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All signs are pointing toward Jon Jones defending his strap against Stipe Miocic next time out, but he may have a new contender.

Since capturing the heavyweight throne, Jones has had a target on his back. The Hall-of-Famer is being eyed by a number of elite fighters, and one man who is passionate about getting that fight remains Tom Aspinall.

While Aspinall has been pushing for the mega fight, it seems Dana White may go in a different direction. According to the UFC CEO, Alex Pereira could steal the Jon Jones fight, under one condition. 

“This guy [Alex Pereira] is a killer, everybody loves him,” White said during a recent interview. “To think about him moving up to heavyweight when you talk about guys like Ciryl Gane, Aspinall, Volkov. I mean, these guys are monsters.”

“Ciryl Gane is huge, man. He’s huge, he’s athletic, he’s powerful. I like Alex. Alex is a savage. Let Alex do what he’s doing in his division.”

“You know what, if he wipes out the entire division, and we’re sitting here going, ‘Who’s next?’ Then maybe you let him move up to heavyweight and do some type of super fight there.”

Listen to Dana White’s opinion on Alex Pereira, Jon Jones, and more below.

This isn’t the first time Jon Jones and Alex Pereira have been rumored to fight.

Related: Jon Jones eyeing ‘massive’ fight with Alex Pereira

At the height of his feud with Tom Aspinall, Jones took interest in a matchup against the seemingly unstoppable ‘Poatan’.

Pereira hinted at the possibility of moving up to heavyweight in search of a historic third UFC title. This captured the attention of Jon Jones who, in turn, called out the Brazilian.

‘Bones’ believes beating a killer like Alex Pereira would be huge for his legacy. Though, he is first looking to get past the threat posed by the vastly experienced Stipe Miocic.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Sean O’Malley’s coach Tim Welch refuses to back down from Merab Dvalishvili and Aljamain Sterling.

On Sept. 14, O’Malley defends his bantamweight title against Dvalishvili in the main event of UFC 306. The fight is a continuation of O’Malley’s rivalry with the Serra-Longo fight camp, as “Suga” won the belt by stopping Sterling, Dvalishvili’s friend and teammate. And given their history, things have gotten tumultuous between the two camps, starting with a series of messages back in May, and most recently resulting in a heated exchange of words at a media event this past week where Dvalishvili threatened to fight Welch in the street.

Speaking with Submission Radio recently, Welch weighed in on the situation.

“Initially, I thought it was because I said we’re going to target his nose in an interview, which isn’t a lie,” Welch said. “I mean, it’s not a lie. I’ve never really said fighting words to those guys. But then Merab tweeted out and said, ‘Next time I see you, I’m going to take care of it,’ or something. And it’s like, come on, brother. I haven’t trained martial arts my whole life for a little 5-foot-4 guy to try to punk me out. I’ve trained my whole life and I’m only 34 years old. I’m six foot, 195 pounds. It’s like, alright, alright, well, we’ll see what happens.

“But that’s that’s besides the point. This is a huge fight. We got the No. 1 contender versus the champion of the world. That fight is going to happen 100 percent. ‘Sugar Show’ versus Merab, and we’re preparing and we’re more dialed in than we’ve ever been because Merab does pose a serious, serious threat.”

Dvalishvili is not the only one to take umbrage with Welch’s words. In a recent appearance on The MMA Hour, Sterling gave his thoughts on the situation, saying Welch should not be talking trash to a fighter, and if he keeps doing so, suggesting that “there are consequences for things that are being said.”

For Welch, all of this comes down Sterling and his team still being upset that O’Malley beat them.

“I think they’re still bitter,” Welch said. “They let the little curly-haired, funny guy who makes all these videos, who has tattoos on his face — Sean flat-lined [Sterling]. Sean punched him and dropped bombs on him, forced him to turtle up. You’ve got this world championship on the line and you’re fighting the ‘Sugar Show,’ I’m glad you were thinking about fighting me and not the fight you are in.”

Ultimately for Welch, he wants to stay focused on the thing that matters — UFC 306 — and he suggests Dvalishvili does the same. But much like Sterling said, if the other team wants to make something of this as the fight draws near, Welch does not intend to back down.

“It’s probably not smart for Merab to do that [on] fight week. Maybe after the fight,” Welch said. “You got the biggest fight of your life and you’ve got the opportunity to get a world championship. So, fight week, stepping into my face is probably not smart. You’ve got a fight ahead of you that you’re going to get paid for, so taking on me is not very smart. But we’ll see what happens. If they think our team is going to cower down to their team like [Henry] Cejudo’s team did, then they’re going to be wrong. They’re wrong about that.”

UFC 306 takes place at the Sphere in Las Vegas.

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Back Injury?
| BJPenn.com

I guess they’re not “good friends” after all.

The way UFC welterweight veteran Colby Covington talks about Donald Trump and his “dragon energy” is borderline creepy, which is probably why his fellow welterweights want “Chaos” to “grow up and go get a girlfriend.”

Despite the constant outpouring of love, and even a few convenient photo ops, the 36 year-old Covington was edged out by former lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, 35, who was Trump’s first pick for favorite UFC fighter.

“I think Khabib, I mean how good was he?” Trump told Adin Ross. “I don’t think he ever lost a round.”

Covington, however, is 0-3 in welterweight title fights.

Nurmagomedov (29-0) retired from competition after submitting Justin Gaethje at UFC 254 back in late 2020 but frequently returns to corner his friends and family, like undefeated bantamweight sensation Umar Nurmagomedov.

Covington (17-4) has not competed since losing to Leon Edwards last December.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

NEW YORK CITY — Canelo Alvarez and Edgar Berlanga faced off for the first time on Monday following their kickoff press conference ahead of Canelo vs. Berlanga on Sept. 14 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. That staredown can be seen above.

The full Canelo vs. Berlanga press conference can be watched below.

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With Belal Muhammad now sitting atop the welterweight division, ex-titleholder Kamaru Usman may have found his way back in.

Having lost back-to-back bouts against Leon Edwards, the ‘Nigerian Nightmare’ has been stuck sitting on the outside looking in. That’s no longer the case after Muhammad delivered a dominant five-round showing against ‘Rocky’ to claim the 170-pound crown at UFC 304 in Manchester. Now, ‘Remember The Name’ has an assortment of potential contenders lining up.

Of them, the two most intriguing appear to be Usman and undefeated finisher Shavkat Rakhmonov.

Speaking with ESPN’s Heidi Androl while attending Saturday’s UFC event in Abu Dhabi, Muhammad was asked to choose who he’d rather face between them.

“Any one of them,” Muhammad replied. “Usman, obviously, I think, for legacy. He was one of the biggest names in the division. He’s under GSP, and I think he’s still got treading on the tires even though he lost a close fight to Leon and then a really close fight to to Khamzat. And like I said, I think name value, he has a bigger name.”

“But also, I wanna fight the boogeyman. The boogeyman that everybody says could beat anybody. He’s gonna walk through anybody. And the way my career has been, they’ve always been putting me as underdog.”

“I knew even after beating Leon, they would say, ‘Well, Shavkat will walk through him. He can’t do that to Shavkat.’ I’m just gonna keep doing it,” he added. “I’m gonna do it to every single one of the fighters in the division. Dana White’s just gotta give me a a time and a date, and I’m ready to go” (h/t MMA Mania).

Belal Muhammad plans to defend his title in 2024

Muhammad plans to be an active champion, targeting a return in either November or December. But first, he’ll have to heal up after eating a nasty elbow from Edwards in the closing seconds of their title tilt.

“The stupid nose thing in the last 10 seconds, I gotta get this healed up,” he said. “Once it’s healed up, I’ll get back in the gym, get back to work.”

Muhammad’s win over Edwards extended his unbeaten streak to 10, a run that dates back to his win over Curtis Millender at UFC 236 in April 2019. It was the first loss for ‘Rocky’ in more than eight years.

LowKickMMA.com

The biggest fight of Umar Nurmagomedov’s career led to his most impressive performance to date in the main event this past weekend.

There’s been hype surrounding him for a long time now but in an opponent like Cory Sandhagen, he was facing his most skilled, dangerous, and experienced opponent.

Nurmagomedov got his hand raised at the end of five rounds in Abu Dhabi and could have leapfrogged the rest of the division with this win.

He may have been holding the #11-ranking in the division but the writing has been on the wall for some time now in terms of his ranking not reflecting his ability.

UFC commentator Jon Anik believes that even with Sandhagen being his first big win, he would expect Nurmagomedov to be a betting favorite over the two men that are set to fight over the bantamweight title next month.

Jon Anik Believes That Umar Nurmagomedov Will Be A Betting Favorite When He Fights For The Title

In a recent interview with Submission Radio, Anik was asked about Nurmagomedov’s win and who he thinks he will end up fighting for the bantamweight title which is set to be contested between Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 306, in September.

The UFC commentator didn’t pick a winner in that fight for obvious reasons, but he did say that Nurmagomedov could be the oddsmakers pick in either match-up.

He started by complimenting the undefeated contender both for his skills inside the Octagon and his conduct outside of it.

“Umar is like one of the most impressive human beings, fighters, that I’ve met in any walk of life. His ability to connect with people in English already is insane relative to what it was like 24 months ago and he’s always banging on himself in terms of his ability to speak English. He’s fantastic. He’ll be favored against Sean or Merab, I feel pretty convicted in saying that. I just don’t think a lot of guys would be able to dominate Cory Sandhagen in that way. With respect to Cory, and my kids distracting me, I gave Umar all five rounds so impressed doesn’t even begin to describe it.”

Judge Mike Bell agreed with Anik’s viewpoint, awarding all five rounds to Nurmagomedov on the scorecards whilst Ben Cartlidge and David Lethaby both gave Sandhagen one of the five.

Read also: VIDEO: UFC Champ Sean O’Malley Reacts To ‘Close Fight’ Between Umar Nurmagomedov & Cory Sandhagen

Continue Reading UFC Commentator Heaps Praise On Umar Nurmagomedov: ‘He’ll Be Favorite Against Sean Or Merab’ at MMA News.

MMA News

The two Canelo Álvarez vs. Edgar Berlanga press conferences set to take place today and tomorrow will stream live on the PBC YouTube Page as Canelo Promotions presents a Mexican Independence Day weekend extravaganza taking place Saturday, Sept. 14 from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas headlining a PBC Pay-Per-View event available on Prime Video.

Pound-for-pound great and Mexican superstar Canelo Álvarez and undefeated Puerto Rican knockout artist Edgar Berlanga will preview their upcoming showdown for Canelo’s unified WBC, WBA and WBO Super Middleweight World Titles at these press conferences.

The press conferences will also feature Cuban star and reigning WBA Middleweight World Champion Erislandy “The American Dream” Lara and hard-hitting two-division world champion and Puerto Rican star Danny “Swift” García ahead of their 12-round co-main event between two of this era’s most accomplished fighters.

TODAY! Monday, August 5 in New York beginning at

1:00 p.m. ET/10:00 a.m. PT

TOMORROW! Tuesday, August 6 in Los Angeles beginning at

4:00 p.m. ET/1:00 p.m. PT

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