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Former undisputed welterweight champion, Kamaru Usman has hit back at former two-division gold holder, Conor McGregor amid a recent scatching attack from the Dubliner, claiming the incoming UFC 303 headliner rejected two opportunities to fight him during his run atop the 170lbs weight division.

Usman, who still retains the number one rank at the welterweight limit, last featured a division higher at middleweight back in October of last year, suffering his third consecutive loss in the form of a controversial majority decision defeat against the unbeaten, Khamzat Chimaev.

As for former undisputed lightweight and featherweight champion, Conor McGregor, the veteran striker is finally set to snap an almost-three year hiatus from the Octagon at the end of next month during International Fight Week, tackling former title chaser, Michael Chandler in a long-anticipated pairing.

Kamaru Usman hits back at Conor McGregor with a stark revalation

And firing shots at a host of foes and fellow UFC stars this week during a live stream session, McGregor rekindled his rivalry with Usman, claiming the Auchi native was “nobody” to him anymore, despite campaigning for a title fight against the former pound-for-pound number one on numerous occasions.

According to ONX Labs trainee, Usman to boot, McGregor did have that opportunity to stand opposite him twice in a bid to become the first three-weight champion in UFC history, allegedly he ultimately turned both fights down.

“What I have a little issue with is when you come around and say, ‘He’s a bum’, you can’t say that, Conor (McGregor),’ Kamaru Usman said on his YouTube channel. “I didn’t kick him when he was down, he’s had run ins with the law, he’s had back-to-back incidents and situations but you never heard me sit there and kick him while he was down.”

“I’m not a bum, clearly, because if you wanted the opportunity to fight me, I gave Conor two opportunities to fight me while I was champion,” Kamaru Usman explained. “What he needs to be worried about is Michael Chandler, because Michael Chandler is training and Conor, you need to put that whiskey bottle down and you need to get to training. This isn’t the time, this doesn’t call for you trolling.”

Who would win in a potential showdown: Kamaru Usman or Conor McGregor? 

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

“She Hated It”
| BJPenn.com

Bringing you the weird and wild from the world of MMA each and every weeknight!

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Ryan Garcia isn’t pretending to be crazy anymore, but that doesn’t mean the monkeying around is through.

“King” shocked social media with a bizarre video (watch above) of the boxing star serenading an orangutang! Garcia can be seen rapping along to his own recent release — a song titled “Blessed, Highly Favored” — while the orangutan hangs out and eats grapes in the driver’s seat of a car (presumably Garcia’s?).

Reactions amongst fans were mixed. Quite a few fans admitted to finding the stunt funny, while many noted that the orangutan appeared unimpressed by his performance. He received several comparisons to other celebrities and their unusual animal pals, like Mike Tyson and his tiger.

Oddly enough, Garcia also ran into a UFC fighter while hanging out with orangutan. Lightweight talent Jared Gordon posted his own clip, showing both he and Garcia holding hands with the primate before shaking hands with each other.

In the ring, Garcia is just a couple weeks removed from handing Devin Haney the first loss of his professional career (watch it) and making an insane amount of money in the process. Unfortunately, Garcia also failed a drug test for multiple substances immediately after the victory. To his credit, however, Garcia has already been cleared on one substance, but he still has to prove his innocence in regards to Ostarine usage.

Insomnia

Oleksandr Usyk shows off his battle wounds after 12 rounds of battle with Tyson Fury.

Jared Gooden explains why he was unable to fight last weekend at UFC Vegas 91.

An important anniversary for the PRIDE fans among us.

How long until Dricus Du Plessis vs. Israel Adesanya is announced?

Aljamain Sterling vs. Movsar Evloev feels like the fight to make at 145 pounds.

Lerone Murphy is down to fight Josh Emmett or Calvin Kattar after defeating Edson Barboza.

Freestyle wrestling at its absolute finest! Saitiev won Olympic gold three times and World Championships an additional six times.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Douglas swarmed him with power shots and Ghareeb couldn’t back him off.

Andre Fialho has taken quite a few bad knockout losses in the last couple years.

Sat him down twice with aggressive elbows:

Random Land

King Charles III’s royal portrait made headlines for the wrong reasons recently, but I found this analysis of the painting itself quite interesting.

Midnight Music: Jangle pop, 1984

Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.

MMAmania.com – All Posts

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Former NBA commissioner David Stern is largely credited with helping the once struggling basketball league explode into a global phenomenon. Just a few years before he took over in 1984, 16 of the NBA’s 23 teams were losing money, attendance was down, and the league was taking a beating in the court of public opinion.

Under Stern’s leadership, the NBA not only corrected course but the league transformed into a multi-billion business with stars like Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson flourishing into household names. The Ringer called Stern “the most consequential off-court figure” in NBA history in a profile after his passing in 2020.

It’s impossible to argue about the influence Stern had on the game of basketball and the same could be said for Dana White in the UFC.

That’s according to TKO Group Holdings president Mark Shapiro, who compared White to Stern when addressing the UFC CEO’s innate ability to identify talent and then transforming in-cage success into superstardom.

“In my years being in sports, I started with ESPN in 1993, so I’ve seen it all,” Shapiro said during the JP Morgan Technology, Media and Communications conference. “Don’t want to date myself here but the only other person I can equate him to in terms of star building is David Stern.

“Stern was as good as it gets when it comes to star building. [Larry] Bird and Magic [Johnson] and Michael Jordan and Shaq (Shaquille O’Neal) and Kobe Bryant. He would see the star before anybody else. He would seize upon it. He would bring his marketing prowess to the table. He would get behind that star and there would be a new following. So he would love having Anthony Edwards today, I’ll tell you that. Dana White is that.”

Shapiro credits White as the driving force behind not only the UFC’s exponential growth in recent years but the emergence of stars fighting there.

Of course there’s none bigger than Conor McGregor, who finally makes his long awaited return to the octagon at UFC 303 in June, but there’s also names like Israel Adesanya, Sean O’Malley and Ilia Topuria who have emerged as legitimate draws in recent years.

Shapiro says White has been instrumental in not only recognizing fighters worth signing and developing but he then puts his marketing muscle behind them.

“He sees men and women. He sees these potential stars,” Shapiro said. “He gets behind them. They have to win on their own but he puts them in a position if they win, to really explode. That works to our benefit.”

Since the UFC became part of a publicly traded company, financial disclosures are readily available and it’s tough to argue with Shapiro’s logic, at least based on the revenue the promotion has generated over the past few years.

The UFC has produced record revenue year over years with more growth expected now that the promotion has started hitting the road more often for events with site fees reaching astronomical proportions.

Shapiro teased on Monday that the UFC just recently inked a new pact with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia “for almost double the rights fee” for the original event scheduled on June 22.Saudi Arabia reportedly paid $ 20 million for that card.

The entire team working at UFC deserves credit for the massive gains but Shapiro says none of that happens without White captaining the ship.

“By in large, the biggest reason for our success is Dana White himself,” Shapiro said. “I mean we have a great team behind him in management, Lawrence Epstein, who runs UFC day-to-day and Craig Borsari, who does the production and Pete Dropick, who oversees the live events. But Dana White is all that and then some.

“He’s a marketer, he’s a star all by himself. He’s an unbelievable leader. He’s an incredible matchmaker. His social is growing arguably faster than the UFC itself. But the best thing he is, he’s a star builder.”

MMA Fighting – All Posts

The husband and coach of UFC bantamweight standout Hailey Cowan has been arrested amid allegations of sexually assaulting a minor.

According to a report from KWTX-TV, Jacob Brennan, 40, was arrested and booked into the McLennan County (Texas) Jail on May 19 after a woman accused him of inappropriately touching her “hundreds of times” over a two-year period.

Brennan was charged with indecency with a child with sexual contact, a second-degree felony in Texas. If convicted, Brennan could face two to 20 years in prison.

Per the criminal complaint affidavit, the alleged victim was 13 years old when the assaults occurred. Brennan was 30.

Meeting with detectives in November 2023, the woman claimed that “Brennan kissed her hundreds of times and touched her vagina above and below her clothes hundreds of times between 2013 and 2015″ in the affidavit.

She goes on to state that the assaults happened in “various rooms throughout the gym almost every day,” and that “Brennan was concerned with getting caught and would stop touching her if he heard noises in the gym or believed someone was nearby.”

Prior to his arrest, an Instagram page popped up in February sharing screenshots of alleged conversations between Brennan and the woman along with Facebook posts showing the two of them together at Brennan’s gym, Next Generation/Blitz MMA in Robinson.

Hailey Cowan and Jacob Brennan were married in 2022

Hailey Cowan, a former Baylor University gymnast turned mixed martial artist, began training at Brennan’s gym in 2014. The two were married eight years later.

After a successful run under the LFA and Invicta FC banners, Cowan introduced herself to UFC fans on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2022, scoring a split-decision victory against Cláudia Leite. The victory was good enough to earn a contract and she made her promotional debut in April 2023.

Unfortunately, Cowan failed to make weight for her bantamweight bout with Jamey-Lyn Horth. The fight went forward as scheduled with ‘All Hail’ losing via unanimous decision.

Cowan has since been scheduled to compete in bouts against Zarah Fairn and Tamires Vidal, but both were scrapped after she withdrew due to injury. It has been more than a year since her last fight.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Dustin Poirier is one of the most beloved fighters in MMA today, known for his fan-friendly style that has earned him nine Fight of the Night bonuses. But in recent years, the former UFC interim lightweight champion has diversified his portfolio, starting both a hot sauce company — Poirier’s Louisiana Style — and bourbon — Rare Stash. But ahead of his lightweight title fight against Islam Makhachev at UFC 302 next month, Poirier has added another skill to his resume: acting.

On Tuesday, Bud Light, who signed an endorsement deal with Poirier earlier this year, released a new 30 second commercial centered around “The Diamond” and the UFC. In the commercial the “Bud Light genie” grants bar patrons a wish, with one of those wishes being to hang out with Poirier. Poirier then takes the group to a UFC event and jokes with the genie.

Check out the commercial above.

Bud Light previously sponsored the UFC from 2008 until 2017 before the promotion shifted to Modelo. But in 2024, the two powers reunited for a multiyear partnership.

Poirier will challenge Islam Makhachev for the lightweight title at UFC 302 which goes down at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ on June 1.

MMA Fighting – All Posts