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UFC 301 takes place this weekend at Farmasi Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.,  The event is headlined by flyweight title bout between champion Alexandre Pantoja and tenth-ranked Steve Erceg.  In the co-main event, former two-time featherweight champion Jose Aldo returns from retirement to take on Jonathan Martinez in a bantamweight bout.  

UFC 301 Embedded, Episode 1

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UFC 301 takes place this weekend at Farmasi Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The event is headlined by flyweight title bout between champion Alexandre Pantoja and tenth-ranked Steve Erceg.   It’s the 12th time the fight promotion has held an event in Brazil’s second-most-populous city.  

Former middleweight champion Michael Bisping gave his prediction for the flyweight title bout on his YouTube channel and favored the champion.  

“Alexandre Pantoja, this man’s phenomenal.  He’s pretty much gone through the entire flyweight division.  Brandon Moreno, the Royvals, the Kapes.  You name it, he’s been there and done it,” said Bisping.  “He’s got no weak areas.  He’s got a strong mind.  He’s resilient.  He’s got an amazing gas tank.  He can strike.  He can wrestle.  He’s got world class jiu-jitsu, and he’s a nasty bastard on top of it.”  

“Steve Erceg, only 28-years-old, flying from Perth, Australia flying to Rio de Janeiro.  12-1, okay.  The man is on an incredible win streak and last time got the job done.  Knocked out Matt Schnell with a vicious left hook, but he’s not a knockout artist,” Bisping continued.  “In 12 wins he’s only had two knockouts and six submissions.”

“He’s a big underdog.  He should be a big underdog.  There’s a reason why he will be.  He’s going to try to shock the world.  Get a massive upset.  Will he get it done?  I love Steve Erceg.  Nice guy, but this isn’t the one.  It’s just not the one.  Not right now, and I say that with respect to Steve.”  

The fight will be Pantoja’s second title defense, and Bisping believes the belt will stay with the champion.  

“Alexandre Pantoja, he’s too skilled, too experience, but you never know.  One shot.  One shot is all it takes in those four ounce gloves,” said Bisping.  “Of course, in the main event, I have the one and only Alexandre Pantoja.”

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Former UFC commentator Jimmy Smith did not hold back when discussing former women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey.  

Smith took issue with Rousey’s recent comments about her UFC departure and how she believed UFC commentator Joe Rogan and the MMA media had turned on her after he loses to Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes.    

“It was really disappointing to see how happily everybody turned on me and how people like Joe Rogan, who were crying in the ring about the honor of being able to call my fights, people I considered friends in the media so quickly turned on me,” Rousey said during an appearance on The Chris Cuomo Project. “I also am kind of grateful for it in a way because it forced me to separate other people’s perception of me from my own perception of myself.”

Rousey had previously sat down for an interview with Valeria Lipovetsky earlier this month.  In the interview, she discussed her UFC departure, the loss to Holm, and her history with concussions.  

“My mouth guard was bad. I literally came into that fight concussed from slipping down some stairs already after all these years of concussions,” Rousey said about her loss to Holm.  “Then, I had an absolutely terrible weight cut, which means you have less fluid in your brain to protect it.”

The comments sparked articles in the media from the MMA media to mainstream outlets.  A lot of them categorized Rousey’s comments as ‘excuses.’  In her interview with Cuomo, Rousey called the MMA media ‘a**holes.’   

“The MMA media hates me. Not a single person has called me or anything like that. They’ve all just doubled down and said that I’m making excuses or lying or blowing things out of propotion, or not giving credit where it’s due. … I’m not waiting for it [the call] and I get that they’re a bunch of a**holes.”

After hearing Rousey’s comments, Smith didn’t hold back with his response.  

“I’ve never been a religious person,” Smith said on Unlocking the Cage with Jimmy Smith. “One thing that’s always said about God: He gets all the credit, none of the blame. That’s what Ronda Rousey wants: all the credit, none of the blame. ‘I want credit for all my wins. My losses, I had CTE and I had this and I had that. I’m the greatest to ever do it, but when it didn’t work, it was so and so and never me.’

“She never gives credit to the people who actually beat her. The idea that (she) left MMA and went to the WWE because (she) had concussion problems makes no sense.”

Related: Ronda Rousey blames bad mouthguard and concussion on Holly Holm loss at UFC 193

Smith did not stop there.  He went on to allege that the people behind the scenes, the cameramen, the sound person, the interviewers, and others couldn’t stand Rousey.  

“The people behind the scenes, camera people, audio people, the people you can push around and the people you can bully and the people you can talk down to can’t stand (her) f*cking ass,” Smith said. “Everybody behind the scenes that had to put a mic on Ronda Rousey couldn’t stand her. I said why? They said, ‘She was a b*tch to us from the moment she sat down to the moment she got up. Like it’s our fault she has to do this interview to hype her next fight. And she’s just miserable, and she’s mean to us, and we can’t stand her.’

“They were cheering when she got knocked out. This is what I was told. Those are the people you can be mean to and rude to, and they can’t fight back. Those people couldn’t stand Ronda Rousey, so don’t sit here and tell me that you’re the victim when the poor guy sitting behind the camera is doing his job gets sh*t on by you, or you’re mean to the person asking you questions when we’re hyping your fight. Don’t give me this victim sh*t.”

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UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja isn’t happy with some of the things former middleweight titleholder Sean Strickland has said about the lighter weight classes.  

“I don’t want to see two f**king little cats fight; I want to see lions,” Strickland said in the lead up to his UFC 297 title bout against Dricus Du Plessis.  Pantoja hasn’t forgotten Strickland’s January comments and responded to the former champion in a recent interview. 

“Every flyweight in the world before the UFC worked so hard,” Pantoja said during an interview with SHAK MMA.  “It’s crazy because people say that.  Don’t say that.  You want I to lose my money, I lose my job? That’s so crazy. Why?  Why you say that?” 

“I’m very mad when Strickland said that for women and flyweight guys. Shut your mouth. Respect my job,” Pantoja continued.  “I put food on my table with that. You crazy?  Every flyweight worked so hard for that, and that’s why everyone respects each other in the flyweights. 

“It’s hard (when) you see someone say bad things about us because we work hard. That’s a very hard division. We need to be training 100-percent (of the) time. It’s not just about one punch here. You need to be good in grappling, good cardio, good striking, good every time in every place.”

Pantoja puts his world title on the line in the UFC 301 main event on Saturday against tenth-ranked Steve Erceg in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  It will be Pantoja’s second title defense.  

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UFC lightweight Paddy “The Baddy” Pimblett was mentioned by a couple of UFC 300 winners during their post-fight interviews.  Pimblett responded to the those callouts over the weekend via YouTube video.  

“Paddy’s next fight will hopefully be in Manchester.  We haven’t had anything confirmed yet, but we’re waiting to hear about it,” said Pimblett’s coach Paul Rimmer.  “A ranked opponent would be good.  I know he’s had some Top 10 guys kind of call him out, really want to fight him which we’re more than happy with.  People underestimate Paddy and how good he is.”  

Fifteenth-ranked Bobby Green called Pimblett out following his UFC 300 win over Jim Miller.  It’s a match that Pimblett is open to.  

“Everybody wants a slice of the Baddy.  Bobby Green screamed my name on the mic after it.  Didn’t surprise me,” Pimblett said on his YouTube channel.  “He might be ranked but he’s got no followers and he needs me.  Just like everyone else, they want to fight me because they know I’m the boy.  Bobby Green’s an option.  If Bobby Green wants to fight, I’m there.  I’d rather fight my boy Moicano.”

Tenth-ranked lightweight Renato Moicano also called out Pimblett after his UFC 300 win over Jalin Turner.    

“Where you at Renato,” Pimblett said.  “I don’t even dislike Renato Moicanano.  I actually like him.  He’s a funny guy.  He’s a cool dude, so me and him having a fight would be hilarious.  The build up to to that fight would be very, very funny.  I think it would be even funnier if me and him done a season of The Ultimate Fighter.  That would be 6, 7, 8 weeks of pure comedy for the fans.  So I’d love that.  I’d love that to be honest.”  

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Former two-time UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo announced his retirement from fighting in September 2022, a month after losing to Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 278.  His retirement announcement came on the same day as the birth of his son.

Aldo had one fight left on his UFC contract, but the fight promotion game him permission to pursue opportunities in other sports, particularly boxing.  On May4, at UFC 301, Aldo will come out of retirement to take on Jonathan Martinez in a bantamweight bout.

“I had been focused on boxing.  I took some vacation at the end of last year and in January started talking to my coach about possibly making a comeback,” Aldo told SHAK MMA.  “I always want to be the champion and I always want to fight for that belt.  My body is good and I feel ready for it.”  

“I needed my time off and I had my time off,” Aldo continued.  “I’m recovered and now I’m back in.”

The UFC 301 fight with Martinez is the final fight on Aldo’s current UFC contract.  He was offered a new deal but decided to decline it.  

“This is the last fight on my contract.  When I started talking to Sean [Shelby] and Dana [White] back in January, we had talked about signing a new deal but I decided against it because I want to go in there and I need to show them, myself, and everyone where I’m at, what I can still do, and how I can still perform,” Aldo said. 

“We have a lot of offers.  We could have a boxing match lined up quickly if we wanted to do that as well.  So I told them, let’s wait.  Let’s let me go in there and put on a performance and then we’ll talk after that to see if we’ll renew a deal or not.”  

Aldo has receive lucrative offers from other mixed martial arts promotions.  While his future remains uncertain, Aldo doesn’t see himself fighting MMA for anyone other than the UFC.  

“We’ve been reached out by other organizations and offered big million-dollar purses and things like that, but it’s really not a matter of a financial decision,” Aldo said.  “I needed to have that break.  I wanted to pursue my dream of boxing and now I’m coming back.  I never really thought of fighting MMA anywhere else other than the UFC.  We just have to see where I”m at right now with the fight and kind of see where I’m going to go from there.”  

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Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) and Holden Boxing confirmed on Monday that the upcoming boxing match between influence-turned boxer Jake Paul and former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson has been sanction as a professional fight.  

“Mike Tyson and Jake Paul signed on to fight each other with the desire to do so in a sanctioned professional fight that would have a definitive outcome,” said Most Valuable Promotions co-founder Nakisa Bidarian. “Over the past six weeks MVP has worked with its partners to satisfy the requirements of the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulations (TDLR) to sanction Paul Vs Tyson and we are grateful that we have gotten to this point. 

“MVP has championed fighter choice since its inception, including advocating for women’s boxing to be contested with 2 or 3 minute rounds based on the particular fight matchup. Paul vs Tyson and Taylor vs Serrano 2 will both be contested with 2 minute rounds and each mega-fight will have its winner. Thank you to the TDLR and Holden Boxing for their efforts throughout this process to date and we look forward to working closely with them as we approach fight night.” 

Paul is coming off a first-round knockout win over Ryan Bourland. He’s 9-1 in his professional boxing career. In November 2020, Tyson faced Roy Jones Jr. in an exhibition bout. The fight went the distance and was ruled a draw. 

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UFC Vegas 91 took place on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.  The event was headlined by a flyweight bout between fifth-ranked Matheus Nicolau former title challenger and eighth-ranked Alex Perez.

Nicolau had a six-fight winning streak snapped in his last outing losing to Brandon Royval by knockout a year ago. Perez had lost his last three fights heading into Saturday’s showdown and was in desperate need of a win. 

Perez inched forward behind his jab early in the opening round.  Perez connected with a right hand.  Both fighters were cautious early until Perez pressed forward with a flurry of punches to the body.  Perez continued to target the body of Nicolau.  Perez moved in the pocket with a combination.  Nicolau connected with a counter combination displaying his hand speed.  They exchanged leg kicks late in the round.  MMAWeekly scored the round 10-9 for Perez due to a higher output.  

Perez’ corner was happy with the first round.  The two exchanged leg kicks to start the second frame.  Perez pressed forward with a flurry of punches that were mostly blocked.  The pace in the second round picked up from the first.  Perez continued to land to the body of Nicolau.  Perez stunned Nicolau with a right hand.  He kept the pressure on.  Nicolau tried to move laterally to escape but Perez connected with a right hand the crumbled Nicolau forcing the referee to stop the fight.  

The official time of the knockout came at 2:16 of the second round.  With the win, Perez will likely debut inside the Top 5 rankings.  

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Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) held ‘Knucklemania 4’ on Saturday at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. “King Of Violence” Mike Perry faced long-time rival and UFC veteran Thiago Alves in the main event, but perhaps the biggest news of the night came from former two-division UFC champion Conor McGregor.  

McGregor announced that he and McGregor Sports & Entertainment are now an owner in the bare knuckle fight promotion.  McGregor broke the news via social media video. 

“Conor McGregor and McGregor Sports & Entertainment is now an owner of @bareknucklefc,” McGregor captioned the video announcement.  

 “What’s up KnuckleMania.  ‘The Notorious’ Conor McGregor here.  Ladies and gentlemen, the huge announcement that I have for you today is Conor McGregor, myself, and McGregor Sports & Entertainment is now an owner of Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship,” McGregor said in the video.  “Welcome to the big leagues.”

View the original article to see embedded media.

Aside from purchase stake in fight promotions, McGregor is scheduled to return to the octagon on June 29 against Michael Chandler in the UFC 303 main event.  McGregor last fought in July 2021, losing to Dustin Poirier after suffering a broken leg in the final seconds of the opening round.  

UFC 303 takes place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas during International Fight Week.  The fight will take place in the welterweight division.  

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Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) held “KnuckleMania 4” on Saturday at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. “King Of Violence” Mike Perry faced long-time rival and UFC veteran Thiago Alves in the main event.

Perry lived up to his “King of Violence” title by stopping the former UFC welterweight title challenger in one minute.  In the co-main event, BKFC Heavyweight Champion Mick Terrill retained his title by defeating Lorenzo Hunt via TKO due to injury.  

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