Bisping knocking out Luke Rockhold at UFC 199 screwed up everything. There's no way Rockhold would have fought Hendo. 1 or 2 of the contenders would have contested the belt by now, and if the belt was held by some monster like Romero or if Rockhold was looking good, they probably would have eased GSP in against someone like... well, Bisping.

If Bisping wins, he'll almost definitely have to fight a real contender, but if GSP wins, we may have another money fight against a McGregor or something.

This is a solid weekend with a well above-average PPV.

Friday

8pm - (Spike) - Bellator 174

Not really excited about the main event since it is the inaugural Bellator women's FW title, but whatever. The main card as a whole is pretty good by Bellator's low standards, with lots of top-100 fighters.

Saturday

3pm - (Fightpass) - Cage Warriors, local promotion with regional talent, no one ranked. If you can't wait for the evening, then I guess its still live MMA.

7pm for TV - (5:30pm Fightpass/FS1/PPV) - UFC 209 Woodley vs Thompson 2

On paper, this is a very good PPV. In the main card we start with a fun heavyweight match that will likely end in a 1st round KO, and we end with two very good title fights. In between..... eh, whatever, those other 2 fights aren't why we're watching this. The prelims aren't great, which makes sense, they are probably saving their good non-PPV fights for FOX. They don't need a good prelim to sell this.

The co-main is only for an interim title, but its probably more important than most interim title fights because who knows if Conor will ever defend his belt, so this may end up being a real championship fight. The Eagle is 24-0, a solid favorite to get win #25, and could be a nightmare matchup for Conor. Obviously Conor could get the early KO again if they ever fought, but Khabib quickly wrecks almost anyone he takes down. Anyway, he's got to get by Ferguson first.

Sunday

8pm - (Fightpass) - EBI 11: The Welterweights

I love the Eddie Bravo Invitational, and its the welterweight tournament this time around. EBI is a submission-only grappling tournament with no judges, no scoring, and very clever overtime rules if it goes too long.

EBI always has a gimmick between the rounds of the main tournament, and this time they are going to try a small 4-man "combat jiu-jitsu" tournament between rounds where open-hand striking will be permitted.

Thurman vs Garcia is going to be a very good fight too for the boxing fans.

There will be 3 commentators Saturday: Anik, Rogan, and Dominick Cruz

Not a huge fan of Anik. I'm hoping he wins me over, though.

http://www.mmafighting.com/2017/3/3/...n-fox-in-april

Mighty Mouse is dropping hints that he might be the headliner for UFC on FOX in Kansas City.

Tickets for the event at the Sprint Center go on sale next week so I assume they'll announce what the headline fight will be during the PPV tomorrow night.

Anyone else planning on going?

Khabib Nurmagomedov went to a hospital this morning. The fight has not yet been called off, but he's reportedly having trouble making weight. He has a bit under an hour left, weigh-ins close at 1pm Central.

edit: The reason he went to the hospital is unrelated to his weight cut, and he is still at the hospital. 45 minutes left, it doesn't look good.

Well, shit.

Khabib is off the card, and the interim lightweight championship bout has been cancelled. That is a massive hit to this PPV, its now maybe a little below average.

Nurmagomedov was released from the hospital, but the UFC's doctors told the UFC to cancel the fight.

edit: UFC statement

I'm still buying this PPV, but this is why you never, ever preorder a UFC PPV until the afternoon on fight day. Wait as long as possible, you never know what will come up. Hell, Woodley could wake up violently ill tomorrow morning, and you'd be kicking yourself if you already bought it.

So sick of the weight cutting bullshit....the UFC and commissions need to abolish it...

Have weight ranges for each division that allow fighters to fight at weights comfortably and stop them from killing themselves...

I get what you're saying, but adding weight classes will only water down the talent at each weight.

There is really not a good way to eliminate the practice of weight-cutting. The only thing the UFC or commissions could do I guess would be to punish fighters who miss weight with fines and suspensions to the point where its not worth attempting a cut that you aren't certain about.

They won't do that, though.

I didn't mean add more classes....just expand the weight ranges each are at now.

We just need 3 weight classes.

170, 205 and 260.