Friday Five: November 10th

By FIGHTSPORTS Nov 10, 2017 Last updated Nov 11, 2017

Daniel Jacobs looks to bring A-Game to HBO
Daniel Jacobs, a Brooklyn born fighter has been in main events before. Earlier this year, he stood under the bright lights of Madison Square Garden facing off against arguably the best middleweight in the world, Gennady Golovkin. While Jacobs walked out of the “World’s Most Famous Arena” with a loss, he became the first man to take Gennady Golovkin to a decision. But their are no moral victories in boxing.

Madness in Dublin thanks to @TheNotoriousMMA!!! DO NOT miss #Bellator187 TONIGHT on @spike 9/8c pic.twitter.com/BGWcOBDvFb

— Bellator MMA (@BellatorMMA) November 10, 2017
Conor McGregor Jumps The Cage at Bellator 187.Conor McGregor jumped the cage fence to celebrate with his teammate Charlie Ward after he finished John Redmond in the final seconds of the first round at Bellator 187 in Dublin on Friday night.Immediately after the fight was called off, McGregor, who was not a licensed cornerman, excitedly jumped in the cage to celebrate with Ward. Referee Marc Goddard, who has a history with McGregor, immediately told him to leave the cage, which appeared to upset McGregor.McGregor, who seemed to take exception with Goddard telling him to leave and touching his chest, then shouted back at Goddard and eventually shoved Goddard as he was checking on Redmond, who was still kneeling on the mat. Goddard did not shove McGregor back. Moments later, McGregor was escorted out and left the cage on his own.
Georges St Pierre almost pulled out of UFC 217
Georges St-Pierre returned to MMA after a four-year layoff to win the UFC middleweight title with a stirring third-round submission of champion Michael Bisping at UFC 217. The battle for the middleweight title resulted in one of the biggest events of the year for the UFC; it also apparently almost didn’t happen.

St-Pierre’s Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu coach John Danaher revealed Thursday on his Instagram account that “Rush” had serious problems with his weight-gain program for the fight, such that his coaches were considering calling off the fight.

Experiment with mixed results: The victory by Welterweight Georges St-Pierre at middleweight to gain a new world title was a bold experiment with a truly great result, but was not without its problems. The fundamental problem was always going to be size. Mr St-Pierre always walked into the octagon around 189 pounds on fight night throughout his career. This made him a very averaged sized Welterweight. In order to move up to middle weight, Mr St-Pierre took on a nutritional program designed to facilitate weight gain and hold weight during the rigors of a full fight camp. The result was a disaster. Two weeks into camp he developed severe stomach pains and vomiting. Initially it was suspected that he had an illness, but all tests came back negative. The situation deteriorated to the point that for two weeks of a six week camp there was no training at all. At a critical point we gave him a two day window to either get back in the gym or call off the fight. The first grappling workout he had he vomited heavily prior to workout and then went to work. The next day he had the worst standing sparring session I have ever seen him have. Finally the stomach issue issue resolved itself to a degree where he could train satisfactorily and the workouts improved dramatically- though the vomiting continued all the way up to the day of the fight. He was eating so much more than usual in an attempt to keep weight on and stay close to 200 pounds. When he went through the final weight cut the big question was, would he return to his bigger size? The answer was a resounding no. On fight night he weighed in at 190.5 – almost identical to his usual fight weight as a Welterweight. The great effort to increase size just didn’t work out and Mr St-Pierre went in to win the title as a mid sized Welterweight. It seems his body just finds a comfort zone around 190 pounds for fighting after a weight cut and no amount of work to change that has any effect. It’s one thing to gain weight, it’s another to do so through a fight camp culminating in a weight cut and then regain the weight. It seems his body has an optimal weight for athletic performance which cannot be drastically changed

A post shared by John Danaher (@danaherjohn) on Nov 9, 2017 at 1:28pm PST
Anthony Joshua’s many suitors come to courtAnthony Joshua complained on Wednesday that potential opponents, such as Deontay Wilder, Tyson Fury, and Joseph Parker were happy to talk up a potential fight with the British boxer, but not take the proper steps to face him.Following Joshua’s comments, David Higgins, the promoter for Joseph Parker is willing to make an offer.

“… I will make an offer. I will underwrite and promote the fight anywhere in the world to give Joshua 60 percent profit,

Eddie Hearn has confirmed Anthony Joshua will fight Deontay Wilder in 2018.

“We’re not receiving any offers, any contacts, and Deontay Wilder is doing a great job of convincing people that AJ is running from this fight… Our job to deliver, but it doesn’t happen over night. This first meeting today may go well, it may go terribly, but fans need to know we want the fight. It will happen in 2018 unquestionably.”

Hearn also added that the only thing holding it up as money…

“If we offered Wilder his true value, the meeting would last two minutes. So we have to compromise between reality and fantasy.”
IJF Presents Openweight TournamentOn November 11th and 12th, The International Judo Federation presents the Openweight world championships in Marrakesh, Morocco.

An Openweight competition is a meeting ground of champions from different weight categories and this can create a host of dream matches.

Teddy Riner (FRA) v Ilias Iliadis (GRE)

Could we see The King v The Icon? Riner looking to become a 10–time world champion, while Iliadis is coming out of a one-year retirement just to compete in Marrakesh.

There is no seeding at the Openweight Worlds which means that these two-world renowned judoka can face off in the opening round.

Guram Tushishvili (GEO) v Ilias Iliadis (GRE)

A clash of generations that fans of the sport, especially Georgian’s hope comes to fruition this weekend. European champion, Tushishvili, won the hearts of the masses and the respect Teddy Rinier, when the Georgian tested Riner in the world’s semi-final in Budapest. Tushishvili was only nine years old, when Georgia-born Iliadis won gold at the Athens 2004 Olympics and the only thing than can outweigh the level of fascination that would surround such a contest is the scale of respect that they will show for each other afterwards.

Idalys Ortiz (CUB) v Asahina Sarah (JPN)

Idalys Ortiz has had the mantle of being the leading force in the women’s heavyweight scene since she arrived on the international stage in 2006. Ortiz, who starred in the IJF #JudoForTheWorld Cuba video, has won all three colours of Olympic medals available having medalled at all three Olympics she has entered (2008 bronze, 2012 gold, 2016 silver). The two-time world champion has not fought since she took silver at the Olympics last year and has ended her sabbatical early to come back at the Openweight Worlds.

The 28-year-old always intended to continue fighting to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics but had planned a longer break to totally replenish her mind and body before the qualification phase starts in May 2018. Ortiz’s return will excite world silver medallist and the early favourite for the women’s heavyweight title in Asahina Sarah (JPN). The explosive 20-year-old is ranked second in the world and won thee Grand Slams in a row before taking silver on her Worlds debut.

This contest would be worthy of any stage in the sport and could tell us a lot about what we can expect from both judoka at the Olympics in Tokyo in three years.

Record prize money of €500,000 – €100,000 for gold

The Openweight World Championships 2017 also represents a new chapter for prize money in judo.

A record amount of prize money will be on the table thanks to the IJF’s ability to attract new sponsors and partners at a time when the sports market is saturated and more competitive than ever.

Gold medallists will earn a record €100,000 with silver medallists scooping €50,000 and bronze medallists taking home €25,000.

The prize money continues beyond the medallist as judoka who finish fifth will earn €10,000 while a seventh-place is worth €5,000.