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Postponed
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Middleweight maulers Roman Dolidze and Nassourdine Imavov will battle it out for the right to be ranked in the division Top 10 when the promotion stages its UFC Vegas 85 fight card on Sat. night (Feb. 3, 2024) at the APEX facility in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Watch them face off at the UFC Vegas 85 weigh ins in the embedded video above.

Dolidze (12-2) is looking to rebound from a unanimous decision loss to former middleweight title challenger Marvin Vettori back in March 2023. “The Caucasian” was in talks to slug it out with No. 4-ranked Jared Cannonier; however, “Killa Gorilla” withdrew due to injury.

Imavov (12-4, 1 NC) dropped a decision to Sean Strickland to kick off 2023 and was hoping to bounce back against Chris Curtis last June. Unfortunately, an accidental clash of heads brought an end to their middleweight affair, leaving both fighters with a “No Contest.”

Below is the lightweight face off between UFC Vegas 85 co-headliners Renato Moicano and Drew Dober.

Nothing left to do now except fight.

MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC Vegas 85 fight card RIGHT HERE, starting with the ESPN+ preliminary card bouts at 4 p.m. ET, followed by the ESPN+ main card start time at 7 p.m. ET.

To check out the latest and greatest UFC Vegas 85 news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive here. For the updated and finalized “Dolidze vs. Imavov” fight card and ESPN+ line up click here.

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Joe Rogan and his No. 1 ranked podcast are staying at Spotify.

The comedian and UFC color commentator has inked a new multi-year deal with Spotify reportedly worth around $ 250 million but his show will no longer be exclusive the streaming platform. Under terms of the new deal, Rogan’s podcast will once again be available on other services Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and YouTube.

The Wall Street Journal first reported Rogan’s renewal with Spotify.

Rogan initially agreed to take his podcast to Spotify back in 2020 with the deal reportedly worth over $ 200 million. He’s now exceeded initial number that with his new deal and Rogan will be able to once again put his show on every major streaming service available.

His old deal was set to expire sometime in 2024 but now Rogan will stay with Spotify for multiple more years under the new agreement.

Spotify will handle distribution and ad sales for Rogan’s podcast. Rogan will receive a standard fee along with a cut of advertising revenue produced by his podcast.

Rogan continues to produce the most popular podcast on Spotify with his show ranked No.1 in 2023.

Of course, Rogan doesn’t come without his share of controversy, especially after some of his old shows were rehashed that featured the comedian using racial slurs. Spotify pulled 70 episodes of his podcast catalog that featured Rogan using the N-word and he called the entire ordeal a “political hit job.”

He was also accused of spreading misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic, which eventually led to Spotify adding a disclaimer at the start of some of his episodes.

Despite those problems, Rogan’s show has remained a massive hit for Spotify as he welcomes a wide variety of guests on his program with episodes typically running between two and three hours. He’s had Twitter owner Elon Musk on his show numerous times as well as politicians like Bernie Sanders as well as entertainers such as Quentin Tarantino, Robert Downey Jr. and more.

Rogan also regularly features fighters on his podcast for MMA specific shows as well as doing “fight companion” broadcasts alongside friends such as retired heavyweight Brendan Schaub when he’s not calling the action during some UFC broadcasts.

There’s no word yet when Rogan’s podcast will begin appearing on other streaming platforms but it’s likely to happen soon now that his new deal is done.

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Longtime Octagon Girl Brittney Palmer opened up about her decision to walk away from the promotion after more than a decade with the promotion.

Palmer, who made her debut as a ring card girl at UFC 125 in 2011, announced her retirement in December at the 15th Annual Fighters Only World MMA Awards during her acceptance speech after winning the Ringcard Girl of the Year award

“I’ve done it for a long time and I think I’ve always had the question so many times,” Palmer said in an interview with MMA Junkie. ‘When are you going to quit? When are you going to give another girl a shot?’ I get these interview questions, and so I think about it. I’m 36 years old. I always said that once my art career started to level up to where my UFC career is and I wasn’t able to commit to both evenly, that I would have to make the decision. It was just time. You feel it.”

“… When I found out I won Ring Girl of the Year, I was actually in New York City working that event. All of a sudden, I was like, ‘You know what? Wouldn’t it just be epic if I could use this opportunity, where I have the mic, to retire.’ We don’t really get too much of a voice, so to have that opportunity I thought was just a great way to settle out the year and my career with UFC – and yeah, I did it.”

Brittney Palmer Continues to Work with the promotion behind-the-scenes

Outside of the UFC, Palmer has established herself as an accomplished contemporary artist. Though fight fans may no longer see her strutting her stuff cageside, Palmer still maintains a role with the Las Vegas-based promotion in an artistic capacity.

“I paint for the UFC now,” Palmer said. “I do their t-shirts. The last shirt that I did was for International Fight Week. … I’ve done Conor McGregor shirts. I’ve painted Jon Jones shirts. I painted, for Reebok, the UFC shirts. That’s going to be something that I want to continuously do.

“I’m working on a mural project right now, hopefully as long as everything goes as planned, I’ll be painting it during UFC 300. I will always kind of be in that world of painting with the fighters, just because I have such a good relationship with UFC and I will genuinely still watch the fights. I want to continuously be creating for them.”

LowKickMMA.com

The first of four UFC events in February kicks off this weekend at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.  On Friday, the athletes competing on the UFC Fight Night 235 fight card officially weighed in.  

The event is headlined by a middleweight bout between ninth-ranked Roman Dolidze (12-2) and eleventh-ranked Nassourdine Imavov (12-4, 1 NC).  Dolidze had a four-fight winning streak snapped in his last outing losing to Marvin Vettori via unanimous decision last March.  Imavov had a rough 2023, losing to Sean Strickland and having a no contest against Chris Curtis after an accidental clash of heads in his last fight. 

The first fighter is expected to step on the scales at Noon ET. 

UFC Fight Night 235 Official Weigh-In Results

MAIN CARD (ESPN+, 7 p.m. ET)

• Roman Dolidze (186) vs. Nassourdine Imavov (185)
• Drew Dober (156) vs. Renato Moicano (156)
• Randy Brown (171) vs. Muslim Salikhov (171)
• Viviane Araujo () vs. Natalia Silva (125.5)
• Aliaskhab Khizriev (186) vs. Makhmud Muradov (185.5)
• Charlie Radtke () vs. Gilbert Urbina ()

PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN+, 4 p.m. ET)

• Diana Belbita (116) vs. Molly McCann (116)
• Charles Johnson (125.5) vs. Azat Maksum (126)
• Themba Gorimbo (170.5) vs. Pete Rodriguez (170)
• Blake Bilder (144.5) vs. Jung Gyeong Lee (146)
• Luana Carolina () vs. Julija Stoliarenko (126)
• Marquel Mederos () vs. Landon Quinones (155.5)
• Thomas Petersen (261.5) vs. Jamal Pogues (265.5)

MMAWeekly.com | UFC and MMA News, Results, Rumors, and Videos

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Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk is off.

On Friday, Sports Illustrated reported that Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs) has been forced to withdraw from the highly anticipated Feb. 17 heavyweight championship bout after suffering a cut in training, citing Usyk’s manager Egis Klimas.

The fight, set to take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was arranged to crown an undisputed heavyweight champion, with Usyk (21-0, 14 KOs) holding the WBA, IBF, and WBO titles, and Fury holding the WBC title.

Fury and Usyk have been in talks to face one another for the past few years, and the path became clear after Fury narrowly escaped an upset loss to Francis Ngannou this past October, while Usyk is coming off of a successful title defense against Daniel Dubois.

Neither fighter has commented publicly on the status of the bout yet and it is not yet known if their are plans to reschedule the matchup for a later date.

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