Category Archives: Mmafighting.com

Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul is nearly here and Tyson looks ready.

Next Friday, Tyson and Paul face off in an eight-round boxing match broadcast live on Netflix. The fight figures to be one of the biggest combat sports events of the year and while some have concerns about the 58-year-old Tyson returning to the ring, his coaches are not among them.

On Wednesday, Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions released training footage of Tyson training and though the former heavyweight champion is clearly not his best, he still packs one heck of a punch. That trademark Tyson power was on display during sparring where Tyson dropped his sparring partner with a powerful left hook.

The footage also shows Tyson going through his workout routine outside of sparring as he prepares to fight a man 30 years his junior.

Tyson was last in the ring for an exhibition bout against Roy Jones J. in 2020, and has not fought professionally since a 2005 loss to Kevin McBride. Paul last fought Mike Perry in July, scoring a sixth-round TKO.

Tyson vs. Paul takes place on Nov. 15 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX.

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Azamat Murzakanov is out of UFC 309.

On Wednesday, MMA Fighting confirmed that Murzakanov is out of his scheduled fight against Nikita Krylov next Saturday. It is unclear at this time if the UFC is seeking a replacement fighter for Murzakanov. Nolan King was first to report the news.

Currently ranked No. 11 in the UFC light heavyweight rankings, Murzakanov is undefeated in his MMA career, with four wins in the UFC since joining the promotion off the Contender Series in 2021. Most recently Murzakanov knocked out Alonzo Menifield back at UFC Abu Dhabi in August, and was looking to continue climbing the light heavyweight rankings.

Krylov is currently the No. 6-ranked light heavyweight in the UFC. Originally a heavyweight, Krylov put together a 5-2 run in the UFC light heavyweight division before leaving the promotion in 2017. He returned in 2018 where’s he’s been up-and-down since. However, Krylov is currently riding a three-fight winning streak, most recently submitting Ryan Spann in March of 2023.

UFC 309 takes place on Nov. 16 at Madison Square Garden and is headlined by a heavyweight title fight between Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic.

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Dana White has long talked about getting involved in the sport of boxing but the owners at the UFC aren’t ready to commit to anything just yet.

Back in September, White commented that he was finally ready to dive head first into boxing with plans to start making some major announcements about his commitment to the sport in early 2025. White has already been backing undefeated Irish prospect Callum Walsh but he made it clear that a bigger investment into boxing was coming soon.

“People have been talking about the demise of boxing for 30 years, and we’re still here talking about boxing right now,” White said at the time. “I have always had an idea of how I thought it should be done. I don’t know if that’s possible, but we’re going to find out. I’m coming in guns blazing.”

Now White’s interpretation of “guns blazing” might be a little different than what the UFC owners at TKO Group Holdings have in mind when it comes to boxing.

On Wednesday during a quarterly earnings call, TKO Group Holdings president and chief operating officer Mark Shapiro addressed White’s comments about getting involved in boxing sooner rather than later.

“First of all, some off the cuff comments from Dana White do not translate into a strategy that we’re communicating to the street,” Shapiro said. “Dana says a lot of things and has a lot of passions and that’s why we love him. He’s also the best promoter the sport of MMA and frankly if it was boxing has or will ever see.

“What I can tell you is boxing at its best is confused and fragmented. At its worst, it’s broken. We think the sport presents an interesting growth opportunity for us. Dana White, and I should mention [WWE president] Nick Khan, have deep expertise and longstanding relationships in what they call the sweet science, otherwise known as boxing. If we were to get involved in boxing, we would expect to do so in an organic way, not [mergers and acquisitions] way. So i.e. we’re not writing a check. If we launched the vertical at any time, we kind of see it as doing it with a partner that would fund it and pay us to operate.”

What that boils down to is TKO won’t be making any major financial investments into boxing any time soon.

Now, it’s entirely possible that White has plans to get into boxing in the same way he tackled slap fighting with the launch of Power Slap — an organization that counts TKO CEO Ari Emanuel as an investor — but the promotion isn’t directly tied to TKO Group Holdings.

Perhaps that changes in the future but for now TKO remains in wait-and-see mode when it comes to potentially getting involved in boxing in addition to the organization’s main focus with MMA through UFC and professional wrestling with WWE.

“Nothing to announce today but this is one area we’re going to continue to explore,” Shapiro said. “We’ve talked about a dearth of leagues that are out there. Obviously, we’re acquiring [Professional Bull Riders], there’s not much else. We don’t necessarily need to add anything to our model but boxing is ripe for a fix.

“We’re blessed to have two experts in the field and if an opportunity presents itself or we can chase one down that does not put much risk or any risk for that matter on us financially, then we’re going to pursue it. In terms of models and leagues and how we’d structure it, etc, etc, that’s way down the road. Once we have something — if we have something — you’ll be the first to know.”

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Fresh off the heels of UFC Edmonton, the world’s leading MMA promotion heads back to the APEX for a historic event: UFC Vegas 100, headlined by a welterweight matchup between Neil Magny and Carlos Prates. And No Bets Barred is back to break it all down.

Host Jed Meshew runs solo this week to break down this legendary event with all his favorite plays. Topics discussed include Prates’s incredible run through 2024 and whether Magny can pull off the upset yet again, how much does former bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt have left in the tank, the return of “Brazilian Killer” Nicolas Dalby, and the debut of Jed’s boy, former two-division ONE Champion Reiner de Ridder.

And speaking of ONE, they also have an event taking place this weekend with ONE 169 going down on Friday, headlined by a heavyweight title fight between Anatoly Malykhin and Reug Reug. Jed also breaks down the big fights from ONE, plus the latest edition of “THE CLIMB” and more on this week’s episode.

Tune in for episode 107 of No Bets Barred.

New episodes of the No Bets Barred podcast drop every Wednesday and are available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you find your favorite podcasts. The latest episode can be heard below.

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Reinier de Ridder had a lot of reasons he wanted to sign with the UFC after leaving ONE Championship but staying busy might sit near the top of his list.

After he was shelved for all of 2023 with only one fight booked in 2024, the former two-division champion was happy to leave the Singapore based promotion so he could begin working towards a much more active schedule with his new fighting home. He didn’t have to wait long after inking his deal with his first fight booked on Saturday against fellow grappler Gerald Meerschaert in a featured bout at UFC Vegas 100.

Obviously, de Ridder was very happy to know the UFC plans to keep him busy and now it’s his job to show the promotion he was worth the investment.

“That’s one of the major plusses [signing with UFC],” de Ridder told MMA Fighting. “I even started calling out heavyweights [in ONE Championship] because there were no fights. I’m not making that mistake again. Hopefully, I’m going to make it a beautiful year.

“It’s crazy. For some reason, the stars seem to be aligning. Now I just need to knock it out of the park.”

While his only real focus remains on Meerschaert this Saturday, de Ridder addressed the rest of the middleweight division with hopes to jump in the deep end of the division sooner rather than later.

Even as an observer from outside the promotion, de Ridder always kept a watchful eye on the UFC and he knows there are plenty of potential matchups awaiting him.

“Hopefully after this, I’m looking to make a statement in this fight, announce my joining the UFC with a nice performance and then hopefully I’ll get a crack at some top level guys,” de Ridder said. “There’s so many good guys.

“Like [Sean] Strickland, like [Israel] Adesanya, Dricus [du Plessis], we have some history. I fought in the same organization he did. Didn’t get a chance to fight him at that point so hopefully it’s going to be on the biggest stage this time. But even like the entire top 10 are full of killers. There’s a lot of guys that have seen some inactivity. Line them up.”

There are a couple of names in particular in the UFC that have drawn de Ridder’s interest just because it’s a chance to test his grappling against other top notch ground specialists.

In fact, de Ridder definitely plans on watching UFC 309, which takes place one week after his debut, when multi-time NCAA champion wrestler Bo Nickal makes his fourth appearance for the promotion after going 3-0 with three finishes to start his career.

Nickal is slated to face Paul Craig in a featured bout on the pay-per-view main card and while de Ridder certainly doesn’t have any ill will towards the veteran Scotsman, he can’t help but throw out a suggestion that he’d be ready to step in on short notice if the opportunity was presented to him.

“Khamzat [Chimaev] and Bo Nickal would both be amazing,” de Ridder said. “[Bo Nickal] might be a nice next step. So maybe we do something to Paul Craig, distract him a little bit and jump in?

“That’s a fun one, right? I’m down for that. So Paul Craig, take a hike.”

All jokes aside, de Ridder believes those kinds of options are now available to him in the UFC but first things first he has to get through Meerschaert on Saturday.

When that was the offer made for his debut, de Ridder didn’t hesitate to say yes even though it actually interrupted the plans he made for his training camp to get ready for his first fight in the UFC.

“I was pretty familiar [with Gerald] because I’ve been training with him for a little bit,” de Ridder revealed. “I know what he brings to the table.

“I was planning to spend my camp in Miami with Henri [Hooft] and the guys [at Kill Cliff FC] but then when I got the name, I had to send Henri a text that he might be the wrong corner again.”

On paper this might be a grappler’s dream match between two prolific submission specialists, although many times those kinds of fights end up turning into striking affairs.

De Ridder is ready for whatever gets thrown at him but he promises at some point he’s going to test his grappling skills against Meerschaert.

“I need to [take this fight down to the canvas],” de Ridder explained. “I need to represent jiu-jitsu so I’m going to try and hit him with some good shots but it’s going to go to the ground, 100 percent.”

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The UFC experienced a rare decrease in revenue for the third quarter in 2024 but TKO Group Holdings as a whole still earned a profit with a massive year ahead in 2025.

New financial disclosures were released on Wednesday with the UFC revenue dropping 11 percent — $ 42.6 million to $ 354.9 million — primarily due to one less pay-per-view and two less Fight Night events compared to the same time period in 2023. The revenue loss from media rights was $ 50.4 million but that was partially offset by an increase in sponsorship revenue, which was up $ 10.2 million.

Despite holding three fewer events during the third quarter in 2024 compared to 2024, the UFC still stayed almost dead even when it came to live event revenue due to an increase in overall ticket sales year over year.

While the UFC reported a loss in revenue for the quarter, TKO Group Holdings — the parent company for UFC and WWE — still increased overall revenue by 52 percent — $ 232.1 million to $ 681.2 million. That increase was thanks to WWE with $ 242.7 million in revenue.

“TKO’s solid third quarter results reflect continued strength across UFC and WWE, particularly in live events and brand partnerships,” TKO CEO Ari Emanuel said in a press release along with the financial results. “In light of this continued momentum, we now expect to deliver at the upper end of our full-year 2024 guidance range for both revenue and Adjusted EBITDA.

“Additionally, two weeks ago we announced the authorization of a robust capital return program and an agreement to acquire industry-leading sports assets that will power our profile, give us greater scale, strengthen our position in the sports marketplace, and accelerate returns for shareholders. Just over a year since UFC and WWE came together to form TKO, our conviction in this business is as strong as ever.”

The latest financial disclosure also noted the conclusion of one of two UFC antitrust lawsuits after a settlement was reached and preliminary approval was handed down by the courts. Under terms of the agreement, TKO is set to pay out $ 375 million to settle the first of the lawsuits with a $ 125 million payment already put into escrow in October with the remaining $ 250 million expected to be paid in 2025.

A second antitrust lawsuit against the UFC is still pending.

The next year is expected to be huge for TKO with WWE kicking off a massive 10 year, $ 5 billion deal to move its flagship series Monday Night Raw to Netflix while Smackdown goes to USA Network. WWE’s other program titled NXT already began airing on the CW in a separate deal that was previously closed.

Meanwhile, the UFC is expected to begin negotiations on a new TV deal in early 2025 as the current contract with ESPN comes to a close at the end of next year. Most experts believe the UFC is in for a huge increase in overall media rights, especially with the MMA promotion as the only major sports property up for grabs for potential TV or streaming partners for the next three years.

It’s possible that the UFC potentially triples its broadcast rights deal from the one struck with ESPN that was initially worth $ 1.5 billion over five years (an additional two years was eventually added along with ESPN taking over pay-per-view broadcasts for the UFC).

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Jon Jones is ready for UFC 309 and his first heavyweight title defense against Stipe Miocic.

Jones and Miocic headline next weekend’s pay-per-view event at Madison Square Garden in New York City. “Bones” makes his first walk to the octagon since winning the heavyweight title at with a first-round submission of former interim champ Ciryl Gane at UFC 285 in March 2023, and just his second outing in nearly five years.

Ahead of the matchup, Jones released new training footage as he gets set to face Miocic. Check out the video below, courtesy of Jones’ Instagram page.

During this training camp, Jones has been training with the likes of jiu-jitsu whiz Gordon Ryan, as well as Olympic gold medalist and ex-WWE superstar Gable Steveson. The 37-year-old has continuously teased that this could be his final fight, although UFC CEO Dana White feels that if Jones is victorious, he could face current interim heavyweight titleholder Tom Aspinall in a unification bout.

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Cody Garbrandt and Miles Johns should hope the third time is a charm if they’re ever going to fight.

MMA Fighting confirmed with sources with knowledge of the change that Garbrandt has been forced to withdraw from his scheduled bantamweight bout against Johns, which was to take place at UFC Vegas 100 this Saturday. The news was first reported by BJPENN.com.

It is the second time Garbrandt and Johns have been booked to fight and seen their date fall through. The two were expected to fight at UFC Vegas 98 this past October, but the bout was moved to Nov. 9 for undisclosed reasons.

Officials are searching for a new opponent to face Johns on Saturday. It is not yet known if they will attempt to schedule Garbrandt vs. Johns again in the future.

Garbrandt competed once in 2024, losing to Deiveson Figueiredo via submission at UFC 300 this past April. For Johns, he looks to keep a win streak going after defeating his past three opponents (excluding one no-contest).

Damon Martin contributed to this report.

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Donald Trump will become the 47th U.S. president after defeating Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election Wednesday morning.

UFC President Dana White was at Trump’s victory celebration overnight at Mar-a-Lago and spoke to the crowd about his good friend heading to the Oval Office again.

Here’s how the pros reacted to Donald Trump winning again:

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At 40, and just over three years removed from one of the most devastating injuries in UFC history, Chris Weidman recognizes his own mortality when it comes to fighting.

The former middleweight champion already defied the odds when he returned from a gruesome broken leg suffered back in 2021 that resulted in numerous surgeries and more than two years on the sidelines as he recovered. He finally got his first win since the injury when he defeated Bruno Silva back in March, but as much as that was a night and day performance compared to his initial return to action, Weidman refuses to look too far down the road when it comes to his future in the sport.

“Honestly, I’m still taking it fight by fight to see how I feel, to see how I perform,” Weidman told MMA Fighting. “Right now in the gym my body, I feel good and I’m doing great in the gym but I’ve got to be able to perform under the lights.

“So that’s all just fight to fight at this point at my age and everything. We’ll see how I feel and we’ll just play it from there.”

In his initial return back in 2023, Weidman promised he was more than ready to go but then once he set foot in the cage, he just couldn’t pull the trigger on throwing kicks on the same leg that endured all that trauma. To make matters worse, Weidman’s opponent Brad Tavares attacked him with a vicious series of leg kicks that put him on the defensive and actually resulted in a small fracture on the opposite leg from the one that was previously injured.

When he returned seven months later, Weidman felt dramatically better and he was finally able to perform without constant concern about the leg injury.

He’s only built on that confidence as he prepares for his return against Eryk Anders at UFC 309, but Weidman understands that nothing is guaranteed once a fight gets started. That’s why he’s not making wild declarations about his future but rather thinking about every performance as a potential gauge on whether or not he decides to compete again.

“I’m pretty much taking it fight by fight,” Weidman said. “I’ll make my decision after the fight. I’m not planning on putting my gloves down or anything like that either win or lose. But I’m planning to just not make any rushed decisions.

“Right now, I still feel great. I’m excited. I love training. I love being in camps. I love just the whole discipline of it and how it keeps you on routine. It’s really addictive. I’m super competitive so it’s just like the ultimate best thing for me to be doing. But obviously you can’t do it forever. So that’s why I’ve got to take it fight by fight and kind of just weigh the pros and cons of everything and see where we’re at.”

As much as he tries not to think about it anymore, Weidman confesses that the broken leg he suffered back in 2021 is always going to play into his training camps and upcoming fights.

Add to that, Weidman turned 40 back in June and as the old adage goes, father time remains undefeated when it comes to sports.

He got a healthy dose of reality about the way his body has changed over the past few years when he participated in a baseball challenge with his son just recently.

“With MMA, I still feel great, I still feel fine on the mats,” Weidman explained. “I don’t feel 40 year years old, all these surgeries, I still feel great. I’m going with these younger guys and doing as good as usual. As good as I ever have. But when it comes to other sports, I feel like I slowed down. Sports specifically for MMA, my body has adjusted and I know I’ve got situations to stay away from that would hurt me. I’ve been able to be dominant in those positions that I’m going into. But I played baseball the other day with my son, both my kids are on these travel baseball teams.

“We had to see who could throw harder so they had the gun out so they could measure the speed, and I was never the fastest thrower, but my 12-year-old son is not going to beat me on the speedometer thing. He beat me bad. He threw a 62, I threw a 51 and my shoulder hurt and I felt terrible. Like two pitches, and I’m done. It was awful. Then we got to switch it around and your kid got to pitch to you to see if he could strike you out as if it was a real game, you’ve got the balls and everything going, an umpire. He struck me out and I’m telling you 10 years ago, I will say I really believe that would not have happened. I think I would throw harder, and I think I’m hitting the ball off of him. The age definitely, I felt old doing that. But when I’m in the MMA gym, I still feel good.”

Considering the sheer number of surgeries that Weidman has endured over the years, it’s not a surprise that his body feels it from time to time when he’s participating in sports that aren’t MMA.

Make no mistake, Weidman doesn’t believe he’s lost a step when it comes to fighting, but there’s no way to just ignore the kind of trauma he’s endured over the years, especially with the leg injury.

“It’s something I’ve got to make sure I warm up and I’m on top of and I’m strengthening and all that stuff forever,” Weidman said. “For the rest of my life.

“This leg had now 14 surgeries on it. I’ve had 14 surgeries just on this one leg and 30 surgeries overall throughout my body. So I’ve got lots of things I’ve got to think about.”

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