Live blog: UFC 259

While preparing for the biggest fight of her career, UFC title contender Megan Anderson earlier this year found herself the centre of attention she didn’t ask for — the focus of crude remarks by a male fighter.

Casey Kenney, responding to a question on fellow UFC bantamweight Sean O’Malley’s The Timbo Sugar Show podcast, cracked jokes about whether he would want to “smash” Anderson.

Watch UFC 259, Blachowicz v Adesanya and Nunes v Anderson on Foxtel’s Main Event, on Sunday 7 March at 2pm AEDT. ORDER NOW >

“I guess MMA is a line of work where you can publicly talk about whether you’d have sex with a co-worker in an utterly degrading way and face zero consequences,” Anderson tweeted in January, sharing a clip of the offensive conversation.

“Disgusting behaviour and it’s unfortunate that he’ll be fighting on my card in March.”

Anderson (11-4, nine finishes) — who will challenge UFC featherweight champion Amanda Nunes during the pay-per-view broadcast of UFC 259 on Sunday at UFC Apex in Las Vegas — says she is tired of the culture that gives such comments a pass.

Having been a victim of bullying, Anderson said she wants “to be known as the type of person that uses my platform for good.”

Amanda Nunes of Brazil and Megan Anderson of Australia.Source:Getty Images

“There needs to be consequences,” said Anderson, who spoke to The New York Post over the phone this week.

“People need to understand that just because it’s social media and you don’t say it face-to-face doesn’t mean you should be exempt from consequences.”

Anderson said Kenney later contacted her through a direct message. She did not reveal the content of the message, but said she hopes Kenney takes advantage of this “opportunity to learn.”

“I hope that he is sincere in the words he wrote, and I hope that he learns from this situation and becomes a better person from it,” Anderson said. “And that’s really it.”

It is unclear what, if any, punishment was doled out to Kenney for his offensive remarks.

— The New York Post

MAIN CARD (approx. 2pm AEDT)

Israel Adesanya vs Jan Blachowicz, light heavyweight championship

Amanda Nunes vs Megan Anderson, women’s featherweight championship

Petr Yan vs Aljamain Sterling, bantamweight championship

Islam Makhachev vs Drew Dober, lightweights

Aleksandar Rakic vs Thiago Santos, light heavyweights

PRELIMS (approx. 12pm AEDT)

Casey Kenney vs Dominick Cruz, bantamweights

Song Yadong vs Kyler Phillips, bantamweights

Askar Askarov vs Joseph Benavidez, flyweights

Amanda Lemos vs Livinha Souza, women’s strawweights

EARLY PRELIMS (approx. 9:15am AEDT)

Jordan Espinosa vs Tim Elliott, flyweights

Carlos Ulberg vs Kennedy Nzechukwu, light heavyweights

Sean Brady vs Jake Matthews, welterweights

Kai Kara-France vs Rogerio Bontorin, flyweights

Uros Medic defeated Aalon Cruz, lightweights — TKO (R1, 1:40)

Trevin Jones defeated Mario Bautista, bantamweights — TKO (R2, 0:47)

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