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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Andre Lima has another new opponent for UFC 302.

Multiple people with knowledge of the promotion’s plans confirmed to MMA Fighting that Lima nows face Contender Series and The Ultimate Fighter alum Mitch Raposo in a flyweight bout at the June 1 pay-per-view event at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. MMA Junkie first reported the news.

Raposo steps in for Nyamjargal Tumendemberel, who is out of the fight for undisclosed reasons. Raposo was expected to compete for the second time on the upcoming season of the Contender Series before getting the call. The 25-year-old competed on season 29 of The Ultimate Fighter in 2021 as a bantamweight and was defeated by Liudvik Sholinian. He was submitted by Jake Hadley on the Contender Series later that year. The highly touted New England prospect went on to finish his next four opponents, winning regional titles for both CES MMA and Cage Titans.

Lima gets his third different opponent for the event, which includes originally scheduled opponent Hyun Sung Park, who withdrew with a knee injury. The fellow Contender Series vet had quite the UFC debut where he was victorious via disqualification after he was bit by Igor Severino at UFC Vegas 89 in March.

UFC 302 is headlined by a lightweight title fight between Islam Makhachev and former interim champ Dustin Poirier.

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With heavyweight champion Jon Jones scheduled to face former two-time titleholder Stipe Miocic when he returns from injury, the UFC heavyweight division is in limbo.  

In Jones’ absence, the fight promotion crowned an interim heavyweight champion and now he will defend the interim belt at UFC 304 on July 27 in Manchester, England.  Manchester’s own Tom Aspinall captured the interim title by knocking out Sergei Pavlovich in November and will put the interim belt on the line in a rematch against fourth-ranked Curtis Blaydes.  

If Aspinall defeated Blaydes, he plans on sitting out and waiting for a unification match against the winner of the the Jones and Miocic title fight.  He and Blaydes met for the first time in July 2022.  Fifteen seconds into the bout Aspinall fell to the canvas holding his knee.  The fight was stopped due to the injury and Blaydes picked up a TKO win.   

“We’re two different fighters now.  We’ve improved a lot, both of us, since then,” Aspinall told talkSPORT MMA.  “I’ve got a lot more experience since then especially big fight experience which is massive.”

“My confidence has grown loads since then. Just everything’s better.  Everyting’s a lot better.  I’m a new version of myself now than I was when I fought him last time. He’s improved as well so whole new fight this time.”

As far as Jon Jones, Aspinall remains focused on defeating Blaydes.  That domino has to fall for a unification bout to take place.    

“I’m over it at this point.  I’m fighting Curtis Blaydes. It’s a tough fight and I’m preparing for Curtis so Jon Jones and all the rest of the politics are pretty irrelevant to me right now. Right now, focused on him and nothing else,” Aspinall said.  “If I win this one, which I believe I will, my next fight has to be for undisputed. Definitely, and I’ll wait it out if I have to after this one. Right now, that doesn’t exist.  What exists for me is Curtis Blaydes and nothing more.  I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.”  

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Sean O’Malley doesn’t like the sound of playing second fiddle to Ilia Topuria.

Ideally, the reigning Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Bantamweight champion, O’Malley, has hoped for an eventual clash with his fellow titleholder at Featherweight, Topuria. Until that can happen, they’ll each have to get through some top contenders.

O’Malley, 29, will likely next defend his 135-pound crown opposite the surging Georgian, Merab Dvalishvili. With no dates locked in, O’Malley recently pondered possibly competing on another stacked card like his last time out at UFC 299 in March 2024. However, what if he didn’t headline it? “Sugar’s” return timing could align with Topuria’s for his expected next clash against Max Holloway. Depending on the business dealings of such an event, O’Malley wouldn’t be too fond of the concept.

“I’m hoping they do a crazy card like they did in Miami and put me on the main event, get that pay-per-view [points], boy,” O’Malley said on his TimboSugar Show podcast. “I’m trying to think who I would co-main with. Ilia? Yeah. (Sighs) I would be upset. He’s too short.

“If he was taller than me, I’d say that’s fine, but the fact that he’s 5’4” main eventing over me would piss me off,” he continued. “I’d be fine with it if I got pay-per-view. I don’t know if they’d do Max vs. Ilia, me vs. Merab. ‘Cause I’m wondering if Max is gonna get pay-per-view next fight. Not [just] for the BMF, but also because he’s that big of a star. There’s zero perfect chance UFC pays me, Ilia, and Max pay-per-view. So, I don’t think that’s it.”

No matter who is next for Topuria, it will be his first title defense as a champion. O’Malley, on the other hand, successfully defended his title for the first time at the aforementioned UFC 299 event when he won a unanimous decision in his rematch against Marlon “Chito” Vera (watch highlights).

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

The UFC has its next trip to the APEX lined up.

In the main event of UFC Vegas 93 on June 15, top flyweight contenders Alex Perez and Tatsuro Taira face off with the one-time title challenger aiming to hand Taira his first loss. On Tuesday, the UFC also made the rest of the 12-fight card official.

Perez and Taira are both currently top 15 in their division, with Perez at No. 12 and Taira at No. 13 in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings.

The penultimate bout sees Andre Muniz take on Ikram Aliskerov in a middleweight contest. Muniz has won six of his past eight since joining the UFC in 2019, while Aliskerov sports a 15-1 record including victories in his first two UFC appearances.

Further down the card, more flyweights are in action, including Tagir Ulanbekov vs. Joshua Van, Assu Almabayev vs. Jose Johnson, and Jimmy Flick vs. Nate Maness.

UFC Vegas 93 is scheduled to air on ESPN+, ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes.

See the updated lineup below (final bout order still to be determined).

Alex Perez vs. Tatsuro Taira

Andre Muniz vs. Ikram Aliskerov

Jeka Saragih vs. Westin Wilson

Tagir Ulanbekov vs. Joshua Van

Shayilan Nuerdanbieke vs. Melquizael Costa

Assu Almabayev vs. Jose Johnson

Jimmy Flick vs. Nate Maness

Douglas Silva de Andrade vs. Miles Johns

Timothy Cuamba vs. Lucas Almeida

Josh Quinlan vs. Adam Fugitt

Josefine Knutsson vs. Julia Polastri

Brady Hiestand vs. Garrett Armfield

Carli Judice vs. Gabriella Fernandes

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Ilia Topuria knows the who. Now he’s just waiting on the when.

After Max Holloway’s incredible buzzer-beating KO of Justin Gaethje at UFC 300, ‘Blessed’ was all but guaranteed a chance to challenge ‘El Matador’ for the featherweight title.

During a recent interview with Sportskeeda MMA, Topuria revealed that Holloway will be his first challenger with a target date of September, presumably at UFC 306 when the promotion makes its debut inside The Sphere in Las Vegas.

“My target is to come back in September. Right now we are in the conversations,” Holloway said. “If Max Holloway is able to fight in September, we have a fight. If not, maybe we are going to the end of the year or something like that. I want to fight as soon as possible because next year I wanna fight in Spain.”

Though he has yet to defend his 145-pound crown since his sensational second-round knockout of Alexander Volkanovski in February, Ilia Topuria is already making an itinerary that will take him into 2025 and beyond.

Once he takes care of some business with Holloway, the Georgian has his sights set on a big-money matchup with Irish megastar Conor McGregor.

“I hope to defend the belt with Max Holloway, and then I wanna fight with Conor McGregor,” Topuria added. “It’s gonna be the biggest fight in MMA history.”

Ilia Topuria not interested in a superfight with Islam makhachev… for now

Topuria is even open to a potential scrap with Islam Makhachev — assuming the ‘Dagestani Destroyer’ continues to reign over the lightweight division with an iron fist.

“Maybe [I could fight Islam] in the future,” Topuria said. “Right now I just see the Max Holloway fight, the Conor fight. Maybe if [Islam] keeps defending the belt and he keeps becoming bigger and bigger, maybe one day we can see that fight too. But for the moment he’s not in my list.”

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