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411 Fact or Fiction MMA: Will Nate Diaz Fight Tony Ferguson?

May 31, 2017 | Posted by Lorenzo Vasquez

Welcome back to another edition of 411 Fact or Fiction MMA! I’m your host, Lorenzo Vasquez III, and it is my pleasure to bring you some clarity in the world of professional mixed martial arts with another round of 411 fact or fiction. But before moving on, I want to thank you for your votes and comments last week. It is appreciated and I encourage you to dish it out this week. Last week, the heavy hitting Mark Radulich challenged the one and only, Robert Winfree, on such subjects as Georges St-Pierre vs. Conor McGregor, Paul Daley’s need for Michael “Venom” Page, and California’s new 10-point weight cutting plan in addition to other subjects. Robert found his rhythm early, sticking and moving. Mark, however, bounced back and found his openings, unfortunately, it was too late and Robert rode the horse home with a 13-to-11 victory. Congratulations, Robert, and thank you both for your efforts and contribution.

This week, Jeffrey “The Vile One” Harris will look to give the king of kings, Dino Zee, a run for his money. They will lock horns over Tony Ferguson’s fruitless quest to fight Nate Diaz, Volkan Oezemir flying up the ranks, Germaine de Randamie’s refusal to fight Cris Cyborg, and much more! It’s time to grab that grub and make yourself comfortable. Let’s get ready because it’s time for another round of, 411 Fact or Fiction MMA! Let’s get this boat rowing…

TALE OF THE TAPE
RED CORNER
Jeffrey “The Vile One” Harris
Contributor, Various 411 Zones
2-4-4

VS

BLUE CORNER
Dino “Salad Bar” Zee
Contributor, 411 Wrestling Zone
8-0-1

Tony Ferguson can keep trying but, unfortunately, Nate Diaz is not likely to answer his challenge anytime soon.

Jeffrey Harris: FACT That boat has sailed for Tony Ferguson. He doesn’t hold any negotiating power or leverage over Nate Diaz. Nate Diaz isn’t going to fight again unless it’s a Conor McGregor level fight, and it’s that simple. Ferguson won’t be able to make that happen for him. Ferguson deserves a title shot, but Conor McGregor isn’t available right now, unfortunately. So, if he’s not going to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov, just have him fight Eddie Alvarez.

Dino Zee: FACT Definitely “unfortunately,” but yeah, I think this is a solid FACT. Nate appears to be holding out for Conor, or a ton of money, and the fight with Ferguson doesn’t appear to satisfy either of his current conditions to accept a fight. It’s too bad, because I’d love to see Ferguson and Diaz scrap, but you can’t force someone to fight if they don’t want to, and Nate has fully realized this. I admire Ferguson for trying to rile Nate up and get him to take the bait, but it just doesn’t seem like he’s offering anything that has interest for Nate. Bit of a bummer, but it’s what was to be expected once the inmates started running the asylum. El Cucuy’s going to have to find someone else to be his dance partner, I feel.

The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation was right to fine, suspend, and overturn Cortney Casey’s win for failing an in-competition drug test, despite the fact the test result wouldn’t be a fail under USADA.

Jeffrey Harris: FiCTION I say Fiction here because there’s a lot wrong with Texas’ regulations and the way they conduct business. For starters, based on what was reported for this story, the Texas Commission would only do follow-up testing on Casey’s samples if she were to disclose that she was taking a substance that would elevate it. That sounds counter-intuitive to me. If her substance was flagged, why not submit it for a further battery of tests? Also, if she was taking PEDs, her sanction is more or less a slap on the wrist. It’s three months and $2,000. Now, I’m not saying Casey is definitively guilty or innocent. But, this commission is woefully incompetent and has no idea what it’s doing or how to regulate.

Dino Zee: FACT As usual, my disclaimer about not being some legal expert and all of that jazz. That said, knowing how these State Agencies / Commissions can basically do whatever they want, I’ll just say yeah, they were right to act on Cortney Casey’s drug-test failure. As far as I know, USADA isn’t the only law in town, and just because something may be acceptable under their guidelines, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s okay overall. I guess there’s a part of me that wonders if they went too far, but then I think that if the Department felt she broke the rules, then going the full-on fine/suspension/overturn route is probably fair. I’m just a bit disappointed in the whole thing, as I enjoy watching Casey fight and am sad to see this development.

With a win over Ovince ST. Preux and an impressive finish of Misha Cirkunov, plus the current status of the light heavyweight division, Volkan Oezemir is up next for a title shot after Jimi Manuwa.

Jeffrey Harris: FICTION The win over Cirkunov was a solid win for Volkan Oezdemir, but he’s not a title contender yet. That was really his first solid win in the UFC. His win over Ovince St. Preux was trash. He got a gift decision in an awful fight, that he was lucky to win. Not to mention, it was one of the worst fights of the year. He should have to beat another solid contender in the top five before he’s considered a title contender.

Dino Zee: FICTION *If* Manuwa has next, then I’d have to assume that Alexander Gustafsson, he of the forever Top 3 ranking based on a fight he lost in September 2013 and then his beating of Glover this past weekend, will be next. The UFC has done everything in their power to keep Gus near the top of the rankings to set up that rematch with Jones, and if a two-fight losing skid couldn’t keep him that far away, then you can bet that Oezemir’s beating of OSP and Cirkunov won’t be enough to do so, either. Oezemir most certainly will need to win another fight (and possibly two) before he finds himself fighting for the Light Heavyweight championship, in my opinion. Both Gus and Manuwa are ahead of him in line.

SWITCH!

In regards to the Angela Magana/Cris Cyborg situation, the UFC will either have to not discipline Cyborg or discipline both females for their roles leading to and during the altercation.

Dino Zee: FICTION While one might hope that the UFC would punish both, the fact is that they don’t have to do anything that they don’t want, and it’s a sucker’s bet to expect them to do any differently. I could see UFC taking the viewpoint that physical violence always trumps verbal harassment, and so what Cyborg did will be seen in a much worse light. Of course, one can easily point out that the whole incident doesn’t happen if Magana exercises better tact on social media. Of course, part two, one could then easily point out that if the face of the company didn’t treat his fighters (and specifically Cyborg) like shit in the press, maybe no one else would think it’s okay. But, the UFC isn’t going to punish Dana White, so that’s out of the picture. At the end of the day, I see Cyborg getting the much harsher punishment while Magana gets a slap on the wrist. That’s sports, though – you always punish the person who reacts, for some reason, over the person that started it.

Jeffrey Harris: FICTION Nope. Neither Kevin Lee or Michael Chiesa were disciplined for their scuffle at the UFC press conference a while back. These women shouldn’t be disciplined either if that’s the case. You have to have rules of decorum and behavior and enforce them, or you don’t. If you don’t, then don’t punish them. This story is really a non-story anyway. It’s just nothing but Magana trolling for attention.

If the UFC is looking into having Stipe Miocic defend his title against Cain Velasquez late this summer, they will have to schedule the bout on the same night as the proposed JDS vs. Francis Nagannou fight due to Velasquez lack of reliability.

Dino Zee: FICTION Again, just going Fiction because the UFC doesn’t “have” to do anything that they don’t want to, and if they don’t feel like having a couple of heavyweights booked as a fall-back contingency in the event that Cain can’t make it to fight night, then they don’t have to. It’d probably be a good idea, and it certainly seems smart to have a couple top heavyweights in training instead of trying to pull someone off the couch with a week or two to go before fight night. But you could still keep the bouts scheduled somewhat close to each other and use either JDS or Ngannou as a backup without scheduling the fights to be on the same night. Or, you can do nothing, hope Cain makes it, and then scramble at the last second when he can’t. I don’t run a multi-million dollar fight company, so I don’t know.

Jeffrey Harris: FICTION They don’t necessarily have to schedule it on the same night as JDS vs. Francis Ngannou at all. They could schedule it on the same night as Derrick Lewis fighting another heavyweight, or a number of other heavyweight match-ups. If that fight does get booked, and Velasquez falls off, then the UFC could very well just call up the winner of the upcoming Alistair Overeem vs. Fabricio Werdum winner for that fight as well. Basically, the UFC doesn’t have to book that specific match-up on the same night as the proposed Miocic/Velasquez fight at all. Those aren’t the only options available.

Germaine de Randamie’s refusal to fight Cris Cyborg has more to do with fear than anything else.

Dino Zee: FACT I hate to read minds, but based on what I’ve seen, I do feel that Germaine is afraid of Cyborg. She can bring up the failed tests and how she once accepted a fight with Cyborg all she wants. For me, it was what she said after winning the 145-pound title, which basically boiled down to “I’m down to give Holly an immediate rematch if she wants, but if UFC wants me to fight Cyborg, then I’ll have to get surgery on my hand.”

Sure, maybe that’s a sly dig at Holm, but to me, it sounded more like someone who felt fine to fight one opponent but was entirely too injured to fight the other. Even if the other reasons she lists are valid (and they most likely are), that’s still not enough to convince me that her refusal is not mostly about not wanting to fight Cyborg and with that lack of want being caused by a decent amount of fear. This whole thing is a mess, strip Germaine of the belt and let her go back to the midcard of 135.

Jeffrey Harris: FACT Germaine de Randamie has had nothing to say about Cris Cyborg Justino’s drug testing history or incidents before this. It’s only now that she’s suddenly vocal. I don’t think Cyborg is a choir girl and completely innocent, but she was cleared by USADA. De Randamie is the champion, and this would likely be the biggest money fight opportunity of her career. She’s definitely scared of fighting Cyborg. Her fear is so powerful, she’s ruining her career and her biggest financial opportunity. When you are scared, you do irrational things, like try to purposefully throw away your career, in the trash. And that’s exactly what De Randamie has done.

So who won? Did Dino dust-off another foe or was Jeffrey able to outsmart Dino? You’ve got until midnight eastern on Saturday to vote, so make sure you make your voice heard!

And that’s it for today but, as always, we’ll be back next week with another contest! And please, be sure to vote!

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