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Current UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones, who also held gold at 205 pounds, will make his Octagon return against former division titleholder Stipe Miocic when they hook ‘em up atop the UFC 309 pay-per-view (PPV) event, locked and loaded for Sat., Nov. 16, 2024 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Now they have an official poster.

Jones and Miocic were expected to collide at UFC 295 roughly one year back; however, “Bones” tore his pectoral muscle and was forced to withdraw. That started the epic run of Alex Pereira, who filled in for the UFC 295 main event and smashed Jiri Prochazka to win the 205-pound strap — one of four title fights over the next 11 months.

He’s even teased a fight with Jones.

UFC 309 will also feature the lightweight rematch between former 155-pound champions Charles Oliveira (UFC) and Michael Chandler (Bellator MMA). In addition, Bo Nickal returns against the rough-and-tumble Paul Craig, while veteran middleweights Chris Weidman and Eryk Anders do work at 185 pounds.

For the rest of the UFC 309 fight card and PPV lineup click here.

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Fighter of the Year?
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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Bruno Silva is still mad at Chris Weidman for what happened in their fight, and hopes to get a chance to meet him inside the cage again.

Weidman was awarded the TKO victory over “Blindado” at UFC Atlantic City this past March, a result that was later overturned to a technical decision when replay showed that Silva went down due to eye pokes, not punches. Silva filed an appeal to overturn it to a no-contest instead, but the commission denied his request.

Silva said he temporarily “lost 30 percent of my vision in one of the eyes” due to the foul, and tried to convince UFC matchmakers to book an immediate rematch. Instead, the Brazilian returns against Ismail Naurdiev at Saturday’s UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi, while Weidman meets Eryk Anders on Nov. 16 at UFC 309.

“We were asking for this fight,” Silva said in an interview with MMA Fighting. “When I go to bed at night, he’s the opponent I hate the most. I’ve fought many people, I have more than 30 MMA fights, but every time I think of him and Cormier, I feel anger.”

Weidman was part of the UFC 300 weigh-in show alongside Daniel Cormier, Laura Sanko and Dan Hellie, who made fun of the recent eye poke situation.

“[Weidman] is fighting a month after me, and my focus is on knocking this guy [Naurdiev], and then then I’m calling him out on the mic,” Silva said. “I could ask for other opponents, but I like to deal with things my way. He’s fighting next month, and I have a score to settle with him. It’s personal. I’ll ask the UFC, and I hope they send him my way. He’s not on a great run, but he has a big name. He’s a former champion, and it brings good media. If we both win, maybe that’s interesting for the UFC. I want that fight back. But if that’s something that’s gonna slow me down, f*ck that dude.”

Days after the controversial bout, Weidman said Silva overreacted to the eye pokes and celebrated getting back to the win column following a two-fight skid. Silva, on the other hand, has now lost three straight in the UFC with previous defeats to Brendan Allen and Shara Magomedov.

“My biggest mistake was that I respected Chris Weidman too much, and I’ll live with that for the rest of my life,” Silva said. “He deserved no respect. Even [coach Andre] Dida said I respected him way too much. The fight was over, we spoke in the locker room because I didn’t want any bad vibe. And then he grabs the mic and starts talking crap, him and Cormier. My God. Cormier, talk about an insufferable person.”

Months later, Combat Sports Anti-Doping announced that Silva received a six-month suspension but what was a “likely unintentional” anti-doping violation for a metabolite of drostanolone. Silva had already been suspended before, a two-year ban imposed by the United States Anti-Doping Agency in 2020.

“And when the doping [news] came, brother, what am I going to say?” Silva continued. “Let’s suppose you don’t know me and hear I tested positive. How am I going to defend myself? The full story is out there, but people only read the headline. The crap he said, that pisses me off, but how am I going to say anything? He already doesn’t respect anybody, and now I’m [testing] positive. I stayed quiet.

“Life will get back at him, like it did when he made fun of Anderson Silva and then broke his leg. He reaps what he sows. Unfortunately, I didn’t beat him. If I knock him out, then there’s no more argument. But he defeated me that way and I can’t say anything. It bothers me a lot, man. Sometimes I can’t believe people can be so disrespectful, but there’s always bad people out there.”

“Blindado” admitted that a longer suspension would have led to his retirement from the sport, and thanked the UFC and the in-house doping agency for “being on my side and believing me.” Silva remained active during the suspension, competing in three grappling matches and an amateur boxing bout in his gym in Curitiba, Brazil, and now turns his focus back to the UFC.

“I feel light going into this fight,” Silva said. “I’ve left wins and losses in the past and nothing will interfere. I’m surrounded by good people, and I’m ready to be back. If someone asks me how motivated I am, I say motivation is bullsh*t. What I feel right now is freedom to go there and fight. I have nothing to prove to anyone. My only goal is to go there and submit him, beat the crap out of him, knock him out, or win by points. I’m not coming back from Abu Dhabi without the win, and my team happy on the plane.”

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Khamzat Chimaev has game on the wrestleball court.

On the first episode of UFC 308 Embedded, the undefeated Chimaev plays the wrestling-basketball hybrid with teammates ahead of his co-main event with Robert Whittaker. Additionally, Ilia Topuria watches his son train Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Rafael dos Anjos hits the shooting range, Max Holloway gets a training session in after doing interviews, Whittaker trains with his father, and more.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Conor McGregor sees some similarities between himself and Ilia Topuria and he’s not impressed.

Ahead of Topuria’s featherweight title defense against Max Holloway this Saturday at UFC 308, he and McGregor have been engaged in a social media spat, with Topuria suggesting Holloway should be embarrassed for once losing to McGregor, and McGregor warning Topuria that his reign could end soon if he’s not careful.

McGregor, a former UFC champion at 155 and 145 pounds, also shared a video from a UFC meme account to his Instagram Stories, in which his promotional tactics were compared to Topuria’s. See the clip below.

Back in 2015, McGregor was embroiled in a feud with then-featherweight champion Jose Aldo. The build-up to their UFC 196 bout featured several tense moments, with McGregor stealing the show at a press conference in Dublin when he snatched Aldo’s belt and held it triumphantly in the air.

McGregor went on to score a one-punch, 13-second knockout when the two fought in December of that year.

Topuria pulled a similar stunt ahead of his fight with Alexander Volkanovski this past February. Volkanovski targeted a sixth straight featherweight title defense heading into UFC 298, and like McGregor, Topuria took his opportunity to prematurely snatch the belt in a press conference for the event.

Also like McGregor, Topuria was victorious via knockout, putting Volkanovski away in the second round.

The video shared by McGregor makes its stance on the two clear with a caption that reads, “Spot the difference” and describes Topuria’s effort as “Level: Medium.”

Topuria’s first title defense is just around the corner as he takes on Holloway in Abu Dhabi this Saturday. As for McGregor, he has not fought since July 2021 and still awaits his next booking.

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Will it happen?
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