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Don’t worry about Bo Nickal’s inactivity.

Three-time NCAA Division I national champion Nickal is gearing up for his fourth Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fight against Scotland’s Paul Craig, which is set to go down at UFC 309 inside Madison Square Garden on Nov. 16.

Nickal, 28, has not fought since the iconic UFC 300 card, where he visited the second round for the first time and eventually finished Cody Brundage via submission (watch highlights).

Recently, a UFC fan questioned the undefeated fighter’s inactivity on Twitter.

“Bro you are a complete disappointment,” the fan wrote. “You finish all your fights within 2mins, take ZERO damage, yet you go home, sit down for MONTHS at a time while all your hype and momentum dies. Why? Makes no sense whatsoever. This is why nobody is out here looking for you, this is why when you’re not fighting nobody cares. You need to wake tf up because it’s so damn annoying”

The critical tweet prompted the mega-prospect to reply.

“I’m training brother,” Nickal wrote. “Not like these other guys who sit on the couch when they’re not in camp. I’ve been fighting professionally since June of 2022. Anyone else near my position has over a decade of experience and 3-5x as many fights. I’m on my own path and having fun, just enjoy the show.”

Nickal competed two times in his UFC rookie year (2023) and will get two fights this year, which is perfectly fine for a prospect that the UFC is trying to build slowly.

While it would be excellent for the former college wrestling star to fight more often, rushing him could end in disaster like many other UFC prospects.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Kevin Lee is willing to take the road less traveled to get back into the UFC, or a major MMA promotion — which included offering to compete on Dana White’s Contender Series.

As Lee said in a past interview with Anik & Florian, the UFC denied his request, and now, the one-time interim UFC lightweight title challenger has two fights on the books. First up, his MMA return this Saturday when he faces Thiago Oliveira at Lights Out Championship 17 in his home state of Michigan. The bout marks Lee’s first fight since a 55-second stoppage loss to Rinat Fakhretdinov at UFC Vegas 76 in July 2023.

When asked why the Contender Series thought didn’t come to fruition, Lee still seemed a bit surprised.

“I think it [made] sense,” Lee told MMA Fighting. “I don’t know exactly what the problem is. I honestly don’t know. It’s not the numbers, right? I’ve heard Dana kind of brag about Belal Muhammad when he wrapped the belt around him and he bragged that he got more views than any other champion — and it was like 20 million views or something. But my brother [former fighter-turned-famous food vlogger Keith Lee] did a small video for me getting ready for my last fight in the APEX and, keep this in mind, this is a prelim APEX card fight, and my brother did a post and he got 12 million views compared to a champion that did 20 million views and Dana’s bragging about it, so I don’t think that’s the issue.

“I don’t think the issue is me not willing to show up and put on great fights because that’s all I’ve ever done. Honestly I can’t point to what the issue is. I don’t know. I offered to do that fight. I think it would have been big. I think it would have been great for Dana White’s Contender Series, but the offer is off the table at this point. I offered it. They said no, we’ll move on. No sweat off my brow.”

Lee now heads back to the regional MMA scene to face Oliveira, and less than two months later, the 32-year-old debuts for Jorge Masvidal’s Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA promotion in Biloxi, Miss., at their eighth event, where he fights Saul Almeida.

For “The Motown Phenom,” the booking with Almeida happened quickly, and he couldn’t say yes fast enough.

“Anybody who is a professional fighter knows having that date really sets the training in motion,” Lee explained. “It really kind of gives you a sense of purpose almost. I’ve been fighting for a long, long time, so it’s not like I’m hung up on fighting for the UFC. That’s where I built my career and I feel like I’ve given a lot to the company, but if that’s not what’s next, then that’s not what’s next. I’ll fight somewhere else.

“And that’s what I’m going to do and maybe it is a part of it that I got to show my worth to them still. It’s a little crazy to say that at this point in my career given how much I’ve actually done for the company. But I think I’m very opinionated, and I think that may have rubbed Dana the wrong [way] a few times. I made some comments about the APEX, and I guess that may be [something that bothered him]. But listen, this is what I do. This is part of being me. If people ask me a question, I give them a true and honest answer. And at the same time, I’ve never done anybody wrong in this industry — from media guys, to publicists, the PR, everybody in the backstage of the UFC, I feel like everybody I’ve touched, I’ve done right. So at the end of the day I hold my head up, we fight this next fight on Saturday.”

The journey back to where Lee feels he belongs in the current pantheon of the sport begins this weekend. On paper, Lee would certainly be a heavy favorite against the 30-fight pro in Oliveira, but that doesn’t mean there’s a lot of weight on his shoulders in regards to where the result may take him.

“A little more relaxed, but at the same time, there’s still a ton of pressure when I go back home and I’m not a world champion,” Lee said. “Yeah, sure, I fought for a belt, but I’m not a world champion. So I feel like I still have a lot left to prove, and yeah there’s a ton of pressure. With experience comes a little bit more relaxation. With experience comes like, ‘OK, I just know how these feelings go, and I know how to control them.’ But there’s a ton of pressure and I’m definitely feeling it for this fight.

“I’m going to whoop his ass. I’m going to show there’s levels to the fight game, and at the end of the day, I’m going to show that I’m back and I’m healthy, and I’m ready to compete at 155 pounds. I know this fight is at 170, but that’s because of the short notice. I’m coming back, I’m ready to compete at 155 pounds, and [show] I can still compete with the best of the 155 pounders.”

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Being released from the UFC feels like a gut-punch to most fighters but Vince Morales took it as a personal challenge.

While he amassed a respectable record in the promotion, Morales was also sort of learning on the job as he competed against some of the best fighters in the world. When he got his walking papers after two straight losses, Morales didn’t get upset as much as he got fired up.

“I’m a stubborn bastard,” Morales told MMA Fighting. “I don’t like thinking that because I’m not in the UFC or because they say I’m not good enough that I can’t hang and I can’t do what I love. I just kind of doubled down on myself and I think it’s showing.

“I’ve been enjoying it more. When I was in the UFC, I think I was spending a lot of time trying not to lose the fight and now I’m in there to fight and just so happens a win takes care of itself.”

Morales definitely stayed busy during his brief hiatus from the UFC. He fought five times over 15 months while putting together a perfect 5-0 record including four finishes.

That said, Morales admits it wasn’t easy finding quality opponents at first because he had so much UFC experience that he’s not a pushover for anybody. Morales says he accepted nine different opponents at one point before finally getting somebody to sign on the dotted line.

“I was like how the hell are we going to do this?” Morales said. “I was telling my managers and they were like ‘just remain calm, keep focusing on what I’m doing’ and they’ll take care of that stuff. I’m like my bills say otherwise, we need to get to work!

“Thankfully, I got tough fights. It doesn’t make sense for me to go out there and fight winnable fights. I want to fight some tough fights that I don’t know what’s going to happen. Like I’m going to hit you and we’re going to see who can hit harder. That excites me. That keeps me going.”

Following an impressive submission win with a rare Peruvian necktie to beat fellow UFC veteran Hunter Azure in August, Morales kept a close eye on potential opportunities ahead.

He was open for business if PFL or another major organization came calling but Morales always had returning to the UFC at the top of his wish list.

“I think maybe right after my fight with Hunter [Azure] I was looking at upcoming cards and I can’t remember where I saw it but I saw Taylor Lapilus vs. TBA [at UFC Paris],” Morales said. “I was like I’ll keep that in mind.

“I didn’t think about it again but then on Tuesday morning before sparring I opened up Twitter and Tyson Nam, who I’m good friends with, he shared a post saying he wants to step in to fight Taylor Lapilus because they were still looking for an opponent. I told him we could Roshambo for it and the winner goes. I was just kind of jokingly poking fun because that’s where my mind was stepping in for these [short notice fights].”

It wasn’t long after that exchange with Nam that Morales got a call from his manager with news.

“My manager Facetime’s me, which I thought was a little weird at first,” Morales said. “After sparring as I was pulling into my garage, he’s like ‘what’s up Vince, how you doing?’ I was like ‘good, how are you … it’s weird you’re not right to the point.’

“He said ‘how’s your weight?’ I was like ‘weight’s always good, don’t worry about the weight, why what do you got?’ He said ‘how do you feel about Paris?’ I said ‘UFC?’ and he said ‘yeah’ and I told him shut up. I didn’t believe him at first.”

Morales confessed that the Facetime call was supposed to catch him either getting emotional or erupting with excitement that he was back in the UFC but neither of those things happened.

Instead, he immediately shifted his focus towards Lapilus and winning in his return to the UFC because that was suddenly all that mattered to him.

“I realized he Facetime’d me to get a reaction but I was locked and I was only thinking about the fight and the opponent,” Morales said. “I had to reach back in and pull some of the feelings for it because I’m not too focused on that until after I beat this dude up.

“That’s my primary goal right now. Great, I’m back. We can think about that later. I’m here now and I want to go fight this dude.”

A lot of attention is going to be paid to Morales coming back to the UFC but he’s not really getting lost in that too much ahead of his fight.

More than anything, Morales just wants to show that he’s a better fighter now than he was before so he prefers to think of this as a fresh start that just so happens to be in the biggest MMA promotion on the planet.

“I think a bunch of people want to focus on ‘Vince is back in the UFC’ and I’m not looking at like that,” Morales said. “I’m looking it like I’m here now. Mentally, physically, I’m just a much better MMA fighter now.

“I didn’t want to point fingers or anything on the losses or whether I thought I won, it was in my control to do better and I didn’t. So I focused on getting better and being better. I think that propelled me along with leadership from [my head coach] John Wood. He’s the man. He’s really helped me. We didn’t start over but we started with a new base line once we got cut and just realized where we needed to fix things and things have been fixed.”

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

A high-stakes light heavyweight matchup is set for the UFC’s return to Madison Square Garden.

The promotion announced that Nikita Krylov and Azamat Murzakanov are set to fight at UFC 309 on Nov. 16 at the world-renowned arena in New York.

Krylov returns for the first time in nearly two years. In his most recent outing, the 32-year-old finished Ryan Spann in the first round at UFC Las Vegas in March 2023. Prior to that, Krylov earned a unanimous decision against Volkan Oezdemir, and finished two-time title challenger Alexander Gustafsson.

Murzakanov is 14-0 as a pro fighter, including a 4-0 start to his UFC tenure. The 35-year-old recently stopped Alonzo Menifield in the second round at UFC Abu Dhabi in August. “The Professional” also holds octagon wins over Dustin Jacoby, Devin Clark, and Tafon Nchukwi.

UFC 309 is headlined by a heavyweight title fight as champion Jon Jones defends against former champion Stipe Miocic.

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Cheap Shot Avoided
| BJPenn.com

Chump change for the TKO billionaires.

The UFC antitrust case has reached a settlement … again.

The promotion was hit with a class-action lawsuit back in 2014 from multiple fighters, including Cung Le, Jon Fitch, and Nate Quarry, among others, accusing the mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion and its operators of violating Section 2 of the Sherman Act.

Both sides have agreed to a new payout of $ 375 million after the court struck down their first (and less expensive) agreement.

“On September 26, 2024, TKO reached an agreement with the plaintiffs to settle all claims asserted in the Le case for an aggregate amount of $ 375 million payable in installments over an agreed-upon period of time by the Company and its subsidiaries following the court’s denial of an earlier proposed settlement agreement,” the promotion said in today’s statement. “The terms of the Updated Settlement Agreement have been memorialized in a long form agreement, which will be submitted to the court for approval. The Company anticipates that the settlement amount will be deductible for tax purposes.”

A bigger payout for plaintiffs … but a far cry from the billions they were seeking.

The original lawsuit was filed in 2014 and later consolidated with related cases, including the most recent action from Kajan Johnson in 2021. Johnson made headlines back in early 2017 after getting booted from the UFC fighter retreat for his outspoken views on the fighter-unfriendly Reebok deal.

The Johnson case “is in very early stages” and a motion to dismiss the complaint “remains pending,” according to UFC.

“We believe this new proposed settlement for the Le case is an excellent result for the class of UFC fighters we represent,” attorneys told MMA Fighting. “If approved, it would provide immediate monetary relief to over one-thousand fighters, who would each recover a significant enhancement to what he or she earned from the UFC during his or her fighting career. We look forward to presenting the proposed settlement to the Court for preliminary approval in the near future. We also plan on vigorously pursuing claims on behalf of the fighter class in the later-filed Johnson case, including claims for injunctive relief against the UFC.”

The new settlement awaits approval from the presiding judge.

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