The UFC 223 bus incident continues to rear its ugly head nearly six months later. Just a week after UFC strawweight champion Rose Namajunas’ team said she was still feeling tramautized over the incident, now another fighter affected by the bus attack allegedly done by Conor McGregor and his team will be suing him. I’ll give my thoughts on this in today’s MMA odds and ends.
Michael Chiesa Sues Conor McGregor Over UFC 223 Bus Incident
TMZ broke the news that UFC lightweight contender Michael Chiesa will indeed be suing former UFC lightweight and featherweight champion Conor McGregor over the alleged bus attack that took place back at UFC 223. The infamous incident saw McGregor throw a dolly throw a bus window which cut open Chiesa’s forehead, forcing him out of his fight the next day against Anthony Pettis. Chiesa and Pettis ended up figting at UFC 226, with Chiesa losing the bout via submission, and Chiesa is clearly not happy about how things went down. Chiesa said that the UFC would have had to put him in against Khabib Nurmagomedov in the main event of UFC 223 because he had a higher ranking than both Al Iaquinta and Paul Felder and the argument about losing wages by not getting that main event slot seems to be what Chiesa is arguing over. There’s no doubt he was also physically injured in the incident, but this is all about money, and you can’t blame Chiesa for taking the legal advice given to him. For McGregor, he had to expect this was coming as Chiesa said a few months ago he was likely going to sue him. Then again, it’s an unwanted distraction for McGregor as he trains for his upcoming fight at UFC 229 against Nurmagomedov. We will have to see how this plays out in the coming months, but there’s a very good chance that McGregor and Chiesa could reach a settlement out-of-court instead.
Calvin Kattar vs. Chris Fishgold Added To UFC Moncton
One new fight announcment to report on as the UFC has confirmed a featherweight bout between Calvin Kattar and Chris Fishgold for UFC Fight Night 138, which takes place Saturday, October 27 at Moncton Events Centre in Moncton, New Brunswick. Kattar (18-3) is 2-1 in the UFC and is coming off of a decision loss to top contender Renato Moicano. Considering how good Moicano has looked as of late that’s not a bad loss by any means, and prior to that defeat Kattar had won 10 fights in a row. Fishgold (17-1-1) is currently riding a seven-fight win streak and will be entering the UFC coming off of a successful run in Cage Warriors, where he was the promotion’s lightweight champion. He deserves this opportunity in the UFC based on his record alone. That being said, I still have to favor Kattar here. Even though he lost to Moicano I’ve still been overall very impressed with his run in the UFC and just feel like he’s fought a way higher level of competition than Fishgold has. Having said that, I’m expecting a competitive betting line.
