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Can Nonito Donaire become world champion again?

Back in 2021, Nonito Donaire became the oldest to win a bantamweight world championship, at age 38. Can he keep fending off Father Time and beat his own record at age 40?

The legendary four-division champion has been stopping fighters much younger than him in recent years, and only lost his WBC title after running into Naoya Inoue again, who is arguably the pound-for-pound fighter today.

After Inoue became a rare undisputed world champion by winning every single bantamweight world title in 2022, the undefeated Japanese knockout artist decided to move up a division and vacate all his titles. As the sanctioning bodies try to shape the post-Inoue landscape at bantamweight, Donaire will get another opportunity at winning a world title.

With Donaire being the WBC’s number one ranked bantamweight, Mauricio Sulaiman announced that they have given approval to have the 40-year-old Filipino star get a shot at their vacant title. Donaire will face Alexandro Santiago on a date yet to be determined.

Filipino Reymart Gaballo will also take on Thailand’s Nawaphon Kaikanha in a bout that will likely determine the next challenger for that WBC belt.

As for the rest of the titles Inoue vacated, our friends over at Bad Left Hook summed up what’s next:

Takuma Inoue will face Liborio Solis for the WBA belt on April 8th.

The IBF has ordered the aforementioned Rodriguez to fight Vincent Astrolabio, the latter of whom recently burst onto the international stage with an upset of Guillermo Rigondeaux.

Moloney, Astrolabio, and Rodriguez are the top three WBO contenders, followed by Gaballo. If Astrolabio elects to fight Rodriguez and Gaballo goes the WBC route, Melvin Lopez would be next in line.

Donaire, 40, is 42-7 in his Hall of Fame-worthy career. His next opponent, Santiago, is only 27-years-old and is fresh off a stoppage win over Antonio Nieves that improved his overall record to 27-3-5.

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Sanchez was bloodied and battered in his BKFC debut on Friday night.

Austin Trout predicted Diego Sanchez would not go all five rounds in the co-main event of BKFC: Knucklemania 3 on Friday, and he was right. The former UFC veteran went through four rounds, but he was bloodied and battered by the former boxing champion, who scored a knockdown with a left hand. That also opened up a cut on the side of Sanchez’s head, which saw Trout and referee Dan Miragliotta call for the cageside physician, who deemed the ‘Nightmare’ ineligible to continue.

Shortly after his win over Sanchez, ‘No Doubt’ was called out by BKFC champ Luis Palomino for a fight next.

Here is how Twitter reacted to Sanchez’s bloody BKFC debut:

About the author: Kristen King is a writer for Bloody Elbow. She has covered combat sports since 2016. (full bio)

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The three-time NCAA Division I National Champion says he would fare well against the current and former champion of the UFC middleweight division. 

Bo Nickal is confident he would outgrapple the upper echelon of the UFC middleweight division, including current champion Alex Pereira and former champion Israel Adesanya.

Along with the rest of his peers, Nickal watched the recent title fight between Pereira and Adesanya, which saw ‘Po Atan’ dethrone the ‘Last Stylebender’ by fifth-round TKO at UFC 281 this past November. As impressed as he was with their striking, the recent UFC signee was unimpressed with their grappling, an area he has shined in since well before transitioning to mixed martial arts.

During a recent interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, the three-time NCAA Division I National Champion explained why he would favor himself in potential fights against Pereira and Adesanya.

“That’s a relatively, I would say—I’m not going to say [an] ‘easy’ fight because, he’s dangerous. But as far as styles go, that’s a great matchup for me,” said Nickal. “I’ve watched their fight a couple of times and the grappling, you know—the striking exchanges are super impressive, that goes without saying. They’re absolutely elite strikers. But when they get ahold of each other, it’s almost, like, funny.

“I’m like laughing at how they’re moving and what they’re doing and stuff,” continued Nickal. “And maybe they feel that way about me when I’m hitting pads and hitting the bag and stuff. But I just feel like, if I grabbed ahold of either of those guys, it wouldn’t go well for them. And I think everybody knows that, so that’s not something that’s a shocking statement or that’s pretty outlandish, in my opinion.”

Before he can get to fights against Pereira or Adesanya, the Contender Series graduate has to debut in the UFC first. For his first assignment, Nickal shares the Octagon with Jamie Pickett, a fellow Contender Series graduate and UFC veteran.

Though aware of what Pickett can do, the 3-0 prospect is confident he will continue his first-round finishing streak when the pair collide at UFC 285.

“I think you always have to go into a fight concerned,” said Nickal. “I think if you are too relaxed, taking it for granted and overlooking people, then that’s a recipe for disaster. So for me, I would say I’m very concerned, very aware of everything that he’s going to bring. I watch a ton of film and I feel like I’m fully prepared for anything that he has ready for me. With that being said, I’m very confident and I know what I’m going to do out there. I expect to finish him in the first round. If that doesn’t happen, finish him in the second and if that doesn’t happen, finish him in the third, but he’s not making it the full 15 minutes. I’m confident in that.”

UFC 285 goes down on Sat., March 4, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, NV. Nickal vs. Pickett serves as the opener of the pay-per-view portion.

About the author: Kristen King is a writer for Bloody Elbow. She has covered combat sports since 2016. (full bio)

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Leigh Wood was in one of last year’s most thrilling fights in any sport. Mauricio Lara is a non-stop aggression machine. Their clash this weekend is unlikely to be a quiet one.

Another potential firefight comes to us from the UK this weekend, as Leigh Wood takes on Maurico Lara for Wood’s featherweight title in what should be non-stop action.

The card will be available on DAZN. Coverage starts at 2PM ET (7PM GMT), with main event ringwalks expected at about 5.50 PM (10.50 GMT).

Preview

Wood (26-2, 16KOs) is most known to worldwide viewers for his sensational comeback victory of Michael Conlan last year, to win this belt. He’d been well behind in that fight early, but worked his way back into it before knocking Conlan clean out of the ring in the 11th round.

At 34, he’s a latecomer to the world scene.. Until 2020, he’d been bouncing around at a British/European sort of level. He’d had some success but never looked like troubling anyone for world titles. A loss in that year to Jazza Dickens prompted a coaching change. He brought in the oft-maligned Ben Davison, who helped him clean up the rough edges in his game. A year later, he unexpectedly beat Xu Can for the WBA featherweight belt, which he then defended against Wood. At the time that wasn’t the ‘full’ title, a claim held by Leo Santa Cruz. But since Santa Cruz hadn’t fought at the weight for years, it was effectively that, and with the Mexican finally officially vacating the title last year, Wood was promoted to the full belt.

Lara (25-2-1, 18KOs), meanwhile, burst onto the scene in 2021. Brought in against Josh Warrington as a tune-up opponent, he was expected to lose. Instead, he beat the brakes off the hometown fighter for 9 rounds before the stoppage. A rematch ended in an unsatisfying clash of heads and a no-contest. Since then, he’s had trouble getting opponents in the ring. A couple of entertaining, but expected, knockout wins have kept him ticking over, but he’s still something of an unknown here in a lot of ways. His power is for real though, that much is unquestionable, and he’s become something of a must-see for his wild brawls.

Prediction

On a technical level, it’s probably fair to say that Wood is the more polished fighter of the two. Whether he’s polished enough to keep himself safe from Lara’s firepower is another question.

Put simply, Lara is there to throw punches as hard as he can. Defense, he’s less worried about. He does actually have a little bit of proactive head movement as he approaches, but even that is more of a means to an end. He just wants to get close enough to start throwing. Once he does, the head movement goes out of the window, and he isn’t much interested in keeping his hands up either.

That makes him sound like he should be a sitting duck. The reason he isn’t is that he’s a very good puncher. His shots are not just hard, but unpredictable and accurate. And thrown at the slightest opening he sees. All that makes him an intimidating opponent to exchange with- there are very few opponents who can go toe-to-toe with him and be doing more damage to him than he is to them. Even if their defences are about right, if they’re relying on a high guard a lot of shots will go around or through it. Or he’ll throw happily at the gap left when they throw themselves, confident that he’ll do more damage. It’s a style that tends to leave opponents shelling up, which doesn’t help much. He hits hard enough that even shots caught on the guard do damage. More importantly, all it really does is give him even more time to pick his shots and find the gaps.

And, well, in a lot of ways Wood seems to be a fighter who matches up badly here. He does like to exchange with his opponents. His defence is okay, but not fantastic, with exactly the kind of gaps Lara can find. And while he clearly has some pop of his own, he doesn’t hit as hard as Lara. He has a good jab nowadays,but it isn’t about keeping his opponent at range. He uses it to set up his shots and cover his movements. That’s a good move in general, but with Lara using it as a trigger to throw, it’ll be tough to move behind it.

There are a few things that give Wood a good chance here, though. The first thing to realise is that his iconic moment against Conlan has kind of obscured what his basic game is really like. By the end of that fight, he had no choice but to chase hard, so ‘get in close and throw relentlessly’ was his only option. If that was true all the time, he’d be in real trouble here, but it’s not. He’s still a pretty aggressive fighter normally, but there’s a bit more to him than that.

Most importantly, his usual gameplan is more about using off-beat timing and awkward angles to find the space to throw. That can leave him in trouble- he doesn’t always keep a proper stance when moving, which can leave him caught on his heels. It was that exact problem that got him knocked down early agaisnt Conlan- and Lara hits a lot harder than Conlan. So it’s a risk, especially since Lara will be throwing at him whether he thinks he’s off-balance or not, so he won’t miss the chance.

When he does it properly, however, it can really throw off an opponent’s attacking game. Xu Can doesn’t hit hard, but he is an aggressive and extremely high volume fighter. Against Wood, the volume was still there, but much of it was rendered ineffective by Wood simply being just off-line. He also found himself falling short a fair bit, and taking shots from angles he was unprepared for. That resulted in the stoppage in the end, as Wood walked him onto a solid right hand that dropped him before jumping on him for the finish.

He’ll be hoping for some of that against Lara too. Okay, even off-line shots are unlikely to be ineffective in this case, but falling short or stepping into things? That should be something he’ll feel he can bait Lara into doing. He’s a competent stance-switcher too, which will raise his chances of getting the Mexican to bite prematurely. And he does hit hard when he needs to. He doesn’t have the fury on every single shot that Lara does, but when he decides it’s time? He’s got good pop, made all the more dangerous by being a little unexpected.

In short, Wood will never not be in danger in this fight. Lara will be on him from the start, and he’ll surely be taking a bit of a beating whatever happens. But Lara can’t put that on him without being in danger himself, which makes for a tightly balanced matchup that should result in real entertainment.

What’s on the undercard?

The biggest fight outside of the main event here is a British light-welterweight title fight between Dalton Smith and Billy Allington. Smith is a rising prospect, a classy pressure fighter who can sometimes start off slow but cranks the pressure as a fight progresses. Allington hasn’t ever really fought at this level before, so Smith should win, but he’s one to watch. We’ll also see Irish hopefull Gary Cully trying to keep a four-fight knockout streak going against Wilfredo Flores, Beyond that, it mostly seems to be a card of British-level veterans in tickover fights, with the likes of Gamal Yafai, Kieron Conway and Sam Maxwell in action. It’s not a bad show at all.

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A doctor says it’s “ridiculously easy” to cheat ONE Championship’s system claimed to have supposedly solved weight cutting.

In 2015, Chinese fighter Yang Jian Bing passed away, reportedly due to a bad weight cut for a bout in ONE Championship. Less than two weeks after his death, the promotion instilled a new weight cutting policy that involved hydration testing, multiple weigh-ins, and renaming divisions.

ONE Championship’s been known to push hyperbole and questionable claims, and what first seemed like a quick way to avoid bad PR in China and the rest of Asia, was eventually marketed as a “revolutionary system” that supposedly solved a longstanding issue in MMA and combat sports.

“We don’t use the term weight cutting because there is no cutting,” ONE VP Rich Franklin boasted in 2017.

ONE executives, fighters, and even personalities like Joe Rogan have since advocated for it to be widely adopted in MMA, but is this system actually as good as they say it is?

Well, apart from a very concerning lack of transparency for years, there’s really been numerous situations with fighters dropping multiple divisions and admitting to cutting weight. There’s also horror stories of repeated cutting and hydrating throughout the day, allegedly under advice of ONE officials.

Numerous experts on the field were interviewed by Jason Hartley of MMA on Point on this matter, including Dr. Oliver Barley, who has published multiple research papers on sports science, hydration, and weight cutting specifically for combat sports. Barley, who holds a master’s degree and PhD in exercise physiology, believes that ONE Championship’s weight cutting policy and hydration testing is “not good” at all.

“Right now, the usage of hydration testing, especially urine testing, in trying to regulate weight cutting is a unanimous bad, a unanimous negative,” Dr. Barley told Hartley.

“People don’t really trust ONE Championship’s weight cutting policy, and I think it’s their public image overall. I think people do see it as dubious,” he said. “Now if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, it’s probably a duck.”

According to Barley, who has written papers on the matter, the science just isn’t there when it comes to hydration testing and its accuracy, especially for athletes. He also has an issue with ONE Championship’s lack of transparency, along with the promotion using what he calls an “arbitrary” cut-off limit of 1.025 to mark those who are “dehydrated.”

“I’m not convinced that urinary test hydration testing is a great measure in almost any situation, but I am extremely not convinced that it’s useful in the case of weight cutting,” he said, pointing out how these tests were only made for patients in a hospital setting. “These hydration tests were not designed for someone who is going to specifically aggressively dehydrate themselves and then rehydrate themselves.

“If we pulled in 100 people off the street, my guess is 40 percent of them would probably fail a urinary hydration test. People typically walk around, according to a urinary test, with at least some mild to moderate dehydration,” he said. “There’s actually a good chance that you’ll be declared dehydrated even if you’re not.

“The thing that confuses me the most, is that (ONE) had years where I was not aware of a single fight being canceled due to urinary hydration test failing, which to me is so unbelievable that I don’t even know how to describe it,” Dr. Barley said.

In a separate video, nutritionist Tom Coughlin also brought up other studies that discussed the “problematic” use of hydration tests for sports. He pointed out how the test can have a number of factors to give an inaccurate result such as diet, drug interactions, and muscle mass, and how it needs far more research before being implemented in sports.

Apart from detailing how these tests clearly aren’t fit for weight cutting scenarios, Dr. Barley also described how it is also “ridiculously easy” to cheat. Interestingly enough, he even admits to helping some “big names” in ONE pass hydration tests even with weight cuts.

“I’ve been involved in helping fighters trick this test. It’s not been difficult, at all,” he admitted.

“Tricking the test is super easy,” Dr. Barley explains. He says it simply has to do with drinking distilled water at certain points to trick your body in thinking you’re over-hydrated. “You put the fluid back in but not the electrolytes, so then the concentration of your blood really plummets and the kidneys actually think you’re over-hydrated and they start emptying urine out and the urine comes out clear.

“It’s ridiculously easy. Currently, I am batting 100 percent in getting people to trick the test. I have (a short) instruction thing on my phone that I just copy and paste and send it to them whenever anyone asks me.”

As for why he is willing to share and expose these details now, Barley hopes that revealing its significant flaws just gets the entire system changed.

“The fact is, huge amounts of athletes are doing it anyway, and as these tests get bigger and bigger, people are going to work out how to do it. Me telling everyone how to do it just rips that band-aid off, and moves us away from an ineffective solution, and tries to make us do something more productive,” he said.

“People are going to make larger cuts (knowing that) that they can trick these tests.”

ONE Championships also has a rule that fighters are only allowed to gain 5% of their weight on fight day. That follow up weigh-in is also concerning for health and safety, according to Barley, as it could lead to people not recovering properly.

“They just eat food, they’re already at that five percent,” Barley stated. “You’ve (also) reduced someone’s rehydration. They’re not going to rehydrate as well, and then what you get are people competing possibly more dehydrated than they would have been if you just let them cut the weight and not check them a second time.”

As for anyone saying “then don’t just cut weight,” Barley responds that the problem isn’t simple and fighters are always going to look for an edge.

“Talk to a fighter. It is obvious that they will sacrifice a lot to win. They will sacrifice a lot more than being kinda hungry, or being slightly dehydrated. Relative to everything they do, that’s tiny. Relative to the pain they put themselves through in training, the pain they go through in fighting, the discipline and effort they have to have — this is nothing to them.

“Also, this runs the risk of making fighters think they’re smarter by tricking it. Going ‘you know what, everyone else is now probably cutting less weight, so if I do it and I trick the test, I will now get a bigger advantage.’”

At the end of the day, weight cutting is a complex problem in combat sports. As Dr. Barley and others explained, it certainly wasn’t magically solved by a policy seemingly rushed out less than two weeks after a tragic death.

“How could 12 days possibly be enough time? While hydration tests sound like they fit the bill perfectly, almost like a great marketing slogan — I mean it’s called hydration testing, it just sounds good — but nothing I’m able to find on this subject backs up those claims,” Hartley concluded in his report.

“With the confounding factors surrounding the testing methods, relative ease of being able to game the system, and the subsequent dangers around manipulating electrolyte balance, (ONE’s system) poses its own very real set of risks,” Coughlin stated. “This is not the fix that MMA has been asking for.”

“The problem is that everybody wants simple answers to complicated questions,” Dr. Barley said. “Hydration testing is a relatively simple answer to what people think is a simple problem, but it’s actually an extremely complicated problem.”

About the author: Anton Tabuena is the Managing Editor for Bloody Elbow. He’s been covering MMA and combat sports since 2009, and has also fought in MMA, Muay Thai and kickboxing. (full bio)

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Watch UFC vets Diego Sanchez, Greg Hardy and Jon Dodson compete at BKFC.

BKFC’s Knucklemania 3 is on tap for Friday night with a BKFC light heavyweight title unification bout and a slew of recognizable faces from UFC rosters of old. Most notable among those is original The Ultimate Fighter winner Diego Sanchez.

Sanchez will be making his bare knuckle boxing debut when he takes on former WBA (regular) light middleweight champion Austin Trout. There’s also Greg Hardy making his bare knuckle debut opposite 1-1 BKFC fighter Josh Watson.

You can watch the main card of BKFC Knucklemania 3 right here, via FITE.tv. The event is on sale for $ 9.99 (down from the usual price of $ 29.99).

Full fight card

Main card (9 p.m. ET on FITE.tv)

• Lorenzo Hunt vs. Mike Richman
• Diego Sanchez vs. Austin Trout
• Will Santiago vs. Noah Cutter
• Jayme Hinshaw vs. Charisa Sigala
• Joshua Moreno vs. Christian Torres
• Chevvy Bridges vs. Kevin Croom
• John Dodson vs. Jarod Grant
• Greg Hardy vs. Josh Watson
• Gaston Reyno vs. D. Van Sickle

Prelims (8 p.m. ET on YouTube/BKFC App)

• Eric Dodson vs. Gene Perez
• Anthony Sanchez vs. Derek Perez

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Former strawweight champ Jessica Andrade shares some news on her financial situation following hard times.

Former UFC strawweight champion Jessica Andrade feels hopeful about 2023. Having gone through a difficult year in 2022, where she had to deal with a divorce and a financial crisis, the Brazilian now feels optimistic and ready to turn her life around.

The reason behind her happiness is mostly due to a newly-signed UFC contract, which Andrade claims to be three times better than the one she had before. In a conversation on MMA Fighting’s podcast Trocacao Franca, ‘Bate Estaca’ says the new deal is going to change her life.

“It was something really good, a great change in my career,” Andrade said adding that her new deal pays “almost three times more” than her old one. “Now I’ll really be able to make my nest egg and plan my life. Maybe my body won’t be the same in five or six years, so now I’ll be able to change my life and my family’s lives,”

“My last contract had 10 fights, but Ali (Abdelaziz) said that was crazy, that it wasn’t a good idea to have a contract with so many fights,” she said. “He said, ‘Let’s do the next contract with less fights, but with you getting paid more.’”

However, the new contract is not the only reason why Andrade feels positive about her future. In an interview with Ag Fight, Jessica also revealed that the UFC paid her in advance to help Jessica resolve a difficult financial situation that grew from her divorce and the mishandling of her money by her ex-wife.

“After we split up, there was the whole divorce thing. You have to lawyer up and then the money just vanishes. Before I realized it, I had no money. That’s why I say I work for the biggest promotion in the world, though. When I needed them the most, they were there for me. Life is all about overcoming hardships and learning,”

“I learned a lot this past year,” Jessica said. “From now on, I’ll have special people taking care of everything for me. Always by my side, you can’t go wrong with it. From now on, we’re going to the top. It’s going to be the opposite, we’ll be the ones lending money to the UFC. This is a very promising year.”

In her last outing, Andrade (24-9) put herself on a three-fight winning streak when she defeated Lauren Murphy by unanimous decision. Before that, the 31-year-old scored wins over Amanda Lemos and Cynthia Calvillo. The Brazilian’s last loss took place in April 2021, when she got TKO’d by flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko.

The 31-year-old is currently looking at a quick turnaround after accepting a short notice officer to take on Erin Blanchfield at UFC Vegas 69’s main event this coming Saturday. The card is scheduled to take place in Las Vegas, Nevada, on February 18.

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Get the dirt on the preliminary action out of UFC Vegas this Saturday, featuring the UFC’s all-time leader in appearances, Jim Miller, looking to extend his winning streak to four.

When is the UFC going to hit the road full time? Given the frequency in which the cards from the APEX are of substandard quality, I’m anxious for the promotion to make a priority of fighting in front of a live audience. I know there will continue to be cards that are less than stellar, but I believe there would be a greater effort to ensure the live fans pay for quality. Well, I suppose it’s more accurate to say that a greater effort would be made to ensure a live audience pays to show up, but it’s the same idea. To be fair, UFC Vegas 69 was plagued by injuries and rescheduling issues. Regardless, over half of the preliminary contests feature a fighter making their UFC debut. The debutants are reasonable prospects, but they haven’t proven themselves either. In other words, this card is a hard sell, even former frequent Fight Night headliners Jim Miller and Ovince Saint Preux.

• Jim Miller has become a beloved figure as the all-time leader in UFC bouts and UFC victories. He’s sitting at 40 fights under his belt right now, but it wouldn’t be shocking if he were to make it to his goal of 45 given how the UFC continues to give him favorable matchups. Miller isn’t as durable as he used to be, nor is he as fast. Perhaps most concerning, his gas tank may be the most suspect part of his game. However, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who is more savvy at securing the type of fight he wants. Though most fighters know they shouldn’t hit the mat with Miller, he often finds a way to make it happen early in the fight. Plus, Miller has become more acute as to when to let his power loose, as his wins over Erick Gonzalez and Nikolas Motta indicate. However, during that stretch, the opponents Miller has defeated have either had a lack of experience or were well past their prime. It could be argued Alexander Hernandez should be smack dab in the middle of his prime. He’s got plenty of quality experience too. Unfortunately for him, he’s one of the UFC’s better definitions for inconsistent. Hernandez can be a physical presence, bullying his opponent with punches and pressure. In the same fight, he can wilt into someone merely looking to survive. However, that typically happens as a result of his conditioning failing him and his opponent remaining strong. Miller has shown he can remain effective into the second round, but it’s hard to believe he’ll be able to if the physically stronger Hernandez takes the fight to him. Hernandez is hard to trust, but he is a cut above those whom Miller has been beating as of late. Hernandez via TKO of RD2
• It’s a shock Lina Lansberg is still on the roster. At the age of 40 with three consecutive losses, there doesn’t appear to be any upside to keeping her on the roster at this point. Then again, it’s hard to point to the glut of hungry bantamweights on the regional scene capable of providing the same level of competitiveness as Lansberg. Lansberg was never a great athlete, but her toughness and determination allowed her to carve out a lengthy UFC career. Her minute physical gifts appear to have declined some, but her intangibles don’t appear to have been affected. She’ll need every bit of those as Mayra Bueno Silva would have had a notable athletic advantage even if Lansberg was in her prime. Silva’s issue come with her mental miscues. For instance, she has too much confidence in her guard, allowing her opponents to secure large chunks of control time. There’s been signs those are issues of the past, but a considerable track record is needed before that reputation can be changed. However, even with that issue, Silva isn’t short on toughness or determination herself; the Brazilian has never been finished. Plus, there’s reason she has so much trust in her guard. Lansberg might be able to make it to the end – she has never been submitted – but it is very hard to see her winning. Silva via decision
• Khusein Askhabov has been trying to make his UFC debut for a while now, proving fortunate enough to forgo his previously scheduled appearance on DWCS. Long considered to be one of the top prospects at bantamweight, Askhabov is touching down at 145 instead. That could prove problematic as the Russian is used to being the larger man in the cage. He won’t be against Jamall Emmers. Emmers has proven to be a sound wrestler himself, but doesn’t always take that approach when it appears to be the best route to victory. In fact, his fight IQ in general has been questionable. I’m not sure Askhabov can take advantage of that as he’s been able to trample over most of his opposition due to many of them being a lower level of competition than someone with his hype. Regardless, if Emmers has his head on straight, he operates behind an effective jab to compliment his solid wrestling. However, he can also slow down the stretch, hasn’t fought in 18 months, and is 33. For all we know, he could very well be past his prime. However, there’s no guarantee of that and Askhabov’s own layoff – almost three years – is also problematic. I wouldn’t consider putting money on this fight given all the unanswered questions. Based on what is known, I’ll go with the younger fighter. Askhabov via decision
• The end of Ovince Saint Preux’s UFC tenure is drawing nigh. Now 39, the former interim title challenger struggled to secure a win over the now retired Shogun Rua last May. That’s the same Shogun who was blasted by Ihor Potieria. So long as he can continue to make the 205 limit, his size will be problematic for any opponent. Everything else appears to be fading. Saint Preux only wrestles out of desperation at this point, afraid to deplete his gas tank. He was never fast outside of sudden bursts, but he’s becoming glacial at this point. There’s even signs his power is fading, having secured a lone KO/TKO finish in the last five years after securing five in the previous five years. However, while many a quick to jump on the idea of Philipe Lins running right past Saint Preux, they tend to forget Lins is 37, likely on the downside himself. Lins caught fire several years ago when he claimed the PFL heavyweight crown in 2018 for the million dollar prize, but hasn’t resembled that fighter since. Lins owns good size for light heavyweight and is one of the more skilled grapplers in the division. When his head is where it needs to be, he’s efficient on the feet too. The question is whether his head will be in the right place. Even if Saint Preux’s power appears to be waning, it would be stupid to assume it has disappeared completely. Neither man is trustworthy, so it would be insane to throw money towards the contest. That said, Lins appears to have more in the gas tank, so I’ll lean towards him in the slightest. Lins via decision
• Anyone who watches MMA on the regular knows that size does matter. Evan Elder found that out definitively in his UFC debut, taking his fight with Preston Parsons on short notice at welterweight. Given Elder’s ground game is his bread and butter, it was a rude awakening for the natural lightweight. To be fair, Elder showed a lot of grit, fighting off submission attempt after submission attempt. He’ll get to see what he can do against someone closer to his size in Nazim Sadykhov. Sadykhov reminds me of his teammate, Merab Dvalishvili, minus the relentless takedowns. Not that he can’t wrestle, but that hasn’t proven to be his bread and butter. Instead, what I mean is Sadykhov has power in his hands and an eternal gas tank, but he’s also on the reckless side with his striking. Elder’s striking has been progressing at a reasonable rate, but it feels like a stretch to say he can make Sadykhov pay for wild tendencies at this juncture. Elder probably has the edge on the mat, but Sadykhov has proven difficult to take down. This should be more akin to a pick ‘em than what the odds reflect, but I do agree Sadykhov is the right pick due to his pressure and volume. I just wouldn’t put money on it. Sadykhov via decision
• Themba Gorimbo is the latest attempt by the UFC to produce a fruitful investment from the continent of Africa. At 32, Gorimbo isn’t the youngest prospect and I’m not sure where his strength of attack is going to come from. He’s got some talent on the feet, but lacks KO power. He’s also picked up most of his wins via submission thanks to his aggressive guard, but the competition in Africa is questionable. We’ll get a good idea of how good his ground game is against AJ Fletcher. The stout 25-year-old is a ball of muscle with powerful takedowns and decent top control. However, he also has a questionable gas tank and will have a nine-inch reach disadvantage on the feet. Fletcher has dealt with being at a reach disadvantage before — just about every fight he’s been in – but it typically isn’t as large a discrepancy as what Gorimbo provides. In the end, I don’t trust anyone who operates off their back with the frequency Gorimbo does at this level. Throw in that Fletcher’s stocky frame will make it that much more difficult for Gorimbo to find a sub off his back and I have a good amount of confidence Fletcher scores his first UFC victory. Fletcher via TKO of RD2
• Juancamilo Ronderos is a HUGE wild card. The native of Colombia only has five professional fights under his belt and hasn’t fought since 2021. Given his inexperience and lack of experience, the 27-year-old could be a completely different fighter than the one who was bowled over by David Dvorak 21 months ago. Because of that, it creates a weird situation where the debuting fighter appears to be the more proven commodity. That said, Clayton Carpenter has a lot to prove himself given he only has six fights under his belt. The 26-year-old picked up his contract on DWCS thanks to a combination of wrestling and a steady diet of low kicks. Ronderos should be able to deal with the low kicks effectively with his constant pressure, but the wrestling is going to be a different story. Ronderos has proven to be slippery to maintain control over, but he also hasn’t faced someone the with wrestling and grappling of Carpenter. With so little known about Ronderos, I hate making a prediction. Regardless, I’ll say Carpenter’s wrestling makes the difference. Carpenter via decision

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Coach Eugene Bareman says ‘you can’t reliably say that Islam cheated,’ but thinks something fishy was going on.

In the aftermath of the debated result of UFC 284’s headliner between Islam Makhachev and Alexander Volkanovski, Dan Hooker made some incendiary claims. Without naming names, “The Hangman” alleged that Makhachev used an I.V. to his advantage, a practice that’s been banned since USADA stepped in.

Makhachev’s manager Rizvan Magomedov already called BS, while blasting Hooker for attention-seeking and being “salty.” This week, Hooker’s coach at City Kickboxing Eugene Bareman appeared on the MMA Hour to share more of their side of the story.

“We have reliable information to a point. I will half-plead the fifth. Can you half-plead the fifth? The two and a half?”

Bareman then explained a possible loophole that may permit pre-fight IV use.

“The information falls short because of several reasons, and one of them is that you can actually take an IV before a fight. It just has to be 100 ml of saline every 12 hours, in a 12-hour block. So what it has to come down to is whether you believe that people are going to take this saline, 100 ml, and then stop.

“And the fact that from that team there were two fighters from that same team and the information can’t reliably tell us yet which fighter illegally hydrated or whether they went over 100 ml.

“But I don’t know, no information can tell us without a doubt that someone in their team used an IV badge to rehydrate, which is not illegal if you used 100 ml. You’ve just got to ask yourself if it’s only 100 ml you’ve got to use for 12 hours, why would you even bother?”

Given how the information they had wasn’t as rock solid, Bareman says he advised Hooker against speaking out. But ultimately, he thinks something questionable went down.

“I advised Dan against even talking about it. Look, as you can see, that information has holes in it, that’s what I’m alluding to, but also there’s enough information there for it to be like, ‘Eeeh…’

“This is why Alex and the rest of the team are laughing because we’re like, something’s going on there, we just can’t reliably say what it is.

“It’s frustrating because the whole sport should be played on an even playing field. Then again, you can’t reliably say that Islam cheated, so I wouldn’t go out there and say that in the manner that Dan did.

“That’s just—I don’t think you can reliably say that. But something was going on there.”

The 31-year-old Makhachev (24-1) ended up with the unanimous decision win as he extended his UFC win streak to 12.

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The NSAC has named the officials for the co-main event of UFC 285 between Valentina Shevchenko and Alexa Grasso.

Valentina Shevchenko looks to make her eighth successful defense of the UFC women’s flyweight title on March 4 when she meets Alexa Grasso in the co-main event of the UFC 285-pay-per-view card.

During its monthly meeting on Wednesday, the Nevada State Athletic Commission selected Jason Herzog as the referee for the five-round fight. Also, the NSAC named Ben Cartlidge, Derek Cleary and Chris Lee as the judges for the 125-pound title scrap. Herzog will earn a $ 2,600 payday for his services and each of the judges will take home $ 2,300 for working the fight.

Shevchenko claimed the vacant UFC women’s flyweight title in December 2019 with a decision win over former UFC strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk. Shevchenko has defended her crown seven times since that victory. Her most recent title defense came in June 2022 when she scored a split-decision win over Taila Santos at UFC 275.

Grasso enters her matchup opposite Shevchenko as the No. 5 fighter on the official UFC women’s flyweight rankings. Grasso is on a four-fight winning streak. Her most recent victory came in October 2022 when she defeated Viviane Araujo via unanimous decision. Grasso made her UFC flyweight debut in August 2020 with a decision win over Ji Yeon Kim. She had fought at strawweight before moving up to the 125-pound division.

UFC 285 takes place on March 4 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The main card streams on ESPN+ pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and early prelims on ESPN+.

A heavyweight bout between former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and ex-interim UFC titleholder Ciryl Gane headlines the UFC 285 fight card. The vacant UFC heavyweight title is on the line during that matchup.

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