CombatSports.org

Shots fired
| BJPenn.com

UFC

Alex Pereira won’t be leaving Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) anytime soon.

The current Light Heavyweight champion of the world ascended to the top of the Middleweight division at record speeds in November 2022. Pereira, 36, made his UFC debut one year earlier and won three fights impressively to earn the bout with his longtime rival, Israel Adesanya.

Another year after the achievement, Pereira claimed 205-pound gold after he dropped his 185-pound crown back to Pereira in early 2023. The stretch was a part of a fresh eight-fight deal after getting through his initial three bouts. “Poatan” is now set to make the first defense of his current title against Jamahal Hill at UFC 300 on April 13, 2024. Upon finalizing the bout, Pereira also landed another set of eight fights.

“Friday I signed, the start of this fight, eight more,” Pereira said on The MMA Hour. “My relationship with the UFC is really good. I’m very grateful by the way the UFC and my management team get together. They’ve been doing great things together. I think the UFC also appreciates who I am because I’m a composed guy, I’m focused, and I deliver.

“When I first joined the UFC, they gave me three fights,” he continued. “After the first fight, they renewed me for eight, Dana did after the [Sean] Strickland fight. Now, they just gave me another eight and of course, I bring [things] to the table, too. They’re happy with that but they’re very good with us, too, so, we cannot complain. We’re in a perfect relationship.”

Pereira has gotten back on a winning streak (9-2 overall) since his first and only UFC loss to the aforementioned Adesanya. His recent two wins came over two former Light Heavyweight champions, Jan Blachowicz and Jiri Prochazka, first via a split decision before a second round technical knockout (watch highlights) to make further history.

MMAmania.com – All Posts

submitted by /u/I_love_Basketball232 [link] [comments]

MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Wow! UFC 298 is in the books and with it an impressive new champion in the featherweight division as Ilia Topuria slept Alexander Volkanovski to claim the crown. But the greatest sport in the world never sleeps and even coming off the best event of the year thus far, there’s still more to come as this weekend features a double header with the two premier promotions in MMA: UFC Mexico and PFL vs. Bellator. And of course the No Bets Barred boys are back with a full breakdown of this double-stuffed weekend.

Conner Burks and Jed Meshew kick things off with a recap of UFC 298 and Jed’s calamitous weekend, before diving straight into the UFC’s return to Mexico. Can Brandon Moreno beat Brandon Royval a second time to keep his lead in the Battle of the Brandons? How will the rest of the Mexican fighters do in front of their countrymen? And how many flyweight fights is too many fights on one card?

Then it’s over to PFL vs. Bellator where Conner and Jed discuss the chances of a Bellator clean sweep in the marquee matchups, some massive underdogs that maybe shouldn’t be so big, and even a little Wolfpack Wager for good measure. All this and more are discussed on this week’s episode.

Tune in for episode 79 of No Bets Barred.

New episodes of the No Bets Barred podcast drop every Wednesday and are available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever else you find your favorite podcasts. The latest episode can be heard below.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

Yair Rodriguez is not a fan of the new featherweight world champion, Ilia Topuria.

Rodriguez — who came up short of trading in his interim title for undisputed gold against Alexander Volkanovski in July — sounded just a little bit bitter when asked about Topuria’s title-winning performance against ‘The Great’ during his appearance at the UFC Mexico City media event on Wednesday.

“He did it,” Rodriguez said. “He said he was going to do it and he did it. I don’t have much to say about that.

“I would love to f*ck him up,” he continued. “I don’t want to fight him, I want to f*ck him up. There’s a f*cking big difference in that. Just to make that clear. Anywhere I f*cking see him, I will f*ck him up. F*ck this b*tch. I don’t f*cking like him.”

Yair Rodriguez believes the uFC Mexico city co-main event will produce topuria’s first title challenger

Rodriguez will feature in the co-main event this Saturday night when the UFC returns to Mexico City with a fight that could produce Topuria’s first championship challenger. ‘El Pantera’ meets fellow contender Brian Ortega in a rematch of their July 2022 clash. Rodriguez won the bout via a first-round TKO after ‘T-City’ injured his shoulder.

Rodriguez believes that the winner between himself and Ortega will likely move on to fight Topuria later this year.

“I think that is what’s next for us, any of us, whoever wins, the title is next,” Rodriguez said. “F*ck yeah [I’ll go to Spain vs. Topuria]. I’ll fight him in his backyard if he wants.”

Yair Rodriguez enters the bout with a 10-3 record inside the Octagon with one no-contest. He has won three of his last five bouts, including an interim title victory over Josh Emmett at UFC 284. His two losses came against Volkanovski and former featherweight champion Max ‘Blessed’ Holloway.

LowKickMMA.com

UFC

submitted by /u/I_love_Basketball232 [link] [comments]

MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Please excuse Michael Chandler if his voice is a little hoarse today.

“I have to tell everybody, ‘Hey, I’m not sick. I literally injured my voice on Monday Night Raw,’” Chandler said with a laugh on Wednesday’s episode of The MMA Hour.

“Before I went on, one of the producers was like, ‘Hey, this microphone is gated,’ and I’m like, ‘Hey, what’s gated mean?’ He’s like, ‘Gated means you have to speak up.’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t think that’ll be a problem.’ But the moment took over and a star was born.”

Chandler, 37, surprised the combat sports world this week when he made an impromptu appearance on WWE’s flagship program, snatched the microphone, then cut a furious promo calling out Conor McGregor for their still unbooked fight.

Chandler’s eventful night quickly went viral within the dual worlds of MMA and professional wrestling. And according to the former three-time Bellator champion, it was all off the cuff.

“Two minutes before, they said, ‘Hey, they’re going to put the camera on you.’ I said, ‘Why don’t you give me that microphone?’” Chandler recalled. “And they said, ‘Hold on, let me run it up the flagpole real quick.’ And then about a minute later, they said, ‘Hey, you’re going on in a minute and you’re going to get the microphone if you want the microphone,’ and then magic happened. … Less than five minutes [of notice]. There was nothing prepared. Nothing. I was thrown into the fire. Smacked myself a couple of times and then we went.

“There’s no video footage of me taking my shirt off, but Pat McAfee said I took my shirt off [after], so got the crowd into it, I was flexing on everybody. It was fun, man. It was a lot of fun, and man, I’m tired of waiting on Conor, so get his candy ass back to the octagon.”

Chandler said his proactivity was well received by the WWE brass. He said he met with WWE chief content officer and head of creative Paul Michael Levesque — who’s better known by the ring moniker Triple H — after his television spot and was told that WWE “liked what they saw.” While he dispelled rumors that the promo had anything to do with plans for a crossover appearance at Wrestlemania, he did express interest in further kicking down the door for future corporate synergy between UFC and WWE now that the two brands are operating under the same TKO Group Holdings umbrella. Chandler also implied that his appearance wouldn’t be “the last you’re going to see of me in the WWE, possibly.”

“We will see,” Chandler said. “Obviously there’s a crossover there. Ton of respect for the wrestlers, the brass there. They have a ton of respect for the UFC. It was really cool being there, watching other athletes and entertainers and performers, and [them] being huge fans of mixed martial arts, and me of them. So it was really cool. There’s a lot of synergy there and the sky’s the limit when it comes to TKO Group and what we can do in the crossover, and yeah, man, it’s probably just the very beginning.”

Chandler has been tentatively linked to a UFC return bout against McGregor since coaching against the Irishman on The Ultimate Fighter 31 in early 2023. After a long, drawn-out saga, McGregor announced his comeback fight against Chandler on New Year’s Eve for June 29 at the UFC’s annual International Fight Week pay-per-view. UFC CEO Dana White has since denied McGregor’s claims, however, and maintained that there is no fight on the books for the former two-division champion. White reiterated that sentiment this past weekend after UFC 298, stating that he still does not know when — or if — McGregor will return.

McGregor, 35, has not competed since suffering a broken leg in his July 2021 loss to Dustin Poirier, but has repeatedly voiced his displeasure about not being booked by the UFC.

Unfortunately, despite the buzz Chandler’s WWE appearance ignited, the former Bellator lightweight champ said there have been no developments on the McGregor front.

“There’s a lot of complicated stuff happening behind the scenes,” Chandler said. “Nobody has had to feel like they’ve waited longer than me, right? I’ve been ready to fight since right after The Ultimate Fighter. But I also understand the time off has been good, the time with my family has been good, business has been booming outside of me fighting in the cage for a paycheck. But ultimately, Conor’s got his stuff going on. He’s now promoting Road House, that’s coming out in March. Obviously there was the USADA stuff and then now the new drug-testing stuff. There was just all these different layers. Plus what Dana has said, man — money complicates things. There’s a lot of money involved in this fight.

“Everybody, whether you love him or hate him, you’ve got to respect what [McGregor] has built, right? So it has complicated things. But either way, the Chandler train is continuing to move forward, and we’re not getting off this train. This is the fight that is happening. I can’t tell you a date, I can’t tell you a weight, but I can tell you the fight is happening. And I have way too many assurances that this fight is happening to think otherwise. So there’s some dates that make sense — obviously UFC 300 made a lot of sense, it really did.

“I’ve got to be honest with you, I thought that was what it was going to be. It makes a lot of sense. Why wouldn’t you want to headline the biggest card that UFC has ever put on? But ultimately, it’s not and we stay patient, we stay training, we stay ready.”

MMA Fighting – All Posts

After putting a beating on content creator Sneako during a violent sparring session, Sean Strickland came under attack from many people online, with one being Jake Paul.

‘The Problem Child’ fired shots at the former UFC champion for his actions. Jake then proposed a challenge to Strickland, offering him a $ 1 million sparring session, which piqued the MMA veteran’s interest, though was later shot down by Hunter Campbell.

However, Tyron Woodley believes Sean Strickland chose the easy way out instead of taking on Jake Paul’s offer. During a recent episode of his podcast, Woodley stated that Strickland could spar whoever he wanted without the UFC’s consent.

“Legally they cannot stop him from sparring Jake Paul,” Woodley claimed. “Jake Paul said he wanted to spar him. The same way Sneako walked into the cage.”

“I want you to know, he had to walk through security, he had to be signed in on the list. I know that, that’s the Apex. That’s the Apex. I can’t just walk in there and I had fights in there.”

“They let him come in there. He signed something to go in there and do that, right? So, if he can do that, he can spar with anybody he wants to.”

Related: Sean Strickland spoke to the UFC about fighting Jake Paul

Woodley continued, insisting that if both sides are willing, a sparring session can take place.

“You saw Nick Diaz sparring with Andre Ward. You think that was a great idea? No. You see me sparring with Kid Chocolate. All these different people that obviously are better fighters than us but that’s how iron sharpens iron.”

“He could spar Jake Paul. Now, Jake Paul didn’t say, ‘Come and meet me in a f***ing arena and come and meet me in a sanctioned fight.’ He said, ‘Come to my gym.'”

“Nobody can stop him from doing that, at all… Sean Strickland is a h*e for asking Hunter. He’s a h*e for beating that dude up like that.”

Check out what Tyron Woodley had to say on the Sean Strickland situation below.

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