Former multiple time and weight world champion, Floyd Mayweather has praised Jake Paul’s entrepreneurial skills to lure former heavyweight champion, Mike Tyson into a November boxing match – claiming the Ohio native is simply “stealing” money.
Paul, an outspoken professional boxer and social media influencer, turned in his tenth professional victory earlier this year against UFC alum turned BKFC (Bare Knuckle FIghting Championship) star, Mike Perry – stopping the Flint native with a stunning sixth round knockout win in Tampa, Florida.
And now booked once more to take on former heavyweight world champion, Tyson in a much-scrutinized professional boxing match in November, Paul’s skills to apparently “steal” money from fans and promoters is second to none.
Floyd Mayweather talks Jake Paul’s boxing career
“What he’s (Jake Paul) doing is kinda cool,” Floyd Mayweather told Treasure Hustle. “If he can continue to steal money and they match him the way they match him, I can’t knock his hustle.”
“If they can match him the way that they have been, more power to him,” Floyd Mayweather explained. “
I asked Floyd Mayweather his thoughts on Jake Paul being categorized as a YouTuber/ Influencer boxer vs being called a "REAL" boxer ahead of his fight with Mike Tyson: pic.twitter.com/Ssrafel58u
— Treasure Wilson (@treasurewilsxn) May 30, 2024
Despite his inactivity and time away from the squared circle, Tyson predicted earlier this week how he would land a vicious and definitive win over Paul when they share the boxing ring before the end of the year in ‘The Lone Star State’.
“Very painfully,” Mike Tyson warned Jake Paul during their press conference overnight in New York. “Be in shape. Be in good shape because your health depends on it.”
“I think he’s (Mike Tyson) a mitt warrior,” Jake Paul replied. “The Instagram videos are cute but we’ll see what happens in the ring on November 15. At the end of the day, we’ll see if he’s still got it.”
“Listen, as soon as I catch this guy, he’s going to be running around,” Mike Tyson responded. “As soon as I catch this guy, it’s going to be totally over. He’s going to run like a thief.”
In arguably the biggest fight of his career, Merab Dvalishvili will challenge Sean O’Malley for the UFC bantamweight championship. The bout will headline the Riyadh Season Noche UFC event at the Las Vegas Sphere on September 14, 2024.
While O’Malley avenged his only MMA loss to Marlon Vera in his first title defense, Dvalishvili is riding a 10-fight win streak in the UFC. The contender holds wins over big names like Marlon Moraes, José Aldo, and Petr Yan. This explains the hype behind the bantamweight title bout.
However, the main event was temporarily in jeopardy as Dvalishvili revealed a cut under his eye. UFC President Dana White wasn’t happy about the situation, and Michael Bisping couldn’t agree more…
Michael Bisping Explains Why Merab Dvalishvili Shouldn’t Have Posted His Cut Before Sean O’Malley Fight
Bisping discussed Dvalishvili’s injury on his official YouTube channel recently. He highlighted that fighters now usually post most of their life on social media to increase engagement with fans. Naturally, this wasn’t the case a couple of decades back, and being silent about injuries during camps was preferred.
“Dana’s right when he talks about boxers. Of course, he’s probably talking about the boxers of his generation. Dana knows a lot about boxing as well as mixed martial arts of course. Back in the day, social media wasn’t a thing. The new generation, though, they live on social media. Your entire life is on social media”
The former UFC middleweight champ then explained why White was right in being upset with Dvalishvili’s behavior. For starters, a crisp striker like “Suga” can easily target the cut and make “The Machine” bleed early on in the fight.
“I tell you what, if I was fighting for a main event against Sean O’Malley to become the UFC champion of the world, and I got cut, I would not post it on social media. I’m not talking s**t on Merab. I think Merab is awesome, he’s a great guy, he’s an incredible fighter. The performance against Cejudo solidified that he is the next man in line, but not everything needs to go on social media!”
Bisping also looked back at major injuries he sustained before some of his biggest UFC fights. He had stitches near his eye before the first fight with Luke Rockhold and infamously broke his ribs a week before the Georges St-Pierre fight. “The Count” kept these injuries secret and expects modern-day UFC fighters to follow suit.
Read More: Dana White ‘Takes Responsibility’ For Francis Ngannou Erasure In UFC 305 Video, Apologizes To Israel Adesanya
Continue Reading Former UFC Champ Backs Dana White On Merab Dvalishvili Revealing His Cut Ahead Of Sean O’Malley Fight: ‘Not Everything Needs To Go On Social Media!’ at MMA News.
Top bantamweight contender Merab Dvalishvili is scheduled to fight champion Sean O’Malley in the UFC 306 main event at the Sphere on Sept. 14. On Tuesday, Dvalishvili posted a video revealing a small cut over his left eye the required stitches.
“Calm down – its all good- just a little training injury. Never pulled out of a fight – and Never will! I’m coming for you O’Malley – stronger than ever,” Dvalishvili captioned the social media post.
View the original article to see embedded media.
UFC CEO Dana White was not happy that Dvalishvili revealed to the world, and his opponent, that he suffered a laceration in training. White went so calling Dvalishvilli’s decision to make the cut public ‘next-level stupid.’
“The whole world knows about Merab’s cut, he posted it,” White following Tuesday’s Dana White’s Contender Series event in Las Vegas. “Our guys are so dumb it’s next-level unbelievable. All the stuff I talk about boxing, what I will give boxing, is when something happens in a camp, let me tell you what, it does not leak. Our guys can’t f**king wait to throw it up on social media. It’s a small cut. It’s no big deal, but obviously needed to be posted.”
“And why the f**k would you want [O’Malley] to know that?! It is next level stupid. Some of these guys are so stupid it’s mind-boggling. It’s unbelievable,” White continued.
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Three-time UFC featherweight title challenger Chad Mendes still has fights left on his UFC contract, but isn’t very interested in returning to the octagon anytime soon.
Having been away from the UFC since losing to future champion Alexander Volkanovski in December 2018, Mendes spoke with MMA Fighting following a grappling win over Diego Brandao at ADXC 5, and discussed the possibility of putting on MMA gloves again.
“I don’t know. I still I’m under contract with the UFC though,” said Mendes, who challenged Jose Aldo twice and Conor McGregor for UFC titles in the 2010s. “I think I still have three or four fights on that last contract that I’ll just never fight, so I can’t fight MMA anywhere anyways, which I really don’t have any desire to do it, but I was able to do the bare-knuckle boxing and I can come do these grappling events anytime.”
Mendes fought twice under the BKFC banner, knocking out Joshuah Alvarez in 2022 and then losing a split decision to Eddie Alvarez a year later.
“[UFC] would have to pay me a lot of money [to fight again], honestly, and they’re not willing to do it, so no,” Mendes said with a laugh. “Honestly, at this point in my career, I have zero desire to cut any weight. I usually walk around like 175 [pounds]. Unless it’s like big money, it’s not really anything at this point I want to do. I love competing and I absolutely hate cutting weight. If it’s something that I can compete, make some money, have fun and not have to cut weight, sign me up, I’m all for it.”
“I got nothing planned as far as any other competitions,” he added. “I keep saying I’m retired — I left the UFC in 2018, but I started doing bare-knuckle the last two years and my last fight I said I was done. The first one I said I was done, then I ended up coming back and fighting Eddie Alvarez, and then I said I was done again. We’ll see, but I don’t have anything locked up. I mean, I got two little girls at home and a wife and multiple businesses that I’m trying to blow up and make it successful. There’s a lot of time that gets snatched up from all that. It’s honestly hard to put in the amount of time that I actually really want to. I’m the type of guy that wants to train and be 100 percent prepared going into any type of competition because I absolutely hate to lose, so it’s hard for me.”
Mendes was originally slated to grapple against Kevin Lee at ADXC, but Brandao stepped in as a late-notice replacement. The Team Alpha Male representative said he “didn’t have a ton of time” to prepare for the match as he had to split his attention between growing his other businesses, but still won. Mendes is open to competing again for ADXC if the opportunity is interesting, but would appreciate a proper camp next time.
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“His wrestling was a little bit better than I was expecting,” Mendes said of Brandao. “I figured I’d be able to control top position a little bit better, but he did a good job of not staying in any bad position. He would explode out, get back up to his feet. We basically just had to turn it into a takedown clinic. And there was a few submissions I attempted that I saw for a split second, but he’s strong and just I wasn’t able to get it done. All in all, I felt it felt good. That’s the first time I’ve competed in any grappling in like four years, so I felt good to get back home.
“I like going against wrestlers better. I have NCAA top-level wrestling, so when I have somebody that’s OK engaging in wrestling and is there to wrestle, I feel great. I was actually expecting Diego to pull guard more and not want to stand up with me, but he was allowing me to do the snapdowns and that stuff gets you tired if you’re not used to it, and he let me do that throughout the whole match. I don’t think it would have been any more difficult, I actually would have probably enjoyed having somebody that was there mixing in more wrestling. We’ll see for next time. Either that fight with AJ [Agazarm] sounds good or somebody else maybe even in the UFC.”
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Israel Adesanya is widely regarded as one of the best middleweights in UFC history, but don’t expect former opponent Sean Strickland to sign any petitions to keep him on that list.
This past Saturday, Adesanya suffered a second consecutive loss for the first time in his MMA career when he fell by rear-naked choke submission to Dricus du Plessis in UFC 305’s main event. That fight came almost one year after Strickland dominated Adesanya over five rounds to claim the middleweight title in a stunning upset.
Despite those losses, Adesanya is still a highly revered former champion, but Strickland just doesn’t understand the hype around “The Last Stylebender.”
“I have an unpopular opinion, you guys aren’t going to like it. I just don’t think Izzy’s that good,” Strickland said on the Verse Us podcast. “So let me tell you why. Like, going into [UFC 293], I’m like, ‘I’m going to beat the f*ck out of you. You watch anime, you suck, I’m going to f*ck you up.’ Everybody is like, ‘Why would you say that about Izzy?’
“When he fought Kelvin [Gastelum], I think Kelvin sucks. Everyone’s like, ‘Izzy’s this and that.’ I’ve sparred Kelvin so many times, where I’m like, you kind of had a close fight with Kelvin — like, you’re not that f*cking good. You fought f*cking [Paulo] Costa. Costa was scared shitless of you. You f*cking blew on him, he fell asleep. Izzy’s not that f*cking good.”
Strickland said he spent significant time training with Gastelum when both fighters worked out of southern California, and ultimately clarified his feelings toward the TUF 17 winner.
“I love Kelvin. Kelvin is a standup guy,” Strickland said. “When I say you’re not that good, I’m talking about 90 percent of the [UFC] roster. I’m talking about the 10 percent of the f*cking most elite guys, that’s what I’m talking about and you’re not in that.
“When [Adesanya] fought Kelvin, I was like, ‘You let Kelvin have that close of a fight with you?’ If I fought Kelvin, Kelvin wouldn’t even touch me. It would be one of those fight where you’re like, ‘I just want this thing to f*cking end.’”
Strickland clearly didn’t see himself as an underdog heading into the fight against Adesanya and he proved that with a lopsided decision win.
He had a similar feeling about Adesanya heading into the showdown against du Plessis at UFC 305 after watching some training footage from his camp in New Zealand.
“I watched the highlight of his training and Dan Hooker, who I like, is just f*cking rag-dolling him on the ground,” Strickland said. “Rag-dolling him. Dan, he is a savage, but I will smoke you in wrestling and I will smoke you in wrestling for five rounds.
“The fact that you are taking this f*cking middleweight, world champion, and you’re just beating the living f*ck out of him everywhere.”
While his opinion on Adesanya as a fighter was clearly never very high, Strickland also believes he may have altered his future by beating him so decisively in September 2023.
The fight came a few months after Adesanya finally vanquished his greatest rival in Alex Pereira, and Adesanya ended up with Strickland as an opponent mostly because du Plessis was nursing an injury following a win over Robert Whittaker in July.
Adesanya was an overwhelming favorite, but Strickland took it to him for 25 minutes.
Strickland can’t help but wonder if that played at least some part in Adesanya’s eventual downfall against du Plessis at UFC 305.
“I think I f*cked up Izzy when he lost to me,” Strickland said. “I think that f*cked his head up a little bit. He was like, ‘This white trash motherf*cker missing half his leg comes and walks through me without struggle.’ I think that f*cked him up. I think that f*cked him up a decent amount. Not only that, but I did it from such an insulting way. Like, I was making fun of his f*cking life.”
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Henry Cejudo isn’t trying to go out on a loss.
The former two-division Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) champion ended his mixed martial arts (MMA) retirement when he challenged Aljamain Sterling for Bantamweight gold at UFC 288 in May 2023. Unfortunately for Cejudo, he came up short via a split decision before going on to suffer a unanimous decision loss to the upcoming title challenger, Merab Dvalishvili.
Cejudo, 37, has called for possible opponents since his Dvalishvili loss but has revealed he’s been dealing with a nagging injury. Thanks to the delay, the Bantamweight contention line has grown longer with Umar Nurmagomedov and Deiveson Figueiredoemerging as the likely top two next up. Therefore, don’t count out a Cejudo return to the first division he won UFC gold in.
“There could be a potential return at Flyweight,” Cejudo told MMA Junkie. “These are a lot of things I’m contemplating, potentially going back down. With the Bantamweight division getting hot and with the newcomers coming in, there’s been a lot of thought of me going back down and getting a fight with [Brandon] Moreno and winning the belt once again. There’s a lot of cool stuff. These are kind of things I really want to think about and really decide once I get home and once I’m injury-free. It’s just one little thing, but it’s a major thing. Because I’m going to be making a commitment to go out there and just do another run, do another run at these titles, and dedicate myself like I was before.”
Although he’s clearly toward the tail-end of his career after already retiring once, Cejudo doesn’t just want to take any fun fights or “legacy” match ups. The two-time Olympic gold medalist has always targeted proving he’s the very best in the world, and that hasn’t changed.
“I’m after gold now. I think if I do go down to 125 pounds and stay disciplined, I don’t think there’s anyone that can beat me,” Cejudo said. “Plus, I think there’s a fun fight with Brandon Moreno. He wanted to fight me at 135 and then he backed out like a little b*tch. Now, I think if I go down and I beat him in Mexico, in his own country, I think that could be a big-ass payday, too.
“I don’t want to be fighting people just to fight people,” he continued. “I want to get close to that belt. I think that’s the position that I fall in right now. … If it’s something that I do decide to do, the biggest thing for me is going to be discipline and taking myself back there once again. It is the weight cut. But at the same time, I’ve been thinking about it. It’s what I need. Maybe I need more discipline. Maybe I need… if the bar is set that high, that means I have to have more commitment on that side.”
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