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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Mike Tyson has been in the boxing game a long time, and he’s happy to see Dana White jump in.

Ahead of his Nov. 15 fight with Jake Paul, Tyson appeared on the It Is What It Is podcast, where discussed a number of topics, including the White’s potential foray into the squared circle. White recently expressed renewed interest in his oft-discussed Zuffa Boxing promotion, and Tyson believes that the UFC CEO’s promotional style will translate perfectly to this new endeavor.

“That’s going to be the best thing to happen to boxing, just like UFC,” Tyson said. “If you’re in UFC, and if anybody’s booing the fight, you’re not going to see that guy. His next fight is going to be in South Dakota somewhere. Only good fights. If you don’t have a good fight, you ain’t never going to see that guy again.

“Not like boxing, ‘This guy’s going to fight next month again? We don’t want to see that.’ … if any fights stink, you’re not back in the UFC no more, you’re never going to see those guys again.”

Tyson specifically mentioned Shakur Stevenson as an example of a star boxer that continues to receive a lukewarm reception from the fans. Stevenson recently defended his WBC lightweight title with a lopsided decision win over Artem Harutyunyan in a bout that was lambasted by fans and media for a lack of action.

The 58-year-old Tyson expects to draw plenty of eyeballs for his return to the ring in November when he takes on Paul, though that matchup has also drawn its fair share of criticism. Tyson is 31 years older than Paul, who rose to fame as a YouTuber and social media influencer, and is competing professionally for the first time since 2005. He most recently squared off with fellow boxing legend Roy Jones Jr. in an exhibition bout in November 2020 on a card that coincidentally featured Paul fighting basketball star Nate Robinson on the undercard.

Asked for his thoughts on Paul as a boxer, Tyson was brief.

“I don’t know,” Tyson said. “He’s improved since the first time he fought. I started him off, I started Jake off. I let him fight on my undercard four years ago, no one knew who the hell he was. So I started him and, most likely, it looks like I’m going to finish him.”

Much of the criticism surrounding Tyson vs. Paul are concerns over Tyson’s health. The two were actually supposed to fight this past July, but a pre-fight medical scare ahead of that date led to the bout being postponed.

Tyson didn’t speak directly about his own health situation, but he was asked to comment on whether he felt frequently concussed NFL quarterback Tua Tagovailoa should continue playing football and his answer may have reflected his thoughts on his own career and that of other combat sports lifers.

“Let me explain this to you, there’s some athletes you have to protect them from themselves, because they would rather die than quit,” Tyson said. “So that answers the question.”

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Aljamain Sterling wants Diego Lopes next.

Sterling was supposed to face Movsar Evloev in a pivotal featherweight matchup at UFC 307 on Oct. 5. However, earlier this month, Sterling suffered an injury in training that forced him out of the fight. According to Sterling, he suffered a low-grade tear in his elbow that won’t require surgery, leading him to hope for a December return, but in the meantime, he’s rehabbing and trying to stay ready for Evloev.

“Just a lot of PT right now, trying to get healthy, and training around the injury,” Sterling told The Schmo. “I’ve got to stay in shape in case Movsar does decide to take the fight for December. I don’t want to be starting camp with no cardio whatsoever. I want to make sure I’m building and keeping that momentum so that if we’re ready to go for December, whether it’s him or somebody else, I’ll be in shape and ready to get in there.”

But Evloev may not be an option anymore. In light of Sterling’s injury, both Evloev and the UFC are searching for a replacement opponent for UFC 307, though nothing has been made official at this time. Should Sterling get replaced, he already has his sights set on another possible opponent.

“Maybe Diego Lopes?” Sterling said. “Maybe that will be a battle for the [No.] 3 [ranking]. I think Diego rising to stardom, his rise in the sport in the UFC has been huge and nothing short of inspiring, to be honest. I’m happy for the guy…

“If we’re talking the next best fight, if Movsar declines, I just don’t know who else would he fight? But if you give me the option, I always wanted Brian Ortega so I could get the closest spot to the top, and now that next closest guy is Diego Lopes. That’s all it is. It has nothing to do with what this guy did, it’s the name value, what it gets me, risk vs. reward. If I’m going to risk it for the biscuit, that’s the guy I’d risk it for.”

Lopes recently picked up the biggest win of his career, taking a unanimous decision over Ortega at UFC 306 earlier this month. The win elevated Lopes to No. 5 at featherweight in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings, and the 2023 Rookie of the Year already dismissed Evloev’s call for a rematch as he instead targets either a title fight or title eliminator.

Sterling most recently competed at UFC 300 where he won a unanimous decision over Calvin Kattar in his featherweight debut. The former UFC bantamweight champion is 24-4 overall in his MMA career.

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No Love From Peers?
| BJPenn.com

Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson will look to turn back time when he laces up the gloves for one final boxing match against celebrity pugilist Jake Paul, a professionally sanctioned showdown scheduled for Fri., Nov. 15, 2024 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The Netflix-streamed fight card will also feature the super lightweight title fight rematch between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano, as well as the influencer battle pitting Neeraj Goyat against Whindersson Nunes.

Here’s the latest Netflix lineup:

Tyson vs. Paul Netflix Main Event (10 p.m. ET):

Heavyweight: Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul | Eight rounds

Tyson vs. Paul Netflix Undercard (8 p.m. ET):

140 lbs.: Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano | 10 rounds for super lightweight title
147 lbs.: Mario Barrios vs. Abel Ramos | 12 rounds for WBC welterweight title
160 lbs.: Neeraj Goyat vs. Whindersson Nunes | Four rounds

“This is taking the chance to fight somebody as vicious as Mike can be,” Paul said during Fanatics Fest earlier this year in New York. “You got to risk it for the biscuit. That’s the name of the game. I’m here to make history. I’m here for a challenge. I’m here to fight one of the most dangerous men in all of boxing. No one that ever did anything great got there with ease or by an easy, non-bumpy road. I’m here to challenge myself. He’s vicious. He’s a killer. I know all of these things. He has one-punch knockout power. He’s the greatest heavyweight of all time. But I will prove all the haters wrong.”

For much more on the upcoming Paul vs. Tyson boxing spectacle click here.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Sean O’Malley continues to troll Merab Dvalishvili.

At UFC 306, Dvalishvili earned a unanimous decision win over O’Malley, claiming the bantamweight title. In the immediate aftermath, O’Malley said he had “no excuses” however, “Suga” quickly changed his tune, later arguing that he should have won three rounds of the fight and arguing he was still the bantamweight champion. In response, Dvalishvili fired back at O’Malley with a video mocking the former champion as his “son.”

And now O’Malley has responded.

On Monday, O’Malley dropped another video on his social media, mocking Dvalishvili and their fight, saying he was working on things he learned in his last fight, before holding a heavy bag and lightly kneeing it, then feigning getting hurt to the body and head afterward.

“What’s up guys. I’ve got surgery on Oct. 3, [but that] doesn’t mean I’m not going to continue to improve and take away things I learned from my last fight and start implementing now.”

O’Malley is scheduled for surgery to repair a torn labrum in his hip on Oct. 3, suffered before UFC 306, and hopes to return to action next summer. Meanwhile, Dvalishvili is likely to face Umar Nurmagomedov in the first defense of his bantamweight title.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Conor McGregor is anything but an owner in name only when it comes to his investment in BKFC.

The former two-division UFC champion—who became a part owner in BKFC back in April—is so serious about his passion for bare-knuckle fighting that he’s promising to eventually take the gloves off and set foot in the ring for a fight himself. With only two fights remaining on his current UFC contract and the chance to act as his own promoter, BKFC president and founder David Feldman is taking McGregor’s declaration seriously.

“Unless he’s the best salesman in the world, the talks that we’ve had it’s like ‘I’m fighting here,’” Feldman told MMA Fighting. “I’m like yeah, OK. He [said] ‘I’m fighting here.’

“I go, ‘Why wouldn’t you fight here?’ Because you have equity in the company and if you fight here, you’ll probably make more money than anywhere else in the world because of what it’s going to do for the company. So I truly believe what you said — I think 100 percent he fights here.”

The UFC recently announced that Michael Chandler would fight Charles Oliveira in November after he spent nearly two years waiting for a matchup against McGregor, which prompted the Irish superstar to suggest a co-promotion with BKFC so he could get back in action sooner rather than later.

While there’s no doubting McGregor’s immense drawing power and the influence he holds with UFC, Feldman knows there’s no chance UFC would ever co-promote with him but it’s not because there isn’t mutual respect between the promotions.

“The UFC doesn’t need us,” Feldman said. “They don’t need us. We need to [co-promote] with them, they don’t need to [co-promote] with us, which would be phenomenal — they’re not going to do it. If they do Conor McGregor with anything, he don’t need to [co-promote] with us.”

That means McGregor would need to leave UFC to fight for BKFC, but Feldman has stopped doubting his new business partner after seeing his commitment over these past few months.

McGregor could have easily injected some cash into BKFC, called himself a co-owner and then faded into the background after grabbing a few headlines. Feldman says that interpretations of McGregor’s involvement couldn’t be further from the truth.

“He’s been unbelievable,” Feldman said about McGregor. “He’s really been a partner so far. Blew away my expectations. Doing the interviews, he did the post-fight press conference, he’s meeting the guys. He’s going over and hugging the fighters and telling them, ‘Come on let’s do this!’ He’s sitting there ringside cheering for them. He’s posting all the time about it. He’s all in.

“We had a great talk this weekend, it was just me and him talking and I said to him ‘I don’t know if you really believe me, but this is going to be the biggest thing in the world in a few years, there’s nothing that’s going to be bigger than this, trust me.’ He goes, ‘It’s going to be two years.’”

Considering that just about everything McGregor touches turns to gold, it’s tough to imagine he won’t find a way to build BKFC into a powerhouse that will go toe-to-toe with just about any other combat sports organization out there.

Feldman is realistic when it comes to size and scale because he knows the UFC is a promotional juggernaut that won’t be toppled. Still, he admits that the exponential growth of BKFC over these past few years has blown away even his biggest expectations and he expects McGregor to help them grow even bigger in the future.

“[Conor] sees the vision,” Feldman said. “Are we ever going to be the biggest combat sport in the world? Probably not honestly but we’re definitely going to be one of the biggest. Absolutely. The numbers just keep going up.”

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