Conor McGregor is headed to court in Ireland after a judge there set a trial date over damages filed against the UFC superstar by a woman claiming he assaulted her.
On Thursday, Justice Alexander Owens set a trial date of Nov. 5 in the personal injury case against McGregor, which was actually filed all the way back in 2021. Details about the trial were first reported by the Irish Mirror.
A woman, who allegedly knows McGregor, filed the grievance with the courts and she’s seeking an unspecified amount in damages. A jury will eventually rule on the trial once proceedings kick off in November.
The hearing for the case was originally supposed to start in either June or July, but McGregor’s attorney’s asked for a delay due to his previously scheduled bout against Michael Chandler at UFC 303 in June. McGregor’s attorney argued that logistically it wasn’t feasible for the trial to start with McGregor preparing to fight, and it was also possible that the former two-division UFC champion could suffer injuries in the bout.
Despite the plaintiff’s attorney’s arguing against the delay, the judge granted the motion, although McGregor never ended up fighting after he suffered a broken toe in training.
While the judge granted the delay at the time, a trial date is now set for November.
The details behind the alleged assault from 2018 have not been made public due to privacy laws in Ireland, but the woman involved in the case also sued one of McGregor’s associates as well.
Conor McGregor has some marquee matchups in mind for his return.
Earlier this year, McGregor was supposed to make his long-awaited return to the octagon in a welterweight fight against Michael Chandler at UFC 303. Unfortunately, a few weeks before the event, McGregor suffered a toe injury which forced him to withdraw from the fight and fans were once again left wondering when and if the boisterous superstar would ever return.
Fortunately for fans, McGregor remains undeterred. Since withdrawing from UFC 303, the former two-division UFC champion has maintained that he will be back soon, on Tuesday McGregor spoke with The Schmo about how things are progressing on that front.
“We’re looking for the date,” McGregor said. “Hopefully, I’d like to square it away with Michael Chandler. I’d like to get Chandler in. We’ve had our beef, it’s not settled. He has a match scheduled. I’d like to fight, maybe before that or before he’s recovered so there’s a few names in the line at the minute. There’s a few names being discussed.”
Chandler does in fact have a booking. After spending nearly two years on the shelf waiting for a fight with McGregor, following the UFC 303 incident, Chandler finally opted to accept another fight, a rematch with Charles Oliveira at UFC 309.
Given that, and the fact that UFC CEO Dana White appears to be targeting an early 2025 return for McGregor, Chandler’s availability is very much up in the air at the moment. Fortunately for McGregor, there are no shortage of big names who would be more than willing to welcome him back to the cage, but “Notorious” has his sights set on two in particular: old foes Dustin Poirier and Nate Diaz.
“Both of them. Both,” McGregor said. “It’s a must, for sure. The Dustin one is not settled, it’s 1-1-1. And the Diaz one is also 1-1. Two big blockbuster matches and I’m excited to get them locked in.”
Poirier and McGregor have shared a trilogy of bouts over a seven year period. McGregor first defeated Poirier by knockout at UFC 178 down at featherweight, but Poirier avenged his loss with a knockout of his own at UFC 257 up at 155 pounds. Poirier then won their third bout at UFC 264 when McGregor shattered his leg, though “Notorious” disputes this result because of the injury.
Diaz is possibly McGregor’s biggest rival, the man who first defeated the Irish superstar in the UFC, stepping in on 10 days’ notice to score the upset at UFC 196. The two rematched five months later at UFC 202 with McGregor winning a majority decision in one of the best fights of the year. Diaz left the UFC in 2022 to pursue interests in boxing, though he’s recently been rumored to possibly be coming back to the promotion.
Alex Pereira did it again, as he knocked out a game Khalil Rountree in the main event of UFC 307 to retain the UFC light heavyweight title. “Poatan” now has options galore, so is sticking around at 205 the way to go, or should he move up to heavyweight to entice Jon Jones or Stipe Miocic to stick around?
On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel discusses the fallout of this past Saturday’s pay-per-view event, comparing Pereria’s run to any other we’ve seen in the UFC, Julianna Pena regaining the women’s bantamweight title, whether or not Raquel Pennington was robbed, and other storylines from the card. Additionally, topics include this Saturday’s UFC Vegas 98 event headlined by Brandon Royval vs. Tatsuro Taira, PFL’s pay-per-view price, Donn Davis continuing to frustrate the MMA community with his comments, and much more.
Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting’s Jed Meshew and UFC analyst Din Thomas.
Watch the show live at 12:30 p.m. ET / 9:30 a.m. PT in the video above.
If you missed the show live, you can still watch above, or listen to the podcast version, which can be found below and on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your pods.
Jake Paul has lived in the public since he was a teenager but with all that fame also came a lot of hate and it led him to a very dark period in his life.
Following stints acting on the Disney channel and building an online brand through social media, Paul actually found himself as public enemy No. 2 after his brother Logan Paul invited a storm of controversy when he posted a video to his YouTube channel of a suicide victim while visiting Japan’s “suicide forest” back in 2018.
The decision to film and post the video was Logan’s choice but Jake was unable to avoid the fallout.
“I got lumped into all my brother’s hate,” Paul told The Hollywood Reporter. “It was like, ‘F*ck the Pauls. F*ck both of those people.’ It was bad. The suicide forest thing basically ruined my career and income. I lost probably $ 30 million in deals.
“There was one $ 15 million deal for retail products that fell apart. They were able to get out of it because of a morality clause.”
The downward spiral from that incident left Paul in a very poor mental head space and he began partying in Los Angeles as a way to cope with his struggles.
“Basically, life hit me in the face, and it was like, ‘Who are you? What have you been doing the past couple of years?’” Paul recounted. “It led to drinking and drugs and Los Angeles and going to parties and just that whole entire world. I got sucked up into it really quickly.
“And so there I am: No money, kind of hating myself, the whole world hates me. I’m drinking. I’m depressed and not having a good relationship with either of my parents or Logan. And I was just like, ‘F*ck this shit.’ I just felt wrong in life and by all the cards I had been dealt. It was f*cked up. I just tried to do good my whole life and here I am with what felt like nothing.”
After initially finding notoriety from viral videos posted online, Paul decided take that fame and use it for an elaborate stunt that would actually conclude in his own death.
“I had a plan,” Paul revealed. “I mean, it’s f*cking crazy. I was going to put a bunch of gas cans in my Lamborghini and get really drunk and drive off the top of this cliff in Calabasas. It’s called Stunt Road.”
In the end, Paul obviously didn’t follow through with those plans but it was from that terrifying time in his life that he actually decided to become a professional fighter.
“I was not going to let them win,” Paul said. “I was like, ‘I’m going to fight. This is what every social media hater wants is to wake up and see Jake Paul killed himself.’”
It was boxing that finally gave Paul the structure and discipline he needed to course correct from all the bad decisions he was making.
He credits the sport for saving his life.
“It’s purpose, routine, health, community — all the things I needed,” Paul said. “Since 2020, it’s been boxing’s No. 1 and everything else comes after that. I never really liked YouTube. I was just good at it.”
Paul has parlayed his passion for boxing into a very successful career where he’s put together a 10-1 professional record with a massive fight booked against heavyweight legend Mike Tyson on Nov. 15 with an event that airs live on Netflix.
Glover Teixeira | Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Almost a year after saying he had the itch to fight again, but would stay retired, Glover Teixeira now leaves the door open for a potential return to the octagon.
The former UFC light heavyweight champion told MMA Fighting in November 2023 that he was “very comfortable where I’m at right now” as MMA coach and retired fighter, but being around so many great athletes — and sharing the mat with the likes of UFC champion Alex Pereira on a daily basis — has him once again eager for competition.
“There’s nothing [booked], but I’ll definitely go back to competition,” Teixeira said in an interview with MMA Fighting. “I keep going after challenges. It’s hard to stay [training] with no reason why, so I’ll definitely do something. I want to compete.”
Teixeira retired from the sport in January of 2023 after losing back to back UFC title fights to Jiri Prochazka and Jamahal Hill, and won a grappling match against Anthony Smith in June of 2023.
There were discussions of maybe returning to the mat earlier this year against Rafael Lovato Jr., at one of the UFC Fight Pass Invitational grappling shows, but that didn’t materialize.
Teixeira was crucial part of three Pereira training camps this year for successful title defenses against Hill, Prochazka and most recently Khalil Rountree at UFC 307, and the Brazilian veteran, who turns 45 lates this month, is open to offers in multiple sports — even the UFC.
“I’ll do some jiu-jitsu, I wanna do… I don’t know, maybe boxing. Or even go back for some fights in the UFC,” Teixeira said. “That’s got to be it because it’s hard, man. I’m feeling great, fighting hard with the guys in the gym. I’ve rolled with some wrestlers, training with Sean Strickland and ‘Poatan’. I was doing some light sparring with ‘Poatan’ the other day, and he’s like, ‘F*ck, Glover, you have to come back!’
“I’m training well, I’m feeling well. I love this. I’m not saying I want to fight, but I want to compete. If it’s jiu-jitsu, Lovato, guys like that. I wanna do some matches, that’s for sure.”
Teixeira fought professionally 42 times between 2002 and 2023, racking up a record of 33-9 with key UFC wins over the likes of Jan Blachowicz, Rashad Evans, Ryan Bader, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Anthony Smith and Jared Cannonier. Teixeira came up short in his first UFC title fight in 2014, losing a decision to Jon Jones, before finally conquering gold seven years later to become the oldest first-time champion in promotion history at age 42.
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
Play the game
Share your result in the comments and on social media
Provide feedback (Google Form or in comments below)
Today’s UFC in-5 game
Wednesday’s UFC in-5 game
Tuesday’s UFC in-5 game
Monday’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.
A late change has been made to Saturday’s UFC Vegas 98 card after heavyweight Chris Barnett was knocked out of his fight against Junior Tafa.
Barnett was removed from the card due to issues related to Hurricane Milton, and he won’t be able to compete. UFC officials confirmed the change on Wednesday.
With Barnett unable to fight, Tafa now faces UFC newcomer Sean Sharaf, who accepts the fight on short notice with his UFC debut now just a few days away. The news was originally reported by Code Sports on Tuesday.
Sharaf joins the UFC roster with a 4-0 record with all four wins coming by way of first round knockout.
The 31-year-old heavyweight prospect trains out of Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas so it’s close proximity to where he’ll fight on Saturday at the UFC APEX.
He’ll attempt to keep his undefeated record in tact while facing Tafa, who comes into the fight off two straight losses. Most recently Tafa fell by first round heel hook submission to Valter Walker, which dropped his overall UFC record to 1-3.
The fight between Tafa and Sharaf is expected to take place on the preliminary card, which kick off at 4 p.m. ET on Saturday.
UFC 307 took place this past Saturday and the promotion has one new champion, plus one emerging all-time great. In the co-main event, Julianna Peña won a contentious decision over Raquel Pennington to reclaim the bantamweight title, while in the main event Alex Pereira added another successful light heavyweight title defense to his résumé with a surprisingly fun fight against Khalil Rountree Jr.
All that plus plenty more went down this past weekend so let’s dive in and answer your biggest questions.
UFC 307, broadly
Was this the worst PPV of the year?
— king casual (@SRSLYCASUAL1) October 6, 2024
“Was this the worst Pay-Per-View of the year?”
No, I don’t think so.
We did a big review of UFC 307 already so you can go and read that to get not just my thought but the rest of the team’s as well, but my feelings are basically this: UFC 307 wasn’t the best card and it was definitely a little weird, but it was perfectly adequate.
Everyone wants different things from their MMA fandom and for me, what I’m most interested in are fun fights with meaningful stakes. Well, UFC 307 was a little light on the former, but nearly every bout on the card was significant in one way or another. Two title fights, one of the six greatest fighters of all time competing, a probable future champion in a tough scrap, a new welterweight contender emerging, and the final fight of a two-time champion’s career? Important things happened in Salt Lake City on Saturday, and even though it wasn’t the most exciting at points, we did at least get to end with a bang.
UFC 307 won’t go down as one of the best events of the year, but it was definitely better than UFC 297 or UFC 301, and probably on par with UFC 298 as well.
Alex Pereira
Can you possibly outline the alternate universe of the last couple years if Poatan didn’t sign with UFC? Is it just Izzy with more title defences until DDP gets him & Jiri & Ankalaev 205 title holders? Who saves 3 PPVs this year..?
— Dee J (@Daniel_J81) October 6, 2024
“Can you outline the alternate universe of the last couple of years is ‘Poatan’ didn’t sign with the UFC? Who saves three PPVs this year?
The key takeaway from UFC 307, as it has been so many times this year, is that the UFC got a friggin’ steal when they signed Alex Pereira in 2021.
In just three years in the company, Pereira has fought 10 times, is a two-division champion, has three successful title defenses at light heavyweight, has won six bonuses, and just this year alone jumped in to save three separate PPVs. It’s an unprecedented level of activity and accomplishment that the UFC has needed. Don’t get me wrong, the UFC is bigger than any one fighter and will always be OK, but the promotion currently has a dearth of stars and Pereira has come along to fill the role that normally multiple fighters serve. He’s been a godsend to the UFC.
But what if they had not signed him? I love hypotheticals, so let’s play this out. If Pereira isn’t there to challenge Israel Adesanya, either Robert Whittaker gets a third crack at him or Sean Strickland gets the call, because he was never obliterated by Pereira. Does Strickland beat Izzy if that fight happens a year earlier? Who knows. Entirely possible, which then leads to a rematch and Whittaker is also in the mix. Ultimately, when it all plays out we probably still end up with Dricus du Plessis as champ, so middleweight is similar, even if the road to get there is very different.
Light heavyweight is a different story entirely. Jiri Prochazka returns and probably fights Jan Blachowicz or Magomed Ankalaev for the title, since Jamahal Hill is injured, but it’s impossible to know. 205 has been such a cluster the past few years and it’s Pereira who brought stability to the division. Without him, maybe we’re still living in anarchy, and the tentpole events of the UFC calendar — UFC 300 and UFC 303 — are substantially less exciting than we ended up getting.
Given how important Pereira has been to the UFC over the past few years, there’s a real argument to be made that he’s the best signing the promotion has made since Conor McGregor.
Next
Who should Pereira fight next legacy wise?
— NJA (@NJACOMBATSPORTS) October 6, 2024
“Who should Pereira fight next, legacy wise?”
Pereira appears set to take a little break for the time being and good. No one deserves it more. So given that, there are really only two options for Poatan when he comes back: heavyweight or Magomed Ankalaev.
The heavyweight option is the one I think most fans want. We’ve never had a three-division champion in the UFC and so the appeal of that is obvious: make history, stake your claim as the greatest to ever do it. And given what Pereira has done for the company, it’s very possible he gets that chance. Jon Jones faces Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 and all signs point to that being the final fight of both men’s careers. Should that come to pass, Tom Aspinall will be promoted to undisputed heavyweight champion and one of the bigger fights the UFC could put together is Aspinall vs. Pereira. This is extremely possible and if Pereira wins, it’s obviously the best for his legacy.
The other option is Ankalaev. If Ankalaev gets past Aleksandar Rakic at UFC 308, that’s the fight that light heavyweight demands. A champion has responsibilities and personally, that is a fight I desperately want to see. The big knock you can make about Pereira’s UFC run is that it’s been pretty cultivated to avoid bad style matchups. Well, Ankalaev is one of those so if Pereira can beat him — which he absolutely can — that’s a big feather in Poatan’s cap as he tries to climb the all-time great rankings.
Of course, the best option, if he can somehow pull it off, is Jon Jones. It’s hard to imagine a world where Jones beats Miocic and then somehow avoids fighting Aspinall for the heavyweight title… until you remember that this is a business and Jones vs. Pereira is the biggest fight the UFC can put together right now that doesn’t involve Conor McGregor. There’s a non-zero chance Pereira may fight Jones in 2025 and if he can swing that, that’s the only logical answer.
Khalil Rountree Jr.
Khalil’s stock just went up, right? what’s a fight that makes sense for him?
— guy who died the day before 9/11 (@mfbenghazi) October 6, 2024
“Khalil’s stock just went up, right? What’s a fight that makes sense for him?”
100 percent!
Everyone knew the score coming into UFC 307: Rountree probably didn’t “deserve” this title shot but it’s a fun stylistic matchup and Pereira should deliver a great finish. Well, in the sobering light of Monday morning, all of that is true, but also, Rountree was far more competitive than most thought he would be!
Rountree had the opportunity of a lifetime on Saturday and while he failed to come away with the belt, he delivered the best of himself in his biggest moment. That’s how you make fans and become a star. From this point forward, Rountree won’t be fighting Contender Series signees in the APEX. He’s in main events or on PPV main cards. Nobody likes a moral victory, but this was a pretty darn good one.
As for who is next, Jamahal Hill seems appropriate. Aside from being completely asinine and unaware, Hill’s nonsense after UFC 307 was basically an indirect shot at Rountree. So it’s time to knuckle up.
Rountree vs. Hill
Would this version of roundtree have beaten hill?
— Terrance Leverette (@lordleverette) October 7, 2024
“Would this version of Rountree have beaten Hill?
It’s hard to say. The thing about Hill, other than him being exceedingly bad at playing the dozens, is that it’s hard to know how good he is. Prior to his own completely undeserving title shot (honestly, Hill deserved his less than Rountree did) Hill’s UFC career was knocking out people who aren’t exactly world beaters. Then he put on a sensational performance against Glover Teixeira that basically looked nothing like his previous fights, before immediately looking atrocious and getting obliterated by Pereira in his next bout.
Is Hill the guy who dummied Glover or was that his “Cody Garbrandt vs. Dominick Cruz” performance, having a perfect night one time in the biggest spot? Only time will tell, and while if I was guessing I’d pick Rountree to win, mostly I just want to see the actual answer for ourselves.
Julianna Peña and Raquel Pennington
Is Julianna Pena getting into the UFC Hall of Fame?
— Samuel Tromans (@SamuelJTromans) October 6, 2024
“Is Julianna Peña getting into the UFC Hall of Fame?”
Yeesh. I guess so?
On Saturday Peña became the second woman to win bantamweight gold twice as she reclaimed the title in an extremely controversial split decision win over Raquel Pennington. How controversial you ask? Only one MMA media member didn’t give Pennington the fight; it was me, and I scored the bout a draw.
But controversy or not, Peña is now a two-time champion and that’s pretty rarified company. In UFC history, only 18 fighters have won titles multiple times in the same weight class. Four of those fighters are currently enshrined in the Hall and six more are unquestioned locks to join them. Of the remaining eight of that list, almost all of them are current fighters, and very likely to end up there as well. Basically, if you win a belt twice, you’re in the Hall. Add in that Peña is also responsible for one of the biggest upsets in UFC history and I think that alone is enough to get her there one day.
It’s a heck of an accomplishment. Now if she could only work on her promotional abilities.
Kayla Harrison
Is the only thing that can stop kayla the scale?
— Casey Carpenter (@CaseyCa20830884) October 6, 2024
“Is the only thing that can stop Kayla the scale?”
Really? After that performance?
In the main card opener, Kayla Harrison made her sophomore outing in the UFC, winning a hard-fought decision over Ketlen Vieira. To be frank, it was probably the worst fight of Harrison’s recent career. And that’s not because of Harrison, it’s because of Vieira.
Harrison is a force of nature but the reality is she’s still very, very green. The two-time Olympic gold medalist has only been competing in MMA for six years and on Saturday we got to see just how limited she still is. Harrison’s striking is barely above functional at this point so if she cannot score takedowns, the fight is very, very hard for her. It’s not hard to see how Harrison loses in the UFC right now: someone does what Vieira did, but better.
That being said, there were plenty of positives for Harrison on Saturday. Vieira is one of the worst possible matchups for her in terms of skills and physicality, so she was always going to have a hard time in there. And when she did, Harrison persevered. Despite an enormous weight cut and competing at altitude, Harrison found a way to make things happen in the final round, and she showed solid fight IQ to make sure she walked out of there with the win. That’s all very, very good.
Add on that Harrison is an almost cartoonishly bad matchup for Peña and it’s extremely likely that Harrison adds UFC gold to her trophy collection soon.
Carla Esparza
What will you remember about Carla Esparza’s career? First UFC strawweight champ, four UFC title fights, sixteen UFC appearances in almost ten years (TUF 20 Finale was December 2014)…
— Zak Kitzler (@KitzlerZak) October 7, 2024
“What will you remember about Carla Esparza’s career? First UFC strawweight champ, four UFC title fights, sixteen UFC appearances in almost ten years (TUF 20 Finale was December 2014)…”
Esparza retired on Saturday after a contentious split decision loss, ending a 27-fight, 14-year MMA career. The UFC even gave her a nice little send off video package. It was less than Esparza deserved but seeing how she is, like Peña, a two-time champion, I suspect she’ll ultimately get more flowers when she’s inducted into the Hall of Fame both for her title wins and for her role in pioneering the women’s weight classes in the UFC.
As for what I’ll remember about Carla’s career, the answer is easy: it’s her second title win, defeating Rose Namajunas at UFC 274 to reclaim the strawweight title 2611 days after she lost it.
Of the 18 fighters to reclaim belts, almost all of them did it a year or two after losing the title. Really, only Carla and Randy Couture had big periods of time between title reigns, and Carla’s was nearly two years more than Randy’s (his second and third heavyweight title runs). It’s an incredible accomplishment that basically no one remembers or talks about because it happened in literally the worst fight in modern UFC history.
But there’s another reason it sticks out to me: despite how bad the fight was, Esparza’s second title win was the real deal.
Esparza won the inaugural strawweight belt by virtue of winning The Ultimate Fighter, but the truth is that most people in the know at the time didn’t really put much stock in that. Yes, Esparza was the Invicta champ before TUF, but the belief was that the winner of Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Claudia Gadelha was the champion in waiting, a belief which was proven true. So though Esparza was the inaugural champ in name, there was a bit of a Nicco Montano “were you really the champ?” to it all. But once she won the belt a second time, all that is over. It’s like when Cormier won the heavyweight belt by knocking out Stipe: there were no asterisks to that title. Same for Esparza, and that’s why it will always stick out to me.
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.
Antonio Trocoli | Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Antonio Trocoli was arrested this past Friday on misdemeanor battery charges in Huntington Beach, Calif., following an incident allegedly involving Mackenzie Dern’s ex-husband, Wesley Santos.
Huntington Beach police confirmed the UFC fighter’s arrest in an email to MMA Fighting on Wednesday.
“A subject by the name of Antonio Trocoli da Silveira Filho was arrested by the Huntington Beach Police Department on Oct. 4, 2024, at approximately 8:30 a.m. in the 8700 block of Dolphin Street, Huntington Beach,” Huntington Beach police said in a statement. “He was arrested for misdemeanor battery, and the case has been sent to the Orange County District Attorney’s Officer for review.”
At this time, the Orange County district attorney’s office has not officially brought a case against the fighter following his arrest. Messages for further details on the case were not returned at the time of publication.
While police weren’t able to provide any further details on Trocoli’s arrest, Santos—a professional surfer who was previously married to Dern and shares a daughter with her—claims he was the victim in the battery.
Santos sent a statement to MMA Fighting about the alleged incident while also claiming that a video exists that captured the altercation from this past Friday.
“Mackenzie Dern is my ex-wife and after our divorce she married Antonio ‘Malvado’ Jose Trocoli da Silveira Filho,” Santos said. “We divorced and have shared custody of our daughter Moa, but Antonio never stopped following me. We had a deal that he would not be part of the custody but he was always nearby, threatening and disturbing in every custody change. He sent messages through Moa, saying he would beat me up, and Moa told me clearly.
“I dropped my daughter at school this past Friday and was going back home on a skateboard when I saw a white car stop, and I started recording. It was Antonio. He got out of the car and punched me, and the car kept moving [along], and he ran back inside the car. Cops were called, there were several witnesses, and Antonio was arrested for battery.”
Trocoli is yet to address the incident or arrest publicly.
The Brazilian fighter was actually signed and then released from the UFC back in 2019 after his Contender Series win was overturned to a no-contest when he tested positive for a banned substance. Trocoli eventually came back to the UFC with his debut back in June when he fell to Shara Magomedov. He is currently scheduled to fight Tresean Gore at a UFC Fight Night event scheduled for Nov. 9.
New UFC middleweight Torrez Finney is a big fan of The Rock.
Finney earned a contract after becoming the first fighter to earn three wins on Dana White’s Contender Series, picking up a first-round TKO of Abdellah Er-Ramy at DWCS Season 8, Week 8. Throughout his MMA career, the 25-year-old would sign off his post-fight interviews by paying homage to The Rock’s famous WWE tagline, “If you smell what The Rock is cooking,” by changing it too, “If you can smell what Torrez is cooking.”
Growing up playing pro wrestler on the back yard trampoline, it was meant to be.
“Well, I’m a big professional wrestling fan,” Finney told MMA Fighting. “I’m big into WWE, obviously, even AEW. I’ve watched those things. Now I don’t watch them as religiously as I used to growing up. But growing up, man, with all my cousins, we used to get on the trampoline. If anybody knows anything about [that], the trampoline is the WWE ring for a lot of kids. And when they tell you not to do those things at home, we surely did not listen.
“So we did all of that stuff at home and we’re there on the trampoline jumping up and down. We do all WWE moves, and I think that’s a part of, a little bit, what helps me be able to speak in that promo type way. We used to do that. We used to have our toy mic and we’re like, ‘Man, I’m coming on your birthday, and I’m coming to take that belt — when I have that belt with me and all my cousins and we were playing like that.”
Finney was a baby when The Rock, real name Dwayne Johnson, was making his initial run in the sports entertainment juggernaut. But with multiple returns to WWE, Finney got to experience the confidence and star-power Johnson would exude on the microphone.
So when it came to fighting for his first MMA amateur title, Finney knew exactly what to do once he got the opportunity.
“I’m a big fan of The Rock now, my favorite wrestler is The Undertaker,” Finney said. “I’m a big Undertaker fan, but I love The Rock. I love his promo cutting and I would just sit there and watch that and I used to do some of that type of stuff in high school. … But when I was getting into fighting, I said, ‘Man, I need to think of something [to say],’ and it was my second amateur fight. I won the title and one of my friends was like, what you gonna say after the fight? And I said, ‘I got something. Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to do this.’
“[After] my second amateur fight, I said, ‘I’ve been wanting to do this my entire life,’ and I go ‘If you can smell,’ and I said, ‘what the champ is cooking,’ because I was a champion at that time.”
Since then, “The Punisher” has gone on to win all 10 of his pro bouts, including his first two outings on Contender Series. After finishing Yuri Panerov in October 2023, Dana White elected not to award Finney a contract, asking him to get more experience first. Finney returned in August to win a decision against Cam Rowston, where White ripped Finney saying that he would get “absolutely decimated” in the UFC.
Finney has always remained true to himself. As the wins kept piling him, so was the excitement for his post-fight interviews. When he makes his eventual octagon debut, Finney may have the chance to say his signature after the biggest moment of his professional life.
“I just kept it rolling because kids and people was like, ‘Man, I’ve been looking forward to that,’” Finney explained. ”They look forward to that, ‘If you can smell.’ I even have fans, they look forward to that, ‘If you can smell what Torrez is cooking.’
“So it’s really cool man. And yeah, it’s funny like how the stuff you would do as a kid is now being gravitated and translated to what you do as an adult now.”
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