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Lumumba Sayers, a former fighter under the now-defunct mixed martial arts promotion, Strikeforce, as well as the BKFC (Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship), has been arrested after he allegedly shot and killed a man in a revenge attack at a child’s birthday party. 

Sayers, 46, last competed in combat sports earlier this year at a BKFC Prospect Series event, landing a first round knockout win over Jeremy Morrison inside just 12-seconds.

And according to an arrest affidavit obtained by Denver7 earlier this week, the previously mentioned, Lumumba Sayers was arrested on Saturday last, after he is alleged to have shooting a man in the head after approaching him at a child’s birthday party at Pioneer Park in Commerce City.

Lumumba Sayers arrested for alleged revenge killing

Sayers, who remains in police custody in Adams County, Colorado – has been charged with first-degree murder and felony menacing charges, with his bond currently set at $ 1,000,000, as per court records obtained by MMA Fighting. 

The alleged victim in the incident surrounding Sayers was indentified as Malcolm Watson, who is believed to be an associate of another man who has been accused of murdering Lumumba Sayers’ son during a shooting in August of last year. 

The affidavit obtained by Denver7 revealed how it stated that “this murder was probably in retaliation or revenge”. 

Sayers in alleged to have approached the above-mentioned Watson, 28, before shooting him “in the head at close range”. Furthermore, Sayers is also alleged to have went back to the body of Watson in a bid to shoot him for a second time before his weapon malfunctioned. 

Over the course of his mixed martial arts career, which ended back in 2014, Sayers ended his career in the sport in the midst of a three-fight losing run, all coming via stoppage which included a first round triangle loss to former UFC title challenger, Anthony Smith.

In his most recent professional mixed martial arts win, Sayers defeated Scott Smith with a first round guillotine choke submission win at Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Flyweights Rose Namajunas and Erin Blanchfield headline UFC’s return to Canada on Nov. 2 at the Rogers Place in Edmonton.

UFC CEO Dana White announced the event to Canada’s Sportsnet on Thursday.

Namajunas and Blanchfield clash in the five-round headliner as both fighters look to take a step toward title contention with a win.

While both fell to Manon Fiorot in recent fights, Blanchfield was widely considered one of the top contenders in the division prior to that loss, while Namajunas has scored back-to-back wins since falling to the French flyweight in her 125-pound debut.

Several more fights were also announced for the Edmonton card, including a heavyweight co-main event featuring all-time UFC knockout leader Derrick Lewis returning to action against Alexandr Romanov. Lewis most recently dispatched Rodrigo Nascimento by third-round knockout in May, while Romanov looks to get back in the win column following a submission loss to Jailton Almeida in June.

Ariane Da Silva also returns to face Canadian favorite Jasmine Jasudavicius in another flyweight matchup, while Marc-Andre Barriault takes on Dustin Stoltzfus at middleweight.

Another Canadian, Jamey-Lyn Horth, faces Ivana Petrovic, while recent The Ultimate Fighter finalist Cody Gibson returns against Chad Anheliger.

More UFC Edmonton fights are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Israel Adesanya understands UFC has a business to run, but trying to erase Francis Ngannou and his contributions to the sport just doesn’t make sense to him.

In the days leading up to UFC 305, a promotional video was released showing comments that Adesanya made about the trio of African champions that once reigned atop the sport. At the time, Adesanya was joined by Ngannou as heavyweight champion and Kamaru Usman as welterweight champion, and the “three kings” touted plans to expand the sport even further into Africa in the future.

But the edited promo pushed out by UFC suspiciously removed Ngannou’s name despite being mentioned by Adesanya at that pre-fight press conference. None of it sat well with the former middleweight champion, but he hopes UFC eventually comes to its senses.

“You can’t erase Francis’ legacy in the UFC,” Adesanya said at UFC 305 media day. “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.”

The split between UFC and Ngannou seemed to be a long time coming after “The Predator” spoke out about several issues regarding his contract he wanted to address before potentially inking a new deal to stay with the organization.

Ngannou’s issue wasn’t only about pay, but rather the freedom to pursue outside interests such as a longtime dream to compete in boxing, which only happened for him after he left UFC in free agency.

He eventually signed with PFL, but he was allowed to engage in a pair of boxing matches against Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua before eventually booking his promotional debut against Renan Ferreira on Oct. 19.

Of course, Adesanya understands that UFC has to view Ngannou and PFL as opposition, but that doesn’t negate the history they share together.

“He’s an [integral] part of what we’ve done in the UFC,” Adesanya said. “Right now, I know there’s competition between other promotions and the UFC and battles, but you can never erase history. The streets, the internet will always remember.

“I think they’ll fix this eventually, but it’s just a lot of chest puffing. The UFC are smart people. They’ll understand and they’ll rectify this eventually.”

As far as his own personal relationship with the former UFC heavyweight champion, Adesanya still talks to Ngannou regularly and is excited to see his friend return to action in October.

The fight also serves as Ngannou’s first appearance since the tragic death of his 15-month-old son back in April.

Adesanya can’t even fathom that kind of pain, but he wishes nothing but the best for Ngannou as he restarts his MMA career in the PFL cage.

“I’m happy for him,” Adesanya said. “I’m happy for what he’s doing. He just went through something that I would never wish on anyone. We’ve talked. I’ve checked up on him. Again, I respect Francis so much.”

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Sterling Speaks Up
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Israel Adesanya plans to become the second three-time Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) champion in the promotion’s history at UFC 305 this weekend (Sat., Aug. 17, 2024).

The most dominant Middleweight champion since Brazil’s Anderson Silva has been none other than “The Last Stylebender,” Adesanya. Throughout his 27-fight career (24-3), Adesanya accumulated five total title defenses across two reigns as champion and could add more depending on if he dethrones Dricus du Plessis in his upcoming bout.

At the height of Adesanya’s power, he wasn’t the only champion from his native continent of Africa. Alongside him stood Heavyweight and Welterweight titleholders Francis Ngannou and Kamaru Usman. While Usman lost his title via a fifth round knockout to Leon Edwards in August 2022 (watch highlights), Ngannou parted ways with the promotion amid a contract negotiation breakdown in January 2023. Therefore, he gave up his title and signed with Professional Fighters League (PFL), making him an essential afterthought when UFC brings up its heaviest weight class.

“Francis, Kamaru, 100 percent these are guys that we have paved the way for people like Dricus,” Adesanya told ESPN. “We have paved the way for a whole continent to be able to dream. To be able to know, ‘Man, I can get there.’ I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: Look, it doesn’t end with us. It doesn’t even end with Dricus. Wait for the next generation of African fighters.

“You can never erase Francis’ history from the UFC. I’ll say that,” he continued. “It’s part of history. We need to fix this. I don’t like that. I don’t like the fact that we’re trying just to cut out a really important part of history. It’s silly. But we’ll fix that. That’s for later on.”

If Adesanya defeats du Plessis at UFC 305, he’ll join only Randy Couture as the promotion’s lone three-time champions.

MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 305 fight card RIGHT HERE, starting with the early ESPN+ “Prelims” matches at 6:30 p.m. ET, followed by the remaining undercard balance on ESPN/ESPN+ at 8 p.m. ET, before the PPV main card start time at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN+ PPV.

To check out the latest and greatest UFC 305: “Du Plessis vs. Adesanya” news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here. For the updated and finalized UFC 305 fight card and PPV lineup click here.

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Huge respect to Israel for this. He's following Francis' footsteps and people in their position speaking out against the UFC is great for the sport. submitted by /u/mkk671 [link] [comments]

MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

UFC 305 media day will feature UFC middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis, former UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, and a host of others fighting at Saturday’s event in Perth, Australia.

UFC 305 media day is at 10 p.m. ET, and the tentative schedule is below:

10 p.m. ET: Jairzinho Rozenstruik

10:15 p.m.: Israel Adesanya

10:30 p.m.: Casey O’Neill

10:45 p.m.: Jack Jenkins

11 p.m.: Tom Nolan

11:15 p.m.: Stewart Nicoll

11:30 p.m.: Steve Erceg

11:45 p.m.: Dan Hooker

12 a.m.: Joshua Culibao

12:15 a.m.: Mateusz Gamrot

12:30 a.m.: Kai Kara-France

12:45 a.m.: Dricus du Plessis

1 a.m.: Tai Tuivasa

1:15 a.m.: Junior Tafa

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