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UFC 306, scheduled for Sept. 13 inside The Sphere in Las Vegas, Nevada, is fast-approaching.

The Riyadh Season Noche UFC event — quite a mouthful — is headlined by a Bantamweight title clash between champion Sean O’Malley and veteran contender Merab Dvalishvili. In addition to being a stellar clash of styles and elite 135-pounders, the fight has plenty of history. O’Malley knocked out Dvalishvili’s team mate and best buddy, Aljamain Sterling, to win the Bantamweight crown (watch here), while Dvalishvili has been calling for a clash with “Suga” for literal years now.

The feud has only grown harsher over the years. Dvalishvili is ready to swing on O’Malley’s head coach, Tim Welch, in addition to the champion, while O’Malley has been adding fuel to the fire by getting nationalistic with the trash talk. Perhaps all that bad blood has O’Malley feeling particularly violent, because his prediction for the bout is getting downright nasty.

“Left hand to the chopper,” O’Malley responded when asked how the fight would go. “Brutally. I know I’m going to hurt him at one point, but then it could turn into a brutal KO. Just an absolute, not a good weight cut, not a good camp, and he just gets slept bad. Like that [Li Jingliang] where it’s just five or six punches just add up and the last one puts him into the canvas snoring, nose crooked, cat screaming MEOW!”

Nobody is surprised that O’Malley expects to win on the feet, but it remains to be seen if he can handle the wrestling of Dvalishvili. “The Machine” has won a ridiculous 10 fights in a row, taking down just about everyone in the process, including Olympic gold medalist Henry Cejudo.

There’s also the recent element of a cut above the eye Dvalishvili suffered in training. The Georgian talent made the “next-level stupid” decision of posting himself getting stitches, revealing the target to O’Malley. If his eye is busted open early, that could make for a very difficult night of trying to close the distance against the rangy kickboxer.

We’ll find out in just a few weeks whether O’Malley’s prediction is accurate.

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Gable Steveson, a 2020 Olympic gold medal wrestler and former WWE prospect, is set to be released from the Buffalo Bills roster after he attempted to make a career switch to play in the NFL.

NFL Network first reported the news as teams prepare to cut down to the 53-man roster required by 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday.

Without a single down of football experience prior to 2024, Steveson decided to try his hand at football as he followed in the footsteps of fellow University of Minnesota wrestling standout Brock Lesnar after he attempted a similar move during his career. Lesnar left WWE and worked out with the Minnesota Vikings during the preseason but ultimately he suffered the same fate with his release before eventually becoming one of the biggest stars in the UFC.

Steveson making the final roster was always a longshot considering his lack of experience but as a developmental prospect there’s a chance he could still get signed to a different roster or a practice squad as the NFL season gets underway in less than two weeks.

Prior to his attempt to play professional football, Steveson was widely considered one of the best wrestlers on the planet after he delivered a thrilling performance to capture gold with a last second takedown at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Following that win, Steveson returned to college where he crushed his competition before winning a second NCAA championship.

Even before his Olympic run, Steveson had expressed interest in potentially pursuing fighting or professional wrestling but he ultimately decided to sign with WWE after winning his gold medal. Unfortunately, Steveson never quite developed the way WWE had hoped and he was released from the roster in May.

That led to Steveson’s decision to switch to professional football where he played defensive tackle for the Buffalo Bills and recorded three tackles during limited action on the field during the preseason.

Now Steveson, who is still only 24 years old, has been released from the Bills roster and it remains to be seen what he plans to do next in his career.

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Going to bat for his compatriot, former two-division UFC champion, Conor McGregor has urged promotional boss, Dana White to ink Roscommon veteran, Danni McCormack to a deal with the organization off the back of her impressive unanimous decision in on ‘Road to UFC’ over the course of the weekend.

McGregor, a former two-weight champion at the lightweight and featherweight limits under the banner of the organization, has been sidelined from action since he headlined UFC 264 back in 2021, fracturing his left tibia and fibula in an opening round doctor’s stoppage TKO loss against Dustin Poirier.

And ruled from a slated comeback at UFC 303 back in June during International Fight Week, just weeks ahead of a welterweight matchup with veteran contender, Michael Chandler, McGregor fractured a toe on the same leg as his prior injury.

Conor McGregor backs Danni McCormack to land UFC contract

However, going to bat for his fellow Straight Blast Gym staple this week on social media, McGregor uged UFC head-honcho, White to pen the former Invicta FC strawweight champion, McCormack to a multi fight deal — off the back of her decision win over Yan Qihui last weekend on the ‘Road to’ format.

“THIS IS A PROMO!,” Conor McGregor posted on his official X account in reference to Danni McCormack’s post-fight interview. “In at the drop of a hat to beat and maul the much bigger girl. Finishing with a call out from the UFC’s current strawweight champion who is from the same region as her just beating opponent. Magic! IRISH GOER WAR CRY! @danawhite announce signing brother this is…”

“We’ll f*cking mow them down, @danawhite! EIRE!!!!” Conor McGregor posted.

A former Invicta FC strawweight champion, McCormack landed a unanimous decision win over Valesca Machado back in March of last year, before successfully defending her crown with a third round rear-naked choke win over Karolina Wojcik under the banner of the Shannon Knapp-led organization.

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Francis Ngannou found himself in the news without doing anything the week before the press conference for his PFL debut.

“The Predator” may be gearing up for his long awaited MMA return where he will face Renan Ferreira on October 19 but the legacy he left behind in the UFC will never be forgotten.

The MMA leader found themselves receiving some criticism during fight week for UFC 305, after claims that they had tried to erase Ngannou from the promotion’s history books due to his name being edited out during the Countdown episode preview.

Though Dana White did apologise for this and put it down to a miscommunication, it certainly wasn’t the first time that the UFC have tailored things to better suit the promotion.

Dan Hardy Says Francis Ngannou’s UFC Erasure Was Sad But Not Surprising Based On Track Record

During a recent interview with Sportskeeda MMA, PFL commentator Dan Hardy gave his thoughts on the discourse regarding the UFC’s conduct around the career of their former heavyweight champion, who left the promotion on less than stellar terms.

“The Outlaw” spoke about the comparisons between Ngannou’s treatment and that of Randy Couture, who also left to sign with another promotion and wasn’t remembered fondly by the UFC as a result.

“It was sad to see and it didn’t surprise me unfortunately and I did see what Dana’s reply was about the fact that the editors had assumed that’s what he would have chosen and what he would have wanted and look, they were probably right because it’s happened so many times in history. Ngannou and Randy, they’re two fantastically credible names in the sport.”

Hardy was also able to draw from his own experiences, even if his was on a smaller scale.

The current Head of Fighter Operations for PFL Europe left the promotion in 2021 after some disagreements with the UFC, both publicly and privately.

He recalled how he was seemingly wiped from the history of UK MMA during an event in London where his wife, Veronica, was in action.

Despite being the first Brit to challenge for a UFC title when he faced Georges St-Pierre for the welterweight belt, “The Outlaw” was nowhere to be seen across the celebrations of the sport in this region.

“My history in the UFC is far more mediocre in comparison but even so, at UFC London when Veronica was on the card, there’s posters of all the UK fighters on all of the underground tubes and everything and of course, I’m not there. It does happen, they do it a lot.

“It makes no difference to me, I can dye my hair red and walk down the street and people will remember my fights. It’s just kind of a weird thing to see and for people like Randy and Ngannou, they need to be celebrated because they’ve inspired so many people, myself included. They shouldn’t be omitted, they’re part of the fabric of the sport and I think the fans will always remember that.”  

Read also: PFL CEO Contradicts President’s Rejection Of Muhammad Mokaev: ‘He Could Absolutely Be The Future Face Of Flyweights Within PFL’

Continue Reading Dan Hardy Reacts To UFC Erasing Francis Ngannou, Compares With Own Experience at MMA News.

MMA News

Things got incredibly personal between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor leading into their fight at UFC 229.

The pair had already been traded shots on social media for years before their eventual matchup six years ago. Though he did well to avoid showing it, ‘The Eagle’ was pushed to the brink by the Irishman’s mental warfare.

Years after the dust settled on the affair, Khabib Nurmagomedov has revealed how he felt toward Conor McGregor in the build-up to their clash.

“It was a very emotional time, but at the same time, it was my feelings,” Khabib said regarding his feud with McGregor. “I really wanted to bite somebody’s heart.”

“I just try to bite his heart, you know. I don’t know maybe you can feel this or not. I am ‘The Eagle’, you know.”

“When Eagle is hungry, it’s not good. He has to hunt… When the promotion promoted this fight, they have to expect something [to happen].”

“When they know all my team and when they know we don’t play. We compete, we don’t play. You cannot play MMA.”

“You can play soccer, you can play American football, you can play hockey, but you cannot play MMA. You have to fight, this is [the] fighting game.”

Related: Conor McGregor vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov intense video footage surfaces

Khabib later spoke of his current relationship with McGregor.

“What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. I just don’t think about this…”

“A lot of people, all the time, they remind me of this situation [with McGregor], but my mind is different in other ways.”

Khabib Nurmagomedov dealt with Conor McGregor and pushed ahead with two more title defenses before calling an end to his career.

While many were sad to see one of the greatest to ever compete hang up the gloves, the Dagestani was just fulfilling the promise of retirement that he made to his mother.

Check out Khabib’s appearance on the Inspire Me Podcast below.

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Kamaru Usman doesn’t understand why MMA fans act the way that they do sometimes.

The former UFC welterweight champion is on the path to returning to the octagon for the first time since losing a short-notice competitive decision to Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 294 this past October. Usman and new 170-pound champion Belal Muhammad have been going back-and-forth on social media since UFC 304 in July.

Usman has dropped three straight fights, but was on quite the run before that, as he compares himself to two other longtime, dominant former champions.

“I didn’t care what I was going through, I didn’t care what I was dealing with, I didn’t care what I was battling physically, mentally, emotionally,” Usman said on Weighing In. “It didn’t matter to me. I was going to jump in there and perform, and perform, and perform — and the same thing with Israel Adesanya, which is why you saw a ton of those title defenses, and I’m sure [it’s the same with] Alexander Volkanovski, who also came out and expressed that sometimes.

“We do these things to jump in and go, and go, and go to try to entertain the masses, and of course, we reap the benefits that come with that, we get the checks [that] come with that. Now, I’m in a place where, OK, with all of that comes a lot of injuries. All the things that you’ve been dealing with, it catches up to you. … Because you stack up all of these injuries over time, it starts to diminish your performances to where people start to forget how good that you are, just how much time you spent building your career, doing the things that made you successful to where they start to [say things like], ‘Oh, he’s washed,’ which is… how disrespectful are MMA fans? How disrespectful are they?

“‘Oh, he’s washed, oh, he can’t do this anymore, he’s not that.’ They were saying that before Jon Jones came back and then fought Ciryl Gane.”

Prior to the loss to Chimaev, Usman lost two straight championship fights to Leon Edwards — including a stunning head kick knockout in the final round of UFC 278 in August 2022 that caused Usman to lose the title.

Despite all of the success Usman has found in the sport over the years, a different amount of pressure comes with it — including pleasing the fans. The former champion actually envies a lot of the younger fighters who are just scratching the surface.

“I just tell them, ‘This is the fun time right now,’” Usman said. “All you get to do is come in [the gym], you have so much time to just learn. … Yes, I know everyone sees the glitz and glamour and the lights and go, ‘Oh, man. That’s what I want. I want the outfits, I want the nice shirts,’ and all of these different things. Yes, that’s great.

“But guess what? Once you become champion and you get there, now you fly to New York for a two-day press conference — a day flight to get there, then I’m there for two days, then I have to fly back. That’s three to four days that I just lost where the rest of the guys are just training, going to the gym, training every day. … It catches up to you, and that time is not that fun anymore because, hey, now you got bills-bills, now you got problems-problems.”

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Joe Rogan is torn on Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul.

The blockbuster boxing bout is slated to headline a massive event on November 15 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and stream on Netflix for subscribers. Speaking with actor Russell Crowe, Rogan weighed in on the fight between Paul and Tyson, along with the widespread concerns about Tyson taking this fight while nearing 60 years of age.

“58 is 58 — no matter what you’re taking, and what they’re doing for you, you’re still 58,” Rogan said on a recent episode of his podcast. “But 58-year-old Mike Tyson is not 50-year-old Mike Jones that lives down the street. It’s a different kind of human being, he can still knock your head into another dimension if he can catch you.”

The fight was originally scheduled to take place in July before Tyson withdrew due to a medical emergency, but the boxing Hall of Famer and former heavyweight champ has been medically cleared and is back to training in preparation for his in-ring return.

After Tyson’s removal from the contest, Paul went on to face Mike Perry instead and stopped the BKFC star in Round 6.

Rogan, a longtime color UFC commentator, sees Paul as a boxer who doesn’t get enough credit.

“The thing is, can [Tyson] catch a 28 year-old guy who is at the top of his career, who is winning legitimate boxing matches?” Rogan asked. “He’s beating former UFC world champions like Tyron Woodley, Jake had that very good fight with Tommy Fury, who is a legitimate boxer. That was a very good fight. And he just beat up Mike Perry, who was a bare-knuckle champion.

“He’s a real fighter, he can fight. And if Mike Tyson and him are fighting, and Mike can’t catch him, then it’s hard to tell.”

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