Category Archives: Mmafighting.com

There’s a new nominee for the 2024 knockout of the year.

On Saturday, KSW returned to action at Arena Jaskolka in Tarnow, Poland with KSW 97. In a flyweight main card matchup, 20-year-old Wiktoria Czyzewska faced Erianny Castaneda. Just two minutes into the bout, Czyzewska uncorked an incredible left hook, right high kick combination that knocked Castaneda out cold on her feet before crashing to the canvas.

Watch the unbelievable finish in the video below.

Czyzewska improved her pro MMA record to 4-1, with all wins coming via first-round finish. “Chicatoro” began 2024 by bouncing back from her lone pro loss and delivering a first-round body kick knockout victory over Petra Castkova at KSW 91 in February. She has now competed in the KSW cage in her past four contests.

Castaneda competed in her promotional debut in the bout, with her pro record now moving to 4-5. She entered the contest coming off of a stoppage victory for Jungle Fight in April.

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Gerald Meerschaert etched his name in the UFC history books on Saturday by submitting Edmen Shahbazyan with a nasty arm-triangle choke to earn his 12th finish in the octagon.

Not only did the come-from-behind win net Meerschaert a $ 50,000 Performance of the Night bonus, his fight-ending submission also put him one spot ahead of UFC legend Anderson Silva for the most finishes in UFC middleweight history. It’s a notable accomplishment, no doubt, but because he’s still actively competing right now, Meerschaert admits he’s not sitting around waiting for the chance to polish a plaque for his wall at home.

Instead, Meerschaert insists he still has a lot of work left to do, which means the record he just set will only end up extended even further into the stratosphere with more UFC wins.

“It’s cool to say,” Meerschaert said after UFC Vegas 96. “I don’t think about it too much right now. It’s just kind of one fight at a time, and I wish I could give you more than that because it is a cool thing. Truthfully, if I sit here and stop and give myself a little pat on the back, like, that’s awesome — just to have my name in the same conversation or sentence as somebody like Anderson Silva or Demian Maia and guys like that, that’s great — but I got a lot of fight left in me, I’ve got a lot more fights to go.

“When I hang them up, that will be a cool thing to throw around, like, ‘I was cool back in the day. I got a T-top Firebird.’ It’s a cool thing to say for now, and then when I’m retired, it will be fun to tell my kids and watch them not care.”

Of course, Meerschaert didn’t break Silva’s record without facing some serious adversity.

Prior to his submission win, Meerschaert found himself in great danger after getting blasted with a shot that dropped him to the canvas and prompted Shabazyan to rain down punches on him in hopes for a finish. Yet, as he does, Meerschaert was able to gut through a difficult situation before staging an awe-inspiring comeback to snatch the fight-ending sequence.

In a perfect world, Meerschaert prefers a dominant win like the submission he used to beat Bryan Barberena in March, but he’ll never complain too much when his hand gets raised.

“You mean getting punched in the head and face a bunch of times? I’m trying not to do that, but you get into a fist fight, that’s kind of what happens.,” Meerschaert said with a laugh. “Edmen did a very good job on the feet. He had very good distance management. He had some good clean power shots down the middle. He caught me with a really good body shot that, just the way it landed, the action on it at the end it kind of landed on a weird spot.

“I’ve got a pretty tough stomach, like usually body shots don’t do anything, but the way and the time he caught me, that really sucked and that kind of started the little sequence of him beating me about the head and shoulders. But as long as I’m awake, I’ve got a chance to win. I pretty much blocked everything and had to weather the storm a little bit and found my way out.”

Meerschaert credited referee Mark Smith for giving him every opportunity to survive the onslaught before storming back to get the submission on Shahbazyan.

As much as he wishes he wouldn’t end up in those kinds of hairy situations in the first place, Meerschaert knows through plenty of experience that he has what it takes to absorb a whole lot of punishment and still storm back for the win.

“I know if I’m still awake, there’s a way for me to win,” Meerschaert said. “You’ve got to put me six feet under before I’m going to stop fighting. Whether it’s on the feet swinging back, if I’ve got a chance on the ground, my chances are as good as anybody on the mat.

“I know what it looked like because obviously it was happening to me, but all I was thinking after that body shot and when he was trying to get me out of there, I was like, ‘Oh, this is great, he’s going to tire himself out, it should make wrestling him a whole lot easier.’ Fortunately for me, it didn’t get stopped and it did [tire him out] because I blocked most of the shots. … Eventually, he gassed out and I got ahold of his neck.”

Between the new promotional record he set and the bonus he’s taking home, Meerschaert had a pretty successful night at UFC Vegas 96. It may not be the way he wanted to win, but Meerschaert acknowledges that durability and a never-say-die attitude are attributes that separate him from much of his competition.

“A clean victory like my last fight would be a much better example of that, but I fought a really tough guy,” Meerschaert said. “He’s been ranked before and he’s got some really good wins.

“I think if you’re going to go fight somebody, like, yeah, it’s scary to go fight somebody who’s a knockout artist or a guy that’s super strong or has endless cardio and all this stuff, but I think you should be really scared of a guy that’s not going to quit and that’s not going to go away just because you land a couple of shots.”

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Unless something dramatically changes, 2024 will come and go without Conor McGregor fighting in the UFC.

Despite McGregor expressing his wishes to return this year, UFC CEO Dana White has been adamant that “The Notorious” won’t compete in 2024 after a broken toe cancelled his fight against Michael Chandler, which was originally scheduled for UFC 303 in June. All signs appeared to point toward a December showdown for the long-awaited matchup, but White revealed that while he talked to McGregor, “he won’t fight this year.”

Recently retired UFC welterweight Matt Brown has long believed that McGregor will never fight again, and his opinion was only strengthened by this latest delay.

“He’s gone,” Brown said of McGregor on The Fighter vs. The Writer. “I’ve said it for a long time now. How many years have I been saying it? He’s done. I don’t discount that there’s a chance that he comes back, but the chances of him coming back are way lower than the chances of him not fighting again. He’s at, like, a 20-percent chance of coming back, I think.

“He’s doing great staying in the news, doing great keeping his name out there. We’d all love to see him fight still. I’d love to see him fight Chandler, whoever I’d love to see Conor fight — if he’s training properly, staying off the various substances or whatever it is. Come in the real Conor. Live your life all want when you’re 45 and you’re retired and you’re totally out. Enjoy it then, but for now let’s see all the fights. Let’s see them. I want to see you fight.”

There’s a myriad of reasons why Brown never bought the McGregor comeback after the Irish superstar suffered a gruesome broken leg in his last UFC appearance in a loss to Dustin Poirier back in 2021.

Truth be told, Brown’s opinion on McGregor doesn’t differ that much from White, who has long questioned if the former two-division UFC champ would actually fight again one day.

“Conor McGregor — maybe he’ll fight again, maybe he won’t,” White said on The Jim Rome Show in June. “You never know with some of the guys that get to that level [of wealth]. You never know when you’re going to see them again.”

While McGregor’s future remains cloudy, Chandler remains stuck waiting after first signing up for the matchup upon agreeing to serve as a The Ultimate Fighter coach in early 2023.

From McGregor still recovering from his injury, to a required six-month waiting period to fight again after re-entering the UFC’s anti-doping program, to the broken toe in July, Chandler has been forced to the sidelines as his 39th birthday creeps closer in April 2025.

Assuming the fight doesn’t get scheduled in 2024, Chandler has missed at least two years of his career waiting for McGregor, and there’s still no guarantee his patience pays off.

“In my view, you only live once and this is a short window of time in your life that you get to compete at the highest level,” Brown said of Chandler’s situation. “I think he’s going to look back when he’s 50, 60 years old and be like, ‘I missed out on a couple of years there just waiting for a payday.’ I don’t think he’s hurting for money anyways [but], ‘I waited for this payday and I could have been out there putting myself on the line.’

“I think Michael Chandler’s a competitor. I think he wants to be out there putting it on the line. I think he’s going to end up regretting this someday.”

Perhaps the biggest risk for Chandler would be booking a different fight and then potentially missing out on the matchup against McGregor. He could have done that multiple times over by now, but Brown argues even if Chandler fought and lost during the past two years, that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t eventually get McGregor anyways.

“I’ve said it a million times, say he fought four times and those two years and he went 2-2 — Conor still fights him,” Brown said. “It’s not like Chandler’s an up-and-comer that’s going to be on Fight Nights or the prelims or something. He would have had to lose all of his fights for Conor to say, ‘I’m not fighting you.’ Maybe even then Conor might fight him. Conor’s going to need a tune-up fight coming back. He might see that as a tune-up fight. I don’t think he would have lost anything by fighting however many times.

“I get it why he’s waiting, I guess. Maybe they’re just stringing him along. We don’t know what he’s hearing. We don’t know the voices in his ear, what they’re telling him. Hindsight’s always 20/20, right? It’s easy for us to look back and say, ‘You should have fought all this time,’ but it’s like, OK, we know in hindsight you should have fought, but at what point do you put your foot down and say, ‘OK, I’m fighting again.’”

Brown also argues that because McGregor has so many questions surrounding him after at least three years off and a 1-3 résumé in his past four fights, that beating him now isn’t the same as handing him a loss when he was coming off his mythical “champ-champ” status nine years ago.

Of course, Brown doesn’t fault Chandler for seeking the fame and fortune that comes along with a McGregor fight, but at this point, that’s all he’s after.

“It’s clear the wait is for a payday,” Brown said. “It’s not a legacy thing. It’s not for competitive nature. I think Michael Chandler’s probably going to look back on it and say, ‘I should have jumped in there.’ Maybe he won’t. I can’t read his mind, I don’t know what’s going on in his life, but I’m guessing he’s probably solid on money. It doesn’t really add up to me why you’d want to do that.”

Listen to new episodes of The Fighter vs. The Writer every Tuesday with audio only versions of the podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeartRadio

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Ronda Rousey appreciates that every now and again when UFC starts building a massive card, her name still comes up for a potential comeback.

The latest instance was UFC 300. As the promotion promised the biggest event in history, there were seemingly millions of rumors swirling about what kind of a rabbit Dana White might pull out of his hat. Rousey’s name somehow ended up being mentioned as a candidate, but White admitted very openly that she was never even in consideration because the former bantamweight champion was happy raising her family in retirement.

Despite her last UFC appearance happening almost eight years ago, Rousey enjoys that her name still comes up from time to time, but she promises there’s no chance she’s ever fighting again.

“Every couple years … the same rumor comes out,” Rousey told the Insight podcast. “It’s nice to feel missed, I guess. But it’s not happening. I’m not neurologically fit to compete anymore at the highest level. I just can’t.

“You just get to a level where the neurological injuries you take accumulate over time. They don’t get better.”

As she was recently promoting her autobiography, Rousey said repeated concussions that began when she was still a child played the biggest factor in her MMA career coming to an end. Rousey said she never addressed the situation publicly because she was still actively competing, and even after she left UFC, she didn’t want to potentially risk her future in WWE after transitioning into professional wrestling.

But, she said, eventually the symptoms she suffered as a result of so many concussions forced Rousey to walk away from full-time competition.

“When I got into MMA, I had already had dozens of concussions that I trained through,” Rousey said. “Like, not even stopped for. So that was about a decade of having concussion symptoms more often than not. So when I got into MMA, I was playing a game of zero errors. Then it got to the point where I was fighting more often than anybody. I had more outside of fighting responsibilities than anybody, and it just got to be lighter and lighter hits were hurting me more and more and more.

“I got to a point where I couldn’t take a jab without getting dazed, without getting concussion symptoms. It just got to a point where it wasn’t safe for me to fight anymore. I just couldn’t continue to fight at that higher level.”

Rousey endured her first professional loss back in 2015 when she suffered a brutal head kick knockout courtesy of Holly Holm. That fight cost her the UFC bantamweight title and Rousey ended up sitting out for the next year as she recovered from the loss.

When she eventually came back 13 months later, Rousey lasted just 48 seconds against Amanda Nunes before she walked out of the octagon and never returned to the UFC.

Truth be told, Rousey admits now that she probably should have walked away for good after the loss to Holm, but she just couldn’t let her career end like that.

“It was really tough and I think that’s why I took that first loss so hard, because I knew it was over,” Rousey said. “I knew I’d reached that limit. I was in denial about it and I tried to come back again with a lot of rest and a better weight cut, not doing the extra stuff, the extra press, and just coming in and fighting.

“If I could just cut to that moment when they say go and I fight, I f*cking love that so much. Nothing makes more sense in the world. There’s not a single thing that happens that I don’t understand or that I don’t know what to do.”

Rousey said her problems with concussions followed her into WWE, but she eventually had to say enough was enough. With a growing family alongside husband Travis Browne, Rousey realized she had to put her athletic career behind her or risk permanent damage that she wouldn’t walk away from.

To add to that, Rousey appreciated that she became a role model for young fighters coming up in the sport and she preferred serving as an example to girls following in her footsteps rather than becoming a cautionary tale.

“The men have been around longer so they just have more history of boxing and stuff like that, they just reach their limit of how many hits that they can take and then they start getting knocked out,” Rousey explained. “They start getting knocked out easier and easier, more and more often. Then you see them down the road and they’re having all kinds of neurological issues.

“I just felt it was my responsibility to age gracefully because I’m a representative of my sport. People look at me and think of women’s MMA. If I’m rolling around in a wheelchair, people aren’t going to let their little girls go and do it. You never know when you take one hit too many until decades later. You see these guys who are like punch drunk.”

As much as Rousey loved the support she received from fans, the now 37-year-old UFC Hall of Famer knows attention like that is fleeting and she had to begin thinking long-term as far as her life was concerned.

That’s why she’s so resolved to put fighting behind her for good, no matter how many times she hears calls for a comeback.

“Everyone loves to see you fight when you’re in the cage, but none of those people are going to be there for you down the line,” Rousey said. “You’ve got to take care of yourself and your family and put that first. Because you’re just a passing entertainment to everybody else. You see that in pro wrestling, people get addicted to that applause and they can’t stop, they can’t walk away even when it becomes to their detriment.

“I just had to put my foot down and be like, ‘This has gotten to a point where my brain cannot take anymore and it has nothing to do with how tough I am or anything like that.’ It’s just the way that it is.”

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Alex Pereira defends his UFC light heavyweight title next against Khalil Rountree Jr. at UFC 307 on Oct. 5 in Salt Lake City, and admits he was as surprised as anyone with the booking.

Pereira said Saturday morning on his YouTube channel that he asked UFC to book him against Ankalaev after defending his belt against Jiri Prochazka at UFC 300, but the organization ultimately announced Ankalaev vs. Aleksandar Rakic for UFC 308, scheduled for Oct. 26 in Abu Dhabi. UFC announced Pereira vs. Rountree days later.

“I’ve always wanted to fight against Ankalaev and I’ve made it clear, but Ankalaev didn’t want to fight me,” Pereira said. “I don’t know the reason, if it was the location, if he didn’t want to fight. He isn’t the champion, he can’t pick anything. It’s the opportunity that shows up and he didn’t want it. He has his reasoning, I don’t know what it is. But I came here to tell you I’m not scared of anyone. Everyone knows my history and everything I’ve done, not only in MMA, but in kickboxing as well. It’s obvious that I want to fight this guy.

“I think he has made things difficult, but we’ll meet eventually.”

Pereira is a decorated kickboxer and sees the narratives being spun that Ankalaev would be a much harder test than Rountree, given his wrestling skills. However, Pereira feels more than ready for the task after training alongside Glover Teixeira and his team in Danbury.

“My desire to fight against [Ankalaev] and show what I can do, I’ve already said it here,” Pereira said. “I don’t know if I’ll win, I don’t know if I’ll lose. I say that in all my fights. For those who watch me, I’m a realistic guy. You can win, you can lose. But I’m here with the conviction I will win this fight, and that’s it. That’s how I think, and things have been working out. I think he should watch out for Rakic. He is talking a lot about me, that he’s going to knock me out and all that, but I think he should watch out with this fight. It’s a very dangerous fight for him. Maintain focus on this fight, because he is getting a tough opponent.”

Pereira, who rose as a star in the UFC in a short time by winning belts in two different weight classes, admits he “was also a bit surprised when they offered” Rountree as his next challenger and “honestly thought it would be Ankalaev,” but it doesn’t matter now.

“A lot of people say he’s ranked No. 8, I don’t know, but they are saying it messed up the UFC rankings,” Pereira said, “but I think he’s showing work and it’s going to be a good fight for both of us, as we’re both strikers, but also for those watching. I thought it was Ankalaev, but I think the organization sees that he doesn’t deliver good fights.

“They’re doing all this for you guys, to please you guys. The same way how I wasn’t ranked and things happened very fast, look at what you guys get whenever I fight. So I think they are thinking the same thing for Khalil, giving him this opportunity regardless of the ranking. I think it will be a good fight.”

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Floyd Mayweather is adding to his bank account these days, but not doing much for his legacy.

The 47-year-old boxer displayed some of the skill that made him one of the best fighters of his generation in a lopsided performance against an overmatched John Gotti III in their rematch in Mexico on Saturday night. Mayweather mostly toyed with Gotti in almost every exchange, teeing off on his bigger opponent but not really putting together a string of punches that could’ve ended the fight.

Because the matchup was an exhibition, there was no winner, but if the scorecards were involved, Mayweather would have won in a shutout.

“Gotti is tough as nails,” Mayweather said after the fight. “We had to put on a show for the people. I want to thank Gotti for being a man of his word. We ran it back twice.”

In their first encounter, Mayweather came out guns blazing and looked to put away the grandson of notorious mob boss John Gotti, but the fight ended in mayhem after Gotti was disqualified then went after Mayweather, with the ring quickly filling up with entourages from both fighters as security attempted to intervene.

It looked as if there might be a repeat performance of that scene on Saturday as the referee paused the action in the second round to issue a warning to Mayweather for punches to the back of the head. In Mayweather’s defense, Gotti was basically just lowering his head in every exchange whenever Mayweather threw a combination so the punches just naturally connected in a bad spot.

Gotti’s coaches actually got in the ring to cool him down and it appeared chaos might erupt again, but this time cooler heads prevailed. Suddenly, a new referee appeared in the ring to take over in one of the more bizarre moments in recent combat sports history.

The rest of the fight largely played out the same, with Mayweather popping Gotti with three- and four-punch combinations and then ducking out of the way before taking any damage in return. Gotti was also largely inactive, rarely throwing much of anything, and instead just trying to avoid the most punishing shots from Mayweather so he could survive all eight rounds.

There were a few fleeting moments where it looked as if Mayweather put some power behind his punches, but then he’d lay off again and let Gotti off the hook. Even when Gotti managed to back Mayweather into a corner or against the ropes, he just couldn’t produce much offense before the former multi-division champion slipped free again.

Every now and again, Mayweather let loose with the speed and accuracy that helped him build to a perfect 50-0 record before retiring, but that’s when Mayweather inevitably took his foot off the gas and let Gotti back in the fight just long enough to set him up for another combination of punches.

There was also a problem with the clock early in the fight, with a few rounds stretching well beyond the two-minute limit, but that really didn’t matter in the end. The final bell sounded and Mayweather embraced Gotti as the fighters seemingly put whatever bad blood existed between them to bed.

In the aftermath of the exhibition, Mayweather came face-to-face with another icon of the sport as Julio Cesar Chavez joined him in the ring after calling the card as part of the broadcast team. There were rumors swirling that perhaps Chavez might challenge Mayweather to a fight after he recently returned for an exhibition matchup of own.

While Mayweather has faced a long list of social influencers and MMA fighters during his run of exhibition bouts, he apparently draws the line at battling a boxer nearing senior citizen status at 62 years old.

“An unbelievable fighter,” Mayweather said about Chavez. “One of the best fighters. He beat my uncle Roger twice. I had to take my hat off to this legend.

“He’s older now and if I do an exhibition with him, it’s not going to look good for me. He’s one of the legends that I look up to. He paved the way for me and he does so much for the sport of boxing.”

A fight against Chavez may be off the table, but it’s tough to imagine Mayweather won’t keep cashing in with these exhibition bouts, especially if the packed arena in Mexico is any indication, because there’s still interest in seeing him strap on the gloves even if the results never actually matter.

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Gerald Meerschaert snatched more than a place in UFC history on Saturday at UFC Vegas 96. He also earned an extra $ 50,000.

Meerschaert captured Performance of the Night honors for his exhilarating second-round submission of Edmen Shahbazyan, which also moved Meerschaert past legendary UFC Hall of Famer Anderson Silva for the most finishes in UFC middleweight history with 12. The extra cash marked the fifth post-fight bonus of Meerschaert’s lengthy UFC career.

UFC Vegas 96 took place at the UFC APEX in Las Vegas.

Joining Meerschaert on the bonus list were headliners Caio Borralho and Jared Cannonier, as well as fellow main card winner Michael Morales.

Borralho and Cannonier secured Fight of the Night honors for their back-and-forth five-round war, which Borralho won via unanimous decision, while Morales locked up the night’s other Performance of the Night bonus for his first-round knockout of Neil Magny.

All four bonus winners earned an additional $ 50,000 for their work.

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Caio Borralho chose to stand with Jared Cannonier for the entirety of their five-round main event of UFC Vegas 96, and it was enough to get the job done in a wild middleweight battle. After the biggest win of his career, how close is Borralho now to a title shot?

Following Saturday’s Fight Night event, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Eric Jackman react to the latest APEX fight card, Borralho’s victory, the great battle between “The Natural” and Cannonier, and discuss where Borralho could go next. Additionally, topics include Tabatha Ricci’s co-main event win over Angela Hill, Mairon Santos and Ryan Loder earning contracts after winning The Ultimate Fighter, Michael Morales and Gerald Meerschaert’s impressive finishes, and more.

Catch the UFC Vegas 96 post-fight show above. An audio-only version of the show can be found below and on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your pods.

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Floyd Mayweather is adding to his bank account these days, but not doing much for his legacy.

The 47-year-old boxer displayed some of the skill that made him one of the best fighters of his generation in a lopsided performance against an overmatched John Gotti III in their rematch in Mexico on Saturday night. Mayweather mostly toyed with Gotti in almost every exchange, teeing off on his bigger opponent but not really putting together a string of punches that could’ve ended the fight.

Because the matchup was an exhibition, there was no winner, but if the scorecards were involved, Mayweather would have won in a shutout.

“Gotti is tough as nails,” Mayweather said after the fight. “We had to put on a show for the people. I want to thank Gotti for being a man of his word. We ran it back twice.”

In their first encounter, Mayweather came out guns blazing and looked to put away the grandson of notorious mob boss John Gotti, but the fight ended in mayhem after Gotti was disqualified then went after Mayweather, with the ring quickly filling up with entourages from both fighters as security attempted to intervene.

It looked as if there might be a repeat performance of that scene on Saturday as the referee paused the action in the second round to issue a warning to Mayweather for punches to the back of the head. In Mayweather’s defense, Gotti was basically just lowering his head in every exchange whenever Mayweather threw a combination so the punches just naturally connected in a bad spot.

Gotti’s coaches actually got in the ring to cool him down and it appeared chaos might erupt again, but this time cooler heads prevailed. Suddenly, a new referee appeared in the ring to take over in one of the more bizarre moments in recent combat sports history.

The rest of the fight largely played out the same, with Mayweather popping Gotti with three- and four-punch combinations and then ducking out of the way before taking any damage in return. Gotti was also largely inactive, rarely throwing much of anything, and instead just trying to avoid the most punishing shots from Mayweather so he could survive all eight rounds.

There were a few fleeting moments where it looked as if Mayweather put some power behind his punches, but then he’d lay off again and let Gotti off the hook. Even when Gotti managed to back Mayweather into a corner or against the ropes, he just couldn’t produce much offense before the former multi-division champion slipped free again.

Every now and again, Mayweather let loose with the speed and accuracy that helped him build to a perfect 50-0 record before retiring, but that’s when Mayweather inevitably took his foot off the gas and let Gotti back in the fight just long enough to set him up for another combination of punches.

There was also a problem with the clock early in the fight, with a few rounds stretching well beyond the two-minute limit, but that really didn’t matter in the end. The final bell sounded and Mayweather embraced Gotti as the fighters seemingly put whatever bad blood existed between them to bed.

In the aftermath of the exhibition, Mayweather came face-to-face with another icon of the sport as Julio Cesar Chavez joined him in the ring after calling the card as part of the broadcast team. There were rumors swirling that perhaps Chavez might challenge Mayweather to a fight after he recently returned for an exhibition matchup of own.

While Mayweather has faced a long list of social influencers and MMA fighters during his run of exhibition bouts, he apparently draws the line at battling a boxer nearing senior citizen status at 62 years old.

“An unbelievable fighter,” Mayweather said about Chavez. “One of the best fighters. He beat my uncle Roger twice. I had to take my hat off to this legend.

“He’s older now and if I do an exhibition with him, it’s not going to look good for me. He’s one of the legends that I look up to. He paved the way for me and he does so much for the sport of boxing.”

A fight against Chavez may be off the table, but it’s tough to imagine Mayweather won’t keep cashing in with these exhibition bouts, especially if the packed arena in Mexico is any indication, because there’s still interest in seeing him strap on the gloves even if the results never actually matter.

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Mairon Santos is the featherweight winner of The Ultimate Fighter 32.

Santos faced Kaan Ofli in the first of two season championship bouts during the main card of Saturday’s UFC Vegas 96 event at the UFC APEX. After a solid first round for Santos, he put an exclamation point on the performance with a nasty counter left hand that put Ofli out upon landing. The fight was stopped seconds later and Santos officially became a UFC fighter.

Check out video of the stunning finish below.

Santos earned his spot in the finals with a pair of decision wins over Edwin Cooper Jr. and Guillermo Torres. The 24-year-old improved his pro record to 14-1, with his lone loss coming two-and-a-half years ago to current UFC 145-pounder Dan Argueta in LFA.

Ofli saw his eight-fight win streak come to an end. The Australian fighter earned his place in the TUF 32 final with a decision win over Nathan Fletcher and a first-round submission of Roedie Roets.

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