The fight that everybody has been talking about, the one where we almost lost Nate Diaz, that’s right boys and girls it’s UFC 244 Jorge “Gamebred” Masvidal vs. Nate Diaz for the Baddest Mother Fuc**r (BMF)Title and it takes place this Saturday night live from Madison square garden in New York City, and airs exclusively on the ESPN family of networks and ESPN+ pay-per-view.
Every fighter except one made their contracted weight. There were concerns about Darren Till who had visa issues and didn’t arrive in New York City till yesterday afternoon. Till made the middleweight limit of 186lbs with no issue. His opponent however, Kelvin Gastelum jumped on the scale at the very last minute and made 184 pounds. There is a little controversy though as it looked as if he was leaning on his coach behind the towel to fool the scale.
The NYSAC is aware of the possible manipulation of the scale. The fight will still take place, however, Gastelum may be facing a monetary fine for the antics on the scale.
Women’s flyweight Jennifer Maia was the only fighter to miss the target as she came in at 127.2 pounds. 1.2 pounds over the flyweight limit of a 126. Her error in judgment will cost her 25% of her contracted purse.
There are definitely some exciting matchups on this card outside of the main event. Gastelum vs. Till, Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson vs. Vicente Luque, The one fight I am looking forward to the most outside of the main event though is Gregor Gillespie vs. Kevin Lee.
Gillespie is in my opinion unstoppable, and taking out somebody like Kevin Lee who has been at the top of the division will put him right in line, that is with a victory for a shot at the title after Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov battle for lightweight supremacy early next year.
The full UFC 244 weigh-in results include:
MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)
Jorge Masvidal (169.6) vs. Nate Diaz (170.4)
Kelvin Gastelum (184) vs. Darren Till (186)
Vicente Luque (170.2) vs. Stephen Thompson (170.4)
Blagoy Ivanov (257.4) vs. Derrick Lewis (265)
Gregor Gillespie (155.4) vs. Kevin Lee (155.6)
PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN2, 8 p.m. ET)
Corey Anderson (204.6) vs. Johnny Walker (204.8)
Makwan Amirkhani (145.4) vs. Shane Burgos (145.8)
Edmen Shahbazyan (185) vs. Brad Tavares (184.6)
Andrei Arlovski (244) vs. Jair Rozenstruik (246.2)
PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN2/ESPN+, 6:15 p.m. ET)
Katlyn Chookagian (125.4) vs. Jennifer Maia (127.2)*
Lyman Good (169.6) vs. Chance Rencountre (170.8)
Julio Arce (145.4) vs. Hakeem Dawodu (145.8)
Christopher James has been in the MMA industry for 15 years, Working as a ring announcer for promotions like the XFC, Island Fights, Combat Night and Fight Nights Global during his career. Chris’ love for the sport and the athletes that partake in it led him to writing and doing face to face interviews with the athletes he admired and respected. Chris isn’t conventional by any stretch of the imagination, he has his own style, and takes pride in not being a “cookie-cutter” member of the media. Unique and sometimes controversial takes are what he brings to the table, forcing folks to think a little differently about the world of MMA. He also has a love for music as he has been a dj for 25 years and his love for music gets brought to the MMA world when he gets his guests to sing on his weekly show Cage Side with Christopher James which can be seen Wednesday nights on FACEBOOK LIVE, and soon via podcast.