CombatSports.org

submitted by /u/Clevelandbrownfan [link] [comments]

MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

All of the UFC 309 fighters competing in the main and co-main events are set to wear custom fight shorts from the promotion’s exclusive apparel partner at Venum.

UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones’ shorts were previously revealed with a design that included the same bible verse he has tattooed on his chest.

As for his opponent, Stipe Miocic, is wearing a relatively generic pair of shorts by comparison with a black and grey design featuring the crest from the flag of Croatia — the home country to his parents before relocating to Cleveland, Ohio. Miocic hasn’t exactly been all about flash and flare during his career so keeping things simple seem to line up with his general ethos when it comes to his fight week preparation.

Meanwhile, former UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira definitely looked for an explosion of color on his fight shorts with a very loud design featuring his nickname “Do Bronx” down the side. The blue, red and yellow shorts give Oliveira a contrasting look when compared to his opponent Michael Chandler, who went for something similar to what Miocic is wearing on Saturday night.

Chandler’s shorts also feature a basic black and grey design but his are adorned with the stars and stripes signifying the United States.

The UFC has been working with Venum to create custom fight shorts for athletes involved in some of the biggest fights in the sport with UFC 309 being no exception.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

submitted by /u/Clevelandbrownfan [link] [comments]

MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Jake Paul believes a knockout win of Mike Tyson is fated to happen.

That’s how confident Paul is ahead of his clash with the boxing legend, which takes place this Friday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and airs live on Netflix. Paul has made a name for himself as a boxer after previously rising to fame as a YouTuber and social media influencer, and meets his most accomplished opponent yet in the 58-year-old Tyson.

“Iron Mike” fights in his first sanctioned bout since 2015 (and makes his first in-ring appearance since a 2020 exhibition bout against Roy Jones Jr.). In his prime, Tyson was revered for his knockout power that earned him multiple world titles and made him one of sport’s most famous figures.

Ahead of the Nov. 15 event, Paul and Tyson sat down for a face-to-face interview on YouTube, and Paul waxed poetic on how it would feel to KO Tyson.

“When it happens, it’s going to be a little bittersweet because I have love for him, but at the current moment, we’re meant to go to war,” Paul said. “He’s trying to take the food off my plate, I’m trying to take the food off of his plate and that’s what warriors do. But for me, I’ve dream this, manifested it, and it will be the start of what has been a 12-year career for me in entertainment and acting and working and all the things I’ve done now into boxing, this is finally my moment and my time to shine and I’m going to show the world who the f*ck I am.

“Because everyone’s doubted me, everyone’s had something something to say. Nothing was ever given to me. I’ve had to work for it all. Suppressed by everyone. Kicked off of YouTube. Kicked off of platforms. Canceled five times and here I am throwing the biggest event in really all of entertainment actually and now it shows to the rest of the world what hard work and perseverance can do and I’m just happy to be able to show that to other kids who maybe have to go through adversity and have to fight and have to keep on proving themselves time and time again.”

Asked if he was confident that he would put Tyson down for the count, Paul didn’t waver: “It’s already written.”

“This is the baddest man on the planet,” Paul added. “Heavyweight. Just look at the f*cking guy sitting here right now. He’s an animal. He posts Instagram pictures and I get a little scared because of how good he looks, but I have to step up to this level and show people that I can accomplish the impossible and that’s what the story of Jake Paul is about.”

Tyson was then asked how a loss to Paul would affect his legacy, which led to the following exchange:

Tyson: “I don’t look at my life as a legacy. Legacy to me means ego. Who the f*ck cares about my legacy? I’m going to be dead soon one day. But he’s not going to win.”

Paul: “It would be the biggest moment in all of boxing history on Friday night when I put this man to sleep, so that is pretty dope.”

Tyson: “He dreams a lot. This is not going to come true, young man.”

Paul: “I respect your opinion, but it’s just my time. The universe knows it, the gods know it, and you’re going to know it.”

Despite his bravado, Paul admitted he’s concerned about how the fight could unfold Friday. Of Tyson’s 50 pro wins, 44 came by way of knockout, with many still being replayed to this day due to the level of violence and viciousness involved.

Paul doesn’t want to get hit, but he’s ready for it.

“I have to be alert,” Paul said. “This is a scary, scary man. He’s a killer and has all the power still clearly in all the videos, all the sparring that he’s showing dropping his sparring partners.

“My mom is messaging, she can’t even watch Tyson punch. She won’t watch it because it scares her. He has one of the deadliest uppercuts of all time, so of course I have to be ready and know that he’s going to have some moments in there and I’m going to have to persevere.”

In what will likely be Tyson’s last fight, the boxing legend is seeing it as more than just a farewell party. He plans to go out on top, something he didn’t get to do when he lost to Kevin McBride in June 2005.

In Tyson’s mind, he’s certain that millions of fans will get the chance to see his hand raised one more time.

“I’m not going to lose, so I can’t even fathom losing,” Tyson said. “I can’t even imagine it. He’s not going to win. I think he thinks this is going to be a very easy night. It’s not going to be an easy night for you.”

“I don’t think that,” Paul replied. “I think it’s going to be a war. A war of ages. The fans are the ones who win out of this, but I know you, I know your soul on a deeper level, and I know myself and I know you’re not going to f*cking quit and neither am I. You could rip my head off. I can go down to the canvas. You can f*ck me up, I could be bleeding from everywhere, and I’m not going to stop, and I know that’s the same for you. That’s the beauty of this, I don’t think it’s going to be easy. I know it’s going to be hard.”

Watch the full Face 2 Face video below.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

submitted by /u/Clevelandbrownfan [link] [comments]

MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic will finally battle for the UFC heavyweight championship in the main event of UFC 309 in New York City — a fight the MMA community is excited to get to so the division can move forward.

Watch MMA Fighting’s UFC 309 Timeline video for an in-depth look at how both headliners got to this weekend’s pay-per-view at Madison Square Garden.

Jones defends the heavyweight title for the first time since capturing the championship nearly two years ago with a quick submission win over Ciryl Gane at UFC 285. “Bones” is a former, multi-time light heavyweight champion, and his run at 205-pounds, the ups and the downs — both in and out of the octagon — are featured in the story to Saturday’s main event.

Miocic’s layoff is twice as long, as he returns to the octagon after getting brutally knocked out by Francis Ngannou at UFC 260 almost four years ago. The 42-year-old will compete against a fighter not named Ngannou or Daniel Cormier for the first time since stopping Junior dos Santos at UFC 2011 in May 2017.

Will the winner of the UFC 309 main event face interim champ Tom Aspinall to unify the titles? Will it be the final octagon walk for Jones and Miocic?

MMA Fighting – All Posts

Here we go
| BJPenn.com

UFC Vegas 100 went down this past weekend (Sat., Nov. 9, 2024) inside the promotion’s APEX venue in Las Vegas, Nevada, leaving several fighters feeling the post-fight blues. Among the was Gerald Meerschaert, who was choked out by Reinier de Ridder — who was making his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) debut — in the first round (see it again here).

And Dusko Todorovic, who was also finished in the first round by Octagon debutant, Mansur Abdul-Malik, putting it on him early and often to secure an impressive technical knockout win halfway through the opening frame. But, which fighter is suffering from the worst post-fight hangover, now a few days removed from the show?

Neil Magny.

Coming into the event, Magny was hoping to erase the memory of his first round stoppage loss at the hands of Michael Morales just three months ago. Standing in his way, however, was another young up-and-comer in Carlos Prates, who had the reputation of starting early and going to work right away to secure brutal highlight-reel finishes.

Unfortunately for Magny, things got worse … much worse.

Indeed, it didn’t take long for Magny to go to his wrestling in an attempt to stifle Prates’ momentum from the jump, though the Brazilian defended very well. But, once Prates got distance, he started to work, dropping Magny early with a massive right, though he was unable to finish the fight at that moment, it didn’t take long after that for Prates to get the job done. With only 10 seconds remaining in the fight, Prates managed to clip his foe with a massive left hook that put him out for the count (replay here).

For Magny, that is now two straight knockout losses, and has dropped three of his last four. The loss will definitely take him out of the Top 15 — he was ranked No. 15 coming into the fight — and will put him at a crossroads in his career. He is 37 years of age, but he hasn’t given any indication that he’s going to call it a career despite his recent struggles.

To get back into the Top 15, he will have to work extra hard, and the competition at 170 pounds isn’t exactly light. As far as what could realistically be next for him, perhaps a showdown against Niko Price is in order. Like Magny, Price has been fighting for UFC for quite some time now, eight years to be exact. And like Magny, Price — who is coming off a loss to Themba Gorimbo last month — is 2-4 in his last six UFC fights.

It’s actually pretty amazing that these two long-time UFC veterans haven’t crossed paths yet, so perhaps now is as good a time as any. I highly doubt it would be a “Loser Leaves Town” match, but the victor will get a new lease on his combat life.

Book it?

For complete UFC Vegas 100 results, coverage and highlights click HERE.

MMAmania.com – All Posts

submitted by /u/Clevelandbrownfan [link] [comments]

MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Jon Jones is gearing up for fight week.

The heavyweight champion is days away from defending his title against Stipe Miocic in the main event of UFC 309 on Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York, and he’s tuning in to the card’s pre-fight programming. In particular, Jones took umbrage with Miocic’s choice of words from the recent UFC Countdown program.

“Bring it on, b*tch,” Miocic said on the show.

Jones responded to the clip via an Instagram Story and on Twitter, which can be seen below (h/t Happy Punch).

“Hiring black fighters to mimic me will not help you, Stipe,” Jones wrote. “And you shouldn’t have called me a bitch, the disrespect wasn’t necessary. Let’s play.”

For the most part, the rivalry between Jones and Miocic had been respectful prior to this exchange. Jones has often touted his respect for Miocic, the record holder for the most successful defenses (4) of the UFC heavyweight title. The two were first booked to fight at UFC 295 in December 2023, but a pectoral injury forced Jones out of that matchup and put him on the sidelines for several months.

In Jones’ absence, British heavyweight Tom Aspinall defeated Sergei Pavlovich for an interim title and has successfully defended it once, defeating Curtis Blaydes this past July. Aspinall has repeatedly expressed interest in unifying the titles, though Jones’ sights have been locked exclusively on Miocic.

Jones’ refusal to acknowledge Aspinall—the No. 1 heavyweight in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings—as the true contender for his title has ruffled more than a few feathers in the MMA community, with the all-time great being accused of “ducking” Aspinall.

After responding to Miocic, Jones fired off another series of tweets responding to his critics, including top light heavyweight contender Magomed Ankalaev, who also mocked Jones for not fighting Aspinall.

“Magomed, jealousy won’t earn you legend status, my friend,” Jones wrote. “Train harder, hate less. Want to truly insult me? Break some of my records first. Let’s get started.”

Ankalaev then posted a tweet poking fun at Jones’ history of drug test failures. During Jones’ legendary run as light heavyweight king from 2011-2020, he put together arguably the most impressive résumé in MMA history, defeating a litany of former world champions and elite challengers. However, a pair of drug tests serve to blemish his reputation, one that cost him in an interim title in 2016 and another that caused a championship win over Daniel Cormier in 2017 to be overturned to a no-contest.

See more of Jones’ tweet storm as he responded to fans below.

MMA Fighting – All Posts