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Ilia Topuria is the featherweight champion while Max Holloway is the “BMF” belt holder.

When they collide atop the upcoming UFC 308 pay-per-view (PPV) event, recently made official for Sat., Oct. 26, 2024 at Etihad Arena on “Fight Island” in Abu Dhabi, UAE, only one championship strap will be up for grabs. And that’s just fine with the 145-pound titleholder, who expects to end the “BMF” stupidity in emphatic fashion.

“No, the BMF title is not going to be on the line,” Topuria told MMA Junkie. “To be honest, I don’t care. They took that decision and at the end of the day it’s like, when I’m going to beat him, he can’t say he’s a BMF or however they want to call him. I’m just concentrating on my title defense and that’s it. I don’t care about anything else.”

“What makes me so excited about this fight is that no one could knock him out. There’s no way I’m not going to knock him out. I will be the first one to knock him out because every time I watch him fight I’m like, ‘I’m way better than him.’ If you put me with him in kickboxing or boxing, even in a chess match, I beat him.”

This marks the first title defense for the undefeated Topuria, who captured the crown with a second-round finish over Alex Volkanovski at UFC 298 back in February. “El Matador” has been criticized for dragging his feet in the months following his crowning achievement but can put those complaints to bed by finishing Holloway at UFC 308.

“Blessed” is currently the betting underdog for his Abu Dhabi return.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Ronda Rousey was only two fights into her MMA career when she signed with Strikeforce. Soon after, she became one of the faces of the sport and helped usher women into UFC.

It’s been documented many times over that UFC CEO Dana White famously said women would never fight in the octagon, but Rousey became the game-changer that altered his vision for the promotion. But all the way back in 2011, Rousey was just an up-an-coming fighter hoping she could make enough of an impact for someone like White to notice her.

Looking back now, Rousey admits she felt a responsibility to get White’s attention, especially with the knowledge that women were potentially on the cutting block after UFC purchased Strikeforce.

“People forget how fragile that situation was and how last-minute I was able to get us in,” Rousey told Chris Van Vliet. “Strikeforce was the only organization that was really showcasing women and that was because of Gina Carano, because her dad was involved with the Nevada Athletic Commission and was able to sanction fights for her and all these things.

“When she was gone, Cris Cyborg’s pumped to the f*cking gills with steroids. No one wants to watch that cheating ass bitch. Everything just tanked. The division was dying. The UFC bought Strikeforce and it was assumed they were just going to absorb all of the male talent that they liked and fold the whole organization, because that’s what they did with PRIDE, that’s what they did with WEC, that was their business model. So there was a matter of time.”

Prior to Rousey’s arrival, Carano was undoubtedly the biggest star in women’s MMA, but she effectively left the sport in 2009 after she suffered a first-round TKO loss to Cris Cyborg. Her departure from MMA didn’t stop Strikeforce from promoting women’s fights, but Rousey knew UFC buying the organization was going to potentially change everything.

From that moment forward, Rousey made it her mission to get attention by any means necessary, and her devastating finishes combined with her penchant for the dramatic whenever she touched a microphone helped her become a superstar.

“I was the first woman signed to Strikeforce since it got bought by Zuffa, and I was brought in to replace Gina Carano because she was supposed to come in for a comeback but she wasn’t medically cleared to come back for her match,” Rousey said. “So she pulled out and they signed me to fight that same chick, Sarah D’Alelio. So I knew the clock was ticking.

“It was just a matter of time before they closed the whole thing and there would be nowhere that would showcase women’s MMA, so I had that much time to make sure that Dana [White] couldn’t go a single day without seeing my name somewhere. The rest is history.”

Even after White decided to promote women’s fights in UFC, Rousey still didn’t feel like she was standing on solid ground.

At the beginning, women only had one UFC division and it was headed up by Rousey along with her considerable ability to draw a crowd. Even after UFC committed to a deeper roster for women and multiple divisions, Rousey still wasn’t sure what would happen if she just decided one day to walk away.

“Once women were brought to the UFC, [Dana] said, ‘This is an experiment, this is to see how it goes,’” Rousey said. “It got to a point where we had to see how it would go without me because it was so dependent on me.

“Whereas, I think if I retired undefeated and left, I don’t know what it would be like. Because they’ve already brought in the [145-pound] division and closed it. They’re not against closing divisions.”

These days, UFC promotes three different women’s divisions, and while no female fighter has reached stratospheric levels of fame like Rousey, there’s plenty of women’s talent at the top of the sport.

Rousey issued a reminder to the current crop of UFC fighters — male and female — that they all share a responsibility that goes beyond just training hard and showing up to compete.

Part of the reason she was able to convince White to bring her and the women’s division into UFC was because she commanded so much attention. Rousey believes more fighters need to take notice that their job goes so far beyond just fighting.

“I think one thing people don’t understand now as fighters — and the ones that do understand it do extremely well — it’s like, you have to promote your fight as hard as you train for it,” Rousey said. “A lot of people feel so secure in their position that they can just show up and fight and they should get everything thrown at them. It’s not the company that promotes you. You shouldn’t be expecting the company to spend all this money to promote you. What are they going to do? Make more commercials? You have to go out there and promote yourself. You have to go out there and be a character and make your fights into a story, and the things that I learned from pro wrestling.

“Before I even got into there, I was trying to bring that into women’s MMA, and I think a lot of them forget they’re not supposed to just be athletes but entertainers. It’s not something you do on the side. It’s something you do equally as hard and put just as much effort and time and focus into. A lot of people just think of it as a bother or something they have to do because the company makes them do it. That’s why you see some people that are absolutely incredible and no one outside of MMA has ever heard of them.”

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Dana White is still pointing the finger at Francis Ngannou.

Nearly two years removed from his unceremonious UFC exit, Ngannou is still taking flack from the UFC CEO despite White claiming that he has zero animosity toward the former heavyweight champion. Following Tuesday’s episode of DWCS, White disputed the longstanding belief that Jon Jones should carry any of the blame for his fight with Ngannou never coming to fruition.

Instead, White once again put it all on Ngannou and expressed confidence that they won’t run into a similar issue when they eventually go to book a fight between Jones and current interim UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall.

“I have zero animosity towards Francis,” White said. “Francis was out of my world a long time ago. [Sean Shelby] and Mick [Maynard] are another story. It’s a long story. [Shelby] did everything he could in his power to make Jon Jones vs. Francis. The fight did not happen and let me tell you what, it wasn’t because of Jon Jones.

“So Jon is a very unique individual to deal with. Jon Jones will fight everybody. Jon Jones was absolutely — he wanted Francis! You saw what happened with Ciryl Gane. He will tell you like he told us that he would do the same thing to Francis Ngannou. He wanted that fight so bad.

“And for anybody who thinks — I know the whole internet, ‘Oh Jon Jones!’ that I’m up Jon Jones’s ass, these are f*cking facts. Facts. And since everybody has been such douchebags about this, I’m coming out with a nice little punch in the face for all you f*ckers that think Jon Jones isn’t the greatest of all time.

“Dislike him, whatever your beef is with Jon Jones, knock yourself out. There’s no way in hell that Jon Jones doesn’t want to fight Aspinall. That I guarantee you” (h/t MMA Fighting).

Dana White sees Jon Jones sticking around to find Tom Aspinall

A few months after Ngannou’s exit, Jones emerged from a three-year-long layoff to claim the vacant heavyweight title with a quick two-minute submission victory over Ciryl Gane at UFC 285. He was supposed to follow up that performance with a title defense against two-time champion Stipe Miocic nine months later, but a pectoral injury forced him to bow out of the bout.

In response, the promotion introduced an interim belt at UFC 295 won by Tom Aspinall following a stunning first-round KO of Sergei Pavlovich.

Aspinall has since defended the temporary title and trolled Jones relentlessly in hopes of securing a unification clash with the undisputed champ. Unfortunately, neither Jones nor the UFC have taken the bait, instead opting to rebook Jones’ bout with Miocic which is rumored to go down this November at MSG.

Jones has regularly teased retirement once his business with Miocic is in the books, but White is of the belief that ‘Bones’ will stick around long enough to test himself against the man many are calling the best heavyweight in the world.

“Jon Jones is doing Jon Jones right now,” White said. “That’s what he does. There is nobody that we’ve ever dealt with, when I tell you is not afraid to fight anybody. It’s Jon Jones… I believe Jon Jones-Aspinall happens if he beats Stipe…”

“We’ll do everything we can to make that fight happen… What fights don’t we make? Other than the Francis thing, what fights don’t we make? You can’t make people fight and we couldn’t make Francis fight. But every other fight we’ve made. We’ve dealt with guys like Brock Lesnar. Think of the biggest stars that have ever been in the sport. We’ve always made the fights.”

LowKickMMA.com

There has been a lot of contradicting statements of late regarding the future of Jon Jones. Many believe that he is fast approaching retirement, but Dana White believes otherwise.

Rumors have been surrounding Jones since his promise of a move up to heavyweight four years ago. Since then, the 37-year-old has taken a long hiatus, returned to stun Ciryl Gane and capture another UFC title, and then announce his interest in fighting Stipe Miocic next. One thing the Hall-of-Famer seemingly doesn’t plan on doing in his career is fighting Tom Aspinall.

Despite Jon Jones hinting at retiring after the Miocic fight, Dana White stated that the ‘greatest fighter of all time’ won’t leave the sport without testing himself against Aspinall.

“Jon is one of those challenging guys to deal with,” White said in the Contender Series post-fight press release. “He’s thinking about retiring but will he?”

“If the Aspinall thing is really flying out there, I personally think Jon challenges himself and takes the fight. I think he does it.”

Dana White then confirmed that if it comes to it, the UFC will offer Jon Jones a large deal to fight Tom Aspinall — claiming that Jones would never turn down a fight.

“There you go. You just answered your own question. That’s what I think we’ll do [give Jones an offer he can’t refuse].”

Related: Sean Strickland heaps praise on ‘piece of sh*t’ Jon Jones

“Listen, it’s always the same dealing with Jon… That dude [Hunter Campbell] did everything in his power to make Jon Jones vs. Francis [Ngannou]. The fight did not happen, and let me tell you what, it wasn’t because of Jon Jones.”

“Jon is a very unique individual to deal with [but] Jon Jones will fight everybody. Jon Jones was absolutely, he wanted Francis…”

“There’s no way in hell that Jon Jones doesn’t want to fight Aspinall. I guarantee you… I believe Jon Jones/Aspinall happens if he beats Stipe.”

“Well do everything we can to make the fight happen… What fights don’t we make? Other than the Francis fight, what fights don’t we make?”

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

At the Floyd Mayweather vs. John Gotti III press conference, the two stars will answer questions from the media Wednesday.

The Floyd Mayweather vs John Gotti III press conference is expected to begin at 2 p.m. ET.

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UFC

Dana White is taking the heat for the UFC’s promotional scrubbing of former heavyweight champ Francis Ngannou.

Ahead of UFC 305 earlier this month, the promotion’s Countdown show showed a clip of Israel Adesanya speaking at the event’s pre-sale press conference, saying that opponent Dricus du Plessis discredited him and Kamaru Usman. However, the actual line said at the presser included “the three kings,” and included Ngannou — but those things were left out of the clip, which led to speculation about if the UFC was trying to erase Ngannou from the history books after making the choice to leave the UFC and sign with PFL.

White was asked about it at the press conference and said he wasn’t aware, but he’d look into it. According to Kevin Iole, who asked the question, White called him and realized that had happened, and also saying the onus is on him.

“My production team are a bunch of rock stars and they are truly f*cking awesome,” White told Iole. “I make it so hard on them sometimes with some of the crazy shit I say and it’s tough. When you asked me about that, I didn’t know anything about it. But someone was editing that and made a conscious decision, thinking it was the right thing to do, that that’s what we would’ve wanted, what I would’ve wanted.

“I didn’t know about it and that was nothing that ever came across my desk. I’m in charge of everything production related, so at the end of the day, the fact that it happened falls on me 100 percent. It’s my responsibility and I accept it. Blame me for that. I put them in such a tough spot sometimes saying all this crazy shit, it’s hard for them.

“Whoever was editing it, they thought that was the right decision and did what they thought I wanted. That’s not what I wanted and had I known that, I would have not authorized that. But that’s on me. Totally on me. I already called Israel Adesanya and apologized for it.”

Adesanya spoke about it prior to his submission loss to du Plessis at the UFC 305 media day after a social media clip of the omission went viral.

“You can’t erase Francis’ legacy in the UFC,” Adesanya said. “It’s part of what we’ve done. It’s forever in history, in stone. So trying to whitewash it or just not talk about it is silly.

“I know he’s fighting for the PFL right now, but it’s still history. You can’t just turn a blind eye to it. I’m sure they’ll fix it eventually. This is how business goes with the UFC.”

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