Oumar Sy makes his UFC debut this Saturday, however he’ll now face a short-notice fellow newcomer.
The promotion revealed on Tuesday that Sy meets Road to UFC alum Tuko Tokkos at UFC Vegas 92 at the UFC APEX. Tokkos steps in on less than a week’s notice for Antonio Trocoli, who withdrew for undisclosed reasons. Al Zullino first reported the news on Twitter.
Sy looks to remain undefeated as he steps into the cage for the first time in nearly a year. The three-time KSW veteran’s first two scheduled opponents withdrew from the bout. Sy aims to build upon the momentum of his first-round finish at KOF 1 this past June.
Since suffering a stoppage loss against Minyang Zhang on Road to UFC in June 2022, Tukkos bounced back with three straight victories to earn his UFC opportunity. In his most recent outing, the 33-year-old picked up a 89-second stoppage win for Fury FC, which followed a 40-second finish six months prior for the All In Combat promotion.
UFC Vegas 92 is headlined by a featherweight bout between Edson Barboza and Lerone Murphy.
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Fresh off his dominant win over Nursulton Ruziboev at UFC St. Louis last weekend (Sat. May 11, 2024), Joaquin Buckley may have found his next dance partner. Initially, Buckley used his post-fight interview to call for a showdown versus Conor McGregor, but “New Mansa” pretty quickly realized that wasn’t going to happen. Appropriately, he changed his target to former Welterweight title challenger Gilbert Burns.
Buckley has called to fight “Durinho” previously, as he’s faced several of Burns’ Kill Cliff FC team mates, like Vicente Luque. Though Burns is coming off a fairly nasty knockout loss to Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 299 back in March, the Brazilian is down to jump back into action and accepted Buckley’s callout on his Show Me The Money podcast.
“Let’s do it,” Burns responded. “The way I see it, I’m not in the situation to call anyone out or to pick and choose. I’m [ranked] number six right now. I don’t know, if they send me [a contract], I’ll say yes now. I never say no to a fight, and I’m not planning on start doing.”
At 37 years of age, Burns has to get back in the win column sooner than later if he’s going to work his way back to a second title shot. He’s lost two fights in a row, the aforementioned knockout loss to Maddalena and a decision defeat to Belal Muhammad. Prior to those defeats, Burns had won two straight fights.
As for Buckley, the rising knockout artist has won four straight since dropping to 170 lbs. He’s looking for the biggest win yet of his career, whereas Burns would have the opportunity to rebound against a tough opponent. If the timeline works for both, the bout makes sense.
Insomnia
I don’t fully understand, but I am impressed.
My Max vs Justin BMF edit, the extended Sonic edition #ufc300 pic.twitter.com/upL2P2jo3M
— Ray Rod (@rayrod747) May 13, 2024
An interesting bit of history relevant to the recently announced Rose Namajunas vs. Maycee Barber-led event …
Underappreciated aspect to the UFC going to Colorado: in October 2021, UFC VP of Regulatory Affairs Marc Ratner told @mmajunkie UFC would not be going back to Colorado after the state approved use of the ONE Championship ruleset.
It appears they’ve changed their mind: https://t.co/9MK1egdSSC pic.twitter.com/CQAuSAZCsZ
— Luke Thomas ️♀️ (@lthomasnews) May 14, 2024
Team Usyk responds to the John Fury head butt incident:
Oleksandr Usyk’s team-member Stanislav Stepchuk on being headbutted by Tyson Fury’s father John Fury: “I was just supporting our team. We were only shouting, ‘Usyk, Usyk,’ I didn’t touch him. He went crazy… Yeah [I wanted to punch him], but because of the age difference it would…
— Michael Benson (@MichaelBensonn) May 13, 2024
Michel Pereira doing his part to help with the flooding in Brazil. Good guy “Demolidor!”
Michel Pereira is on the front lines of the floods in Brazil to help those in need ❤️
Joaquin Buckley throwing shots at Michael Chandler in an indirect manner is funny.
Conor could fight a blind crippled Nigha in a wheelchair and that shit would make 20 million instead he fighting the midget https://t.co/kIjvix4QOk
— Joaquin New Mansa Buckley (@Newmansa94) May 14, 2024
A bit of a trend developing in reversing the back clinch? Carlos Diego Ferreira’s sequence really stood out to me when it happened,
2 weeks in a row someone has hit a sukui-nage/step-around leg overwrap to reverse a rear body lock. Russians have used it for decades as counters to throw-bys and to stand from referee’s position. Fast sprawls can beat it but I think it’s still a good concept pic.twitter.com/gTfIzY0qW4
— Josie Aldo (@JosieAldoMMA) May 14, 2024
A high-level women’s Strawweight booking is heading to the Apex.
Amanda Lemos will fight Virna Jandiroba at #UFCVegas94 on July 20th. (first rep. @MMAmelotto) #UFC #MMA #UFCESPN #UFC2024 pic.twitter.com/SKRlKStLeE
There are literally dozens of very violent Alexander Shlemenko highlights to choose from.
Alexander Shlemenko KO1 Bubba McDaniel (Flying Knee to the Body)
10.10.2008 | ShoXC Challenger Series pic.twitter.com/SCbzSiHMv4
— Forgotten Finishes (@FightsForgotten) May 10, 2024
Perrone carries that right hand loaded and ready to fire.
DAMN. Violent faceplant KO by Adrian Perrone in the CAM 25 main event. Catches Alan Villalba clean with a counter right in the dying seconds of R1 #CAM25 pic.twitter.com/88N9MMGNh6
— caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) May 12, 2024
Random Land
Ouch.
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Midnight Music: Synth pop, 2005
Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.
On what was arguably the biggest night of his career up to that point, Ian Machado Garry prepared to walk to the cage to vie for a title without a single coach in his corner.
That fight in Cage Warriors back in 2021 ultimately served as Garry’s graduation before joining the UFC roster, but an ugly split with his now former coaches at Team KF left Garry without anyone to corner him for his five-round matchup against Jack Grant. Thankfully, Paul Hughes was already attending the card to help out one of his teammates also scheduled to compete at Cage Warriors.
Hughes was already friendly with Garry before that weekend, but when the future UFC welterweight contender needed some backup, the prospect who just recently signed with PFL happily accepted the job.
“I think he just needed somebody to actually stand in his corner,” Hughes recounted recently on The MMA Hour. “I think he would have just done it by himself if he could have, fair play to him. I think he needed somebody in his corner for whatever reason that was.
“I was in town, my teammate Joe McColgan was fighting for a world title that night or the night before, so he was just like, ‘Any chance you can step in?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, absolutely. Of course.’ I wouldn’t leave someone hanging like that.”
While they knew each other, Hughes hadn’t spent much time around Garry as a fighter, but he didn’t blink when asked about cornering him that night.
The title fight actually ended up going for 25 minutes, so Hughes didn’t escape any duties as he helped between rounds before Garry ultimately earned a unanimous decision win.
Despite no real prior relationship as coach and fighter or even fighter and teammate, Hughes said there was no way he would’ve let Garry walk out there by himself. In fact, Hughes revealed that’s not the only time he’s stepped in to corner a fighter at the last minute — and that instance included somebody he had never even met before.
“It’s the least I could do,” Hughes said of cornering Garry that night. “It really is the least I could do. When I was in Amsterdam cornering [one of my teammates], some guy showed up with no corner, he was like ‘I need a cornerman.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it.’
“I had no idea [who he was]. He needed a corner. A fellow fighter needed some help and I’m happy to help. The least I could do.”
As for Garry, Hughes maintains a friendship with him to this day, and it was actually his advice that led Hughes to begin training with his current team at Kill Cliff MMA in Florida.
The gym, which serves as the home base for fighters such as Michael Chandler, Gilbert Burns, Jason Jackson, and Shavkat Rakhmonov, was exactly what Hughes needed — and he always remembers Garry for making the suggestion to train there.
“Ian Garry was training there for a while, obviously I’m friends with him,” Hughes said. “So he was like, ‘This is the spot, you’ve got to get out here.’ That gave me more incentive to go out and try it out.”
Hughes plans on training at Kill Cliff as he prepares for his upcoming debut at Bellator Dublin, which is scheduled for June 22.
Rekindling his rivalry with undisputed bantamweight champion, Sean O’Malley earlier this month, former division titleholder, Aljamain Sterling claims if he was to stand opposite the Montana striker in a rematch, he would beat him – chalking up his loss last year to a bad night at the office.
Sterling, a former undisputed bantamweight champion and the sole gold holder in the division to rack up three consecutive successful title defense wins, saw his record-setting reign come to a halt last August at the hands of bitter rival, O’Malley.
Mandatory Credit: Carmen Mandato
Headlining in his second straight fight on the East Coast, Uniondale native, Sterling suffered a second round knockout loss to the Dana White’s Contender Series product, dropping his undisputed bantamweight crown as a result.
And since making a successful switch to the featherweight limit in the form of a unanimous decision shutout win over Calvin Kattar at UFC 300 last month, Sterling reignited his rivalry with O’Malley last week, labelling him a “sorry-a**” champion amid his war of words with his teammate, Merab Dvalishvili.
AljamainSterling confident of beating Sean O’Malley in rematch
Reflecting on his knockout loss to the polarizing O’Malley, Serra-Longo MMA staple, Sterling claimed if were to fight the current titleholder in rematch, he would put his life savings on the table that he would avenge said defeat.
“(Sean) O’Malley showed up that night,” Aljamain Sterling told Kanpai Media. “It was an off night for myself, and the better man won that night. That’s why we say, ‘Any place, anywhere, any time.’ Sometimes it’s your night, sometimes it’s not, and unfortunately for me, it just didn’t go my way.”
“But I do know that if I had a rematch, and as long as he waited from August to fighting ‘Chito’ (Marlon Vera) in March, you give me that time to recover, and prepare and to cut my weight the proper way, in a rematch, I would bet my life savings on that,” Aljamain Sterling explained.
Mandatory Credit: Boston Globe
Linked with a return before the end of the year, Sterling has been floated as a potential opponent for Russian contender, Movsar Evloev, with the pair searching for a route to a title fight with incumbent featherweight best, Ilia Topuria.
As for O’Malley, the Montana native is expected to feature once again before the end of the annum, and has been linked heavily in recent weeks with a UFC 306 headlining feature at the Las Vegas Sphere against the above-mentioned, Dvalishvili.
Would you like to see Aljamain Sterling fight Sean O’Malley again?
Tracy Cortez | Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Tracy Cortez looks to extend a double digit streak this summer when she fights Miranda Maverick.
MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck confirmed with sources that Cortez (11-1) is set to fight Maverick (13-5) at a July 20 UFC event scheduled to take place at UFC APEX in Las Vegas.
Maverick was first to announce the news via her social media.
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Cortez is yet to lose since making her UFC debut in November 2019, going 5-0 inside the octagon. Her win streak extends back to 2017 and she has won 11 straight fights overall. In Cortez’s most recent outing, she defeated Jasmine Jasudavicius via unanimous decision.
Inactivity has slowed Cortez’s rise up the ladder, as she competed just once in 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2020.
Still just 26 years old, Maverick has gone 6-3 in her UFC career while flirting with a top-10 ranking. She has won four of her past five fights, including back-to-back wins over Andrea Lee and Priscila Cachoeira in her previous two outings.
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UFC 303’s fight card continues to expand as the promotion counts down to its long-awaited return of Conor McGregor.
A previously scheduled heavyweight matchup between former UFC champion Andrei Arlovski and Martin Buday has officially been shifted to June 29 for UFC 303, which takes place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Arlovski vs. Buday was originally booked for the promotion’s UFC Fight Night event on June 15 at the UFC APEX. Marcel Dorff first reported the news.
Arlovski (34-23, 2 NC) is one of the longest tenured fighters in UFC history. The 45-year-old heavyweight makes his 42nd walk to the octagon at UFC 303 in hopes of halting a three-fight losing skid that has seen him stumble to the likes of Marcos Rogerio de Lima, Don’Tale Mayes, and Waldo Cortes-Acosta.
Prior to that, Arlovski won four straight UFC bouts from April 2021 to April 2022, and six of his previous seven.
Buday (13-2) also looks to climb back into the win column after suffering his first UFC loss in December with a second-round stoppage at the hands of Shamil Gaziev.
A 32-year-old native of Slovakia, Buday won four consecutive bouts to kick off his UFC run prior to that setback, beating Chris Barnett, Lukasz Brzeski, Jake Collier, and Josh Parisian.
UFC 303 is headlined by McGregor’s return from a three-year layoff in a welterweight bout against fellow The Ultimate Fighter 31 coach Michael Chandler.
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