CombatSports.org

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

After a week off following UFC 297, the No Bets Barred Boys are back with a full breakdown of this Saturday’s UFC Vegas 85, headlined by a middleweight matchup between Roman Dolidze and Nassourdine Imavov.

This week, hosts Conner Burks and Jed Meshew jump right into things by discussing what can only be described as an underwhelming fight card, featuring a limited number of name fighters. But you know what they say, sometimes those cards end up being the most fun, and even if it doesn’t, there are still 13 opportunities to get some money down this weekend, so the boys are here to help.

Is 2024 the year for Georgia MMA to take over? Can the co-main event live up to the hype or will Renato Moicano and Drew Dober disappoint? And just how faithful are the loyal citizens of Flyweight Under Nation? All this and more are discussed on this week’s episode.

Tune in for episode 76 of No Bets Barred.

New episodes of the No Bets Barred podcast drop every Wednesday and are available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever else you find your favorite podcasts. The latest episode can be heard below.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

Shots fired
| BJPenn.com

UFC

Raquel Pennington got the last laugh at UFC 297.

UFC’s first pay-per-view (PPV) of 2024 was a big one for the Middleweight and women’s Bantamweight divisions as the titles were on the line. The build up to the event focused primarily on the main event between now-former champion, Sean Strickland, and Dricus Du Plessis. South Africa’s finest won a split decision (watch highlights) after Pennington’s vacant title tilt opposite Mayra Bueno Silva directly preceded the action and fell under fire before, and after, it concluded.

As per usual with Strickland, his fight week media day made headlines when he went off on the LGBTQ community, women, and various other topics. Strickland expressed his anti-gay beliefs and how women fighters aren’t good, which made for an awkward environment considering the co-main event was between two gay women. Ultimately, Pennington, 35, didn’t make it a concern ahead of one of the biggest fights of her 24-fight career (16-8).

“At the end of the day, people are going to talk,” Pennington said on The MMA Hour. “They’re always going to have their own opinions. You’re allowed to have your own opinion, but at the end of the day, you’re not going to affect my life. What you do with your life doesn’t affect me. I just think it was disgusting on his part to even be concerned about us as human beings and our lifestyle, and just the comments he was making.

“At the end of the day, MMA has grown a ton,” she continued. “The women are here. We’re here to stay. The divisions are growing. You have tons of up-and-coming talent, so to criticize female athletes, I don’t agree with any of that. But I can’t control that, and that wasn’t my focus. My focus was to go out there and accomplish my goal.”

Pennington did just that when she defeated Bueno Silva via unanimous decision to become only the third fighter in UFC history to win gold after 10 previous years in the company. She joined the likes of Robbie Lawler and Charles Oliveira with the victory.

No interactions occurred between Pennington and Strickland during fight week, said the Bantamweight champion. UFC CEO, Dana White, did want to make sure everything was okay and comfortable after the drama started to increase as fight night approached.

“Dana and [UFC CBO] Hunter [Campbell] came in before the press conference, and they asked me how I was doing with everything,” Pennington said. “It was just one of those things, you take it as a grain of salt, and you dish it out. It’s not going to affect what I’m here doing. At the end of the day, you want to talk, but we’re still your co-main event fight.”

MMAmania.com – All Posts

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

RIZIN Fighting Federation’s upcoming schedule has undergone a slight change.

RIZIN 46 and 47 were previously announced for March 23 and May 6, respectively, to take place in Japanese cities Kobe and Tokyo. However, the company has not only changed the events’ names, but also their dates — RIZIN 46 will now be labelled RIZIN Landmark 9, and the following show will now go by the name RIZIN 46 on April 29.

Featherweight champion Chihiro Suzuki was already booked to defend his belt versus veteran Masanori Kanehara in May, and will now compete a week earlier on the April event. The March event will feature the return of 155-pound champion Roberto Satoshi opposite Keita Nakamura, however the belt will not be at stake.

Satoshi lost his most recent bout in July 2023, replacing A.J. McKee on days’ notice against Patricky Pitbull as part of the Bellator lightweight grand prix. Satoshi has not defended his title since April 2022, when he tapped Johnny Case with an armbar in less than four minutes. The Brazilian has gone 1-2 since. Nakamura, a longtime UFC veteran, re-entered a ring to beat Kiichi Kunimoto in April 2023 in his first match in nearly three years.

Check the updated RIZIN Landmark 9 card below.

• Roberto Satoshi Souza vs. K-Taro Nakamura
• Naoki Inoue vs. Shoko Sato
• Rena Kubota vs. Yu Ri Shim
• Koji Takeda vs. Kyohei Hagiwara
• Igor Tanabe vs. Strasser Kiichi
• Yuya Shibata vs. Erson Yamamoto
• Yuta Kubo vs. Ryogo Takahashi
• Kintaro vs. Daiki Lightyear
• Takakenshin vs. Cody Jerabek
• Yusaku Nakamura vs. Arman Ashimov
• Ryo Takagi vs. Taisei Nishitani
• Yuya vs. Masaya Jaki — kickboxing
• Aoi Noda vs. Yuto Uemura — kickboxing
• Shun Matsuyama vs. Shin Sakurai — kickboxing
• Daichi Akahira vs. Yuki Yoshioka — kickboxing

MMA Fighting – All Posts

UFC veteran Kevin Lee is cutting short his retirement.

Lee, 31, announced his retirement in July following a 55-second guillotine choke submission loss to Rinat Fakhretdinov at a UFC Fight Night event. It was his first fight back with the promotion after being released in November 2021.

On Wednesday, the ‘Motown Phenom’ took to social media to announce his comeback.

“I’m coming out of retirement,” Lee wrote on X. “I’ll fight MMA again. Idk when, where, or who yet but I’m dropping weight and getting into shape now. … I’m gonna get in the best shape of my life that’s my focus right now. It’s been 6 months since I retired and I miss being around the sport.”

Winning nine out of 10 fights inside the Octagon, Kevin Lee secured his first shot at UFC gold in October 2017. He faced Tony Ferguson at UFC 216 for the interim lightweight championship, but came up short, suffering a third-round submission loss to ‘El Cucuy.’

Lee struggled to find the win column, dropping four of his next six fights before being released by the organization. He went on to score a victory over Diego Sanchez under the Eagle FC banner before making his very brief return to the UFC last year.

Lee went 11-8 inside the Octagon and carries an overall record of 19-8.

LowKickMMA.com

UFC

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts