Israel Adesanya may have squashed the beef with Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 305 but it hasn’t taken him long before getting back into a heated altercation.

“The Last Stylebender”, as he previously stated he would, went back to Nigeria after coming up short in Perth several weeks ago.

Though he hasn’t been back in New Zealand for long, city life in Auckland has quickly caught back up with him.

The former UFC middleweight champion hasn’t been known for getting into arguments or conflict with members of the general public but that’s exactly what was captured on video.

Israel Adesanya Gets Into A Heated Confrontation In New Zealand, Spits And Curses At A Man

A recently posted video shows Adesanya standing outside his McLaren 720S Spider, having a confrontation with an aggressive man who has walked over to the car.

The clip appears to capture the end of the interaction as it immediately starts with Adesanya already standing outside the vehicle, telling the person that he isn’t going to fight him for free – because it’s his job.

Whatever happened between them before the video started clearly got to “The Last Stylebender” who is very rarely this agitated. For his part, the man does motion towards Adesanya, flexing, as though he wants to fight him.

“I get paid for this s***, f*** off you little b****. That’s right, walk away, go drive your f****** beat up f****** s***.”

Adesanya continues to curse towards the man who continues to stand across from him.

The final seconds of the video sees the person recording drive past them as Adesanya spits towards the man he is arguing with before saying “I pray for you to try me, I’d pay for you to try me”, shutting his car door at the same time.

Read also: Merab Dvalishvili Clarifies Staph Status After He Is Interrupted Mid-Interview By UFC Doctors

Continue Reading Video: Israel Adesanya Confronts Aggressive Man, Urges Him to ‘Walk Away’ in Tense Altercation at MMA News.

MMA News

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Are we ready to see more champion vs. champion fights?

The vast majority of the community seems to say no. The “superfight era” came and went with double champions like Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier, Henry Cejudo, and Amanda Nunes. More recent attempts saw featherweight’s Alexander Volkanovski try to make history against Islam Makhachev but came up short in both efforts last year. Light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira now finds himself with a world of possibilities after speedrunning his way to two-division champion status, albeit not simultaneously like the others.

Pereira, 37, surprised the MMA world this week by continuing to tease a pursuit of the middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis. The latter recently successfully defended his title for the first time with a fourth-round face crank against Pereira’s old rival Israel Adesanya last month. That win was the initial launching point for “Poatan” to tease a 185-pound return.

Amongst those anti-middleweight Pereira is one of his fellow former divisional champions Michael Bisping, who understands what the motive could be behind such a matchup. That doesn’t make him a fan of the idea, though.

“I don’t like it. Simple as that,” Bisping said on his YouTube channel. “Maybe Alex Pereira’s just messing around because even though he’s a serious son of a b*tch, he’s got a sense of humor. He’s very stoic, but I’m telling you, he’s a sarcastic guy and I get it. Maybe he’s trolling, but maybe he’s not. Maybe he’s trying to make the most money he can, take on the toughest opponents, and retire with millions and millions and millions of dollars in the bank. He’s probably going to do that anyway, but still.”

The timing of Pereira’s tease is odd as he’s got his next defense lined up against Khalil Rountree Jr. at UFC 307 on Oct. 5. After that, there’s a ready and waiting Magomed Ankalaev in — or atop — the contender line, assuming he can get through Aleksandar Rakic at UFC 308 at the end of October.

At a glance, it’s an oversight on the Brazilian striker’s part, which Bisping finds a risky game to play.

“He’s got people to fight already,” Bisping said. “He’s fighting Khalil Rountree. You cannot look past ‘Killer’ Khalil Rountree. He’s the kickboxer killer. He really is. Think about this: He beat Gokhan Saki, very good kickboxer that came to MMA. Dustin Jacoby, very good Glory Kickboxer that came to MMA. Could he do the same to Alex Pereira? I don’t know. It’s a tough ask, but I tell you what, don’t underestimate the man.”

“After that [if he wins], he’s gotta fight Magomed Ankalaev. He ain’t happy about this. He’s going absolutely mental online. … He might have a point. We want to see great champions — and Alex Pereira is a great champion make no mistake — we want to see them take on all comers in their division. Also, prove that they can beat all these different types of styles. Magomed Ankalaev on paper is a very, very tough stylistic matchup because of the Dagestani wrestling. If you look at Pereira, he’s had kind of a favorable path. I’m not talking sh*t, I’m just talking facts.”

Luckily for Bisping and detractors of the clash, Du Plessis doesn’t sound keen on the idea of defending against Pereira because of the excuses he’d expect to come after a win. Therefore, he and his coach have already expressed that they’d prefer the fight to see him challenge Pereira at 205 pounds if it does happen.

Ultimately, the prospect of Pereira vs. Du Plessis isn’t likely for 2024 as UFC 307 is around the corner and Du Plessis is expected to rematch another former champion, Sean Strickland, in his next title defense.

For Bisping’s money, that’s probably a better distance to keep for Pereira anyway.

“If Pereira can’t take the best shot from ‘Izzy’ at 185, he probably can’t take the best shot from Dricus at 185 either,” Bisping said. “It means the stock’s gonna drop, simple as that, and it’s going to affect his buying power going forward. Just going down to 185 doesn’t make the most sense for him. Been there, done it, got the T-shirt.

“Go to heavyweight if you truly want to become a three-division champion. What an achievement that would be.”

TOP STORIES

Answers. UFC mailbag: Jon Jones, Belal Muhammad, and the meritocracy of title contention

Reaction. Matt Brown scoffs at Jon Jones’ legacy becoming tainted if he doesn’t fight Tom Aspinall

Delay. Sabah Homasi still waiting on full payment for medical bills from Bellator fight in Sept. 2023

Legals. Ex-UFC fighter Casey Kenney pleads not guilty, released on bond awaiting trial in January

Options. Dana White reacts to Alex Pereira wanting to drop back down to middleweight

Hit. UFC Vegas 97 loses Ovince Saint Preux vs. Ryan Spann due to illness

Legacy. Fight legend Rickson Gracie’s life story being adapted into a feature film

Postitive. PFL heavyweight, ex-UFC fighter Blagoy Ivanov suspended 22 months for failed drug test

LET’S WATCH

MMA Fighting’s 2024 UFC Fantasy Draft.

Dana White’s Post-Contender Series Scrum.

Not just grapplers.

Contender Series highlights.

Burns’ Fight Week.

Chimaev training.

MORNING MUSIC

Go to Twitter, use the #MorningReport hashtag, or find one of my tweets with it, and drop me a jam you’re currently really into. I’ll pick the best one alongside my daily choice and give you a shoutout! You can also share in the comments below — those are just harder to sift through sometimes!

This month’s full playlist:

SOCIAL SCROLL DOWN

A pick-off!

Oh, Jon…

Good company.

Kai looms.

Nomad.

Hacked.

The circus is alive.

Work it out.

The tease.

Troll mode.

FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Cody Haddon (7-1) vs. Dan Argueta (9-2); UFC Vegas 98, Oct. 12

Joselyne Edwards (13-6) vs. Tamires Vidal (7-3); UFC Vegas 99, Oct. 19

Rayanne Dos Santos (14-8) vs. Alice Ardelean (9-6); UFC Vegas 99, Oct. 19

FINAL THOUGHTS

The matchup between Alex and “DDP” would be fun but it’s completely unnecessary. Let these guys defend and if they’re still champs after five defenses, let’s talk.

Thanks for reading!

EXIT POLL

If you find something you’d like to see in the Morning Report, hit up @DrakeRiggs_ on Twitter and let him know about it. Also, follow MMAFighting on Instagram and like us on Facebook.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

The next step
| BJPenn.com

Bringing you the weird and wild from the world of MMA each and every weeknight!

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

When it rains, it pours.

Just a day after Alessandro Costa was forced from his scheduled Flyweight banger versus Matt Schnell, the Light Heavyweight preliminary card headliner between Ovince Saint Preux and Ryan Spann has been cancelled. UFC announced the news on Wednesday, blaming the cancellation on an “OSP” illness.

In the Costa vs. Schnell situation, UFC was able to find a short-notice replacement in Cody Durden. This time around, there was no mention of a replacement, so it’s likely that Spann is off the card entirely. It remains to be seen if the bout is rebooked at a later date or scrapped entirely.

Saint Preux (27-17) is a longtime Light Heavyweight veteran who fought for the 205-pound title back in 2016. At 41 years of age, “OSP” is in the closing stages of his career, but he’s still managed to win two of his last three since returning to Light Heavyweight. Spann, meanwhile, has lost his last three bouts. The 33-year-old knockout artist has fallen out of the Top 15 rankings and was looking to rebound in this match up.

Check out the full UFC Vegas 97 fight card right here.

Insomnia

A pair of all-time great Brazilian fighters getting some training in!

The “kickass Bantamweight fights” cup runneth over.

Probably the first time in history that a dude from Philly has liked The Sopranos and Meek Mill (no shade).

Nate Manness, who was controversially released from the UFC roster last month, has officially signed with BKFC.

The greatest Heavyweight of all time.

I don’t have anything against Torrez Finney in the least, but I just know Michel Pereira front kicked the crap out of him.

TJ Dillashaw was so slick at his peak.

An interesting look into the finances of one of the premier regional shows in the US.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Yanarsanov definitely baited him into the buggy choke by allowing the guard pass.

Spin to win!

Slipping while kicking doesn’t appear to have affected the power delivered by even a single iota.

Random Land

Gorgeous scenery.

Midnight Music: Hip-hop, 1998

Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Howdy, y’all. Hope everyone had a good Labor Day weekend (or just a regular weekend if you’re not in the United States or Canada). We’re in the middle of a pretty down period right now as we wait to get to UFC 306, aka Noche UFC, so let’s answer a real grab bag of questions including Jones Jones vs. Tom Aspinall, unfortunate UFC title challengers, and UFC’s broadcasting future.

Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall

“Being unbiased, how would you see a matchup between Aspinall vs Jones going? How’d they both come out of their corners, who takes the center first, does Jones circle away while Aspinall chases him/cuts him off, etc. I’d really like to hear how you imagine it goes/ends? Thanks.”

As the founder of the #GaslightJonJones and #ChickensArentGOATs movement, I am one of the leading voices on calling out Jones for his ridiculous focus on this Stipe Miocic fight. I, like ever other rational fan, would like to see the champion unify his title with the interim champion and fight someone who isn’t a 42-year-old retired fighter who has not fought in three years and hasn’t won a fight since the Trump administration. Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall is the fight we should get and it’s the one I want to see, because I have no idea what happens!

For as much of a “Jon Jones hater” as I may be, I have never once disputed the man’s abilities. Simply put, he is one of the most talented fighters to compete in MMA. He’s probably the best clinch fighter in MMA history, and if he chose to do it more often, the same might be said of his top position game. My only real issue with Jones over the past few years of his career (prior to the ridiculous current stuff) is that he somehow got it in his head he should be a long-range kickboxer when that’s actually what he’s worst at.

If young Jon Jones fought Thiago Santos, he would have tackled him and obliterated him on the floor instead of almost losing a bad kickboxing match to a guy without working knees. But that Jones was absent for most of his second light heavyweight title run. Granted, it came back against Ciryl Gane, but was that a one-time thing? We have no idea. Jones is absolutely capable of coming out, tackling Aspinall to the ground, and elbowing his face off. But he’s also just as likely to come out and say,z “I will avoid engaging at all costs with oblique kicks and jabs and — oh shit, where did that right hand come from, why am I looking up at the lights?”

And on the other side of the matchup, we really have no clue how good Aspinall is. He’s obviously very good, but this is like when Francis Ngannou took heavyweight by storm: He was colding people so quickly, the only thing we really knew was he was big, athletic, and hit super hard. Aspinall is not a defensive genius but hasn’t had to be because his offense is so overwhelming. But how does he look if Jones can take his punches and make him fight for longer than 60 seconds? This could easily be a Miocic vs. Ngannou 1 situation all over again.

That’s why this is the fight that needs to happen. Jones is going to slaughter Miocic in almost embarrassing fashion. Maybe in his prime, Stipe could have presented a challenge, but Cleveland’s finest is 42 years old, inactive, and hasn’t looked really good since the first Francis fight back in 2018 (yes, he beat Daniel Cormier twice — after getting slept — but Cormier was also an old man at that point). But against Aspinall, anything could happen.

In the dark, I’d pick Aspinall to beat Jones, but it wouldn’t be confidently. How could it be when he’s facing an all-time great? But Jones is also older, inactive, coming off an injury, and has never been his best against fighters who can match his size and physicality. Aspinall is big, athletic, fast, and hits harder. Best guess is this would look like the Dominick Reyes fight, where Aspinall is simply faster than Jones and Jones doesn’t want to engage for fear of getting clubbed.

More Jon Jones

“Which would be a worse title run? Bisping ducking Whittaker and Romero to fight Hendo and GSP or Jones ducking Aspinall for Stipe?”

I think both are bad yet simultaneously explicable.

Here is where I will defend Jon Jones just a little bit: At the time of the original fight booking, Jones vs. Miocic wasn’t completely absurd. Was it still a little dumb considering what Sergei Pavlovich was doing? Yes. But there’s a bit of precedent for a former champion getting a shot at the new champ, particularly when it’s two Hall of Famers. (Granted, the fight would have made the most sense for the vacant belt instead of Gane, but alas.)

The issue is that Jones vs. Miocic had a sell-by date that was almost up, and when Jones got hurt, the expiration passed by a lot. It’s like if you have some ground beef in the fridge that’s just on the edge and then you decide to go out of town for the weekend instead of making hamburgers that night. You don’t come back on Monday and fire up the grill. When that fight fell through and an interim champion was crowned, it should have been it.

Along these lines, I can also accept Michael Bisping’s title run. The Georges St-Pierre matchup falls under the same lines as the Jones-Miocic fight, only we didn’t wait two years for it, so it gets a pass (even though everyone knew GSP was retiring afterward). It’s the Dan Henderson title defense that’s truly indefensible. That being said, I was actually in support of it at the time because I wanted Henderson to get a belt and figured Yoel Romero would eventually get the title. I now regret this greatly as Romero was 100 percent the best middleweight on Earth for a period of time and people who weren’t there won’t know it now.

So on paper, Bisping’s is probably worse, but that’s not factoring in one very important thing: Jones’s title is hogwash.

Like him or not, Michael Bisping won the undisputed title fair and square by knocking out the champion. Jones won his heavyweight belt by submitting a guy who lost to the champion. It’s not the same. Bisping may have tarnished the belt a bit by fighting people outside the line of contenders, but he started with the true title. Jones didn’t win the lineal belt and now isn’t fighting the guy who would legitimize his title. I think that’s worse, but I won’t die on this hill.

Neither of them is the worst though. Germaine de Randamie winning the featherweight title by beating Holly Holm (and cheating during the fight) only to then refuse to fight Cris Cyborg and thus be stripped, that’s the worst title reign in UFC history.

Belal Muhammad

“Is Belal’s choice of Kamaru Usman over Shavkat Rakhmonov the lamest championship choice ever? Much worse than Bisping-Henderson was to me.”

Along these lines, let’s talk about the current welterweight champion.

The entire Belal vs. Shavkat thing is a case of poor communication and really poor PR. Belal Muhammad has not chosen Kamaru Usman over Shavkat Rakhmonov. He’s just doing a really, really bad job of managing this situation.

After Muhammad won the title at UFC 304, UFC officials were quick to throw out Usman as a possible opponent. Is this silly? Of course. But it’s in line with the above-mentioned instances of trying to squeeze the last bit of juice they can out of former champions. That isn’t Muhammad’s fault, that’s on UFC. What is Muhammad’s fault is how he’s responded to what’s transpired.

Reportedly, UFC asked him to make a quick turnaround to fight Shavkat in October and he said no. That’s entirely reasonable! He just won the title and UFC asked him to turn around in two months to defend. Even they won’t be mad about him saying no to that. It’s not a reasonable request. But then when Shavkat put this out in the streets, Muhammad’s response wasn’t, “Yeah man, I turned down the date, not you. We can go in December or sometime next year, just not in eight weeks.” Instead, he got mad and tried to dismiss Shavkat, poorly.

Ultimately, Muhammad isn’t ducking Shavkat. They’re going to fight, probably in December. But by handling it this way, Belal introduced a silly narrative that didn’t need to be there, which is made all the worse by his run up to the title, where he made it known he was willing to fight anyone at any time. If you change your energy, even for very good reasons, you’re inviting this sort of stuff in. It’s just terrible brand management from him.

Fantasy matchmaking

“Top 5 matchups you’d make in the current UFC roster that isn’t currently booked?”

These need no explanation.

1. Dricus du Plessis vs. Jiri Prochazka
2. Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall
3. Alex Pereira vs. Magomed Ankalaev
4. Zhang Weili vs. Tatiana Suarez
5. Robelis Despaigne vs. Chris Barnett

TV rights and PPV

“Do you ever see the UFC signing a deal with a major network and make the current PPV events free?”

Yes, but not for some time. And also, that might be disastrous for the fan viewing experience.

Though it’s been the standard for UFC since it’s beginning, the pay-per-view model is near the end of its life cycle. It’s a dinosaur in terms of the content wars, and as UFC continues to bump the price, the cliff races every faster toward us. In the not-too-distant future, it simply won’t be the most profitable option.

Now, that day is still a long way off, in part because UFC seems intent on keeping it that way. But aside from the broad bend of market forces pushing pay-per-views to extinction, I think there are two key things that will help speed the process along for the UFC.

First is that UFC and WWE are now in the same company, and with that comes shared information. Given how WWE’s popularity has exploded over the past several years, at some point someone at TKO is going to attempt to unify the business models under the assumption that what works for one will work for the other.

Second, eventually someone is going to godfather offer them out of pay-per-view. Live sports are the cash cow of the modern media landscape. It’s why every NFL/NBA/NHL/Premier League/any other league contract is always massive when it comes up for grabs. Live sports are a foundational part of viewership and subscriptions. If, say, Netflix decides to make a push for live sports, why would they add a pay-per-views model into their current platform? Just buy UFC rights outright and stream big events and small ones the same way WWE does with Paramount. UFC won’t care so long as it gets paid.

All that being said, that’s probably a bad outcome for us, the viewers. While the pay-per-view model is onerous on our wallets, it may honestly be the last line of defense from every UFC event turning into an APEX show. When UFC got all that guaranteed money from ESPN, the quality of their standard product dropped off dramatically, as they replaced good, mid-level talent with Contender Series labor on cheap contracts. What happens if they don’t even have to sell pay-per-views anymore? I don’t know, but at some point I think we’re going to find out.

Thanks for reading, and thank you for everyone who sent in tweets (Xs?)! Do you have any burning questions about things at least somewhat related to combat sports? Then you’re in luck, because you can send your tweets to me, @JedKMeshew, and I will answer my favorite ones! Doesn’t matter if they’re topical or insane, just so long as they are good. Thanks again, and see y’all next week.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Almost exactly one year after his most recent appearance in Bellator MMA, Sabah Homasi is still waiting on the company to pay him back for medical bills after injuries sustained in his battle against Levan Chokheli.

Homasi first spoke publicly about the situation on social media in April, writing, “Any fighters that got caught up in the PFL/Bellator merger that have not been reimbursed for surgeries and hospitalization from a fight or is it just me?”

Multiple sources told MMA Fighting that Homasi is still awaiting the full payment on those medical bills, with around $ 12,000 still owned plus interest out of the $ 32,000 bill he absorbed in expenses.

PFL has not responded to MMA Fighting’s request for a statement regarding Homasi’s ongoing situation.

“I fractured my orbital. Went from the venue to the hospital so they knew everything that was wrong,” Homasi told MMA Mania back in April. “They asked me if I was going to do surgery in Ireland and I said, ‘No. I’m going to fly home and do surgery with my doctors back home.’

“I came home, we saw my doctor. I have a date for surgery, right? Next thing you know, they call my doctor and ask him if he can postpone surgery for two [to] three weeks. I said, ‘Absolutely not. I have to go and operate.’”

When addressing the situation after Homasi went public with the medical bills that remain unpaid, PFL co-owner Donn Davis stated that responsibility fell on Paramount, who owned Bellator prior to selling to PFL in late 2023.

“That was Paramount not paying,” Davis told the Weighing In podcast. “We worked to get him paid. All [that] happened before we bought it. We’re trying to stay low-key because that’s who we are. Paramount didn’t pay. We’re working to get somebody who owes him to pay him.

“A lot of these fighters and managers don’t even understand what they don’t understand. Those aren’t our bills. Those are the old company’s bills.”

Things may get even stickier in the near future as Paramount is currently set to be sold to Skydance Media in a massive $ 8 billion deal for the entertainment company.

In recent years, Paramount has struggled to maintain its grip on the entertainment market after the company was hit hard in the wake of duel strikes from writers and actors that brought production to a halt for several months. Paramount’s streaming service Paramount+ has also failed to gain as much traction as competitors, with 71.2 million users compared to Max from Warner Bros. Discovery with 99.6 million subscribers as of May, with all streamers still playing catch-up to Netflix’s more than 277 million subscribers worldwide.

Sadly, while Paramount found a lifeline with the sale expected to Skydance Global, Homasi is still stuck waiting for payment for his medical bills with no indication on when he’ll get reimbursed.

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