CombatSports.org

Sylve suffered a bad knockout loss after dominating almost every minute of his fight. Here’s how he reacted to the sudden change in fortune.

Jake Paul walked away from the Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida with a big win over “Platinum” Mike Perry, but one of his Most Valuable Promotions prospects didn’t fare as well.

Paul has been pushing Ashton “H2O” Sylve hard for the last two years, booking the slick 20 year old on MVP undercards for his last five fights. Sylve won the first four, then was on his way to winning the fifth on Saturday against Lucas Bahdi … then things went horribly wrong in the sixth round.

Bahdi was getting picked apart the entire fight with Sylve, but he stayed in there and kept mixing things up. That payed off when he landed a big right that clearly hurt “H2O.” Bahdi didn’t let up and hit Sylve with a combo that put his opponent face first to the canvas in a KO of the Year candidate.

It was a stunning result for Sylva and his team, but the 20 year old took the first loss of his twelve fight career with grace.

“God’s plan,” Sylve wrote on an Instagram Story shortly after the loss. “Everything happens for a reason. Have to take your losses like you take your wins.”

He then shared a number of supportive stories from family and friends.

“Buddy was putting on a boxing clinic,” comedian Minikon said in one. “I’m always impressed with your skills, Ashton.”

During the event’s post-fight press conference, Jake Paul shared his support for Sylve.

“He could just look at what I did and just come back stronger,” he said. “Double down. That’s a lesson for everyone out there: what do you do when you take losses in life? You double down. You go back to the drawing board and you keep going. You only lose when you quit. That’s a Mike Tyson quote.”

Boxing isn’t as forgiving of bad losses as MMA is, so we’ll have to see how Sylve recovers from this loss. If Paul sticks by him and keeps pushing him like he has with other fighters on his roster, he could bounce back. But it’ll be hard to erase the memory of him getting flatlined in Tampa.

MMAmania.com – All Posts

submitted by /u/Usual-Beat [link] [comments]

MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

One-time Bellator title challenger Austin Vanderford is plotting his MMA return, but he highly doubts Dillon Danis will be the opponent to welcome him back.

After securing his release following the merger between PFL and Bellator, Vanderford has been healing up some injuries while awaiting the right opportunity to book his next fight. As he pursued various options, Vanderford suddenly found himself in a position where Danis seemed like the perfect opponent after the former grappling champion decided to target his wife Paige VanZant in a series of social media posts.

While VanZant more than handled her own in the feud, she still proposed a fight between Vanderford and Danis as a way to settle the nastiness once and for all.

Unfortunately, that call has fallen on deaf ears.

“We haven’t ever heard anything back,” Vandeford recently told MMA Fighting. “I would sure love that, for sure. We could make some good moves with that.

“We’ve made it public that I would love to fight him and I would it do under whatever stipulations he would have or whatever. We haven’t ever heard anything back.”

Danis hasn’t competed in MMA since 2019, when he improved his record 2-0 with a submission win in Bellator before the promotion ultimately released him in 2023. Since then, Danis suffered a disqualification loss in an ugly boxing match against Logan Paul.

Danis is also currently embroiled in a lawsuit filed by Paul’s fiancée Nina Agdal alleging that he violated state and Federal revenge porn laws by posting illicitly obtained photos of her online.

There’s no word if Danis plans to compete again, but Vanderford still welcomes the challenge — and that’s the kind of fight that’s more personal than business.

“I’m sure he demands a lot of money,” Vanderford said. “I would just go fight him for whatever. I’d go fight him for free.”

For her part, VanZant doesn’t believe Danis would ever step up to the plate.

“Dillon would never fight him,” VanZant said. “I don’t know that he’ll ever fight again.”

Beyond a unlikely fight against Danis, Vanderford still hopes to return soon.

“Everything that went through with the PFL and Bellator, with the merger and stuff, I would have liked to have fought eight months ago,” Vanderford said. “I had a little injury and I kind of had a setback on a previous injury I had too, and then with all the uncertainty with Bellator and the PFL, there was a few month period where there was no fights, nothing was getting booked. Once all that got figured out, we kind of came up with a game plan.

“I train full time, all the time, no matter how busy we are and doing that. So just being ready. I also made the decision too that I was going to go back to 170 [pounds], so [I’m] working on getting my weight back down in a place where if a big opportunity arose in a week or two weeks, I’d be able to make 170 safely and be good there.”

In the bigger picture, Vanderford made it known that he would eventually like to earn a spot on the UFC roster, which was always his dream upon becoming a fighter.

He nearly got his chance back in 2018 after he scored a submission win on Dana White’s Contender Series, but UFC didn’t end up offering him a contract. That led to his arrival in Bellator, where he spent the next four-plus years.

Now a free agent again, Vanderford knows he has some work to do to get UFC’s attention, but he’s willing to do whatever it takes to finally earn his spot there.

“Getting into the sport, that’s pretty much all of our goals — we want to go fight in the UFC and go see what we can do,” Vanderford said. “Of course, I’m coming off a loss and had setbacks and stuff, but I feel mentally strong and I understand mistakes being made and stuff like that. I’ve just kept my head down and kept working and staying ready and staying prepared for the next thing.

“I’d like to get a fight booked, wherever it’s at, in the next few weeks and have something done by the end of July, beginning of August, so I can progress forward from there. I truly feel the healthiest I’ve been in a little while now. I’m just excited to get back out and compete, and especially watching [VanZant] just adds more fuel to the fire.”

MMA Fighting – All Posts

Jake Paul is a polarizing figure in combat sports.  While he’s been able to generate revenue in boxing, he’s had a hard time generating respect.  

On Saturday, Paul picked up his 10th career boxing win over former UFC fighter and undefeated Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship’s Mike Perry.  While in the UFC, Perry competed in the 170-pound division.  

Paul has made a name for himself by defeating former UFC fighters, mostly welterweights.  In his third professional boxing match, Paul knocked out former Bellator MMA welterweight champion Ben Askren in under two minutes.  He then defeated former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley via split decision before knocking out Woodley in a rematch.  

In his next fight, Paul took on former UFC middleweight kingpin Anderson Silva.  He defeated “The Spider” via unanimous decision.  After losing to the first professional boxer that he faced, Tommy Fury, Paul defeated former UFC lightweight and welterweight Nate Diaz by unanimous decision.  His next two bouts were against inactive professional boxers and he won both fights by knockout.  

Paul was lined up to meet Mike Tyson on Saturday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas but a medical issue forced Tyson to push the fight back to Nov. 15.  Wanting to stay active and gain experience, Paul took the fight against Perry.  Former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping thinks the fight should have never happened.  He accused Paul of ‘cherry picking opponents,’ fighting smaller athletes, and 

Related: Former UFC champion considering coming out of retirement to ‘smash Jake Paul’s face in’

“Coming into this fight, I think myself, the whole fight community, everyone was behind Mike Perry, but the reality was he was too small.  There are weight classes in boxing, in combat sports for a reason,” Bisping said on his YouTube channel.  “Jake Paul was about twice the size of him.  The weight difference is going to be insane.”

“Well done Jake Paul if that’s what you want to see.  That was a farce.  That was ridiculous.  That fight should have never even taken place in the first place because it was a sh*t show,” Bisping continued.  “Jake Paul was by far the bigger guy, and as I’ve said, there are weight classes for a reason.”  

Bisping isn’t a fan of Paul.  He’s even considered coming out of retirement to take matters into his own hands against “The Problem Child.”  According to Bisping, Paul ‘cherry picks’ his opponents.

“Jake Paul grinds my gears.  Let’s be honest, he does because of all the sh*t talk, of how great that he thinks that he is,” Bisping said.  “He cherry picks these opponents that are way smaller and less experienced.”      

MMAWeekly.com | UFC and MMA News, Results, Rumors, and Videos

submitted by /u/Usual-Beat [link] [comments]

MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

As he chased his own opportunity to become a UFC champion, Belal Muhammad called out any number of top contenders, and Colby Covington often sat near the top of his wish list.

A three-time title challenger and one-time interim champion, Covington constantly occupied a spot near the top of the UFC welterweight rankings, but ultimately opted to face former friend Jorge Masvidal in 2022. He then sat out for more than a year awaiting another title shot, which arrived this past December. Covington came up short again in his third bid to become undisputed champion, losing a lopsided decision to Leon Edwards at UFC 296.

With a broken foot now healed, Covington has started looking toward his UFC return and he finally called out Muhammad as a potential opponent with Muhammad awaiting the scheduling of his own title fight against Edwards, which takes place at UFC 304 on Saturday. After chasing that fight for years only to have his callouts fall on deaf ears, Muhammad feels like now he’s returning the favor by scoffing at Covington asking to face him.

“That was honestly the funniest thing,” Muhammad told MMA Fighting. “I’m not even going to bring attention to it because then I’m going to have a back-and-forth with him. This guy’s a joke now. He understands he’s a joke now. So he’s trying to go out there and call out these bigger names now. He’s calling out me, he’s calling out [Charles] Oliveira. Ian Garry’s not worth it. Why, because Ian Garry’s a bad matchup for you?

“He knows that if he loses one more fight, it’s over. How terrible that last fight was, he’s desperate for something. He’s desperate for a win. I think he’s going to sit there and wait. Maybe he’s going to call out a [featherweight] or somebody and hope one of those guys bite on the bullet.”

Muhammad has moved beyond Covington as a potential opponent, but what about a possible showdown against former two-division UFC champion Conor McGregor?

As it stands, the Irish superstar still hasn’t fought since 2021, but was originally scheduled to face Michael Chandler at UFC 303 before a broken pinky toe forced him out of the fight.

Assuming the fight gets rescheduled, the matchup would likely happen at welterweight, and McGregor commented that he might consider chasing the title in that division while taking shots at both Edwards and Muhammad.

“Leon Edwards loves a decision,” McGregor recently said. “Then he’s fighting another decision guy, your man Belal. Not great times in the welterweight title picture.”

In response, Muhammad shrugged off McGregor’s suggestion that he would consider going for the welterweight title after eventually facing Chandler one day.

As much as he enjoys taking shots at McGregor on social media from time to time, Muhammad doesn’t realistically believe that’s a fight that would ever happen and it has nothing to do with disinterest from his side.

“Honestly, that would be hilarious,” Muhammad said about fighting McGregor. “It would be funny because I know that would never happen. Even now.

“We’ve seen him hugging trees, he’s just a weird person. Even in that interview, he looked like he was strung out on stuff and he was just calling out everybody, talking about everybody. I think Chandler’s going to beat him, honestly. I’m going to give Chandler that win, but you never know, right? Leon will still probably call him out after that fight, so I’ll let both of these guys lose and they call each other out and end up fighting each other for nothing.”

MMA Fighting – All Posts

submitted by /u/Usual-Beat [link] [comments]

MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Dustin Poirier won’t be enthusiastically cheering on Mike Tyson’s return to the ring.

Were it up to Poirier, Tyson wouldn’t be anywhere near his upcoming Nov. 15 boxing match with Jake Paul, a heavily promoted event set to air live on Netflix from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Tyson and Paul were actually supposed to fight on July 20, but the bout was postponed after health problems interfered with the 58-year-old Tyson’s preparation for the bout.

Poirier doesn’t understand why the bout hasn’t just been cancelled outright.

“I didn’t want that to happen,” Poirier said recently on The MMA Hour. “The guy is 60 years old. I didn’t want that to happen. And I hope it doesn’t. I don’t want to see Tyson go out there and get hurt. He’s 60 years old and he’s fighting a young guy who is athletic and has the money to put the best people around him and build a camp. He’s dangerous. I don’t have anything against [Paul]. I went to the [Tyron] Woodley [fight].”

In 11 pro boxing bouts, Paul has compiled a 10-1 record while drawing massive attention in the combat sports world. Paul, 27, went from being a YouTube star and social media influencer to pro boxer in 2020, and quickly made a name for himself by picking out opponents with notable names and little boxing experience. After a viral knockout of three-time NBA dunk champion Nate Robinson, Paul went on to defeat retired MMA standout Ben Askren and former UFC champions Tyron Woodley and Anderson Silva.

Paul has won four straight fights, including a sixth-round knockout of BKFC star Mike Perry on Saturday at the Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla.

Poirier has kept his eye on the bare-knuckle scene, both MMA and boxing versions, and he’s willing to get in the ring without gloves if the price is right.

“I think [bare-knuckle MMA is] a more a pure way of fighting,” Poirier said. “I think chokes will be easier, grappling will be easier with no gloves. I’d have to get paid. You’re going to get cut up 100 percent, no matter how you fight defensively, you’re going to cut probably.

“I’ve been to a few in person and watching it and being there up close to the ring is two different things. It’s brutal up close. You can hear the knuckles bouncing off the skull, it’s nasty.”

In his most recent fight, Poirier was defeated by lightweight champion Islam Makhachev at UFC 302 this past June. It was Poirier’s third time vying for the undisputed title, and since the loss, the 35-year-old has discussed the possibility of retirement, though he has not given any definitive indication that he won’t fight again.

Poirier, like many of his veteran peers, would certainly entertain a move to boxing of the opportunity arose.

“I would love to [box],” Poirier said. “That would be fun and exciting. … Just a change of speeds, different training camp, just something different. I’ve been doing MMA a while. I still love the training camps and love fighting, but to go to purely boxing, the whole training camp would be a lot less wearing on my body. No wrestling, no jiu-jitsu, running, swimming, that’s fun.

“I’d box Nate [Diaz]. … I’d rather [fight] Nate in boxing, I think.”

MMA Fighting – All Posts

Mike Perry became the latest former mixed marital artist to be beaten by Jake Paul inside the boxing ring on Saturday.  The two headlined the DAZN boxing event at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida.  Paul stopped Perry via TKO in the sixth round to improve his record to 10-1 with half of his wins being over former MMA fighters.  

Perry pressed forward the entire fight but Paul’s speed and jab set up power shots.  Paul knocked Perry down in the first round, but Perry got up and continued to move forward.  Paul put Perry on the canvas again in the second frame.  The end came in the sixth round when Paul wobbled Perry and went in for the finish.  He unloaded a barrage of punches that sent Perry to the canvas a final time.  Perry rose to his feet but was in no condition to continue and the referee stopped the fight.  

Following the loss to Paul, former two-division UFC champion and part owner of Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship Conor McGregor seemingly fired Perry from the organization.  Perry is undefeated in BKFC and holds the promotion’s ‘King of Violence’ title. 

“Hey Mike you’re released and you can go and compete in your smelly dirty boxing championship thing, the smell of it, good luck. You’re fired,” McGregor wrote on social media.  

Hey Mike youre released and you can go and compete in your smelly dirty boxing championship thing, the smell of it, good luck. You’re fired. @bareknucklefc

— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) July 21, 2024

During the Paul vs. Perry Post-Fight Press Conference, Perry reacted to McGregor’s comments.  

“He doesn’t f***ing have a promotion.  Because me and him are both owners of BKFC, so he can’t fire me,” Perry said.  “We can fight in bare knuckle.  Look at me.  I lost to Jake Paul.  Why don’t you go fight Jake Paul and box him with the gloves on?  I think it would be worse than Conor McGregor vs. Mayweather.”  

McGregor, with the UFC’s blessing, fought Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a boxing match in Aug. 2017.  Mayweather stopped McGregor via TKO in the 10th round.  It was Mayweather’s last sanctioned bout and his 50th career win.    

MMAWeekly.com | UFC and MMA News, Results, Rumors, and Videos

A bold statement
| BJPenn.com