MMA News Roundup: Dana White Loses Millions Because of Canelo Alvarez, Rival Spills on Jon Jones’ Picograms Woes, Conor McGregor’s Teammate Reveals Return Date

With another 24 hours in the rearview, let’s take a look at some of the hottest stories from the world of MMA in our latest installment of the daily roundup. To start today’s compilation, we’ll talk about Canelo Alvarez and Dana White‘s competitive race in the ticket sales for their respective 14th September PPVs. The UFC CEO seems to be in a tough predicament.

Thereafter, we’ll shift our focus to the only fighter who beat Jon Jones, Matt Hamill. The former UFC fighter recently revealed the reason why ‘Bones’ chose to avoid a rematch after his win in 2009. Finally, we’ll end this roundup with Conor McGregor, as it seems like his plans are still focused on a December return, which is something that he has been asking Dana White for after his UFC 303 pullout.

Canelo Alvarez is selling more tickets than Dana White

The auspicious date of 14 September seems to be wrapped around a ticket sales war between two big combat sports events – UFC 306 and the Canelo Alvarez vs. Edgar Berlanga PPV. For Dana White, things looked concerning after a recent report suggested that there were still around 3000 tickets left, which could make the UFC face losses for an event where they’ve already piped in more than $20 million. As another blow to the biggest UFC event ever, Alvarez seems to be in the driver’s seat with a major boost for his PPV fight.

New reports about the Canelo Alvarez vs. Edgar Berlanga PPV suggest that the event is well on its way to getting sold out. Surely, it’s good news for the undisputed super middleweight champion, but things are going haywire for Dana White. Tickets for UFC 306 are now being offered at discounted prices, but that still has not helped the promotion.

Last year, White secured the T-Mobile Arena for Noche UFC over Canelo Alvarez. So the boxer had to move his bout against Jermell Charlo to September 30 to avoid a clash with the UFC. After last year’s success, a confident White declared, “I will go that date every time. I don’t care if somebody here in town gets the date at the arena. I’ll go into an opposing arena and go head-to-head with them next year. I’m doing this for the rest of my reign here. So, they can go on the same night. We can go head-to-head. I’m going. This thing was a massive success for us.”

White would not have thought at the time that his words would come true the very next year. The UFC’s tensions with MGM have pushed them to take The Sphere and spend enormous amounts to set up the PPV. Meanwhile, it’s business as usual for Canelo. Do you think UFC 306 will sell out? Let us know your thoughts after you take a look at our next big news.

Matt Hamill claims Jon Jones was “out of PEDs”

Recently, a Facebook post from ‘MMA Knockout’ saw one fan claiming that Jon Jones may never get the best-ever tag because of his failed drug tests. ‘Bones’ former rival Matt Hamill would make a comment on that post, rubbing salt on the heavyweight champion’s wound by reminding him that he has a win over the 27-1 legend. Furthermore, Hamill would also add that Jones refused to fight him in a rematch. The reason behind declining the rematch is a guess, and the former UFC fighter took a hurtful jibe at the champ.

“He lost to me. He refused to have a rematch. I guess he was out of PEDs. That’s a bummer,” Matt Hamill commented. Recently, when the news was announced that the 12-6 elbow strike would be unbanned from November, the former UFC fighter decided to ask Dana White for a rematch against Jon Jones. Unsurprisingly, there was no response from the UFC.

Conor McGregor is desperate for a December return

Finding credible news when it pertains to Conor McGregor is often tough, but if there’s someone who may provide the correct details about ‘The Notorious’, it’s one of his teammates. 7-4 record-holding MMA fighter and McGregor’s personal fighter David Fogarty seems to have a clue about what the former double champion is up to as fans wait for his return. He’s gearing up for a boxing match this time on Misfits 17, and ahead of his fight, he doubled down on the fact that McGregor is eying a spot on the December PPV card, which he believes will happen despite Dana White shutting down a 2024 return for the UFC’s biggest cash cow.

“I know Conor is pushing for December or something towards the end of the year,” David Fogarty told ‘Bloody Elbow’. “That’s what I think will happen, he’ll fight when he’s ready.” What does this mean for Dana White? We all know that the heavyweight showdown between Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic is probably going to go down in November, So the only available big spot now is UFC 310, and as per Conor McGregor’s teammate’s aforementioned statements, the chances have increased that maybe the Irishman would fight Michael Chandler in December. What do you think? Let us know in the comments.