It’s not often you hear the winning fighter come out and say he wants to run it back.

For the most part, judging at UFC 279 last Saturday went by without controversy. Of the six fights that saw the final bell, four were by unanimous decision. The other two saw 29-28 splits, with one of the two only really notable for its slow pace and tepid action.

It’s that other split decision, however, that’s drawn the ire of fight fans. Smack dab in the middle of the PPV card Daniel Rodriguez picked up a split decision win against Li Jingliang. It wasn’t the most decisive, dynamic fight in the world, but most fans and observers felt that the ‘Leech’ had done enough to take the first two rounds.

“Of course I think I won the fight,” Li said in a recent interview on the MMA Hour. “I won the fight. … When Bruce Buffer declared a result, I couldn’t believe that. I couldn’t believe that. It’s already an awful match-up, and the result was worse. And I think it just [is an] injustice. I can accept a loss, that’s fine. But please tell me why, why I lost the fight. Please, the three judges, tell me why you think I lost the fight. Tell me. Explain to me, please.”

Apparently that sentiment has been strong enough to make it back to Rodriguez. Even though he walked away with the win, he sounds interested in silencing the doubters and proving the point. To that end, ‘D-Rod’ took to Instagram to offer Li a chance to run it back.

Of course, there’s always the matter of weight class if these two men are going to step into the Octagon again. While Rodriguez has regularly competed at welterweight throughout his career, he stepped on the scales 10 lbs heavier than Li ahead of UFC 279 due to what had been a planned 180 lb catchweight bout against Kevin Holland. According to the ‘Trailblazer’ that was because Rodriguez couldn’t get anywhere close to the 170 lb limit.

Rodriguez had been sidelined for a year due to a hand injury. Whether or not he can find the form to get back down to his former division going forward still remains to be seen.

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Bravery or stupidity? You decide.

A disgruntled fan got what he deserved after heckling Khamzat Chimaev following his missed weight cut at UFC 279.

Khamzat’s welterweight matchup with Nate Diaz was called off at the last minute after ‘Borz’ missed weight by a whopping seven and a half pounds due to reported health complications backstage.

The card was reshuffled, with Khamzat demoted to the co-main event where he took on Kevin Holland at a catchweight of 180 pounds.

Chimaev won via submission, submitting Holland with a D’Arce choke at 2:13 of the opening round. He was booed before, during, and after the fight but refused to apologize for his behavior, giving fans the middle finger in response to criticism.

Before the fight, this fan got his phone smashed after telling Khamzat ‘you didn’t make weight’ while recording the latter in a casino lobby.

Check out the video below, courtesy of Full Violence on Instagram.

The man who slapped the fan’s phone away was kickboxer Guram Kutateladze, per Sportskeeda. He was part of Khamzat’s entourage leading up to the event.

On Instagram, fans reacted to the incident (see below).

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Can / should the UFC trust Khamzat Chimaev to safely make welterweight again?

A significant number of fans, fighters and MMA media rejoiced at the reshuffling of the top three fights on the UFC 279 pay-per-view card. I will acknowledge that the main event was made better and more competitive when Tony Ferguson was slotted into the spot Khamzat Chimaev forfeited when he missed weight by a not insignificant 7.5 pounds. That fact shouldn’t obscure that Chimaev, who has been touted as a UFC welterweight title challenger — and who could have possibly earned a shot at UFC champion Leon Edwards with a win over Diaz at UFC 279 — was 8.5 pounds away from championship weight when he stepped on the scale ahead of UFC 279.

Which leads to the question, what does the UFC do with a problem like Chimaev?

“Yeah, it’s a problem, that’s a problem that he missed weight,” UFC president Dana White said at the UFC 279 post-fight press conference. “We’ve got to look at it and figure it out, but what makes sense is for him to fight at (185). So we’ll see.”

It is a problem. If Chimaev was, as his coach Andreas Michael told The MMA Hour, “getting muscle spasms, shaking, vomitting. When he stood up, he was passing out,” there should be a genuine concern for Chimaev’s health and safety going forward.

The UFC, athletic commissions and Chimaev’s team also need to consider what Michael said about the fighter’s situation in the aftermath of his scary bout of COVID-19, which resulted in Chimaev announcing his retirement from MMA.

”Ever since he got [covid] and all these health issues, he’s had a little bit of a hard time making the weight. I must be honest with you. Ever since that issue, his body has been a little bit off,” said Michael.

For his part, in the aftermath of UFC 279 Chimaev said he would fight at the weight his coach wants him to compete at.

If Chimaev’s team thinks their fighter can make the cut to welterweight again, a weight he most recently made ahead of his win over Gilbert Burns in April, his camp needs to closely monitor his health and weight throughout camp and avoid, if at all possible, a big cut the day before weigh-ins.

Further, the athletic commission of the state where Chimaev fights next needs to be involved in monitoring his progress, to avoid any health and safety issues. Everyone knows weight cutting is an accepted practice in combat sports, but that doesn’t mean it’s safe, good, or even necessary. Fighter health and safety need to come first for fight camps, commissions and promotions. With Chimaev missing his contracted weight by such a large amount, his next weight cut, if it is to 170 pounds, needs to be monitored from start to finish.

UFC 279 marked the first time Chimaev missed weight. With that, I don’t think there’s a need to force a move to middleweight, but I think any trust the UFC has in him to hit the welterweight limit — safely — evaporated the moment the scale read 178.5 on weigh-in day.

If the UFC books Chimaev at welterweight for his next fight I would hope that contest would take place under the watchful eye of a strong athletic commission. I would also hope the UFC wouldn’t make it a title fight/main event to avoid a big shake-up like we saw at UFC 279. I would also say a backup fighter needs to be enlisted as a failsafe in case Chimaev once again fails to hit his mark.

Ideally, Chimaev’s team removes any of these issues by announcing he is going to move to middleweight and stay there.

Chimaev is a UFC favorite. With the situation at welterweight being what it is, he’s likely going to need to take another fight at 170 before he gets a title shot in that division. There’s no reason to believe the UFC wouldn’t give him that same opportunity at middleweight. If you doubt that, take a look at the far less accomplished (in MMA) fighter who is matched up against UFC middleweight champ Israel Adesanya at UFC 281 — Alex Pereira.

I fear is that, much like White’s claim that Paulo Costa was going to “have to fight at 205 (pounds)” after UFC Vegas 41, the UFC will forget about its concerns once attention shifts to another issue within the promotion.

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Check out all the fights announced over the past week in the UFC, Bellator and other promotions.

Fights on Tap is a weekly roundup of all the fights booked in the UFC, Bellator and other promotions.

For everything that happened throughout the week, UFC 279 was a decent offering. After a reshuffling of the event on 24 hours’ notice, Nate Diaz and Khamzat Chimaev—the original headliners—ended the night with respective wins over Tony Ferguson and Kevin Holland. With that card now behind us, we can look at what we have ahead of us on the upcoming schedule.

The UFC either announced or finalized five fights this week, and a much-anticipated clash between two of the best lightweights is set.

Get ready, folks. This should be a fun one. Dustin Poirier vs. Michael Chandler is finally official (thank you for planting the seed, Gilbert Burns!). The lightweights are expected to share the Octagon at UFC 281, the upcoming pay-per-view event scheduled for Nov. 12 at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Poirier returns for his first appearance in 2022. The ‘Diamond’ has not fought since suffering a third-round rear-naked choke loss to former UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira at UFC 269 last December.

Chandler snapped a two-fight losing streak with a ‘Knockout of the Year’ contender after finishing the aforementioned Ferguson with a front kick at UFC 274 this past May.

UFC Fight Night — September 17
Loma Lookboonmee vs. Denise Gomes — women’s strawweight

UFC Fight Night — October 15
Nick Maximov vs. Jacob Malkoun — middleweight
First rep. by Brett Appley of The Athletic

UFC 281 — November 12
Andre Petroski vs. Wellington Turman — middleweight
First rep. by Petroski on Instagram
Dustin Poirier vs. Michael Chandler — lightweight
First rep. by Ariel Helwani and later confirmed by Brett Okamoto of ESPN

UFC 282 — December 10
Darren Till vs. Dricus du Plessis — middleweight
First rep. by Brett Okamoto of ESPN

Announced Cage Warriors fights:

Cage Warriors 143 — September 23
Jeff Craig vs. Chasen Blair — welterweight
Tyler Escoto vs. Orlando Sanders — welterweight
John de Jesus vs. Brandon Laroco — featherweight
Brian Mitchell vs. Robert Hernandez — featherweight

Cage Warriors 144 — October 7
Jasmine Favero vs. Awa Sow — women’s bantamweight

Cage Warriors 145 — November 4
Cameron Else vs. Nathan Fletcher — bantamweight
Caolan Loughran vs. Luke Shanks — bantamweight

Cage Warriors 146 — November 12
Manny Akpan vs. Dean Trueman — featherweight
Gavin Hughes vs. Chris Bungard — lightweight
Reece McEwan vs. Adam Wilson — bantamweight

Announced KSW fights:

KSW 75 — October 14
Ibragim Chuzhigaev vs. Ivan Erslan — light heavyweight
Robert Ruchała vs. Damian Stasiak — featherweight

KSW 76 — November 12
Marian Ziółkowski vs. Salahdine Parnasse — lightweight

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“If you are a Muslim, you should have good people around you.”

Khabib Nurmagomedov has some choice words for Khamzat Chimev following the latter’s failure to make weight ahead of UFC 279 last week.

Speaking at a recent event hosted by the non-profit organization Human Appeal, the former UFC champion questioned Chimaev’s team, noting that the rising star is not surrounded by enough Muslims.

“If you are a Muslim, you should have good people around you – Muslims who can say: ‘Hey, don’t do this,’” Nurmagomedov said. “I recently watched the weigh-in of Khamzat Chimaev. I followed what was happening with his weight and looked at his team. There are no Muslims around him and this is very bad. Because if you are a Muslim, you need good, strong people around you. [They] will say: “Come back, do this.

“When you become famous and rich, when you gain power and [around you] there are no people who will give advice or you do not listen to them, then something will happen. You need good people, even if you don’t like it, you need them,” he added.

Chimaev failed to make weight ahead of his scheduled UFC 279 main event against Nate Diaz, coming in at 178.5 pounds, 8.5 pounds over the contracted weight of 170 pounds. The undefeated welterweight was later repositioned in the co-main event against Kevin Holland, while Diaz faced Tony Ferguson in the main event. Both Chimaev and Diaz went on to win their respective bouts by submission.

It is worth noting that Nurmagomedov has also failed to make weight on multiple occasions during his UFC tenure. He missed weight ahead of his fourth UFC fight against Abel Trujillo at UFC 160 in May 2013, and was hospitalized two hours before his scheduled weigh in to face Ferguson at UFC 209. The former champ also struggled to make weight ahead of his lightweight title defense at UFC 254.

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Khamzat Chimaev doesn’t want to fight Robert Whittaker.

Khamzat Chimaev wants to kill everybody, brother. But he’d rather not fight former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker AKA Bobby Knuckles.

Fresh off a first-round submission victory over Kevin Holland at UFC 279, Chimaev (12-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) revealed that he’d rather train with Whittaker (24-6 MMA, 15-4 UFC) than fight him, crediting ‘The Reaper’ as one of the ‘good guys’ in MMA.

“I like that guy, so I don’t want to fight good guys,” Chimaev said of Whittaker at the UFC 279 post-fight press conference (h/t MMA Junkie). “I need some bad guys, so I want to fight some bad guy, you know? And don’t feel sorry for that.

“I want to train with that guy. He’s really good, like one of the best guys in the world. I was watching his fight. … I’m a big fan, so I watch all things. I watch how he trains, and all these things. A lot of guys want to fight me, so Robert never said something bad about me. There’s a lot of guys talking sh*t about me. I’m gonna go take their heads off, you know? So, we’ll see.”

Khamzat could be headed to middleweight permanently after missing weight against Nate Diaz, with UFC president Dana White saying it ‘makes sense’ for ‘Borz’ to compete at 185 pounds instead of welterweight.

Whittaker, the No. 1-ranked middleweight in the world, is the first name that springs to mind although Paulo Costa might be the better pick following his near-brawl with Khamzat at the UFC Performance Institute last week (see here).

Khamzat is, as of writing, unranked at middleweight but is 2-0 at that weight class with stoppage victories over Gerald Meerschaert and John Phillips.

It should also be noted that Holland, who Khamzat beat at a catchweight of 180 pounds, was ranked #10 at middleweight before dropping back-to-back losses to Derek Brunson and Marvin Vettori in 2021.

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The former TUF winner had been diagnosed with stage 4 liver cancer.

UFC veteran, and former TUF winner, Elias Theodorou passed away yesterday due to cancer. He was 34-years-old.

News of his passing was first shared by BJPENN.com and followed by TSN’s Aaron Bronstetor and MMA Fighting.

Theodorou had recently been diagnosed with stage 4 liver cancer.

He was born in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada on May 31, 1988.

After an undefeated run on the Canadian MMA circuit Theodorou joined the cast of The Ultimate Fighter Nations: Canada vs. Australia in 2013.

He won that series’ middleweight bracket with a win over Sheldon Westcott on April 16, 2014.

Theodorou then went 7-3 against UFC competition, earning victories over Sam Alvey, Cezar Ferreira, Dan Kelly and Eryck Anders.

He was released from the UFC in 2019. Since then he won three more fights to advance his pro record to 19-3.

His last bout was a win over Bryan Baker at Colorado Combat Club 10 in December, 2021. Theodorou made history in that bout by being the first ever MMA fighter to compete with a therapeutic use exemption for cannabis.

He had actively campaigned for the inclusion of cannabis as a therapeutic medicine in sport during the years leading up to the fight.

In 2018 Theodorou also made history for being the first ‘Ring Boy’ to appear for all-female MMA promotion Invicta Fighting Championships. In 2015 he appeared as a cast member on third season of The Amazing Race Canada.

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The undefeated upstart is brushing off his critics. 

Khamzat Chimaev is dismissing the criticism he received after missing weight for UFC 279 this past Saturday.

Originally scheduled to fight Nate Diaz, Chimaev weighed in seven-and-a-half pounds over the limit, which forced a reshuffling of the final bouts atop the pay-per-view event on 24 hours’ notice. His reaction — shrugging his shoulders and giving the middle finger — led to intense backlash, and for the first time since joining the UFC, ‘Borz’ was booed heavily. And he couldn’t care less.

“You care about that s—t? I don’t care,” said Chimaev during his post-fight press conference (video provided by MMA Fighting). “I care about my family. I care about my career. I care about my money. So, what now? The people don’t leave me. One day they’re with me, one day they’re not with me.

“So, I’m real, guys,” continued Chimaev. “I like people that are real. Not fake people going one way or going the other way.”

The boos had little to no effect, and Chimaev went on to steamroll Kevin Holland, getting him to the ground and submitting him with a D’arce choke in the first round. The undefeated fighter then delivered a scathing post-fight interview, riling up the crowd before answering questions from UFC color commentator Joe Rogan.

One of them was regarding his weight miss and what it meant for him since he intends on competing at welterweight and middleweight. Chimaev squashed any concern and doubled down at his post-fight press conference, insisting he can — and will — hit 170 pounds when necessary.

“Of course, I did that before, why not?,” said Chimaev. “We’ll see, I have to go back and listen to my coach. If he says 170, we go 170. If he says heavyweight, we go to heavyweight. So I don’t care.

“I’ll do my training camp, train hard and never stop,” continued Chimaev. “After tomorrow, I’m going back and directly going to the gym. I have nothing to do, only gym. It’s my life.”

Though Chimaev still expects to fight at welterweight, UFC president Dana White wants him to consider a move up to middleweight.

“It’s a problem,” said White. “That’s a problem that he missed weight. I don’t know. We’ve got to look at it and figure it out. What makes sense is for him to fight at [185 pounds], so we’ll see.”

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Khamzat Chimaev says Nate Diaz got lucky their welterweight matchup was canceled at the last minute.

Khamzat Chimaev says Nate Diaz should be counting his lucky stars that their welterweight matchup was canceled due to the former missing weight.

Khamzat went on to fight Kevin Holland at a catchweight of 180 pounds, while Diaz locked horns with Tony Ferguson in the UFC 279 main event. The former steamrolled Holland in the first round, while the latter caught Ferguson with a submission in round four.

Chimaev wasn’t impressed with Diaz nor Ferguson last night and said he would have killed Diaz had their fight gone ahead as scheduled.

“Kevin Holland, tough guy, stronger guy, much better than Diaz,” Chimaev said at the UFC 279 post-fight press conference (h/t Sherdog). “If Diaz and him were fighting, Holland would kill him. I finished that guy, so easy, first round.

“So yeah, Diaz has to thank God he didn’t fight me.”

“Did you see how they kicked, how they punched, how they wrestled, how they grappled? These guys are old,” he added. “I’m young, I’m the killer.”

As for what’s next, Chimaev still believes he should get the next title shot at welterweight despite missing weight by over 7 pounds on Friday.

“Who are they going to give it to? Who is next there? Everyone loses the fight,” Khamzat said. “Colby [Covington] loses two or three fights in a row. [Jorge] Masvidal loses, when was his last win? Against Diaz. Did you see Diaz fight? So terrible.”

Chimaev is undefeated in the UFC at 6-0 and is currently #3 in the UFC welterweight rankings. He is considered one of the most talented fighters in the promotion and believes he is destined to become a two-division champion.

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A rundown of the biggest headlines and news from the world of competitive grappling.

Joe Rogan’s love of BJJ is well-known but he really stepped his support of the community up a notch this year when he decided to sponsor both ADCC 2022 and Gordon Ryan himself. This week he decided to show even more love to the world’s most prestigious no gi grappling competition by having the head organizer Mo Jassim and it’s most popular star Gordon Ryan on the Joe Rogan Experience.

The pair discussed several issues and there was a huge amount of Jiu-jitsu discussion between the three men over the two-hour podcast. One part in particular saw Ryan decide to discuss the stomach issues that stopped him competing for a large part of 2021. According to him, he’s significantly better after meeting Jassim’s doctor and is in great shape to perform at ADCC 2022 this year.

Nate Diaz confirms he’s leaving the UFC at UFC 279

The younger Diaz brother is one of the most popular fighters in UFC history but he’s been eager to see out the final fight of his contract for quite some time. He was originally booked to take on an incredibly tough challenge in the form of rising star Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 279 but things took a turn for a worse immediately before the event when Chimaev missed the welterweight weight limit by 7.5lbs.

UFC matchmakers adapted at the last second though and shuffled the card around so that Chimaev would fight Kevin Holland and Diaz would take on fellow veteran Tony Ferguson instead. Diaz went on to win his fight by submission in the fourth round and confirmed that he isn’t re-signing with the UFC any time soon, hinting that he’ll be transitioning to boxing instead in order to ‘take over another sport’.

Full results for the event can be found here.

IBJJF Masters World Championships delivers plenty of action

While the ADCC and IBJJF world championships are the most prestigious BJJ tournaments, the IBJJF Masters world championships is routinely one of the most fun to watch. The event is only open to athletes over the age of 30 but it gives older grapplers the opportunity to still compete at a high level and it gives fans the chance to see legends of the sport who might otherwise have retired completely.

Wellington ‘Megaton’ Dias is an almost permanent fixture on the podium at the event, but this year he was joined by a number of high-profile names who can still compete with younger athletes like Maria Malyjasiak and Pati Fontes. Gabriel Almeida, Joao Miyao, Arnaldo Maidana all won gold in their respective divisions, as did Emily Kwok, who remains undefeated in competition in the Masters division.

Full results for the event can be found here.

Renzo Gracie filmed in New York City subway altercation

Renzo Gracie is an incredibly accomplished competitor and was even inducted into the ADCC Hall of Fame earlier this year thanks to his performances. He hasn’t just been content with putting in work in Jiu-Jitsu competition though, or even MMA for that matter. Over the years Renzo has gotten into a number of fights on the street as well.

In 2012 he live-tweeted and detailed how he hunted and badly beat up two alleged muggers, and then in 2014 he was arrested and pled guilty for misdemeanor assault on a nightclub bouncer. Now he has been caught on camera fighting with a man in a New York City subway station at the age of 55, with him claiming that it was as allegedly a result of racist comments.

Quick Hits

• A qualified nutritionist took the time to evaluate the legendary ‘Gracie Diet’ in order to determine whether or not it actually works.
• The freestyle wrestling world championships kicked off this weekend and will see non-stop elite action over the next week.
• With just a week to go before the 2022 ADCC world championships, fans and journalists alike have been making their predictions for the event.
• Nate Diaz has already started planning for his career after retirement as he has just launched a fight promotion, Real Fight Inc.

Technique Corner

Helicopter Armbar

Single-leg X to Straight ankle-lock

Lapel arm-trap to Triangle choke

Meme of the Week

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