The Octagon Report with Nicnas

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Thank you for joining me today in highlighting what’s new in the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) world as well as the upcoming events you should check out. On Fridays, I will express my love for this sport by sharing the most interesting and climactic events from the past week as well as explore upcoming events from the major MMA promotions. Although I will cover a variety of MMA events, I will focus on UFC and Bellator.

Upcoming Events

Date	Promotion	Event	Location
March 17	UFC	Fight Night: Werdum vs. Volkov	London, England (O2 Arena)

There isn’t a great assortment of amazing fights to look forward to this weekend. The closest we come to exciting is the number three ranked Fabricio Werdum versus the number eight ranked Alexander Volkov. This Heavyweight bout will highlight the UFC Fight Night on Saturday, March 17th. Although this event won't have too much name value, the hardcore fight fans will still enjoy the other 11 fights scheduled, as there is a lot of potential stars in the making.

Something to contemplate when watching this Saturday is the future of the UFC. While the lineup isn’t my first choice, there are a few new names to watch.

The first of these is Canadian Hakeem Dawodu. With a nickname of “Mean,” you might want to watch out. He has a 7-0-1 pro record coming into the UFC from the World Series of Fighting. His featherweight fight against Danny Henry from Scotland, will be a good one. Dawodu could become a new UFC star.

The next fighter that's a must to check out is Dmitry Sosnovskiy. He fights out of the USSR and in the heavyweight division against Godbeer on Saturday. Sosnovskiy comes into this fight with a 10-0 pro record.

The last, but definitely not least, prospect is Magomed Ankalaev. He is a light heavyweight that is undefeated at 9-0. He fights out of Russia with six knockouts to his name. Will he add Paul Craig to this list and take home his 7th KO?

Werdum vs. Volkov

Werdum -190 and Volkov +165

An important fight approaches for Werdum as he hopes to get a chance for the heavyweight championship again. After a few bad beats against Miocic (2016) and Overeem (2017), he has made a strong comeback and won a couple straight going into this fight. His strength is his submission, but will he be able to pull it off to take down Alexander Volkov? Volkov is larger by around 19 pounds and three inches and also has a heavy punch. Werdum, now 40, hopes to defeat the larger competition to have a chance again.

MMA News and Highlights

• Cris Cyborg is demanding the “super fight” against Amanda Nunes be on July 6th in Las Vegas or she will give up on the hope that this fight will happen. This comes as Cyborg defeated Yana Kunitskaya at UFC 222.

• Ronda Rousey is trying out fighter management as she takes on her first fighter, Ferdinand Kerobyan, through her new company One Fight Management. Kerobyan just signed with Golden Boy Boxing. This was all confirmed by Ariel Helwani.

• Dana White will be on the UFC 3 video game roster.

• Floyd Mayweather tells TMZ that he is “gonna start soon” in regard to training to fight MMA. He says he will need some time to get ready, 6-8 months maybe, and make sure everything is done correctly while Woodley suggested a 2.5 month timeline. He will be training with Tyron Woodley.

• In the “Believe You Me” podcast, Michael Bisping says that he doesn’t know whether he will ever fight again. The plan would have been to see out the Luke Rockhold vs. Michael Bisping (3rd) as the final bout of his career, but it is looking less likely as Rockhold eggs him on.

• UFC PPV rights were won by Amazon.

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_{Author: @nicnas
Editor: @boatsports90}

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