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MMA Mania brings you Sound & Pound. An original podcast that features previews, recaps, lists, prospects, and a Q&A. Oh, and a cool movie club.

MMA Mania brings you Sound & Pound, an original podcast featuring previews, recaps, lists, prospects, and a Q&A. Oh, and a cool movie club. All brought to you by yours truly, Alex Behunin and Drake Riggs.

This week, we’ll recap PFL Salt Lake City, Bellator Dublin, and UFC Saudi Arabia, preview UFC 303 and Invicta FC 55, review Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977) and Super (2010), and discuss everything in between. Watch it live at 3:00 P.M. EST every Tuesday or on replay in the player above on our YouTube channel.

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Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Welterweight strikers Ian Garry vs. Michael Page will throw down this weekend (Sat., June 29, 2024) at UFC 303 inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Garry has been on a steady rise through the UFC ranks. The Irish striker’s momentum really picked up in 2023, however, when he beat the breaks off both Daniel Rodriguez and Neil Magny to announce himself a ranked fighter. His decision win over Geoff Neal was a bit more tepid, but he’s still inching closer to the elite ranks. Page, meanwhile, cut his teeth in Bellator for many years, challenging for interim gold in 2022. His crossover into the Octagon was unexpected, but “Venom” made the most of it, styling on Kevin Holland for three rounds and proving himself a top-shelf Welterweight.

Let’s take a closer look at the betting odds and strategic keys for each athlete:

Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Garry Vs. Page Betting Odds

• Ian Garry victory: -130
• Ian Garry via TKO/KO/DQ: TBD
• Ian Garry via submission: TBD
• Ian Garry via decision: TBD
• Michael Page victory: +110
• Michael Page via TKO/KO/DQ: TBD
• Michael Page via submission: TBD
• Michael Page via decision: TBD
• Odds via DraftKings Sportsbook

Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images

How Garry Wins

Garry has proven himself a very technical kickboxer. He has the build to make a movement and distance-based style work well, and thus far, it’s been quite difficult for opponents to consistently get inside, meaning they’re finding little success shooting takedowns or landing in combination.

This match up, however, presents a different question. Page isn’t going to try to close the distance on Garry. He’s happy to fight at range — that’s what he’s been doing his entire life in various martial arts! In fact, it might be necessary for Garry to push forward a bit, which is relatively unusual.

Fights between counter punchers like this can often be a bit boring, but close and slow fights emphasize the little details. In this match, Garry wins by remaining active with his kicks, particularly any time Page is near the fence. It may also be worth mixing a takedown attempt or two into his game, as strikers have outwrestled Page in the past. Really though, Garry has to remain patient and within himself, build combinations when possible, and hit the targets that are available.

Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

How Page Wins

Page is one of the flashiest strikers in the game, but there’s a serious method to his approach. He’s all about angles and deception, walking his opponent into huge shots or blitzing them before they realize what has happened.

Above, I mentioned this fight may be a bit boring, and Page should be perfectly fine with that. It’s probably in his best interest to be very selective about when he engages. Because of his ability to close forward so suddenly — certainly faster than Garry — he has the option to avoid trading unless it’s on his terms.

That mentality can result in staring matches, but if Page is winning with occasional blitzes, that’s not his problem. Patience can go a long way here, as occasional sticks will force Garry’s hand: lose a dull decision or take chances. If and when Garry bites down on his mouth piece and gets aggressive, few are better at creating massive collisions than “MVP.”

Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Garry Vs. Page Prediction

Overall, Garry is the better fighter. If you match both men against every fighter in the Welterweight Top 15, I’d expect “The Future” to win more of those bouts than his opponent, who has a very specific style and clear-cut weaknesses. Unfortunately for Garry, he falls directly into the style that Page enjoys and doesn’t seem to have the game to disrupt him. Like Holland before him, he’s going to be forced to fight Page on his terms, and that’s a tremendously difficult ask for the young talent.

If Garry can win impressively, consider me convinced on his championship potential. More likely, he takes a learning lesson and still needs time to develop before being able to topple a specialist like Page.

Prediction: Page victory (+110)

Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 303 fight card right here, starting with the early ESPN+ “Prelims” matches online, which are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. ET (simulcast on ESPN at 8 p.m. ET), before the pay-per-view (PPV) main card start time at 10 p.m. ET (also on ESPN+).

To check out the latest and greatest UFC 303: “Alex vs. Jiri 2” news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here.

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

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Khamzat Chimaev’s immediate future is uncertain.

The Chechen talent was forced to withdraw from his planned UFC Saudi Arabia main event versus Robert Whittaker. He was replaced by former opponent Ikram Aliskerov, who Whittaker sparked in the very first round (watch highlights). Chimaev reacted to the bout and expressed interest in rebooking the fight versus Whittaker, but the Australian is planning to act as the back up for the UFC 305 title fight between Israel Adesanya and Dricus Du Plessis. Presumably, “The Reaper” is on to bigger and better things.

So, what’s next for Khamzat? We’re still a long way off from finding out his next match up, but according to the latest report, Chimaev and his team are aiming for a return at UFC 308 on October 26 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The statement reads, “Khamzat can fight at the tournament in Abu Dhabi in October. But everything will depend on his condition.”

That last sentence feels pretty important! Khamzat has battled with health issues dating back to 2020, and at one point his struggle with COVID-19 was so severe that Chimaev was considering retirement. Since then, he’s fallen ill more than once, and the severe strain training camp puts on the body seems too much for him to handle.

If Chimaev does indeed return in October, who will he fight? Whittaker or Sean Strickland would be the most high-profile option depending on which man receives the next title shot, but “Borz” may have lost ground in the title picture with the latest withdrawal. Perhaps Paulo Costa — who Chimaev was supposed to fight last year — would be an acceptably high-profile but not quite title eliminator fight? As for Abu Dhabi, Chimaev’s preference for returning there definitely adds further credence to the rumor that he’s not allowed to fight in the United States.

We’ll have to see how it all shakes out.

Insomnia

If nothing else, Jiri Prochazka’s training partner actively throwing a lot of leg kicks is good to see. It seems like switching stances more often is Prochazka’s potential answer to that problem.

I’ll be honest, I thought Chris Gruetzemacher was cut years ago.

Sean Strickland got some sparring in with former K-1 Super Lightweight champion Rukiya Anpo.

Jared Gordon reacts to his split-decision loss to Nasrat Haqparast. I thought he won!

This came across my feed like seven different times over the weekend, so now you have to endure it too.

In case you didn’t know: Robert Whittaker is the man.

Imagine being a Combat Sambo hobbyist and having to face off with MERAB.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Rear naked choke for the win.

Blanque shuffled side-to-side as frantically as possible, but it’s tough to escape a north-south choke once the weight is dropped.

Uppercut to the body-left hook upstairs is a great combo we don’t see often.

Random Land

Quality wrastlin’ on hard cement.

Midnight Music: Indie rock, 2016

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

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This referee was asleep at the wheel.

Sven Groten and Rene Haendel went against each other in a jiu-jitsu match at Versus International this past weekend (June 23, 2024). Unfortunately for Groten, he got the worst-case outcome thanks to an absurdly awful referee.

Haendel caught Groten in a reverse triangle choke and began searching for armbars. Amid the joint-lock pursuit, Groten tapped then passed out immediately after as the referee stood by and watched on before Haendel cranked Groten’s left arm backward. He stared at the referee after the 90-degree angle was created with his unconscious opponent’s limb. Then the referee decided to step in to wave off the action, as seen in the embedded player above. Groten is in good spirits now, revealing his arm didn’t break but was dislocated by the referee delay.

“So that sucked,” Groten said on Instagram. “Got choked out and my elbow dislocated. No bone damage, more info to come.

“I’m in the hand of the best medical professionals with @sportsdoccgn and @pi.physio,” he continued. “Thanks to the crew of @versus.events for caring and all reaching out individually. Ref failed terribly though. There’s absolute no blame on my opponent @rene_haen you where better yesterday. I’ll crush you next time we compete. That’s a promise. I’ll be back. Better.”

Here’s to hoping someone buys that referee some new glasses sooner rather than later.

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In addition, Sandor Martín has been pegged as mandatory title challenger with Gary Antuanne Russell scoring the winner of that fight.

It’s been a busy day for the World Boxing Council (WBC).

Devin Haney has officially vacated the super lightweight title and will now be referred to as “champion in recess.” Taking over the throne is former interim champion Alberto Puello, with Sandor Martín becoming mandatory title challenger. Gary Antuanne Russell is expected to (eventually) face the winner of Puello vs. Martin.

WBC released a statement on Haney and Co. on Monday:

WBC Superlight World Champion, Devin Haney, requested to be placed in the state of Champion in the Recess. The WBC Governing Board unanimously accepted the request of Champion Haney and declared him World Champion in WBC Recess. At the same time, the WBC Board of Government declared the current Interim World Champion Alberto Puello as WBC Super Lightweight World Champion.

In accordance with its Rules and Regulations, the WBC will order the period of free negotiations for the mandatory defense of the title of Champion Puello against the number one challenger and mandatory contender Sandor Martín.

Gary Antuanne Russell has requested that the WBC Board consider granting him an immediate revenge against the now champion Puello in light of Russell’s very competitive and closed defeat by divided decision. After a careful review, the WBC has granted an indirect revenge that will allow Russell to fight against the winner of the now ordered fight between Champion Puello and Sandor Martin.

Puello defeated Russell earlier this month in Las Vegas.

Haney has spent the last several weeks mired in the Ryan Garcia drama, which started with a weigh ins disaster, continued with an upset loss, and concluded with a failed drug test. “The Dream” later threatened legal action against Garcia and plans to take up to a year off from boxing to deal with his current situation.

A timeline for Puello vs. Martin has yet to be determined.

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UFC Saudi Arabia went down this past weekend (Sat., June 22, 2024) inside Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, leaving several fighters feeling the post-fight blues. Among them was Antonio Trocoli, who was knocked out by by Shara Magomedov in the third and final round of their Middleweight fight (see it again here).

And Sergei Pavlovich, who suffered his second straight defeat (and possibly more) after coming up short against former training partner, Alexander Volkov, in the co-main event of the evening. But, which fighter is suffering from the worst post-fight hangover, now a few days removed from the show?

Ikram Aliskerov.

Originally scheduled to face Antonio Trocoli last weekend in Las Vegas, Nevada, Aliskerov was given a huge opportunity to fill the void left behind by Khamzat Chimaev against Robert Whittaker, headlining the promotion’s first-ever event in Saudi Arabia. It was a low-risk, high-reward type of situation because he was coming in as slight favorite over his unranked foe, and a loss wouldn’t affect his stock too much, while a win would’ve him shot him up the division like a rocket.

Unfortunately for Aliskerov, he wasn’t given much room to operate by the much more experience former champion, as “The Reaper” put the pedal to the metal and absolutely rocked the Russian brawler with a nasty uppercut early that put him out for the count just two minutes into the fight.

While most expected Whittaker to win, a quick finish wasn’t what Aliskerov had in mind. Still, he has no regrets for stepping in on short notice to take on one of the absolute best fighters in the sport.

“Alhamdulilla, no excuses — I don’t regret anything,” he said on X. “It was a big experience against one of the best in the sport. I’m young, I’ll work on my mistakes , learn and get back into business soon. Thank to everyone for support messages.”

The loss was Aliskerov’s first in five years, losing to — coincidentally enough — Khamzat Chimaev in the first round back in April 2019 (via vicious uppercut, too!). The loss snapped his seven-fight win streak, but it doesn’t hurt his stock one bit. He stepped up to the plate, and while he didn’t deliver he did earn some points with Dana White and Co., who will remember the solid he did for the company down the road.

In this sport, opportunity rarely knocks and when it does, it’s typically in the fighters best interest to answer it because it may not come again. He rolled the dice and it came up craps, but in doing so, he got some experience headlining a major event against a former champion.

He will learn from this and come back stronger.

As far as what could realistically be next for him, why not book him against the aforementioned Trocoli again? Both men had a change of plans, both had to make the long trip to Saudi Arabia to face new opponents, and both came up brutally short. Give them some time to recover and have them hook ‘em up before the year is over.

Keep it simple.

For complete UFC Saudi Arabia results, coverage and highlights, click HERE.

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McGregor details one of the treatments he had on his broken pinky toe, and how it may have made the toe worse than before.

Conor McGregor is opening up about his toe injury and some of the treatments they used to try and keep him on June 29th’s UFC 303 card.

McGregor was forced off the card last week, and finally he revealed it was due to a broken pinky toe. There was a lot of effort put into keeping the nature of his injury secret, but “The Notorious” can’t even wear a shoe right now. So it was either let the cat out of the bag or hide from the public eye until he was healed.

McGregor chose to show off x-rays of the injury, and on Saturday night he turned up to Bellator Dublin in slippers. He discussed the broken toe with Severe MMA and how a stem cell shot into the injured pinky may have caused more pain than gain.

“This is it. This run is for the parish, you know what I’m saying?” he said about his comeback fight. “So I’m getting this right, and that’s it.”

As for a return date?

“I’m hoping soon as … August. September I’d love,” McGregor said. “You know the way it is. I’m in recovery mode. It’s three weeks to the day, it happened three weeks ago today. I’m still rocking around here in the slippers. They’re not bad slippers, thankfully, and they’re cozy enough. But I can’t get into a shoe.”

“They put stem cells into me,” he revealed. “They took ‘em from my back, they put ‘em in my foot. 20mg of stem cells out of my own back bone marrow, in. Right into the break. There was a little bit left over so I said ‘Yeah, lob it into me shoulder, it feels a little bit sore.’ The shoulder’s actually feeling amazing.”

“Them stem cells are good stuff, I’m reading a bit about them, it’s an eye opener with them stem cells. But my toe is f—ing sore, and I don’t know if the stem cells into the break was the right move. Because now it’s like, you know when the chicks put filler in their face? My baby toe looks like that. I don’t think it’s the swelling any more, it’s the fluid, it’s the stem cells in my toe.”

“So it’s looking like I’m gonna have a swollen toe thing, all the time,” he concluded. “I don’t know. But I’m just recovering man, and that’s it. Day by day.”

With this latest delay, there’s some indication that Michael Chandler may move on to a new opponent. For his part, McGregor said “Iron Mike” was still the target opponent.

“I would hope so, I would say so,” he said. “But again I’m on my journey, I’m on my path. I need to get this right for my team, the fans, we deserve this. And I’m gonna f—ing bring it home, and that’s it.”

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With Max Holloway and Alexander Volkanovski waiting for featherweight title shots, Ortega plans on heading to 155 pounds and having some ‘fun.’

Enjoy Brian Ortega’s fight against Diego Lopes at UFC 303, because it may be the last time we see “T-City” fighting at featherweight for a while.

Ortega is the latest fighter to step up and help the UFC save a card in crisis after Conor McGregor withdrew from the June 29th card with two weeks’ notice. He’ll face hotshot finish-machine Diego Lopes on the show’s new co-main event.

The bout was a welcome fight for the No. 3 featherweight contender, who is struggling to find a fight — and purpose — at 145 pounds. Because of that, he plans on moving up to 155 pounds for a while after the Lopes fight, no matter what the outcome in Las Vegas.

“They told me my weight class had no one that they wanted me to fight,” Ortega told MMA Junkie in a new interview. “They didn’t really want me to fight contenders and stuff, so I decided to move to 155. [We had an opponent], but I can’t say it. It might still happen. And I hope it does.”

It seems crazy for Ortega to abandon featherweight when he’s right at the top of the division, but he recognizes a title shot logjam when he sees one.

“There’s no title fight for me anytime soon because of what’s going on in the game,” Ortega said. “Max has a guaranteed title shot, and Volkanovski does as well. So even when Topuria does fight, he fights Max. If Max wins, it’s Max vs. Volk 4, which is going to take up to next year. If Topuria wins, then it’s Topuria vs. Volk 2. Then I still have to wait until next year.”

“So when I say the title fight’s not coming anytime soon, it’s just not because of the favors that both of them have done, the leaps and the risks that they both have taken. Volk on two weeks’ notice against Islam [Makhachev], and Max against [Justin] Gaethje, although it was a full camp, he fought for the BMF belt. Both of them, it’s just a lot. Everyone has done a lot.”

“So for me to say that I’m there and deserve it right now, it’s not true,” Ortega concluded. “Selfishly, of course, since I was a kid I’ve been chasing to be a champion. But you have to make peace with reality, and that’s the reality of this game right now. That’s where it’s at, that’s where it’s going, so why not just have fun with my career?”

Ortega vs. Lopes is definitely a fun fight, and a tough one according to the bookies. They have “T-City” a very slight +130 dog to -150 Lopes, which is a bit shocking given their respective resumes. Lopes is young and on a hot streak, having finished his last three fights via first round submission. Ortega is injury-prone and 2-3 over his last five … but those losses came to the absolute best 145 has to offer.

We’re looking forward to seeing how Ortega handles Lopes, and whoever the UFC has in mind for him at lightweight after that.

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Lukas Bukovaz’s girlfriend turned down his in-cage proposal at Clash of the Stars in Czech Republic, claiming the fighter cheated on her. Brutal.

It was a rough night in the cage for Czech fighter Lukas Bukovaz, who lost his fight at local event Clash of the Stars and then had his marriage proposal shot down in front of a crowd of amused onlookers.

Lots of women aren’t fans of public proposals, and it seems Bukovaz’s girlfriend is amongst those who don’t like to be put on the spot … especially when they believe they’ve been cheated on by their significant other.

Jan Michalek won a two-on-one fight against Bukovaz and Patrik Horvath (yes, really), but that didn’t stop “Bukys” from shooting his shot and getting brutally refused. Video from the event showed the pink-haired fighter down on his knee making the proposal, and things immediately didn’t look good as his girlfriend covered her face in embarrassment.

“Based on everything that’s happened, I think probably not,” she said. “I don’t think so.”

The crowd erupted in boos and someone outside the cage went so far as to try and throw water on her. She held up her hand to explain, claiming Bukovaz had cheated on her and even dropped the woman’s name.

“I didn’t cheat on her,” Bukovaz said in a backstage interview afterward, which he posted to his Instagram along with the initial video of her refusal. “Bukys” has over 16,000 followers on the platform, and with this kind of content we can see why. Was it staged for clicks? We can only hope so.

As usual, European MMA is undefeated at delivering some of the strangest moments in combat sports.

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Here’s what you may have missed!

Last night (Sat., June 22, 2024) at UFC Saudi Arabia, Johnny Walker suffered his sixth knockout loss as a professional at the hands of power-punching Swiss kickboxer Volkan Oezdemir.

To be frank, it’s getting hard to watch.

Now, no medical professional would recommend getting knocked out six times, but on its own, that number isn’t unheard of in mixed martial arts. Some competitors fight multiple decades and have 50-fight careers, which can lead to some ugly statistics. The legendary Alistair Overeem, for example, has 15 losses via knockout in MMA and another three in the kickboxing ring.

The problem is that Walker doesn’t just get knocked out. He doesn’t take a hard punch, fall to the floor, and cover up until the referee saves him. Each and every time Walker gets put down, he falls like a tree being chopped down in a wind storm. He goes stiff in the fencing response and deep into a long sleep, two bad signs of serious damage.

There are handful of reasons for these knockout losses, both obvious and inobvious. On the technical side of things, Walker still hasn’t developed much of a boxing skill. His defense is to avoid the pocket, but when his back touches the fence, it all goes to hell in a handbasket. That’s a technical and tactical issue, one I don’t believe his current fighting style or fight team have appropriately addressed.

Technical woes are less concerning than the way Walker reacts to getting hit. His brain seems to go on the fritz. You can see him glitch out in real time. In the past, I’ve theorized this reaction is the result of cutting too much weight, which can severely affect a fighter’s ability to take a shot. Walker is one of the biggest men in the division, so my recommendation was a move up to Heavyweight, where at least his brain would be fully hydrated when getting pummeled.

That recommendation came over two years ago, and now it feels too late. Generally, fighters get easier to knock out the more it happens. Walker has suffered two more BAD knockout losses since that article. A lot more damage has been done, and jumping up a weight class feels like less of a solution.

What’s the answer? I don’t have one anymore. I have no desire to be the pearl-clutching writer demanding an athlete retires. He’s still a Top 10-ranked UFC fighter, after all. At the same time, I know full well that some other 220-pound slugger is going to walk Walker to the fence and send him into another deep sleep in the next six-to-18 months.

It’s only going to grow harder to watch.

For complete UFC Saudi Arabia results, coverage, and highlights, click HERE.

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