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Anthony Smith hopes to work his way back to another title shot starting at UFC 301 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil next weekend (Sat., May 4, 2024).

It’s been five years since Smith shocked the mixed martial arts (MMA) world with his late-career resurgence through the Light Heavyweight ranks to challenge the then-champion, Jon Jones. Unfortunately for Smith, he lost the bout via a unanimous decision and has tried to make his case for another crack at gold ever since.

Smith, 35, has had some verbal exchanges with the current champion, Alex Pereira, in the past. Should a match up ever make sense, “Lionheart” is confident “Poatan” would be down for it.

“He’s fun,” Smith told Submission Radio. “Him and I have had our words back and forth. I don’t think there’s any real beef there, but there’s definitely something there with him and I where given the opportunity we both would jump on it. If I can put myself in a position where, ‘Oh, holy s—t. Here we are on a bit of a streak,’ and things are going well, timing works out, I think both of us would jump on that opportunity.

“I don’t know why that is,” he continued. “I don’t know if it’s ‘real recognizes real’ a little bit. I’m one of the few guys probably that would really — I don’t know — I would step in the fire with him and he knows that. Is [Magomed] Ankalaev gonna stand in the pocket and trade with Alex Pereira and really play that game? Probably not (laughs).”

Before any title hopes can become a reality, Smith first has to get back in the win column by taking out Vitor Petrino at UFC 301. Meanwhile, Pereira recently defended his title via a first round knockout over Jamahal Hill (watch highlights) at UFC 300 two weekends ago (April 13, 2024).

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

MMA Fighting has the BKFC KnuckleMania 4 fight card for the Perry vs. Alves event from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Saturday night.

In the main event, Mike Perry tries to keep his perfect BKFC record intact when he squares off against Thiago Alves in a light heavyweight contest.

BKFC cruiserweight and light heavyweight champion Lorenzo Hunt tries to earn his third BKFC belt when he faces BKFC heavyweight champion Mick Terrill in the co-main event.

UFC heavyweight veterans Ben Rothwell and Todd Duffee also clash on the main card.

Check out the BKFC KnuckleMania 4 fight card below.

Main card (Triller PPV at 10 p.m. ET)

Mike Perry vs. Thiago Alves

Mick Terrill vs. Lorenzo Hunt

Ben Rothwell vs. Todd Duffee

Alfredo Angulo vs. Jeremiah Riggs

Evgeny Kurdanov vs. Julian Lane

Crystal Pittman vs. Sydney Smith

David Diaz vs. Shane Jordan

Andrew Angelcor vs. Ruben Warr

Daniel Alvarez vs. Victor Rosas

Prelims (MMA Fighting at 9 p.m. ET)

Vinny Familari vs. Fernando Gonzalez

Tommy Aaron vs. Richard Brooks

Keith Richardson vs. Cody Vidal

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Revealing a detailed history with a series of concussions throughout her combat sports tenure, as well as other neurological issues, former UFC bantamweight champion, Ronda Rousey has hit out at “MMA media” – claiming the industry’s representatives “hate” her.

Rousey, a former Strikeforce bantamweight gold holder and the inaugural UFC divisional gold holder, commented on her retirement from combat sports back in 2017, after shocking back-to-back knockout losses to former championship duo, Amanda Nunes, and Holly Holm, revealing some prior unknown details.

Speaking on her history of repetitive concussion issues which ruled her from a UFC return – as well as left her seeing stars after finding herself on the receiving end of even jab strikes, Riverside native, Rousey claimed the media misconstrued her revelations as her making excuses for her losses.

Ronda Rousey hits out at MMA media

“MMA media hates me, it’s fine,” Ronda Rousey said during an appearance on The Chris Cuomo Show. “Not a single person has called me or anything like that. They’ve all just doubled-down and said that I’m making excuses or lying. Or was blowing things out of proportion, or not giving credit where it’s due. I’ll be waiting for that call forever.”

“I’m not waiting for it and I get that they’re a bunch of a*sholes,” Ronda Rousey explained. “That’s what I get. I get, ‘F*ck you’. I would rather not have those fake friendships in my life. I would rather those people expose themselves and I don’t leave myself open to them. I would rather cleanse myself of all those fake superficial relationships than have them still around.” 

Calling into question of the legitimacy of Rousey’s claims, the above-mentioned, Holm claimed the self-confessed sport GOAT was likely just dealing with the issue of admitting to herself that she was simply the lesser fighter when they shared the Octagon in 2015.

Would you have liked to see Ronda Rousey make one final trip to the Octagon?

LowKickMMA.com

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Joaquin Buckley is getting his wish. Sort of.

UFC CEO Dana White announced Wednesday that Buckley is set to face Nursulton Ruziboev on May 11 in the welterweight co-main event of UFC St. Louis.

A streaking welterweight contender and native of St. Louis, Buckley repeatedly asked to compete in the main event of his hometown card following his March 30 win over Vicente Luque, even doing so at UFC 300’s pre-fight press conference.

Buckley (18-6) has won three consecutive UFC bouts since moving from middleweight back down to the 170-pound division, sandwiching knockouts of Luque and Andre Fialho between a unanimous decision over Alex Morono. He is currently MMA Fighting’s No. 13 ranked welterweight in the world.

Buckley now makes the quick turnaround against Ruziboev (34-8-2), who transitions down from the middleweight division to accept the challenge. Ruziboev is 2-0 in the UFC with back-to-back first-round knockouts of Brunno Ferreira and Sedriques Dumas, both of which were contested at 185 pounds.

Ruziboev’s most recent win over Dumas came on the same March 30 card, meaning both co-headliners now meet at UFC St. Louis with a six-week turnaround.

UFC St. Louis takes place at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Missouri. The event is headlined by a heavyweight matchup pitting Derrick Lewis against Rodrigo Nascimento.

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Heavyweight champion Jon Jones was injured while preparing for his UFC 295 title defense against former titleholder Stipe Miocic.  “Bones” tore his pectoral muscle while training last October.  

Jones underwent surgery days later and has done physical therapy for months.  It’s been six months since the surgery and Jones has returned to the gym.  

“First day back in the gym since my injury, felt amazing,” Jones wrote on Instagram. “And so it began.”

View the original article to see embedded media.

Jones is almost universally considered the mixed martial arts GOAT.  He’s the youngest UFC champion in history.  He’s a two-time light heavyweight champion with 11 title defense.  He held the 205-pound championship for a record 1,501 days.  He’s the current heavyweight titleholder and has the most wins in UFC title bouts.   

Jones vacated the light heavyweight title in 2020 following his UFC 247 decision win over Dominick Reyes.  Three years later, he returned to the octagon to fight for the heavyweight championship.  

Jones faced top contender at the time, Ciryl Gane in the UFC 285 main event in March 2023.  The fight lasted two minutes.  Jones submitted Gane via guillotine choke and became a two-division UFC champion adding to his legacy.   

The Jones and Miocic bout is expected to be rebooked at some point later this year.  It will be Jones’ first heavyweight title defense.  

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts