Five things cameras didn’t show at UFC 285 including Jake Gyllenhaal’s fight, Conor McGregor’s secret chat and Blizerian
UFC 285 will go down as one of the most magical nights in mixed martial arts history.
The promotion’s third pay-per-view event of the year saw Jon Jones cement his legacy as the greatest MMA fighter of all time in his first outing in over THREE YEARS.
The former pound-for-pound king became a two-division champion with a two-minute submission of Ciryl Gane to claim the vacant heavyweight title.
History was also made in the co-main event of the evening, in which Valentina Shevchenko’s dominant reign as women’s flyweight champion came to an end.
The Kyrgyzstani killer suffered a fourth-round submission defeat to Alexa Grasso – who became the UFC’s first Mexican female champion.
It was a special night at Las Vegas T-Mobile Arena, which was packed to the brim with celebs, sports and social media stars.
Here are five things the cameras didn’t show you.
Jake Gyllenhaal’s UFC ‘debut’
Hollywood superstar Jake Gyllenhaal took part in filming for his upcoming film Roadhouse smack bang in the middle of UFC 285.
The 42-year-old was filmed doing a full UFC walkout, which was greeted by rapturous applause by fans.
He then took part in a brutal, but scripted, middleweight title fight against former UFC fighter Jay Hieron.
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But his bout ended controversially as he was disqualified after failing to heed the referee’s instructions.
It will be interesting to see how the scene looks when the movie hits the big screen later this year.
Conor McGregor’s chat with Ari Emmanuel
Conor McGregor made a low-key entrance to the arena with fiancee Dee Devlin shortly after the pay-per-view portion of UFC 285 began.
McGregor embraced several people as he made his way to his cageside seat, where he would later shout instructions to lightweight Jalin Turner.
And shortly after he arrived at the VIP section, he began chatting with Endeavour CEO Ari Emmanuel.
McGregor embraced the head honcho of Endeavour – the UFC’s parent company – and they briefly chatted.
One can only imagine what they were nattering about, but it must have been a good chat because McGregor started dancing soon after.
Motivational star David Goggins
American runner David Goggins was in Sin City this weekend to support Jones.
And he made it to the T-Mobile Arena to watch Bones return to the summit of the sport, although he wasn’t snapped on camera.
SunSport, however, got several glimpses of the motivational speaker. But sadly, I couldn’t pin him down to get some motivational words for my next 10K.
Boxing prospect Callum Walsh
The T-Mobile Arena was, as usual, packed to the rafters with UFC fighters – although there were more than usual due to the return of Jones.
But there was also a boxer in the house in the form of surging Irish super-welterweight Callum Walsh.
Walsh was sat in the expensive seats, just behind countryman McGregor – who he made sure to get a photo with.
Poker star Dan Blizerian
Multi-millionaire poker player Dan Blizerian is a well-known mixed martial arts fan and arrived in the building for the early prelims.
He wasn’t, however, sat in the VIP section with the likes of McGregor and Walsh.
The social media star, however, didn’t have the worst view sitting in the lower tier a few rows back from the expensive seats.