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UFC 207: Nunes vs. Rousey (12/30/2016) - Las Vegas, NV (T-Mobile Arena)


Elsalvajeloco

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UFC 207: Nunes vs. Rousey 
December 30, 2016
Las Vegas, NV (T-Mobile Arena)

UFC Women's Bantamweight Championship: Amanda Nunes © (135) vs. Ronda Rousey (135) (first defense) - Nunes, TKO (strikes), R1 (0:48)
UFC Bantamweight Championship: Dominick Cruz © (135) vs. Cody Garbrandt (135) (second defense) - Garbrandt, DEC (unanimous)
T.J. Dillashaw (136) vs. John Lineker (135.25) - Dillashaw, DEC (unanimous)
Dong Hyun Kim (171) vs. Tarec Saffiedine (171) - Kim, DEC (split)
Louis Smolka (125.5) vs. Ray Borg (129.5)** - Borg, DEC (unanimous)

Fox Sports 1 Preliminary Card:
Johny Hendricks (173.5)* vs. Neil Magny (171) - Magny, DEC (unanimous)
Antônio Carlos Júnior (186) vs. Marvin Vettori (186) - Carlos Júnior, DEC (unanimous)
Mike Pyle (170) vs. Alex Garcia (170.5) - Garcia, KO (punch), R1 (3:34)
Brandon Thatch (170) vs. Niko Price (170) - Price, SUB (arm triangle choke), R1 (4:30)
 
Fight Pass Preliminary Card:
Tim Means (170) vs. Alex Oliveira (170.5) - No Contest (Accidental Knees)

*Forfeits 20% of purse for missing weight
**Forfeits 30% of purse for missing weight

Event Bonuses ($50,000):
Performance of the Night: Alex Garcia
Performance of the Night: Amanda Nunes
Fight of the Night: Dominick Cruz vs. Cody Garbrandt 

Attendance: 18,533
Gate: $4.75 million
Buyrate: 1.1 million

Cancelled Bouts:
Matt Brown vs. Tarec Saffiedine - Brown Moved to Another Card
Jéssica Andrade vs. Maryna Moroz - Injury to Moroz
Sabah Homasi vs. Brandon Thatch - Injury to Homasi
Jéssica Andrade vs. Angela Hill - Hill Found Uneligible As Result of USADA Testing Pool
Fabrício Werdum vs. Cain Velasquez - Velasquez Not Cleared By NAC
 

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16 minutes ago, TheVileOne said:

Based on what I've read about Cain Velasquez's injuries, he probably shouldn't be fighting next weekend.

Yet, I dunno if I can favor Werdum knowing he won't show up in spectacular shape himself. I'm not a gambler myself, but you would expect heavy money to come down on Fabricio Werdum. However, I believe a lot of people are still looking at the elevation thing as a reason for Cain's performance in the first fight. This goes especially in the wake of Werdum's 2016 where he had two fights and neither performance was befitting of someone who is as talented as Werdum. The question comes down to if a half committed, nonchalant Fabricio Werdum can beat a half crippled Cain Velasquez who can barely stand up for 10 minutes at a time. Personally, I just believe that one good takedown or back take from Cain and he can maul Werdum from there especially if Cain doesn't have to be in his guard. If Velasquez was a speed, movement fighter like Dominick Cruz or Dillashaw, these injuries would adversely affect the fight way differently. Cain has fought injured before and besides the Dos Santos I fight, it hasn't been that detrimental. When you don't have as many wrinkles to your game, it's not like you have to set a whole bunch of stuff up. Werdum is there to be hit and taken down. He isn't above looking lackadaisical. If Cain isn't gift wrapping guillotine chokes for him, what is he going to do? That's my hangup with picking Werdum.

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If this company had any consistency, they would remove Rousey from 207 for refusing to appear at the official presser. It's funny that Conor gets removed from UFC 200 for the same thing, but Rousey gets a free pass.

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2 hours ago, Casey said:

If this company had any consistency, they would remove Rousey from 207 for refusing to appear at the official presser. It's funny that Conor gets removed from UFC 200 for the same thing, but Rousey gets a free pass.

Yes and no. Conor was missing the pre-fight presser when they wanted him to be there. He was planning to skip the Las Vegas one in lieu of just doing the one in NYC, which the UFC didn't agree to. Plus, they were going to shoot a commercial for UFC 200 that was going to cost in excess of $1 million. So for him not to miss the commercial filming, he had to be in Vegas where they were filming it. Ronda is a bit different in that I'm sure they agreed to her media obligations prior to her even signing to face Nunes. For example, after the UFC 205 weigh-in, the production team screwed up and told Rogan to interview Amanda and Ronda when it was just suppose to be a faceoff. If it wasn't part of the agreement, she isn't doing it. She's doing limited media for 207 and that's what the UFC agreed to have her do. She will do those obligations, and she already has done the commercials for 207 as well as flying to NYC to do that faceoff. Conor took matters into his own hands whereas Rousey and the UFC came to an agreement months prior to her doing anything she was suppose to do.

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So, basically, what you're saying is, it's okay to skip out on media obligations if you get it approved beforehand. I swore Dana said around that time that every fighter has to do stuff like that and it's not fair to the other fighters who fly in from all over the world to be at these things.

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37 minutes ago, Casey said:

So, basically, what you're saying is, it's okay to skip out on media obligations if you get it approved beforehand. 

Damn skippy. That's the whole point. Conor chose days before the presser to get into a negotiation battle. When Ronda signed on to come back, this was part of the stipulations. If Ronda was scheduled to be at a couple of pre-fight pressers and decided to get into whether or not to skip one and do the other, she would have been reprimanded the same. That would be in addition to skipping a commercial shoot where they are spending a million dollars. Conor decided to pull a power play to see if he could get the UFC blink. They didn't blink. He tried to pull their card and ended up getting his pulled. 

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3 minutes ago, Oyaji said:

I wonder if Ronda wins and sticks around for another fight, will she start doing more press? Is it just because she doesn't want to answer a bunch of questions surrounding her coach?

No, I think it's obviously the questions about her psyche after the Holm fight and the months spent away. It's only so many ways you can answer that question. "Hey, uh Ronda, can you walk me through step-by-step of what happened moments after getting knocked out in front of several thousand people? I know you were very disoriented and lost about 5-10 minutes of your life you will never be able to recall due to a concussion, but fill me in anyway."

Add in that she's going to be asked how many fights she has left. There is going to be six or seven different versions of that question. 

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1 hour ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

Damn skippy. That's the whole point. Conor chose days before the presser to get into a negotiation battle. When Ronda signed on to come back, this was part of the stipulations. If Ronda was scheduled to be at a couple of pre-fight pressers and decided to get into whether or not to skip one and do the other, she would have been reprimanded the same. That would be in addition to skipping a commercial shoot where they are spending a million dollars. Conor decided to pull a power play to see if he could get the UFC blink. They didn't blink. He tried to pull their card and ended up getting his pulled. 

I dunno, the picture Meltzer is saying is she just refused to do them and called them "stupid."  It is Meltzer, I know, but that's what he said.

 

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3 minutes ago, TheVileOne said:

 

I dunno, the picture Meltzer is saying is she just refused to do them and called them "stupid."  It is Meltzer, I know, but that's what he said.

 

No, Meltzer called her doing no media stupid. He went into a whole rant about her knowing she became famous. Matter of fact, he has been talking about that on his Twitter the last few hours after the UFC released the official schedule for next week.

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So this whole "not doing pressers or interviews" stuff is clearly for the upper echelon of fighters, surely? I don't think Mike Perry or anyone can work into their next fight contract that they wouldn't be doing things like that.

It all just seems a little bit silly and kind of like special treatment. How many times has this happened before, anyway? Someone in the main event (or co-main) not doing interviews, press conferences, etc. for a relatively big match?

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33 minutes ago, Casey said:

So this whole "not doing pressers or interviews" stuff is clearly for the upper echelon of fighters, surely? I don't think Mike Perry or anyone can work into their next fight contract that they wouldn't be doing things like that.

Mike Perry is a very bad example because he might actually say something that gets him into a ton of trouble.

But I wouldn't say upper echelon as much as I would say just Rousey and McGregor. They're going to get special treatment no matter. Honestly, I would say they deserve it because there should be perks when you draw what they draw. Outside the whole ordeal in April, they have given McGregor plenty of concessions. I even believe after the whole UFC 200 thing, McGregor has been a bit selective with who talks to as well and the UFC has agreed to that.

The whole thing with pressers, media week, so on and so forth is most fighters don't have the opportunity to do it in the first place. Lots of them feel fortunate enough to be there in the first place. Outside your Anderson Silvas and Brock Lesnars who despise doing media, you're going to get certain fighters who are willing to do any and everything as it relates to participation in media obligations. That's very commendable, but there is a clear line between the cherry on top and the whole cake. It would be cool and awesome for a random person on the main card to get some media coverage. However, 9 times out of 10, said person isn't going to add anything in terms of ratings or PPV buys. It also isn't doing anything for hits either because people wouldn't be trying to turn every Rousey or McGregor blurb into a frontpage article or op ed. Honestly, that's what is pissing off MMA media. If random fighter X who is a middling fighter very few know was getting clicks in the range of those two, they wouldn't give a shit about Rousey missing the final presser. No matter what, they can't spin this by making it about getting content.

For someone like McGregor at a presser, he's going to get at least 75% of the questions. I guarantee that half of those questions are going to be repetitive, and he has to find new, creative ways to answer them. Either way, that's what contributes to PPVs selling so high that he headlines. However, the biggest downside to that is it gets to a point where people like McGregor and Rousey don't want to deal with the monotony anymore. It's easy when you're like a Ryan LaFlare or some female fighter who has never been up on a dais before because you might get one question maximum. For someone doing that sun up to sundown, you're going to reach a level where you are more willing to stick a power drill through your temple than talk to someone from MMAHotSausageLinks.com or the Wichita Daily Press whose knowledge of MMA is minimum again and again. There are giant negatives that come with the way either has handled it, but at the same time, that's the reality. 

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This ultimately does Amanda Nunes some good too, since all the questions about the match will go to (and maybe be about) herself and she's gets some time in the limelight. Maybe only a minute, since inevitably the focus will shift back to Ronda and her return etc., but a positive is a positive.

I just really like Amanda Nunes for some reason. I'm seriously rooting for her to win.

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5 minutes ago, Casey said:

This ultimately does Amanda Nunes some good too, since all the questions about the match will go to (and maybe be about) herself and she's gets some time in the limelight. Maybe only a minute, since inevitably the focus will shift back to Ronda and her return etc., but a positive is a positive.

I just really like Amanda Nunes for some reason. I'm seriously rooting for her to win.

I certainly agree, but at the same time, so many people went so hard in the paint on Amanda Nunes out of all people headlining UFC 200. It would be weird that people walked that back and were like, "Hey, Amanda Nunes is such a sweetheart for doing what Ronda didn't want to do." Now we are just in a weird gray area before the fight where the media wants a back-and-forth between Rousey and Nunes or just something catchy to happen with Rousey. Basically, anything with Rousey that's noteworthy. They're not going to get it. So to spin Nunes into this magical babyface (her not being in the commercials for 207, being willing to do media, being this unsung champ), it would take Nunes doing what someone like Mousasi has done. The problem is...Amanda Nunes ain't that person. If she was, she would have capitalized on that immediately. Her English isn't the best, and she isn't going to get give you a ton of quality soundbytes. Maybe something clicks between now and Friday, but for right now, people in the media want what Rousey gave them prior to the Holm fight. It also doesn't help many journalists have a draft on their computer that have something about Rousey being back or something cheesy about her never being gone in the first place ready to go for next Friday should she beat Nunes. If they had enough faith in Nunes beating Rousey and not just this inane, super irrational hate for Ronda Rousey that tons of online MMA fans have, it would make it easier to paint Nunes as a more compelling character. It isn't enough to say I like Amanda Nunes, but I am going to wait until after 207 when I can be the best armchair quarterback I can be.

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1 hour ago, TheVileOne said:

Not sure why Velasquez and his camp put all that information out there if they seriously intended to go forward with the fight. 

This all snowballed after Cain said he was getting surgery after 207 in that MMAAA presser. Naturally, people are going to be inquisitive about why he needed the procedure in the first place.

That presser is looking worse by the day.

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3 minutes ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

This all snowballed after Cain said he was getting surgery after 207 in that MMAAA presser. Naturally, people are going to be inquisitive about why he needed the procedure in the first place.

That presser is looking worse by the day.

He admitted he couldn't stand up straight for more than 10 minutes a day without feeling serious pain and needed cannabis oil to get through practice.  It seems like he didn't really want to fight this weekend.

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2 minutes ago, TheVileOne said:

He admitted he couldn't stand up straight for more than 10 minutes a day without feeling serious pain and needed cannabis oil to get through practice.  It seems like he didn't really want to fight this weekend.

Well, he went to the trouble of having his doctor clear him and then have his doctor get him cleared by the NAC at the wire. It seemed like that was going to happen, but the commission decided against it. If you don't want to fight, you just pull out of the fight.

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