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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Takeru’s leg may never be the same.

The Japanese kickboxing star lost a brutal five-round battle to ONE Championship bantamweight titleholder Superlek in the headlining bout of the promotion’s event in Tokyo this past Sunday, and afterward the impact of Superlek’s vicious leg kicks could still be seen on Takeru’s left leg.

Takeru shared an image of his discolored flesh on social media, which you can see below.

It’s unclear if Takeru suffered any significant injury, but on a superficial level it looks like his leg was smashed repeatedly by a meat tenderizer. And considering he went 25 minutes with a fighter known as “The Kicking Machine,” he may as well have.

Takeru showed flashes of offense throughout the bout, but in the end, he couldn’t overcome the technical precision of Superlek’s kicks. This was the first appearance in ONE for Takeru, a K-1 superstar who has held titles in three weight classes for that promotion.

This was the first successful title defense for Superlek, who competes in ONE’s kickboxing and Muay Thai divisions.

See more highlights from the ONE 165 main event below.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Holly Holm is excited to welcome Kayla Harrison to the bantamweight division. And she means bantamweight.

Much of the conversation around Holm’s upcoming bout with Harrison scheduled for UFC 300 on April 13 has swirled around whether Harrison can make the cut down to 135 pounds. The two-time PFL champion’s tournament titles were both won competing in the 155-pound division and she has weighed in at the 145-pound limit just once.

Holm, a former UFC bantamweight champion, speculated on how a difficult cut could affect Harrison and whether she will still take the fight if her opponent misses weight.

“I think that there’s a lot of details around that,” Holm said on The MMA Hour. “Somebody can be depleted, but somebody can be faster if they’re not carrying around extra weight too. So I guess we’ll just see what happens when we get in there and we get to the fight. I don’t really know her history, I don’t think she’s ever missed weight. So I think she can be professional about it. As long as it’s not one of those things where it’s like, ‘I’ll get close enough and then hopefully still get the fight,’ nothing like that. Be professional about it and make weight and we’re ready to rock and roll.”

“I’m on the stance that you need to make weight, that’s just how it is,” Holm added when asked about a potential catchweight situation. “I think that her mind set should be on, ‘I’m going to make weight,’ because she took the fight at 135. So I think it’s simple. I don’t think it should be super detailed.

“You think about the fight with ‘Wonderboy’ [Stephen Thompson], his opponent came in three pounds over and people were like, ‘Oh, it’s only three pounds.’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah, if it’s only three pounds, then go lose the three pounds.’ You know what I mean? There’s two ways to look at it. It’s only this or it’s only that. You can look at it from a lot of different angles, but as a professional, find out how to make weight. I work hard to make my weight, so I expect the same.”

In addition to holding UFC gold at 135 pounds, Holm has also competed for the featherweight title and won world titles in boxing, never competing much lower than her natural weight class. She’s confident that Harrison and her team know what they’re doing with the bantamweight move, even if she can’t picture herself attempting a similarly dramatic cut.

“I don’t really know what she walks around at, how much water she drops, I don’t know all those details,” Holm said. “But for me, it’s like if somebody was to tell me I’ve got to go to 125, I couldn’t make 125. So you think about that and that is a concern but I feel like she’s a professional, not just in MMA but obviously in professional sports in her judo and everything, so I give that confidence in her that she’s going to make weight.”

Holm looks to bounce back from a disappointing no-contest this past July against Mayra Bueno Silva, who actually submitted Holm but later saw the result overturned after testing positive for a banned substance (ADHD medication that Silva has been using throughout her career). That leaves Holm with only one official loss in her past four outings.

She’s more than familiar with the current bantamweight champion, the recently crowned Raquel Pennington. “Rocky” defeated Silva via decision at UFC 297 to claim a vacant title, meaning that the fighter at the top of the division is a woman that Holm has already defeated twice. Given her past accolades, Holm hopes that a win over Harrison puts her right in the thick of the title challenger conversation.

“I fought for the belt more than once and so a lot of people, they think about what the anticipation is, they want to see other people fight for the belt, but you’ve also got to put people in line that deserve to be there and there’s a reason that I have been up there, it’s because I stayed ranked in the top 5 for a really long time,” Holm said. “My goal is always to get to the belt. If I’m not fighting for the belt, I don’t want to be fighting at all. If I don’t have some kind of path to the belt, I really don’t want to do it.

“I’m not just fighting for a payday, I’m not just fighting for fun, it’s with a goal in mind, so that’s always it. It really stinks when you have a loss because it takes you a step away from it rather than a step closer, so I do feel like this is a fight that can be closer to the belt, so I’m going to make it work, make it happen.”

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Can Kayla Harrison make 135 pounds? That’s one of the big questions surrounding the fights currently lined up for UFC 300 on April 13, 2024.

Harrison, 33, will make her surprise debut in the Octagon after a lengthy run in Professional Fighters League (PFL). Welcoming the former two-time Lightweight champion to the promotion will be none other than former UFC Bantamweight queenpin, Holly Holm.

A consummate professional and multi-sport champion like Harrison, Holm has never struggled with weight or outside-the-cage issues. However, fighting at 135 pounds will be a first for Harrison as all but two of her 17 career bouts (16-1) have taken place at 155 pounds with the other two at 145 and 150.

“Somebody can be depleted, but somebody can be faster if they’re not carrying around extra weight, too,” Holm said on The MMA Hour. “So I guess we’ll just see what happens when we get in there and we get to the fight. I don’t really know her history, I don’t think she’s ever missed weight. So I think she can be professional about it. As long as it’s not one of those things where it’s like, ‘I’ll get close enough and then hopefully still get the fight,’ nothing like that. Be professional about it and make weight and we’re ready to rock and roll.

“I’m on the stance that you need to make weight, that’s just how it is,” she continued. “I think that her mindset should be on, ‘I’m going to make weight,’ because she took the fight at 135. So I think it’s simple. I don’t think it should be super detailed.”

Fortunately for Holm, she’s never had an opponent miss weight in any of her 22 fights (15-6, 1 no contest) whether at Bantamweight or Featherweight. For comparison’s sake, Holm brought up Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson’s recent decline of his match up with Michel Pereira at UFC 291 in July 2023.

“You think about the fight with ‘Wonderboy,’ his opponent came in three pounds over and people were like, ‘Oh, it’s only three pounds.’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah, if it’s only three pounds, then go lose the three pounds.’ You know what I mean?” Holm said. “There’s two ways to look at it. It’s only this or it’s only that. You can look at it from a lot of different angles, but as a professional, find out how to make weight. I work hard to make my weight, so I expect the same.”

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

John Dodson makes his return to bare-knuckle action to defend his flyweight title against Dagoberto Aguero at the upcoming BKFC 59 card at the Tingley Coliseum in Albuquerque, N.M. on March 29.

Since debuting with BKFC in 2022, Dodson has put together a perfect 3-0 record and he’s delivered first round knockouts in each of his performances. He took out fellow UFC veteran Ryan Benoit in his debut and followed that up with a similar performance against Jarod Grant.

This past August, Dodson cemented himself as the first ever BKFC flyweight champion with another stunning first-round knockout over J.R. Ridge.

Of course, Dodson also regularly competes in MMA as well, primarily fighting out of RIZIN in Japan. After putting together an impressive three-fight win streak. Dodson suffered a loss to Hiromasa Ougjikubo as part of the annual New Year’s card on Dec. 31.

Now Dodson will take off the gloves for his next fight against a 15-2 professional boxer in Aguero, who scored a third-round knockout over Chance Wilson in his BKFC debut this past November.

Dodson vs. Aguero will headline the BKFC 59 card with more bouts expected to be added in the coming weeks.

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Cody Rhodes has toyed with the idea of making the move from sports entertainment to MMA.

On Saturday (January 27) Rhodes became the first WWE Superstar to win back-to-back Royal Rumble matches since ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin accomplished the feat 25 years ago. Days ahead of his history-making performance, ‘The American Nightmare’ spoke with ESPN’s Marc Raimondi where the topic of a potential crossover into the UFC came up.

With both WWE and the UFC residing under the TKO Group banner following last year’s groundbreaking merger, fans have been chomping at the bit to see stars from the two organizations interact. In the past, professional fighters like Ken Shamrock, Dan Severn, and Matt Riddle have made the successful move from MMA to pro wrestling.

Seeing a WWE Superstar strap on the four-ounce gloves is far less common, but it’s something the former AEW star would love to see.

“What would be funny to me is if anyone could crossover from here,” Rhodes said. “We have legitimately very tough guys like Bobby Lashley. I’m always very curious to see how one of us would do. I know in the past it’s not always worked out for everybody, but I am curious to see who is the first to take that jump.”

Asked if he could be the guy to move from the ring to the Octagon, Cody Rhodes revealed that he had mentioned the idea to his wife — Brandi Rhodes — a couple of years ago, but she promptly shut down the conversation.

“I actually told my wife. I told my wife I wanted to do one fight,” Rhodes revealed. “I told her this two years ago. I think I was looking for some sort of massive financial windfall, I don’t know what it was, but I told her I wanted to do one fight and she absolutely let me know that would not be happening. Unless you convince her, it’s not going to happen. Maybe it’s for the best.”

Brock Lesnar is the most notable WWE star to cross over, making his UFC debut in 2008. He captured the promotion’s heavyweight title in just his third fight, defeating Octagon legend Randy Couture. He defended the belt against Frank Mir and Shane Carwin before surrendering the strap to Cain Velasquez in 2010. Following a five-year layoff, ‘The Beast Incarnate’ returned for a UFC 200 fight with Mark Hunt. Lesnar won via unanimous decision, but the result was later overturned after he tested positive for a banned substance.

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