A couple of cancellations have hit the May 6th card scheduled to take place in Newark, New Jersey over the past week.
Two potential bouts may be on the horizon after another day in the Twittersphere of Mixed Martial Arts breeds yet a few new rumors. Since Charles Oliveira’s co-main event bout at UFC 288 with Beneil Dariush was called off, The UFC has been working on a replacement to try and salvage the bare-looking PPV card for May 6th at the Prudential Centre.
Paulo Costa and Jan Błachowicz have been trading verbal exchanges on Twitter trying to negotiate a fight, with the former initially joking that he would be willing to ‘go up to 205 on all juice’ to make the fight happen.
It now seems as though Costa wants the fight to take place at 185 after he posted news that he has had a conversation with Hunter Campbell, the Chief Business Officer at the UFC, who is known to have taken on the contract negotiation duties since UFC’s acquisition by Endeavour.
Costa is coming off a unanimous decision victory over Luke Rockhold, while Błachowicz’s last outing was a split draw against Magomed Ankalaev.
If the proposed bout is to go ahead, the hurdle of weight class will have to be overcome. Costa is accustomed to fighting at middleweight, and Błachowicz at light-heavyweight, and the latter may be unable to come down in weight on such short notice. There may also be an element of reluctance as if Błachowicz were to be victorious; it would be difficult to establish the importance due to the fact his next bout would more than likely be at 205, his bread and butter.
Burns Vs. Poirier too?
Another potential fight on the card could be Gilbert Burns Vs. Dustin Poirier, which, if confirmed, would make the card very strong, particularly when compared to the current state of play.
Twitter exchanges between top fighters have become commonplace this week, beginning with ‘Durinho’ and Belal Muhammad on Monday.
The beef seemingly began at the end of January, with Muhammad indirectly responding to Burn’s tweet of ‘I WILL FIGHT ANYONE!’ with ‘I TOO WILL FIGHT ANYONE.’
Burns responded to this on Monday, offering ‘Bully’ a fight on May 6th. Due to the short notice and the fact Muhammad is still observing Ramadan, a catchweight was proposed by Muhammad, which has led to a breakdown in negotiation.
Burns then turned his attention to Dustin Poirier with a very respectful call out and subsequent exchange yesterday via Twitter:
The main card of UFC 288 could look very different come the end of this week with the potential addition of two big fights. Burns Vs. Poirier looks more likely at this stage than a bout between Burns and Belal Muhammad at catchweight. No doubt, fight fans have found it hard to keep up with the events of the last couple of days, and it looks like the drama is set to continue.
Should Burns Vs. Poirier goes ahead at 170 pounds; it would be a rapid turnaround for Gilbert Burns, who recently defeated Jorge Masvidal at UFC 287 only 11 days ago. As impressive as it would be, it wouldn’t beat the ten-day turnaround by Khamzat Chimaev during the height of the pandemic. Chimaev followed up a submission victory over John Phillips with a TKO victory over Rhys Mckee at UFC Fight Night: Whittaker Vs. Till.
Poirier is coming off a submission victory against Michael Chandler at UFC 281 in November.
As things stand, Jéssica Andrade is scheduled to occupy the co-main event slot against Yan Xiaonan before Aljamain Sterling defends his UFC Bantamweight title against the returning Henry Cejudo.
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