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Last week, UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones made the case for facing light heavyweight titleholder Alex Pereira after his return bout against Stipe Moicoc instead of taking on interim champ Tom Aspinall.  Jones believes that a fight he and Pereira would be the biggest bout the fight promotion could make.  

“If Alex P became champion of the heavyweight division, would you guys consider him the GOAT? Being back in the gym has got me thinking differently. That fight after stipe maybe the next biggest move I could possibly make,” Jones wrote on X. “This killer has already defeated so many champions, and is already considered a legend to millions around the world. The most massive fight the UFC could make. Give Alex a chance to avenge all those great Brazilian champions I’ve defeated.”

“It would be absolutely massive,” Jones continued. “A guy with a chance to be three division champion and a goat versus the actual goat. Same age, different strengths. No one can argue that that would be the biggest fight in MMA history. There’s absolutely no fight that generates a payday like that. Marketing would be insane.”

Jones may be right about the potential match being a massive financial success, but typically when there’s an interim titleholder they fight the champion in a unification bout.  Former UFC fighter Ben Askren believes Jones simply thinks Pereira is an easy fight for him than Aspinall.

“We want to see Jones fight Tom Aspinall.  Aspinall’s got the interim belt.  Jon’s got the belt.  It just doesn’t make any sense,” Askren said on Daniel Cormier’s YouTube channel.  “Make them fight and then if Jon beats him then Pereira versus Jon or something to that effect, but you can’t leave Tom Aspinall sitting over here with the interim belt.”    

“What Jon sees Pereira as a significantly easier opponent than Aspinall,” Askren continued.  “He does.  There’s no doubt about this.  Aspinall, he’s big and strong, hits hard, and is tough to take down and he wrestlers a little bit.  He knows what he’s doing on the ground.  He’s seen Pereira and thinks, ‘I can do the same exact thing that I did to Ciryl Gane.  Same thing.  That’s what he’s thinking, for sure.”

If Pereira and Jones were to meet in the cage, Askren doesn’t think the fight would last very long.  He doesn’t think it would even go a full round.  

“If he fights Jon Jones, I think there’s a chance it’s over in like two and a half minutes,” Askren said.  “Look what Jon did to Ciryl Gane.  Jon is a large man.  He’s a high-level wrestler.  He’s got great grappling skills.  I think there’s a possibility of that for sure.”    

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Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Welterweight sluggers Joaquin Buckley vs. Nursulton Ruziboev will go to war this weekend (Sat., May 11, 2024) inside Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Mo., for UFC St. Louis.

Buckley is taking a massive risk here. Fresh off the biggest win of his career over Vicente Luque (watch it), Buckley’s eagerness to jump right back into action and get booked in his home town has earned him a showdown against a dangerous and unranked foe. Ruziboev has been crushing his opposition at Middleweight and rides a massive win streak into this step up in competition. The 6’5” prospect has fought at Welterweight in the past, but it’s been a couple years, so that’s an interesting angle to this match up as well.

Let’s take a closer look at the betting odds and strategic keys for each athlete:

Photo by Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Buckley vs. Ruziboev Betting Odds

• Joaquin Buckley victory: -148
• Joaquin Buckley via TKO/KO/DQ: +140
• Joaquin Buckley via submission: +2000
• Joaquin Buckley via decision: +400
• Nursulton Ruziboev victory: +124
• Nursulton Ruziboev via TKO/KO/DQ: +330
• Nursulton Ruziboev via submission: +450
• Nursulton Ruziboev via decision: +650
• Odds via DraftKings Sportsbook

Photo by Michelle Farsi/Getty Images

How Buckley Wins

Joaquin Buckley is a combination puncher with serious power. He likes to explode forward with power shots, attacking the head and body. He’s definitely vulnerable to counters in the process, but Buckley mitigates that by feinting actively and scoring angles before charging. On the whole, his wrestling has come a long way too, particularly since dropping to 170 pounds.

This is hardly the first fight in which Buckley has really needed to close the distance. That was the whole story of his Middleweight career! The fortunate part here is that while Ruziboev may still have the length advantage that troubled Buckley up at 185-pounds, he’s going to be leaner and/or diminishing himself to make the weight.

Two factors are going to determine whether or not Buckley can get close to Ruziboev: feints and his ability to cut the cage. Frequent and convincing feints and false starts are going to be absolutely essential in preventing Ruziboev from picking him off on the way in with counters. If Buckley can use his movement to work Ruziboev towards the fence, that will help ensure his combinations actually land as well.

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

How Ruziboev Wins

Ruziboev is still relatively new to UFC, having won just two fights inside the Octagon, but he’s a veteran with 46 total professional bouts to his credit. One way or another, the man is a finisher, having stopped 32 opponents before the final bell. Lately, he’s proven himself a sniper, timing his opponents with huge shots at distance.

And that sounds like a great plan here.

In his last fight, Ruziboev played the double threat of the right hand and right uppercut really well. That should work really well here, given the height and general range difference between the two men. If Ruziboev can establish his cross, he stands a fair shot at catching Buckley off-guard by going uppercut instead, which could create a massive collision.

To time Buckley’s advances, I’d like to see Ruziboev touching and pull. A quick jab could convince Buckley to charge, while the pull keeps Ruziboev at his preferred range, ready to counter.

Photo by Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Buckley Vs. Ruziboev Prediction

It’s hard to have a lot of confidence here.

On one hand, Ruziboev appears to have a lot of the traits that give Buckley trouble. He could find similar success to Kevin Holland, who repeatedly dropped “New Mansa” by stranding him at distance and scoring counter punches on his way in (watch highlights). Buckley has refined his game since then, but the overall issue of closing forward on longer strikers will always exist for him.

Conversely, Ruziboev doesn’t have a lot of Octagon time. We haven’t really seen him tested, and to my eyes, he looks like too big for Welterweight. Even if he makes the weight, there’s concern that the 30-year-old will fatigue easily or be more prone to getting rocked.

Ultimately, Ruziboev is a fighter who tends to finish quickly or lose late. Buckley is a gamer, and at 170 pounds, I think he’ll be durable enough to survive a rough patch or two and get his game going as the fight wears on.

Prediction: Buckley via decision (+400)

Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC St. Louis fight card right here, starting with the ESPN+ “Prelims” matches, which are scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. ET, then the remaining main card balance on ESPN (also on ESPN+) at 7 p.m. ET.

To check out the latest and greatest UFC St. Louis: “Lewis vs. Nascimento” news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here.

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UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley has released footage of the closing moments of a 2016 sparring session with flyweight champ Alexandre Pantoja.

Earlier this week, O’Malley dropped a clip of their past sparring session showing him take Pantoja down, yet said he wouldn’t release the finish because “that’s just mean,” although he said that he finished Pantoja with a “liver kick” in the first round. However, “Sugar” must have changed his tune because on Friday morning, O’Malley did release the ending of their spar on social media, which showed the 135-pound champ landing a hard body kick, and then moments later, Pantoja calling an end to it.

Check out the video below.

Pantoja brought up the sparring session during UFC 301 fight week prior to his successful title defense against Steve Erceg. The current UFC flyweight king also described his version of what happened during an October 2023 appearance on The MMA Hour.

“I trained with O’Malley five, six years ago, and it never passed through my head that this guy would go to the UFC, take the belt and I take the belt too,” Pantoja said. “Very crazy. That’s why I called him to fight, just because that. He started to talk about my training with him two years ago, he started to talk about that, but let’s go back to five, six years ago when I go to the [MMA] Lab, before I arrive with [Henry] Cejudo, I made a 60-hour travel airplane flight. I never stepped in the Lab before, and I go to the Lab, do sparring with all the guys, and you need balls to do all that.

“O’Malley comes to me, ‘Hey, can I record this training?’ [I said], ‘Of course. Just when you’re finished, send me the video, because I can learn something, too.’ And he never passed the video to me. I called Cejudo [and said], ‘Hey, say to your friend to give me the video.’ And [Henry] Cejudo said, ‘Forget it. He’s never going to send that video to you.’

“You know why not. If you’re losing, you don’t show the video.”

Obviously, a lot has changed for both fighters since 2016, with both holding world titles at the same time. O’Malley is expected to defend his title later this year against Merab Dvalishvili, while Pantoja is targeting a return at the end of the year.

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Urijah Faber and Sacramento State University president J. Luke Wood are set to make history with a revolutionary collegiate program that’s meant to guide young aspiring fighters and give them a foot in the door to the fight game.

A trailblazer in MMA, Faber has towed the line between fighting and being a coach himself for many years. He runs a very successful gym called Team Alpha Male, which has seen rise to multiple UFC champions. Now, thanks to the wit of one student traveling to Sacramento State from overseas, paired with a flourishing relationship between Urijah Faber and president J. Luke Wood, the world’s first-ever collegiate MMA program will be coming to life in Northern California.

Speaking to LowKick MMA reporter Makoa Goble, Urijah Faber detailed this revolutionary new program, which is to be called Combat U. Combat U will help students develop as mixed martial artists while also giving them a promotion to fight for, as Faber owns his own promotion called A1 Combat.

Urijah Faber details Combat U and its inception

When asked how the idea of such a revolutionary program came to be, Faber explained a few factors that led to it. He spoke of how President Wood was a fan of combat sports, and actually even trained at Faber’s gym. Then, a female mixed martial artist from India got into contact with President Wood and told him how she decided to go to the school because of how close it was to the Team Alpha Male gym.

All of these factors led to an idea, and it was a very brilliant one. How about a collegiately backed program that is aimed to usher in an entirely new generation of combat sports athletes? It was made even more convenient by the fact that Faber’s gym is so close to the campus. As Faber continued to explain things, it was as if all the building blocks perfectly fell into place, as if it was all meant to be.

Faber on the unclear pathway for young fighters, and what the program could mean for them

“We have a strong history of being a host to young athletes (at Team Alpha Male), but they’ve always had to take a fork in the road: pursue academics, or pursue a career in the fight game,” Urijah Faber said. “…We actually have some of our current fighters that are interested in being a part of the program.”

“So, we already have guys that were waiting to go back into their education afterwards (after their fight career is over), that is going to start doing it (going back to school) now. It’s still really raw, there’s still really no pathway. I’ve got a bunch of things outside of this that I’m working on to help really get that dialled in.”

Urijah Faber would go on to speak about how he’d like to work in conjunction with what the UFC is already doing, which is trying to open the floodgates and more easily allow aspiring fighters to walk the path. He brought up how more classic sports, such as football or basketball, already had very set paths for athletes to follow. The sport of MMA, however, does not have the same easy canals for young prospects to float down.

Young prospects must lead a difficult life of balancing working, training, and fighting. If a fighter is lucky, somebody will invest in their future and allow them to focus solely on training and fighting. However, this could be considered quite rare, and most fighters just have to work while also undergoing gruelling training and then pitting themselves against other young and hungry fighters in the cage.

Now, though, everything could be changing. If the Combat U program at Sacramento State is a success, it wouldn’t be surprising to see more colleges around the country and world provide a similar program. All of which would supply young fighters with a solid support system to make following their dreams a little easier.

What are your thoughts on Urijah Faber and Combat U?

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Sean Strickland’s head coach Eric Nicksick is setting the record straight — although he shouldn’t have had to.

Nicksick recently did an interview with Sportskeeda and the topic of a potential fight between Strickland and the undefeated Khamzat Chimaev came up. The Xtreme Couture leader appeared to jokingly say that the reason Chimaev isn’t facing Strickland is because “I don’t think Sean can travel to Saudi or something — not 100 percent sure.” As it tends to happen in the MMA space, a quote like that can get taken out of context by aggregator accounts, which it did.

So now Nicksick wants to clarify.

“I don’t know, that was my guess and it wasn’t like, ‘Sean’s not fighting because of this,’ I was like, ‘I’m guessing he probably can’t get into Saudi Arabia.’ It was more like tongue in cheek,” Nicksick told MMA Fighting. “I don’t freaking know. Like it was a hard time to even get into Australia.

“So when [I was asked] the question, I even said, I was like, ‘I’m not even 100 percent sure, but I’m guessing because he probably couldn’t get into Saudi’ and then everybody’s [saying] that’s why the fight didn’t happen. I’m like, ‘Oh man.’ So it was literally that. It was like, ‘I have no idea, probably because of this.’

“But Khamzat is going to be the draw in Saudi Arabia, so I think it was more of a location set up than anything. And if there’s gonna be any hurdles whatsoever of getting Sean anywhere, then why even risk putting him as a headliner on that card? So it makes complete sense to me.”

Nicksick did mention that the UFC approached him about a potential matchup between Strickland and Chimaev while his fighter was still the champion. The matchup didn’t come to fruition and Strickland instead went on to headline UFC 297 against Dricus du Plessis, who captured the title via split decision in an incredibly close five-round battle.

“I know when Khamzat beat [Kamaru] Usman [at UFC 294], they wrote me and [said], ‘Hey, what’s the earliest you think you can have Sean ready to fight Khamzat?’” Nicksick said. “And I was like, oh… because that was gonna be the title fight, ‘He’s in the gym, we’ll be ready whenever you let us know.’”

“And then Khamzat, I believe, got sick or he had something going on, if I remember correctly. Like an infection or something, I can’t remember what, but it put him on the back-burner for a little while and that’s why we ended up getting Dricus.”

Chimaev headlines UFC Saudi Arabia on June 22 against former champion Robert Whittaker, in what is Chimaev’s toughest test to date.

Strickland also has his next booking set as he faces one-time title challenger Paulo Costa in a five-round co-main event at UFC 302, which takes place June 1 at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.

Nicksick has been impressed with Costa as of late, and while Strickland may be the higher ranked fighter, and in a good place when it comes to the title picture, they are looking at Costa as one of the toughest fights in the middleweight division.

“I was perfectly fine with it,” Nicksick said. “I think Costa is always a dangerous threat in the division and I think he’s deserving [of a fight like this]. I actually thought he looked really good against Whitaker — I didn’t think he won the fight, but I actually was very impressed with how good he did look. … I mean, there’s everything else that has been booked in the way everything’s been shuffled. It’s like he’s the opponent that kind of fell… not saying fell to us, but he was the guy that was available and willing to fight.

“So with that being said, we’re a win away from another title fight, so it’s very important not to overlook Paula Costa. He’s very dangerous opponent and we need to go out there and get the job done.”

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