Welterweight Vicente Luque gave his thoughts on the upcoming UFC 279 PPV main event between Nate Diaz and Khamzat Chimaev.

UFC welterweight Vicente Luque doesn’t have any qualms about Khamzat Chimaev being the favorite to beat Nate Diaz in the upcoming UFC 279 PPV main event. But, that doesn’t mean he can’t see room for an upset. Although Khamzat Chimaev has a ton of momentum behind him, the ‘Silent Assassin’ thinks there’s room for the underog to pull off the win under the right conditions.

In an interview with Ag Fight, the Brazilian emphasized Nate’s extraordinary cardio and how he tends to battle his way back into fights as they progress. For that reason, the Brazilian believes Diaz could have a better chance to beat Chimaev in the later rounds of their five-round main event.

“Because of [Chimaev’s] hype, I do think the UFC wants him to fight for the belt if he beats Nate,” Luque explained. “When you look at all the hype and the way the UFC’ has been building him up, I put him as the favorite. However, it’s a fight that might get complicated for him if it goes to the second, third round and so on. If Chimaev gets tired, Nate might pick up the pace and surprise everybody.”

In his last outing, Luque (21-9-1) suffered a brutal KO loss at the hands of Geoff Neal. That defeat put the 30-year-old on a two-fight skid, with a unanimous decision defeat to Belal Muhammad back in April. The Brazilian’s latest win dates back to August 2021, when he submitted MIchael Chiesa at UFC 265.

UFC 279 is scheduled to take place on September 10, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Alongside the Chimaev/Diaz main event, the card is expected to feature the welterweight debut of former interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson taking on China Top Team star Li Jingliang.

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We are giving you a fair warning now. What you are going to see and hear is brutal. 

Cage Titans FC went viral this past Saturday after one of its amateur fights ended in gag-inducing, gut-wrenching fashion.

The promotion held Cage Titans 55 at Plymouth Memorial Hall in Plymouth, Mass., where Kyle Pavao earned the first win of his career with one of the sickest submissions we have seen this year. Pavao snatched up a keylock on Wayne Downer, and before he could have any time to react to it, his left arm was completely snapped. Pavao released Downer, who fell to the canvas in pain and was tended to by referee Steve Rita.

The snap! was deafening, leaving everyone in attendance reeling from what happened. There were even reports of a few people fainting, a strong, yet understandable reaction given what they saw and heard.

You can watch the finish below, courtesy of Caposa on Twitter:

Warning: Video below is graphic. Please proceed with caution.

“Oh, his arm just broke,” said commentator Richie Santiago.

“Right in front of my eyes,” added other commentator Andy Kurzontkowski. “Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Technical submission, arm is snapped. Oh my God. Oh my God. Kyle Pavao, devastating submission skills…

“…I haven’t seen that happen live before,” continued Kurzontkowski. “That was one of the nastiest things I’ve ever seen.”

“It happened so fast,” replied Santiago. “There wasn’t a tap. There was no opportunity to tap there.”

An update on Downer has been provided by Cage Titans FC promoter Michael Polvere, who told Nolan King of MMA Junkie that his humerus was broken and will require surgery.

Pavao sent well wishes to Downer in his post-fight interview. The 18-year-old hoped for a speedy recovery so that his opponent can return to training and fighting soon.

“It’s real bittersweet because I got the win in my amateur debut, but I broke another dude’s arm,” said Pavao (video provided by THEIR FIGHT STORY with Igdalia). “He has to go to work. That’s not how I wanted that to turn out.

“I wish a full recovery for my opponent,” continued Pavao. “I don’t want anybody to be out of training and hope he’s back in the gym as soon as possible.”

Pavao is now 1-0 as an amateur. He has also competed twice in grappling under the Cage Titans FC banner.

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Sorry cry babies! It’s time for another of our infamous and patented Care/Don’t Care Podcasts, with your talent: Eugene S. Robinson, John S. Nash, & Stephie Haynes. Find out which upcoming fights are hot and which fights are not – for UFC PARIS: Gane vs Tuivasa.

It’s time for another one of our infamous and patented Care/Don’t Care Podcasts, with your talent: the astounding Eugene S. Robinson, author of the ‘Eugene S. Robinson Substack’, the fight book: “Fight: Everything You Wanted to Know About Ass-Kicking but Were Afraid You’d Get Your Ass Kicked for Asking”, host of the ‘Eugene S. Robinson Show Stomper!’ Podcast, and co-host of the ‘If The Shoes Fit’ Podcast, along with the indubitable John S. Nash, our chief financials columnist and co-host of our ‘Show Money’ Podcast… he is also one of the co-hosts of the ‘If The Shoes Fit’ Podcast; the trio is moderated by the insightful Stephie Haynes, of Bloody Elbow’s ‘The Level Change Podcast’, ’The Mookie & Crookie Show Podcast’ & the ‘Crooklyn’s Corner Podcast’.

June M. Williams

Stephie will announce each fight on the upcoming card, as it stands at the time of recording, so the team may quickly comment on which fights are hot, and which fights are not; based on relevancy to the sport as a whole. This format of “Caring” or “Not Caring” about each bout is geared to our listeners who consider themselves to be “Casual MMA Fans”. This effort is in the hopes that we can steer you towards fights that affect rankings, title contention, have significant meaning, or are sure to be “must see tv” fights; therefore saving you the tedium of watching every fight on every card – or perhaps missing out on something you might have otherwise skipped.

*** The team didn’t record an episode of C/DC this week, so this is actually a rebroadcast of only the picks portion of the show they made for this event last Sunday, August 21st. Since then, the first three bouts on the fight card have changed, which did not affect their picks tally. So we have edited the dropped bouts out of the recording, and corrected the current bout order by editing the new bouts into the fight card here in the post — although they were clearly not able to review those three unforeseen bouts for picks at the time of recording. The usual format of the C/DC Podcast will return on Monday, September 5th, 2022 with a review of UFC Paris and picks for UFC 279.

UFC PARIS: Gane vs. Tuivasa PICKS — 1:13 (made Sun 8/21)

We start off offering you our ‘disclaimer’, then our trio will go about predicting the UFC PARIS Fight Night bout sheet from the bottom up, wrapping up the C/DC quick-picks portion of the show with the Main Event. This UFC on ESPN+ event will take place from the Accor Arena, Paris, France, this coming Saturday, September 3rd.

Here’s a look at the fight card & records for the upcoming event via tapology.com, as they stood the morning of Monday, August, 29th. (bout order subject to further changes)

*** We would like to repeat… The team didn’t record an episode of C/DC this week, so this is actually a rebroadcast of only the picks portion of the show they made for this event last Sunday, August 21st. Since then, the first three bouts on the fight card have changed, which did not affect their picks tally. So we have edited the dropped bouts out of the recording, and corrected the current bout order by editing the new bouts into the fight card here in the post — although they were clearly not able to review those three unforeseen bouts for picks at the time of recording. The usual format of the C/DC Podcast will return on Monday, September 5th, 2022 with a review of UFC Paris and picks for UFC 279.

UFC PARIS: (12 Cares)

ESPN+ MAIN CARD | SAT. SEP. 3 — 3/12PM ETPT (10 Cares)
12. 265lbs: Ciryl Gane (10-1) vs. Tai Tuivasa (15-3) — At 14:45, 3 Cares, but split

11. 185lbs: Robert Whittaker (23-6) vs. Marvin Vettori (18-4) — At 11:33, 3 Cares, but split

10. 185lbs: Alessio Di Chirico (13-6) vs. Roman Kopylov (8-2) — At 10:09, 1 Care (Stephie)

9. 155lbs: Nasrat Haqparast (13-5) vs. John Makdessi (18-7) — At 9:24

8. 145lbs: Charles Jourdain (13-5) vs. Nathaniel Wood (18-5) — At 7:24, 3 Cares

7. 185lbs: Dustin Stoltzfus (14-4) vs. Abusupiyan Magomedov (24-4) — At 6:35

ABC/ESPN/ESPN+ PRELIMS | 12PM/9AM ETPT (2 Cares)
6. 155lbs: Fares Ziam (12-4) vs. Michal Figlak (8-0) — At 5:59

5. 145lbs: Nassourdine Imavov (11-3) vs. Joaquin Buckley (15-4) — At 2:15, 2 Cares (John & Eugene)

4. 155lbs: Benoit Saint-Denis (9-1) vs. Gabriel Miranda (16-5) — At 1:58

3. 135lbs: Khalid Taha (13-4) vs. Christian Quiñonez (16-3) — Quiñonez replaced Lapilus after recording

2. 145lbs: Allin Perez (7-1) vs. Stephanie Egger (7-3) — Egger replaced Fairn after recoding

1. 145lbs: William Gomis (10-2) vs. Jarno Ergens (13-3) — Bout added after recording

June M. Williams

Be sure to follow Eugene on twitter @EugeneSRobinson, John is @heynottheface, and of course you can catch Stephie @CrooklynMMA, and twice a week she’s on @MookieNCrookie AND @LevelChangePod.

If you would like to catch the show on our BE Presents YouTube Channel, join the gang right here:

If you enjoy our variety of shows, give us a shout out in the comments here on Bloody Elbow, or give us a “like”, share & subscribe over on whichever BE Presents Podcast Channel happens to be your listening platform of choice: SoundCloud, YouTube, iTunes & Apple TV, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, Spotify, TuneIn, OverCast, Player FM, & Amazon Music – For previous episodes, check out our playlists on all of our BE Presents channels.

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That man gonna hear the Walmart cheer in his sleep, goodness gracious…

Often we see videos shared online involving physical altercations in which there’s truly no order or thought put into the combat that is displayed. Too often we see ugly messes that are all id and no process, no actual skill for fighting. A lot of them really, really suck.

And sometimes you find a video that proves is all you need is a minimum level of aptitude to get ahead. The bare necessities, if you will.

See, today we’ll take a look at a fight in which two individuals decided they didn’t like each other and went ham. And since you’re not new here, you know this is going to be dumb as hell. Unless you really are new here, in which case I’d suggest you stay away from my Twitter feed.

But should you choose to venture there, you may stumble across things like the focus of this piece here today. We don’t have the whole story because it’s a very short clip that already has the action in progress.

And it is at this moment that I’d like to recommend an optional musical accompaniment for this adventure.

But what we can safely assume from all this is that he didn’t expect Teddy Ruxpin getting all up in dat ass.

Both parties are rolling around and Bear Suit Guy manages to roll over in a partial sweep. Sadly, he fails to get mount and ends up in a modified side control, attempting half-hearted punches. He adjusts his headgear and bench-press rolled himself, where he eats a few punches off his back. One of the two pleads for help, and it sounds like it’s Bear Suit Guy, but the other guy gets up quickly to break things up himself.

Oh, bother.

Look, it’s not all jokey-jokes. Our guy in the bear suit doesn’t get paid enough for this shit. He probably has to restock shelves while making an insultingly low wage on top of suffering the indignity of dealing with all this. And if you haven’t noticed, there’s a disease in our society that leads people to think they can just get away with being abusive towards low-wage employees they deem to be beneath them. I can’t prove that it’s what led to this, but have you ever seen a big-box store employee shoot a fair one with a random customer before? Something had to have happened.

And I guess it’s also kind of a good thing that this stayed in the grappling department for as long as it did. Must be tough having to throw hands with that goofy bear head on you. Respect to the guy for keeping it on. Not only did it cushion any potential blows, it helps hide his identity from law enforcement, haters at large, and most importantly, child support.

Because that last one… yikes.

But that unlucky customer should count his blessings, because he could have run into this guy:

Be nice to employees, especially the ones exploited the most. Solidarity comes in many forms, like not being a douchebag. It’s the least we can do, because we’re all we got. Kudos to Bear Suit Guy for officially becoming my second favorite bear. That’s a tough task considering who gets the #1 spot.

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Chael Sonnen takes another look at Leon Edwards’ UFC 278 victory over Kamaru Usman.

Leon Edwards pulled off the impossible at UFC 278, but his last-minute knockout victory against Kamaru Usman wasn’t without controversy.

Former UFC middleweight and light heavyweight title challenger turned MMA analyst and podcast host Chael Sonnen would like to remind us that ‘Rocky’ grabbed the fence several times throughout the fight and had to be warned and separated by referee Herb Dean.

Although no points were officially deducted, Sonnen branded Edwards a cheater, highlighting that the Brit unfairly used the cage to his advantage against an opponent on track to winning the fight before the head kick.

“There’s a lot more in Leon versus Usman and nobody spoke of it,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel (h/t MMA News). “Kamaru is apparently too much of a gentleman to, in conjunction with it appears Kamaru is going to get the rematch so there is no need for it. But Leon cheated in that match a whole bunch of times. That is not a headline or a topic that is out there anywhere, I do not want to be the one to bring that to you.

“I’m a guy that operates in the gray, I’m not giving him a hard time…for the story to be told accurately, nobody’s wanting to touch that. Leon was frustrated in positions and had no way out of positions to the extent that he cheated repeatedly, not once, not an accident, not the ref didn’t see it… the ref broke the act five or six times…”

“So now you’re in a fifth round that you never should’ve been in potentially, you take a kick in a fight that you were winning, that you were trying to finish, and you had the position you needed to get said finish and the opponent cheated three times…Leon learned a lot in this fight. When Leon goes to prepare for Kamaru again, he’s going to have some confidence…it’s a strong word to say cheated, but what other word do you want to use?”

Edwards knocked out Usman to become the second British fighter to win a UFC title after Michael Bisping, with the win catapulting him to No. 6 in the official UFC men’s pound-for-pound rankings.

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Maybe, just maybe, we’ll finally see Rampage against Shannon Briggs.

At 44 years old, former PRIDE star and ex-UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton Jackson isn’t ready to hang up the gloves just yet.

TMZ caught up with ‘Rampage’ recently and he addressed his future in combat sports. When asked whether he’s done fighting, Jackson had this to say.

“No, man. I ain’t done,” Jackson said. “I’m not happy with my performance in my last fight. I can’t leave MMA fans like that.

“I’m going to leave this sport a little better,” he continued. “Like I said, I’m in talks with fighting Shannon (Briggs), finally. That fight has been like almost a year in the making. I want to do some boxing before I retire. I might do MMA, but I want to do boxing. I’m getting up there. I’m 44, man. I’m getting up there. My knees (hurt) from wrestling. When you’re doing MMA, a lot of people want to take you down. They want to wrestle you.”

Jackson hasn’t competed in anything since an extremely lackluster and quick TKO loss to Fedor Emelianenko on Bellator’s Japan card in December 2019. Jackson looked far removed from peak physical condition and was dominated by ‘The Last Emperor. His last win was a pretty entertaining TKO of arch-rival Wanderlei Silva in 2018.

Now I’m not matchmaker, but I heard Fabricio Werdum is free.

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Daniel Cormier explains why Khamzat Chimaev was the biggest loser from UFC 278.

Daniel Cormier believes Khamzat Chimaev is in a tough spot ahead of UFC 279.

Khamzat will meet UFC veteran and fan favorite Nate Diaz in the main event, but ‘DC’ doesn’t think a victory pushes ‘Borz’ any closer to a title shot due to what happened last weekend at UFC 278.

Cormier thinks Chimaev was the biggest loser from UFC 278 after Leon Edwards likely ruined his path to title contention by usurping and KO’ing Kamaru Usman to become the new welterweight champion.

With Edwards and Usman expected to meet again in an immediate rematch, that leaves Khamzat without a clear path to the title even if he defeats Diaz next month.

Cormier thinks the undefeated Chechnan will have to accept another fight, possibly against Colby Covington, before he gets to challenge the winner Edwards-Usman 3 for the title.

“I think last weekend he did not understand that he was the biggest loser in the Usman versus Leon situation because he was in line,” Cormier said of Khamzat during a recent episode of 3 Rounds with DC! (h/t Sportskeeda). All he had to do was get past Diaz. All he had to do, get past Diaz, you fight for the championship, but with Leon Edwards winning now, now we got a trilogy and rightfully so.”

“That leads to the question, what is this fight for?” DC added. “I feel like for Diaz, this fight is for legacy. I feel like for Chimaev, this is just another scalp on his resume because I don’t know if this win necessarily puts him closer than he already is to a championship fight. And, because of the result last weekend, he’ll need one more. I just wonder who that one more is going to come against. If he beats Diaz, does he get Covington next?”

UFC 279: Chimaev vs. Diaz takes place next month, Sept. 10, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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Former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum may step into the ring in the near future.

Although he has retired from mixed martial arts, former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum may not be done fighting just yet. At 45 years of age, the Brazilian wishes to follow the steps of many other former MMA fighters and try his hand at professional boxing.

Already training with the Brazilian Olympic team, Werdum explained to Combate how he would like to make his boxing debut. If possible, Fabricio would prefer to take on a fellow mixed martial artist, and at 45, he knows he cannot stick around for too long. For those reasons, ‘Vai Cavalo’ wants to have only a few bouts, but wishes to make them count.

“I’d like to fight a guy who’s my age, from my generation. It’s not my intention to fight some 20-year-old, I want a superfight. Although I’m mentally very young and I’ve never had any serious injuries, my age would make a huge difference.”

“If I can choose someone from boxing or MMA, I’d go with someone who’s coming from the same sport as me.” Werdum said. “If I have to fight a pure boxer, though, I will. We want to have two or three fights. I announced my retirement from MMA just the other day, so boxing was the way that I found to do what I love and stay active.”

In his last mixed martial arts bout, Werdum (24-9-1-1 NC) got TKO’d by Renan Ferreira at PFL 3, in May 2021. However, the result ended up overturned when footage revealed that ‘Problema’ had previously tapped to a triangle choke applied by Werdum in the fight. Fabricio’s last official win happened in July 2020, when he submitted Alexander Gustafsson via armbar.

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John Dodson still has it.

When John Dodson made his bareknuckle boxing debut, the 37-year-old flashed that speed and explosiveness he’s been known for throughout his career. Dodson dropped fellow UFC veteran Ryan Benoit three times en route to an impressive first round finish.

After Dodson’s UFC stint with ended in 2020, the former UFC title challenger went 1-1 in XMMA before making this transition to bareknuckle boxing.

His brother Eric Dodson also got a quick victory earlier in the evening, landing a KO in just over 20 seconds.

During the main event, Christine Ferea defended her BKFC flyweight title by quickly finishing Taylor Starling. After an early knockdown and a nasty flurry, Starling waved off the contest just 47 seconds into the title fight.

Watch videos and check out full results from BKFC 28 below:

Christine Ferea def. Taylor Starling via KO – Round 1, 0:47

John Dodson def. Ryan Benoit via KO – Round 1, 1:40

Brad Kelly def. Isaac Vallie-Flagg via unanimous decision (50-44, 50-44, 50-44)

Jeremy Smith def. Donald Sanchez via unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 49-46)

Will Santiago def. Jake Young via TKO (doctor’s stoppage) – Round 1, 2:00

Eric Dodson def. Nick Villar via KO – Round 1, 0:23

Tony Soto def. Joshua Morales via TKO – Round 3, 1:49

Joshua Moreno def. Zion Tomlinson via KO – Round 2, 1:00

Josh Watson def. Kyle McElroy via TKO – Round 1, 1:24

Jayme Hinshaw def. Cassie Robb via TKO – Round 1, 1:18

Jeremy Sauceda def. Roderick Stewart via KO – Round 2, 1:38

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Check out the fights for UFC 281 on November 12th.

On the 29th anniversary of its very first show, the UFC will head to Madison Square Garden for a big night of fights in New York. Headlining UFC 281 on November 12th is a middleweight title bout between reigning champion Israel Adesanya and former kickboxing rival Alex Pereira, who’s got two wins over Izzy in the kickboxing world. The co-main is a women’s strawweight title bout between champion Carla Esparza and former champ Zhang Weili, who’s looking to follow in Carla’s footsteps and become UFC champ for a second time.

There’s still room for a couple of big fights to be added to this card, and maybe just maybe one of those names is Dustin Poirier? Stay tuned.

The bout order is not set outside of the top two fights, so this is just a list of what we know is happening.

Israel Adesanya vs. Alex Pereira

Carla Esparza vs. Zhang Weili

Brad Riddell vs. Renato Moicano

Molly McCann vs. Erin Blanchfield

Dominick Reyes vs. Ryan Spann

Dan Hooker vs. Claudio Puelles

Matt Frevola vs. Ottman Azaitar

Karolina Kowlkiewicz vs. Silvana Gomez Juarez

Michael Trizano vs. Seung Woo Choi

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