Sean O’Malley and Dana White | @danawhite, Twitter
UFC CEO Dana White and Sean O’Malley tested out their acting chops in a trailer to the upcoming movie in the Venom series.
White and O’Malley are featured in the latest promotional material for Venom: The Last Dance, which hits theaters on Oct. 25. The film stars Tom Hardy, who plays character Eddie Brock, along with the body host of Venom.
Check out the trailer below.
#Venom: The Last Dance in theaters ONLY October 25th @SugaSeanMMA pic.twitter.com/rFTwPogf6u
— danawhite (@danawhite) September 14, 2024
White is shown on the phone, when Brock comes into his office saying he’s on the run and needs money — offering his services to fight for the UFC. When White threatens him, Brock leaves, but runs into O’Malley, before putting him in a rear-naked choke, forcing White to throw a wad of cash to the Brock-Venom combo character.
The film will be the third of the series, which includes the original that dropped in 2018, along with the sequel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage that dropped in 2021.
McGregor is asking Saudi Arabian boxing power broker Turki Alalshikh to help him lock down his next fight after an expected December return date evaporated.
Conor McGregor’s return is back in limbo after the UFC announced on Saturday that his longtime opponent Michael Chandler would be fighting Charles Oliveira next in November instead of “The Notorious.” That leaves McGregor without a date or a name. In other words, it leaves him with nothing.
The only thing McGregor is getting from the UFC these days is a lot of drug testing. During a BKFC press conference on Friday night, the Mac noted that he’d just been called on by Drug Free Sport International again, before saying he had requested boxing power broker and Riyadh Season organizer Turki Alalshikh’s aid in helping him get back in the cage.
“I’ve been tested more than twice these other athletes, yet I struggle to get a date,” McGregor said. “So I’ve talked to Sheikh Turki and I’ve said, ‘Sheikh Turki, can you assist me here?’”
McGregor has been eligible to fight since April 2024 but has found it difficult to get a date locked down with the UFC. When he finally got a June 29th date at UFC 303 against Michael Chandler, a broken toe forced him off the card. Despite it being a minor injury, the UFC hasn’t rushed to rebook the fight. Just bad timing or is there something else going on?
“As far as Chandler rematching Oliveira, I’m happy with the date, it’s November,” McGregor said. “Maybe we can still do it after, if they’re not going to line me up until December or January or February, one of these dates. Maybe we can still do it. I’m just a bit out of the loop with it.”
“All I can do is carry on doing what I’m doing. I test under the testing administration. I train daily. And … you know, that’s it. Let’s see what happens. Hopefully it all comes to fruition.”
And if the UFC is unwilling to book him, maybe they’ll let him do something else in the meantime? They won’t, but McGregor suggested it’d be nice.
“I would love maybe an exemption, or maybe a joint partnership,” he said. “Bare Knuckle / UFC, similar to McGregor Sports & Entertainment / Mayweather Promotions. Some sort of agreement where we can get busy. I need to be busy and right now I’m working to get there.”
“So let’s see what happens. Like I said, I’ve got two fights left on the contract and it’s taking a minute, you know? Patience is one of the most important skills a person can possess. Study, learn, and implement. And that’s where I’m at right now.”
That’s eerily similar to something Michael Chandler said as he rode the pine waiting for the McGregor fight to pan out. Now McGregor is alone on the bench, and who knows for how long.
Alex Pereira | Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Alex Pereira looks to keep the magic going at UFC 307, capping off one of the deepest cards of the year.
During Saturday’s UFC 306 event, the promotion revealed the full lineup for its upcoming pay-per-view show, slated for Oct. 5 in Salt Lake City.
The show is topped by two championship bouts, with “Poatan” closing the show in an attempt to defend his 205-pound title for the second time in less than four months as he faces Khalil Rountree. In the co-main event, Raquel Pennington puts her bantamweight title on the line for the first time when she welcomes back Julianna Peña to the octagon.
The main card is complete with a key featherweight contest between Movsar Evloev and Aljamain Sterling, Kayla Harrison looks to earn a shot at UFC gold when she takes on Ketlen Vieira, and Roman Dolidze faces Kevin Holland.
The prelims include former champions Jose Aldo and Carla Esparza, and the top spot goes to former welterweight title contender Stephen Thompson’s battle with Joaquin Buckley.
Below is the full fight card and bout lineup for UFC 307
Main card, 10 p.m. ET, ESPN+ PPV
Alex Pereira vs. Khalil Rountree Jr. — for light heavyweight title
Raquel Pennington vs. Julianna Peña – for women’s bantamweight title
Jon Jones and Alex Pereira | Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira is open to training with heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
Up next for “Poatan” is a defense of his title against Khalil Rountree at UFC 307 on Oct. 5. After that, he’s ready to help Jones prepare for his upcoming heavyweight title clash with Stipe Miocic on Nov. 16.
Pereira attended UFC 306 this past Saturday in Las Vegas and said in an interview with Full Send that he’s been texting “Bones” for a while about possibly training together, and that it could happen before Jones fights Miocic at UFC 309 in New York.
“I think there’s some good time [between our fights], his fight is only in November,” Pereira said. “There’s always something coming off a fight, a small injury, so we can get some rest and then train together.”
Pereira and Jones posed for pictures inside Sphere on Saturday and the Brazilian said he felt Jones appeared to be “more athletic and leaner” compared to when he last fought at UFC 285, where he scored a quick submission victory over Cyril Gane in March 2023 to earn a vacant heavyweight title. Training together could prevent the two champions facing off one day in the octagon, and Pereira said he’s not focused on chasing that fight at the moment.
“A lot of people talk about this superfight but I think I have to make the most of this guy’s experience,” Pereira said. “He has a ton of experience, but people are talking about him maybe doing only one or two fights more, and I’m not even at heavyweight yet. I don’t know if that’s possible, but I want to at least be training with him.”
Asked who he would choose for a champion vs. champion clash next if middleweight Dricus du Plessis and heavyweights Jones are on the table, Poatan tripled down on his intention to regain his 185-pound belt.
“Dricus du Plessis is the easier fight,” Pereira said. “It’s harder to cut the weight, but as I’ve said when I moved up in weight that I needed two or three fights without this weight cut for my body to recover, and then I could do the cut again. I’ve said that after the [Jiri Prochazka rematch] and I’m still waiting for an answer. He never gives a straight answer. Everybody knows he’s scared.
“Dricus du Plessis always jokes in his answer. We can see he doesn’t want this. He has to say, ‘UFC, make this fight happen. Alex wants it, I want it, so let’s make it happen.’ It’s easier to work if he says that, but we can see from his answer that he’s scared. Assh*le [laughs].”
Irene Aldana spent three rounds in the octagon with Norma Dumont at UFC 306 but it looked like she was tangling with Jason Voorhees just one day after Friday the 13th.
A clash of heads opened a horrific cut on Aldana’s head that had blood running down into her eyes as she kept wiping at her face while trying to mount a comeback against Dumont. Despite a valiant effort, Aldana just couldn’t get the job done with Dumont ultimately winning a unanimous decision.
While the loss probably stung enough, Aldana then had to go backstage to get treatment on her cut with UFC CEO Dana White showing off a photo of the gruesome gash before she got medical attention.
Dr. Greg Hsu — the UFC’s on-staff physician and surgeon — then took it one step further by posting a video that showed him moving the cut around Aldana’s head before eventually stitching her up.
The video definitely isn’t for the faint of heart as Hsu shows just how deep the cut went on Aldana’s head.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Dr. Greg Hsu (@the_ufc_doctor)
The next slide over shows the aftermath with Hsu literally sewing Aldana’s forehead back together again following the damage done from the fight.
It’s safe to assume that Aldana is going to need some plastic surgery in the not too distant future to ensure that machete-like wound doesn’t leave her with a permanent scar across her forehead.
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