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Ilia Topuria already has a full dance card, but there’s always room for one more.

In February, Topuria knocked out Alexander Volkanovski to claim the featherweight title at UFC 298. The victory turned Topuria into a global superstar and set him up for a number of high-profile fights. The first of those appears to be a collision with newly-crowned “BMF” champion Max Holloway, who won the title at UFC 300 with a spectacular knockout of Justin Gaethje.

And though that bout is far from official, that’s not stopping Topuria from looking ahead toward bigger goals. “El Matador” has made no secret of wanting to bring the UFC to Spain in 2025, and once he claims the BMF belt on top of his featherweight title, there are a few matchups he believes would be fitting for such an occasion.

“If Conor [McGregor] beats Mike Chandler, we can fight for the BMF belt at 170,” Topuria said on The MMA Hour. “If [Sean] O’Malley defends his belt — which I have many, many doubts — that’s an exciting fight, too. So I don’t know. In my mind, I see a lot of big fights. Even with Volkanovski, it’s going to be huge.”

McGregor is currently set to face Chandler in the main event of UFC 303 on June 29 in Las Vegas. O’Malley, meanwhile, does not have a date set but will defend his bantamweight title against No. 1 contender Merab Dvalishvili sometime this year.

As Georgian fighters, Topuria is friends with Dvalishvili, and believes Dvalishvili is a difficult fight for O’Malley. But if “Suga” somehow wins it, then Topuria says no one can deny he will deserve at shot at the featherweight title.

“He’s fighting Merab and I truly believe Merab is going to whoop his ass,” Topuria said. “If he doesn’t, I will be waiting for him. Then he really deserves the shot. If he dominates his weight class, you have to give him the chance to move up to the next weight division. But right now, it doesn’t make any sense because he has a guy who is a No. 1 contender who really deserves the shot, Merab. And I truly believe that [Merab]’s going to beat him.”

For his part, O’Malley is very interested in a fight with Topuria. After defending his title with a five-round masterclass against Chito Vera at UFC 299, O’Malley called for a shot at the featherweight strap, even offering to go to Spain to do it.

Instead, Dvalishvili appears to be next, but that doesn’t mean the dream is dead. Topuria and O’Malley both attended UFC 300 and had a brief conversation at the event, where Topuria says they laid out the ultimate goal for both of them.

“I just told him, ‘Congratulations on your title defense,’” Topuria said. “He told me, ‘I’m going to defend my belt. You do your things, and we’re going to build the biggest fight in UFC history.’ This is what’s going to happen. If he defends the belt, that’s going to be the biggest fight in UFC history. And if we make it in [Madrid’s Santiago] Bernabeu [Stadium], even bigger.”

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Lightweight champion Islam Makhachev headlines the UFC 303 fight card on June 1 in Newark, New Jersey against former interim titleholder Dustin Poirier.  Makhachev admits that Poirier is a legend and a dangerous opponent, but believes his style will be a bad matchup for “The Diamond.”   

“Against him (Poirier) I know my plan.  I just have to defend my neck from his guillotine.  And that’s it,” Makhachev jokingly told New York Post Sports.  “He is a legend.  If we talk about Dustin, he’s already a legend.  He has big experience in this sport.  He’s a problem.  He has good striking.  His bad point is his wrestling and grappling, but he has a good guillotine.”  

“My fight style is bad for Dustin because we saw his fight with Max Holloway and with other people that have good striking.  I think the best boxing in this sport, in my division, Dustin has.  Honestly because he beats everybody.  In the striking, nobody can beat him,” Makhachev continued.  “But for the fighter who has good wrestling and good grappling, he has bad points… He lost to Khabib [Nurmagomedov] who has good wrestling and grappling.  He lost to Charles Oliveira.  That’s why, in my opinion, my style is bad for him.”

Makhachev (25-1) is coming off back-to-back wins over former featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski.  Both of his title defenses were against the Australian.  Poirier (30-8, 1NC) knocked out Benoit Saint Denis in his last outing.     

UFC 302 takes place at the Prudential Center.  In the fight card’s co-main event, former middleweight champion Sean Strickland takes on former title challenger Paulo Costa.  The event will mark the promotion’s tenth visit to Newark. 

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Strange actions
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Local fans should be prepared to pull an all-nighter. UFC 304 prelims begin at 11 p.m. BST, followed by the main card start time of 3 a.m. BST to preserve the traditional UFC pay-per-view broadcast schedule in the United States.

After weeks of speculation, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) today announced the upcoming UFC 304 pay-per-view (PPV) event, scheduled for Sat., July 27, 2024 at Co-op Live in Manchester, England. UFC 304 tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. BST on Friday, June 7, via Ticketmaster with special pre sales for UFC Fight Club members on Weds., June 5, at 9 a.m. BST and newsletter subscribers on Thurs., June 6, at 10 a.m. BST.

“I’m so excited to get back to Manchester and no better time than this summer,” said UFC President and CEO Dana White. “We have two champions from the UK and fans have been dying for a UFC PPV event. So here we come to the largest indoor arena in the UK. See you soon, England!”

Among those fighters expected to compete are UFC welterweight champion Leon Edwards and UFC interim heavyweight titleholder Tom Aspinall, as well as local favorites Paddy Pimblett, Molly McCann, Muhammad Mokaev, Michael Page, and Arnold Allen, among others. Expect official announcements on specific matchups in the coming weeks, if not days.

“With the north of England home to so many of the world’s leading fighters, we are primed and ready for UFC and its knowledgeable, passionate fanbase,” said Co-op Live Executive Director & General Manager, Gary Roden. “Offering a state-of-the-art platform for globally broadcast events, Co-op Live is extremely proud to welcome entertainment of this scale and caliber as the future home of combat sports in the UK.”

UFC has not staged an MMA card in Manchester since UFC 204 “Bisping vs. Henderson” back in late 2016.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

The UFC has officially announced its fifth trip to Manchester, England, and it’s taking place at the Co-op Live arena on July 27.

The promotion has yet to announce the main event for UFC 304 but interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall recently said he will be defending his belt on that pay-per-view show.

Birmingham-based Leon Edwards could also put his UFC welterweight title on the line on the card.

UFC 304 will be the first octagon visit to Manchester since Michael Bisping avenged a loss to Dan Henderson to defend his middleweight crown in the main event of UFC 204 in 2016 for a crowd of 16,000 fans.

The show will start at 11 p.m. BST and the main card will start at 3 a.m. BST.

Three other UFC shows were held in Manchester previously, but only one aired on pay-per-view, with Gabriel Gonzaga scoring a huge upset versus Mirko Cro Cop in the main event of UFC 70. UFC 105, although a numbered card, aired on tape-delay on Spike in 2009, and Lyoto Machida stopped Mark Munoz on a Fight Night main event in 2013.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

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Bringing you the weird and wild from the world of MMA each and every weeknight!

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Last weekend (Sat. April 20, 2024), Ryan Garcia shocked the world. Not long ago, Garcia was one of the hottest up-and-comers in boxing, but a one-sided knockout loss to Gervonta Davis and unimpressive bounce-back victory cooled expectations. Then, the community grew concerned for “King” after there was a murder hoax, and Garcia’s public and online behavior raised many eyebrows.

Against the undefeated Devin Haney, Garcia would not have been favored by odds makers at the best of times, but his pre-fight antics didn’t seem to indicate a boxer that was training seriously. Missing weight and pounding a beer at weigh-ins seemed to confirm that Garcia was destined for a beating, and he grew to be an even larger underdog.

It all changed on fight night. Garcia was confident and sharp from the very first bell, hurting Haney early with his signature left hook. Haney managed to win some rounds back, but when Garcia turned it on late, he knocked Haney down multiples times and forced the judges to deliver him the victory (watch highlights).

That’s one hell of a turnaround! Oh, and to make victory sweeter, Garcia may have bet on himself too. In a recent interview, Garcia acknowledged that his outside-of-the-ring antics may have resulted in increased viewership, and he also revealed his projected purse: somewhere between $ 30 and $ 50 million.

“I don’t know [if my antics helped the fight overall] but I think it brought more eyes to it.” Ryan Garcia said the PBD Podcast (via Josh Evanoff). “[It brought] the casual fans. I don’t know about the pay-per-view or tickets but we’re going to find out real soon. I’m projected to make around thirty to fifty million from the fight.”

He continued, “No [they haven’t released the pay-per-view numbers yet]. But Oscar said that they are very good. Very good, yeah.”

In case anyone needed clarification on why UFC champion Sean O’Malley was talking about boxing Garcia — there’s your answer!

Insomnia

Donald Cerrone ripped his bicep and will not be riding Dana White’s bull.

So … this seems like a pretty good reason not to fight Cedric Doumbe. All the best to Derek Anderson in recovery!

This is about as good a non-title fight as one could make in the women’s Bantamweight division.

How long into his fight versus Dustin Poirier until Islam Makhachev shoots the first takedown?

Jiri Prochazka is harnessing the power of the universe.

In case any further evidence was necessary that Ilia Topuria hits really hard:

Is the Philly shell the perfect defense for eye pokes? I love this niche bit of MMA art.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Good thing the Dan Henderson-esque diving overhand missed.

Head kicks on the break of the clinch, forever underrated.

If you’re going to copy Fabricio Werdum’s flying side kick start, it helps to be one of the greatest jiu-jitsu artists in MMA history.

Random Land

Presented without spoilers:

Midnight Music: Punk, 1981

Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.

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