UFC 293 main event has a backup, Rose Namajunas talks fall-out with her team, Conor McGregor achieves another career milestone: MMA News Roundup
Welcome to Sportskeeda's daily MMA News Roundup, where we present the biggest UFC news updates and other stories from the world of mixed martial arts.
In today's issue, we will discuss Conor McGregor's latest achievement, Rose Namajunas' loss to Manon Fiorot, and more.
#3 UFC 293 main event reportedly has a backup
Middleweight mainstay Jared Cannonier is reportedly going to serve as a backup for the UFC 293 headliner fight between Israel Adesanya and Sean Strickland.
The news was reported by MMA Junkie's Mike Bohn.
'The Killa Gorilla' has bounced off well from his title loss to Israel Adesanya with two back-to-back wins over Sean Strickland and Marvin Vettori. Being a backup means, Cannonier at the very least gets to fight for an interim UFC belt if one of the main event fighters pulls out. While that is excellent news for the middleweight, fans were not too keen on watching Cannonier compete again for the title.
It seemed like they remembered the snoozefest his title fight against Adesanya was and did not want a repeat of that at UFC 293.
#2 Rose Namajunas had a fallout with Trevor Wittman and the team
MMA fans were surprised to not see Trevor Wittman at Rose Namajunas' corner at UFC Paris. They blamed her trainer and fiance Pat Barry for Wittman's absence. Namajunas took to Instagram Live to set the record straight on the matter.
She revealed that she had a fall-out with Wittman and Justin Gaethje over the BMF title fight overlapping with her camp, which was the reason behind the coach's absence.
"People are just gonna assume that, Oh he's [Pat Barry] the reason why he [Trevor Wittman] wasn't in my corner. It has nothing to do with Pat, it has everything to do with me and Gaethje and him having a fight with the BMF and all that stuff I did not want to interfere with, there's more to it than that but for the most part that's all."
Watch the segment [shared by MMA Mania on X]:
#1 Conor McGregor receives BJJ black belt from John Kavanagh
Conor McGregor is finally a BJJ black belt.
More than two decades after starting to train, Conor McGregor received the prestigious rank of a black belt on Tuesday. He was awarded the belt by his longtime coach and friend, John Kavanagh.
To celebrate the achievement, the Irishman shared a 10-year-old tweet predicting a list of his MMA goals, of which he has reached all but one.
"I just want two gold belts, a jiu-jitsu blackbelt, a hall of fame plaque, and 25 million in the bank. Is that too much to ask? Gym time!!" the tweet from 2013 read.
Conor McGregor's UFC return is still not confirmed, but it is almost certain he's fighting Michael Chandler upon his comeback.