Jake Paul may not be a world class boxer just yet but there’s no doubt he still hits really hard.
The 27-year-old fighter proved that after rapper Lil Pump requested an undefended body shot after they finished recording a podcast together. It’s safe to say that didn’t end well for him.
Jake Paul dropped Lil Pump pic.twitter.com/v5X0FdC7Oa
— Happy Punch (@HappyPunch) April 4, 2024
The video from Paul’s BS podcast shows the 9-1 professional boxer loading up on a punch and then blasting the hip-hop star in the body. Lil Pump — real name Gazzy Garcia — immediately fell to the ground writhing and moaning in pain from the punch.
As he continued suffering in agony, Paul stood over top of him with a smile while saying “I told you, you didn’t have to do it.”
At 5-foot-5, and maybe 140 pounds soaking wet, Lil Pump didn’t have much protection from Paul’s brutal body blow. His reaction showed that it’s always going to be a bad idea to jump in these kinds of situations with a professional fighter.
Of course, Paul’s break from training to demolish a viral rapper was only a slight distraction as he continues preparation for a July showdown with former boxing heavyweight champion Mike Tyson.
The highly publicized but also widely criticized matchup between Paul and the 57-year-old boxer airs on Netflix on July 20 from AT&T Stadium just outside Dallas.
UFC 300 is less than 10 days away, and it is absolutely stacked from top-to-bottom — from the opening prelim between Deiveson Figueiredo and Cody Garbrandt, all the way to the main event for the light heavyweight title between Alex Pereira and Jamahal Hill. On paper, is UFC 300 the greatest card in UFC history?
On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck weighs in on that question, and states his case for why the answer is yes. Additionally, listener questions include the Pereira vs. Hill title fight, where Garbrandt would go in the bantamweight division if he defeats Figueiredo, Thursday’s PFL San Antonio fight card, Dustin Poirier possibly getting a title shot at 155 pounds against Islam Makhachev, Frank Mir discussing his UFC 100 fighter pay, and much more.
You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces.
If you miss it live, audio-only versions of the podcast can be found below, on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and wherever you find your favorite podcasts.
Former UFC and Strikeforce women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey opened up in an interview with Valeria Lipovetsky about her final days in the UFC.
After her UFC 193 knockout loss to Holly Holm, Rousey felt obligated to return for another fight. In that fight, she was mercilessly beaten by Amanda Nunes at UFC 207 and finished in just 48 seconds. It was the last time “Rowdy” graced the inside of the octagon.
“I felt like I had to come back for another fight because I felt like I owed it to the fans and everyone that believed in me. Maybe I needed to give them an example of overcoming adversity,” Rousey said.
“I was so done fighting after that loss [to Holly Holm],” Rousey continued. “I’d had so many concussions, I literally couldn’t take a jab without getting a concussion at that point.”
Rousey blamed the loss to Holm on a ‘bad mouth guard,’ a pre-fight concussion, and a ‘terrible weight cut.’
During the interview, Rousey said something that caught the attention of former UFC, Bellator MMA, Strikeforce, and Invicta FC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg.
“I know that I’m the greatest fighter that has ever lived,” Rousey claimed. “But when it got to a point where I’d just taken so much neurological damage that I couldn’t take it anymore, suddenly everything that I accomplished meant nothing.”
Cyborg responded to Rousey’s comments via social media. “Poor girl still suffering from CTE,” Cyborg wrote. “I hope she finally got a good mouth guard.”
Poor girl still suffering from CTE.
I hope she finally got a good mouth guard. https://t.co/JwHQxUSxJA
— CrisCyborg.Com (@criscyborg) April 3, 2024
Cyborg returns to boxing to face Widnelly Figueroa in the main event of Green Bay Fight Night at The Watering Hole in Green Bay, Wis on April 27.
Who do you consider the greatest female fighter to ever live? Holm held multiple boxing titles and the UFC bantamweight crown. Amanda Nunes defeated two divisions of fighters including Cyborg. Cyborg held the 145-pound women’s title for essentially nine years. Valentina Shevchenko held the flyweight championship for five years successfully defending it seven times.
Justin Gaethje has a nasty prediction for his Max Holloway fight in this action packed episode of “Countdown” to UFC 300.
UFC 300 is about 1.5 weeks away and it features the biggest assembly of champions past or present that the promotion has ever assembled.
Now, we have the UFC 300 “Countdown” show, which does a good job of showcasing all the monumental fights that will go down. While a light heavyweight showdown between Alex Pereira vs. Jamahal Hill is the main event, the co-main for the BMF belt between Justin Gaethje vs. Max Holloway is our highlight from the “Countdown” show.
“No one steals the show quite like ‘The Highlight,” Gaethje said during the episode. “Carnage, chaos, probably some blood and adrenaline coursing through the veins, that is what you are going to get from me. My ability to create damage is second to none.”
“Max Holloway is a legend, probably the only person on the UFC roster that checks every single box of being a BMF, so I have a lot of respect for him,” he continued. “However, this is my job and I’m going to try and f— him up. I will finish Max, he may not go away the traditional way, but I think I will inflict damage to where the doctors need to stop it.”
“We are about to paint a violent picture and no two better guys to go out there and put on a show.”
UFC 300 goes down Saturday April 13th, and we’ll have all the news, highlights, and updates from the biggest card of the year as it goes down live, so keep it locked to MMAMania.com.
To checkout the latest and greatest UFC 300 fight card and rumors click here.
Frank Mir doesn’t want to seem like a sore loser. But he can’t help but wonder who really got paid from one of the UFC’s most successful cards of all-time — because it definitely wasn’t him.
Promoted as a historic event, UFC 100 took place in 2009 and featured a blockbuster main event between champ Mir and WWE superstar turned fighter Brock Lesnar. The event sold 1.6 million pay-per-views — a record-setting number at the time — and at a cost of $ 44.95, it produced over $ 71 million in revenue.
Back then, the UFC split pay-per-view profits with cable and satellite companies. Typically, that cut its revenue in half. For UFC 100, the promotion likely earned around $ 35 or $ 36 million. Meanwhile, salaries for the event, which were publicly available at that time, showed Mir made $ 45,000 for his loss, while Lesnar earned $ 400,000. That was before pay-per-view sales were factored in.
Mir said that even with his bonus, he didn’t clear $ 1 million for his fight with Lesnar – or any other fight during his 15-year career with the UFC. It wasn’t until years later he realized how drastically underpaid he was compared to the UFC’s profits.
“I think when it finally dawned on me was the Deontay Wilder [rematch] with Tyson Fury,” Mir told MMA Fighting. “We still did more buys than they did, me and Brock, and then I’m looking at the pay-per-view cost. OK, the money was there. Who did it go to?
“Seeing these guys make $ 40 million combined. I’m like wow. Brock obviously made seven figures off it, I think he made $ 2.5 million. But I didn’t even make a million.”
The Fury vs. Wilder 2 card in 2020 reportedly sold between 800,000 and 850,000 buys at a price of $ 79.99 on pay-per-view. By those metrics, the boxing match likely earned somewhere around $ 66 million. Fury and Wilder were both guaranteed to make more than $ 25 million, plus a share of the pay-per-view profits.
That’s a whole lot more than Mir took home as part of a UFC card that sold 1.6 million buys. He said Lesnar even deserved more than he got after clearing $ 2.5 million from the event.
“Brock himself, a much bigger superstar than [Fury or Wilder],” Mir said. “How come he wasn’t making $ 20 million? That blows my mind, and I don’t understand it. “Until Conor [McGregor] came along, we had the record for the most pay-per-view buys sold.”
As much as he laments the paltry payday he received for UFC 100, Mir admits he didn’t have a great understanding about the money he made compared to the lion’s share of the profits the promotion took home. Years later, he acknowledges the salary he earned from the UFC didn’t come anywhere near what he should have been making, and it was an incredibly costly lesson.
“At the time, I didn’t know better,” Mir said. “We didn’t know. Just now as time goes on, I’m looking around like, hold on a second, that makes no sense. A pay-per-view buy is a pay-per-view buy. Why is this sport paying their athletes this percentage of what they’re making versus this one? It’s the pretty same makeup. This isn’t two wildly different sports, boxing and MMA. They’re very comparable when it comes to putting up a cage or a ring, so it’s not like the costs are different.
“So what’s the difference here? Oh, that’s because you have competing promoters, and they know what’s going on, and you can’t screw each other. In the UFC, it’s the only promoter. In MMA, the show is the only promoter. It’s not like we’re going to have a Bellator fighter and a UFC fighter, and they’re both on the card, so both organizations know what they’re going to get their guy, because they both understand the revenue models. They understand what’s going on. They’re not speaking from ignorance.”
Even though UFC pay continues to be a hot topic among fighters, Mir admits athletes are making more money now than 15 years ago, when he fought Lesnar. That’s the only thing that calms his nerves when it comes to his daughter Bella followed in her father’s footsteps by fighting.
“I’m not as uneasy about it,” Mir said. “Before, it was like I don’t know that many people who do MMA and don’t still have to do something afterward. Myself included. Doing commentary, working for different groups and organizations. There’s a reason why I’m busy. To know she can make a career and a living off it too, it makes that pill a little easier to swallow.
“As the father in me, I’m like OK, she’s going to be millionaire at least. I’m not as scared about it as I was before. Because you have the risk of injury, and you’re not going to be pursuing other endeavors in life that could take care of you financially, and you’re going to sacrifice that to follow this fight career, and then you’re going to be behind when you go into those careers.
“For what? For personal gain, for martial arts and pushing yourself is awesome, but as a father, it’s like what about your bank account? Your security. Are you going to be able to take care of yourself? At the time, I was terrified. Now, not so much. It’s a better world now than when I was there.”
Popular Kick streamer Adin Ross spent some time training with UFC superstar Sean O’Malley
Ross, an online influencer best known for his collaborations with celebrities and livestreams of NBA 2K and Grand Theft Auto video games, has spent his fair share of time testing his striking skills with some of combat sports’ biggest names. Ross has gone toe-to-toe with the likes of Jake Paul, Dillon Danis, Ryan Garcia, and even took a brutal body shot from current light heavyweight titleholder Alex Pereira.
Recently, Ross released footage of himself having some fun in the cage with current UFC bantamweight world champion Sean O’Malley.
Aside from sitting atop the UFC’s loaded bantamweight division, O’Malley is currently listed as the No. 6 ranked pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
Sean O’Malley eyes September Clash with ‘The Machine’
After claiming the 135-pound crown with a perfectly-timed counter right against ex-titleholder Aljamain Sterling in August, Sean O’Malley returned to the Octagon in March for a long-awaited rematch with the only man to hand him a loss in his MMA career, Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera. O’Malley found the redemption he was looking for, pummeling his Ecuadorian opposition for five rounds en route to a decisive decision victory.
O’Malley was hoping to challenge newly minted featherweight champion Ilia Topuria later this year, but UFC CEO Dana White quickly shut that down, making it clear that No. 1 ranked bantamweight Merab Dvalishvili was next on O’Malley’s title defense itinerary.
‘Sugar’ recently suggested a September date for his inevitable showdown with ‘The Machine,’ the likeliest date being UFC 306 when the promotion is expected to make its debut inside The Sphere in Las Vegas.
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