Canelo Alvarez "a big part" of UFC 306, Khamzat Chimaev blames Darren Till for weight miss, Sean O'Malley details jacket incident: MMA News Roundup
According to Dana White, Canelo Alvarez will be included in the Noche UFC celebrations at The Sphere. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's Turki Alalshikh has seemingly taken a strong stand against illegal streaming.
Catch up with today's top combat sports updates with Sportskeeda MMA's News Roundup.
"Canelo is a big part of the night" - Dana White about Noche UFC at The Sphere
UFC's annual 'Noche' event celebrating the Mexican Independence Day will go down on Sep. 14 at The Sphere in Las Vegas as UFC 306. At the same time, Mexico's own Canelo Alvarez will put his world titles on the line against Edgar Berlanga in the same city at T-Mobile Arena. Many have blamed this pay-per-view clash for the low ticket sales of UFC 306.
However, Dana White said the event has already broken the promotion's highest live gate record. As for viewership rivalry with Alvarez, White said there is no bad blood. In fact, he is going to feature in the short films UFC will air in between fights to celebrate Mexican heritage and their contribution to combat sports.
White said:
"That night we're talking about the history of Mexico and the history of the people and their traditions and the impact that they've had on combat sports and somebody said to me, 'So you'll be celebrating Canelo that night.' Yes, we are... Canelo is a big part of the night."
Julio Cesar Chavez and Salvador Sanchez will also feature in their films, White added.
Watch Dana White's comments below (9:20):
"Before I met you, I never missed weight" - Khamzat Chimaev to Darren Till
Khamzat Chimaev has blamed close friend Darren Till for missing weight.
'Borz' infamously weighed in 7.5 pounds heavier ahead of his scheduled fight against Nate Diaz at UFC 279, which led to a complete reshuffling of the card. He fought and won against Kevin Holland instead. MMA fighters and fans almost unanimously criticized Chimaev for the massive weight miss, but the Chechen had always been nonchalant about it.
Two years later, he jokingly accused Till's sweet tooth of the incident in an X-Space conversation:
"Before I met you, I never missed weight. Because you eat everyday chocolate brother, I couldn’t stop as well...You don't have discipline bro, that's why you're not close to me now. Now you're in Liverpool...You drink beer everyday man."
Till played along, appearing stunned by the accusation and claiming that he never ate chocolate near the Chechen-Swede fighter.
Listen to the chat below:
Sean O'Malley says Merab Dvalishvili never stole his jacket
Sean O'Malley claimed in a recent interview with TMZ Sports that Merab Dvalishvili never really "stole" his jacket, but he handed it over mistaking the Georgian as an official.
The incident happened when O'Malley stepped inside the octagon for a face-off with Dvalishvili's close friend and teammate Aljamain Sterling after the latter's successful title defense against Henry Cejudo. As the two bantamweight mouthed off at each other, Dvalishvili managed to grab O'Malley's red jacket and put it on himself.
Revisiting the incident ahead of his title fight against Dvalishvili more than a year later, 'Sugar' said:
"He didn't steal my jacket. You won't see a video on the internet of him stealing my jacket. You will see me handing him my jacket. I thought he was a jacket holder. I thought the UFC knew I was gonna take my jacket off and they had someone in place for me to hold. He looks just like every f***ing door guy."
Check out Sean O'Malley's comments below (3:10):