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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Merab Dvalishvil’s championship triumph rang across the continents.

“The Machine” dominated Sean O’Malley in Saturday’s UFC 306 main event at Sphere in Las Vegas to earn a unanimous decision win and become the new UFC bantamweight champion. Back in his native Georgia, thousands of Dvalishvili fans gathered in a Tbilisi square to watch their countryman go to battle.

He didn’t disappoint, thrilling the gathered masses and delivering the European country its second UFC titleholder, alongside current featherweight champion Ilia Topuria.

Watch footage of the festivities below, courtesy of Setanta Sports.

According to Setanta Sports’ Giorgi Kokiashvili, there were over 10,000 people gathered to watch Dvalishvili achieve his championship dream. Dvalishvili made his UFC debut in 2017 and after a pair of losses, he hasn’t looked back since. The new bantamweight king made it 11 straight wins with his victory over O’Malley, adding “Suga” to a hit list that includes former UFC champions Henry Cejudo, Petr Yan, and Jose Aldo.

Up next for Dvalishvili is presumably undefeated contender Umar Nurmagomedov. Whenever that fight is booked, expect Dvalishvili’s supporters to once again show up en masse.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

The UFC continues negotiations with the plaintiffs involved in a pair of antitrust lawsuits filed against the company but after a judge denied the initial settlement agreement, it’s impossible to tell how this ends.

In a surprising move, Judge Richard Boulware from Nevada shut down a settlement agreement in July after the UFC agreed to pay out $ 335 million to settle a pair of lawsuits with the first one filed all the way back in 2014.

The judge previously stated in court that he objected to the settlement because the agreed upon payout seemed low and that the fighters represented in the second lawsuit — covering athletes from 2017 to the present — could object to arbitration and class-action waiver clauses in existing contracts.

On Wednesday, TKO Group Holdings president and chief operating officer Mark Shapiro addressed the judge’s decision to deny the settlement against the wishes of both the plaintiffs and the defendants.

“Anyone that is a student of our business that has closely followed this story knows what’s going on is just ridiculous,” Shapiro said while appearing at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference. “We ultimately cut a deal to settle these cases, both suits, where the plaintiffs — the fighters if you will — near unanimity that this was good for them. By the way, we spent a lot more than anybody thought we were going to spend, [what] our board wanted us to spend, or we even thought was frankly appropriate, when it came to the two cases before us. But nonetheless to take it off the table we reached a deal and we’re on our way and then the judge doesn’t even grant preliminary approval.

“Keep in mind, if you grand preliminary approval then that gives a window for anybody to come forward, fighters who don’t agree or there isn’t unanimity [saying] ‘wait a second, this isn’t fair,’ to step up and be heard. He shut this down before they even had a chance to be heard. That’s somewhat unprecedented I’d have to say, in the sense that it’s a hell of a payout and the [Kajan] Johnson case, which is the second case [covering fighters from 2017 to present], just taken to the testimony in court with the judge, very clearly say ‘we don’t think on our own we have a case, we can’t find a lawyer to take our case, it’s very difficult here, this is why we want this deal.’ So you had both plaintiffs totally aligned with the UFC and our lawyers that this settlement was fair and we’re going to move on and we’re looking for your approval. He saw it another way. Asked us to get back together and talk about another way to skin the cat.”

The judge eventually set a new trial date on Feb. 3, 2025 for the first antitrust lawsuit filed by fighters such as Cung Le, Nate Quarry and others while instructing both parties that he wouldn’t push the start of the trial unless he approves a new preliminary settlement agreement.

Of course, the UFC continues to dialogue with the plaintiffs in hopes of reaching a new agreement so the case never goes to trial but Shapiro made it clear that the company already reached a ceiling as far as a potential payoff for the settlement.

If the case ends up going to trial and a judgment goes against the UFC, Shapiro promised that the company would exhaust all legal means to fight the ruling to the bitter end.

“We are having those conversations because that’s the direction,” Shapiro said. “I would tell you this is a difficult one because we’re not going to just be writing a bigger check. This is frankly at the top of where we wanted to ever be or ever thought we would be. We feel very strongly in the merits of both cases. We are going to pursue this and chase this and defend ourselves in a very intense way, let’s put it that way.

“If there is an adverse outcome, we will go all the way. I want to make that clear. We will appeal and we will appeal and we will appeal and we will appeal, just like the NFL said they were going to do with their Sunday Ticket/DirecTV situation.”

Back in June a jury awarded $ 4.7 billion in damages to subscribers after ruling that the NFL violated antitrust laws in distributing out-of-market Sunday afternoon football games on a premium subscription service. Before a potential appeal process could even get going, a Federal judge overturned the ruling and granted judgment to the NFL while ruling that testimony from a pair of witnesses in the trial should have been excluded.

Shapiro obviously sounds confident that the UFC will eventually close this chapter but that doesn’t absolve the ruling that shut down the initial settlement agreement to resolve both cases.

“This is kind of absurd what’s happened” Shapiro said. “Nobody is on board with it. The plaintiffs want the money and the sport and the competition will be better for it. All this is doing is lining the pockets of more lawyers.”

MMA Fighting – All Posts

Kiss Gate
| BJPenn.com

Ready when you are, Sergeant Pembry.

Norma Dumont treated Irene Aldana like a Kleenex at a snot party — but that didn’t stop the Mexican bantamweight from finishing her “Prelims” fight at the UFC 306 pay-per-view (PPV) event last weekend at The Sphere in Las Vegas.

Not surprisingly, Aldana was rushed to a nearby hospital.

“It was amazing to be part of this event, Noche UFC,” Aldana wrote on social media. “I’m just fine. Thank you all for your support and love. Recovered and ready for the next one.”

I think we may have different definitions of the word “ready.”

Aldana, 36, dropped to 15-8 with her loss to Dumont, leaving her with a 3-3 record across her last six. In addition, the “Immortal” Brazilian is likely to steal Aldana’s spot in the Top 5 of the women’s bantamweight rankings when the “official” update is posted later this week.

For more UFC 306 results and fallout click here.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Merab Dvalishvili is the new UFC bantamweight champion after defeating Sean O’Malley in the main event of UFC 306, while Valentina Shevchenko is once again the flyweight champ following her dominant win over Alexa Grasso in the co-main event. Where do the new and now former champions go from Saturday’s event at Sphere?

On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee discuss what’s next for Dvalishvili, O’Malley, Shevchenko, and Grasso following their championship bouts in Las Vegas. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Diego Lopes after his decision win over Brian Ortega in the featured bout, Esteban Ribovics following his incredible battle with Daniel Zellhuber, along with fellow main card winner Ronaldo Rodriguez, and more.

Watch the UFC 306 edition of On To the Next One in the video above. Audio-only versions of the podcast can be found below, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and wherever you find your favorite podcasts.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Michael Chandler claims he almost fought at UFC 306.

Chandler, who has long been tied to a fight with Conor McGregor, now faces Charles Oliveira in a five-round, co-main event rematch at UFC 309 on Nov. 16 at Madison Square Garden. During a media scrum at this past Saturday’s pay-per-view event at Sphere in Las Vegas, Chandler revealed that after his scheduled bout with McGregor at UFC 303 fell through, the UFC wanted to book a “BMF” title fight with Holloway instead.

“I almost was going to fight [at UFC 306],” Chandler said. “It was offered to fight Max. I respect Max because Max is a champion, Max is going to beat Ilia Topuria, I believe.”

Chandler says he’s still going to keep his options open for the long-awaited fight with McGregor, but also called his bout with Oliveira a “No. 1 contender” fight, and if McGregor isn’t ready after that, “Iron” will gladly fight lightweight champion Islam Makhachev.

As far as the Holloway fight goes, Chandler accepted it, but he says — with complete understanding of the situation — that the upcoming challenger for Topuria’s featherweight title at UFC 308 turned it down.

“I think it was realistic for me because I was already in camp, in shape, and ready to go,” Chandler explained. “I bring that up, not to… you know, guys throw these things out there to act like tough guys — I don’t do this to act like a tough guy. If I was Max, I wouldn’t have taken the fight either. I was pumped up that, maybe, it was a possible opportunity — Chandler vs. Holloway, BMF belt, at the Sphere [at UFC 306] — but if I was him, I wouldn’t have taken it either.

“He was on vacation, or doing something, he was enjoying some well-deserved time off and wasn’t ready to get in a camp and fight someone like me.”

While Chandler didn’t get to face a man he has tremendous respect for in Holloway at UFC 306, the three-time Bellator lightweight champion believes the fan-friendly tilt could certainly happen next year.

“That’s a fight, I think, is going to happen in 2025 and I’m excited about it,” Chandler said. “It’s Oliveira, it’s Islam, it’s Conor, it’s Max, we’ve got some huge fights coming up. They’re all going to be exciting, you guys are going to be there, you’re all going to be covering, you’re all going to be on the edge of your seats.”

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