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Former featherweight title challenger, Brian Ortega, was asked to compete on super short notice against red-hot 145-pound contender Diego Lopes as part of the UFC 303 pay-per-view (PPV) event last weekend in Las Vegas. Their hastily-assembled showdown was booked to fill the co-headlining slot left vacant by this last-minute disaster.

Unfortunately for Ortega — who was already planning a move to lightweight — the cut down to 145 pounds left him worse for the wear. The promotion managed to rework the weights to keep “T-City” on the card, but he was unable to stay healthy enough to compete on June 29 at T-Mobile Arena in “Sin City.”

So what happened?

“He caught a terrible fever over the last few days from his body being run down from cutting on 15 days’ notice and 30-plus pounds,” Ariel Helwani revealed on The MMA Hour after speaking to Ortega’s manager. “He couldn’t recover or keep anything down.”

Ortega out, “legends” in.

Stepping in for Ortega was longtime featherweight contender Dan Ige, who came off the bench on just two hours’ notice to battle Lopes in the UFC 303 co-main event. Their action-packed showdown ended with a unanimous decision victory in favor of the Brazilian. No question Ige was well compensated for his last-minute efforts.

A timeline for Ortega’s Octagon return has yet to be determined.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Alex Pereira appears to have many options in front of him, and the path he ends up choosing could be a fascinating one. After brutally knocking out Jiri Prochazka in the main event of UFC 303 and putting his light heavyweight rival behind him for good, does “Poatan” remain as a 205-pounder, or does he go for a third title?

On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee discuss what’s next for Pereira following another sensational performance in an event saving appearance. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Prochazka after falling to 0-2 vs. Pereira, Diego Lopes after his gutsy win over super short notice opponent Dan Ige in the co-main event, Roman Dolidze after shutting down Anthony Smith, Macy Chiasson following her doctor’s stoppage TKO win over Mayra Bueno Silva, Ian Machado Garry after defeating Michael Page, and more.

Watch the UFC 303 edition of On To the Next One in the video above. Audio-only versions of the podcast can be found below, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and wherever you find your favorite podcasts.

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Paddy Pimblett thinks Ilia Topuria is afraid to fight Max Holloway.

Topuria claimed the featherweight world title in February, securing a second-round knockout of Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298. Since then, ‘El Matador’ has yet to defend his title, though his first challenger is all but guaranteed to be the promotion’s reigning BMF titleholder.

Despite some fiery back-and-forths between the two in interviews and on social media, there’s been little news when it comes to actually booking a championship clash between the two 145-pound superstars.

While reacting to this past weekend’s UFC 303 card in Las Vegas and answering some fan inquiries on his YouTube channel, Pimblett offered his take on the inevitable showdown between Topuria and Holloway, suggesting that “hand sanitizer boy” is scared to sign on the dotted line for a fight with one of the UFC’s most dangerous strikers.

“I think I’ve got the same as everyone,” Pimblett said. “Everyone’s picking Max, know what I mean? Hand sanitizer boy’s scared to take the fight. He doesn’t want to take the fight against Max because he knows what will happen. He fought Volkanovski at the perfect time. Coming back off getting knocked out like 10 weeks later. He got lucky there, to be honest.”

Max Holloway was, by all accounts, always going to be the first man up to challenge the Georgian for the featherweight strap. ‘Blessed’ only solidified his spot at the front of the line with an insane buzzer-beating KO of Justin Gaethje at UFC 300 to bag the promotion’s bragging rights belt.

Pimblett and Topuria are certainly no strangers to one another. In March 2022, the two got into a scuffle at a London hotel after ‘The Baddy’ made some disparaging comments about the Russo-Georgian War. During the altercation, Pimblett infamously pelted Topuria with a bottle of hand sanitizer.

Paddy Pimblett gearing up for his next big challenge inside the Octagon

While Topuria and Holloway work out the details of when and where they’ll throw hands, Paddy Pimblett is already preparing for his next challenge. Returning to the Octagon on July 27 when the UFC heads back to Manchester, ‘The Baddy’ will face perhaps his toughest test yet when he meets the always dangerous ‘King’ Bobby Green at UFC 304.

Pimblett is a perfect 5-0 under the UFC banner, though his last two performances against Jared Gordon and Tony Ferguson left a lot to be desired from the Liverpudlian.

Green, on the other hand, has found himself amid a nice little run, winning three of his last four, including a unanimous decision victory over Octagon icon Jim Miller at the UFC’s landmark event in April.

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Ryan Garcia has been accused of taking PEDs and banned from boxing for a year, but Dana White believes he’s innocent.

Garcia picked himself up after losing his undefeated record against Gervonta Davis. The rising star knocked out Oscar Duarte before stunning the world by beating Devin Haney, but that win has since been overuled following a failed drug test.

Despite insisting that it’s none of his business, Dana White came to the support of the down on his luck Ryan Garcia. Discussing the matter during the UFC 303 post-fight press conference, White was adamant that the boxer hadn’t intentionally taken an illegal substance.

“First of all, none of that is any of my business,” White told media on Saturday. “It’s not my card. It’s not my, whatever.”

“You know I hate talking about drug testing. But with all of our knowledge that we have in the years that we’ve been drug testing, we believe the people who handle the drug testing that he had [taken] a tainted supplement.”

“He did not cheat. If he had the right people around him and had the right, you know, that wouldn’t happen.”

Related: Ryan Garcia makes huge Sean O’Malley fight proposal

“We’re pretty confident it was a tainted supplement. I’ve got no skin in this game, I don’t give a sh*t. It’s not my fight, it’s none of my business and not my place to even talk about it.”

“From what my team tells me — and these guys are the f***ing best — [it was a] tainted supplement.”

Ryan Garcia will now be forced away from boxing for a year, though he has vowed to not just sit around. According to Garcia himself, he may be looking at an opportunity to fight in either mixed martial arts or bare knuckle boxing in the future.

Check out what Dana White had to say about the Ryan Garcia situation below.

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It appears that Andrei Arlovski’s 42nd octagon appearance will be the final one in the promotion.

A person with knowledge of the promotion’s plans confirmed to MMA Fighting that Arlovksi’s split decision loss to Martin Buday at UFC 303 this past Saturday was the final fight on the former heavyweight champion’s contract, and that Arlovski will not be re-signing with the UFC. Ariel Helwani first reported the news on Twitter.

Arlovski, who ended his promotional run on a four-fight skid, is expected to continue competing despite no longer being under UFC contract, as he also related in an Instagram post, telling fans that his “chapter in the UFC is closed, but my book is not finished yet.”

Following the International Fight Week pay-per-view, UFC CEO Dana White hinted that Arlovski has wrapped up with the promotion.

The 45-year-old ends his second stint with the UFC with an all-time promotional record of 23-18, 1 NC, and included winning both undisputed and interim UFC heavyweight titles.

After ending his first go with the company in 2008, Arlovski went on to compete for promotions such as Strikeforce, Affliction, ONE Championship, and World Series of Fighting before returning to the UFC in June 2014 — a run that lasted over a decade.

Arlovski competed in the most fights in UFC heavyweight history, holds the most wins for the division, and is tied with Donald Cerrone for the most UFC victories all-time with 23.

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While Dustin Poirier hasn’t made an official decision on retirement, he’s now planting seeds of excitement for, perhaps, one final walk to the octagon.

In the main event of UFC 302 in June, Poirier was submitted by lightweight champ Islam Makhachev in the fifth round, in what was more than likely his final chance to capture undisputed UFC gold. After the loss, Poirier told Joe Rogan that may have been his final fight, but didn’t commit one way or another.

On Sunday, Poirier began tweeting up a storm about a number of different topics, including a couple of teases for one more fight.

The 36-year-old had a lot more to say as well, including taking a page from the playbook of three-fight rival Conor McGregor, and firing off some shots towards the man Poirier stopped in consecutive fights in 2021.

“Hey [Conor McGregor], it felt so nice, I did it twice ya bumskie,” Poirier wrote.

As far as who he could face inside the octagon should he choose to compete again, Poirier let his most recent opponent know that if his expected title defense against Arman Tsarukyan doesn’t go through, Poirier will be ready for a rematch.

“If Arman can’t fight, let’s go again,” Poirier told Makhachev.

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