McGregor trolls Mayweather with ‘Call me CJ Watson!’ taunt
McGregor posts an image to Twitter, showing him holding up an MMA and a boxing belt after defeating a Mayweather. The caption is a reference to Mayweather’s feud with NBA star C.J. Watson, who the boxer believed was sleeping with the mother of his three children – Jose Harris. Mayweather was convicted of domestic abuse towards Harris in 2015 and sentenced to two months in prison.
Call me C.J Watson! https://t.co/9m2Omw4Wca pic.twitter.com/GZMzxxTsbb
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) January 11, 2017
Mayweather claims he offered McGregor £12m to fight
Mayweather says that he offered McGregor £12m to fight.
We tried to make the Conor McGregor fight…My number was a guaranteed $100million (£83m). We’re the A-side and I don’t know how much he has made before but I’m pretty sure he hasn’t made $10m in an MMA bout. But we are willing to give him $15m (£12m), and we can talk about splitting the back-end percentage on PPV. But we’re the A-side. How can a guy talk about $20m or $30m if he’s never made eight or nine million?…Conor McGregor keeps telling everybody he wants the fight. Let’s make it happen…I’m probably interested in [coming out of retirement for] the Conor McGregor fight. I’m a businessman and it makes more business sense.
Responds to Streep comments
Kavanagh responds to Streep’s comments that MMA is “not an art”:
A lot has been made of Meryl Streep’s ‘calling out’ of Mixed Martial Arts as not being ‘the arts’. She’s 100% right, it’s sport. I was just impressed she said mixed martial arts and not ‘cage fighting’. People probably got a little defensive with the way she was clearly saying ‘the arts’ were so much superior to ‘sport’. What would we ever do without Hollywood!!? The great american writer Joseph Campbell said the closest he ever came to a truly spiritual experience was through athletics. I wouldn’t like to think of one activity better than the other – sport or art. Just do whatever you enjoy. I think people’s main issue with her teary well acted speech was that she tried to pass herself, and the rest of her ultra rich and ultra entitled liberal friends, off as ‘an outsider’. Yes Meryl, you’re just like an illegal immigrant or starving refugee. Fuck off. Just carry on adding to your 100s of millions you’ve earned from playing pretend. You’ve known nothing but extreme wealth and privilege your whole life, so don’t look down your nose at sport which has probably helped a lot more people than the expensive drama schools you attended. Happy Tuesday haha!
Nurmagomedov: All McGregor does is party and make excuses
Nurmagomedov criticizes McGregor’s lifestyle.
@TheNotoriousMMA and conor says he's having a baby when all he does is go to clubs and party excuse after excuse @danawhite @seanshelby
— khabib nurmagomedov (@TeamKhabib) January 9, 2017
Breaks silence, posts about hitting ‘rock bottom’
Rousey posts a quote from JK Rowling’s 2008 Harvard commencement address. In that speech, Rowling said that, seven years after leaving college, she had:
Failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless.
It was only from then she was able to start working on Harry Potter.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPDxfkgjk65/
Orton disses McGregor
In response to a fan’s Twitter question about McGregor:
@RandyOrton do you think you can whoop @TheNotoriousMMA ass if he transitioned to Wrestling in the WWE ?
— 🙏🙌 (@Chris_The_King2) January 10, 2017
Orton responds:
If he gains 120lbs im here. Until then, #205Live bro https://t.co/XZdWqCvt2V
— Randy Orton (@RandyOrton) January 10, 2017
Frampton ‘knocking out sparring partners’
Frampton says he is looking forward to the Santa Cruz fight.
I am confident I will knock this guy out on January 28th. The signs are good in training and I just can’t wait to get out there. I feel good, young and fresh and Santa Cruz will discover just how good I am. I have felt great in training. I know a lot of boxers say they have had an ‘amazing camp’ and they feel ‘in the best shape ever.’ but I really do feel that way. I am knocking my sparring partners out, and I am better than ever. I am looking forward to this fight and I am bringing the belt back with me to Belfast.
Coker to Streep: ‘MMA is an art’
In response to Streep’s Golden Globe’s speech where she said that MMA was not an art, Bellator MMA President Coker tweets a rebuttal and an invitation to the actress to watch a fight with him in LA.
As a martial artist and an MMA promoter, here is my open letter and #Bellator170 invite to the very talented #MerylStreep #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/zostN22RAK
— Scott Coker (@ScottCoker) January 9, 2017
White: Streep an ‘uppity, 80-year-old-lady’
In response to Streep’s comments during her Golden Globes acceptance speech:
If all these outsiders and foreigners were kicked out of Hollywood, you’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts.
White:
The last thing in the world I expect is an uppity, 80-year-old lady to be in our demographic and love mixed martial arts…I’m not a big fan of golf, doesn’t mean people should stop watching it. If you don’t like it change the channel…Of course it’s an art. These men and women are so talented. They train their whole lives to become the best in the world, and the people who get into the UFC are the elite of the elite. Saying something stupid like that is like saying she’s not a talented actress…We have champions from all over the world, men and women. It was a completely uneducated comment.
Kavanagh: McGregor fears he will sustain brain injury
After a special event at the Royal College of Surgeons, in Dublin, where Professor Healy addressed more than 50 high-level MMA fighters on the dangers of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive degenerative disease found in athletes with a history of repetitive brain trauma. Kavanagh says that McGregor has concerns about the long-term implications of repeated blows to the head.
It’s a concern of every fighter. At that level of fighting the risk is very real. But I think you can add on two hands the number of clean head shots Conor has taken in 10 years of pro-fighting. His style of fighting answers that, because his style is not brawling. He doesn’t step in the pocket and exchange punches. His style is in and out – he’s very defensive. That style was born through not wanting to lose and not wanting to take head shots, and not wanting to damage the software. [The key is education] We can reach that lofty goal of this being the first generation with no incidents of CTE.
Nunes: ‘I’m going to have two belts like McGregor’
Nunes says she wants to be a two-belt champion, like McGregor.
Honestly, I want to take a little time, enjoy it a little bit but I really look forward to this 145-pound belt. Maybe I’ll go up to fight for the 145-pound belt. We’ll see. Maybe I’m going to have two belts like Conor McGregor.
Rogan: McGregor, UFC missed out on a huge payday
Rogan says both McGregor and the UFC have missed out on a huge payday by not selecting Nate Diaz’s brother Nick as McGregor’s next opponent.
I think they missed the boat if they want to make the f-cking biiiiig money. I think it’s Nick Diaz versus Conor McGregor. They fight at 170 [pounds]. It’s a great story. I love a great story. Big brother steps in. Come on, son.
Nurmagomedov: McGregor ‘just a good boxer’
Nurmagomedov says he doesn’t rate McGregor as a good overall fighter and he wins by taking fights that suit his style.
About athlete, about like phenomenal fighter, I don’t think [McGregor] is. He’s just a good boxer and he all the time takes fights, you know, like a good style (for him). Like Eddie Alvarez and Jose Aldo – like this.
Mayorga: I’ll ‘disintegrate’ McGregor in boxing
Mayorga, a former welterweight and light-middleweight world champion, challenges McGregor to fight.
I admit that he’s has been very good at mixed martial arts, but in boxing he is making mistakes. As soon as I grab him, I’m going to break him down, I’m going to disintegrate him. If you are looking for me, you will find me. I have not fought, as they say, with [scrubs and journeymen], with a ghost record like [McGregor] has. But if he wants to fight and he’s looking for me – he’s going to find me. Let him tell me when he wants us to fight and where he wants to do it. In boxing, when we step in the ring – he’s going to know that I’m a man and he’s a woman.
Nunes: Rousey ‘has always been overrated’
Nunes says Rousey is overrated.
I don’t know how Ronda Rousey went too far in this division. Honest. I don’t know how those girls lost to Ronda Rousey. I knew since my first fight in UFC, that I can beat Ronda Rousey. That day was the day to prove to everybody that I could do it…She is [overrated] for sure.
Tarverdyan: ‘It doesn’t matter what people say’
When a reporter asks about people saying he was not the right coach, Tarverdyan replies:
It’s all good man. [Ronda has] no plans yet. It doesn’t matter what people say.
Rogan: ‘There’s Conor McGregor and there’s everyone else’
Rogan says only McGregor can draw big numbers of fans to the sport.
The next pay-per-view is Holly Holm vs Germaine De Randamie, which is a tough sell. I would buy it, as a hardcore fan [but] it ain’t going to be Conor McGregor numbers…Honestly, there’s Conor McGregor and there’s everyone else. There was a thing the other day that showed that Conor, in three fights, drew more pay-per-view than the entire UFC roster in 2014.
Malignaggi: McGregor will fail in boxing
Malignaggi says McGregor would need to make $100million out of any boxing match because he will have his reputation destroyed.
I feel like most of the opinions of people that watch these kind of fights are probably ignorant and they don’t know anything, and that’s not even said in a disrespectful manner. You’ll get a lot of stupid people that will buy a lot of fights that aren’t worth the time…I think McGregor has some good striking skills. I think the Diaz brothers have some good striking skills, and there’s probably a few other guys, as well. The striking skills in mixed martial arts are a little bit different than the striking skills you need in boxing. In MMA, you can back yourself up with a Muay Thai clinch, or you can spear the guy and take him down, or a kick or throw. The angles are different when they’re coming from a pure boxing perspective. The fact that anybody that thinks it would be a risk for me to fight Conor McGregor in a boxing ring—I get a good laugh out of it. Ultimately, I think the fighters understand that, and because they understand that, I don’t think I ever see Conor McGregor boxing in my lifetime…The only way he’ll take a risk in boxing is if it’s a $100M risk. You may take a beating, but it’s worth it because of the money you’re doing it for. It’s going to totally destroy him. No matter who he boxes, it’s going to ruin his image…If you put him in boxing, you probably have to treat him as a prospect, just like these 20-year-old-prospects that turn pro and get put through the normal phases. You have to start Conor from the beginning. There’s no other way to put it.
Kavanagh accepts Coach of Year award, falls off hoverboard
Kavanagh thanks The MMA Hour and Helwani for awarding him the Coach of the Year in a Twitter video that goes awry at the end, as he falls off a Hoverboard.
Thank you so much for this great honour. I know the competition was tough after such a big year in MMA. I want you to know that winning these awards hasn’t changed anything for us — we’re still just a small humble team from Ireland.
The ending wasn't quite as smooth… #TheMMAHour awards pic.twitter.com/zb5DKIcsgP
— Coach JK (@John_Kavanagh) January 2, 2017
Rousey’s mother wants to kill her coach
Rousey’s mother says Tarverdyan, her daughter’s coach, is the reason for her losses, and that she is not impressed with the way he uses Rousey to lure people to his gym. She has also told her daughter she will not keep quiet about this anymore.
I think Edmond is a terrible coach and I will say it publicly. I think he’s a terrible coach I think he hit the lottery when Ronda walked in, he knew she was winning before she ever met him. She probably won 99% of the Judo matches she ever fought in, she’d won the Junior worlds when she was 17. I would caution anyone from going there, and I think it’s bad he uses her to lure people in and the reason I tell everybody and I told Ronda I’m not going to be quiet about this anymore…[He’s] a piece of shit…I will tell you this every time I go into his gym he says what he used to say ‘How are you?’ and I say ‘How the f-ck do you think I am, I’m in your f-cking gym, I f-cking hate you’, Yes I hate him, I would run over him with my car if he wasn’t Ronda’s, I hate that guy he’s like the most worthless human being god ever put on this earth.