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Ribas gets her first Octagon appearance set for 2022. 

Amanda Ribas has decided to return to flyweight for her next fight.

Ribas was originally scheduled to meet Michelle Waterson at UFC Columbus, but that was postponed to UFC 274 after the ‘Karate Hottie’ revealed she was dealing with a potential ‘career-ending’ injury. The postponement turned into a cancelation after Waterson was forced to withdraw, leaving Ribas without an opponent and removed altogether from the upcoming pay-per-view event. Fortunately, a replacement for the Brazilian has been found.

Raphael Marinho of Combate reported on Friday that Ribas accepted a fight against Katlyn Chookagian at a UFC Fight Night set to take place on May 14 at a soon-to-be determined location and venue. The 28-year-old has fought at 125 before but has not — and will not — commit to an official change in weight class.

Ribas began her UFC career with four wins, which included a first-round submission over Paige VanZant in her flyweight debut at UFC 251 on Fight Island. For her next test, the Minas Gerais native dropped back down to strawweight for a short-notice fight against Marina Rodriguez at UFC 257. She was finished via second-round technical knockout, ending her undefeated run under the UFC banner. Ribas rebounded from the loss to Rodriguez with a unanimous decision over Virna Jandiroba at UFC 267 this past October.

A one-time title challenger, Chookagian has re-emerged as a contender after rattling off three straight wins in her recent Octagon appearances. The No. 2 ranked flyweight earned a championship opportunity against Valentina Shevchenko with decisions over Joanne Wood and Jennifer Maia at UFC 238 and UFC 244, respectively. Chookagian and Shevchenko met at UFC 247, where she suffered a third-round technical knockout loss. She returned to the win column with a decision over the eldest Shevchenko, Antonina, but fell to Jéssica Andrade by TKO five months later. Chookagian has since beaten Cynthia Calvillo, Viviane Araújo and the aforementioned Maia.

The UFC Fight Night Ribas vs. Chookagian has been added to does not have a headliner yet. Stay tuned to Bloody Elbow for more updates as they become available.

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“I believe myself vs. Usman for the 170-pound title for my comeback fight is the one I’m eyeballing at the minute.”

UFC star Conor McGregor is finished with the lightweight division and will return to the Octagon at 170 pounds, ‘The Notorious’ revealed in a recent interview with The Mac Life (h/t MMA News).

McGregor, the former UFC featherweight and lightweight champion, is targeting a welterweight showdown against Kamaru Usman in his comeback fight.

“I just don’t really see myself coming back to 155 again,” McGregor said. “I’m eating, I’m lifting, I’m training, and I’m not cutting calories. So this is my natural state. I can go even bigger.”

“I like myself at 170. I’ve always had a great time when I’ve had a full camp at 170—with correct preparation: the Diaz 2 rematch and the [Donald Cerrone] fight in particular…They were probably some of my best performances inside the UFC Octagon and without any calorie deficiency whatsoever,” he added.

“I believe myself vs. Usman for the 170-pound title for my comeback fight is the one I’m eyeballing at the minute.”

If McGregor’s latest training footage is anything to go by, the Irishman will have no choice but to compete at welterweight and leave 155 in the rear-view mirror.

McGregor has reportedly put on 22 pounds of muscle mass since injuring his leg against Dustin Poirier at UFC 264. The SBG Ireland product lost the fight via first-round TKO (doctor stoppage) and plummeted to #9 in the UFC lightweight rankings. He is expected to return to the Octagon by summer at the latest, although a welterweight title shot is surely out of the question.

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Michael Bisping questions Dan Hooker’s motivation for dropping back down to featherweight.

UFC Hall of Famer Michael Bisping isn’t sure what to make of Dan Hooker’s move to featherweight, questioning whether ‘The Hangman’ is looking to gain an advantage by fighting ‘smaller guys’.

Hooker, who has lost three of his last four fights at 155 pounds, claims featherweight is his natural weight class, but Bisping isn’t so sure.

“Well, I don’t know. I think he’s trying to find himself,” Bisping said of Hooker ahead of his featherweight matchup with Arnold Allen at UFC London (h/t MMA News). “I mean, obviously he’s lost three out of his last four against very, very good opposition, so no shame in that.”

“But he went up to 155, now he’s come back down to 145. He says that that’s his natural weight class. I don’t know if it is. I think maybe he’s looking for, not easier competition because it’s not easier, but maybe smaller guys? Maybe less wrestlers? I don’t know.”

UFC Fight Night 204, which features Allen vs. Hooker as the co-main event, takes place tomorrow, March 19 at The O2 Arena in London, England.

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Dana White would like to see Jake Paul pick on somebody his own size.

YouTube boxing star Jake Paul has called out just about everybody on the UFC roster except Israel Adesanya, and UFC president Dana White thinks he knows why.

Size.

White didn’t say it outright but he insinuated that Paul, who is 5-0 in boxing, is a bully who picks on much smaller opponents.

That’s why the 25-year-old has called out everyone from Conor McGregor to Jorge Masvidal but not Adesanya, the reigning UFC middleweight champion.

“Why isn’t he calling out Israel Adesanya? I know. I know, and you know, and everybody else knows, and he knows, too,” White told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto in a recent interview (h/t Clyde Aidoo of MMA News).

Paul has quickly become one of the hottest commodities in combat sports despite only making his pro boxing debut in 2020. The controversial social media influencer holds standout victories against Ben Askren and Tyron Woodley and wants to try his hand at MMA next, urging White to ‘stop making excuses’ and set him up against McGregor.

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The UFC continues to air events on Match TV, which is owned by a subsidiary of the Russian oil and gas giant Gazprom.

As sports organizations suspend their agreements with Russian broadcasters due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, the Ultimate Fighting Championship continues to maintain a lucrative broadcast relationship with controversial, state-owned Russian sources.

The UFC is partnered with Gazprom-Media, a subsidiary of the Russian oil and gas giant and Russia’s largest media holding. The long-term deal, which was agreed upon in December 2021, made Gazprom the exclusive broadcast partner for the UFC in Russia through its popular sports network, Match TV.

“For the UFC in Russia, the deal with Gazprom-Media and Match TV is a historic step forward,” UFC Russia vice president Andrei Gromkovsky said at the time. “Our cooperation will create the largest community of sports fans on the Russian internet, expand the boundaries of sports, allow a large number of viewers to see UFC content and root for our champions.

UFC content currently broadcasts on traditional Match TV channels and across its digital platforms, most recently airing events such as UFC 272 and UFC Fight Night: Santos vs. Ankalaev. This is in stark contrast to the numerous sports leagues and organizations that have ended their broadcast deals in Russia.

In protest against Russia’s military action, the Premier League suspended its relationship with Russian broadcaster Okko Sport; the National Hockey League (NHL) put an end to its business relationships in the country, including its media rights deal with Yandex; Discovery’s Eurosport suspended all operations in Russia; Formula 1 terminated its relationship with Match TV following the suspension of the Russian Grand Prix; the Scottish Football Association (SFA) confirmed a “media blackout” for its events in Russia, while even the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) terminated its partnership with Gazprom-Media and shut down the WWE Network in Russia.

The sports effects on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine extend beyond terminated broadcast deals. Russia’s national and club soccer teams have been banned from international competition, including the 2022 World Cup qualifiers. UEFA also canceled its $ 45 million a year sponsorship deal with Gazprom, and moved the Champions League Final, which was due to play in Putin’s hometown of St. Petersburg, to Paris. The International Paralympic Committee also moved to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus on the eve of the Paralympic Games in Beijing.

On the other hand, the UFC has made no attempts to distance itself from Russia or some of its more controversial athletes. These include Magomed Ankalaev, a representative of Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov’s sanctioned Akhmat MMA fight club, who headlined a UFC event last week in Las Vegas, Nevada, and which also aired on Match TV in Russia.

The UFC’s upcoming events are still listed on Match TV’s official broadcast schedule. Others, such as Formula 1 and the WWE have been removed.

The organization’s continued relationship with Gazprom Media is also concerning, as the media holding is owned by Gazprom, a Russian company—in which the state has a controlling stake—that is one of the largest natural gas exporters in the world. It has numerous ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and has been embroiled in money-laundering allegations in Europe.

Gazprom-Media, which owns at least 32 media holdings, is also state-controlled and has a history of buying out media outlets and channels and converting them into propaganda mouthpieces for the Kremlin. It also purchased several of the most influential newspapers and radio stations and brought them under government control.

Gazprom-Media also appears to be at the forefront of bringing the internet in Russia under government control. The media holding obtained a controlling stake in VKontakte, Russia’s largest social media network, which raises concerns about increased censorship and monitoring of dissent. Gazprom-Media even created its own YouTube, RuTube, and a TikTok counterpart, Yappy, meaning it is in control of Russia’s social networks.

Given that Gazprom-Media has hollowed out independent media in Russia, dominated social media networks, and is responsible for a wide range of propaganda at the behest of the Kremlin, there are plenty of reasons for sports organizations to distance themselves from the entity.

However, when asked whether the organization intended to cut ties with the state-controlled Gazprom-Media, the UFC did not respond to BloodyElbow’s request for comment.

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See what happens on the scales ahead of the UFC’s return to the United Kingdom.

The UFC is in London, England this weekend with a sneaky good card. The action gets underway early tomorrow with the main card slated to go at 4 PM ET. The main event for this one is a heavyweight clash between Russia’s Alexander Volkov and England’s Tom Aspinall.

The co-main has an exciting featherweight match-up between Arnold Allen and the previously top ranked lightweight Dan Hooker. The main card also has the highly touted Paddy Pimblett facing Kazula Vargas and Gunnar Nelson taking on Takashi Sato. There’s also a fight between Jai Herbert and Ilia Topuria (who tried to fight Pimblett in the hotel earlier this week).

The prelims are headlined by Mike Grundy vs. Makwan Amirkhani. Also on that portion of the card is Nikita Krylov vs. Paul Craig and Jack Shore vs. Timur Valiev. Opening the show is the UFC debut of Muhammad Mokaev (who might be able to rival Pimblett’s status as hottest UK prospect). He takes on Cody Durden.

But before any of these bouts take place, everyone has to make it through the weigh-ins. The weigh-ins start at 5 AM ET and can be viewed below.

This video comes courtesy of our friends at MMA Fighting.

Full results:

Main Card (4PM ET on ESPN+):

Heavyweight: Alexander Volkov vs. Tom Aspinall

Featherweight: Arnold Allen vs. Dan Hooker

Lightweight: Paddy Pimblett vs. Rodrigo Vargas

Welterweight: Gunnar Nelson vs. Takashi Sato

Flyweight: Molly McCann vs. Luana Carolina

Lightweight: Jai Herbert vs. Ilia Topuria

Prelim Card (1:30 PM ET on ESPN+):

Featherweight: Mike Grundy vs. Makwan Amirkhani

Heavyweight: Shamil Abdurakhimov vs. Sergei Pavlovich

Light heavweight: Nikita Krylov vs. Paul Craig

Bantamweight: Jack Shore vs. Timur Valiev

Strawweight: Elise Reed vs. Cory McKenna

Flyweight: Muhammad Mokaev vs. Cody Durden

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Another collection of some of the wildest, weirdest, and coolest combat sports highlights from around the globe.

Despite being much maligned by the combat sports world, Aikido still has a following. Many practitioners around the world continue to celebrate the art and continue its legacy, but it gets virtually no love from the MMA community at large.

This week, we start off with Jerry from Fight Commentary Breakdowns. He does a deep dive into Aikido and it’s practical uses, the frustrations of adapting it to a modern context, and a fair amount of theory:

It’s a worthwhile exploration of Aikido principles, warts and all. Most interestingly, it attempts to apply those same principles and find through-lines via which Aikido can be used in a modern martial arts context in various situations. This was another solid bit of digging and experimenting that led to a thoughtful series of explorations for the art.

Up next, we’ve got a collection of some pretty dope Kung Fu clips being applied outside of a strictly Kung Fu environment. It even features Pierre Flores, whom we’ve covered before here on BE.

On a personal level, I’ve had reservations regarding Flores in the past. It often seems that he selectively calls out masters considerably older than him. His success rate hasn’t been 100%; he got hurt pretty badly during a challenge bout in Vietnam. But props to him for putting himself out there and making this happen.

While most of these vids end up with the Kung Fu guy getting trounced or embarrassed, these were some fun and interesting examples of guys thriving and finding success in fights. Much like the Aikido vid above, it’s an excellent way to look at the further evolution of more traditional combat arts.

I have a copy of UFC 8 at home, and you’re old enough to remember (or just a massively dedicated fan), you’ll remember the theme of the event was David vs Goliath. The bouts were set to have major size disparities between opponents, and it was very intense.

And that’s one of my favorite things in combat sports. Love seeing the underdog get over on the bigger guy, any day of the week. So here we have something that warms my miserable, dark and shriveled heart, courtesy of Grappler Kingdom:

This compilation is all Judo techniques where the smaller competitor gets some shine. Lovely technique on display all around.

Keeping things in the Judo realm, here’s a breakdown of Abe Hifume (courtesy of Judo Highlights), a stellar competitor that attacks like a shark:

Next we’ve got Radikal Videos, with another compilation of devastating Muay Thai knockouts. It’s not just another knockout collection, you’re seeing the sequences and setups well before the payoff. It requires a tiny bit of patience compared to the usual knockout collection, and it’s all the better for it:

Not that there’s anything wrong with the usual knockout compilation. This next one? Straight fire:

Random addition: an India vs Pakistan Kushti match for the grappling heads:

And we’ll end things this week with a mini-tribute to Francisco Filho, former K-1 star and absolute menace. His Kyokushin background got him far in his combat sports career, and his 100-man Kumite is the thing of legends:

Here’s a collection of his competition highlights:

Some of his most intense finishes:

Be ready for the new GTA Online revamp. And remember – you might think you can fight, but there are many guys like you all over the world.

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Esparza won the first matchup to win the inaugural UFC women’s strawweight title.

More than seven years removed from the first ever UFC women’s strawweight championship, Rose Namajunas (11-4) and Carla Esparza (18-6) are going to run it back.

MMA Fighting confirmed an initial report from Sports Illustrated that Namajunas will defend her title against Esparza in the co-main event of UFC 274 on May 7th. Esparza capped off season 20 of The Ultimate Fighter by choking out Namajunas to become the inaugural UFC champ at 115 lbs way back in December 2014.

Namajunas is the only woman to be a two-time UFC champion. ‘Thug’ Rose won the belt the first time in a stunning upset KO of Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 217 in 2017. After winning a rematch over Jedrzejczyk, Namajunas was slam KO’d by Jessica Andrade and lost the title in dramatic fashion. She beat Andrade in a non-title rematch and then recaptured the crown with a head kick KO of Zhang Weili at UFC 261 last year. Rose ended her 2021 with a rematch decision win over Zhang at UFC 268.

Esparza’s reign as champion did not last long, as Joanna Jedrzejczyk TKO’d her at UFC 185 in March 2015. In more recent times, Esparza is on a five-fight winning streak and is coming off a dominant second-round TKO of Yan Xiaonan last May. Her other victories during this title shot earning stretch include a pair of split decisions over Michelle Waterson and Marina Rodriguez, a majority decision over Alex Grasso, and a unanimous decision over Virna Jandiroba.

Incredibly, this will be Namajunas’ 5th rematch in what will soon be her 16th professional fight. She’s won the previous four rematches all by decision.

UFC 274 takes place at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona. The main event is a lightweight title fight between champion Charles Oliveira and former WSOF king and one-time UFC interim champion Justin Gaethje.

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“They are showing me a lot of stuff, changing a lot of stuff in my game.”

Former UFC title challenger Gilbert Burns is the next man in line to try and derail the Khamzat Chimaev hype. The two men will face each other at the main card of UFC 273 next month.

It could be the toughest test of Chimaev’s career, and likewise, it would not be a walk in the park for Burns. And for his part, “Durinho” is making changes to his preparation. Burns talked about some of it during his recent guesting on MMAFighting.com’s Trocação Franca podcast.

“I had to hire two wrestlers, two very tough Russians who are helping me daily,” he said in Portuguese. “They asked to keep their names a secret, and I had to [agree] because they are showing me a lot of stuff, changing a lot of stuff in my game.

“I always liked single-leg [takedowns], double-leg, body lock, but the Russians have different details, unique grips. You’d think they are super strong, but they aren’t. They are strong, but their technique is great.

“There’s a lot of technique with the hip, waist, control. They are ahead of the United States [in that aspect]. I’ve learned a lot in this camp. And you can’t just learn the defense, you have to attack as well so you feel it and develop your defensive skills.”

Burns says he understands the request for anonymity as he was also in a similar situation when Michael Chandler fought fellow Brazilian Charles Oliveira at UFC 262 last year.

“I believe there’s more to it, they haven’t told me, but they’ve asked to remain in secrecy, and I understand them,” he said. “It’s kind of an annoying situation. I was in a similar situation when I helped Michael Chandler a lot to fight Charles [Oliveira].

“I went there with Chandler, helped him in his entire camp, I was rooting for the guy. Of course, I was happy for Charles, but I was in such an awful situation. They are avoiding this situation by coming anonymously.”

Chimaev has been getting a lot of push since the stellar performances he began putting on in 2020, the same year of his UFC debut. And Burns understands why that is and he believes a win could land him another crack at welterweight gold.

“Dana White and the UFC are promoting this kid a lot,” he said. “The things they say, ‘This kid is a killer and no one wants to fight him,’ that helps a lot. But [I’m] not taking anything away from the kid, I think he’s good as hell and very promising. I think he’s tough.

“If he wins in a fight where he’s knocked down or almost submitted, but in the end he wins, he’ll have to fight one more. If I beat him but get knocked down before getting a submission, we’ll have to fight one more.

“A lot can happen, so my first focus is here, training hard, and getting there to put on my best performance, so I’ll have all the cards on the table to try for the belt again.”

UFC 273 takes place on April 9 in Jacksonville, Florida. The event features two title fights: a bantamweight rematch between Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan at the co-main event and the featherweight championship between Alexander Volkanovski and “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung.

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The UFC lightweight champion says he isn’t about to shy away from a striking match against Justin Gaethje at UFC 274.

The UFC lightweight champion has one of the division’s heaviest hitters ahead of him for his next title defense. But, by the sound of things, it seems he’s not feeling any pressure to take the fight to the ground. Paired up against Justin Gaethje at UFC 274, Brazilian jiu-jitsu blackbelt Charles Oliveira says he’s ready to see who has the most dangerous hands in the Octagon.

In an interview with Ag Fight, ‘Do Bronx’ made it clear that, whatever the matchup, he will always walk forward—and that he has no plans to shy away from trading shots against the ‘Highlight’. In fact, Oliveira says he is not even concerned about taking Justin down. Instead, the Brazilian is preparing for a stand-up war against the former interim champion.

“To be honest, there’s not much to say. Jorge Patino (Oliveira’s coach) always says: ‘We come up with a gameplan, but Charles just walks forward’. I only walk forward. It doesn’t matter if I’m delivering or taking damage. I’m always walking forward. So we’re going to clash in some kind of way. Everyone says I should take it to the ground, that I should be concerned. I’m not concerned about taking it to the ground, I’m really not. I believe in my power. I have power in my hands. I’ve been showing that, I’m evolving.”

“It’s going to be a war. He’s going to walk forward and so am I.” Charles said. “We’ll see who has power. People say ‘You should take him down’. That’s cool. I know I have to because that’s what I do best, but I’m not concerned about that. I’m not just training to take him down or defend takedowns. I’m training MMA. When I say we’re going to clash, it’s because we are. I told Diego Lima (his coach). Brace yourself, because the first round will be a war. I’m going to trade shots with that guy. People might call me stupid, but I’m not being stupid. I’m acting like an MMA fighter. He walks forward and so do I. We’ll see who has the heavier hands. Who can take a shot and get back up.”

Currently on a ten-fight win streak, Oliveira (32-8-1 NC) scored a submission win over Dustin Poirier back in December 2021. During his streak, Do Bronx picked up wins over some notable names in the division, such as Tony Ferguson, Michael Chandler and Jim Miller, among others. The 32-year-old’s last loss came in December 2017, when he got knocked out by Paul Felder.

Oliveira vs. Gaethje is expected to headline UFC 274 on May 7, in Phoenix, Arizona. Alongside the lightweight title fight, a top contender’s bout between Michael Chandler and Tony Ferguson has also been booked for the event.

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