CombatSports.org

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

MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

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.”

MMA Fighting – All Posts

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

MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

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.”

MMA Fighting – All Posts

Former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman has lost his last three fights, but could be one win away from a title shot.  

Usman (20-4) held the 170-pound championship from March 2019 until November 2021.  He successfully defended the title five times before losing to Leon Edwards at UFC 278 in August 2022 by a stunning head-kick knockout late in the final round.  

Usman lost the rematch via unanimous decision and took a short-notice fight against Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 295.  Usman accepted the middleweight bout on nine-days notice.  He came up short on the judges’ scorecards but showed that he’s still at the top of the game even on short notice.   

Belal Muhammad captured the welterweight championship by defeating Edwards at UFC 304 in July.  Usman lost twice to Edwards, and with him out of the way “The Nigerian Nightmare” has a path to a title fight again.   

“If you really look at it, and this is no shade to him because I do respect this dude, but everything he does I do better,” Usman told the Weighing In Podcast.  “Striking, I strike better, cleaner.  I definitely have more power to where I could sit you down.  Grappling, (I’m) more explosive.”

“It’s no shade.  I like Belal, but I’m going to be truthful and honest.  Everything you do, I do better, I’m better at” Usman continued.      

MMAWeekly.com | UFC and MMA News, Results, Rumors, and Videos

Matchmaking
| BJPenn.com

UFC

McGregor believes his SBG Ireland teammate and fellow ‘Mac’ has what it takes to cut a bloody swathe through the UFC.

Conor McGregor is throwing his weight behind Danni “Mac” McCormack after her Road to UFC win last weekend.

You may not have even known there were two Road to UFC events on the 23rd of August, given how little the UFC promotes the international prospects tournament in North America. The show typically focuses on Asian talent, but there was an exception: Irish women’s flyweight McCormack, who defeated Qihui Yan via dominant decision.

“I wanted a finish but at least there’s lots of blood and let’s f—in’ fight,” she said after the win. “Because swear to God, that’s who I am. And I don’t know why I’m not already in the UFC because that’s what I’ve been doing for the last 10 fights. That’s who I am whether I win or lose, I f—in’ fight.”

“That’s why I’m playing this game, I don’t care about money, I’m here because I want to get in, get dirty, see who’s f—ing better and get some blood going.”

That interview led SBG Ireland teammate Conor McGregor to call on UFC CEO Dana White to sign another “Mac.”

“THIS IS A PROMO!” McGregor wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “In at the drop of a hat to beat and maul the much bigger girl. Finishing with a call out of the UFC’s current strawweight champion who is from the same region as her just beaten opponent. Magic! IRISH GOER WAR CRY!”

“Dana White announce her signing brother this is magic!”

McCormack is 9-2 as a pro and finished her amateur MMA career at 5-3. UFC matchmakers are aware of her, and after they told her to get some finishes she went and submitted Karolina Wojcik in her previous fight.

That’s probably what got her this last second opportunity on Road to UFC, but will the UFC overlook the lack of a stoppage given how blood and guts “Mac” was (and always is)? We certainly hope so.

UPDATE – It sounds like UFC matchmakers have said nah to Danni:

“No contract has been offered even after Friday night,” McCormack wrote on Instagram. “I have been told to stay ready for a short notic opportunity. If you think I should be signed let it be heard. DENY ME NO LONGER! In the meantime you will find me straight back in camp ready for anyone.”

MMAmania.com – All Posts

submitted by /u/443610 [link] [comments]

MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Since retiring from UFC, Matt Brown has put a lot of time into building businesses — most notably his gym — and setting himself up for success in a post-fighting career.

While he never headlined pay-per-views or won championships, Brown spent 16 years in the UFC, and during that time he learned a lot about how the promotion does business. It’s thanks largely to that experience that the now 43-year-old former fighter believes the conversation about fighter pay is much more nuanced than simply saying UFC should be paying athletes more money.

On the surface, Brown agrees that everybody on the UFC roster is underpaid compared to the vast amounts of revenue the organization is generating. But the cause and effect of why that’s happening goes much further than simply stating that UFC needs to pay more.

“It’s hard to expect the UFC to just be completely fair about it,” Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “They’re running a business, and they run it very f*cking well. They’ve done an amazing job building their business. I think 99 percent of people in their shoes would be doing very similar to what they’re doing.

“Does that make it right? That’s up to each person to decide on their own. I think it’s just way more complex than people give it credit for.”

As much as the responsibility always falls back on UFC’s shoulders for underpaying athletes, Brown says anybody complaining about fighter pay can’t expect business owners to do anything differently than attempt to maximize profits for their businesses. But Brown also knows some of the blame rests with the fighters themselves for not holding UFC to account over the years — and he’s pointing the finger right at himself as part of the problem.

“If anybody is to blame for fighter pay, it’s the fighters — and I’m one of them, at least formerly,” Brown said. “I never fought against the UFC about my pay. You’ve seen on Instagram, Twitter, different interviews where the fighters stick up for the UFC.

“I’ve never heard of a business in my life where the employees — if you want to call us employees or even subcontractors — where they’re going to say, ‘I shouldn’t be paid more, they’re paying me a perfect amount of money.’ That is so unbelievable to me.”

In the past, Brown acknowledged that his only real complaint about pay came down to an in-person meeting with UFC CEO Dana White where he expressed his concerns. There was no real argument or negotiation because Brown says White agreed with his argument and the two sides reached a new deal without any further discussion.

That said, Brown never really complained about his pay with UFC because he essentially understood that arguing probably wouldn’t get him anywhere good.

“Look, I’ve always been happy with how the UFC’s treated me, I like them,” Brown said. “There’s no hate against them at all, but if I thought sticking up for myself and fighting with them about pay would get me paid more, I would absolutely do it in a heartbeat. I only question if guys are saying that because we know the amount of power that [UFC] have.

“If you try fighting against [UFC], your chances of getting more pay just get diminished. You’re just lowering your chances of getting more pay. So of course you publicly stick up for them even though something in the back of your head is saying, ‘Damn, this isn’t really what I want.’”

Another subject that comes up often regarding fighter pay is the lack of a union to represent MMA’s athletes, which plays a massive part in negotiations with other sports leagues like NFL or NBA.

But even that’s a tough comparison because the NFL is ultimately made up of 32 teams and 32 owners, and the NFL Player’s Association represents athletes across all those various teams who join the union on the day they start playing professional football. Thanks to the revenue sharing model set up for the league, the competition during the season still ultimately benefits everybody under the NFL umbrella.

That’s not the case in MMA.

UFC is by far the biggest and most profitable organization, but there’s no relation between UFC and competitors like the PFL or ONE Championship. A fighters’ union would almost have to be league specific, and that gets even more complicated when you’re dealing with contracts, athletes signing or leaving UFC to go elsewhere, and then maybe even moving on to an international promotion where a union would have no control or influence.

A better comparison would be contrasting UFC to one NFL team with no natural competitors to really challenge them on a global scale.

“UFC is like the [Dallas] Cowboys if the Cowboys had won the past 20 Super Bowls in a row and there’s not even a close second-place team,” Brown said with a laugh. “Like, literally every college star only wants to go to the Cowboys. They have complete power over every Super Bowl.

“They’re going to win for the next 20 Super Bowls and they’re like, ‘You want to go play for the f*cking Bears? Go for it. There’s another kid coming out of college tomorrow, buddy.’”

Brown doesn’t know if there’s ever going to be a solution long-term to solve fighter pay concerns, but he recognizes there’s an ongoing antitrust lawsuit at least attempting to deal with some of the disparity between UFC and other major sports leagues.

In the meantime, Brown offers advice to every other fighter either in UFC or hoping to make it to UFC when it comes to long-term planning for the future.

“If you’re an aspiring UFC fighter or MMA fighter, you need to view the UFC for what it is,” Brown explained. “It is a stage to magnify your brand so you can make money in other ways. That’s where you’re going to make the real money. Even Conor McGregor, he certainly could have retired just off the money he made in the UFC, but he’s made what 10, 20 times more probably outside the UFC? That’s the way you’ve got to do it.

“I hope that changes sometime, where like an NFL player only has four years but as long as they live below their means, which is pretty easy to do when you’re making millions of dollars a year, they can retire just off of four years of [playing football], where in the UFC that’s just not the case.”

Listen to new episodes of The Fighter vs. The Writer every Tuesday with audio only versions of the podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeartRadio

MMA Fighting – All Posts