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UFC 307?
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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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The main event of UFC 307 is sure to be an exciting contest while it lasts as knockout artists compete for the light heavyweight title in Salt Lake City.

Many were surprised to see Khalil Rountree get the next shot at Alex Pereira’s title but in some ways, the match-up speaks for itself.

A lot is going to be made from now up to October 5 about Rountree’s comments regarding his willingness to stand and strike with the former GLORY kickboxer.

Despite rating his skills as a fighter and his conduct as a person, a former training partner of his isn’t sure that he can hang in there against “Poatan”.

Carlos Prates Can’t See How Khalil Rountree Will Compete With Alex Pereira On The Feet

In a recent interview with Sherdog.com, breakout welterweight Carlos Prates gave his thoughts on the main event clash at 205 pounds.

As someone who has spent some time in the company of Rountree, he was able to give an educated prediction for this fight.

Prates, like many, simply doesn’t believe that Rountree will be able to have success when striking with Pereira, even if he has been very effective on the feet.

The 170-pounder picked out Magomed Ankalaev, who many expected would be next for the title shot, as the only fighter that might be able to cause Pereira some problems, likely due to his grappling game.

“To be honest, I train before with Khalil Rountree. He’s a nice guy, he’s a good fighter but I don’t think he can fight with ‘Poatan’. ‘Poatan’ is a different level of striking. I also see an interview of Khalil, he saying he have no plans to try take down so I think he, the first round, ‘Poatan’ gonna knock him out and that’s it. In light heavyweight, maybe Ankalaev can fight good against him but that’s it. Other guys, I don’t think they win the fight against ‘Poatan’. now ‘Poatan’ is the guy of the moment, the guy of the UFC right now.”

Read also: Khalil Rountree Receives Lighter Sentence After Self-Reporting PED Usage

Continue Reading Former Khalil Rountree Training Partner Predicts First-Round Knockout For ‘Guy Of The Moment’ Alex Pereira at MMA News.

MMA News

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

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

If you see fewer of your favorite Brazilian MMA fighters in this column in the coming weeks, know that it’s not by my choice. On Friday (Aug. 30, 2024), a Brazilian Supreme Court Judge, Alexandre de Moraes, officially blocked X — the social media platform formerly known as Twitter — after owner Elon Musk failed to comply with the judge’s order to remove accounts from the platform that were breaking Brazilian law. Musk has declared Moraes an “evil dictator cosplaying as a judge” and intends to continue his fight for free speech.

Many have suggested using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to get around the banning, but Judge Moraes has instituted a harsh penalty of $ 8,874 per day for any Brazilians caught using that workaround. Safe to say, X is not looking worth the risk for most Brazilians.

Paulo Costa is one of the most active Brazilian UFC fighters on Twitter, well-known for his silly juice memes and goofy antics like stealing Merab Dvalishvili’s meals from the UFC Performance Institute (PI). Social media has been a huge boon in growing Costa’s fanbase, but the Brazilian made it clear he will NOT be risking that massive fine. In one post, he wrote, “Bye MY EVERYONE, I will not pay 8,000 $ . Daily to be here.”

Check out all of the Brazilian’s reaction Tweets below:

Now, I’m not a lawyer. My Portuguese is worse than Mike Goldberg’s. I don’t claim to understand the full extent of this ruling, but I have some thoughts on potential workarounds. Can an athlete like Costa fire up some Tweets while out of the country in Las Vegas for a fight? Could he hire a US-based social media manager or even a training partner, then text that person his various thoughts to be posted online? Can he still sell his account, which has 640k followers and surely carries some monetary value?

One way or another, the MMA social media landscape may change quite a bit in the coming days.

Insomnia

Fighting 1.5 times per year while on a $ 12k and $ 12k new signee contract doesn’t sound like an amazing way to make a living.

On the strength of a four-fight win streak, Aiemann Zahabi gets a big step up in competition.

Torrez Finney will make history when he fights on Contenders Series for a third time.

Genuine question, because I have no idea: who is the most successful Sumo athlete to crossover into MMA? I remember that Lyoto Machida had some Sumo in his background, so he’s surely the answer if that counts.

An elite kickboxer making the pads explode:

Danny Barlow claims he won his first two UFC fights with a broken arm.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Sending opponents flying with spin kicks at all three levels!

The look away into 1-2 is Sean O’Malley-esque.

Lee is 6’1” at 135-pounds and doesn’t look that skinny — how?!?

Random Land

That’s a Pokemon.

Midnight Music: New Nick Cave album!

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

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The UFC heavyweight division has been a hot topic in MMA circles lately. Dana White is adamant about booking current champ Jon Jones against Stipe Miocic in 2024. On the flip side, fans seem more interested in seeing “Bones” take on Tom Aspinall who defended his interim belt against Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304 via first-round TKO.

Jones has yet to defend his UFC heavyweight championship since beating Ciryl Gane for it in March 2023. A shoulder injury forced him out of action for almost a year, and the delay in his return has led to many opposing Miocic getting a title shot despite not fighting in over three years.

Although there’s no guarantee that it will happen, Frank Mir has picked Jones to beat Aspinall if they ever fight in the UFC…

Frank Mir Believes Jon Jones Has A 90% Chance Of Beating Tom Aspinall In The UFC Heavyweight Division

Mir discussed a potential fight between Jones and Aspinall on the talkSPORT MMA YouTube channel recently. He acknowledged that the English heavyweight is quite skilled but just doesn’t see him beating the UFC light heavyweight GOAT in the next 12 months.

“Jon’s the GOAT of our sport right now. I get that Tom, and I totally don’t blame him. I would do everything if I was Tom Aspinall. I would do everything I possibly could, maybe show up at his house, get him pissed enough to take that fight because that could just catapult his career.”

The former UFC heavyweight champ believes that Aspinall won’t be able to submit or even take down Jones due to the latter’s superior wrestling. He backed this claim by mentioning Jones’ two wins over Daniel Cormier, arguably one of the best wrestlers to ever fight in the UFC.

“If you said, put my money down on it. If they fought this year or fought within 12 months from now, from what I know training with Jon, from what I’ve seen from Tom, I think Jon has about a 70 to 80, 90% chance of winning the fight.”

“If Tom closes distance, he’s never submitting Jon. And, Jon outwrestles him absolutely. They had a take down contest, he can’t take Jon down one time, zero. Absolutely zero. Jon’s wrestling is unreal. If Jon had gone a different path in life, and maybe had not problem in school, he would have absolutely been the Olympic world champion at wrestling, you know. That’s just the part of me. He outwrestled Cormier, you know what I mean? Cormier’s accolades in wrestling are through the roof.”

Mir added that Aspinall’s explosive and fast striking, especially for a heavyweight, could be his only way to victory against Jones. He remembered the likes of Vitor Belfort and Dominick Reyes who had success against “Bones” due to their speed advantage in striking exchanges.

Interestingly, former rival Quinton “Rampage” Jackson also favored Jones to win against Aspinall for similar reasons in a recent interview with Inside Fighting. The former UFC light heavyweight kingpin praised the interim UFC heavyweight champ’s skills but doesn’t think it’ll be enough for him to unify the title against the current undisputed champion.

• ALSO READ: Shavkat Rakhmonov Trusts UFC’s Meritocracy To Prevent Conor McGregor Title Shot Hijack, Reveals Belal Muhammad Turned Down UFC 307 Date

Continue Reading Former UFC Heavyweight Champ Joins Quinton Jackson In Favoring Jon Jones Against Tom Aspinall: ‘GOAT Of Our Sport!’ at MMA News.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

MMA Fighting has MIsfits Boxing 17 results for the Aarons vs. Simpson fight card and more from the 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland, on Saturday afternoon.

Influencer Danny Aarons and Danny Simpson, a former defender for English clubs Leicester City, Newcastle United and more, will clash in the main event. Aarons will be given Simpson’s Premier League championship medal with a win, while Simpson will get Aarons’ gold YouTube plaque.

Anthony Taylor, a former Bellator MMA fighter, will square off against Gabriel Silva, UFC legend Anderson Silva’s son, for the Misfits Boxing light heavyweight title on the main card.

Check out Misfits Boxing 17 results below.

Main Card (DAZN PPV at 1 p.m. ET)

Danny Aarons vs. Danny Simpson

Deen the Great vs. Dave Fogarty – lightweight title fight

Anthony Taylor vs. Gabriel Silva – light heavyweight title fight

HSTikkyTokky vs. George Fensom

Sami Hamed vs. Jesse Clarke

Ben Williams vs. Warren Spencer

Mike Edwards vs. Jake Cornish

DTG vs. Minikon

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