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Card Info
Airing on ESPN @ Saturday 03.30.2024 at 07:00 PM ET
Main Card @ 10pm ET
Division
Fighters
Women’s Flyweight
Erin Blanchfield vs. Manon Fiorot
Welterweight
Vicente Luque vs. Joaquin Buckley
Middleweight
Bruno Silva vs. Chris Weidman
Middleweight
Nursulton Ruziboev vs. Sedriques Dumas
Featherweight
Bill Algeo vs. Kyle Nelson
Middleweight
Chidi Njokuani vs. Rhys McKee
Undercard @ 7pm ET
Division
Fighters
Featherweight
Nate Landwehr vs. Jamall Emmers
Women’s Strawweight
Virna Jandiroba vs. Lupita Godinez
Bantamweight
Julio Arce vs. Herbert Burns
Featherweight
Connor Matthews vs. Dennis Buzukja
Light Heavyweight
Ibo Aslan vs. Anton Turkalj
Women’s Flyweight
Melissa Gatto vs. Victoria Dudakova
Dudakova has a medical issue
Middleweight
Andre Petroski vs. Jacob Malkoun
Featherweight
Angel Pacheco vs. Caolán Loughran
Fight card order and start times may be inaccurate.
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UFC Atlantic City is down to 13 fights after a flyweight bout between Melissa Gatto and Viktoriya Dudakova was scrapped just before the fighters walked to the octagon.
An announcement was made during the UFC Atlantic City broadcast that a medical issue on Dudakova’s side prevented her from competing on the card. There’s no word yet if the fight will be re-booked for a later date
Dudakova sports a perfect 8-0 MMA record, including two UFC wins over Istela Nunes and Jinh Yu Frey. Unfortunately, she’ll have to wait until later this year to try and make it three in a row following her withdrawal from UFC Atlantic City.
As for Gatto, 28-year-old Brazilian was seeking to get back on track from a two-fight losing streak, which followed two wins to start her UFC career.
UFC Atlantic City will be headlined by a separate flyweight fight as Erin Blanchfield battles Manon Fiorot in a potential No. 1 contender’s bout at 125 pounds.
UFC on ESPN 54 takes place at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey and th live results will begin at 7 p.m. ET.
The event is headlined by a women’s flyweight bout between second ranked Erin Blanchfield and third ranked Manon Fiorot. Both women are riding extensive winning streaks. Blanchfield enters the fight having won her last nine bouts. Fiorot comes in riding an 11-fight winning streak.
Ben Whittaker garnered plenty of attention in a recent boxing match where he danced, taunted, and showboated before delivering a brutal fifth-round knockout.
The 26-year-old Olympic silver medalist immediately became a name worth watching in the sweet science, although not everyone in boxing loved his attitude. Whittaker received numerous warnings from the referee about his behavior, despite fans seemingly loving the flash and flair he displayed on his way to victory.
Whittaker’s promoter, Ben Shalom — the CEO from the upstart organization BOXXER — promises that one referee or even complaints from boxing purists won’t change Whittaker or his desire to put on a show every time he competes.
“With anyone else, I would say yes [it might change them], but I promise you he was warned by this referee and I think the referee was way over the top last time,” Shalom said on The MMA Hour. “Remember, I think it was the first time the U.S. audience were seeing him. There was some sort of, ‘We’ve got to stop this type thing.’ The referee went to see him beforehand and it didn’t stop him last time. It’s how he fights. It’s how he [unsettles] his opponent.
“He’s an absolute showman. He’s a superstar. Peacock and NBC are going absolutely crazy for him. He did 100 million views across platforms on his last fight. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Whittaker stated that he doesn’t behave that way in the ring just so he can rack up mentions and views on social media, but rather that’s just how he likes to fight.
That style, combined with a skill set that has Whittaker at 6-0 in his pro career with five knockouts, have Shalom convinced he has a future superstar on his hands.
“For me, it’s not just the future star of British boxing, but the future star of boxing,” Shalom said. “If anyone wants to be entertained, if anyone wants to be introduced to the sport of boxing — but he’s not just a showman, this guy is a phenomenal boxer. One of the most talented that I’ve ever seen, if not the most talented fighter I’ve ever seen. He’s been all around the world with his amateur career. He’s tough. He’s been in with Eastern Europeans. He’s been in with the Russians. He’s been in with the Cubans. So he ticks that box as well.
“I think for us as a promoter, as I said at the start of the interview, giving him that window, making sure he’s on the biggest platform, because this one is going to fly. Ben Whittaker can be a star for a long time in boxing. Potentially a face of boxing and the face of boxing. To have the impact he’s had in six fights, amassed over a million followers, one of the most followed boxers now in British boxing, in this amount of time is crazy.”
Whittaker’s next fight airs Sunday on the Peacock streaming service in the United States, which will only expand the audience of people able to see him compete.
As Shalom and BOXXER continue to expand into new territories, the 30-year-old promoter believes Whittaker may actually end up as the best possible avenue for the organization to conquer the United States.
“I believe he’ll probably be our entry to the U.S.,” Shalom said. “Because I know how keen NBC are [on him].”
Shalom believes Whittaker hasn’t even really tapped into his true potential just yet, but he expects to see more and more from him in each passing fight.
Along the way, Shalom has faith that Whittaker will continue stacking wins on top of wins and creating even more viral moments to keep his popularity growing.
“No one has seen anything yet,” Shalom said. “Because we luckily get to work with him and we know him and we know how focused he is, and we know what goes into his craft, and the team around him is phenomenal. You’ll see on Sunday.”
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Chris Weidman is once again on the comeback trail as the former UFC middleweight king tries to re-enter the UFC win column this weekend at UFC Atlantic City. “All American” will be taking on Bruno Silva on the ESPN main card and it will be just Weidman’s second fight back since breaking his leg against Uriah Hall in 2021.
It’s been a long road back to fighting for Weidman after his disastrous loss to Hall at UFC 261. Weidman snapped his leg in two after launching a leg kick that was checked by “Prime Time” in the very first round. Weidman needed over two years to return to action against Brad Tavares at UFC 292 in Aug. 2023. The former UFC champion may have lost that fight via unanimous decision, but one of the biggest takeaways from that contest was Weidman’s reluctance to throw leg kicks.
“I was surprised I was so hesitant to throw my right leg,” Weidman said. “Because usually when you’re getting kicked, you’ve got to kick back. My brain wouldn’t let my body just throw that damn kick. I actually tried. I tried so hard to throw it in the second round and it was like I babied it, I didn’t go all out. That was a tough one to get over.
“By the time I tried taking him down, my other leg was already broken, my good leg, because he fractured it, gave me a hairline fracture on my leg,” he added. “Probably in the first round or the beginning of the second, it’s hard to really tell when my leg went out, but either way my legs were not underneath me anymore. … Before you know it, by the second round, when I felt good, I had to fight southpaw and I had no drive behind me to get the takedowns. I was really compromised. I don’t think I fought a bad fight. I thought he fought a really smart, strategic fight and it kind of caught me off guard.”
While Weidman has already made his return from a career-threatening leg break, former UFC double champion Conor McGregor has not. “Notorious” suffered the same type of injury back in July 2021 and has been recovering ever since. McGregor has taken longer to get back into the Octagon given his business ventures outside of the cage, but he still hasn’t fought since breaking his leg against Dustin Poirier at UFC 264.
Weidman was asked about McGregor’s injury and what advice he’d give to the former UFC champion. “All American” believes the biggest obstacle he encountered was the unwillingness to throw leg kicks in his return and implores McGregor to rewire his brain to make those decisions in real-time.
“I know he watched my fight,” Weidman said of McGregor. “I think he probably learned a lot watching my fight. Some of the red flags of what to be prepared for, for whoever he fights, and also maybe you’re not going to be able to throw [the kicks] back as much as you want. Or now, be prepared that could be something you have to deal with, so really train on kicking back.
“Because you want that to be second nature when you’re in there. For me, I thought I was good with that, but I wasn’t. I would have really worked at it more and realize there is a psychological effect when you break your leg in half like that. So you need to really get that habit back strong and focus on that. I don’t really think I need to say much. He should just watch my last fight and learn from that.”
Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC Atlantic City fight card right here, starting with the ESPN2/ESPN+“Prelims” matches, which are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. ET, then the remaining main card balance on ESPN (simulcast on ESPN+)at 10 p.m. ET.
To check out the latest and greatest UFC Atlantic City: “Blanchfield vs. Fiorot” news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here.
UFC’s return to St. Louis has a heavyweight main event.
The promotion announced on Saturday that Derrick Lewis is set to face Rodrigo Nascimento in the main event of UFC St. Louis, which takes place May 11 at the Enterprise Center.
Lewis (27-12, 1 NC) enters the bout having dropped four of his past five bouts. He’ll look to bounce back from a lopsided decision loss to Jailton Almeida suffered at UFC Sao Paulo in November.
Prior to that, “The Black Beast” delivered one of 2023’s wildest highlight-reel finishes when he stopped Marcos Rogerio de Lima at UFC 291 this past July in Salt Lake City.
Nascimento (11-1, 1 NC) competes in his first UFC main event after earning three straight decision wins — split decision nods over Tanner Boser and Ilir Latifi, plus a unanimous decision over Don’Tale Mayes in his most recent outing this past November.
The 31-year-old holds a 4-1 UFC record with 1 no-contest in his six-fight promotional run.
Former title challenger, Derrick Lewis is set for his return to the Octagon in the main event of UFC Fight Night St. Louis – taking on the surging number fifteen ranked contender, Rodrigo Nascimento on May 11. from the Enterprise Center in Missouri.
Lewis, the current number twelve ranked heavyweight contender, has been sidelined since he took a short-notice main event fight with Jailton Almeida at UFC Sao Paulo back in November, suffering a one-sided unanimous decision loss to the Brazilian.
Photo Credit: Esther Lin, MMA Fighting
As for Nascimento, the former Dana White’s Contender Series product has enjoyed a three-fight winning run of late, wrapping up a decision win over Don’Tale Mayes back in November on the same card as Lewis’ loss to Almeida.
Derrick Lewis fights Rodrigo Nascimento in St. Louis on May 11.
UFC confirmed the main event fight between Derrick Lewis and Rodrigo Nascimento on their official X account tonight.
“Top 15 heavyweights will duke it out in St. Louis,” UFC posted. “@TheBeast_UFC vs. @Zecolmeiiia is your #UFCStLouis main event!”
Top 15 heavyweights will duke it out in St. Louis @TheBeast_UFC vs @ZeColmeiiia is your #UFCStLouis main event! pic.twitter.com/NCIWb21V2b
— UFC (@ufc) March 30, 2024
Prior to his loss to Almeida in South America, former undisputed and interim heavyweight title challenger, Lewis had turned in a first round TKO win over Marcos Rogerio de Lima in July of last year, snapping a run of three consecutive stoppage losses to Tai Tuivasa, Sergei Pavlovich, and Serghei Spivak.
Mandatory Credit: Jeff Bottari – Zuffa LLC
For Nascimento, the 11-1(1) professional, suffered his sole professional loss in a KO defeat to common-foe, Chris Daukaus, which came before a TKO win over Alan Baudot was overturned to an official ‘No Contest’ after the Brazilian tested positive for ritalinic acid.
Landing six submission wins throughout his professional career, during his brief Octagon tenure, Nascimento has turned in two wins over the above-mentioned, Mayes, as well as split judging successes against Tanner Boser, and Ilir Latifi.
Mandatory Credit: Josh Hedges – Zuffa LLC
Over the course of his Octagon stint, Lewis, the promotion’s most prolific heavyweight knockout artist, has turned in notable victories over the likes of Gabriel Gonzaga, Roy Nelson, Travis Browne, Marcin Tybura, Alexander Volkov, Curtis Blaydes, and former undisputed heavyweight champion, Francis Ngannou.
Who wins at UFC Fight Night St. Louis: Derrick Lewis or Rodrigo Nascimento?
@TheBeast_UFC vs @ZeColmeiiia is your #UFCStLouis main event! pic.twitter.com/NCIWb21V2b
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