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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

A battle between top-10 women’s bantamweights has been added to the UFC’s International Fight Week card.

The promotion announced on Tuesday that a matchup between recent title challenger Mayra Bueno Silva and Macy Chiasson is set for UFC 303, which takes place June 29 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Bueno Silva returns to action after coming up short in her opportunity to win a UFC title, losing a unanimous decision to Raquel Pennington for the vacant championship at January’s UFC 297 event. Prior to that, the No. 3 ranked bantamweight in MMA Fighting’s Global Rankings went unbeaten after moving up from flyweight, including stoppage wins over Lina Lansberg and Stephanie Egger.

Chiasson enters the bout winning four of her past six outings, including a first-round submission win over Pannie Kianzad at UFC Vegas 88 in March — the first appearance for MMA Fighting’s No. 9 ranked bantamweight since a September 2022 stoppage loss to Irene Aldana at UFC 279.

UFC 303 will be headlined by the highly anticipated return of Conor McGregor as he faces Michael Chandler in a welterweight contest.

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Dan Hooker is down for a BMF title fight, so long as he gets to go through Bobby Green first.

With back-to-back wins over Claudio Puelles and Jalin Turner in his last two outings, ‘The Hangman’ is looking to make a summertime return against a big name in the lightweight division.

Speaking with Hyon Ko of The Allstar, Hooker spoke about a potential clash with Beneil Dariush, but if he gets his wish, the UFC will rebook his previously scheduled scrap with 155-pound standout ‘King’ Bobby Green.

Furthermore, Hooker believes that such an electrifying fight could serve as a potential BMF title eliminator.

“You need a BMF [title] eliminator. That’s why I was originally calling for the [Bobby] Green fight,” Hooker said. “That’s originally what it was to the fans. I suggested that like it was a BMF eliminator and there weren’t any fans who had any counterarguments to that. Me and Green would be a heck of a fight. I owe it to the fans and I would love to step in and compete against him and line myself up for the BMF belt.

“After his performance against Jim Miller at UFC 300, Bobby Green’s stock is right back to where it deserves to be and if nothing comes together for International Fight Week, Green’s got two arms and two legs, brother, so he fits the bill, but I’d love to bring him down to Perth and do that one at home. That’ll be cool.”

Dan Hooker Slams Ilia Topuria’s BMF Title Demands

The BMF title currently resides with Max Holloway after ‘Blessed’ delivered the highlight of the night at UFC 300, dispatching Justin Gaethje with an epic buzzer-beating knockout. Following the win, Holloway’s stock rose massively, making him a viable contender in two different divisions.

Asked about his thoughts on Holloway’s last-second KO, Dan Hooker admitted to being blown away by the moment. He also took a dig at Ilia Topuria’s recent BMF title demands, saying:

“Absolutely wild. That’s the danger of the sport. For Max to have it in the bag and put it all on the line, that’s BMF sh*t, you know what I mean? If there’s a ‘but’ in your statement, you’ve immediately disqualified yourself from the BMF conversation. It’s gone over your head if you have to say, ‘I’ll fight him, but…’ If there’s any ifs, buts, or maybes, you’ve disqualified yourself.”

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UFC

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Ryan Garcia isn’t alone criticizing referee Harvey Dock after making some questionable decisions in the fight with Devin Haney this past Saturday night.

UFC welterweight Matt Brown unloaded on the referee for his actions – especially in the seventh round. Garcia became the first person to drop Haney after he blasted the previously undefeated fighter with a brutal left hook that dropped him to the ground. Haney struggled getting back to his feet, which led to Garcia going for the kill.

Haney was holding on for dear life but Dock ultimately ended up deducting a point from Garcia to penalize the fighter for punching after his command for a break. Garcia took aim at Dock after the fight, saying the referee was “tripping” and that he “stole” a potential knockout win away from him.

Brown definitely agreed with Garcia’s assessment, especially in that seventh round following the knockdown.

“I didn’t think [Devin Haney] was getting up from it,” Brown said on The Fighter vs. The Writer. “That was the one where he got up and tackled him and the one knockdown that the referee didn’t call.

“Ryan clocked him, Devin falls onto Ryan, Ryan’s holding him up, Ryan lets him go and the f****** referee, you couldn’t be more clearly for Devin Haney than that referee in that round.”

Brown conceded that referees have an impossibly tough job and Haney and Garcia didn’t make it any easier on him by repeatedly holding onto each other dozens of times throughout the fight.

That said, Brown believes Dock deserves the criticism he’s receiving after that seventh round where he made mistake after mistake following the knockdown from Garcia.

“That was a tough fight for him all the way around, but in that seventh round, how he f****** that up so bad,” Brown said. “There’s a point where we understand how hard of a job they’ve got and we’ve got to give them some leeway. But there’s a point where it’s like that’s some bulls***. You should be fined for that one motherf*****.”

In the end, Garcia received the only point deduction in the fight for the punch after the break but Brown says the referee should have taken better control of the situation even if he was probably in for a long night during a grudge match between two boxers who clearly didn’t like each other.

“Most of the fight, I think he could have been a little bit harder about holding onto each other,” Brown said. “He never docked a point, particularly for Devin Haney holding but I think Ryan was holding a lot, too, and trying to make it look like Devin was holding.

“It was a tough job for the referee. That was an ugly fight. That was a tough fight for him all the way around.”

As far as the result goes, Garcia secured a majority decision win based primarily around three knockdowns in rounds 7, 10 and 11. Outside of that, Garcia largely got outboxed by Haney but Brown expects that was exactly the game plan the 25-year-old fighter from California had in mind the entire time.

“You [saw] it play out in the fight,” Brown said. “[Garcia] was banking on the big shot. He wasn’t outboxing Devin Haney by any stretch. Devin Haney was outboxing him. That’s how the fight became almost even. But he knew that his power was what’s going to win him that fight. The motherf***** was right!.

“What sucks about it, too, Ryan is a good boxer. He actually has good boxing, but it’s like he didn’t even try on Saturday against Devin. He didn’t even try to box him. I think he knew Devin was the better boxer, and he knew that wasn’t a good game plan. But some of the silly things like turning his back on the shoulder roll and the constant holding, punching off the break, so much of that. It’s such an ugly fight. It was like the greatest ugly fight I’ve ever seen in my life.”

It may not have been pretty but Garcia still managed to score three knockdowns to help him secure the win over Haney. The victory now stands as the biggest accomplishment in Garcia’s career, and Brown lauds him for getting the job done just as promised.

“I think that’s what ultimately got Ryan Garcia the win — he pulled Devin into an ugly fight,” Brown said. “You could tell when the fight started getting uglier and uglier, it was favoring Ryan big time. When it was a nice, clean fight, boxer versus boxer, Devin was smoking him.”

Listen to new episodes of The Fighter vs. The Writer every Tuesday with audio only versions of the podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeartRadio

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Derek Anderson barely got the chance to celebrate booking his next fight against Cedric Doumbe at the upcoming Bellator Paris card before disaster struck.

The veteran fighter suffered a gruesome foot injury riding his bike that will knock him out of the fight against Doumbe, which was scheduled on May 17 at the Accor Arena in Paris.

Anderson posted the news along with a gnarly photo of his foot on social media and PFL officials also confirmed his withdrawal from the fight on Tuesday.

“Love you all. Hit and run,” Anderson wrote. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t make this fight happen. You have no idea. I will not be getting another bike.”

As of now, PFL has not found a new opponent for Doumbe but the promotion is “actively seeking replacement” to face him at the Bellator Paris card in May.

It’s really unfortunate news for Anderson, who was looking to make his first appearance in nearly three years after falling to Michael “Venom” Page back in 2021. His only scheduled bout since then in 2022 was also scrapped for unknown reasons.

As for Doumbe, he’ll now wait for a new opponent with the chance to serve as the co-main event at the upcoming Bellator card in Paris. The former GLORY kickboxing champion stormed on the scene with a lightning quick knockout in his debut with PFL but then he suffered his first professional loss in MMA after a toe injury forced a stoppage in his following fight.

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There isn’t a 165-pound ‘super lightweight’ division in the UFC, but if former two-division champion Daniel Cormier had his way that would end this summer at UFC 303.  

Cormier would like to see fellow former two-division champion Conor Mcgregor and Michael Chandler fight for the inaugural UFC super lightweight title.

“Here’s my thought process, right? When it comes down to championship opportunities, I have said this time and time again, a lot of times it comes down to being at the right place, at the right time,” Cormier said Monday on Good Guy / Bad Guy.

“Even going back to me, they had no intent of giving me my first championship opportunity]. But then Alexander Gustafsson got hurt, they called me in, I stepped in. I never left the title picture after because I was reliable. They could always call me and say, ‘Hey, do you want to fight this guy for the belt?’ It was also the same way with Dustin Poirier right now, we see it happening where, if you’re in the right place at the right time under the right circumstances, sometimes it happens faster.

“I believe that if they’re going to do a 165-pound division, it should have a name attached to the weight class that is so big that it draws people’s attention,” Cormier continued. “Conor McGregor being that name. Michael Chandler, on the other hand, will benefit from being in the right place at the right time, where these guys would then fight for the super lightweight championship of the world, because that’s what I believe it is. Because it’s only 10 pounds heavier than 155, so let’s call it the super lightweight division. Move 170 to 175, move 185 to 195, keep 205, and heavyweight.”

McGregor last fought in July 2021 at UFC 264, losing to Dustin Poirier after suffering a broken leg at the end of the first round.  The Irishman has lost three of his last four fights.  Chandler has been sitting on the sidelines waiting for McGregor’s return.  He too has lost three of his last four fights and is also coming off a loss to Poirier.  

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