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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Joaquin Buckley believes he beat Vicente Luque before they even stepped in the cage together.

On Saturday night, Buckley scored the biggest win of his career, finishing Luque in the second round at UFC Atlantic City. The win was Buckley’s third in a row at welterweight and will almost certainly move him into the UFC’s divisional rankings.

Speaking on Monday’s episode of The MMA Hour, Buckley said he knew he was going to win before the first punch was even thrown.

“I feel like Vicente just quit in there — point blank, period,” Buckley said. “He quit. He didn’t want to be in there in the first place. Before the fight started, he didn’t want to be in there. When you’re a fighter, you can just sense those things. It’s hard to explain. You’ve got to get in there and find out.

“I knew it the moment I saw him. The moment I saw him at weigh-ins, I knew it.”

For the first nine fights of his UFC career, Buckley competed at middleweight. Since returning to 170 pounds this past year, “New Mansa” is 3-0 and inching toward becoming a legitimate title threat.

When asked what’s changed for the 29-year-old to put him on such a good run, he said it’s simply a matter of fighting in his proper weight class.

“I feel like the difference for me and who I am is, now I’m fighting in the weight class I should have been fighting in for the longest time,” Buckley said. “It’s still me. It’s still the same old guy, but I feel like for me, getting success and being able to really showcase my talent and my skill set truthfully — I think people think there’s a difference, but it’s really not. I wasn’t fighting in the appropriate weight class for myself at 185.”

Buckley added that part of the reason he moved to middleweight in the first place was that he struggled to find fights at 170 pounds. Now that he’s a going concern at welterweight, he won’t have that issue, and he hopes to have his next one lined up soon.

After the win, Buckley called to headline the upcoming UFC St. Louis card, which takes place May 11. The card is currently headlined by a heavyweight fight between Derrick Lewis and Rodrigo Nascimento, but Buckley believes he has a chance to take that top spot with the right opponent.

“That’s just a feeling that I have,” Buckley said. “If I’m able to fight in St. Louis, I want to make it worth it. I want to come back and put on a show at the highest level, which would be a main event. Instead of just being a part of the show, I would be the show. I’d be the reason why everybody is coming to the event. It’s just a feeling.”

And as far as opponents go, Buckley is not too particular. He declined to call out anyone specifically, but said he was open to a matchup with Luque’s teammate at Kill Cliff FC, Gilbert Burns. As he noted, he has plenty of history with Kill Cliff fighters and Burns, who is currently the No. 6 welterweight in the UFC rankings.

“I actually love the idea of Gilbert Burns,” Buckley said. “Right now we’re 3-1 against that team. The first guy that beat me from that team was Logan Storley back in Bellator. He held me down for 15 [minutes]. After that I knocked out Impa Kasanganay, Andre Fialho, and now their boy Vicente. So now I’m 3-1 with them.”

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Conor McGregor has not competed in combat sports for two years but that hasn’t stopped him from excelling outside of the cage. The former two-division UFC champion made his first venture into the acting world and, despite the mixed reviews of his performance, the movie has been a huge success.

‘The Notorious’ played a leading role in the 2024 remake of the 1989 cult-classic Road House. The action-packed movie follows Elwood Dalton (Jake Gyllenhaal), a disgraced former UFC fighter who now works as a bouncer at a Florida Keys roadhouse. His new life takes a turn for the worse when he’s forced to use his fighting past to fend off the barrage of trouble that comes his way, most notably the ruthless Knox (Conor McGregor).

Road House was released less than a month ago and has already been a monstrous success on Prime Video. The movie broke a record by boasting 50 million worldwide viewers in its first two weekends of release, making it the platform’s biggest-ever opening in its 18-year history.

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Related: Conor McGregor done with movies, ready to focus on fighting career

The success of the movie is great for all involved, but one telling factor that clouds over Road House is the reviews from both critics and the general public.

On Rotten Tomatoes—an American website that reviews all things films and television—Road House was given a horrible 59% from critics and an even worse 54% from fans.

However, the movie does have a better score on IMDb, though only slightly at 6.2/10.

Despite the poor reviews from viewers, Road House does a good job of executing what type of viewing it intends to be. An exaggerated, adrenaline-fueled action film with a touch of comedy.

Road House is available now on Prime Video.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

The road to Wrestlemania 40 made a stop at The MMA Hour studio in New York City, and the rivalry between WWE women’s champion Rhea Ripley and her opponent Becky Lynch was taken to another level.

On Monday, Ripley joined Ariel Helwani in-studio to preview her Wrestlemania match with Lynch this weekend. Helwani then let Ripley know that Lynch had returned to the studio and planned to join the interview, to which Ripley obliged. Eventually, Lynch barged into the room and the two women were forced to be separated, as you can see in the video below.

“You wanted my attention, I’m here,” Lynch said. “You want to talk about my daughter to get my attention? You think this is a joke?”

“It’s always a joke because you’re a joke,” Ripley replied after Lynch shoved her.

“You think I’m a joke? Let’s f****** go at Wrestlemania. Let’s go at Wrestlemania,” Lynch said as security separated the two women before eventually removing Lynch from the room.

Lynch joined the show the prior week to plug her new book, The Man: Not Your Average Average Girl, and had plenty of things to say about how Ripley conducted herself as a champion — a clip that was shown to Ripley prior to the confrontation.

Ripley and Lynch compete in a highly anticipated match at the two-night Wrestlemania extravaganza this weekend in Philadelphia, though it’s currently unknown which night the match will take place.

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Huge!
| BJPenn.com

UFC

Former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman poked his way back into the win column last weekend in Atlantic City, jabbing and stabbing Brazilian blindman Bruno Silva with a series of flying fingers. Referee Gary Copeland brought a halt to the foul-friendly action in the third and final frame and “All American” was later awarded a technical decision victory.

So why wasn’t the bout ruled a no contest, like this cage-clearing calamity?

“When Gary Copeland has Chris Weidman, who is putting his fingers out like it’s a pitchfork — you need to address that as the official,” McCarthy told co-host Josh Thomson on their “Weighing In” podcast (transcribed by MMA Junkie). “I don’t care that you’re in New Jersey where Chris Weidman is a hero. I’m being honest: I wanted Chris Weidman to win this fight. … But I can’t have Chris Weidman getting preferential treatment as far as you’re the one creating this problem. You need to address the problem and make sure the individual who is creating the problem doesn’t do it anymore. Well, he did do it more.”

“I don’t think Gary saw the eye pokes (just before the finish), so that was understandable,” McCarthy continued. “He makes the call of stopping the fight. Once he makes the call of stopping the fight and they look at the tape, you can see that he did get poked in the eye. … They need to have the judges score whatever part of the third round they’ve seen. Who won that round? You already have two rounds that have been judged. This need(ed) to go to a technical decision. It’s not a unanimous decision victory. It’s a technical decision victory for Chris Weidman.”

Weidman suggests Silva may have been “looking for a way out” by executing a Ric Flair flop every time he “felt something touching his eyeball.” The bout was originally ruled a technical knockout victory for Weidman but later changed to a technical decision.

“Chris had won the first two rounds,” McCarthy said. “And if you’re gonna say the third round, I think Chris was winning that one for the most part, too. So I knew Chris was gonna win the fight, but that way it’s not on the fact that a foul occurred and the referee made a decision to stop it without seeing the foul. Now (the commission is) saying, ‘Okay, we see the foul. This is what we do.’ Based upon the fact that the fight had entered the third round, you could go to a technical decision. If the same thing had happened in the second round, it would’ve ended up being a no contest. You would not have had a technical decision, because they can only go to that technical decision if the fight enters the third round.”

McCarthy expects Silva to be unsuccessful in his post-fight appeal.

“What they’re doing is, by going to that technical decision, it’s the right thing to do. I’m just gonna tell you straight out,” McCarthy said. “Because giving Chris Weidman a victory off of TKO, then you’re saying that you’re not addressing the fact that there was a foul. They are addressing that fact. Gary Copeland could’ve decided to have taken points for the fouls. He didn’t do that. That’s his decision. … So the commission actually did the right thing. But, yes, by doing that right thing, they’re taking the ability of Bruno Silva to protest the stopping of the fight as a TKO and making it a no contest later on. They’re taking that away by doing the right thing.”

For more UFC Atlantic City news and post-fight results click here and here.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

The new Road House remake featuring UFC superstar Conor McGregor in his first major film role delivered the biggest streaming debut in history for Amazon Prime Video.

The film scored 50 million worldwide viewers in the first two weeks since being released, which is the largest audience in history for an Amazon MGM Studios release.

Based on the original 1989 cult classic starring Patrick Swayze, the new Road House follows an ex-UFC fighter played by Jake Gyllenhaal, who ends up working as a bouncer at a rowdy seaside bar in the Florida Keys. It’s there he runs into McGregor’s character — a paid mercenary named Knox — and they go to battle in several different scenes.

“The groundbreaking, successful debut of Road House is a testament to the hard work and commitment from the entire Road House filmmaking team and the film’s cast led by the phenomenal Jake Gyllenhaal,” Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon MGM Studios, said in a press release. “The world is absolutely loving this entertaining, action-packed ride anchored by the performances of Jake, Conor McGregor, Daniela Melchior, Darren Barnet, Billy Magnussen, Jessica Williams, Lukas Gage, Arturo Castro, JD Pardo, and the rest of our stellar cast.

“It’s great to see the film taking off with both fans of the iconic original as well as a huge turnout from new audiences. This incredible film is really giving everyone something to talk about, and we couldn’t be more proud!”

The eye-popping numbers will likely embolden director Doug Liman after he expressed disappointment that Amazon made Road House a streaming only release rather than putting the film into theaters.

There’s no word yet if there’s any chance for a sequel to Road House given the massive debut but anything seems possible. As of Monday, Road House sits at a 59 percent approval rating on the film review website Rotten Tomatoes with audience scores actually dipping to 54 percent.

Despite his naivety as an actor, McGregor largely received positive marks for his performance including our own review that stated “his cocky Irish accent, brash physicality and wide-eyed mean-mugging really are the only fun parts about this movie.”

Regardless of reviews or audience scores, a whole lot of people tuned into watch the Road House remake, which certainly delivered for Prime Video.

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