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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

PFL co-founder Donn Davis is making big claims, even bigger than UFC CEO Dana White did about his debut at Sphere for UFC 306.

The PFL returns to pay-per-view on Oct. 19 for their PFL: Ngannou vs. Ferreira card headlined by Francis Ngannou vs. Renan Ferreira, with Cris Cyborg set to battle Larissa Pacheco in the co-main event. Davis claims that the card, which takes place in Saudi Arabia, is not only a better card than UFC 306, but it’s more of a financial undertaking as well.

“I think you have the most interesting men’s fight, and the most interesting women’s fight [of the year],” Davis told the New York Post. “So, first of all, I believe this is the biggest event possible in MMA because of the co-mains, this year in 2024, and that makes it, certainly, the biggest thing for PFL. The UFC is the bigger company, but we’re putting on the bigger event. So this is a big deal for us. Our No. 1 metric is putting on the highest quality MMA fight for fans in the world. We want to show fans that we can put on just as good, or better of a product than anyone else in the world. That’s metric No. 1.

“Metric No. 2, we want to do OK financially, just OK financially. The cost of this fight is astronomical. Dana White talks about his $ 20 million Sphere event, this is more. Fighters make more, the card here has more big fights coming. This cost to us is more than his cost to the Sphere.”

White, fresh off of the memorable spectacle that was UFC 306, was asked about Davis’ comments following Tuesday night’s Contender Series card. As expected, White had a good laugh at it.

“I didn’t even know who he was until you said it,” White responded. “Sounds like a good idea. Good for him. Good luck, hope it all works out.”

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Injured
| BJPenn.com

Let’s try this again … reigning heavyweight champion, Jon Jones, will (finally) make his Octagon return to defend his 265-pound strap against former division titleholder, Stipe Miocic, in the UFC 309 main event this November in “The World’s Most Famous Arena.” But will “Bones” retire after defending his crown? We’ll find out in just a few weeks!

Event: UFC 309: “Jones vs. Miocic”
Date: Sat., Nov. 16, 2024
Location: Madison Square Garden in New York City
Start times: ESPN+ PPV, ESPNN, ESPN+ (6 p.m. ET Prelims | 10 p.m. ET Main Card)

UFC 309 Main Event On ESPN+ PPV:

265 lbs.: UFC Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic

UFC 309 Main Card, Prelims on ESPN+ PPV, ESPNN, ESPN+:

155 lbs.: Charles Oliveira vs. Michael Chandler 2
185 lbs.: Bo Nickal vs. Paul Craig
185 lbs.: Chris Weidman vs. Eryk Anders
125 lbs.: Viviane Araujo vs. Karine Silva
205 lbs.: Nikita Krylov vs. Azamat Murzakanov
125 lbs.: Veronica Hardy vs. Eduarda Moura
135 lbs.: Jonathan Martinez vs. Marcus McGhee
170 lbs.: Mickey Gall vs. Ramiz Brahimaj

*Fight card, bout order and number of fights remain subject to change.*

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Aljamain Sterling has been forced out of his upcoming fight against Movsar Evloev at UFC 307 in Salt Lake City on Oct. 5 after suffering an injury in training.

The former bantamweight champion, who is now competing at 145 pounds, revealed the news in a video posted to his YouTube channel on Wednesday.

“Unfortunately, I have to break the news I will not be competing in Salt Lake City at UFC 307,” Sterling said. “In sparring, I had an injury not requiring surgery, but I was advised by the UFC medical staff that I will not be able to properly compete in this short of a turnaround.

“I did the stem cells. I took time off. I tried to rehab it as much as I can, as best as I can with the [UFC Performance Institute] team here, and unfortunately, it’s out of my hands now. I apologize to Movsar and his team. We’ve been talking and I was really looking forward to punching this guy in his face.”

Sources confirmed to MMA Fighting that Sterling suffered an elbow injury that won’t require him to have surgery, but he wasn’t responding to treatment enough to risk fighting in October.

While it’s expected that Sterling could return before the end of the year, there’s no chance he would be able to fight at UFC 307.

As of now, the UFC hasn’t rebooked Evloev against a different opponent but Sterling hopes the fight could just be pushed back to a later date, although he won’t fault the undefeated Russian for moving on after their matchup was cancelled.

“Movsar, if you still really want to punch this handsome face, I put the challenge out to you to push the fight back and wait,” Sterling said. “Wait for daddy. I will be back soon. Possibly do this in December. That’s pretty much all I got.

“If you decide not to wait, I can respect that also because you’re trying to fight for a belt, as am I. The only way to do that is to go through each other.”

It’s an unfortunate loss for the UFC 307 card but obviously worse for Sterling after he hoped to beat Evloev and then position himself for a chance to potentially fight for the featherweight title. Now he’ll have to wait and see what the UFC decides regarding his next fight.

As for UFC 307, the card still moves forward with a pair of title fights at the top of the bill with Alex Pereira defending his light heavyweight championship against Khalil Rountree Jr. in the main event while Raquel Pennington puts her bantamweight belt up for grabs facing former champion Julianna Pena.

Update: Evloev responded to the Sterling news on X.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Paddy Pimblett has a reputation for bulking up between fights and if you’ve ever wondered how, look no further than seeing him do his best Joey Chestnut impersonation.

The UFC lightweight contender’s latest vlog shows him taking a visit to Furusato in his native Liverpool, where he attempted to break the eatery’s chicken wing eating record, which stood at 37.

Watch Pimblett’s chomping challenge below.

Pimblett, currently 6-0 in the UFC, breezes through the first 20 before predictably hitting a wall, but he powers through and not only breaks the record, but pushes it to 47. And then he has dessert.

In his most recent fight, Pimblett scored a quick submission of veteran King Green to secure a spot in the top 15 of the UFC’s lightweight rankings. The former Cage Warriors champion has been creating buzz since joining the UFC in 2021, both for his brash personality and his tendency to pack on the pounds when he’s not in training camp.

“The Baddy” recently released a video where he revealed that he was walking around 42 pounds heavier than he weighed in at for his fight with Green at UFC 304.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Just moments after he became UFC welterweight champion, Belal Muhammad joked that he would eventually face Leon Edwards again but he would make him wait at least three years before it happens.

That timeframe referenced how long it took Muhammad to get a second crack at Edwards after their first encounter — which came together on short notice — ended in a no-contest due to a brutal eye poke. Muhammad went onto win five more fights before eventually dominating Edwards over five rounds to take the title at UFC 304 in July.

As much as he enjoyed throwing out the three-year window between fights, Muhammad knows there’s a chance he might cross paths with Edwards again but he’s not sure the former champion ever actually earns it.

“Skill wise, he has the skill to do it but it’s all about mentality,” Muhammad explained when speaking to MMA Fighting. “Because you’ve seen it a lot with undefeated guys, when they get that one loss, a lot of guys don’t know how to take a loss. He hasn’t lost in eight years and he had this long streak. So it comes now from how does he come back from it mentally?

“Physically, yeah he has all the attributes, the skills to do it and when you’re looking at the lineup now, I beat a lot of these guys in the top 10 already. So there’s not a lot of guys you’re looking at ‘this guy is the clear No. 1 contender.’ So Leon could go out there and get one win and if it’s a huge win, there’s a possibility that he could get his name back in the mix.”

Edwards hasn’t booked a fight since losing his title, although he previously mentioned that he would like to compete again before the end of 2024.

The same goes for Muhammad, although he’s potentially circling a showdown against undefeated welterweight contender Shavkat Rakhmonov but there’s still no official word if that fight is going to happen or not.

Regardless, Muhammad has no problem facing Edwards again if he earns his way back to another title shot, but he’s not convinced it happens.

Muhammad points directly to the circumstances surrounding their rematch in July as perhaps the biggest obstacle for Edwards to regain his confidence to make another run at becoming champion.

“That was your home soil, the crowd was there for you,” Muhammad said about the card in Manchester. “The fight was tailor-made for you. You were supposed to walk through me. You said it was going to be easy and walk through [me]. That’s embarrassing.

“Now he has to figure out what he wants to do with his life. If he still wants to chase it with that hunger inside him.”

Muhammad also has concerns about Edwards’ future with his team after he saw tensions rising during the fight as he continued to win round after round in the title fight.

Unlike Edwards’ stunning comeback knockout win over Kamaru Usman to become champion — which came after his coach Dave Lovell gave him a fiery speech between the fourth and fifth round — Muhammad didn’t see that same kind of motivation this time around.

“It just all comes back mentally,” Muhammad said. “I don’t know if him and his coach are going to have a breakup party now because they looked pretty bad in the corner. There’s a lot of turmoil there.

“So I feel like there’s going to be a lot of blame and a lot of embarrassment coming from that team. A lot just embarrassment from [Edwards].”

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