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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Have we already witnessed Conor McGregor’s final performance in the UFC?

With more than three years passed since his last appearance and no sign when he may compete again, McGregor’s future seems more in question now than ever before. In fact, Matt Brown has long maintained that McGregor was never going to return but his argument was only strengthened after Michael Chandler moved on from a showdown against the Irish superstar after sitting out for nearly two years waiting for the fight to happen.

“It’s clear — he’s not grinding the way a guy getting ready to compete should be grinding,” Brown said about McGregor on The Fighter vs. The Writer. “I’m still on that same thought process of look we’re probably never going to see Conor again. If we do, I would not be blown away, I’ll say I was wrong, whatever. I don’t think we’re seeing him again in the UFC cage.”

Brown believes there are a myriad of reasons why McGregor won’t likely fight again but perhaps the strongest indication actually came back in 2021.

That was the night McGregor suffered a gruesome broken leg in a trilogy fight against Dustin Poirier, which served as his second straight loss in a row. Looking back now, Brown says he saw something change in McGregor that he just can’t get back again.

“When that [fight] happened, it looked to me that Dustin took his soul that day,” Brown said. “I think we all felt that. Maybe we didn’t know it would be as severe as it is. We thought Conor’s a warrior, he’ll be back soon. But when you back and you watch that fight, Dustin took his f*cking soul.

“I thought Nate Diaz might have taken a little bit the first time [he beat Conor] but Conor bounced back from it. Whatever Dustin did to him, I think Dustin actually took his soul, and he no longer had the desire to compete anymore.”

Of course, McGregor would likely disagree considering his constant calls to get booked for fights and complaints that he’s been sidelined far longer than he ever intended after recovering from the injury.

UFC CEO Dana White said he expects McGregor back sometime in early 2025 but he wasn’t willing to contemplate an opponent until the former two-division champion is actually ready to return.

With Chandler out of the running for now — he could obviously still end up as McGregor’s opponent after he competes at UFC 309 — Brown just isn’t sure what options are available.

“If he comes, who does he come back against?” Brown said. “The division has moved on. The Conor of 2016 is not the Conor of today. I can’t think of a single good matchup for him in the top 10. There’s a million lightweights in the world but he’s got to fight a top 10 guy. He’s Conor McGregor. There’s no way he comes back fighting No. 20 or No. 25 or something.

“He has to fight a top 10 guy. Who’s a decent matchup for him in the top 10 to come back [against] after four years?”

While there is no denying McGregor’s status as the biggest draw in the UFC, Brown doesn’t know if his name carries much more weight than that these days.

It’s been eight years since McGregor last held UFC gold and he hasn’t fought for a UFC title in six years.

A win over McGregor certainly results in a big paycheck and a lot of attention but Brown says that’s really the most anybody is getting if he actually comes back.

“The problem now that everybody would have, too, it is just a money fight,” Brown explained. “It’s not going to get you closer to a title beating Conor McGregor, other than bringing your name value up.

“Beating Conor McGregor, you might skip the line a little bit because you just blew your name up a lot but no one’s going to be like ‘you deserve a title fight now that you just beat Conor McGregor.’”

Listen to new episodes of The Fighter vs. The Writer every Tuesday with audio only versions of the podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeartRadio

MMA Fighting – All Posts

Pena speaks out
| BJPenn.com

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s Bantamweight talents Kayla Harrison vs. Ketlen Vieira will square off this weekend (Sat., Oct. 5, 2024) at UFC 307 inside Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Harrison is very obviously the next — only? — big thing at 135 pounds. The former Judo Olympian and long-time PFL queen has lofty expectations on her formidable shoulders, but she lived up to the hype in her debut, making weight and steamrolling Holly Holm (watch highlights). Many thought that victory would earn her a title shot, but UFC has opted to bring her up more slowly, which at least creates an entertaining title eliminator here.

It feels like we’ve been waiting for a Vieira title run for some time. The Brazilian is clearly better than most of the Bantamweight pack, but she’s come up just short in a handful of competitive and important fights. All the same, turning away Harrison would be huge, and she has won three of her last four.

Let’s take a closer look at the betting odds and strategic keys for each athlete:

Photo by George Tewkesbury/PA Images via Getty Images

Harrison vs. Vieira Betting Odds

• Kayla Harrison victory: -1000
• Kayla Harrison via TKO/KO/DQ: TBD
• Kayla Harrison via submission: TBD
• Kayla Harrison via decision: TBD
• Ketlen Vieira victory: +650
• Ketlen Vieira via TKO/KO/DQ: TBD
• Ketlen Vieira via submission: TBD
• Ketlen Vieira via decision: TBD
• Odds via DraftKings Sportsbook

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

How Harrison Wins

Kayla Harrison is an absolute powerhouse. Her Judo is the very definition of world-class, but she also deserves credit for developing the rest of her game. American Top Team has taught her enough wrestling and striking fundamentals to really mix it up in a smart manner, and that physicality is always a huge edge.

I’m not sure I see any reason why Harrison has to divert from the usual strategy here. Vieira has solid Judo and strength herself, but obviously Harrison has her outmatched in both regards. If Harrison wants a clinch takedown, she probably gets it within a handful of seconds. Yana Kunitskaya controlled Vieira in the clinch, after all.

It’s also not like Vieira is a particularly mobile striker or huge hitter. Harrison just has to control top position and manage her gas tank, and she’s likely to dominate at the very least.

Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

How Vieira Wins

Vieira is a fairly well-rounded contender. Her kickboxing is rugged and effective, and she does have plenty of experience in both jiu-jitsu and Judo. As the massive underdog here, however, her game plan is going to have to be a little more complex than the usual approach.

Vieira’s jab reads like her most important weapon here. I’m reminded of one of her best wins, which involved bloodying up Miesha Tate with the jab while denying takedown attempts. Harrison is a different animal entirely, but the core idea remains the same: it’s hard to wrestle effectively when on the back foot getting one’s nose smashed in.

In addition, we have seen Harrison slow down over the course of a grueling fight with a physically strong opponent in Larissa Pacheco … and that was without a draining weight cut all the way to 135-pounds. There’s a real chance that if Vieira makes the fight continually difficult for Harrison — meaning active jabs, body shots, hard-nosed clinch wrestling and getups on the floor — that Harrison will fatigue even in a three-round fight.

Nobody is that good when they’re dead tired.

Photo by Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Harrison vs. Vieira Prediction

There’s not enough here for me to pull the trigger on such a massive underdog.

Vieira is an interesting task for Harrison, and I’d give her a better chance than 10-1 … but not by a huge amount. She’s been controlled too often by lesser fighters than Harrison to back with any sort of confidence. It’s just a lot more likely that the Judo Olympic gold medalist scores takedowns and rides out this victory from top position to score her first UFC title shot.

Prediction: Harrison via decision

Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 307 fight card right here, starting with the early ESPN+ “Prelims” matches online, which are scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. ET (simulcast on ESPNews at 8 p.m. ET), before the pay-per-view (PPV) main card start time at 10 p.m. ET (also on ESPN+).

To check out the latest and greatest UFC 307: “Pereira vs. Rountree” news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Khalil Rountree isn’t harboring any animosity towards Sean Strickland after he received an apology from the former UFC middleweight champion.

The friction between the fighters dates back to a video Strickland posted on social media where he blasted Rountree for several alleged altercations that happened while they were training together. Strickland even claimed that Rountree called the UFC to complain about him after he made an off-handed remark about his ex-girlfriend.

“If you met him, you would hate him,” Strickland said. “You need to trust me on this, he sucks.”

On Wednesday ahead of his fight at UFC 307, Rountree addressed light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira bringing in Strickland as a training partner to prepare for him. That bit of strategy didn’t bother him, but Rountree revealed that he actually received an apology from Strickland when they ran into each other a few months ago.

“Honestly, the last interaction that I had with Sean Strickland was at the UFC [Performance Institute], it was literally the day after Dan Ige stepped in that fight [on] like three hours, four hours’ notice or something like that,” Rountree said during UFC 307 media day. “I was going into the P.I., I saw Dan Ige, walked right up to him, gave him his props for having balls of steel just going in there on such short notice.

“Out of the blue, Sean Strickland comes up to me. He approached me and just said ‘Khalil, I apologize, I’m a dumb ass, I actually kind of like you. I think you’re a liberal but overall, I like you or respect you.’ Something along those lines.”

The conversation ended with Rountree acknowledging that Strickland was sorry for what he said in the past and he’s not worried much about what might be said in the future.

If anything, Rountree was happy to put the turmoil behind him.

“What I took it as was almost like squashing whatever beef,” Rountree said. “Just saying I am who I am, I’m going to say what I’m going to say, but I’m coming here to personally shake your hand and tell you I think you’re a liberal, but to a certain level, I respect you. It was like that. I took it as you’re coming here to make the peace and I kind of left it at that.

“Now anything moving forward, anything that’s said or whatever, I got that stored in my memory bank. So I know that there’s really no issue. It’s really just talk and I won’t concern myself with it.”

When it comes to his title fight this weekend, Rountree was obviously thankful for the UFC for the opportunity but he hasn’t paid much attention to the reaction afterwards.

There has been some criticism that Rountree didn’t actually do enough to earn a shot at UFC gold, especially with a proven top-five contender like Magomed Ankalaev waiting in the wings.

It turns out none of that bothered Rountree too much because he hasn’t even seen it.

“I didn’t pay attention,” Rountree said. “I’ve got no space, I’ve got no time for other people’s opinions. Look, I’m fighting for the title on Saturday. As soon as I got the news, that was all that I’ve been focused on. If it upsets people, it’s none of my business.

“My business is to do what the UFC calls me to do. Everyone’s going to have opinions even after this. I can’t let it be my concern.”

If there’s one aspect to the fight that Rountree has embraced it’s the potential storyline about him taking out another world class kickboxer to become UFC champion.

He’s already beaten kickboxing legend Gokhan Saki and holds a win over GLORY kickboxing veteran Dustin Jacoby. Now Rountree faces a former GLORY champion in Pereira with a UFC title on the line.

“I think it’s kind of cool,” Rountree said. “It’s definitely a fun way to look at it, especially from a fan standpoint. If they see Alex as the final boss and I get to go and take my shot at the final boss. I think it’s really cool.

“I think it adds excitement. It adds interest and anticipation. So yeah, I’d like to entertain it.”

MMA Fighting – All Posts

After retirement I'm almost certain Izzy & Alex will be friends. submitted by /u/brklynfightfan [link] [comments]

MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Think you can figure out which UFC fighter we’re talking about? You’ll get five clues to figure him out.

We’re back for another day of the SB Nation UFC in-5 daily trivia game, and we’re switching to a system of a new article each day for the game.

We tried using a single article for the game, updated with the latest game each day, but it was creating a bit of an unwieldy experience in the comments. So, we’ll have the current day’s game plus the previous three days in each new article. That way, you can catch up if you miss a day.

Game instructions are at the bottom if you’re new to the game!

What we need from you

1. Play the game
2. Share your result in the comments and on social media
3. Provide feedback (Google Form or in comments below)

Today’s UFC in-5 game

Wednesday’s UFC in-5 game

Tuesday’s UFC in-5 game

Monday’s UFC in-5 game

Saturday’s UFC in-5 game

The goal of the game is to guess the correct random UFC fighter player with the help of up to five clues. We’ll mix in BOTH ACTIVE AND RETIRED FIGHTERS. It won’t be easy to figure it out in one or two guesses, but some of you might be able to nail it. It will be a mix of well-known players and some “that guys” that we haven’t thought of in some time. The game will appear in slot #3 of the MMA Fighting layout each morning, with occasional movement later in the day.

After you correctly guess the player, you can click “Share Results” to share how you did down in the comments and on social media.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

After retirement I'm almost certain Izzy & Alex will be friends. submitted by /u/brklynfightfan [link] [comments]

MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

No takedowns
| BJPenn.com