We have certainly seen upcoming UFC title challengers enter a championship fight with a lot of confidence, but Ilia Topuria might be taking things to a whole different level as he feels he will run through longtime champion Alexander Volkanovski with ease at UFC 298 next Saturday? While a victory certainly sets him up for superstardom, what if he doesn’t deliver under the bright lights in Anaheim?

On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck reacts to Topuria’s interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, discusses whether or not the challenger has put himself in a must-win situation, and where he goes depending on the result. Additionally, listener topics include the fallout of UFC Vegas 85, Nassourdine Imavov and Renato Moicano’s next moves following their victories, the UFC 300 main event still not being announced, and much more.

You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces.

If you miss it live, audio-only versions of the podcast can be found below, on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and wherever you find your favorite podcasts.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Bruce Buffer got Super Bowl week kicked off in a big way in Las Vegas.

The longtime UFC cage announcer took center stage on Monday during Super Bowl Opening Night. Buffer, with his legendary catchphrases UFC fans are accustomed to as he prepares octagon main events, officially introduced NFC champions the San Francisco 49ers, and defending Super Bowl champs the Kansas City Chiefs.

Check out Buffer’s team intros in the videos below.

The 2023-2024 NFL champions will be crowned this Sunday at Allegiant Stadium, the home of the Las Vegas Raiders. The Chiefs punched their ticket with playoff victories over the Miami Dolphins, Buffalo Bills, and Baltimore Ravens, while the 49ers picked up wins over the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions.

The UFC will also have an event this weekend, as they return to their home base of the UFC APEX for UFC Vegas 86, which will be headlined by a middleweight tilt between Jack Hermansson and surging contender Joe Pyfer.

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Interviews
| BJPenn.com

‘Rampage’ vs. ‘Suga’ 2? It could happen, but first Quinton Jackson has to beat former boxing champ Shannon Briggs in Qatar.

After years of hype, a long-rumored boxing bout between Quinton Jackson and former WBO heavyweight champ Shannon Briggs is really happening.

We can understand why you may be skeptical. Jackson has been talking about this fight for years, and the number of times he’s set a date only for it not to happen is high. But the latest date and location from “Rampage” sounds real: June 1st in Qatar. As is often the case these days, we need Middle Eastern royalty to get involved for fights to happen.

It’s just the first of a few boxing bouts Jackson intends on having. He explained the move from MMA to the sweet science on the latest episode of The MMA Hour.

“I’ve done everything else,” he said. “I’ve done wrestling, I’ve done jiu-jitsu, and I’ve done kickboxing. I’ve put them all together, but I’ve never done boxing. So now all my four martial arts, I will have done at least one fight in that martial art. So that’s a personal goal of mine, and I’m going to fight until I can’t fight anymore because I still love it, and I want to have a couple more boxing matches before I get too old, right? Because I want to try it.”

“This first one with Shannon, I know he’s a little bit older than me, he might be a better boxer than me because I never boxed before. I’m looking at this like a warmup fight.”

That’s a dangerous idea. Shannon “The Cannon” was active up until 2016 and wrapped his boxing career with nine wins in a row — the last five via knockout. He may be 52, but Jackson is 45. MMA fans are gonna have to hope he makes it past Briggs to get to some retro fights we have more interest in.

“After that, I want to rematch Rashad [Evans] in a boxing match,” Jackson said. “He likes to wrestle a bit too much. I think we throw them thangs. And then after Rashad, I’ll call out Wanderlei Silva for that rubbermatch.”

At least he’s stopped trying to make a Daryl Schoonover fight happen.

“Rampage” Jackson vs. “Suga” Rashad Evans went down at UFC 114 back in 2010 and was largely considered a letdown after being built up by the biggest season of The Ultimate Fighter ever. Would it be nice to see Jackson and Evans finally slug it out? Me and the twelve other homies who are still around from those ancient times think so. Another plus: Rashad Evans doesn’t have CTE like Wanderlei Silva, so that feels less dirty too.

What do you think of Quinton Jackson’s comeback plans, Maniacs? Intrigued, or did the best before date on these fights expire a decade ago? Let us know in the comments below.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Colby Covington wants to clean off the stench of his last performance against Leon Edwards at UFC 296 in December.

It was a particularly rough and uncharacteristic performance for Covington inside the T-Mobile Arena when he competed in his third undisputed UFC title fight. Unable to utilize his patented high-volume pressure wrestling style, “Chaos” was outpointed by the champion Edwards comfortably throughout five rounds en route to a unanimous decision loss. One that he, unsurprisingly, still thinks he should have won.

Covington, 35, stated in media appearances afterward that he suffered a broken foot early in the fight. How early? Try the first kick thrown, according to the Oregon native, who shared an image of a foot X-ray with Submission Radio yesterday, claiming to have fractured the medial cuneiform bone in his left foot.

Instagram: @submissionradio

“I couldn’t plant or explode off it to use the wrestling and pressure I planned to use,” Covington said. “I didn’t want to disclose this information until I had the X-rays back home, but here they are.

“I knew straight away it was bad. It was the first kick I threw, it landed right on his elbow. He was in orthodox so I kind of got a little overzealous and I wanted to rip a high kick to his orthodox side because I didn’t know if he’d be defensively sound from southpaw. So, the first kick I threw, a high kick, it was kind of like a middle kick, it landed on his elbow.

“Haters will still find a way to hate on me for fighting 25 minutes on one leg while landing over 100 more strikes than Leon,” he continued. “But you know what, my haters are so broke they can’t even pay attention so f*** them.”

For the sake of clarity and simple statistical math or research, Covington did not outstrike Edwards by 100 strikes or double Edwards’ strike total. The American did manage to outstrike “Rocky” in total strikes over their five-round affair, but it was 109 to 65 per UFC Stats. 54 of which came from Covington in the lone round he won in the fight when he took down Edwards in round five and controlled him for three minutes and three seconds.

Ultimately, Covington found more success as the fight went on but it was never enough to overcome his claimed injury.

“It was a panic-type mode,” Covington said of how he reacted to the injury. “You’re like, ‘Oh, f***. I’m compromised.’ You know your foot’s hurt, you know? I could feel it throbbing and the fire really started to hit my foot and start to feel that excruciating type of pain.

“I remember going back to the end of the first round and I always sit down, I want to hear my coaches and just breathe. That first round, I’m just chilling, I’m doing what I love for a living. Sit and kind of breathe and relax until the next round. I didn’t even sit because it was throbbing so bad I’m like, ‘F***, if I sit down right now, it might be so much pain I might not be able to stand back up off the stool.’ There was just a lot of panic at the end of the first round. Like f***. I couldn’t listen to my coaches, everything just felt like it was zoning out because all I could care about was my foot and not being able to put any weight on it.”

Performance-wise, Covington was dramatically more patient and cautious with his approach, and allowed Edwards to control the pace much more than expected. The fact that Covington’s left foot was the compromised one, which he puts all his weight on to explode in most offensive situations, it made the fight all the more difficult.

Next on deck is a targeted summer return for Covington. The one-time interim titlist says he’ll be ready for that timeframe and wants to prove why he is still the very best welterweight in the world despite alternating wins and losses in his last five fights.

Who does he want to fight next? There are a couple of options Covington is keen on.

“If he can get through the bus boy [Geoff Neal], and UFC deems that to be the biggest and best business the UFC can do in the welterweight division, then let’s do it,” Covington said of a fight with Ian Machado Garry. “UFC knows what Colby ‘Chaos’ Covington is about.

“There’s a lot of options. We got Gilbert [Burns] coming up [at UFC 299]. That fat lesbian just like Conor [McGregor] said. He’s coming up in March. If he beats that other kid that he’s fighting, whatever the scrub’s name is [Jack Della Maddalena] then that’s a possibility. I think [Stephen] ‘Wonderboy’ [Thompson] makes the most sense. The ultimate nice guy vs. the ultimate bad guy. He’s had a lot of things to say, that fight makes the most sense.”

TOP STORIES

Hiccup. Dustin Poirier talks ‘miscommunication’ on Benoit Saint Denis fight, reveals original matchup date

Boxing. Rampage Jackson believes Shannon Briggs is underestimating him, vows to ‘put my fist in his motherf****** mouth’

Intentions. Ilia Topuria plans to ‘dominate’ Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298, wants Conor McGregor next

Caution. Mark Zuckerberg’s MMA passion triggers warning to investors about potential for ‘serious injury and death’

Beef. Raquel Pennington wants Julianna Pena fight in late summer: ‘I’m excited to finally punch her ass in the mouth’

VIDEO STEW

The MMA Hour.

Catching up with Urijah Faber.

Free fights.

Onward.

Champ camp.

Nightmare in NYC.

Historic cancellations.

LISTEN UP

On To the Next One. MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Alex K. Lee discuss matches to make after UFC Vegas 85.

MORNING MUSIC

This one gets today’s nod simply for the name alone. Reminds me of how Glover Teixeira vs. Fabio Maldonado felt to watch. The real ones remember.

Okay, this was a little too filthy for me not to do our first two-fer. Start the Tuesday FAST and ferocious, friends.

SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

Snow day.

Matchmaking.

Questions.

Goals.

Damn, Mikey.

Catch ‘em all.

Praise.

Training mood.

Girl fighter.

Slappin’ da bass.

FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Christian Leroy Duncan (9-1) vs. Claudio Ribeiro (11-4); UFC Vegas 87, March 2

Leah McCourt (8-3) vs. Sinead Kavanagh (9-6); Bellator 302, March 22

Victoria Dudakova (8-0) vs. Melissa Gatto (8-2-2); UFC Atlantic City, March 30

FINAL THOUGHTS

I don’t see any problem with any of the possible matchups Colby mentioned. Garry is the best-case scenario in all aspects though.

Thanks for reading!

EXIT POLL

If you find something you’d like to see in the Morning Report, hit up @DrakeRiggs_ on Twitter and let him know about it. Also, follow MMAFighting on Instagram and like us on Facebook.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

Incoming UFC 298 headliner, Ilia Topuria may be pre-occupied by a title siege against featherweight kingpin, Alexander Volkanovski, however, plans to evenutally lure former division champion, Conor McGregor to a future fight – atop a premiere card in Spain.

Topuria, the current number three ranked featherweight contender, is slated to headline UFC 298 later this month in Anaheim, making his pay-per-view headliner debut in a massive featherweight title charge against undisputed champion, Volkanovski.

And as for McGregor, the former two-division champion has been sidelined since he headlined UFC 264 back in July 2021, suffering a fractured left tibia and fibula in a first round doctor’s stoppage TKO loss to Dustin Poirier. 

Ilia Topuria welcomes Conor McGregor clash at UFC Spain

Welcoming the possibility of an immediate title defense against the Dubliner if he topples Volkanovski at UFC 298 – Topuria boldly claimed to keep McGregor “rich” in a future clash – if he doesn’t get beaten by targeted foe, Michael Chandler first.

“Conor McGregor, that’s the fight I’m looking for,” Ilia Topuria said during an interview with MMA Fighting. “He has a a great fight with Michael Chandler. If he doesn’t get his ass whooped, he will be a pleasure to share the Octagon with me.”

“Maybe in (sic) UFC Spain,” Ilia Topuria suggested. “We’re both from Europe, and he will be able to go back home and tell his wife, ‘Baby, take out the red panties, Topuria kept us rich.’”

Remaining supremely confident ahead of his first title challenge under the promotion’s banner, Topuria vowed to turn in a dominant first round finish of Volkanovski – in the form of a crushing knockout win.

Sidelined since last summer, Topuria most recently retained his unbeaten featherweight streak in the Octagon with a decision shutout win over former interim title challenger, Josh Emmett at UFC Jacksonville in his first main event bout. 

Who wins in a future title fight at UFC Spain: Ilia Topuria or Conor McGregor?

LowKickMMA.com

Looking at organizing these and selling them. Nice trip down memory lane. Crazy the amount of change…… submitted by /u/Cody5150 [link] [comments]

MMA: Mixed Martial Arts