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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Eddie Alvarez thinks he made one mistake against Mike Perry.

This past month, Alvarez squared off against Perry in the main event of BKFC 56, losing by corner stoppage after suffering a broken orbital bone. In the aftermath, Alvarez praised Perry’s durability, saying he was surprised by how well “Platinum” held up to his power shots, and after a few days of reflection on the bout, “The Underground King” thinks he may know what the problem for him was against the face of bare-knuckle boxing.

“If I could change a couple things, maybe I gave up a little bit too much size and weight,” Alvarez said recently on The MMA Hour. “I would change that. I would try to get it at a little bit — I’d try to do it at 165 or something like that, make him come down a little bit. I did give up size. I’ll agree with the audience, I gave up size, and I was OK with that because I still thought I would put Mike Perry away. To this day, I still feel like I could put Mike Perry away. I gave up a little too much size. I would’ve done that differently.

“The fight itself, I got caught with a big shot. I love the way I fought. I wanted to put him away. I wanted to land my shots, I didn’t want to run away from him. I wanted to meet him right in the middle of his shots, same way you would meet someone like Justin Gaethje. I wanted to punch with him and hit in between and eventually knock him out. That’s what we tried to do. We took risks that way and I was OK with that.

“And I almost did. He got really wobbled, we hurt him really bad, really early. Maybe I should’ve got on him. Maybe I should’ve got on him more instead of relaxed too much after I hurt him. Just some small adjustments, but I can’t do anything about a broken orbital.”

The fight was contested at 175 pounds, 20 pounds heavier than Alvarez’s career weight of 155. Heading into the fight, Alvarez insisted that 155 is no longer a possibility for him to make and that he anticipated a speed advantage up at 175. It appears though that Alvarez underestimated the drop off in power he’d have.

“He’s a battle ax. He’s like a zombie,” Alvarez said. “The shots I hit him with, with a bare first, almost 100 percent of the time put most guys down. But that’s why I also think that maybe I gave up too much weight, because in my weight class, that same left hook is putting almost and ‘55er, ‘65er down, for sure, and he was able to stay on his feet with it.”

With two fractures in his left orbital, Alvarez is likely staring down an extended break from fighting. That being said, the former UFC lightweight champion says he has no intention of hanging up the gloves (or lack thereof) and hopes to return to BKFC in 2024, perhaps in a rematch with Perry on slightly more even terms.

“Honestly, that would be the best case scenario. Myself, I would like to get to more of a natural weight. If you’ve seen me, that’s not me. That’s not my body — I’m kind of fat. [Laughs.] I had to hold onto weight I didn’t want to and be bigger than I wanted to be in order to fight at a weight that’s not my weight.

“Look, I took a f****** shot, and me, my coaches, we believed that we could make this happen, and we didn’t. It is what it is. But in a perfect world, I want to be at 165. I want to fight at my natural weight. It would be lovely to get a rematch with him at something more my natural weight. If we could meet somewhere in between, that would be an ideal situation.”

MMA Fighting – All Posts

Is it true?
| BJPenn.com

UFC 300 has three official fights (so far).

In the light heavyweight division, Top 5 contenders Jiri Prochazka and Aleksandar Rakic will slug it out for a spot in the 205-pound title chase. At featherweight, former 135-pound champion Aljamain Sterling moves up in weight to battle Boston bruiser Calvin Kattar. The middleweight division will see the return of wrestling phenom Bo Nickal, who looks to keep his undefeated record intact opposite 185-pound veteran Cody Brundage.

Here’s the opening lines for all three fights, courtesy of Draft Kings:

Jiri Prochazka -115
Aleksandar Rakic -115

Aljamain Sterling -115
Calvin Kattar -115

Bo Nickal -1450
Cody Brundage +750

Expect these numbers to fluctuate (in both directions) as we get closer to fight night.

UFC 300, currently scheduled for Sat., April 13, 2024 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, does not yet have a main or co-main event — but we’re likely to get that announcement over the next few weeks. Until then, we can continue to speculate (and build our own dream lineups) until the promotion makes it officially … official.

Stay tuned.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Justin Gaethje hopes 2024 will finally bring him a long-awaited title shot at reigning UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev.

Following wins over Rafael Fiziev and Dustin Poirier this past year, Gaethje became the No. 1 contender in the division but it appeared he would still have to wait for his opportunity after Charles Oliveira got booked against Makhachev in October. Oliviera ultimately fell out of the fight after he suffered a gruesome cut during training that prevented him from competing and UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski replaced him on short notice.

Now Gaethje wants his chance to face Makhachev in the new year since Oliveira already fell out of a scheduled rematch.

“Waiting on the call,” Gaethje wrote on Twitter. “Ready when you are UFC, Dana White. Let’s see who can kick the others head off first Islam Makhachev.

“‘Do Bronx’ [Charles Oliveira] had his shot and didn’t show up for the rematch. It is what it is.”

The head kick reference pays homage to Gaethje knocking out Poirier with a vicious shot back in July that put him near the top of the lightweight rankings. Meanwhile, Makhachev delivered one of his own in the rematch with Volkanovski when they clashed for the second time in October.

For his part, Makhachev had previously called for new competition rather than seeking out rematches against past opponents like Oliviera so it seems like he’s on the same page as Gaethje.

As far as trading head kicks, Makhachev sent a not so subtle warning to Gaethje about a potential showdown should they meet in the near future.

“I can do more than kicking,” Makhachev wrote in response. “Be careful.”

The UFC has yet to officially book Makhachev’s next title defense so it’s impossible to know for certain who will land the fight with him. Makhachev typically doesn’t compete during Ramadan, which goes from March 10 to April 9 in 2024 so that might prevent him from fighting at the historic UFC 300 card on April 13, but he hasn’t addressed any possible dates yet for his return.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

Former undisputed lightweight champion, Charles Oliveira is “back” according to his coach, Jorge Patino Macaco, amid recent rumblings of a title-eliminator clash with surging Armenian contender, Arman Tsarukyan early next yea.r

Oliveira, the current number one ranked lightweight contender, has been sidelined since he co-headlined UFC 289 back in June of this year, stopping the winning streak of recent main event feature, Beneil Dariush with a stunning opening round ground strikes TKO win.

And booked to make his return to the Octagon at UFC 294 back in October of this year, Oliveira was forced to withdraw from a championship rematch with Islam Makhachev in Abu Dhabi, UAE – after suffering a nasty laceration over his right eyebrow ahead of the scheduled title re-run. 

As for Tsarukyan, the Armenian contender is in the midst of an impressive three-fight winning run, most recently stopping common-foe, Dariush with a blistering first round KO at the beginning of this month at UFC Austin. 

And calling for a title-eliminator with Sao Paulo finishing ace, Oliveira if he misses out on a title fight rematch with prior Octagon rival, Makhachev, Tsarukyan and the Brazilian appear to both have news regarding their next fight on the horizon.

Charles Oliveira’s UFC return confirmed by coach

Posting on his official Instagram Stories, the above-mentioned Patino Macaco shared an image of Oliveira – with the caption, “The Champ is back @charlesdobronx.” 

As for Tsarukyan – who clinched the number four rank in the division with his knockout win over Dariush, the Armenian posted “Big news is coming” on his official Instagram account.

Would you like to see Charles Oliveira fight Arman Tsarukyan next?

LowKickMMA.com

The UFC revealed the fight promotion’s nominations for Submission of the Year on Wednesday.  The nominations include: Jon Jones’ UFC 285 guillotine choke win over ‘Ciryl Gane to win the heavyweight championship, Davey Grant’s inverted triangle choke submission win over Raphael Assuncao at UFC Fight Night 221 in March, Da’Mon Blackshear’s twister win over Jose Johnson at UFC on ESPN 51 (the third twister in UFC history) and Alexander Volkov’s Ezekiel choke submission win over Tai Tuivasa at UFC 293.  

Do you agree with their nominations?  Check out the video to see those.  

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