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Urijah Faber is still under UFC contract despite last fighting in the octagon in 2019, but he’s keeping a few doors open in case potential challenges come his way in the future.

Faber competed this past Friday in Abu Dhabi, defeating Bibiano Fernandes via decision in a grappling match in the main event of ADXC 5. He told MMA Fighting that fighting under MMA rules may not be his No. 1 choice at the moment, but he won’t rule it out either.

“I stay in the drug [testing] pool just because I don’t do drugs and you never know if an opportunity presents itself, but I likely will not be doing MMA [again]. But you never know,” Faber said. “I don’t think I’d want to do bare-knuckle, but you never know. I think I will do combat jiu-jitsu because I feel like that’s the new age, that’s where things are going. My style, Team Alpha BJJ is about staying safe and being dangerous. My jiu-jitsu is real-world applicable, MMA applicable, and it’s the stuff that works for fights. I want to keep building on that and keep showcasing that.

“So MMA, maybe not, but combat jiu-jitsu, yes. More of this grappling, yes.”

Asked if he’d be open to competing again in the UFC since he’s still under contract, the 45-year-old veteran said “it’d have to be the right scenario.” The same applies to bare-knuckle matches. Faber returned from retirement in July 2019 and walked through rising prospect Ricky Simon in 46 seconds, but hasn’t fought in MMA since losing a stoppage to Petr Yan that same year.

“I’ve had some good offers money-wise for bare-knuckle, but I’m not trying to fight world champion boxers in bare-knuckle,” Faber said. “You know, I’ve got kids, I don’t want to break cheekbones and that kind of stuff, lose teeth. But if they had an interesting matchup, my boy Conor McGregor is now an owner there, so he could probably find an opponent for me. I’m just competing. At [age] 45, I want to keep testing myself and keep staying active as an athlete. It’s my passion. That’s what I’ve done my whole life.”

Faber’s former opponent Jose Aldo tested himself in boxing ring after taking some time off from MMA, and then recently returned to the UFC with a vintage performance in May, dominating Jonathan Martinez. Aldo ultimately re-signed with the UFC and now faces Mario Bautista in October, but Faber, who memorably lost to Aldo for the WEC title back in 2010, would be interested in facing his fellow veteran in the boxing ring in the future.

“Chad Mendes and I both fought Jose Aldo and he was our toughest fight, so I’d prefer not to get beat up by Aldo at this point in my life,” Faber said with a laugh. “I would do a boxing match against him. I think they offered me something not too long ago, before he signed back with the UFC, but it was not the kind of offer that was super intriguing. And I talked to Aldo before about bare-knuckle. He has no desire of doing bare-knuckle. But I would do a boxing match with Jose Aldo.

“I love boxing. I love pure boxing. I love pure wrestling. I love pure jiu-jitsu. I love blending it together. I would not want to do a kickboxing match with Jose Aldo, that’s for damn sure,” Faber continued with another laugh. “I learned my lesson. Google ‘Urijah Faber’s leg,’ and if you don’t know what we’re talking about, you’ll know.”

Photo via ADXC

For now, Faber continues to focus on grappling matches like his contest with Fernandes. He’s now riding a two-match win streak, having beat Jeff Glover in combat jiu-jitsu as well.

“Bibiano and I are very alike and like to push ourselves,” said Faber, who fought an inexperienced Fernandes in MMA back in 2006. “I consider myself a world-class jiu-jitsu player. I mean, there’s no secret about that. Throughout the years, I’ve competed and pushed myself with guys like [Rubens] Charles ‘Cobrinha’ and Jeff Glover. All the heavy hitters of my era, I try to get my hands on them and roll throughout my whole career. And I’ve had a big focus on jiu-jitsu since I stopped fighting.

“I love to compete and I don’t have time to go to tournaments and do everything else, so taking the cream of the crop and showcasing my skill set is something that I really cherish. Being able to get paid for vacation, but go do something that I love and kind of spread the knowledge that I have and showcase what I’ve been working on is a great feeling.

“I don’t think that a lot of people know how into jiu-jitsu I am,” Faber continued. “I have my whole system, Team Alpha BJJ, my guys know it, my students know it, and it’s unique. It’s very unique. It’s a lot of scrambling, a lot of wrestling, a lot of jiu-jitsu, so I was happy to be able to showcase it. It makes things easy when you know what you’re doing.

“When I turned 45 this year, I was like, man, stay young by being with young intentions, and that’s competing, testing myself, putting challenges out there, getting out of your comfort zone. I’m coming over to the other side of the world to go against a world champion and put it out there for the world to see as a 45-year-old man, it’s exciting to be able to do that still. For me to grow as a mixed martial artist and test with the things that I’m working, it’s really cool to be able to do that.”

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Days after Merab Dvalishvili finally landed Sean O’Malley as his next opponent, he got together with the bantamweight champ for a photoshoot to begin promoting UFC 306.

The card taking place at the Sphere in Las Vegas has been teased as the most expensive event in UFC history, so it stands to reason why the promotion is going to put a lot of marketing muscle into making UFC 306 the biggest and best show possible. Part of the photoshoot involved Dvalishvili coming face-to-face with O’Malley for a staredown, but the two rivals barely got within a foot of each other before the trash talk started.

UFC eventually released a clip showing Dvalishvili arguing with O’Malley while a stunned Alexa Grasso watched in the background, but it turns out cameras didn’t get rolling soon enough to catch everything.

“We were just doing a faceoff,” Dvalishvili told MMA Fighting. “They wanted us to face off without conversation. But of course, once I saw Sean, he was making fun of me. He was joking, ‘Welcome to the big show,’ and he said, ‘Oh, have you ever been in the main event?’ He was [talking to] me with sarcasm.

“I said, ‘Yes, of course, I’ve been in the main event before. Remember when I beat the shit out of Petr Yan?’ He didn’t like that. He [said], ‘Welcome to the big show. I’ve been here.’”

The war of words eventually led to Dvalishvili taking aim at O’Malley’s head coach Tim Welch, who injected himself into the rivalry after getting into a spat with former UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling on social media. The initial incident erupted after video captured during O’Malley’s title fight win showed Welch shouting instructions at Sterling from the side of the cage.

Sterling then accused Welch of talking so much trash from the corner that the referee had to tell him to stay quiet.

The back-and-forth saw Dvalishvili promise to slap Welch when they finally run into each other, and that only amplified the bad blood between the two camps.

Dvalishvili says what UFC captured on film was his confrontation with O’Malley over Welch, which was after the trash talk between them had already began. As much as Dvalishvili wants to beat O’Malley and take his title at UFC 306, he promises his biggest issue lies with Welch more than anybody else.

“I have a problem with his coach, Tim,” Dvalishvili said. “He was very disrespectful to me and he was doing stupid [stuff] and not respectful [things]. Any real coach should never do that, whatever he was doing. Try do the same thing in basketball or let’s try to do the same thing in a football game. They will give you a disqualification. Only the UFC can you get out of this. Coach your guy, coach your fighter. Don’t be disrespectful to the opponent. What kind of people does this? Only a snake person does this.

“Even now he’s talking on his podcast, like making fun of my height, making fun of my nose, even now he some fans said some stupid things. Nothing is real. He’s making up some stories about me, which is not true. He deserves [me] to smack his face. That’s what I told Sean O’Malley. ‘Hey Sean, tell your coach to shut his mouth,’ because I was so pissed when I saw all these videos, how he does stupid things, how he talks stupid. I told him to shut his mouth.”

After Dvalishvili vowed to settle things with Welch when they run into each other, O’Malley amped up his chatter by telling Dvalishvili that Welch would welcome that fight, especially with a significant size advantage on his side.

That’s when Dvalishvili reminded O’Malley that he wasn’t trying to lure Welch into the cage to meet him in the UFC.

“He said, ‘Oh, you should fight him.’ Bro, I’m talking a street fight,” Dvalishvili said. “You think I’m going to go in the cage and I’m going to have a referee and I’m going to have rules there? I’m talking about when I see him, I’m going to smack his face. [O’Malley] said, ‘He’s bigger than you, that’s why we have weight classes.’ I don’t give a shit. I’m talking about man to man. I’m very pissed off. He deserves [me] to smack his face.

“He’s not a real coach. He’s not a real man. That’s what I’m talking about. He’s not a fighter. I’m not going to go in the cage with him. He’s never going to be in the UFC or in my weight class especially. I’m not going to do jiu-jitsu rounds with him. I’m talking about a street fight. That’s all I was trying [to say], but then Sean O’Malley was acting stupid [saying] there’s weight classes. This guy is so stupid. What are you talking about? Where did you grow up? Who raised you? Who are you? What the f*ck are you talking about?”

As irate as he was in the moment, Dvalishvili says he never intended for the situation with O’Malley to turn so volatile, but he’s not going to back down from a challenge — even one coming from his opponent’s head coach.

“I don’t like drama,” Dvalishvili said. “I’m a professional fighter and I’m going to focus on this fight. If I see Tim somewhere, of course I’m going to smack his face. That’s all. That was it. That’s what I told Sean O’Malley.

“Tim deserves to get smacked, for sure. But me and Sean O’Malley, we’re going to fight in the cage with the rules, UFC octagon, and we’re going to fight for the UFC belt. That’s done. I’m not going to talk to Tim because he don’t deserve to have a conversation. He deserves only a smack in his face. He already talks too much. He already disrespected me, he already disrespected my team, he already disrespected MMA. He deserves to get [smacked].”

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Bryce Mitchell hasn’t held back his disdain for Elon Musk in recent months and that hatred continues to pile up.

‘Thug Nasty’ is known for being quite peculiar outside of fighting and sometimes receives backlash for his outlandish views. However, the UFC star is incredibly passionate about his beliefs and nobody is going to stop him from speaking his truths.

As he often does, Bryce Mitchell has taken aim at Elon Musk and his businesses. This time, Mitchell targeted the Cybertruck, comparing it to trucks made over 30 years ago.

“Hey, Elon Musk. You can take that Cybertruck right to hell,” Mitchell said in a post on social media. “Right where it belongs, buddy.”

“This is what a real truck looks like. This is a 7.3 IDI, it’s a ’91. Let me show you something that this is going to do that your Cybertruck is never going to do.”

“Elon Musk, you can kiss my a**, buddy. You see that? 670,000 miles. You see that? You’re never going to get that out of your Cybertruck. Hell, you’re not even going to get that out of your modern diesel’s.”

Mitchell continued, blaming modern-age ordeals for ruining the state of trucks.

“There is a conspiracy against the farmer, against the working man,” Mitchel said. “These politicians are so out of touch with reality, they don’t even know what’s going on…”

“I’m telling you right now, they’re making our trucks, as the years go by, they’re making them more expensive. They’re making them rely on Chinese electronics and they’re making them break.”

“I paid $ 3k for this truck. $ 3k, guys. It starts up everytime, goes anywhere I need it to go. Now, it’s built in ’91. You’re telling me that thirty something years later we can’t build a truck that lasts half as long as this?”

“Guys, everything is going backwards. I’m telling you, we used to have it good as a country.”

Related: Bryce Mitchell brands Elon Musk the ‘false prophet’ during fiery rant

Mitchell believes people will revert back to using older trucks over Musk’s Cybertruck due to their longevity and price tag.

“There will be a time where we resort back to these style of trucks out of necessity. We won’t have an option because people can’t afford a $ 100k truck that breaks down after 200,000 miles.”

“This is what a real man’s truck looks like. Like I said, Cybertruck’s, you’re all a bunch of p***ies. That’s a real truck right there, for real men and all you politicians, it’s a shame what you’ve done to this country.”

“It’s a shame what you’ve done to our tractors, our trucks, they all suck. I wish our tractors would go back to how they were in the 60s. I wish our trucks would go back to how they were in the 60s.”

“Like I said, I have hope that one day they will out of necessity. The people are going to rise up and we’re going to get our freedom back, baby.”

Watch Bryce Mitchell’s rant on Elon Musk, Cybertruck’s, and politicians below.

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UFC Vegas 95 went down last night (Sat., Aug. 10, 2024) from inside UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada, which saw Serghei Spivac submit Marcin Tybura in the first round (see it again here). In the co-main event of the evening, overweight and embarrassed Chepe Mariscal defeated Damon Jackson via incredibly lopsided unanimous decision.

Photo by Al Powers/Zuffa LLC

Biggest Winner: Serghei Spivac

Spivac got his much-desired revenge on Tybura, making quick work of the Polish contender, submitting him in less than two minutes with a slick armbar. In doing so, Tybura got one back on the man who defeated him four years ago, as well as banked a $ 50,000 “Performance of the Night” award. Furthermore, he improved to 4-1 in his last five outings and he should expect to move up a spot or two on UFC’s official rankings.

Photo by Al Powers/Zuffa LLC

Runner (s) Up: Toshiomi Kazama

Coming into the event, Kazama was on our list for the fighter who needed a win the most because he was coming in having dropped his first two fights with the promotion via first round knockout. And it looked like he was well on his way to a third straight loss because he was getting worked by Charalampos Grigoriou on the feet. Halfway through round two, however, Kazama sunk in a triangle choke that forced a stoppage, giving him a new lease on his combat life. He also won a $ 50,000 post-fight bonus award, so it was a great night for him all the way around.

Photo by Al Powers/Zuffa LLC

Biggest Loser: Pannie Kianzad

The UFC brass recently parted ways with several fighters in the latest round of cuts to make room for the incoming talent from Contender Series … and Kianzad could very well be on the chopping block after last night. That’s because she lost her third straight fight after coming up short against Karol Rosa via unanimous decision. She now dropped to 1-4 over her last five fights. She might not get another chance to make a good impression, but if she does, it will come with a ton of pressure to get the “W” … or her walking papers.

For more UFC Vegas 95 results, coverage and highlights click HERE.

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Serghei Spivac is ready for anybody, including Jailton Almeida.

On Saturday, Spivac scored the eighth win of his UFC career, submitting Marcin Tybura with an armbar in the main event of UFC Vegas 95. The win avenged an earlier loss to Tybura and moves “Polar Bear” up in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings at heavyweight. Still, only 29 years old and now back in the winning column, Spivac knows there are plenty of opportunities awaiting him up the ladder.

“I’ll definitely take a break,” Spivac said in his post-fight press conference. “I’ll heal up. But when people ask me what’s next, it’s very hard for me to say because a lot of things can change in the heavyweight division really quickly. So it’s good for me when the UFC says who is next as opposed to me having to choose. I understand that tournaments happen every single Saturday, every single week, so I’ll wait and we’ll see what’s next.”

“What’s next” may be fairly straightforward. In his post-fight speech on Saturday, Tybura called for a matchup with anybody ranked above him, and No. 7-ranked Jailton Almeida quickly answered the call.

“Spivak, do you want someone above you in the rankings? Im here!! #7 vs #8 . I want to fight Bro! Happy you get the finish early, so, we can fight soon!”

Almeida suffered his first loss in the UFC earlier this year when he got knocked out by Curtis Blaydes at UFC 299, but rebounded with a submission victory over Alexandr Romanov at UFC 302. A matchup between Almeida and Spivac would figure to be a grappler’s delight, and never one to be overly loquacious, Spivac had a very direct response to Almeida’s call out when asked about it.

“Let him train,” Spivac said.

A couple of times on the evening, Spivac made it clear he does not wish to call out anyone specifically as he tries to be respectful at all times, but is willing to fight whoever the UFC deigns to give him. The only thing he would request is a timeline. Spivac and his partner are set to have their first child in just a couple of weeks, so he wants to take some time before returning before 2025.

“End of the year would be great,” Spivac said. “I would come back at the end of the year, as long as I stay healthy.”

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UFC star, Alex Pereira has claimed partaking in sports “saved” his life, amid his well-documented battle with alcohol addiction earlier in his life.

Pereira, a former undisputed middleweight champion inside the Octagon and the current undisputed light heavyweight titleholder, has been sidelined since he featured atop UFC 303 at the end of June, headlining the International Fight Week card on short-notice.

And racking up his second straight successful defense of the 205lbs title, Sao Paulo knockout king, Alex Pereira laid waste to former champion, Jiri Prochazka with a stunning second round high-kick knockout win.

Also headlining UFC 300 earlier this annum, Brazilian favorite, Alex Pereira took down Jamahal Hill with a blistering opening round knockout win – handing the former gold holder a defeat in his first Octagon appearance in over the course of a year.

Landing a pair of championships during his run with GLORY Kickboxing at both the middleweight and light heavyweight limits – Pereira was inducted into the promotion’s Hall of Fame last November, rounding off a stunning career in the sport.

And amid links to an end-of-year return, Pereira has opened up on his well-publicized battle with alcoholism, claiming a route to combat sports likely saved his life.

Alex Pereira opens up on battle with addiction

“I’m a guy who stopped everything, and I think I can help the kids out by sharing my story with them,” Alex Pereira said on his official YouTube channel. “It’s me, Glover. We’re going to do a training session with the kids, and I think it’s going to be great.”

“This project was arranged by our friend Michael with the help of the mayor of Vernon. I mentioned it to Poatan, and he was immediately on board, despite his busy travel schedule. But that’s how we are—we work hard and take the time to do these things for the kids, to motivate them. We want them to come to the gym, to train, and to get out of a life that has no future.”

“We’ve got a great team with us: Glover, Turman, Reggie, Melvin, and more people in the car, including my manager, Derek. We’re all heading out for this social action, which is so important. If you’ve been following my channel, you know we always try to do this kind of work.”

“I think it’s crucial to include this in the video – helping kids who are struggling with drug problems. I know firsthand how hard it is to deal with these situations, both for the kids and their families. That’s why we’re going to try to make a difference by talking to them, showing them a better path. I can speak about how sport saved me from alcohol addiction.”

“Today, I’m a UFC champion, but I always say that even if I hadn’t become a champion, I would still consider myself a champion in life. Overcoming addiction is one of the hardest things to do, so we’re going out there to offer some support, and I’m sure we’ll make a difference.”

Who would you like to see Alex Pereira fight next?

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