CombatSports.org

Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson and influence-turned-boxer Jake Paul at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on July 20.  The fight will air on Netflix.  

“Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson is a once-in-a-lifetime dream matchup and I anticipate it will be the most-watched boxing event in modern boxing history,” said Most Valuable Promotions co-rounded Nakisa Bidarian said in a statement.

It’s unclear whether the boxing match will be an exhibition bout or a professional fight.  MVP signed a deal with Netflix for a boxing card last November according to Bidarian.  

“[Paul has] grown significantly as a boxer over the years, so it will be a lot of fun to see what the will and ambition of a ‘kid’ can do with the experience and aptitude of a GOAT,” Tyson said in a statement. “It’s a full-circle moment that will be beyond thrilling to watch, as I started him on his boxing journey on the undercard of my fight with Roy Jones, and now I plan to finish him.”

“It’s crazy to think that in my second pro fight I went viral for knocking out Nate Robinson on Mike Tyson’s undercard,” Paul said in a statement. “Now, less than four years later, I’m stepping up to face Tyson myself to see if I have what it takes to beat one of boxing’s most notorious fighters and biggest icons. Within just two and a half years of founding MVP, we’re about to produce the biggest fight in history, a fight in the biggest NFL stadium in the US, broadcast live, on the biggest streaming platform in the world — a testament to all we’ve accomplished in such a short amount of time.”

“Mike Tyson is one of the biggest icons in boxing history and Jake Paul is one of the biggest disruptors in boxing history,” Netflix vice president for nonfiction sports Gabe Spitzer said in a statement. “Saturday, July 20 will be pure drama in the ring in Texas. We are thrilled to partner with Most Valuable Promotions for this historic event and we can’t wait for these two to face off for fans all across the world on Netflix.”

Paul is coming off a first-round knockout win over Ryan Bourland last weekend.  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.  

MMAWeekly.com | UFC and MMA News, Results, Rumors, and Videos

UFC

submitted by /u/Top-Inspector3500 [link] [comments]

MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Watch the Doumbé vs. Chamsoudinov live stream and follow along with results for Thursday’s PFL Europe event at Accor Arena in Paris headlined by a welterweight bout between Cédric Doumbé and Baysangur Chamsoudinov.

The 14-fight card is scheduled to start at 11 a.m. ET, with the main card airing live on YouTube courtesy of the PFL at 2:30 p.m. ET. Watch at the link above.

Doumbé has emerged as one of the leading faces in French MMA. The former Glory Kickboxing champion made a spectacular PFL debut this past September when he knocked out Jordan Zébo in just nine seconds. He looks to improve to 6-0 in his MMA career with a win Thursday.

Chamsoudinov (7-0) also brings an undefeated record into the SmartCage, having most recently fought for France’s Ares FC promotion. This past June, he scored a second-round TKO of UFC veteran Efrain Escudero.

Thursday’s event also features fighters competing for points in the PFL Europe lightweight and welterweight regular seasons.

There is no preliminary card broadcast available in the U.S.

See PFL Europe results below.

Main Card (MMA Fighting, 2:30 p.m. ET)

Cédric Doumbé vs. Baysangur Chamsoudinov

Abdoul Abdouraguimov vs. Jack Grant

Ibrahim Mane vs. Chequina Noso Pedro

Yazid Chouchane vs. Ignacio Capella

Jakub Kaszuba vs. Kane Mousah

Preliminary Card (11 a.m. ET)

Yassin Najid vs. Daniele Miceli

Mickael Groguhe vs. Islem Masraf

Patrick Habirora vs. Claudio Pacella

Connor Hughes def. Anatolij Baal via first-round TKO (1:13)

Daniele Scatizzi def. Alex Chizov via sub (heel hook) (R1, 1:59)

Florim Zendeli def. Tomasz Langowski via sub (rear-naked choke) (R1, 4:11)

Kevin Del def. Younes Najid via sub (kneebar) (R1, 1:10)

MMA Fighting – All Posts

UFC

submitted by /u/tksopinion [link] [comments]

MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Francis Ngannou’s coach doesn’t think he has to choose between boxing and MMA.

The PFL fighter has already proven he can be the best heavyweight in MMA, having captured UFC gold three years ago with a brutal knockout of Stipe Miocic. On Friday, he can move one step closer to becoming the king of the boxing world if he pulls off an upset against British star Anthony Joshua.

This past October, Ngannou made his boxing debut and was one judges’ scorecard away from earning a decision against Tyson Fury, which would have turned the combat sports world on its head. Regardless, his spirited performance was enough to earn him a fight with Joshua, putting any return to cagefighting on hold for now.

Coach Dewey Cooper sees a path for Ngannou to continue competing in both fields, a path that could lead Ngannou to athletic immortality.

“I’d do them both [boxing and MMA],” Cooper said on The MMA Hour. “A fight’s a fight’s a fight. It doesn’t matter which way he wants to do, I would love to be a part of it. So if he does MMA, cool. If he does boxing, cool.

“The one thing I will say, Your Excellency, Turki Alalshikh said the winner of Joshua and Ngannou will face the winner of Fury and Usyk, so you already know it’s gotta be one more fight. To fight for the unified belt, all four of the belts in heavyweight boxing, is something that few guys do. So after he takes care of Joshua, I’m sure his next fight will be boxing to go for those undisputed titles and be the first man to be undisputed heavyweight champion and UFC champion. Then, no one can deny he’s the baddest man ever on the planet.”

The sight of Ngannou standing across the ring from Fury and then Joshua in the span of five months would have once been considered inconceivable. His run with the UFC ended when the two parties could not come to terms on a new contract (one sticking point for Ngannou was that he wanted the freedom to pursue boxing opportunities, which was a no-go for the promotion), and after signing a deal with the PFL to serve not only as a fighter and an executive, Ngannou put his boxing plans fully into motion.

Cooper was along for much of the ride, and even he admits that such lofty goals seemed out of reach when Ngannou first discussed them.

“He was talking about doing boxing even before he beat Stipe,” Cooper said. “That was always a goal, but doing it, it was like, ‘How?’ We know how stringent the UFC contracts are, etc., so he talked about it a long time. Once he became champion, when he stopped Stipe, then he really started talking about it. Like, ‘Before I retire, I want to box.’

“Him and Tyson Fury were going back and forth on Twitter for years. They talked crap about each other and baited each other for several years. So when this happened, I wasn’t surprised. The world was surprised. When he left UFC, I knew that he would end up boxing and I knew that it was going to be a big fight. Nothing small for him. But he talked about this for years and it finally happened, it’s crazy the way he projected it into the universe and somehow it came true when it was a very bleak projection then.”

PFL would undoubtedly love to have its marquee signing step into the SmartCage sooner rather than later, especially with an opponent already waiting for Ngannou. Renan Ferreira won the Ngannou sweepstakes with a 21-second knockout of Ryan Bader at February’s PFL vs. Bellator event and has already said he plans to wait for Ngannou rather than participate in the league’s upcoming heavyweight season.

As far as Cooper is concerned, Ferreira is more than worthy of being the man to welcome Ngannou back to MMA. He’ll just have to be patient.

“Been watching [Ferreira] a long time,” Cooper said. “We follow each other on Instagram, he’s a sweetheart of a guy. Any fight of Francis’ excites me, any fight, especially a guy like him who loves to strike. The fights that [Ferreria] lost in PFL, the guy just took him down, so of course, any fight excites, but right now all I can say, that’s kind of difficult to get excited about when you’re fighting Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.”

MMA Fighting – All Posts

AJ gets real
| BJPenn.com

UFC

Ngannou isn’t sitting silent as Tyson Fury ramps up the trash talk during ‘Knockout Chaos’ fight week in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Francis Ngannou is facing Anthony Joshua this Friday March 8th in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. As if that wasn’t a big enough challenge for the former UFC heavyweight champion, he’s also having to deal with Tyson Fury trash talking him at every stop on their media tour (and some stops in-between).

During a media scrum, Ngannou discussed how Fury confronted him at Saudi matchmaker Turki Al-Sheikh’s home.

“When we met, he said I called him a coward,” Ngannou said. “And I said, ‘Wow, where did you hear that from? I never made that statement about anybody. I never called anybody a coward, unless you’re really a coward.’ But I don’t care to call a man that steps in the ring to fight another man a coward.’”

“‘Yeah, you said you beat me.’ I said, ‘Yeah, I did beat you – that doesn’t mean I called you a coward. But I did beat you.’ Then he was like, ‘Why does your record say 0-1?’ I’m like, ‘Well, if it’s about the record, I really start to doubt now if what your record says is true, because I did beat you.’ Then I think the argument was about that.”

“I had to ask him, ‘Why did your fight get postponed from December to February?’” Ngannou continued. “He said he got cut. I asked, ‘Did you slip on the floor or something?’ No, he didn’t slip. ‘Why did you find yourself on the floor in the fight? You didn’t slip.’ I had my statement to make.”

Ngannou then responded directly to Fury, who was firing back from his seat in the crowd at the media event.

“You’re going to sleep in the ring again, and I’m going to wipe the ring with your ass again,” Ngannou said. “You wiped the ring with your ass. There was blood in the ring, sticking to your pants.”

Ngannou also reminded Fury that he was giving up a lot of weapons stepping into the boxing ring.

“I’ll tell you, your only chance is in the boxing ring with the boxing rules,” he said. “When you step out of that ring, you better stay five meters away before you talk your s—, because if I lose it, you’re going to have a real bad time, my friend.”

“So, respect the fact boxing is protecting us and the rules of boxing are protecting us, because without that, you are nothing in front of me. I’ll beat you every day, twice on Sunday.”

MMAmania.com – All Posts