Sydney Sweeney is almost unrecognizable in new photos she posted after transforming into boxer Christy Martin for a new role she’s playing in an upcoming biopic.

The Euphoria actress showed off first look photos from set as she flexed her muscles and showed off her new hair to play the legendary women’s boxer.

“Over the past few months, I’ve been immersed in training to bring to life the story of an incredible woman—a true champion who fought battles both inside and outside the ring,” Sweeney wrote on her Instagram. “Her journey is a testament to resilience, strength, and hope, and I’m honored to step into her shoes to share her powerful story with you all. More to come soon.”

Sweeney is playing the lead role as Martin, who is a former boxing champion who competed from 1989 to 2012 and she was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2020 — the first year that women were on the ballot. Martin also survived an attempted murder by her husband James Martin after he stabbed her multiple times and shot her at their home in Florida.

James was later convicted of attempted second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Photo by Al Bello/Allsport//Getty Images

The untitled biopic is being directed by David Michod with actor Ben Foster playing Martin’s husband James with additional cast members including Merritt Weaver, Katy O’Brien, Ethan Embry, Jess Gabor, Chad L. Coleman and Tony Cavalero.

Production on the film just got underway in North Carolina with a release date still to be determined.

While she’s best known for roles in TV series like Euphoria and The White Lotus, as well as films such as Anyone But You and Immaculate, Sweeney actually started training MMA when she was only 14 years old and even participated in grappling competitions before turning her full attention towards acting in Hollywood.

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The UFC is heading back down under.

On Wednesday the world’s leading MMA promotion announced that UFC 312 is set to take place on Feb. 9 at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia.

Australia has become a staple of the UFC’s annual rotation in the past few years with the promotion recently holding UFC 305 at the RAC Arena in Perth.

This is the UFC’s first trip to Sydney since UFC 293 in September of 2023. That evening played host to one of the greatest upsets in UFC history when Sean Strickland put on a masterclass performance to take the UFC middleweight title from Israel Adesanya.

Overall this is the promotion’s seventh trip to Qudos Bank Arena and comes just one week after the UFC heads back to Riyadh for its second ever trip to Saudi Arabia.

At this time no fights have been announced for UFC 312, though there is already speculation that the event could be headlined by a featherweight title fight between former featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski and the winner of the upcoming main event between Ilia Topuria and Max Holloway at UFC 308.

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RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — MMA Fighting’s José Youngs caught up with PFL analyst and former UFC star Dan Hardy to discuss the PFL: Battle of the Giants main event, if the winner is the best heavyweight in mixed martial arts, his favorite fight on the card, and how MMA has evolved.

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PFL’s big weekend is finally here!

This Saturday, PFL Superfights: Battle of the Giants takes place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, headlined by a lineal heavyweight title fight between Francis Ngannou and Renan Ferreira. The card also features a number of other marque matchups, including Cris Cyborg taking on Larissa Pacheco, and AJ McKee facing Paul Hughes. On top of that, there’s also another UFC APEX card this week so No Bets barred is back to break it all down.

This week, host Jed Meshew is joined by his Watch Party co-host Mike Heck to dive into all the MMA action this weekend. Topics discussed include Ferreira’s chance to pull off the upset, Cyborg vs. Pacheco, other big fights from PFL, the UFC Vegas 99 main event between Anthony Hernandez and Michel Pereira, plus much more.

Tune in for episode 104 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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Max Holloway was a bad motherf*cker well before he was officially granted the title.

The “BMF” champion faces featherweight titleholder Ilia Topuria in the main event of UFC 308 on Oct. 26 and ahead of that matchup, the UFC has uploaded a video highlighting some of Holloway’s most memorable in-cage moments.

Watch the video below.

Included in the highlight reel are Holloway’s fight-ending taunt to Ricardo Lamas that started it all, his one-sided beatdowns of Brian Ortega and Calvin Kattar, and his brutal last-second knockout of Justin Gaethje at UFC 300 that earned him the BMF belt.

Holloway also provides commentary for these classic scenes.

“I love Gaethje,” Holloway said. “So seeing him go down like that is kind of tough because I respect the shit out of him. Not a lot of guys would accept the call and he did, especially how in that moment he went for it, because I knew if the moment was reversed he would have gave me the moment. What an animal.”

He added that his favorite part of the Gaethje clip actually involved his upcoming opponent, Ilia Topuria, who had a front row seat to the unbelievable knockout.

“It’s of Ilia Topuria looking lost, like he don’t know where he was,” Holloway said. “He didn’t even know if he was in a human dimension.”

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Tom Aspinall is UFC interim heavyweight champion and the backup fighter for the upcoming UFC 309 title clash between Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic on Nov. 16, but PFL star Renan Ferreira sees him as the UFC’s most dangerous heavyweight today.

“Problema” enters the PFL cage Saturday in Saudi Arabia for the biggest fight of his career, welcoming ex-UFC champion Francis Ngannou back from the boxing world, and he explained why he doesn’t consider Jones the No. 1 heavyweight in the octagon.

“I think Aspinall [is the UFC’s toughest heavyweight] because of the moment he’s going through right now,” Ferreira said in an interview with MMA Fighting. “He’s young and is on a rise. But Jon Jones is the greatest of all time, in my opinion. He’s super experienced and proven himself, showed what he can do for the sport. You can’t deny him.”

PFL co-founder Donn Davis recently suggested a “winner takes all” tournament between PFL stars Larissa Pacheco and Cris Cyborg and UFC’s Kayla Harrison and Julianna Peña, and Ferreira loves the idea of doing something similar with the PFL and UFC’s heavyweight divisions.

“It would be a clash of giants, right?” Ferreira laughed. “It would be very interesting, and fans would be the winners. Great athletes with different styles fighting each other and defending their promotions as well. This tournament would get a ton of attention.”

It’s highly unlikely that the UFC would ever agree to such offer, and Ferreira still wonders how Jones will do against heavier competition. The former 205-pound champion only fought once since moving up a division, tapping Ciryl Gane with ease. Aspinall has won eight of nine in the UFC with eight stoppages, including finishes over Curtis Blaydes and Sergei Pavlovich.

“[Jones] was a bit heavier and had a hard time throwing strikes,” Ferreira said of Jones’ performance against Gane. “He’s moving up in weight and hasn’t fought real heavyweights yet, with heavy hands, so I think he could have some trouble there.”

Ferreira could be seen as the lineal heavyweight champion of the world with a win this weekend considering that Ngannou left the UFC without losing the belt, but isn’t sure that fans would agree with that.

“The UFC still is a huge platform,” Ferreira said. “The champions there are undisputed, but I’m building my legacy and my history by fighting the best. I don’t think too much about fame and what could happen and what people think. I just focus on what I’m doing with hunger and heart, and the rest will come from that. … We’ve had some many champion [from Brazil], people who wrote their names in the history books so MMA would be as respected as it is today, so that is my mission now. I’m focused on this.”

Battle of the Giants: Ngannou vs. Ferreira takes place Saturday at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

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Mike Perry’s arrest footage has been released.

On Oct. 12, the BKFC star was arrested in Florida on a pair of charges, including driving under the influence. On Wednesday, TMZ Sports procured the bodycam footage of the incident.

In the video, the arresting officer suggests that Perry smells of alcohol and asks “Platinum” if he’s been drinking, which Perry denies. The officer then tells Perry he’s “talking a little slow” to which Perry responds “you’re talking a little fast.” The officer then asks Perry to exit his vehicle. Perry complies and consents to a pat down, but then refuses to take a field sobriety test. The officer clarifies that if he refuses, Perry will be arrested to which the BKFC star shrugs. Perry is then placed in handcuffs, and while he remains calm throughout, Perry repeatedly directs homophobic slurs at the officers.

“I’m getting arrested, because I’m not doing no bullshit sobriety tests,” Perry tells his wife Latory as he’s being placed in handcuffs. “So just relax honey, I’ll be home soon. They know exactly who I am. They’re f*cking mad. F*ck these f*ggots, couple of f*ggots. They’re a couple of f*ggots, forget about it.”

As the officer continues with the arrest, he search Perry’s pockets and pulls out a receipt which again triggers a nasty response from Perry.

“Take a look at that receipt motherf*cker,” Perry said. “Your wife ain’t got shit that cost that much. How about that, p*ssy. Put that shit on f*cking Instagram, f*ggot. F*ck you, f*ggot. You’re a couple of f*ggots.”

The officers then complete the arrest, explaining to his wife what comes next before allowing her to drive off in their vehicle.

After the incident, Perry was released on $ 1,500 bond later that morning, and is scheduled to appear in court on Oct. 30. The potential penalties for a second-degree misdemeanor in the State of Florida include a maximum of 60 days in jail and a fine of up to $ 500.

Perry is widely regarded as the face of BKFC, recently stopping Thiago Alves in just 60 seconds back at BKFC Knucklemania 4 in April. Most recently, Perry finally has his long-awaited boxing match with Jake Paul in July, where he suffered a sixth-round knockout loss.

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Ian Machado Garry is putting the ball in Colby Covington’s court.

According to the undefeated welterweight contender, he has been pursuing a fight against Covington and Covington is yet to respond. Garry took to social media to give his take on the situation, which can be seen below.

“A month ago, I was offered a fight with Colby Covington,” Garry said. “It took me all of 20 seconds to respond to the e-mail saying, ‘Yes, I’m in.’

“A month later, we’ve still got no response from Colby. He’s avoiding me like the plague and there’s one reason and one reason only this fight isn’t happening and his name’s Colby Covington.”

Covington is yet to respond to Garry’s claim.

The callout makes a lot of sense for Garry, who seeks another statement win to secure a welterweight title shot. Covington sits at No. 6 in the UFC’s official rankings, one spot ahead of Garry. “The Future,” 8-0 in the UFC and 15-0 as a pro, is coming off of a unanimous decision win over former Bellator star Michael Page that failed to generate sparks.

Covington (17-4) has competed sporadically since 2019, though three of his appearances came in welterweight title fights. He lost twice to rival Kamaru Usman and in his most recent fight this past December, lost a lopsided decision to then-champion Leon Edwards.

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Francis Ngannou finally returns to MMA on Saturday when he clashes with Renan Ferreira in the main event of a pay-per-view event where the PFL is banking on the investment it made in him as the biggest free-agent signing in the history of the promotion.

But does Ngannou’s name pull enough weight to actually convince fans to plunk down $ 49.99 to watch the card? UFC legend Matt Brown has his doubts.

“He’s not that big of a star,” Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “We watched him fight Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury because of him fighting those guys. He’s not a Conor McGregor where we’re just going to watch him no matter who he fights. Even if Conor fought some lower level guy, there would be a drop off in pay-per-views, right? He’s got to have a ‘B’ side also that’s a ‘B’ side.

“Francis is fighting a ‘D’ side here. It’s not a ‘B’ side. It’s a ‘D’ side, and Francis just isn’t big enough of an ‘A’ side to draw. We don’t know how much he’s getting paid, but if it’s the amounts we would guess, it’s not going to cover his expense, I don’t think.”

Ngannou left the UFC as heavyweight champion but the promotion rarely reveals any specific details about pay-per-view sales surrounding any particular athlete.

That said based on reports made about Ngannou’s biggest fights in the UFC, he never headlined a card that drew massive sales with his name attached.

His boxing match against Fury reportedly did blockbuster numbers globally but failed to break through in the United States where costs were much higher. Add to that, Fury is a star in his own right as one of the top heavyweight boxers of the past 25 years.

It’s for all those reasons why Brown just can’t see Ngannou pulling a massive number for his PFL debut, especially without a big named opponent to help him sell the card.

“A lot of these promoters, they need to understand we’re all deeply entrenched in the world of MMA so they’re big stars to us,” Brown explained. “Particularly because we have massive respect for them. Like we have massive respect for Francis Ngannou, what he’s done and who he is. But if you’re a promoter selling a pay-per-view, I think you have to step back and look at the reality of what the mainstream view on a guy is.

“Like Conor crossed the bridge, he hit the mainstream. Ronda [Rousey] crossed the bridge. Randy Couture even crossed the bridge somewhat. Chuck Liddell somewhat. I love Francis Ngannou, all due respect, he ain’t crossed the bridge. I can’t go down to the bar right now, and talk to someone about Francis Ngannou, and they know who he is.”

Brown argues that in the boxing matches Ngannou benefitted from taking on two of the biggest names in the sport with Fury and Joshua. That’s no longer the case in PFL and now it’s all on Ngannou to sell the fight based solely on his own star power.

“How many people actually care?” Brown said. “We all watched Francis fight Tyson Fury. A lot of us watched him fight him fight Anthony Joshua. How many people are realistically going to buy a pay-per-view to watch him fight Renan Ferreira?”

Of course, Brown says he hopes that Ngannou finds all the success he can with the PFL, but he just doesn’t see enough evidence to believe that this endeavor is going to end up as a beneficial long term investment.

Perhaps the toughest part about this upcoming fight is that Brown absolutely sees a scenario where Ngannou suffers a brutal loss as well.

It’s been nearly three years since Ngannou last fought in MMA, and he’s coming off a devastating knockout to Anthony Joshua in boxing. It was the kind of knockout that could potentially change the way Ngannou is able to absorb damage moving forward.

And Ferreira may not have the biggest name, but he definitely packs a serious punch.

“Renan Ferreira, it’s still a high-risk fight,” Brown said. “That’s a gigantic son of a b*tch. He’s a gigantic guy. You don’t have to hit that hard when you’re 6-foot-8, 260, 265 pounds or whatever. It’s still a risky fight for Francis Ngannou. He’s coming off a knockout with Anthony Joshua. Sometimes that changes a fighter, and he’s coming back to MMA.”

While Ngannou seems resolved to stick with his MMA career for now, he’s already expressed interest in eventually returning to boxing.

Brown actually sees that as a more viable option for him than MMA right now where he’s putting himself into a high risk, low reward situation every time he competes.

“I’d like to see him get back to boxing,” Brown said. “Fight an up and comer or a journeyman. Fight someone you should beat. Like he fought two guys he absolutely shouldn’t have a chance against. He had a close fight with Tyson, a lot of people think that he maybe even won that fight. Now, you need to go do what boxers do. You’re 0-2, go fight a journeyman and build your way back up. Let’s see how good of a f*cking boxer you are.

“[Why are you] coming back to MMA? I don’t get the point of it. I don’t know if something contractual with PFL, or he’s just trying to get a payday. I just don’t really get what the point of it is.”

Listen to new episodes of The Fighter vs. The Writer every Tuesday with audio only versions of the podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeartRadio

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Dustin Poirier nearly had his fourth fight with Conor McGregor.

Poirier and McGregor have a well-storied history, most recently fighting at UFC 264 where McGregor shattered his leg in their trilogy fight. After that bout, McGregor lobbed vicious insults and Poirier and his family, turning their rivalry into a more bitter type of feud. And recently that feud nearly spilled over into the public.

“No. Dude, that was crazy,” Poirier told Ariel Helwani about nearly running into McGregor at a convention in Las Vegas. “I had just finished my signing for Celsius and I’m partnered with a seltzer water… so I was walking over to their booth to meet some people and Conor was behind me apparently. And my agent was walking behind me and he grabs me — Conor might have saw the back of my head, I don’t know. I didn’t see him.

“[My agent] grabs my shoulders and says, ‘Go this way, to the right, to the right.’ So we start walking to the right, I’m like, ‘The booth is right there!’ We’re walking to the right and once we get clear of everybody he’s like, ‘Dude, we almost had a big problem.’ That’s what that was.”

McGregor did see Poirier as a video of their near run-in made the rounds on social media, but did not try to stir up anything with the former interim lightweight champion. But Poirier believes that if they’d seen each other, instead of just passed by, things might have gotten dramatic.

“I don’t know, bro. We have such a long history,” Poirier said. “He said some foul things. You ever watch Family Guy? You know when Peter and the Chicken run into each other? They freaking go on this crazy fight, they’re falling down hills, they’re fighting for an hour — that’s what would have happened.

“Yeah, for sure [we would have fought]. Just everything we have over the past however many years since our first fight. So sure we would have.”

“It’s not cordial anymore,” Poirier continued. “The both of us, I believe both of us. Once my guy walked us away and told me what happened and why we had to make that right, I was like, ‘If we’d have made eye contact, if our eyes would have met, it would have been bad, probably.”

Of course there is a way for the two men to settle their differences: a fought fight in the octagon. McGregor was supposed to face Michael Chandler at UFC 303 until an injury forced him off the card. Now the former champ-champ has his eyes set on a 2025 return, and recently suggested Poirier as a possible opponent. “The Diamond” also recently said he intends to fight at least one time next year before hanging up the gloves for good, but doesn’t seem sold on the idea that McGregor is actually coming back.

“I don’t know if he’s ever going to fight again,” Poirier said. “… We’ll see. I don’t know. I was kind of thinking for sure he was at the beginning of his return against Chandler, then it kept getting drug on, and I don’t know.”

TOP STORIES

DWCS. Four more contracts were awarded on the final episode of Contender Series.

MMA Retirement. Donald Cerrone plans to end his retirement, fight two more times.

Dislike. Dana White is not a fan of “Cowboy” coming back.

Purpose. Francis Ngannou reveals why he’s going forward with PFL fight despite tragic loss of his son this year.

Lawsuits. Jake Paul sued Eddie Hearn and Matchroom Boxing right back.

DUI. Mike Perry was arrested for DUI in his home state of Florida.

Rankings. Dana White sounds off on the UFC rankings again following UFC 307.

VIDEO STEW

Dana White scrum.

Francis Ngannou and Renan Ferreira on PFL Fight Week.

Contender Series announcements.

Khamzat Chimaev vs. Kamaru Usman.

FLAVOR IN YOUR EAR

SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

Sounds like we might have a fight.

Classy guy.

I completely forgot Corey Anderson was champion.

Shade.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Contender Series is officially in the books for 2024. Over 40 new UFC signees have joined the promotion in the past couple of months and quite a few of them look to be very promising. Look for my prospect breakdown from this season later this week.

EXIT POLL

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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