Alexandr Romanov’s UFC future is up in the air despite coming off of a win in his most recent fight.

At this past Saturday’s UFC Edmonton event, Romanov scored a unanimous decision win over Rodrigo Nascimento. The bout was the last of the heavyweight veteran’s UFC contract and, as of now, he has not re-signed with the promotion. His departure from the active roster was first reported by UFC Roster Tracker.

MMA Fighting’s Damon Martin confirmed with officials that Romanov is no longer signed to the UFC. This news does not preclude Romanov returning to the promotion with a new contract, but as of now he is free to sign with any promotion.

Romanov (18-3) has competed 10 times for the UFC, compiling a 7-3 record during that stretch. The 33-year-old Moldovan surged up the rankings with a 5-0 start to his octagon career, which included finishes in four of those fights. He holds notable wins over Blagoy Ivanov, Juan Espino, and Marcos Rogerio de Lima, but is just 2-3 in his past five fights.

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Usman Nurmagomedov is already Bellator’s best, and if his coach is to be believed, his ceiling is much, much higher.

Recently, Nurmagomedov said he’s targeting a move to the UFC in the future, to follow in the footsteps of cousin Khabib Nurmagomedov and current UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev, two of his training partners. In an interview with Red Corner MMA, Usman’s coach Javier Mendez was asked if he sees the fighter surpassing Khabib and Makhachev’s accomplishments and he answered with glowing praise for the Bellator lightweight titleholder.

“As far as passing the torch, I see Usman as being pound-for-pound the greatest fighter, myself,” Mendez said. “He’s got all the attributes. He’s the most talented I’ve ever trained. In regards whether he ever goes to UFC or not, I don’t know if it’s going to matter as long as he keeps showing people how great he is. So, to me, if at one point he never goes, great. He’s still going to be regarded as one of the great ones. He will, you watch.

“He will be regarded as one of the great ones because what he does in that cage is like nobody, I’ve never seen anybody do the transitions, the movement that he does.”

Nurmagomedov is yet to be defeated in 18 pro bouts and has rarely been threatened in the cage, with his most recent win being a methodical unanimous decision nod over Alexander Shabliy this past September. He has successfully defended his Bellator championship twice (this does not include title fight win over Brent Primus that was overturned to a no-contest when Nurmagomedov later tested positive for a banned substance, which was attributed to a prescription drug).

In Mendez’s eyes, Nurmagomedov is nowhere near his prime and no matter where he ends up fighting for the rest of his career, he believes Dagestan native has the potential to be a legend.

“He’s unbelievable, and he’s only 26, he’s only getting better,” Mendez said. “Let’s see what happens, but you never know. He may be a PFL fighter, a Bellator fighter the rest of his career and, for me, I’m happy about that because he’ll be a successful one. So wherever he goes it’s going to be a success.”

TOP STORIES

Deal With It. Stipe Miocic couldn’t care less about any criticism of his fight with Jon Jones at UFC 309.

Mailbag. Did Brandon Moreno deserve a bonus at UFC Edmonton? Did Rose Namajunas make a tactical error? What’s the ceiling for Erin Blanchfield? Jed Meshew has got you covered.

Trilogy. Dustin Poirier and Max Holloway have both talked about it, is it time for one last dance?

Healing. Khalil Rountree Jr. is looking much better a month after his brutal loss to Alex Pereira.

WTF. Referee completely off the ball as fighter is rendered unconscious by a Von Flue choke.

VIDEO STEW

Angela Hill and Jessica Penne react to UFC Edmonton.

Good Guy/Bad Guy.

Epilogue.

Celebrate UFC Vegas 100 as the MMA Gods intended.

I guess you could get hyped for UFC 309, too, by watching Jon Jones bulldoze a dude. Whatever.

FLAVOR IN YOUR EAR

Severe MMA. Looking ahead to Irish star Ian Machado Garry’s pivotal matchup with Joaquin Buckley at UFC Tampa.

SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

Poatan.

Getting feisty.

Menacing.

Now’s the time on Sprockets when we dance.

Calling his shot.

Yup, this is still happening.

Not to victim blame here, but you order something from a Diaz brother…

FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Nate Landwehr (18-5) vs. Doo Ho Choi (15-4-1); UFC 310, Dec. 7

FINAL THOUGHTS

If you’re reading this and you’re in the U.S., make sure you vote today!

If you find something you’d like to see in the Morning Report, hit up @AlexanderKlee or @JedKMeshew on Twitter and let us know about it. Also, follow MMAFighting on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and like us on Facebook.

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Think you can figure out which UFC fighter we’re talking about? You’ll get five clues to figure him out.

We’re back for another day of the SB Nation UFC in-5 daily trivia game, and we’re switching to a system of a new article each day for the game.

We tried using a single article for the game, updated with the latest game each day, but it was creating a bit of an unwieldy experience in the comments. So, we’ll have the current day’s game plus the previous three days in each new article. That way, you can catch up if you miss a day.

Game instructions are at the bottom if you’re new to the game!

What we need from you

1. Play the game
2. Share your result in the comments and on social media
3. Provide feedback (Google Form or in comments below)

Today’s UFC in-5 game

Monday’s UFC in-5 game

Sunday’s UFC in-5 game

Saturday’s UFC in-5 game

The goal of the game is to guess the correct random UFC fighter player with the help of up to five clues. We’ll mix in BOTH ACTIVE AND RETIRED FIGHTERS. It won’t be easy to figure it out in one or two guesses, but some of you might be able to nail it. It will be a mix of well-known players and some “that guys” that we haven’t thought of in some time. The game will appear in slot #3 of the MMA Fighting layout each morning, with occasional movement later in the day.

After you correctly guess the player, you can click “Share Results” to share how you did down in the comments and on social media.

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Awful officiating cast a pall over a submission finish in Kazakhstan this past weekend.

At a Dala Fighting Championship event in Astana on Saturday, Kazakh bantamweight Zhuman Zhumabekov locked in a Von Flue choke after executing a powerful slam and clearly had the fight wrapped up halfway into the opening round.

His opponent Abhilash Raut clearly goes limp with his eyes rolling back, but the bout was not waved off at that point due to the negligence of referee Baurzhan Zhumanov. Seemingly oblivious to Raut’s condition, Baurzhan Zhumanov actually appeared to call for Zhumabekov to continue to work on the ground, putting it on Zhumabekov to release the hold so the referee could see what had happened.

Watch the disturbing clip below.

An attentive Zhumabekov immediately looks to tend to Raut following the finish. Fortunately, Raut was able to stand on his own power and be part of the post-fight proceedings as he raised Zhumabekov’s hand and embraced him.

Watch the full fight, including the aftermath, below.

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Khalil Rountree Jr. is a month removed from the biggest fight of his life and his injuries from that brutal battle appear to be mostly healed.

The light heavyweight contender went almost 20 minutes with champion Alex Pereira at UFC 307 this past October, pushing “Poatan” to the limit before succumbing to strikes near the end of the fourth round. Rountree was battered and bloodied by the former kickboxing star, but received plenty of praise for his performance.

Shortly after, Rountree announced he would be undergoing surgery on his nose to address facial injuries sustained in the fight. Rountree has been traveling to rest and relax in the aftermath of UFC 307 and he shared an Instagram post Monday that included a picture of his face post-surgery.

@khalilrountree, Instagram

Though Rountree appears to be showing visible scars, he’s unquestionably in much better shape than he was weeks ago.

Funnily enough, Pereira has also needed time to recover from their fight. “Poatan” recently told Podpah that his hand is still hurting from punching Rountree. Considering the long list of knockouts Pereira has on his résumé, that says a lot about Rountree’s toughness.

Rountree likely looks ahead to 2025 for his next booking after seeing a five-fight win streak snapped in his first UFC title opportunity.

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Even though Dustin Poirier holds two wins over Max Holloway, “The Diamond” would love to share the octagon with the current BMF champion one more time.

Following his lightweight championship loss against Islam Makhachev at UFC 302 in June, Poirier has hinted that his incredible career is coming to a close, and teasing one last fight before turning the page. Now that Holloway holds the BMF belt, Poirier sees that as a perfect “last dance,” as he said to a fan on Twitter.

Poirier submitted Holloway in their first meeting at UFC 143 in February 2012. They met again seven years later for the interim lightweight title in one of the division’s most exciting championship bouts, winning a unanimous decision at UFC 236 in April 2019.

After Holloway was knocked out for the first time in his career by Ilia Topuria at UFC 308, “Blessed” revealed that his featherweight career is likely over, and that a permanent move to lightweight is imminent. Holloway captured the BMF belt with a stunning last-second knockout of Justin Gaethje in a 155-pound matchup at UFC 300 in April.

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Nate “The Train” is back to close out the UFC’s pay-per-view year.

Multiple people with knowledge of the promotion’s plans confirmed to MMA Fighting that Nate Landwehr faces Doo Ho Choi at UFC 310 on Dec. 7 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. MMA Mania was first to report the booking.

Landwehr has proven to be one of the featherweight division’s most exciting fighters as he steps in the octagon for the second time in 2024. The 36-year-old knocked out Jamall Emmers at UFC Atlantic City this past March to bounce back from a decision loss to Dan Ige at UFC 289 in June 2023.

Choi is set to compete for the second time in a year for the first time since 2016. “Korean Superboy” knocked out Bill Algeo with a nasty left hook in the second round at UFC Vegas 94 this past July to earn his first victory since knocking out Thiago Tavares at the TUF 23 Finale in July 2016.

As of now, a new main event for UFC 310 is yet to be announced after an injury forced welterweight champion Belal Muhammad out of his scheduled title defense against Shavkat Rakhmonov.

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The only thing more impressive than what Ilia Topuria and Khamzat Chimaev accomplished at UFC 308 is seeing it in slo-mo.

This past weekend, the UFC released their newest Fight Motion video from the promotion’s latest pay-per-view event in Abu Dhabi. In the main event, Topuria became the first fighter to knock out Max Holloway to retain his featherweight championship. Portions of the stunning result in the headliner are featured in the UFC’s latest slow motion highlight video.

In the co-main event, Chimaev submitted Robert Whittaker in the first round to make a tremendous case for a shot at Dricus du Plessis and the middleweight title.

Other highlights from the card include Magomed Ankalaev’s decision win against Aleksandar Rakic, Lerone Murphy keeping his long win streak alive against octagon veteran Dan Ige — despite overcoming adversity — Shara Magomedov’s double spinning punch knockout in the main card opener, and the bloody lightweight war between Mateusz Rebecki and Myktybek Oralibai.

Check out the UFC 308 Fight Motion video above.

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Daniel Cormier doesn’t agree with Jon Jones often, but one topic they see eye-to-eye on is the dubious loss on Jones’ record.

On Jones’ 29-fight résumé, there are two glaring blemishes: A 2009 loss to Matt Hamill that occurred when Jones was disqualified for the use of prohibited 12-to-6 elbows, and his 2017 knockout of Cormier that was later overturned to a no-contest when Jones tested positive for a banned substance.

Though nothing can be done about the latter result, Cormier is an advocate for Jones’ lone loss to be removed, especially with the recently revised rules (including the legalization of 12-to-6 elbows) that were introduced at UFC Edmonton this past Saturday.

“Jon Jones should be undefeated,” Cormier said at a Q&A this past Friday in Edmonton. “He really should be. A 12-6 elbow is crazy, but you know, we only can fight under the rules that they give us and, unfortunately, there was a moron referee that said he should be disqualified. But he’s undefeated.”

Cormier and Jones have a storied rivalry, with the two trading plenty of shots in and out of the octagon. Though their second meeting is officially a no-contest, Jones still holds a win over Cormier, having won a unanimous decision over “DC” in their first fight at UFC 182.

The build-up to their fights saw Cormier and Jones frequently insult each other and at one point even engage in a public brawl. In the years since their last fight, a grudging respect has developed between the two, and Cormier is fine with where their relationship stands.

“We aren’t great and I don’t think that we ever have to [be],” Cormier said. “I think people need to stop longing for the perfect happy ending. Guys don’t have to do what Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield did. It can be OK to just be OK with us being as we are and I’m fine with it, so you guys should be, too.”

Jones, the current UFC heavyweight champion, is set to defend his title against Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 on Nov. 16 in New York. The bout is being billed as a battle of two of the greatest fighters of all time and potentially the final fight for both, though neither has made any firm commitment to a fight night retirement.

Cormier, for one, will miss seeing Jones compete.

“He’s beat a lot of guys,” Cormier said. “The amount of champions that Jon Jones has beaten over the course of his career is very impressive. The guy has been champion for a long time, he’s done a great job, and it will suck whenever he’s gone because the game is better when you have fighters like that in it. Unfortunately, there’s been a lot of times where he hasn’t been in it because of the things that he’s done.”

Watch the UFC Edmonton Q&A below.

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UFC Edmonton went down this past weekend and a couple of very notable results happened. In the main event, Brandon Moreno broke his losing streak, dominating Amir Albazi in a sensational performance for the former champion, while in the co-main event, Erin Blanchfield also got back in the win column, albeit by eking out a win over former strawweight champion Rose Namajunas.

So with a lot to talk about, let’s dive right in to this week’s questions.

Brandon Moreno

“Thoughts on the fact that Moreno put on a masterclass but didn’t even get a bonus?”

“Masterclass” is the correct word for what Moreno did to Albazi on Saturday; he won that fight pillar to post. Credit to Albazi who despite being clearly outclassed still hung tough, even surviving a couple of scares in there, but that was one of those one-sided performances that really puts into perspective the gap between Albazi and the top tier of the weight class.

It was also a stark reminder of how small the margins are in MMA. Moreno was on a two-fight losing streak heading into this weekend and as such was almost an afterthought. But those losses were contentious split decisions and in another universe, Moreno is still the UFC flyweight champion. On any given night he can perform like the best in the world.

As for not getting a bonus, it’s to be expected. Though “performance” is open ended enough to mean anything, the Performance of the Night bonuses are derived from the old Knockout and Submission of the Night awards, and the UFC treats them as such, which is fine. Jasmine Jasudavicius, Dustin Stoltzfus, Charles Jourdain, and Youssef Zalal all probably could use the $ 50,000 more than Moreno.

Rose Namajunas

“If ‘Thug Rose’ didn’t get to cocky and attempt a takedown on the heavier grappler, would Blanchfield’s low Fight IQ lose her the fight?”

Man, I sure thought it was going to.

It’s no secret that I’ve been extremely high on Blanchfield as a prospect. I’ve got a lot of Take Equity stored up in her becoming champion one day. And for 10-plus minutes on Saturday, I was calling my Take Broker to scout options for dumping my stock.

Simply put, Blanchfield was atrocious for the first two rounds of that fight. I have no idea what the plan was, but I simply cannot imagine the plan was “willingly engage in a long-range, low-volume kickboxing match with Rose” because that would be among the dumbest game plans ever created. And it’s not like Rose was forcing Blanchfield out of her comfort zone, Blanchfield just didn’t try to do anything other than get sniped. It was maddeningly bad, and I still cannot figure out why she did it.

HOWEVER, I take issue with the idea that Rose “got cocky” with her takedown attempt. Rose got forced into that takedown attempt, because in the third round, Blanchfield started fighting. Namajunas has never liked to be in fire fights, and after punting the first two rounds, Blanchfield decided to start walking into the line of fire and exchanging. Although she also got hit a bunch, Blanchfield started landing and tagged Rose, leading her to look for an escape route with the takedown. I don’t think that was necessarily bad Fight IQ from Rose, but a good adjustment from Blanchfield.

That being said, there was one instance earlier in the fight that I’ve re-thought quite a bit, and while I don’t think it’s “bad Fight IQ” per se, I do think it’s instructive of where Namajunas is in her career and up at flyweight.

In the second round, Rose hits a trip on Blanchfield and ends up in side control, but instead of holding the position and working, Namajunas immediately stands up and retreats to striking range. Part of me can understand the thinking there of not engaging with the grappler, but another part of me believes that’s a sign of a legitimate issue with Namajunas at this stage of her career: she doesn’t fight to win, she fights not to lose.

If you go back and watch the Carla Esparza rematch (don’t do that to yourself, it’s terrible) that fight is really just two women completely unwilling to risk losing, so neither does much of anything, and frankly, that’s no way to be a professional fist fighter. I’m not saying everyone has to become Justin Gaethje, but passivity is a deadly sin in this game and Namajunas really seems to have that in her now, especially when she’s facing someone who can clearly threaten her.

I don’t know where Rose goes from here, but if she can’t get that spark back, I think we’ve probably seen the end of fun Namajunas fights and her title aspirations.

Erin Blanchfield

“She’s still only 25, but how long until Blanchfield’s reliance on her toughness as opposed to learning striking defense becomes a concern?”

It’s already a concern, though not the biggest one I have at this moment.

Blanchfield is a terrible striker, full stop. It’s not just her defense, it’s her offense as well. For as comfortable and effortless as Blanchfield looks on the ground, she looks physically uncomfortable and uncoordinated striking. Like a newborn baby deer stumbling around on legs it’s just figuring out are hers, that’s Blanchfield when it comes to striking.

Right now, the only reason Blanchfield’s striking can be effective is, as you pointed out, because she’s pretty tough and she’s willing to take one to give one. But that sort of brawling mentality goes a long way, especially in a weight class where there are maybe a half-dozen people who can really crack. Honestly, if I were coaching her (and let me stress this: I am not a coach, I am a moron) I’d work on building her offense because that’s a more critical piece of the puzzle right now. Give Blanchfield some real weapons she can rely on on the feet and the defense can get sorted out later.

But the thing that most concerns me about Blanchfield right now is how disjointed her game is. Blanchfield is a great grappler and a solid wrestler and athlete, but none of it works together. She does not blend the martial arts, she engages in them separately at each stage and so both are lessened dramatically by that. Nobody would ever confuse Khabib Nurmagomedov with an elite striker, but he had enough tools there to compete and his striking game was entirely catered to serve his grappling. That’s what Blanchfield needs and instead she has a great Plan A and limited ways to impose it.

The upper bounds of women’s flyweight has people who can match the physicality Blanchfield brings to bear. We saw that in the Manon Fiorot fight, and to some extent, we saw that on Saturday. Blanchfield is not the sort of hyper-athlete that can just run over even the best fighters, so she needs to get a cohesive offensive sorted out sooner rather than later or she’ll never win the title.

Callout

“Asking as a Blanchfield fan, how does a fight against Alexa Grasso go for her? Was that the right callout?”

In case you missed it, Blanchfield called for a fight with Alexa Grasso next, and I while I initially liked it, I’ve cooled on the idea with more time to think about it, at least promotionally.

Fiorot has the next shot at Valentina Shevchenko, but after that, the title picture is pretty empty. A win over Grasso would definitely put Blanchfield in line for the next title shot, but if Grasso wins and so does Shevchenko, now the UFC just killed off a contender for a fight that we really do not need to see again.

Instead, Blanchfield should fight Maycee Barber. This is obviously dependent on Barber being healthy enough to compete, and for the moment, that seems like it may not be the case. But if she can solve whatever issues she’s facing, Blanchfield vs. Barber makes the most sense as a no-doubt-about-it No. 1 contender fight.

That being said, if Barber doesn’t work out and the Grasso fight is what happens, that’s not a terrible consolation prize. And I’m genuinely interested in the matchup. Historically, Grasso is a bad defensive wrestler, which lines up well for Blanchfield, but Blanchfield is so one-track at this point, that should help Grasso prepare and make things tough on Blanchfield. Valentina Shevchenko took Grasso down a billion times because she’s a physical monster AND she’s dangerous on the feet. Blanchfield doesn’t have that same threat so Grasso has a very good chance against her.

Youssef Zalal

“How good is Youssef Zalal? I admit I didn’t pay much attention to his 1st run in the UFC but 3 subs in his last 3 fights is impressive, along with the fact he took Ilia Topuria the distance back in 2020…who would you book him against next?”

Seems pretty good!

Zalal is a lock for making the 2024 All-Violence Team with three finishes and two bonuses in three fights, and it just goes to show that sometimes the best thing for a career can be to leave the UFC. Development isn’t linear and it’s not the same for every fighter, and the regional circuit can be extremely good for building a fighter back up after a tough run. Just look at Zalal.

As for who he should fight next, let’s go with the winner of the Nate Landwehr vs. Doo Ho Choi fight at UFC 310.

LONG TIME

“UFC cards feel like they are getting longer, and in some cases, they are. Your solution?”

Per the great Mike Bohn, UFC Edmonton ended with 3:06:38 of total fight time, the third-longest in UFC history. And I’ll be honest, it felt like that.

Fights were on for seven hours and Saturday frankly, parts of it felt like an eternity. It’s not necessarily anyone’s fault but a lot of that card was competent yet unmemorable. It’s like that line from Ocean’s 11 where Brad Pitt tells Matt Damon the bad guy needs to like you and then forget about you immediately. The UFC Edmonton undercard was the Linus of fight cards.

And in my mind there are only two ways to “fix” this. The first is to bring pageantry back into the production to break things up and keep it feeling fresh. But we know that’s never going to happen, so the other option is to have fewer fights.

13 fights is a lot of fights. Hell, it’s a lot of anything (other than rice). 10 fights is a nice round number that’s hard to feel bad about. Part of the reason I like Contender Series so much is that it’s five fights, and we’re done. In the absence of pageantry, efficiency rules. And on Saturday, I was definitely wishing for a little more efficiency.

Thanks for reading, and thank you for everyone who sent in tweets (Xs?)! Do you have any burning questions about things at least somewhat related to combat sports? Then you’re in luck, because you can send your tweets to me, @JedKMeshew, and I will answer my favorite ones! Doesn’t matter if they’re topical or insane, just so long as they are good. Thanks again, and see y’all next week.

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