Geo’s Weekly Round-Up

Geo’s Weekly Round-Up:

By Geo Youngson

Everybody Wants DC

After Daniel Cormier beat Stipe Miocic to win the heavyweight title to add to his light heavyweight belt he said he only had two fights left and one of them was with Brock Lesnar. Now everyone is chiming in trying to get a fight with the double champ.

Yoel Romero and his management are trying to goad DC but Romero, who has just moved up to 205lbs, is 1-2 in his last three and in Daniel’s opinion its not a big enough fight. – Ain’t happening

Nick Diaz also popped his head up and made some comments. Yep welterweight/middleweight Diaz who hasn’t fought since 2015 and hasn’t had a win since 2011 wants a heavyweight title shot?? Sorry Nick – Ain’t happening.

Then you have Stipe Miocic who, as he pointed out, has the record for title defences and pretty much cleaned out the division and desperately wants to get his belt back. You know the guy deserves it but the numbers from the last fight mean – Ain’t happening.

Anderson Silva

Anderson has been given a one year USADA ban after his latest anti doping failure was ruled to have been caused by tainted supplements. The ban is backdated and Silva is eligible to fight in late October this year.

Anthony Joshua’s Next Fight

Joshua’s next fight is signed and sealed and it’s not Deontay Wilder. It will be Joshua vs Alexander Povetkin on September 22nd.

Chris Leben Returns

Chris Leben has come out of retirement and will fight Phil Baroni on October 20th for the Bareknuckle Fighting Federation. Definitely one to watch if you are a fan of violence.

Bellator Welterweight Tournament

Bellator have announced another tournament, this time in the welterweight division.

Signed up so far are

Rory MacDonald
Douglas Lima
Andrey Koreshkov
Yaroslov Amosov
Jon Fitch
Neiman Gracie
Lorenz Larkin
Michael Page
Ed Ruth
And rumoured to be Paul Daley.

It will kick off on 29th September with Koreshkov vs Lima.

Also on the 29th card will be MacDonald vs Gegard Mousasi for the middleweight strap.

Also the eventual winner of the tournament will be the Bellator Welterweight Champion because Rory MacDonald’s title will be on the line.

The Ultimate Fighter

Looks like the next coaches of the TUF show will be Sage Northcutt and Jake Matthews.

UFC and M1 Team Up

In a surprising turn it has been announced that the UFC have come to an agreement with the Russian M1 Global organisation. Not sure of the specifics but it seems that M1 will be responsible for scouting Russian fighters and recruiting them to the UFC.

UK TV Deal

It has been reported that the UFC’s television deal with BT Sport will finish at the end of this year. Instead the rights will pass to streaming service 11sports (who?) and there is also talk of some events being PPV. My first reaction is that this ain’t a good move but we need to wait till more details are released.

Fights Announced:

Plenty of UFC fights announced this week, with UFC 228 especially filling up nicely. We have

UFC 228 –
Aljamain Sterling vs Cody Stamann
Nicco Montana vs Valentina Shevchenko
Carla Esparza vs Tatiana Suarez
Jimmie Rivera vs John Dodson
Yair Rodriguez vs Zabit Magomedsharipov
Jessica Andrade vs Karolina Kowalkiewicz

UFC Moscow main event –
Mark Hunt vs Alexey Olenik

Plus on the December 10th card –
Donald Cerrone vs Mike Perry