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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

The only thing more impressive than what Ilia Topuria and Khamzat Chimaev accomplished at UFC 308 is seeing it in slo-mo.

This past weekend, the UFC released their newest Fight Motion video from the promotion’s latest pay-per-view event in Abu Dhabi. In the main event, Topuria became the first fighter to knock out Max Holloway to retain his featherweight championship. Portions of the stunning result in the headliner are featured in the UFC’s latest slow motion highlight video.

In the co-main event, Chimaev submitted Robert Whittaker in the first round to make a tremendous case for a shot at Dricus du Plessis and the middleweight title.

Other highlights from the card include Magomed Ankalaev’s decision win against Aleksandar Rakic, Lerone Murphy keeping his long win streak alive against octagon veteran Dan Ige — despite overcoming adversity — Shara Magomedov’s double spinning punch knockout in the main card opener, and the bloody lightweight war between Mateusz Rebecki and Myktybek Oralibai.

Check out the UFC 308 Fight Motion video above.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Daniel Cormier doesn’t agree with Jon Jones often, but one topic they see eye-to-eye on is the dubious loss on Jones’ record.

On Jones’ 29-fight résumé, there are two glaring blemishes: A 2009 loss to Matt Hamill that occurred when Jones was disqualified for the use of prohibited 12-to-6 elbows, and his 2017 knockout of Cormier that was later overturned to a no-contest when Jones tested positive for a banned substance.

Though nothing can be done about the latter result, Cormier is an advocate for Jones’ lone loss to be removed, especially with the recently revised rules (including the legalization of 12-to-6 elbows) that were introduced at UFC Edmonton this past Saturday.

“Jon Jones should be undefeated,” Cormier said at a Q&A this past Friday in Edmonton. “He really should be. A 12-6 elbow is crazy, but you know, we only can fight under the rules that they give us and, unfortunately, there was a moron referee that said he should be disqualified. But he’s undefeated.”

Cormier and Jones have a storied rivalry, with the two trading plenty of shots in and out of the octagon. Though their second meeting is officially a no-contest, Jones still holds a win over Cormier, having won a unanimous decision over “DC” in their first fight at UFC 182.

The build-up to their fights saw Cormier and Jones frequently insult each other and at one point even engage in a public brawl. In the years since their last fight, a grudging respect has developed between the two, and Cormier is fine with where their relationship stands.

“We aren’t great and I don’t think that we ever have to [be],” Cormier said. “I think people need to stop longing for the perfect happy ending. Guys don’t have to do what Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield did. It can be OK to just be OK with us being as we are and I’m fine with it, so you guys should be, too.”

Jones, the current UFC heavyweight champion, is set to defend his title against Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 on Nov. 16 in New York. The bout is being billed as a battle of two of the greatest fighters of all time and potentially the final fight for both, though neither has made any firm commitment to a fight night retirement.

Cormier, for one, will miss seeing Jones compete.

“He’s beat a lot of guys,” Cormier said. “The amount of champions that Jon Jones has beaten over the course of his career is very impressive. The guy has been champion for a long time, he’s done a great job, and it will suck whenever he’s gone because the game is better when you have fighters like that in it. Unfortunately, there’s been a lot of times where he hasn’t been in it because of the things that he’s done.”

Watch the UFC Edmonton Q&A below.

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Same Level
| BJPenn.com

Khalil Rountree Jr. had his face busted open by Alex Pereira atop the UFC 307 pay-per-view (PPV) event last month in Salt Lake City, but judging by the photos he recently uploaded to Instagram, it appears “War Horse” is healing up rather nicely.

Or like a “prime Wolverine,” according to fans on social media.

“That fourth round, I was throwing jabs and hurting my hand,” Pereira told Podpah. “I swear, I was thinking, ‘My hand must be broken.’ It still hurts. Not all the time, but if I squeeze here, it hurts.”

“I saw that the jabs were working,” Pereira continued. “I thought, ‘I have to hurt him.’ But then I hit him right there in the [forehead], one of the hardest parts [of the body], and it kept hurting.”

Fortunately, “Poatan” will have plenty of time to recover.

The reigning light heavyweight champion is expected to remain out of action until early 2025. When he does make his Octagon return, the Brazilian is expected to face off against top 205-pound title contender Magomed Ankalaev, who is clearly tired of waiting.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

UFC Edmonton went down this past weekend and a couple of very notable results happened. In the main event, Brandon Moreno broke his losing streak, dominating Amir Albazi in a sensational performance for the former champion, while in the co-main event, Erin Blanchfield also got back in the win column, albeit by eking out a win over former strawweight champion Rose Namajunas.

So with a lot to talk about, let’s dive right in to this week’s questions.

Brandon Moreno

“Thoughts on the fact that Moreno put on a masterclass but didn’t even get a bonus?”

“Masterclass” is the correct word for what Moreno did to Albazi on Saturday; he won that fight pillar to post. Credit to Albazi who despite being clearly outclassed still hung tough, even surviving a couple of scares in there, but that was one of those one-sided performances that really puts into perspective the gap between Albazi and the top tier of the weight class.

It was also a stark reminder of how small the margins are in MMA. Moreno was on a two-fight losing streak heading into this weekend and as such was almost an afterthought. But those losses were contentious split decisions and in another universe, Moreno is still the UFC flyweight champion. On any given night he can perform like the best in the world.

As for not getting a bonus, it’s to be expected. Though “performance” is open ended enough to mean anything, the Performance of the Night bonuses are derived from the old Knockout and Submission of the Night awards, and the UFC treats them as such, which is fine. Jasmine Jasudavicius, Dustin Stoltzfus, Charles Jourdain, and Youssef Zalal all probably could use the $ 50,000 more than Moreno.

Rose Namajunas

“If ‘Thug Rose’ didn’t get to cocky and attempt a takedown on the heavier grappler, would Blanchfield’s low Fight IQ lose her the fight?”

Man, I sure thought it was going to.

It’s no secret that I’ve been extremely high on Blanchfield as a prospect. I’ve got a lot of Take Equity stored up in her becoming champion one day. And for 10-plus minutes on Saturday, I was calling my Take Broker to scout options for dumping my stock.

Simply put, Blanchfield was atrocious for the first two rounds of that fight. I have no idea what the plan was, but I simply cannot imagine the plan was “willingly engage in a long-range, low-volume kickboxing match with Rose” because that would be among the dumbest game plans ever created. And it’s not like Rose was forcing Blanchfield out of her comfort zone, Blanchfield just didn’t try to do anything other than get sniped. It was maddeningly bad, and I still cannot figure out why she did it.

HOWEVER, I take issue with the idea that Rose “got cocky” with her takedown attempt. Rose got forced into that takedown attempt, because in the third round, Blanchfield started fighting. Namajunas has never liked to be in fire fights, and after punting the first two rounds, Blanchfield decided to start walking into the line of fire and exchanging. Although she also got hit a bunch, Blanchfield started landing and tagged Rose, leading her to look for an escape route with the takedown. I don’t think that was necessarily bad Fight IQ from Rose, but a good adjustment from Blanchfield.

That being said, there was one instance earlier in the fight that I’ve re-thought quite a bit, and while I don’t think it’s “bad Fight IQ” per se, I do think it’s instructive of where Namajunas is in her career and up at flyweight.

In the second round, Rose hits a trip on Blanchfield and ends up in side control, but instead of holding the position and working, Namajunas immediately stands up and retreats to striking range. Part of me can understand the thinking there of not engaging with the grappler, but another part of me believes that’s a sign of a legitimate issue with Namajunas at this stage of her career: she doesn’t fight to win, she fights not to lose.

If you go back and watch the Carla Esparza rematch (don’t do that to yourself, it’s terrible) that fight is really just two women completely unwilling to risk losing, so neither does much of anything, and frankly, that’s no way to be a professional fist fighter. I’m not saying everyone has to become Justin Gaethje, but passivity is a deadly sin in this game and Namajunas really seems to have that in her now, especially when she’s facing someone who can clearly threaten her.

I don’t know where Rose goes from here, but if she can’t get that spark back, I think we’ve probably seen the end of fun Namajunas fights and her title aspirations.

Erin Blanchfield

“She’s still only 25, but how long until Blanchfield’s reliance on her toughness as opposed to learning striking defense becomes a concern?”

It’s already a concern, though not the biggest one I have at this moment.

Blanchfield is a terrible striker, full stop. It’s not just her defense, it’s her offense as well. For as comfortable and effortless as Blanchfield looks on the ground, she looks physically uncomfortable and uncoordinated striking. Like a newborn baby deer stumbling around on legs it’s just figuring out are hers, that’s Blanchfield when it comes to striking.

Right now, the only reason Blanchfield’s striking can be effective is, as you pointed out, because she’s pretty tough and she’s willing to take one to give one. But that sort of brawling mentality goes a long way, especially in a weight class where there are maybe a half-dozen people who can really crack. Honestly, if I were coaching her (and let me stress this: I am not a coach, I am a moron) I’d work on building her offense because that’s a more critical piece of the puzzle right now. Give Blanchfield some real weapons she can rely on on the feet and the defense can get sorted out later.

But the thing that most concerns me about Blanchfield right now is how disjointed her game is. Blanchfield is a great grappler and a solid wrestler and athlete, but none of it works together. She does not blend the martial arts, she engages in them separately at each stage and so both are lessened dramatically by that. Nobody would ever confuse Khabib Nurmagomedov with an elite striker, but he had enough tools there to compete and his striking game was entirely catered to serve his grappling. That’s what Blanchfield needs and instead she has a great Plan A and limited ways to impose it.

The upper bounds of women’s flyweight has people who can match the physicality Blanchfield brings to bear. We saw that in the Manon Fiorot fight, and to some extent, we saw that on Saturday. Blanchfield is not the sort of hyper-athlete that can just run over even the best fighters, so she needs to get a cohesive offensive sorted out sooner rather than later or she’ll never win the title.

Callout

“Asking as a Blanchfield fan, how does a fight against Alexa Grasso go for her? Was that the right callout?”

In case you missed it, Blanchfield called for a fight with Alexa Grasso next, and I while I initially liked it, I’ve cooled on the idea with more time to think about it, at least promotionally.

Fiorot has the next shot at Valentina Shevchenko, but after that, the title picture is pretty empty. A win over Grasso would definitely put Blanchfield in line for the next title shot, but if Grasso wins and so does Shevchenko, now the UFC just killed off a contender for a fight that we really do not need to see again.

Instead, Blanchfield should fight Maycee Barber. This is obviously dependent on Barber being healthy enough to compete, and for the moment, that seems like it may not be the case. But if she can solve whatever issues she’s facing, Blanchfield vs. Barber makes the most sense as a no-doubt-about-it No. 1 contender fight.

That being said, if Barber doesn’t work out and the Grasso fight is what happens, that’s not a terrible consolation prize. And I’m genuinely interested in the matchup. Historically, Grasso is a bad defensive wrestler, which lines up well for Blanchfield, but Blanchfield is so one-track at this point, that should help Grasso prepare and make things tough on Blanchfield. Valentina Shevchenko took Grasso down a billion times because she’s a physical monster AND she’s dangerous on the feet. Blanchfield doesn’t have that same threat so Grasso has a very good chance against her.

Youssef Zalal

“How good is Youssef Zalal? I admit I didn’t pay much attention to his 1st run in the UFC but 3 subs in his last 3 fights is impressive, along with the fact he took Ilia Topuria the distance back in 2020…who would you book him against next?”

Seems pretty good!

Zalal is a lock for making the 2024 All-Violence Team with three finishes and two bonuses in three fights, and it just goes to show that sometimes the best thing for a career can be to leave the UFC. Development isn’t linear and it’s not the same for every fighter, and the regional circuit can be extremely good for building a fighter back up after a tough run. Just look at Zalal.

As for who he should fight next, let’s go with the winner of the Nate Landwehr vs. Doo Ho Choi fight at UFC 310.

LONG TIME

“UFC cards feel like they are getting longer, and in some cases, they are. Your solution?”

Per the great Mike Bohn, UFC Edmonton ended with 3:06:38 of total fight time, the third-longest in UFC history. And I’ll be honest, it felt like that.

Fights were on for seven hours and Saturday frankly, parts of it felt like an eternity. It’s not necessarily anyone’s fault but a lot of that card was competent yet unmemorable. It’s like that line from Ocean’s 11 where Brad Pitt tells Matt Damon the bad guy needs to like you and then forget about you immediately. The UFC Edmonton undercard was the Linus of fight cards.

And in my mind there are only two ways to “fix” this. The first is to bring pageantry back into the production to break things up and keep it feeling fresh. But we know that’s never going to happen, so the other option is to have fewer fights.

13 fights is a lot of fights. Hell, it’s a lot of anything (other than rice). 10 fights is a nice round number that’s hard to feel bad about. Part of the reason I like Contender Series so much is that it’s five fights, and we’re done. In the absence of pageantry, efficiency rules. And on Saturday, I was definitely wishing for a little more efficiency.

Thanks for reading, and thank you for everyone who sent in tweets (Xs?)! Do you have any burning questions about things at least somewhat related to combat sports? Then you’re in luck, because you can send your tweets to me, @JedKMeshew, and I will answer my favorite ones! Doesn’t matter if they’re topical or insane, just so long as they are good. Thanks again, and see y’all next week.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

The UFC is looking to get on the road more often in 2025.

For the past several years, a major talking point among MMA fans has been the rise of the UFC APEX. Built in 2019, the APEX became one of the UFC’s primary event venues during the COVID-19 pandemic as promotion continued to put on shows during the lockdown. However even after the lockdowns ended, the APEX remains a fixture of the UFC rotation to the dislike of some fans. But that may be changing soon.

This past Saturday, UFC Edmonton took place and per the promotion it broke the record for highest-grossing UFC Fight Night event in North American history. This comes on the heels of similar performances when the promotion visited other locations like Denver and Louisville earlier this year, and speaking with reporters after the event, UFC Vice President David Shaw told reporters that this continued success will lead to some changes for how often the UFC goes on the road in 2025.

“Yeah, there will be [more events on the road],” Shaw said. “There will be an increased number of events outside of the APEX relative to this year as we get into the 2025 schedule.”

This weekend marks the UFC’s 100th event in the APEX and will be the promotion’s 17th trip there this year. The promotion also used the APEX 17 times in 2023, down from the 21 times they held events there in 2022.

But while Shaw envisions a world where the UFC relies less heavily on the APEX, he also made it clear that things will not return to the pre-COVID era where every show was somewhere different.

“It’s tough for us to anticipate what two or three years down the road looks like, but it makes a lot of sense for a lot of reasons,” Shaw explained. “There’s a lot of fighters in Vegas, it’s easy for us operationally, it’s simple from a budgetary perspective. The rigor and the pressure and how laborious it can be to be on the road… It’s tough.

“So I think having home games and being in the APEX where we can just turn off the lights and lock the door, it makes a lot of sense for us. So will we ever get back to pre-COVID or no APEX? I don’t think so. But I think we’re going to find the right balance for us.”

And according to Shaw, more road shows does not just mean more opportunity for American fans to attend events. With the UFC’s media rights deal ending next year, Shaw says that more international trips is part of the promotion’s longterm planning as well.

“Are there more plans? Yes. We’re going to be back in the U.K. next year,” Shaw said “… Then as we get through next year which is sort of the last year of our current media deal in the U.S. and we start to plan out what we want to do in 2026 and beyond in terms of the number of international events we can have, the intention is to be able to go back to Europe more often.”

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