Daniel Cormier appeared on The MMA Hour with Luke Thomas on Monday. Cormier has been dealing with an injury after a sneeze caused a back injury last November. He blamed the injury on the quick turn around of preparing for his fight with Derrick Lewis, which was announced three weeks out from the event. Cormier was offered to fight on March 2nd at UFC 235 but didn’t receive an opponent, and he is now extending his deadline for retirement to this summer (no longer this spring). He still hopes to fight Brock Lesnar. If the Lesnar fight falls through, he believes it’ll probably be a rematch against Stipe Miocic or a third fight against Jon Jones.
The UFC 234 prelims pulled a strong number for ESPN last Saturday with an average of 1,339,000 viewers. The prelim fights featured Devonte Smith defeating Callan Porter in the final prelim bout. The card’s lead in was the Duke vs. Virginia college basketball that averaged 3,318,000 viewers.
This Sunday, the UFC holds it’s first full main card on ESPN, with Francis Ngannou vs. Cain Velasquez headlining the card. The prelims will air on ESPN as well, beginning at 7 pm ET. The prelims will go head-to-head against WWE Elimination Chamber, which begins at 7 pm ET as well. The NBA All-Star Game also airs that same night, beginning at 8 pm ET.
TMZ has reported that PFL heavyweight Josh Copeland was taken into custody on February 2nd and booked for second-degree assault, obstruction of telephone service and criminally negligent child abuse after allegedly assaulting his wife in front of the couple’s child. TMZ obtained the police report that stated authorities arrived at their home and Copeland’s wife had “an obvious bruise on her left eye, a cut and was bleeding.” According to Copeland’s wife, the two were arguing with Copeland pushing her and she pushed back, she added that she slapped him twice, which led to her being punched in the face with Copeland leaving with her phone. The police added that Copeland did not remember punching her. The fighter will appear in court on March 1st for a preliminary hearing. Since the incident, the PFL has been indefinitely suspended Copeland.
The UFC has announced that their UFC 238 pay-per-view is scheduled to take place from the United Center in Chicago on Saturday, June 8th.
Bellator has announced its second European series card on Saturday, May 4th in Birmingham, England. The main event is scheduled to see former lightweight champion Brent Primus take on promotional newcomer Tim Wilde.