Former UFC heavyweight champion turned ranked WBC professional boxer Francis Ngannou plans to fight two boxing matches this year and will likely not compete in mixed martial arts.
Ngannou officially left the UFC one year ago after failing to come to terms during contract negotiations. After leaving the fight promotion, Ngannou inked a deal to box lineal heavyweight champion Tyson Fury last October. After knocking Fury down early in the bout, Ngannou lost via split decision.
Last week, it was announced that Ngannou had signed a fight contract to face former two-time lineal heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in March. Regardless of the outcome, Ngannou expects to face Fury in a rematch this fall.
“There’s always been talk about that (a Fury rematch). Always. Even after the fight, the minister stepped inside the octagon (ring) and said, ‘Get ready for the rematch.’
“It’s going to happen,” Ngannou told The MMA Hour. “There’s Fury and [Oleksandr] Usyk and then we spoke about it. There’s Fury and Usyk going on. This was like an opportunity. I was waiting for Fury, but this was an opportunity that I was happy to take. And at the end of the day, this won’t take anything away from the Fury rematch.”
“Our rematch term was in one year, within one year, which is going to be October this year,” Ngannou explained.
While he plans to box twice this year, Ngannou is under contract with the Professional Fighters League (PFL) for his MMA career. He was signed last May but has yet to compete.
“When I received a call and an offer and proposal for this fight, what happened is I reached out to the PFL to tell them because we are in the business together. They gave me the blessing for the opportunity,” said Ngannou.
As far as fighting in MMA this year, Ngannou said, “As I said, even before this fight, nothing was certain yet,” and there’s ‘a chance’ he will only box in 2024.
Ian Machado Garry set out to become a “disruptor” in the UFC, doing so with a confident persona that hewed closely to his countryman Conor McGregor.
In the MMA bubble, that guaranteed Garry would see equal parts love and hate from the public as he climbed the welterweight ranks. What he didn’t anticipate, however, was that his family would become targets along the way. He definitely didn’t foresee that attacks directed at his wife, Layla Machado Garry, would outpace the ones directed at him and elevate their profiles for largely dubious reasons.
The significant others of the sport’s most famous and prolific trash-talkers — Conor McGregor and Chael Sonnen — have received but a fraction of the recent interest directed toward Garry’s relationship, his partner, and his child. Fans and fighters have accused Layla Machado Garry of preying on her husband and his fame, citing a how-to book she wrote on meeting famous athletes that she said was satire. It’s been one of the more bizarre and toxic subplots in recent MMA history, and Garry has seen the worst of it.
“I feel like a lot of people are sheep, and a lot of people believe some ridiculous things online and they run with it, and then a lot of a lot gets, kind of, Chinese whispers taken out of context, and a lot of people don’t understand my personal life, or anything to do with it, or anything to do with me, my family, and my team,” Garry said on The MMA Hour. “They’ve just heard whispers and rumors, and the truth is people love to hate. The internet, Instagram, Twitter, all of it is a very toxic place, and especially MMA media. Ninety-nine of it is very toxic. One minute they love you, the next minute they hate you. We’ve seen it. The hate is ridiculous, the love is amazing.
“So I think it might have all come my way because of my success, and my rise, and everything I’m doing, and people either love it, or they hate it. Either way, they giving me content and tuning into my flights.”
Even if the reactions are expected and might eventually benefit Team Garry, it doesn’t change their immediate impact. Layla Machado Garry and their son didn’t sign up to be the subject of so much negative attention, and he couldn’t shield them from it.
“It f****** stung,” he said. “It’s stung on a level of … I’ve agreed — not really agreed to — but I don’t mind. I’m in the fight game. It’s my job, it’s my passion, and it’s part of the game. You build the fight yourself, but you have to perform.
“But when people start attacking my loved ones with vicious, vile, untrue, and hurtful words to an obsessive level, it boils my blood, and it boiled my blood to an extent of which I have to be the bigger man and not respond until I have the opportunity to respond, which was at UFC 296.”
Fighting is the critical part of Garry’s playbook; for whatever is said about he and his family, he knows that he gets the chance to respond in the cage. That’s why not fighting at this past December’s pay-per-view event such was a devastating blow; a bout of pneumonia forced him to withdraw just as fighters like Colby Covington and Sean Strickland were drawing headlines attacking the Garrys.
The positive, Garry said, is that his family has had more time to work through things.
“It’s tough,” he said. “At first, it was — it was upsetting, it was hurtful. It was difficult, just by the sheer amount and obsessive, like, the number of which people were attacking us — it’s just the constant, constant notifications of people talking s*** and people posting videos, and all of this nonsense.
“But now, I mean, now we’ve come out of this stronger, knowing that the truth is the people that don’t eat at our table — if you’re not at our table, and you don’t eat at our table, then it’s irrelevant what people say online. The people that are around me, the team, I’ve surrounded myself — I love and adore my wife. I chose to be with her because she is the most inspirational person I’ve ever met, and I want her by my side until the very f****** end of my life, and that’s my choice. I don’t care about other people’s opinions about what I do in my life. That’s my decision, and I think that we’re having a conversation about some people talking about who I should and shouldn’t be with is absolutely ridiculous. Keep your opinions to yourself, and let me be me, and you do you.
“So me and Layla are better off from it now. But absolutely, we were hurt at the start. But we’re very grateful to be in a position that we can grow from something so toxic.”
“I’m someone who will kind of forget all about it. I don’t want to hear about it,” he added later. “I don’t care about it. But then Layla is like, ‘No, we need to talk about this, we need to talk through it, because talking through it will eventually enable us to get over it better together,’ and that’s what we ended up doing. We ended up sitting down and talking about it and understanding why I was upset, why she was hurting and dealing with it, and that’s why we have been able to come out of this zone.”
Garry draws a line between the trash talk he’s done in promoting fights and the kind that’s come at him in the past several months. There’s a difference, he said, between pointing out your opponent’s past, or an opponent’s statement, and taking aim at third parties who have nothing to do with the fight. So he doesn’t accept the argument that because he chooses to promote fights with trash talk that he should accept the repercussions of that in whatever form they take.
In the case of Geoff Neal and a t-shirt displaying his mugshot, Garry argues that was fair game because his would-be opponent did get busted for DUI. With opponent Neil Magny, Garry said he was simply pointing out the veteran welterweight’s own comments about striking his children (a diatribe that Magny later said had real-life effects far worse than his loss to the Irish star).
“My job is promoting my fight to the best level I can, to show up and have the most fun fight I can,” Garry said. “I’m not viciously assaulting and attacking people’s families in any way, shape, or form, to the way that the MMA world is going at a very toxic level. I mean, the best example is — he’s an absolute piece of s*** for doing this — but it’s a perfect example; you’ve got someone like Colby Covington, who isn’t trash-talking — he’s desperate, to the point that he mentioned a person’s father’s murder to sell a fight. He used that sore point in someone’s life to try to stay relevant, to try to win a mental battle.
“That’s the point in MMA where we’re at, and then we’ve got people like Sean Strickland, who are talking all that nastiness online, attacking people’s families and people’s wives, and the truth is, he is just someone who is dealing with his childhood trauma, the hurt and the pain from his past, and projecting it to the world. I am not that. I am selling a fight, and having fun in my life, and that’s it. I’m a disruptor, just like Jake Paul and Logan Paul and Conor McGregor, and all of the best biggest stars in the world are disrupters. But there is a fine line.”
I watched a video where both Luke Rockhold and Whittaker were talking about him and they said that he felt like he was made out of steel. They both said that punching and kicking him actually hurt their hands and feet since it was like kicking concrete. Not to mention that Yoel seemed unfazed by any kind of strike, whether it was a headkick or livershot. I've never heard this kind of description about any other fighter.
Another story where after he got his orbital bone fractured by Whittaker, the doctor who examined him said that his tendons were 4x larger than a normal human's and that his orbital bone was already healing by itself. Apparently the doctor had never seen a human being like him.
Was he a part of some Cuban government super soldier experiment or something? Obviously he was on PEDs but how come he seems to be an anomaly? Surely, everyone in the UFC is on the same shit he was on but I've never heard anyone talk about a fighter they way they describe Romero.
Islam Makhachev | Photo by GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP via Getty Images
Islam Makhachev expects to be busy for the next 12 months if all goes according to plan.
On Wednesday, the reigning UFC lightweight champion called his shot on social media—well, three shots actually—writing that he plans to defend his title against Justin Gaethje in June, head to Madison Square Garden in New York to face the winner of a recently announced fight between Charles Oliveira and Arman Tsarukyan, and then defend again in February 2025.
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The UFC has yet to formally announce its plans for June, but Makhachev suggested that he fight Gaethje on June 8. Former two-division champion Conor McGregor recently declared that he expects to fight Michael Chandler on June 29 to cap off the UFC’s International Fight Week, so it appears that fans will be treated to two pay-per-view events that month.
Makhachev is coming off of a spectacular first-round head kick knockout of Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 294. Volkanovski stepped in on short-notice as a replacement for an injured Oliveira, but Makhachev sent the featherweight champion packing a second time.
Gaethje also delivered a memorable head kick in his most recent fight, defeating Dustin Poirier for the “BMF” belt at UFC 291 this past July. Prior to the fight, Gaethje said that he expected the winner of the matchup to receive an undisputed lightweight title shot.
Oliveira gets another chance to earn a rematch with Makhachev, the man who defeated him at UFC 280 for a vacant lightweight title. “Do Bronx” faces Tsarukyan at UFC 300, with UFC CEO Dana White saying that the winner becomes the new No. 1 contender at 155 pounds. If Makhachev gets his way, Oliveira or Tsarukyan will share the octagon with him at The World’s Most Famous Arena.
Should Makhachev log two successful title defenses, and then compete in February of next year as planned, he’ll have fought in six championship bouts since October 2022.
Now that he’s dealt with this legal hitch, Adesanya can freely travel to Canada for the Strickland vs. Du Plessis fight on January 20th.
Israel Adesanya has dodged a conviction for drunk driving in New Zealand.
The former middleweight champion was pulled over on August 19th, 2023 and failed a blood alcohol test, hitting 87mg per 100mL. That’s over the 50mg legal limit, and just over the 80mg threshold to turn the incident into a jailable offense. Adesanya was facing up to three months imprisonment and a $ 4500 fine.
According to Izzy’s lawyer Karl Trotter, the sports star faced much larger potential consequences if found guilty. Adesanya signed an affidavit confirming that he may have to repay up to 50% of a six figure sponsorship if the deal was terminated due to bad behavior. A conviction would also make it difficult if not impossible to enter certain countries like Canada, where “Stylebender” is headed in January to watch UFC 297.
“The adverse consequences, should my client be convicted, are monumental,” Trotter said (via Stuff.co.nz).
In the end, Adesanya’s good standing in the community and charity contributions helped him avoid all those negative possibilities. Adesanya had pled guilty to the charges in September, and now a sentence has been issued by a New Zealand judge.
“You’ve bought credit on the country… I accept that in all other respects, you are an exemplary citizen,” he said before handing down a six month driving suspension and $ 1500 fine.
This leaves Israel Adesanya free and clear to travel to Canada for UFC 297, where Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis will fight for Izzy’s old belt. Will Adesanya step into the cage after that main event to challenge the winner? Who knows, but now a drunk driving conviction won’t stop him from showing up.
After years of growing his name and resume through the ranks of the Bellator welterweight division, England’s “MVP” will now test himself against the best the world has to offer. That all starts with Kevin Holland at UFC 299 in Miami, Fla., on March 9.
Arguably the biggest knock on Page’s career in Bellator was the “carefully crafted” nature of it with opponent selection by matchmaking. Often coined as the “ultimate can-crusher,” Page’s highlights stacked up rapidly regardless of fan perception or critique of who he was facing. No matter how you cut it, Page did fight some of the promotion’s best, most notably in the form of his two encounters with Douglas Lima and his bouts against Paul Daley and Goiti Yamauchi.
MVP is a big-name addition to the UFC’s 170-pound roster, especially for an outsider on their way in. At age 36, the time is now or never to make a splash, and with a Holland win, Page sees a clash with the current champion Leon Edwards as the premier fight the division can offer.
“It’s an absolutely massive fight,” Page told MMA Junkie. “It makes a statement to where the U.K. artists are at this stage of MMA in the world. The U.K. guys are doing so well. You just have to look across at Tom Aspinall doing his thing as well at heavyweight. The fact that we can get two U.K. guys to headline a main event in the U.K. is unbelievable for a belt. Like I said, unheard of. Let’s make it happen.”
UFC 299 is about as perfect of a UFC debut stage as Page could ask for. The Miami return PPV is stacking up so nicely that UFC 300 the month after is looking like a slight afterthought at present.
There’s no official bout order just yet, but thanks to Page’s aforementioned established star power, he believes he’s done enough to draw in a serviceable enough audience to prove he’s put in the work to deserve a — let’s say, faster — rise to the division’s peak.
“I think a lot of people are watching anyway, regardless of where I am on the card,” Page said. “If they put me first fight of the night, there’s still a lot of eyes, a lot of people watching, a lot of people waiting to see if I can answer that question. When I do, and if I answer it in that way, it puts me immediately at the top.
“Same when I had these meetings about coming to the UFC. They asked me, ‘What kind of fights are you looking for?’ I said, ‘I want to be at the top. I don’t want to be here a long time. I want to be here and make as much noise, have a fun time, put on some great fights, and that’s it.’ I want to be big knockout, big knockout, and let’s go for the belt. Hopefully, Leon’s still got the belt. I definitely believe that he can still have the belt. We can sell out a stadium, we can make so much noise together and sell out a stadium in the U.K. and just bring an untold story to the UFC.”
One win will be required, at least, for both Page and Edwards before a potential fight. The latter champion doesn’t have his next defense lined up, but rumors continue to swirl around his Belal Muhammad rematch at UFC 300, creating a perfect timeline for the two Brits to build to a dream bout. However, we can’t forget about the other top contender Shavkat Rakhmonov, who should have recovered from his current ankle injury around that time as well.
The Holland debut makes for an entertaining one from not only a stylistic perspective, but a verbal and mental one, too. When Holland was last tasked with a striker of similar ilk to Page, Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson, the two went to war for as long as they could with the friendly — unofficial — agreement not to grapple. This didn’t bode so well for Holland, as he broke his hand in the bout and ultimately lost via a fourth-round doctor’s stoppage TKO.
Should Holland attempt to make the same agreement, MVP feels it wouldn’t be his wisest choice. If he can secure the knockout win without the aid of the doctors, Page (21-2) would become the first to do so in Holland’s 36-fight career (25-10, 1 NC).
“I know for a fact Kevin Holland is not going to want to do that agreement again after the whooping that he took against Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson,” Page said. “I see myself as the faster, harder-hitting, more dangerous version of a ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson. He’s definitely not going to want to do that again. I’m happy to take that deal. If he wants to shake my hand and do that, we can do that. But I don’t believe he’s going to want to. He’s going to want to utilize as much as possible to deal with me.
“Everyone said the same thing to me when I fought Derek Anderson. They said exactly the same thing: ‘Derek Anderson’s never been stopped. Are you going to be able to do that?’ And I broke his face. So that’s all I really have to say to that. I just know what I can do. Even if it goes the distance, he’s going to be a hot mess.
“Anybody that wants to try to shoot for my legs, there’s a knee that’s right there that’s just triggering, waiting for that person to do that,” he concluded. “We’ve seen the damage that I can do. So it’s up to him.”
TOP STORIES
Busy. Cain Velasquez returns to UFC as cornerman for Gabriel Benitez, next major court hearing scheduled
Prediction. Matt Brown on Conor McGregor: ‘He’s not going to do anything significant ever again’
Wolf. Khamzat Chimaev: Sean Strickland ‘has to be afraid’ because ‘I’m coming for him’
Odds. Jorge Masvidal opens as big betting favorite over Nate Diaz in rumored boxing match
Styles. Aleksandar Rakic plans to exploit ‘holes’ in Jiri Prochazka’s game
VIDEO STEW
Sound & Pound.
Free fight.
Last year’s Buggy.
The War Room: Joshua vs. Ngannou.
LISTEN UP
Debate. The MMA Fighting team talks about the Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall feud: Who’s right and who’s wrong?
Heck of a Morning. MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck discusses Francis Ngannou’s MMA future, Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall, and more.
MORNING MUSIC
SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE
The Jones saga.
I love how a fighter can do an interview about me every week, make silly memes on the Internet. And then, when I respond, they play the victim role. Lol
— BONY (@JonnyBones) January 9, 2024
Tom, you talking about someone’s ego running wild is one of the most hypocritical things ever., You literally haven’t kept my balls out of your mouth since you won that imaginary championship. Both you and Serge have zero championships between your name. It’s funny that you…
— BONY (@JonnyBones) January 9, 2024
My stipe fight was booked well before yours came along, you weren’t even the back up fighter.. Trust me you’re the one who is coming around here with the inflated ego and entitlement. That intern championship means absolutely nothing if you seriously haven’t noticed yet. All your…
— BONY (@JonnyBones) January 9, 2024
Literally, the same thing, different year. It’s always the fighter who’s not technically next in line who talks the most shit. Usually crickets from the guy who is actually next with the contract signed https://t.co/WEVK3fx5jZ
— BONY (@JonnyBones) January 9, 2024
Yep, I’m terrified. No matter who would’ve won that interim, championship, the narrative still would be the same. The goat is getting older now, and is running from fights. 36-year-old lifelong champion starting to contemplate retirement. What a chicken. https://t.co/yCc6YNG2QM
— BONY (@JonnyBones) January 9, 2024
What I refuse to do is be like a lot of these other fighters who stuck around too long. That just won’t happen. Your boy Bones Jones over here, despite what a lot of people may like to think. Ive set myself up pretty well in life. I want Stipe for my résumé, outside of that, I…
— BONY (@JonnyBones) January 9, 2024
I’m not saying that, what I am saying is, coming back from two different surgeries, and defeating Stipe is my primary goal, and a huge feat if you ask me. We both have already agreed to massive contracts, a win for either one of us would be absolutely massive for either of our… https://t.co/lfs4VHZJBE
— BONY (@JonnyBones) January 9, 2024
Brilliant response mate
— BONY (@JonnyBones) January 9, 2024
Respect.
#RIZIN45 pic.twitter.com/WvUfjjh2lN
— Sachiko HOTAKA 12月はRIZIN45と天皇杯レスリング 保高幸子 (@greco_free) January 9, 2024
Brutal.
The stoppage looks even worse from a crowd point of view pic.twitter.com/OxsLH7VPKu
— Aj (@AjDuxche) January 9, 2024
Ouff.
Colby Covington getting trolled by Jorge Masvidal fans in Miami
/ kendallsupply IG pic.twitter.com/bKgCd5KdmE
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) January 9, 2024
Rankings.
Jon Jones 13 title defendes, double champ, undefeated: #2 PFP ranking.
Islam Makachev: 2 title defenses against Volks (145lbs champ), 1 loss by knockout: #1 PFP
Please someone give me a good reason to take whoever does this rankings seriously.
— Rafael dos Anjos (@RdosAnjosMMA) January 9, 2024
Pulled a little sneaky at the end there.
pic.twitter.com/rvtzCYGqb6
— Michael Chandler (@MikeChandlerMMA) January 9, 2024
Bad reputation.
This is the same guy who butt-scooted with @funkmasterMMA 2 weeks ago. He gives JiuJitsu a bad name pic.twitter.com/EaygFfPNHa
— Merab “The Machine” Dvalishvili (@MerabDvalishvil) January 9, 2024
On the daily, I’m sure.
pic.twitter.com/zdOExNPpb3
— Jillian DeCoursey (@lionheartjill) January 10, 2024
Someone save Cowboy.
Challenge accepted!!! @Cowboycerrone vs Twisted Steel at @PBR May 18th at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, TX pic.twitter.com/nWC7YOoP0z
— danawhite (@danawhite) January 10, 2024
Even a frustrated GSP is still too wholesome for his own good.
At airport, be cool with people who are just victims of bad circumstances. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/FrSd4EMnCh
— Georges St-Pierre (@GeorgesStPierre) January 10, 2024
Back at it.
Happy to be back to @tigermuaythai Big congratulations to Tiger Director Kuhn Viwat on successful anniversary of amazing training camp 20 years helping fighters to become best versions of themselves pic.twitter.com/FVYRETVk35
— Valentina Shevchenko (@BulletValentina) January 10, 2024
How can you not love this guy?
You’re not you when you’re hungry pic.twitter.com/ES0G0TRHCP
— Shavkat “Nomad” Rakhmonov (@Rakhmonov1994) January 10, 2024
Junior dos Santos (21-10) vs. Alan Belcher (18-8); Gamebred Bareknuckle, March 2
Robelis Despaigne (4-0) vs. Josh Parisian (15-7); UFC 299, March 9
Michel Pereira (29-11) vs. Michal Oleksiejczuk (19-6); UFC 299, March 9
FINAL THOUGHTS
MVP needs two wins at most to earn a title shot. This is Michael Chandler — just at welterweight — all over again … just far less exciting and much more flashy because MVP doesn’t have good or exciting fights. Exciting performances? Obviously. Well, the finishes, at least. Go ahead and tell me when he’s ever had a back-and-forth “good” fight, though. It hasn’t happened. Maybe Holland will be the guy. Regardless, an interesting run awaits us.
Thanks for reading!
EXIT POLL
If you find something you’d like to see in the Morning Report, hit up @DrakeRiggs_ on Twitter and let him know about it. Also, follow MMAFighting on Instagram and like us on Facebook.
Ali Abdelaziz, the manager of reigning UFC lightweight world champion Islam Makhachev, believes Justin Gaethje is the next man in line for a shot at the 155-pound crown.
Originally, Makhachev was scheduled to defend his title against former titleholder Charles Oliveira at UFC 294 in October. Unfortunately, ‘Do Bronx’ suffered a cut whilst training, forcing him out of the highly anticipated rematch. In his place, Alexander Volkanovski stepped in on 11 days’ notice and ended up suffering a brutal first-round knockout. Many fight fans assumed that the UFC would simply reschedule Makhachev vs. Oliveira 2 for 2024, but that no longer appears to be the case.
Last week, Dana White announced that Oliveira would return at UFC 300 on April 13 for a clash with rising contender Arman Tsarukyan. The winner will presumably move on to face the ‘Dagestani Destroyer’ later this year.
In the meantime, Abdelaziz believes that Gaethje should be the man challenging Makhachev for lightweight gold.
“I think it’s obvious, man Justin Gaethje… He’s on a two fight winning streak, phenomenalfighter,” Abdelaziz told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto in a recent interview. “One of the greatest entertainment fighters we [have] ever seen. He have the BMF title now. But you know him and Islam, it’s a history, you know. He fought Khabib, now he’s fighting Khabib’s protege and he earned it, you know, he earned it.”
After earning impressive back-to-back wins against Rafael Fiziev and Dustin Poirier, ‘The Highlight’ is considered by many to be the rightful No. 1 contender.
“Justin Gaethje is a guy [who has] never been given what he wants,” Abdelaziz added. “He earned it with sweat and blood and tear inside the cage. Islam is very interested to fight in him. But Islam you know he did this quote in the PI, he have to hold on to it, he said, ‘Doesn’t matter who when and how I’ll fight anybody they give me.”
When Will We See Islam Makhachev Back in the octagon?
As for when we could see Islam Makhachev back inside the Octagon, that’s a whole other issue. He hoped to defend his title ahead of Ramadan which runs from March 10 through April 9. With UFC 299 emanating from Miami, Florida on March 9, the timing appeared to line up perfectly.
However, the promotion has already announced that Sean O’Malley would defend his bantamweight title that night against Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera in the evening’s headliner.
The deal with Islam was to fight on March 9,” Abdelaziz said. “Of course, the UFC has a headliner already with Sean O’Malley. They said he’s the main event. They said we could fight in February, but it was too close his fight. The one he just fought [against Alexander Volkanovski]. It is what it is. He’s just going to wait for Ramadan or maybe the UFC will call tomorrow. O’Malley’s out, we need Islam, and then he can fight March 9. Islam is always training. Always in shape. He’s a professional.”
With Ramadan ending days before UFC 300 goes down in Las Vegas, Makhachev may very well sit on the sidelines until a winner emerges between Charles Oliveira and Arman Tsarukyan, meaning Gaethje may not get his shot until late 2024 or even early 2025.
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