Luana Pinheiro+ | Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Luana Pinheiro might be one of the lightest strawweights on the UFC roster as she struggles to stay heavy enough to compete in the 115-pound class.
Pinheiro faces Gillian Robertson at this weekend’s UFC Vegas 100 in Las Vegas, her seventh trip to the octagon as a strawweight — including the sole appearance on Dana White’s Contender Series —, and celebrated the possibility of having the 105-pound division in the UFC in the future. White has mentioned the company “cultivating talent” with lighter talent in South America and Asia.
“I never go over 121 pounds, so [atomweight] would be great,” Pinheiro said in an interview with MMA Fighting. The Brazilian only started cutting weight cut two days before the official UFC Vegas 100 weigh-ins, a smooth and harmful process. “I eat one pound of food every day for lunch, and another pound for dinner. And three açaí bowls a day with coconut water, peanut and coconut water. I just can’t eat more than that, you know?
“My doctor says my metabolism is as fast as a Ferrari. I even did some blood tests at the UFC P.I. once to check my thyroid and it came back normal. I weighed 118 pounds at the time, and no [strawweight] weighs that. It’s hard to stay at 121 pounds. Can I eat like a normal person? [laughs]. I eat 0.250 pounds of rice for lunch during fight week, and again on dinner, and [other fighters] stop eating that a month before the fight. I eat fighters hitting pads on fight week and almost dying, and I don’t suffer that much.”
Pinheiro said the heaviest opponent she’s faced so far in the UFC was Amanda Ribas, who has also competed at flyweight inside the octagon — and once gained a whooping 26 pounds between weigh-ins and fight night. Pinheiro didn’t feel power and strength were an issue against Ribas or any other, but moving down to atomweight could speed her rise towards a UFC belt.
“The girts are fast in this division,” Pinheiro said. “There are a lot of 115 girls that are shorter than me, but I don’t know if they are light. Tecia Torres is small, for example, but can she make 105? I think 105 would be a great addition to the UFC. Some 115 girls weigh 139 pounds, and I was never that heavy in my entire life. I would have to suffer a little bit [to make 105] because I’ve never had to do a two-month diet in MMA before. I was at a churrascaria a week before the fight, so that’s not a problem for me right now.”
Robertson, her opponent Saturday, holds the record for most submission wins amongst women in the UFC, so any weight advantage in the grappling department could play a factor during exchanges on the ground. Yet, the Brazilian judoka said “I believe I can be faster than her for being lighter.”
“Usually, my opponents don’t try to take me down, they tend to trade and strike more, but that’s what she does best,” Pinheiro said. “She has a lot of submissions, that’s her thing, but you have to take me down to grapple with me. I’ve trained takedown defense and every escape there is. I think it’s a good match-up. She has been submitted before, and I believe I have all the tools to beat her by knockout — she doesn’t like to get hit that much — and in scrambles, being lighter and faster. I believe I can submit her, too.”
For years, Dana White has praised Jon Jones as the greatest fighter of all time. The UFC 309 heavyweight title fight between Jones and Stipe Miocic, held at Madison Square Garden in New York City, has been promoted as the bout that could finally settle who deserves the title of greatest heavyweight fighter ever. UFC CEO Dana White has repeatedly referred to Jones as the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the promotion.
However, some fight fans believe Jones doesn’t deserve that top spot due to his inactivity, arguing that fighters like Alex Pereira and Islam Makhachev might be more deserving. For Jones, though, just being mentioned in this conversation is an honor.
“It’s just an honor, that’s all,” Jones told Kevin Iole with a smile. “It’s a huge honor to even be considered, at 37 years old, one of the most well-rounded fighters in the sport. I’m just very grateful that my boss—a man who’s sat front row for all our fights—sees that in me.”
Jones went on to share White’s sentiments: “For [Dana] to say, ‘Hey, listen guys, trust me. I know what I’m watching. I know what I’m looking at, and in my opinion, if Jon was the same size as a lot of these other guys, Jon would be in the mix,’ is just incredible.”
Jones recognizes that with many new fans entering the sport, there’s a “what-have-you-done-lately” mentality. He appreciates that White acknowledges his full body of work, not just his recent performances.
“I’m grateful that he’s not letting the naysayers or some fans push me to the side. I’ve done a tremendous amount of work for this company—at a very young age, at middle age, and now even at an older age. I’m just grateful to be recognized.”
Continue Reading Jon Jones: I’m ‘Grateful’ For Dana White’s Strong Support Of No. 1 P4P Status at MMA News.
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Card Info
Airing on Saturday 11.9.2024
Main Card on DAZN @ 12PM ET
Ivan Buchinger vs. Hafeni Nafuka
M\u00e1t\u00e9 Kert\u00e9sz vs. Leandro Silva
Robert Puka\u010d vs. Ammari Diedrick
Karol Ry\u0161av\u00fd vs. Gjoni Palokaj
Franti\u0161ek Fodor vs. Damien Lapilus
Aaron Aby vs. Zhalgas Zhumagulov
Radek Rou\u0161al vs. Jack Maguire
Roman Paulus vs. Janne Elonen-Kulmala
Veronika Smolkova vs. Mileide Simplicio
Tom\u00e1\u0161 Cig\u00e1nik vs. Kevin Enz
Fight card order and start times may be inaccurate.
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The highly touted UFC prospect and three-time NCAA wrestling champion was a few months away from challenging for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team but rather than just sit around and wait, he decided to challenge the best grappler on the planet to a match. At the time, Nickal had already decided on a future move to MMA so he reached out to Gordon Ryan about potentially training together so he could start adding new weapons to his arsenal.
“The match the way it came about, I had talked to Gordon a few times about training together because I was like this guy’s the best in the world,” Nickal revealed on Demetrious Johnson’s MightyCast. “For me, that’s the type of people I want to surround myself with and want to learn from. So knowing I was going to transition over to MMA I was like that’s a guy I would like to train with.
“He was competing at an event and he had a big fight and then it fell out and then another guy came in and it fell out. It was like two or three guys had pulled out of the fight for whatever reason I just DM’d him like ‘hey bro, I don’t know what the issue is why nobody will go against you but count me in, I’ll do it. Tell the promoter to hit me up.’ I just wanted to challenge myself and feel it out.”
While Nickal was already an incredibly accomplished wrestler, he had no real knowledge about Brazilian jiu-jitsu much less what it would be like going against an all-time great like Ryan.
So to ensure he was prepared for the grappling match, Nickal decided he should learn a few things.
“So [Gordon] got me in touch with the promoter and they’re like ‘yeah, this would be great, let’s do it,’” Nickal said. “I was like well I better start practicing jiu-jitsu. So I did three jiu-jitsu practices.
“I had never even done any MMA training, just wrestling. I knew some guys in Pittsburgh that had a [Brazilian jiu-jitsu] gym, pretty high level, some pretty high level guys so I was like hey, try to show me some stuff and we’ll get after it.”
Despite a whopping total of three lessons before setting foot on the mat against the consensus best grappler in the world, Nickal still managed to hold his own.
Thanks to his wrestling skills, Nickal was able to fend off many of Ryan’s biggest offensive moves and he even surprised “The King” with a huge suplex that brought him crashing down to the canvas in a dramatic moment during the match.
Unfortunately, Nickal’s inexperience eventually caught up to him after Ryan latched onto a triangle choke that finished the match that nearly went the full 15 minute time limit.
As much as he wanted to win, Nickal admits he still walked away with a valuable lesson learned when it came to what he needed to know for his future in MMA.
“It was bittersweet,” Nickal said. “I wanted to go in there and shock the world and win and just [represent] wrestling and be like ‘see, jiu-jitsu doesn’t work.’ But it also taught me I do need to work on that part of my game and how important it is because it’s very helpful in a fight to be able to decide where the fight goes but for me, I’ve always been a finisher. With wrestling it was always go for the pin, get the pin and so I realized in MMA if I’m going to take a guy down, you can TKO a guy of course but guys are pretty tough. They’re durable and they’re good at not getting hit too much. So you’ve got to figure out ways to pass, to get position, to get the mount, take the back and submit guys. If you’re really good, I think the path of least resistance to get a lot of wins and honestly just to save yourself some effort and some energy and save yourself some brain damage.
“For me, I can throw everybody on the ground and if I found out how to get my jiu-jitsu as good as my wrestling, taking guys’ backs and submitting them, it’s no danger for me and easy wins. So that’s the way I look at it now. My wrestling is world class. I think my jiu-jitsu can become world class very quickly and then as I continue on this journey in martial arts, I’ll develop the striking as well.”
Nickal, who sports a perfect 6-0 record in his MMA career with a fight scheduled against Paul Craig at UFC 309, has continued to learn and evolve in his grappling ever since that match against Ryan.
Perhaps one day, he hopes they might even meet again.
“Maybe in the future we’ll get a rematch,” Nickal said. “I have a blue belt now so I have a little bit more experience.”
Shavkat Rakhmonov and Neil Magny | Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Neil Magny has been a part of nearly every UFC era, and with the benefit of hindsight, the UFC Vegas 100 headliner would like to see an interim welterweight title fight while Belal Muhammad recovers from his injury.
Magny faces surging contender Carlos Prates in the main event of Saturday’s card at the APEX. After a bone infection scratched Muhammad from the UFC 310 main event against Shavkat Rakhmonov, the scheduled challenger called to stay on the Dec. 7 card and fight for interim gold. Magny likes the idea, and with the depth of the 170-pound division at the moment, he feels it’s the best move for welterweight.
“I think the interim title shot just kind of one of the things that keeps the division moving,” Magny told MMA Fighting. “It keeps everything flowing. With as much talent that we have in in the UFC, in this division, it’s almost unfair to keep it tied up for so long. I get that it’s very unfortunate that Belal got injured. It wasn’t anything that he did in particular to lead himself in that position. So for him, it sucks that he’s injured, but for the rest of the division to keep it going, I feel like the interim shot is necessary.”
Magny has faced Rakhmonov in the past, with Rakhmonov submitting Magny in the second round in June 2022. The 33-fight veteran has faced—or trained with—most of the top contenders in the division.
If the 37-year-old had the UFC welterweight matchmaking pencil, he would schedule an interim title fight while Ian Machado Garry and Joaquin Buckley take care of their business at UFC Tampa.
“At this point, if you don’t have the interim title shot in his absence,, it becomes a logjam at the top of the division where it’s like, ‘All right, well, who’s next in line for a title?” Magny said. “Then you have, arguably, anyone from one through five should or could be in a fight for that title right now. I mean, you have Usman, you have Leon Edwards, you have Sean Brady, you have Jack Della Maddalena, you have all these guys that are actually able to make a case to be a legit No. 1 contender fight for the title at this point.
“But at the end of it, doing the interim title, I think that’s the right call to make just kind of keep things moving along and allow the UFC to have a few more contenders.”
For Magny, he knows he’s far away from title contention—and that’s OK. In his eyes, it’s all about being the best fighter, mentor, parent, business owner, and overall person he can be.
Whether he was offered Prates—3-0 with three finishes since debuting earlier this year—or anybody else, it didn’t matter. Magny agreed to headline on this card, and on this date specifically, and did so before he had a dance partner on the books.
“It feels great to be here,” Magny explained. I was just talking to someone the other day about just the different eras of of UFC that I’ve been in — from the SPIKE TV days to Fox Sports days, to this deal with ESPN. Then you have the COVID era, and now we’re moving on to the next era of of UFC. I’m just very grateful to be a part of it all. I’m very fortunate to be a part of it all, but getting to the fight this weekend, it’s great.
“It’s a great opportunity. I get to headline in Las Vegas, UFC [Vegas 100], and it’s Veteran’s Day weekend, and being one of the, like, three actual U.S. war veterans on the UFC roster currently, being able to headline this card this weekend, it’s like, man, the stars are lining for me. Like it’s a great opportunity to out there and represent, to go out there and just do my thing. I’m very grateful for it.”
Undefeated boxing prospect Austin DeAnda captured a key unanimous decision win over DeAundre Pettus last night (Fri., Nov. 8, 2024) at “Davis vs. Lemos” from inside Scope Arena in Norfolk, Va., but he had to chop a lump of his hair off to get it done.
Friday’s card was a pretty good one so it was a great chance for DeAnda to extend his unbeaten streak to 16-0 and gain more fans in the process. DeAnda was the betting favorite to take care of business in front of a hometown crowd, but not everything went according to plan for the 21-year-old fighter.
Midway through the fight, DeAnda was in his corner getting advice from his coaches. There seemed to be a brief discussion and then all of a sudden someone started cutting DeAnda’s hair off. It was getting in the way during some of the exchanges, but it’s very rare to see a boxer get a haircut while on the stool in the middle of a fight. The chopped off hair was tossed into the ringside water bucket and the bout went on.
Check out the weird moment in the above video player.
Luckily, DeAnda’s mid-fight haircut paid off. The undefeated prospect went eight full rounds against Pettus and ended up walking away with the unanimous decision win. It was the third victory of 2024 for DeAnda while ending a two-fight win streak for Pettus. The only negative for DeAnda is the fact that he has to grow his hair back out after losing more than half of it on Friday night.
Neil Magny is the living embodiment of the “Ah shit here we go again” meme at this point, right?
The UFC’s career leader in welterweight wins (22) makes his 34th walk to the octagon to headline UFC Vegas 100 and as has so often been the case throughout his time with the promotion, he is a massive underdog. Looking to make his name off Magny this Saturday is Carlos Prates, a dangerous knockout artist that can put an exclamation point on his Rookie of the Year campaign if he takes out one of the division’s hardiest competitors.
It’s a fine fight to cap off a card wracked by cancellations and also burdened with slightly higher than usual expectations due to this officially being the UFC APEX’s centennial show (for whatever that’s worth). Just keep in mind the real number that matters is that this is the UFC’s 37th show of 2024, so the lineup was built with that in mind, not with celebrating an arbitrary landmark.
With that said, also on the main card, former two-division ONE Championship titleholder Reinier de Ridder makes his UFC debut against Gerald Meerschaert, Gaston Bolanos welcomes Contender Series signing Cortavious Romious to the roster, Luana Pinheiro and Gillian Robertson jockey for position in the strawweight top-15, and Mansur Abdul-Malik looks to put on a showcase performance against Dusko Todorovic.
What: UFC Vegas 100
Where: UFC APEX in Las Vegas
When: Saturday, Nov. 9. The six-fight preliminary card begins at 4 p.m. ET on ESPN+, followed by a five-fight main card at 7 p.m. ET also on ESPN+.
(Numbers in parentheses indicate standing in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings)
Neil Magny vs. Carlos Prates
Not to turn this into a No Bets Barred supplemental (never, ever use my picks for gambling purposes, trust me), but one can’t discuss Neil Magny’s recent competitive history without telling the odds. Magny has played spoiler on multiple occasions, including this past January when he won as a 3-to-1 underdog to Mike Malott at UFC 298, but his board has also seen plenty of chalk. Michael Morales, Ian Machado Garry, Gilbert Burns, and Shavkat Rakhmonov were all heavy favorites to defeat Magny and they did.
Carlos Prates’ chances of victory are right up there with those greats as he’s at least a 6-to-1 favorite depending where you get your lines. It’s not surprising, given he’s been a wrecking ball in 2024, finishing all three of his UFC opponents to extend his overall win streak to 10. At 31, Prates doesn’t look like a prospect, he looks like a fighter who could be challenging for UFC gold in 2025.
If you’re curious how Prates fares in five-round fights, the answer is there’s no data for that because he’s never had to fight past Round 3. That fact alone should be enough to give one pause as far as breaking the bank to wager on Prates, as Magny has shown he can shrug off slow starts and outlast his opponents in high-stakes fights. Prates should end this one early. If he doesn’t, don’t be surprised to see Magny rally and turn the tables on Prates in rounds 3, 4, and 5.
In Prates’ favor is that he’s proven to be excellent at conserving his energy. Magny will definitely want to push the pace to test Prates’ cardio, but Prates is not a tactless berserker. His Muay Thai is patient and precise, making it a risky proposition to attempt to walk him down.
Normally when I pick against Magny, it’s due to his suspect submission defense. This time, it’s the deficit in striking that will prove to be his doom. He’s always been solid, but Prates is spectacular, and I’m picking spectacular to win out on this day.
Prates by knockout.
Pick: Prates
Gerald Meerschaert vs. Reinier de Ridder
This fight should be a grappler’s delight and if that’s the case, it’s kind of a toss-up.
Reinier de Ridder was a star in ONE Championship and beat some good names over there, though I’m hesitant to put his quality of competition over the UFC wins Gerald Meerschaert has faced. Are Aung La N Sang and Vitaly Bigdash leagues better than Bruno Silva and Makhmud Muradov? I’m not sure, but in a way, this was the perfect way for UFC to gauge what they have with their new signing.
Meerschaert has typically fallen short against top-20 opposition, so if de Ridder is the real deal, we’ll find out soon enough. “The Dutch Knight” has only lost to Anatoly Malykhin, a hulking beast of a fighter carving out his own legacy in ONE, and he’s as dangerous on the ground as Meerschaert is. Hold for hold, de Ridder might even have the edge on Meerschaert, who trails only Jim Miller and Charles Oliveira for the most submission wins in UFC history.
I feel confident picking de Ridder to make Meerschaert tap because I do place him in that range of fighters that have typically foiled “GM3.” Whether he’s truly an elite 185er remains to be seen, but his debut should go fine.
Pick: De Ridder
Gaston Bolanos vs. Cortavious Romious
All things considered, it’s not the worst thing that Gaston Bolanos and Cortavious Romious ended up with a main card spot.
No, this wasn’t what the UFC planned, but they’re rolling with the punches here and rolling the dice on a potential bantamweight thriller. The 135-pound division is the gift that keeps on giving, so you can’t go wrong keeping the spotlight on it.
This is somewhat of a striker vs. grappler matchup and while I favor Romious for his potential to mix in wrestling, that doesn’t mean it will necessarily become a boring grind. Romious brings impressive physicality and an offensive mindset to the octagon, which should bring the best out of Bolanos. “The Dreamkiller” will undoubtedly be hunting for a knockout from the moment the bell rings, so seeing if Romious can defuse his potent striking should make for compelling viewing.
I have Romious scoring key takedowns and racking up the points with ground-and-pound, wearing Bolanos down en route to a dominant third round and a convincing win on the scorecards.
Pick: Romious
Luana Pinheiro (15) vs. Gillian Robertson (14)
Has Luana Pinheiro hit a wall? After a promising 3-0 start to her UFC career, the Brazilian strawweight went up a couple of notches in competition and stumbled against Amanda Ribas and Angela Hill. She’s still showing limitations in the striking department, which proved to be her undoing in her past two outings. When the standup doesn’t go her way, she reverts to her grappling, and the results can be uneven.
She has a willing jiu-jitsu partner in Gillian Robertson. “The Savage” is always looking to fight on the ground and the Pinheiro pairing could result in some entertaining scrambles and a few hairy submission situations for both fighters. I can’t lie, I’m enamored with Robertson’s aggression, so I have to lean in her direction. No Canadian bias, I swear!
Pinheiro has the talent and motivation to right the ship, but Robertson’s offense will be too much in the end.
Robertson by ground-and-pound TKO.
Pick: Robertson
Mansur Abdul-Malik vs. Dusko Todorovic
Let’s be clear, Dusko Todorovic’s considerable experience advantage should be a factor here. Unfortunately for Todorovic, a lot of his UFC experience has featured him losing in painful ways. Fresh off a knee injury that sidelined him for over 600 days, Todorovic could look like a new man on Saturday. Or it could be more of the same.
If the buzz around Mansur Abdul-Malik tells us anything, it’s that the matchmakers will probably be more than happy to see a new name shine in the main card opener. There’s nothing fancy about Abdul-Malik’s approach, which makes sense given he’s only been competing for a little over three years and enters his seventh pro bout. He’ll come out throwing heavy punches and head kicks, determined to earn a bonus in his first UFC fight.
Truthfully, this has upset special written all over it. Let’s not forget Todorovic was once the promising prospect that received a rude awakening when that UFC call came, so maybe it’s his turn to deliver a reality check?
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