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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

The Super Bowl is a huge national event celebrated by countless Americans yearly. Many recognizable celebrities often celebrate the build-up to the big game, and this year Dana White has joined in on the festivities.

Super Bowl LVIII is fast approaching which will see the finalists from 2020—the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs—run it back on Sunday. The Chiefs walked away as champions the last time these two met and hope to do so again this time around.

In anticipation of this year’s Super Bowl, Bud Light released a 1-minute video that will serve as a commercial during the game on February 11. Post Malone, Peyton Manning, and surprisingly Dana White are featured alongside the Bud Light Genie in this amusing clip.

Check it out below.

Filthy rich? Done. One REALLY big bicep? Yes. An epic night out with Peyton Manning, @postmalone & @danawhite? The Bud Light Genie’s here in our Super Bowl LVIII commercial to make it happen pic.twitter.com/pWWs945CmN

— Bud Light (@budlight) February 6, 2024

Related: Dana White the latest to bash Travis Kelce for his pro-vaccine campaign

Is Modelo still partnered with the UFC?

After spending six years with the UFC, Modelo broke ties with the promotion and was later replaced by the new official beer partner Bud Light. 

According to reports, Bud Light signed a multiyear contract with the UFC which got underway on January 1, 2024. The deal is said to be the biggest sponsorship in UFC’s history, though the terms of the deal were never publicly announced.

Speaking on the new deal back in October 2023, Dana White confirmed the news and announced his excitement at working with the American brewing company once again.

“Anheuser-Busch and Bud Light were UFC’s original beer sponsors more than fifteen years ago,” Dana White said following the deal announcement. “I’m proud to announce we are back in business together.” [h/t ESPN]

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Injury?
| BJPenn.com

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

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Alexander Volkanovski took a serious gamble back in October 2023. With just 10 days to prepare, he accepted UFC’s offer to replace the wounded Charles Oliveira opposite Islam Makhachev, the man who narrowly defeated him earlier in the year. The first bout was incredibly competitive, but predictably, an ill-prepared Volkanovski could not stand up to Makhachev’s might.

He suffered the first knockout loss of his UFC career as a result (watch it).

City Kickboxing head coach Eugene Bareman wasn’t in Volkanovski’s corner that night, and in a recent interview with Medium, he revealed why he didn’t want the Australian to accept the fight offer.

“I never really looked at that second Islam fight seriously. I was against Volk taking that fight and was very open about it,” Bareman explained. “Listen, Volkanovski is a great fighter, but you have to maintain some level of rationale. You trained for 12 weeks for the first fight and, yes, there’s an argument that you won. But the result was different, right? In the end, the fact is that whatever you did in those 12 weeks wasn’t enough to get the win on judges’ scorecards. It’s unrealistic to expect that you can deliver better results with a week of preparation.”

He later continued, “The biggest tragedy for me personally is that I strongly believed that with a proper preparation for the rematch, we could show an even better performance than we did in the first fight. And I really wanted us to have that chance — with a proper camp. So the biggest tragedy for me is that we will never get an opportunity to face Islam again. That’s what I’m gutted about. But I also understand why Alex accepted the fight.”

Obviously, fighters go through training camps for a simple reason: to increase their odds of success! With his coach advising him against it, why did Volkanovski jump on the opportunity to face Makhachev in less-than-ideal circumstances? He likely could’ve scored another shot at Lightweight gold with an additional Featherweight title defense or two.

According to Bareman, money was an important factor. Volkanovski scored a new deal by agreeing to the Makhachev bout, one that will continue to pay him well into the future for other fights.

“Everyone has their own reasons for fighting but there’s one recurring theme — this is how fighters support their families and their future. I’m not sure if this was widely publicized but Alex did sign a new contract with that last fight. So it wasn’t about just getting one big payday. It was about all his future fights happening with significantly — significantly — better compensation. So, from this point of view, his decision was understandable.”

That better compensation will continue with his planned sixth Featherweight title defense against Ilia Topuria, which is scheduled for UFC 298 in Anaheim, California next weekend (Sat., Feb. 17, 2024). We’ll just have to wait and see if the actual knockout loss itself also carries consequences into the Topuria booking.

Insomnia

Who doesn’t love a good teep? Happy national Muay Thai day!

Turns out there was a lot more supply than demand.

A pair of Middleweight releases, neither of which are particularly surprising.

This thread gave me a chuckle. I’ve definitely given Herb Dean some s—t for his officiating decisions over the year, but it’s a tough job and the man has put in his time! Respect.

Michael Bisping talks about what is arguably the most legendary moment in his career: getting knocked out by Anderson Silva and winning anyway!

I’m going to offer what I’ve gathered is a hot take: I like it when the title changes hands a lot. Seeing athletes live their dream is awesome. One guy being way better than everyone else grows uninteresting to me.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

That was a quick transition from the front headlock into the d’arce choke, followed by a nice step over into mount.

Van Gogh (lol) made a good read in that his opponent was ducking every single time he went to throw wildly.

The ease with which the knee is lifted to the chin …

Random Land

No, I don’t understand what is happening here.

Midnight Music: I struggle the assign this song a specific genre beyond general rock, but perhaps that’s why I love it.

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

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Last year, Bud Light once again became the official beer of the UFC.

In October, the UFC signed a new partnership with Anheuser-Busch that is said to be the biggest sponsorship deal in the Las Vegas-based promotion’s 30+ year history, worth a reported $ 100 million. So it should come as no surprise that UFC CEO Dana White would be front and center for Bud Light’s ad for Super Bowl LVIII between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers this Sunday, February 11

Back in the day, you had to actually watch the game to see all of the year’s most creative commercials, or at the very least have a VCR and a blank tape ready to go. But with the emergence of the internet, we can watch the commercials over and over again, many times before the big game even starts.

Therefore, we present to you this years Bud Light commercial featuring Dana White and a slew of stars including Super Bowl champion Peyton Manning and Grammy Award-nominated musician Post Malone.

“Anheuser-Busch and Bud Light were UFC’s original beer sponsors more than fifteen years ago,” White said in a statement annoucing the renewed partnership. “I’m proud to announce we are back in business together. There are many reasons why I chose to go with Anheuser-Busch and Bud Light, most importantly because I feel we are very aligned when it comes to our core values and what the UFC brand stands for. I’m looking forward to all of the incredible things we will do in the years ahead.”

Super Bowl spots this year are going for an estimated $ 7 million per 30 seconds meaning this minute-long Bud Light ad set the company back $ 14 million. Did they make the most of it? Let us know in the comments.

LowKickMMA.com

Following her ongoing feud with Disney and Lucasfilm, Gina Carano has today announced that she will be filing a lawsuit against the two titan companies.

Carano is considered one of the pioneers for the early success of women’s mixed martial arts. Despite having a much more successful career in film, the 41-year-old has competed against some huge names in the sport, most notably former UFC champion Cris Cyborg.

In a bombshell report that rocked the internet, Gina Carano has confirmed that she’ll finally act on her mistreatment from Disney and Lucasfilm. During a post on social media, Carano opened up on her firing from The Mandalorian and more.

“Today is an important day for me,” Carano stated to begin her rant on social media. “I am filing a lawsuit against Lucasfilm & Disney.”

“After 20 years of building a career from scratch, and during the regime of former Disney CEO Bob Chapek, Lucasfilm made this statement on Twitter, terminating me from The Mandalorian: ‘Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm & there are no plans for her to be in the future… Her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural & religious identities are abhorrent & unacceptable.'”

“Nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is I was being hunted down from everything I posted to every post I liked because I was not in line with the acceptable narrative of the time.”

“My words were consistently twisted to demonize & dehumanize me as an alt-right wing extremist. It was a bullying smear campaign aimed at silencing, destroying & making an example out of me.”

Carano continued, firing back at claims of racism and transphobia which ultimately led to her acting career stagnating over recent years.

“Ask yourself why they were calling me a racist,” Carano said. “Was there any merit behind that or history of it whatsoever? No.”

“Look at why I was called a transphobe–for making droid noises from Star Wars? “Beep, bop, boop” was obviously directed to the online bullies and did not in any way denigrate transgender people.”

“Were my questions about masks, lockdowns & forced vaccines ok to ask & push the subject into the light? Should we have been allowed to publicly discuss those topics at that time without being harassed or censored? Absolutely.”

Gina Carano later spoke out against Hollywood and their apparent false promises of equal rights.

“Hollywood says they support female representation & equal rights. Why then were my male co-stars permitted to speak without harassment & re-education courses or termination, but I was not afforded the same right to exercise my freedom of speech.”

“Artists do not sign away our rights as American citizens when we enter into employment. I have spoken to all my co-stars since I was fired & there is nothing but care and kind words between us.”

“I respect their right to free speech & do not have to think the same on every issue to be their friends & work with them & I know they feel the same towards me.”

Surprisingly, Elon Musk played a huge factor in Carano’s lawsuit.

“A couple of months ago, Elon Musk tweeted that if you had been fired from using the platform (X) for exercising your right to free speech, he would like to offer these people legal representation.”

“Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought anyone would take on my case against Lucasfilm/Disney. Still, I did respond back “I think I qualify” & thousands of people agreed–but I did not expect anything.”

“Turns out after sending them as much information as I could gather these past few months, my now lawyers & X believe whole-heartedly in my case & are moving forward.”

“I would like to express my deepest gratitude & thank you to Elon Musk & X for giving me an opportunity to bring my case to light.”

After thanking Elon Musk for his aid in her case against Disney and Lucasfilm, Carano revealed what’s next for her. Her passion remains in acting and she will continue to press forward in hopes of adding to an already successful career on the big screen.

Today is an important day for me–I am filing a lawsuit against @lucasfilm & @Disney
 
After my 20 years of building a career from scratch, and during the regime of former Disney CEO Bob Chapek, Lucasfilm made this statement on Twitter, terminating me from The Mandalorian: “Gina…

— Gina Carano 🕯 (@ginacarano) February 6, 2024

While speaking to MMAWeekly, Dana White sided with Gina Carano after she was effectively ‘canceled’ for comments she allegedly made. The UFC CEO insisted ‘we all make mistakes’ and urged everybody to ‘leave Gina alone’. 

Check it out below.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Matt Brown won’t begrudge anybody looking for more money, but he also doesn’t fully understand what Dustin Poirier meant when he said he “couldn’t come to terms” with the UFC on a fight contract.

The whole ordeal played out over a matter of hours this past week once Poirier declared that his UFC 299 fight was off and stated that there was “no contractual agreement” for a fight against Benoit Saint Denis. Later that same day, Poirier put out a second statement calling everything just one big “misunderstanding,” and stating that the situation was cleared up with a call from his manager and UFC chief business officer Hunter Campbell.

After spending nearly 16 years with the UFC, Brown might be one of the only fighters on the roster with more tenure than Poirier, but even he didn’t fully grasp what exactly unfolded.

“Dustin was saying, ‘We didn’t come to terms.’ What does that mean?” Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “They just set the terms and you just sign the contract and go.

“They ask me if I want to fight this guy and I say OK. I’ve never really negotiated or asked for a different guy, it’s not really been my style. For me, it’s been pretty simple. I’ve always been happy with the way they treated me and the pay they give me and everything. I don’t really know what they mean when they say they didn’t come to terms. The terms are, you’re going to fight a guy on this date, go do it.”

Now, Brown admits his own experiences with the UFC likely differ from many other fighters. He’s never had a combative relationship with the promotion over his career.

Whether it came down to his pay, the opponents offered to him, or the events he’s fought on, Brown never really found a situation where he had to go to battle with the UFC.

In fact, Brown says there’s only one time during his entire career when he really felt the need to discuss details about his contract, and that negotiation with UFC CEO Dana White was anything but heated.

“I probably should have negotiated more than I have,” Brown said with a laugh. “I can only speak to my own personal experience here. When they have offered me a new contract, I said, ‘Thank you, let’s go. Who am I going to fight?’ I never really negotiated that either. Maybe I should have. Maybe in retrospect I should have, but I never did. I’ve always just been happy to fight.

“There was one time where I went and talked to Dana about my contract. I went into his office, he showed me around, we chatted for a little while and finally we got to the negotiating time. He said, ‘How much do you want?’ I gave him a number and he said, ‘OK, let’s do it.’ I probably should have asked for more, but I thought I got my worth and it was pretty simple. I think that’s part of me having a good tenure with the UFC. I’m friendly with them. They help me out, I help them out. I’ve just always been simple with them.”

During his time with the UFC, Brown says he never really had a situation arise where the promotion has jumped the gun on announcing one of his fights, mostly because he’s never turned down an opponent or raised any issues after receiving a bout agreement.

Brown revealed he personally announced a fight he signed nearly a decade ago that wasn’t actually a done deal, and that did come back to bite him.

“I was supposed to fight Nate Diaz one time and I had posted that I signed the contract, and I got in trouble for doing that because he had not signed yet,” Brown said. “Obviously, he never ended up signing. But that kind of threw me off a little bit.”

While he can’t remember the exact timing for the fight, Brown estimated that the matchup was offered to him sometime between 2013 and 2015, which was before Diaz choked out Conor McGregor and became one of the biggest stars in the sport.

That being said, Brown actually found out later that Diaz didn’t just turn down a fight against him or ask for more money but didn’t get it. Instead, Brown says Diaz didn’t like the idea of fighting him out of respect.

“First, I want make sure no one out there says, ‘Oh, he was f****** scared!’ I don’t believe that for one second,” Brown said of Diaz. “I don’t remember if I talked to him or Nick [Diaz] or a friend of theirs, but basically they don’t want to fight people that they like, and they like me. So I think that’s all it came down to, respect to him.

“Now he wasn’t as big of a name back then either, as big of a name as he is now, or I would probably push a little harder for that. Back then, it was like, ‘We don’t like fighting people we like,’ OK, I’ll fight the next guy.”

That’s the same philosophy Brown has carried throughout his entire career, so he doesn’t quite understand what the “misunderstanding” was with Poirier and the UFC, but he’s certainly never experienced that himself.

“When we talk about negotiating terms with the UFC, you don’t really negotiate,” Brown said. “They have the power. It’s like, ‘You don’t like our terms? Well then go to f****** Bellator.’ But I want to fight the best guys. ‘Well, OK, fight in the UFC.’ But I want more money. ‘Well, this is what we’re going to pay you, buddy.’ It’s a little bit of a catch-22 there.

“I just don’t really ask questions. They send me the contract, I sign it. If they want to switch the guy up, OK. If that guy doesn’t sign, whatever. Give me a date, give me a place, and let’s f****** put somebody in there.”

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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