CombatSports.org

submitted by /u/Clevelandbrownfan [link] [comments]

MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic will finally battle for the UFC heavyweight championship in the main event of UFC 309 in New York City — a fight the MMA community is excited to get to so the division can move forward.

Watch MMA Fighting’s UFC 309 Timeline video for an in-depth look at how both headliners got to this weekend’s pay-per-view at Madison Square Garden.

Jones defends the heavyweight title for the first time since capturing the championship nearly two years ago with a quick submission win over Ciryl Gane at UFC 285. “Bones” is a former, multi-time light heavyweight champion, and his run at 205-pounds, the ups and the downs — both in and out of the octagon — are featured in the story to Saturday’s main event.

Miocic’s layoff is twice as long, as he returns to the octagon after getting brutally knocked out by Francis Ngannou at UFC 260 almost four years ago. The 42-year-old will compete against a fighter not named Ngannou or Daniel Cormier for the first time since stopping Junior dos Santos at UFC 2011 in May 2017.

Will the winner of the UFC 309 main event face interim champ Tom Aspinall to unify the titles? Will it be the final octagon walk for Jones and Miocic?

MMA Fighting – All Posts

Here we go
| BJPenn.com

UFC Vegas 100 went down this past weekend (Sat., Nov. 9, 2024) inside the promotion’s APEX venue in Las Vegas, Nevada, leaving several fighters feeling the post-fight blues. Among the was Gerald Meerschaert, who was choked out by Reinier de Ridder — who was making his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) debut — in the first round (see it again here).

And Dusko Todorovic, who was also finished in the first round by Octagon debutant, Mansur Abdul-Malik, putting it on him early and often to secure an impressive technical knockout win halfway through the opening frame. But, which fighter is suffering from the worst post-fight hangover, now a few days removed from the show?

Neil Magny.

Coming into the event, Magny was hoping to erase the memory of his first round stoppage loss at the hands of Michael Morales just three months ago. Standing in his way, however, was another young up-and-comer in Carlos Prates, who had the reputation of starting early and going to work right away to secure brutal highlight-reel finishes.

Unfortunately for Magny, things got worse … much worse.

Indeed, it didn’t take long for Magny to go to his wrestling in an attempt to stifle Prates’ momentum from the jump, though the Brazilian defended very well. But, once Prates got distance, he started to work, dropping Magny early with a massive right, though he was unable to finish the fight at that moment, it didn’t take long after that for Prates to get the job done. With only 10 seconds remaining in the fight, Prates managed to clip his foe with a massive left hook that put him out for the count (replay here).

For Magny, that is now two straight knockout losses, and has dropped three of his last four. The loss will definitely take him out of the Top 15 — he was ranked No. 15 coming into the fight — and will put him at a crossroads in his career. He is 37 years of age, but he hasn’t given any indication that he’s going to call it a career despite his recent struggles.

To get back into the Top 15, he will have to work extra hard, and the competition at 170 pounds isn’t exactly light. As far as what could realistically be next for him, perhaps a showdown against Niko Price is in order. Like Magny, Price has been fighting for UFC for quite some time now, eight years to be exact. And like Magny, Price — who is coming off a loss to Themba Gorimbo last month — is 2-4 in his last six UFC fights.

It’s actually pretty amazing that these two long-time UFC veterans haven’t crossed paths yet, so perhaps now is as good a time as any. I highly doubt it would be a “Loser Leaves Town” match, but the victor will get a new lease on his combat life.

Book it?

For complete UFC Vegas 100 results, coverage and highlights click HERE.

MMAmania.com – All Posts

submitted by /u/Clevelandbrownfan [link] [comments]

MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Jon Jones is gearing up for fight week.

The heavyweight champion is days away from defending his title against Stipe Miocic in the main event of UFC 309 on Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York, and he’s tuning in to the card’s pre-fight programming. In particular, Jones took umbrage with Miocic’s choice of words from the recent UFC Countdown program.

“Bring it on, b*tch,” Miocic said on the show.

Jones responded to the clip via an Instagram Story and on Twitter, which can be seen below (h/t Happy Punch).

“Hiring black fighters to mimic me will not help you, Stipe,” Jones wrote. “And you shouldn’t have called me a bitch, the disrespect wasn’t necessary. Let’s play.”

For the most part, the rivalry between Jones and Miocic had been respectful prior to this exchange. Jones has often touted his respect for Miocic, the record holder for the most successful defenses (4) of the UFC heavyweight title. The two were first booked to fight at UFC 295 in December 2023, but a pectoral injury forced Jones out of that matchup and put him on the sidelines for several months.

In Jones’ absence, British heavyweight Tom Aspinall defeated Sergei Pavlovich for an interim title and has successfully defended it once, defeating Curtis Blaydes this past July. Aspinall has repeatedly expressed interest in unifying the titles, though Jones’ sights have been locked exclusively on Miocic.

Jones’ refusal to acknowledge Aspinall—the No. 1 heavyweight in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings—as the true contender for his title has ruffled more than a few feathers in the MMA community, with the all-time great being accused of “ducking” Aspinall.

After responding to Miocic, Jones fired off another series of tweets responding to his critics, including top light heavyweight contender Magomed Ankalaev, who also mocked Jones for not fighting Aspinall.

“Magomed, jealousy won’t earn you legend status, my friend,” Jones wrote. “Train harder, hate less. Want to truly insult me? Break some of my records first. Let’s get started.”

Ankalaev then posted a tweet poking fun at Jones’ history of drug test failures. During Jones’ legendary run as light heavyweight king from 2011-2020, he put together arguably the most impressive résumé in MMA history, defeating a litany of former world champions and elite challengers. However, a pair of drug tests serve to blemish his reputation, one that cost him in an interim title in 2016 and another that caused a championship win over Daniel Cormier in 2017 to be overturned to a no-contest.

See more of Jones’ tweet storm as he responded to fans below.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

Following his successful return to MMA last month, it isn’t clear yet what Francis Ngannou’s next step will be. There was a lot of pressure and emotion surrounding his long awaited PFL debut against Renan Ferreira.

Not only was Ngannou coming off his first knockout loss where he was stopped by Anthony Joshua in his second boxing match, the former UFC heavyweight champion was motivated to return to competition in the memory of his late son Kobe. Getting his hand raised in the PFL by any means neccesary was his primary focus but after dominating Ferreira and finishing him in the first round, there isn’t a clear next challenge for him in MMA.

Even with a record of 0-2, there are still some big fights left for Ngannou in the boxing world and though it might not be on the same level as his fights with Tyson Fury or Joshua, a meeting with Deontay Wilder would still be a big draw even if both men are coming off of knockout losses in the ring.

Wilder was finished in the fifth round by Zhilei Zhang in June in what looked like could be the final outing of his 48-fight career. “The Bronze Bomber” recently revealed in an interview with TMZ that he’s working towards a return after taking some time off.

“The best is yet to come, I always say that. We’re still going, we’re still here, you know what I mean we just getting things together man. I’m just handling a lot of things, I had a lot of outside distractions that I had to get rid of.”

Wilder also spoke about the potential of facing Ngannou next time out, sending his potential opponent a message of support after the difficult year he has gone through.

“Even since I’ve been off and stuff like that, it’s been a lot of offers coming in, a lot of things, different countries and stuff like that and even with Francis, what’s up brother. I hope everything’s going good for you man and I’m sorry for your loss. I can only imagine what it’s like to lose a child man, I never hope to even feel that feeling of it but I wish, I hope life is going beautifully for you bro and yeah, that’s a conversation I’m still looking to getting in the mix and talk about.”

Continue Reading Deontay Wilder Welcomes Francis Ngannou Clash After Dismissing Retirement Calls at MMA News.

MMA News

submitted by /u/dom242324 [link] [comments]

MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Think you can figure out which UFC fighter we’re talking about? You’ll get five clues to figure him out.

We’re back for another day of the SB Nation UFC in-5 daily trivia game, and we’re switching to a system of a new article each day for the game.

We tried using a single article for the game, updated with the latest game each day, but it was creating a bit of an unwieldy experience in the comments. So, we’ll have the current day’s game plus the previous three days in each new article. That way, you can catch up if you miss a day.

Game instructions are at the bottom if you’re new to the game!

What we need from you

1. Play the game
2. Share your result in the comments and on social media
3. Provide feedback (Google Form or in comments below)

Today’s UFC in-5 game

Sunday’s UFC in-5 game

Saturday’s UFC in-5 game

Friday’s UFC in-5 game

The goal of the game is to guess the correct random UFC fighter player with the help of up to five clues. We’ll mix in BOTH ACTIVE AND RETIRED FIGHTERS. It won’t be easy to figure it out in one or two guesses, but some of you might be able to nail it. It will be a mix of well-known players and some “that guys” that we haven’t thought of in some time. The game will appear in slot #3 of the MMA Fighting layout each morning, with occasional movement later in the day.

After you correctly guess the player, you can click “Share Results” to share how you did down in the comments and on social media.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

submitted by /u/dom242324 [link] [comments]

MMA: Mixed Martial Arts