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Israel Adesanya is still in the middle of his Octagon sabbatical, but that isn’t stopping the former UFC champion from sitting cageside for the middleweight title fight between Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis next weekend at UFC 297 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Adesanya, who is widely regarded as one of the best middleweight fighters of all time, is currently enjoying some time off from fighting. After losing his title to Strickland at UFC 293 in Sept. 2023 in an upset decision, “Last Stylebender” decided to step away from the sport and regroup. After all, Adesanya has fought a total of 16 times since making his Octagon debut back in 2018. It was time for a much-needed vacation.

Earlier this week, Adesanya revealed that he’s currently rehabbing an undisclosed injury and targeting a return to the gym in the coming months. That doesn’t give fight fans a true timetable for his official UFC comeback, but it seems as if Adesanya’s return is heating up.

Adding fuel to that fire is the fact that “Last Stylebender” will reportedly be in attendance to watch Strickland defend his UFC middleweight title against Du Plessis next weekend at UFC 297 (according to a report by the New Zealand Herald). Adesanya has history with both men. Strickland defeated him not too long ago and Du Plessis is one of Adesanya’s biggest grudge matches on paper.

If UFC is bringing Adesanya to UFC 297 for “promotional purposes” then that could mean he’s fighting the winner of Strickland vs. Du Plessis. Some were hoping that scenario would play out at UFC 300 in April, but Adesanya’s current timeline for his return may prevent that.

Either way, it will be interesting to see if Adesanya is brought into the cage for a faceoff with the winner of Strickland vs. Du Plessis to promote the next UFC middleweight title fight. UFC may opt to keep Adesanya in the crowd since he launched an explicit tirade against Du Plessis the last time they did an in-cage faceoff (see if HERE).

What do you think, Maniacs? Is Adesanya attending UFC 279 to challenge the winner of the main event or is he going just as a fan?

Let’s discuss!

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

UFC newcomer Felipe Bunes wants a quick road to the top of the flyweight division.

“Felipinho” makes his octagon debut Saturday at the UFC APEX in a matchup against former Fury FC titleholder Joshua Van at UFC Vegas 84, and he feels more than ready for bigger challenges after six months of training with UFC stars Deiveson Figueiredo and Zhang Weili — plus Henry Cejudo and coach Eric Albarracin — in Arizona.

“Deiveson is tough,” Bunes said on MMA Fighting’s Trocação Franca podcast. “He’s extremely strong and his punch is unreal for this division. I can speak from experience, I’ve felt that. [Laughs.] And training with Deiveson was great because I wasn’t even in the UFC at the time, I was still fighting in Russia, and training with a world champion was extremely important to know where I was, if I had good fighting IQ.”

Bunes captured the LFA flyweight title before joining the UFC in 2022, and feels he belongs in the octagon now. In fact, the Pitbull Brothers representative wants to dictate his own destiny in the UFC by having a few names in mind for his post-fight callout.

“Training with Deiveson was gratifying because now I don’t fear any top-five fighter in this division,” Bunes said. “I know I can go toe-to-toe with any one of them for five, six, 10 rounds if I have to.”

“Everybody asks me if I’d rather fight a top-ranked opponent now or only after I sign a new contract,” he added. “It doesn’t matter who’s on the other side. [Muhammad] Mokaev, Tim Elliott, Manel Kape, Kai Kara-France, it doesn’t matter. They don’t matter. I have the level to fight these guys. All I need is Mick [Maynard] and Dana [White] to send me the contract and say the date. Give me time to train and the contract. That’s it.”

Bunes must first get past Van, a fighter who has won decisions over Zhalgas Zhumagulov and Kevin Borjas since inking a UFC deal, but Bunes thinks his original opponent Denys Bondar was a more complicated matchup.

“Bondar is really tough,” Bunes said. “Not that Joshua isn’t, but Bondar has more than 10 fights and has great wrestling, something that dominates [the sport] today with Russians, Dagestanis, and Americans. Joshua doesn’t have good grappling — that’s a fact — and jiu-jitsu is my best weapon.

“I spent six months training with Deiveson Figueiredo and Zhang Weili in Arizona, they were both training for title fights, and I used my spare time to train wrestling. My wrestling is way better now. But like I always say, I always prefer to strike. My opponents usually feel my hands or I take them down, and I’m a black belt in jiu-jitsu. I have eight submissions, and six of those came after my opponents felt my hands and decided to grapple. I don’t think this fight is going the distance.”

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Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera already has his first challenger in mind should he leave UFC 299 with the bantamweight world title wrapped around his waist.

Emanating from Kaseya Arena in sunny Miami, Florida on March 9, Vera will be the first man to challenge the reigning and defending 135-pound king, Sean O’Malley. The bout will serve as a rematch of their August 2020 meeting when ‘Chito’ shocked fight fans, scoring a first-round TKO against ‘Sugar’ after sending him crashing to the canvas with a well-placed leg kick.

Should Vera once again see his hand raised against O’Malley, the Ecuadorian knockout artist will immediately request to run it back with the last man to beat him inside the Octagon, Cory Sandhagen.

“I will ask for Sandhagen because he beat me,” Vera told The Schmo. “That’s the only reason I will choose that fight. The winner of Merab (Dvalishvili) and Henry (Cejudo) is also a big fight, and the UFC knows, whoever they pick I will (fight). But if I had to choose myself, I want to kick Cory’s ass. I know his dorky ass is crying about it, but it’s not my fault no one gives a f*ck about him.”

‘The Sandman’ snapped Vera’s four-fight win streak in March, earning a split decision victory. In the eyes of many, that made Sandhagen much more deserving of a title opportunity than Vera, but ‘Chito’ recognizes that the history between himself and O’Malley is what ultimately scored him a shot at UFC gold.

“The only reason this fight is happening is because I beat him,” Vera said. “That’s the only reason the fight is happening. So, I’m glad it came out like that. This is the best moment to do it, title fight, and I’m excited to become a world champion soon” (h/t MMA Junkie).

LowKickMMA.com

Magomed Ankalaev and Johnny Walker stepped on the scales in this weigh-in video for Saturday’s UFC Vegas 84 fight card at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The fight card is headlined by a clash between two Top 10 ranked light heavyweights. Third ranked Magomed Ankalaev takes on seventh ranked Johnny Walker in a rematch in the headlining bout.

The two first fought at UFC 294 in October. The match ended in a no contest after Ankalaev accidentally landed an illegal knee that rendered Walker unable to continue. 

UFC Vegas 84 Weigh-ins VIDEO

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Trey Ogden was two minutes away from a decision victory when he locked up an arm-triangle choke versus Nikolas Motta at UFC Vegas 82. Then referee Mike Beltran prematurely stopped the bout, believing the Brazilian was out. The no-contest was a frustrating ending for both sides, but Motta isn’t interested in a rematch.

Motta, who returns to the cage less than two months later to battle Tom Nolan at Saturday’s UFC Vegas 84, said on MMA Fighting’s Trocação Franca podcast that Ogden is the type of matchup that doesn’t excite him anymore.

“I feel like I didn’t even fight that night,” Motta said. “I didn’t let things go, my performance was bad, and being under pressure on the last fight of my contract — plus, the guy has such a boring style. He doesn’t want to fight, he just tries not to get hit. Sometimes he even runs too. His grappling game was on-point that night. I’ve made some mistakes that I’ve fixed since, so that fight was a great learning experience for me.”

Ogden received the opportunity to speak during the UFC broadcast despite not being a winner, and had more time in front of reporters backstage at the event’s post-fight press conference, which made Motta even angrier.

“I was a bit pissed because he didn’t submit me, I didn’t tap, and they removed me from the octagon and he stayed there for an interview like he submitted me,” Motta said. “At the time I was like, ‘F***, I’ll ask to fight this guy again,’ but then I thought, ‘Nah, I don’t want to fight him again, he’s boring.’ He doesn’t like to fight for real. It’s hard to put on a show against him.

“His fight with Ignacio Bahamondes, he was losing all rounds and still played safe in the third. When I was studying his fights, I was thinking to myself, ‘This guy is so boring.’ Nothing against his skills, he’s a great athlete with great conditioning and looks big for the division, so he must be very disciplined, and he had the perfect strategy to fight me that night.”

Motta admits he feared a UFC release after the no-contest was the final bout of his deal. He’s won only one of his four octagon appearances. In the end, however, the promotion offered him another contract and booked him to face Nolan at the UFC APEX on Jan. 13.

“I controlled what I could,” Motta said. “I fought Saturday and went back on diet on Monday no matter what. If they cut me, I was ready to chase another fight elsewhere. I won’t stop, I won’t quit. I’ve made plans for a worst-case scenario. I was excited to spend Christmas and the holidays with my family in Minas Gerais, but that was my plan, I had to do that, and it was worth it because the UFC gave me another opportunity and a new contract. That’s proof that it’s worth chasing what you want and working hard for it.”

“I was worried because that was my last fight and I couldn’t make any mistake,” he continued. “It took me 10 years to enter the UFC and I couldn’t make mistakes, and that held me back a little bit [in the fight]. I like to listen to podcasts and learn, and I listened to Lyoto [Machida] the other day and he gave the example of when he lost the belt. He was obsessed by the fact he was the champion, and we can’t do that. We have to focus on the action. And I plan on doing that Saturday. God willing, I’ll go back to winning and showing I’m here to stay.”

The Brazilian lightweight said he’s fixed mistakes in camp and will show “a whole new Nikolas Motta” this Saturday. His opponent, Nolan, is 6-0 with four stoppages to his credit, including a knockout over Bogdan Grad at the UFC’s Contender Series this past August.

“[Nolan] is a guy that fights for real, he goes in there for the knockout or the submission, so this is going to be a show,” Motta said. “I plan on using my experience. He’s much younger, 23, and I’m way more experienced than him. I’ve been around for many years and I plan on using that experience — and at the same time be what I always was, aggressive. Sometimes you tend to overthink things as you get older and more experienced.”

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Johnny Walker wasn’t happy when a cageside doctor made the controversial call to end his UFC 294 bout with Magomed Ankalaev this past October in Abu Dhabi, however he holds no grudges heading into the immediate rematch this Saturday at UFC Vegas 84.

Walker, who headlines UFC Vegas 84 opposite Ankalaev at the UFC APEX, said on MMA Fighting’s Trocação Franca podcast that he’s at peace with everything that went down that night at the Etihad Arena, and now understands why the doctor called off the bout moments after Ankalaev landed an illegal knee to his head, which led to a no-contest.

“The only thing that I think could have changed is giving me five minutes to breathe and see what was going on,” Walker said. “It landed on my chin, of course, and I must have felt something there. We are too tough and sometimes we don’t really know how much it affected us. The doctor’s decision was probably fair because I couldn’t move my neck after the fight, my collar bone was swollen. So if I go back into the fight, I would be in disadvantage because he landed an illegal blow and my body felt it, like a car crash.

“I have nothing to complain about [regarding] the doctor because he made the right choice, it really was a hard knee,” he continued, “but we’re too tough for our own good and I didn’t feel it at the time. I was sore for a week because of that knee. He made the right choice because I would have been in disadvantage, so he has to make the call for me. We’ll never admit it and say, ‘I got hit by that knee and I don’t want to fight anymore.’ No, we’ll always want to fight, so someone else has to make the smart call for us. I thought I was OK, but I certainly wasn’t. We don’t know. That’s why we have a doctor there to make the call for us.”

Check out the fight-ending sequence below.

Walker said he holds no ill will toward Ankalev either despite the illegal knee, saying he’s “a machine” that will never deal with flights emotionally. UFC Vegas 84 marks Walker’s first rematch in 30 professional MMA bouts, and there’s no feeling of revenge in his heart.

“I’ve trained for six months to beat up one guy,” Walker said. “The fight didn’t end the way I wanted last time but I’m ready, excited, and injury-free. Last time I had a foot injury, a torn ligament, and still fought. It’s going to be a whole other fight now. I’m more confident now, I’ve felt what’s like to fight him, his strength. He’s very technical and has tons of experience, but I’m much stronger than he is. I got out of one of his best positions easily, no problem, and he landed that illegal knee.”

The strategy hasn’t changed a bit for the rematch, said the SBG Ireland light heavyweight, but Ankalaev is “mapped out” now after their three minutes in the cage together. Walker said he was able to see how the Russian fighter moves and reacts to attacks. The Brazilian talent added that he respects Ankalaev, even though Ankalaev might be over-hyped by some, and Walker sees this match as his last test before challenging for UFC gold.

“He hasn’t fought anyone tough yet, anyone who’s on a run to become champion,” said Walker, who beat Ion Cutelaba, Paul Craig, and Anthony Smith in his most recent octagon victories. Ankalaev suffered the lone loss of his career at the hands of Craig in 2018 and has since gone unbeaten in 11 straight bouts, including wins over Smith and Cutelaba.

“He’s fought some quality fighters in the top 10 but he hasn’t fought anyone hyped up, people you look at and say, ‘He can become champion now,’” Walker added. “I’m one of those guys that can become champion, so he’s going to get tested. And I’m going to get tested too. We’re both going to get tested. The one that leaves that cage [with the win] will be the next champion, right? That’s what I plan on doing Saturday, running through him and showing I’m ready to be the next champion.”

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