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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Ciryl Gane and Alexander Volkov have a new date for their rematch.

Following the news that their previously scheduled UFC 308 encounter had been postponed due to a Volkov knee injury, Gane (12-2) and Volkov (38-10) have officially been rescheduled for UFC 310 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. La Sueur initially reported that the bout had been moved to the Dec. 7 pay-per-view and the UFC announced the move Friday.

This clash of ranked heavyweights—Gane is currently No. 3 in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings, with Volkov a spot ahead at No. 2—is a rematch of their June 2021 encounter that Gane won by unanimous decision. Gane and Volkov met in a five-round bout that headlined a UFC APEX event in Las Vegas.

After defeating Volkov, Gane went on to beat Derrick Lewis win a vacant interim heavyweight title. He then challenged Francis Ngannou in a unification bout at UFC 270, where he lost by unanimous decision. He scored a first-round knockout of Tai Tuivasa to earn another title shot, this time for the heavyweight belt vacated by a departing Ngannou, but was submitted in a little over two minutes by Jon Jones.

Gane defeated Serghei Spivac via second-round TKO in his most recent outing in September 2023.

Volkov is on the best run of his UFC career, having won four straight fights for the first time since starting 4-0 for the promotion. The former Bellator heavyweight champion has knocked off Sergei Pavlovich, Tuivasa, Alexandr Romanov, and Jairzinho Rozenstruik during this stretch, and targets a long-awaited UFC title shot if he can earn an elusive win over Gane.

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Wow!
| BJPenn.com

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight finishers Nassourdine Imavov vs. Brendan Allen will go to war this weekend (Sat., Sept. 28, 2024) at UFC Paris inside Accor Arena in Paris, France.

These men are the two dark horses at 185 pounds. While all the title talk attention lies with hot-shot prospect, Khamzat Chimaev, or former champions like Robert Whittaker and Sean Strickland, Imavov and Allen are winning fights. Indeed, Imavov is 29 years old, has won two in a row, and recently advanced into the Top 5. Allen, meanwhile, has impressively won seven consecutive bouts, scoring finishes more often than not. He’s broken into the Top 10 already, and one more win for the 28-year-old should really break him into the immediate title mix.

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

Imavov vs Allen Betting Odds

• Nassourdine Imavov victory: -220
• Nassourdine Imavov via TKO/KO/DQ: +200
• Nassourdine Imavov via submission: +1000
• Nassourdine Imavov via decision: +165
• Brendan Allen victory: +180
• Brendan Allen via TKO/KO/DQ: +2000
• Brendan Allen via submission: +600
• Brendan Allen via decision: +350
• Odds via DraftKings Sportsbook

How Imavov Wins

Now that Israel Adesanya is slowing down, Imavov is perhaps Middleweight’s sharpest range striker. His jab is his best weapon, but the French standout really builds from the strike well, timing powerful connections and walking his opponents into big shots. Historically, cardio has been a concern, but Imavov has looked sharp in consecutive five-round fights.

In this match up, I’d like to see Imavov press his boxing advantage. Between the two, Allen is more the specialist, whereas Imavov has a go-to game plan for every fight. If Imavov can convince Allen to trade with him, that comfort and his hand speed advantage should combine to produce significant results.

Generally, Imavov likes to box at distance, but Allen is too powerful a kicker to let him dictate the space. Instead, Imavov should be looking to double and triple the jab to close range a bit before firing his right hand. Allen has a habit of running himself into the fence, trying to trade, then getting clobbered, and that’s something an athlete like Imavov should be able to capitalize upon.

How Allen Wins

Of the Middleweight up-and-comers, Allen might be the most rounded. Just on the feet, he’s a nasty kicker with power in his hands and a sneaky clinch game. Then, he’s a very solid wrestler with a penchant for snatching up rear naked chokes suddenly, a strangle which accounts for six of his UFC wins.

I’d like to see Allen offensive on all fronts. He should be kicking when Imavov goes to jab, and crowding him with knees, elbows, and takedown attempts when Imavov wants to throw combinations in the pocket. Oh, and if gets Imavov in a bad spot along the fence, Allen can definitely throw hands with his opponent — he’s far from helpless in that range.

We have seen Imavov struggle with being controlled in several fights, even in some of his victories. Allen is more dangerous on the canvas than most of Imavov’s past opponents, so that could be a viable path to victory. It only takes one takedown, trip, or off-balance for Allen to jump the back, and he’s more than a proven finisher there.

Ultimately, Allen gives himself the best chance at an upset by mixing up all his tools and denying Imavov a boxing match.

Imavov vs. Allen Prediction

The path to victory for Imavov is more consistent and clear.

I can see Allen winning this fight, certainly. He could catch Imavov with a big shot or sneak onto his back at some point. The problem is that it feels like he has to win via finish. His defense remains too much of a liability, particularly against an accurate and fast puncher like Imavov. The French talent’s jab is not going to miss very often, and once he lines up the range finder, the heavy blows follow soon afterward. Both men have flaws, but Imavov enters this fight better equipped to capitalize on his opponent’s issues than the opposite.

The jab wins the day, controls the distance, and eventually sets up a right hand finish.

Prediction: Imavov via knockout (+200)

Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC Paris fight card right here, starting with the ESPN+ “Prelims” matches online, which are scheduled to begin at 12 p.m. ET, before the main card start time at 3 p.m. ET (also on ESPN+).

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

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Benoit Saint Denis had a huge opportunity in front of him at UFC 299, and he wasn’t going to let anything stop him from taking it, including a brutal fight camp, as well as a staph infection.

Dustin Poirier ended up knocking Saint Denis out in Round 2 of the March co-main event in an incredible battle. As Saint Denis prepares to headline Saturday’s UFC Paris event in front of his home crowd, he reflected on the lessons learned from challenging one of the greatest lightweights of all time.

“I learned a lot,” Saint Denis told MMA Fighting. “First, I learned that you have to underestimate nobody, especially top fighters like that, and you can’t go out there not being healthy. That’s huge. But, despite that, I learned a lot. Nothing comes by mistake, I believe if I had this staph infection this late into my camp, it’s because I was stressed and I took no pleasure in my training camp.

“I had a lot of stuff, new stuff to manage that I was not used to. When you become somebody in the sport, you then have the shoulders of a CEO because you have all the staff and the management around you, a lot of people and you deal with the new stuff that is difficult to when it’s brand new. It takes time to have that experience. I believe being at the top is also a [tough] experience, and being able to manage your schedule and to still enjoy the process of being a fighter. It’s the most important thing and to make the people that are with you proud of your performance, and to have people with you that you want to make proud of the performance you are gonna deliver.

“So this is important. We made a lot of adjustments and I’m really happy now. And I took pleasure in training and I will take pleasure in my fight.”

Saint Denis revealed his staph infection following the loss, which led to a horrible weight cut, and just a bad fight week in general. Deep down, Saint Denis considered withdrawing, but after weighing his options, he felt either way could be potentially disrespectful to Poirier; face him at less than 100 percent, but still have the chance to score the biggest win of his career, or feel like “The Diamond” wasted weeks and weeks of training to not fight.

“It was disrespectful to go out there against a guy of this level being in such a bad condition,” Saint Denis said. “But it was also disrespectful to call the fight [off] during fight week [for a fight] the guy has been preparing hard for. It was a dilemma for me and it had been bringing a lot of stress during the fight week to not know what to do. It was a hard situation.

“You know, I believe guys like Khabib [Nurmagomedov], and top [teams] that they have a lot of experience. They have called a lot of fights during the fight week because of a bad cut, or because of a staph infection. And yeah, it was hard for me because me and my team, we are coming, not out of nowhere, but I was the first guy of my team to co-headline such an event and to be at this level though. We don’t have experience with those kind of opportunities. So Tuesday [of fight week] we [made] the decision to go through and to do whatever I can in the condition that [I was] in.

“It was a difficult, it was bad times but I think like I said, it doesn’t come by accident. I have been through this situation because I had a lack of professionalism in managing my stuff [with] my weight, and a lot of stuff that I had to professionalize. .. It was a huge fight, huge opportunity for me, but it was a training camp where I was al almost in depression. So I believe if you [want to perform], you want to have huge performance, you have to be happy to do what you love, and and then be happy to deliver the best performance you can to everybody.”

With hindsight being what it is, the lessons learned outweighed the results from UFC 299. Poirier went on to challenge for the lightweight title, coming up short in a Fight of the Year contender at UFC 302 in June.

Saint Denis didn’t let that get him down, and in the end, the story of that loss is an important chapter in the “God of War” story.

“I cannot have regrets because it’s a lesson,” Saint Denis said. “All the stuff that went bad [before the fight I had to manage], but I have absolutely no regrets because I was lucky enough that the fight went well for me for as long as it went. So I’m a lucky man.”

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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

Thursday’s UFC in-5 game

Wednesday’s game

Tuesday’s 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

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Renato Moicano and Benoit Saint Denis are ready to shine in the City of Light.

Saturday’s UFC Paris headliners successfully made weight for their lightweight bout at Friday’s official weigh-ins, with both fighters making use of the one-pound allowance and coming in at 156 pounds.

Moicano currently holds the No. 12 spot at lightweight in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings, with Saint Denis close behind at No. 14. This is the first main event for Saint Denis, who hails from France.

The official weigh-ins mostly went off without a hitch, with the exception of preliminary bantamweight fighter Ailin Perez. The Argentinian standout weighed in at 136.5 pounds, 0.5 pounds over the limit, and looked awful on the scale. She was visibly shaking and had to be helped to the back after her weight was registered.

The UFC has confirmed that Perez’s bout with Darya Zheleznyakova proceeds as a catchweight with Perez forfeiting 20 percent of her purse as penalty.

See official UFC Paris weigh-in results below.

Main Card (ESPN+ at 3 p.m. ET)

Renato Moicano (156) vs. Benoit Saint Denis (156)

Nassourdine Imavov (186) vs. Brendan Allen (186)

William Gomis (146) vs. Joanderson Brito (146)

Kevin Jousset (169) vs. Bryan Battle (170)

Morgan Charriere (146) vs. Gabriel Miranda (146)

Fares Ziam (156) vs. Matt Frevola (156)

Preliminary Card (ESPN+ at 12 p.m. ET)

Ion Cutelaba (205) vs. Ivan Erslan (206)

Oumar Sy (205) vs. Da Un Jung (205)

Ludovit Klein (155) vs. Roosevelt Roberts (155)

Taylor Lapilus (136) vs. Vince Morales (135)

Darya Zheleznyakova (135) vs. Ailin Perez (136.5)*

Daniel Barez (125) vs. Victor Altamirano (126)

Nora Cornolle (136) vs. Jacqueline Cavalcanti (135)

Bolaji Oki (156) vs. Chris Duncan (156)

*Perez missed weight. Her bout with Darya Zheleznyakova proceeds as a catchweight with Perez forfeiting 20 percent of her purse as penalty.

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