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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Dana White has taken his praise of Jon Jones to new heights.

Jones will defend the UFC heavyweight title for the first time Nov. 16 at UFC 309 against Stipe Miocic in the main event at Madison Square Garden. White has spent the better part of 2024 standing his ground about Jones being the best ever, and the current No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the promotion despite not competing since winning his second divisional title at UFC 285 in March 2023.

Now, White says Jones’ greatness extends beyond the UFC and MMA, but to all of combat sports — and beyond,

“I think he’s the greatest combat sports fighter of all time,” White said on Outta Pocket With RGIII. “I think he’s the greatest fighter of all time. Big back and forth with me and the media right now about Jon Jones over all of this stuff, but Jon Jones is probably the baddest dude to ever walk the face of the Earth. Even the guys I love like Ali and Tyson, and a lot of the great heavyweights that’s existed throughout the history of combat sports, Jon Jones can do it all.

“Jon Jones will grab you, maul you, elbow you, he can do everything.”

Jones, the multi-time light heavyweight champion, never lost the belt in a fight during his 205 pound run. He was either stripped, or vacated the championship — the latter happening in 2020 following a controversial decision win against Dominick Reyes at UFC 247 in February 2020. “Bones” spent over three years building up his body for heavyweight before his long-awaited return, where he submitted Ciryl Gane in the first round at UFC 285 to win the vacant title.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Max Holloway doesn’t mind trading verbal jabs with his opponents, but he doesn’t operate under the “when they go low, you go lower” mantra.

In the leadup to UFC 308, Holloway sat down for a face-to-face interview with opponent Ilia Topuria where they went back and forth for nearly 20 minutes in a heated exchange. At one point, Holloway told him to “speak” as Topuria was seemingly stumbling over his words and the former featherweight champion later revealed that he received criticism as if he was mocking the Georgian fighter for struggling with his English, which is obviously not his first language.

“I need to clear this up,” Holloway told MMA Fighting when addressing the situation. “A lot of people was giving me heat for teasing him how he spoke English. I wasn’t teasing that he was speaking English. I know he speaks like five languages. I speak one language and I have a hard time speaking English. I have a hard time saying names. I understand how hard speaking one language is. I wasn’t teasing his language.

“What I was teasing was that he sounded so scripted and then every time he went off of his scripted words, he started mumbling or he would say ‘shut the f*ck up, motherf*cker.’ I’m like brother, you’re so scripted right now. That’s why I teased him. I’m like speak. Stop using your scripted lines.”

It turns out that was Holloway’s biggest annoyance because he believes Topuria was effectively reading from a script during many of the verbal exchanges.

While Holloway doesn’t spent much time trash talking his opponents, he’s not going to knock a guy for the way he speaks English but he’s not opposed to getting frustrated when he feels like he’s hearing rehearsed lines meant to insult him.

“It wasn’t that deep,” Holloway said. “I was calling him out. You could tell. Watch the interview. Everything he was saying was scripted. As soon as it wasn’t scripted, or he didn’t know what to say, he didn’t have an answer for it, he’d either say ‘shut the eff up, mother effer’ or he would start stumbling. That’s why I was teasing him.

“I don’t talk very good English and this is my only language. Stop attacking me about that.”

Truth be told, Holloway can’t wait to put the talking behind him and just get into the octagon to battle with Topuria as he attempts to reclaim the UFC featherweight title.

He hasn’t sat on top of the 145-pound division for nearly five years after falling to Alexander Volkanovski back in 2019 and then losing a pair of rematches to the Australian.

Meanwhile, Topuria vanquished Volkanovski in impressive fashion back in February, ultimately scoring a second round knockout to win the title. That fight came just under four months removed from Volkanovski suffering a brutal head kick knockout loss to Islam Makhachev and an argument could be made that he rushed back too soon for the showdown against Topuria.

For his part, Holloway doesn’t want to live in a world filled with what ifs because Volkanovski made the decision to fight and Topuria beat him. End of story.

“At the end of the day, we can be like ‘if he did this, if he did that,’ at the end of the day his team, Alex has a great team around him, they thought that he was ready and they went out there and fought,” Holloway said. “Even if he was compromised, Ilia went out there and did his thing. He landed the shot that ended the fight. That’s a hard thing to do. He’s still got to do that part.

“We can say he said, she said and all this kind of stuff, but at the end of the day, Ilia did what he did. He showed up to the fight, Alex showed up to the fight, and he was just on the winning side. You can’t take nothing away from the guy. I’m not going to. He’s a dangerous man and I can’t wait to go out there and share the octagon with him and prove a lot of these naysayers wrong.”

When it comes to his hopes to reclaim the title on Saturday, Holloway admits it would be a remarkably important moment for his career, especially considering what he endured through those three losses to Volkanovski.

Becoming a two-time UFC featherweight champion might not end up as the biggest accomplishment of his career, but Holloway knows it would be pretty special.

“It would mean a lot, especially with the way my career went,” Holloway said. “After that third fight with [Alexander] Volkanovski, a lot of people were saying I should change weight classes or all together, I should just retire because it’s never, ever going to happen.

“I guess a couple of years later we’re here and we’re days away and we get to find out who has the last laugh Oct. 26. I can’t wait for the opportunity.”

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| BJPenn.com

Belal Muhammad is not content with just one UFC belt.

That’s why the current welterweight titleholder is planning a jump to middleweight, where the current crop of “bums” can “Remember the Name.” That said, Muhammad still has a couple of big names to deal with at 170 pounds, ranging from Jack Della Maddalena to Ian Garry, among others.

And let’s not forget this former champ.

“Maybe one or two more fights [at welterweight], I think then I could start talking about middleweight and could start talking about double champ status,” Muhammad told MMA Junkie. “When you look at the guys I’ve fought — what do I have? Six or seven wins in the Top 10, Top 15 of my division right now, so I’ve already fought all these guys even before getting to the title. So now that I’m at the champion status, it’s like, well okay, now I probably only got a couple more left before I can start talking about the bums at 185.”

Muhammad is not the only fighter berating the bums at middleweight.

There’s really no point in playing matchmaker until Muhammad proves he can overcome undefeated welterweight title challenger Shavkat Rakhmonov. The pair are expected to headline the upcoming UFC 310 end-of-year pay-per-view (PPV) event on Sat., Dec. 7, 2024 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

To see who else is fighting at UFC 310 click here.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

The light heavyweight division might crown a new No. 1 contender at UFC 308 when Magomed Ankalaev faces Aleksandar Rakic, but recently retired UFC veteran Matt Brown believes 205-pound champion Alex Pereira should hold out hope for another option instead.

As much as Ankalaev appears to be the rightful challenger with a 12-fight unbeaten streak, Pereira has options available to him after defending his belt three times in 2024, which included stepping up when the UFC needed him on a couple different occasions. Because Pereira likely has enough sway right now to call his shot for what comes next, Brown says the Brazilian champion should just wait a few weeks to see if Jon Jones gets through Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 and find out of that’s a fight that could be available for him.

“You wait,” Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “Everybody’s correct. The person that loses in all of this unfortunately is Ankalaev. He’s done all the right things, especially if he goes out and beats Rakic, does all the right things and he gets f*cked and it’s not even a big name or anything. But yeah, if you’re Alex Pereira, you don’t need to give a f*ck about Ankalaev’s life. You’re dealing with your own shit.

“You absolutely go up to heavyweight, 100 percent. There’s never been a three-weight champion so be the first or shoot for those stars. You can always come back and fight Ankalaev later. Absolutely go for it.”

Having already conquered the light heavyweight and middleweight divisions, Pereira has teased his interest in potentially moving to heavyweight but admitted after his most recent win over Khalil Rountree Jr. that the process would take some time.

Despite his height and large frame, Pereira still needs to add some more size and muscle to deal with much bigger opponents but a chance to tangle with arguably the greatest fighter of all-time might be too tempting to resist.

On the flipside, Jones has teased that his fight against Miocic could be the final appearance of his career. Still, Brown can’t help but wonder if the potential for a matchup against Pereira might just be exactly the kind of opportunity that keeps the reigning UFC heavyweight champion around for a little while longer.

“I don’t doubt this could be as big as any Conor [McGregor] fight,” Brown said. “This could be promoted to the max. They could do it [International] Fight Week or one of the gigantic cards maybe at the Sphere, something crazy. This could be enormous. Jon’s a smart guy. He’s here for the money now, I think. Legacy and money and Alex is going to bring that. It could be promoted as much as you want to promote. This could be the money fight. It’s heavyweight, too. Heavyweight fights always bring a stigma to them that those lighter fights just don’t bring. Like Conor obviously brought the trash talk and all the antics, the funny stuff and the cool stuff, there’s a certain aura when Conor comes into the cage.

“But there’s a different aura that can be sold here when Jon Jones, the greatest of all-time, who just beat the greatest heavyweight of all-time — assuming that happens — fighting another guy trying to do the biggest thing of all-time, [become] a three-weight world champion. I can’t think of a bigger fight outside of Conor, but I think it could be as big as any Conor fight.”

With Jones scheduled to fight Miocic in November, Brown pitched the idea that Pereira should be front and center for that matchup to start building towards an eventual showdown next year.

Pereira staring a hole through Jones might not materialize into a fight but Brown feels like it’s too enticing of an opportunity to pass on given the current landscape in the UFC.

“Be there at [Madison Square Garden] and whatever happens, happens. As long as Jon wins, we can set this up,” Brown said. “Usually when the main event ends, we all turn it off or people start leaving the stadium. Alex Pereira walks in there, people might turn around and go back to their seat.

“If Jon goes out there and wins, the stars have f*cking aligned perfectly to have a super explosion. Again, I think it could be the biggest fight since Conor. I think it could match Conor’s [fights]. How much fun could you have with the promoting of this? So many routes you could take. So many angles you could take. What two perfect guys to be promoting, too. I love listening to Jon Jones talk shit. He’s so stoic with it, serious and Alex is the perfect rival to it. The perfect guy to talk back. The press conferences, everything about this just says money in the bag.”

That said, Brown heavily favors Jones to win should that fight actually happen but perhaps an even bigger obstacle to that potential matchup awaits at UFC 309.

“Realistically though, it’s hard to think that Jon Jones make this a pretty easy fight [with Alex Pereira],” Brown said. “Take him down, elbow his face, get your money, go home, probably not a scratch on you. It’s hard to believe that’s not how this ends.

“Jon Jones has got to get through Stipe first. Let’s not forget that. Stipe is not a walkover. Stipe is not an easy fight. He’s got to get through him first. [Jon Jones] hasn’t been tested like that at heavyweight. Don’t discount Stipe shocking everybody and being like “f*ck your Jon Jones-Alex Pereira fight.’”

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

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Fight fans all around the world will be eagerly waiting the main event of UFC 308 this Saturday when Ilia Topuria looks to defend the featherweight belt against Max Holloway. One man that will be paying especially close attention is Alexander Volkanovski who will be in attendance at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.

The former champion chose to take some time off instead of going into a rematch with Topuria after he lost the title in February. Having faced both men in the past, he’s now looking to fight for the belt once again following the result of the headliner on October 26.

However, along with only wanting to fight for gold next time out, Volkanovski has a specific date and location in mind for his return. The UFC recently announced that on February 9, the Octagon will return to Sydney, Australia.

Wanting a title fight on his home turf could be impacted by who comes out on top in the 145-pound title fight this weekend. In a recent YouTube video, Volkanovski said that Holloway reclaiming the gold may lead to an interim title fight due to the BMF belt that “Blessed” already holds.

The prospect of a fight between “The Great” and the backup fighter this weekend, Diego Lopes, has been spoken about in the past and would seemingly fit this card well based on Lopes’ previous statements.

“Obviously, I wanted Sydney right, I want to fight in Sydney. If Max wins, does he fight in Sydney? I think he does, I think he would fight in Sydney but is he going to do BMF? Is he going to do lightweight? I doubt he’s going to want to do a featherweight straight away. I reckon he’s going to want to do lightweight, I’m just trying to be realistic with this one. So does that open doors for an interim? Yeah, I think so because I want to fight in Sydney and obviously I did that when I was doing the lightweight thing. I let them boys, Josh Emmett and Yair do their interim fight so I’m sure that’s something we could do and while he does his thing and then we just fight whenever we can.”

Volkanovski also stated that his hopes of fighting in Sydney will likely go out the window if Topuria retains this weekend with bringing the belt back to Spain being a key priority for the UFC right now.

“If Ilia wins, does he fight in Sydney? No, let’s be real. He’s not going to fight in Sydney.”

Continue Reading Alexander Volkanovski Says Max Holloway Win At UFC 308 Could Lead To Interim Title Fight at MMA News.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts