A win for McGregor over Dustin Poirier in their UFC 264 rubber match, which headlines the ESPN+ pay-per-view event from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday, and, to quote the Irishman, “the king is back.”

“If he wins, he can do whatever he wants, to be completely honest with you,” UFC color commentator and retired lightweight Paul Felder recently told The Post in a phone interview. “He can fight for the belt. … Why not? [UFC lightweight champion] Charles Oliveira would be silly to not want to take that paycheck.”

But a loss? That’s where it’s less cut and dried, in Felder’s estimation. If McGregor (22-5, 20 finishes) were to put on a close, five-round war with Poirier, who won such a bout last June in what was perhaps the 2020 fight of the year against Dan Hooker, that would leave plenty of possibilities open to the UFC’s top moneymaker.

Those possibilities would vanish, however, if Poirier (27-6, 20 finishes), who has as viable a claim to being the sport’s best 155-pounder as Oliveira himself, were to end the former two-division champion’s night early.

“If [McGregor] gets KO’d, it’s real bad,” Felder said. “I don’t know what he gets [next], maybe the [Nate] Diaz fight again or something like that. But it still doesn’t have that allure to it. … To see him go out and get KO’d twice in a row or, God forbid, submitted, I think it’s towards the end. I think that might be it for really seeing him in any competitive fights to get to the belt, which would be unfortunate for him and for the UFC.”

Since retiring in May at age 37, Felder has focused on training for triathlons and returned to his love of acting with a role in an episode of the HBO Max series “Hacks.” He was part of the three-man commentary team on Jan. 24 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, when Poirier put down McGregor with punches in the second round of their rematch. With his unique perspective as a former lightweight contender himself, Felder has firm ideas of what went wrong for McGregor the last time, more than six years after he scored a TKO of Poirier in under two minutes when both were rising featherweight contenders.

Felder suspects McGregor soaking in time on a yacht “drinking mimosas and champagne and living the multimillion dollar lifestyle” softened the former simultaneous featherweight and lightweight UFC champ. But he also pointed to Poirier’s evolution as a fighter over the years as a major reason “The Diamond” settled the score with the Irishman.

“Since Dustin has changed over to the lightweight division, he’s just been a completely different athlete,” Felder said. “He’s bigger, he’s stronger, he can take a better shot, he’s smarter, they’re game-planning things much better. His coaching staff behind him, they’re a well-oiled machine now, and that was not the case when he fought him the first time.”

In the January rematch, McGregor leaned heavily on his boxing while Poirier ground down his opponent’s lead leg with MMA’s “it” move — the calf kick. McGregor took the first round on the judges’ scorecards, but Poirier landed big power punches to his compromised opponent in the next frame until, as Felder put it, McGregor “was maybe even looking for a way out because that leg was just mangled.”

The end came midway through the second round, when Poirier punctuated a flurry with a menacing right hook to score a TKO on McGregor, who appeared unconscious. Having such a setback held over him by Poirier has to be running laps in McGregor’s head, said Felder, who knows from experience the feeling of losing and wondering what could have been done differently.

“Of course!” Felder exclaimed at the suggestion Poirier is in McGregor’s head. “[McGregor’s] gonna say no, but he is. I mean, you got put out. You got put out. Any time somebody beats you like that, you can say all the things you wanna say. And I’ve got nothing but respect for both these guys, but if you get knocked out, that person’s living in that headspace.”

Felder, who will not be on the call this time, said there’s little that could have changed evolutionarily for the two veteran headliners in the 5 ½ months since their last fight. Tactics will be adjusted. McGregor, he figures, will come with a much different approach, forcing Poirier to do the same.

Ultimately, however, Felder said he expects this one won’t go well for the sport’s biggest star.

“I think we will see a competitive first few rounds,” Felder says. “I think Conor’s gonna come at it with a different approach, but I just don’t see him putting Poirier away, and I see Poirier getting a late finish.”

This story originally appeared on: NyPost - Author:Scott Fontana

He’s lost 14 pro MMA bouts. He’s come up short of championships in the three most noteworthy fight promotions since the fall of Pride in 2007. At one point in his UFC run, he lost four split decisions in a three-year span; so each time, at least one person, who’s assessment of who won the fight mattered, believed he should not have lost.

“That led to me creating a new formula,” Masvidal told The Post over the phone recently regarding his narrow defeats. “… That changed my whole mindset. Like, ‘Man, if I had won those four split decisions, where would my career be if I had just won, if they have given them to me? And right then and there is when something much greater in me woke up and said, ‘Stop thinking like a f—king peasant, man. That’s why I never get nowhere. How about if I ended all those guys and there was no decision, [and] I just murdered those guys?’” 

Now, here comes Masvidal, ready for a second crack at finally becoming the UFC welterweight champion only nine months after falling short against Kamaru Usman. The kicker: He didn’t even need to take a fight in the meantime in order to become the headliner along with the champ for UFC 261 at Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla., in front of a sellout crowd for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic altered the world’s normal operations. Theirs is one of three scheduled championship bouts, with both the women’s flyweight and strawweight titles on the line on pay-per-view.

But Masvidal (35-14, 18 finishes) maintains he never gave up on himself, his abilities or his potential despite the myriad of setbacks in the cage. His chance at winning Bellator’s inaugural lightweight championship tournament in 2009 ended in the semifinals with a loss to Toby Imada via a rare inverted triangle submission loss — the last time any opponent stopped him. Two years later in Strikeforce, he lost a lopsided decision to 155-pound champion Gilbert Melendez. Plenty of times over the past two decades, he came out on the wrong end of close decisions; he’s 17-11 in fights that go the distance but just 2-5 in split decisions. 

The frustration Masvidal felt from dropping so many close fights was a catalyst to his late-career surge, which peaked with a remarkable 2019 run in which he went 3-0 with knockouts of Darren Till and Ben Askren — the famous five-second, flying knee KO — and a TKO of Nate Diaz to earn the promotional BMF belt at Madison Square Garden. In the process, he changed the narrative of his career from an exciting-to-watch vagabond into one of combat sports’ most bankable stars.

“So that took a formula, that took a recipe, that took dedication, will, all these things because it’s easy to say, ‘Oh, I’m just gonna knock these guys out,’” Masvidal said. “It’s a lot easier said than done. … I could have quit a long, long time ago and nobody would have been complaining, you know? But, I’m a competitor.”

The 36-year-old Masvidal, who turned pro at 18, has been a professional fighter for half his life. But winning the 170-pound title from Usman (18-1, nine finishes), who eaned a lopsided decision over him last July when Masvidal accepted the fight as a late replacement and went through a massive 20-pound weight drop in a matter of days to clear the contracted weight, would be “like my career is just starting.”

“Everything I’ve done in the past already is pretty cool and all, but I don’t dwell on past achievements,” Masvidal said. “I only look to the future. So I’m looking forward to that belt and what comes after.”

The decision to book Usman and Masvidal again so soon after a definitive result raised eyebrows. After all, the champion took another fight in the interim, stopping former training partner Gilbert Burns via third-round TKO in February. Some wondered why Masvidal should get a second chance so quickly, without competing again.

Money is the obvious answer. Masvidal is considered the biggest draw in the division, surpassing the dominant champ himself. The challenger concedes that’s true but only part of why he feels the rematch makes sense. He points to his durability in going the distance when Usman finished his other two most recent opponents: Burns and Colby Covington.

Perhaps the most salient point from a competitive standpoint, though, is the fact that Masvidal accepted the fight against Usman barely a week out from the July 12 event in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, when original opponent Burns contracted COVID-19. Masvidal says that, at the time, “I was home, on the couch, eating junk food and watching TV” and not preparing for the biggest fight of his career. 

As such, the argument for plunking down another $70 to watch a fight many saw a year ago — a strategic slog in which Usman utilized a heavy clinching approaching to get the job done — is predicated on this premise: Under more ideal circumstances, Usman vs. Masvidal II will be a better representation of each man at their best. And Masvidal doesn’t think either man was at their best, given all the travel and preparation factors involved beyond just weight.

“Usually when I fight at 170 [pounds], I cut seven or eight pounds [during] fight week,” Masvidal explains, comparing it to his 20-pound drop for the first Usman bout. “So it made a major difference. The reflexes, a little bit of strength here or there [are off].”

The silver lining, Masvidal says, was the chance to see first-hand what Usman is like in the cage. The 50th MMA bout of his career will be his first rematch.

“I got to take a lot of notes on this guy, see his strength levels, gauge his speed and his power,” Masvidal said. “And one thing I can tell you [is] that, man, as tired as I was in that fourth and fifth round, when he cracked me, it was like, ‘Man, this guy hits like a b—h.’ So I’m not worried about his power.

“It’s just at the end of the day, God made us. God made me a man, and God made him a little less.”

Masvidal won’t say how much longer his lengthy career will last, but he swears to have an exact date and an age in mind for when he will hang up his gloves that he keeps to himself. He has no intention of being “that guy that’s hanging on and getting beat up by guys that wouldn’t have held my jock strap in my day,” but expects to have several more years ahead of him in this sport.

“I can tell you this much: The chapter in MMA is nowhere near closing out,” Masvidal assures.

This story originally appeared on: NyPost - Author:Scott Fontana

For bettors and non-bettors alike, that’s a testament to how far ahead Shevchenko (20-3, 13 finishes) is considered to be than the rest of the 125-pound contenders. 

But there’s a different vibe going into the champ’s fifth title defense on Saturday for UFC 261 at Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla., where she will face former 115-pound champion Jessica Andrade in one of three title fights scheduled to air on pay-per-view. For sure, Shevchenko remains a heavy favorite, but the betting line currently hovers around -400 instead of the typical -1000 from her four title defenses the past two years.

That’s likely due to the respect Andrade (21-8, 15 finishes) brings to the octagon as a former champion who has some of the tools to, on paper, push Shevchenko at some level. The challenger is short and sturdy, winning her strawweight crown from Rose Namajunas by slam knockout. (Incidentally, Namajunas will challenge Zhang Weili, the woman who took the belt from Andrade, for that title on Saturday as well).

“I think she’s a very strong fighter,” Shevchenko told The Post over the phone last Thursday. “She has very strong power. She does very good wrestling, so she’s a fighter who you have to be careful with. … I very [much] like to fight with the best ones. Only this is how you can show and prove that you are the best, to fight with all the best. 

“That’s why I’m here. That’s why I’m the champion, and I will hold this belt for the whole time.”

Shevchenko, a native of Kyrgyzstan who also represents her adopted home of Peru, is coming off a clear, unanimous decision victory over Jennifer Maia on Nov. 21. Though, it did include a surprising setback of sorts.

For the first time since returning to flyweight in 2018, she lost a round (the second) on all three judges’ scorecards.

That weight-class switch came in the wake of a heavily debated split-decision loss to Amanda Nunes, the bantamweight champion who since has added the featherweight title to her all-time great résumé. The two women have been equally dominant across three of the UFC’s four women’s weight classes for years, making a third meeting between the two tantalizing for outside observers despite Nunes’ 2-0 record in the rivalry — the first loss was also closely contested, going the three-round distance.

While Shevchenko is open to opportunities that arise, her sole focus is defending the flyweight title in order to “keep this belt for a long time.”

“If it’s gonna happen in the future, perfect, we will fight,” Shevchenko says of a potential third meeting against Nunes. “… I’m not the person who’s kind of, like, running for this fight and trying to rush it.”

Shevchenko’s approach to the flyweight division is similar to that of another dominant champion, the recently retired and still-unbeaten lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. Like Nurmagomedov, she believes building her legacy within her own division is a worthy pursuit, not necessarily jumping weight classes or looking to become a “champ-champ” like Nunes.

“Is it not enough to defend your belt and be dominant in your own weight class, when all your life was fighting in the bigger weight classes and now, finally, you have your own weight class where you can perform and show your best?” Shevchenko, who holds notable wins at 135 pounds over ex-bantamweight champion Holly Holm, Sarah Kaufman and Julianna Pena, asks rhetorically with conviction. 

One potential complication exists at flyweight, though. Her older sister, Antonina Shevchenko, also competes in the UFC at 125 pounds. Antonina, 3-2 in the UFC, is considered a top-15 flyweight in her own right who has alternated wins with losses to respected veterans Roxanne Modafferi and Katlyn Chookagian.

Valentina would become the first to finish Chookagian when they met for the champ’s title last February.

That’s not a problem the UFC’s first and only pair of sisters are concerned with just yet. They’ll cross that bridge when they get to it.

“When it’s gonna happen, we [will] start to think about it,” Shevchenko said. “Right now, I’m focused on my way, and she’s focused on her way. She’s focusing to go and be the contender, but when it happens — and it [will] happen, I know for sure — we will make plans, for sure.”

This story originally appeared on: NyPost - Author:Scott Fontana

Pliev’s left ring finger was severed (Graphic image) during his co-main event bout against Devin Goodale, with broadcast cameras picking up what happened between the second and third rounds.

“In the second round, he caught my glove with one hand and held it,” Pliev told ESPN’s Marc Raimondi. “I felt my finger snapped. He kept pulling my glove and my finger snapped. We kept fighting. When the second round was finished, I see my [bone] was out in the open. I wanted to keep fighting, because I felt like I had this guy. But the doctor saw that and stopped the fight. “

Confusion reigned as it was not immediately clear where the disconnected portion of Pliev’s digit had gone or when the injury took place. There was a search to track down the finger and even an announcement asking for help.

CFFC president Rob Haydek later said on the broadcast, available on UFC Fight Pass, that the finger was located inside Pliev’s glove.

Pliev later told ESPN that he was in the hospital emergency room where his finger was successfully reattached.

The bout was halted between rounds because of the injury, with Goodale earning a win via TKO.

This story originally appeared on: NyPost - Author:Scott Fontana