CombatSports.org

There were high expectations for the U.S. men’s freestyle wrestling team heading into the 2024 Olympics; instead, the six-man squad made history for all the wrong reasons.

2016 Olympic champion Kyle Snyder ended up as America’s last hope to claim a gold medal, but ultimately fell to Akhmed Tazhudinov—is originally from Dagestan but now representing Bahrain—in the semifinals at 97kg. Despite Snyder’s best efforts, he couldn’t produce enough offense and suffered a second straight loss to Tazhudinov after the 21-year-old phenom beat him 11-0 at the 2023 World Championships.

With Snyder’s loss, the U.S. men’s freestyle team goes home without a gold medal for the first time since 1968.

The 56-year run for the American team ends after many argued that the U.S. was sending its strongest team to the Olympics with multiple world champions and top-ranked athletes competing in 2024.

Sadly, the U.S. contingent struggled from the start with Mason Parris falling in the qualification round at 125kg after he took a roster spot once held by 2020 Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson, who left the sport to sign with WWE before turning to football where he currently plays for the Buffalo Bills.

Three-time NCAA champion and World champion Zain Retherford was shut out 8-0 by Iranian Rahman Amouzad in the opening round, ending Retherford’s chance for gold.

Former Iowa standout Spencer Lee had the best shot at the Olympics after he made the finals at 57kg but fell to Rei Higuchi from Japan. Lee still goes home with a silver medal in his first Olympics.

Aaron Brooks also suffered a stunning upset loss to Magomed Ramazanov from Bulgaria in his semifinal matchup at 86kg after making the Olympic team by beating 2020 gold medalist David Taylor. While Ramazanov went onto capture gold by defeating Iranian legend Hassan Yazdani, Brooks bounced back with a bronze medal win.

Kyle Dake, who has won four World Championships, was one of the heaviest favorites going into the Paris games, but he fell short in a wild match against Daichi Takatani from Japan via a 20-12 score. A scoring controversy in his bronze medal match had Dake shouting at the judges before he angrily returned to the mat where he tossed Hetik Cabolov from Serbia over his head to score five points to help secure the victory.

Dake leaves with a second bronze medal. At 33, this could potentially serve as his final Olympics.

While Snyder and Retherford still have a chance to win bronze, there were extremely high hopes that the American team could potentially bring home multiple gold medals after a strong showing during the 2020 games. The United States led all nations with nine total medal wins including gold medal victories for Taylor and Steveson.

Five of the six team members are still vying for medals, but these are not the results the U.S. squad expected heading into the 2024 Olympics.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

submitted by /u/NaLu_LuNa_FairyPiece
[link] [comments]
MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Robert Whittaker isn’t letting Khamzat Chimaev off the hook that easy.

In June, Whittaker was supposed to face Chimaev in the main event of UFC Saudi Arabia; however, less than two weeks before the event, Chimaev withdrew from the bout after falling “violently ill.” Instead, Whittaker faced Ikram Aliskerov on short notice and scored a first-round knockout that many fans thought would move him past the Chimaev matchup.

But Whittaker is now set to face Chimaev on Oct. 26 in the co-main event of UFC 308, and speaking recently on his YouTube channel, he revealed why.

“Chimaev is a hard fight,” Whittaker said. “He’s obviously a big draw, especially over there in Abu Dhabi. He’s done the welterweight thing, he’s done the middleweight thing, so he’s a draw, and I think the UFC story-wise wants to see Chimaev get a shot at the champion. They want to see Chimaev up the top of the ladder. They want to see him in that picture, but I love disrupting their plans. I love derailing their stories, and that’s why I took the fight.

“I asked for the fight. It wasn’t offered to me. Straight after last fight, I saw that there was an Abu Dhabi card in October, timeline fits perfectly, and I was like, ‘I’ll fight Chimaev again. I’ll do it again, just make sure he turns up.’ Because I look forward to hard fights. I look forward to these fights, and I know that if I beat Chimaev, there is nothing in my way to getting my belt back.”

Whittaker is a former UFC middleweight champion but hasn’t tasted gold in several years. After losing his title to Israel Adesanya in 2019, Whittaker fought his way back to a rematch in 2022, but again fell short. He then lost a title eliminator bout against Dricus du Plessis at UFC 290, but has since rebounded with wins over Paulo Costa and the aforementioned Aliskerov performance. And with a win over the very popular Chimaev, Whittaker believes that will be enough to get another crack at the title.

“Chimaev, as dangerous as he is, I don’t go into these fights thinking about what I have to lose,” Whittaker said. “Much like how I took the fight with Ikram, I don’t look at the fight and think, ‘Oh man, it’s too big of a risk.’ Every fight’s a risk! I only go into fight because I have the confidence I’m going to beat and smash whoever is in front of me, and that doesn’t change with Chimaev.

“So I’m going to get in there in October, I’m going to put the One-Two-How-Do-You-Do on him, and worry about a title shot after that.”

UFC 308 takes place at Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Arena and is headlined by a featherweight title fight between Ilia Topuria and Max Holloway.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

Caution
| BJPenn.com

UFC

Fight fans who tuned in to Rough N’ Rowdy 25 on Friday night got more than they bargained for. In fact, they witnessed a real-life police arrest inside of the ring.

On Friday, Barstool Sports hosted another installment of its Rough N’ Rowdy boxing event. For those who have never seen one of these, it’s a circus. The fights usually involve inexperienced, out-of-shape fighters who swing for a knockout from the opening bell. It’s certainly compelling action to watch, but nothing that’s overly impressive.

The main event of the night featured a matchup between two randos named Mikey Bets and Zach Abel. Neither have real combat experience, but there was some bad blood between the two stemming from a brawl during weigh ins so fight fans were hoping for some memorable action. Unfortunately, the fight itself was a complete letdown. Luckily, the aftermath left fight fans with a lasting impression.

After the verdict was read and Abel found out he lost via split decision he proceeded to punch one of Bets’ cornermen right in the face. All hell broke loose and ringside security quickly rushed in to subdue Abel. He was eventually brought to the ground and arrested inside of the ring. It was a truly bizarre scene even for a makeshift event like RNR 25.

Check out the chaos below:

MMAmania.com – All Posts

submitted by /u/cpseybold1 [link] [comments]

MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

For the first time in nearly eight years, Charles Bennett was victorious in a fight.

The 44-year-old snapped an overall 21-fight losing streak and a 12-fight skid in MMA competition with a submission victory against Justin Howard at Friday’s Island Fights 84 event in Pensacola, Fla.

Check out the final moments of the bout below where Bennett got full mount on his opponent, attacked with a barrage of ground-and-pound, and sunk in a rear-naked choke to get the tap in Round 2.

It was the first victory for “Felony” since stopping Minoru Kimura in September 2016 in RIZIN. After that, Bennett was defeated in his next 21 combat bouts spanning MMA, boxing, bare-knuckle boxing, and bare-knuckle MMA. Bennett has competed for the likes of PRIDE, Elite XC, BKFC, Gamebred Bareknuckle, and more over two-plus decades of fighting.

The 33-year-old Howard has now dropped two straight. His overall record fell to 3-8.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

Branded likely the ‘worst’ event of the year so far, tonight’s lacklustre UFC Vegas 95 card took another hit overnight – with three separate matchups bringing skewing weight misses, to a card already under a bright spotlight.

Returning to North America tonight following a cameo in Abu Dhabi – the UFC hosted an impressive card in the Middle East over the course of last weekend, topped by a title eliminator between Umar Nurmagomedov, and Cory Sandhagen.

However, tonight’s 10-fight event at the Apex facility has been met with it’s fair share of critics during this week, with a four-year-old rehashed rematch between European heavyweight stalwarts, Marcin Tybura and Serghei Spivac topping the event.

Littered with a host of names not immediately recognizable to those but hardcore audiences, the event features just one former title charger – in the form of former Invicta FC star, Yana Santos, who suffered a first round knockout loss to Cris Cyborg back at UFC 222 in an unsuccessful featherweight championship fight. 

UFC Vegas 95 card hit with more negative comments

And during yesterday’s official weigh-ins, three fighters missed their respective weight class limits ahead of UFC Vegas 95 – forcing a trio of catchweight clashes in their place.

Firstly, slated to take on the above-mentioned, Santos in her return, Chelsea Chandler missed the bantamweight limit for the second fight consecutively, coming in at 141lbs – forcing a catchweight clash.

Furthermore on the same main card, Danny Barlow failed to meet the welterweight non-title fight limit for his bout with Nikolay Veretenitkov – coming in at 171.25lbs.

And in the night’s co-headliner, Chepe Mariscal came in at 149.5lbs for his slated featherweight fight with Damon Jackson, forcing another catchweight – adding to woes to an already lacklustre and criticized UFC Vegas 95 card. 

First facing off back in 2020 on a UFC Fight Night Norfolk card, Polish contender, Tybura turned in a unanimous decision win over Spivac as part of a five fight win streak that begun that night in Virginia. 

LowKickMMA.com

UFC Fight Night takes place tonight from the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, and MMA News has you covered with all the results and highlights! 

In the main event, top-ten ranked heavyweights Marcin Tybura (#8) and Serghei Spivac (#9) will clash. While in the co-main event, Damon Jackson will face Chepe Mariscal in a featherweight matchup. 

Three fighters failed to make weight at the weigh-ins. Mariscal missed the featherweight limit by 3.5 pounds, Chelsea Chandler missed the women’s bantamweight limit by 5 pounds, and Danny Barlow missed the welterweight limit by .25 pounds. 

Make sure to catch all the UFC Fight Night results and highlights as they happen below! 

Main Card (ESPN/ESPN+, 7PM ET): 

• Heavyweight Main Event: Marcin Tybura vs. Serghei Spivac
• Featherweight Co-Main Event: Damon Jackson vs. Chepe Mariscal
• Welterweight: Danny Barlow vs. Nikolay Veretennikov
• Bantamweight: Chris Gutiérrez vs. Quang Le
• Women’s Bantamweight: Yana Santos vs. Chelsea Chandler
• Bantamweight: Toshiomi Kazama vs. Charalampos Grigoriou

Preliminary Card (ESPN/ESPN+, 5PM ET): 

• Women’s Bantamweight: Karol Rosa vs. Pannie Kianzad
• Heavyweight: Jhonata Diniz vs. Karl Williams
• Featherweight: Youssef Zalal vs. Jarno Errens
• Women’s Strawweight: Stephanie Luciano vs, Talita Alencar

Continue Reading UFC Fight Night: Marcin Tybura vs. Serghei Spivac 2 Results & Highlights (5 PM ET)  at MMA News.

MMA News