to accommodate for the limited allowance of fan attendance under physical distancing guidelines.

White has been adamant that he didn’t want to bring fans back to live events until he could hold them in venues without limitations on ticket sales. But he has also been extremely complimentary of the treatment that the UFC has received from Abu Dhabi in hosting its “international” events during the pandemic, which likely influenced the decision to hold events there with limited seating.

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Dana White admitted in December that fans might be allowed at UFC 257: Poirier vs. McGregor 2

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Article source: https://www.mmaweekly.com/third-ufc-fight-island-stint-to-allow-fans

The UFC was aiming to close 2020 with a pay-per-view event on Dec. 12 that would host a tripleheader of championship bouts. As it turned out, they were lucky to have one title fight to top the card.

Now, however, officials are penciling in UFC 259 on March 6 to take another stab topping the bill with three championship fights.

Though the UFC has yet to make official announcements, UFC 259 is expected to be headlined by a champion vs. champion title fight in the 205-pound division. Middleweight beltholder Israel Adesanya has agreed to move up and challenge light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz.

Two-division titleholder Amanda Nunes is also expected to put her featherweight title on the line at UFC 259 opposite Megan Anderson. They were originally slated to fight at UFC 256 in December, but there’s was one of several bouts that fell off the card.

The third championship bout slated for uFC 259 features men’s bantamweight champion Petr Yan vs. Aljamain Sterling. Yan will be making the first defense of the belt that he claimed in a fight with Jose Aldo after Henry Cejudo retired.

Yan vs. Sterling had also been planned for UFC 256, but never materialized.

Like most future UFC events, there is no announced venue or location for UFC 259 as of yet.

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Article source: https://www.mmaweekly.com/ufc-259-shaping-up-to-host-three-title-fights

Fans will be in attendance when the UFC returns to “Fight Island” in Abu Dhabi for a three-event stint starting next week.

And early Friday in the U.S., tickets already were gone not long after they went on sale for UFC 257 on Jan. 23. at Etihad Arena on Yas Island. That event features a rematch between former lightweight and featherweight champion Conor McGregor and former interim lightweight champ Dustin Poirier.

Tickets that started at $795 Arab Emirates Dirham (about $216 USD) and went all the way up to $4,995 AED ($1,360 USD) all show as sold out at Etihad Arena’s official website.

The website also lists an abundance of health and safety rules that must be adhered to by fans, and though a total number of tickets available was not announced, the site says “seating capacity has been reduced to comply with social distancing rules.”

Tickets remain available for UFC on ABC 1 next Saturday, as well as UFC on ESPN 20, which takes place Wednesday, Jan. 20. UFC on ABC 1 will be headlined by a featherweight fight between former champion Max Holloway and Calvin Kattar. Four days later, Michael Chiesa meets Neil Magny in the UFC on ESPN 20 main event. Tickets start at $595 AED ($162 USD)

The three events will be the first time since March 2020 that the UFC will have fans in attendance. After getting past the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic and cancellations of events, White and the UFC eventually put on a series of events without fans in Jacksonville, Fla., then have made the UFC Apex in Las Vegas its semi-permanent home, also without fans. In addition, the UFC twice in 2020 made multi-event visits to “Fight Island” in Abu Dhabi for fight cards without fans.

But the big-splash finale for the three-event run in Abu Dhabi over the course of just seven days is UFC 257, which will feature a rematch between former lightweight and featherweight champion Conor McGregor and former interim lightweight champ Dustin Poirier.

McGregor is the UFC’s biggest draw by far. He has headlined all but three of his 12 career UFC fights, including his past seven on pay-per-view. In January 2020, he fought Donald Cerrone and generated a reported 1 million pay-per-view buys, which was his lowest number since UFC 189 did a reported 825,000 buys for his interim featherweight title win over Chad Mendes. His UFC 229 submission loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov generated a reported UFC record 2.4 million buys.

Where the UFC will have to suffer likely significant losses are in the live gate totals that McGregor fights typically have generated, mostly in Las Vegas. His UFC 246 fight against Cerrone ha a live gate in excess of $11 million at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. UFC 229 at T-Mobile Arena and UFC 205 at Madison Square Garden in New York each generated more than $17 million in live gate totals – an MMA record, as well as the Garden’s gate record.

Article source: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2021/01/ufc-257-conor-mcgregor-dustin-poirier-rematch-fan-tickets-sold-out-abu-dhabi-fight-island

Mike Rodriguez went from almost scoring a finish to getting finished himself.

In a pivotal mistake by referee Chris Tognoni that left UFC president Dana White incensed, Rodriguez suffered a submission loss to Ed Herman at UFC on ESPN+ 35.

Rodriguez was having his way early and was about to put on the finishing touches in Round 2 when he landed a knee to Herman’s midsection that was misidentified by Tognoni as a low blow. Herman fell to the canvas and held his groin, which caused a break in the action.

When the replay was shown, it was evident the strike Rodriguez landed was a clean shot to the midsection, but Herman ended up with time to recover. The fight resumed, and a beaten-down Herman managed to turn things around remarkably. He locked up a Kimura in Round 3 that forced Rodriguez to tap.

Rodriguez (11-5 MMA, 2-3 UFC) and his team attempted to appeal the loss, but to no avail. The blemish will remain on his record for now, despite the major controversy.

The circumstances behind the finish make Herman’s win over Rodriguez the MMA Junkie 2020 “Robbery of the Year.”

Article source: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2021/01/2020-mma-robbery-of-year-mike-rodriguez-vs-ed-herman-ufc-knockout