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Ilia Topuria is as confident as they come.

UFC 298 will act as the moment of truth for Spain’s favorite fighting son in Anaheim, California next weekend (Sat., Feb. 17, 2024). Topuria believes it’s his destiny to hold UFC Featherweight gold and that means he’ll have to get through reigning champion, Alexander Volkanovski.

A lot of buzz has already been built for what could come after a change in champion at 145 pounds. Bantamweight titleholder, Sean O’Malley, has made his interest clear in a champion vs. champion bout with Topuria should they both come out victorious at UFC 298 and UFC 299, the latter of which goes down next month (Sat., March 9, 2024). However, Topuria prefers a clash against a former Featherweight champion instead.

“The way I’m going to beat him, they aren’t even going to ask me about a rematch,” Topuria said of Volkanovski on The MMA Hour.

“Conor McGregor, that’s the fight I’m looking for,” he continued. “He has a great fight with Mike Chandler. If he doesn’t get his ass whooped, he will be a pleasure to share the Octagon with me. Maybe in UFC Spain. 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.’”

McGregor’s day as a Featherweight are far behind him in 2024. “The Notorious” has teased his eventual return for the expected Chandler bout to be at 185 pounds, leaving his primary division of Lightweight practically out of the question. Topuria clarified that he didn’t care about that hypothetical fight being a title defense though. He just wants to fight McGregor regardless of weight class.

In terms of other possible contenders at Featherweight to kick off a title reign, Topuria doesn’t plan on giving some possible options the time of day.

“How? I’m going to beat the guy who whooped his ass three times?” Topuria said when asked about a Max Holloway title defense. “How? It doesn’t make any sense. Max, Yair [Rodriguez], Brian Ortega, all of them, they can go and retire. I’m never going to give them the chance to fight for the title.

“I don’t know, to be honest,” he continued when asked who he would defend against. “The UFC knows that even better than me and I don’t think they’re going to even offer Max or the names I told you. We’ll see. I’m just completely focused on my upcoming fight and we’ll see what the future holds for me.”

As a perfect 14-0, the 27-year-old Topuria first needs to surpass arguably the toughest challenge of all the names mentioned, “The Great” Volkanovski. Motivated as per usual, Volkanovski is hungry to ruin Topuria’s perfect record and get back in the win column after a tough first round knockout loss (watch highlights) to Islam Makhachev in October 2023.

“It’s going to be a first-round knockout. You will see,” Topuria said. “He’s saying a lot of bulls—t, ‘There’s levels, I have this and I have that, dah, dah, dah.’ You’re right, there are levels. There are levels, then there is me. I’m going to show you where the levels are. I’m going to dominate him everywhere. I’m going to make him look like a punching bag. You will see. I will be dancing Feb. 17.”

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Mark Zuckerberg loves MMA, but his passion for the sport resulted in a warning to investors about how that could adversely affect business at Meta.

In a new financial disclosure for 2024, Meta — the parent company to social networks like Facebook and Instagram — addressed potential risk factors to the business, which included a note about Zuckerberg’s increased interest in combat sports. Zuckerberg, 39, started training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and eventually MMA when he teased a potential fight against fellow billionaire Elon Musk.

Zuckerberg suffered a torn ACL in his knee during training, which likely prompted the warning to investors about how his interest in combat sports could impact the business.

“We currently depend on the continued services and performance of our key personnel, including Mark Zuckerberg,” Meta wrote in a financial disclosure sent to investors. “Mr. Zuckerberg and certain other members of management participate in various high-risk activities, such as combat sports, extreme sports, and recreational aviation, which carry the risk of serious injury and death.

“If Mr. Zuckerberg were to become unavailable for any reason, there could be a material adverse impact on our operations.”

In response to the risk factors listed, Zuckerberg took to Threads with a GIF featuring UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski that said “high risk = high reward.”

Zuckerberg, who serves as Meta CEO as well as the single largest shareholder in the company, has worked with several notable MMA names such as Volkanovski and former middleweight king Israel Adesanya. He was also promoted to blue belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu training under famed instructor Dave Camarillo.

Zuckerberg spent months teasing a potential fight against Musk as the social media giants kept going back and forth about possibly meeting in the cage. The talks eventually involved UFC CEO Dana White, but the two sides never actually came to an agreement, and Zuckerberg and Musk both pointing fingers at who was to blame over the fight falling apart.

Still, Zuckerberg continued his training, which eventually led to the torn ACL that required him to undergo reconstructive surgery on his leg. That likely knocked him out of the office for several days as he recovered.

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Following his loss to Alex Pereira in November, Jiri Prochazka was determined to get back inside the Octagon as fast as possible, regardless of opponent.

On April 13, ‘Denisa’ will look to climb back into the title picture at 205 when he meets No. 5 ranked contender Aleksandar Rakic at UFC 300 in Las Vegas. The fight will come five months removed from Prochazka’s devastating second-round knockout at the hands of ‘Poatan’ at the promotion’s 30th-anniversary event last year in Madison Square Garden.

Speaking with Mike Owens in a LowKick MMA exclusive interview, Prochazka — the division’s No. 2 ranked contender — explained that after coming up short in his last outing, he was eager to climb back in the cage. Rakic just happened to be the fighter who was ready, willing, and able to serve as the former champ’s dance partner on fight night.

“I don’t care about what the right fight is for me,” Prochazka said. “I wanted to be back as soon as possible and Alexander was the first one who was free from the top five guys at light heavyweight. So I called him about the fight.”

Jiri Prochazka Dubs Aleksandar Rakic a ’50/50 Fighter’

Aleksandar Rakic will be looking to bounce back after suffering a leg injury in the third round of his May 2022 clash with Jan Blachowicz. They were scheduled to run it back at UFC 297 last month, but Blachowicz underwent shoulder surgery, forcing him out of the bout.

‘Rocket’ goes into the contest with a 14-3 overall record, 6-2 under the UFC banner. Rakic has established himself as a bit of a knockout artist in his career, finishing nine of his opponents via KO, including Devin Clark and Jimi Manuwa inside the Octagon.

“He’s a 50/50 fighter,” Prochazka said of his UFC 300 opponent. “He’s a good wrestler. A really strong guy I think. His standup is not the best, but like I said, he’s 50/50. Good striker. Good wrestler and I’m ready for both.”

Prochazka’s loss to Alex Pereira snapped a 13-fight win streak dating back to 2016. It was also his first fight in 17 months, but ‘Denisa’ is making no excuses for his performance. Instead, he sees it as another opportunity to evolve his skill set and put his MMA mastery on display in his next outing.

“I want to realize the mastery,” he said. “Not just in the training. Not just in the daily life. Repeat, repeat. Be better. Be better, but in the cage. To show it in the cage. That’s what I want to show.”

Watch the full exclusive interview with Jiri Prochazka below:

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Quinton Jackson is indeed making his professional boxing debut this summer.

An MMA legend and former UFC light heavyweight champion, “Rampage” takes on ex-WBO heavyweight champ Shannon Briggs in an eight-round boxing match on June 1 in Qatar.

“It’s real,” Jackson confirmed Monday on The MMA Hour.

“I’ve done everything else — 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.”

Jackson, 45, and Briggs, 52, have bantered back-and-forth over a potential bout for years, with both fighters trading repeated jabs at the other in interviews and on social media.

Briggs (60-6-1, 53 KOs) has not competed since knocking out Emilio Zarate in the first round of a May 2016 bout in London. He was subsequently suspended in 2017 after a pre-fight drug test for a WBA title bout revealed dramatically elevated levels of testosterone. The former boxing champ has remained inactive since, but still rides a nine-fight win streak into his grudge match with Jackson, with eight of those wins ending in the first or second round.

Jackson (38-14 MMA) last fought in a first-round knockout loss to Fedor Emelianenko in 2019. Despite falling short in three of his past four MMA bouts, “Rampage” remains one of the greatest light heavyweights of his era, owning wins over Chuck Liddell (x2), Dan Henderson, Kevin Randleman, Lyoto Machida, and Wanderlei Silva (x2), among others. His 2004 slam knockout of Ricardo Arona is one of the most iconic highlights of Pride FC.

“I’ve done a lot of wrestling training camps — man, I think boxing hurts less, hurts the body less,” Jackson said. “But I love fighting. So a lot of fans are very disrespectful and talk about age. Age ain’t nothing but a number. I’m not going to let age stop me from doing anything. Some people are just very disrespectful when it comes to age, and when you get up there in age, you’re not going to want people to be disrespectful to you, right?

“So I feel like if fans really care about fighters, when we get older, just support us, because we’re having fun and we’re doing what we love.”

Jackson said his plan is to use the Briggs fight as a springboard into other big boxing matches before he retires. He specifically mentioned rematches with old foes Rashad Evans and Silva as his most coveted opponents for the squared circle, however he knows those dreams will likely be dead on arrival unless he shows up and performs against Briggs.

“First I’ve got to knock Shannon’s big-mouth ass out,” Jackson said. “I’m going to do everything in power to train my ass off. I already started a mini training camp, but my full camp starts April 1, and I’m going to do everything I can to put my fist in his motherf****** mouth. I’m tired of him talking s***. He underestimated me.

“I was really proud when Francis [Ngannou] showed the world that MMA fighters can box [against Tyson Fury], but I was kind of hoping that Shannon wasn’t really paying attention to it. He kind of said something like, yeah, he underestimated Francis, and that was my plan for him because I knew he was underestimating me the whole time.”

Briggs has already predicted a first-round knockout of Jackson. He has also gleefully posted countless memes and doctored videos at Jackson’s expense.

The MMA legend vows to make Briggs pay for those many slights. And despite how impressive his opponent’s physique may be at an age when few fighters look as Briggs currently does, he’s unconcerned with the ex-champ’s history of drug-testing snafus.

“He needs all the help he can get,” Jackson said. “He’s old as hell. He needs to dye his beard too, I’ll say that, because I don’t want people to think I’m bullying him and get mad at me for senior abuse. Because he looks older than what he is. He’s not that old. He’s only a couple years [older than me], he’s like 52.”

“He thinks he’s going to knock me out in the first round,” Jackson added. “He don’t know. Because he said he’s got the most first-round knockouts in history or some s***. I don’t know. But I’ve been seeing what he’s been posting lately — he’s been posting him knocking out bums. Like guys I’ve never even heard of. The last guy he posted, he looked like he his boxing kit — boy, he got that s*** from like Target or Walmart or some s***. You can just tell he’s fighting chumps by their boxing kits. It looked like it was a last-minute fight and he just went to one of those martial arts stores and just got his boxing shorts right there.”

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Amid the doubt, Paddy Pimblett went out against Tony Ferguson and put on a one-sided beatdown of one of the greatest to ever compete at 155 lbs.

Even with his dominant victory, ‘The Baddy’ is still being dismissed by his fellow fighters and fans alike. Many are unsure whether he has what it takes to compete at the elite level and one man who openly spoke about about that is Renato Moicano.

Following his big decision win at UFC Vegas 85, ‘Money’ Moicano played matchmaker for Paddy Pimblett. The Brazilian wants to test the scouser’s mettle by matching him up with the heavy-hitting Drew Dober.

“I want to see Drew Dober fighting Paddy Pimblett next,” Moicano stated in a post on social media. “Let’s see how tough is this kid.”

I want to see drew Dober fighting paddy pimblett next… let’s see how tough is this kid…. #ufc

— Renato Moicano UFC (@moicanoufc) February 4, 2024

It didn’t take long for Pimblett to respond to Moicano’s proposal. Instead of facing Drew Dober next, the Liverpudlian claimed it would be a much easier fight if he were to fight Moicano.

Paddy Pimblett via Instagram 👀 pic.twitter.com/sTgW8VXXBo

— MMA Orbit (@mma_orbit) February 5, 2024

Paddy Pimblett has expressed an interest in competing on the rumored UFC Manchester card later this year. A win over Moicano would make a statement to the lightweight division and take his record to 6-0 inside the octagon.

Related: Paddy Pimblett called out by lightweight knockout artist

Renato Moicano has since made his thoughts clear on any potential clash between the two. While responding to Pimblett’s callout, the South American stated he would fight him anytime.

“Paddy is calling me out. I fight you any day of the week,” Moicano stated as fight talk builds between the two. “I want [to] fight Dariush but if Paddy wants the smoke, he can have it.”

I want fight Dariush but if paddy wants the smoke… he can have it https://t.co/A4LN7hlafH

— Renato Moicano UFC (@moicanoufc) February 5, 2024

Moicano has won four of his last five inside the octagon, competing against some notable names in that time. The 15-fight UFC veteran has become a true fan-favorite over the past couple of years and many enjoy listening to his oftentimes bizarre comments on the mic.

The 34-year-old is hoping to extend his impressive run of late and wants to force his way into the title picture to get his first taste of a UFC championship opportunity.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts