We as hardcore fans know this.
But the MMA media- sadly including Bisping, Sonnen and several fighters keep saying it’s never happened before as far as they can remember.
He was scheduled to defend it a second time against Wineland but got injured.
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Tommy has a precedent to defend the silver medal
I was always bummed McDonald didn’t do more with his career. So much potential.
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McDonald was super religious.
Prolly limited his killer instinct
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Nogueira defended and lost the interim belt to Mir, who defended and lost it to Carwin, who finally faced Lesnar in a unification bout.
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Barao’s career decline pre-dates USADA. He was already washed by the time USADA showed up.
If i recall, thats why he stopped fighting
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That, and he would break his hands every single time he fought. He hit too hard for his tiny frame.
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Interim belts are so dumb. If a champ pulls out of a fight for any reason, automatically strip and plug in the alternate for the real belt.
If there was ever an interim belt that was justified, it was Barao’s. Cruz was stripped shortly after this, and Barao became the full champion.
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Whatever happened to that kid?
Barao was full champion the whole time. Cruz was gone for like 3 years.
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He waa gone for 3 yeara but i think he was only stripped after his 3rd attempt at a comeback fight was canceled/postponed. Dana was pretty adamant about not stripping him for some reason up until that point.
He was the inaugural UFC champion, he also carried the belt over from the WEC, probably had something to do with it
Later
Yes this was mainly why he left. Even his last fight in Bellator he left the cage with a broken hand.
We had an incredible boxer from our city. Buddy Askri.
Same scenario, a great striker who had no problem smashing people in the chin but his hands just always broke.
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Dana and his arbitrary reasoning for stripping this or that champ is always hilarious and the politics involved with the interim titles…
“Cruz, sure buddy, just hang on to that official title for four, five, six years, no problem, whatever you want, I’ll send you some of my driveway Vegas snow and you and the belt can have a nice Christmas” Dana White
“Ngannou, you son of a bitch, you have had the title ten minutes, we are gonna have an interim title fight with Gane and Lewis just to make you sweat and if you don’t get your ass in there and fight the winner in a champ vs champ fight and re-sign with us for forget about that Fury thing then we are gonna have issues, pal” Also Dana White
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