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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Kennedy Blades landed one of the crazies throws in Olympic history on her run to the gold.

During her opening round match Sunday in the 76g competition against Cătălina Axente from Romania, Blades—a 20-year-old phenom from Chicago, jumped behind her opponent, grabbed a body lock and launched Axente into the air before bringing her crashing back down to the canvas. The five-point suplex earned a huge reaction from the Paris crowd as the throw ended the match with Kennedy winning 11-0 on technical superiority (a 10-point lead in freestyle ends the match).

Kennedy couldn’t celebrate, however, with Axente remaining motionless on the mat following the stunning throw. Medical personnel tended to Axente, who was eventually removed from the floor on a stretcher where she was taken to a local hospital for treatment.

Following that win, Blades defeated Milaimys Marin from Cuba in a tight 4-3 score to move onto the semifinals where she defeated Aiperi Medet Kyzy from Kyrgyzstan 8-6 to claim her spot in the gold medal match.

It’s a strong start for Blades, who was the second youngest member of the U.S. Olympic wrestling team behind only 2024 gold medalist Amit Elor, who is just four months younger. Blades is coached by Izzy Martinez, one of the most prominent MMA coaches known for working with numerous fighters including Jon Jones and Holly Holm.

Holm was in attendance on Saturday to show her support as Blades seeks to become the third woman from the U.S. team to win gold following Elor and Sarah Hildebrandt.

Blades faces Yuka Kagami from Japan in the finals on Sunday.

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Now eleven fights deep into his professional boxing career, the polarizing, Jake Paul has confirmed plan to make a somewhat surprising outing in an amateur format – in the form of a trip to the 2028 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, California – in search of a gold medal win.

Paul, who most recently featured against former UFC welterweight challenger, and BFKC (Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship) star, Mike Perry, turned in an impressive win over the Michigan striker, courtesy of a sixth round knockout win.

Expected to return and take on former world heavyweight champion, Mike Tyson before the end of the year, Paul also called for a matchup alongside current UFC light heavyweight champion, Alex Pereira next to boot.

Jake Paul plans Olympic Games move in 2028

And amid this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris, France – Ohio native, Paul has suggested he make a spectacular appearance at the next edition of the summer games, in Los Angeles – vowing to take home the gold medal.

“I’m going to enter the 2028 Olympics for boxing in Los Angeles,” Jake Paul said on his YouTube channel. “I’m sick and tired of waiting for another gold medal for Team USA. I’m not retiring. I probably just added a couple of years onto my boxing career because of that. Gold medal, you’re mine, brother.”

“Being a world champion is first and foremost, and second is a gold medal,” Jake Paul continued. 

Over the course of his professional boxing career, Paul has taken home notable wins over the likes of Nate Diaz, as well as former UFC middleweight champion, Anderson Silva – and has knocked out former mixed martial arts titleholders, Tyron Woodley, as well as Ben Askren during their rivalries. 

In his sole professional loss, Paul lost his ‘0’ in a split decision defeat against Tommy Fury back in February of last year in Saudi Arabia.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

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.

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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.

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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:

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