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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Robert Whittaker is disappointed with recent middleweight rumors.

Dricus du Plessis was expected to defend his middleweight title against former two-time champion Israel Adesanya at UFC 305 in Perth, Australia. The fight wasn’t made official. But on Tuesday, du Plessis went on social media and accepted the matchup and location, to Whittaker’s disappointment.

“Adesanya fighting for a title again hurts me,” Whittaker said with a laugh on his MMArcade podcast. “But I understand. Dricus asked for it. He’s the champ, [he] gets what he wants. Adesanya is a draw. It seems like the fight that was going to happen, in my opinion.”

Whittaker has history with both Adesanya and du Plessis. Adesanya knocked out “Bobby Knuckles” for the middleweight title at UFC 243 in Australia, and he then won a contentious split decision over Whittaker in the rematch three years later. Meanwhile, du Plessis finished Whittaker at UFC 290 to punch his own ticket to a middleweight title shot.

Based on his familiarity with both, Whittaker can see this fight playing out in one of two ways.

“It’s an interesting fight,” Whittaker said. “I can see Adesanya just piecing him up for five rounds. But in saying that, Dricus is tough as nails, and he’s awkward. I can also see Dricus just getting in there and making it awkward, and, I don’t know, taking him out of his rhythm. We saw when Adesanya fought Strickland, Strickland pushing that pace and moving into his space changed the rhythm of the fight.

“Adesanya didn’t adapt to that very well. I think if Dricus does the same, he might have the same sort of success.”

UFC 305 takes place on Aug. 18 at RAC Arena in Perth, Australia. In the meantime, Whittaker has his own fight to worry about. The former UFC middleweight champion faces Khamzat Chimaev in the main event of UFC Saudi Arabia on June 22, in Riyadh.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Chris Weidman can only apologize for the eye pokes that played a part in his fight with Bruno Silva at UFC Atlantic City, but he doesn’t believe anything that happened negated his victory.

“I feel like it’s a legitimate win,” Weidman said Wednesday on The MMA Hour. “I won all three rounds according to the judges’ scorecards. Is it the way I wanted to win? Hell no. I don’t want to poke a guy in the eyes. I’ve never poked a guy in the eyes ever in any fight and then in this fight, if you add it up, it was two and then the one-two eye poke as people are saying in the last one. It’s just unfortunate. I don’t want that to happen. It’s never happened before.”

Weidman appeared to clip Silva with a punch that dropped the Brazilian to the canvas in the third round. He followed the Brazilian to the ground and unleashed a flurry of strikes that led to a stoppage, giving him his first win in nearly four years.

Afterward, replays showed Weidman accidentally poked Silva in both eyes, which caused him to fall to the ground in agony before the punches ended his night. Ringside officials eventually reviewed the footage and ultimately used the scorecards to determine the outcome: Weidman won all three rounds to secure the victory.

At the UFC Atlantic City post-fight press conference, Weidman said Silva made a mistake by falling to the ground and covering up after the eye poke. That led to a finish rather than a pause in the action to allow Silva time to recover, he said.

Weidman took responsibility for the accidental foul, but he doesn’t believe the eye pokes that landed were severe. In his opinion, it was Silva’s overreaction that cost him.

“Of course, I’m sorry that happened,” Weidman said. “That said, I am sorry that it happened, and it sucks that it ended that way, but you could make a very strong argument that I got eye poked, by far [with] the most devastating eye poke of all the eye pokes. I didn’t drop to the mat and try to get time, and all eye pokes aren’t created the same.

“I’m not saying I know exactly how he felt, but if you look at my first two eye pokes where the ref stopped it, I barely touched his eye. Even on the last one where he went down, like my finger went underneath his eye. If you really zoom in, it wasn’t in his eyeball, like he did to me with that one with his thumb.

“That’s the thing. I almost came out trying to coach him. It’s like my kids who I coach in wrestling, you’re going to get poked in the eye, there’s going to be things that happen to you on the mat. You can’t just drop to the ground, and turn around, and expect the ref to know what’s going on in your head, and that he’s seeing everything. It’s just a bad habit. Bad things happen when you do that. He got in the habit, any time his eyeball got touched at all, he dropped to the ground and was like crying, and he needed time and all this stuff.

Weidman understands eye pokes definitely hurt — he has a gnarly looking eye of his own after suffering the same fate as Silva. But he doesn’t buy Silva’s reaction.

“Obviously, I don’t want to poke him in the eye, but I just also think what are we turning this into?” Weidman questioned. “MMA is a tough sport. Get the ref’s attention, let him know you got poked in the eye, but dropping and trying to get all this time, and then you go back to the replay, and it’s like, did you even really get poked in the eye? I think it’s a bad precedent.

“Any time your finger touches the eye, he has the right to say it’s an eye poke, and he gets his five minutes, or whatever the time is now. I also think as fighters, we have to be like OK, if it’s not bad, it’s not bad. He poked me in the eye, it looked bad, but you blink once or twice and boom, you’re good. I’ve been poked in the eye in sparring bad where like knuckles deep. That’s completely different. None of these shots were that bad.”

In the end, Weidman doesn’t put any asterisks next to his win, but if the UFC wants him to run it back with Silva in the future, he’s game.

“If the UFC wants to have a rematch of this fight, sure,” he said. “But I would happily move on, too. It’s not like I’m scared of him or anything like that. I felt like everything he had, I feel like I would only just get better. Whatever.

“If they want to do a rematch, that’s fine, too. I’m open to that. My heart goes out to Bruno Silva. He was very frustrated. It sucks, but he fought me 13 minutes, and he was losing the fight. If they want to do a rematch, sure.”

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Cyborg is back
| BJPenn.com

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

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Social media influencer Adin Ross is no stranger to the combat sports world.

Best known for live streaming with various celebrities and his broadcasts of video games like Grand Theft Auto, Ross has also spent some time training with names regular readers of this column would know. He’s traded blows with the likes of Jake Paul and Ryan Garcia, as well as taken a body shot from UFC Light Heavyweight champion Alex Pereira.

Earlier on Wednesday (April 3, 2024), Ross revealed that he recently spent some time with Bantamweight kingpin, Sean O’Malley, who isn’t a stranger to the influencer scene. As a congratulations for his UFC 299 title defense over Marlon Vera (watch highlights), Ross gifted O’Malley a tricked out vintage car. Being that it was a gift for “Suga,” of course the car was bright pink!

Eat your heart out, Xzibit.

Later in the day, Ross released another video of himself stepping into the cage opposite “Suga.” While I’m not claiming O’Malley dropped a Sean Strickland-esque beating on his influencer pal, he also didn’t let Ross land a shot! In a separate video, O’Malley is seen picking apart the social media star. O’Malley is clearly pulling his punches, but it remains a unique response to a friendly gift!

Watch a small sample below:

O’Malley became champion last year by knocking out Aljamain Stering. His successful defense against “Chito” extended his unbeaten streak to seven, and “Suga” is expected to return to action sometime later this year opposite Merab Dvalishvili.

Insomnia

There’s a real chance this Welterweight contest ends inside a round.

A look into the sparring of Justin Gaethje and Max Holloway! Seeing as Cory Sandhagen is one of like four other fighters (aside from Holloway) who hook off the jab, “Sandman” is a pretty decent analogue.

Speaking of UFC 300, what’s your most anticipated fight?

Nothing like a bit of comedy.

In case anyone needed another reason not to care about Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson …

It looks more like Dustin Poirier is involved in the promotion of this film rather than acting in it, but that’s cool too.

Anyone got a reason why this escape wouldn’t work from the rear clinch in MMA? Looks functional to me!

Slips, rips, and KO clips

The element of surprise is the primary reason the buggy choke works in a sport where slamming is allowed.

Perfect control of distance to slip the jab and land two punches in return.

Kraus did NOT let his opponent treat the clinch as a safe place.

Random Land

Apex predators.

Midnight Music: Hip-hop, 2012

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

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Andre Lima, the undefeated prospect who became the first UFC fighter in history to win by disqualification due to a biting foul, already has his next bout on the books.

Lima takes on Hyun Sung Park in a flyweight matchup on June 1 at UFC 302, his management announced Wednesday. Park also posted about the bout on Instagram.

Lima (8-0) had a UFC debut to remember in March when his opponent Igor Severino chomped down on his left arm midway through the second round at UFC Vegas 89. Severino was promptly disqualified and cut from the promotion, while Lima was awarded the win as well as a $ 50,000 “Bite of the Night” bonus by UFC CEO Dana White after immortalizing the bizarre foul with a tattoo of Severino’s teeth imprint the very same night.

Now he’ll make a quick turnaround to face Park (9-0), the inaugural flyweight winner of the promotion’s Road to UFC tournament. Since stopping three foes in the tourney to earn a UFC contract, Park has compiled an official 2-0 octagon record, submitting Seung Guk Choi and most recently knocking out Shannon Ross this past December.

UFC 302 takes place at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. A main event for the pay-per-view has yet to be announced.

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