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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Alex Perez is hoping for the best after suffering an ugly injury at UFC Vegas 93.

This past Saturday’s main event at UFC APEX in Las Vegas ended in disappointment for the longtime flyweight contender as he lost via TKO when he fell to the mat with opponent Tatsuro Taira hanging on his back. Perez immediately reacted in pain when he went down, prompting referee Herb Dean to call a stop to the contest in the second round.

The extent of the leg injury is still to be determined. On Monday, Perez posted a message on social media, writing that he is undergoing an MRI and hopes to return to action soon.

“Well it is what it is on to the next one,” Perez wrote. “Congrats to my opponent and his team. I go in today to get a MRI and start the recovery process. Not sure how long it will be but I will be back for sure. Tough times don’t last but tough people do. I’ll see you guys soon.”

Prior to Perez’s post, his representatives told MMA Fighting’s Damon Martin that an MRI would take place sometime this week after swelling subsided in the fighter’s knee.

Perez, 32, is a one-time UFC flyweight title challenger. He lost to then-champion Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC 255 in November 2020, a setback that is part of his current 1-4 stretch inside the octagon. Heading into his fight with Taira, Perez was coming off of a second-round knockout of Matheus Nicolau that snapped a three-fight losing streak.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Bo Nickal didn’t get to save the day when UFC reached out to him about replacing Khamzat Chimaev for the upcoming fight against former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker.

The last-minute proposal came after Chimaev dropped off Saturday’s UFC Saudi Arabia card due to an illness that prevented him from competing. In Chimaev’s place, UFC ultimately got highly touted contender Ikram Aliskerov to accept the fight, and he now faces Whittaker in the main event as the UFC travels to Saudi Arabia for the first time ever.

When UFC was scrambling to find the best possible option to headline the card, Nickal claims he got a call, but he didn’t find out about it until it was too late.

“I did get a call, yeah,” Nickal revealed on his YouTube channel. “Unfortunately, I got a call while I was in the mountains of Montana and I didn’t get back to cell service for three days. I came back into cell service to a few text messages saying, ‘Call me back, call me back, call me back!’ And it was too late.”

Nickal said the offer to fight Whittaker was so real that UFC had started discussing a bump in his paycheck to accept the matchup on short notice. Sadly, the multi-time NCAA wrestling champion didn’t get to negotiate his purse because he couldn’t respond before UFC had already found a solution in Aliskerov.

“I’m not going to disclose numbers, but they were up there,” Nickal said. “But, it was just too late. I couldn’t even really consider it because they had already kind of figured everything out, the way they were going to do it, because I was gone.

“Honestly, I don’t want to go to Saudi Arabia and fight. That’s freaking far as crap.”

As far as the new matchup goes, Nickal actually believes Aliskerov has what it takes to pull off the upset and beat a middleweight veteran like Whittaker in just his third UFC fight.

In his first two octagon appearances, Aliskerov ran roughshod over Phil Hawes and Warlley Alves, scoring knockouts in both fights. Taking on somebody like Whittaker is a huge step up in competition, but Nickal thinks Aliskerov is up to the challenge.

“I think Ikram will probably win,” Nickal said. “It depends on how ready he is and stuff. I just think style-wise, Ikram will probably win.”

When it comes to Chimaev’s future, Nickal admitted that the interest around the undefeated Chechen has started to fade due to Chimaev’s inactivity. Since the start of 2021, Chimaev has with only logged four fights. Chimaev was once heralded as a potential boogeyman in two different divisions, but Nickal feels like a lot of that luster has been knocked off, and dropping out of another fight isn’t helping Chimaev’s cause much.

“That dude’s losing his aura a bit,” Nickal said about Chimaev. “He just needs to keep freaking winning and not doing this crap. I don’t think he’s over-training, I think he’s over-partying. I don’t know what else would it be?”

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UFC

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Conor McGregor has a fan in MMA legend Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.

“The Notorious” has come under scrutiny following his withdrawal from UFC 303, which was preceded by McGregor canceling a press conference appearance in Dublin, Ireland, that was to promote a June 29 headlining bout against Michael Chandler. It’s since been revealed that McGregor is sidelined with an injury, but that hasn’t stopped critics from piling on the former two-division champion, who hasn’t competed since breaking his leg at UFC 264 in July 2021.

During an appearance on The MMA Hour, Jackson was asked for his thoughts on the latest McGregor drama, and he was quick to defend the star.

“Conor McGregor’s a f*cking hundred-millionaire,” Jackson said. “What the f*ck are you doing? What the f*ck are you doing out there fighting? You’ve only got to do that shit for the love and one day if you ain’t feeling it, f*ck it. He don’t need that shit. I can’t blame him.”

McGregor remains one of the biggest draws in all of combat sports despite fighting just five times since 2016. The 35-year-old had a meteoric rise to the top of the UFC ladder after signing with the promotion in 2013, going on to capture titles at 145 and 155 pounds, while providing some of the most iconic moments in the cage and on the mic in MMA history.

Though McGregor has struggled to just one win in his past four UFC fights, during that stretch he booked a crossover bout with undefeated boxing legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. that was enormously successful at the box office and cemented McGregor’s name in the mainstream consciousness.

Given the fighter’s extraordinary profile, Rampage — who competes at Josh Barnett’s professional wrestling/martial arts hybrid event Bloodsport Bushido this Saturday — doesn’t see why McGregor would ever take unnecessary risks.

“If I was that rich and I had any ounce of pain in my body, f*ck no, I would pull out of the fight too,” Jackson said. “No, if I’m being 100, if I was that rich and still fighting, I would be doing it purely for the love because I still love competing, that’s why I’m still doing this Bloodsport and everything. If I was injured, if I could injure myself even more, I wouldn’t do it, because what people don’t think about is I have injuries right now.

“I’m 46 in a couple of days. I have injuries from 20 years ago that still bother me. I’m going to be 60 years old remembering this injury, like damn, I wish I would have tapped earlier or I wish I would have pulled out of that fight. People don’t understand that. Why is he going to put himself through all this pain when financially he really don’t have to? When you fight in MMA, you do it for the love and you also do it for the finances. You do it for the check.”

Jackson, the consummate prizefighter, acknowledged that the attention and intoxicating thrill of combat are still factors he considers besides just looking at the number on a contract. Like McGregor, he’s no stranger to pursuing opportunities outside of MMA, having dabbled in pro wrestling as well as acting, the latter of which he most notably pursued when he took on the role of B. A. Baracus in the 2010 film The A-Team.

McGregor recently had a starring role in the 2024 action movie Road House, and Jackson hopes to see more of him whether it’s in the cage, the ring, or on the big screen.

“Conor McGregor is a young legend of the sport,” Jackson said. “Let that man do what he do, let him keep entertaining you all. Don’t get all caught up in him pulling out of fights and stuff like that. If he wants to come back, let him come back. Shit, I want to see him box. I want to see Conor McGregor go and do more movies. I think he’s done a lot for our sport, made the sport more of a household name, I don’t give a f*ck if he pulls out of fights. I’ll be here waiting when he comes back. I’m a big fan of Conor McGregor.”

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Statement
| BJPenn.com

UFC

“Poatan” is sharing his UFC 303 preparations on his Instagram page, which include the “Embedded” camera crew.

UFC 303 headliner Alex Pereira has some work to do.

The reigning UFC light heavyweight champion is currently walking around at 227 pounds, which puts him 22 pounds over the championship weight limit of 205. That should come as no surprise considering Pereira, who turns 37 in just a few weeks, was on a loosey-goosey promotional tour in Australia when UFC CBO Hunter Campbell rang the Bat phone.

How this behemoth ever made the middleweight limit remains a mystery.

Pereira (10-2) will defend his 205-pound strap on June 29 in Las Vegas when he collides with former division titleholder Jiri Prochazka atop the UFC 303 pay-per-view (PPV) fight card, a rematch from their UFC 295 showdown that “Poatan” won by technical knockout — though detractors were not impressed with how referee Marc Goddard handled the stoppage.

UFC 303 will either remove all doubt, or set up a potential trilogy.

The original headliner featured the long awaited grudge match between former two-division champion Conor McGregor and ex-Bellator kingpin Michael Chandler, a welterweight clash that was recently postponed when “Notorious” was felled by injury. When and where that bout will be rescheduled remains to be seen.

For the current UFC 303 fight card and PPV lineup click here.

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