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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Belal Muhammad has no problem playing matchmaker for the top welterweight contenders.

The recently crowned champion is already fielding potential challengers after capturing the belt with a lopsided decision win over Leon Edwards at UFC 304 this past July. However, Muhammad won’t commit to a No. 1 contender, even with the undefeated Shavkat Rakhmonov hot on his heels.

Rakhmonov, 18-0 as a pro and 6-0 in the UFC, recently made the claim to MMA Fighting that he was offered a fight with Muhammad for UFC 307 in October that the champion declined due to the timing not working out.

That’s news to Muhammad, who scoffed at suggestions that he needs to book a fight soon in a social media post. He added that he would like to see Rakhmonov fight former champion Kamaru Usman in a title eliminator bout first.

“Inactive?” Muhammad wrote. “LOL. I’m still on trial and Shavkat hasn’t fought since 2023. I think Shavkat and Usman should fight to find the real number one contender.”

Muhammad had a long path to the title himself, having to win 10 straight bouts (excluding one no-contest) to book his shot against Edwards, and he’s in no hurry to boost anyone else’s contender campaign.

Though Rakhmonov has done enough to rightfully challenge the champion, the possibility looms that Usman could be granted the opportunity instead. Usman held the UFC welterweight title for over two years and successfully defended it five times, so he has those previous accolades and name value on his side.

Hurting Usman’s case is the fact that he is coming off of three straight losses. He lost a majority decision to Khamzat Chimaev in a middleweight bout after stepping in on short notice to face the undefeated fighter, and also lost consecutive championship bouts to Edwards. Usman hasn’t recorded a victory since defeating Colby Covington at UFC 268 in November 2021.

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Caio Borralho, who recently beat Jared Cannonier to become a top contender in the UFC middleweight division, is a member of Fighting Nerds. The mixed martial arts gym is based in São Paulo, Brazil, and has gained a ton of prominence in MMA circles lately.

Several members of Fighting Nerds have put up impressive performances recently. For instance, Bruna Brasil defeated Molly McCann at UFC 304, Carlos Prates became the first person to knock out Li Jingliang at UFC 305, and Jean Silva stopped Drew Dober just two weeks after knocking out Charles Jourdain at UFC 303.

Here’s why Fighting Nerds has the potential to generate multiple UFC champions according to Borralho, one of their most skilled members…

Caio Borralho Reveals Training Strategies That Have Helped Fighting Nerds Members Excel In The UFC

Borralho discussed what sets Fighting Nerds apart in an interview on the Inside Fighting YouTube channel recently. He highlighted that the gym focuses a lot on distance control and fighters are expected to break their fights into three stages. The first step is to establish range followed by constant movement to make the opponent miss.

From the looks of it, Fighting Nerds fighters aim to start their fights relatively slowly. Once they’ve figured out the opponent’s style and striking patterns, they prepare to close distance and aggress which is the third stage.

Borralho then revealed the rigorous practice that goes into perfecting their striking and distance management. For every opponent, they perform thousands of drills which explains why they’re so calm going into their fights.

Another important step during training is studying footage. According to “The Natural”, Fighting Nerds coaches compile videos of opponents to understand how they start fights, throw strikes and takedowns, and move around the Octagon. For his latest fight, Borralho studied almost all the right hands thrown by Cannonier.

“If we get a guy like Cannonier, like the right hand, like all right hands, almost like a lot of right video with just like big right hands of Cannonier. All his setting ups, you know, all his patterns and all this stuff. So, all take downs, all cage work that the guys do, how he behave himself in the cage work and then there’s like five six minutes of video only with cage work, you know. So, we’re very specific in our training. We have a very close approach when it comes about training and study, you know. And I think that help us a lot and I think this is it you know. We’re bunch of nerds you know!”

All in all, Fighting Nerds members make sure to know everything about their opponent before even stepping into the Octagon. Most of the gym’s fighters are gradually climbing the ranks in their respective divisions, and it’ll be interesting to observe how quickly they can generate a champion with this approach.

• READ MORE: ‘Everybody Suffers’ – Frank Mir Explains How UFL Could Get Past The Conor McGregor Effect Seen In The UFC

Continue Reading ‘Very Specific In Our Training’ – Caio Borralho Breaks Down What Makes Fighting Nerds Special at MMA News.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Diego Lopes expects to be in Alexa Grasso’s corner when she faces Valentina Shevchenko for a third time for the UFC women’s flyweight title at UFC 306 on Sept. 14, and that’s another incentive for him to seek a quick finish against Brian Ortega earlier that night.

Lopes and Ortega are scheduled to compete in the third bout of the main card at The Sphere, with Grasso co-headlining the show right before Sean O’Malley vs. Merab Dvalishvili. Lopes hopes he can leaves the cage injury-free to be there for his teammate.

“We have talked about this a lot, how we’re going to handle this, because I’ve been in her corner ever since she moved to 125 [pounds],” Lopes told MMA Fighting. “We work together, we help each other, I teach her and learn from her, but we have no idea what we’re going to do. I’ll fight my fight, and then comes Alexa. We know how we come out of a fight, especially knowing how tough Ortega is. It could be a war and we both might come out bad. [Laughs.] But I’m focused. It’s extra motivation to come out fine in this fight, to win quickly and rush to the locker room, change clothes and be in Alexa’s corner.”

Lopes said he asked his team to try to move his fight down the card, but understands why it’s positioned as it is. The Brazilian athlete is on a roll after winning four straight UFC bouts in just under 11 months against Gavin Tucker, Pat Sabatini, Sodiq Yusuff, and Dan Ige.

Ortega is a two-time title challenger who submitted Yair Rodriguez in his most recent octagon appearance.

“I’d rather fight early,” Lopes said. “I even told the guys I would have no problem being the first fight of the night, or two or three fights before [Grasso], so I can be there with her. But where we are on the card speaks of the great work we’re doing. And we’ll also have out teammate Irene Aldana on the card. It’s great for our team, having three fighters in one of the most spectacular and well-produced cards in the UFC.”

Grasso is also expected to be cornered by Francisco Grasso, her uncle and head coach at Lobo Gym, and Alessandro Costa, who competes a week earlier at UFC Vegas 97.

“We know we can do incredible things when we’re all four there,” Lopes said. “We’ve done incredible things, and I’m extra motivated to win quickly and run to the locker room and be in her corner as well.”

Mexico’s Lobo Gym has done incredible things in the UFC, indeed.

Other than Lopes and flyweight champion Grasso, the team has also led Aldana to a title shot against former 135-pound champion Amanda Nunes. Aldana beat Karol Rosa earlier this year to rebound from that championship loss, and now faces Norma Dumont at UFC 306. Costa faces Matt Schnell on Sept. 7 after a bonus-winning knockout of Kevin Borjas at UFC 301 in May, and Loopy Godinez continues to rise as a strawweight prospect despite stumbling against veterans Virna Jandiroba and Mackenzie Dern this past year.

Lopes was even nominated for Breakthrough Fighter of the Year at the 2024 World MMA Awards, plus Submission of the Year for his triangle armbar over Gavin Tucker. Lobo Gym is also in the running for best gym and Coach of the Year (Francisco Grasso).

“It’s incredible for us,” Lopes said. “Not too long ago people were leaving Mexico for other places to evolve, but we’ve done an excellent work here. Alexa won four awards last year training and evolving in Mexico, and now I have the honor of being nominated breakthrough fighter and also best submission. That goes to show the work we’ve done here as a team.”

“Our team is running against other teams that have bigger name and more than 10 athletes in the UFC,” he continued. “We only have five fighters in the UFC, and four of them are ranked — and our great teammate Alessandro Costa is fighting the No. 12 ranked next. Our coach has done a great job.”

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UFC 307?
| BJPenn.com

Ilia Topuria has already defeated Alexander Volkanovski for the UFC featherweight title, but “El Matador” is willing to do it again at UFC 308 if need be.

The undefeated UFC featherweight champion is currently scheduled to defend his title for the first time since stopping Volkanovski this past February when he meets Max Holloway at UFC 308 on Oct. 26 in Abu Dhabi. It’s a massive meeting between the current 145-pound king and the current “BMF” champion that will headline one of the most stacked pay-per-view (PPV) cards of the year.

While Topuria and Holloway are not prone to pulling out of fights, the promotion may decide to bring in a backup fighter to potentially fill in for an injury, botched weight cut, or anything else. It makes sense for that fighter to be Volkanovski, who before his loss to Topuria had produced an undefeated 13-0 record as member of the UFC’s featherweight division. This includes five-straight title defenses and three title fight wins over Holloway.

“I reckon I’ll be there, you know what I mean?” said Volkanovski during a fan Q&A earlier this month in Australia. “I’m usually hanging around and pestering my managers and the matchmakers. I’m always hanging around. You can’t get rid of me. I’ll be there.”

Topuria, who just fought Volkanovski six months ago, doesn’t know if that’s the right choice for the former champion. After all, Volkanovski has suffered back-to-back knockout losses since he was finished by Islam Makhachev prior to his meeting with Topuria.

“Listen, I don’t know (if that’s a good idea),” Topuria told MMA Junkie. “He wants to get knocked out every year. Twice, maybe someone has to give him good advice. He needs some rest. I’m telling you, he needs some rest. His head at least.”

That said, Topuria doesn’t really care who is standing across the cage from him at UFC 308. He would prefer Holloway for the chance to add another legendary name to his growing resume, but “El Matador” is fine running things back with Volkanovski if it comes to that.

“My business and my job is to fight, no matter who is in front of me,” Topuria said. “I’m the world champion. I had my preferences before that I wanted to fight people who was next to me in the rankings, to get my chance to fight for the title as soon as possible. But now, when I’m the world champion, I don’t care. Give me a name. Give me a place. I’m going to give you a masterpiece of mixed martial arts.”

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Carla Esparza already had an idea that the end of her career was coming soon — even before she defended her UFC strawweight title against Zhang Weili back in 2022.

The former two-time UFC champion may have announced that her return fight against Tecia Pennington at UFC 307 serves as her final UFC appearance, but retirement was already on her mind long before she took the past two-plus years off to start a family with her husband. With an MMA career that dates back to 2010 — and wrestling competitions that go back even further — Esparza felt like the time was right to hang up her gloves for good.

“This decision took a lot of thought,” Esparza told MMA Fighting. “I always said that when this sport stopped being fun for me and I lost my passion, that would be the time to hang it up. But that hasn’t happened. I still go to training like hungry to learn. I’m still so passionate about learning and growing in this sport and evolving. It wasn’t that for me. It’s so many things.

“I wish my body was where my mind is at. I think I’ve heard a lot of my teammates say once you hit 30 in the room, you start to feel it, and that’s definitely true. I’ll be turning 37 the week after the fight, so it’s definitely put a lot of years on this car, and the attention it takes to be a parent for me — and everyone does it different but I feel that being a parent is the most selfless thing I’ve ever done, and being a fighter is the most selfish thing I’ve done. The focus is all on me and what do I need to do to be the best and whatever. That’s the No. 1 for me. Now, priorities have just changed a little bit.”

Esparza always intended to have children, but the birth of her son changed her perspective on the future, at least as far as fighting is concerned.

There was also the non-stop pace required to stay active in the UFC — she’d routinely spend months in a training camp, fight, take a little bit of time off, and then start that same cycle anew all over again. That’s a harder schedule to maintain with a baby at home, and for Esparza, it’s important to be present as a parent.

“I’m really enjoying just being home with my son,” Esparza said. “I feel very fortunate to be able to be here for all the little moments and appreciate them. For me, it’s been a cycle of fight, rest, get back to training — it’s kind of been like a cycle, but a little bit different with pregnancy and everything.

“Since we decided to start a family, I’ve been like a year-and-a-half in the making for this fight. I never stopped lifted weights, moving around, running. I was doing my physical therapy because it’s almost this traumatic labor and pregnancy, a big hit on your body. Just like any big injury, just kind of slowly building myself back to being in the best shape and mental place I can whenever I chose to fight again.”

Esparza also understood the wear and tear she puts on her body from training and fighting in MMA would eventually catch up, but that was even more evident after she gave birth.

That also played a deciding factor in the timing for her retirement in October.

“It’s been in the works since even before my last fight,” Esparza explained. “I knew that potentially my last fight could have been my last fight ever. I really wanted to come back, but there’s a lot of stuff that happens with women’s bodies and pregnancy and labor, and people can have traumatic experiences to their bodies.

“So I didn’t know what the future held, but I had to be mentally in a place to let it go if I had to. I knew I wanted to take one or two more fights, and it turns out with actually being in the mix and seeing everything, I’m feeling like this last fight makes the most sense for me just to do one more.”

Considering she was a champion in her most recent UFC appearance, Esparza never doubted that she could still hang with the best fighters in the world at 115 pounds.

But she also knows the long-running stereotype that fighters just don’t know when to retire — and more often than not, many legends of the sport end up leaving on their backs rather than walking out on their own two feet.

“We’ve seen it time and time again, the sport kind of forces you out,” Esparza said. “You have devastating loss after devastating loss, and honestly, I’ve seen a lot of my heroes fighting over the years and it’s hard to watch that. I never wanted to be that to my fans. We all lose and have bad losses, I’ve been finished and come back. I don’t necessarily think my body’s putting me out to a place where I’m just going to plummet, I’m going downhill. I still think I have a good amount of fight left in me, but just being older and the amount of time it takes to recover and to prepare for each training session and to avoid injury, and it’s a lot.

“I wish I could show up to training and leave, but the amount of commitment that it takes to be at this level and to train smart is a lot. I don’t want to half-ass this sport. If I do it, I want to be all-in and I want to give this sport the attention and the time that it deserves.”

After initially reaching out to inform UFC that she’s ready to book another fight and then informing the promotion about her pending retirement, Esparza appreciated that she’ll get the chance to go out in front of a crowd at UFC 307 rather than appearing at the UFC APEX.

Because she’s already announced that this is her final fight, Esparza plans on leaving everything she has in the cage and then walking away on her own terms.

“I don’t want to get pushed out,” Esparza said. “This is a natural progression. Nobody can stay on top forever, but it is nice to go out on my own terms and not be forced out by injury after injury or just a bad performance. I didn’t want to go out like that. I wanted to go out still as seen as one of the top fighters.”

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