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The UFC is working on its December slate, which includes a terrific men’s flyweight bout.

A few weeks removed from one of the most astonishing comebacks in UFC history, men’s flyweight contender Matt Schnell has his next fight lined up.

MMA Junkie reports that Schnell will take on Brazil’s Matheus Nicolau on the promotion’s December 3rd card. No venue or location has been announced as of yet, and no main event has been confirmed.

Schnell (16-6, 1 NC) looked to be on his way to his third consecutive fight without a win when he was getting wobbled, dropped, and just all-around smashed by Sumudaerji at UFC Long Island last month. In a dramatic turn of events, Schnell hurt Sumudaerji, got him to the mat and eventually submitted him with a triangle choke in a shocking rally. At the moment he’s No. 8 in the official men’s flyweight rankings.

Nicolau (18-2-1) is on a five-fight winning streak, three of them coming in his return to the UFC. While his decision over Manel Kape might have been a bit iffy, there was no doubt that he deserved the nods against Tim Elliott and David Dvorak. In his first stint in the UFC he put up wins over former title challenger John Moraga and Louis Smolka, before a surprise release after he was KO’d by Dustin Ortiz. He’s since worked his way up to No. 7 in the rankings.

Another fight linked to this event is a women’s flyweight bout between Tracy Cortez and Amanda Ribas.

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Light heavyweight Thiago Santos hopes to score a quick finish at UFC Vegas 59.

Former UFC light heavyweight title challenger Thiago Santos has another main event on his hands next Saturday, but does not intend for it to go the distance. Paired up against the rising Jamahal Hill, ‘Marreta’ intends to finish his opponent in the first two rounds, but is ready to fight for 25 minutes if he must.

In an interview with Super Lutas, Thiago claimed to be the in best shape of his life ever since his title fight against Jon Jones. Although Santos acknowledges how dangerous Hill can be, especially on the feet, the Brazilian still believes he is the more experienced and skilled fighter.

“I’m totally prepared,” Santos said. “This is the home stretch. I’ve had an excellent camp. The best one since my fight with Jones. I feel ready for this fight. Sure, a fight is a fight and I can’t make any mistakes. He has heavy hands and long reach. I can’t blink. In our division, one shot can change everything. Technically, though, I see myself as the better fighter. More experienced than him, too.

“He’s going to come at me, he’s going to try to pressure me from the start.” Thiago said. ”He’ll end up leaving some openings upon which I will capitalize. If I don’t finish the fight within two rounds, he’ll suffer for five rounds. That much I can say.”

In his last outing, Santos (22-10) dropped a unanimous decision to Magomed Ankalaev, back in March. Before that, the 38-year-old scored a unanimous decision win over Johnny Walker, marking that his only victory in his past five bouts. The win over Walker snapped a tree-fight skid for the Brazilian, who had previously lost to Aleskandar Rakic, Glover Teixeira and Jon Jones.

Now, Santos is expected to face Hill at UFC Vegas 59’s main event, on August 6. The card is scheduled to take place at the UFC Apex, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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Tomasz Walentek was reportedly killed while participating as a volunteer combatant in the Donbass region.

A Polish MMA fighter became the latest combat sports athlete to perish during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

According to reports, Tomasz Walentek was participating as a volunteer combatant in the Donbass region of Eastern Ukraine when he was killed following artillery shelling in the region.

“It is with great sadness that we received the information about the death of Tomek, who was a Polish volunteer fought in the international defense legion of Ukraine and died there,” Poland’s MMA Association announced on Twitter. “Tomek took part and won the Second MMA Championships organized in Gliwice. Rest in peace.”

Walentek was a member of the International Defense Legion of Ukraine, which was created by President Volodymyr Zelensky to welcome foreigners who wished to join the fight against the Russian occupation.

In the wake of Walentek’s death, several Polish MMA figures have paid their respects on social media, including KSW veteran Łukasz Jurkowski, who tweeted “Rest in peace, warrior…”. The fighter’s MMA coach Piotr Jeleniewski also posted a short tribute to his student on Instagram.

“See you,” Jeleniewski said.

The Polish MMA fighter is not the only combat sports athlete to die fighting on the frontlines of Russia’s war in Ukraine. A Ukrainian kickboxing champion fighting with far-right Azov regiment was killed in Mariupol last March while a Ukrainian two-time amateur boxing champion was killed alongside three other soldiers in an attack by Russian forces.

There are also a handful of notable athletes who continue to fight for Ukraine, including Bellator welterweight champion Yaroslav Amosov. Others like Oleksandr Usyk were granted permission to leave the Ukrainian army to prepare for upcoming bouts.

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The outcome of Santos vs. Hill could determine the trajectory of their light heavyweight futures

The main event of Saturday’s UFC Vegas fight card could cause some significant movement in the promotion’s light heavyweight rankings. Heading into the contest, Thiago Santos is the No. 6 ranked competitor, while his opponent, Jamahal Hill, checks in at No. 10.

Santos, who is a former UFC light heavyweight title challenger, has not been the same since he dropped a split-decision to then-champion Jon Jones in July 2019. Santos entered that contest with a 21-6 record with 15 knockout wins — including his three fights leading into his matchup opposite Jones. Including his loss to Jones, Santos is 1-4 in his past five outings.

Hill, who had his first professional MMA fight less than two years before Santos faced Jones for UFC gold, is 10-1-0-1 and coming off two knockout wins under the UFC banner. Including a devastating and memorable finish over Johnny Walker in his first opportunity to headline a UFC event.

To be fair, comparing wins and losses between these two men is misleading. Santos’ defeats since the Jones setback have come to the top of the UFC’s light heavyweight division. Glover Teixeira, Aleksandar Rakic and Magomed Ankalaev vanquished Santos in those scraps. Those men are currently ranked No. 1, No. 4 and No. 3 in the UFC’s 205-pound weight class. Hill’s two most recent wins are over Jimmy Crute and Walker. Crute is ranked at No. 15 and Walker is the No. 13 fighter in the division.

And that is what makes this fight intriguing and important. Santos has maintained his lofty ranking based on the potency of his opponents and his fearsome reputation. If he loses to Hill, a fighter who carries the prospect tag much more than fighters like Rakic and Ankalaev — who are genuine potential title challengers — Santos could fall from the top-10. And at 38 years of age, his hopes of every getting back into the title hunt would likely be dashed.

As for Hill, who is more or less learning on the job as a member of the UFC since 2020, this is the fight that could allow him to shed the prospect tag and join rising fighters like Rakic and Ankalaev as the next generation of title challengers.

Santos has not been the same fighter since he lost to Jones. He underwent surgery on both legs after that setback and since then, his approach to the fight game has changed a great deal. Where he was once an attacking striker with a devastating kicking game, he has seemed almost reluctant to be the aggressor in his fights. A kind person would call him patient. Hill was more blunt in his assessment of his opponent, saying that Santos is “really f-cking gun shy now. He not really coming to bang. He not really trying to fight.”

As for Hill, who is impressively and coldly confident, his past two wins have come in under four minutes combined. The 31-year-old is developing into one of the most effective strikers in the UFC light heavyweight division.

It’s not an understatement to say this fight could determine the trajectory of both these combatants.

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A.J. McKee will return in the co-main event, but as a lightweight.

Reigning Bellator men’s featherweight champion Patricio ‘Pitbull’ Freire is set for his first title defense since winning the belt back from A.J. McKee.

It was announced on Wednesday that the Brazilian great will face Hungary’s Adam Borics in the main event of Bellator 286 in Long Beach, CA on October 1st. The co-main event features former champion McKee’s lightweight debut against UFC veteran Spike Carlyle. McKee hasn’t fought since losing his title to Freire, and while he recently said he wanted to stay at featherweight to have a trilogy matchup, it looks like his long-awaited move to 155 lbs is coming next.

Freire (33-5) has been Bellator’s 145 lbs king on three separate occasions, as well as the promotion’s lightweight champion when he knocked out Michael Chandler in 2019. Patricio lost his featherweight crown to A.J. McKee by submission in just under two minutes at Bellator 263 in July of last year. An immediate rematch occurred and while action was light, there was a clear decision win in Pitbull’s favor to regain his place atop the division.

Borics (18-1) is a first-time title challenger whose four-fight win streak consists of decisions over Mike Hamel, Erick Sanchez, Jeremy Kennedy, and most recently a very entertaining five-round win over Mads Burnell. His most notable win is a flying knee KO of Aaron Pico back in 2019.

As for the co-main, McKee (18-1) seemingly has his sights set on eventually taking the lightweight title currently held by Patricio’s brother Patricky ‘Pitbull’ Freire. At 145 lbs, McKee dazzled with his tremendous stoppage wins over the likes of Darrion Caldwell, Derek Campos, John Teixeira, Georgi Karakhanyan, and of course Patricio Pitbull to win the championship. Carlyle (14-3) was known for his extraordinarily wild fighting style in his three UFC fights, winning by TKO against Aalon Cruz before losing to Billy Quarantillo and Bill Algeo. He’s since made the rounds from LFA to Bellator to Golden Boy Promotions to Cage Warriors to RIZIN, winning all five of his post-UFC fights.

Bellator 286 airs live on Showtime, with a main card start time of 10 PM ET/7 PM PT. Prelims will stream live on Showtime and Bellator’s respective YouTube channels.

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Dana White didn’t have all the facts when he spoke after UFC 277.

At last weekend’s UFC 277 former UFC title challenger Anthony Smith saw his three fight winning streak snapped by surging contender Magomed Ankalaev. Smith lost by second round TKO.

During the fight Smith suffered a broken ankle, likely from one of the many hard leg kicks Ankalaev through during the fight. After the contest was called off, Smith required the help of his corner to leave the cage and return backstage.

Since then we have learned that Smith will require surgery as a result of the injury.

Despite Smith suffering a broken bone, UFC President Dana White downplayed the seriousness of the injury during the post fight press conference.

At last night Contender Series presser, White admitted it was wrong to claim that there was no fracture or to suggest that Smith wasn’t correct when assessing his own condition.

“Anthony Smith, we’re doing the press conference on Saturday and somebody asked me how he was doing and (I said there wasn’t a fracture),” White said (ht MMA Junkie). “He did break his leg. His leg was broken. They ended up finding the fracture and I guess it was in a weird place. Hard to find. He was sitting there questioning himself like, ‘What the hell is wrong with me? I feel like my leg is broken. I know my body.’ And all this stuff. I just wanted to tell you guys that because sometimes it makes it look like, ‘Oh, he’s trying to get out of the fight. He’s claiming he broke his leg.’

“The way I looked at it he got kicked so fucking hard he thought his leg was broken, you know what I mean? Which you can imagine, too. But he legitimately has a bad break in his leg that is going to need surgery. For him, I wanted to put that out there because I was the one that said it wasn’t broken.”

Smith challenged Jon Jones for the UFC light heavyweight title in 2019. He lost that bout by unanimous decision.

‘Lionheart’ rebounded from that disappointment with a submission win over former title challenger Alexander Gustafsson. Smith then lost to future champion Glover Teixeira (by TKO) and Aleksandar Rakic (by decision).

After those losses he pulled off his most recent three fight winning streak, with stoppages over Devin Clark, Jimmy Crute and Ryan Spann.

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There were many changes coming out of an exciting UFC 277.

It was quite a night on Saturday for Amanda Nunes and Brandon Moreno. They capped off the top two fights at UFC 277 by regaining their titles (well Moreno won an interim version but still). Nunes also got back atop the heap on the women’s pound-for-pound list, and cemented her legacy as the best female MMA fighter to date.

In other news, a quick win by Sergei Pavlovich over former title challenger Derrick Lewis saw him ascend into the top five for the first time. They weren’t the only ones making their way to to the top, as Alexandre Pantoja and Magomed Ankalaev pressed closer to title shots with big victories.

Here’s a look at all the rankings changes for this week.

Men’s P4P – Moreno re-entered at 14 following his big win. Robert Whittaker holds on at 15.

Heavyweight – The biggest win of Pavlovich’s career moves him up six big spots to sit at five. Lewis falls two to seven, his lowest ranking in a very long time. Alexander Volkov, Jarzinho Rozenstruik, Chris Daukaus, and Marcin Tybura all fall a spot to eight through 11 respectively.

Light Heavyweight – Ankalaev is up one spot to three, with Aleksandar Rakic dropping one to four. Volkan Oezdemir and Paul Craig flip-flopped the eight and nine spots.

Middleweight – Paulo Costa drops a spot to take over six on his own.

Welterweight – No changes.

Lightweight – No changes.

Featherweight – No changes.

Bantamweight – No changes.

Flyweight – New interim champ in Moreno. Pantoja is up two to the two spot following his UFC 277 win. Kai Kara-France is down one to three, with Askar Askarov also falling one spot to four.

Women’s P4P – Nunes regained her top spot on the list, bumping Valentina Shevchenko to two.

Women’s Bantamweight – New champ, of course. Pena is now the number one contender (for now). Miesha Tate is up two spots to 11 after announcing her return to 135. Karol Rosa and Lina Lansberg drop one each to 12 and 13.

Women’s Flyweight – Molly McCann enters for the first time at 15.

Women’s Strawweight – Nina Nunes fell from a tie for eight to take over nine on her own.

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Jake Paul’s business partner and co-promoter Nakisa Bidarian responds to Dana White’s theory about the Hasim Rahman Jr. fight cancellation.

Over the weekend amid the UFC 277 festivities, it was announced that the Jake Paul-Hasim Rahman Jr. showdown on August 6th at Madison Square Garden has been canceled. According to Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions, it was because Rahman refused to comply with the 200-pound limit.

UFC president Dana White, however, had his own theory.

“I think they sold under a million dollars in tickets and it cost $ 500,000 to turn the f—ng lights on at MSG,” he told reporters at the UFC 277 post-event scrum. “That’s what I think. Not to mention the fact that hotel rooms in New York and transportation and everything else is very expensive.”

“I will say this: just because you’re an accountant here, doesn’t mean you know what the f—k goes on here, and doesn’t mean you can run a fight promotion company.”

The accountant White was likely referring to is Nakisa Bidarian, who worked as the UFC’s Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President, Strategy & Business Ventures from 2011 to 2016 (per his LinkedIn profile). Bidarian now works as Paul’s co-promoter and business partner, and he responded to White via a recent Instagram story video (H/T MMA Fighting).

“Had zero to do with ticket sales,” he said. “We already sold more tickets, more gate than Ryan Garcia just did at Staples Center. We were going to be top-10 in gates since 2005 at MSG.”

Bidarian reiterated that it was the weight issue, while also throwing an indirect jab at his former employer.

“Jake Paul was taking a big challenge. All of his fights have been from about 188 to 191 pounds, and all of his opponents — outside Nate Robinson — have been plus or minus one to two pounds of him. That’s all it is.

“They can try and change the narrative, they can try to destroy what this young man has done. I’m proud of him. He’s his own boss. He’s his own promoter, and I’m just an accountant. What’s up?”

Paul has since been challenged by Jussie Smollett co-conspirator Bola Osundario, who now wants to step in and replace Rahman for the same event.

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This isn’t the first time that the UFC has been tied to an attempt to remake this 80s action classic.

There are few action movies so quintessentially 80s as Road House. With his feathered hair, skin tight jeans, and kung fu skills, Patrick Swayze’s Dalton became a cinematic icon for bar bouncers everywhere.

Attempts to turn the film into a franchise, however, have been far less successful. A direct to video sequel back in 2006 has found a home in Goodwill bargain bins everywhere, and a 2015 announcement of a remake starring former UFC star Ronda Rousey gratefully died in pre-production.

Still, amid the current climate of reboots and sequels, it’s of little surprise that Hollywood would take another crack at bringing Dalton back to the big screen. While Rousey doesn’t appear to be involved this time around, Yahoo! reports that a project starring Jake Gyllenhaal as an ex-UFC fighter who becomes the head bouncer of “a rough-and-tumble roadhouse in the Florida Keys,” will start filming later this month.

The Amazon Prime project is set to start production in the Dominican Republic, and will be helmed by notable action director Doug Liman (of Edge of Tomorrow & Bourne Identity fame).

“I’m thrilled to put my own spin on the beloved Road House legacy,” Liman said in a press release statement. “And I can’t wait to show audiences what Jake and I are going to do with this iconic role.”

Gyllenhaal is fresh off his role as Danny Sharp in the Michael Bay thriller Ambulance. He’s next set to hit theaters sometime in 2023 with a leading role in the Guy Ritchie film The Interpreter.

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Shane Burgos fought out his UFC contract with a win over Charles Jourdain at UFC Long Island.

Following his split decision win over Charles Jourdain on the recent UFC Long Island card in his home state of New York, featherweight veteran Shane Burgos told UFC commentator Daniel Cormier, “That was the last fight on my deal. My manager over there, Malki (Kawa of First Round Management), secure me another deal. Let’s get back in the UFC.”

According to Burgos, it was not the first time he fought out his UFC deal.

“I did it for my last deal when I went into the Makwan (Amirkhani) fight,” Burgos said on The MMA Hour. “Fighting Makwan (in 2019) that was the last fight on my deal. I feel like you just double down on yourself, and it shows a level of confidence. It puts a ton of pressure on you, 100 percent, because you don’t want to go out on a loss – you don’t have any leveraging power over anything, and it’s just a bad look, for sure. But I don’t let that kind of pressure get to me. The pressure more so was on me to get a finish.”

Burgos did not finish Jourdain, but he got a stoppage (TKO) over Amirkhani. A few months after his win over Amirkhani, Burgos announced he had inked a four-fight deal to stay with the UFC. Burgos told MMA Junkie at the time he had, “turned down a nice offer from another promotion for even more money just because I wanted to stay in the UFC.”

Currently the No. 14 fighter in the official UFC featherweight rankings, Burgos was happy that he tested the waters in 2019. With that experience, the 31-year-old didn’t seem to second guess letting his contract expire in July.

“I love being in the UFC,” Burgos said. “I love being a UFC fighter. But it doesn’t make sense for me to not ‘test the waters,’ but we’ll see what they come back with. It would be negligent of me and disrespectful to my family to not even hear other numbers, and I would love to hear some other numbers.

“I’m not going to be sitting back for four or five months waiting for a deal, but yeah, you want to throw some numbers at me, I’m definitely open to listen.”

Burgos finished out his current four-fight deal with a 2-2 record. He lost his first two fights on the deal (but the UFC rewarded both efforts with Fight of the Night bonuses) before closing out the contract with decision wins over Billy Quarantillo and Jourdain.

The first fight of his most recent contract paid Burgos a disclosed $ 75,000 in defeat.

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