- Dana White reveals the main cards for the UFC events scheduled for June 20 and June 27.
- Blaydes vs. Volkov and Poirier vs. Hooker to highlight these two events.
- White also explains the situation regarding Conor McGregor and his previous demands.
UFC on ESPN 11 and 12 Main Cards Revealed
In the recent few days, the UFC’s president announced several upcoming events, among them the UFC 252 and the third part of Miocic vs. Cormier rivalry.
He would yesterday speak about two spectacles which are coming over the next two weeks. Even though they don’t feature big names like some other future events, both UFC on ESPN 11 and 12 guarantee lots of fun.
The first one is on June 20, and the main fight of that event involves Curtis Blaydes and Alexander Volkov. The two heavyweights are going against one another, and hope to earn a win, which would bring them one step closer to the title fight. Even though some suggest that this is a sort of a title-eliminator, White shut down all those insinuations, saying that Francis Ngannou holds the No.1 place in the challenger list and that whoever wins between Miocic and Cormier faces him next.
“The heavyweight division is finally heating up here,” White said. “Get that title fight out there and then find out who’s next. Obviously, Ngannou is the man right now. No matter what happens with Curtis Blaydes, he’s lost to Ngannou twice.”
Blaydes, however, bounced back after his second loss to Ngannou, and he now has three wins in a row, the lastest one against Junior dos Santos. Volkov, on the other side, lost to Derrick Lewis, but after that got back on track with a victory over Greg Hardy.
The event scheduled for June 27 highlights the fight between Dustin Poirier and Dan Hooker. Poirier, who lost to Khabib at the UFC 242 last September, is now looking his way back to the top of the lightweight, and his opponent is the rising force from New Zealand, Dan Hooker.
Hooker has six wins in the last seven bouts, some of them against very good rivals, such as Paul Felder, Al Iaquinta, and Gilbert Burns.
McGregor Case
White also wanted to say a few words about Conor Mcgregor and the entire situation which surrounded his recent retirement. It seems that the former two-division champ happened to be unhappy because he didn’t get what he wanted, that is the fight he aimed for.
UFC’s president revealed that Conor had the offer to step in if either Khabib or Ferguson drops out from the fight, but that he refused that possibility. Instead, he would demand a fight against Gaethje after his win over El Cucuy, which wasn’t possible.
“Conor had the opportunity to slide into that spot if Khabib or Tony fell out. He came back and said, ‘I’m not a replacement fighter. I’m not going to do it.’ He would be in that position now if he took the fight. He didn’t, Gaethje did, so Gaethje gets it.”
Just to remind you, Gaethje offered to fight Conor following his comeback win over Donald Cowboy Cerrone, but the Notorious refused that possibility.
