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Khabib Nurmagomedov had nothing but kind words to share about former rival Tony Ferguson after watching him compete for possibly the final time in the UFC.

At UFC Abu Dhabi on Saturday, Ferguson suffered an eighth straight loss after falling to Michael Chiesa by submission in the first round, almost certainly spelling the end of his run with the promotion. Afterward, Ferguson hinted at retirement, but he ultimately only left one glove in the cage, noting that he’s holding onto the other “just in case.”

If that ends up being Ferguson’s final UFC appearance, Nurmagomedov offered him some encouragement that while fighting may be over, he still has plenty of time left ahead of him to accomplish so much more.

“It’s not a surprise for me because he’s 40 years old,” Nurmagomedov said of Ferguson after his fight. “I just want to wish him all the best. He’s truly one of the best who ever was doing it in the UFC. I just want to wish him all the best.

“His life is just beginning, because he’s just 40 years old and he just finished his MMA career. Now it’s going to be a different life, a much better life.”

Prior to Nurmagomedov’s retirement, many believed that Ferguson could have been the ex-champ’s greatest challenge after they were matched up several times over the years.

Sadly, a multitude of circumstances prevented them from ever actually fighting, and their rivalry likely stands as the greatest ‘what if’ on both men’s résumés.

While it was disappointing that they never fought, Nurmagomedov recognized Ferguson’s talent, but unfortunately that matchup just wasn’t meant to be.

“Of course, in my prime and his prime, it’s supposed to be a very interesting fight,” Nurmagomedov said. “But what can I do? He had a couple of injuries, I had a couple of injuries. It is what it is.

“Sometimes we have plans, but God has his plan and we cannot control this.”

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UFC

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

With the 2024 Olympics already under way, wrestling prepares to take center stage beginning on Aug. 5, with the final gold medal matches wrapping up on Aug. 11.

During that six-day span, athletes from freestyle and Greco-Roman disciplines compete across 18 divisions for both men and women. There are six total divisions for the men in freestyle wrestling and six divisions in freestyle for women, with the final six divisions coming in men’s Greco-Roman wrestling.

All of the matches are set to stream on Peacock as well as NBCOlympics.com, NBC.com, NBC app and the NBC Olympics app, with the medal rounds airing on USA Network.

Here are the weight classes for each discipline competing at the 2024 Olympics

Men’s Freestyle: 57kg, 65kg, 74kg, 86kg, 97kg, 125kg

Women’s Freestyle: 50kg, 53kg, 57kg, 62kg, 68kg, 76kg

Men’s Greco-Roman: 60kg, 67kg, 77kg, 87kg, 97kg, 130 kg

The team representing the United States in 2024 may be among the best ever sent to the Olympics. Its hope is to bring home even more medals in 2024 after setting a record with nine total medals at the 2020 Games, which led all nations.

Here’s the full schedule for wrestling at the 2024 Olympics. When streaming the events, Peacock often has the broadcasts listed by Mat A, Mat B, Mat C, etc.

Monday, Aug. 5

9 a.m. to 11 a.m. ET: Greco-Roman 60kg qualification round (Mat A)

9 a.m. to 11 a.m. ET: Women’s Freestyle 68kg qualification round (Mat B)

9 a.m. to 11 a.m. ET: Greco-Roman 130kg qualification round (Mat C)

3 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET: Women’s Freestyle 68kgs, Greco Roman 130kgs and 68kgs semifinals

Tuesday, Aug. 6

5 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. ET: Greco-Roman 77kg qualification round (Mat A)

5 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. ET: Women’s Freestyle 50kg qualification round (Mat B)

5 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. ET: Greco-Roman 97kgs qualification round (Mat C)

12:15 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. ET: Greco-Roman 77kg and 97kg semifinals, Women’s Freestyle 50kg semifinals, followed by Greco-Roman 130 kg and 60kg finals, Women’s Freestyle 68kg finals

Wednesday, Aug. 7

5 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. ET: Greco-Roman 67kg qualification round (Mat A)

5 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. ET: Women’s Freestyle 53kg qualification round (Mat B)

5 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. ET: Greco-Roman 87kg qualification round (Mat C)

12:15 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. ET: Greco-Roman 67kg and 87kg semifinals, Women’s Freestyle 53kg semifinals, followed by Greco-Roman 77kg and 97kg finals, Women’s Freestyle 50kg finals

Thursday, Aug. 8

5 a.m to 7:30 a.m. ET: Men’s Freestyle 57kg qualification round (Mat A)

5 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. ET: Women’s Freestyle 57kg qualification round (Mat B)

5 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. ET: Men’s Freestyle 86kgs qualification round (Mat C)

12:15 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. ET: Men’s Freestyle 57kg and 86kg semifinals, Women’s Freestyle 57kg semifinals, followed by Greco-Roman 67kg and 87kg finals, Women’s Freestyle 53kg finals

Friday, Aug. 9

5 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. ET: Men’s Freestyle 74kg qualification round (Mat A)

5 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. ET: Women’s Freestyle 62kg qualification round (Mat B)

5 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. ET: Men’s Freestyle 125kg qualification round (Mat C)

12:15 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. ET: Men’s Freestyle 74kg and 125kg semifinals, Women’s Freestyle 62kg semifinals, followed by Men’s Freestyle 57kg and 86kg finals, Women’s Freestyle 57kg finals

Saturday, Aug 10

5 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. ET: Men’s Freestyle 65kg qualification round

5 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. ET: Women’s Freestyle 76kg qualification round

5 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. ET: Men’s Freestyle 97kg qualification round

12:15 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. ET: Men’s Freestyle 65kg and 97kg semifinals, Women’s Freestyle 62kg semifinals, followed by Men’s Freestyle 74kg and 125kg finals, Women’s Freestyle 62kg finals

Sunday, Aug. 11

5 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. ET: Men’s Freestyle 65kg and 97kg finals, Women’s Freestyle 76kg finals

MMA Fighting – All Posts

Path to Conor?
| BJPenn.com

UFC

Australians stick together.

Khamzat Chimaev is finally back! (hopefully) UFC CEO Dana White announced that the undefeated Middleweight has been rebooked against Robert Whittaker for UFC 308, which will take place on Oct. 26 inside Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

The rest of the card is stacked; check it out here.

Yesterday (Sat., Aug. 3, 2024), UFC Welterweight Jack Della Maddalena took to his Instagram stories and blasted Chimaev.

“Chimaev loves steroids,” Maddalena wrote.

To be honest, the steroid accusation came out of nowhere. The only thing that makes sense is that maybe Maddalena is just backing his Australian countryman, Whittaker.

Chimaev has not fought since UFC 294 (Oct. 21, 2023) because of visa issues and hospitalizations. He was supposed to headline UFC’s first show in Saudi Arabia against Whittaker but withdrew a week before.

Maddalena last fought at UFC 299 in Miami, where he knocked out Gilbert Burns (watch highlights). Since that fight, the 27-year-old Aussie has been dealing with infections caused by his broken arm, which he suffered in the fight with Burns.

The infection was so nasty that he could not fight in his hometown of Perth at UFC 305 on Aug. 17.

To checkout UFC’s upcoming schedule of events click here.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Umar Nurmagomedov may have earned the biggest win of his career over Cory Sandhagen at UFC Abu Dhabi, but that doesn’t mean he’s satisfied with his performance.

Despite winning at least four rounds on every scorecard, the undefeated bantamweight was still critical about some mistakes he made during the fight. In particular, Nurmagomedov pointed to Sandhagen’s ability to shut down his wrestling and grappling after finishing just five of 13 takedown attempts. While getting the victory was obviously most important, Nurmagomedov still expected better of himself.

“I’m not happy,” Nurmagomedov said at the UFC Abu Dhabi post-fight press conference. “It was a good performance on the striking, but if you’re talking about grappling and how I controlled him, it was not good.

“Because I [expected I would do that], I thought I would maul him on the ground, but he’s tough, he’s good. Cory’s too good and he has hard kicks. He’s a tough man. I think he has more experience than me in the UFC cage, but I won. But I’m happy, I won.”

While Nurmagomedov may not have found as much success with his grappling as he’s become accustomed to, he still kept Sandhagen guessing across all five rounds, which was still a weapon even if the takedowns weren’t happening.

The bantamweight fight played out in back-and-forth fashion, particularly through the first three rounds, but it was during those final 10 minutes that Nurmagomedov really took over.

It turns out that happened at least partially thanks to the advice Nurmagomedov received from his cousin and head coach Khabib Nurmagomedov, who was working his corner for the fight.

“After the third round, Khabib cornered me and he [said], ‘Now is the beginning of [the championship] rounds and you have to be strong, don’t show weakness,’” Nurmagomedov said. “[Khabib said,] ‘You have to be strong. Go ahead and take this victory, press him, push him, don’t lose any second.’”

Nurmagomedov took that advice to heart as he pressed the pace on Sandhagen and imposed his will during those final two rounds.

As much as the entire fight didn’t leave him feeling the best, the 28-year-old bantamweight contender can’t deny that his conditioning was a real asset in his first UFC main event.

“It’s a little bit difficult but I didn’t [get] tired how he said [I would],” Nurmagomedov said. “You remember how Cory said I will get tired, he will choke me, and at the end of the rounds, nothing happening. I think I was more fresh than him.”

With the win over Sandhagen, Nurmagomedov almost certainly cements himself as the No. 1 contender in the bantamweight division as the title goes up for grabs at UFC 306 when reigning champion Sean O’Malley takes on Merab Dvalishvili in the main event.

In the past, Nurmagomedov stated that he sees the matchup as an even fight, and he’s not changing his opinion now, especially knowing he really just wants the winner.

“I’m planning on going to the fight, but I don’t want to name one guy or the other guy because I don’t want the other guy to think I’m trying to avoid fighting him,” Nurmagomedov said. “So of course, I’d be very happy to fight both of them. The goal is to fight the winner.”

While Nurmagomedov anticipates a title shot for his next fight, he’s not quite as certain when asked about possibly making a quick turnaround to serve as the backup for O’Malley vs. Dvalishvili on Sept. 14.

To add to that, he highly doubts Dvalishvili would just abandon his title shot in a worst-case scenario if O’Malley is unable to compete at UFC 306.

“It’s only a month away so it really depends on my health,” Nurmagomedov said. “Out of my 17 fights, I’ve never gotten as much damage as I got during this fight. It’s really kind of soon but it depends on the health. I do not think any of them are going to fall out.

“This is a fight that Merab’s been waiting for, for a really long time, so even if it does happen that O’Malley pulls out, I think Merab is just going to wait for his title shot and wait for O’Malley to get better and fight him.”

MMA Fighting – All Posts

Imane Khelif was the target of online abuse by bad-faith actors earlier this week. The Algerian Olympic boxer has been the leading story during these Olympic games, and the story of her gender. Chael Sonnen, former UFC fighter, has taken a step forward to try and counteract the misleading information that has been circulating.

Imane Khelif

Many people online were led to believe that Imane Khelif was a trans athlete or a man acting as a woman. This infuriated the masses who called out in uproar. The fact is Imane Khelif is from Algeria where being a trans person is illegal and transitionary surgeries are not allowed. The Algerian Olympic boxer was born a woman and still is a woman to this day. Additionally, she has never been found to have increased levels of testosterone and has been in Olympic testing for at least four years.

Last year, Imane Khelif was suspended by the IBA, an organization that is not recognized as legitimate by the Olympics. The IOC has been critical of the IBA for corruption and not following proper procedures. In a statement, the IOC explained, “The current aggression against these two athletes is based entirely on this arbitrary decision, which was taken without any proper procedure – especially considering that these athletes had been competing in top-level competition for many years.”

“‘Are these athletes women?’ The answer is yes, according to eligibility, according to their passports, according to their history.” IOC director Mark Adams added.

Chael Sonnen Talks Imane Khelif

Those who acted too quickly, and judged without knowing more, are now taking a step back to apologize for their words. Chael Sonnen, former UFC title contender and MMA personality, has gone to X and is attempting to counteract misinformation being spread.

One Tweet claimed that two men were competing for medals in Olympic boxing. Sonnen responded simply: “This is not accurate.”

In another Tweet, people tried to explain how women were fighting men in boxing. Sonnen countered with, “Matt, you got played. Delete this. The XY talk and the testing for such was misinformation.”

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