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Care to place a wager on the winner of the UFC 300 main event sweepstakes?

Online oddsmaker Bovada just put up a line for the April 13 headliner that’s generated a frenzy of speculation as time ticks toward the banner event.

Right now, there’s just one fight you can put your money on, and that’s a welterweight title fight between champ Leon Edwards and Belal Muhammad. The fight has been teased by Edwards, and Muhammad has said UFC CEO Dana White has given assurances that UFC 300 will host the five-rounder.

Yet with less than two months remaining, the UFC has yet to confirm its main event. Sentiment among many MMA observers and fans have taken that to mean Edwards vs. Muhammad is the promotion’s last resort and could easily be replaced by a fight with more buzz behind it.

Bovada set the line of Leon Edwards vs. Belal Muhammad headlining UFC 300 at +165, and the fight not headlining at -220. That means a $ 100 bet for yes would net $ 165, while the same bet for no would net a $ 45 profit.

White said earlier this week that the announcement of the UFC 300 main event could take place at the post-fight press conference for UFC 298, which takes place on Saturday at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. But he stopped short of confirming the announcement.

UFC 298 headliner Alexander Volkanovski has volunteered to headline UFC 300 if successful over challenge Ilia Topuria.

Here is the current fight card for UFC 300:

Current UFC 300 fight card:

• Zhang Weili vs. Yan Xiaonan
• Justin Gaethje vs. Max Holloway — BMF title fight
• Charles Oliveira vs. Arman Tsarukyan
• Kayla Harrison vs. Holly Holm
• Aljamain Sterling vs. Calvin Kattar
• Jiri Prochazka vs. Aleksandar Rakic
• Cody Garbrandt vs. Deiveson Figueiredo
• Jim Miller vs. Bobby Green
• Bo Nickal vs. Cody Brundage
• Sodiq Yusuff vs. Diego Lopes
• Jessica Andrade vs. Marina Rodriguez

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Fighter predictions
| BJPenn.com

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Bringing you the weird and wild from the world of MMA each and every weeknight!

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Everyone wants to be the next Conor McGregor.

It’s easy to see why! Not only did McGregor capture two belts in excellent style and become the sport’s biggest star, but “The Notorious” is one of the rare few to convert his success in the cage into true generational wealth. Unfortunately, McGregor’s rise to stardom and inspired more than a few copycats over the years.

Fellow Irishman Ian Garry has suffered such accusations.

Most recently, another UFC 298 fighter in Ilia Topuria is the latest to be accused of copying McGregor. At the UFC 298 pre-fight press conference, Topuria reached across the aisle and stole Alexander Volkanovski’s belt, lifting it over his head quite similar to how McGregor infuriated Jose Aldo nearly a decade ago.

Fight fans were not impressed with the McGregor homage. Here’s a sample of the disdain shared on Twitter:

Ilia trying to be Conor the little cringe bag

Most unlikeable fighter in the world

Topuria seemed so fake! It was painful to watch

He is trying to be Conor so bad soon he’ll start speaking irish

At the moment, fight fans are generally unimpressed by Topuria’s big talk and less-than-humble actions. The stakes feel higher than ever for UFC 298, as Topuria’s pre-fight behavior has set him up to explode in popularity or end up a laughing stock depending on the outcome.

Insomnia

Merab Mania continues. Frankly, I hope it never ends, these clips are the best.

Potentially big news for our English readers.

I just love that it was Paulo Costa who stepped up to help out Volk.

Ian Garry and Geoff Neal have been surprisingly cordial in their meetings during fight week.

The Light Heavyweight division has a couple new openings.

A trio of Welterweight champions! It’s great to see these three former rivals getting along so well now that their competitive careers have come to an end.

Why is Dan Henderson back in sparring? This concerns me.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

One of the nastiest amateur knockouts I’ve seen in recent memory. That’s a lot of force to absorb for zero dollars …

Did you know UFC 298’s Anthony Hernandez beat up Brendan Allen to earn his shot on Contenders Series?

You’ve seen walk-off KOs, but have you seen jog-off KOs?

Random Land

Man tried his best!

Midnight Music: Dream pop, 1993

Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.

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In a few days, Merab Dvalishvili will do everything possible to beat Henry Cejudo at UFC 298 but for now, he’s actually got his opponent’s back.

That’s largely thanks to comments made by reigning UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley when offering his prediction on their fight. Just recently, O’Malley told Demetrious Johnson on his podcast that he was picking Dvalishvili to win mostly because Cejudo was “broke” and “doesn’t have any money” so he needs the paycheck.

Of course there’s nothing wrong with a prize fighter seeking a prize but Dvalishvili slammed O’Malley for making that suggestion, especially given Cejudo’s long list of accolades that includes an Olympic gold medal in wrestling and claiming titles in two different divisions in the UFC.

“I just saw O’Malley tweet something or say something ‘Henry is fighting for money.’ This is bulls***,” Dvalishvili told MMA Fighting. “We are fighting for legacy. Henry Cejudo is fine. He’s a multi-time champion, he’s a two-division UFC champion. He’s doing all right. I don’t think he’s fighting for money. He’s fighting for legacy and he’s a champion. He only loves gold and that’s all he wants.

“I’m expecting a very strong Henry Cejudo. I’m ready physically, mentally and I’m going to show the world again, once again.”

Now Dvalishvili will agree on something that Cejudo said leading up to their fight.

After falling to former champion Aljamain Sterling in his return from retirement, Cejudo didn’t mince words about the importance of getting a win over Dvalishvili in a potential No. 1 contender’s bout. At 37, Cejudo has to know his time left in the sport is limited, which is at least partially why he acknowledged that the fight at UFC 298 is “all or nothing” where his career is concerned.

A win gets him a title shot but a loss will likely force him to call it a career again.

“Think about this, if I beat Henry Cejudo, he’s not going to go back and keep fighting down through the ladder,” Dvalishvili said. “If he loses, he needs like three more wins to have a title conversation. If he beats me, he will fight for the title. It’s a big moment for him. Of course, he will do everything to beat me.”

Now Cejudo even mentioning retirement could be seen as a weakness ahead of the fight but Dvalishvili doesn’t see it that way at all.

Instead, he points to his past matchup against Jose Aldo when the Brazilian was coming off three straight wins with another shot at gold dead in his sights with a victory. That didn’t happen because Dvalishvili beat him and afterwards Aldo announced his retirement.

The time and effort to climb back to title contention at that stage of his career probably looked like an incredibly daunting task. Cejudo faces that same harsh reality if he loses at UFC 298.

The fact that he’s acknowledging that ahead of time proves to Dvalishvili that this isn’t just about Cejudo getting paid.

“When I beat Jose Aldo, he said he’s out,” Dvalishvili said. “He’s not going to go back and keep cutting weight and win again. He was coming from a three fight win streak and he wants to win another title. When I beat him, he lost the chance at another title and he don’t want to do it again, keep fighting all the contenders. Same thing with Henry.

“If I beat him, I will fight for the title and Henry will wait and if I become champion, Henry has to keep fighting other guys. That means that he’s not fighting for money. He’s fighting for legacy. He wants only gold. He can’t fight forever. He did very good against Aljo, it was a split decision. It was a close fight. Aljo beat him but Henry Cejudo, he’s still got it. He’s not fighting for money. He’s fighting for legacy. He wants just gold.”

Because the stakes are raised and Cejudo has painted this as a do-or-die fight for him, Dvalishvili expects he’s about to face the toughest challenge possible.

He knows Cejudo will leave no stone unturned, which is why he’s doing the exact same thing to leave nothing to chance once the set foot in the octagon on Saturday night.

“[It’s] a good mindset to win, it’s everything or nothing,” Dvalishvili said. “It’s the best mindset. Honestly, it’s nothing surprising. I’m sure he can do many other things. He has so many opportunities in life but he’s not going to chase the belt again because it’s going to take so long, especially with injuries and how hard we are training and he has a family now.

“I’m sure preparation is good and he put everything into this training camp. He’s going to do everything to beat me but I’m going to make sure I’m the winner on Feb. 17.”

MMA Fighting – All Posts

Sean O’Malley was not a fan of the liberties Sean Strickland took with Sneako during their early-morning sparring session last week.

Ahead of Super Bowl weekend, footage emerged online of the former middleweight world champion bloodying the controversial Rumble streamer during an intense interaction at a Las Vegas gym. In the video — which you can see right here — Strickland repeatedly blasts the influencer with strikes long after Sneako’s corner threw in the towel.

In the end, it was UFC Hall of Famer Forrest Griffin who stepped in and physically stopped Strickland from continuing the onslaught.

Sharing his take on the incident during a recent episode of his TimboSugarShow podcast with longtime coach Tim Welch, O’Malley slammed Strickland for clearly trying to hurt Sneako long after it became clear that he had given himself up.

“I thought it was f*cked up,” O’Malley said. “His corner threw in the towel. If someone came in here and wanted me to f*cking peck around with him because I’m a professional champ and they want to get a little taste of what it’s like, I’m not gonna — did you see how hard he was trying to hurt him?

“I’m a professional fighter, he’s a professional fighter — they threw in the towel, he clearly quit, he clearly was balling up and [Strickland] was still trying to hurt him. I don’t know [if it was good for Sneako].”

However, Sean O’Malley does believe there is one exception that could justify Strickland’s battering of Sneako.

“I’ve never liked hurting people,” O’Malley said. “If Sneako was talking sh*t at all then it 100 percent changes it. If someone is talking sh*t then they want to come in and want to spar and I agree then it’s different. It depends if Sneako was talking sh*t acting like he could do something then it makes it 100 percent okay to whoop his ass a little bit.”

‘Sugar’ is scheduled to make his first bantamweight title defense on Saturday, March 9 when he runs back his 2020 clash with Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera at UFC 299 in Miami. Vera is the only fighter to hold a victory over O’Malley inside the Octagon.

LowKickMMA.com

Following Thursday’s UFC 298 Pre-Fight Press Conference, the main card fighters faced off with their opponents ahead of Saturday’s event at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.  

The fight card is headlined by a featherweight title bout between champion Alexander Volkanovski and undefeated Ilia Topuria.  In the co-main event, former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker faces Paulo Costa in a colossal 185-pound bout.

UFC 298 Press Conference Face-Offs

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