Your Saturday afternoon dosage of internet famous people trying combat sports
This afternoon (Sat., Jan. 20, 2024), Misfits Boxing kicks off their 2024 schedule with a packed card full of people who make videos and other content plying their hand at the sport of boxing. Coming to you LIVE from Leeds, England, with a 2 p.m. ET start time, it’s the 12th installment of Misfits & DAZN X Series boxing.
Watch Misfits X DAZN 12 here
Check out the relatively tame weigh-ins and interviews from yesterday right here. Fortunately, all we saw was some smack talk (and a pair of women in thongs if you consider that scandalous), rather than one competitor throwing pork meat products on their Muslim opponent or someone getting put through a table.
— Misfits Boxing (@MisfitsBoxing) January 19, 2024
The main event features Ed Matthews, fresh off of a first-round knockout of Swarmz back in October. He is back in the squared circle to face off against an unknown, mystery opponent. In the co-main event, we’ve got a 125-lb title match between current champion, AJ Bunker, and challenger, Elle Brooke.
Misfits 12 Boxing Quick Results:
160 lbs.: Ed Matthews vs. Mystery Opponent 125 lbs.: AJ Bunker vs. Elle Brooke 170 lbs.: Ashley Raksu vs. OJ Rose 185 lbs: Tristan Hamm vs. Not Logan Paul 245 lbs.: Chase DeMoor vs. Minikon 135 lbs.: Small Spartan J vs. Fox The G 155 lbs.: Ben Williams vs. Fes Batista 210 lbs.: Myles Raksu vs. DTG 140 lbs.: Joey Knight def. Most Wanted — TKO, Rd 3, 1:07
Misfits 12 Boxing Full Play-By-Play and Results:
Ed Matthews vs.
Round 1:
Round 2:
Round 3:
Round 4:
Final result:
AJ Bunker vs. Elle Brooke for the X Series women’s middleweight belt
Round 1:
Round 2:
Round 3:
Round 4:
Round 5:
Final result:
Ashley Raksu vs. OJ Rose
Round 1:
Round 2:
Round 3:
Round 4:
Final result:
Tristan Hamm vs. Not Logan Paul
Round 1:
Round 2:
Round 3:
Round 4:
Final result:
Chase DeMoor vs. Minikon
Round 1:
Round 2:
Round 3:
Round 4:
Final result:
For the latest and greatest boxing-related news and notes click here. Bet on boxing at DraftKings Sportsbook.
The heat between Sean Strickland and Dricus du Plessis has turned up several notches since their UFC 297 main-event bout was announced, but according to the middleweight champion’s head coach, all of the drama may have helped Strickland level up.
Strickland and du Plessis battle for the UFC’s 185-pound title in Toronto on Jan. 20 at UFC 297, the promotion’s first pay-per-view event of 2024. The duo have had a war of words that some believe have crossed the line, which also led to a fight in the crowd between Strickland and du Plessis at UFC 296.
Eric Nicksick, Strickland’s head coach, recounted how Strickland was very emotional following UFC 296 fight week, and the conversation Nicksick had with the UFC champ that seems to have completely changed Strickland’s mindset.
“So there was two days,” Nicksick told MMA Fighting. “It was the Saturday when that whole little brawl thing kind of happened [at UFC 296], I didn’t see him on Sunday, and then Monday’s practice [Strickland was emotional].
“I said to him, ‘Look, I want you to understand a couple of things — that you speak for a demographic, that you speak for people that I have really never been communicating with in my life until you won this title. The amount of people that reach out to me that come from the same upbringing, the same challenges as you have had, whether you like it or not, you’re an inspiration to them, you’re a role model to them in a lot of ways.’
“I said, ‘I’m proud of you and I hope that you will understand that you can make a difference with your platform and speaking on some of these things, and the way you carry yourself now. Whether you choose to do so or not, that’s completely up to you. But just by your position that you’re in now, you’ve made a difference, and people have reached out to me and I said that I’m proud of you, I’ll leave it at that.’
“From a coach’s side, I told him, ‘I don’t want you to fight this fight emotionally because I think that favors Dricus and takes us out of our game plan.’ He said, ‘No, you’re right,’ and that was really it, that was the end of the conversation. And since then, he’s just been focused. He’s just been really dialed in. Every practice has been spot on, everything that he’s been doing has been spot on, and if that’s motivation [because of] what happened [at UFC 296], I don’t know, but from camp to camp, I feel like this one in particular has a different meaning for him.”
According to Nicksick, even Bellator middleweight champion Johnny Eblen, who was brought in to help prepare Strickland for du Plessis, agrees that Strickland has taken things up a few notches ahead of his first title defense.
Strickland captured the belt with a dominant decision win over Israel Adesanya at UFC 293 this past September. Adesanya was in a heated feud with du Plessis, but that bitterness has shifted over to this new matchup with Strickland.
During the event’s first press conference, du Plessis took a shot at Strickland’s childhood that got the champion extremely fired up.
“You think your dad beat the s*** out of you? Your dad doesn’t have s*** on me … every childhood memory you have is going to come back when I’m in there with you,” du Plessis said in December.
That moment was the gasoline that set the fire for Strickland and du Plessis’ brawl in the T-Mobile crowd — an incident that Nicksick understands, but is also not his cup of tea.
“I get it, these guys are trying to sell the fight,” Nicksick explained. “Sean will poke, and say all these things, and then it’s going to come back to you. Guys are going poke and say s*** back to you, so it’s just part of it. It is what it is.
“It’s not for me, that’s for sure. It’s not my job. My pay does not change if these guys talk s***, or show up and shake hands. I don’t care one bit. Dricus is the rightful heir to that No. 1 contender spot. He’s earned it. He’s great, I think he’s amazing, what he does, and I think he’s only gotten better. So all respect to his camp, that’s the way I look at the situation.
“If these guys want to talk about their past, and their sexuality, their dads, and all this other crap, leave it to them. I don’t want to be involved in any of that stuff. I want to go out and compete against the best, and I think Dricus is the best right now.”
Nicksick has always felt Strickland is a bit misunderstood, especially when talking about the kind of teammate he has been. Since becoming world champion, Nicksick says Strickland hasn’t rested on his laurels in any way. In fact, it’s only made Strickland want to set a better example as a fighter and a teammate.
“I think he shows his level of care even more so to the team,” Nicksick said. “I think that he’s actually like reverted back to more cleaning the mats and making sure the gym is tidy and doing all those things. Moreover, I think he wants to keep that hard work mentality, like this belt is not going change him and change who he is, and he’s not going to forget what got him here and that’s his hard work.
“But even Chris Curtis was saying [recently], ‘Sean’s approach to the game, I think is a little bit more heady.’ We talk a little bit more about being more calculated as time has gone on, but as far as just his workload and his work ethic, he was out for one week after he won the title and was back in the gym to help the rest of his teammates get ready. You can’t ask for anything better out of a teammate in the room, because now as a champion, that’s going to trickle down more and more guys are going to see, ‘OK, this is how Sean does it, this is how Sean works, this is how Sean takes care of his teammates,’ and now the next guy in line is going to feel that same way, will do the same thing, and it’s only going to help us out.”
If Conor McGregor wants to make his 2024 return to the Octagon a success, he needs to stop surrounding himself with a bunch of “yes men.”
That is according to former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping who fully believes that McGregor can return to his glory days, but only if the Irishman separates himself from the apple-polishers on his payroll.
“Conor needs to not surround himself with ‘yes men’ that are on the payroll, he’s got to surround himself with people who are going to dictate when he trains,” Bisping said in an interview with Betway. He’s got to have people around him who are strong enough to say, ‘If you’re not going to do this work then I’m not going to corner you.’ When I talked rubbish to my trainer in sparring once, he shut it down right then and there. He said, ‘If you’re not going to listen then get out.‘
“That’s what you need, a strong character that cares about the win, not just the money. I respect Conor for what he’s doing because he doesn’t need to do this, but I know why he’s doing it. It’s because the feeling of winning and knocking another man out unconscious while the world goes crazy is an incredible feeling.
“Money cannot buy it, nor the respect from the fight community and that’s why he’s doing it. To be the best version of himself he has to surround himself with people who want him to become champion again.”
The Bigger They Are, The Harder They Fall
Conor McGregor’s meteoric rise up the UFC ranks was a journey unlike any other in combat sports. But as is the case with many athletes who achieve that level of success, McGregor’s performances fell flatter as his bank account grew fatter. After claiming the featherweight and lightweight titles in less than a year, ‘Mystic Mac’ decided to cash in with a boxing match against legendary pugilist Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather. McGregor suffered a 10th-round knockout loss and nothing has been the same since.
He returned to the Octagon the following year and has proceeded to lose three of his last four, including back-to-back KOs against lightweight fan favorite Dustin Poirier.
McGregor’s only win in the last seven years came against a past-his-prime Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone in 2020.
Nothing has been officially confirmed for McGregor’s quote-unquote “greatest comeback in combat sports history,” but the Irishman insists that he will fight this summer, presumably as part of the UFC’s International Fight Week festivities in Las Vegas.
His expected opponent, Michael Chandler, remains confident that the bout will go down as McGregor stated in a New Year’s Day announcement on social media, but UFC CEO Dana White has remained coy, saying that nothing about McGregor’s return has been finalized.
Sean Strickland has never been afraid to speak his mind, even if that does create controversial moments. That happened once again after he recently got into a verbal altercation with a media member.
The middleweight champion is preparing to make the first defense of his title reign when he collides with Dricus Du Plessis on Saturday. The hype surrounding the bout is beginning to build after the pair came to blows while attending UFC 296 last year.
While sitting down for his media obligations ahead of his fight this weekend, Sean Strickland got heated with a Canadian reporter.
“Are you Canadian? Are you part of the f***ing opposition?” Strickland said to the media member. “Did you vote for Trudeau?”
“Let me tell you something right now. If a man says he’s not going to say, like, if you ask a motherf***er did he vote for Biden and he’s like, ‘Well, I’m not going to say, that’s none of your business.’ He voted for f***ing Biden. So, this is what I’m talking about, you guys. The enemy, the enemy of Canada.”
Things became worse when the reporter asked Strickland about a comment he once made in opposition to having a homosexual son.
“You’re a weak f***ing man, dude. You’re part of the f***ing problem, you elected Justin Trudeau,” Strickland said in response to the reporter being comfortable having a homosexual son. “You’re just f***ing pathetic.”
“The fact that you have no f***ing backbone and as he’s shut down your f***ing country and seized bank accounts, you’re asking me some stupid sh*t like that. Go f*** yourself. Move the f*** on, man. F***ing coward.”
Related: Sean Strickland addresses ‘He can dish it but can’t take it’
“10 years ago to be trans was a what? A mental f***ing illness. And now, all of a sudden, people like you have f***ing weaseled your way in the world.”
“You are an infection. You are the definition of weakness. Everything that is wrong with the world is because of f***ing you. And the best thing is, is the world’s not buying it.”
“The world’s not buying your f***ing bullshit you’re f***ing pedaling. The world is not saying, ‘You know what? You’re right. Chicks have di**s.’ The world’s not saying that.”
“The world’s saying, ‘No, there are two genders.’ I don’t want my kids being taught about who they can f*** in school. I don’t want my kids being taught about their sexual preference. Like, dude. This guy is a f***ing enemy.”
Watch Sean Strickland’s explosive rant in the short video below.
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Card Info
Airing on (Internet PPV) @ Saturday 01.20.2024 at 01:00 PM ET
Main Card:
Division
Fighters
Heavyweight
Arkadiusz Wrzosek vs. Ivan Vitasović
Middleweight
Bartosz Fabiński vs. Laïd Zerhouni
Strawweight
Ewelina Woźniak vs. Aleksandra Toncheva
Featherweight
Damian Stasiak vs. Adam Soldaev
Bantamweight
Islam Djabrailov vs. Alfan Rocher-Labes
Bantamweight
Werlleson Martins vs. Oleksii Polischuck
Catchweight (161)
Isai Ramos vs. Ramzan Jembiev
Undercard:
Division
Fighters
Heavyweight
Marek Samociuk vs. Oļegs Jemeļjanovs
Lightweight
Gino van Steenis vs. Hugo Deux
Lightweight
Szymon Karolczyk vs. Artur Krawczyk
Fight card order and start times may be inaccurate.
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On the sixth episode of UFC 297 Embedded, the stars of UFC 297 hit the scale, Dricus du Plessis compares his physique to middleweight champion Sean Strickland’s, Raquel Pennington and Mayra Bueno Silva guarantee a war on Saturday night, and more.
Sean Strickland and Dricus du Plessis face off ahead of UFC 297 | Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
The UFC is back in Toronto!
On Saturday, Sean Strickland defends his middleweight title against Dricus du Plessis in the main event of UFC 297 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. This is Strickland’s first title defense since taking the belt from Israel Adesanya at UFC 293 and the two men enter with a healthy amount of bad blood, stemming from a heated press conference in December.
How will each man approach this fight, and how do they take home the win? Let’s take a look.
Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images
Paths to Victory for Sean Strickland at UFC 297
Against all odds, somehow we are here: Sean Strckland is defending a UFC title. Those are certainly words I never thought I’d write, but they’re true, and what’s more, he deserves it.
Strickland’s performance against Adesanya to claim the middleweight title is one of the most remarkable in recent memory. A massive underdog, facing one of the greatest strikers in the history of the sport, Strickland went into Sydney and made “The Last Stylebender” quit. Sure, he didn’t get a stoppage, but check the tape. With seconds ticking down in the final round of a fight that he was undeniably behind in, Adesanya wilted. Instead of trying to surge forward for a last-minute Hail Mary to save face and his title, Adesanya gave ground while Strickland screamed in his face and beckoned him on. It was a jarring performance, and what made it all the more remarkable is that Strickland did it all with an extremely bare-bones game.
For years, no one could figure out how to beat Adesanya (unless you have a nuclear missile in each fist and are also a world-class kickboxer like Alex Pereira), but Strickland did it easily by doing what he always does: Marching forward behind jabs and teeps, cutting the cage with relentless forward pressure. Adesanya had no answer to it, especially as Strickland’s awkward Philly shell defense kept him safe from single-shot counters, and he slowly faltered under the pressure. If Strickland hopes to retain the title, he has to do the same to du Plessis.
Fortunately for Strickland, he should be able to do so. Du Plessis does not fight off the back foot the same way Adesanya does, but you can press him back with offense. In particular, du Plessis defaults to a high guard and disengaging when opponents press him, which really opens up Strickland to throw in combination. Strickland’s best offense comes when opponents allow him to string together punches, and du Plessis will oblige as he looks to retreat. Pouring it on in these exchanges and then evading the big, single countershot that will come back is pretty much exactly how Strickland wants to go about business.
But Strickland’s biggest opportunity is in attacking the body. For one thing, Strickland’s best weapon is his cardio; du Plessis remains suspect in that area. Ripping the body will only exacerbate his greatest advantage, and given how rarely du Plessis even throws counters — preferring instead to reset the engagement — it’s a pretty safe avenue to fight in. More importantly though, like Denny’s, du Plessis’s body always open. Du Plessis operates with a high guard, and when pressed, he blocks and retreats. Teeps to the body and shots under the high elbows should be readily available nearly all fight long. Those shots broke Adesanya and they can break du Plessis given the chance. If Strickland can consistently back du Plessis up and attack to the body, the battle is all but won.
Photo by Steve Marcus/Getty Images
Paths to victory for Dricus du Plessis at UFC 297
If there are two more different fighters who are somehow very much the same, I’m not sure who they are. While Strickland is all volume and pressure and cardio, du Plessis is all volume and pressure and physicality. He is a hulking middleweight who excels at imposing his mass on opponents in brutal and violent fashion. To put it more plainly, if Strickland is death by 1,000 cuts, du Plessis is death by 1,000 ax swings.
Like Strickland, du Plessis prefers to be the one coming forward, though he’s not as adept at pressuring as the champion is. He struggled to corner Robert Whittaker in his most recent fight, as “Bobby Knuckles” darted around the cage and pot-shotted him. For a traditionally fast starter, du Plessis couldn’t get much going early because he simply couldn’t find Whittaker. But after adjusting to Whittaker’s plan, du Plessis solved that problem by simply grabbing him and chucking to the floor, where he proceeded to beat the life and agility out of Whittaker. He can do the same to Strickland.
We don’t think of du Plessis as a traditional top position grappler because he’s happy to swing hammers on the feet and he’s not a traditional shot-based wrestler, but ground-and-pound is by far the best aspect of his game. Du Plessis is a demon on top, with the ability to pass guard easily and batter the bejesus out of you while he does it. This is definitely du Plessis’ best path to victory and one I expect him to pursue early and often in this fight. Strickland is a fine grappler and a good defensive wrestler, but du Plessis has a number of good attacks from the clinch, and once he’s on top, I don’t think Strickland is getting up, at least not without absorbing some big shots.
On the feet, I expect to see du Plessis look for one big kill shot, and perhaps use that to create tie-ups, but I think there are a few other interesting ideas he could pursue. The first is kicking the legs — not just the lead, but the rear. Strickland does this awkward march forward where he raises the lead leg off the ground as a check for kicks, a counter he’s adopted to mitigate the weaknesses of his plodding, boxing heavy style. When he does this, he’s standing entirely on his rear leg, and so chopping away at that is a nasty bit of business. It’s a harder kick to throw, requiring more setup, but given the payoff and the relative lack of power coming back at him from Strickland, one that I think could be worth it.
On a similar note, du Plessis should really utilize his feints in this fight. Against Adesanya in particular, Strickland was quick to parry any movement, either with his hands or lifting the front leg. Strickland has to respect du Plessis’ power, so leading with feints should open up better chances to find the big shots he wants.
Most importantly though, du Plessis simply cannot back up. Strickland’s game does not work in reverse, so simply don’t accept anything else. If du Plessis can get Strickland backing up, then he’s won the fight already — and if he can’t, then the two will simply collide in the center of the cage, opening up clinch and grappling opportunities for du Plessis. To win this fight, du Plessis needs to draw a line in the sand and never go back over it.
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
X-Factor
How will the build-up affect the fight?
Prior to December, I don’t think anyone believed either Strickland or du Plessis had a major issue with each other. But then came the press conference, the trash talk, and the brawl at UFC 296. Since then, there’s been more trash talk, emotional interviews, and even more pressure built onto Strickland’s shoulders. This week it seems like Strickland and du Plessis have buried the hatchet, but Strickland has always been a loose cannon and who knows what is really going on with him?
The fact is, in 2023, Strickland had nothing to lose. There were minimal expectations and his Cinderella journey to the title was entirely shocking. Now, though, he’s in the spotlight and the weight of the world is on his shoulders. In response to this, he’s lashing out at reporters and generally behaving like a man who doesn’t quite have it all together. Du Plessis, meanwhile, is carrying himself like someone who already has the title, even if it’s not on his person at the moment.
A lot of people hate armchair psychology, and truth be told, it is often dead wrong. This could be one of those instances. But the last time Strickland came into a fight with this sort of pressure and attention, it was against another guy who was preternaturally calm and clobbers people, and we all saw the performance Strickland had against Alex Pereira that night. For some reason, I can’t get it out of my head as UFC 297 approaches.
Prediction
One of the things that makes this matchup so compelling is that each man’s strengths seem to line up perfectly against the other person’s weaknesses. That being said, I favor du Plessis to get his hand raised for two key reasons. First, he’s a very fast starter and Strickland is not (even his team expected to lose the first 10 minutes against Adesanya). Du Plessis may well finish this fight before Strickland can really get rolling. And second, du Plessis can finish the fight. In close matchups like this one, I’m always going to favor the fighter who finishes people, because of simple math. If one fighter can finish and the other can’t, then the Decision Merchant needs 25 minutes of perfection, which is a lot to ask.
Dricus du Plessis def. Sean Strickland via TKO (punches) — 4:23, Round 2.
Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images 
Photo by Steve Marcus/Getty Images 
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
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