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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

There are two very important dates coming soon for Michael Chandler, but sadly neither give him an exact timeline for his long-awaited fight with Conor McGregor.

First up is April 24, when Chandler turns 38 years old. Next is November 12, which would mark two full years since Chandler last competed in the UFC. In other words, Chandler isn’t getting any younger and he can’t make up that lost time, yet he remains steadfast in his desire to stay sidelined until he can finally get his hands on McGregor.

UFC analyst and retired welterweight Alan Jouban argues that at this point, Chandler really has no choice but to continue waiting for McGregor — even if that means not fighting again until the end of 2024.

“You look at Michael Chandler, you’ve got to hold out, in my opinion,” Jouban said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “At 38 years old, you say I waited two or three years for this huge Conor fight, this huge payday, and now I’m going to sit out all this time and not get the reward? I’m going to put that aside and go back to a contract negotiated payment fight against somebody in the top 10?

“Maybe Chandler has one or two fights left in him. I don’t know what he gets paid, but if he’s going to go back to a pay scale where he’s going to make $ 100,000 or $ 200,000 and fight two tough guys, or he can stick to what he’s doing and get a couple of million dollars to fight Conor McGregor with all these question marks surrounding him — you’ve got to stay the course and fight Conor McGregor.”

Despite not fighting since 2022, Chandler has still managed to stay in the spotlight through appearances, interviews, and businesses he’s started in his down time.

Most recently, he popped up on WWE Raw, where he unleashed a fiery promo aimed at McGregor in front of a packed house in Anaheim, Calif. That doesn’t necessarily soothe the sting of sitting for nearly two years and still waiting on a date for the fight, but Jouban believes Chandler has at least made the best out of a bad situation.

“All these opportunities that came up that probably weren’t going to be there before the Conor thing,” Jouban explained. “He did The Ultimate Fighter, got a lot of publicity from that. He was on ESPN a lot doing interviews. The WWE thing, TKO Group coming together looking for guys exactly like Michael Chandler, he nailed that. I don’t think any fighter in the UFC could have cut a promo quite like that. Not just doing so well, but he took his style of making a hot mic moment and he merged that with the WWE world. He seemed like a wrestler that had done that before.

“For a guy who hasn’t been able to fight for so long and he’s holding onto this fight so closely, he has been able to monetize from it, he’s been able to make money. He’s been having appearances. His brand has continued to grow and he’s been able to spend time with his family, let injuries on his body heal and get stronger.”

As much as it might seem that Chandler is the jilted prom date who continues to wait for a limousine to pick him up despite the dance already being over, Jouban doesn’t exactly see it that way.

When McGregor finally fights again, he’ll return following an even longer layoff — July will mark three years since his last appearance — and he’s coming back from a devastating broken leg suffered in his trilogy fight with Dustin Poirier.

McGregor remains the biggest draw in the sport so he could fight almost anybody and sell tickets, pay-per-views, and merchandise, but he undoubtedly wants to make a successful comeback. Looking at the landscape at lightweight or even welterweight right now, there are no layups among any of the top fighters in either division, but at least Chandler’s style gives him a better chance to win.

“I don’t care what anyone says about this, I don’t see Conor coming back and ever looking like he used to,” Jouban said. “He’s not. He’s been away too long. His body has changed drastically. He’s had a severe type of life-altering injury. Guys that have those type of injuries, they don’t come back and throw kicks the same.

“Do I feel like he’s fully recovered? He’s back to as strong as he’ll ever be moving on from this injury. But with the time that has gone by, the injury, not being active, the body change, whatever he was taking while he [recovered] — I’m not even going to get into that, but his body obviously changed, he was taking some stuff, he put on 20 pounds of muscle, he did the movie, he’s coming up, going down on weight — he’s not going to be the same guy. Conor doesn’t want to go in there and fight a Mateusz Gamrot, fight one of these Arman Tsarukyan, young, hungry lions that are still in the prime, the peak of their careers. He needs a 38-year-old Michael Chandler that will step in there and step into the fire and go to war with him. They need each other.”

Nothing about the situation is ideal, especially with Chandler already sitting out for nearly two years while he’s still healthy and ready to compete. But Jouban says too much time has already passed to just give up and move on to a different fight.

“It would suck at the end of the day for Chandler not to get rewarded with this fight,” Jouban said. “But this is the best possible outcome waiting for a fight for [two] years than any fighter could have in terms of the reward he could receive.”

Listen to new episodes of The Fighter vs. The Writer every Tuesday with audio only versions of the podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeartRadio

MMA Fighting – All Posts

T-City’s next step
| BJPenn.com

Add a horrific cut inside Ortega’s eye socket to the list of things ‘T-City’ had to worry about when fighting Yair Rodriguez in Mexico City.

Brian Ortega had a rough time making it back into the cage for his bout against Yair Rodriguez at UFC Mexico City. And that was before we learned of a bad cut “T-City” suffered weeks out from the fight.

Ortega didn’t hold back when discussing how difficult his two years away from the sport were as he dealt with a shoulder injury and multiple surgeries. Even stepping into the Octagon probably felt like a victory for the talented featherweight … until he rolled his ankle during Bruce Buffer’s fighter introductions.

The sudden injury led to a very bad first round against Rodriguez, but Ortega gutted through it and ended up winning via submission early in the third (watch the highlights here).

It’s the kind of resilience we’re getting used to seeing from “T-City.” And we have more of that in a new post from his coach Rener Gracie, who revealed a nasty cut under Brian’s eyebrow suffered in the weeks before the fight.

“Three weeks before the fight, Brian caught a nasty head butt while training at Gracie University HQ,” Rener wrote. “It was so deep that he had to get 4 stitches on the inside and 10 on the surface. Being so close to the fight we knew that one light punch in that region would have busted it right open. It was our biggest concern (until he rolled his ankle during Round 0).”

When Gracie asked Ortega if he wanted to pull out of the UFC Mexico City match-up, his fighter sent him a video response.

“The show continues, homie! We don’t even care,” a smiling Ortega declared. “We sweatin’, the show continues. Come on Rener. Come on, man. The show don’t stop.”

Gracie is right: one direct hit would have ripped that sucker wide open, probably ending the fight. Somehow, it survived two full rounds with Yair Rodriguez, giving Ortega the time he needed to wear “El Pantera” out and earn the submission win.

Despite all the adversity, Brian Ortega still won.

MMAmania.com – All Posts

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Alexander Volkanovski is swimming in uncharted waters after back-to-back losses.

The featherweight division has only known phenomenal champions throughout its history. Unfortunately, the time comes for them all to pass the torch, and after five impressive title defenses, Volkanovski has done that — for the time being — with Ilia Topuria.

Topuria’s second-round knockout of “The Great” at UFC 298 two weeks ago put the now-former Australian champion on the first losing streak of his 30-fight career (26-4). After all the success and cementing his place as an all-time great in the division and sport, Volkanovski seems like a no-brainer to get an immediate rematch and his coach at City Kickboxing Eugene Bareman believes it’s the move to make.

“I can’t divulge too much but I’m obviously in the camp that he deserves a rematch,” Bareman told Combat TV (h/t MMA Mania). “I think he’s done everything that he needs to do as a champion, represented himself, his family, his team, and most of all the company well. He’s been a long-standing champion, he’s defended many times, fought through injuries, taken fights on short notice for the company. He checks every box there is in relation to getting an immediate rematch.

“One of the other important boxes he checks: is there a bigger fight to make than that fight in the division? The answer is no, there’s not. So, the team is doing everything we can to secure the rematch, and we’ll do everything in our power to turn that result around.”

Volkanovski, 35, started his reign as champion at UFC 245 when he defeated Max Holloway by unanimous decision in December 2019. The bout led to a similar position Topuria is now in as Volkanovski had to make his first defense against Holloway, which he won via a split decision at UFC 251 in July 2020.

The community isn’t usually too on the fence in most cases of a long-reigning champion losing their title. However, there’s concern with Volkanovski specifically regarding his health and losing via knockout twice in roughly five months — the first against UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev. Though when comparing the two, Bareman says these are totally different aftermaths.

“In terms of his symptoms, he doesn’t have any symptoms,” Bareman said. “Which was not the case in the last knockout [against Makhachev]. There’s so many variables when it comes to having a knockout and how much, how many symptoms you suffer, and all of that. I don’t know the science behind it, and I’m not gonna begin to try to understand it, but he seems to not be as affected by this concussion as he was by the last one. I won’t be able to tell you why.

“He definitely needs to rest. He needs to rest his head. But … he needs to be sensible, but he also will be very keen to get that rematch this year.”

TOP STORIES

Claims. Israel Adesanya reveals he accepted UFC 300 fight with Dricus du Plessis but ‘they didn’t want it’

Rivals. Daniel Cormier responds to Jon Jones’ latest comments: ‘He likes to make fun of me’

Off. Raul Rosas Jr. vs. Ricky Turcios no longer expected at UFC Vegas 87 on Saturday

$ $ $ . UFC produced record revenue at $ 1.3 billion in 2023, live events and sponsorship revenues skyrocket

Proposal. Oscar De La Hoya down for Sean O’Malley vs. Ryan Garcia in UFC, wants Dana White in co-main

Health. Matt Brown talks concerns Alexander Volkanovski returned too soon after knockout based on his own experiences

Pursuit. Eddie Hearn says UFC should pay ‘whatever it costs’ to get Conor McGregor back into the cage

Crossover. Sean O’Malley fires back at ‘stupid and delusional’ Ryan Garcia, vows ‘I would kill you within minutes’ in MMA

VIDEO STEW

Between the Links.

Sound and Pound.

Free fights.

The War Room: Rozenstruik vs. Gaziev.

Road to Joshua vs. Ngannou.

Burns’ secrets.

LISTEN UP

Heck of a Morning. MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck discusses if Francis Ngannou vs. Renan Ferreira will actually happen following PFL vs. Bellator.

MORNING MUSIC

Wasn’t ready for some new Linkin Park this week with Chester’s vocals. Gone but not forgotten.

SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

Respect.

Recovery.

Whoops.

Alright.

Clean-up.

Hype.

Searching.

Weight.

Classic Mayhem.

Happy champ.

Diamond.

Sheesh.

FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Vinicius Oliveira (19-3) vs. Bernardo Sopai (11-2); UFC Vegas 87, March 2

Jean Matsumoto (14-0) vs. Dan Argueta (9-1, 2 NC); UFC Vegas 90, April 6

Stamp Fairtex (11-2) vs Denice Zamboanga (10-2); ONE 167, June

FINAL THOUGHTS

I think it’s kind of strange to see all this worry about Volkanovski’s health and head trauma. Fighters have come back early from far worse beatings than he is and has. That doesn’t make it okay, but where was the level of concern in those cases?

Thanks for reading!

EXIT POLL

If you find something you’d like to see in the Morning Report, hit up @DrakeRiggs_ on Twitter and let him know about it. Also, follow MMAFighting on Instagram and like us on Facebook.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

Sean O’Malley fired back at Ryan Garcia after the former interim WBC lightweight champion made the bold claim that he would hand ‘Sugar’ an ass-whoopin’ in his own sport.

Garcia – who is scheduled to challenge WBC super lightweight titleholder Devin Haney on April 20 — ruffled some feathers during an appearance on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, claiming that he would “destroy” the UFC’s bantamweight king in a proposed crossover clash.

“I’ll beat his ass in MMA guaranteed,” Garcia said. “I’m a natural, you don’t understand. I’m a natural wrestler. I just beat my security that’s a wrestler, I beat him. I’m strong and I’ve got crazy conditioning. … I will come with everything I have and I will destroy Sean O’Malley. In the UFC.”

It didn’t take long for word to get back to Sean O’Malley.

“Buddy. Brother. I would kill you within minutes,” O’Malley said on his TimboSugarShow podcast. “It’s just not even realistic.

“It’s crazy how stupid and delusional that is. I wonder if people think that when I call out boxers though. Is that the same kind of thing? I mean, it is a little bit crazy when I call out boxers. A little bit. Not a ton. Not a 100 percent crazy. A little bit. But when he boxers say they want to fight in MMA, 100 percent crazy.” (h/t MMA Fighting).

Sean O’Malley would neutralize Ryan Garcia with his kickboxing arsenal

Historically, boxers have not always fared well when attempting to cross over into the world of mixed martial arts. The most notorious example is James Toney’s ill-advised fight with Octagon icon Randy Couture at UFC 118. ‘The Natural’ quickly took Toney down to the mat and submitted him in the first round.

The fight went pretty much how fight fans expected it to go, but O’Malley doesn’t believe that replicating Couture’s strategy will be necessary. Instead, ‘Sugar’ would like to put his kickboxing skills to work should the hypothetical showdown come to fruition.

“I don’t need to take him down — I mean, I could take him down and choke him, but it’s like, I would kick him in the f*cking body,” O’Malley added. “I would kick his little sticks. Whatever the f*ck I wanted to him,” O’Malley said. “I could box him with MMA gloves. It’s a different sport just with those little MMA gloves. The distance is different.

“It was cute. I could beat him and Devin Haney in the same night back-to-back in a fight. It’s just not competitive. Pure delusion.”

On Saturday, March 9, Sean O’Malley is scheduled to defend his 135-pound crown for the first time against the only man to hand him a loss inside the Octagon, Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera.

LowKickMMA.com

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

NEW YORK CITY — Watch the first faceoff between Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia from Tuesday’s press conference at the Palladium in Times Squre.

Haney (31-0) is the current WBC super lightweight and the No. 7 pound-for-pound boxer in the world according to Ring Magazine. He will defend his title against Garcia (24-1) on April 20 at the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

After a fairly standard press conference from the two fighters that saw them jaw back and for with one another to build the fight, things got really heated when it came time for the first faceoff, with Garcia shouting expletives in Haney’s face and becoming increasingly more animated with Haney and his entourage. For his part, Haney mostly kept his cool, though he also had some choice words for Garcia and his team as well.

Check out the heated exchange between the two boxers above.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts