Category Archives: Mmamania.com

Conor McGregor’s recent ownership stake in Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) sparked mixed reviews, but one Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) veteran is comparing it to Lorenzo Fertitta and Dana White.

While McGregor has yet to step foot back inside of the Octagon he has remained active with other lucrative business ventures. This includes his alcohol companies and a recent agreement to become a part owner in BKFC. The Irish superstar has always respected bareknuckle fighting so the move made sense.

McGregor’s involvement with BKFC is only going to grow as he digs his heels in deeper, but any additional attention and interest the former UFC champion can bring to the booming fight promotion the better. After all, McGregor is the most recognized MMA fighter in the history of the sport and one of the most popular combat athletes in the world today.

Some may scoff at McGregor’s interest to dive into BKFC, but others are looking at the Irishman’s new ownership stake as a huge step in the right direction. Just ask former UFC contender, Jeremy Stephens, who currently competes under the BKFC banner. Despite Stephens being on the wrong end of one of McGregor’s most infamous trash talk moments of all time he’s all in on “Notorious” being part owner of BKFC.

“It’s f—king awesome,” Stephens recently told MMA Junkie. “I feel like he’s the Fertittas to the Dana White. He’s the money behind the driving force. Anything Conor touches, it’s gold. He brings a lot of eyes to the brand. One thing you can say about him is you can tell he really believes in this creative, psychotically-skilled BKFC, is really what it is. I feel like they’re going to start signing real, legit fighters who are going to have an opportunity to come over here and really do big, big business here in bareknuckle. I feel he sees it the way we see it. It’s a growing sport. You can’t really mess around. You’ve got to be real creative in your craft.”

While Stephens and McGregor haven’t seen eye-to-eye in the past, “Lil Heathen” is more than willing to bury the hatchet moving forward in effort to focus on bigger business. Even if the two crossed paths in the future Stephens believes all will be fine.

“Business is business. We’ll see the vibes when he gets there,” said Stephens. “I just go based on vibes. But as of right now, he’s behind it. He’s writing the checks. He’s keeping the business afloat, so I have nothing but gratitude for that. Like I said, Conor brings a lot of eyes. I fought on the cards UFC 189, flying kneed Bermudez. These Irish fans were some of the best fans in the world. They were buying my family and I drinks and chanting all night, singing, shutting the bar down. That was like that at 189 when I threw the flying knee. They’re the best fans in the world. Conor (is a) big name, big eyes. Like I said, big, big business here in bareknuckle.”

MMAmania.com – All Posts

Diego Lopes is aiming to fight and play cornerman in two weeks when he travels to Las Vegas, Nevada, for the promotion’s long-awaited debut at The Sphere for Noche UFC.

Fight fans have seen Lopes rise the featherweight ranks over the past two years and he’s nearing the top of the weight class. Lopes was expected to fight Brian Ortega at UFC 303 this past June, but “T-City” pulled out of his fight with hours to spare and was replaced by Dan Ige. The switch didn’t effect Lopes as the Brazilian contender earned a unanimous decision win to push his UFC record to 4-1.

Lopes is now scheduled to fight Ortega again at Noche UFC in two weeks from inside The Sphere in “Sin City.” It’s a massive fight for both men, but if Lopes wins he should be fast tracked to his first UFC featherweight title shot. The only problem — outside of defeating one of the toughest featherweights on the planet in Ortega — is the fact that Lopes also wants to corner teammate and current UFC women’s flyweight champion, Alexa Grasso, who defends her title on the same night in a trilogy fight with Valentina Shevchenko.

As of now, the plan for Lopes is to finish his fight against Ortega in shot time in order to help Grasso for her title fight. It may be cutting it close, but Lopes has been in Grasso’s corner since she moved down to 125 pounds back in 2020.

“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.”

MMAmania.com – All Posts

Nurideen Shabazz, better known as “Deen the Great,” delivered one of the best influencer boxing moments ever earlier today (Sat., Aug. 31, 2024) at Misfits Boxing 17 live on DAZN pay-per-view (PPV) from inside 3Arena Dublin, Ireland, stopping fellow social media star Dave Fogarty with a massive third-round knockout (punch).

This was one of the more anticipated matchups of the night and it didn’t disappoint. Fogarty got off to a great start and utilized his size to put “Deen the Great” in trouble over the course of the first two rounds. However, “Deen the Great” has some boxing experience under his belt and remained cool, calm, and collected heading into the third round.

Out of nowhere, “Deen the Great” landed a massive right hand during an exchange in the middle of the ring that absolutely rocked Fogarty and sent him crashing to the canvas. Fogarty tried to return to his feet and continue fighting, but it was eventually waved off after his corner took a long look.

Check out the stoppage below:

It’s rare that one of these Misfits Boxing cards produce a one-punch finish like this, but “Deen the Great” absolutely delivered. The comeback performance was easily his biggest victory to date and a finish that should steal the show no matter how the main card ends.

For more Misfits Boxing 17 results, coverage, and results click HERE.

MMAmania.com – All Posts

Ilia Topuria has already defeated Alexander Volkanovski for the UFC featherweight title, but “El Matador” is willing to do it again at UFC 308 if need be.

The undefeated UFC featherweight champion is currently scheduled to defend his title for the first time since stopping Volkanovski this past February when he meets Max Holloway at UFC 308 on Oct. 26 in Abu Dhabi. It’s a massive meeting between the current 145-pound king and the current “BMF” champion that will headline one of the most stacked pay-per-view (PPV) cards of the year.

While Topuria and Holloway are not prone to pulling out of fights, the promotion may decide to bring in a backup fighter to potentially fill in for an injury, botched weight cut, or anything else. It makes sense for that fighter to be Volkanovski, who before his loss to Topuria had produced an undefeated 13-0 record as member of the UFC’s featherweight division. This includes five-straight title defenses and three title fight wins over Holloway.

“I reckon I’ll be there, you know what I mean?” said Volkanovski during a fan Q&A earlier this month in Australia. “I’m usually hanging around and pestering my managers and the matchmakers. I’m always hanging around. You can’t get rid of me. I’ll be there.”

Topuria, who just fought Volkanovski six months ago, doesn’t know if that’s the right choice for the former champion. After all, Volkanovski has suffered back-to-back knockout losses since he was finished by Islam Makhachev prior to his meeting with Topuria.

“Listen, I don’t know (if that’s a good idea),” Topuria told MMA Junkie. “He wants to get knocked out every year. Twice, maybe someone has to give him good advice. He needs some rest. I’m telling you, he needs some rest. His head at least.”

That said, Topuria doesn’t really care who is standing across the cage from him at UFC 308. He would prefer Holloway for the chance to add another legendary name to his growing resume, but “El Matador” is fine running things back with Volkanovski if it comes to that.

“My business and my job is to fight, no matter who is in front of me,” Topuria said. “I’m the world champion. I had my preferences before that I wanted to fight people who was next to me in the rankings, to get my chance to fight for the title as soon as possible. But now, when I’m the world champion, I don’t care. Give me a name. Give me a place. I’m going to give you a masterpiece of mixed martial arts.”

MMAmania.com – All Posts

Bringing you the weird and wild from the world of MMA each and every weeknight!

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

If you see fewer of your favorite Brazilian MMA fighters in this column in the coming weeks, know that it’s not by my choice. On Friday (Aug. 30, 2024), a Brazilian Supreme Court Judge, Alexandre de Moraes, officially blocked X — the social media platform formerly known as Twitter — after owner Elon Musk failed to comply with the judge’s order to remove accounts from the platform that were breaking Brazilian law. Musk has declared Moraes an “evil dictator cosplaying as a judge” and intends to continue his fight for free speech.

Many have suggested using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to get around the banning, but Judge Moraes has instituted a harsh penalty of $ 8,874 per day for any Brazilians caught using that workaround. Safe to say, X is not looking worth the risk for most Brazilians.

Paulo Costa is one of the most active Brazilian UFC fighters on Twitter, well-known for his silly juice memes and goofy antics like stealing Merab Dvalishvili’s meals from the UFC Performance Institute (PI). Social media has been a huge boon in growing Costa’s fanbase, but the Brazilian made it clear he will NOT be risking that massive fine. In one post, he wrote, “Bye MY EVERYONE, I will not pay 8,000 $ . Daily to be here.”

Check out all of the Brazilian’s reaction Tweets below:

Now, I’m not a lawyer. My Portuguese is worse than Mike Goldberg’s. I don’t claim to understand the full extent of this ruling, but I have some thoughts on potential workarounds. Can an athlete like Costa fire up some Tweets while out of the country in Las Vegas for a fight? Could he hire a US-based social media manager or even a training partner, then text that person his various thoughts to be posted online? Can he still sell his account, which has 640k followers and surely carries some monetary value?

One way or another, the MMA social media landscape may change quite a bit in the coming days.

Insomnia

Fighting 1.5 times per year while on a $ 12k and $ 12k new signee contract doesn’t sound like an amazing way to make a living.

On the strength of a four-fight win streak, Aiemann Zahabi gets a big step up in competition.

Torrez Finney will make history when he fights on Contenders Series for a third time.

Genuine question, because I have no idea: who is the most successful Sumo athlete to crossover into MMA? I remember that Lyoto Machida had some Sumo in his background, so he’s surely the answer if that counts.

An elite kickboxer making the pads explode:

Danny Barlow claims he won his first two UFC fights with a broken arm.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Sending opponents flying with spin kicks at all three levels!

The look away into 1-2 is Sean O’Malley-esque.

Lee is 6’1” at 135-pounds and doesn’t look that skinny — how?!?

Random Land

That’s a Pokemon.

Midnight Music: New Nick Cave album!

Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.

MMAmania.com – All Posts

Brazilian fighter Mauricio Queiroz not only lost his undercard bout earlier tonight (Fri., Aug. 30, 2024) at LFA 191 from inside Ginasio do Povilho in Sao Paulo, Brazil, but the light heavyweight power puncher had to reset a broken nose during the fight.

Fight fans are going to be without a UFC event this weekend, but they were treated to a Friday evening card from Brazil. LFA usually produces good action from start to finish so even the undercard had a chance to be memorable. That’s exactly what happened, but not for the reason you may think.

Instead of a superhuman knockout or comeback submission, fight fans witnessed one of the worst nose breaks in recent mixed martial arts (MMA) memory. It happened during Queiroz’s showdown with undefeated Brazilian fighter, Guilherme Pat, who is a towering specimen for the 205-pound division at a staggering 6’5”. Pat brought a 4-0 record into the cage on Friday and from what he’s done so far in his career fight fans were expecting a standup affair.

Fortunately, Pat did not disappoint. His early efforts eventually paid dividends and left Queiroz’s nose completely smashed in. The Brazilian fighter eventually got a moment to catch is breath during the fight and tried to reset his nose. It seemed to work, but that didn’t stop Pat from continuing his offensive onslaught and doing more damage to the nose. He eventually stopped Queiroz in the third round with heavy punches along the cage as the referee had seen enough and stepped in.

Check out the moment Queiroz tried resetting his nose in the above player and the TKO finish by Pat below:

MMAmania.com – All Posts

Rising welterweight contender, Carlos Prates, continues his ascension up the stacked 170-pound division by defeating Li Jingliang at UFC 305 via second-round knockout (see it again here), improving his win streak to 10 straight, which includes three straight inside the Octagon.

While Prates still isn’t racked in the Top 15, “The Nightmare” has his sights set on another entertaining striker in the division. Posting via his Instagram account, Prates says Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) matchmakers have offered him a fight against Michael Page — who is currently ranked No. 13.

The problem, however, is that “Venom” seemingly doesn’t answer his phone to accept the bout.

“I found out that the company wants to give me Michael Venom Page, but he doesn’t answer the phone,” he said via Instagram. “You must be having nightmares by now! Hey brother, sign this contract!”

Page, the former Bellator MMA welterweight title contender, is coming off a unanimous decision loss at the hands of Ian Machado Garry at UFC 303. Prior to that defeat, “Venom” made a successful UFC debut by defeating Kevin Holland at UFC 299.

A fight between these two strikers would be a treat for fight fans around the globe, and since Page — who is ranked — is coming off a loss and Prates — who is not ranked — is on a hot streak, it kind of makes sense.

Now, the only thing that remains to be seen is if “MVP” accepts the alleged phone calls that are coming his way by the UFC higher ups. Should this fight come to pass, how do you see it playing out?

MMAmania.com – All Posts

Jones isn’t bothered by all the discussion surrounding a potential title unification fight against Aspinall. His legacy is locked in either way.

UFC heavyweight champ Jon Jones says he sleeps well at night knowing his legacy in mixed martial arts (MMA) is secure. But last night he was up late tweeting about Tom Aspinall.

The reason for his surprise 3am Q&A with fans on X (formerly Twitter)? Jones just bought a baller mansion for his family, and is feeling pretty good about it. He’s not stressing all the headlines generated by interim heavyweight Tom Aspinall, who has accused him of ducking a title unification bout. Not even Aspinall’s drudging up of old steroid allegations can get “Bones” down.

“I definitely appreciate all the attention he gives me,” Jones said of Aspinall. “I’m more relevant than ever. Haven’t even fought. It’s an amazing thing.”

While Jones refused to say he’d stick around and fight Aspinall after his expected UFC 309 fight with Stipe Miocic in November, he did say he’d ‘absolutely’ kick Tom’s butt if they did face each other.

“I’m getting close to being in fight shape and I’m weighing in at 245 now,” Jones wrote. “He probably cuts weight to get down to heavyweight. The night we fought he would probably weigh a solid 25 pounds more than me, seven years younger, and I would still whip his ass like I’ve done everyone else. You guys can go ahead and believe the hype, I’ll keep doing what I’ve always done, win.”

Jones was asked why he’s always so evasive when it comes to the topic of fighting Aspinall.

“You don’t get this far in your career looking past opponents,” he replied. “Right now I’m fighting Stipe and I guarantee you’ll be watching.”

Jones’ original plan when coming back was to win the heavyweight title, defend against the greatest UFC heavyweight champion in Stipe Miocic, then retire. These days he’s dangling the possibility of another superfight before hanging up the gloves, but he’s made it clear he doesn’t think Tom Aspinall qualifies.

“Maybe I’ll leave you with blue balls, but my legacy will be just fine,” he added. “I’ve done way too much work in this game. There’s people around the world that’s been watching me fight since they can remember. He would have to go on and win like 10 championships at least in order for that to happen. The work I put in, that body of work ain’t getting touched no time soon.”

Guys, we’re starting to get the feeling Jon Jones really isn’t interested in fighting Tom Aspinall.

MMAmania.com – All Posts

Bringing you the weird and wild from the world of MMA each and every weeknight!

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Khabib Nurmagomedov doesn’t want any part of a reignited feud with former rival Tony Ferguson.

The retired Russian legend made headlines this week for claiming that Ferguson could only have defeated him via “lucky punch.” Unsurprisingly, Ferguson took issue with that comment and quickly posted a small social media rant labeling “The Eagle” a fat chicken (among other things). All things considered, it was a pretty standard “El Cucuy” post. Still, Nurmagomedov responded on X early Tuesday morning, and he denied making those recent comments.

“You know what’s interesting,” Nurmagomedov posted. “I didn’t say anything about you, people just post whatever they want on the internet and write that it’s Khabib. Enjoy your life and your family, leave this sport for the young fighters.”

The problem with Khabib’s post (or whoever is running his account) is that the source of the lucky punch quote was a podcast … that’s on YouTube … in English! It can still be watched right HERE! You can watch Nurmagomedov say it himself at about the 24:30 mark.

Regardless, the final sentence is good advice. At 40 years of age, Ferguson recently set the UFC record for consecutive losses when he was easily tapped out by Michael Chiesa for an eighth straight defeat. “El Cucuy” hasn’t officially been released by the UFC or retired outright, but there’s nothing left for him in the cage.

Sadly, we’ll never actually know what would’ve happened had Ferguson and Khabib met at the height of their respective powers. Ferguson’s ugly losing streak has largely killed off what once was a strong belief that the Californian could really trouble the legendary “Eagle,” but it still remains as an all-time “what if” in MMA history.

Damn that stupid cable.

Insomnia

Carlos Prates is trying to line up a fight versus Michael Page. It’s been too long since we’ve since a classic Muay Thai vs. Karate match up in the Octagon!

I hate this. There are plenty of actual issues in MMA, go tackle one of those, NSAC.

Win or lose, Nikita Krylov can be trusted to get after it.

It sounds like Dan Ige had a bit of a mishap on the freeway.

There’s only one Merab Dvalishvili.

Luck is as important a factor for success as anything else in this sport.

The devilish red feels quite appropriate.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Jean Silva is a walking highlight reel.

That knee on the way down was well-timed.

15 years ago today! One of the most fun Heavyweight fights of all time.

Random Land

Moving on from Paris 2024 to greener pastures.

Midnight Music: Hip-hop, 2003

Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.

MMAmania.com – All Posts

“I learned how to say that in Japanese just for the sheer fact that I knew they’d ask me that.”

Tai Emery has become quite the character in the bare-knuckle boxing (BKB) world.

Australia’s Emery certainly burst onto the scene in BKFC with her promotion debut in Thailand against Rung-Arun Khunchai in September 2022. The performance went as smoothly as Emery could have requested, scoring the first-round TKO at 1:41. However, the unique post-fight celebration arguably had the combat sports world talking more than the in-ring efforts.

Emery, 37, ran to the ropes in elation and gave the Bangkok crowd a surprise by pulling her top up after the win. A recently formed partnership between BKFC and RIZIN led the flyweight brawler to Japan for her last time out when she battled Charisa Sigala at Super RIZIN 3 last month (July 28, 2024). Emery once again scored a quick finish, breaking the nose of Sigala to earn her second pro victory (2-1). Beforehand, she had to make some promises that her unforgettable celebration wouldn’t be repeated.

“100 percent,” Emery told MMA Mania on BROADENED HORIZIN about promising not to flash the Saitama crowd. “In every single email, every single phone call from David Feldman. I literally had to learn how to say, ‘No, I promised David Feldman and Conor McGregor that I wouldn’t flash and I wouldn’t be naughty.’ I learned how to say that in Japanese just for the sheer fact that I knew they’d ask me that.

“I had to pull that [phrase] out in some of the interviews and they were impressed.”

Emery has a lot of options going forward after the big win and debut on Japanese soil. Ultimately, she wants to claim gold in BKFC but she’s not at all opposed to putting the gloves on if requested.

“I want the belt. I want what’s mine. That will be the moment I can finally go (exhales), okay, on top of the mountain, let’s smell one flower, and let’s get back to work,” Emery said. “Outside of that, I really want to put on the gloves and box whether that’s with RIZIN or Misfits or both. I think it’s exciting times for fighters right now.”

Watch the full episode in the video embedded above, or listen to it on Spotify.

BROADENED HORIZIN Ep. 42 AUDIO – 以下の日本語版:

MMAmania.com – All Posts