UFC 211 is stacked with talent, championships and major implications

UFC 211, which takes place Saturday at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, is loaded with fights that will dictate the direction of several divisions.

The pay-per-view event is headlined by championship fights in the UFC’s heaviest and lightest divisions. UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic will defend his title against the last fighter to beat him, former champion Junior dos Santos. UFC strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk looks to remain undefeated when she faces Jessica Andrade, who is 3-0 since moving to the division.

On top of those two title fights, the main card has three bouts with huge implications on their divisions. Demian Maia, who many consider to be the logical next opponent for welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, faces Woodley’s American Top Team teammate Jorge Masvidal. The winner of this fight could be next in line for a title shot.

Another fight that is expected to crown a top contender features 24-year-old Yair Rodriguez, who is 6-0 in the UFC, facing former UFC lightweight champion and two-time featherweight title challenger Frankie Edgar, who is 6-2 at featherweight with both losses coming to current champion Jose Aldo.

In the main card opener, second-ranked flyweight Henry Cejudo, who won a gold medal in freestyle wrestling at the 2008 Olympics, faces sixth-ranked Sergio Pettis. The winner of this fight could be in line for a title fight against flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson, who retained his title last month.

The main event of the preliminary card, which airs on TSN, features former lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez, who dropped the title to Conor McGregor last November, facing Dustin Poirier.

St-Pierre looking to fight Bisping late this year

Georges St-Pierre took to Twitter this week with a message for his next opponent, UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping, regarding a potential time frame for their previously announced fight.

St-Pierre’s message says that he is planning to enter his training camp in July and wants to fight sometime after October.

While Bisping has yet to respond to St-Pierre, he did take to his podcast to complain about the double standard of fans getting upset with him because of his lack of activity despite McGregor pursuing a boxing match against Floyd Mayweather Jr.

With St-Pierre also hinting on Twitter last week that he could be fighting at Madison Square Garden, signs are starting to point to a November date for the title fight.

Silva talking retirement after White rebuffs interim title fight demand

On last week’s edition of The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva was livid over both the state of his division and that the UFC hadn’t found him a suitable opponent for UFC 212 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, after his opponent, Kelvin Gastelum, was suspended due to a positive test for in-competition marijuana use.

During his appearance, Silva threatened the UFC with retirement if they didn’t schedule an interim middleweight title fight between him and top contender Yoel Romero at UFC 212. Romero subsequently called in and said that he would accept the fight if it was for the interim title. If not, he would wait until the aftermath of the fight between St-Pierre and Bisping.

UFC president Dana White told TMZ that he had no interest in introducing an interim title because Bisping was healthy and willing to defend his belt. He also stated that any time a fighter is considering retirement that they should retire.

On Sunday night, Silva told Brazilian outlet UOL that he has withdrawn from UFC 212 and hinted that he is leaning towards retirement.

Diaz says he is unlikely to fight in 2017

UFC lightweight Nate Diaz joined a special mid-week edition of The MMA Hour devoted entirely to him and discussed his future in an interview with Ariel Helwani that lasted over an hour.

Diaz said that he did not expect to fight in 2017. The UFC had offered Diaz an interim title bout against Tony Ferguson at UFC 213, which Diaz had accepted, but then turned down to what he called “circumstances.”

Diaz said that his time has been consumed by bicycle racing and that until the UFC presents him with a worthwhile offer financially, he has no plans to fight.

White told TMZ that it doesn’t seem as if Nate or his brother, welterweight Nick Diaz, want to fight anymore, and said that the organization offers them fights all the time.

Mayweather waiting for McGregor to sign contract

Mayweather appeared as a guest on The Stephen A. Smith Show last week and when asked about his rumoured boxing match against UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor, he was unsure if the fight would happen.

“Do I believe the fight is gonna happen? I really don’t know as of right now,” Mayweather told Smith. “Me and my side, we’re ready to go. As soon as they sign on the dotted line, then it’s time to go to training camp.”

The Mayweather fight was likely the furthest thing from McGregor’s mind this past weekend as his fiancée, Dee Devlin, gave birth to their first child. Conor Jack McGregor has his own Instagram account, which already has over 55,000 followers despite not having a single post.