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Ahead of their July clash in Arlington, Texas, reports have confirmed how former world heavyweight champion, Mike Tyson’s fight with outspoken social media influencer, Jake Paul will be an officially sanctioned professional boxing match – with the bout appearing on both’s professional records.

Tyson, a former world heavyweight boxing champion, revered as one of the most devastating knockout punchers of all-time, returns to the ring for the first time in a professional setting since his 2005 retirement.

As for Paul, the polarizing Ohio native turned in his ninth professional boxing victory back in March in his residency in Puerto Rico, landing a first round TKO win over former Golden Gloves winner, Ryan Bourland.

MIke Tyson set to compete in professional fight with Jake Paul

And this Monday afternoon the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulations confirmed that Tyson’s fighting return against Paul will be an official, sanctioned professional boxing match – with the pair competing over the course of eight rounds – lasting two minutes, and contested in  14 ounce gloves.

“Mike Tyson and Jake signed on to fight each other with the desire to do so in a sanctioned professional fight that would have a definitive outcome,” Nakisa Bidarian, the co-founder of Most Valubable Promotions confirmed in a statement released to ESPN. “Over the past six weeks, MVP has worked with its partners to satisfy the requirements of the Texas Department of Licesning and Regulations to sanction Paul vs. Tyson, and we are grateful that we have gotten to this point.”

Last competing back in 2020 in Los Angeles, California, Tyson took on former cruiserweight world champion and fellow boxing icon, Roy Jones Jr. in an official exhibition bout to a split decision draw in the pair’s WBC scored pairing. 
Throughout the build up to their July fight in Texas – which will be broadcast globally on streaming platform, Netflix, both Tyson and Paul have vowed to turn in devastating knockout victories over each other, respectively.

What are your thoughts on Mike Tyson fighting Jake Paul professionally?

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UFC lightweight Paddy “The Baddy” Pimblett was mentioned by a couple of UFC 300 winners during their post-fight interviews.  Pimblett responded to the those callouts over the weekend via YouTube video.  

“Paddy’s next fight will hopefully be in Manchester.  We haven’t had anything confirmed yet, but we’re waiting to hear about it,” said Pimblett’s coach Paul Rimmer.  “A ranked opponent would be good.  I know he’s had some Top 10 guys kind of call him out, really want to fight him which we’re more than happy with.  People underestimate Paddy and how good he is.”  

Fifteenth-ranked Bobby Green called Pimblett out following his UFC 300 win over Jim Miller.  It’s a match that Pimblett is open to.  

“Everybody wants a slice of the Baddy.  Bobby Green screamed my name on the mic after it.  Didn’t surprise me,” Pimblett said on his YouTube channel.  “He might be ranked but he’s got no followers and he needs me.  Just like everyone else, they want to fight me because they know I’m the boy.  Bobby Green’s an option.  If Bobby Green wants to fight, I’m there.  I’d rather fight my boy Moicano.”

Tenth-ranked lightweight Renato Moicano also called out Pimblett after his UFC 300 win over Jalin Turner.    

“Where you at Renato,” Pimblett said.  “I don’t even dislike Renato Moicanano.  I actually like him.  He’s a funny guy.  He’s a cool dude, so me and him having a fight would be hilarious.  The build up to to that fight would be very, very funny.  I think it would be even funnier if me and him done a season of The Ultimate Fighter.  That would be 6, 7, 8 weeks of pure comedy for the fans.  So I’d love that.  I’d love that to be honest.”  

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Utah’s own Clay Collard will face Mads Burnell in the main event of PFL’s first card in Salt Lake City on June 21, the company announced Monday. 2023 PFL light heavyweight champion Impa Kasanganay takes on Jakob Nedoh in the co-main event of PFL 5.

Collard stopped former Bellator champion Patricky Pitbull earlier this month, scoring five points in the 2024 season. Burnell looks to rebound after a submission defeat to Michael Dufort.

Kasanganay made short work of Alex Polizzi on the same card on April 12 for six points, and aims to keep the momentum going versus Nedoh, who lost buy first-round knockout to Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov to kick off this year’s season.

The card also features popular veterans such as Patricky Pitbull, Brent Primus, Sadibou Sy, and Antonio Carlos Junior.

Check out the complete PFL 5 line-up below.

• Clay Collard vs. Mads Burnell
• Impa Kasanganay vs. Jakob Nedoh
• Patricky Pitbull vs. Bruno Miranda
• Rob Wilkinson vs. Josh Silveira
• Dovlet Yagshimuradov vs. Simon Biyong
• Antonio Carlos Junior vs. Alex Polizzi
• Brent Primus vs. Solomon Renfro
• Sadibou Sy vs. Tom Breese
• Gadzhi Rabadanov vs. Elvin Espinoza
• Michael Dufort vs. Adam Piccolotti
• Anthony Romero vs. Sergio Cossio
• Laurynas Urbonavicius vs. Karl Albrektsson
• Brayhan Zurcher vs. TBA

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Anthony Hernandez is out of his upcoming fight with Roman Dolidze.

Hernandez was scheduled to face Dolidze in a pivotal middleweight clash at UFC 302, however “Fluffy” announced Monday that he has been forced out of the bout due to a torn ligament in his hand.

“On Friday while training I sustained an injury, I got my MRI results back this morning and unfortunately due to a torn ligament in my hand, I will no longer be able to fight on June 1. I want to apologize to the UFC, my opponent, & the best matchmaker Mick Maynard but this was not an injury I could push through. I hope for a quick return and [to] be back in the cage before summer ends. Thank you to all my fans, friends & family for the continued support [heart hands emoji] … the journey continues.”

Currently ranked No. 15 in the MMA Fighting Global Middleweight Rankings, Hernandez is on a five-fight win streak, most recently submitting Roman Kopylov with a rear-naked choke at UFC 298. There is no word on who the UFC will look to replace Hernandez with at this time.

UFC 302 takes place on June 1 at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ. It’s headlined by a lightweight title fight between Islam Makhachev and Dustin Poirier.

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Former two-time UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo announced his retirement from fighting in September 2022, a month after losing to Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 278.  His retirement announcement came on the same day as the birth of his son.

Aldo had one fight left on his UFC contract, but the fight promotion game him permission to pursue opportunities in other sports, particularly boxing.  On May4, at UFC 301, Aldo will come out of retirement to take on Jonathan Martinez in a bantamweight bout.

“I had been focused on boxing.  I took some vacation at the end of last year and in January started talking to my coach about possibly making a comeback,” Aldo told SHAK MMA.  “I always want to be the champion and I always want to fight for that belt.  My body is good and I feel ready for it.”  

“I needed my time off and I had my time off,” Aldo continued.  “I’m recovered and now I’m back in.”

The UFC 301 fight with Martinez is the final fight on Aldo’s current UFC contract.  He was offered a new deal but decided to decline it.  

“This is the last fight on my contract.  When I started talking to Sean [Shelby] and Dana [White] back in January, we had talked about signing a new deal but I decided against it because I want to go in there and I need to show them, myself, and everyone where I’m at, what I can still do, and how I can still perform,” Aldo said. 

“We have a lot of offers.  We could have a boxing match lined up quickly if we wanted to do that as well.  So I told them, let’s wait.  Let’s let me go in there and put on a performance and then we’ll talk after that to see if we’ll renew a deal or not.”  

Aldo has receive lucrative offers from other mixed martial arts promotions.  While his future remains uncertain, Aldo doesn’t see himself fighting MMA for anyone other than the UFC.  

“We’ve been reached out by other organizations and offered big million-dollar purses and things like that, but it’s really not a matter of a financial decision,” Aldo said.  “I needed to have that break.  I wanted to pursue my dream of boxing and now I’m coming back.  I never really thought of fighting MMA anywhere else other than the UFC.  We just have to see where I”m at right now with the fight and kind of see where I’m going to go from there.”  

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Jimmy goes off
| BJPenn.com

There appears to be trouble behind the scenes for some of Professional Fighters League’s (PFL) new additions.

PFL made waves throughout mixed martial arts (MMA) to close out its 2023 campaign with the big acquisition of longtime promotional staple Bellator. The move bolstered PFL in essentially every category and the effects of that have been seen in 2024.

However, one place it hasn’t (yet) benefitted is financially, according to former Bellator Middleweight champion, Gegard Mousasi.

“I want to fight, but a little bit difficult with PFL. They don’t honor the contracts. We’ll see,” Mousasi said on JAXXON PODCAST. “They think I get paid too much. When they took over the contract, Bellator fighters make more than the PFL guys so they’re trying to cut the — maybe put pressure, a little bit of politics. Let me not fight for a year then they can come and say, ‘Hey, take half. Stuff like that.

“When they took over, they wanted all the Top 10 fighters, that’s what they said,” he continued. “I think Bellator fighters are also the better fighters, but Bellator fighters also get paid more than the PFL guys. So now, they have to cut because they’re not making a lot of money.”

Mousasi, 38, last fought when he suffered a unanimous decision loss to Fabian Edwards at Bellator 296 in May 2023. The 60-fight legend (49-9-2) has fought in just about every major MMA promotion that’s existed since he debuted in April 2003. Unfortunately, a stint in PFL might not be in the cards.

“I think they want to be the No. 2 after UFC,” Mousasi said of PFL. “They’re No. 2, I guess, but I don’t hear them making any money. Even ONE FC is like, if you look at it, ‘Oh, it’s a big show’ but they lose money all the time.”

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