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The Ultimate Fighter Season 31: Team McGregor vs. Team Chandler
Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler | Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Michael Chandler has had it with Conor McGregor.

In the latest social media back-and-forth between the UFC stars, Chandler responded to a cryptic video from McGregor, warning him that he “Can’t wait to bounce your ‘champ champ’ head off the canvas’ and telling McGregor to “get your sh*t together so I can.”

See Chandler’s message to McGregor below.

 MMA Fighting

In McGregor’s since-deleted video, the former two-division UFC champion appeared to be taunting Chandler on board a boat. McGregor grinned mischievously into the camera and then switched hats, putting on one that said “Champ Champ,” with the Sam Cooke song A Change is Gonna Come playing in the background.

Not long after the video was initially posted, Chandler shared his response.

See more from the UFC lightweight contender below.

Chandler and McGregor have been embroiled in a bitter feud for the better part of the past two years, with Chandler frequently using interviews to call for a fight with McGregor. The two were later matched up as opposing coaches on The Ultimate Fighter 31, which aired in 2023. A bout was expected to be booked following the conclusion of that series, but it wasn’t until 2024 that they were set to meet at UFC 303.

Unfortunately, a toe injury prompted McGregor to withdraw from the June 29 pay-per-view and the bout has been in limbo since. Both fighters have discussed the possibility of a re-booking with varying degrees of assurance, but as of now nothing has been made official.

McGregor has not competed since a loss to Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 in July 2021. The 36-year-old suffered a broken leg in that fight that sidelined him for over a year and he has also spent time pursuing other opportunities, including a starring role in the recent Road House remake.

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WRESTLING-OLY-PARIS-2024
Catalina Axente and Kennedy Blades | Photo by PUNIT PARANJPE/AFP via Getty Images

Kennedy Blades landed one of the crazies throws in Olympic history on her run to the gold.

During her opening round match Sunday in the 76g competition against Cătălina Axente from Romania, Blades—a 20-year-old phenom from Chicago, jumped behind her opponent, grabbed a body lock and launched Axente into the air before bringing her crashing back down to the canvas. The five-point suplex earned a huge reaction from the Paris crowd as the throw ended the match with Kennedy winning 11-0 on technical superiority (a 10-point lead in freestyle ends the match).

Kennedy couldn’t celebrate, however, with Axente remaining motionless on the mat following the stunning throw. Medical personnel tended to Axente, who was eventually removed from the floor on a stretcher where she was taken to a local hospital for treatment.

Following that win, Blades defeated Milaimys Marin from Cuba in a tight 4-3 score to move onto the semifinals where she defeated Aiperi Medet Kyzy from Kyrgyzstan 8-6 to claim her spot in the gold medal match.

It’s a strong start for Blades, who was the second youngest member of the U.S. Olympic wrestling team behind only 2024 gold medalist Amit Elor, who is just four months younger. Blades is coached by Izzy Martinez, one of the most prominent MMA coaches known for working with numerous fighters including Jon Jones and Holly Holm.

Holm was in attendance on Saturday to show her support as Blades seeks to become the third woman from the U.S. team to win gold following Elor and Sarah Hildebrandt.

Blades faces Yuka Kagami from Japan in the finals on Sunday.

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Wrestling - Olympic Games Paris 2024: Day 15
Kyle Snyder and Akhmed Tazhudinov | Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

There were high expectations for the U.S. men’s freestyle wrestling team heading into the 2024 Olympics; instead, the six-man squad made history for all the wrong reasons.

2016 Olympic champion Kyle Snyder ended up as America’s last hope to claim a gold medal, but ultimately fell to Akhmed Tazhudinov—is originally from Dagestan but now representing Bahrain—in the semifinals at 97kg. Despite Snyder’s best efforts, he couldn’t produce enough offense and suffered a second straight loss to Tazhudinov after the 21-year-old phenom beat him 11-0 at the 2023 World Championships.

With Snyder’s loss, the U.S. men’s freestyle team goes home without a gold medal for the first time since 1968.

The 56-year run for the American team ends after many argued that the U.S. was sending its strongest team to the Olympics with multiple world champions and top-ranked athletes competing in 2024.

Sadly, the U.S. contingent struggled from the start with Mason Parris falling in the qualification round at 125kg after he took a roster spot once held by 2020 Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson, who left the sport to sign with WWE before turning to football where he currently plays for the Buffalo Bills.

Three-time NCAA champion and World champion Zain Retherford was shut out 8-0 by Iranian Rahman Amouzad in the opening round, ending Retherford’s chance for gold.

Former Iowa standout Spencer Lee had the best shot at the Olympics after he made the finals at 57kg but fell to Rei Higuchi from Japan. Lee still goes home with a silver medal in his first Olympics.

Aaron Brooks also suffered a stunning upset loss to Magomed Ramazanov from Bulgaria in his semifinal matchup at 86kg after making the Olympic team by beating 2020 gold medalist David Taylor. While Ramazanov went onto capture gold by defeating Iranian legend Hassan Yazdani, Brooks bounced back with a bronze medal win.

Kyle Dake, who has won four World Championships, was one of the heaviest favorites going into the Paris games, but he fell short in a wild match against Daichi Takatani from Japan via a 20-12 score. A scoring controversy in his bronze medal match had Dake shouting at the judges before he angrily returned to the mat where he tossed Hetik Cabolov from Serbia over his head to score five points to help secure the victory.

Dake leaves with a second bronze medal. At 33, this could potentially serve as his final Olympics.

While Snyder and Retherford still have a chance to win bronze, there were extremely high hopes that the American team could potentially bring home multiple gold medals after a strong showing during the 2020 games. The United States led all nations with nine total medal wins including gold medal victories for Taylor and Steveson.

Five of the six team members are still vying for medals, but these are not the results the U.S. squad expected heading into the 2024 Olympics.

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UFC Fight Night: Whittaker v Aliskerov
Robert Whittaker | Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Robert Whittaker isn’t letting Khamzat Chimaev off the hook that easy.

In June, Whittaker was supposed to face Chimaev in the main event of UFC Saudi Arabia; however, less than two weeks before the event, Chimaev withdrew from the bout after falling “violently ill.” Instead, Whittaker faced Ikram Aliskerov on short notice and scored a first-round knockout that many fans thought would move him past the Chimaev matchup.

But Whittaker is now set to face Chimaev on Oct. 26 in the co-main event of UFC 308, and speaking recently on his YouTube channel, he revealed why.

“Chimaev is a hard fight,” Whittaker said. “He’s obviously a big draw, especially over there in Abu Dhabi. He’s done the welterweight thing, he’s done the middleweight thing, so he’s a draw, and I think the UFC story-wise wants to see Chimaev get a shot at the champion. They want to see Chimaev up the top of the ladder. They want to see him in that picture, but I love disrupting their plans. I love derailing their stories, and that’s why I took the fight.

“I asked for the fight. It wasn’t offered to me. Straight after last fight, I saw that there was an Abu Dhabi card in October, timeline fits perfectly, and I was like, ‘I’ll fight Chimaev again. I’ll do it again, just make sure he turns up.’ Because I look forward to hard fights. I look forward to these fights, and I know that if I beat Chimaev, there is nothing in my way to getting my belt back.”

Whittaker is a former UFC middleweight champion but hasn’t tasted gold in several years. After losing his title to Israel Adesanya in 2019, Whittaker fought his way back to a rematch in 2022, but again fell short. He then lost a title eliminator bout against Dricus du Plessis at UFC 290, but has since rebounded with wins over Paulo Costa and the aforementioned Aliskerov performance. And with a win over the very popular Chimaev, Whittaker believes that will be enough to get another crack at the title.

“Chimaev, as dangerous as he is, I don’t go into these fights thinking about what I have to lose,” Whittaker said. “Much like how I took the fight with Ikram, I don’t look at the fight and think, ‘Oh man, it’s too big of a risk.’ Every fight’s a risk! I only go into fight because I have the confidence I’m going to beat and smash whoever is in front of me, and that doesn’t change with Chimaev.

“So I’m going to get in there in October, I’m going to put the One-Two-How-Do-You-Do on him, and worry about a title shot after that.”

UFC 308 takes place at Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Arena and is headlined by a featherweight title fight between Ilia Topuria and Max Holloway.

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Charles Bennett and Justin Howard | @islandfights, Instagram

For the first time in nearly eight years, Charles Bennett was victorious in a fight.

The 44-year-old snapped an overall 21-fight losing streak and a 12-fight skid in MMA competition with a submission victory against Justin Howard at Friday’s Island Fights 84 event in Pensacola, Fla.

Check out the final moments of the bout below where Bennett got full mount on his opponent, attacked with a barrage of ground-and-pound, and sunk in a rear-naked choke to get the tap in Round 2.

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It was the first victory for “Felony” since stopping Minoru Kimura in September 2016 in RIZIN. After that, Bennett was defeated in his next 21 combat bouts spanning MMA, boxing, bare-knuckle boxing, and bare-knuckle MMA. Bennett has competed for the likes of PRIDE, Elite XC, BKFC, Gamebred Bareknuckle, and more over two-plus decades of fighting.

The 33-year-old Howard has now dropped two straight. His overall record fell to 3-8.

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WRESTLING-OLY-PARIS-2024
Photo by PUNIT PARANJPE/AFP via Getty Images

Spencer Lee had a dog fight on his hands in his final match against Japan’s Rei Higuchi, but ultimately came up short in his bid to capture a gold medal in his first Olympics.

The former Iowa standout had been dominant through the early rounds but met his match in Higuchi, who displayed similar dominance to punch his ticket to the gold medal match. Ultimately it was Higuchi’s speed that countered Lee’s power to win the match 4-2 and clinch the gold for Japan.

Lee, who missed out on the 2020 Olympics due to injury, still goes home with a silver medal following an incredible run where he won the U.S. Olympic trials but still had to qualify for his weight class to even get to Paris.

He had a raucous crowd on his side in the finals thanks to Lee’s mother being a famed French judoka, along with a strong contingency from the United States. While he goes home with a silver medal, Lee also takes the motivation to potentially come back even stronger when the Olympics land in Los Angeles in 2028.

Meanwhile, Helen Maroulis staked her claim as the best women’s wrestler in the history of the United States after she captured her third Olympic medal on Friday with a rapid-fire win in her bronze medal match against Hannah Taylor from Canada.

Maroulis secured an early takedown and then pinned Taylor for the win in just 24 seconds.

Prior to the U.S. Olympic trials, Maroulis, 32, contemplated retirement but decided to make another run at the prestigious tournament after she became the first American woman to win gold in wrestling back in 2016.

For the second straight Olympics, Maroulis wins bronze as she continues to rack up accomplishments in her legendary career.

“This might be my last match ever,” Maroulis said afterward. “It’s hard, I’m getting older. It’s a hard journey.”

Finally, four-time NCAA champion Aaron Brooks secured a bronze medal of his own with a 5-0 shutout victory over Javrail Shapiev from Uzbekistan.

Brooks suffered a stunning upset in the semifinals after a last-second reversal from Magomed Ramazanov, who represented Bulgaria, cost him the match. Ramazanov went on to capture gold with a win over 2016 Olympic gold medalist and 2020 silver medalist Hassan Yazdani from Iran.

On Friday, Brooks powered back to win bronze, but at 24, he’s just now entering the prime of his career as he undoubtedly looks towards the 2028 Olympic Games.

Following the silver from Lee and the bronze medals by Brooks and Maroulis, the U.S. wrestling team has now secured five total medals, including a pair of golds for women’s wrestlers Amit Elor and Sarah Hildebrandt.

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UFC Vegas 95 Results: Tybura vs. Spivac 2

by Site Admin ~ August 10th, 2024

UFC Fight Night: Tybura v Spivac 2 Weigh-in
Marcin Tybura and Serghei Spivac fight in a rematch at UFC Vegas 95. | Photo by Al Powers/Zuffa LLC

MMA Fighting has UFC Vegas 95 results for the Tybura vs. Spivac 2 fight card and much more from the UFC APEX on Saturday night.

In the main event, Marcin Tybura and Serghei Spivac square off in a heavyweight contest. Both fighters have won three of their past four fights.

Tybura and Spivac fought before at UFC Norfolk on Feb. 29, 2020. On that date, Tybura beat Spivac via unanimous decision (30-27 x2, 29-28).

Damon Jackson and Chepe Mariscal clash in a featherweight contest in the co-main event.

Check out UFC Vegas 95 results below.

Main Card (ESPN/ESPN+ at 7 p.m. ET)

Marcin Tybura vs. Serghei Spivac

Damon Jackson vs. Chepe Mariscal

Danny Barlow vs. Nikolay Veretennikov

Chris Gutierrez vs. Quang Le

Yana Santos vs. Chelsea Chandler

Toshiomi Kazama vs. Charalampos Grigoriou

Preliminary Card (ESPN/ESPN+ at 5 p.m. ET)

Karol Rosa vs. Pannie Kianzad

Jhonata Diniz vs. Karl Williams

Youssef Zalal vs. Jarno Errens

Stephanie Luciano vs. Talita Alencar

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UFC Fight Night: Blanchfield v Fiorot Ceremonial Weigh-in
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

UFC middleweight Bruno Silva has accepted a six-month suspension for a “likely unintentional” violation of the promotion’s anti-doping policy.

UFC’s in-house anti-doping partner Combat Sports Anti-Doping (CSAD) announced the news Friday, stating that Silva tested positive for the presence of 3a-Hydroxy-2a-methyl-5a-androstan-17-one — a metabolite of drostanolone — in a out-of-competition urine sample collected on April 11, with an estimated concentration of less than 1ng/ml.

Per CSAD, Silva provided a negative in-competition sample on March 30 — the date of his most recent UFC appearance — as well as negative out-of-competition samples on April 30 and June 14. CSAD stated that the source of the metabolite was not located, however Silva’s additional test results and extensive cooperation throughout the investigative process led CSAD to determine the positive test was “indicative of low-level contaminant exposure.”

“CSAD’s science advisor concluded that [Silva’s] sample results alone indicate that the drostanolone was NOT injected, that the exposure was very likely unintentional, and based on the negative ‘bookend’ results surrounding the low-level adverse finding, offered no significant performance enhancing benefit gained from this exposure,” a statement read.

CSAD also noted that because the organization’s science advisor disagreed with previous USADA positions related to Silva’s two-year anti-doping suspension for boldenone in 2019, CSAD did not treat Silva’s latest positive test as a second violation of the UFC anti-doping policy.

Silva’s suspension is retroactive to the date of his positive test, meaning he is cleared to return to active competition on Oct. 11. The 35-year-old UFC veteran has lost three consecutive bouts and five of his past six. He dropped a controversial decision to Chris Weidman in his most recent octagon appearance at UFC Atlantic City.

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Misfits Boxing 16 Results: Temper vs. Brueckner

by Site Admin ~ August 10th, 2024

FaZe Temperrr and Josh Brueckner fight in the Misfits Boxing 16 main event Saturday. | Misfits Boxing

MMA Fighting has Misfits Boxing 16 results for the Temper vs. Brueckner fight card and more from the James L Knight Centre in Miami, Fla., on Saturday night.

In the main event, FaZe Temper and Josh Brueckner will clash in the cruiserweight title tournament quarterfinals. Temperrr is 2-2 in his past four Misfits Boxing fights, while Brueckner is 1-1 in his past two Misfits Boxing fights.

Former Bellator veteran Anthony Taylor and Samuel Ericsson will square off for the Misfits light heavyweight title in the co-main event. Taylor has won his past two Misfits Boxing fights, while Ericsson is making his Misfits Boxing debut.

Check out Misfits Boxing 16 results below.

Main card (DAZN at 2:15 p.m. ET)

FaZe Temper vs. Josh Brueckner

Anthony Taylor vs. Samuel Ericsson

Amir Anderson vs. Kjonti Davis

Yuddy Gang TV vs. Argentinian King

J’Hon Ingram vs. Ryan Schwartzberg

Lil Cracra vs. Ace Musa

Leah Gotti vs. Amber Fields

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A UFC heavyweight rematch tops the bill of Saturday’s UFC Vegas 95 as Marcin Tybura looks to go 2-0 in the series against Serghei Spivac at the APEX. With that bout topping the 10-card slate, is this a satisfying lead-in card for next weekend’s UFC 305 event in Perth?

Ahead of the card, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Eric Jackman preview the latest #UFCFightNight card, the main event between Tybura and Spivac, give their predictions for the contest, and discuss the stakes. Additionally, they’ll talk multiple fighers missing weight for their bouts, the co-main event between the surging Chepe Mariscal and featherweight veteran Damon Jackson, look to some of the low-key bangers on the card, discuss who could steal the headlines, and much more.

Catch the UFC Vegas 94 preview show above. An audio-only version of the show can be found below and on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you find your favorite podcasts.

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