Category Archives: Mmafighting.com

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

Sunday’s UFC in-5 game

Saturday’s UFC in-5 game

Friday’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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Max Holloway sent a message to Ilia Topuria ahead of their blockbuster fight later this month.

Holloway challenges Topuria for the UFC featherweight title in the main event of UFC 308 Oct. 26 in Abu Dhabi. Holloway, the current BMF champ after his incredible knockout of Justin Gaethje at UFC 300, let Topuria know who the real “BMF” titleholder is in a recent Instagram post.

Holloway and Topuria recently had a heated combo interview with Brendan Fitzgerald, where Topuria put a BMF title on his shoulder. In the post, Holloway says his belt was “earned not bought.”

Topuria captured the UFC featherweight title with a brutal knockout of Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298 in February. “El Matador” improved his overall record to 15-0, including a 7-0 start to his surging UFC career.

Holloway lost the featherweight title to Volkanovski, and came up short in two other rematches. Since a lopsided decision loss to Volkanovski in their third meeting at UFC 276 in July 2022, “Blessed” is 3-0 with wins over Gaethje, Arnold Allen, and Chan Sung Jung.

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Justin Gaethje is nearing a return to action in the UFC, but likely won’t fight until sometime in 2025.

While no exact date has been revealed yet, Gaethje’s longtime manager Ali Abdelaziz revealed that the former “BMF” champion is still taking the necessary time to recover from his knockout loss to Max Holloway at UFC 300 this past April before booking his next fight. Gaethje has always been adamant about allowing his brain and body to heal after a hard fight, which is why fans probably won’t see him back in action this year.

“Justin Gaethje’s going to fight in March,” Abdelaziz told MMA Fighting. “Against who, I have no idea.”

Arguably the most exciting fighter in the UFC, Gaethje seems to find a way to make all of his appearances entertaining, which is why he’s never been picky when it comes to a list of potential opponents.

Abdelaziz admitted there are a few names at the top of the list, but Gaethje has never shied away from anybody the UFC has offered him in the past and that’s highly unlikely to change now.

“It can be [Dan] Hooker. It can be Dustin Poirier. It can be [Renato] Moicano,” Abdelaziz said. “Whatever it is. I don’t know but I would like to see Justin fight in March. He needs a little bit of time to recover after his last fight. He deserves that.”

Following a stunning knockout of Dustin Poirier in July 2023, Gaethje returned with a marquee fight booked against Holloway at UFC 300 in April.

Unfortunately for Gaethje, that fight didn’t go his way after he suffered a brutal broken nose in the first round when Holloway caught him with a perfectly timed spin kick. In the end, Gaethje battled it out with Holloway until the final second when he threw down with the former featherweight champion in a wild exchange that saw Holloway catch Gaethje with a punch that ended his night at 4:59 in the fifth round.

Now, as Gaethje looks to bounce back and return to the win column, Abdelaziz says he is happy to fight whoever the UFC throws at him once he’s ready to fight.

“I think he’ll be ready in March to fight,” Abdelaziz said. “Against who? Justin Gaethje doesn’t pick opponents.”

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Ilia Topuria and Belal Muhammad have beef.

Topuria is the UFC featherweight champion while Muhammad holds the welterweight title, and given there’s an entire weight class between the two champions, you might not expect the two to have problems with one another. You would be wrong.

Though Topuria is just weeks away from his first featherweight title defense, “El Matador” recently did an Instagram Live where he had some harsh words for Muhammad and his recently announced title defense against Shavkat Rakhmonov for UFC 310.

“Belal vs. Shavkat? Shavkat,” Topuria said. “Belal, he’s a fake champ. He’s a fake. I think right now in the welterweight division, the one who will come back and take the belt again is Kamaru Usman, in my opinion. Easy work for Usman.”

Muhammad defeated Leon Edwards for the welterweight title back at UFC 304, after Edwards took the belt from Usman and successfully defended against him in their rematch in 2023.

Of course, Muhammad wasn’t fond of Topuria’s trash talk and responded in kind on Twitter on Sunday, mocking Topuria in a similar fashion to how Max Holloway did earlier this week.

“Didn’t this dork just buy a fake ‘BMF’ belt to pose with… he’s starting to become the Georgian version of Colby Covington.”

Muhammad’s response then set off an exchange between the two via Twitter where the champions continued to rip into one another.

“Belal ‘Crotch Sniffer’ Muhammad”

“NO FINISHES

“NO KNOCKOUTS

“NO KNOCKDOWNS

“NO GIRLFRIEND

“NO KIDS

“BELAL HAS NEVER FINISHED ANY MAN OR WOMAN”

“Now you’re just copying stuff word for word off memes. [Laughing emoji]”

In other circumstances, the beef between these two could all be laying the groundwork for an eventual champ vs. champ fight, but given the weight disparity that seems unlikely. Instead it appears we’ve got some good, old-fashioned beef just for the sake of it.

But neither man has much time to dwell on this feud as they both have pressing business to attend to. Topuria defends his featherweight title against Max Holloway at UFC 308 on Oct. 26 in Abu Dhabi, while Muhammad puts his belt on the line against Rakhmonov at UFC 310 on Dec. 7 in Las Vegas.

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Georges St-Pierre is coming back to your screens.

On Friday, Netflix released a trailer for its upcoming MMA drama series, The Cage, which features UFC legend St-Pierre as well as current stars Jon Jones and Ciryl Gane.

See the video below.

The show stars Melvin Boomer as “Taylor,” a talented French fighter aiming to make it big in the world of cagefighting, with dreams of eventually competing for the UFC. He faces hard times on his way to the top, including having to deal with a dangerous rival.

In addition to a glimpse of the world-famous octagon, Poland’s KSW and France’s Ares FC promotions are also featured in the preview clip.

St-Pierre is seen having an inspirational run-in with Taylor, Gane breaks up a pre-fight brawl, and Jones provides voice-over while also holding pads for the protagonist.

The Cage premieres on Nov. 8 and airs exclusively on Netflix.

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Chris Barnett is heading to Abu Dhabi.

Barnett steps in on two weeks’ notice to face Kennedy Nzechukwu at UFC 308, which takes place Oct. 26 at Etihad Arena. The news was announced during Saturday’s UFC Vegas 98 broadcast.

The fan-favorite Barnett replaces Justin Tafa, who has been removed from the bout for undisclosed reasons. Barnett was slated to fight on Saturday’s event at the UFC APEX but was unable to compete due to reasons associated with Hurricane Milton.

Barnett returns to the octagon for the first time in over two years, a second-round TKO win over Jake Collier at UFC 279 in September 2022. “Beastboy” is 2-2 in his UFC run, including a memorable stoppage of Gian Villante at UFC 268 in November 2021 at Madison Square Garden.

Nzechukwu looks to snap a two-fight losing streak as he competes at heavyweight for the first time in his UFC career.

UFC 308 is headlined by Ilia Topuria vs. Max Holloway for the featherweight title.

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As Jorge Masvidal plots his comeback to the UFC, he’s got a lot of ideas on potential opponents. Don’t expect Conor McGregor to be one of them.

To be clear, that’s not from a lack of interest on Masvidal’s side. Prior to his retirement from MMA in 2023, the UFC’s first-ever “BMF” champion called for a showdown with McGregor numerous times. Now that he’s planning to return to action sometime in late 2024 or early 2025, Masvidal sees a lot of possibilities for his first fight back, but he highly doubts McGregor ever competes again after sitting out for the past three-plus years.

“We’ll see him at a bar and shit,” Masvidal responded to MMA Fighting when asked if we’ll see McGregor again. “Are you talking about in the cage? Like as an official or to be judges? You mean fighting? I don’t think so. I hope he proves me wrong but I don’t think so.”

McGregor has been teasing his comeback for well over a year already after he healed up from a devastating broken leg suffered in his trilogy fight against Masvidal’s longtime teammate and friend, Dustin Poirier.

Following his recovery, McGregor coached on The Ultimate Fighter opposite Michael Chandler with a fight originally expected between them sometime in 2023. Instead, a broken toe forced McGregor to withdraw from their scheduled meeting at UFC 303 this past June.

There were rumors swirling that perhaps McGregor could fight before the end of 2024 but UFC CEO Dana White nixed those plans and instead pointed towards 2025 for the Irish superstar to return. With each passing day more and more doubts are creeping in about whether or not McGregor will actually return and Masvidal knows with absolute certainty that he won’t be the opponent if that happens.

“Conor, under no circumstances, is fighting me,” Masvidal said. “He’s backed out of fighting Chandler — poor little Chandler, I don’t know how many times he let that dude eat dust. Imagine me?

“That guy is never fighting me. He can’t do enough cocaine to f*cking get [jacked] up to fight me.”

If McGregor remains absent from the UFC, Masvidal wouldn’t mind taking his place in the fight against Chandler, although he sees that as just one of many options open to him.

Chandler has been out of action for nearly two years in anticipation of fighting McGregor and Masvidal doubts that ever comes to fruition. If Chandler finally wants to return to action, Masvidal invites him to a fight where he should know without a shadow of a doubt that the opponent will show up.

“That wouldn’t be a bad fight to get my feet wet again with MMA,” Masvidal said about fighting Chandler. “Kind of an introductory course to MMA. I wouldn’t mind that fight. But there’s a lot of fights that I would take. I was just throwing that one out there.

“You can’t sit in silence forever. Let’s go. You want to throw down with one of the most f*cking electrifying motherf*ckers that ever touched the sport? Let’s f*cking go.”

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Ariana Grande, Celine Dion, and the UFC. What could they possibly have in common?

The funny folks at Saturday Night Live answered that question this weekend with a hilarious sketch in which Grande lampooned her fellow superstar singer’s recent promo for Sunday Night Football. This time, however, Grande’s version of Celine Dion employed her legendary vocals to honor another enduring American institution: The UFC.

Watch the sketch below, which also doubled as a sly advertisement for UFC 308 on Oct. 26.

Referencing Dion’s classic ballad It’s All Coming Back to Me Now (as Dion did in her NFL tribute), Grande paid homage to moments in UFC history that every fight fan would agree agree are unforgettable—for better or for worse.

“There was breaking of bones and there were knees to the balls,” Grande sang, before also poking fun at Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Mike Perry.

Even cageside commentators Daniel Cormier, Joe Rogan, and Jon Anik weren’t safe, as Grande cracked, “Dozens of commentators. All bald and in the shiniest of shirts.”

The most biting line of all might have been Grande noting the damage that MMA fighters take, saying, “It’s all coming back to me, though maybe not to them because of the concussions, no?”

After this, you’ll never look at Keith Hackney repeatedly punching Joe Son in the groin the same way again, that’s for sure.

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Brandon Royval held on to his top contender spot. And now he wants what’s his.

“Raw Dawg” made it two straight wins on Saturday with a thrilling split decision victory over Tatsuro Taira in the main event of UFC Vegas 98. The top-10 flyweights went back and forth for 25 minutes, with the more experienced Royval gutting out the victory.

Since losing to UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja in February, Royval has scored wins over the previously unbeaten Taira and two-time titleholder Brandon Moreno, so another championship opportunity is within reach. Should Royval grasp it, he vows to put on a more spirited effort this time around.

“I’m going balls to the wall,” Royval said at the evening’s post-fight press conference. “I trust my pace, I trust my cardio. A fifth-round Raw Dawg is a dangerous Raw Dawg. I trust myself. I think if I ever fought Pantoja again—maybe I shouldn’t be telling my secrets—but I’m going straight after him. I think I played it too safe, I was a little too worried. That being said, I’m going forward, I’m going guns a blazing and that’s what I’m going to do.”

When Royval fought Pantoja eight months ago, he came out on the wrong end of a unanimous decision following a fight in which he was uncharacteristically timid. Prior to that fight, Royval was known for his intensity and aggression, scoring 12 of his first 16 wins by knockout or submission and earning three Fight of the Night bonuses (he collected another Saturday for his fight with Taira).

Royval is also known for fighting only the best competition, having shared the octagon with ranked opposition since making his UFC debut in 2020. Add it all up and he doesn’t see how the matchmakers can deny him another shot at gold.

“I see a title shot next, there’s no way about it,” Royval said. “I have a win over the whole top 5 of the division. I’m all about rematches, but that being said, I earned my way to a title shot. I took a short-notice against the No. 1, I just took out the hottest prospect in the division, I think a title shot is what’s next for me and I’ll be the backup for the title fight Dec. 7.”

That Dec. 7 title fight features Pantoja defending his flyweight championship against UFC newcomer Kai Asakura in the co-main event of UFC 310. The Japanese star made a name for himself in his native country’s RIZIN promotion and holds notable wins over Kyoji Horiguchi, Manel Kape (who avenged his loss to Asakura in 2019) and, most recently, Bellator standout Juan Archuleta.

Royval is a fan and thinks Asakura has a chance of dethroning Pantoja, but he won’t be surprised if Pantoja retains and ends up fighting Royval a third time.

“I’ve been watching Kai Asakura for a while,” Royval said. “I think he’s sick. I think there’s a lot of cool things. He’s yet to make flyweight, so I’ll be there and I’ll be ready just in case he doesn’t. That being said, I’ll give that man his roses. I think that he brings a lot of excitement to the division, I think he could take out Pantoja. I think if Pantoja grapples him at all, it’s going to be over. That being said, the fight starts on the feet.”

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Raquel Pennington may have lost her title because of two judges’ scorecards, but she still believes she’s the champion after UFC 307.

Pennington put her bantamweight title on the line for the first time against longtime rival Julianna Peña in the co-main event of the UFC’s recent pay-per-view card in Salt Lake City. Peña regained the title via split decision, but it came with controversy, as the majority of the MMA community scored the fight for Pennington — including a near-unanimous nod on MMA Decisions.

Not only did the media members that posted cards score it for the now-former champion, but according to Pennington, a number of figureheads — including a couple high up in the UFC hierarchy — saw the fight the same.

“When it comes to these judges, they need to make it very clear because a lot of them say that the damaging shots are what’s scoring,” Pennington told MMA Fighting. “I had the damaging shots [in the first round], and it just gets frustrating. It gets frustrating from just being a competitor and the athlete in that situation, but not even just my fight. I have no idea what the judges were seeing that night in general. I even feel bad for Jose Aldo. His fight was the same thing.

“It’s just crazy to me what these judges do. At the end of the day, you have competitive fights, they go to the decisions, and it just takes that one person to take away everything from somebody and I feel like they just really don’t realize what they’re doing and yet, they’re the ones with the best seat in the house. They’re the ones that are supposed to be doing the best job.

“And it’s crazy to me how every single media outlet, like there wasn’t even one that said Pena [won]. It was every single media outlet [that] said Pennington. I’ve had numerous top athletes reach out to me. I’ve had Dana White, freaking Hunter [Campbell], Joe Rogan, Jon Anik, [Daniel Cormier], everybody who’s sitting right there and everybody is just like, ‘No way. We don’t understand this.’ Nobody understood it. I didn’t understand it.”

The loss put a halt to Pennington’s six-fight win streak.

The final four rounds were easy to score for all who watched — the second and third for Peña, fourth and fifth for Pennington, including a fourth round that saw Pennington hurt Peña with a head kick early and then drop Peña with a big punch shortly thereafter. The first round, which two judges scored for Peña, was the deciding factor.

When it was over, Pennington says she was never more confident she had won the fight, until she heard Bruce Buffer announce Peña as the new champion.

“They had my family lined up ready to come in there and then when they announced it, they were like, ‘Is Bruce like playing a joke here?’” Pennington said. “It was all really weird but I wasn’t the only athlete on that card that situations happen to, and you see it happen in multiple other events. It’s honestly just sad. There should be different qualifications or something for these judges.

“They need to look into it a little bit different because this happens way too often.”

After the win, Peña called for a trilogy fight with the now-retired Amanda Nunes — one of the all-time greats that has teased a possible return — despite the broadcast going to a split-screen with prior UFC 307 winner Kayla Harrison.

In Pennington’s eyes, she believes two things should happen. One, the UFC considers an open scoring model to help with some of the shoddy scorecards that have become more frequent. And also, Pennington feels like the real bantamweight title fight should be between her and Harrison.

“I feel like something definitely needs to change with it,” Pennington explained. “I know a lot of athletes have spoken about open scoring … that might play out for more exciting fights, which is lighting a fire under people, but something definitely just needs to change, in general.

“But at the end of the day, I mean, it is what it is. I personally don’t feel like I lost that fight at all. My head is high. I do want the rematch, but with that being said, we all know Julianna sits around forever — whether it’s an injury or she just… she tends to sit around forever. I definitely want the rematch and stuff, but at the end of the day, I feel like the real world title fight comes from me and Kayla. I think it would be an exciting fight and a completely different challenge and then let Julianna do whatever the hell she wants to do right now.

“I do want to get back to the world title and I want my belt back. So I don’t know, the frustration’s there, I don’t really have words for it all and whatnot, but at the end of the day it’s competition, they gave her the win. So whatever, congratulations to her. I definitely know I’m going to be back stronger and better than ever, and I’m motivated on a completely different level. I have no injuries. I did go get my hands X-rayed from cracking her so hard. My hands are definitely hurt, but aside from that, I came out of that fight completely healthy. I’ll be back. …

“At the end of the day, like, I still feel like a champion. So it doesn’t matter.”

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