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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev was spotted with a brace on his wrist.

Makhachev was in attendance for the Euro 2024 final between England and Spain and was in a box with James Cordon and Harry Styles among others. However, the noticeable thing about the photo was the fact that Islam Makhachev had a brace on his wrist, which would imply the champ was dealing with an injury.

What type of injury or how serious it is, is uncertain, but the hope for many fans it isn’t serious and he can fight again this year. Makhachev nor his team have commented on the photo or the potential injury he is dealing with.

Islam Makhachev Wants Second Belt

Islam Makhachev is coming off a fifth-round submission win over Dustin Poirier to defend his title for the third time.

After the win over Poirier, Makhachev said he wants the opportunity to go up to welterweight and fight for a second belt to try and become a champ-champ.

“I don’t follow the [people who say I] beat some record or something like this. If you want a great legacy, you have to get second belt. It’s my opinion,” Makhachev said at the UFC 302 post-fight press conference (via MMAFighting). “Who doesn’t want to be double champion? This is history. How many double champs [do] we have? This is a dream for all fighters to get [a] second belt. This is my dream.”

Whether or not Makhachev will get a chance to fight for the welterweight title is uncertain, but he also isn’t ruling out the rematch with Arman Tsarukyan.

“Dana has my number. Just call me and put some new challenge [in front of me],” Makhachev said. “It [doesn’t] make sense when you have rematch, I need some new challenge. But if Dana wants [the Tsarukyan rematch], let’s do it. No problem.”

Makhachev is 26-1 as a pro and is on a 14 fight winning streak.

LowKickMMA.com

At UFC 304, Tom Aspinall will become the first interim title holder to defend his belt in eleven years.

The Brit made the most out of a late notice opportunity at UFC 295 where he stepped into the co-main event to face Sergei Pavlovich for the belt due to Jon Jones’ injury that postponed his fight with Stipe Miocic.

In most circumstances, Aspinall would now be the next in line to face the returning Jones in a title unification clash but “Bones” is still looking to reschedule his fight with Miocic for later this year.

With Aspinall looking to avenge his loss to Curtis Blaydes in the co-main event on July 27, some may argue that him defending the interim title is less significant than being the undisputed champion.

Jon Anik believes that whilst there may be two champions in the division, Aspinall defending the title would be just as significant despite him being the interim titleholder.

Jon Anik Says That Tom Aspinall Will Be Defending The Undisputed Championship Against Curtis Blaydes

In a recent interview with InsideFighting, UFC commentator Jon Anik gave his thoughts on the lay of the land right now in the heavyweight division.

He spoke about how Israel Adesanya considered his title unification clash with Robert Whittaker to count as a title defense despite him coming in as the interim champion.

In the same vein, Anik believes that Aspinall getting his hand raised in Manchester later this month counts in his mind as a title defense of the undisputed championship.

He sees it that whether the title says interim before it or not, there are two equal UFC heavyweight champions right now.

“Interim championships are a very powerful thing in my mind even if maybe in the past I’ve said that the belt should be silver, I consider there to be two undisputed UFC heavyweight champions right now and Tom Aspinall’s one of them. He’s defending his undisputed title as far as I’m concerned and for those that have the archaic philosophy maybe that a champion is not really the champion, and it’s my opinion that it’s archaic, but if a champion doesn’t defend their belt at least one time, then they are not the champion.

“I mean Alex Pereira never defended his UFC middleweight champion and nobody would dispute that he wasn’t the middleweight king. But, if Tom Aspinall defends the interim championship, as far as I’m concerned, that is an undisputed championship title defense.”

Read also: Kamaru Usman Calls For Leon Edwards’ ‘Killer’ To Come Out At UFC 304: ‘If You Know You’re The Top Dog…’ 

Continue Reading UFC Commentator: ‘I Consider There To Be Two Undisputed UFC Heavyweight Champions Right Now’ at MMA News.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Plans are still coming together for UFC 306 in September, which was rebranded as Noche UFC as the promotion prepares an event celebrating Mexican Independence Day for the second straight year.

The card takes place on Sept. 14 at the Sphere in Las Vegas. UFC CEO Dana White has teased a massive financial investment into the event, which is expected to be “one and done” with no plans to return to the venue for another show due to the incredible cost associated with the production.

While the full fight card hasn’t been revealed yet, White did confirm the total number of bouts expected on the September pay-per-view as rumors swirl about potential headliners.

“We’re going to [do] 10 [fights],” White told The Pat McAfee Show on Monday. “They’ll be a main, a co-main, and obviously this card will be very Mexican heavy.”

There have been numerous rumors about UFC 306’s lineup, including a potential bantamweight title fight between Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili as the headliner.

UFC flyweight champion Alexa Grasso is also expected to defend her title at the event against Valentina Shevchenko, but none of the marquee matchups have been confirmed just yet.

One other interesting twist with the UFC 306 card is the seating arrangement.

The Sphere in Las Vegas, which features a 160,000 square-foot 16K-resolution wrap-around screen inside, typically seats between 18,000 to 20,000 for an event. There are standard seats throughout the venue as well as luxury suites, but it turns out there’s also room for fans to actually stand on the floor to witness the event.

“You’re going to have people that are in the seats, people that are in the suites, and then the bottom level where people are actually standing and will watch the whole thing standing room only,” White revealed. “Then there will be bleachers and seats.”

White said his team is still currently working on the full rollout for the event, but he’s obviously very excited to see the entire production unfold in September.

“I’m already $ 17 million into this thing and we’re not anywhere near September yet,” White said. “When I tell you guys I’m going to put on the greatest live sporting event in the history of combat sports, maybe in sports period, nobody else is going to go in and spend [that much money].”

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Excuses
| BJPenn.com

Julianna Pena has concerns about Kayla Harrison’s professional cleanliness.

Ultimate Fighting Championship’s (UFC) Bantamweight division has been relatively stagnant since the reigning all-time great champion, Amanda Nunes, retired in June 2023. Six months later, the division saw a new champion crowned when Raquel Pennington won her vacant title tilt against Mayra Bueno Silva via unanimous decision at UFC 297 in January 2024.

The former champion, Pena, has maintained that she’s still in the title picture despite having been sidelined since her title loss (watch highlights) to Nunes in July 2022. After Pennington’s victory, the aforementioned Harrison burst onto the scene in UFC with a big win at UFC 300 and now could be next for Pennington. However, Pena hopes she’s competing clean.

“Stay off the needle, bro,” Pena said on The MMA Hour. “Maybe not now [is she on steroids] but definitely in the past. Absolutely. There’s no question.”

Pena, 34, explained her reasoning for believing Harrison wasn’t clean came from a recent incident at International Fight Week 2024. According to Pena, the promotion provided athletes with a social media seminar that was followed by an anti-doping seminar that Harrison was absent from.

“I just already have the mindset that people are cheating. Especially from ATT, 100 percent at ATT,” Pena said.

“When Dan Lambert flew me out there after I won The Ultimate Fighter, they literally told me that all the girls are in the bathroom shooting each other in the ass with the steroids,” she concluded.

As a two-time Olympic gold medalist in Judo, Harrison wasted no time reminding “The Venezuelan Vixen” that she’s no stranger to competitive drug testing at the highest level.

“I have been tested by USADA since I was 12 years old,” Harrison quote tweeted. “You will find every excuse in the world not to fight me. and the only shot in the ass people need around u is anti-nausea medication.”

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Tom Aspinall is leaving no stone unturned ahead of his interim heavyweight title defense against Curtis Blaydes on July 27 in Manchester at UFC 304.

For a native Englishman like Aspinall, that includes taking things back to his roots.

“You ever see the documentary Knuckle? You familiar with that? It’s a documentary about travelers, traveling communities in the UK island. And there’s a guy on there, big Joe Joyce, an old traveling legend, and big Joe Joyce reveals a few gypsy methods for getting ready for a fight,” Aspinall said Monday on The MMA Hour. “I wanted to resort back to a bit of gypsy heritage that I’ve got, so I thought, right, what I’m going to do is I’m going to make a little ring out of hay bales.

“When it gets to about 4 a.m., I get my alarm on, I go outside, do a bit shadowboxing in the hay bales — and then I do the old traveler method of dipping your knuckles in petrol for about 20 minutes as the sun’s coming up, and that hardens your knuckles.”

The 2011 film Knuckle delves into the world of Irish Traveller bare-knuckle boxing. The Joyces are one of the families most featured in the documentary, and a clip of Joe Joyce extolling the virtues of soaking his knuckles in petrol to harden them has since gone viral.

Aspinall, 31, said he is hitting that same old-school routine nearly every day ahead of his rematch against Blaydes. He’s serious about the preparation and the petrol is not a joke.

“These are some of the hardest knuckles in the UFC right here right now,” Aspinall said. “They’re like rocks.”

Aspinall said his 4 a.m. wake-ups are also part of his preparation for fight night. Though UFC 304 takes place in his native England, the timing surrounding the event is configured to fit around a North American broadcast schedule, meaning Aspinall will likely make his walk to the cage against Blaydes deep into the early morning in Manchester.

Outside of his morning work around the hay bales and “just getting my body used to being alert at 4 a.m,” Aspinall said he hasn’t given too much attention to the early start time.

“Look mate, if you can fight really well at 12 o’clock midnight, but you can’t fight really well at 4 a.m., you weren’t that [good] in the first place, in my opinion,” Aspinall said. “Like, there’s plenty of times that I’ve traveled across the world, fought in different time zones without even adjusting myself. And now I’ve had a full training camp at home, I’m right there ready to fight, so if that’s an excuse, mate, you’re not that good in the first place.”

“I spar at about 10 a.m. once a week, twice a week usually on a weekday,” he continued. “I have never thought — it never even crossed my mind to think, like, ‘Right, I’m going to start sparring at midnight just to get my body ready for it.’ Never. Never crossed my mind in like 30-plus fights or however many fights I have. And all the times I’ve got on a plane and traveled somewhere, it’s never bothered me about the time difference. Why should it start now? But saying that, I am preparing myself for it. I am waking up, I am doing the shadowboxing, I am taking it very seriously.”

Early morning or not, UFC 304 remains a seismic opportunity for Aspinall.

The English big man grew up a stone’s throw from the site of the new arena that hosts the card, Manchester’s Co-op Live. He also gets a chance to avenge his only UFC loss. Aspinall is a perfect 7-0 in his UFC career aside from his 2022 blemish against Blaydes, which ended in anticlimactic fashion after Aspinall suffered a knee injury just 15 seconds into the bout.

“This is this is a massive fight for me, both professionally and personally,” Aspinall said.

“When I got into the sport of MMA, which is quite a fair portion of my life ago now, this is why I got into it. All of this. There’s a lot of people out there trying to get to their dreams and get to their goals in life. This is the goal. This is the dream. This is it. In two weeks’ time, this is the dream — defending a UFC heavyweight title in my home city of Manchester in front of 25,000 Manchester fans is something that, probably half a percentage of the world gets to live the dream on this level. And I’m not talking about just fighting; I’m just talking about people with dreams and goals in general. No matter what happens on that day, I did it and I experienced it, and my whole life’s been leading up to this point.”

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