Carvalho fight ‘could have been stopped earlier’
Speaking before the death of Carvalho, McGregor says the fight with Ward should have been stopped earlier.
My teammate Charlie had a good win just there. Hell of a fight. Your man took some big shots. Thought it could have been stopped a little earlier. I feel these referee’s need to be on the ball a little bit…To see the way it’s all progressed, the regulations and everything, all the medical staff and everything. It’s proper now. To see this is great.
Diaz: Real MMA fans knew I could beat McGregor
Diaz criticizes fake fans:
A lot of people like [Justin] Bieber, Drake and [former NFL star] Jerry Rice were saying all of these things. Anyone who is a real fan of the sport — and not just what is blasted over social media — knew I had a better chance of winning the fight. I have a lot of fights and they were making it out like I was a new guy getting a chance. But he [McGregor] was actually the guy getting the chance with a real fighter who has been in the game and is a real opponent.
Wants changes to celebrity injunction law
Prompted by the ongoing debate over a celebrity couple’s attempts to keep their names out of the English newspapers, Highfield tells BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme that the law regarding celebrity injunctions should be changed.
I think in a digital world it’s increasingly unsustainable where one quick Google search will reveal the person in question.
Johnson: I like everything about McGregor
In an interview with Heavyw8 News, Johnson praises McGregor.
I like Conor McGregor, ‘The Notorious’, I wish I took that name. I like it. I like everything about Conor McGregor…I like what he’s doing for the sport of UFC as well and I hope he doesn’t lose because it’s a fickle world. One minute everyone’s on your back, you’re the flavour of the month, you take a loss, everyone writes you off, but he’s done a lot for the sport of the UFC so far. You can’t fault him after losing, it’s how he gets back up and I think so far he’s done unbelievably well for the sport of UFC and I just hope he continues that.
Tyre ‘destroyed’ in race
Marquez says Michelin helped in his choice to chose a soft front, going against the rest of his rivals, saying he pushed as hard as he could early in the race because he was unsure how long the rubber might last.
During warm-up I tried a different front tyre [the medium], the same as everybody was using, but I didn’t feel good,” Marquez said after the race. I want to thank the Michelin guys because they helped me to make the decision [to use the soft]. Until lap 12 the tyre was perfect but after the race it was completely destroyed. I knew it would be on the limit, but I try to use this potential in beginning of the race, try to open this gap. I kept pushing during all the laps because I didn’t know when the drop would arrive. When there were five laps to go, I start to feel a big close feeling at the front.
On his championship lead:
Of course I’m happy with this advantage that we have. Okay, it’s only the third race, but we already have 21 points so this is really important for me and the team. The other riders make a few mistakes, but you must be there – and now in Europe we will see, because Jorge will be really strong.
Business Insider interview
Highfield says that he hopes i readers don’t notice the difference when they pick up the paper when it publishes. He says the company isn’t even running an advertising campaign to mark the relaunch.
That’s going to be the number one objective: to a reader, all those names you know and love, and the design, and the layout — everything should be the same. If there’s anything that’s not the same, I want it to be better.
Highfield says that the inews.co.uk site will not have clickbait and will have a revenue model that will focus mostly on sponsorship and native advertising.
We will be no going after traffic for the sake of traffic. I think we will be very true to the paper and therefore create a clear proposition that we think does not exist in the UK: there is not a politically independent, concise, quality read online and I think that will find a market. We’re not trying to be The Guardian, or BBC Online, or be an Independent.co.uk — I think that would be foolish. What we are going to try to do is stick very closely to the brand values of the i: a quality, concise daily digest, updated continually but at any one moment, when you go to the site, the idea is the matrix will give you everything you need to know to be informed on the day. I think that possibly flows better to the zeitgeist than the acres of never-ending content.
On competition:
We have 900 journalists [across the Johnston Press group] who in turn have a network of thousands of bloggers and contributors… in terms of our reach, we already have a network of thousands of people who write for us in a professional capacity, and that’s bloody hard to undermine.
Cruz: McGregor avoiding ‘hard fight’ with Edgar
Speaking at a media day for UFC 199, Cruz says that McGregor is using the higher weight fight against Diaz as a strategy against Edgar.
Conor’s going up to fight Diaz at 170[lbs] again, leaving the featherweight belt for Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar to fight for. Okay, what if Conor McGregor goes back down and fights Frankie Edgar at 145lbs? Which is an extremely terrible style match-up and a hard fight and then he loses? Now he’s lost all his push, whereas if he stays at 170, fights Diaz and he happens to lose again, he still has it because he’s like; ‘Well, but it was it 170′. So there’s still excuses to make for it, to say why he’s the best. If he loses to Frankie Edgar at 145, you pretty much kill the excuses. It doesn’t necessarily take away legitimacy but it buys time.
Rossi: Marquez dangerous, ‘plays tactics’ with bike
Rossi says he no longer buys his rival’s claims of weakness.
I always considered he was very dangerous. The Honda seems very good to me. According to me, when he talks about difficulties [with the bike], Marquez plays a bit of tactics, he feathers his own nest, but he knows very well that this is a very strong bike…It’s true also that he looks much faster than [Dani] Pedrosa, especially here [in Austin]. This means he’s comfortable and he will be hard to beat.
Rossi would welcome Vinales as teammate
Rossi says he has “no problems” with Vinales becoming his new Yamaha team-mate next season as Jorge Lorenzo nears closer to a Ducati move.
For me, no problem. It’s not a big difference if Lorenzo remain, or Vinales come, or also [Andrea] Iannone, or also [Dani] Pedrosa. It’s true for sure that with Vinales will be very hard, because he is very young, and he has a good talent, and I think that he will become one of the top riders of MotoGP very soon. I think that Vinales demonstrated today that he can stay with the top guys for all the season (Vinales was third in Free Practice)…I think he rides so well, he’s a clever rider, and he understands the way to use the MotoGP. So I think him together with his bike, they are growing up a lot.
Sonnen: McGregor not juicing
Sonnen defends McGregor after Nate Diaz’s accusation that McGregor was “full of juice”.
First off, Conor’s not on anything. I’m a guy that lived in that world. When a guy takes his t-shirt off, I can tell you exactly what he’s taking. I can look at his traps, I can look at his pecs; his definition. I know what he has taken and how he got to look that way. Conor’s clean. He’s got great genetics. He’s got good DNA going through his system. He’s just one of those guys that got lucky.
Lanesplitter AMA
Marquez answers questions from Lanesplitter readers. His favorite track:
MM: Austin is actually one of them, but I also love Phillip Island and Aragon. I like the left turns, because I grew up riding flat track, and they all have many different types of sections and corners. Lots of elevation changes.
LS: Are you a fan of the many rider aids like wheelie control, traction control etc? Or would you rather it be all down to the rider?
MM: The bikes we ride are developed for them. So you have to use them, if you were to take them out you’d have to redesign the bikes. But the aides are for safety. If you tried to use them to make you fast, you would not.
LS: Would you like to run the Isle of Man TT one day?
MM: Yes, but only for fun, not for race.
Looking for fourth Austin victory
Marquez says he is looking forward to the Austin GP. He won his first MotoGP race there in 2013, at age 20 the youngest ever rider to win a MotoGP, and has since won three straight victories all from pole position.
It’s a track that I like, where I feel strong, and where I’ve always had good races and good fun. The track rewards strong acceleration, which hasn’t been one of our strongest points so far this year, so we’ll have to wait and see how we can manage the situation. We’ll keep working hard, as we did in Argentina, and we’ll try to find the best pace for the Sunday race.
Dos Anjos: McGregor is a coward
Dos Anjos, UFC lightweight champion, calls McGregor a “coward” for putting off his first featherweight title defense. The featherweight division will continue to be held up for at least another half year or so as McGregor pursues fights against bigger men.
feel bad for Aldo and Edgar,after ufc200 Conor ll find another fight in a different division,so he can keep his belt for lil longer #coward
— Rafael dos Anjos (@RdosAnjosMMA) March 31, 2016
Calls on Ducati to fix tyre problems
Rossi says Ducati to fix tyre problems, after problems in Argentina resulted in a shorter race, with a bike change.
For me it’s two [factors] together. It’s taller riders that are a little bit more heavy, like Baz and Redding. I’m also quite tall. But especially it is the taller rider and the [type of] bike. Because all through the winter tests and the races in Qatar and Argentina, with the Yamaha, we never have [tyre] problems. So last week we were ready to race, to make the 25 laps. About our feeling on the bike and data about the tyre temperature – we don’t have any problems, fortunately. So I hope that also the other bikes, in this case the Ducati, can fix the problem. Because if not also all the other manufacturers have to race with the very hard, hard, hard tyre. And I think that is not good for the show, it is not good for the performance. So I think they have to fix the problem.
Michelin state that the Baz incident was a puncture. Three front tyres (soft, medium and hard) will be available for the CoTA race rather than the usual two options. The rear tyre choice will be soft or medium, both asymmetrical, with a harder right-hand-side.
Rossi: Lorenzo Joining Ducati ‘a bold choice’
When asked about speculation that Yamaha teammate Lorenzo will move to Ducati, Rossi says:
If he did, it was a bold choice. I [would] wish him luck, and also Ducati. I think he can still be competitive, because Lorenzo is a strong rider and now also the Ducati is a competitive bike. The situation Lorenzo finds himself in today is quite similar to mine at the time I did it [moved to Ducati]. I had been at Yamaha many years and I needed a new challenge. At the time I spoke with [former Ducati boss] Filippo Preziosi, who presented to me an interesting project to improve the Ducati – which had already won with [Casey] Stoner – and try to make it easier to ride for other riders. Ducati has made a lot of progress these last few years. The bike is very competitive, it’s very quick in a straight line. In the first two races of the year, they’ve shown they can be at the front.
Lorenzo:
I cannot tell you anything more than I told you in Argentina.
Plans to take group upmarket
Highfield talks about his plans to to take the regional newspaper group upmarket. The company will increase the number of ABC1 readers from 2.5 million to nearly 3 million with his acquisition of i. He says he won’t increase to cover price (the paper cost 40p and sells 270,000 copies/day).
Two numbers keep sticking in my head. We have got 9 per cent of daily newspaper circulation and 3 per cent share of national advertising revenues in print. I think the pendulum will swing back to quality. Advertisers want quality audiences in print and online, and that is what we can deliver. Our strategy of moving ever-more upmarket has got to be the right one.
Highfield also dismisses the suggestion that quality is suffering because of cuts to Johnston Press journalists.
If you ask them ‘Do they produce better content than they’ve ever done?’, I’d hope they’d say yes. [Social media, reader-generated content and real-time analytics mean the editorial product has] probably never been of a higher quality. [But] the economics do not allow you to employ the same number of people as 20 or 30 years ago.
Manager: McGregor would have fought at 155 or 170
McGregor’s manager says McGregor initially asked for the UFC 200 fight with Diaz at 170 pounds — the same weight as UFC 196. Then, after listening to Coach Kavanagh and the rest of his team, McGregor said he’d be willing to do it at 155.
At the 11th hour, before we signed the bout agreement, [McGregor] said, ‘Look, I’m hearing everybody. If everybody wants to do 155, fine. Let’s do 155’. The contract was already written at 170. And so, in Conor’s defense, he really didn’t give two sh*ts. He really wanted it at 170, because he wanted to prove he could beat him there…Conor is his own CEO, but intelligently he listens to the people around him and then makes his own final decision.
The fight will be at 170. Attar also says the rematch is not about McGregor wanting to avenge his only loss in the UFC.
For him, that loss in itself, because of how he was performing until it went the other way is yet again fueled by his own self-belief system, confidence and desire to want to continue to push the envelope with his athletic ability and his skills, no matter who is in front of him. It happens to be the guy who beat him. He wants to put the same canvas up and paint a different picture for the audience to watch.
Attar says that immediately after the loss to Diaz, McGregor watched the fight on his phone with his coach around 20 times on a loop, even before the press conference started.
[He’s] obsessed. Obsessed with it.
Diaz says he ruined plans for McGregor v GSP
If McGregor had won UFC 196, there were rumours that he would have been in line for a welterweight title shot against champion Robbie Lawler. However, Diaz, who won the bout, says the UFC would have lined up Georges St-Pierre for McGregor’s next fight.
I put a big old halt on that shit. Like what are you guys thinking that I’m some game to be played with? I’ve been in this game for too long to f–k with. Yeah, they had GSP there, they wanted to have this whole GSP/McGregor show bullshit. I don’t even want to hear that shit…GSP’s going to come out of retirement to fight this little ass Conor McGregor? What the f–k? This is all just a freak show now. Now what did I do? I pissed off Conor McGregor, I pissed off GSP and most of all I pissed off the UFC…I wanted to be the first one to speak up — you’re a f–king bully. You know you’re going to hold that little ass Irishman down. You’re going to hop in and take this money fight like ‘I’m coming back for this’ like what the f–k. Get your ass up to your weight class and Conor McGregor’s out of line, too, trying to fight big ass people.
‘Not strong in last laps, need to improve bike’
Rossi talks about the Austin GP. He is currently second in the championship standings.
I am happy to return to Texas and to race at CoTA. We have to work hard in Austin because it’s crucial to understand quickly how bike, tyres, electronics and this track work together. Furthermore in the last laps of the race I’m not very strong so we need to improve with the bike on these tyres. Historically it is a difficult circuit for us and for Yamaha, but last year I could arrive on the podium so I will try also this year.
Bjornsson: I was ‘gentle’ with McGregor
In an interview with Men’s Health, Bjornsson talks about his sparring session with McGregor, before his victory against Jose Aldo. He says he had to be careful not to injure McGregor.
I was in Ireland shooting for Game of Thrones and my friend [Icelandic UFC fighter] Gunnar Nelson was training in Dublin with Conor. I asked if I could check out a session. I knew he had a big fight coming up, so I was gentle with him.
McGregor:
We squared off as if we were gonna do it. Then all of a sudden, he’s bouncing and I’m bouncing. Next thing you know, we’re having a full, bareknuckle body shot fight.
