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A late change has been made to Saturday’s UFC Vegas 98 card after heavyweight Chris Barnett was knocked out of his fight against Junior Tafa.

Barnett was removed from the card due to issues related to Hurricane Milton, and he won’t be able to compete. UFC officials confirmed the change on Wednesday.

With Barnett unable to fight, Tafa now faces UFC newcomer Sean Sharaf, who accepts the fight on short notice with his UFC debut now just a few days away. The news was originally reported by Code Sports on Tuesday.

Sharaf joins the UFC roster with a 4-0 record with all four wins coming by way of first round knockout.

The 31-year-old heavyweight prospect trains out of Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas so it’s close proximity to where he’ll fight on Saturday at the UFC APEX.

He’ll attempt to keep his undefeated record in tact while facing Tafa, who comes into the fight off two straight losses. Most recently Tafa fell by first round heel hook submission to Valter Walker, which dropped his overall UFC record to 1-3.

The fight between Tafa and Sharaf is expected to take place on the preliminary card, which kick off at 4 p.m. ET on Saturday.

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Bringing you the weird and wild from the world of MMA each and every weeknight!

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Francis Ngannou seems happy with his choice to leave the UFC ranks.

“The Predator” left the promotion as active Heavyweight champion. He used his newfound free agency to leverage a massive contract with PFL and cross over into the boxing ring. After giving Tyson Fury everything he could handle and getting smoked by Anthony Joshua — making many millions of dollars in the process — Ngannou will return to the cage opposite PFL Heavyweight champion Renan Fereira.

UFC CEO Dana White recently addressed Ngannou’s windfall earnings, and he wasn’t so impressed. According to White, UFC could have matched if not exceeded what Ngannou has earned since leaving the promotion, and he advised against trusting the reported numbers.

“Unless he was the one writing me the check, I don’t see how he can know that.“ Ngannou responded in a recent interview. “Me, as the inside one who was receiving the money after leaving the UFC and from what the UFC was proposing — it was just a trap. It wasn’t a solid contract. That’s a lie.”

Ngannou vs. Ferreira is scheduled for Oct. 19, 2024 inside The Mayadeen in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Prior to his boxing excursion, Ngannou most recently defeated Ciryl Gane via unanimous decision to defend his UFC belt. Ferreira, meanwhile, hasn’t lost since August 2022 and won his last four bouts via knockout, setting up an exciting “Battle of the Giants.”

Insomnia

Brendan Allen vs. Marvin Vettori seems like an obvious fight to make. Hopefully, “The Italian Dream” is back in action sooner than later.

“Boom” Brian Kelleher exceeded expectations and always brought the action.

An unlikely friendly interaction between former foes!

I’m not weighing in on the Alex Pereira vs. Khabib debate because it’s goofy, but these clips are very funny.

I’ve definitely posted a similar clip of Beterbiev in the past, but his wrist exercises are still f—king wild!

A really fun booking at 145-pounds! Zalal has looked so sharp in his second UFC stint.

Celebrating the start of Spooky Season with the Holloway family!

Slips, rips, and KO clips

A vicious flurry started off by a counter hook:

Is it 2008? When’s the last time a closed guard kimura actually ended up submitting anyone in a cage fight?

Punches landing with an absolute thud.

Random Land

Whale wars.

Midnight Music: Rock, 1988

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

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

UFC 307 took place this past Saturday and the promotion has one new champion, plus one emerging all-time great. In the co-main event, Julianna Peña won a contentious decision over Raquel Pennington to reclaim the bantamweight title, while in the main event Alex Pereira added another successful light heavyweight title defense to his résumé with a surprisingly fun fight against Khalil Rountree Jr.

All that plus plenty more went down this past weekend so let’s dive in and answer your biggest questions.

UFC 307, broadly

“Was this the worst Pay-Per-View of the year?”

No, I don’t think so.

We did a big review of UFC 307 already so you can go and read that to get not just my thought but the rest of the team’s as well, but my feelings are basically this: UFC 307 wasn’t the best card and it was definitely a little weird, but it was perfectly adequate.

Everyone wants different things from their MMA fandom and for me, what I’m most interested in are fun fights with meaningful stakes. Well, UFC 307 was a little light on the former, but nearly every bout on the card was significant in one way or another. Two title fights, one of the six greatest fighters of all time competing, a probable future champion in a tough scrap, a new welterweight contender emerging, and the final fight of a two-time champion’s career? Important things happened in Salt Lake City on Saturday, and even though it wasn’t the most exciting at points, we did at least get to end with a bang.

UFC 307 won’t go down as one of the best events of the year, but it was definitely better than UFC 297 or UFC 301, and probably on par with UFC 298 as well.

Alex Pereira

“Can you outline the alternate universe of the last couple of years is ‘Poatan’ didn’t sign with the UFC? Who saves three PPVs this year?

The key takeaway from UFC 307, as it has been so many times this year, is that the UFC got a friggin’ steal when they signed Alex Pereira in 2021.

In just three years in the company, Pereira has fought 10 times, is a two-division champion, has three successful title defenses at light heavyweight, has won six bonuses, and just this year alone jumped in to save three separate PPVs. It’s an unprecedented level of activity and accomplishment that the UFC has needed. Don’t get me wrong, the UFC is bigger than any one fighter and will always be OK, but the promotion currently has a dearth of stars and Pereira has come along to fill the role that normally multiple fighters serve. He’s been a godsend to the UFC.

But what if they had not signed him? I love hypotheticals, so let’s play this out. If Pereira isn’t there to challenge Israel Adesanya, either Robert Whittaker gets a third crack at him or Sean Strickland gets the call, because he was never obliterated by Pereira. Does Strickland beat Izzy if that fight happens a year earlier? Who knows. Entirely possible, which then leads to a rematch and Whittaker is also in the mix. Ultimately, when it all plays out we probably still end up with Dricus du Plessis as champ, so middleweight is similar, even if the road to get there is very different.

Light heavyweight is a different story entirely. Jiri Prochazka returns and probably fights Jan Blachowicz or Magomed Ankalaev for the title, since Jamahal Hill is injured, but it’s impossible to know. 205 has been such a cluster the past few years and it’s Pereira who brought stability to the division. Without him, maybe we’re still living in anarchy, and the tentpole events of the UFC calendar — UFC 300 and UFC 303 — are substantially less exciting than we ended up getting.

Given how important Pereira has been to the UFC over the past few years, there’s a real argument to be made that he’s the best signing the promotion has made since Conor McGregor.

Next

“Who should Pereira fight next, legacy wise?”

Pereira appears set to take a little break for the time being and good. No one deserves it more. So given that, there are really only two options for Poatan when he comes back: heavyweight or Magomed Ankalaev.

The heavyweight option is the one I think most fans want. We’ve never had a three-division champion in the UFC and so the appeal of that is obvious: make history, stake your claim as the greatest to ever do it. And given what Pereira has done for the company, it’s very possible he gets that chance. Jon Jones faces Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 and all signs point to that being the final fight of both men’s careers. Should that come to pass, Tom Aspinall will be promoted to undisputed heavyweight champion and one of the bigger fights the UFC could put together is Aspinall vs. Pereira. This is extremely possible and if Pereira wins, it’s obviously the best for his legacy.

The other option is Ankalaev. If Ankalaev gets past Aleksandar Rakic at UFC 308, that’s the fight that light heavyweight demands. A champion has responsibilities and personally, that is a fight I desperately want to see. The big knock you can make about Pereira’s UFC run is that it’s been pretty cultivated to avoid bad style matchups. Well, Ankalaev is one of those so if Pereira can beat him — which he absolutely can — that’s a big feather in Poatan’s cap as he tries to climb the all-time great rankings.

Of course, the best option, if he can somehow pull it off, is Jon Jones. It’s hard to imagine a world where Jones beats Miocic and then somehow avoids fighting Aspinall for the heavyweight title… until you remember that this is a business and Jones vs. Pereira is the biggest fight the UFC can put together right now that doesn’t involve Conor McGregor. There’s a non-zero chance Pereira may fight Jones in 2025 and if he can swing that, that’s the only logical answer.

Khalil Rountree Jr.

“Khalil’s stock just went up, right? What’s a fight that makes sense for him?”

100 percent!

Everyone knew the score coming into UFC 307: Rountree probably didn’t “deserve” this title shot but it’s a fun stylistic matchup and Pereira should deliver a great finish. Well, in the sobering light of Monday morning, all of that is true, but also, Rountree was far more competitive than most thought he would be!

Rountree had the opportunity of a lifetime on Saturday and while he failed to come away with the belt, he delivered the best of himself in his biggest moment. That’s how you make fans and become a star. From this point forward, Rountree won’t be fighting Contender Series signees in the APEX. He’s in main events or on PPV main cards. Nobody likes a moral victory, but this was a pretty darn good one.

As for who is next, Jamahal Hill seems appropriate. Aside from being completely asinine and unaware, Hill’s nonsense after UFC 307 was basically an indirect shot at Rountree. So it’s time to knuckle up.

Rountree vs. Hill

“Would this version of Rountree have beaten Hill?

It’s hard to say. The thing about Hill, other than him being exceedingly bad at playing the dozens, is that it’s hard to know how good he is. Prior to his own completely undeserving title shot (honestly, Hill deserved his less than Rountree did) Hill’s UFC career was knocking out people who aren’t exactly world beaters. Then he put on a sensational performance against Glover Teixeira that basically looked nothing like his previous fights, before immediately looking atrocious and getting obliterated by Pereira in his next bout.

Is Hill the guy who dummied Glover or was that his “Cody Garbrandt vs. Dominick Cruz” performance, having a perfect night one time in the biggest spot? Only time will tell, and while if I was guessing I’d pick Rountree to win, mostly I just want to see the actual answer for ourselves.

Julianna Peña and Raquel Pennington

“Is Julianna Peña getting into the UFC Hall of Fame?”

Yeesh. I guess so?

On Saturday Peña became the second woman to win bantamweight gold twice as she reclaimed the title in an extremely controversial split decision win over Raquel Pennington. How controversial you ask? Only one MMA media member didn’t give Pennington the fight; it was me, and I scored the bout a draw.

But controversy or not, Peña is now a two-time champion and that’s pretty rarified company. In UFC history, only 18 fighters have won titles multiple times in the same weight class. Four of those fighters are currently enshrined in the Hall and six more are unquestioned locks to join them. Of the remaining eight of that list, almost all of them are current fighters, and very likely to end up there as well. Basically, if you win a belt twice, you’re in the Hall. Add in that Peña is also responsible for one of the biggest upsets in UFC history and I think that alone is enough to get her there one day.

It’s a heck of an accomplishment. Now if she could only work on her promotional abilities.

Kayla Harrison

“Is the only thing that can stop Kayla the scale?”

Really? After that performance?

In the main card opener, Kayla Harrison made her sophomore outing in the UFC, winning a hard-fought decision over Ketlen Vieira. To be frank, it was probably the worst fight of Harrison’s recent career. And that’s not because of Harrison, it’s because of Vieira.

Harrison is a force of nature but the reality is she’s still very, very green. The two-time Olympic gold medalist has only been competing in MMA for six years and on Saturday we got to see just how limited she still is. Harrison’s striking is barely above functional at this point so if she cannot score takedowns, the fight is very, very hard for her. It’s not hard to see how Harrison loses in the UFC right now: someone does what Vieira did, but better.

That being said, there were plenty of positives for Harrison on Saturday. Vieira is one of the worst possible matchups for her in terms of skills and physicality, so she was always going to have a hard time in there. And when she did, Harrison persevered. Despite an enormous weight cut and competing at altitude, Harrison found a way to make things happen in the final round, and she showed solid fight IQ to make sure she walked out of there with the win. That’s all very, very good.

Add on that Harrison is an almost cartoonishly bad matchup for Peña and it’s extremely likely that Harrison adds UFC gold to her trophy collection soon.

Carla Esparza

“What will you remember about Carla Esparza’s career? First UFC strawweight champ, four UFC title fights, sixteen UFC appearances in almost ten years (TUF 20 Finale was December 2014)…”

Esparza retired on Saturday after a contentious split decision loss, ending a 27-fight, 14-year MMA career. The UFC even gave her a nice little send off video package. It was less than Esparza deserved but seeing how she is, like Peña, a two-time champion, I suspect she’ll ultimately get more flowers when she’s inducted into the Hall of Fame both for her title wins and for her role in pioneering the women’s weight classes in the UFC.

As for what I’ll remember about Carla’s career, the answer is easy: it’s her second title win, defeating Rose Namajunas at UFC 274 to reclaim the strawweight title 2611 days after she lost it.

Of the 18 fighters to reclaim belts, almost all of them did it a year or two after losing the title. Really, only Carla and Randy Couture had big periods of time between title reigns, and Carla’s was nearly two years more than Randy’s (his second and third heavyweight title runs). It’s an incredible accomplishment that basically no one remembers or talks about because it happened in literally the worst fight in modern UFC history.

But there’s another reason it sticks out to me: despite how bad the fight was, Esparza’s second title win was the real deal.

Esparza won the inaugural strawweight belt by virtue of winning The Ultimate Fighter, but the truth is that most people in the know at the time didn’t really put much stock in that. Yes, Esparza was the Invicta champ before TUF, but the belief was that the winner of Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Claudia Gadelha was the champion in waiting, a belief which was proven true. So though Esparza was the inaugural champ in name, there was a bit of a Nicco Montano “were you really the champ?” to it all. But once she won the belt a second time, all that is over. It’s like when Cormier won the heavyweight belt by knocking out Stipe: there were no asterisks to that title. Same for Esparza, and that’s why it will always stick out to me.

Thanks for reading, and thank you for everyone who sent in tweets (Xs?)! Do you have any burning questions about things at least somewhat related to combat sports? Then you’re in luck, because you can send your tweets to me, @JedKMeshew, and I will answer my favorite ones! Doesn’t matter if they’re topical or insane, just so long as they are good. Thanks again, and see y’all next week.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Antonio Trocoli was arrested this past Friday on misdemeanor battery charges in Huntington Beach, Calif., following an incident allegedly involving Mackenzie Dern’s ex-husband, Wesley Santos.

Huntington Beach police confirmed the UFC fighter’s arrest in an email to MMA Fighting on Wednesday.

“A subject by the name of Antonio Trocoli da Silveira Filho was arrested by the Huntington Beach Police Department on Oct. 4, 2024, at approximately 8:30 a.m. in the 8700 block of Dolphin Street, Huntington Beach,” Huntington Beach police said in a statement. “He was arrested for misdemeanor battery, and the case has been sent to the Orange County District Attorney’s Officer for review.”

At this time, the Orange County district attorney’s office has not officially brought a case against the fighter following his arrest. Messages for further details on the case were not returned at the time of publication.

While police weren’t able to provide any further details on Trocoli’s arrest, Santos—a professional surfer who was previously married to Dern and shares a daughter with her—claims he was the victim in the battery.

Santos sent a statement to MMA Fighting about the alleged incident while also claiming that a video exists that captured the altercation from this past Friday.

“Mackenzie Dern is my ex-wife and after our divorce she married Antonio ‘Malvado’ Jose Trocoli da Silveira Filho,” Santos said. “We divorced and have shared custody of our daughter Moa, but Antonio never stopped following me. We had a deal that he would not be part of the custody but he was always nearby, threatening and disturbing in every custody change. He sent messages through Moa, saying he would beat me up, and Moa told me clearly.

“I dropped my daughter at school this past Friday and was going back home on a skateboard when I saw a white car stop, and I started recording. It was Antonio. He got out of the car and punched me, and the car kept moving [along], and he ran back inside the car. Cops were called, there were several witnesses, and Antonio was arrested for battery.”

Trocoli is yet to address the incident or arrest publicly.

The Brazilian fighter was actually signed and then released from the UFC back in 2019 after his Contender Series win was overturned to a no-contest when he tested positive for a banned substance. Trocoli eventually came back to the UFC with his debut back in June when he fell to Shara Magomedov. He is currently scheduled to fight Tresean Gore at a UFC Fight Night event scheduled for Nov. 9.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

New UFC middleweight Torrez Finney is a big fan of The Rock.

Finney earned a contract after becoming the first fighter to earn three wins on Dana White’s Contender Series, picking up a first-round TKO of Abdellah Er-Ramy at DWCS Season 8, Week 8. Throughout his MMA career, the 25-year-old would sign off his post-fight interviews by paying homage to The Rock’s famous WWE tagline, “If you smell what The Rock is cooking,” by changing it too, “If you can smell what Torrez is cooking.”

Growing up playing pro wrestler on the back yard trampoline, it was meant to be.

“Well, I’m a big professional wrestling fan,” Finney told MMA Fighting. “I’m big into WWE, obviously, even AEW. I’ve watched those things. Now I don’t watch them as religiously as I used to growing up. But growing up, man, with all my cousins, we used to get on the trampoline. If anybody knows anything about [that], the trampoline is the WWE ring for a lot of kids. And when they tell you not to do those things at home, we surely did not listen.

“So we did all of that stuff at home and we’re there on the trampoline jumping up and down. We do all WWE moves, and I think that’s a part of, a little bit, what helps me be able to speak in that promo type way. We used to do that. We used to have our toy mic and we’re like, ‘Man, I’m coming on your birthday, and I’m coming to take that belt — when I have that belt with me and all my cousins and we were playing like that.”

Finney was a baby when The Rock, real name Dwayne Johnson, was making his initial run in the sports entertainment juggernaut. But with multiple returns to WWE, Finney got to experience the confidence and star-power Johnson would exude on the microphone.

So when it came to fighting for his first MMA amateur title, Finney knew exactly what to do once he got the opportunity.

“I’m a big fan of The Rock now, my favorite wrestler is The Undertaker,” Finney said. “I’m a big Undertaker fan, but I love The Rock. I love his promo cutting and I would just sit there and watch that and I used to do some of that type of stuff in high school. … But when I was getting into fighting, I said, ‘Man, I need to think of something [to say],’ and it was my second amateur fight. I won the title and one of my friends was like, what you gonna say after the fight? And I said, ‘I got something. Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to do this.’

“[After] my second amateur fight, I said, ‘I’ve been wanting to do this my entire life,’ and I go ‘If you can smell,’ and I said, ‘what the champ is cooking,’ because I was a champion at that time.”

Since then, “The Punisher” has gone on to win all 10 of his pro bouts, including his first two outings on Contender Series. After finishing Yuri Panerov in October 2023, Dana White elected not to award Finney a contract, asking him to get more experience first. Finney returned in August to win a decision against Cam Rowston, where White ripped Finney saying that he would get “absolutely decimated” in the UFC.

Finney has always remained true to himself. As the wins kept piling him, so was the excitement for his post-fight interviews. When he makes his eventual octagon debut, Finney may have the chance to say his signature after the biggest moment of his professional life.

“I just kept it rolling because kids and people was like, ‘Man, I’ve been looking forward to that,’” Finney explained. ”They look forward to that, ‘If you can smell.’ I even have fans, they look forward to that, ‘If you can smell what Torrez is cooking.’

“So it’s really cool man. And yeah, it’s funny like how the stuff you would do as a kid is now being gravitated and translated to what you do as an adult now.”

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