It’s a very slow week in the world of MMA, and the UFC, following UFC Louisville, and heading into UFC Vegas 93 this Saturday. Following the controversial conclusion of the main event between Nassourdine Imavov and Jared Cannonier this past Saturday, where does Cannonier go from here?
On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck discusses the fallout of UFC Louisville, and who Cannonier will likely have to face next after the loss to Imavov. Additionally, listener questions include the ceiling for Dominick Reyes after his knockout of Dustin Jacoby in the co-main event of UFC Louisville, if Conor McGregor could get a title shot with a win over Michael Chandler at UFC 303, being OK to ask for the UFC to provide better overall cards across the board, and much more.
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In addition, Dominick Reyes jumped two spots in the light heavyweight division with his first-round finish over Dustin Jacoby.
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) recently updated its official rankings to reflect the performances at the UFC Louisville: “Cannonier vs. Imavov” mixed martial arts (MMA) event, which took place last weekend (Sat., June 8, 2024) at KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky. The most notable change came in the middleweight division, where surging contender Nassourdine Imavov took over the No. 4 slot with his controversial fourth-round finish over former title challenger Jared Cannonier.
“Killa Gorilla” slipped to No. 5 in defeat.
Here’s how UFC compiles its official rankings:
Rankings were generated by a voting panel made up of media members. The media members were asked to vote for who they feel are the top fighters in the UFC by weight-class and pound-for-pound. A fighter is only eligible to be voted on if they are in active status in the UFC. A fighter can appear in more than one weight division at a time. The champion and interim champion are considered to be in the top positions of their respective divisions and therefore are not eligible for voting by weight-class. However, the champions can be voted on for the pound-for-pound rankings.
Take a look at what the latest rankings field looks like courtesy of UFC.com. Note: (+/- = movement in rankings, T = tie, *NR = Not previously ranked).
MEN’S POUND-FOR-POUND
1. Islam Makhachev 2. Jon Jones 3. Leon Edwards 4. Alex Pereira 5. Ilia Topuria 6. Sean O’Malley 7. Alexander Volkanovski 8. Max Holloway 9. Dricus Du Plessis 10. Alexandre Pantoja 11. Israel Adesanya 12. Charles Oliveira 13. Tom Aspinall 14. Sean Strickland 15. Aljamain Sterling
FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Alexandre Pantoja
1. Brandon Royval 2. Brandon Moreno 3. Amir Albazi 4. Kai Kara France 5. Alex Perez 6. Muhammad Mokaev 7. Manel Kape 8. Matheus Nicolau 9. Steve Erceg 10. Tim Elliott 11. Matt Schnell 12. Tagir Ulanbekov 13. Tatsuro Taira 14. David Dvorak 15. Cody Durden
BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: Sean O’Malley
1. Merab Dvalishvili 2. Cory Sandhagen 3. Petr Yan 4. Marlon Vera 5. Henry Cejudo 6. Deiveson Figueiredo 7. Song Yadong 8. Jose Aldo 9. Rob Font 10. Umar Nurmagomedov 11. Kyler Phillips 12. Mario Bautista 13. Dominick Cruz 14. Jonathan Martinez 15. Pedro Munhoz
FEATHERWEIGHT
Champion: Ilia Topuria
1. Alexander Volkanovski 2. Max Holloway 3. Brian Ortega 4. Yair Rodriguez 5. Movsar Evloev 6. Arnold Allen 7. Josh Emmett 8. Aljamain Sterling 9. (T) Giga Chikadze 9. (T) Calvin Kattar 11. Lerone Murphy 12. Bryce Mitchell 13. Dan Ige 14. Diego Lopes 15. Edson Barboza
LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion: Islam Makhachev
1. Arman Tsarukyan 2. Charles Oliveira 3. Justin Gaethje 4. Dustin Poirier 5. Mateusz Gamrot 6. Michael Chandler 7. Beneil Dariush 8. Rafael Fiziev 9. Max Holloway 10. Renato Moicano 11. Dan Hooker 12. Benoit Saint-Denis +1 13. Jalin Turner -1 14. Rafael dos Anjos 15. Bobby Green
WELTERWEIGHT
Champion: Leon Edwards
1. Kamaru Usman 2. Belal Muhammed 3. Shavkat Rakhmonov 4. Colby Covington 5. Jack Della Maddalena 6. Gilbert Burns 7. Ian Machado Garry 8. Sean Brady 9. Stephen Thompson 10. Geoff Neal 11. Joaquin Buckley 12. Neil Magny 13. Vicente Luque +1 14. Michael Page -1 15. Kevin Holland
MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion: Dricus Du Plessis
1. Sean Strickland 2. Israel Adesanya 3. Robert Whittaker 4. Nassourdine Imavov +3 5. Jared Cannonier -1 6. Marvin Vettori -1 7. Brendan Allen -1 8. Paulo Costa 9. Jack Hermansson 10. (T) Khamzat Chimaev 10. (T) Roman Dolidze +1 12. Caio Borralho 13. Michel Pereira 14. Anthony Hernandez 15. Chris Curtis
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Alex Pereira
1. Jiri Prochazka 2. Magomed Ankalaev 3. Jamahal Hill 4. Jan Blachowicz 5. Aleksandar Rakic 6. Nikita Krylov 7. Johnny Walker 8. Khalil Rountree 9. Volkan Oezdemir 10. Anthony Smith 11. Carlos Ulberg 12. Bogdan Guskov 13. Dominick Reyes +2 14. Alonzo Menifield -1 15. Azamat Murzakanov -1
HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Jon Jones
1. Tom Aspinall 2. Ciryl Gane 3. Sergei Pavlovich 4. Curtis Blaydes 5. Alexander Volkov 6. Stipe Miocic 7. Jailton Almeida 8. Marcin Tybura 9. Serghei Spivac 10. Tai Tuivasa +1 11. Derrick Lewis -1 12. Jairzinho Rozenstruik 13. Alexandr Romanov 14. Marcos Rogerio De Lima 15. Rodrigo Nascimento
1. Julianna Pena 2. Ketlen Vieira 3. Mayra Bueno Silva 4. Kayla Harrison 5. Irene Aldana 6. Holly Holm 7. Macy Chiasson 8. Miesha Tate 9. Karol Rosa 10. Norma Dumont 11. Pannie Kianzad 12. Yana Santos 13. Julia Avila 14. Chelsea Chandler 15. Germaine De Randamie
You can expect these rankings to change around this time next week, particularly in the flyweight division, following the UFC Vegas 93: “Perez vs. Taira” mixed martial arts (MMA) event on ESPN2 and ESPN+, scheduled for Sat., June 15, 2024 at APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.
For much more on that upcoming fight card click here.
Nassourdine Imavov picked up the biggest win of his career when he defeated Jared Cannonier at UFC Louisville, but his celebration was short-lived because the conversation almost immediately shifted from his performance to a bad call by referee Jason Herzog.
When Herzog stepped between the fighters and called off the bout midway through the fourth round, Imavov was unloading shots on his hurt foe in an effort to secure a knockout win, but Cannonier was still conscious and defending himself. Cannonier immediately protested and the sold-out crowd in Kentucky erupted in a chorus of boos.
Retired UFC veteran and current analyst Alan Jouban understands that sometimes fighters have to be protected from themselves, but he doesn’t believe that was anywhere near the case when Herzog injected himself into the action this past Saturday night.
“I do think he messed up on Saturday night,” Jouban said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “I’d be curious to hear from [Herzog]. Sometimes you hear this: ‘I looked into Jared Cannonier’s eyes, his eyes were gone. They were glazed over, they were rolling into the back of the head. I talked to him, I said Jared show me something, Jared show me something. He didn’t show me something.’ That type of conversation — if I heard that from him, I would go, ‘OK, I wasn’t in there. I wasn’t standing three feet away from Jared,’ so he has a different perspective that we do. Sometimes that does happen. We’re not always right from what we see on TV from a zoomed out perspective.
“But in general, it was stopped too soon. It was stopped too early. Fighters need to be given the chance to fight out of something. What happens is you get hit sometimes and you get buzzed.”
Jouban explained that during his own UFC career, he would routinely inform the referees in his bouts that he wanted every possible chance to come back if he happened to get rocked during an exchange. He preferred that officials let the fight continue until the last possible second or he fell unconscious due to strikes.
While he can’t say for certain what was said prior to UFC Louisville, Jouban knows fighters all want to be given ample time to get through a bad spot, especially in a situation like what unfolded for Cannonier.
Instead, Cannonier woke up Sunday morning with a knockout loss on his record and the knowledge beyond a shadow of a doubt that he didn’t get knocked out.
“I didn’t see him afford Cannonier the opportunity to fight out of it,” Jouban said. “It was an early stoppage. Maybe he would have ended it, maybe not, but Cannonier’s a guy, he’s in shape, these weren’t the type of shots that were like, ‘Oh my God, is he ever going to be the same?’ No, they weren’t those types of shots.
“Is he taking years off his life? No, he was buzzed. He was buzzed, and 30 seconds later he was completely coherent again. It was an early stoppage. Feel bad it happens. It’s a tough call to make in the moment, but that was not one of [Herzog’s] best refereeing in that matchup.”
Of course, Jouban understands that referees have an impossibly tough job that requires them to make split-second decisions in a fight. Outside of a totally egregious late stoppage like what happened this past December when Jalin Turner was thudding punches off Bobby Green’s head after Green was clearly already unconscious, Jouban prefers to give fighters every possible chance to get out of a bad spot.
As much as he appreciates fighter safety, Jouban laments how bad stoppages like what unfolded in Cannonier vs. Imavov ruin fights, and he doesn’t want it to become a normal occurrence.
“We cannot let the UFC turn into the NFL,” Jouban said. “We cannot overly protect things. We cannot make it a completely different sport. You watch the hits and the tackles and the sacks in the NFL in the 80s and 90s and you look at it today and it’s a completely different sport. Now they’re trying to protect people. I get it, but this is combat sports. We’re a different sport. That is a game, this is a fight. We’re here to fight.
“We know every time we go out there, obviously we have the potential of getting knocked out or submitted or something could happen, but that is what people pay to see.”
Despite the NFL remaining the biggest sports league in the United States by a wide margin, many players and fans have complained about the constant rule changes — tackles routinely considered fair and legal just a couple of years ago now earn a penalty, which can completely alter the course of a game.
In particular, the “roughing the passer” calls for quarterbacks have earned a lot of blowback, especially from defensive players.
Jouban argues that fighters all accept the potential risks that come along this career, which is why he hopes what happened with Herzog doesn’t become a bigger trend.
“Fighters are fighting because they are OK with facing their fears and accepting that danger, accepting their fate,” Jouban said. “It’s OK if he lets it go 15 more seconds and Imavov lands a beautiful punch and Cannonier goes down and he’s knocked out. That’s OK. He’s not going to be mad [at Herzog].
“We’ve got to let these [fights] play out. We can’t start overly protecting fighters as they’ve done to overly protecting quarterbacks in [football]. This is combat sports. If this an amateur fight, stop it early. If this is your pro debut, stop it early. If this is the UFC and a main event in a sold-out arena, title implications, five-rounder — no, we go until somebody’s asleep.”
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Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight kingpin Sean Strickland is a bit of an enigma. Take, for example, his relationship with Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) star Mike Perry. In the last couple months, Strickland has respectfully expressed interest in fighting Perry and seeing how good he is, but he’s also trashed BKFC at a recent press conference.
“How much would I f—king fight bare knuckle for?” Strickland said. “Not nothing they would pay me. They’re paying their guys s—t. F—king breaking their hands, breaking their orbitals, making like a couple thousand bucks.”
Former UFC champion and current BKFC athlete Eddie Alvarez already clapped back at Strickland, and now Perry has responded as well. Reacting to the comments above, Perry argued, “Strickland, he’s fighting for the UFC for pesos, and I’m getting paid over here. He’s always posting videos on Instagram where he walks outside of his garage or his front door, and somebody is in his driveway and he’s trying to fight a bare knuckle for free right there. What are you talking about Sean?”
Strickland responded, almost meeting Perry halfway. Strickland explained that he’s using his platform as an advocate to improve “utter garbage” UFC pay, but he also insists most BKFC athletes are getting paid less than their UFC counterparts.
“UFC pay is utter garbage,” Strickland wrote in response. “lol their [sic] signing guys at 10/10 that should be criminal … but the vast majority of BKFC fighters are getting paid way less than that … As a ufc fighter I advocate for better pay for me and the entire roster … You should do the same for your guys.”
He continued, “While I’m on my soap box from a poor man who became kinda a rich man once you have capital it just snow balls. These elites could probably never take a paycheck again and easily make 500k a year … yet they still line their bank accounts with millions that they will never need or spend. In all industries.”
Just over a week ago, Strickland returned to the win column by defeating Paulo Costa via unanimous decision at UFC 302. He’s insistent that he’ll sit out until he receives a title shot after the win. Perry, meanwhile, is still unbeaten in bare knuckle boxing and most recently stopped Thiago Alves in quick fashion (watch here).
Insomnia
I think more MMA fighters should get hammered and then post Instagram stories after disappointing losses. Reveal those true feelings!
Daniel Cormier was not excited to exchange pleasantries with Jon Jones.
DC still HATES that man and you can tell pic.twitter.com/9gukA8xCu0
— OOC MMA (@oocmma) June 8, 2024
A follow-up to Liam Harrison’s canceled One Championship fight last week:
Massive shout out to the big boss at one championship just had a call and was very understanding and totally on my side and still paid me in full. Gutted I didn’t get to fight but greatful for the boss being so good with me
— liam harrison (@LiamBadco) June 8, 2024
Unfortunately, the way the point of Brunno Ferreira’s elbow landed directly in the middle of Dustin Stolzfus’ face seemed to guarantee some last damage.
Dustin Stolzfus says his face is fractured and has nerve damage as a result of Brunno Ferreira’s elbow pic.twitter.com/ybXcJrTuqM
— MMA Mania (@mmamania) June 9, 2024
Ripping cigs and scoring knockouts? That’s a true Nak Muay.
Carlos Prates smoke break was interrupted by news of a $ 50,000 bonus after #UFCLouisville. pic.twitter.com/kFA9Uj34pm
— MMA Junkie (@MMAJunkie) June 9, 2024
Carlos Prates reveals he smokes pre-fight cigarettes: “I smoke before the fight, on the day of the fight, and you know it’s normal.” ♂️
YT / FULL SEND MMA #UFCLouisville #UFC #MMA pic.twitter.com/CbbKUS7bbu
— Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight) June 9, 2024
I love jiu-jitsu, but the art is truly inflicted with a mix of the greatest people on Earth and absolute losers.
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A post shared by Craig Jones (@craigjonesbjj)
Shavkat’s logic seems bulletproof to me.
JDM is hurt, Usman and Colby don’t want it. I’m ready to face the winner of Leon vs Belal
— Shavkat “Nomad” Rakhmonov (@Rakhmonov1994) June 9, 2024
Slips, rips, and KO clips
Switching between knees and elbows from the double-collar tie is such an effective way to destroy an opponent.
This KO by Joey Hart at LFA, dear lord. Clinch knee up the middle and two filthy follow up elbows. DAMN. #LFA185 pic.twitter.com/NkT93U0CoO
— caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) June 8, 2024
A jiu-jitsu master successfully takes the cage!
Kade Ruotolo (1-0) debuta en MMA de forma exitosa ganando a Blake Cooper por sumisión vía mataleón en el primer asalto, Kade lució bien y no tuvo miedo a intercambiar golpes antes de derribar y conseguir la sumisión, cuidado con él #ONE167 pic.twitter.com/vURCFRUifI
— Pelunaton (@pelunaton) June 8, 2024
Leading with the knee while kicking is a good strategy for power and unintentional knee KOs!
Deniz Ilbay KO2 Denis Tripšanský pic.twitter.com/9Js7GNXsPk
— Neo Vale Tudo (@NeoValeTudo) June 8, 2024
Random Land
A fighting pun.
pic.twitter.com/0KeeSOGKlV
— No Context Brits (@NoContextBrits) June 9, 2024
Midnight Music: Punk, 1987
Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.
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