UFC 211 Primer

Stipe Miocic will take on former champ Junior dos Santos tonight in Dallas for the heavyweight championship.

Published on Saturday, 5/13/17, at 4:55 p.m. Eastern.

–The early UFC Fight Pass prelims begin at 6:30 p.m. Eastern with three fights. Next, four scraps will take place on FX (not Fox Sports 1 or FS2 as usual) starting at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, headlined by an outstanding lightweight showdown between Eddie Alvarez and Dustin ‘Diamond’ Poirier. The five-fight main card will be on pay per view at 10:00 p.m. Eastern.

–Here’s my in-depth preview with picks galore filed yesterday to VegasInsider.com.

GambLou and I broke down the main card of UFC 211 in this week’s edition of my Games Galore podcast.

–It’s official. Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier will finally meet again in the UFC 214 headliner in Anaheim. This was announced at Friday’s UFC Summer Kickoff presser. Jones and Cormier had to be separated beforehand by security officials (shocker!). These two individuals have nothing but hate galore for each other. Cormier said, “Will he be in Anaheim, or will he do cocaine? Jones responded, “I beat you after a weekend of cocaine.”

–According to Andy Nesbitt of Fox Sports, Dana White told him Jimi Manuwa will be on the UFC 214 card against a to-be-determined opponent. Nesbitt implied Manuwa will on the card “just in case” (presumably there’s an issue with Jones, Manuwa would face Cormier).

–In yet another huge development yesterday, UFC bantamweight champ Cody ‘No Love’ Garbrandt tweeted that he injured his back two months ago. He was heading to Germany for another “procedure.” Garbrandt is now a huge question mark for his title defense against former champ T.J. Dillashaw at UFC 213. Dillashaw has suggested dropping down to flyweight (if Garbrandt is a no-go for 213), but Demetrious ‘Mighty Mouse’ Johnson doesn’t sound interested. “There’s other challengers in the division with more wins and on a winning streak,” Johnson told MMA Fighting. “This wouldn’t be a super-fight because TJ is not a champion. He’s just a 135er coming down to 125 to skip the line that other flyweight competitors have worked hard to climb.Now, if he was a champion, there’d be something there.”

–Chris Weidman will seek to avoid a four-fight losing streak when he faces Kelvin Gastelum in the main event at UFC on FOX 25. Other announced fights Friday included Amanda Nunes vs. Valentina Shevchenko (UFC 213), Michael Johnson vs. Justin Gaethje (TUF 25 main event) and Holly Holm vs. Bethe Correia (UFC Singapore). Check out Holm and Correia’s tense face off below.

–Kevin Lee and Michael Chiesa threw blows and were kicked out of the UFC Summmer Kickoff presser. You can check out the video of it here via BloodyElbow.com.

–ICYMI earlier this week: GSP’s return fight against Michael Bisping for the middleweight strap has been scrapped. Instead, Bisping will take on Yoel Romero.

–Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports had this column on whether or not Edgar has another title run left in his gas tank.

–Chuck Mindenhall of MMAFighting.com had this excellent piece on Nate Diaz earlier this week. Here’s an excerpt: “McGregor came along, and Diaz became fully realized. That was the transaction.

–Fresh off his breakout win over Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone by second-round knockout, Jorge Masvidal has a dire prediction for his UFC 211 counterpart, Demian Maia. Masvidal told Damon Martin of FoxSports.com, “What’s coming on May 13, people ain’t ready for. If this was being sold on DVD’s, you would make a half an hour line to get this DVD. Cause it’s going to be brutal,” Masvidal said. “If you don’t like seeing violence, don’t [expletive] tune in May 13. Cause what’s coming on May 13 is going to be violent. It’s going to be some [expletive]. The same way I told you about the “Cowboy” fight, it’s going to be violent.

“This is not PG-13. This is not rated ‘R’. This is XXX. If you don’t like those types of films, don’t tune in May 13. That’s all I’m going to say.”

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