Category Archives: Mmafighting.com

Facebook founder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is a well-known fan of UFC and frequent practitioner of Brazilian jiu-jitsu so when it came time to show off some new technology at the annual Connect conference he called on former flyweight champion Brandon Moreno to help him out.

Moreno posted a video of his appearance alongside Zuckerberg on stage on Wednesday where the billionaire MMA enthusiast revealed some new and improved technology coming to Meta’s artificial intelligence powered Ray-Ban smart glasses.

Part of a new update coming soon is real-time AI-powered software where users can speak to each other in different languages and translations will come across in a speaker implanted in the glasses.

As a demonstration, Moreno spoke in Spanish, which was then translated into English for Zuckerberg to ask him about his recovery from a knee injury after he suffered a torn ACL in training.

Zuckerberg then responded in English and that was translated back into Spanish for Moreno.

“What a crazy experience today,” Moreno wrote about his appearance on Instagram. “I had the opportunity to try the new updates from the Ray-Ban Meta [smart glasses] live translation with Mark Zuckerberg at Connect 2024.”

Here’s how Meta described the update coming to the Ray-Ban smart glasses:

Soon, your glasses will be able to translate speech in real time. When you’re talking to someone speaking Spanish, French, or Italian, you’ll hear what they say in English through the glasses’ open-ear speakers. Not only is this great for traveling, it should help break down language barriers and bring people closer together. We plan to add support for more languages in the future to make this feature even more useful.

Meta didn’t reveal how soon the software update would be available to users but Tech Crunch described the live-translation technology as the “holy grail for established hardware firm and startups alike.”

For now, at least, Moreno got a taste of how it works from his conversation with Zuckerberg at the Connect conference.

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Brendan Allen believes he deserves more respect — especially from those involved with compiling the official UFC rankings.

Allen meets Nassourdine Imavov in the co-main event of Saturday’s UFC Paris event. According to the UFC rankings, Allen is ranked No. 8 despite being on a seven-fight win streak inside the octagon — which is four spots below Imavov, a winner of two straight.

“Yeah, it’s crazy, man, I’m the only guy on the win streak that I’m on that falls places in the rankings,” Allen told MMA Fighting. “When guys above me are on losses, or consecutive losses — I don’t even know, but I know there are losses — so it’s just whatever. Like, it’s kind of comical at this point.

“I don’t even know who’s on the board panel, but if anyone told me they were on the rankings [panel], I would never have a conversation with them, ever. I’d literally tell them go f*ck themselves.”

Allen is currently one spot behind Imavov in MMA Fighting’s Global Rankings — which encompasses all MMA promotions, and not just the UFC.

With a lot of chatter about upcoming middleweight fights, and the stakes that surround them, the fight between Allen and Imavov doesn’t seem to be in the same conversations. After seeing fighters like Belal Muhammad and Merab Dvalishvili play the long game, become undeniable, and then cash in on their world championship opportunities, “All In” believes his time will come — but that doesn’t mean it’s not a little bit frustrating.

“I think for me, it’s just I don’t have the followers that a lot of these other guys have,” Allen explained. “I don’t have the time, nor the want to do what Americans have to do in order to get those followers. I’m not willing to go out here and act crazy. I’m not willing to go out here and f*cking troll everyone, because it’s everywhere we go. Everywhere I go, I’m going to end up having a problem with someone because everyone gets [upset] about anything you say. So I don’t want have a problem with someone everywhere I’ve got to go, especially if I bring my wife with me, or if I bring my kids with me.

“I just try to mind my business and stick to myself and let my fighting do the talking because at the end of the day, the person off [the top of] my head that I could think of that did that was Robbie Lawler and he’s one of the most loved people in the sport right now — he was, and still is — by the company, by the fans. He’s one of the most respected and loved guys. So I feel like if I stay true to myself, then everything that I’m hoping for will hopefully come.

“I just wish I could get the money without the fame kind of thing. I don’t know, I’m just… sometimes, I just don’t think I’m built for that life.”

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The UFC’s final pay-per-view event of 2024 has added a welterweight showdown.

Multiple people with knowledge of the promotion’s plans confirmed to MMA Fighting that a matchup between Michael Chiesa and Max Griffin has been added to UFC 310 on Dec. 7 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The card currently does not have a main event announced.

Chiesa returned to the octagon following a year layoff at August’s UFC Abu Dhabi event and submitted Tony Ferguson via rear-naked choke in the opening round. The victory snapped a three-fight losing skid for “Maverick” — which included losses to Kevin Holland, Sean Brady, and Vicente Luque — and he is set to compete multiple times in a year for the first time since 2021.

Griffin makes his 17th walk to the octagon, and does so coming off a split decision win against Jeremiah Wells at UFC Vegas 86 in February. “Pain” has flip-flopped wins and losses over his past five outings, which includes victories over Carlos Condit and Tim Means.

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Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol look ready to finally settle their business.

Beterbiev and Bivol, who are currently the two best light heavyweight boxers in the world, were previously scheduled to fight for the undisputed title back in June before a ruptured meniscus forced Beterbiev to withdraw from the bout. Now, the two are finally set to matchup on Oct. 12 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. On Wednesday, the final promotional push toward the fight began with a press conference in London, where the longtime rivals finally faced off with an intense staredown.

Undefeated in 20 professional fights, Beterbiev is the current WBC, IBF, and WBO light heavyweight champion and most recently stopped Callum Smith to retain his titles back in January.

Also undefeated at 23-0, Bivol, is the current WBA and IBO light heavyweight champion and is perhaps best known for defeating Canelo Alvarez in May of 2022.

In advance of the fight, promoters Matchroom, Top Rank, and Queensberry Promotions released an epic trailer for the marque matchup that you can watch below.

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The UFC is now one of the most profitable sports entities on the planet but that wasn’t the case in the early 2000s when the promotion was bleeding money, most states banned MMA and television networks wanted nothing to do with the sport.

The former owners at Semaphore Entertainment Group (SEG) were desperately trying to find a buyer and that’s when Shane McMahon — son of former WWE founder Vince McMahon — was approached about taking over UFC.

“At the time, the UFC, they got in some financial problems and came to us and said ‘would you like to purchase the UFC?’” Shane revealed in the new Netflix documentary series Mr. McMahon. “I go this is cool.

“I said ‘Dad, let’s just go for this one.’ I thought we could really grow that brand because it’s tailor made for what we do. We have a production team, we have a live events team, we had a merchandising team, we have all of it just ready to go. So to me it was plug and play.”

Groomed as a potential successor to his father in the professional wrestling business, Shane reportedly saw the UFC as his chance to prove he had the acumen to take over an organization and turn it into a financial success. That could then set the stage for him to run WWE when his father was ready to step down.

But when Shane approached Vince with the idea to buy the UFC, the elder McMahon had no interest.

“When it was presented in terms of buying UFC, I didn’t like that business model,” Vince explained. “Because our business model, you can create characters much like Disney or someone else and we can use them forever.

“As opposed to a boxer/UFC [fighter], once you’re beat, once you’re hurt or something, your career’s over. We’re in show business. That’s a sport.”

While WWE and UFC share a lot of similar DNA in terms of athletes and personalities helping to drive interest, professional wrestling is scripted drama while MMA is real fighting.

That was all Vince needed to justify his decision to pass on buying UFC and just sticking to his day-to-day business running WWE.

“So anyway, he thought about it and passed,” Shane said about his father’s decision. “Passed on the opportunity and that was that.”

Zuffa — a company started by brothers Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta along with longtime friend Dana White — ended up purchasing the UFC for $ 2 million in 2001. While the company struggled financially for several years, UFC eventually turned things around and the Fertitta’s sold the business to Endeavor for just over $ 4 billion in 2016.

“10 years later or something, UFC was sold for a lot of money and I think Shane wants to take credit for the idea of buying UFC,” Vince said. “Shane really thought that’s the way to go.

“So Shane, you take your money and put it in, which didn’t work. It wouldn’t work. Because it would take a huge investment and Shane only had a little bit [of money] so that’s not a good investment.”

Obviously, Shane always saw the potential in the UFC and the $ 4 billion sale along with the continued growth over the past few years proved the gamble would have paid off.

“Hindsight’s always 20/20,” Shane said. “I think it would have been an excellent investment.”

Funny enough, Endeavor ended up taking over WWE as well and then merged the organization with UFC under the current company name TKO Group Holdings. The new combined company was valued at over $ 21 billion at the time of the merger.

As for Vince, he eventually resigned from his post as TKO Group Holdings executive chairman after an inflammatory lawsuit was filed against him by an ex-employee accusing the mogul of sexual assault among other allegations. McMahon has since sold off a huge part of his stock in TKO Group Holdings, although he still remains a sizable shareholder in the company.

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Chase Hooper has his next assignment taking on 62-fight veteran Clay Guida in a lightweight matchup added to UFC 310, which takes place on Dec. 7 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Multiple people with knowledge of the promotion’s plans confirmed the news to MMA Fighting on Wednesday. News of the fight was first reported on Twitter on Tuesday.

Since returning to lightweight, Hooper has gone undefeated with three wins in a row including submission victories over both Viacheslav Borschev and Jordan Leavitt in his past two appearances. His return in December marks Hooper’s fifth anniversary with the UFC where he’s amassed a 6-3 record overall while becoming a favorite amongst fans.

As for Guida, the 42-year-old UFC mainstay returns to action for the first time in almost exactly a year after his last appearance in December 2023 ended with a decision loss to Joaquim Silva. That marked a second loss in a row for Guida after he also fell to Rafa Garcia in April 2023.

Overall, Guida has gone 2-3 in his past five bouts but the seemingly ageless lightweight never slows down and now he’ll look to get back on track against Hooper in December.

UFC 310 serves as the final pay-per-view card of the year for the promotion with a main event still to be determined.

Mike Heck contributed to this report.

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UFC Paris goes down this weekend, headlined by a lightweight fight between Benoit Saint Denis and Renato Moicano. Who will win this main event matchup, and what about the rest of the action on this 14-fight card? No Bets Barred breaks it all down.

This week, host Jed Meshew is joined by Mike Heck to discuss all the bouts taking place in the City of Light. Topics debated include Moicano’s prospects at upsetting Saint Denis, Brendan Allen’s continued rise up the middleweight ranks, a possibly ill-fated UFC debut, and which underdog are live on the undercard.

All that and more on this week’s episode.

Tune in for episode 101 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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UFC 306 at Sphere in Las Vegas may have been one of the most expensive cards to produce but the gamble paid off.

On Tuesday, TKO Group Holdings revealed that the event headlined by Sean O’Malley vs. Merab Dvalishvili ended up as the highest grossing card in UFC history across several major metrics.

First and foremost, UFC 306 produced a $ 22 million live gate, which smashed the previous record at $ 17.7 million when UFC 205 landed at Madison Square Garden in New York for the first time back in 2016. UFC CEO Dana White previously revealed that the show cost over $ 20 million to produce so the live gate alone covers those costs.

UFC 306 also served as the highest grossing single event held at Sphere since the massive $ 2.3 billion arena first opened in 2023.

Meanwhile, UFC 306 also produced the highest grossing sponsorship sales for the company, which included a marquee branding sponsorship with Riyadh Season — the Saudi Arabia funded celebration headed up by Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of the country’s General Entertainment Authority.

Additional records were set for the highest grossing sales for VIP experiences, which is handled through On Location — an event service company owned by Endeavor, the primary shareholder in TKO Group Holdings.

UFC also touted the event for having the highest grossing merchandise sales in company history as well.

Despite all the success produced by UFC 306 at Sphere, TKO Group Holdings’ executives and White have both said the event was “one and done.” While the cost to produce a show there plays some part in not returning to Sphere, the UFC also maintains an exclusive agreement with MGM properties in Las Vegas, which is why all major pay-per-views are held at T-Mobile Arena — an MGM owned venue.

It was only after MGM booked a Canelo Alvarez fight at T-Mobile Arena that same weekend that White was able to break free from that deal for the one-night only card held at Sphere, which is owned by the Dolan family — the same company that owns properties like Madison Square Garden and the NBA’s New York Knicks.

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Chris Eubank Jr. laid into Frank Warren, Eddie Hearn, and almost every other promoter in boxing Wednesday afternoon.

Eubank faces Kamil Szeremeta on the undercard of the upcoming Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol pay-per-view in October, but at the London press conference for the event, Eubank’s harshest words were for boxing promoters Frank Warren, Kalle Sauerland, and Eddie Hearn.

Back in July, the former IBO super-middleweight champion signed a promotional deal with Boxxer, eschewing some of the bigger promoters in the sport, and when asked about it, Eubank didn’t mince words.

“Why Boxxer? Because every other promoter out here is a scumbag,” Eubank said. “That’s why. You’ve got Frank Warren behind me, he’s been lying and cheating his way through boxing for the last couple decades, sued me for a couple hundred thousand a few years ago, so obviously I was never going to go with him. The guy is a scumbag.

“Kalle Sauerland [Eubank’s former promoter] had me locked up in a terrible contract for the last few years, squeezing money out of me at every opportunity. Scumbag.

“Eddie Hearn, Frank Smith, they did everything they could to try and make this fight against Conor Benn still go ahead after knowing that he was on steroids. Scumbags.

“I would say the only promoter that I know for sure isn’t a scumbag is his excellency Turki Alalshikh. This is a man who isn’t trying to take money from fighters. He isn’t trying to use lawyers and accountants to lock fighters up in slave contracts.”

Alalshikh is Chairman of the General Entertainment Authority of Saudi Arabia, and has invested significant funds into boxing in recent years, a move which his detractors claim serves to sportswash the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on the global stage.

Unsurprisingly, Warren — who was in attendance along with Hearn — did not take kindly to Eubank’s comments. Warren previously promoted Eubank and later sued him for breach of contract, and the British promoter said he’s ready to get his legal team involved again for Eubank’s inflammatory statements.

“The bottom line of it is, it was very simple, he was sued by me for a legal breach of a contract and I was successful in suing him and he paid substantial damages,” Warren told talkSPORT after the press conference. “What he can’t accept is what’s legal and what’s not. And as regarding what he’s just said, I’m going to keep it short and sweet: he’s gonna get sued again for the comments that he’s made publicly…

“He will be sued and he will have a problem over that and anybody else who says it, they can get in that queue.”

**UPDATE**

A few hours after the press conference, Eubank released a statement apologizing and retracting his comments. Warren simultaneously released a statement to the retraction, accepting Eubank’s apology.

“Following today’s press conference for the historic Riyadh Season event on October 12th, I would like to retract my inaccurate statements and offer my apologies to Frank Warren, Eddie Hearn and Kalle Sauerland,” Eubank said. “I now wish to focus purely on boxing and preparing for a huge fight in Riyadh next month.”

“I accept Chris’s apology and retraction. I too have said things before and apologize to him also if any criticism of him has upset him in the past,” Warren stated. “I look forward to seeing him compete on this huge Riyadh Season card. We look ahead to some potentially massive bouts in the future.”

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Aljamain Sterling started his MMA journey with Jon Jones, and was blown away — for multiple reasons — with the success of the now-UFC heavyweight champion.

Sterling and Jones went to college together early on before the former bantamweight champ transferred to a different school. After going through old school social media, “Funkmaster” saw Jones training in mixed martial arts and wondered how he could be a part of it. Sterling not only trained with Jones, but he also said that he would go out on the town with him, and was stunned to see Jones partying close to his fights in the octagon — and still winning convincingly.

“Suspect No. 1, and I got to see this first hand, was Jon Jones,” Sterling told Demetrious Johnson. “When we were in college together, and he was in the UFC, and I was still at school at Courtland… some way, some how, I messaged him on MySpace, and he’s training right down the f*cking block from my college. I hit him up like, ‘Yo, I see you doing the grappling stuff and the fighting, and I always thought it was cool. I think I could be good at this. Can I check it out? How do I check it out?’ He was like, ‘I’m training here,’ I was like, ‘Bro, I go to school right here.’ He was like, ‘Come down,’ so I came down and he was like… ‘Man, you’re not going to show up.’ I was like, alright, bet. I showed up the next day, and I haven’t stopped training since then.

“But I would see this man, a week before his fight, him at the bar… going nuts. In my head, I was like, no sex, no drinking, no smoking, and I just thought the way of [Mike] Tyson and [Muhammad] Ali and those guys. That’s what they said, don’t do it if you want to be a champion. I’m like, OK. And then I would see him and was like, I don’t get it — and then that weekend he would just murder a guy on International TV. I was like, ‘He’s doing something right.’”

Sterling recently moved up to featherweight after dropping the 135-pound title to Sean O’Malley at UFC 292 in August 2023. In his first appearance in a new weight class, Sterling dominated Calvin Kattar for a unanimous decision at UFC 300 in April. He was slated to face Movsar Evloev at UFC 307 next weekend, but an injury forced Sterling to withdraw.

After seeing Jones’ success, plus learning his body and himself over the many years of fighting at a high level, Sterling has found a system to enjoy training camp a little bit more than the absolute grind it can be at the gym on the road to a UFC fight.

“I went from cold turkey, to like six weeks — nothing changed in my fights,” Sterling said. “[Then it was] four weeks, and then I got to two weeks and it was like, ‘It’s all mental, baby.’ Just put the damn work in, and you’re good.”

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