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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Derrick Lewis and Daniel Cormier fought six years ago, but is there still bad blood to this day?

That appears to be the case at least on Lewis’ side as the veteran heavyweight cast Cormier in a negative light at Wednesday’s media day ahead of his fight with Jhonata Diniz at UFC Edmonton this Saturday. Lewis was asked what fight in his lengthy career he’d want to run back and “DC” was the name that came to mind.

“Probably DC,” Cormier said. “Because that’s still not sitting right with me, I don’t know. Do people really like DC like that?

“I told DC in his face, that guy a piece of shit. He’s a piece of shit, scumbag. F*ck DC.”

Lewis and Cormier met in the main event of UFC 230 in November 2018, with Cormier defending his heavyweight championship against “The Black Beast.” Cormier recorded his first and only successful heavyweight title defense, submitting Cormier in the second round.

When Lewis asked to elaborate on his issues with Cormier, he gave a cryptic response, joking about a past beef over a Popeyes chicken sponsorship, but then insulting Cormier again.

“DC know why,” Lewis said. “Everyone know why, too, he disrespect that Popeyes chicken, but other than that, he’s a piece of shit.”

Lewis’ comments made the rounds on social media, though it remains unclear how serious the often sardonic fighter intended to be.

During an episode of The Ariel Helwani Show on Wednesday, Helwani gave Cormier an impromptu call to sort out the situation, with the conversation arguably only raising more questions.

“I haven’t seen him for a while, but I was pretty hard on him about retiring because he had lost a couple of fights and I was kind of telling the truth and he seemed mad at me, but I haven’t seen him,” Cormier said. “I’m going to see him this weekend and I’m going to kind of ask him, ‘Yo, are you mad at me?’”

Lewis has seen mixed results in his past eight fights, with just three wins during that stretch, including a third-round knockout of Rodrigo Nascimento in his most recent outing this past May. In Cormier’s role as an on-air analyst and podcaster, he’s required to give his honest opinion on how fighters are performing and he believes he might have said something that rubbed Lewis the wrong way.

It’s important to note that Cormier was yet to see the clip of Lewis’ comments himself when discussing the matter with Helwani, so he was basing his response strictly on second-hand accounts. Still, real or not, Cormier sees no reason to reignite their former feud.

“It sounds like it may be a little underlying, he might be a little pissed at me because of the way I talked about him,” Cormier said. “I don’t know what fight it was where it he didn’t look great, but then he knocked the last guy out and I was like, ‘I’m glad he’s back.’ So I don’t know. My opinions go with their performances and I think maybe that’s what it is, but in terms of anything else, Derrick and I don’t really have many things that we do together outside of the Popeyes thing and then our fight.

“But we can’t be mad at each other, we already fought. It’s settled.”

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UFC Edmonton is almost upon us, and MMA News is here to keep you updated with the current odds for this weekend’s lineup.

The upcoming event takes place Saturday, November 2, at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The main card begins at 7 PM ET/4 PM PT, with the preliminary card starting at 4 PM ET/1 PM PT.

Topping the lineup will be former two-time UFC flyweight champion Brandon Moreno, who will look to bounce back from consecutive split decision losses at the hands of Alexandre Pantoja and Brandon Royval when he competes in the “Great White North.” To Accomplish that feat, the Mexican fan favorite is tasked with stalling the surge of 17-1 contender Amir Albazi.

Before they go to battle, the co-main event will see ex-strawweight queen Rose Namajunas make the walk for the third time this year. If she’s to make it three flyweight wins in a row and stake her claim for a shot at two-division glory, “Thug Rose” must send the #3-ranked Erin Blanchfield to the first losing skid of her career.

Also set to make the walk on Saturday will be the likes of heavyweight knockout artist Derrick Lewis, welterweight prospect Mike Malott, bantamweight veteran Pedro Munhoz, and the always entertaining Charles Jourdain.

UFC Edmonton: Moreno vs. Albazi Betting Odds

Listed below are the latest betting odds for UFC Edmonton (as of 10/31), courtesy of DraftKings.

Main Card:

• Brandon Moreno (-175) vs. Amir Albazi (+145)
• Erin Blanchfield (-130) vs. Rose Namajunas (+110)
• Derrick Lewis (+145) vs. Jhonata Diniz (-175)
• Caio Machado (-148) vs. Brendson Ribeiro (+124)
• Marc-André Barriault (-205) vs. Dustin Stoltzfus (+170)
• Mike Malott (-185) vs. Trevin Giles (+230)

Preliminary Card:

• Aiemann Zahabi (-125) vs. Pedro Munhoz (+105)
• Ariane Lipski (+120) vs. Jasmine Jasudavicius (-230)
• Charles Jourdain (-142) vs. Victor Henry (+120)
• Jack Shore (+250) vs. Youssef Zalal (-310)
• Alexandr Romanov (-102) vs. Rodrigo Nascimento (-118)
• Serhiy Sidey (-142) vs. Garrett Armfield (+120)
• Chad Anheliger (+160) vs. Cody Gibson (-192)
• Jamey-Lyn Horth (-218) vs. Ivana Petrovic (+180)

Continue Reading UFC Edmonton Betting Odds: Current Favorites For Moreno vs. Albazi, Blanchfield vs. Namajunas, & More at MMA News.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Joaquin Buckley wants his shot at the interim title.

On Thursdays, news broke that welterweight champion Belal Muhammad was forced out of his UFC 310 title defense against Shavkat Rakhmonov due to a nasty injury. While nothing is official, reports are that the UFC currently is looking for a replacement opponent for Rakhmonov, perhaps even for an interim welterweight title, and almost immediately Ian Machado Garry threw his hat in the ring for that opportunity.

But not so fast, so says Buckley.

Thursday evening, Buckley released a response video to Garry’s callout of Rakhmonov, dismissing the undefeated Irish star’s claim and suggesting he is better served to “take the throne.”

“Hey look, I’m going to let you finish but I’ve got something to say,” Buckley said while hitting a heavy bag. “Nobody wants to see that fight. People want to see knockouts. People want to see finishes. And that’s exactly what we’re fixing to bring, me versus Shavkat. He’s got 18 finishes, 10 subs, 8 knockouts, and your boy? I’ve got 14 knockouts, and I just knocked out my last two ranked opponents. So what you think I’m fixing to do to this dude?

“UFC, this is the fight y’all have got to make. Like I told y’all, I’m coming to take the throne, and I ain’t playing. Boom!”

Currently ranked No. 9 in the UFC welterweight rankings, Buckley is on a five-fight unbeaten streak since dropping back down to 170 pounds. Most recently he knocked out Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson at UFC 307 earlier this month.

Garry, meanwhile, is No. 7 in the UFC rankings and most recently won a close decision over Michael “Venom” Page at UFC 303 this summer.

UFC 310 takes place on Dec. 7 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, and also features a men’s flyweight title bout between Alexandre Pantoja and Kai Asakura.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Brandon Moreno is back in the cage sooner than expected, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t taken time to reflect on his recent struggles.

The two-time flyweight champion had established a routine of fighting once every six to seven months over the past few years, and his return in Saturday’s UFC Edmonton main event comes after a slightly longer break after most recently fighting in February. At UFC Mexico City, Moreno lost a split decision to Brandon Royval and the result prompted Moreno to take a step back from thinking about competing.

“I think it was the break point,” Moreno said at UFC Edmonton media day on Wednesday. “That’s it. I said this before, I don’t want to put any excuse. I think Brandon Royval is doing an amazing job right now. He’s a tough guy with amazing rhythm in the middle of the fight, but I don’t know, I feel like that night was that kind of night when your mind is not there. That’s very frustrating because I did all the training camp, the elevation, I leave my family for two months, really nice sparring sessions, everything, and then in the fight I wasn’t there. My body was there, but my mind—I don’t know, that’s very frustrating for me.”

“No excuses,” he added. “I don’t want to come here and start to put a lot of excuses. I think it’s very normal between fighters, maybe you can ask other fighters, ‘Did you have fights where you feel like your mind wasn’t there?’ They’re going to say yes, and that night was one of mine.”

The loss to Royval put Moreno on a two-fight losing streak, just the second time in his career he’s suffered consecutive losses, with Alexandre Pantoja recently defeating Moreno for the flyweight title at UFC 290. Both of those losses came via split decision in exceedingly close five-round fights.

Moreno planned to take time off after the Royval fight, but his competitive itch kept flaring up. It’s thanks to his team and family that he was able to stay away from the octagon as long as he has.

“I think it’s very easy, I’m a competitor,” Moreno said when asked what made him come back sooner than expected. “When I decide to take a little break of competition, everything was fine in that moment, but after that, three weeks after, I’m starting to think again, ‘Damn, I want to fight. I want to fight. I want to fight.’ Then it’s when my wife, my family helped me a lot with that.

“My wife and my coaches like, ‘Hey, you have to take a break. You have to take it serious. You have to rest, be with your family, with your daughters. Make more nice moments with them first.’ So I had to calm myself. I had this fight with myself in my mind to take this break serious.”

On Saturday, Moreno fights the streaking Albazi, a contender coming off a lengthy layoff of his own that is yet to lose in five UFC appearances. Though the fighters appear to be heading in opposite directions, Moreno isn’t discouraged by his past two outings; rather, he felt his competitive performances were evidence that his best is still to come.

“It’s crazy—and I’ve been talking with my coaches about this—I feel very frustrated because even when I lost my last two fights, I feel my prime,” Moreno said. “I feel very strong. I feel stronger, with better technique, with more knowledge about the fight game, just the result is not what I’ve been having [before]. So now my goal is to show that to the world. To back up all my words, to back up all my hard work at the gym and that’s it.”

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Interim title
| BJPenn.com

Jon Jones is the UFC heavyweight champion — but is starting to feel like a 205-pounder without the weight cut, thanks to a new-and-improved training regimen that has “Bones” hovering around the 240-pound mark.

“240 pounds, fast and strong,” Jones wrote on Instagram. “I used to walk around at 235 pounds as a light heavyweight. This almost feels like a light heavyweight fight without the weight cut.”

Glad to see those skinny-fat days are behind him.

Jones will defend the 265-pound title against former heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic atop the UFC 309 pay-per-view (PPV) event, locked and loaded for Sat., Nov. 16, 2024 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Assuming we don’t encounter another injury setback.

Whether or not the 37 year-old Jones retires from competition — or moves on to face impatient interim champion Tom Aspinall — all depends on his championship performance next month inside “The World’s Most Famous Arena.”

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