Tyron Woodley won’t be working with Barstool Sports anytime soon.
The former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Welterweight champion hasn’t been seen in competition since 2021 when he appeared in back-to-back boxing matches opposite Jake Paul. Unfortunately for Woodley, neither went his way as he first lost a split decision before a brutal sixth round knockout in the rematch.
Ahead of the first match, the Paul boxing circus was in full effect and attracted celebrity names like Barstool Sports Founder, Dave Portnoy, who squared the pair off at one point. The company was supposed to be a sponsor, according to Woodley, but after the interactions they had and hearing how Portnoy spoke about other athletes, he refused.
“We made a lot of money on that then they had some corporate sponsors that had to be on our shorts, which I did not f—k with Barstool Sports. I do not like that dude,” Woodley told Demetrious Johnson. “I cursed him out during the faceoff. I was like, ‘Who the f—k is you? Who told you to say that bulls—t?’ All the fans on Earth said they don’t want to hear that bulls—t. That s—t’s mad disrespectful the way he announced me and Jake.
“I didn’t know who he was, whoever that dude that owns Barstool Sports, but f—k him, whatever his name is,” he continued. “I don’t like him. F—k him. F—k Dave. Dave said some s—tty s—t about some athletes as well, and he said some bulls—t when we fought. People think just because you got money and clout that you gotta worship people, but I don’t. If you a billionaire or a bum, I’m gonna give you the same respect if you earn it. I always give respect, he disrespected me the first time I met him. He don’t get a second chance with me.”
Paul, 27, has fought four times in the wake of his Woodley rivalry to go 3-1 (8-1 overall). The 41-year-old Woodley, on the other hand, is currently planning on opening his own fight and entertainment league called Realest International Promotion.
The full fight card for UFC Vegas 88: Ribas vs. Namajunas is official with 11 fights headed to UFC APEX.
UFC Vegas 88: Ribas vs. Namajunas takes place March 23 and streams exclusively on ESPN+, with a flyweight headliner between ex-strawweight champ Rose Namajunas and Amanda Ribas taking the top spot.
Namajunas makes her second appearance at 125 pounds after her debut against Manon Fiorot went south with an early hand injury and subsequent decision loss. She moved to flyweight after the loss of the strawweight title in a rematch with Carla Esparza.
Ribas, a veteran at 125 pounds, moves back to flyweight after an impressive win at 115 pounds against Luana Pinheiro.
UFC Vegas 88’s co-headliner features The Ultimate Fighter 31 lightweight winner Kurt Holobaugh in a fight against Trey Ogden. Holobaugh submitted Austin Hubbard this past August to win the TUF tournament, while Ogden fought Nikolas Motta to a no-contest after a referee’s error in its stoppage.
Brendan Schaub is putting his stand-up comedy career on the back burner to focus on his family.
Last week, the former UFC heavyweight delivered a heartbreaking message, revealing that his baby daughter was hospitalized and being prepped to undergo emergency surgery. The MMA community rallied around Schaub in his time of need. Fortunately, his daughter’s procedure went as planned.
Surgery was a success. I can’t express how much love and support my family felt from everyone. The internet from my experience is a dark awful place. My views have changed recently. The amount of prayers and positive thoughts sent didn’t go unnoticed. Can’t thank everyone…
— Brendan Schaub (@BrendanSchaub) January 25, 2024
Speaking on his podcast, The Schaub Show, he revealed that he will be walking away from stand-up comedy after more than a decade to focus on his family. He did leave the door open for some local gigs, but his days of traveling across and out of the country are done for the time being.
“I had to cancel in Boston and Nashville,” Schaub said. “Usually, I hate doing that, but I think this time I just don’t care. That’s where I’m at. I gotta be home more and I have to pull back from touring so much. I gotta be home. I’m tired. I’m freakin’ tired. I’ve been hustling for over 12 years. I’m not gonna stop doing the [podcasts], but as far as the plane rides and stuff, I’ve gotta chill out.
Maybe do some spots in L.A. SoCal, but going international or going across the United States ain’t happening right now. I’m gonna take a break from that. Just focus on family and do my thing.”
Schaub regularly appears on a slew of podcasts, including The Fighter and The Kid with fellow comedian Bryan Callen and Food Truck Diaries. He is also a regular on The Joe Rogan Experience.
Chris Curtis doesn’t want anyone worrying about Sean Strickland.
The friends and training partners both had fights at UFC 297, but only Curtis walked out with his hand raised after a split call on the scorecards. Curtis won a decision over Marc-Andre Barriault on the main card, while Strickland headlined the event, narrowly losing his middleweight title on points to Dricus du Plessis.
But according to Curtis, Strickland is already putting the loss behind him, something that Curtis thinks he should do more often.
“Something I’ll say about Sean that I wish I could adopt—I always say there’s not much I would take from Sean, we’re very different people—but something I wish I could adopt is his view on fighting,” Curtis said on The MMA Hour. “I am very much so, ‘Chris the fighter.’ It’s who I am, it’s how I see myself, and I think that’s kind of an issue of mine to where it’s hard to differentiate myself from what I do. It’s just what I am.
“Sean loves fighting, but Sean Strickland is not, ‘Sean the fighter.’ Fighting is something he loves, but this isn’t who he is, this doesn’t define him as a person. He’s disappointed, yeah it sucks, whatever, but he’s not going to beat himself up on it. He’s been hitting me up since yesterday about snowboarding tomorrow. ‘Let’s go snowboarding, let’s do this,’ blah blah blah. If the roles were reversed, I’d be in a dark hole somewhere contemplating everything that’s gone wrong. He’s like, ‘Alright, it sucks. Whatever. We’ll figure it out later. Let’s go do stuff.’ So he’s handling it well. At this point in his life, he’s achieved more than anyone ever thought he would. He’s got a boatload of money, and he’s got people who care about him. He’s doing well.”
Still, Curtis isn’t letting his friend off the hook completely.
Though Strickland has developed a reputation for staying true to his often offensive beliefs while becoming a star with the UFC, Curtis wanted to expose at least one major change in Strickland’s life that few could have predicted.
“Don’t let him talk his BS about never changing – my man bought a Tesla, and I have shamed him every day for it,” Curtis said. “Besides the Tesla thing, which I find actually hilarious, he’s the same fella he’s always been. He’s just as cheap as he’s always been. He is, for better or worse, he’s always going to be Sean Strickland. He’s exactly the same guy. He’s still Sean, he just drives a Tesla now, and I will never not make fun of that.”
Curtis’ victory at UFC 297 was much-needed after a recent no-contest and a loss that were both affected by an accidental clash of heads. His win over Barriault was his first since December 2022.
Following his fight, Curtis made sure to tune in to the main event and, unsurprisingly, he scored the fight for his teammate.
Curtis pointed out that the judges were possibly swayed by an early cut to Strickland’s face that bled for the majority of the bout, a factor that he feels could have been weighed more heavily than it should have been.
“I had it 3-2 Sean,” Curtis said. “I think the blood was a big factor in judges’ scoring. This is going to sound disrespectful as f*** but I think a lot of times judges get smooth-brained when they see blood. Sean says it was a head clash, someone else says it was a punch that cut him, so that’s where I’m like what caused it? Because if it’s a punch, s**** whatever, but you lose that round. If it’s a head clash, that’s even f****** worse, I know that. But the thing is once you start bleeding-the weird thing about blood is this: Let’s pretend I get cut in the second round, you throw a punch that cuts in the second round, lots of blood, nothing else happens, you get scored that on damage, right? You did more damage. That should only conceivably be scored that round for damage. Round 3, the damage from Round 2 does not count. It’s scored round by round.
“I think a lot of judges have a hard time differentiating if you’re still bleeding heavily in Round 3, like, ‘Oh, he’s still damaged.’ Yes, he’s damaged, but you don’t score the next round’s blood on what happened before. I think a lot of times, unfortunately, blood does sway a lot of opinions. I think in rounds that were close, I think the fact that Sean ended up looking worse on the eye test just because of the blood at the end may have worked against him.”
Could a featherweight title shot be in the near future for former bantamweight titleholder Aljamain Sterling? He believes so.
Sterling (23-4) makes his featherweight debut on the historic UFC 300 fight card against eighth-ranked Calvin Kattar (23-7). With the bantamweight division in his rearview mirror, Sterling is looking to make an immediate impact in the 145-pound weight class.
“Ten extra pounds, that’s a game changer,” Sterling said during an appearance on The MMA Hour. “I feel like I lose a lot when I get down to from 45 to 35. I feel like the best parts of me are left in the gym because I deplete myself so much.”
With a win at UFC 300, Sterling believes that he could get a title shot in the new weight class, especially if Alexander Volkanovski retains the title against Ilia Topuria at UFC 298 on Feb. 17.
“I want to see how far I can push this thing now. I hit all my goals. Now is how high I can go. How many more mountains can I climb and see what I can do before it’s all said and done,” said Sterling.
“I’m excited because Calvin is a badass, and I’m also excited because I’d like to see what I can do at this weight class,” continued Sterling. “I think if I beat him and I beat him in good fashion I think – and by no means am I saying I’m running through him. I have no idea what’s going to happen. I can’t predict the future. All I can do is be as confident as I know I can be and know I put the God d*mn work in, and I’m going to be doing that – If I beat him the way that I think I’m capable of doing I think I’m right next in line for a title shot.
“I don’t think that’s too far-fetched of a thing. If you look at the guys at the top, they’ve already fought for the belt. If Volkanovski wins again I think that the door is wide open.”
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