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Last fight was in 2015 and after turning 30 last year I thought I'd challenge myself and get back in there after a few years of not taking care of myself / struggling with addiction. Feeling good, sharp and excited to test myself at lightweight. Never too late to get your shit back on track, hopefully update you all tomorrow with good news and a belt! submitted by /u/Badranza [link] [comments]

MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Henry Cejudo has made his decision.

The Olympic champion and former two-division UFC titleholder announced Friday on his YouTube channel that he will not retire from MMA following his UFC 298 loss to Merab Dvalishvili, reversing course on pre-fight promises that the bout was all-or-nothing for him.

“I just cannot let it roll like this. I just cannot,” Cejudo said. “As much as it hurts. Again, guys, I take the L. But I cannot take the L knowing the way that I pretty much went out. I don’t mind the losing aspect of it. Maybe just the way that I did go — the being winded side, the not trying to knock this dude out because I was tired — I think that’s the stuff that really bothers me. So as of today, guys, I was getting ready to announce my [retirement] — a couple of days ago, I literally did a whole video on my retirement, thanking my family, thanking my friends, thanking everybody who has been there.

“But as time sets in and gives me a chance to talk to a lot of the legends — I called Daniel Cormier, I talked to Quinton ‘Rampage,’ I talked to a lot of guys who I respect who have been there before. And you know what, Henry? Look at your situation. You went out and you fought the No. 1 guy in the world [Aljamain Sterling], you lost a split decision. You went out and you pretty much fought the best guy in the world [Dvalishvili], because when this guy gets an opportunity to fight Sean O’Malley or ‘Chito’ Vera, it’s going to be easy work for him. Because I thought the same thing as Sean. I was like Sean, ‘This dude is f****** sloppy, this dude is X,Y, and Z.’ But it’s different when you actually get in there.

“It’s different when you have a pace, and a guy that doesn’t necessarily have that knockout power or that accuracy, but just has that go in him, and that’s what makes him dangerous. It’s not necessarily his wrestling. It’s his threshold, it’s the ability of him continuing to keep picking up the pace, and keeping it at that pace where he doesn’t drain his own wad. He got me. I take the L. But I cannot let it sit like this. I just cannot, man.”

Cejudo, 37, suffered a lopsided defeat at the hands of Dvalishvili this past Saturday at UFC 298. Cejudo was outworked and outlasted by Dvalishvili over the course of the grueling 15-minute affair. Worse, however, is that the Olympic wrestler yielded five takedowns to Dvalishvili and was controlled in spectacular fashion in the second half of the bout, with Dvalishvili even hoisting Cejudo above his head and sprinting across the cage in a scene reminiscent of Matt Hughes’ legendary rematch against Frank Trigg in 2005.

It was Cejudo’s most convincing loss since the first-round knockout he suffered at the hands of then-champ Demetrious Johnson in 2016, and “Triple C” has done plenty of soul-searching in the days since, reflecting on his decision to come back from retirement after three years away from MMA. Cejudo initially retired in May 2020 after defeating Dominick Cruz to become one of just two fighters to defend UFC belts in two different weight classes.

“I would’ve probably been best if I would’ve never came back to the sport, because I did retire and I did retire on top,” Cejudo acknowledged. “Why did I retire in the first place? I’ve accomplished everything. There was no motivator. You want to leave as a fighter on top for the rest of your life. If I could have it the way Khabib [Nurmagomedov] had it, it’d be great. But I will say this, there’s always going to be ‘what ifs’ with guys that never went out there and actually went for it. And what I could say in my position is, the show goes on.

“Was Dana White right that [I] did leave three years behind? Three of [my] prime years? Yeah, I’ll give it to him. Recognizing it now, the way that I did feel Saturday, the way that [the situation] already kind of played out, you start to kind of psychologically just like, ‘Damn, are these dudes right? I couldn’t have it any other way?’ One, if I could change everything, I probably would never come back — but now that I’m back, now I’ve got to s*** where I sleep. And for that reason, man, I just cannot go out like that.

“So I’m here today, ladies and gentlemen, taking my word back as a man, confronting you guys, you the people, you my fans, you my family, you my friends, you the haters, that I just cannot go out like this. And guys, to say the least, it is far from over with the Triple C.”

Watch Cejudo’s complete announcement below.

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UFC

Last fight was in 2015 and after turning 30 last year I thought I'd challenge myself and get back in there after a few years of not taking care of myself / struggling with addiction. Feeling good, sharp and excited to test myself at lightweight. Never too late to get your shit back on track, hopefully update you all tomorrow with good news and a belt! submitted by /u/Badranza [link] [comments]

MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Khamzat Chimaev is inching closer to his next UFC appearance.

It hasn’t been long since Chimaev’s most recent fight, a win over Kamaru Usman at UFC 294 this past October, but given Chimaev’s sporadic availability over the years, it’s understandable that fans are getting antsy over when they’ll get to see Chimaev fight again. The two-division title contender recently shot down the possibility of fighting at UFC 300 in April.

In an interview ahead of this Saturday’s Fight Club Rush 19 event in Stockholm, Sweden, Chimaev spoke about a potential return date, citing mid-2024 as a possibility.

“In the summer, I think — in the summer we’ll be back,” Chimaev said. “I want to fight in Saudi Arabia, but I don’t think anyone wants to fight me there. So we’ll see what’s going to happen. Just waiting for something, and they want me to fight [at UFC] 300, but I said it’s too short a time for [170 pounds], I need more time.”

Chimaev’s UFC 294 fight took place at 185 pounds against former UFC welterweight champ Usman, who accepted the bout on just 10 days’ notice as a replacement for Paulo Costa. After three hard-fought rounds, Chimaev came out on top via unanimous decision.

That victory seemingly positioned Chimaev to challenge for the middleweight title, but rumors later emerged that he was in talks to fight welterweight champion Leon Edwards in the UFC 300 main event. However, Chimaev’s observation of Ramadan prevented him from taking that fight on that date.

“It wasn’t 100 percent sure, but we had talked, my manager said, ‘Maybe, maybe,’” Chimaev said of the Edwards matchup. “My brother said to me, ‘Not in Ramadan,’ so after Ramadan we take some time in camp and then we fight anyone.”

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Explanation
| BJPenn.com

UFC

Khamzat Chimaev was in the running for the UFC 300 main event.

Unfortunately for “Borz,” the April 13 pay-per-view (PPV) card in Las Vegas did not prove adequate time to cut the required weight. Chimaev’s last attempt to make 170 pounds ended in disaster and the former Swede has since competed at middleweight.

“They wanted me to fight at (UFC) 300, but I said it’s too short time for (170 pounds),” Chimaev told FCR MMA (transcribed by MMA Junkie). “I need a bit of time. (The Edwards fight) wasn’t 100 percent sure, but my manager said maybe, maybe not. My brother said to me, ‘Not in Ramadan.’ After Ramadan, we’ll take some time, camp and then we’ll fight anyone.”

Chimaev remains undefeated at 13-0 and is coming off a majority decision victory over former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman at UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi. “Borz” is hoping to make his Octagon return at the promotion’s upcoming June card in Saudi Arabia.

“In the summer, I think – in the summer, we’ll be back,” Chimaev continued. “I want to fight in Saudi Arabia, but I don’t think anybody wants to fight me there. We’ll see what’s going to happen, so (I’m) just waiting for something.”

Jared Cannonier is waiting, too.

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Ali Abdelaziz to testify as manager as well. Surprised Cormier was not called! Mind you none of these fighters opted out of the lawsuit before the deadline! submitted by /u/DuppyDon [link] [comments]

MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

When Dana White, Lorenzo Fertitta and Frank Fertitta bought the UFC for $ 2 million, there was a lot of work to be done to revamp a failing product and that included the production for future broadcasts.

After the sale closed in 2001, White took over as UFC president and it was his job to resurrect the promotion, which required him to basically rebuild everything from the ground up. His first order of business was shutting down the old offices in New York before relocating the UFC to Las Vegas and that meant White had to rummage through everything left behind by the previous owners.

It turns out that trip to close down the UFC offices actually led to White hiring Joe Rogan to join the broadcast team as the lead color commentator.

“I jumped on a plane and flew out to New York and started cleaning out the old offices,” White explained on the Games with Names podcast. “I was emptying all these boxes and sending s*** to Vegas that I thought I needed to keep from the office. They had a VCR because they had f****** tapes for days. I must have watched 250, 300 tapes just to make sure it wasn’t anything [we needed]. So I popped in this tape and there was this talk show, The Keenan Ivory Wayans Show, the oldest Wayans brother had his own talk show and they had Joe Rogan on there.

“I knew Joe Rogan from Fear Factor because I would watch on TV. Joe Rogan was talking about how bad ass UFC fighters were and what they would really do to these karate guys that were in movies and s*** like that. I was like this guy knows what he’s talking about. He’s smart, he’s funny, he’s articulate. Before we bought the company, he worked for a little while for the UFC. He was a backstage interviewer but I didn’t even know that when I saw the video tape of him.”

Once White saw the tape with Rogan passionately discussing MMA fighters, he decided that was somebody who could potentially join the broadcast team for the new and improved UFC.

“I reached out to Rogan,” White explained. “At that time I think it was on the internet, I reached out to him and we started talking and I asked if he would like to work for us and be a commentator.”

It’s been well documented that the first few years the UFC was under new ownership that the organization was losing money hand over fist. The Fertitta brothers continued to sink more and more cash into the promotion but the UFC was struggling to stay afloat.

It wasn’t until 2005 when The Ultimate Fighter debuted that the UFC finally started to turn things around but in between everybody had to lend a helping hand to survive — and that included Rogan.

“So if you look at where the UFC was at that time, we were losing money like crazy,” White said. “We bought it for $ 2 million, which sounds like a great story now, we ended up being almost $ 40 million in the hole before we turned it around.

“But Joe Rogan did the first 12 or 13 shows for free. He said ‘f*** yeah, I’ll come there and do it and sit in the best seats in the house’ and everything else.”

Rogan has remained a staple on UFC broadcasts ever since and he’s still the lead color commentator on every major pay-per-view broadcast that takes place in the United States.

“Joe and I have been super close friends for a very long time,” White said. “I would do anything for Joe Rogan.”

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