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Arman Tsarukyan defeated Charles Oliveira at UFC 300 to become the undisputed title challenger in the UFC lightweight division. The champion Islam Makhachev defended his belt against Dustin Poirier at UFC 302, so fans were looking forward to his return before the end of the year. Unfortunately, a hand injury has forced Makhachev to be […]

Continue Reading Arman Tsarukyan Lays Down Condition For Charles Oliveira Rematch – ‘I Beat Him Via Unanimous Decision’ at MMA News.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Usman Nurmagomedov and Lorenz Larkin capped off the Bellator San Diego card on Saturday night with a pair of impressive wins so it stands to reason they are also the highest paid fighters coming out of the event.

On Sunday, the California State Athletic Commission revealed the salaries for the Bellator San Diego card with Nurmagomedov and Larkin leading the way as the only fighters who earned six-figures.

In the main event, Nurmagomedov defended his lightweight title with a one-sided victory over Alexander Shabliy but his payday was already guaranteed no matter what. Nurmagomedov took home $ 100,000 with no additional win bonus following his latest title defense.

For his part, Shabliy earned $ 50,000 in defeat as he came up short in his bid to hand Nurmagomedov the first loss of his career.

Meanwhile, Larkin delivered a highlight reel knockout over Levan Chokheli to cement himself as the No. 1 contender in the Bellator welterweight division. He also earned $ 100,000 for his paycheck with Larkin revealing prior to the event that Saturday served as the final bout on his current Bellator contract.

Considering the way he won and the the promotion touting him as the next title contender, it’s tough to imagine Bellator won’t push hard to re-sign Larkin to a new deal.

Here are the full salaries for Bellator San Diego:

Usman Nurmagomedov: $ 100,000, no win bonus

Alexander Shabliy: $ 50,000

Lorenz Larkin: $ 100,000, no win bonus

Levan Chokheli: $ 41,000

Aaron Jeffrey: $ 60,000 — $ 30,000 to show, $ 30,000 to win

Douglas Lima: $ 50,000

Sumiko Inaba: $ 82,000 — $ 41,000 to show, $ 41,000 to win

Mackzenzie Stiller: $ 13,000

Jora Ayvazyan: $ 40,000 — $ 20,000 to show, $ 20,000 to win

Yancy Medeiros: $ 25,000

Jordan Newman: $ 36,000 — $ 18,000 to show, $ 18,000 to win

Imamshafi Aliev: $ 30,000

Masayuki Kikuiri: $ 26,000 — $ 13,000 to show, $ 13,000 to win

Herman Terrado: $ 7,500

Bryce Meredith: $ 30,000, no win bonus

John MaCalolooy: $ 5,000

Josh Hokit: $ 26,000 — $ 13,000 to show, $ 13,000 to win

Sean Rose: $ 2,000

Ashley Thiner: $ 4,000 — $ 2,000 to show, $ 2,000 to win

Aysia Cortez: $ 10,000

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UFC

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Merab Dvalishvili didn’t get anything handed to him as he rose up the UFC ranks before finally being granted a title shot against Sean O’Malley at UFC 306.

The Georgian fighter put together a remarkable 10-fight win streak and had to take out three former champions — Jose Aldo, Petr Yan, and Henry Cejudo — in order to secure his shot at gold. Of course, Dvalishvili isn’t afraid of a little hard work, but that also makes him a little bit salty when he hears Umar Nurmagomedov being called the No. 1 contender in the division following his win over Cory Sandhagen in August.

As impressive as it was for Nurmagomedov to beat Sandhagen in his first fight against a ranked opponent, Dvalishvili believes the Russian bantamweight got preferential treatment built solely around his famous last name.

“Let’s talk about it this way — Umar is a good fighter, we all know this, but he fights nobody from the top 15, and now of course UFC gives him a gift [with] No. 2 Cory Sandhagen; if he wins, he’s right there,” Dvalishvili told MMA Fighting.

“Now he wins, so now he’s right there. He’s been disrespectful. He’s calling [out] Sean O’Malley, he’s calling [out] me. Like bro, give us respect and let us fight and chill out a little bit. What the f*ck? You don’t fight nobody and now you just got here because your last name is Nurmagomedov, because you’re Khabib’s cousin.”

Of course, Khabib Nurmagomedov retired undefeated as the reigning UFC lightweight champion and remains one of the most talked about fighters on the planet despite not fighting since 2020.

He also serves as one of Umar’s primary coaches after both came up under family patriarch Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov while growing up in Dagestan.

Familial ties or not, Dvalisvhili feels like Nurmagomedov slid into the fight against Sandhagen without really earning it, and now he’s trying to do the same with a potential title shot looming on the horizon.

“Good for him, but he has to grow up,” Dvalishvili said. “He has to be more of a man. He has to respect fighters here. We’ve been here a long time and he’s acting a little bit disrespectful. He’s talking too much. I’m talking about the truth.

“Yes, he’s a good fighter, but he got pushed because he’s Khabib’s cousin and he has to be humble. He has to be a little bit relaxed. He shows us disrespect, and same thing, he’s going to get it at the right time when the time comes. Now, let us fight and wait your turn.”

With the bantamweight title up for grabs at UFC 306, Dvalishvili would like to see Nurmagomedov get another quality win before he starts calling for his own shot at the championship.

“He should just fight [Deiveson] Figueiredo,” Dvalishvili said. “He should fight somebody. [Maybe] Petr Yan. He just beat one guy from the top 15. Come on, chill out a little bit. That’s all I have for him. I don’t want to talk about him. That’s it.

“Let them fight each other, Figueiredo versus Umar, that would be a good fight. Actually Figueiredo deserves it more. He’s a former champion, he’s a big name. He’s been fighting. He already beat one former champion and two guys from the top 15. Actually, [Marlon] ‘Chito’ Vera doesn’t count because ‘Chito’ Vera is not a top-15 fighter. He sucks. But Figueiredo deserves it more. He has my respect. He’s a man and he’s been respectful and he’s cool and he didn’t get here because he’s somebody’s cousin. He got here by himself. He’s a good fighter. He’s been there. He was a champion. At least he’s humble and he’s a real fighter.”

Since moving to bantamweight, former UFC flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo has been impressive with wins over Vera, Cody Garbrandt, and Rob Font, but it remains to be seen if he’ll get a title shot.

Obviously, Dvalishvili prefers that option if he beats O’Malley on Sept. 14, but he definitely doesn’t want to hear about Nurmagomedov getting that opportunity off one win over a top-five ranked opponent.

“Umar talking about [a title shot], some bullshit there,” Dvalishvili “[Before he fought Sandhagen] he defeated somebody [in their] debut and then now he wants to fight for the belt? You are out of your mind.”

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Wow
| BJPenn.com

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA- Fighters stick together.

Chris Padilla scored a big win at UFC Vegas 97 last night (Sat., Sept. 7, 2024) when he mushed Rongzhu’s orbital bone with a horrific elbow to cause a doctor’s stoppage from inside the UFC Apex in “Sin City.”

During the fight, one of the UFC commentators and fans on Twitter compared Padilla’s vicious elbows to UFC legend Tony Ferguson’s. Afterward, during his post-fight interview with the media, “Taco” was asked about the comparison, to which he ripped fans for the recent Ferguson hate.

“That is one of the greatest honors of all time,” Padilla said. “This is the thing, I’m not going to lie to you, it makes me sick about MMA- a guy can go on a losing streak, and then he’s trash. Bro, if you don’t shut that up. Tony Ferguson gave us the greatest moments of his entire life. Tony Ferguson is the kind of guy who can be good at anything; that motherf—ker could be an astronaut if he wanted to. But guess what, he got in there and bled for us, fought monsters for us. Man, he’s an absolute legend.

So, to even be compared to someone of that nature so early in my career, it’s an honor,” Padilla continued. “Thank you, Tony, for giving us the best, man. Thank you for entertaining us, and thank you for giving us pure violence at every moment of the fight. I studied Tony Ferguson for this fight, so it was already in my head about how he throws elbows.”

Padilla makes a great point about fight fans turning on a legend of the sport, but to be fair, he is also on the longest losing streak in UFC history with eight losses. Nevertheless, Ferguson is still one of the best to ever do it and is far from trash.

Padilla is 2-0 since making his UFC debut this year with two finishes. He told MMAManai.com that he is taking the rest of the year off because his coach is having a baby and doesn’t want to add any extra stress.

Expect a return in early 2025.

For complete UFC Vegas 97 results, coverage, and highlights, click HERE.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Valentina Shevchenko believes she’s heading into her historic trilogy fight with Alexa Grasso with the series tied at one win apiece.

The flyweights meet in the first ever trilogy for women in company history in the co-main event of UFC 306, which takes place Sept. 14 at Sphere in Las Vegas with Grasso’s 125-pound title up for grabs. Shevchenko looks to regain the championship she lost to Grasso at UFC 285 in March 2023.

In their rematch at Noche UFC in September 2023, Grasso and Shevchenko delivered an instant classic but the fight ended in a split draw.

Grasso has given Shevchenko advice on how to approach the third meeting in other interviews, but Shevchenko is fully confident that what she did in their second bout was enough to get her the victory.

“Reading between the strokes, it means like, ‘OK, OK, Valentina, If I stay on my side of the octagon and you play your game, I will be safe and I won’t lose my belt,’ so she’s expecting me stay on my side and she’s on her side, and we’re gonna do [a] shadowbox, or something like that,” Shevchenko told MMA Fighting. “And she’ll say, ‘OK, I’m a champion, I’m still going to have [the] belt,’ it’s so funny.

“But, speaking seriously, you know why we are speaking about third fight? It’s only because the second fight — everyone saw the fight, everyone knows, everyone was very surprised because of the mistake and error of a judge, what he did and if it [were not for him], everyone saw that I was the winner of this fight. I did enough to win the fight, like three rounds from the five. It was enough to win the fight. It’s only the reason why we are speaking about our trilogy.

“Everything [that] I did, it worked, everything, what I did in the second fight, all my strategy, it worked. So I don’t know, maybe she was too much into The Ultimate Fighter coaching and since [then], they’re trying to coach everywhere, but this is fine. This is fine. I think it’s also interesting for the people to hear and see her from other sides, as well.”

The 36-year-old Shevchenko has been competing in the combat sports world for a huge chunk of her life, including 28 pro MMA fights — 16 of which have taken place in the UFC. Shevchenko has built a legacy as one of the greatest women’s fighters in promotion history, and many believe her skill set is still good enough to beat most fighters, but question whether she can defeat the younger, surging champion.

Shevchenko thrives on people doubting her after entering many past fights with a massive chip on her shoulder. As she prepares to face Grasso for the third time, Shevchenko’s approach involves bringing pressure to her opponent, but not upon herself before it happens.

“It’s interesting, but every time, every training camp, it’s different,” Shevchenko said. “Every fight week is different, and even comparing one of the best fights that I had, every time was different, like how I felt. But I know for sure that, in terms [of], making [a] statement, make the one of the greatest fights, it’s too much pressure on your shoulders. It’s not good and sometimes it makes you freeze and you cannot do anything.

“And this time, I just prepare myself the best that I can and my coach Pavel Fedotov, he was working so good with me… mentally, physically, everything, and you know, the goal for me right now is just to show an amazing fight, one of the greatest fights. Just go there and show myself, show ‘The Bullet,’ what the speed is, what the power is and just like no stop, just go forward, forward until the end. This is what I have. This is what is my chip right now, what program I have in my head.”

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