Above the previous couple months, various fighters have been contacting out previous UFC lightweight and featherweight winner Conor McGregor. Michael Chandler was the most current to challenge the “Notorious” one adhering to his big acquire around Tony Ferguson at UFC 274. He is inclined to wait as long as it will take.
McGregor is recovering from a damaged tibia he suffered in a TKO reduction to Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 in July 2021. McGregor could not transfer off the canvas, so he did his postfight interview with Joe Rogan although on the floor. Given that then, McGregor has been therapeutic and preparing for a return.
When, exactly, will McGregor return to the Octagon? Early reviews claimed that he would be back by summer time, but followers may well need to wait around extended.
A lot more: Chandler calls out McGregor following stunning KO acquire at UFC 274
UFC president Dana White presented an update last thirty day period on McGregor, saying that the Irish fighter is ready for his comeback.
“He’s chomping at the little bit to occur back,” White told TMZ Sporting activities (via SportsNaut). “Realistically, when you appear at anything he is acquired likely on proper now with coming back again and other things that have to have to be finished to get ready to prepare all over again, [a return timeframe is] possibly early fall.”
McGregor instructed SevereMMA in February that he would be allowed to spar once more by April. He has due to the fact been sharing photographs of his progress by way of Instagram. The greatest examination will be complete martial arts schooling. The 33-year-old has been focusing on his boxing in his past couple of fights.
McGregor manufactured his professional debut in 2008. Schooling underneath John Kavanagh, he won the Cage Warriors featherweight and light-weight titles. He joined the UFC in 2013. In 2015, McGregor conquer Jose Aldo in 13 seconds to get the UFC featherweight title. Just after two epic clashes versus Nate Diaz in which they went 1-1, McGregor defeat Eddie Alvarez for the UFC lightweight title.
Extra: Katie Taylor claims Conor McGregor is underappreciated in Ireland
The then-double champion fought Floyd Mayweather in a boxing match in 2017, shedding via TKO. Immediately after starting to be one of the richest fighters in the earth, McGregor would not look in an Octagon once more until eventually 2018. He was stripped of his titles in the method. McGregor misplaced to Khabib Nurmagomedov for the light-weight title in 2018 via submission. Considering the fact that his return, he is 1-3 in the Octagon.
Matchups other than Chandler that could be booked for McGregor incorporate Charles Oliveira, a fourth combat towards Poirier and a possible third battle with Diaz.
“Functional” anything sounds boring—we get it. But in physical fitness, purposeful is a single of the most remarkable adjectives out there. It is a catchall word to describe the moves and workout routines that prep your overall body for serious-existence things to do. The pandemic pressured people today absent from fitness centers and led to a surge in out of doors exercising. We promptly recognized that our exercise sessions hadn’t precisely well prepared us for wild environments. That extra muscle mass we’d built in the health club only weighed us down on path operates and hikes. We rolled ankles and wounded knees for the reason that we’d only qualified on best gym surfaces and lacked the appropriate mixture of mobility and security. The 72 degree indoor atmosphere hadn’t readied us for temperature swings, the features, and the typical unpredictability of the outside. It’s time to make your health and fitness truly purposeful once more by lifting major uncomfortable objects, climbing and crawling and leaping more, redlining your cardio, and engaging in other full-physique sweat shenanigans. Nobody knows and appreciates this much more than Nate Diaz. Grasp his lessons in endurance and you’ll have enjoyable getting in the greatest shape of your existence.
.
Fat-space discussions often emphasis on muscle and toughness, but stamina is the true change maker. It’s your top secret weapon in anything from rec-league basketball online games to intensive AMRAP workout routines. Nate Diaz has comprehended this for decades, which is why his UFC instruction has lengthy defied convention. A championship UFC bout is five 5-minute rounds of all-out effort—striking, grappling, and kicking for your lifetime. Most UFC teaching courses mimic this rhythm, pushing you as a result of 5-round circuits with kettlebells, fight ropes, and bodyweight. Diaz, 36, utilizes a unique strategy. Positive, he spends time perfecting his explosive punches and substantial kicks. But he’s carved his UFC legend—and 21–13 record, which include an epic earn around Conor McGregor in 2016—by embracing stamina schooling.
Elijah Gutierrez
“Endurance has been a massive aspect of my achievement,” he says. Diaz and his more mature brother, UFC fighter Nick, discovered the virtues of endurance education extensive in advance of they entered the octagon, competing on the swim team as youngsters. Diaz fell in adore with battling at age 15, taking jujitsu classes at Cesar Gracie Academy in the San Francisco Bay Place. Soon soon after that, he was boxing and kickboxing. “And it developed into a fighting profession serious rapid,” he suggests. Diaz turned pro in 2004. But he by no means forgot his endurance roots. Five times a week, he and his brother do 75-minute trail runs, mountain bike rides, and swims, developing massive reservoirs of cardiovascular exercise.
The more cardio can help him outlast opponents. Diaz typically sets a savage rate and watches as his adversary wilts. “It’s just like a race,” he says. “You get with the constant speed. So then I’ll switch it up.” Science backs Diaz’s system. Scientists in Canada discovered that having far better cardio fitness—which you make on very long operates, rides, and swims—may not only support you recover far more rapidly from significant-depth exercising, but it also allows you to proceed to develop power when you’re fatigued. Translation: Diaz’s routine leaves him with electrical power when it counts.
Elijah Gutierrez
Elijah Gutierrez
.
Strengthen YOUR Endurance LIKE DIAZ
Diaz has developed his possess very simple way to test his stamina: a five-mile run. “Since I was schooling for tournaments when I was 16, I have generally favored to be ready to get a 5- mile operate completed in 37 minutes,” he suggests. “If I can do that a couple situations a 7 days, I’m ready to rock.” The time is not blistering, but honing your endurance is not about electrical times. It is about retaining a constant nonetheless quickly seven-moment-mile rate. Test chasing Diaz’s 37-moment benchmark it is far more attainable than you may perhaps assume.
Get an Edge
Use this 4-week strategy to establish the stamina wanted to ace Diaz’s take a look at. Each individual week, repeat that operate 3 situations.
7 days 1:
Operate 4 miles purpose for 32 min.
7 days 2:
Run 6 miles goal for 50 min.
Week 3:
Operate 5 miles goal for 40 min.
Week 4:
Relaxation for 2 days, then go for it.
This content material is designed and preserved by a third get together, and imported onto this webpage to help people offer their email addresses. You may possibly be capable to uncover extra information and facts about this and comparable content material at piano.io
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — It’s a Saturday morning in October and Zhang Weili is in MMA gloves and her workout gear, walking to the mat at Fight Ready MMA & Fitness.
A YouTube video with the sound of fans loudly booing at a sporting event is being broadcast over the gym’s speakers. Coaches and training partners gather around and join in with the jeers, plus chants of “USA!” Henry Cejudo, the former UFC double champion and now one of Zhang’s coaches, yells for her to “go back to China!”
Zhang steps onto the mat, rolls her eyes at Cejudo and laughs. The sparring simulation — complete with a referee and a faux USADA official pantomiming a drug-test sample collection — is all part of her completely rehauled fight preparation.
On Saturday, Zhang will attempt to regain the UFC strawweight title from Rose Namajunas in the co-main event of UFC 268 in New York (ESPN+ PPV, 10 p.m. ET). Ahead of this fight, Zhang has changed just about every aspect of her training camp — the physical, the mental and even the geographical.
Zhang left her native China in early September to do her first training camp in the United States at Fight Ready. She has added wrestling to her game under the tutelage of Cejudo, a 2008 Olympic gold medalist. Eric Albarracin, Cejudo’s longtime coach, now refers to Zhang as “The Great Sprawl of China.” Perhaps most importantly, Zhang is working with mindset coach Mike Moor to tackle some internal turmoil.
Seven months ago at UFC 261, Zhang admits, she lost focus during the Namajunas fight due to the negative reaction — hearty boos — she got from the fans in Jacksonville, Florida. That loss of focus played a role in a 78-second knockout loss. In the weeks and months that followed, Zhang made some surprising changes, including parting ways with her manager, Brian Butler, cutting her long black locks into a short haircut and changing up her training camp to add new voices.
“You’ll definitely see a brand-new me in Madison Square Garden,” Zhang told ESPN through an interpreter.
Trying to simulate what could be a hostile environment for Zhang at MSG is just one aspect of this new system. Fight Ready has done similar exercises for Cejudo and “The Korean Zombie,” Chan Sung Jung, during their training camp — but not quite as intensively as this. During the presparring simulation, Fight Ready has Zhang hooked up to a heart-rate monitor, and when the boos and trash talk begin, there is absolutely no spike in Zhang’s readings, according to striking coach Eddie Cha.
“She’s cold as ice right now,” Cha said. “She’s more than ready. She’s so ready right now that it almost makes me nervous.”
Purchase UFC 268 on ESPN+ PPV
ZHANG MADE HER UFC debut at UFC 227 on Aug. 4, 2018. That same night, Cejudo pulled off a stunning upset of Demetrious Johnson to win the UFC flyweight title. Johnson had compiled a UFC-record 11 straight title defenses before Cejudo defeated him via split decision in Los Angeles.
Backstage at Staples Center that night, Cejudo and Albarracin approached Zhang and spoke with her briefly in her native language. Cejudo won his gold medal in wrestling at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, and he and Albarracin had retained some Mandarin words and phrases from their time there.
“If you need anything, just let us know,” Albarracin said the message was to Zhang.
Cejudo and Zhang maintained a friendship after that via direct messages on Instagram. Cejudo would type in English and Zhang would use a translation app to decipher his words. The plan was always for them to train together at some point. Before the pandemic, Zhang said, she was planning to come to the United States at least two weeks before a scheduled fight to train at Fight Ready, but COVID-19 restrictions made that impossible.
After Zhang lost to Namajunas, Cejudo messaged her with some words of wisdom. He told her about how he had been knocked out by Johnson, one of the best fighters of all time, in 2016 and two years later came back to beat him. He said she had the ability to do the exact same thing against Namajunas.
The two started talking about Zhang doing her next training camp with Cejudo at Fight Ready. One of the most surprising things Cejudo learned in those conversations with Zhang was that she never really had trained in mixed martial arts before. She had trained in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai and wrestling, but she never had meshed them all together in an MMA practice.
“I knew that she had the skills,” Cejudo said. “I knew she was a little tank. The only thing that worried me about Weili is whether she had the science and the MMA aspect in it. These are the things I wanted to share with her.”
In the aftermath of the Namajunas loss, Zhang decided to part ways with Butler, her manager from SuckerPunch Entertainment. Butler also represents Namajunas, and Zhang said she felt like that was too “difficult” of a scenario for him.
Zhang also trimmed her long black hair into a more cropped cut. There wasn’t necessarily any symbolism behind that, she said.
“I always wanted to cut my hair, but I wasn’t brave enough to make the decision,” Zhang said. “Every time I practiced jiu-jitsu, I saw my hair falling out. I was worried about going bald and my hairline receding. After the most recent fight, I made the decision to cut my hair off and it feels great.”
Namajunas vs. Zhang 2 was made official in August for UFC 268. Zhang already had her flight booked to Arizona for the second week of September. She brought most of her team from China with her and they stayed at a large rental home in Scottsdale. Even though she’s now working with the coaches at Fight Ready, Zhang still has with her the coaches she has worked with for years, including Pedro Jordao, her Brazilian jiu-jitsu coach.
“Since MMA got a late start in China, there are very few good coaches over there,” Zhang said. “So most Chinese athletes would only train striking and ground techniques separately. That’s why I give a lot of credit to my coaches for helping me win the championship.”
MOOR ASKED ZHANG during one of their sessions in September what she did for fun. Zhang’s response was that she didn’t know. She had no real hobbies. MMA was everything in her life.
And yet Moor also learned that Zhang’s love for the sport had begun to wane. Zhang is the face of the UFC’s expansion efforts in China, and losing the title obviously was not in her plans. Moor said Zhang wasn’t necessarily feeling pressure, but that MMA had just turned into more of an obligation than a passion.
“What she did feel is she started feeling like this is a job,” Moor said. “This is something she had to do. I had to reframe that for her. It is a job, but it’s a fun job. It’s a cool job. You want to work at a cafeteria or selling insurance? Or do you want to get paid to punch [someone] in the face?”
Zhang told Moor that getting booed by the fans in Jacksonville wasn’t so much a traumatic experience as it was an unexpected one. Zhang said she had never been booed before during competition.
Namajunas had made negative comments about China leading into UFC 261, using the phrase “better dead than red” in reference to communism. Zhang has never spoken about her personal politics and at first was puzzled why this was being brought up. The timing was especially sensitive, since it was the UFC’s first show in front of a crowd since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, which began in China.
“MMA as a sport has brought people of all colors together to compete and learn from each other,” Zhang said. “Just like me being here in the U.S. training at Fight Ready, interacting with everybody else. The fight is a form of cultural exchange, as well. I think athletes should just keep it pure and simple. I didn’t understand why she was mixing politics into all of this. Only after I came out to the cage, I realized that was her move to rally the crowds.”
Zhang said she has had a “change of mind” when it comes to Namajunas. She once saw her as a “very humble and very friendly athlete,” but she was surprised when Namajunas said those things.
None of that potential distraction should be an issue leading into this weekend, Zhang said, because of the preparation she has had at Fight Ready.
“This girl has an ability to go up to 125 pounds, win that belt and with the right programs and the right strength and conditioning … 135 pounds to me is not even a stretch.”
Henry Cejudo on Zhang Weili
Zhang has been sparring with former UFC flyweight title challenger John Moraga and Felipe Bunes, whom Albarracin brought in from the “Pitbull” brothers camp in Brazil. On those Saturdays in training camp, the coaches and training partners attempt to make the Scottsdale gym feel like Zhang is about to go into the Octagon for real, complete with all the expected noise.
Albarracin said he tried doing something similar with Patricio “Pitbull” Freire before his July title fight against A.J. McKee in Bellator, which was in McKee’s hometown of Los Angeles. But Freire didn’t like it. Zhang, on the other hand, has embraced the training tactic, despite some of the crass language.
“When Weili gets the opportunity to fight that night, there’s nothing she hasn’t seen,” Moor said. “Seen, heard, felt — any of those things. We have done all the boos and all the nasty s—, all the names. All that stuff.”
Zhang said she has no hard feelings toward the Florida fans and she puts the blame for the loss squarely on her own shoulders.
“Every region has its distinct culture,” Zhang said. “I respect that. I wasn’t on my ‘A’ game during the last fight. I wasn’t focused enough. This time, I know I have no control of the audience. The only control I have is on myself. That’s it.”
ALBARRACIN SAID ZHANG is the “fastest learner” he has ever witnessed in MMA, and he has worked with the likes of Cejudo, Jung, Patricio and Patricky Freire, Paulo Costa, Anderson Silva and Junior dos Santos. After Zhang became UFC champion despite not having had complete MMA training, Albarracin said, working with Fight Ready has turned her into “Weili 2.0.”
There is no use watching film of Zhang’s past fights, Cha said. She’ll be a completely new athlete come UFC 268, from her movement to her counters to her wrestling. Cha said that, in sparring, Moraga and Bunes are having a hard time hitting her.
“I can’t express how different she moves, the way of her style of fighting,” Cha said. “If you watched her last fights, it’s like press forward, get hit and fire back. I call it north-south style of fighting — just going back and forth, back and forth. There were no lateral movements. She wasn’t much of a counterfighter. I think she was more offensive-minded. Now we’re mixing. Now we’re doing a complete MMA package.”
Cejudo calls the evolution of Zhang “scary” for upcoming opponents. “There’s only one Zhang Weili and she can pick up anything that I’m teaching her,” he said. “So, it’s scary. It’s almost to the point where, pick your poison. You want to go off the clinch? You want to go for takedowns? You want to go counters? She’s there. It’s scary to see the type of fighter that she could become.”
Cejudo thinks Zhang can surpass him in some ways, which is no small feat since he’s one of only four fighters to ever hold UFC titles in two weight classes at the same time.
“This girl has an ability to go up to 125 pounds, win that belt and with the right programs and the right strength and conditioning … 135 pounds to me is not even a stretch,” Cejudo said. “It really isn’t. This girl is special.”
First, though, the objective for Zhang is beating Namajunas and regaining the strawweight title.
Zhang won that belt at a UFC Fight Night on Aug. 31, 2019, stopping Jessica Andrade in just 42 seconds. In her first title defense, at UFC 248 on March 7, 2020, Zhang and former champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk had what many call the greatest bout in women’s MMA history, a bloody fight in which Zhang retained the gold via split decision.
Then came the loss to Namajunas. Cejudo told Zhang that the quick loss was OK, just a mistake. She didn’t even get a chance to display her abilities, he said, but that will change at UFC 268. Zhang embraces that attitude.
“Even though I lost to Rose in April, I learned something more important than simply winning that fight,” Zhang said. “I learned how to stay focused and fix my weakness and how to improve myself. I think I’ll be stronger this time. As I return, I think you’ll see a better Weili this time.”
And if the crowd in New York is as anti-Zhang as the one in Florida, Zhang will just think back to those Saturday simulation days at Fight Ready when she was laughing at the jeering Cejudo.
“Right now, I think if they boo me,” Zhang said, “I will just think they like me very much.”
