Category Archives: Bloodyelbow.com

“The Spider” will take on a fellow Brazilian MMA veteran.

After a successful boxing run in 2021, former UFC champion Anderson Silva will return to the squared ring in 2022. As officially announced, the 46-year-old “Spider” will face fellow Brazilian MMA veteran Bruno Machado in Dubai.

The event will be headlined by 45-year-old undefeated boxing superstar Floyd Mayweather, who takes on his long term sparring partner Dan Moore in an eight-round exhibition bout. The event dubbed as “The Showcase in the Skies of Dubai,” will take place in a rather unique venue: on the helipad atop the Burj Al Arab Hotel.

Screengrab, Visit Dubai YouTube

As for Silva vs. Machado, the bout will reportedly take place at a 194-pound catchweight.

“I can’t wait to do battle with my countryman in the sky!” Silva said on the announcement. “I am honored to share the card with Floyd Mayweather, a true boxing icon.”

After a stellar 14-year run in the UFC that dipped towards the end, Silva (34-11 1 NC in MMA, 3-1 in boxing) made his pro boxing return last June against Julio Cesar Chavez, whom he impressively defeated via decision. His next bout took place three months later against fellow ex-UFC champion Tito Ortiz, whom he knocked out in half a round.

The 35-year-old Machado, meanwhile, holds a 13-9 MMA record. He last fought under the UAE Warriors banner in January 2021 against France’s Mickael Lebout and won via unanimous decision.

Badou Jack vs Harry Atiyo will also be on the undercard of the May 14 event.

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Check out the fourth episode of Embedded for UFC 273.

UFC 273 is almost here, and as usual, Embedded is here as well. The show that gives you an inside look at the marquee contestants on PPVs has issued the fourth episode for this weekend’s big show in Jacksonville, and it serves as a brief introduction to the fighters at the top of the card.

We start off at Sanford MMA for Gilbert Burns’ last session before he heads to Jacksonville. He loves his team and his gym. Henri Hooft doesn’t think it’s a high-risk fight for Durinho, even though he respects Khamzat Chimaev’s skills.

Over to JFK airport with AlJo. He’s ready to go. And then….he is there. Al Iaquinta is with him, of course (hi Al!).

Down to the fighter hotel, where Chimaev is cutting weight while his hype man Darren Till talks him up. His coach talks about Chimaev converting his personality from being outgoing and happy to being a tiger on fight week.

For some reason I can’t fathom despite his coach explaining it, Chan Sung Jung is training to the sweet sounds of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You.” In April. Yeah.

Back to Chimaev. His coach talks about his potential both as an athlete and as a drawing card. Chimaev greets fellow UFC 273 fighter Mackenzie Dern. Chimaev does some media and calmly says here to take his money and kill everybody. Stone Cold. Petr Yan and his team run into Khamzat and his team in the lobby and they greet each other warmly. Chimaev jokingly goes for a takedown and says “he is ready!”

Yan steps up to do media. The rematch is a long time in the making. The Sterling beef isn’t personal to him, but getting his belt back is. Korean Zombie says that not many Asian men have been champion or even had the shot so if he could win, it would open a lot of doors for other Asian fighters. Zombie is seen going up to Alexander Volkanovski to shake his hand and have a laugh, as KZ does. He said there’s no animosity, but he thought “he was very small,” which is hilarious.

Volk comes through and greets Sterling and Burns on his way to the media room. He fancies himself as a regular guy, but he has to carry the swagger of a champion right now. He feels he did KZ a favor by giving him a shot at the belt, but it’s going to be his last shot.

And that’s it! UFC 273 goes down Saturday night in the home of the Jaguars.

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“He didn’t win. Petr lost. Sterling didn’t win. Petr lost. Okay. This is how it happened.”

Robert Whittaker feels Aljamain Sterling is being disrespectful by mocking Petr Yan ahead of their bantamweight title rematch at UFC 273.

Sterling, who has been taunting Yan all week, became the first fighter in UFC history to win a title via disqualification after ‘No Mercy’ landed an illegal strike on ‘Funk Master’ in their first matchup at UFC 259.

Whittaker, the former UFC middleweight champion, was keen to remind Sterling of this ahead of Saturday’s highly anticipated rematch.

“He didn’t win. Petr lost. Sterling didn’t win. Petr lost. Okay. This is how it happened,” Whittaker told Fox Sports in a recent interview. “That is the undeniable truth of the matter. So you can’t go around saying I’m the champ, I’m the best in the world, cause you didn’t win the belt – you were given it. It’s different.”

UFC 273, which features Sterling vs. Yan as the co-main event, takes place April 9 at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida.

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Wanna see an old guy that never learns embarrass himself? Don’t answer that, of course you do.

Welcome back, kids. We’ve got violence of all stripes for your perusal and some odd relics of the past as well. Not only that, but there’s some great technique on display, to boot.

We begin with a classic of all martial arts videos, the Kiai master that got busted open by an MMA master. In what was a perfect confluence of bad Bullshido instructor videos and MMA shaking the table and changing the landscape for training expectations, it was a simple but shocking video to witness in its day.

Jerry from Fight Commentary Breakdowns gets into it at the start in this video, but to recap: a no-touch master accepted a challenge from a guy that had actual sparring experience and found that he was in fact very capable of being touched. And boy howdy, did my mans get touched.

But did you know there was another challenge video?

Turns out the same guy had another challenge take place five years later, and he came back with stronger… energy. Footage is provided here from a Japanese game show that had the no-touch master in a challenge match against an MMA fighter in a Sumo challenge. PRIDE legend Wanderlei Silva also happened to be in attendance in all of this.

Minor spoiler: the magic stuff doesn’t work. It’s not as bad or as graphic as the first one, but if I ever reach that age and engage in anything even 30% as goofy as this, please institutionalize me. There’s no reason for a man with a family to embarrass himself like this in front of millions.

Next up, Dambe Warriors gives us what they’ve billed as their bloodiest battle yet. There’s a fair amount of clinchwork early in this one, and a lot of strikes thrown and landed. Despite the title, not as bloody as I expected, but your mileage may vary:

Karate Combat is about to return in the next few weeks, but until then, we’ve got the fastest knockout in the organization’s brief history:

Even caught him on the way down. They go hard in this league, man.

Courtesy of SamboFIAS, here’s some international Sambo highlights:

We’ve also got some Sumo to scratch the itch, courtesy of YouTube user DonDon. Check out some January highlights right here:

International Lethwei Federation Japan dropped another one. This one’s got a lot of hands being thrown. Don’t be thrilled by the big ring and bright lights, this is just as gritty as the smaller venues in Myanmar.

And to accompany that, here’s a tribute/compilation video featuring all manner of Lethwei knockouts:

Finally, another silly feature to add some levity to your week. Dutch ninja Titus Jansen provided some content for us back in the day, and seems to have fallen off the face of the earth. Bask in the glory that is his ninja demo reel:

The man clearly logged in a lot of Naruto hours. The Ninja Sneak Walk is one of my personal favorites.

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Team Alpha Male coach Mike Malott faces Mickey Gall on the UFC 273 prelims.

Mike Malott’s MMA career has been one of fits and starts. His first two pro fights came in 2011. He then fought once in 2013, twice in 2014, once in 2015 and once in 2017. A three-year break followed before he competed in 2020 under the Cage Fury banner. The UFC then gave him a shot on the Dana White Contender Series in 2021. With a speedy submission win in that fight, Malott earned a UFC contract. The 30-year-old Canadian welterweight makes his official UFC debut at UFC 273 against Mickey Gall.

Malott might be a recognizable face to those who pay attention to the coaches who corner other fighters. A coach at Team Alpha Male, Malott has worked UFC fights in the past.

It was his work in the California gym that inspired him to get back in the cage in 2020.

“I fully intended on just coaching,” Malott told TSN before his DWCS appearance. “Even my first few times coaching guys in the UFC, I was like, man I’m not jealous of any of them, I don’t want to be the one in the cage, I don’t feel the need to do it. As time went on, the hunger started coming back, the fire started coming back. Obviously I’m there to coach, I’m focused on coaching while I’m coaching, but there’s part of me that’s like, ‘damn I wish I could be the guy that’s in there.’ So, I started training more intensely for fighting, I started sparring again, I started doing all the things that fighters need to do and we started looking for fights.”

Malott was poised in his Cage Fury debut, especially considering the three-year layoff and the fact that he took the bout on short-notice.

Malott faced Solomon Renfro at Cage Fury 91 and he found himself under siege from the aggression and power of his 6-0 opponent from the start. However, Renfro’s offensive output did not cause Malott to wither. He stayed focused and in the moment. That focus paid off when Malott landed a perfectly timed counter right that dropped Renfro. Malott then quickly transitioned to Renfro’s back and earned the win with a nasty rear naked choke that left Renfro unconscious.

While Malott started slow in his Cage Fury scrap, he did not make that same mistake in his DWCS bout. He looked to establish the pace and location of the fight early and then, like the Cage Fury contest, opportunity presented itself for Malott.

His opponent in that fight, Shimon Smotritsky, shot for a takedown, but he left his neck exposed and Malott, who has a BJJ black belt, pounced, securing a guillotine choke that brought the tap from Smotritsky at the 39-second mark of the first stanza.

As Malott made his way to the backstage area, UFC commentator Daniel Cormier said he was “fairly certain” UFC president Dana White would tap Malott for a UFC deal.

Cormier’s intuition was on the mark. White awarded him a deal, saying of Malott, “The only thing that I have to say about the main event is 39 seconds. Thirty-nine seconds. This kid is 7-1. (He’s) big, strong, tough, durable, Canadian. Get your ass over here, Mike.”

After earning his UFC deal, Malott told Sportsnet, “This has been something I’ve wanted since I was 12, 13 years old. And I’ve been training consistently since then. I’ve put a lot of work into this, more than half of my life has been dedicated to this. I moved across North America to pursue my dream and get better training. (I’ve) sacrificed things as far as being away from my family and away from a lot of my friends. But other than not being able to spend time with my family, it doesn’t feel like sacrificing. This is what I want to do.’’

Malott gets a name opponent in his first UFC fight. He faces Mickey Gall on the UFC 273 prelim card. Gall made his UFC debut in 2016 in his second pro fight and earned a submission win over Mike Jackson in that contest. Gall, who is the same age as Malott, has alternated wins and losses over his past eight UFC fights (4-4) and is coming off a unanimous decision setback to Alex Morono in December. Malott opened as a favorite over Gall and he has become an even bigger favorite as UFC 273 fight night approaches.

Malott is 7-1-1 overall. All seven of his wins have come by way of finish — three knockouts and four submissions — and each of those bouts ended in two minutes or fewer. Malott’s sole loss was a first-round TKO setback to Hakeem Dawodu under the World Series of Fighting banner in 2014.

UFC 273 takes place Saturday, April 9 at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida. The main card streams on ESPN+ pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and ESPN+ and early prelims on UFC Fight Pass and ESPN+.

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From the gridiron to the squared circle for the ex-49ers running back.

One of the NFL’s all-time leading rushers is set to become a professional boxer at the age of 38.

Former San Francisco 49ers running back and future Pro Football Hall of Famer Frank Gore will enter the professional ranks on May 14th in Jackson, Mississippi. FITE.tv will have the broadcast rights for Gore vs. the vaunted TBA.

Gore has taken up an interest in boxing and last year lost a decision to former NBA star Deron Williams on the undercard of Jake Paul vs. Tyron Woodley 2. The fight was sloppy as you would expect and Gore suffered a knockdown as he was saved by the ropes.

In his playing days, Gore racked up exactly 16,000 rushing yards in regular season play, which ranks 3rd all-time in NFL history. He spent much of his career with the San Francisco 49ers, playing there from 2005-2014 before playing three more seasons with the Indianapolis Colts. Gore did an AFC East tour and played a season apiece for the Miami Dolphins, Buffalo Bills, and New York Jets.

Last weekend Gore announced that he will sign a one-day contract and officially retire as a 49er after 16 years as a pro, which is extraordinary longevity at any position but nearly impossible at running back.

As for his boxing career? Well let’s hope it’s not as ridiculous as Mark Gastineau’s was.

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Paddy Pimblett wants ‘six figures’ for his next UFC contract.

Is Paddy Pimblett the new cash cow, lad?

Not judging by his $ 12,000 to show, $ 12,000 to win payday for his stoppage victory over Rodrigo Vargas at UFC London last month — but that’s all about to change.

Pimblett, who also netted a $ 50,000 Performance of the Night bonus for his UFC London victory, has guaranteed ‘six figures’ when he inevitably re-signs with the UFC later this year.

“That is what it is, everyone just wants to talk about me,” Pimblett (18-3 MMA, 2-0 UFC) told Cage Warriors reporter Edit Labelle in a recent interview (h/t Low Kick MMA). “They wanna use my name for clickbait – try to talk bad about me and my manager (Graham Boylan), you know what I mean.”

“People (are) just trying to use my name for clickbait, it’s mad,” the British fan favorite added. “24/7 like – that’s the contract. A contract’s a contract, I’ll get a new one soon. You sign that contract when you sign for the UFC, I’ll get a new one soon. And it’ll be six figures, so (shrugs shoulders).”

Pimblett is just two fights into his UFC career but fight fans are already drawing parallels between the Liverpudlian and UFC star Conor McGregor.

Pimblett has generated a combined 2.8 million views on YouTube for his post-fight interviews at UFC Vegas 36 and UFC London, with UFC president Dana White acknowledging that the kid has ‘a ton of hype behind him’.

Pimblett, otherwise known as ‘Paddy the Baddy’, will return to the Octagon later this year against a TBA opponent.

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“It’s just too much illegal activity.”

UFC interim bantamweight champion Petr Yan went through a bit of a hurdle when his cornermen were denied a visa to enter the United States. This has left him in a difficult situation for his upcoming unification title bout with Aljamain Sterling at UFC 273.

“No Mercy” was then made to look at other possible options.

Henry Cejudo did give a seemingly affirmative response in the usual “Triple C” fashion.

Rising 135-pound contender Sean O’Malley later joined in and volunteered himself to be part of Yan’s corner for Saturday night.

With these recent developments, it looked like Yan was once again with a full team made up of a star-studded cast, as a bonus. He even had this to say during his recent appearance on The MMA Hour.

“I hope Cejudo and Sean O’Malley are gonna show up on Saturday night. They just need to make sure they don’t give me shitty advice. Just give me ice and water and I will be fine,” the Russian fighter told Ariel Helwani.

But on Tuesday night, things took a left turn when Cejudo decided to bow out.

Not long after, O’Malley also took back his offer.

“I wouldn’t corner that f–ng… I don’t care if he wins,” he said on a recent episode of his TimboSugarShow. “I like Petr, though. He’s a funny little (person). I wanted to square up with him.”

Sterling and Yan will co-headline UFC 273, which takes place in Jacksonville, Florida. At the top of the bill is the featherweight title bout between champion Alexander Volkanovski and “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung.

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Check out the second episode of Embedded for UFC 273.

UFC 273 is almost here, and as usual, Embedded is here as well. The show that gives you an inside look at the marquee contestants on PPVs has issued the second episode for this weekend’s big show in Jacksonville, and it serves as a brief introduction to the fighters at the top of the card.

We start off in the forest on the Georgia/Florida border with Alexander Volkanovski. Him and his team are gonna head into the swamps to do some shooting. They blow up a bunch of stuff and are amazed.

Over to Arizona, where Chan Sung Jung’s wife is cooking a meal for his team while wearing a Korean Zombie shirt. He says that Volkanovski has been talking about KOing him, but he’s more likely to fight for points on the outside.

Petr Yan and his team are at a restaurant. He says when he went to clubs in college in Russia, he fought every night. They goof around and grab some dinner. He literally jokes around about jumping into shark-infested waters. A guy almost catches one but his line breaks.

Back to Volkanovski, who get in a late-night workout in his room. He says he’s ready for five rounds but he thinks he can finish it inside three. No disrespect to his opponent, it’s just where he’s at right now.

Up in New York, Aljamain Sterling is winding down his camp. He’s just working on cutting weight and keeping his reactions sharp.

And that’s it! UFC 273 goes down this Saturday in Jacksonville.

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Dricus Du Plessis has his doubts about the injury that knocked Kelvin Gastelum off UFC 273

Dricus du Plessis is without a fight and the 28-year-old middleweight is laying the blame directly at the feet of the injured Kelvin Gastelum.

“It’s his fault,”du Plessis said of Gastelum on a recent edition of The MMA Hour. “He postponed to cancel the fight. Nobody wants to take a fight on a week’s notice. It’s hard to take a fight, especially on a week’s notice. And here Gastelum comes and waits until a week before the fight to all of a sudden say, ‘No, I’m injured,’ when he insisted on a new fight. It’s frustrating and a little bit disrespectful toward opponents and the sport as a whole.”

Du Plessis, who is not among the top-15 fighters in the official UFC middleweight rankings, is 2-0 in the UFC and 16-2 overall. Du Plessis was originally booked to face Chris Curtis at UFC 273. Curtis withdrew from the fight with an injury, but as fate would have it, fellow middleweight Anthony Hernandez also had his opponent, Albert Duraev, drop off the card. The UFC matchmakers then booked that fight. However, with Gastelum losing his original opponent, Nassourdine Imavov, due to visa issues, the UFC reached out to see if du Plessis was interested in stepping in to face Gastelum.

According to du Plessis, he accepted the matchup without hesitation.

“Damn straight, I’ll take that fight,” Du Plessis said of his reply to the UFC’s inquiry. “That’s who I’m supposed to be fighting anyway.”

Not long after that call, du Plessis received the news that Gastelum was out of the fight. He did not take the news well.

“I thought it was April Fool’s,” du Plessis said of his reaction. “You guys are screwing around. What’s happening?”

Gastelum did not disclose the injury that forced him to withdraw from Saturday’s event in Jacksonville. At first, he only said he was “compromised” and unable to compete.

“Who gets an injury a week before a fight?” du Plessis asked. “What could you possibly be doing to get injured, and if he was injured, you don’t know what the camp was like, but why would he insist on having a new opponent when he had to pull out? … So he wasn’t injured on Monday, because that’s [when] he insisted on the fight, and all of a sudden, he’s injured on Friday? That sounds very fishy to me.

“I guess they started watching tape and that’s where the problems started, to be honest. … He really needs a win – let’s not beat around the bush, he needs a win – and this is a great opportunity for him. He’s fighting a guy who’s making some noise, a South African guy, he’s ranked No. 20, and he finds out, let’s get this easy fight and get in the win column. … Then he watched the tape and realized this is no walkover fight.”

On Monday night, John Morgan reported that he had spoken to Gastelum’s manager, who told him the former interim UFC middleweight title challenger would undergo knee surgery next week.

Du Plessis could not get back into the Hernandez fight, as the UFC had already matched Hernandez against Josh Fremd. Losing the fight and the time and money he spent preparing for UFC 273 did not sit well with du Plessis.

“I’m not angry at the UFC; it’s a little bit out of their control, to be honest,” he said. “I’m angry at Kelvin. No disrespect, I’ve always been a fan, but right now, what he did was he literally took food off my table. I don’t even care about the money. I was in there to become a champion as soon as possible, to get in that top-10, and he took my opportunity to perform. He took it away from me – he took the eight weeks of hard, intense training, my 12 weeks in camp – he took all that away from me, all the hard work, everything that was spent from coaches to nutritionists, everything that put in some sort of effort to get to this point. He took that away because he didn’t feel like fighting. He didn’t like the risk, and he made me give up my opponent.

“It’s his fault. He postponed to cancel the fight. Nobody wants to take a fight on a week’s notice. It’s hard to take a fight, especially on a week’s notice. And here Gastelum comes and waits until a week before the fight to all of a sudden say, ‘No, I’m injured,’ when he insisted on a new fight. It’s frustrating and a little bit disrespectful toward opponents and the sport as a whole.”

UFC 273 takes place Saturday, April 9 at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida. The main card streams on ESPN+ pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and ESPN+ and early prelims on UFC Fight Pass and ESPN+.

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