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Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is going “down under.”

Today (Wed., Oct. 16, 2024), UFC announced that they are headed to Sydney, Australia, for its second pay-per-view (PPV) of the new year, UFC 312 on Feb. 8, 2025 (Feb. 9 in Australia), and the action will go down inside Qudos Bank Arena.

UFC has held a PPV in Australia for the past two years and will continue doing so this next year.

No fights have been announced for UFC 312, but we can expect a slew of Australians to fill the card, such as Jack Della Maddalena, Robert Whittaker, and Cody Haddon, who is a new addition.

The last time the promotion was in Sydney, Australia, was for UFC 293 on Sept. 10, 2023, and utter madness happened that night as Sean Strickland shocked the mixed martial arts (MMA) world by upsetting Israel Adesanya for the Middleweight championship via unanimous decision (watch highlights). The co-main event, Alexander Volkov, submitted Tai Tuivasa in the second round with the rare Ezekiel choke.

Will Strickland return to Sydney for his rematch with Dricus Du Plessis? He hopes not.

To checkout UFC’s upcoming schedule of events click here.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — MMA Fighting’s José Youngs caught up with PFL analyst and former UFC star Dan Hardy to discuss the PFL: Battle of the Giants main event, if the winner is the best heavyweight in mixed martial arts, his favorite fight on the card, and how MMA has evolved.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

PFL’s big weekend is finally here!

This Saturday, PFL Superfights: Battle of the Giants takes place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, headlined by a lineal heavyweight title fight between Francis Ngannou and Renan Ferreira. The card also features a number of other marque matchups, including Cris Cyborg taking on Larissa Pacheco, and AJ McKee facing Paul Hughes. On top of that, there’s also another UFC APEX card this week so No Bets barred is back to break it all down.

This week, host Jed Meshew is joined by his Watch Party co-host Mike Heck to dive into all the MMA action this weekend. Topics discussed include Ferreira’s chance to pull off the upset, Cyborg vs. Pacheco, other big fights from PFL, the UFC Vegas 99 main event between Anthony Hernandez and Michel Pereira, plus much more.

Tune in for episode 104 of No Bets Barred.

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

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Max Holloway was a bad motherf*cker well before he was officially granted the title.

The “BMF” champion faces featherweight titleholder Ilia Topuria in the main event of UFC 308 on Oct. 26 and ahead of that matchup, the UFC has uploaded a video highlighting some of Holloway’s most memorable in-cage moments.

Watch the video below.

Included in the highlight reel are Holloway’s fight-ending taunt to Ricardo Lamas that started it all, his one-sided beatdowns of Brian Ortega and Calvin Kattar, and his brutal last-second knockout of Justin Gaethje at UFC 300 that earned him the BMF belt.

Holloway also provides commentary for these classic scenes.

“I love Gaethje,” Holloway said. “So seeing him go down like that is kind of tough because I respect the shit out of him. Not a lot of guys would accept the call and he did, especially how in that moment he went for it, because I knew if the moment was reversed he would have gave me the moment. What an animal.”

He added that his favorite part of the Gaethje clip actually involved his upcoming opponent, Ilia Topuria, who had a front row seat to the unbelievable knockout.

“It’s of Ilia Topuria looking lost, like he don’t know where he was,” Holloway said. “He didn’t even know if he was in a human dimension.”

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That’s Sus, Bro
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This weekend (Sat., Oct. 19, 2024), Francis Ngannou will make his highly-anticipated Professional Fighters League (PFL) debut when he battles current Heavyweight champion, Renan Ferreira, for the Super Fight title at the “Battle of the Giants” pay-per-view (PPV) event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

In the co-main event, Cris Cyborg will also make her PFL debut against current women’s Featherweight champion, Larissa Pacheco, for the women’s Super Fight strap. All four combatants were in attendance today at a special media gathering in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia to promote the event, tour the city, and take part in a pre-fight staredown.

MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire “Battle of the Giants” fight card RIGHT HERE, starting with the early ESPN+ “Prelims” matches at 1:30 p.m. ET before the main card start time at 4 p.m. ET on DAZN PPV.

To check out the latest and greatest news and notes for “Nanngou vs. Ferreria” be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here. For the updated and finalized “Battle of the Giants” fight card and PPV lineup click here.

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Tom Aspinall is UFC interim heavyweight champion and the backup fighter for the upcoming UFC 309 title clash between Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic on Nov. 16, but PFL star Renan Ferreira sees him as the UFC’s most dangerous heavyweight today.

“Problema” enters the PFL cage Saturday in Saudi Arabia for the biggest fight of his career, welcoming ex-UFC champion Francis Ngannou back from the boxing world, and he explained why he doesn’t consider Jones the No. 1 heavyweight in the octagon.

“I think Aspinall [is the UFC’s toughest heavyweight] because of the moment he’s going through right now,” Ferreira said in an interview with MMA Fighting. “He’s young and is on a rise. But Jon Jones is the greatest of all time, in my opinion. He’s super experienced and proven himself, showed what he can do for the sport. You can’t deny him.”

PFL co-founder Donn Davis recently suggested a “winner takes all” tournament between PFL stars Larissa Pacheco and Cris Cyborg and UFC’s Kayla Harrison and Julianna Peña, and Ferreira loves the idea of doing something similar with the PFL and UFC’s heavyweight divisions.

“It would be a clash of giants, right?” Ferreira laughed. “It would be very interesting, and fans would be the winners. Great athletes with different styles fighting each other and defending their promotions as well. This tournament would get a ton of attention.”

It’s highly unlikely that the UFC would ever agree to such offer, and Ferreira still wonders how Jones will do against heavier competition. The former 205-pound champion only fought once since moving up a division, tapping Ciryl Gane with ease. Aspinall has won eight of nine in the UFC with eight stoppages, including finishes over Curtis Blaydes and Sergei Pavlovich.

“[Jones] was a bit heavier and had a hard time throwing strikes,” Ferreira said of Jones’ performance against Gane. “He’s moving up in weight and hasn’t fought real heavyweights yet, with heavy hands, so I think he could have some trouble there.”

Ferreira could be seen as the lineal heavyweight champion of the world with a win this weekend considering that Ngannou left the UFC without losing the belt, but isn’t sure that fans would agree with that.

“The UFC still is a huge platform,” Ferreira said. “The champions there are undisputed, but I’m building my legacy and my history by fighting the best. I don’t think too much about fame and what could happen and what people think. I just focus on what I’m doing with hunger and heart, and the rest will come from that. … We’ve had some many champion [from Brazil], people who wrote their names in the history books so MMA would be as respected as it is today, so that is my mission now. I’m focused on this.”

Battle of the Giants: Ngannou vs. Ferreira takes place Saturday at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

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