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Demetrious Johnson is all class.

The ONE Championship star and former UFC flyweight champion recently competed as a black belt at the 2024 IBJJF World Masters Jiu Jitsu Championship in Las Vegas, and he shared footage of his grappling exploits on his YouTube channel.

In his third match of the day, “Mighty Mouse” scored a decision win over Takuto Kako. Afterward, he went went out of his way to console his sullen opponent.

Watch a clip of that interaction below.

“It’s still good,” Johnson said. “There’s next year. This is for fun. Your life’s not going to change. You’re going to go home, keep on training, have a beautiful wife, kids, go back to work. This is for fun. There’s more to life than winning, I promise.”

Johnson knows a thing or two about the highs and lows of combat sports. During his six-year reign as UFC flyweight champion, he defended his title 11 consecutive times before dropping it in a rematch with Henry Cejudo at UFC 227, and then went on to star for ONE Championship.

In his first bid at winning ONE’s flyweight title, he was knocked out by Adriano Moraes — who also competed at the IBJJF World Masters Jiu Jitsu Championship — but rebounded with back-to-back victories over his Brazilian rival.

As for how his grappling tournament ended, Johnson made it to the quarterfinals before being submitted by Tomoya Yanagisawa.

Watch Johnson’s video chronicle of his jiu-jitsu competition experience below.

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Shavkat Rakhmonov hasn’t put a foot wrong during his ascent up the welterweight ladder towards a title shot.

With a undefeated record and all of his wins coming via finish, the 170-pound contender appears to be set up to challenge Belal Muhammad for the belt next time out. unless something unexpected occurs.

The UFC has been known to temporarily swerve the rankings if it means putting something big together and when you’re talking big in MMA, there’s no one larger than Conor McGregor.

Despite there being no rescheduled date for his welterweight return against Michael Chandler, “The Notorious” returning with a win could completely change the top of the weight class.

Rakhmonov spoke in a recent interview with MMA Fighting about how he believes the promotion will do right by him even in the instance that “The Mac” is back in the mix.

“He’s been getting ready to fight a long time but wasn’t able to do that yet so in my head, I don’t even think about him winning this one fight in three years is going to do something. I understand he’s a big star but in my head, I don’t see it being possible. I believe UFC is the best and the most fair organization so I believe they’re gonna do everything right.”

Shavkat Rakhmonov Reveals That Belal Muhammad Turned Down UFC 307 Title Fight

Though there has been some debate over whether Rakhmonov will definitely be the next title challenger for Muhammad, the contender answered this question all by himself.

He revealed during the same interview that he has already been offered the title shot but it didn’t come to fruition due to the champion not being able to make a 70-day turnaround to fight at elevation in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Alex Pereira will be headlining UFC 307 instead, which always seemed to be an optimistic target for Muhammad after he won the belt at the end of July.

“Yeah, actually I had already been offered to fight Belal and I accepted the fight against Belal but unfortunately, he declined to fight me due to the timing issues, he wasn’t ready to defend his belt on that time. So, we’ll see what’s gonna happen and when he’s gonna be ready so I will be able to fight him. Before he became a champion and after he won the belt, he said he’s gonna be an active champion and he will defend his belt more often but at the moment, he isn’t backing up what he said so let’s see what’s going to happen, when he’s going to be ready to fight me.”

Read also: Khalil Rountree Says He Would Fire His Coaches If They Insisted He Grapple Alex Pereira

Continue Reading Shavkat Rakhmonov Trusts UFC’s Meritocracy To Prevent Conor McGregor Title Shot Hijack, Reveals Belal Muhammad Turned Down UFC 307 Date at MMA News.

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Shavkat Rakhmonov and Belal Muhammad continue their war of words.

At UFC 304, Muhammad claimed the UFC welterweight title with a five-round domination of rival Leon Edwards. Following his win, many assumed Rakhmonov would be first in line to face the newly crowned champion, and Rakhmonov recently revealed he was in fact offered a title shot in October that Muhammad declined, with Rakhmonov then suggesting Muhammad wasn’t living up to his declaration that he’d be an active champion.

In response, on Saturday, Muhammad fired back at Rakhmonov, saying that the undefeated Kazakh fighter has not fought in 2024 and so should have to fight former champion Kamaru Usman in a No. 1 contender matchup. And as you can imagine, Rakmonov doesn’t think much of that idea.

On Sunday, Rakhmonov responded to Muhammad, pointing out that “Remember the Name” seems to have forgotten that he himself earned a crack at the belt despite a 14-month layoff.

“Do you have a case of selective memory, or did you just forget that you didn’t fight for 14 months before challenging for the belt?”

Ultimately, it seems like these two will eventually settle their differences inside the cage, as Muhammad himself recently joked that the UFC only seems interested in that matchup next. Nonetheless, the welterweight champion isn’t going to let Rakhmonov have the last laugh in this, and so promptly fired back by suggesting he’s not even been engaging with the real Rakhmonov.

“Selective memory ? Who’s tweeting for you bro there’s no translation for that in Kazakh.”

If these two are going to end up fighting each other though, it may not be this year. With the UFC schedule nearly complete for the rest of 2024, the only remaining opportunities for the matchup would be at UFC 309 on Nov. 16 in Madison Square Garden in New York City, or UFC 310 on Dec. 7 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. UFC 309 is widely believed to be headlined by the long-awaited matchup between Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic, while UFC 310 still lacks a main event.

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UFC

Jessica Andrade looks to stop Natalia Silva’s rise in the flyweight division when they meet in the co-main event of UFC Vegas 97 on Sept. 7, and she wants gold next.

The former UFC strawweight champion told MMA Fighting that she plans to call for a shot at a belt if victorious next week in Las Vegas regardless of weight class, and made her case for the creation of a women’s BMF title.

“I’ve been talking to Joanna [Jedrzejczyk] and she said she’d come back. If it’s for this [BMF] belt, she would come back,” Andrade said. “I think that would be a good fight. Joanna, or maybe Angela Hill, who never walks away from a fight and is always there fighting everyone. Or Valentina [Shevchenko]. Any of those girls would be great, but I think it would be special if it’s Joanna. It would be better.”

No female UFC athlete has more wins (17) and finishes (9) in the octagon than Andrade. Her long list of victims includes Rose Namajunas, Mackenzie Dern, Amanda Lemos, and Karolina Kowalkiewicz.

Andrade fought Jedrzejczyk in her first shot at the strawweight title in 2017, losing via decision, but came back to win the belt two years later by stopping Namajunas. Andrade also challenged Shevchenko for the 125-pound title in 2021, losing via second-round knockout.

Jedrzejczyk’s win over Andrade was her final title defense before losing back-to-back fights against Namajunas. The Polish star then returned to the win column with a 2018 decision over Tecia Pennington, and moved up in weight to challenge Shevchenko for the vacant flyweight title but lost by unanimous decision.

Jedrzejczyk’s final shot at UFC gold came in 2020, when she dropped a legendary split decision to 115-pound champion Zhang Weili in one of the greatest fights in MMA history. Jedrzejczyk retired from MMA in 2022 following a knockout loss to Zhang in the rematch.

“[Jedrzejczyk] said she would fight at 125, not at 115, and that would be even better for me because I feel great in this division as well,” Andrade said. “I wouldn’t be too affected by the weight loss or any of that. I think we would put on a show and do an incredible fight, and I would get that one back.”

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Big news
| BJPenn.com

A new GOAT debate has just dropped as White is pushing Rogan as the best commentator across all combat sports to ever do it.

Dana White knows a GOAT when he sees one.

The UFC CEO has been spending a lot of time lately declaring Jon Jones the greatest fighter of all time in mixed martial arts, and he says you have to be “f—ing stupid” to think otherwise. Now he’s widening his lens to other areas of the combat sports landscape like commentary, and he has a clear GOAT there too: Joe Rogan.

In a new interview with Brian Kilmeade on FOX’s One Nation, White considers Rogan to be one of the best hires he ever made as head of the UFC. Sure, Rogan had already worked at several UFC events before White and the Fertitta brothers bought the promotion in 2001. But White claims he didn’t even know that when he watched a VHS tape of Rogan defending MMA on a sports show.

“I ended up reaching out to Rogan, we hit it off and that’s it,” White told Kilmeade.

“He said, ‘Wait a minute. So you’re telling me I can come to the the sport that I love the most in the world, have the best seat in the house, and talk about it on TV? I’m in!’ He did the first 13 for free, and the rest is history. Now he has the biggest podcast in the world, and he’s the greatest combat sports commentator of all time.”

For years, Rogan worked alongside Mike Goldberg on nearly every UFC event. Goldberg handled the play-by-play and Rogan was on color commentary duty, using his deep knowledge of fighting to fill in knowledge gaps for new fans (and Goldberg as well, oftentimes). It was a solid arrangement, and much better than most of what we’d seen up to that point. Few fans had complaints in that era.

These days the booth has changed and Rogan only works U.S. pay-per-views, usually alongside Jon Anik and Daniel Cormier. International events and UFC Fight Nights are handled by a rotating roster that includes Paul Felder, Michael Bisping, and Dominick Cruz. All including Rogan have their fans and haters. Some on both sides note that certain booth combinations result in less than stellar analysis — and that’s been a frequent critique of the Rogan / Cormier pairing.

But just like Jon Jones, Joe Rogan has been at this for a very long time and it’s gonna be tough for anyone to make their mark in this sport like he has. He’s definitely the most popular and best known to ever do it in MMA. Does that make him the GOAT? Across all combat sports??? We’ll let you debate that in the comments below.

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Michael Chandler thinks there could finally be light at the end of the tunnel.

For nearly two years, Chandler has chased a fight with former two-division champion Conor McGregor, with nothing yet to show for it. The two were scheduled to fight at UFC 303 back in June, but McGregor ultimately withdrew due to a toe injury and the bout has yet to be rebooked.

But that could be changing soon as on Sunday, Chandler teased via his Instagram that a fight is in the works.

“Wheels in motion to bite down on that mouthpiece again… Bet on yourself, always.

“Walk On.

“See you at the top!”

Though Chandler doesn’t name McGregor outright, it’s likely any fight booking for the former Bellator lightweight champion will be against “Notorious.” Chandler has not shown any recent indication that he’s ready to move on to another opponent and both UFC CEO Dana White and Conor McGregor recently teased upcoming fight news for the the Irish superstar. That being said, it’s unclear if the fight will take place this year as White previously shot down the idea of McGregor competing in 2024.

McGregor has not competed in over three years. He last set foot in the octagon at UFC 264, where he suffered a catastrophic leg injury in his trilogy bout with Dustin Poirier. Chandler’s most recent opponent was also Poirier, losing via submission at UFC 281.

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After a lot of tension between the two men due to their history where they were set to meet inside the Octagon, UFC middleweights Brendan Allen and Marvin Vettori were involved in a brawl several weeks ago.

Sources reported that the Italian fighter had gotten into an altercation with UFC fighter Tuco Tokkos which Allen then intervened in, whilst they were in attendance at a PFL event.

The fight, which was captured on video, shows Allen going at “The Italian Dream” as both men traded blows.

They have exchanged comments on social media and in interviews multiple times before so this beef certainly didn’t come out of nowhere.

Zach Reese Says Online Trash Talking Isn’t For Him

In a recent interview with MMA News, UFC middleweight Zach Reese gave his thoughts on the viral brawl between Vettori and Allen.

The 30-year-old has got back-to-back wins in the 185-pound weight class.

Reese believes that whilst he understands that trash-talking is a big part of the sport today, it’s not something that he likes to partake in.

“Savage” has no problem saying what he thinks but he isn’t going to say anything that he can’t physically back up in person, as opposed to making comments from the other side of a screen.

“I don’t believe in jumping, I think that’s what’s gone down the world is that people won’t have one-on-one fist fights anymore and you know dude, if you talk s*** on the internet, I think talking s*** on the internet’s lame as f*** to be honest man. I don’t even know the whole backstory on that or who started it or whatever but there’s something in me as like a man, it’s just I don’t like the idea of talking s*** on the internet dude, it’s kind of weird. I know it’s kind of the name of the game in MMA and it gets the fans excited and stuff but yeah, if you talk crap to somebody man then you better be willing to face the consequences or say it to their face. Talk some s*** to the wrong person, they’ll punch you in the mouth.”

Read also: Khamzat Chimaev’s Former ‘Main Sparring Partner’ Caio Borralho Warns Robert Whittaker: ‘I Didn’t See Any Other Guy In My Life…’

Continue Reading UFC Middleweight On Brendan Allen – Marvin Vettori Casino Bust Up: ‘Talk Some S**t To The Wrong Person They’ll Punch You In The Mouth’ [Exclusive] at MMA News.

MMA News

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts