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Alvarez signed to fight Berlanga in September, but he’s now found himself battling the UFC, Saudi Arabia, and Conor McGregor.

The Battle For Las Vegas is set with Canelo Alvarez on one side against the combined forces of UFC, Conor McGregor, and Saudi Arabia on the other.

The final showdown occurs September 14th on Mexican Independence Day weekend, where Alvarez goes head to head against the UFC. Canelo vs. Berlanga takes place in the T-Mobile Arena. UFC 306: O’Malley vs. Dvalishvili (aka Riyadh Season Noche UFC) occurs down the street at the extremely expensive but spectacular Sphere.

You can expect a lot of skirmishes in the five weeks remaining before the shows take place. Already we have Conor McGregor declaring UFC will ‘run Canelo off the strip’ and Riyadh Season promoter Turki Alalshikh trying to tarnish Alvarez’s reputation.

“I only target big fights at fair prices, so of course anyone who likes easy fights won’t like that,” Alalshikh tweeted on Wednesday. “And I know how [Alvarez] feels after losing to Bivol, so he’s been looking for easier fights ever since. Also, I’m not the one who’s afraid of fighting Benavidez or Crawford.”

“Therefore, I knew he was wasting our time and making excuses with big amounts of money that can’t be paid. So I’m continuing my way to make big fights that serve the boxing world, and he’s on his way to making easy show-only fights.”

Canelo, who had initially said his refusal to meet with Alalshikh had more to do with focusing on the upcoming Berlanga fight than anything else, responded to Turki’s message with laughing emojis. As for Conor McGregor’s comments?

“What’s happening is that he’s helping Dana White to sell for the UFC,” Alvarez said at a recent presser. “That’s why he’s saying that. But he knows he’s my son.”

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Belal Muhammad promised to be a fighting champion, and now he’s keeping a close eye on all the potential contenders in the welterweight division.

After dispatching Leon Edwards to become champion at UFC 304, Muhammad immediately recognized fighters like Shavkat Rakhmonov as likely challengers to his title, although he admits that no one has been clearly defined as the No. 1 contender in the division. For once in his career, Muhammad no longer has to call anybody out, because with the UFC title around his waist, he goes from being the hunter to the hunted.

That being said, Muhammad happily discounts one familiar name who won’t make his list as a viable opponent — failed three-time UFC title challenger Colby Covington, who began chirping almost immediately after Muhammad won the belt in Manchester.

“It’s funny. He’s literally the biggest clown in the UFC,” Muhammad told MMA Fighting. “It’s embarrassing to see how he’s trying to grasp for any sort of attention and say anything. ‘Let me catch him outside.’ Bro, I wish I see you outside. Let’s see what you would do. I literally called him out since 2017 when I fought in Australia. This guy’s a coward.

“But that’s what he does. He shied away from that Ian Garry fight. He said it wasn’t worth his time. If he would have won that fight, his name could have been right back in the mix. So now he looks dumb. He’s a clown. I’m wondering what he’s going to do next. There’s nobody out there that I see him saying yes to. He’s going to wait and hope that Tony Ferguson comes back and fights one more fight and then he’s going to win that and say, ‘See I deserve to be in there, look what I just did to Tony Ferguson!’”

With a 2-3 record in his past five fights — and all three losses coming in title bouts — it’s tough to imagine Covington sliding back into another title shot without first earning several relevant wins. Covington’s most recent victory over a fighter on the current UFC roster came all the way back in 2018, when he defeated Rafael dos Anjos to win the interim belt.

Covington’s latest fight ended in disappointment after he dropped a tepid five-round decision to Edwards this past December. He hasn’t booked another matchup since.

Muhammad doesn’t even want to give oxygen to inflammatory trash talk that isn’t going to get Covington another chance to compete for UFC gold.

“There’s zero percent chance,” Muhammad said of Covington getting another title shot. “I said he sucked before the Leon Edwards fight and they gifted him the title shot. There’s nobody in the top five that he could beat. There’s nobody in there where I could see him and say, ‘Well, if he beats him, there’s a chance.’

“I don’t see him accepting any top-five fights and I definitely don’t see him beating any top fighters if he gets that chance.”

With Covington eliminated, Muhammad gave his thoughts on the contenders he considers legitimate in the welterweight division, beginning with Rakhmonov, who is undefeated with an 18-0 record and a perfect finishing rate in those 18 fights.

“He’s the boogeyman,” Muhammad said of Rakhmonov. “The guy that everyone thinks will dominate everybody. When I look at stylistically what I’ll be able to do to him and what I’ve seen, there’s nothing he shows me where I’m like, ‘Oh man, I’ve got to be afraid of this or that.’ He’s not a specialist anywhere. Obviously, he’s a specialist in finishing, but I’ve only been finished once in my life.”

While he has no problem accepting a fight against Rakhmonov if that’s what UFC wants, Muhammad would love to see Rakhmonov get another quality win on his record just to cement his spot as the No. 1 contender.

As impressive as Rakhmonov has been through his first six UFC fights, he hasn’t beaten a top-five ranked opponent yet.

“Even for myself, when you look at all the names I had to go through [to get a title shot],” Muhammad said. “Even after beating ‘Wonderboy,’ I still had to win four more fights to get there and I had to take a short-notice fight against Gilbert Burns. Alright, you’re just going to give it to him after [winning] the ‘Wonderboy’ fight? If him and [Kamaru] Usman fought, the winner would for sure deserve it.

“But when Leon won the title, there was a clear No. 1 contender. I was the clear No. 1 contender and they still gave it to Colby. But when I won the title, there’s not that clear No. 1 contender. Obviously, Shavkat makes the most sense just because he’s undefeated, but when I look at the résumé, he didn’t have to go through what I had to go through to get it. But it’s all up to the UFC now.”

Ideally, Muhammad would eventually like to add Kamaru Usman to his résumé as well, because Usman was the champion Muhammad was chasing when he started his long UFC winning streak. He never got that chance because Usman eventually lost the belt to Edwards, but Muhammad acknowledges that’s still a huge win he wants on his record.

“For me, that was the guy I was chasing for so long,” Muhammad said. “He was the champion up there and people were saying that he was the GOAT. He had that moment of Dana White saying he was the best welterweight to ever do it.

“For Leon to take that away from me and then me to go out there and dominate Leon, to do what Usman couldn’t do, and then Usman to say I stole his blueprint — for me, to have him on my résumé would be huge. For legacy and just to show the world, to show Dana White, what I would have done if I got that opportunity when I should have. I think legacy-wise, Usman has the biggest name for sure, but on three losses, it’s hard to give him the title shot.”

Whether it’s Rakhmonov, Usman, or someone else, Muhammad doesn’t really care who UFC throws at him for his first title defense. Muhammad also recognized fighters like Ian Machado Garry and Jack Della Maddalena as contenders on the rise, potentially only a fight or two from a title shot as well.

“Honestly, [Garry] knows how to win,” Muhammad said. “He figures it out. I think that’s a big quality to have, for you to just understand how to win and fight a certain way for every fighter. Him and Leon would honestly be a great fight next. I feel like that makes a lot of sense. Stylistically, it would end up being a good fight.

“[Della Maddalena is] definitely a tough matchup stylistically for any of those other guys in the division. But for myself, I see a path to beating him pretty easily. But I’m hoping that injury gets cleared up soon and we get to see him fight somebody.”

Right now, Muhammad targets a late 2024 or early 2025 return to action, and then Muhammad just wants UFC to start lining up challenges so he can knock them down.

“There’s not a guy in the division where I look at like, ‘Man, that’s a tough fight,’ or, ‘This is going to be difficult fight, let me shy away from this guy.’” Muhammad said. “There’s nobody that I shy away from.”

MMA Fighting – All Posts

Former undisputed middleweight champion, Robert Whittaker claims it should be clear as day to fight fans that the UFC is angling toward a stunning heavyweight title fight between Tom Aspinall and Alex Pereira next – despite reservations from Dana White about a division leap for the Brazilian.

Aspinall, the current interim heavyweight champion, co-headlined UFC 304 just earlier this month in Manchester, landing a defense of his title with a stunning opening round knockout win over perennial contender, Curtis Blaydes – avenging his sole Octagon defeat in the process.

As for Alex Pereira, the former middleweight champion turned in his second defense of the light heavyweight crow3n at UFC 303 at the end of June, stopping two-time foe, Jiri Prochazka with a stunning second round high-kick knockout during International Fight Week.

Robert Whittaker plots Tom Aspinall fight for Alex Pereira

And while Whittaker is preparing for his own potential title-eliminator against the unbeaten Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 308, he believes with Magomed Ankalaev out of the picture in a clash with Aleksandar Rakic – the UFC is angling for a super fight between Aspinall and Pereira.

“(Alex) Pereira deserves a break, he took that second fight with what’s his name and won it in outstanding fashion and then his toe was broken, so he deserves a break,” Robert Whittaker said on the MMArcade podcast. I guess I can look at it like – UFC really don’t like (Magomed) Ankalaev. Like when he fought against (Jan) Blachowicz to that draw, they wre just like, ‘Cross his name out.’”

“They’re like, yeah, like he didn’t have great rapport after that fight, right?” Whittaker questioned. “So that or it’s actually as you said, Pereira needs some time out, Ankalaev doesn’t want to sit out forever. Or, bear with me here, they’re prepping him to fight (Tom) Aspinall.”

Who would win in a heavyweight super fight: Tom Aspinall or Alex Pereira?

LowKickMMA.com

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

“Chase a GOAT”
| BJPenn.com

Bringing you the weird and wild from the world of MMA each and every weeknight!

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

2024 has been a difficult year for former UFC Heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou.

His sophomore boxing performance went considerable worse than his professional debut, as Anthony Joshua wasted little time in handing “The Predator” his first knockout loss in combat sports. A painful defeat was nothing compared to personal tragedy, however, as Ngannou’s 15 month old son suddenly passed just weeks later in April 2024. Ngannou has already opened up about the tremendous sadness and struggle with moving forward after the death of his child, but now there’s an official date for his return: October 19 against PFL Heavyweight champion Renan Ferreira.

It’s a return that almost didn’t happen. In a recent interview with Sky Sports, Ngannou talked about having to make a decision about his professional career and the uncertainty of it all. Ultimately, however, Ngannou decided to fight on to honor his son’s memory and create something positive from the trauma.

“This is not a great moment for me,” Ngannou began (via Curtis Calhoun). “I need some activities. I need to stay active to be in a zone that I belong to. I also need to keep it going, to fight for my boy, for Kobe. The past few months hasn’t been the easiest. I think it has been by far my hardest [moment] in life. I lost my son. For some time, I felt like I didn’t even have to do this or questioning about if I should do it or fight again…

“But I want to do something good in his memory. Not to be the reason for me to quit but to be motivation and also to fight for him.”

When asked further about his potential retirement, Ngannou explained that his doubts and concerns were greater than fighting. His uncertainty was existential and more complicated than just fighting.

“It’s not that I have come close to retiring. It’s just that in this circumstance you think, you have different thoughts,” Ngannou said. “You see how fragile life is. You feel hurt, you feel powerless. You feel useless. You’re questioning about your existence, about the importance of all of this, or life in general.”

Insomnia

Some fun facts ahead of UFC Vegas 95 this weekend:

I don’t often say this about unranked Middleweights, but Brunno Ferreira is a must-watch action fighter.

Jon Jones being weird on social media? Couldn’t be!

Joaquin Buckley analyzes the rise of Alex Pereira in … unique … fashion.

Canelo isn’t impressed with or bothered by Conor McGregor yapping.

A super slick single leg takedown counter!

Walking 400 kilometers (about 250 miles) is one way to jumpstart Jiri Prochazka’s new weight cut to 185 pounds.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

As it turns out, yelling in pain is not optimal defense to any leg lock!

A sneaky gi choke:

Caught standing tall by a wide left hand swing:

Random Land

Not everybody is built for the world’s greatest games.

Midnight Music: Art rock, 1980

Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Chris Weidman will fight again before the end of the year.

Multiple people with knowledge of the promotion’s plans confirmed to MMA Fighting that Weidman will face Eryk Anders at UFC 309 on Nov. 16 following Anders’ management team announcing the booking on Twitter.

The event is expected to take place at Madison Square Garden in New York, although UFC has yet to officially announce the site.

After missing more than two years following a brutal leg injury in his UFC 261 fight with Uriah Hall in April 2021, Weidman is 1-1 in two octagon appearances. In his last outing, the former UFC middleweight champion earned a technical decision over Bruno Silva at UFC Atlantic City in March. The 40-year-old is set for his 20th promotional walk.

Anders also enters the bout off a March victory, having defeated Jamie Pickett at UFC Vegas 87 via unanimous decision. Anders has flip-flopped wins and losses over his past four bouts, which includes a stoppage victory over Kyle Daukaus in December 2022.

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