Andrey Pulyaev and Liam Anderson headline Dana White’s Contender Series season eight, week three. | Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
MMA Fighting has DWCS results for all the action from season eight, week three of UFC’s Contender Series on Tuesday night at the UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nev.
In the main event, 26-year-old Russian Andrey Pulyaev and 29-year-old American Liam Anderson collide in a middleweight contest.
Check out the DWCS results below for Contender Series season eight, week three.
Discuss your favorite fighters, the upcoming card or whatever's on your mind.
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Alex Pereira stares down with Israel Adesanya | Photo by Alejandro Salazar/PxImages/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Alex Pereira and Israel Adesanya will forever be linked to one another after four battles across two different sports, so naturally, Pereria used his YouTube channel to weigh-in on Adesanya’s failed attempt to regain the UFC middleweight championship.
Pereira said he was “very confident” that Adesanya would beat Dricus du Plessis at UFC 305 and wonders if the Nigeria-born fighter suffered an injury that prevented him from using what “Poatan” saw as a great weapon against someone like the champ.
“Of course, I don’t know how Adesanya was,” Pereira said. “When we are there, we don’t talk about injuries, we don’t talk about problems. We are there and we want to fight, want to win. No excuses. Maybe Adesanya had an injury, I don’t know. You could see he kicked very little. Things I say, that inside kick of Adesanya is very good. Not everyone can do that, but he can do it very well.
“I knew it was a good weapon, and he didn’t continue doing that inside kick. Even Dricus said it bothered him, and also bothered me. I’ve said it before for the people who asked me. He didn’t continue to do it. When he is only throwing hands, I think it’s easier for the opponent to protect themselves, or to get out. It was more boxing there, so it was easier for [du Plessis].”
Adesanya reacted to Pereira’s comments on social media.
It’s weird how this guy knows me…it’s like we’ve spent hours studying eachother’s moves and fought multiple times or sumn’. I mean that. https://t.co/Up7U8DyT2Q
— Israel Adesanya (@stylebender) August 25, 2024
♂️ I just said “he knows my style.” Go touch some grass please…
— Israel Adesanya (@stylebender) August 26, 2024
“Life goes on, I’ll be here cheering for him like I’ve always been saying,” Pereira continued. “This is honest. I respect him a lot, I like his fighting style. His story is marvelous. I mirror him a lot, he’s a guy that knows what he is doing, but this last fight just wasn’t for him. I hope he recovers, strengthens his mind, and comes back stronger.”
Pereira also weighed in on potentially returning to middleweight to face du Plessis. The Brazilian, who won UFC’s 185-pound title before moving up to light heavyweight after losing to Adesanya, posted about it after the UFC 305 main event.
Du Plessis responded at the post-fight press conference, stating that Pereira should stay at 205 pounds to avoid the weight cut, and offered to face him there in the future.
“In fighting, anything can happen, you lose or win. I think it’s a good fight for me,” Pereira said. “Me and Dricus, I see the fighting style. I would do a completely different fight than Israel did. Of course, it’s what I imagine, but that can all change. I’m sure Israel imagined something else and it was different. But I would train, focus on a fight like this to do my best and leave with a win.
“After I did that, Dricus talked about my weight. First of all, when I gave the ‘excuse’ that the weight messed me up, no one agreed. No one said anything. If I used that as an excuse, no one wanted to say, ‘Yeah, that’s right, weight was a problem for Alex.’ No, everyone was quiet. But after I talked about going down one more time, the first thing Dricus said was that it was a problem when I fought Adesanya, when I got knocked out. I did this my whole life. For those who don’t know, I dropped down eight times, to 81kg, and always fighting at 85kg. I’ve hurt my body, getting older doing the same thing, cutting a lot [of weight], and seeing it wasn’t good for me. That last one was a warning to me, that I had to go up and that’s what I did.
“But if you guys remember, when I went up in weight, I said I could do this again, go down to middleweight, but I needed some time to recover. I think I was able to recover, I have four fights in this new weight class, where I took some time to rest. I think if I go down one more time, I’ll do well. No excuses. I want to win. I could lose — OK, good I have that in mind, because I’ll go harder. … Seems like he is a bit scared. If it’s someone who really wants to fight me he would have said, ‘Come, I’m waiting for you’. But no, he tried to make me scared so I wouldn’t do that, but he’s the one that’s scared.”
Family members of UFC and mixed martial arts veteran Benji Radach announced his passing on Monday. He was 45.
Radach made his professional MMA debut in March 2001. He began his career on a 10-fight win streak, finishing eight of his first ten opponents via knockout. He was signed by the UFC in 2002 and made his octagon debut at UFC 37 in Bossier City, Louisiana. He stopped Steve Berger with punches but the fight was later ruled a a no contest by the Louisiana Athletic Commission due to Radach holding the fence.
He officially picked up his first octagon win at UFC 37.5 in June 2022, defeating Nick Serra, brother of former welterweight champion Matt Serra, by unanimous decision. He was defeated by future lightweight champion Sean Sherk in his third promotional appearance at UFC 39.
After spending some time on the regional circuit, Radach landed in the International Fight League (IFL) in 2007 and fought for the promotion’s inaugural middleweight championship. He picked up his final career win in October 2004, defeating Murilo Rua via TKO in ElitXC.
Radach last fought at Bellator 137 in May 2015. His career record stands at 21–7, 1 NC. The cause of death remains unknown at the time.
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Khabib Nurmagomedov doesn’t like to give his biggest career fight too much thought in 2024.
The Nurmagomedov-Conor McGregorrivalry was — and from McGregor’s side still is — the most volatile in mixed martial arts (MMA) history. Unfortunately for “The Notorious,” it was a rough night in and out of the office.
Nurmagomedov successfully made his first Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Lightweight title defense at UFC 229 against McGregor in October 2018. However, the fourth round neck crank was only the beginning of the real madness as a chaotic brawl broke out between the teams afterward when Nurmagomedov attacked the Irishman’s corner.
“It was a very emotional time, but at the same time, it was my feeling — I really wanted to bite someone’s heart,” Nurmagomedov said on the Inspire Me podcast (h/t MMA Fighting). “Do you have that feeling in your life? I just tried to bite his heart.
“Maybe you can feel this,” he concluded. “I am ‘The Eagle,’ and when the eagle is hungry, it’s not good. He has to hunt. That’s why.”
The end of UFC 229 was where things left off in Nurmagomedov’s book. McGregor has thrown several verbal jabs back at the Russian since to no response. While the commission and promotion didn’t enjoy the chaos that ensued, Nurmagomedov knew it was a possibility from the start.
“When the promotion promotes this fight, they have to expect something,” Nurmagomedov said. “When they know me, when they know all my team, 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 a fighting game.
“A lot of people said it was a very strange or weird or something like this, but it was my decision,” he concluded.
On Monday, Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship announced its upcoming BKFC 67 card, which takes place on Oct. 12 at Marbella Arena in Marbella, Spain, will feature a high-profile amateur encounter between two sizable MMA personalities: Ben Davis and Oscar Willis.
⚔️ Baddest Man In The Game ⚔️
Let’s take the gloves off this time pic.twitter.com/ps005BnJXA
— Ben Davis (@BenTheBaneDavis) August 26, 2024
An rising name in combat sports for his work in the commentary booth for several promotions and as on-air talent for DAZN and Misfits Boxing, “The Bane” has also tried his hand across several fighting disciplines, losing to Brad Boulton in a grappling match in May of 2023, and then losing to Gabriel Silva — Anderson Silva’s son — in a boxing match at Misfits 9 this past September. Most recently, Davis made his Karate Combat debut, winning by unanimous decision.
“This is easily the craziest thing I’ve ever done,” Davis told MMA Fighting. “Odds of me getting slept again are high, but f*ck it, we ball. I’ve done my best to do things different, and I feel I’ve checked nearly every big box. BJJ, boxing, karate, and now bare-knuckle. I believe this all ends with an MMA debut next.
“My ultimate goals are related to my broadcasting career, but while I’m young and able, I feel it’s important to walk it as much as I talk it.”
Davis faces a big challenge in Willis, who is best known as the face of The Mac Life, but also made his MMA debut in 2022, winning a unanimous decision at Tuff-N-Uff: Fight for Our Troops 11. This will also be Willis’s first fight since then and his bare-knuckle debut, but he felt the timing and opponent made sense.
“BKFC felt like the right promotion, Bane felt like the right opponent, and a bull fighting arena in Spain felt like the right venue,” Willis told MMA Fighting. “There’s no beef here, I get on well with him, but all’s fair in love and war — and I’ll bring both for Ben in October.”
BKFC 67 is set to be headlined by a battle for the vacant lightweight title between Franco Tenaglia and Tony Soto.
Taking in the action at notable boxing events in Saudi Arabia over the last couple of years, professional footballing icon, Cristiano Ronaldo has provided his opinion on the ever-evolving question: MMA or Boxing?
Ronaldo, a former footballing star for Real Madrid and Manchester United — twice, currently plays his trade in Saudi Arabia, featuring with Pro League side Al Nassr — netting 50 goals for the side since his unceremonious second exit from Old Trafford two years ago.
Cristiano Ronaldo picks MMA over boxing as his preferred combat sport
And spotted side-by-side alongside former two-division UFC champion, Conor McGregor sat ringside at Francis Ngannou’s boxing match debut with former WBC heavyweight titleholder, Tyson Fury last year in a controversial decision — Cristiano Ronaldo has shared his thoughts on which combat sports he finds better: MMA or Boxing?
Picking mixed martial arts as his preferred combat sports over boxing — despite appearing at Oleksandr Usyk’s title unification clash with the above-mentioned, Fury alongside Saudi adviser, Turki Alalshikh — the veteran Portuguese striker appears to have his preference set on mixed martial arts over combat exclusively in the squared circle.
Along with his pick of MMA over boxing, Ronaldo claims he would also rather watch the NBA over the NFL, tennis over golf, Formula 1 over it’s motorcycle MOTOGP partner — Ronaldo could not separate between tennis megastars, Novak Djokovic, or Spaniard ace, Rafael Nadal.
When it comes to professional wrestlers, the European Championships winner also sided with The Rock instead of veteran Hulk Hogan, and picked Chicago Bulls icon, Michael Jordan over Golden State Warriors shooter, Stephen Curry.
Robert Whittaker, since moving up to middleweight in the UFC, has only lost thrice. Two of these losses came against Israel Adesanya, and he most recently lost to Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 290.
Although Whittaker’s been unable to reclaim his UFC middleweight title since 2019, he’s defeated top contenders such as Darren Till, Jared Cannonier, Paulo Costa, Marvin Vettori, and Ikram Aliskerov.
“Bobby Knuckles” will now face Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 308. Here’s what he thinks of fighting another intimidating contender and how he plans to emerge victorious…
Robert Whittaker Reveals Several Reasons That Make Him Confident About Beating Khamzat Chimaev
Whittaker appeared on the Submission Radio YouTube channel recently and discussed the state of the UFC middleweight division. When asked about his next fight, “The Reaper” highlighted that he’s had two camps preparing specifically for Chimaev which is naturally a huge advantage.
“I’ve essentially had two camps for this guy, right? I think skill-set wise, I’m probably at the best I’ve been. I’ve been especially most prepared for Khamzat, theoretically speaking as I could be, right?”
The former UFC middleweight kingpin also feels great physically and mentally. He likes fighting in the Middle East, which is luckily where UFC 308 takes place.
Whittaker didn’t hold back when asked about his strategy going into the Chimaev fight. He’s aware of the explosive wrestling his opponent brings in the early rounds. However, he’s certain about neutralizing Chimaev’s wrestling and turning the tides as the fight goes on.
“Yeah, definitely that high-paced start and his wrestling prowess. It’s quite simple. You know, you got to worry about how hard he’s going to push the wrestling envelope in the first few rounds. And then, like, what I’m going to do after that, after I stop the takedowns, after I get back up or whatever, and just taking the fight to him.”
Whittaker has racked up two impressive wins in 2024. By ending the year with a win over a huge name like Chimaev, he’ll most likely earn a title shot.
READ MORE: Kamaru Usman Compares Career To Israel Adesanya and Alexander Volkanovski Ahead Of Rumored Return Against Belal Muhammad: “How Disrespectful Are MMA Fans”
Continue Reading ‘I’ve Essentially Had Two Camps For This Guy’ – Robert Whittaker Lays Down Confident Plan To Get Past Khamzat Chimaev And Fight For UFC Middleweight Gold at MMA News.
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