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Bellator champion Usman Nurmagomedov continues to stake his own claim as one of MMA’s best lightweights, but even he touts teammate Islam Makhachev as the king of the division.

Ahead of his return at Bellator San Diego on Saturday, Nurmagomedov actually put himself No. 2 when asked where he sits among the best 155-pound fighters on the planet. The undefeated 26-year-old knows he still has work to do when it comes to defining his own title reign, which continues with his looming defense against Alexandr Shabliy.

Makhachev—No. 1 on MMA Fighting’s Pound-for-Pound list—has been running roughshod over his UFC competition, rattling off 14 straight wins and three consecutive title defenses, so Nurmagomedov has no problem deferring to his longtime friend and training partner.

“Because Islam is No. 1,” Nurmagomedov told MMA Fighting when asked why he puts Makhachev ahead of himself. “Just look at him. This is pound-for-pound No. 1 king. It’s true.”

That final statement about Makhachev’s standing as the top pound-for-pound fighter shouldn’t come as a surprise given the run he’s on lately, but it’s safe to say UFC CEO Dana White would disagree.

White has spent months touting Jon Jones as MMA’s best pound-for-pound fighter and even went as far as releasing a promo video on Tuesday specifically to praise the long list of accomplishments that belong to the reigning UFC heavyweight champion.

For his part, Nurmagomedov certainly isn’t going to dispute Jones’ greatness but he still feels like Makhachev deserves recognition in the pound-for-pound rankings right now.

“For this time, now, Islam is No. 1 for sure,” Nurmagomedov said. “But of course Jon Jones, this is a legend. Nobody is saying he’s not a legend. Jon Jones is a legend. I grew up watching his fights. I love his style. I love his mentality. This guy is tough. But of course you’re talking about this time, you’re not talking about the past.

“We’re talking about now, and for me, people have different opinions. Dana White has his opinion, you have your opinion. This is good. This is not something bad.”

Makhachev has been a huge part of Nurmagomedov’s own evolution as a fighter, which has served as a tremendous help as he readies for Shabliy this weekend.

While he doesn’t discount the danger that Shabliy represents, Nurmagomedov can’t imagine he’s going to face anything like he does going up against Makhachev in the gym.

“Islam is a different level,” Nurmagomedov said. “He’s very tough. When you work with Islam and when you feel how you work with him, what you can do, what you cannot do, you understand in your mind this guy is No. 1 in the world. Nobody can beat him. No one.

“You give him good rounds, sometimes good, I think this makes me and other guys that train with Islam mentally strong. I don’t think Shabliy can give me some rounds better than Islam gives me. I don’t think he can push me like Islam pushes me.”

If Makhachev’s presence wasn’t enough to swing the pendulum in his favor, Nurmagomedov landed another bonus with his cousin and UFC legend Khabib Nurmagomedov also returning to coach him full-time after taking a brief break from MMA to focus on his family and other businesses.

Usman confirmed Khabib will corner him against Shabliy on Saturday, and that his return has been a welcome addition to the team, not just for Usman, but also for Makhachev, his brother Umar Nurmagomedov, and everybody else associated with them.

“I would say that Khabib is the greatest person in MMA in general,” Nurmagomedov said. “When you’re talking about whether it’s being an athlete himself as a fighter, because he had the best opponents out there, he’s done an amazing defending his title. Also, he trained with Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, that’s his father, who was an amazing trainer. He trained a lot of guys, including myself, and obviously Khabib was doing the training. So now he’s staying as a trainer himself.

“Combining all of his experience together as a coach, as a fighter, working with his father, and just the amount of experience that he gathered is just tremendous. Nobody has it in the MMA world in general. There are coaches, there are fighters, but he combines everything. Having him in the corner, that’s a big support, and you feel that influence and overall he’s very valuable and most important member of our team.”

It all adds up to Nurmagomedov expecting another shutout performance and he doesn’t give Shabliy much chance to pull off the upset.

“I’m ready,” Nurmagomedov said. “This is only what I can say. Sometimes a lucky punch [can happen], but if not, these things, this guy never can beat me. Not only him, nobody can beat me.”

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Jeremy Stephens has a sordid history with Conor McGregor dating back to their infamous exchange ahead of UFC 205 in 2016, but they may get to settle their beef with no gloves on.

The incident that sparked the rivalry took place during a pre-fight press conference after McGregor was asked about the hardest fight available to him of the many athletes seated on the dais. Stephens immediately piped up and promised he was the toughest challenge as the hardest-hitting featherweight whose punches produced knockouts where “people don’t f*cking move.”

Always quick on the microphone, McGregor answered back, “Who the f*ck is that guy?” which was followed by a loud roar from the New York audience. Now almost eight years later, Stephens is about to make his second appearance as a bare-knuckle fighter at BKFC 65 on Friday, and McGregor is a co-owner after making a significant financial investment in the promotion.

It’s almost as if fate brought them back together again.

“I got a boss now in Conor McGregor, who is writing my checks,” Stephens told MMA Fighting. “I could potentially be fighting my own boss! There’s a lot of people out there who want that Conor fight, but if he was ever to come over to bare-knuckle, I’m on a hot streak, get the ball f*cking rolling. I would love to be that f*cking guy to welcome him to bare-knuckle.

“I don’t get tired. I can take a f*cking shot. I’ve been in the f*cking game. I would love to max out that opportunity and put myself into those opportunities. Day by day, brick by brick, it will come.”

As much as he enjoyed the war of words he shared with McGregor, which eventually escalated into some viral social media posts as well, Stephens actually gives credit to the former two-division UFC champion for believing in bare-knuckle boxing.

Since he became a co-owner in BKFC, McGregor has spread the word with social media posts sent out to his millions of followers and he’s even attended live events, which always brings more eyeballs because of his immeasurable influence and star power.

Rivalry aside, Stephens is happy McGregor got involved with BKFC at that level.

“Honestly, [I’m] grateful,” Stephens said. “Anything Conor touches turns to gold. A lot of eyes on Conor. Conor is the type of guy that would get into bare-knuckle. I believe it. He’s from the streets as well and I’m sure he’s been in some bare-knuckle [fights] before getting there. He believes in it. It takes a lot of psychotic skills. If we can sign up more guys like me, him, and I think bare-knuckle is big, big business.”

Of course, McGregor has often touted his interest in eventually competing in a bare-knuckle fight before his career is over. Right now, McGregor sits with two bout left on his current UFC contract and he’s still planning on an eventual showdown against Michael Chandler when he finally returns to action.

Whether it’s now or later, Stephens would love the chance to throw down with McGregor in the bare-knuckle ring to finally settle their unfinished business from 2016.

“Perfect story, but honestly credit to Conor and all that, but if he ever got in there with me, I’d break his f*cking neck,” Stephens said. “I’d get a big f*cking fat check that would just relieve all my anxiety that I get to go in there and plaster someone like him. In due time.

“My performances speak for themselves. I continue to get better. This is what f*cking 38 looks like. I’m not on f*cking drugs. I’m not out here breaking my bones or this and that. I’ve continued to stay healthy. I’ve continued to put myself into position. If that ever came, I’d break his f*cking neck and I’d put him out. Bare-knuckle would be the spot to do it.”

For his part, McGregor definitely seems open to the idea after touting the upcoming BKFC 65 card on Instagram, along with a friendly reminder about that press conference he shared with Stephens back in the day.

“In our co-main event also we have ‘who the f*ck is that guy’ facing off again against Bobby Taylor,” McGregor wrote. “Me and “who the f*ck” is an exciting bare knuckle fight down the line 100 percent.”

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Yuneisy Duben was the breakout star at Tuesday’s Contender Series event, and according to her new boss, she needed a win as much as anyone.

That win came in the form of a spectacular one-punch knockout as Duben (6-0, 1 NC) defeated the massively favored Shannon Clark (5-1) in just 73 seconds. UFC CEO Dana White told reporters after the show that Duben faced incredible financial struggles ahead of her Contender Series fight, to the point that the 28-year-old prospect needed an assist from UFC staff during the week just to make it to fight night.

“The biggest upset in the history of the Contender Series,” White said. “[UFC matchmaker] Mick [Maynard] was telling us that he was going through his text chain with her and her people, she almost didn’t come. She has no money.

“She doesn’t have a dollar to her name right now. … Her per diem got messed up and all this stuff, so the staff had to go grocery shopping for her, and then she comes in and does that. Let me tell you what, she ain’t broke now.”

White confirmed that in addition to receiving a UFC contract, he also gave Duben a bonus check for her performance. The bonus amount was not disclosed.

A native of Venezuela currently fighting out of Peru, Duben described herself as coming from humble beginnings in her own media scrum following Tuesday’s event. She has been working since the age of 12 to provide for herself and her family as well as to fund her MMA training, and mentioned that she has had equipment donated to her in the past.

Duben was grateful to UFC staff and to her faith for helping her get to this point in her career.

“It was really impactful when it happened,” Duben said of the staff’s kind gesture. “But at the same time, I basically said, ‘I’m going to do it. It doesn’t matter. I’m going to fight, I’m going to make it, I’m going to go out there, I’m going to shine. This night is mine and I’m going to make it happen.’ I think that who I have to thank is God. Whatever needed to happen for me to be here happened and that’s how I believe it happened.”

That single-mindedness is what drove Duben to power through her fight with Clark, who was as high as a 13-to-1 favorite according to White.

As Duben tells it, she didn’t even go through the usual pre-fight routine of sparring or warming up before walking out to the UFC APEX cage. Instead, she focused on the vision of her landing a knockout punch, an idea that proved to be prophetic.

“That’s exactly what was happening,” Duben said. “I was saying, ‘I’m going to do it.’ Not just here, when we were here, but all throughout. I was dreaming, I was visualizing, I was envisioning this happening, that I was going to do it, that I was going to do it that way. Back when we were warming up, the same thing, I would raise my hand. This is what’s going to happen, I’m going to come out victorious, this red corner is going to win, and it happened.”

Watch Duben’s post-fight media scrum below, courtesy of Amy Kaplan MMA.

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With a $ 20 million investment, UFC 306 at the Sphere in Las Vegas promises to look different from every other card the promotion has produced.

The ambitious endeavor serves as the first live sporting event at the massive $ 2.3 billion arena that boasts wraparound LED screens throughout the entire arena, with 16K resolution along with immersive sound for those in attendance. UFC CEO Dana White made it his mission to take a card to the Sphere after attending a U2 concert at the arena alongside NFL legend Tom Brady.

The timing worked out for the event in September largely due to a dispute between UFC and MGM, who have an overall deal for shows in Las Vegas, with all other major cards taking place at the T-Mobile Arena. After MGM signed a deal with boxer Canelo Alvarez for his fight on Sept. 14 at T-Mobile Arena, UFC was able to strike with the show at the Sphere, which is owned by the same company behind Madison Square Garden in New York.

After securing the venue, UFC began planning an elaborate production centered around Mexican Independence Day and working with director Glenn Weiss, who produces live events like the Oscars and the Emmys.

One of the biggest differences for UFC 306 are a set of six short films that are set to air between fights that celebrate Mexico’s contribution to combat sports. Producer and director Carlos Lopez Estrada helped produce the short films, which run approximately 90 seconds each, and the vignettes will air between each fight on the main card.

“At the highest level, we were trying to think about, how do we put on a live MMA fight — 10 fights throughout the night — and not take away from the fight action, not take too much time in between fights where we slow things down, but also tell this other story about the Mexican people and their heritage and their culture, because it’s rich and it’s deep,” UFC chief content officer Craig Borsari told The Hollywood Reporter.

In addition to the six short films airing during UFC 306, Borsari also revealed that each fight takes place in a different “world,” with images projected onto the massive curved LED screen on the inside of the arena.

“Those would be our main drivers for storytelling, everything that Dana wanted to get across … those films then transition into what we’re calling these worlds, which is like these environments that take up the entire LED screen, that then the fights sit within,” Borsari explained.

“So there’s what we call a film and a world and an act. So there’s these acts that take you through the entire night, and we tell the story within those acts.”

The immense cost along with UFC’s existing relationship with MGM likely make the event at the Sphere a one-time only project. White revealed that UFC typically spends around $ 2 million for the average pay-per-view and the budget for the card at the Sphere was originally $ 8 million.

Now, with the fights just days away, UFC has invested more than $ 20 million to realize White’s dream to bring an event to the Sphere.

“I said, ‘I’m doing this.’ I didn’t give a shit what the budget was, I’m doing this,” White said. “I truly believe that this is going to be a game-changer, where sports and entertainment truly come together for the first time ever. And I think a lot of other people are going to see this, and I think they’re going to start to changing the way they build these arenas.

“Right now, this is a one and done. We have a deal with MGM, so I have to go back to T-Mobile and do that. But who knows. This was never supposed to happen this year. This wasn’t on our books. This was never planned. But I guarantee you this, if some new technology pops up, I guarantee you I will be first.”

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Ovince Saint Preux and Ryan Spann are giving it another try.

The light heavyweight veterans have been rescheduled to meet at UFC 307 following the cancellation of their UFC Vegas 97 bout, sources close to the situation confirmed to MMA Fighting’s Damon Martin. Saint Preux was scratched from the original matchup on Thursday due to illness, resulting in UFC Vegas 97 proceeding forward with a 12-fight lineup.

A one-time UFC interim title challenger, Saint Preux (27-17) recently rebounded from a tough career stretch to win two of his past three octagon appearances, sandwiching split decisions over Mauricio Rua and Kennedy Nzechukwu between a 49-second knockout loss to Philipe Lins.

Spann (21-10) remains in the midst of a difficult run of his own. The 33-year-old Contender Series product has dropped three straight bouts at the hands of Nikita Krylov, Anthony Smith, and Bogdan Guskov, the last of which ended via second-round knockout.

UFC 307 takes place Oct. 5 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City. UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira seeks to defend his belt against Khalil Rountree Jr. in the main event.

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Jiu-jitsu legend Marcus Buchecha wants to get back in the ONE Championship cage but says the promotion is not offering him fights.

A 13-time IBJJF world champion and two-time ADCC gold medalist, Buchecha hasn’t competed for the Asia-based promotion since August 2023, when he lost a decision in a wild brawl with “Reug Reug” Oumar Kane.

Buchecha was 4-0 in MMA prior to that with four first-round stoppages under the ONE banner over Anderson “Braddock” Silva, Ji Won Kang, Simon Carson, and Kirill Grishenko.

“A lot of people are asking me lately if I retired,” Buchecha wrote on social media. “The answer is of course not, the reason I’m not fighting it’s not my choice, I’ve been out waiting for a fight for almost one year but I don’t have luck getting a fight, that’s the reason I’m away from cage or the mats.

“The right question you should ask me is when I’m fighting again? But right now I’m asking to some people the same thing, to be more precise 13 months. It’s been 13 months of waiting, to be in a situation like that it’s sucks, I don’t wish this to anybody! So if you want this answer, you know who to ask and tag ONE Championship.”

Fellow American Top Team fighters reacted in the comment section asking ONE to give him a fight, and ATT coach Marcos Parrumpa went a step further to call ONE Championship the “worst show ever.”

“Please release him,” Parrumpa wrote. “We want to see him in a good show.”

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The UFC 306 broadcast team is set for the historic event at the Sphere in Las Vegas, with plans to celebrate Mexican Independence Day throughout the night.

After missing out on UFC 305 in Australia because he doesn’t travel to international cards, Joe Rogan returns to serve as color commentator alongside UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier. Like usual, Jon Anik handles play-by-play duties for the event.

In the arena, Megan Olivi handles reporting with Din Thomas serving as the sideline coach throughout the broadcast on ESPN’s networks, including the ESPN+ pay-per-view.

UFC officials confirmed the broadcast plans to MMA Fighting on Thursday.

While the broadcast team is largely the same for every major pay-per-view event, this card isn’t the typical UFC show, as elaborate plans for production are being built around the Sphere.

With massive LED screens surrounding the circular arena, the UFC production team in coordination with ESPN plans to roll out a much different look for the pay-per-view that kicks off next Saturday night from Las Vegas.

The fights on the card will also feature different backgrounds throughout the show, with the LED screens being utilized even when the action is taking place inside the octagon.

UFC CEO Dana White revealed recently that the promotion has invested more than $ 20 million for the event, which is an unprecedented investment for a single pay-per-view. It’s likely this is the first and only card that UFC will produce at the Sphere as the company still maintains a relationship with MGM, who owns and operates the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

UFC 306 is headlined by a pair of title fights as Sean O’Malley defends his bantamweight championship against Merab Dvalishvili, and Alexa Grasso faces off with Valentina Shevchenko with the flyweight title on the line in the co-main event.

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A past winner of The Ultimate Fighter will compete in a familiar building in November.

Multiple people with knowledge of the promotion’s plans confirmed to MMA Fighting that a bantamweight bout between Ricky Turcios and Bernardo Sopai is set for the UFC’s Fight Night event on Nov. 9 at the UFC APEX in Las Vegas.

Turcios, the bantamweight winner of TUF 29 in 2021, makes his fifth walk to the octagon, and hopes to get back to his winning ways. In his most recent outing, Turcios was submitted by Raul Rosas Jr. in the second round at June’s UFC Louisville event. That was Turcios’ first fight since a win over Kevin Natividad in November 2022.

Sopai is searching for his first UFC victory. In his promotional debut, the 23-year-old was on the receiving end of one of the most vicious knockouts of the year when he was stopped via flying knee by Vinicius Oliveira at UFC Vegas 87 in March.

Damon Martin contributed to this report.

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Just when you thought the Dana White promotional push of Jon Jones’ UFC greatness would slow down a touch, it got taken to another level this week with a promo dedicated to Jones being the greatest fighter in the promotion’s history. Was this a move that should be taken as a positive one, or negative?

On an all-new episode of Between the Links, the panel reacts to the airing of the Jones promo during Tuesday’s edition of DWCS, how White has been handling the situation, along with the UFC heavyweight champ. Additionally, topics include Alex Pereira teasing a move to middleweight to fight Dricus du Plessis after his UFC 307 main event with Khalil Rountree Jr., Shavkat Rakhmonov claiming Belal Muhammad declined a title fight for October, and the back-and-forth continuing between the two, the UFC bringing UFC Vegas 97 headlined by Gilbert Burns vs. Sean Brady, while Bellator counters with Bellator San Diego with a lightweight title fight between Usman Nurmagomedov and Alexander Shabily, and more.

Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting’s Jed Meshew and Shaun Al-Shatti.

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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When BKFC flyweight champion Christine Ferea got a call almost a decade ago about participating in a brain health study involving fighters, she was just looking for some quick cash.

At the time, she was struggling to make ends meet, so the promise of an extra few hundred dollars just to get an MRI and some other scans done by the Cleveland Clinic sounded like a great deal. Little did she know that the brain health study provided her with so much insight that she’s remained part of the program ever since, undergoing yearly updates provided by her doctors to ensure she’s still cognitively fit to compete.

“I didn’t know what it was at first, and I went in and they do a brain scan on you, and it lets you know if your cognitive [function] is getting messed up, if your brain is damaged from the hits,” Ferea told MMA Fighting. “The first one is like a two-hour scan, and then every three years they do the two-hour scan, and then I do [another scan] every year.

“They let me know if I’m cognitively declining, if my brain is declining, if there’s brain damage accumulating. They do several cognitive tests, balance, so many different things to make sure [I’m healthy].”

Ferea admits she didn’t really concern herself with long-term health when she first became involved with fighting because she was just doing something that she loved. She also displayed incredible heart and durability during many of her fights across several combat sports, but that also meant she took a lot of damage along the way.

Once she got involved with the brain health study, Ferea started to see the benefits of understanding what effect the repeated blows to the head were having on her. It was a wake-up call that serves as a constant reminder that she can’t fight forever.

“Now I don’t have to wonder,” Ferea explained. “Am I getting messed up? Am I taking too many hits? How am I going to affected down the road? Because I have a meeting with the doctor after every MRI and the cognitive [testing] and all that kind of testing, and then they read the results, and then I meet with him right after. He runs down everything for me, he’ll tell me. I trust him. It’s good not to wonder what I’m doing to my brain every year.

“If I’m starting to decline, I’m quitting. Period. I’m not messing with my brain. If I break bones, if my back hurts, my shoulder, if that hurts I still care about that, but not as much as my brain.”

Ferea’s commitment to the study is so strong that she’s already planning on donating her brain to science after her death because there’s so much information that doctors can only retrieve post-mortem.

In particular, chronic traumatic encephalopathy — better known as CTE — can only be detected in examinations done during an autopsy.

“I definitely will give my brain to the study,” Ferea said. “It’s not like I need to keep it or anyone else needs to keep it.”

While long-term brain health has remained incredibly important to her, especially after getting involved with Cleveland Clinic, Ferea dealt with a situation recently that hit a little too close to home.

Back in May, Ferea was scheduled to face former boxing champion and Bellator veteran Heather Hardy in a BKFC title fight. Just days before they were scheduled to meet, Hardy dropped out of the fight and revealed that her career was likely over due to the amount of head trauma she suffered throughout her career.

“After finally seeing a doctor, he said I’ve had too many concussions,” Hardy said in a sobering social media post. “When you have a concussion, a piece of your brain dies and you never get it back. Imagine that? In 10 years I’ve had too much brain damage. I can’t get any more or else I won’t be able to see. No running, no jogging, no jumping rope, and no getting hit in the head.”

Hearing that served as a harsh reminder to Ferea that no amount of toughness or grit can save you from something as serious as brain damage.

After Hardy made that post, which effectively served as a retirement announcement, Ferea reached out in an attempt to connect her with the same doctors she’s been working with for the better part of the past decade.

“It’s very, very scary,” Ferea said of Hardy’s situation. “I’m the type of person, I have a chin so I can take a lot of damage. I’ll sit there and take it like whatever, it doesn’t affect me. That’s the kind of fighter Heather was. She’ll take a lot of damage because she has a lot of heart and a high pain tolerance. That really puts you in check in terms of being tough and just taking shot.

“You’ve got to be responsible even though you’re playing defense and you can take the hits and stuff like that.”

Now Ferea openly states that her dedication to long-term brain health hasn’t changed the way she fights because that would be a detriment to her career.

That said, the 41-year-old veteran promises if she ever finds out that her cognitive function has been compromised, she’ll retire on the spot.

“You’ve got to have a little bit of that ‘f*ck it’ [attitude] because you can’t go in there too careful,” Ferea said. “If you’re too careful, you’re not going to perform right or you’re going to hesitate. You can get knocked out hesitating.

“If it gets bad, I’m going to stop. I love this with all my heart and I love being champion and I love competing and I love dominating people, but it’s not worth not being able to speak my name or not being able to remember my family and all that.”

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