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Khalil Rountree Jr.
vs.
Marcin Prachnio
Movsar Evloev and Amir Albazi won the decisions at the start of UFC 257, fighting in the first preliminary fights to try to argue that they deserve to rise.
Evloev defeated Nik Lentz by split decision, losing in the eyes of a judge, although he dominated much of the last half of the fight, barely sweating while Lentz’s face was completely bloody.
“I’m very hungry,” said Evloev. He added an appeal to Dana White, president of UFC, for a better competition: “I need the first 15 – I deserve it. Give me someone who deserves to fight me. “
Albazi took the decision victory over Zhalgas Zhumagulov on the ground in the third round, defeating Zhumagulov and threatening several times to strangle him from behind. Zhumagulov stood up at the end of the fight and fought as if he knew he was behind, but was unable to knock out Albazi before handing over the fight to the judges.
Split decision
Movsar Evloev
defeats
Nik Lentz
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Nik Lentz
vs.
Movsar Evloev
Unanimous Decision
Amir Albazi
defeats
Zhalgas Zhumagulov
It might help to think of the two fights at the top of UFC 257 as a playoff brace, with Chandler and Hooker on one side and McGregor and Poirier on the other. After all, Chandler’s value in his UFC debut is that if he wins impressively, he will provide another high-stakes option for McGregor later this year, as long as McGregor wins too.
This matchup, of course, is not guaranteed.
A year ago, UFC President Dana White spoke openly about taking on McGregor and lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov at a football stadium. One year, a pandemic and a retirement later, it seems that a rematch may never happen. So now, McGregor-Chandler seems to be the medium-term goal, and Justin Gaethje may also be an option.
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Amir Albazi
vs.
Zhalgas Zhumagulov
For more than a year, Conor McGregor was under investigation in his native Ireland after a woman accused him of rape. He was not charged criminally, but this week the woman filed a lawsuit. Here is the case:
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Two years ago, the woman told police in Dublin that McGregor had raped her. McGregor was arrested, interrogated and released by the police, but was not charged with any crime during the investigation.
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The police forwarded the case to prosecutors, who refused to pursue criminal charges against McGregor.
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The woman filed a lawsuit against McGregor at the Irish Supreme Court on Monday. The complaint statement in the lawsuit, which was obtained by The New York Times, presents for the first time in graphic detail what it says happened during the meeting. Her claim said that McGregor strangled and raped her. The police later told her, according to the complaint, that a friend of McGregor said he also had sex with her, but she did not remember it and did not consent.
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McGregor denied the charges. In a statement, a spokeswoman for McGregor said he “will challenge all claims and is confident that justice will prevail”. On Thursday, McGregor himself called the case “old news” and said he was still cleared of any wrongdoing.
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If the process continues, the case will eventually be heard by a jury. A jury would have to decide whether what the woman describes is more likely than unlikely, a lesser burden of proof than in a criminal case, where the crime must be proven beyond any reasonable doubt.
McGregor’s focus makes it easier to forget Poirier, but it takes two to fight, and his seven-figure guarantee says he’s a serious competitor and not just a mannequin for McGregor to beat.
Poirier, 32, has won six of his last eight fights – a stretch that includes a no-contest and beats top fighters like Justin Gaethje and former featherweight champion Max Holloway. Poirier lost to Khabib Nurmagomedov, but many fighters do – including McGregor.
In 2014, Poirier lost to McGregor, then a rising UFC star, by knockout in the first round. And in 2011, Poirier was featured in “Fightville”, a documentary examining the mixed martial arts community in Lafayette, Louisiana.
One of his best performances in the UFC came in July 2018, when he dispatched Eddie Alvarez in the second round.
McGregor last fought 53 weeks ago, eliminating Donald Cerrone in 40 seconds and setting up a possible big money rematch against lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. But then the coronavirus pandemic messed up those plans. Nurmagomedov defeated Justin Gaethje in October and retired immediately afterwards. McGregor campaigned to return to the octagon, but was unable to line up a fight until the main event against Poirier took place.
But the advantage, for UFC, of McGregor’s one year absence is that he managed to sell the fight as a return. And the UFC is paying McGregor and Poirier as if the main event was a special occasion.
Last year, McGregor won a $ 3 million guarantee to route Cerrone, which had $ 200,000 guaranteed. This weekend, McGregor (22-4) will win a minimum of $ 5 million, while Poirier (26-6, 1 without competition) has a $ 1 million guarantee. These numbers do not include performance bonuses or the portion of the pay-per-view revenue that headliners typically receive.
The numbers show the seriousness with which the UFC is taking the event – its first pay-per-view card in 2021 – and how much it values the audience that McGregor attracts for the time that can be sustained.
Lightweight contender Michael Chandler will make his UFC debut when he meets Dan Hooker from New Zealand in Saturday’s main co-event, but he is not a rookie. Chandler has a 21-5 record and a reputation for skilled and versatile mixed martial arts fighter.
Last year, he signed with the UFC after a decade with rival promoter Bellator. In October, he served as a substitute for the main event between Nurmagomedov and Gaethje.
He trained like he was going to fight and even weighed in at the 155 pound lightweight limit, so he could fill in immediately if any last-minute catastrophe left any of the headliners.