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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Matt Brown was 90 minutes into his daughter’s double-header soccer game this past Saturday when he realized he hadn’t posted anything on social media in a while.

That’s when he decided to inform the world that he was retiring from combat sports after spending nearly 16 years in the UFC.

“I thought, ‘I think I need a social media post … how about I make a retirement post?’ I did it right then,” Brown revealed on The Fighter vs. The Writer.

“I just didn’t think anything of it. I was like, I’m just doing a social media post. Maybe it’s because it’s been on my mind pretty heavily. To me, I’m like, ‘I’m just doing another social media post.’ It turns out that was a pretty big post. My phone just blew the f*ck up. It was really surreal. You don’t realize how many people care about you and how many lives you’ve touched and how many people you’ve inspired.”

Brown announcing the news of his retirement may have come at a moment’s notice, but he’s actually been contemplating the end of his career for quite some time.

In fact, Brown informed UFC of his plans a few months ago but struggled to actually go public with it, because to the outside world, his entire identity was tied to fighting.

“I thought about today, going and making another post saying, ‘Psyche bitches, I’m coming back, fighting in six weeks! F*ck ya’ll, thanks for the attention!’” Brown said with a laugh. “But I thought about it for a long time. I’m very clear on it.

“The reason that it took so long for me to announce it, the reason it took so long for me to call the UFC, was just a courage thing. A piece of you dies, and you’ve got to break off that identity somehow, and it was just growing the balls to do that. It’s not an easy thing.”

The real genesis of Brown’s retirement tracks back to a fight offer that came from UFC a few months back. Usually, Brown can’t wait to get that call or receive an email from the matchmakers offering him an opponent.

This time around, however, the 43-year-old veteran felt something much different.

“They actually offered me a fight a few months back, and that was exactly when I knew,” Brown explained. “I got the email, and when I got the email, the first thing that crossed my mind was, ‘I could use that money.’ But I didn’t get that chill running down my spine. I didn’t take a deep breath like ‘here we f*cking go, baby!’

“Back in the day, when I would get that call — and it was usually really quick after a previous fight — my fingers would tingle. I’d usually go straight to the gym right then. It could be 10 o’clock at night and like, ‘I’m going to the track and I’m going to do some sprints. I’m ready to f*cking go.’ I would always over-train the first few weeks. I would go until I was run the f*ck down, and then, OK, slow down and build myself back up. With that said, the feeling wasn’t the same as before. The priorities change.”

When that same charge didn’t hit him like a lightning bolt and Brown knew it was time to hang up his gloves for good, he finally reached out to the UFC through matchmaker Sean Shelby to inform the organization of his decision.

The initial reaction he received wasn’t all that surprising given Brown’s dedication to MMA — and his attitude, which made it feel as if Brown may just keep fighting until someone forced him to stop. When Brown finally uttered those fateful words, he was unexpectedly overwhelmed with emotion.

“They were shocked, actually,” Brown said of telling UFC that he was retiring. “I only talked to one person, but he was like, ‘What’s going on? What’s wrong?’ He thought I broke my back or something in a car accident. They were shocked too. I think I was shocked.

“When I first called Sean Shelby and told him, ‘I’m pretty sure this is what I’m going to do,’ I was at an airport at the time. This was a few months ago and I think he returned my call, which is why I was at an airport. I remember sitting there in line getting ready to board the plane and there’s people all over, it was LAX, I still remember — I shed a little tear.

“I was like, ‘Damn, I can’t be crying in front of people. What if someone recognizes me?’ It hurt bad. It was set in my mind. I didn’t have any real feelings about it until I actually said it. I hung up the phone and I shed a motherf*cking tear. I guess I do have tears in there somewhere. It was very similar [on Saturday] when I posted that. It’s like, damn, it’s f*cking over. It’s surreal. It’s hard to believe because a piece of you dies.”

Beyond not feeling that same chill down his spine when he got a fight offer, Brown confessed that a lot of other factors played into his decision to call it a career.

Being more “present” for his three children played a part. Brown has also started several new businesses in recent years, including a house-flipping venture that just got up and running in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.

He also runs Immortal Martial Arts Center, a gym Brown opened six years ago, however he’s never built the facility to its full capacity because his own career was still the primary focus.

That can finally change now that he’s no longer fighting, and Brown says he’s excited for what comes next now that he can put his full attention on something else.

“I think a lot of people don’t realize how much more I am than [fighting],” Brown said. “I have a lot more pieces to me. I’m much smarter than that. Fighting is a huge part of me and I’m a fighter in everything that I do, but I just love fighting. I have a true, serious passion for it. There’s nothing that I love more than getting into a fist fight, or elbow fighting even better with someone, or Muay Thai all together. There’s nothing I love more than that. But there’s so much more to me that I have never really expressed. I feel like that’s my season of life now.”

Of course, Brown acknowledges the jokes about MMA retirements and how they never seem to stick. UFC legend Jose Aldo proved that just this past weekend when he returned to action at UFC 301 less than two years after ending his MMA career.

Because he informed the UFC of his retirement, Brown was removed from the promotion’s anti-doping program, so that’s at least one step he’s taken to prove this wasn’t just a snap decision. But he knows he’ll never completely forget about fighting again, because that’s almost an impossibility, especially for somebody who competed at his level of the sport.

It’s the same raw emotion that almost certainly hits other retired fighters like Daniel Cormier and Michael Bisping, who seem resolved and happy in their new careers but the desire to compete again never goes away.

“Fighting is a drug, 1,000 percent,” Brown said. “It’s an addiction and that high that you get like when you do cocaine for the first time, and then you’re chasing that high for the rest of the night, and then into the morning and then maybe the next afternoon. That can be a big downward spiral. That’s what happens in fighting. You’re just chasing that. You know you’ve got it in you to get back to where you once were, your former glory. But do you really have it in you? You constantly think you do because you do great in the gym or you’re feeling great, all these different things. But you’re constantly chasing that high again.

“It’s kind of setting in that this is real. It’s hard to imagine that I’m going to go on in this life and not fight again. I thought I was going to fight forever too!”

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Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) recently updated its official rankings in the wake of the UFC 301 pay-per-view (PPV) event, which took place last Sat. night (May 4, 2024) at Farmasi Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Former featherweight champion Jose Aldo returned to the bantamweight rankings at No. 8 with his commanding performance against Jonathan Martinez in the co-main event.

That’s not all.

Michel Pereira, previously ranked in the welterweight division, is now listed among the Top 15 middleweights in the world, landing at No. 13 with his submission victory over Ihor Potieria. As for UFC 301 headliner Steve Erceg, he failed to capture the crown from reigning 125-pound titleholder Alexandre Pantoja and as a result, did not gain any significant ground in the flyweight Top 10.

Here’s how UFC compiles its official rankings:

Rankings were generated by a voting panel made up of media members. The media members were asked to vote for who they feel are the top fighters in the UFC by weight-class and pound-for-pound. A fighter is only eligible to be voted on if they are in active status in the UFC. A fighter can appear in more than one weight division at a time. The champion and interim champion are considered to be in the top positions of their respective divisions and therefore are not eligible for voting by weight-class. However, the champions can be voted on for the pound-for-pound rankings.

Take a look at what the latest rankings field looks like courtesy of UFC.com. Note: (+/- = movement in rankings, T = tie, *NR = Not previously ranked).

MEN’S POUND-FOR-POUND

1. Islam Makhachev
2. Jon Jones
3. Leon Edwards
4. Alex Pereira
5. Ilia Topuria
6. Sean O’Malley
7. Alexander Volkanovski
8. Max Holloway
9. Dricus Du Plessis
10. Alexandre Pantoja
11. Israel Adesanya
12. Tom Aspinall
13. Charles Oliveira
14. Sean Strickland
15. Aljamain Sterling

FLYWEIGHT

Champion: Alexandre Pantoja

1. Brandon Royval
2. Brandon Moreno
3. Amir Albazi
4. Kai Kara France
5. Alex Perez
6. Muhammad Mokaev
7. Manel Kape
8. Matheus Nicolau
9. Steve Erceg +1
10. Tim Elliott -1
11. Matt Schnell
12. Tagir Ulanbekov
13. Tatsuro Taira
14. Su Mudaerji
15. David Dvorak

BANTAMWEIGHT

Champion: Sean O’Malley

1. Merab Dvalishvili
2. Cory Sandhagen
3. Petr Yan
4. Marlon Vera
5. Henry Cejudo
6. Deiveson Figueiredo
7. Song Yadong
8. Jose Aldo *NR
9. Rob Font -1
10. Umar Nurmagomedov -1
11. Kyler Phillips -1
12. Dominick Cruz -1
13. Mario Bautista
14. Jonathan Martinez -2
15. Pedro Munhoz

FEATHERWEIGHT

Champion: Ilia Topuria

1. Alexander Volkanovski
2. Max Holloway
3. Brian Ortega
4. Yair Rodriguez
5. Movsar Evloev
6. Arnold Allen
7. Josh Emmett
8. Aljamain Sterling
9. Calvin Kattar
10. Giga Chikadze
11. Edson Barboza
12. Bryce Mitchell
13. Dan Ige
14. Diego Lopes
15. Sodiq Yusuff

LIGHTWEIGHT

Champion: Islam Makhachev

1. Arman Tsarukyan
2. Charles Oliveira
3. Justin Gaethje
4. Dustin Poirier
5. Mateusz Gamrot
6. Michael Chandler +1
7. Beneil Dariush -1
8. Rafael Fiziev
9. Max Holloway
10. Renato Moicano
11. Dan Hooker
12. Jalin Turner
13. Benoit Saint-Denis
14. Rafael dos Anjos
15. Bobby Green

WELTERWEIGHT

Champion: Leon Edwards

1. Kamaru Usman
2. Belal Muhammed
3. Shavkat Rakhmonov
4. Colby Covington
5. Jack Della Maddalena
6. Gilbert Burns
7. Ian Machado Garry
8. Sean Brady
9. Stephen Thompson
10. Geoff Neal
11. Joaquin Buckley
12. Neil Magny
13. Michael Page
14. Vicente Luque
15. Kevin Holland

MIDDLEWEIGHT

Champion: Dricus Du Plessis

1. Sean Strickland
2. Israel Adesanya
3. Robert Whittaker
4. Jared Cannonier
5. Marvin Vettori
6. Paulo Costa
7. Brendan Allen
8. Nassourdine Imavov
9. Jack Hermansson +1
10. Khamzat Chimaev +1
11. Roman Dolidze -2
12. Caio Borralho +2
13. Michel Pereira *NR
14. Anthony Hernandez -2
15. Chris Curtis

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT

Champion: Alex Pereira

1. Jiri Prochazka
2. Magomed Ankalaev
3. Jamahal Hill
4. Jan Blachowicz
5. Aleksandar Rakic
6. Nikita Krylov
7. Johnny Walker
8. Khalil Rountree
9. Volkan Oezdemir
10. Anthony Smith
11. Alonzo Menifield
12. Bogdan Guskov
13. Azamat Murzakanov
14. Dominick Reyes
15. Ryan Spann

HEAVYWEIGHT

Champion: Jon Jones

1. Tom Aspinall
2. Ciryl Gane
3. Sergei Pavlovich
4. Curtis Blaydes
5. Stipe Miocic
6. Alexander Volkov
7. Jailton Almeida
8. Marcin Tybura
9. Serghei Spivac
10. Tai Tuivasa
11. Jairzinho Rozenstruik
12. Derrick Lewis
13. Alexandr Romanov
14. Marcos Rogerio De Lima
15. Rodrigo Nascimento

WOMEN’S POUND-FOR-POUND

1. Alexa Grasso
2. Zhang Weili
3. Valentina Shevchenko
4. Manon Fiorot
5. (T) Julianna Pena
5. (T) Raquel Pennington
7. Rose Namajunas
8. Erin Blanchfield
9. Tatiana Suarez
10. Yan Xiaonan
11. Jessica Andrade
12. Amanda Lemos
13. Ketlen Vieira +1
14. Kayla Harrison -1
15. Maycee Barber *NR

WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT

Champion: Zhang Weili

1. Tatiana Suarez
2. Yan Xiaonan
3. Amanda Lemos
4. Jessica Andrade
5. Virna Jandiroba
6. Marina Rodriguez
7. Mackenzie Dern
8. Amanda Ribas
9. Luana Pinheiro
10. Loopy Godinez
11. Tabatha Ricci
12. Angela Hill
13. Iasmin Lucindo *NR
14. Michelle Waterson-Gomez
15. Karolina Kowalkiewicz -2

WOMEN’S FLYWEIGHT

Champion: Alexa Grasso

1. Valentina Shevchenko
2. Manon Fiorot
3. Erin Blanchfield
4. Maycee Barber
5. Jessica Andrade
6. Rose Namajunas
7. Katlyn Cerminara
8. Natalia Silva
9. Amanda Ribas
10. Viviane Araújo
11. Tracy Cortez
12. Karine Silva +1
13. Ariane Da Silva -1
14. Casey O’Neill
15. Miranda Maverick

WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT

Champion: Raquel Pennington

1. Julianna Pena
2. Ketlen Vieira
3. Mayra Bueno Silva
4. Kayla Harrison
5. Irene Aldana
6. Holly Holm
7. Macy Chiasson
8. (T) Miesha Tate
8. (T) Karol Rosa +1
10. Norma Dumont
11. Pannie Kianzad
12. Yana Santos
13. Julia Avila
14. Chelsea Chandler
15. Germaine De Randamie

You can expect these rankings to change around this time next week, particularly in the heavyweight division, following the UFC St. Louis: “Lewis vs. Nascimento” mixed martial arts (MMA) event on ESPN and ESPN+, scheduled for Sat., May 11, 2024 at Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Missouri.

For much more on that upcoming fight card click here.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Welcome to the latest update to the MMA Fighting pound-for-pound rankings, where every month our esteemed panel sort through the noise to answer one question: Who are the best overall male and female MMA fighters in the world?

Alexandre Pantoja made a big jump after another successful defense of his flyweight title at UFC 301, but the real news is who he passed to get to his lofty spot. Let’s take a look at who Pantoja bumped out of the top-five list.

MEN’S POUND-FOR-POUND

Photo by Alexandre Loureiro/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Again, all due respect to Alexandre Pantoja for putting in work this past weekend, but we have to address the elephant in the room: Jon Jones is no longer part of the pound-for-pound top five.

Let us explain!

By far, the most significant factor that hurt Jones this rankings cycle is that our panel has gone from eight members to seven. That means one ballot’s points are completely off the board, which in this case had a major effect on Jones (No. 2 on said ballot) and less so on Pantoja (only No. 14). With the new math, Jones drops one spot to No. 6 on our consensus list, which is the lowest he’s ever been since we started our own independent rankings in July 2021.

Jones’ fall can’t be blamed entirely on the numbers though. Indisputably one of MMA’s all-time greats, “Bones” has been gradually losing support from our voters due to inactivity. His win over Ciryl Gane is now 14 months old and it remains his only fight of the past four years. His light heavyweight run is the stuff of legends, and he’s well within his rights to wait for a preferred heavyweight matchup with Stipe Miocic, but how long is Jones’ stock allowed to stay stable, especially as he continues to stubbornly dismiss a matchup with MMA Fighting’s No. 1 heavyweight Tom Aspinall?

MMA is the ultimate “what have you done for us lately?” business, and as it turns out, even Jones isn’t safe from that question.

Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 6 Alexandre Pantoja def. Steve Erceg (UFC 301, May 4)

Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 1 Islam Makhachev vs. Dustin Poirier (UFC 302, June 1), No. 13 Patchy Mix vs. Magomed Magomedov (Bellator Champions Series: Paris, May 17), No. 17 (tied) Sean Strickland vs. Paulo Costa (UFC 302, June 1), No. 19 Khamzat Chimaev vs. Robert Whittaker (UFC Fight Night, June 22)

Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Merab Dvalishvili (5), Anatoly Malykhin (3), Patricio Pitbull (2), Kamaru Usman (2), Johnny Eblen (1), Justin Gaethje (1), A.J. McKee (1), Belal Muhammad (1), Usman Nurmagomedov (1), Dustin Poirier (1), Jiri Prochazka (1)

WOMEN’S POUND-FOR-POUND

Photo by Matt Davies/PxImages/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Not coincidentally, another all-time great takes a tumble as a result of our new panel structure.

Like Jones, Cris Cyborg has been a mainstay atop our pound-for-pound rankings. But no more. Bellator’s featherweight queen drops two spots all the way to No. 7, and like Jones, the change can be attributed to more than just math.

Cyborg certainly has more of an argument to hold steady based strictly on results. She has lost just one fight since debuting with a loss in 2005, and that defeat at the hands of fellow legend Amanda Nunes happened more than five years ago. She’s been untouchable since. Unfortunately for Cyborg, her competition at featherweight has rarely sparked the imagination, and recent wins over Cat Zingano, Arlene Blencowe (again), Sinead Kavanagh, and Leslie Smith (again) aren’t moving the needle even with the most hardcore of fans.

Perhaps if Cyborg somehow manages to manufacture a fight with now-UFC standout Kayla Harrison or an unlikely rematch with Nunes, she can ascend once more to the top of the charts. Otherwise, there’s nowhere to go but down.

It’s worth noting that there’s also plenty of movement outside the top 10, primarily due to Carla Esparza’s exit as a result of inactivity. The two-time UFC strawweight champion hasn’t fought since November 2022 as she’s taken time off to be a mother, so she’s probably not sweating her pound-for-pound ranking at the moment. Just another reminder that there are more important things in life than fighting.

Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): N/A

Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 13 Liz Carmouche vs. Kana Watanabe (PFL 4, June 13), No. 16 Mayra Bueno Silva vs. Macy Chiasson (UFC 303, June 29), No. 18 Stamp Fairtex vs. Denice Zamboanga (ONE 167, June 7), No. 19 Taila Santos vs. Jena Bishop (PFL 4, June 13)

Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Virna Jandiroba (2), Natalia Silva (2), Marina Rodriguez (2), Irene Aldana (1), Holly Holm (1), Lauren Murphy (1), Ketlen Vieira (1)

Lastly, a refresher on some ground rules:

• The seven-person voting panel consists of MMA Fighting staffers Shaun Al-Shatti, Alexander K. Lee, Guilherme Cruz, Mike Heck, E. Casey Leydon, Damon Martin and Jed Meshew.
• Updates to the rankings will be completed following every UFC pay-per-view. Fighters will be removed from the rankings if they do not compete within 18 months of their most recent bout.
• Should a fighter announce their retirement, our panel will decide whether that fighter should immediately be removed from the rankings or maintain their position until further notice (let’s put it this way: we’d have taken Khabib Nurmagomedov out of our rankings a lot quicker than the UFC did).

As a reminder, the notion of pound-for-pound supremacy is always going to inherently be subjective. When you’re debating whether someone like Justin Gaethje should be ranked above someone like Max Holloway, there is no true right answer. In other words: It’s not serious business, folks.

Thoughts? Questions? Concerns? Make your voice heard in the comments below.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Only four fighters who competed at BKFC KnuckleMania 4 went over the limits for recommended weight gains on fight night for the promotion’s first event in California.

On Monday, the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) released the fight night weights to MMA Fighting for the BKFC card, which featured Mike Perry scoring a blistering 60-second knockout of Thiago Alves in the main event. As part of a long-term plan to curb extreme weight-cutting, CSAC, headed by executive director Andy Foster, documents the changes fighters endure from stepping onto the scale to actually competing the next day.

Fighters who exceed certain limits may receive recommendations from CSAC to consider a change in weight class.

Perry, who spent most of his UFC career competing at 170 pounds, faced no such struggles for his middleweight affair against Alves. Perry weighed 184 pounds at weigh-ins and only gained five pounds for fight night, hitting the scale at 189 pounds.

Alves actually gained more than Perry but still didn’t go over the recommended CSAC percentages. The UFC veteran weighed 183.9 pounds at weigh-ins and then set foot into the ring at 196 pounds, a seven-percent gain of his total body weight.

The heavyweight co-main event saw both fighters involved actually drop a few pounds between weigh-ins and fight night. Reigning BKFC heavyweight king Mick Terrill tipped the scale at 249 pounds before losing 3.8 pounds and competing at 245.2 pounds, while Lorenzo Hunt weighed 236.3 pounds at weigh-ins and then 231.1 pounds on fight night.

Ben Rothwell actually had one of the biggest jumps in weight on the entire card, but it was still only six percent of his overall body weight. He first hit the scale at 274.3 pounds and then put on 17.4 pounds to weigh 291.7 pounds on fight night.

The only fighter from the main card who went over the recommended allowance was Sydney Smith, who suffered a first-round knockout loss to Crystal Pittman. Smith weighed 134.4 pounds at weigh-ins and then 150.6 pounds on fight night, a 12-percent gain in weight.

The full fight night weights for BKFC KnuckleMania 4 can be read below.

• Mike Perry (184 to 189 pounds = 3 percent) vs. Thiago Alves (183.9 to 196 = 7 percent)
• Mick Terrill (249 to 245.2 = -2 percent) vs. Lorenzo Hunt (236.3 to 231.1 = -2 percent)
• Ben Rothwell (274.3 to 291.7 = 6 percent) vs. Todd Duffee (243 to 240 = -1 percent)
• Alfredo Angulo (171.7 to 182.9 = 7 percent) vs. Jeremiah Riggs (171.1 to 182.9 = 7 percent)
• Evgenii Kurdanov (169.8 to 179.5 = 6 percent) vs. Julian Lane (168.6 to 184.5 = 9 percent)
• Crystal Pittman (135 to 144.6 = 7 percent) vs. Sydney Smith (134.4 to 150.6 = 12 percent)
• David Diaz (137.5 to 151 = 10 percent) vs. Shane Jordan (134.8 to 138.7 = 3 percent)
• Andrew Algelcor (154.6 to 161.1 = 4 percent) vs. Ruben Warr (154.8 to 166.7 = 8 percent)
• Daniel Alvarez (135.4 to 157.9 = 17 percent) vs. Victor Rosas (135.4 to 141 = 4 percent)
• Vincent Familiari (177.6 to 195.2 = 10 percent) vs. Fernando Gonzalez (180.6 to 202.4 = 12 percent)
• Tommy Aaron (154.2 to 173.8 = 13 percent) vs. Richard Brooks (153.3 to 157.3 = 3 percent)
• Keith Richardson (203.4 to 209.2 = 3 precent) vs. Cody Vidal (202.3 to 198.5 = -1.8 percent)

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