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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

It’s very difficult to find the one, especially when you’re a mixed martial artist striving to make it to the top. For former UFC interim lightweight champion Dustin Poirier, he luckily found it at the right time.

“When I was in juvenile detention — and me and her might not have been dating at the time — she was writing me letters every week,” Poirier said of his wife Jolie on Outta Pocket with RGIII. “Besides my mother, the only letters I was getting was [from] her, and when I got out of juvenile detention, she was there. She drove all the way out to watch me leave and stuff like that, and I was like, ‘I’m going to marry this girl.’”

“The Diamond” plans to have one last fight in the UFC, and hopes to end his career with a bout in New Orleans this summer. In his most recent bout, Poirier lost a Fight of the Year contender to lightweight champion Islam Makhachev in the main event of UFC 302 this past June.

Poirier has seen the ups and downs of the sport, and in life itself. When it comes to self-belief, Poirier, like all of us, has it at times, and other times he doesn’t. But even when he was locked up in juvenile detention, Jolie believed in him even when Poirier couldn’t.

“For sure, the letters were always there,” Poirier explained. “She would always reply. I don’t even know how she got the address, or all this stuff like that, but she did, and she was always there. Honestly, not to sound corny, cheesy, bro, I wouldn’t have made it as far — because I was living with her since I was 18, since I was an amateur fighter… I wouldn’t have had an anchor to come back home to every night to cook a meal with, to watch a movie, to go to Blockbuster back in the day, to get takeout Chinese food, that was every weekend.

“I had a girl I loved, and she loved me, and I had somewhere to be. If I was that age and fighting, and known like I was at that young age, I wouldn’t have been on schedule at the gym every day, I wouldn’t have had to lay my head on a pillow at a certain time, I would’ve been cutting up with the rest of my buddies who were doing, you know, what they were doing. So I feel like having that to come home to, and a reason to be home every night, but also her belief, because a lot of times I didn’t believe in myself. She believed in me so much that it was hard to quit on myself whenever she thinks I can do whatever I want.”

MMA Fighting – All Posts

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

The Misfits Boxing 21 press conference will feature KSI, Dillon Danis, and a host of other boxers to promote the upcoming event on March 29.

The Misfits Boxing 21 press conference is expected to begin at 12 p.m. ET.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

Don’t let them know!
| BJPenn.com

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Light Heavyweight gold is on the line at UFC 313.

In the main event, feared knockout artist Alex Pereira will seek to defend his crown a fourth time opposite Combat Sambo ace Magomed Ankalaev. Ankalaev is almost uniquely well-rounded amongst the 205-pound contenders, a veteran with savvy counter striking and hellacious ground-and-pound. Ahead of their long-awaited title clash, Ankalaev has implied on several occasions that he’ll be looking to knock out the former Glory Kickboxing champion.

Former UFC Middleweight champion Robert Whittaker believes that’s a terrible strategy. “The Reaper” was at one point in the discussion as a possible “Poatan” opponent back in the Brazilian’s Middleweight days, so he’s plenty familiar with Pereira’s strengths and weaknesses.

His advice? Wrestle. Right away. Waste absolutely no time before wrestling!

“If I’m coaching Ankalaev, I want him dropping to both knees and shooting from across the cage,” Whittaker said on his “MMArcade” podcast (via MMAJunkie). “I want him like, army crawling to Pereira’s ankles. We’re blanketing him for 25 minutes. We need to slow him down, or we need to get him to a position where he’s uncomfortable. We need to start making threat levels elsewhere.

“Because you see every standup fight Pereira is in, every single one of them, even when he’s hurt, even when he’s getting hit like when he was with Rountree — he’s just comfortable there. He will stay there. He’ll be there till the crowds leave. Like he’s so comfortable and confident in that position, in that dynamic of fighting, that it’s silly to fight him there.”

Despite seeing an opening for Ankalaev on the mat, Whittaker later concluded with a Pereira prediction.

He explained, “I’m going to go Pereira. Like I said, if Ankalaev doesn’t drop levels with him in the first 3 minutes, I don’t think he makes it out of the first round. I don’t want to be striking with that guy, period. He hits like a truck.”

Ankalaev’s strategy in the first five minutes will be very interesting. The most notable example of him opting to stand rather than wrestle to his own detriment came against Jan Blachowicz, who kicked apart Ankalaev’s lead leg in the first three rounds and had him limping badly. The Russian talent was still able to force some takedowns late and even the scores, but perhaps if he moved with that game plan from the first bell, he would’ve walked away with UFC gold rather than a draw.

Think Ankalaev learned his lesson or will he live up to his promise of testing Pereira’s chin?

Insomnia

Poatan or Merab Dvalishvili, who’s the current UFC side quest king?

Nate Diaz hanging out with a group of the real housewives … who would have guessed?

Prime Bas Rutten was a scary man. Am I wrong in feeling like the average fight fan forgets/underrates “El Guapo?”

I would happily watch any of these BKFC match ups. What’s next for Jeremy Stephens?

Jean Silva would appear to be lining up an opponent in the event he defeats Bryce Mitchell. I like the vision …

Controversy aside, I do think Manel Kape is perhaps the most interesting challenger available for Alexandre Pantoja right now.

Justin Gaethje with some perspective:

By the time this season of Russian TUF is finished, Petr Yan and Aljamain Sterling will have spent more minutes fighting than Brandon Moreno and Deiveson Figueiredo.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

I love the idea of Edson Barboza being tagged anytime there’s a wheel kick around the globe.

Huge lands off a caught kick are some of the coolest moments.

Impressive to move from the failed guillotine DIRECTLY into heavy ground strikes.

Random Land

This level of preparation would genuinely drive me insane.

Midnight Music: Blues, 1967

Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.

MMAmania.com – All Posts

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

As expected, chaos ensued when KSI and Dillon Danis went face-to-face for the first time ahead of their boxing match.

KSI and Danis headline Misfits Boxing 21 on March 29 in Manchester, England. The two appeared at Tuesday’s press conference to promote the card, and when they squared off, the trash talk from the previous 20 minutes continued — that is until KSI slapped Danis right in the face with a pancake.

Check out video of the wild moment and pull apart below.

During the press conference, KSI and Danis agreed to a bet, where if one fighter knocks out the other, the winner gets to keep the loser’s fight purse. Other memorable moments included Danis saying he’s not even training for KSI in lieu of an unannounced MMA bout with Tony Ferguson, KSI saying his boxing style is similar to Dmitry Bivol’s, and KSI being able to hit harder than UFC light heavyweight champ Alex Pereira.

Both fighters look to bounce back from boxing losses in their most recent bouts from the The Prime Card in October 2023, where Danis lost via DQ to Logan Paul, while KSI dropped a decision to Tommy Fury.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

There is a lot of speculation and talk regarding the tragic death of Buvaisar Saitiev, a three-time Olympic champion. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest freestyle wrestlers of all time, 

This includes speculation from MMA personality Chael Sonnen, who has weighed in on the passing. Saitiev is alleged to have passed away after falling from a window while cleaning his home. 

Many have claimed the details of the death to be odd considering the other mysterious deaths in Russia, often involving politicians or prominent figures in the country. Sonnen expressed skepticism about the circumstances surrounding Saitiev’s death in a post on X.

“Hard to be in peace when the World accepts your death was caused by falling from your own window while cleaning a home you have a maid at.”

He passed away at the sge of 49. Since his death, Saitiev has been given tributes from the likes of Khabib Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev.

This is just the latest incident, which adds to a troubling pattern of unexplained deaths among prominent Russians. With an investigation seemingly unlikely, it leaves people questioning what really happened.

The circumstances surrounding the passing have come alongside tributes, with many people believe there is more than meets the eye regarding this. 

MMA News