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When Israel Adesanya made the walk to the octagon at UFC 287 in April 2023, he had been beaten by Alex Pereira and lost the 185-pound championship.  He had also been defeated by Pereira twice in kickboxing matches.

Late in the second round, Pereira began pressuring Adesanya looking for a finish and Adesanya connected with a perfectly timed right hand that sent “Poatan” crashing to the canvas.  “The Last Sylebender” had gotten his revenge and became a two-time middleweight titleholder.  Take a look back at devastating knockout.  

Israel Adesanya vs. Alex Pereira 2 – Full Fight Video

Adesanya returns to the octagon at UFC 305 on Aug. 18 with the opportunity to become a three-time UFC champion.  He faces middleweight titleholder Dricus Du Plessis in the fight card’s main event at RAC Arena in Perth, Australia.  The event will mark the fight promotion’s third visit to Perth.      

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UFC CEO Dana White recently announced several matchups for the October UFC 308 event that takes place at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.  The fight card is headlined by featherweight tile bout between champion Ilia Topuria and former titleholder and ‘BMF’ belt holder Max Holloway.  

The main card featured a middleweight bout between former champion Robert Whittaker and undefeated Khamzat Chimaev.  The two were scheduled to meet at UFC on ABC 6 on June 22 but Chimaev was forced out of the bout due to illness.  Whittaker instead faced Ikram Aliskerov and won by knockout in less than two minutes.  

Whittaker revealed that he contacted the fight promotion requesting a fight with Chimaev be rebooked.  He also explained why he wanted to fight “Borz.”  

“I saw that there was an Abu Dhabi card in October, timeline fits perfectly, and I was like, ‘I’ll fight Chimaev again,’” Whittaker told the MMArcade podcast.  “Let’s do it again. Just make sure he turns up (laughs). I look forward to hard fights, I look forward to these fights, and I know that if I beat Chimaev there is nothing in my way to getting my belt back.”

“Chimaev is a hard fight. He’s obviously a big draw, especially over there in Abu Dhabi. He’s done the welterweight thing. He’s done the middleweight thing,” Whittaker continued.  

“So, he’s a draw, and I think the UFC, story-wise, wants to see Chimaev get a shot at the champion. They want to see Chimaev up the top of the ladder. They want to see him in that picture. But I love disrupting their plans. I love derailing their stories, and that’s why I took the fight. I asked for the fight. It wasn’t offered to me.”

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Middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis earned his title shot by defeating former champion Robert Whittaker at UFC 290 in July 2023.  The event took place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and the bout was billed as a ‘title eliminator.’  Du Plessis seized on the opportunity.  

The South African entered the fight with Whittaker riding a seven-fight winning streak but was the betting underdog.  Midway through the second round, he stopped Whittaker with punches to secure a title shot.  He’d go on to defeat Sean Strickland at UFC 297 in January to capture the 185-pound championship.  Take a look back at the win that earned Du Plessis a title shot.      

Dricus Du Plessis vs. Robert Whittaker Full Fight Video

Du Plessis puts his title on the line against former two-time middleweight champion Israel Adesanya in the UFC 305 main event on Aug. 18, in Perth, Australia in a grudge match.    

Whittaker is booked to take on the undefeated Khamzat Chimaev in the UFC 308 co-main event on Oct. 26 in Abu Dhabi.  The two were scheduled to fight on June 22 at UFC on ABC 6 but illness forced Chimaev out of the fight.  Ikram Aliskerov stepped in as Chimaev’s replacement and was knocked out in the first round.     

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UFC interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall considers himself the best heavyweight in the world.  MMA legend Jon Jones holds the heavyweight title, but has been inactive due to injury.  While Jones has been on the mend, Aspinall has been defeating Top 5 ranked fighters.  

Jones tore a pectoral muscle my training to face former two-time heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic at UFC 295 this past November.  He capture the heavyweight championship by defeating Ciryl Gane at UFC 285 in March 2023, but hasn’t defended the belt.  Aspinall defended his interim title at UFC 304, taking out Curtis Blaydes in 60 seconds.

Aspinall earned a ‘Performance of the Night’ bonus for his quick win over Blaydes and plans to wait for a title fight.  UFC CEO Dana White believes the winner of the Jones and Miocic fight ‘owes’ Aspinall a title fight.    

“There’s not enough credit being given for this, what he did to Curtis Blaydes, the way that he did and how fast that he did it, there’s no doubt.  This guy is a scary dude,” White said in an interview with Kevin Iole.  “He looks like the future of the heavyweight division.

“He looks great, and he looks like he’s going to be the guy.  You have Stipe and Jon, who have paid their dues; they’ve been here forever.  They fought everybody.  They fought all the fights you could possibly fight.  These guys deserve to fight each other.  Whoever wins that fight, I think that they owe it to Aspinall to fight him to give him the opportunity that they’ve been given,” White continued.

“When you look at Jones and Stipe, they’ve beaten all the guys.  Right?  You’re either going to be the guy that cement your legacy forever, or you’re going to hand the torch off the way the torch was handed off to you guys by all the guys that came before you.”    

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Canelo Alvarez will put his WBA, WBC and WBO super middleweight on the line on Sept. 14 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas against the undefeated Edgar Berlanga.  On that same night, in the same city, the Ultimate Fighting Championship will be putting on UFC 306 at the Sphere.  

Alvarez recently stated that he wants $ 200 million too face David Benavidez in a future match.  Former two-division UFC champion Conor McGregor took issue with Alvarez’ asking price.  He also questioned the Mexican superstar’s ability to sell pay-per-views.  

“Canelo is a cornflake. He has about 300k buys in him,” McGregor wrote on social media.  “He does not generate nothing near what he seeks to be paid.”

McGregor believes going head-to-head with the UFC in Las Vegas wasn’t a good idea.  He went as far as to say the UFC will run Canelo off the Vegas strip.  

“UFC NOCHE is going to run them from the strip. Sheik Turki was right moving on. CANELO DOESN’T SELL,” McGregor wrote on X.    

McGregor last fought at UFC 264 in July 2021 in a trilogy bout against Dustin Poirier.  McGregor suffered a broken leg in the final seconds of the opening round.  He was expected to return against Michael Chandler at UFC 303 in June, but was forced out of the fight due to a broken toe.  The fight with Chandler is expected to be rebooked but no date has been officially announced.  

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Donald Trump has a fondness of mixed martial arts and can often be found attending UFC events.

The former US president has a plethora of American UFC stars on his side — with Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal being the most notable. Despite their support, the 78-year-old has picked against his fellow patriots when asked about his favorite fighter.

During a recent interview, Donald Trump showered Dana White with praise for his irreplaceable work with the UFC.

“Ah, Dana. There’s nobody like him,” Trump said during a Kik stream with Adin Ross. “I always say, everybody can be replaced, except Dana.”

“That guy travels the world looking for fighters… From countries nobody ever heard of. That’s where he finds the best fighters.”

“He cannot be replaced. He’s truly great and what he does.”

Trump names Khabib Nurmagomedov his favorite fighter pic.twitter.com/oAD2WeNEmP

— MMAWeekly (@MMAWeeklycom) August 6, 2024

Donald Trump then revealed the man that he considers his favorite to ever compete inside the octagon.

“I think Khabib [is my favorite fighter]. I mean, how good is he? Khabib was 29 [or] 28 and 0, and then his father died and he stopped.”

“I don’t think he ever lost a round. He fought many times, he never lost a round.”

Trump continued, detailing how his recent brief moment with Khabib Nurmagomedov played out.

“I got to meet him at a fight, two fights ago… I met Khabib, though… He came to me and said, ‘You’re the man that can stop the war.'”

Related: Khabib Nurmagomedov makes desperate plea to Donald Trump

“He knows they’re his people on both sides. There’s so many people dying in that war.”

“We weren’t talking about fighting, we were talking about a different kind of fighting. A much worse kind of fighting.”

“He was very concerned about that whole thing, that war. He said, ‘You can get it stopped.’ And I can get it stopped.”

Trump then made a promise to Khabib and all those in favor of ending the war.

“If I win the election, the first thing I’m going to do is get Putin and get Zelenskyy, I know them both well, and get them to make a deal because it’s crazy.”

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It’s been five years since former interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson has won a fight.  Last weekend, in Abu Dhabi, Ferguson lost his eighth consecutive fight.  He was submitted by Michael Chiesa in the first round.  He removed his gloves following the fight and left one inside the octagon, but he did not retire.  

Former UFC title challenger Chael Sonnen is concerned about Ferguson and explained why in a video posted to his YouTube channel.  

“When Tony gets to the post-fight press conference, he stands up, takes the mic and he made some statements that were simply fiction.  But they were concerning to me,” Sonnen said.  “I took him at his word, and his world was flat frightening.  His words were, ‘Hey, if all these thousands of fans are going to come out here and spend all this money to support me, they’ll follow me somewhere else.”  

Sonnen questioned if Ferguson drew any fans to Abu Dhabi and took issue with Ferguson removing his gloves after the fight if he wasn’t going to retire.  But what concerned Sonnen the most was Ferguson not even attempting to defend the rear-naked choke by Chiesa.    

“Zero people booked a ticket, flew over there, did whatever you had to do to come over there and support Tony,” Sonnen said.  “When a guy takes his gloves off and it’s a retirement, you cheer for him.  It’s called etiquette.  Never in the history of any sport has somebody called it a day and not gotten a standing ovation.”  

“A nation champion wrestler with a black belt under Eddie Bravo just got jobbed out in the first round by a move that you learn on your first day,” Sonnen continued.  “My problem is there wasn’t a hand fight.  That’s my problem.”

“If I were to take somebody that was not a trained fighter…  Just a guy, and I was to put him in that technique, he naturally, with no training, he naturally is going to come to the problem which is the arm around his neck.  That didn’t happen.  That is my problem.”

Sonnen went on to say that he has ‘fear and concern’ that Ferguson will be able to land a fight outside of the UFC.  “That’s concerning to me,” he said.  

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This past Monday, while leaving his mother’s house in Jacksonville, Fla., UFC bantamweight Roman Taveras narrowly escaped being killed in a drive-by shooting.  Taveras released security video of the terrifying incident to his Instagram account.  

“It’s unfortunate that I even have to make a post like this, but I cannot let this be swept under the rug,” Taveras wrote on social media.  

“Monday, July 29, 2024, at 10:05 pm, a group of armed men drove up on me at my mother’s house and tried to take my life. By the grace of God, I made it out with no injuries and was able to grab my own firearm and return fire in self-defense. This city is unforgiving, and it’s worse that JSO [Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office] does nothing to correct the problem. I lost my brother in 2019 due to gun violence, and his killers are yet to be caught. Now I find myself almost in the same situation.

“JSO did the bare minimum for my brother and is now doing the same for me. They assumed I was targeted due to “gang violence” or a problem I caused. I don’t bother anyone, I stay in my own lane, I focus on my career and family. Even after explaining this, they continued to insinuate that I was involved in something that brought this outcome upon myself.

“Nobody is perfect, and everyone has a past. However, I have changed significantly from who I was ten years ago. For such an incident to occur out of nowhere is alarming. It makes me view my life and family through an entirely different lens. This is a daily reality in my city; I am not the first, nor will I be the last. I am tired of remaining silent about my brother’s case, and I refuse to let this incident slide either. Many other families in my city have endured similar situations, crying out for justice just as my family is.

“My family feels unsafe, and I fear for my children, who nearly lost their father the person striving to change their lives. It is tragic that I have so much love for my city, yet I am compelled to leave. I will use this situation to speak out against the ineffectiveness of JSO and their disregard for the less fortunate parts of the city. They seem indifferent to whether lives are lost or at risk. I am sick of it! This could have been a memorial post; I could have lost my life just like my brother, or somebody else could have lost theirs trying to take mine. I am done being silent. I ask for your support in spreading this message as far as we can.

“I am blessed and happy to be alive, but I’m leaving Duval.”

View the original article to see embedded media.

In the video, Taveras can be seen leaving his mother’s house and walking toward a car when a vehicle opened fire on him from the street.  Taveras positioned himself behind the card until the vehicle drove away.  Taveras drew his firearm and returned shots. 

Taveras made his way to the UFC through Dana White’s Contender Series.  He appeared twice in the promotion.  He was defeated by Serhiy Sidey in the first round.  He was given a second opportunity and finished Cortavious Romious in 29 seconds.  The win earned him a UFC contract.  He made his promotional debut in January and avenged the previous loss to Sidey.  He was slated to face Caolan Loughran at UFC 304 but was forced out of the bout due to injury.   

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Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson are long-lasting rivals in the sport, but that hasn’t stopped Khabib from showing love to his fellow UFC legend.

Despite his legacy in the octagon, Ferguson recently broke the record for the most consecutive defeats in UFC history. At UFC Abu Dhabi on Saturday, the veteran was quickly submitted by Michael Chiesa, extending his losing streak to eight straight — narrowly beating BJ Penn’s seven losses in a row.

While Tony Ferguson hasn’t made his mind up on retiring from combat sports, his aforementioned showing last weekend could have been his last in the octagon. Amid the rumors of his UFC resignation and possible refirement, Khabib Nurmagomedov shared a few kind words with Ferguson.

“It is not a surprise for me because he is 40 years old,” Khabib said after news of Ferguson’s potential retirement surfaced. “I just want to wish him all the best.”

“He is truly one of the best [to ever do it] in the UFC. I just want to wish him all the best, and his life is just beginning, it’s what I think, because he is just 40 years old.”

“He just finished his MMA career, now it’s going to be a different life. A much better life.”

Khabib went on to speak about the stature of his rivalry with Ferguson.

“In prime, my prime and his prime, it’s supposed to be a very interesting fight. But, what [can I] do?”

“He have couple time injuries, I have couple time injuries. It is what it is, you know. Sometimes we have a plan but God has his plan. We cannot control this.”

Watch Khabib Nurmagomedov react to Tony Ferguson’s retirement below.

Related: Michael Chiesa taps out Tony Ferguson, Ferguson teases retirement

During their dominance in the lightweight division, fans were clamoring for a Khabib vs. Ferguson matchup. 

The clash had the potential to be one of the biggest in UFC history given the Russian’s undefeated record and ‘El Cucuy’s 12-fight win streak at the time.

Though it never came to fruition, the UFC did attempt to book the fight on five separate occasions. Despite never actually competing against one another, Khabib vs. Ferguson is still considered one of the biggest rivalries and arguably the biggest ‘what if’ in the promotions history.

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The two Canelo Álvarez vs. Edgar Berlanga press conferences set to take place today and tomorrow will stream live on the PBC YouTube Page as Canelo Promotions presents a Mexican Independence Day weekend extravaganza taking place Saturday, Sept. 14 from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas headlining a PBC Pay-Per-View event available on Prime Video.

Pound-for-pound great and Mexican superstar Canelo Álvarez and undefeated Puerto Rican knockout artist Edgar Berlanga will preview their upcoming showdown for Canelo’s unified WBC, WBA and WBO Super Middleweight World Titles at these press conferences.

The press conferences will also feature Cuban star and reigning WBA Middleweight World Champion Erislandy “The American Dream” Lara and hard-hitting two-division world champion and Puerto Rican star Danny “Swift” García ahead of their 12-round co-main event between two of this era’s most accomplished fighters.

TODAY! Monday, August 5 in New York beginning at

1:00 p.m. ET/10:00 a.m. PT

TOMORROW! Tuesday, August 6 in Los Angeles beginning at

4:00 p.m. ET/1:00 p.m. PT

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