Discuss your favorite fighters, the upcoming card or whatever's on your mind.
Link to rmma's Thick, Solid and Tight Meme Guide
Link to the Noob's Guide to MMA
How to obtain a custom flair:
place and lose a flair bet in the Friday thread
write a haiku or draw a MS Paint-style image for the sub
The rules for the drawing or haiku are simply that it must be a ridiculous MMA-related scenario. If you would like a custom flair, send a message to us with a link to your drawing and your flair request. We'll probably grant it.
Interested in modding? Please fill out the mod application found here. Do not leave a comment about this in the thread. You can send us modmail if you have questions.
Photo By David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile via Getty Images
After nearly two years off and a weight class change, James Gallagher had to get his feet wet when he returned to Bellator this past August.
Gallagher knocked off the ring rust, but he didn’t look his sharpest in pulling off a split decision win over James Gonzalez. Looking back at the performance, he makes no excuses, but he promises that’s the last time fans will see that kind of fight out of him.
“I didn’t have that swagger back in myself,” Gallagher, who on Friday faces Leandro Higo at Bellator Belfast, told MMA Fighting. “But I did what needed to be done and got the win and that’s all that matters. Abso-f******-lutely, the swagger is back for this one.”
Almost immediately after he got that win under his belt, Gallagher returned to Thailand, where he’s been training and adapting to his new home at featherweight. Gallagher started his career at 145 pounds, but he eventually felt like he needed to cut weight like every other fighter in order to stay competitive.
While he certainly found success at bantamweight, the now 27-year-old Irish fighter admits he was probably always better off competing in the featherweight division.
“It wasn’t until I had like seven fights that I went down to 135,” Gallagher explained. “I’ve never been beat at 145. I think I’ve got about eight or nine 145 fights now, and they’ve all been wins. So it’s kind of like, go back to what’s not broken.
“I walk around at about 77 or 78 kilograms (170 pounds), so [135] is a f****** long, long way from that. It’s just a lot healthier. When I’m in training camp, I feel like an athlete, not f****** someone that’s just starving themselves to make a weight class. I feel like I can focus on technique, sparring rounds, getting proper strength and conditioning training, and just feel a lot better. I just feel like I was injured every other training session [at 135].”
Now healthy and happy at 145 pounds, Gallagher is anxious to defend that undefeated featherweight record, and he hopes a title shot will be waiting for him later this year.
Gallagher was originally matched up against Jeremy Kennedy in a bout that was billed to determine the next contender for reigning champion Patricio Pitbull. After Pitbull’s fight at the PFL vs. Bellator card was scrapped, promotion officials opted to shift him to the Belfast card to defend his belt against Kennedy.
That left Gallagher without an opponent, but it didn’t take long for Bellator to match him up against Higo, a fighter he’s been scheduled to face in the past when both competed at bantamweight. The shifts didn’t really matter to him, because the way Gallagher sees it, the stakes are still the same.
“I don’t give a f***,” Gallagher said about the change in opponents. “Not one issue. You’re fighting Leandro Higo now. OK, let’s go, whoever the f*** is in there, he’s going to get it. That’s how it’s been. I’ve just been training so hard, putting in the work, and I just feel like I’m a new kind of athlete. I’m looking forward to going in there and showing it, so I don’t give a f*** who’s standing in front of me. They’re going to see the best version of me.”
“That’s exactly what it is. That’s exactly what’s going on. I’m going to go in and beat Leandro Higo and I’m going to fight for the belt next.”
Any time two well-known grapplers face off, there’s often a stalemate that leads to plenty of exchanges on the feet. But Gallagher guarantees that won’t happen with Higo. Whether the Brazilian wants to go to the ground with him or not, Gallagher said his opponent will have no other choice.
“He’s good at what I’m best at,” Gallagher said. “There’s a difference. He’s good, I’m the best.
“He’s going to have no choice. I’m going to get on top of him, elbow him in the head, take his back and choke him. He’s going to have no choice — whether he welcomes it or not, that’s what’s going to happen. I’m going straight into those exchanges.”
Despite being one of the biggest stars in professional wrestling during her height in the sport, Ronda Rousey has publicly opened up on her estranged relationship with former WWE CEO Vince McMahon.
‘Rowdy’ is an uber-successful athlete who is an Olympian, a UFC champion, and a multiple-time WWE champion. Since leaving pro wrestling indefinitely late last year, Rousey hasn’t held back when talking about the business and continues to thrash Vince McMahon at any chance she gets.
Speaking in her recently released memoir ‘Our Fight’, Ronda Rousey didn’t hide her disgust toward McMahon. She began by discussing his idea to monopolize the sport by ‘absorbing’ the much smaller promotions.
“NXT was founded by and under the control of Triple H, real name Paul Levesque. In addition to being my in-ring WrestleMania nemesis, he is arguably one of the best professional wrestlers in history and one of the better people on the business side.”
“He is married to Stephanie McMahon, who is the daughter of WWE’s Emperor Palpatine, Vince McMahon. Vince took over the company from his father in the early 1980s and spent the better part of forty years playing a real-world pro-wrestling version of Monopoly, buying up and absorbing smaller promotions until he basically owned them all. [h/t Covalent TV]”
While addressing the on-screen characters that wrestlers play, Rousey later fired shots at McMahon and the entire WWE Universe.
“It’s hard sometimes to know where the evil, unethical, slimeball character of Vince McMahon played out for the cameras ends and the actual questionably ethical, many times sued, and multiple times accused of sexual misconduct Vince McMahon begins.”
“That blurred line between character and reality is a recurring theme within the WWE Universe.”
Related: Ronda Rousey casts doubt on Vince McMahon’s TKO/WWE resignation
Taking aim once again, Rousey likened the 78-year-old to the country of Saudi Arabia for their treatment of women.
“[Pay-per-views are] held in major cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia, as well as now twice a year in Saudi Arabia, a nation that restricts the rights of women in a way that I’m certain Vince McMahon wishes he could.”
Ronda Rousey first rose to fame as an Olympic bronze medalist fighting in the UFC. She became one of the greatest female mixed martial artists ever before transitioning to professional wrestling under the guidance of Brian Kendrick.
Conor McGregor is about to be able to shift his focus fully back to MMA.
The former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Featherweight and Lightweight champion is officially a movie star thanks to his first role in the new film Road House. The reboot of the classic Patrick Swayze-led action-thriller is now streamable on Prime Video as of today (Thurs., March 21, 2024).
McGregor, 35, has recently gone on a worldwide press tour for the film alongside lead actor, Jake Gyllenhaal. Throughout the tour, “The Notorious” has been asked numerous times about his possible return to action against UFC Lightweight contender, Michael Chandler. Ultimately, the match up was expected to happen late last year before several variables came into play. With hints of frustration sprinkled in from McGregor over the past three months, UFC CEO, Dana White, disputes any such notions.
“There’s no lack of communication. Not at all,” White told the Pound 4 Pound podcast (h/t MMA Fighting). “You know where Conor is tonight? He’s in New York City for the premiere of Road House. He has obligations right now to promote this movie. So he’s been flying all over the world, going to all the premieres of the launch of this movie. This is an obligation that he has to do. It is what it is. He committed to this movie. He has obligations to this movie. He can’t do both.
“So once this movie launches, which is Thursday, this thing launches Thursday the 21st, and boom — I don’t know what his obligations are once it launches, then Conor can get back in the gym and start training,” he concluded. “Like full-time, getting ready for a camp.”
McGregor has most highlighted a summertime return, and he maintained that timeline when he recently claimed “all systems go” for the Chandler clash. White or the promotion has yet to confirm how true that is, but UFC’s boss still speaks glowingly of his sport-transcending Irish megastar.
“Conor McGregor, for a guy who was on the dole or whatever his situation was when he came into the UFC, for a guy that had never done big business, he’s a pretty good f—king businessman,” White said. “He’s been a great partner to us. I like to be a good partner back.
“Conor needed this time to take off, handle his obligations, and now, once this is over, he can get back into full-time training — which means from Thursday on, we can start talking about fights for Conor,” he concluded.
The full card for the upcoming UFC Fight Night event headlined by flyweights Matheus Nicolau and Manel Kape has now been confirmed.
The event takes place on April 6 at the UFC APEX in Las Vegas, with Nicolau clashing against Kape in a five-round rematch that serves as the main event. Nicolau defeated Kape the first time around in a razor-close decision, and now they’ll run it back with the winner inching closer to title contention in the 125-pound division.
The co-main event features light heavyweight competitor Ryan Spann making his return to action against self-proclaimed Anthony Smith lookalike, Bogdan Guskov. After falling in his octagon debut, Guskov bounced back with an impressive knockout of Zac Pauga in February, but he’ll get a decided step up in competition for his fight with Spann, who holds a 7-4 record in the UFC.
Ariane Lipski will also make her return for a fight against Karine Silva in the women’s flyweight division, while veteran welterweight Tim Means takes on Uros Medic.
Joel Alvarez looks for back-to-back wins when he faces Mateusz Rebecki, and submission specialist Rani Yahya clashes with Victor Henry in a bantamweight bout.
The full card announced for the UFC Fight Night card on April 6 can be seen below, with the bout order still to be determined.
Despite defending his UFC flyweight title an unprecedented 11 times, Demetrious Johnson never received pay-per-view bonuses or incentives for being the most dominant champion in promotional history.
From September 2012 to August 2018 defeated some of the biggest names in flyweight history, including Ian McCall, Joseph Benavidez, John Dodson, Kyoji Horiguchi, Henry Cejudo, and Ray Borg. He is undoubtedly one of the pound-for-pound greatest of all time. Unfortunately, Dana White and the UFC largely ignored ‘Mighty Mouse’ and his entire division because they didn’t have the drawing power of the lightweight or light heavyweight fighters.
As a result, Johnson was never given pay-per-view points for his time as the flyweight champion, which is something that fighters across the board are typically entitled to once they rise to the top of their respective division.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Demetrious Johnson responded to an interview where the UFC claims that DJ straight-up declined to receive points in favor of a lump-sum payout.
Johnson says that’s bullsh*t.
Demetrious Johnson talks about his feud with Dana White and the UFC:
“I fought and fought, they specifically said we don’t give PPV points to flyweight guys.
When Dana White says I didn’t want PPV points, that’s not true. I asked for PPV points.
Look at CM Punk. This guy comes… pic.twitter.com/8O3GtoC3bE
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) March 21, 2024
“I fought and fought, they specifically said we don’t give PPV points to flyweight guys, but if you’re a lightweight,” Johnson said. “A welterweight, a middleweight, heavyweight — I have been told that once they become champion, they get $ 500,000 flat and it went straight into their contract that they got pay-per-view points every single time. For me, it was never that.
“If I would have gotten pay-per-view points for every single time I defended my belt… 11 title defenses. You put me on three Conor McGregor cards…”When Dana White says I didn’t want pay-per-view points, that’s not true. I asked for pay-per-view points.”
Demetrious Johnson reacts to CM Punk’s reported purse for his two UFC appearances
Johnson also took exception to the fact that current WWE Superstar CM Punk received a more favorable payout during his less-than-stellar appearances inside the Octagon.
Per a report from Bloody Elbow (before the pillaging of the once-great site), CM Punk received a base salary of $ 500,000 for both of his fights, though it was noted that the Second City Saint actually walked away with more than a million dollars for the ass-kickings he took against Mickey Gall and Mike Jackson.
“This guy comes in and gets a base salary of 500 f*cking thousand dollars and potential pay-per-view bonuses and other financial incentives in his contract,” Johnson exclaimed. “I defended the f*cking belt 11 times and I didn’t get any of this.”
Demetrious Johnson’s run in the UFC came to an end in 2018 after he surrendered his flyweight title to Henry Cejudo. ‘Mighty Mouse’ was then moved to ONE Championship in a historic trade that sent Ben Askren to the UFC. Upon his arrival, Johnson rattled off three straight victories to win the ONE Flyweight World Grand Prix Tournament, setting the stage for an epic trilogy with former ONE flyweight world champion Adriano Moraes.
Johnson also competed in a first-of-its-kind special rules bout against Muay Thai icon Rodtang Jitmuangnon under the ONE banner. With alternating rounds of MMA and Muay Thai, Johnson survived the first round before submitting ‘The Iron Man’ in the second via RNC.
“It was the best decision I’ve ever made in my whole entire career,” Johnson said of his move to ONE. “If I could do it again, I would do it ten times. And here’s the thing — I have nothing against Dana White. I am a man who is happy. I’ve been successful and I believe in my skill set.”
Johnson still sits as the reigning ONE flyweight titleholder, but he has not yet decided if he will return to defend his title or retire from MMA altogether.
File under: Reddit.com/r/MMA | Leave a comment »