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Khabib Nurmagomedov claps back at Charles Oliveira for calling his team ‘arrogant’ ahead of UFC 280.

Khabib Nurmagomedov thinks Charles Oliveira is starting to feel the pressure ahead of his lightweight title fight against Islam Makhachev at UFC 280.

Oliveira recently labeled Makhachev and his team ‘arrogant,’ but Khabib thinks ‘Do Bronx’ might be slightly confused because Makhachev and Co. are taking him very seriously as an opponent despite Oliveira’s claims to the contrary.

Nurmagomedov, who coaches Makhachev at American Kickboxing Academy (AKA), clapped back at Oliveira during a recent interview with Sambo Says and said the Brazilian’s comments might be indicative of an underlying inferiority complex.

“First of all, how can you disparage the man who won the Fighter of the Year award in 2022?” Khabib said of Oliveira (h/t Middle Easy). “So no one is disparaging him. 11 fights in a row he has won with so many finishes,” Nurmagomedov said. “I think it is silly to think we’re underestimating this fight. This is a very hard fight first of all.

“Second, tell me in what interview did he refer to him with arrogance? He always referred to him as a champion. If we say that we want to finish the fight early I don’t see arrogance in that. I don’t see arrogance in that at all. We have a plan. We want to finish the fight early. I think that Charles also has a plan and that he also wants to finish Islam.

“I think he also wants to hit his opponent in the face and use his kicks, knees, punches, and elbows. Right? He wants to choke his opponent out, break their bones, etc. That’s the reason we step into the Octagon right? So what is that not arrogance from his side? That he wants to beat Islam Makhachev? Am I right?”

“What we’re talking about is true right? So tell me who offended him?” Khabib added. “Not Ali, not myself, no one insulted him. Definitely not Islam, he has never insulted anyone I don’t see any kind of arrogance here. I simply think he’s starting to feel the pressure of the fight. You know when you’re trying to fight someone, for example, someone like Gaethje, or Chandler or Poireir you know that they have already lost in the past. You can see their pluses and minuses and you can identify the “switch” in their fight that leads them to victory or defeat.

“So what I believe, and this is solely my point of view, is he may consider this arrogance as well but it doesn’t matter, it appears to me that he looks at Islam and can’t find that “switch” so because of that he gets nervous. He starts to talk about this so-called arrogance and so on but who does this really concern? On October 22 he steps into the cage and we plan on finishing him whether he likes it or not.”

UFC 280: Oliveira vs. Makhachev is scheduled to take place on Oct. 22 at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

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UFC president Dana White says his once friendly relationship with Oscar De La Hoya is no longer fixable.

Prizefighting promoters Dana White and Oscar De La Hoya have always been upfront about their feelings toward each other. And over the years, the tension between the two has been on a steady rise, to say the least.

But in June, “The Golden Boy” took things to the exact opposite direction by offering to bury the hatchet and even do some work together some time in the future.

“Buying the company many years ago, building it into a powerhouse, building it into a league, building it into what it is now is just so admirable,” De La Hoya said of White. “So yeah, I’m extending an olive branch. I would love to sit down and talk and smooth things out, let bygones be bygones, and then focus on business…

“No hard feelings. It is what it is,” he continued. “I said a couple of things that were not nice, he said a couple of things that were pretty below the belt, but no hard feelings whatsoever. It is what it is. We can move on as adults and figure out something if he wants to. I’m here, I’m all ears.”

White was given a chance to respond to De La Hoya’s statements in his recent Actually Me segment on GQ Sports.

“I feel like De La Hoya’s apology was sincere, but there’s no way he and I will ever be friends again.”

“He and I were actually friends. I used to go to his fights, I used to watch his fights, I used to promote his fights. That guy did way too much damage for us to ever be friends again.”

In the same video, White reiterated his previous statement about foregoing any further plans of entering the boxing promotion business, while also calling it a “corrupt, insane, f–ked up sport.”

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Nain Isaac Nieto Hernandez was convicted of second-degree murder in the Dec. 18, 2015, killing of 23-year-old Sarai Alcaraz.

A mixed martial arts fighter was convicted Wednesday of killing a sex worker in California seven years ago.

Nain Isaac Nieto Hernandez was found guilty of second-degree murder in the Dec. 2015 killing of 23-year-old Sarai Alcaraz, an escort from Long Beach. The news was first reported by the Orange County Register.

According to the trial brief, Police were called to an office building after an escort service reported one of its employees missing there. The officers then encountered Jordan Beltran, a driver who had brought Alcaraz to the office at 10pm and had been waiting for her to reemerge. Beltran informed the officers that Alcaraz had texted him at 10:29pm saying she got the money and was coming out.

However, while waiting for Alcaraz to remerge, Beltran saw a man leave the building and decided to confront him about Alcaraz’s location. The man, Hernandez, reportedly worked in the building as a janitor but appeared “very nervous” when confronted. When pressed by the driver, he claimed that Alcaraz had robbed him. He then drove away in a minivan.

When Beltran could not reach Alcaraz on her phone, he contacted the escort service, which notified the police. Officers arrived on scene and found the victim stuffed in a trash can in the supply closet. The victim had sustained “severe head and facial trauma” with “Blood running from both ears and her nose.”

Hernandez, whose driver’s license was found at the scene, pled not guilty and testified that he acted in self-defense when he claimed the victim attempted to rob him.

Hernandez is scheduled to be sentenced in October, 2022.

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Just in time for that sleepover I had 25 years ago.

Long before the UFC’s video game series or the Fight Night boxing games, Nintendo’s Punch-Out was king of the pseudo-realistic combat sports related simulation. The original, for the NES, is still hailed as an all-time great piece of 8-bit gaming. The sequel, Super Punch-Out, may have had superior graphics and animations, but never quite managed to have the same kind of impact.

It’s doubtful that this latest news will change that legacy, but someone out there is still playing the SNES version and they’ve apparently made some fascinating new discoveries. The Twitter account Unlisted Cheats reported earlier this week that they’d unlocked a secret ‘Versus Mode’ where players can choose any one of the game’s 16 opponents to face off against in a one-off bout. And, what’s more important for diehard Super Punch-Out fans, while in that mode, there’s another cheat code that makes it so two people can play against one another.

It’s not terribly surprising that a code like this would exist in the game. These kinds of ‘cheats’ are often necessary development tools for play-testing and debugging the game. No one in the right mind is gonna want to go through the entire story mode just to make sure the final boss’s animations all work right, or even to go through entire fights with characters to make sure that each specific move lines up just the way it should. Tools to pick any fight and to create every character animation would be simple necessities.

But, that doesn’t make them any less cool to dig up at random 28-years after the game’s release.

Big news for all the fans who still have their original SNES out there. Or for the much more likely many more who have an emulated copy they can play around with. There’s even reports of this working on Nintendo Switch versions of the game.

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Sean O’Malley explains why he’s ‘never been scared of losing.’

Sean O’Malley has never been scared of losing because he knows he will become a UFC champion someday.

O’Malley has just one loss on his MMA record to date, an injury-TKO defeat to Marlon Vera at UFC 252 that saw ‘Suga’ finished in the first round after suffering a leg injury that caused him to lose his balance and fall to the ground.

O’Malley bounced back from that fight with a highlight-reel knockout of Thomas Almeida at UFC 260 followed by back-to-back stoppage victories over Kris Moutinho and Raulian Paiva at UFC 264 and UFC 269.

O’Malley’s momentum took a hit in his next fight after landing an accidental eye poke on Pedro Munhoz that resulted in a controversial No Contest (NC). Rather than schedule a rematch, O’Malley will take on former bantamweight champion Petr Yan in a possible title eliminator at UFC 280.

This is undoubtedly the toughest test of O’Malley’s career, one which he expects to pass with flying colors. With that said, he knows a loss will only be a minor setback and won’t affect his confidence going forward, predicting ‘world champ’ status no matter the result against Yan.

“The closer the fight gets, the more confident I’ll become. I’ll get back to camp, get dialed in, get back to sparring, get back to eating perfect, sleeping perfect, just getting everything dialed in,” O’Malley told ESPN in a recent interview (h/t BJPenn.com). “I’m just gonna get more confident as the fight gets closer. Then fight night, I’m gonna win that fight. Every fight that I go into, I’m okay with losing. I’m not attached to I have to win this fight. I’m gonna be a world champ someday, 100 percent. I’ve never been scared of losing, so I think the closer the fight gets, the more confident I’m gonna become.”

UFC 280, which is expected to feature Yan vs. O’Malley on the main card, will take place on Oct. 22 at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

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Both fighters are coming off losses at UFC 276.

Two recently defeated middleweight contenders are slated to face each other on October 15th.

Ariel Helwani reports that former title challenger Jared Cannonier and Sean Strickland are in line for a fall showdown in the main event of a UFC Fight Night card. The APEX facility in Las Vegas is the likely venue but nothing is official just yet. The latest UFC rankings have Cannonier at No. 2 and Strickland at No. 7.

Cannonier (15-6) is coming off a decision loss to champion Israel Adesanya at last month’s UFC 276. The former heavyweight and light heavyweight is an impressive 5-2 overall at 185 lbs, with his only other defeat coming against ex-champion Robert Whittaker. His road to the title included knockouts or TKOs of Jack Hermansson, Derek Brunson, Anderson Silva, and David Branch, as well as a five-round decision over Kelvin Gastelum.

Strickland (25-4) had his six-fight winning streak snapped violently by the heavy hands of former kickboxing champion Alex Pereira, who knocked him out in the opening round of their UFC 276 encounter. While Cannonier had success moving down to middleweight, Strickland ascended to contender status by moving up from welterweight and scoring wins over the likes of Jack Hermansson, Uriah Hall, Krzysztof Jotko, Jack Marshman, and (at a 195 lbs catchweight) Brendan Allen.

Other fights linked to this October 15th show include Brandon Royval vs. Askar Askarov and Cub Swanson vs. Jonathan Martinez.

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The Ultimate Fighter season 17 runner-up and longtime middleweight contender has decided to call it a career. 

Uriah Hall is leaving his gloves in the Octagon.

The UFC middleweight announced on Wednesday that he has retired from mixed martial arts after fighting for almost 17 years. In his heartfelt departing message, Hall thanked his team, family, friends and fans, as well as the promotion for the commitment and dedication he received throughout his time as a fighter. He spent the majority of his professional career under the UFC banner, going 10-9 in 19 appearances.

“It is with great sadness that I will be stepping away from the greatest sport in the world,” wrote Hall on Instagram. “I’m going to miss the incredible UFC staff that has became like family and the mentors I have met along the way. The UFC has given me the best opportunity to step completely outside my comfort zone. Throughout the years I’ve gone up against some of the best in the world at the highest level. Although I did not achieve the rank of world champion I’ve acquired some of my greatest achievements from mixed martial arts and that was facing my fears and being a champion in life. I want to thank the incredible fans, you guys made the sport what it is today.

“It is important to have the right people around you that care for you and encourage you to become a better version of yourself,” continued Hall. “I want to thank my team, my coaches, my friends and my family always standing by me. You all have been the driving force that encouraged me daily. Lastly, I want to specifically thank Dana White for giving me the opportunity to collide with modern day gladiators. Thank you for always supporting me thru [sic] the good and the bad…To the next generation you are the top 1% greatest athlete’s on the planet. Will be a pleasure to watch where you all take this sport from here. I will be watching! Goforth.”

Hall joined the UFC after an appearance on The Ultimate Fighter over nine years ago. A unanimous decision against Andy Enz saw Hall enter the TUF House, where he dispatched his next three opponents with relative ease. ‘Prime Time’ finished them by (T)KO, but the most noteworthy one was the spinning wheel kick knockout of Adam Cella during the preliminary rounds. That was awarded ‘Knockout of the Season,’ which saw him net a $ 25k bonus. Hall fought Kelvin Gastelum at TUF 17 Finale but suffered a split decision loss to his Team Sonnen teammate.

The TUF 17 finalist went on to compete against some of the best talents in the UFC middleweight division, earning wins over the likes of Gegard Mousasi, Anderson Silva and Chris Weidman. He was also tied with the aforementioned Silva and Thiago Santos for the most knockouts in divisional history (eight).

Hall was previously on a four-fight win streak that was halted after consecutive losses to Sean Strickland and André Muniz at UFC Vegas 33 and UFC 276, respectively. The 38-year-old leaves the sport with a record of 17-11.

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Albert Mutalibov rescued a man drowning in the Caspian Sea.

A Dagestani boxing coach is being celebrated as a hero after saving a man from drowning in the Caspian Sea.

Albert Mutalibov, head coach of the Russian women’s boxing team, noticed a man being carried by the current into a rocky section of the coast. The 49-year-old dove in after the man, despite the dangerous conditions, and pulled him to safety.

Tatyana Kiriyenko, Secretary General of the Russian Boxing Federation, announced this on Tuesday in her Telegram channel.

“Today, head coach of the Russian women’s boxing team Albert Shukurovich Mutalibov, risking his own life, saved a drowning man in the Caspian Sea,” Kiriyenko wrote. “I have always said that boxers are defenders, and Albert Shukurovich, no doubt, has also become a hero!

“I am sure that he could not have done otherwise. We are immensely grateful to him for this invaluable act and infinitely proud that there are such brave and reliable people in our ranks.”

Mutalibov, who was in the final day of training camp with his team when the incident took place, is best known for training world champions such as Svetlana Gnevanova, Ekaterina Paltseva, and Sofia Ochigava. He also coaches Kazakhstani boxer Firuza Sharipova, who is ranked number two in the world by the WBA after losing to Ireland’s Katie Taylor by unanimous decision last year.

Mutalibov has served as the head coach of the Russian women’s boxing team since March 2022.

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The UFC president shared his thoughts on the FBI’s decision to raid Trump’s Mar-A-Lago compound in Florida.

In the wake of the FBI’s raid on Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida—the first time a former US president’s home has ever been searched by law enforcement—allies of the former president are scrambling for an explanation as to why the search warrant was executed.

Among those seeking answers is UFC president Dana White, a longtime friend and ally who campaigned for the former president during the 2016 and 2020 election cycles.

“It’s madness, man. The whole world is crazy right now,” the UFC president said at the press conference following the Dana White Contender Series 49 event (h/t MMAJunkie). “I don’t know what to think, and I don’t know enough about it, and I haven’t talked to him. I’ve only seen bits and pieces on the news, so I don’t know exactly what’s going on. But I’ll probably call him in the next couple days. I didn’t want to call him. I’m sure he’s got better f*cking things to do than for me to call and say, ‘Hey, what’s going on over there?’ But I will talk to him in the next couple days.”

The FBI raid, which was approved by the Department of Justice and signed off on by a federal magistrate judge, is reportedly connected to an investigation into Trump’s handling of presidential documents, including classified information. Trump’s lawyer later said that FBI agents took approximately a dozen boxes during the raid.

“I don’t even know what to say. I don’t even know what to think about any of that stuff because I don’t know enough about it,” White continued “Without getting political, without getting into all this f*cking bullsh*t, there’s 10 other people’s houses that probably should’ve been raided (by the FBI) before his that haven’t happened. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.”

White’s suggestion that the FBI raid was politically motivated is shared by other Republicans, including Trump’s former vice-president Mike Pence. “No former President of the United States has ever been subject to a raid of their personal residence in American history,” he wrote on Twitter.

Trump has also claimed, without evidence, that the justice system was being weaponized against him in an attempt to impede his chances of running for president again.

“They even broke into my safe!” he said in an official statement.

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Hasbulla probably got a laugh out of his good friend Khabib Nurmagomedov for this stunt.

Hasbulla Magomedov is a diminuitive social media star from Makhachkala, Dagestan. The 19-year-old, who has a form of dwarfism that gives him the appearances of someone much younger, has become incredibly popular online in the last few years leading to millions of followers across his Instagram and TikTok accounts.

Hasbulla is known in combat sports circles because of his friendship with countryman Khabib Nurmagomedov. Hasbulla has spent a lot of time with the former UFC lightweight champion, earning him the nickname ‘mini-Khabib’.

Hasbulla has even threatened to get into the fight game himself. He and fellow little person Abdu Rozik, who is from Tajikstan, are in a feud right now with a potential money-grabbing ‘fight’ on the horizon.

That feud boiled over in the seats at UFC 267 last year.

Recently Hasbulla showed off his trolling ability by uploading a video directed at avowed Nurmagomedov-enemy Conor McGregor.

The video, presented below, features Hasbulla showing off one of his chickens… who he has named “Conor McGregor.”

All eyes are on McGregor now to see if he responds to this diss. However, don’t expect the UFC champion to make much out of this.

McGregor has been a little quiet on social media as of late. That might be because we are close to seeing him return to the Octagon.

‘Notorious’ has been out of action for over a year after he suffered a serious leg injury during his trilogy fight with Dustin Poirier. In the aftermath of that injury, McGregor was extremely present online — issuing death threats, mocking Nurmagomedov’s dead father and doing his best to keep his name in the news cycle.

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