The Afternooner: November 21

Contributor: Ben Kohn

Hello fight fans and welcome to another edition of the Afternooner! I am your host Ben Kohn and apologize for my absence yesterday as my computer at work hatefucked me by deciding not to work. But I’m using a spare to make sure to bring you all the news from our combat sports world. It’s my duty and a Jew always does his duty, except when we can betray it for money. 

• Cris Cyborg has responded to Ronda’s threats to kill her in the cage by telling her to meet her at 140 pounds. Personally, I am growing tired of the banter. They aren’t in the same organization and it’s unlikely they will ever fight. Both need to stop this and move on.
• In an interview, Floyd Mayweather’s 14 year old son Koraun recounted the night he watched Floyd beat his mother and proceeded to call his father a coward before hugging his mother. Floyd’s son and Koraun showed a lot of strength in this interview and Floyd had to serve a prison sentence for it in 2012. I hope they can heal from this traumatic event and live happily together and let go of the anger Koraun said he still feels sometimes.
• Ben Askren joins the list of fighters coming to the defense of Roufus but also doesn’t really address much of the criticism leveled against him and the situation in which Denis Munson Jr. died. He basically said Duke isn’t a bad guy and he’s never experienced negative tones or bullying. However, that doesn’t refute anything mentioned by people who said only the stars are treated well and the rest like shit.
• Bobby Green is contemplating retirement after the Edson Barboza fight without really giving a reason. However, we can guess that his younger brother being killed in a gang related shooting and his other brother was also shot as well, not gang related though. I imagine he’s dealing with personal issues and hope everything works out for him.
• Dana White commented on the Bellator ratings by saying he wasn’t surprised by them, citing it being on free TV and having big names like Ortiz and Bonnar on it. I’m interested to see how the PPV numbers for 180 turn out and also the Mexican ratings on TV as well.
• Renzo Gracie recounted an incident he witnessed at UFC 117 in Abu Dhabi where Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort were about to fight. Renzo told them he will sit and watch them fight rather than break them up because he’d love to see it happen. This brought them to their senses and they walked away. Funny story from Renzo not gonna lie.
• The UFC has been accused by Tech Dirt, a tech site, for lobbying with Senate Majority leader Harry Reid of Nevada to have expanded the criminalization of online streaming and made it punishable by jail time. The bill did not pass.
• Duke Roufus barred a Milwaukee Sentinel Journal reporter from attending the press conference for Anthony Pettis. The Sentinel Journal reported in depth about the death of Denis Munson Jr. and for Roufus to bar him from the conference is both low and a bad look.
• The UFC is targeting to have Cain and Werdum finally have their fight in June, seven months from now and twenty months removed from Cain’s last fight, a 5^th round TKO over Junior Dos Santos. I don’t know why the UFC is waiting for so long since they had a tentative date for Cain being healthy and able to fight by March and I think pushing it off leaves room for more injury.
• The UFC signed Ashley Evans-Smith to fight in the Women’s BW division. Evans-Smith is 3-0, and is filling in short notice for Holly Holm against Raquel Pennington. Smith is a four time NAIA All American and has wins of Jessamyn Duke, Marciea Allen, and Fallon Fox.
• Ricardo Lamas seems to be ignoring Mendes’ challenge and is still angling for a fight with McGregor, saying the UFC is protecting him and that he needs to fight a wrestler before getting a title shot. I get what Lamas is doing but the UFC is going to keep him far away from a contender like McGregor. He should actually hope Conor beats Aldo so he can possibly get another title shot.
• Manny Paquiao talked about how he feels with his fight against Chris Algieri coming up. He believes he is performing like his younger self with his speed, power, determination, and aggressiveness back. Let’s see if that’s true as that will be a scary as hell version of Manny to see.
• Big news for Boxing, Floyd Mayweather is claiming he now wants a fight with Manny. Showtime confirmed that he definitely wants a fight with Manny and that everyone on their side, Floyd, CBS, and Showtime want the fight to happen. Bob Arum, CEO of Top Rank, claims he has not heard anything and doesn’t know.
• S & P (Standard and Poor’s) has confirmed that Zuffa LLC, the parent company for the UFC, is down 40% in overall earnings for 2014. This is very bad as there’s really no positive spin that could be put on this, especially since the report also said its unlikely Zuffa can turn it around within the next five years too. Hopefully this is not a sign of things to come as having a stabilizing force in the MMA world, while having flaws, is really important.
• UFC BW Michael McDonald is targeting a return to the cage in 2015 following wrist surgery. McDonald was last seen getting his ass kicked by Urijah Faber, being choked out in the 3^rd round. While he lost some luster with his losses to Barao and Faber, he’s still really young, just 23 years old, and can make some serious improvements and become a force once more. Especially with the immense power he possesses.
• Aaraon Pico, recently signed to Bellator, makes it very clear his focus right now lies on making the 2016 Olympic wrestling team. While this will obviously delay any possible debut, it’s not a big deal since he’s only 18 and will be, at the most, maybe 21 if he stops wrestling after 2016. Here’s to hoping he does well and MMA gets another gold medalist among its ranks.
• Vitor Belfort passed the random blood and urine test administered by the NSAC. This is good news and bodes well for the upcoming title fight against Chris Weidman. Hopefully both stay healthy and make it to the cage.
• On a final note, Marcelo Garcia brown belt and no-gi BJJ world champion Matheus Diniz got called up short notice to compete against Vinny Magalhaes. This is a massive opportunity for him and I wish him luck and success. The catch is, he needs to submit Vinny to get the 10k bounty or else he gets nothing. Good luck my friend, ossssss!

That’s all for this edition of the Afternooner, I hope you enjoy it and I will see you all in the next edition!

-Ben can be reached at [email protected] or @agentbenten.