Johnny Eblen is the latest fighter to criticize the “Cowboy” comeback.
Longtime UFC veteran Donald Cerrone recently announced he plans to come out of retirement in pursuit of being the first fighter to log 50 in-cage appearances across the UFC and WEC. His return has been met with criticism from several of his peers, especially given that Cerrone has admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs while out of competition.
Eblen was asked about an existing issue with Cerrone and he explained that he doesn’t approve of Cerrone fighting again.
“I just don’t think it’s a good idea to retire, take a bunch of steroids and then come back and fight again,” Eblen said, speaking to the media at the PFL Battle of the Giants on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. “It’s not a good look. I think Conor [McGregor] paved the way, I think he’s influencing a lot of other people to do it, and I think people are trying to fight past their prime and use all these substances and it’s just not natural, it’s not good.
“Your brain doesn’t heal from steroids. So all that CTE just adds up. I’m very against steroids, I’m very against people fighting past their prime.”
Cerrone turned 41 this past March. It is not yet known if the UFC will accept his request to step into the octagon again, but UFC CEO Dana White shared his opinion on the matter saying, “Love him, hate that.”
As far as Conor McGregor goes, while the former two-division champion has noticeably bulked up at various points during his break from competition dating back to July 2021, he has never officially failed a drug test. After injuring his leg against Dustin Poirier at UFC 264, McGregor was subsequently removed from the drug-testing pool until he began being tested again in October 2023.
Raquel Pennington isn’t stunned in the least about Amanda Nunes teasing a potential return to the octagon.
Following Pennington dropping the bantamweight title via a controversial split decision to Julianna Peña at UFC 307, the now two-time titleholder ignored fellow event winner Kayla Harrison, and went right for a trilogy fight with Nunes. The third meeting was booked for UFC 289 in June 2023, but a Peña injury led to Nunes defending the belt against Irene Aldana in the main event — which Nunes successfully did via lopsided decision before announcing her retirement.
Nunes since released a comment on social media, tagging UFC CEO Dana White, asking him to call her. If “The Lioness” returns to the fold, Pennington will be cheering her on.
“Obviously Amanda and I have fought but we’ve known each other since Invicta,” Pennington told MMA Fighting. “I’ve always supported her career, she’s supported mine, my family supports her and stuff, and then her and Nina [Nunes] are two of Tecia [Pennington’s] closest friends. So every time we go to Florida, we’re down at their house. I mean, we stay with them half of the time and the kids get to play together, and whatnot.
“They’re competitors — both of them — and so it’s not just even Amanda. I feel like it’s something that everybody’s known for a long time, and as an athlete, like, when do you know the right time to walk away? This is a conversation that I actually have with other athletes and they’re like, ‘I don’t know, I guess we’ll figure it out,’ and you see a lot of these athletes, they’re like, ‘OK, like we’re good.’ And they’re in that phase in their life and then all of a sudden, it’s like, they’re natural born competitors.
“I’ve had conversations with both Amanda and Nina, and they’re just like, ‘Yeah, we’re done for now’ type thing, and ‘we might be coming back,’ and of course, Amanda, she’s been very successful with everything. She’s known as the GOAT and she’s done amazing things, and she loves to shut everybody’s mouth. And so you had Kayla come in and she’s made the comment about the fact that she would love to just shut Kayla up, [and] we all know how she feels about Julianna, and she said that if Julianna ever got the belt back, she was gonna come back and beat the brakes off of her. I feel like I can’t speak for Amanda, but I’m not surprised with her video at all just knowing her as a person, knowing her as a competitor and I’m sure the world would absolutely love to see her back.”
Nunes would be a welcome addition to the current bantamweight slate, which is certainly more above the radar following Nunes’ retirement. With Pennington finding her stride, along with Peña, Harrison, Vieira, and more in the mix, one of the promotion’s most shallow divisions in terms of numbers has gotten a shot of depth and excitement.
Pennington sees it too, but believes recognition has been deserving for some time. Now the dominoes are falling in the right place for the division to shine.
“It’s kind of like when Ronda left, you [had’ Amanda who [had] started a very successful run for herself, but the world was just absolutely hating on her,” Pennington sait. “It was just like, ‘Oh, Ronda left, like, this division sucks.’ And then all of a sudden, Amanda just completely took over and it’s like, ‘OK, Amanda left, this division sucks.’ The world has a hard time when it comes to change initially, but the women’s bantamweight division actually has a lot of talent.
“That’s why even with the matchup between Ketlen and Kayla, like, I thought it was extremely disrespectful to not give Ketlen any credit. She’s a very talented fighter. She packs a punch. It’s a different ball game. Women are in this division for a reason, and so it’s really interesting to see. It was really cool that they put some of the top fights on the card, so that way the world can actually see a lot more talent that’s there.
“There’s talent here and I feel like the division definitely needs a lot more credit.”
Ilia Topuria | Photo By Oscar J. Barroso/Europa Press via Getty Images
Ilia Topuria will wear custom shorts in his first defense of the UFC featherweight championship at next weekend’s UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi, Spanish news outlet Marca revealed Saturday.
The red-and-yellow shorts, with bulls on the side, will be worn by Topuria when he enters the cage to face former champion and current “BMF” champion Max Holloway in the main event. UFC 308 takes place at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi and airs live on ESPN+ pay-per-view.
Check out the shorts below.
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Topuria (15-0) has won seven in a row since joining the UFC in October of 2020, including a vicious second-round knockout of Alexander Volkanovski to claim the 145-pound championship at UFC 298.
Holloway (26-7) has beaten some of the all-time best in the UFC, from Jose Aldo to Anthony Pettis to Frankie Edgar, and once again entered the title picture at 145 pounds by capturing the BMF belt from Justin Gaethje in epic fashion in a lightweight bout at UFC 300 this past April.
Francis Ngannou has won a lot of fights. The toughest battle he’ll face for the rest of his life is one that he can only survive, but can’t actually win.
Making his PFL debut just six months after Ngannou’s 15-month-old son Kobe died tragically, the former UFC heavyweight champion was unsure about his future Saturday night. Despite all the accomplishments he racked up over the years, Ngannou just wasn’t the same person after losing his son, and he couldn’t help but question if perhaps his fighting career was over.
“It was my biggest challenge in the way that I wasn’t the person that I used to be,” Ngannou said after his win over Renan Ferreira on Saturday. “Coming into this fight, this fight was also a way for me to find out if I can still fight. If I still have it. Something like that.
“If I can deal with this, the pressure, with the fight week, with the media and everything. We got through [it].”
All of Ngannou’s questions were answered once he got in the cage and delivered a vintage performance after he took Ferreira down early in the opening round and then delivered a vicious ground-and-pound finish. It took him less than four minutes to dispatch the PFL’s top heavyweight and get his first win since beating Ciryl Gane back in 2022.
Ngannou was understandably overwhelmed with emotion after the fight was over as he fought back the tears while dedicating the victory to his son.
While it was a physically dominant performance, Ngannou felt the toughest obstacles he had to overcome before Saturday came down to the mental warfare happening inside his own head.
“It was pretty hard,” Ngannou said. “It was hard at any moment from the beginning to the end, but I think it’s one of those things, you ask yourself is it ever going to be over? You think it might never be over. You just might as well learn how to roll with it, to live with it. Because in certain cases, I would have taken time to grieve but how long would that take?
“I don’t think there’s enough time for me to do that. I don’t think a lifetime would be enough to grieve. Is it just about keep going? It’s a new way of living that I have to learn.”
Enduring and surviving the past six months forced Ngannou to show the kind of strength he didn’t think was possible. Ngannou says nothing could possibly prepare him for what he’s gone through, but he eventually found a way to step out of the darkness into the light.
“They’ve been telling me that I’m tough to the point that I get to believe that I am tough,” Ngannou said. “Then I recently just found out that I wasn’t tough. I wasn’t that tough.
“I’ve seen people going through it, and out of compassion, I’ve been trying to understand how it must feel, but you never get anywhere close to how it feels exactly.”
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!
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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.
Francis Ngannou reminded MMA fans how vicious he can be in the cage as he absolutely steamrolled Renan Ferreira, knocking him unconscious in the first round of the PFL: Battle of the Giants pay-per-view event in Saudi Arabia. Where does Ngannou go from here, and is that even a fair question to ask with everything the former UFC champ has gone through?
Following Saturday’s PFL event, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and E. Casey Leydon react to Ngannou’s incredible performance in his first MMA fight in nearly three years, the emotion that came over him and his team, his game plan, and Ferreira filling a pivotal role. Additionally, they discuss the fantastic co-main event between Cris Cyborg and Larissa Pacheco, where Cyborg goes from her win, how a hypothetical fight between Cyborg and Kayla Harrison would go, Paul Hughes’ big upset win over A.J. McKee, if Hughes should face Usman Nurmagomedov next, and more.
Catch the PFL: Battle of the Giants post-fight show above. An audio-only version of the show can be found below and on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your pods.
Anthony Hernandez defeated Michel Pereira | Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Anthony Hernandez became the first man to finish Michel Pereira in the UFC with a dominant fifth-round TKO finish in the main event of UFC Vegas 99 on Saturday night.
Hernandez, who has won six fights in a row, had trouble taking Pereira down early in the opening round, but Pereira had no answer for his pace and wrestling once he found the right timing. He dismantled the flashy Brazilian striker with more than 100 significant strikes landed and called for a shot at the elite of the UFC middleweight division.
“Just what I expected, I had no nerves all week,” Hernandez said after the win. “Like I’ve been telling you guys, I’m ready for my belt, I’m out of my own way. Just give me what it f*cking takes. Dana [White], you’ve always given me tough-ass fights, give me someone who’s going to give me a title shot. I’m f*cking ready, I’ll prove it to you.”
Pereira had good moments in the opening round, landing a nice kick to the body and defending Hernandez’s first eight takedown attempts, but once the 31-year-old American finally got Pereira on the ground, he began to implement his strategy with perfection.
Pereira had no answer to Hernandez’s offense in the championship rounds, barely firing any attacks in rounds three and four. Pereira’s cornerman asked the Brazilian to land at least one knee in the final five minutes, and “Demolidor” did just that, only to open the door for Hernandez to again land a well-timed takedown. Once on the ground, “Fluffy” rained down punches until referee Herb Dean mercifully called the TKO stoppage.
Asked for who he wants next inside the octagon after snapping Pereira’s eight-fight winning streak, Hernandez has no name in mind for the call-out.
“I don’t even follow the roster that close, so I couldn’t f*cking tell you who’s in front of me,” Hernandez said. “But I know that I’m ready and I’m sharp and I’m ready for f*cking anyone.”
Jon Jones paid attention to Francis Ngannou’s return to MMA — and he was impressed.
Ngannou headlined PFL’s Battle of the Giants pay-per-view card on Saturday in Saudi Arabia, facing Renan Ferreira. The former UFC heavyweight champ disposed of Ferreira in the first round with absolutely brutal ground and pound that left his opponent unconscious on the canvas.
Jones went on Twitter and put Ngannou, and his performance over.
What an amazing job Francis did tonight, displayed a complete MMA game. Great kicks, great takedowns. It feels good to see him shine. Wow congratulations Champ, I see you.
— BONY (@JonnyBones) October 20, 2024
“What an amazing job Francis did tonight, displayed a complete MMA game,” Jones wrote. “Great kicks, great takedowns. It feels good to see him shine. Wow congratulations Champ, I see you.”
Ngannou and Jones were linked to a potential fight for years before the former made the decision to leave the UFC and vacate the title. Jones would fight former interim champ Ciryl Gane for the vacant belt at UFC 285 in March 2023 and picked up a quick submission to win his second divisional title.
“The Predator” competed in MMA for the first time in nearly three years after taking a pair of boxing matches against Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, suffering losses in both contests.
Jones will now defend against Stipe Miocic in the main event of UFC 309 next month at Madison Square Garden.
Anthony Hernandez and Michel Pereira | Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Anthony Hernandez earned the biggest win of his career and another $ 50,000 to boot.
Hernandez dominated Michel Pereira in the main event of Saturday’s UFC Vegas 99 card at the UFC APEX en route to a fifth-round TKO win. Pereira landed a big flurry early on, but for the next 20-plus minutes, it was “Fluffy” wearing Pereira down with relentless pressure, battering and bloodying the exciting standup fighter throughout the contest.
The just-turned 31-year-old earned the lone Performance of the Night bonus for his outstanding showing.
The UFC did award a Fight of the Night, and to the surprise of very few, it went to the featherweight clash between Darren Elkins and Daniel Pineda. Elkins won a unanimous decision, and his first career Fight of the Night bonus, while Pineda announced his retirement in defeat. It was the second time Pineda earned the award in his UFC career. Both fighters go home with an extra $ 50,000.
Anthony Hernandez and Michel Pereira face off ahead of UFC Vegas 99 | Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
This is the UFC Vegas 99 live blog for Anthony Hernandez vs. Michel Pereira, the middleweight main event this Saturday in Las Vegas.
“Fluffy” Hernandez enters the headliner riding an impressive five-fight winning streak. Four of those wins have come via submission as Hernandez has proven himself to be one of the most dangerous grapplers at 185 pounds. Now he faces a fellow surging newcomer to the rankings in a battle to determine who gets a shot at the top 10 next.
Joining the UFC in 2019, Pereira—currently No. 15 in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings—began his UFC tenure as a welterweight, making a name for himself with his flashy style that featured spinning attacks, backflips, and a number of other extravagant maneuvers. After a couple of setbacks early on, Pereira found his stride, ripping off five straight wins at 170 pounds before moving up to middleweight. Since the jump up, Pereira has won three in a row in a combined 3:01. Now, Pereira has his eyes on climbing the rankings with a quick finish of Hernandez.
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