Alexander Volkanovski | Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Alexander Volkanovski only has eyes on getting the UFC featherweight title back.
The longtime champion at 145 pounds has been content to sit on the sidelines for much of 2024 following a knockout loss to Ilia Topuria at UFC 298 this past February. That defeat ended Volkanovski’s four-year reign atop the division and raised questions as to what would be next for him, given that he has now lost three of his past four fights (including two failed attempts to wrest the lightweight title from Islam Makhachev).
Volkanovski told Sky Sports New Zealand that he’s confident waiting for a chance to fight the winner of Topuria’s Oct. 26 title defense against Max Holloway at UFC 308 is the right move.
“That’s exactly what’s happening,” Volkanovski said. “So I can wait or if I don’t want to wait, I can do something else. Or just wait, and the UFC has made that clear. Obviously, that’s probably what I’m going to do.
“I could have maybe done a lightweight fight, I think there’s a lot of exciting fights there, but the UFC aren’t big fans of floating. Look, you want to go to lightweight, you’re going to have to probably stay there, that’s the only thing, and then I might lose that featherweight title shot. So I might just have to wait. It’s only a couple of months, I’m sure I’ll be fine.”
Though Volkanovski was defeated twice by Makhachev, their first encounter at UFC 284 was a thrilling five-round encounter that Makhachev edged out on the scorecards. Even if Volkanovski could likely book any number of marquee matchups at 155 pounds, he’s not leaving the featherweight division without one more title fight.
So does he expect to rematch Ilia, or face Holloway a fourh time after earning three previous victories over “Blessed?”
“Who would I rather fight?” Volkanovski said. “Obviously, Ilia’s got that one over me. I want that back. But at the end of the day, I want that belt back as well.
“And who do I think is going to win? Probably Max. But again, it’s a tough fight. Ilia’s got some hands on him, he’s not easily shook, he’s going to come forward, he’s going to be looking for the finish the whole way through that fight, but I think Max is just going to be a little bit too much for Ilia. But if Ilia walks through him, he’s proven himself, but then I’m just going to take it back off him anyway.”
Had Topuria vs. Holloway been booked before the final quarter of 2024, there’s a chance Volkanovski could have fought for the title before the end of the year, but as it stands he’s fine with how events played out. One thing he had made up his mind about is that he wouldn’t settle for fighting just for the sake of fighting.
“I was obviously aware of that [matchup] earlier on,” Volkanovski said. “I told them I wanted the break as I’ve been having, so I wanted to fight probably later in the year and they said they might be doing that. I thought it would have been a little bit earlier, but it ended up being at a date where I was like, ‘Well, I could have maybe come back here.’ But whatever, so everything is probably going to get pushed back a couple of months further than I would have liked, but at the same time I can’t be active and just fight anybody, or I can just wait for the title.”
“What gets me out of bed, just a contender fight at featherweight?” Volkanovski added. “It’s probably going to be hard. Look, I love to be active, but at the same time I need the right fights. It’s easy to be active and get the right fights while you’re champion because you’re defending against the No. 1 contenders. Very, very easy to stay active and have important fights. But me just taking a fight just to stay busy, it just doesn’t make sense.”
The relationship between the UFC boss and arguably the greatest athlete to ever compete in professional fighting is complicated, to say the least. But recent months have seen White put an incredible amount of time and energy into convincing everyone that Jones is indisputably No. 1 when it comes to discussing who is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
Jones has never truly lost, but his 2023 fight with Ciryl Gane was his first since February 2020 and he hasn’t fought since, which raises two questions: Is it fair to deny him the No. 1 spot on the pound-for-pound list due to inactivity, and, if so, why is White so steadfast in his defense of Jones’ position? The MMA Fighting crew has been as befuddled as everyone else when it comes to understanding White’s motivations, so Alexander K. Lee, Damon Martin, and Shaun Al-Shatti decided to sit down and toss out a few theories as to why Jones has become White’s sacred cow.
Al-Shatti: It’s really something, isn’t it? All of this. Never did I think the saga to reach UFC 309 would reach such farcical proportions that MMA as a whole — a community notorious for not being able to agree on anything — would unite under a unified front to bully Jon Jones into fighting Tom Aspinall (and potentially ruin the one thing he values most about his undefeated legacy), and by proxy, force Dana White to quadruple down on defending the man he once penned a whole damn press release about just to tear him to shreds. Seriously, we’ve come a long way from 763 words of outright questioning Jones’ manhood to suddenly propping “Bones” up as the second coming of the Messiah every other week.
As this topic continues to spiral even further into the absurd, I have to think two primary factors are driving it. The first is that White is in far too deep to relent now. What may have started as an offhand tangent at a particularly bizarre time has now ballooned into something much bigger than it has any real right to be. There’s zero chance a character as stubborn as White will back out now — and that applies tenfold if means gifting a win to his least favorite people on the planet (the media).
But the second factor, and likely the genesis of all of this, is that White thinks he’s actually doing the one thing he’s always begged to do: Be a promoter. It was clear to anyone with eyeballs that Jones vs. Miocic wasn’t the fight fans wanted to see when it was first booked in 2023, and it’s become even clearer to anyone with eyeballs that Jones vs. Miocic has only engorged in unpopularity as 2024 has dragged on. Jones’ demands were more of an annoyance than anything last year; now they’re genuinely ruining an otherwise compelling division. But White’s job until Nov. 19 is still to convince folks why they should care about UFC 309, and for most of his life as a public figure, fans have followed White’s words as law.
In that way, this continual Jones coddling comes off as a prolonged justification for a fight White knows no one wants to see but his company nonetheless intends to make. It’s just that, for the first time in a long time, the UFC boss’ usual playbook isn’t working as it ordinarily does. The more White commits to the bit (and the more Jones tweets through it at 2 a.m. to let you know he definitely isn’t bothered), the more ridiculous this saga becomes and the more voraciously the MMA fan base revolts against what its being fed.
It’s OK though, because honestly? All of this is pretty hilarious.
Martin: Have you ever had to sit through one of those wildly uncomfortable family get-togethers where at least one person has to spout off with an opinion on politics, religion, or some other touchy subject that erupts into a huge argument, food spilled, a table turned over, and at least one person either ostracized or even disowned by the end of it? Think of that brilliant scene from The Bear season 2 when Mikey got into an argument with his mother’s boyfriend during Christmas dinner and started launching forks at him.
For our purposes, put Dana White in Bob Odenkirk’s role as Lee and the MMA media are throwing forks at the UFC CEO just hoping to get a different response than the one we’ve already gotten time after time after time and he’s promising that we’re going to get f*cking rocked.
If you haven’t figured it out already, White believes Jon Jones is not only the greatest fighter who’s ever lived, but he’s also the current pound-for-pound best fighter on the planet. And you know what? He’s right.
Now, before your head explodes, allow me to explain. White is right because pound-for-pound rankings are totally subjective, there’s no criteria to follow, and really it’s just a list made up to start arguments like these so he’s entitled to that opinion. But what’s far more likely is White declared that Jones was the top pound-for-pound fighter at some post-fight press conference, he got push-back from some reporters, and he’s just continued to dig his heels in that much deeper to prove his point because that’s what he does.
It’s obvious by now that White isn’t going to change his mind no matter how much we argue with him. You can point out that Jones isn’t as active. You can say that he doesn’t have the same level of wins over he past few years as a fighter like Islam Makhachev. You can question the logic about Jones’ dominance versus fighters like Alex Pereira. You can even joke that maybe Jones has some incriminating evidence he’s using to make White turn into his biggest backer.
Whatever the case, White isn’t suddenly going to reverse course, so why bother to keep asking? This isn’t a subject that requires closure. There’s plenty more to talk about when it comes to what’s happening in the UFC than whether or not Jones is the pound-for-pound best fighter in the sport. And it seems rather clear that the more you push White on this subject, the harder he’s going to fire back that Jones is the best and we’re all crazy.
What’s actually insane is that we’re still having this discussion at all, because truthfully, it doesn’t matter. But inevitably, we’ll just keep throwing forks while everybody else at the table just wants to eat already.
Lee: Like my colleagues, I’ve been wracking my brain trying to get into Dana White’s head and it’s possible that I’ve gone too far because I started to think… maybe he’s right about all this?
Let’s be clear here: I’m as annoyed as anyone that we’re not getting Jones vs. Aspinall anytime soon, if ever, and Jones’ rationalizing of the situation has been abominable. I’m also not entirely sure why White has been banging the “Jones is No. 1” drum so incessantly unless it’s some kind of bizarre bit of performance art, which, if so, respect.
But my best guess is that White truly believes what he’s saying and—based on his criteria at least—he has the facts to back it up.
It’s true that Jones has never lost. It’s true that he ran through the No. 1-ranked heavyweight on the UFC roster at the time when he demolished Ciryl Gane (“on the UFC roster” doing some heavy lifting in this sentence). It’s true that winning titles in two divisions should earn you serious pound-for-pound cred. And yes, it’s probably true that if you place Jones and any other professional fighter in the world in a locked room with only one way out that he’s the guy who probably walks out of that absurdly specific scenario with his head held high.
For years, Jones was the de facto answer when discussing pound-for-pound greatness, and if we’re being generous with interpreting White’s fervor it’s simply that he’s seen no good reason to bump him from the top of the ladder. Islam Makhachev? Hey, two of your title defenses are against a 145er. Alex Pereira? Didn’t you get KTFO last year? Alexandre Pantoja? Ilia Topuria? Belal Muhammad? Dricus du Plessis? Do more. You’re not on Jones’ level.
Again, I’m playing Dana’s advocate here, and other than dinging Jones for inactivity, it’s actually an easy job. Why should White earnestly engage in this particular conversation when he has a fight to promote and an all-time great that he can still push as the most dominant force in combat sports? We can argue until our faces are blue that Jones doesn’t deserve to be considered No. 1 pound-for-pound anymore. But one thing we can’t do is objectively prove it.
So there you have it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to hit the craps table with the Nelk Boys.
Oscar De La Hoya | Photo by Cris Esqueda/Golden Boy/Getty Images
Oscar De La Hoya has some career advice for his old friend Floyd Mayweather.
The post-retirement phase of Mayweather’s career has seen the legendary boxer engage in a number of exhibition bouts with his most recent fight being a rematch against John Gotti III. Mayweather’s first fight with Gotti ended in a chaotic brawl, while the second went the full eight rounds without an official score.
Mayweather has also taken exhibition matchups with Logan Paul, fighter and former reality TV star Aaron Chalmers, and Japanese combat sports stars Mikuru Asakura and Tenshin Nasukawa, to a mostly lukewarm reaction from fight fans.
Count De La Hoya among the detractors. “The Golden Boy” addressed Mayweather’s exploits in a recent video, asking that his fellow retiree hang up the gloves for good.
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“In the middle of the second round [of the Gotti fight], Floyd literally had the referee swapped out,” De La Hoya said on Instagram. “He didn’t like that the referee told him to stop hitting behind the head. Floyd is used to having the refs do whatever he wants and he wasn’t getting his way this time. It was so embarrassing.
“Floyd, you’re 50 years old. You’re a legend in this sport. I’ve stood up for you in countless interviews, including Shannon Sharpe’s podcast last week. But you have to stop embarrassing yourself with these exhibitions. I know life is hard, I know life is expensive, but come on, put your legacy first. Nobody wants to remember you like this.”
De La Hoya went on to address Mayweather’s recent legal problems, which involve the 47-year-old being sued by a Miami jeweler, who alleges that the boxer owes him money for several items acquired in 2021.
From De La Hoya’s perspective, this is all just tough love that Mayweather needs to hear.
“And it gets worse,” De La Hoya said. “Your jeweler filed a lawsuit against you in Miami and many are saying you’re going to have to sell off your assets. I hate seeing this happen and I’ve always said, ‘It’s hard to make money, but it’s even harder to keep it.’
“Floyd, I’m rooting for you, come on, let’s turn it around.”
Relive the night Georges St-Pierre competed in the UFC’s octagon for the final time, and did so with an incredible accomplishment.
The longtime former welterweight champion returned to action for the first time in four years and challenged Michael Bisping for the UFC middleweight title in the main event of UFC 217, which took place Nov. 4, 2017 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
After a tough start that saw St-Pierre busted open by Bisping, “Rush” was able to hurt his opponent en route to a third-round rear-naked choke submission to become a two-division champion.
The main event between St-Pierre and Bisping capped off a fight card with three title bouts, which also included Cody Garbrandt defending the bantamweight belt against rival T.J. Dillashaw and Rose Namajunas challenging Joanna Jedrzejczyk for the strawweight title.
UFC 217 also featured a welterweight matchup between Stephen Thompson and Jorge Masvidal, along with Paulo Costa vs. Johny Hendricks in a middleweight bout.
Watch the replay of UFC 217 in the video above, starting on Saturday at 6 p.m. ET courtesy of the UFC’s YouTube channel.
Danny Aarons and Danny Simpson | Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images
Danny Aarons and Danny Simpson won’t have to give up their prized possessions after all.
The main event of Saturday’s Misfits Boxing 17 event at 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland, ended in a hotly contested split draw after YouTuber Danny Aarons and retired Premier League standout Danny Simpson battled for four exciting—if less-than-technical—rounds.
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While both men are likely disappointed with the result, it does mean that their gutsy pre-fight wager is now of no consequence. Aarons, a popular YouTuber, was to give Simpson his gold play button (a plaque given to content creators who have reached 1,000,000 subscribers) if he lost, while Simpson put an even more prestigious prize on the line: The Premier League medal that he won as a key member of the Leicester City team that miraculously went on a miraculous championship run in 2016.
In what was the first-ever boxing match for Aarons and Simpson, their inexperience showed as they engaged in a sloppy 12-minute brawl. The middle frames saw both men have flashes of effective offense, with the longer Simpson keeping Aarons at bay with punches from range in Round 2, and Aarons getting his combinations going in Round 3. It appeared to be anyone’s fight heading into the fourth and final round.
Neither fighter was able to pull away in Round 4 as all technique went out the window and the action devolved into a sloppy brawl. When the final bell rang, it was unclear who would walk out with the victory and, as it turned out, no one did.
Elsewhere on the card, light heavyweight champion Anthony Taylor handed Gabriel Silva—the son of MMA legend Anderson Silva—a devastating TKO loss, fitness influencer HSTikkyTokky ran through over-matched reality TV star George Fensom, and Deen the Great successfully defended his lightweight title with a third-round TKO of Dave Fogarty.
See Misfits Boxing 17 results below.
Danny Aarons vs. Danny Simpson ends in a split draw (38-38, 39-37, 37-39)
Anthony Taylor def. Gabriel Silva via TKO (R3, 2:54) — light heavyweight title fight
HSTikkyTokky def. George Fensom via TKO (R1, 1:19)
Ben Williams def. Warren Spencer via TKO (R2, 0:45)
Deen the Great def. Dave Fogarty via TKO (R3, 2:57) — lightweight title fight
Sami Hamed def. Jesse Clarke via TKO (corner stoppage) (R2, 2:21)
Mike Edwards def. Jake Cornish via unanimous decision (49-46 x2, 50-47)
Minikon def. DTG via majority decision (48-48, 48-47 x2)
Veronica Hardy | Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Veronica Hardy looks to keep a win streak going at Madison Square Garden.
MMA Fighting’s Guilherme Cruz confirmed with sources with knowledge of the matchup that the fast-rising flyweight contender next fights Eduarda Moura (10-1) at UFC 309, which takes place on Nov. 16 in New York. Ag. Fight was first to report the bout.
Hardy (9-4-1) returned from a three-year hiatus in March 2023 with a win over The Ultimate Fighter 30 champion Juliana Miller and she hasn’t looked back, adding decision nods over Jamey-Lyn Horth and JJ Aldrich to her record. She can make it four straight with an impressive performance against Moura in November.
A 2023 Contender Series signing, Moura recently suffered her first loss, dropping a split decision to Denise Gomes at UFC Louisville in June. “Ronda” won her first 10 pro bouts before the loss to Gomes.
UFC 309 goes down at Madison Square Garden in New York. A main event is yet to be announced for the ESPN+ pay-per-view event, though it’s widely assumed that a long-awaited heavyweight matchup between Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic will land in the headlining spot.
Myktybek Orolbai | Photo by Alexandre Loureiro/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Myktybek Orolbai and Mateusz Rebecki meet in a clash of two of the lightweight division’s most intriguing up-and-comers.
MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck confirmed with sources with knowledge of the matchup that Orolbai (13-1-1) and Rebecki (19-2) are set to face off at UFC 308 on Oct. 26. The bout was first reported by Full Violence.
Kyrgyzstan’s Orolbai has impressed in two UFC appearances, submitting Uros Medic in his debut and then earning a unanimous decision nod over Elves Brener at UFC 301 this past May. Prior to being signed by the UFC, Orolbai was a standout in LFA.
Rebecki also won his first two UFC fights before running into veteran Diego Ferreira at UFC St. Louis in May. Ferreira stopped Rebecki with just seconds remaining in the third round, snapping Rebecki’s impressive 16-fight win streak dating back to his days on the Polish MMA scene.
UFC 308 takes place at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. The ESPN+ pay-per-view event is headlined by undefeated featherweight champion Ilia Topuria’s first title defense, in which he faces former champion Max Holloway. In the co-main event, former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker looks to hand 13-0 Khamzat Chimaev his first loss.
Anthony Taylor backed up his talk with a win over the son of an MMA legend.
“Pretty Boy” successfully defended his light heavyweight title in the co-main event of Saturday’s Misfits Boxing 17 event at 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland, putting a beatdown on Gabriel Silva, whose father is longtime UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva.
The end came in the third when Taylor knocked Silva down three times to secure a technical knockout. That round included one sequence where Taylor landed a right hand square on Silva’s chin to put him down on the canvas.
Watch the fateful blow below.
pic.twitter.com/nM0PlkjHoL
— Dante 2 (@Combat44654News) August 31, 2024
Silva was able to answer the count, but shortly after Taylor swarmed him again and referee Joerg Milke stepped in to wave off the bout as Silva struggled to defend himself with his back against the ropes.
Afterwards, Taylor called for a matchup with one-time UFC welterweight title challenger Darren Till.
“Listen, Darren Till, what’s up?” Taylor said. “I know you want this smoke. I know you all want to see Darren Till get his ass whooped. Let’s go!”
Till (18-5-1 in MMA) recently made a successful pro boxing debut, defeating Mohammad Mutie via second-round TKO this past July.
Though Taylor is no stranger to MMA, having previously fought for Bellator among other promotions, he’s made a name for himself under the Misfits Boxing banner. He has now won four straight fights for the influencer boxing organization.
Silva suffers his first loss after a 3-0 start to his boxing career.
Belal Muhammad | Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Belal Muhammad has no problem playing matchmaker for the top welterweight contenders.
The recently crowned champion is already fielding potential challengers after capturing the belt with a lopsided decision win over Leon Edwards at UFC 304 this past July. However, Muhammad won’t commit to a No. 1 contender, even with the undefeated Shavkat Rakhmonov hot on his heels.
Rakhmonov, 18-0 as a pro and 6-0 in the UFC, recently made the claim to MMA Fighting that he was offered a fight with Muhammad for UFC 307 in October that the champion declined due to the timing not working out.
That’s news to Muhammad, who scoffed at suggestions that he needs to book a fight soon in a social media post. He added that he would like to see Rakhmonov fight former champion Kamaru Usman in a title eliminator bout first.
Inactive? Lol I’m still on trial and Shavkat hasn’t fought since 2023 I think Shavkat and usman should fight to find the real number one contender pic.twitter.com/7fKYMZsqbl
— Belal Muhammad (@bullyb170) August 30, 2024
“Inactive?” Muhammad wrote. “LOL. I’m still on trial and Shavkat hasn’t fought since 2023. I think Shavkat and Usman should fight to find the real number one contender.”
Muhammad had a long path to the title himself, having to win 10 straight bouts (excluding one no-contest) to book his shot against Edwards, and he’s in no hurry to boost anyone else’s contender campaign.
Though Rakhmonov has done enough to rightfully challenge the champion, the possibility looms that Usman could be granted the opportunity instead. Usman held the UFC welterweight title for over two years and successfully defended it five times, so he has those previous accolades and name value on his side.
Hurting Usman’s case is the fact that he is coming off of three straight losses. He lost a majority decision to Khamzat Chimaev in a middleweight bout after stepping in on short notice to face the undefeated fighter, and also lost consecutive championship bouts to Edwards. Usman hasn’t recorded a victory since defeating Colby Covington at UFC 268 in November 2021.
Diego Lopes was in Alexa Grasso’s corner at the first Noche UFC | Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Diego Lopes expects to be in Alexa Grasso’s corner when she faces Valentina Shevchenko for a third time for the UFC women’s flyweight title at UFC 306 on Sept. 14, and that’s another incentive for him to seek a quick finish against Brian Ortega earlier that night.
Lopes and Ortega are scheduled to compete in the third bout of the main card at The Sphere, with Grasso co-headlining the show right before Sean O’Malley vs. Merab Dvalishvili. Lopes hopes he can leaves the cage injury-free to be there for his teammate.
“We have talked about this a lot, how we’re going to handle this, because I’ve been in her corner ever since she moved to 125 [pounds],” Lopes told MMA Fighting. “We work together, we help each other, I teach her and learn from her, but we have no idea what we’re going to do. I’ll fight my fight, and then comes Alexa. We know how we come out of a fight, especially knowing how tough Ortega is. It could be a war and we both might come out bad. [Laughs.] But I’m focused. It’s extra motivation to come out fine in this fight, to win quickly and rush to the locker room, change clothes and be in Alexa’s corner.”
Lopes said he asked his team to try to move his fight down the card, but understands why it’s positioned as it is. The Brazilian athlete is on a roll after winning four straight UFC bouts in just under 11 months against Gavin Tucker, Pat Sabatini, Sodiq Yusuff, and Dan Ige.
Ortega is a two-time title challenger who submitted Yair Rodriguez in his most recent octagon appearance.
“I’d rather fight early,” Lopes said. “I even told the guys I would have no problem being the first fight of the night, or two or three fights before [Grasso], so I can be there with her. But where we are on the card speaks of the great work we’re doing. And we’ll also have out teammate Irene Aldana on the card. It’s great for our team, having three fighters in one of the most spectacular and well-produced cards in the UFC.”
Grasso is also expected to be cornered by Francisco Grasso, her uncle and head coach at Lobo Gym, and Alessandro Costa, who competes a week earlier at UFC Vegas 97.
“We know we can do incredible things when we’re all four there,” Lopes said. “We’ve done incredible things, and I’m extra motivated to win quickly and run to the locker room and be in her corner as well.”
Mexico’s Lobo Gym has done incredible things in the UFC, indeed.
Other than Lopes and flyweight champion Grasso, the team has also led Aldana to a title shot against former 135-pound champion Amanda Nunes. Aldana beat Karol Rosa earlier this year to rebound from that championship loss, and now faces Norma Dumont at UFC 306. Costa faces Matt Schnell on Sept. 7 after a bonus-winning knockout of Kevin Borjas at UFC 301 in May, and Loopy Godinez continues to rise as a strawweight prospect despite stumbling against veterans Virna Jandiroba and Mackenzie Dern this past year.
Lopes was even nominated for Breakthrough Fighter of the Year at the 2024 World MMA Awards, plus Submission of the Year for his triangle armbar over Gavin Tucker. Lobo Gym is also in the running for best gym and Coach of the Year (Francisco Grasso).
“It’s incredible for us,” Lopes said. “Not too long ago people were leaving Mexico for other places to evolve, but we’ve done an excellent work here. Alexa won four awards last year training and evolving in Mexico, and now I have the honor of being nominated breakthrough fighter and also best submission. That goes to show the work we’ve done here as a team.”
“Our team is running against other teams that have bigger name and more than 10 athletes in the UFC,” he continued. “We only have five fighters in the UFC, and four of them are ranked — and our great teammate Alessandro Costa is fighting the No. 12 ranked next. Our coach has done a great job.”
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