Ryan Garcia has suffered a costly slip-up at the scale.
Longtime boxing reporter Dan Rafael reported Friday that Garcia came in more than three pounds over the 140-pound limit for his championship bout against WBC titleholder Devin Haney, which takes place Saturday at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Garcia’s gaffe continues a string of erratic behavior exhibited by the boxer in recent months, to the point that concerns have grown over whether the bout would even proceed as scheduled.
Ryan Garcia is indeed waaaay overweight for the fight. He scales 143.2 pounds, per source in the room. He will not be eligible to win the WBC 140 title. Sides negotiating how to move forward. Absolute disaster and absolutely expected. #boxing #HaneyGarcia
— Dan Rafael (@DanRafael1) April 19, 2024
According to Rafael, Garcia actually weighed in 143.2 pounds, making him ineligible to win the super lightweight title. Making the mistake even more costly for Garcia is the fact that at a press conference Thursday, he and Haney agreed that if either fighter was to miss weight, they would pay the other the other $ 500,000 per pound.
Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia agree to a $ 500,000 per pound bet if either man is over the 140-pound limit on Friday #HaneyGarcia pic.twitter.com/dItboriMja
— MMA Fighting (@MMAFighting) April 18, 2024
Garcia and Haney shook hands on that agreement and shortly after news broke of Garcia missing weight, Haney wrote on social media that Garcia has honored the deal.
Ryan honored the 500k per pound..
— Devin Haney (@Realdevinhaney) April 19, 2024
Golden Boy Promotions has released an official statement regarding the status of the bout, announcing that the fight will proceed and that Garcia has paid Haney what he owes him for missing weight.
Ryan has weighed in over his contractual weight. He will honor the handshake made at the final press conference yesterday. We have a fight.
Ahead of Saturday’s Devin Haney vs. Ryan Garcia boxing match in Brooklyn, NY, both fighters were present at Thursday’s press conference to hype up their highly anticipated encounter. While the festivities provided the typical trash-talk between the proverbial cocky champion and his overly confident challenger, the real bit of excitement came in the closing moments of the event.
A seemingly innocent graphic ran at the bottom of the screen, revealing previously unannounced details regarding the MF & DAZN: X Series 15 headliner on Saturday, May 25.
According to the graphic, the main event will be a bout between Elle Brooke and Paige VanZant.
Brooke was understandably frustrated by the leak.
“Feel like everyone just found out I was pregnant before I did,” the OnlyFans star wrote on social media. “Just to clarify, I am not pregnant. Just referring to incompetent people leaking sh*t early.”
Ahead of the DAZN Leak, Paige VanZant Teased Her Pro Boxing Debut
Earlier this year, VanZant teased that her return to combat sports would be in traditional boxing, though she offered no details regarding the date or a potential opponent.
“It’s really, really exciting,” VanZant told MMA Fighting. “Gloves on, it’s just straight boxing. I did think my next fight would be a bare-knuckle boxing match, but this opportunity came forward, and I was just like f*** it, let’s go. So I took a fight.”
VanZant’s unofficially official scrap with Brooke will be her first career boxing match. From 2014 to 2020, ’12 Gauge’ amassed a 5-4 record under the UFC banner before walking away from the promotion in pursuit of greener pastures. It didn’t take long for her to land a lucrative deal with Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship, making her debut at the inaugural KnuckleMania event in February 2022.
As for Elle Brooke, the ‘Baby Bomber’ claimed the Misfits Boxing middleweight championship, knocking out AJ Bunker in the third round at MF & DAZN: X Series 12 in the United Kingdom earlier this year.
With the cat out of the bag, expect an official Brooke vs. VanZant announcement shortly. Until then, check out Elle Brooke’s title-winning performance below:
Now that light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira is no longer competing in the middleweight division, former titleholder Robert Whittaker has become a fan of the Brazilian.
Pereira is a combat sports veteran with 40 professional kickboxing bouts. He arrived in the UFC in November 2021, largely known to mixed marital arts fans as the guy that beat Israel Adesanya twice in kickboxing. In his fourth UFC bout he became the guy that held three wins over “The Last Stylebender” and captured the middleweight title.
After losing to Adesanya in the rematch, Pereira moved up a weight class and won the 205-pound championship in his second fight in the division. He successfully defended the belt at UFC 300 against former champion Jamahal Hill. Pereira knocked Hill out in the first round.
“My relationship with Alex is weird because I personally make it a point not to like any other middleweight just because they are potential opponents. I don’t want to get to know them that way. I don’t want to start blurring lines between my side of the fence and their side of the fence. Understandably, it’s all business and it’s not personal but still I like drawing a line in the sand,” Whittaker said on the MMArcade Podcast.
“Him being a middleweight at the time put him on my radar in that respect. But then he moved to light heavy and he’s doing his thing in light heavy. The longer he’s in hight heavy the more I’m starting to like the guy,” Whittaker continued. “The more I’m starting to like the way he approaches fights. I’ve got to say, he’s got to be one of the coolest fighters at the moment in my opinion.
“His walkout is just so stoic and strong. Even that bow and arrow thing that he does with the scream is so cool. And then we look at his actual fighting prowess. The dude is just a phenom in the standup game. He’s leagues ahead of most other, definitely any other light heavyweight, but most people in the game I feel.”
Nate Diaz is the target of a newly filed lawsuit by Logan Paul lookalike Rodney Petersen for his role in a viral street fight in New Orleans in April 2023.
Petersen, who also goes by the moniker Not Logan Paul, filed the suit this past week in civil district court in the state of Louisiana, alleging that he suffered “severe bodily injuries including but not limited to his head, neck, and brain, pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, psychological distress, medical expenses, lost income and earning capacity,” among other damages. Petersen’s wife, Bobbie, is also named in the suit, alleging damages that include “loss of consortium, loss of services, loss of support, and loss of affection and care.”
MMA Fighting confirmed the news Friday following an initial report by a Louisiana FOX affiliate.
On the evening of April 21, 2023, now-viral footage captured Diaz locking Petersen in a standing guillotine in the midst of a Bourbon Street brawl, hitting him with a knee to the body, then dumping a seemingly unconscious Petersen onto the ground. Petersen later alleged to have suffered a serious concussion and received eight staples in his head from the altercation.
Diaz turned himself into New Orleans police shortly after the incident, however prosecutors ultimately decided not to pursue charges.
“The 2nd degree battery charge against Mr. Nathan Diaz was refused by the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office,” Keith D. Lampkin, the office’s Chief of Operations & External Affairs, said in September. “After reviewing all available evidence of the allegation, including video and testimony, there is not sufficient support to prove the alleged crime.”
Since the altercation, Diaz’s team has maintained that the UFC legend acted in self-defense.
Diaz’s representative Zach Rosenfield issued a succinct statement to MMA Fighting’s Damon Martin on Friday in response to Petersen’s new lawsuit: “LOL.”
Logan Paul isn’t getting into a war of words with Ronda Rousey.
The former UFC bantamweight champion recently suggested that much of Paul’s success with the WWE can be attributed to him receiving extra attention from the company, saying, “It’s frustrating that everybody doesn’t get that treatment.”
Otherwise, Rousey was complimentary towards Paul, and Paul responded in kind to Rousey’s comments on the BS w/ Jake Paul podcast.
“I want to approach this from a real mature standpoint because I like Ronda Rousey,” Logan said. “What she’s done in MMA is incredible. We watched her growing up just snapping arms. I have a lot of respect for Ronda Rousey. Every time I’ve met her it’s been very amicable, so when she’s saying that I don’t think it’s like a personal attack on me by any means. I don’t feel she’s coming after me.
“I feel she’s maybe using me as an example to express her dissatisfaction with how she was treated in the WWE. But I can’t speak on that because I don’t know how she was treated.”
Rousey has had plenty to say about the WWE during her recent tour to promote her memoir, Our Fight. After stepping away from MMA competition in December 2016 following a loss to Amanda Nunes, the ex-UFC star eventually transitioned to professional wrestling, making a well-received debut at WrestleMania 34 in 2018.
Along the way, Rousey’s relationship with the WWE soured, and in a recent interview, she called her time in the company “an absolute s*** show” and pointed the finger at several WWE executives as being the root of the problems. Though Paul can’t speak to Rousey’s experience, he did defend himself in regards to how much work he’s putting in to improve as an in-ring performer.
“I don’t think she’s a hater,” Paul said. “I think she might be unhappy with how her run in the WWE went, but I don’t know anything really about that. All I know is how I work in the facilities and time that I’ve been given to make my matches as best as possible, because I think the WWE recognizes that when I put on a good match, which will happen every single time I perform, the outcome and the reaction of the fans is immense.
“It fills the audience and I think I’ve proven my value both in and out of the ring, on the mic, wrestling. The impressions that I’m delivering the company are second to none.”
Like Rousey, Paul transitioned to professional wrestling after building a name for himself in other fields, amassing a huge following as a YouTuber and social media influencer. After dabbling in boxing—including a 2021 exhibition bout with undefeated legend Floyd Mayweather—Paul made the move to the WWE where he has already performed at some of the sports entertainment giant’s biggest shows.
Paul explained how he’s continuing to learn the craft of professional wrestling, while echoing Rousey’s sentiment that outsiders aren’t always given the most amount of time to prepare following their debuts.
“When I first started, for sure they were holding my hand,” Paul said. “I didn’t go to the [WWE Performance Center] and do professional wrestling like a lot of my peers. My only practice and time to learn how to be a professional wrestler was when we were building the match. Now, I’m working with guys who don’t always feel like spending that much time on it. Although it might be helpful for me, I want to be a good colleague.
“I wrestled a SmackDown once, it was my first television match, and I learned it in a week. We took a collective four hours to do it. I can do it, obviously, and I’m going to do it, but my ability to learn matches, build them, put them together, understand them, and then execute them, is getting better, but the time that I need is getting shorter. I think WWE recognizes that their investment in making sure I do have the time to put the best matches on is paying off.”
There’s $ 10 million dollars sitting on the table for Nate or Jorge if they’re willing to step into the PFL cage and fight Jake Paul in his MMA debut.
Jake Paul is fighting Mike Tyson this summer in what looks like it’ll be one of the biggest combat sports events of the year. On the side, he’s still trying to lure an opponent into the PFL cage for his MMA debut … not that he’s having much luck on that front.
Paul initially hoped to rematch Nate Diaz after winning a decision over the Stockton fighter in August 2023, but Diaz refused. Not even a multi-million dollar offer could draw him to the negotiating table. With the list of bankable fighters in free agency extremely low, that’s left “The Problem Child” with a problem.
“I’m being so serious when I say I want to fight them in MMA,” Paul said in a new YouTube video. “Either Masvidal or Diaz, in the PFL. $ 10 million dollar offer for either one of those guys.”
Masvidal isn’t interested, either.
“Masvidal’s like ‘You can’t even box, what the f*ck are you going to do coming over into MMA bro, I’m from Miami, Florida bro! Don’t disrespect me you joke!’” Paul said. “F—ing bird brain, that’s what he hides behind. Same with Paddy [Pimblett] and Sean Strickland and all these guys hide behind these crazy things. But still none of them have shown up to the table to talk any business about anything to make anything actually happen in a real fight, a real spar, whatever it is.”
“So the offer still stands there, I want either one of those guys in MMA.”
Paul would also accept a boxing fight with Jorge Masvidal, who is currently on a three-fight boxing tour before returning to the UFC. Unfortunately, Jake says he’s not on the list of ‘approved’ opponents for “Gamebred.”
“UFC gave Masvidal a list of 35 names that he was allowed to box,” Paul claimed. “He’s technically still under UFC contract so they’re letting him out of his contract to box Nate, but there were 35 other names and I was not on it.”
Jake’s brother Logan is, though. Too bad Logan is currently retired from boxing.
At least Jake Paul has some time to figure things out. He’s boxing Mike Tyson on July 20th, and then intends to spend six months learning MMA.
“I gotta fight Mike but I would just do it after that,” he said. “I would do a six month camp.”
Sounds like easy money for anyone legally capable of accepting the fight.
![Max Holloway responds to Ilia Topuria saying that he won’t fight him unless the BMF belt is on the line: “That’s not [a] very BMF way to say it. That’s kinda un-BMF. A BMF fightz whatever, whoever, whenever… that’s not a tone of a BMF.”](https://external-preview.redd.it/58YOJEuCAExrUrB67fAMk67GI-jzwx_9aboWPqnn3lw.jpg?width=108&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=45dd994c3b4254372ee80f6a3372bd2e2cbee304 "Max Holloway responds to Ilia Topuria saying that he won’t fight him unless the BMF belt is on the line: “That’s not [a] very BMF way to say it. That’s kinda un-BMF. A BMF fightz whatever, whoever, whenever… that’s not a tone of a BMF.”")
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