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Brian Ortega is looking forward to finishing his story with Diego Lopes.

This Saturday, Ortega takes on Lopes in the featured main card fight of UFC 306. The two were originally supposed to face off in a featherweight bout at UFC 303 in June, however, Ortega struggled with his weight cut and the bout was changed to a lightweight contest the day before the event. Then, on the day of the event, Ortega was forced out of the event due to illness and instead, Lopes faced Dan Ige on just a few hours’ notice before winning a unanimous decision.

On Wednesday, Ortega spoke with reporters at UFC 306 media day, where he recounted how he felt that night watching Lopes compete.

“I was staying in the hotel room and we [watched the fights on TV],” Ortega explained. “I was laying in bed and I saw his fight and I was like, ‘Damn, that should have been me.’ But I also thought, ‘Well, come on, bro. Had that been you that night, you probably wouldn’t have won, the way you were feeling.’ Let’s just be honest. But it was a bittersweet moment, knowing I was there, almost made the weight, and we went through what we went through.

“I didn’t really want to pull out, but you have to make a choice. We made peace with it and that was it. But yeah, I had those feelings that we could have got this done with and moved on to the next.”

Ortega now has the chance to do just that this weekend. Following his win over Ige, Lopes called for this fight to be rebooked and for his part, “T-City” was all for it.

“I wasn’t reluctant at all,” Ortega said. “I have a fire lit underneath me because of what happened before. I got to do the whole weigh-ins, got to face off — we went through the motions and we started the story but we never finished it. Saturday we finish it finally. I don’t want to leave anyone with any doubt or anything of how this story ends.”

But while this story may end on Saturday, the journey will continue for Ortega. Before the Lopes fight was originally booked, Ortega had discussed moving up to lightweight and given the lay of the land at 145 pounds right now, the former two-time featherweight title challenger says that still may be the next chapter for him after Saturday.

“100 percent,” Ortega said when asked if he was still contemplating a move up to 155 pounds. “Because you’ve got [Ilia] Topuria and Max [Holloway] fighting in October. Then after that you’ve got whatever date they decide next year to fight [Alexander Volkanovski], so it’s like a line to fight for the belt.

“Depending how this fight goes this weekend, it’s going to determine whether the fans believe that I deserve another shot or not. But either/or, my goal is to stay busy and if there’s nothing for me in the featherweight division, then I’ll move up.”

UFC 306 takes place this Saturday at Sphere in Las Vegas with the bantamweight title fight between Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili headlining the event.

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Norma Dumont isn’t happy with UFC’s decisions at the top of the bantamweight division.

Raquel Pennington beat Mayra Bueno Silva to win the 135-pound championship in January and puts it on the line—for the first time nearly nine months—when she faces Julianna Peña in the co-main event of UFC 307 on Oct. 5. Peña hasn’t fought in 25 months, when she lost a title bout to Amanda Nunes.

At Saturday’s UFC 306 event in Las Vegas, Dumont faces Irene Aldana with the aim of extending her winning streak to five. Even then, she doesn’t expect her next bout to be for the belt.

“I highly doubt [I’m next] because of this ridiculous Julianna vs. Raquel fight,” Dumont said in an interview with MMA Fighting. “Julianna, for the love of God… Julianna was out for two-and-a-half years, running from everybody, and then was gifted this fight with Pennington. It’s going to be hard to watch.”

Peña was the only woman to beat Nunes during her run as UFC champion, submitting “The Lioness” in 2021 but then losing the rematch. Dumont doesn’t think anyone should put too much stock on Peña’s feat to begin with.

“Not taking any merit away from Julianna, but Amanda wasn’t well that night,” Dumont said. “Amanda came back and put a beating on her. That was a beating for five people and Julianna took everything by herself. She was licking her wounds for two-and-a-half years and was still rewarded with a title shot? Come on, man. Why not give it to Irene then, who also got beat up by Amanda but at least stayed on the feet for five rounds, at least trying to threaten until the very end? And came back to beat Karol Rosa? Nah, give to Julianna, who went hiding for two-and-a-half years.”

“I think Pennington wins for being more complete and being tougher than Julianna,” she continued. “The winner of Kayla Harrison vs. Ketlen [Vieira at UFC 307] makes sense for the next in line because [the UFC] put Kayla right there even though she has only beaten an over-the-hill [Holly Holm]. But she’s American, she’s an Olympic champion, and we know how the game works. We’ll have to fight through that. Or maybe Ketlen wins and they finally give her the shot. No way she beats Kayla and they don’t do it, right? But I don’t expect her to win because of the matchup. They have similar styles but Kayla is much stronger and larger than her.”

Dumont is confident that she will win against Aldana and ultimately fight once again to enter the discussion for gold. She predicts that Pennington beats Peña and then faces Harrison, with the two-time Olympic gold medalist emerging victorious.

“And then I’ll probably fight Julianna or Ketlen next,” Dumont said. “Or maybe Macy [Chiasson]. But since we already fought — although it was at 145 [pounds], I don’t know if they would do it again. There’s no other fight for me than the belt if I beat [Aldana and then] one of these three, Julianna, Macy or Ketlen. Kayla will have nowhere to hide, she will have to fight me.”

Dumont said she hopes to be paired up against Peña in early 2025, and advises Peña to reconsider her fighting career if she’s against that idea.

“Go away and retire already,” Dumont said. “Julianna is the one I would really like to put a beating on. I don’t like Julianna, and it would super interesting for me. Macy and Ketlen, that would be just work.”

Aldana is standing in her way to the top, though Dumont isn’t worried about possibly dealing with enemy territory vibes at Sphere, with the UFC celebrating Mexican Independence Day that night.

“It obviously is a tribute to Mexicans but it’s in Las Vegas, and Las Vegas is my home,” Dumont said. “I fought eight times in Las Vegas and never lost. I agreed to fight her in Mexico City earlier this year so I don’t care. I’m fighting Irene, not the crowd, so I’m even more comfortable fighting in Vegas. I’m just knocking off the obstacles on my way to get where I want: the belt. The UFC is pushing me closer to the top and everybody’s prey to be there, and I’m on a hunt.”

Dumont has won her past four fights via decision, including a recent victory over ex-UFC featherweight champion Germaine de Randamie, while Aldana rebounded from a title bout loss to Nunes with a unanimous decision against Karol Rosa in late 2023. Aldana has never been finished in 13 octagon appearances, and Dumont won’t give away her strategy.

“It’s state secret,” Dumont said with a laugh. “There’s a lot of Brazilians on her team watching my Instagram. I saw them the day this fight got booked. I see you all, every day [laughs]. But I have the skills to beat Irene everywhere, both on the feet and on the ground. Irene has good boxing and heavy hands, but she has holes on her striking, against the cage, and holes on the ground. We’ll exploit that with all my weapons to beat her.”

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Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili didn’t get the chance to get too close following the UFC 306 pre-fight press conference because both champion and challenger had plenty to say.

Following a lively question and answer session on stage, O’Malley removed his jacket — the same one that Dvalishvili took from him back at UFC 288 — and he marched towards his opponent with UFC CEO Dana White making sure nobody got too close.

O’Malley immediately began shouting at Dvalishvili and it appeared he was promising to deliver a knockout, which is the same prediction he gave during the press conference.

“I think I’m going to get it done the way I always get it done,” O’Malley said about the way he plans to finish Dvalishvili. “I’m going to put this dude face first.”

Later in the press conference when O’Malley said that he needed a knockout to move closer to an eventual crossover into boxing with a potential fight against Gervonta “Tank” Davis, it was Dvalishvili who answered back.

“Keep dreaming,” Dvalisvhili shouted. “Nobody knocked me out yet. Keep dreaming Sean O’Malley. You don’t knock out Chito Vera [in your last fight].”

That earned him a snide response from O’Malley with a reminder about how he won the bantamweight title from Dvalishvili’s friend and teammate Aljamain Sterling.

“I did knock out Aljo though, didn’t I?” O’Malley said. “That was lucky as f*ck. I keep getting lucky. It’s crazy. Every fight I get lucky.. Somehow, some way, I get lucky.”

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Demetrious Johnson is widely considered one of the greatest mixed martial artists of all time but he recently decided to end his career after announcing his retirement at the ONE Championship event in Denver on Sept. 6.

It was an emotional moment for the former UFC flyweight champion after spending the past 15 years as a professional fighter but it seemed like it was only a matter of time before Johnson called it a career. After settling a trilogy with Adriano Moraes to win and defend his ONE flyweight title, Johnson started hinting that retirement was likely coming soon for him as he began turning his attention towards Brazilian jiu-jitsu competitions and building his profile outside of the ring with his podcasts and other endeavors.

While he fought back the tears when making his announcement that he was retiring, Johnson already had his mind made up well ahead of that event in Denver. It turns out, Johnson’s passion for the sport started to diminish and that was the only reason he needed to hang up his gloves for good.

“I’m not going to fight anymore,” Johnson told UFC contender Merab Dvalishvili on his podcast, which was recorded prior to his announcement. “The reason why — I don’t find mixed martial arts fun anymore. The reason why, I find more fulfillment in doing jiu-jitsu because I feel it’s harder. I find more fulfillment in helping and training with different people.”

Throughout his career in the UFC, WEC and ONE Championship, Johnson called AMC Pankration in Washington his home while working under the tutelage of head coach Matt Hume. While training there obviously paid off, Johnson also wanted the chance to branch out and work with different fighters but that opportunity was limited while he was still in the middle of his career.

Now that he’s retired, Johnson expects that he’ll be able to travel anywhere he wants and work with a wide variety of coaches and fighters because he’s no longer looking over his shoulder at a potential future opponent sharing the mat with him.

“I train with [Aljamain Sterling], I train with Mikey Musumeci, I like to train with people,” Johnson explained. “Because if I ever feel like I want to feel Merab’s gas tank, I want to see how good he is, I want to feel his strength. The only way that would ever happen is if me and you were to fight each other. If I was a professional athlete, it would just never happen.

“But if I’m like I don’t care about winning, I don’t care about ever having the opportunity to fight you, ‘hey Merab, can I come train with you?’ ‘Yeah, Demetrious come train, let’s train’ and when we train together you’re not going to have like ‘I need to beat you, you’re trying to learn from me.’”

Just because he isn’t fighting doesn’t mean that Johnson is going to stop being a martial artist.

He’s competed in numerous grappling events over the past year and it appears Johnson is anxious to keep that momentum going now that he’s retired.

Johnson also sounds excited to add more weapons to his arsenal working alongside some of the best athletes in the world because he’s no longer interested in fighting any of them.

“I’ve never trained outside of training camp when I would fight,” Johnson said. “Now, next time I’m in Vegas ‘you’re done fighting, let’s train together.’ I’ll get more fulfillment from training with random athletes from my era than continuing to fight in mixed martial arts. That’s how I feel.”

Johnson retired with a laundry list of accomplishments on his record including title reigns in both the UFC and ONE not to mention serving as the longest reigning champion in UFC history after defending his title 11 consecutive times.

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The UFC 306 press conference will have every single fighter from Saturday’s much-anticipated event at the Sphere in Las Vegas, Nev.

The UFC 306 press conference is expected to begin at 10 p.m. ET.

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On the fourth episode of UFC 306 Embedded, bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley arrives in Las Vegas, women’s flyweight champion Alexa Grasso fulfills her media obligations, welterweight champion Belal Muhammad supports his training partner Ignacio Bahamondes, , Merab Dvalishvili corners his friend on Contender Series, Daniel Zellhuber visits with his family, and more.

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Germaine de Randamie is out of UFC Paris.

De Randamie was scheduled to face Nora Cornolle in a women’s bantamweight contest at UFC Paris on Sept. 28 at Accor Arena, however, on Thursday, “The IronLady” announced she was forced to withdraw from the event due to injury.

“Hi guys,

“I’m so heartbroken to inform you that I had to pull out of my fight September 28th in Paris. Two weeks ago in training I broke my finger and fractured my foot. The doctors told me I couldn’t train for at least 3 weeks. Knowing I had only 5 weeks left, my team and I decided to pull us out, because we didn’t wanna take a risk and put one hell of a dogfight for you guys. I’m especially heartbroken because I’m coming close to the end of my fighting career and wanted to give this to my friends and family who planned to be [in attendance] in the arena. I had a plan but god decided differently this time. I will be back in the gym as soon as the doctor gives me green light. And I truly hope the UFC will give me my fight before the end of the year. Thank you for all your support and kind words. I will be back and do what I have planned to do. ‘DIE WITH MEMORIES, NOT DREAMS.’”

An accomplished kickboxer before transitioning to MMA, de Randamie was the inaugural UFC women’s featherweight champion, beating Holly Holm for the belt back at UFC 208. De Randamie was later stripped of the title by the promotion after refusing to fight Cris Cyborg and returning to the bantamweight division. She would go on to challenge Amanda Nunes for the bantamweight title, losing via unanimous decision in 2019. Most recently, de Randamie ended a three year hiatus from competition by returning against Norma Dumont at UFC Vegas 90, where she lost via unanimous decision.

With de Randamie out, Jacqueline Cavalcanti is expected to replace her in the fight against Cornolle on Sept. 28. Multiple people with knowledge of the promotion’s plans confirmed the news to MMA Fighting on Thursday following an initial report from AG Fight.

Cavalcanti accepts the fight after going 2-0 to start her UFC career including wins over Zarah Fairn and Josiane Nunes. Now she clashes with Cornolle as part of the UFC’s return to Paris.

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The fight night weights for the athletes who competed at Bellator San Diego have been revealed by the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC)

In an effort to cut down on extreme weight cutting, the CSAC started tracking fluctuations between the time when the fighters set foot on the scale and then compete just 24 hours later. Any variance over 10 percent of overall body weight gets flagged as a potential suggestion for athletes to consider changing weight classes in the future.

All told there were 10 total athletes from the Bellator San Diego card who broke that threshold including lightweight champion Usman Nurmagomedov and his opponent Alexander Shabliy.

Nurmagomedov hit the scale at 154.8 pounds on Friday and weighed 173.6 pounds on fight night — 18.8 pounds higher, which was a 12-percent gain.

As for Shabliy, he actually gained just slightly more weight after making the lightweight limit for the title fight at 154.8 pounds and then gaining 19.2 pounds to weigh 174 pounds when he competed on Saturday night. That was also within range for a 12-percent weight gain.

The fight itself went in Nurmagomedov’s favor with the undefeated Russian putting on a dominant performance to win a unanimous decision.

The co-main event fighters also saw some of the biggest weight gains on the card with Lorenz Larkin weighing 170.4 pounds on Friday and then gaining 18.4 pounds to weigh 188.8 pounds on Saturday night. His opponent Levan Chokheli hit the scale at 170.8 pounds and ultimately came into the fight at 189 pounds after gaining 18.2 pounds overnight.

Larkin scored a highlight reel knockout to cement himself as the No. 1 contender in the Bellator welterweight division.

Here are the full fight night weights for Bellator San Diego along with the percentage of weight gain, per the CSAC

Usman Nurmagomedov (154.8 to 173.6 pounds = 12 percent) vs. Alexander Shabliy (154.8 to 174 pounds = 12 percent)

Lorenz Larkin (170.4 to 188.8 pounds = 11 percent) vs. Levan Chokheli (170.8 to 189 pounds = 11 percent)

Aaron Jeffery (184.4 to 201.6 pounds = 9 percent) vs. Douglas Lima (184.6 to 189.9 pounds = 3 percent)

Mackenzie Stiller (125.2 to 131.8 pounds = 5 percent) vs. Sumiko Inaba (125.2 to 135.6 pounds = 8 percent)

Zhora Aivazian (155.4 to 169.2 pounds = 9 percent) vs. Yancy Medeiros (155.2 to 177 pounds = 14 percent)

Imamshavi Aliev (185 to 208.2 pounds = 13 percent) vs. Jordan Newman (185.2 to 192 pounds = 4 percent)

Herman Terrado (170.4 to 195.8 pounds = 15 percent) vs. Masayuki Kikuiri (169 to 181.8 pounds = 8 percent)

John MaCalolooy (134.8 to 146.4 pounds = 9 percent) vs. Bryce Meredith (135.8 to 153 pounds = 13 percent)

Josh Hokit (242.2 to 243.6 pounds = 1 percent) vs. Sean Rose (264.8 to 272.4 pounds = 3 percent)

Aysia Cortez (116 to 131 pounds = 13 percent) vs. Ashley Thiner (115 to 135.8 pounds = 18 percent)

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Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili will finally lock horns in the main event of UFC 306 this Saturday at Sphere in Las Vegas for the UFC bantamweight title. O’Malley is already ascending to becoming one of the top stars in the company, and if he wins, the rockets will likely be strapped to him on the way to superstardom. Will the same happen with Dvalishvili if he wins?

On an all-new edition of Between the Links, On an all-new edition of Between the Links, On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel discuses the highly anticipated main event between O’Malley and Dvalishvili, where the winner goes, and what it does for their respective careers. Additionally, topics may include the expectations for the UFC’s one-and-done at Sphere, if they can be reached, the co-main event between Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko, Sean Brady and Usman Nurmagomedov’s big wins at UFC Vegas 97 and Bellator San Diego, and more.

Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting’s Jed Meshew and Morning Kombat’s Luke 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.

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Merab Dvalishvili promises emotions aren’t getting the better of him ahead of UFC 306.

In the days and weeks leading up to his first ever shot at gold in the UFC, Dvalishvili has taken aim at both Sean O’Malley and his head coach Tim Welch while going as far as vowing to dish out a beatdown if he saw them in public. While his grudge against Welch went deeper than any single comment made, Dvalishvili explained on Wednesday that his biggest beef with O’Malley really came down to a post he made on social media.

In that instance, O’Malley dropped a message on Twitter saying “Are all Georgians runts?” while tagging Dvalishvili and UFC featherweight champion Ilia Topuria, who both hail from the tiny Eastern European country. That insult didn’t sit well with Dvalishvili and he was admittedly irate at the time.

“It’s not personal,” Dvalishvili said during UFC 306 media day. “This is a professional fight. This is for a UFC belt. This is for legacy. Yes, I was mad about him a couple of times. I was very mad when he mentioned my country in a disrespectful way. Because my country, it’s more than religion for me. I have my country [in my heart], that’s why I start fighting. Because I want to represent my country.

“This is a healthy competition. That’s all we do. Then when somebody, it doesn’t matter who, disrespects your family or your country, you have to be mad. If you are a man, you have to be mad and I wanted to smack his face that time.”

Despite his ill feelings towards O’Malley in that moment, Dvalisvhili says he’s setting his emotions to the side to concentrate on the fight because ultimately that’s all that matters.

As much as O’Malley’s comments about Georgia angered him, the 33-year-old bantamweight contender knows that he needs to be devoid of emotions come Saturday night.

Dvalishvili won’t let O’Malley’s words rattle him ahead of the biggest fight of his career but he’s willing to chat with his rival afterwards to settle whatever grievances they may still share.

“Now I have an even more important thing to beat him Saturday night and grab his belt, take his belt and I can talk after the fight,” Dvalishvili said. “Maybe I can forgive him or we can just talk.

“I’m going to keep it that way. I want to just win and show him he has to be humble and he has to respect everybody. Now today how I feel, it’s nothing personal, it’s just professional.”

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