The WWE and the UFC may not be planning any major crossovers when it comes to talent, but the companies will team up to help stage an event together in June.
On Monday, the WWE announced that the upcoming NXT Battleground card on June 9 takes place at the UFC APEX in Las Vegas. NXT serves as the WWE’s developmental league where up and coming performers get a taste of working for the organization before typically graduating to a main card roster to appear on shows like Monday Night Raw and Smackdown.
The UFC card that same weekend actually takes place on June 8 at the KFC Yum Center in Louisville, Ky. So the UFC APEX remains open for the WWE event.
“We are always exploring new frontiers to showcase NXT and we are excited to bring Battleground to this world-class event and production facility in partnership with UFC,” WWE senior vice president of talent development creative Shawn Michaels said in a press release.
WWE chief content officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque echoed those sentiments on social media after the announcement was made with the upcoming event happening at the UFC APEX.
The state-of-the-art UFC Apex has been home to so many incredible events… and for the first time ever, on June 9, @WWE becomes part of that. Huge thanks to @ufc and @danawhite for their partnership in bringing #NXTBattleground to Vegas. https://t.co/SVeNZyxIyN
— Triple H (@TripleH) April 22, 2024
Due to the limited size of the APEX, WWE noted that there will be priority seating made available for the event through OnLocation, the live events service owned by Endeavor — the parent company and primary shareholder for UFC and WWE under TKO Group Holdings.
The UFC has staged events at the APEX outside of fights and The Contender Series including serving as the primary home for Dana White’s Power SLAP league, which holds cards there regularly.
Now, the WWE will call the UFC APEX home for at least one night, although it’s entirely possible this becomes a more routine partnership for the future. The UFC started staging cards at the APEX during the global pandemic but still continues to host events there thanks to the in-house production available to them.
Last Saturday, Ryan Garcia handed WBC super lightweight champion Devin Haney his first career loss. Haney retained the title because Garcia failed to make weight for the title fight and was ineligible to win it.
In the buildup to the match, Garcia displayed erratic and concerning behavior, but showed up on fight night. After flooring the champion several times, Garcia won via majority decision.
UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley and Garcia have a history of calling each other out. Following Garcia’s upset win over Haney, O’Malley reacted to the result and mocked Garcia in a video posted to social media.
“Ryan Garcia – Devin Haney just got done. Very impressive fight from Ryan. He was using an interesting technique. He would throw his left hook, which was really nice. He’d throw his left hook Instantly turn his back, so he couldn’t get hit,” O’Malley said in the video. “Good fight.”
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O’Malley defended the 135-pound title for the first time at UFC 299 in March against the only man to defeat him, Marlon Vera. O’Malley dominated the rematch winning every round on all three judges’ scorecards.
In the video, O’Malley displays the ‘interesting technique’ with his longtime coach Tim Welch. It’s worth a watch.
John Kavanagh and Conor McGregor | Photo by Brian Lawless/PA Images via Getty Images
Conor McGregor is rounding back into championship form.
In an interview with SevereMMA, McGregor’s coach John Kavanagh gave a positive appraisal of McGregor’s form heading into his comeback fight at UFC 303 on June 28 in Las Vegas. “The Notorious” is set to fight Michael Chandler in a welterweight bout, in what will be McGregor’s first fight since July 2021.
Though McGregor’s star power has allowed him to pursue other opportunities in the world of entertainment as he recovered from a broken leg suffered in a loss to Dustin Poirier at UFC 264, Kavanagh said the former two-division titleholder rarely lets fighting stray far from his mind.
“He’s looking super slick,” Kavanagh said. “There are fighters that when they’re not fighting and after a while it’s difficult to explain to somebody and a lot of guys watching this that are 15 pro fights in, it starts becoming a job. It does. ‘My passion’ and ‘my love of this,’ it’s a job and it’s hard to keep the level of intensity. Even if it’s not physical, the level of mental intensity, of always thinking about training, always thinking about sequences, always thinking about techniques.
“That’s something Conor’s had naturally his whole career. So even though there’s times when he’s off filming, he’s doing this, he’s doing that, we’re still always having conversations back and forth, whereas some fighters are like, ‘If I’m not fighting, I don’t even want to look at shows. I’ll just get ready when there’s a fight coming up.’ And that’s really held to him because he’s come back on the mats as sharp as ever. Of course, we’ve got to get the rounds in and get the conditioning up to be ready for competition, but his technique is as sharp as ever.”
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McGregor recently starred in the hit Amazon Prime release, Road House, alongside Jake Gyllenhaal. A remake of the classic 1989 action film, the 2024 version of Road House received mixed reviews, but drew impressive streaming numbers and McGregor was one of the most talked-about aspects of the movie.
Kavanagh has been by McGregor’s side throughout the fighter’s rise to global notoriety and he isn’t concerned about him being spread too thin.
“I’ve always felt sorry for the other guys because let’s say he has 20 different areas that he needs to focus on,” Kavanagh said. “Martial arts will always be number one because he really enjoys it. It’s the most fun. Going through the paperwork on a really long, complicated property deal. Probably not the most exciting thing in the world. But for martial arts I feel like I have a trump card. I can always send him a highlight, send him a technique, talk about a guy that we have in here training for him, whatever, and I’ll always pop to the top of the list. So I don’t feel I have to compete with those things.
“Conor’s really good at compartmentalization, whereas training is realistically it’s maybe two one-hour sessions a day. That’s plenty of other time in the day where you can be focused in other areas. So when you’re in here, you’re on for the hour, you’re on for the 90 minutes, and then when you’re gone, you’re on for whatever it is you’re doing out there.”
When McGregor returns to action, it will have been almost three years since his most recent fight and over four years since his last victory. He defeated Donald Cerrone at UFC 246 in January 2020 before dropping a pair of bouts to Poirier.
Kavanagh predicts that McGregor won’t waste too much time reestablishing his reputation in his comeback fight.
“I said this from the start, I see similarities to the [Chad] Mendes fight,” Kavanagh said. “I’d be surprised if it can go two rounds. [McGregor] hits too hard, he’s too sharp. Is there going to be scrappiness and a few takedowns and stuff? Maybe. But every round starts on the feet and his ability to get back there is underestimated. So I’d be surprised if we see two rounds.”
Kavanagh declined to answer what opponents McGregor may be interested in following a win over Chandler, instead focusing solely on securing victory in his upcoming fight first. Should McGregor lose, Kavanagh doubts it will be the last fans see of him.
“I don’t think Conor will ever hang it up,” Kavanagh said. “One fight at a time. We have a really big fight coming up, a big challenge. Chandler’s a hell of a competitor and I’m looking forward to that challenge. We’re all looking forward to that challenge.”
Jiri Prochazka | Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Jiri Prochazka may not be an actual samurai, but that’s beside the point for him.
This past Saturday, Prochazka faced Aleksandar Rakic in the featured prelim bout of UFC 300. During the build-up to the fight, Rakic noted that Prochazka is not actually the samurai as he proclaims himself to be, which appeared to anger the former light heavyweight champion a good deal. On fight night, Prochazka took that anger out on Rakic, stopping him with strikes in the second round.
Afterward, Prochazka said he doesn’t bear any ill will towards Rakic and even agreed that he is not actually a samurai. But speaking on The MMA Hour, “BJP” explained that it’s not so much about being any one thing, it’s about his lifestyle.
“For me, to be a samurai, for me it’s about attitude,” Prochazka said. “What you have in your life. About the paradigm in your life. How to see some situation. Sometimes you don’t need to be a samurai, because this attitude, this role, is not effective in every piece of your life. That’s why I’m not just using that for fight, but like I said many times, we all need to follow something. We need to understand our lives — our brain, our minds need to understand our lives and what we’re doing, why we are doing that, by some theory, some ideas. These ideas about bushido moral code help me to be honest to the way that I’m following. That’s all. You have to find something that resonates with you, and samurai ideas resonate with me.
“In the world there are not just samurais, there are other warriors like knights. But everywhere there are some rules, and I respect these rules because they helped me in really dark moments of my life to overcome these moments and be strong, be more human, and live fully. Totally fully, without fears, without trying to be better than someone or trying to be richer than someone. No thinking, because that’s fear. There is no place for these things. … That’s why it helps me to live fully.
“I don’t know what to give to my coach to pay him for these lessons, especially for that book, because that’s something that resonated with me so deeply that I can’t fight or do this show or whatever without speaking about that,” Prochazka continued. “To let the people know about these things, because I think, especially in this age, there are too many people trying to understand their lives, trying to understand why to wake up and find their way. And that gave me meaning in my life.”
“Samurai-gate” was not the only headline Prochazka drew in advance of UFC 300. The former UFC light heavyweight champion also gained attention when a fan spotted him outside the T-Mobile arena a few nights before the event, standing in the same spot and simply looking at the arena. Prochazka was also asked about that scene, and while it’s not quite the same as his thoughts on being a samurai and the bushido code, his answer still invokes some of the same ideas that guide his life.
“I’m doing that every night,” Prochazka said. “If you’re working with visualization, with your higher self, and with the most beautiful idea of your life, the vision, and when you are open to follow that idea, because sometimes it’s not easy, but we do that harder and harder, sometimes, to ourselves. That’s the law of … attraction.
“When I started to do that in my high school when I was 17 years old, these techniques are just about ourselves. About every person on this plane to have focus. Because when you use your ability to do this beautiful work, then you realize there are no limits. Really, there are no limits. Everything you can imagine, that’s something that is connected with you. And when you feel you are on the same wave, that’s beautiful.”
Prochazka’s approach to the sport earned him a number of fans who appreciate his unique blend of traditional martial arts values and pseudo-mysticism. But for Prochazka, it’s not about making fans or presenting a different way of life, it’s about following his own path through this world.
“It seems like it’s unique, but when you really follow your way, your connection with your god, then you will see what’s your way,” Prochazka said. “Then your mind will be more calm, peaceful. Then there is no fear, there is just pure belief and you will follow the way. That’s all.”
Prochazka is now 4-1 in his UFC career, and his win over Rakic puts him right back in the light heavyweight title picture.
Heavyweight hurters Derrick Lewis and Rodrigo Nascimento will headline the upcoming UFC St. Louis MMA event, which airs LIVE on ESPN and ESPN+ on Sat. May 11, 2024 from inside Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Missouri.
Now they have an official poster.
Lewis (27-12, 1 NC) continues to struggle in what appears to be the twilight of his cage fighting career. “The Black Beast” has dropped four of his last five, including his decision loss to Jailton Almeida at UFC São Paulo late last year. As for Nascimento (11-1, 1 NC), he’s now captured three straight, having last competed in a winning performance over Don’Tale Mayes back on Nov. 4 in Brazil.
Here’s the current UFC St. Louis fight card and ESPN lineup:
UFC St. Louis Main Event on ESPN/ESPN+:
265 lbs.: Derrick Lewis vs. Rodrigo Nascimento
UFC St. Louis Main Card, Prelims on ESPN/ESPN+:
205 lbs.: Alonzo Menifield vs. Carlos Ulberg 170 lbs.: Jared Gooden vs. Kevin Jousset 115 lbs.: Tabatha Ricci vs. Tecia Torres 145 lbs.: Alex Caceres vs. Sean Woodson 125 lbs.: Jake Hadley vs. Charles Johnson 155 lbs.: Terrance McKinney vs. Esteban Ribovics 155 lbs.: Chase Hooper vs. Viacheslav Borshchev 170 lbs.: Trey Waters vs. Billy Goff 265 lbs.: Waldo Cortes-Acosta vs. Robelis Despaigne 125 lbs.: JJ Aldrich vs. Veronica Hardy 155 lbs.: Diego Ferreira vs. Mateusz Rębecki
UFC
For more on the upcoming UFC St. Louis card click here.
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