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Eddie Alvarez thinks Sean Strickland should take a long, hard look at what UFC pays him.
A former UFC middleweight champion, Strickland climbed back into the win column with a victory over Paulo Costa at UFC 302. In the days before the bout, he used some of his press conference time to dismiss the idea of pursuing a career in bare-knuckle boxing after he’s done with MMA. Strickland was particularly critical of BKFC, calling the promotion “f*cking crooks” and accusing them of not paying their fighters properly.
Alvarez — currently a free agent — most recently fought for BKFC this past December, and he defended the promotion while taking a shot at Strickland’s lack of self-awareness during an appearance on The MMA Hour.
“He said something like, called it a sh*t promotion and that they pay like sh*t and blah, blah, blah, and I’m like, ‘That’s ironic for a guy who just literally fought in UFC your entire life for nothing,’” Alvarez said. “You literally just got your little paycheck and you’re going to talk sh*t on a promotion that is just starting.
“I thought it was cute of him to say something about payment, because he’s like, ‘They don’t get paid like us.’ He probably does well in the UFC, but I make more than Sean Strickland. I fight bare-knuckle.”
If Alvarez is correct in his assessment that he’s paid more than Strickland, it’s likely due to the storied combat sports career that Alvarez had prior to making his bare-knuckle boxing debut in 2023. The 40-year-old is a former UFC and Bellator champion, and he holds wins over a lengthy list of greats, including Justin Gaethje, Rafael dos Anjos, Anthony Pettis, Gilbert Melendez, Michael Chandler, and Shinya Aoki.
Throughout his career, Alvarez has bet on himself several times by competing for different promotions, and he suggested that Strickland may want to get a better value of his worth.
“He’s a complainer of pay, but he’s talking about all the promotions not paying,” Alvarez said. “Hey, motherf*cker, they pay, and they pay more than you’re getting paid, and you’re this famous, well-known — I don’t know how many followers he has and how famous he is, my son loves him so he’s a guy, he’s a UFC character, but he was talking sh*t on Bare Knuckle. I’m like, don’t you say sh*t about Bare Knuckle. We’re getting paid.”
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BKFC has made huge strides over the past few years, with former UFC fighter Mike Perry emerging as a star and Conor McGregor recently becoming a part owner of the promotion. It has quickly risen to become one of the most prominent combat sports organizations in North America.
Alvarez was asked if BKFC is among the top three promotions at the moment, and he heartily answered in the affirmative.
“They are,” Alvarez said. “If you want to be promoted and become a known person, because when you look at Bare Knuckle’s videos, they’re getting a million [views] and up. Sometimes even UFC fights aren’t getting a million and up when it comes to YouTube, so if you want to be known and you want to get your name out there, there’s the UFC and Bare Knuckle right now. I don’t know if there’s very well-known PFL fighters, you know what I mean?”
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International Vale Tudo Championship | UFC Fight Pass
The International Vale Tudo Championship is planning to hold an event for the first time is nearly a decade, and its bringing back a classic rule set and a sole 30-minute round.
IVC founder and president Sergio Batarelli confirmed to MMA Fighting that he’s targeting a card for around September or October in Sao Paulo, Brazil. IVC hasn’t held an event since 2016, when it shifted from the vale tudo rule set to the unified rules.
“I’ve wanted to do this for a while now,” Batarelli said. “I came back [in 2016] but had to use modern MMA rules and it didn’t go as I wanted, so I gave up. After bare-knuckle boxing started to grow [in the United States] and Jorge Masvidal started his bare-knuckle MMA promotion, that excited me again.”
The list of illegal actions is short under IVC rules and includes fish hooking, eye gouging, groin strikes, and pulling of the hair. By IVC rules, several strikes banned by the unified rules are legal, including headbutts. Batarelli said it’s likely IVC will also allow jumping stomps to the head and soccer kicks.
“Headbutts are wonderful. That’s what made the Wanderlei Silva vs. Artur Mariano so iconic,” Batarelli said. “IVC was considered by the American media at the time the world’s most violent and real promotion, and fighters love it. Many fighters reached out to me asking to fight under vale tudo rules. I was as surprised as happy.”
IVC launched in 1997 and held 12 events in just over two years, featuring future MMA stars such as Silva, Chuck Liddell, and Dan Severn. Other names like Gary Goodridge, Mike Van Arsdale, Rafael Cordeiro, and Renato Sobral also competed under the IVC banner in the 1990s. Batarelli said he sold the IVC library to the UFC in the past but still owns the International Vale Tudo Championship name.
Batarelli said IVC will be regulated by the Brazilian Confederation of Vale Tudo Fights, a body founded by him in 1997. The card currently features a match between veterans Jorge Patino (39-19-2, 2 NCs) and Johil de Oliveira (17-16-1, 1 NC). Batarelli said the winner will face Jose Landi-Jons (29-16) on a future event.
UFC veteran Anderson dos Santos, who defeated Paulo Pizzo in a boxing match in April, will rematch him under IVC rules on the card, Batarelli said. Edval Pedroso vs. Allan Popeye is also agreed, as well as Haialas Souza competing in a bare-knuckle boxing match against an opponent to be named.
Alexander Volkanovski is having fun with the options ahead of him now that he’s no longer Ultimate Fighting Championship’s (UFC) Featherweight champion.
Few fighters throughout mixed martial arts (MMA) history have put on the types of masterclass performances “The Great” did during his title reign. Unfortunately for Volkanovski, all good things come to an end.
Volkanovski, 35, has been enjoying his time between bouts since he lost his title to Ilia Topuria via a second round knockout (watch highlights) at UFC 298 this past February 2024. Shortly after the bout, Volkanovski was adamant that he’d rematch Topuria. It was just a matter of when. After the time that’s passed, Volkanovski still expects that to be the case, whether or not he gets some action in at Lightweight before then.
“My next fight at Featherweight will be for the title,” Volkanovski told ESPN Australia. “It’s just the time. Obviously, I wanted to wait. I don’t know what exactly are the plans. I haven’t been hounding the UFC, just sort of been taking it easy. So, I don’t know if they got plans. I know for a fact my next fight is for the title. Whether something happens before that, and if that’s the case, does that mean I’m waiting too long?
“That’s where I’m like, if that is the case, alright,” he continued. “Maybe if Dustin Poirier[wants to], that would be an incredible fight. Obviously, he’s a good dude with a lot of respect for each other. Big name, very, very fun fight. That’s something, and I just thought I’d put feelers out so you never know. Lightweight division looks good but my next Featherweight fight is for the belt.”
Topuria has yet to defend his title but all indications point at him and former champion, Max Holloway, colliding.
At just 21 years of age, Kade Ruotolo has already accomplished more than most ever will in competitive grappling, which includes his ADCC championship in 2022.
While he’ll never forget his roots, Ruotolo now prepares to make his MMA debut at ONE 167 on Friday, which was always the plan for him. Despite the long list of accolades he’s amassed in grappling (with plans to add even more in the near future), Ruotolo knew he would become a fighter with his twin brother Tye eventually expected to do the same.
“I always knew from a young age I would be putting on the gloves,” Ruotolo told MMA Fighting. “It was always a bucket list type thing for me. I’ve always enjoyed watching it, loved watching it as kids. We’d go over to our grandpa’s house and he’d always have the UFC fights on or whatever.
“We are always super into it, always watching and obviously doing jiu-jitsu at that time. We always knew one day that once we accomplished almost everything we wanted to in jiu-jitsu that we would make that transition over.”
Because Brazilian jiu-jitsu and competitive grappling have taken up so much of his time over the years, Ruotolo admits he didn’t focus much on MMA training until the past few years. He did train some Muay Thai when he was a kid, but largely stayed focused on his grappling career until recently.
With plans to eventually do MMA already planted in his mind, Ruotolo started taking baby steps towards the sport by incorporating more striking and wrestling into his training regimen. What he didn’t expect was enjoying MMA as much as jiu-jitsu.
“I’m definitely in love with it,” Ruotolo said. “I think what’s so easy to love about it for me is that I’m learning something new every single day. It’s not that I don’t in jiu-jitsu, but just the amount that I’m learning every, single day, it’s refreshing. It feels like I’m a kid again. I’m back at white belt again, climbing the ranks. I’m in love with it. I’m almost to say more than jiu-jitsu to be honest with you. I love striking.”
Ruotolo surrounded himself with the best trainers he could find, including legendary MMA coach Erik Paulson, who helped him adapt his world-class grappling for use in the cage.
Even with all of his experience in the biggest Brazilian jiu-jitsu competitions around the world, Ruotolo admits he figured quickly that Paulson was a fountain of information.
“I was born in 2003 so I was like Erik Paulson?” Ruotolo said. “I’m sitting there scratching my head and I go in there and he shows me three leg locks I never knew and I started using them all day in class, throughout the whole next week. It just blew my mind. Right when you think you know all the leg locks! He showed me three I didn’t even have a clue about.
“That’s when I knew this was the man on the grappling, jiu-jitsu and wrestling, that was him.”
As much as he’s enjoyed his training and preparation, Ruotolo admits nothing came easy, which is why he believes so many high-level grapplers talk about doing MMA and then abandon that plan before it comes to fruition.
“There’s definitely a reason why you see a lot of guys claim they’re going to do MMA and they never quite make it there,” Ruotolo said. “It’s a whole different ball game. A whole different sport.
“You really do have to devote your everything into it as far as training, the recovery, everything. It’s so much more drastic than a jiu-jitsu match or a jiu-jitsu camp even.”
Ruotolo hopes he gets to show off all his different tools in his MMA debut, but also knows he has a weapon that’s far from secret. He also expects to show his opponents something they’ve never witnessed before.
“I think a lot of people will be surprised at my willingness and my gameness to fight and not just look for a takedown and grapple,” Ruotolo said. “But in the most humble way possible, it’s been a very long time since the MMA world has seen a level of grappling such as my brother and I. Jiu-jitsu has been evolving so much and changing so much in recent years, wrestling is so important, leg locks, all this is important.
“I’m not sure if the MMA world is ready for it. I’m excited to show what I can do.”
While his primary focus remains on his upcoming fight in June, Ruotolo still plans on returning to grappling with the upcoming ADCC tournament in July. He also has an individual grappling match booked against Mikey Musumeci when ONE Championship returns to the United States in September.
After that, Ruotolo wants to book his second MMA fight.
That probably seems like an ambitious list of goals for somebody who is just now debuting, but Ruotolo doesn’t want to waste any time, especially during the prime years of his athletic career.
“I’m 21, I want to take advantage of this youth,” Ruotolo said. “I definitely don’t want to be fighting deep into my 30s. Definitely not even deep into my 20s honestly. My whole idea is I’m getting my work done now. The sooner the better honestly.
“I’m not here to just become another jiu-jitsu guy or an MMA guy. I want to be considered one of the greatest combat athletes of all time.”
If you passed by Tank Abbott on the street, there’s a pretty good chance you wouldn’t recognize him.
Today, Abbott lives a mostly quiet life, hosting his own podcast called The Proving Ground. But in 1995, he quickly became one of the UFC’s biggest stars courtesy of his balls-to-the-wall style of fighting that provided a plethora of highlight-reel knockouts.
Recently, Abbott made an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience to talk about all things UFC, going back to a time when even Rogan himself wasn’t part of the promotion. During their conversation, Abbott spoke about what it was like competing in a time when the sport had no rules and no time limits, how he ended up getting himself kicked out of the UFC, and his issue with iconic MMA referee ‘Big’ John McCarthy.
Tank Abbott went from UFC to WCW
After his fighting career began to fizzle out, Abbott found a new gig by signing a deal with World Championship Wrestling. Initially brought in to capitalize on his status as a legitimate fighter, Abbott’s character was quickly dwindled down to a crazed fan following around 3 Count, a mock boy band stable made up of wrestlers Evan Karagias, Shannon Moore, and Shane Helms—better known by WWE fans as The Hurricane.
Abbott continued to fight off and on under a handful of brands, including Strikeforce, PRIDE, EliteXC, and King of the Cage before ultimately retiring in 2013. He never found the same success as he did in the early days of the Octagon, but his merciless approach to the fight game will always be remembered by the fans who have been down since day one.
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