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Belal Muhammad is still waiting for the UFC to tell him who he fights next, but if he had his choice today, it would be Shavkat Rakhmonov.

The recently crowned welterweight champion expects to have his first title defense officially announced whenever officials tell him to be ready, and the two most-discussed options are the undefeated Rakhmonov and former champion Kamaru Usman.

Rakhmonov has been on tear, winning his first six UFC fights and continuing his run of 18 finishes in 18 professional fights. Usman remains in the discussion off the strength of having previously successfully defended the welterweight title five times and a competitive performance in a losing effort to Khamzat Chimaev up a weight class and on short notice at UFC 294.

Muhammad told Kevin Iole he’s leaning towards Rakhmonov at the moment.

“For me now, I’d rather have it be Shavkat, because I think he has more aura, I think he has the undefeatedness to him,” Muhammad said. “It’s like, there’s no excuse after beating him. I go out there and I beat Usman, Usman’s on a three-fight losing streak, he’s old, he’s on his way out. I think he needs another win to get into the mix to show that he’s still hungry, to show that he still has tread on the tires.

“But I think it will be Shavkat, more so, when you look at all the other guys. Ian’s not really going to call for it, JDM, I think he’s still hurt, so I think it would be between Shavkat and Usman. Between those two, I think Shavkat makes more sense.”

At 37, Usman is actually only 14 months older than Muhammad, but a lengthy run at the top followed by three straight losses has raised questions as to whether “The Nigerian Nightmare” is still a contender. The UFC’s 170-pound division currently has a healthy crop of potential title challengers, including Rakhmonov, Jack Della Maddalena, and Ian Machado Garry.

Usman’s hopes of regaining the title are further hurt by the beef Muhammad has from him based off of their past interactions.

“It’s hilarious,” Muhammad said. “Especially with Usman, because Usman was a guy that didn’t mention my name, wouldn’t say my name, he was calling out everybody else, saying, ‘This guy deserves it next, this guy deserves it next’ when he was champion. I had the longest streak at the time and he just kept acting like I didn’t exist. Now, it’s, ‘Who’s this guy think he is?’ I even went on his podcast and broke him down verbally, mentally, spiritually, I could just see it in his face that he did not like not being the guy on top. He didn’t like not being the champion.

“Even little parts on his podcast where I was like, ‘Yeah, it feels good to be on top. Everybody’s looking upward at me.’ He was like, ‘I ain’t looking upward at you.’ I’m like, ‘The rankings tell me that you are looking upward at me.’ These guys, they still have it in their head, they still can’t believe it. But it just feels good because I’ve been saying this from the beginning that I belong in the talks with some of these top guys, I belong at the top with these guys, and people kept ignoring me, they kept telling me I wasn’t going to do it. The oddsmakers never gave me a chance, so for me to go out there and beat all these guys that they said I couldn’t beat. To dominate these guys that they said I couldn’t dominate, now it feels good because now you have to listen to me when I say something.”

Muhammad claimed the welterweight title with a one-sided win over Leon Edwards at UFC 304 this past July. Excluding a no-contest in their first fight, which ended after a round when Muhammad couldn’t continue following an accidental eye poke, Muhammad has won 10 straight fights and 14 of his past 15.

As impressive as that streak is, “Remember the Name” knows he needs to tack on a few more title fight wins if he’s to be remembered among the best welterweights ever.

“For myself now, the goal was always the gold,” Muhammad said. “I always put gold as the goal. Now, for myself, it’s like, what’s the next thing you want to chase? What’s the next thing? Now it’s GOAT. Now I want to be the GOAT of the welterweights. I want to chase the ‘GSPs,’ I want to chase that aura, being on that Mount Rushmore.

“So when you think of the welterweights, the best welterweights, I want to be up there with those guys and to do that, I’m going to need some title defenses. To do that, I’m going to need to beat a lot of these younger guys that they’re saying are better than me, that they’re saying are going to beat me, regardless. And just keep proving people wrong. I love doing more than anything.”

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Jon Jones has made it clear the has no plans to fight Tom Aspinall anytime soon. But would Stipe Miocic take on the interim heavyweight champion?

Miocic is currently scheduled to challenge Jones for the undisputed heavyweight title in the main event of UFC 309, which takes place at Madison Square Garden in New York on Nov. 16. UFC CEO Dana White has designated Aspinall as the backup, but some have questioned whether Jones or Miocic would accept such a dangerous opponent on short notice, including analyst Daniel Cormier, who doesn’t “believe that either of them will do it.”

On the Believe You Me podcast, Cormier’s fellow UFC analyst Anthony Smith is confident at least one side of the UFC 309 matchup would fight Aspinall.

“I think [Miocic] will,” Smith said. “Anytime I’ve ever had conversations about this kind of stuff with Stipe, I know that I think in this whole media world—not just [BYM host Michael Bisping] and I, but the media in the general and the UFC and everyone that talks about it—they make it seem like Stipe really gives a shit. He doesn’t really give a shit. He’s barely a fighter. Like, he doesn’t have the mentality of a fighter unless he’s in there actively fighting. He doesn’t talk about fights, he doesn’t really watch them that much. He trains every single day, but he’s just not immersed in this world at all. He wants to beat Jon because everyone else says that Jon is the best. He couldn’t care less about Jon Jones.

“He just doesn’t. Whether it’s Jon or it’s Tom Aspinall, he’s going to train about the same. It’s not going to really change much. He has that mentality where it’s not about what that guy is going to do and how I’m going to react to it, his whole mindset is flipped. Here’s what I’m going to do and he has to deal with it. That’s how Stipe’s mindset has always been, so whether it’s Jon or whether it’s Tom, it doesn’t change anything for Stipe.”

Jones and Miocic are both coming off of long layoffs, with Jones having last fought in March 2023, when he defeated Ciryl Gane to win a vacant heavyweight title, and Miocic out of action since March 2021, when he dropped his belt to Francis Ngannou.

The UFC 309 main event has been billed as a battle between legends with Jones being arguably the greatest fighter of all time based off of his exploits at 205 pounds, and Miocic owning the record for the most consecutive successful defenses of the UFC’s heavyweight belt (3). Despite all the hoopla, Bisping is convinced Miocic is content with his life and legacy, and that’s why he might not care who he ends up fighting in November.

“He’s like, ‘It’s not my identity,’” Bisping said, taking Miocic’s perspective. “‘I am who I am. Yeah, OK, I was the champion of the world and yeah, I want to be that. I want to beat Jon Jones and yes, I want everything that comes with it. But I’ve also made some money, I’ve done my thing, I’m a fireman, I’m a regular guy. I’m a blue-collar guy. I’ve got money in the bank, I’ve got a wife, I’ve got children. I’m not concerning myself with this circus on social media and all of this bullshit.

“I’ll be out doing my thing, I’ll be looking after my family, and then when the time’s right, I’ll jump on a plane and I’ll fly to New York and I’ll fight the greatest fighter that’s ever lived. And if I beat him, whoop-dee-[expletive]-do, and if I don’t, so be it.’”

Bisping and Smith agreed Jones is less likely to accept Aspinall as a replacement opponent, given how much time Jones has invested into the Miocic matchup. However, Bisping cautioned against throwing Jones under the bus should the scenario arise where he passes on fighting Aspinall, since Jones is simply looking after his best interests.

“That’s what I liken it to, or compare it to, somebody getting married and everything’s all there,” Bisping said. “That’s kind of the pressure you feel as a fighter as well to pull out. Some people might say, ‘That’s a bitch move.’ ‘You’re a p*ssy.’ But that’s having the balls to say, ‘Hold on a minute’—and by the way, I’m not advocating for Jon Jones to do this and saying, ‘Understand why’—what I’m saying is it’s really hard in these kinds of situations to be like, ‘No, I’m going to do what is best for me. I’m not here to do what’s best for you, the fans, or the company, or whatever. I’m going to do me and right now, I think what’s best for me is if I fight Tom Aspinall after a full camp.’”

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The UFC 307 Countdown video features the two title fights at the top of the anticipated fight card next Saturday night at Delta Center in Salt Lake City.

In the main event, UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira defends against Khalil Rountree, a challenger on a five-fight win streak that has a knack for beating high-level kickboxers. “Poatan” has emerged as one of the faces of the UFC and a successful title defense could vault him towards another marquee matchup.

UFC 307 also sees Raquel Pennington go for her first bantamweight title defense after claiming the belt with a win over Mayra Bueno Silva this past January. “Rocky” has won six straight fights, but has a tough test ahead of her as she faces former champion Julianna Peña.

Peña has not competed since losing to Amanda Nunes in their rematch in July 2022, but as the only woman to defeat “The Lioness” during Nunes’ legendary run from 2015 to 2023, she’s poised to shake the apple cart again.

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UFC 306 promised to be the greatest live sporting event of all time and the pay-per-view certainly delivered action in a major way.

Earlier this month, UFC 306 took place at Sphere in Las Vegas with Merab Dvalishvili and Valentina Shevchenko claiming titles after beating Sean O’Malley and Alexa Grasso, respectively. Now you can watch all the best highlights from the evening in slow motion on the latest episode of Fight Motion.

UFC 306 Fight Motion captures all the biggest moments from “Noche UFC,” including Dvalishvili’s dominant display against O’Malley, Shevchenko’s near-perfect performance against Grasso, as well as the feature fight between Diego Lopes and Brian Ortega.

Fight Motion also highlights the two finishes on the card by Ketlen Souza and Ignacio Bahamondes, the gruesome cut suffered by Irene Aldana in her battle with Norma Dumont, and a bevy of brutal highlights from the Fight of the Year contender between Esteban Ribovics and Daniel Zellhuber.

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Brendan Allen offered no excuses for a poor performance at UFC Paris that led to the end of his seven fight win streak after falling to Nassourdine Imavov by unanimous decision.

It was a strong start but a rough finish for Allen on Saturday after he scored an early takedown on Imavov to control him throughout the opening round. Unfortunately, Allen just couldn’t find the same level of success in the next two rounds as Imavov stuffed his grappling attempts and won the majority of the exchanges on the feet.

In the end, Imavov won with all three judges scoring the fight 29-28 across the board.

“It wasn’t my night tonight,” Allen wrote on Instagram. “Made bad decisions. Bad adjustments. I did something wrong and hat’s off to Imavov. It was his night, it wasn’t mine. It sucks. I’m disappointed in myself. But luckily I’m young, I’ll be back. Try to be better. Thanks to everyone for the support, thanks for the love. I still think I’ll be champion one day but just another long journey to the top again.”

In a separate post, Allen once again placed the blame on himself for a bad night at the office while revealing his potential timeline for a return to action.

“A game of ups and downs and shoulda woulda coulda’s,” Allen said. “Fought like shit and lost a close decision to a top five guy in his home. I will be back even better next March or April.”

While certainly not the result he wanted, Allen may not lose a ton of ground in the middleweight division thanks to Imavov’s sudden rise up the ranks.

Since falling to future UFC champion Sean Strickland back in 2023, Imavov has gone undefeated in his past four fights including a win over one-time title challenger Jared Cannonier back in June, which set him up for the co-main event slot at the card in Paris on Saturday.

Following his win, Imavov called for a title shot, although it’s tough to imagine that wish is granted right now given the landscape at 185 pounds.

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Lightweights Trey Ogden and Thiago Moises are expected to clash at the upcoming UFC event scheduled on Jan. 11 with a location for the card still to be determined.

Multiple people with knowledge of the promotion’s plans confirmed the matchup to MMA Fighting on Sunday with bout agreements issued for the fight.

Undefeated in his past three fights, Ogden looks to keep his momentum going when he returns in January. The 34-year-old veteran, who also runs his own gym based out of Kansas, most recently dispatched Loik Radzhabov by decision back in July.

Overall, Ogden sports a 3-2 record with one no contest in his UFC career.

As for Moises, the Brazilian looks to get back on track following a decision loss to Ludovit Klein back in July. Prior to that setback, Moises took out Mitch Ramirez with leg kicks and he’s built a 3-2 record overall in his past five appearances in the UFC.

Ogden vs. Moises is the first confirmed matchup for the card on Jan. 11 with more bouts expected to be added in the coming weeks. The UFC hasn’t officially announced any events yet for 2025, although it’s likely that schedule will come together in the near future.

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Renato Moicano battered Benoit Saint Denis to earn a stoppage win on Saturday at UFC Paris, but by all accounts he shouldn’t have even been there.

Approximately three to four weeks before Saturday’s event, Moicano suffered a serious shoulder injury that could have easily knocked him out of the fight. Instead, Moicano fought through the pain and scored an impressive win to continue his ascension up the lightweight ranks.

“Honestly, I was surprised when he told me the initial decision was to stay in the fight,” Moicano’s manager Oren Hodak from KO Reps told MMA Fighting on Sunday. “Luckily his team trained smart and they made it to the fight.”

X-ray photos provided to Kevin Iole show the extent of the separated shoulder that Moicano suffered prior to his fight. Moicano fought through the injury even with the shoulder still showing damage during moments in the fight.

Remarkably, Moicano withstood the injury and went on to deliver a performance where he scored with vicious shots throughout the opening round that caused significant cuts and swelling on Saint Denis’ face. While the highly touted prospect from France survived the barrage in the opening round, he still showed the aftereffects from the damage done when the fight restarted in the second.

The five-minute session ended with doctors determining that Saint Denis couldn’t see properly out of his right eye due to the tremendous swelling and the fight was stopped.

The victory moved Moicano to 4-0 in his past four outings, including stoppage wins over Saint Denis, Jalin Turner and Brad Riddell.

Following the fight, Moicano called for “easy money” matchups like Paddy Pimblett or Dan Hooker when he returns to action, most likely sometime in 2025.

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Kevin Lee hasn’t missed a beat.

In his first MMA fight in 14 months, Lee (19-8) needed less than two minutes to submit welterweight veteran Thiago Oliveira at Lights Out Championship 17. The bout took place at Hype Athletics in Wayne, Mich., Lee’s home state.

Lee, a one-time interim UFC lightweight title challenger, locked in a tight rear-naked choke that had Oliveira tapping at the 1:58 mark of the first round.

Watch the finish below.

Prior to Saturday’s in-cage appearance, Lee’s most recent MMA appearance was a first-round submission loss to Rinat Fakhretdinov at a July 2023 UFC event, and his most recent win was a unanimous decision over Diego Sanchez at an Eagle FC show in March 2022.

“The Motown Phenom” told MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck he would still like to return to the 155-pound division, where he was formerly a top-10 fighter in the UFC. His long-term goal is to book a matchup with UFC champion Islam Makhachev.

“I want to fight for a world title,” Lee said in an interview with MMA Fighting ahead of the Oliveira fight. “I just want to fight the best guys. Am I hung up on the organizations? Not really. I want to fight the best guys and the guys that really will give me a challenge, who people feel are unbeatable.

“I think it’s a shame I never got to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov. It’s a shame if I don’t ever get to fight Islam in his career. I think I pose threats for those guys that not a lot of other lightweights do, and I think a lot of people would, would agree with that. So it’d be kind of a shame if they go their whole careers and not fight a wrestler like me.”

Lee, 32, isn’t wasting anytime getting back into the groove of competition as he is already set to fight Saul Almeida at a Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA event on Nov. 15 in Biloxi, Miss.

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

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

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

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

What we need from you

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

Monday’s UFC in-5 game

Saturday’s UFC in-5 game

Friday’s UFC in-5 game

Thursday’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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Watch Renato Moicano vs. Benoit Saint Denis full fight video highlights from their UFC Paris showdown Saturday night, courtesy of multiple outlets.

Moicano vs. Saint Denis took place Sept. 28 at the Accor Arena in Paris, France. Renato Moicano (20-5-1) and Benoit Saint Denis (13-3, 1 no-contest) squared off in the main event clash. The fight aired live on ESPN+.

Catch all the video highlights below.

For more on Moicano vs. Saint Denis, check out the live blog below.

Round 1

BSD out in southpaw with Moicano in orthodox and Moicano takes the center immediately. Both men testing range and then Moicano snatches a body lock, spin and gets the takedown early!

BSD looking for his favorite butterfly sweeps and Moicano holding position. BSD creates a scramble but Moicano reasserts and now he’s in top-half. BSD scrambles again and gets the butterflies again.

Moicano with small shots here and a good elbow as BSD keeps looking to elevate. He gets it and turns to stand but Moicano jumps on the back and breaks him down. Moicano in backpack with the body triangle!

BSD turns belly down and that’s a bad idea. And Moicano starts mashing him! BSD is turned in the triangle but he can’t move and Moicano is working him over with punches and elbows!!! We’re at the halfway mark and Moicano is clubbing him!

BSD eats more shots and he’s busted open now. He does get out of the mount and work a leg in. Moicano lands some more shots and BSD gets full guard at least but he is bleeding heavily near his eyes.

BSD tries to scramble and gives his back and Moicano is immediately on his back again with the body triangle! And he turns him down and more big shots! Moicano is beating the tar out of BSD early!

BSD just wearing it in there. He has no answer to the grappling. He reclaims half guard but Moicano now just posturing and pounding him with punches. This is a statement from Moicano right now and BSD is going to survive to Round 2.

MMA Fighting scores the round 10-8 Moicano.

Round 2

That was a total demolition and this fight is now on a timer because BSD’s eyes are cooked. Massive swelling and cuts on the eyelids. Matter of time before those turn bad. He’s also lumped up around the head.

But he’s got spirit. BSD certainly a little cautious to start, but he’s putting shots down range as Moicano waits for his time to get in. Moicano shoots and BSD defends. Very cautious though.

Moicano really just waiting to get in on a shot and BSD is slowly punching back in. Nothing massive but just consistent work while Moicano is kind of waiting a bit. Jabs for Moicano.

Pace is very slow now. Neither man has done too much for 3 minutes. Honestly, surprised BSD can even see with his eyes busted up like this. But he’s gaining confidence. And then Moicano gets in on the hips nicely. This time BSD defends though!

But seriously, BSD may be blind in there. Massive swelling and bleeding. Moicano grabs a clinch and we get to the fence. clinch fighting here and then we break to space.

Moicano is not putting the pedal down. Will that hurt him in the long run? I guess we’re about to find out as Moicano just kind of waits the round out. He basically took the round off completely and so he loses it.

MMA Fighting scores the round 10-9 Saint Denis, 19-17 Moicano overall.

Stoppage

OOOOOF. Saint Denis’s right eye is entirely closed. The doctor is looking at it but they super should not let this continue. His left eye isn’t much better honestly and the doctor is taking a long look at this. He’s doing serious finger testing and Saint Denis cannot get the questions right. He missed the questions and so the fight is stopped.

Renato Moicano gets the win!

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