Former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou had an altercation in a parking garage with former fighter Chael Sonnen that nearly turned physical.
Sonnen told the story during a segment of The Good Guy & Bad Guy podcast, and the two actually squared off with each other.
“For the most part this is between Francis and I, but Francis and I had to be separated in a parking garage,” Sonnen explained. “I gotta tell you, you come face-to-face with an angry Francis in a street fight situation. So here we are. Security breaks it up but they don’t get involved. They’re over my shoulder. I can hear them yelling at us but they don’t actually come over. So now we’ve turned and squared up.
“I know the same about fighting as everybody watching this knows about fighting which is whatever your father taught you, and my dad did not tell me you have to wait to defend myself. He told me when they’re within arms reach it has begun,” Sonnen continued. “I don’t want this thing to jump off. I’ve got an ego too. I’m looking. I’ve got these glasses. I’m thinking about he’s going to crack me with these glasses.
“You know the only thing that goes through my mind? I’m thinking about a time in the sixth grade watching the late night news about a guy that walked into a bar and called out Mike Tyson and Tyson stepped outside. Mike hit the guy one time, and the way that the news reporter reported it back when I was in the sixth grade is that he shattered the guy’s face. I don’t know what a shattered face is, but that can not be good. I’m literally hearing that report as I’m squared up with Francis. And I’m doing the match too. And I’ve got an ego too. You ducked Jon Jones. I’ll fight Jon right now and I might have to fight you right now. This is going through my mind.”
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With the situation reaching a point of no return, the presence of Sonnen’s son defused the situation.
“My is about twelve feet away. He’s in a pair of gloves that Nate Diaz had given him. It was the Nate Diaz versus Jake Paul. Nate had given him a pair of gloves, so my son over. He’s shadow boxing. Francis doesn’t know he’s there. I said, ‘Francis, not now,’ and he let’s me know this is happening now. I’ve been looking for you for awhile,” Sonnen said.
“I took my hand and I did like this to my son (motioning with his hand) and I said, ‘Not in front of my son.’ Francis looks over and sees my son. Not a word did he say. Respect. He understood the code. He dropped it right there. That was a gentleman move by him. I look at him differently after that.”
Conor McGregor decided to bare it all for his feature film debut.
The UFC superstar previously passed on numerous offers in Hollywood over the years. But he ultimately decided to work with director Doug Liman for a starring role opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in the Road House remake, which drops on Prime Video on March 21.
In the film, McGregor plays a hired mercenary named Knox, but the former two-division champion isn’t just getting in fights or wrecking bars for his role. He also decided to show off some skin as part of the role, which was noted during the Q&A with the cast following the film’s debut at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas.
McGregor addressed the scene in question, which was compared to a similar moment from Patrick Swayze in the original film from 1989.
“It was a little too much ass,” he said with a laugh. “Just a little too much. The last shot was not necessary. Could have just been the back. The back was solid. I’m just here to perform.”
Of course, McGregor rarely blushes at the chance to show off his physique. One quick look at his social media will show that he loves to flex in front of the cameras. Doing that in a feature film is totally different, however, especially with a broader audience of fans watching a movie that will live on in immortality.
McGregor says his decision to do nudity in Road House was partially thanks to a friendship he struck with Arnold Schwarzenegger, who also dropped his clothes for the infamous opening scene in the 1984 classic The Terminator.
“Arnold Schwarzenegger, who’s a good friend of mine, his lady Heather is my physical therapist, [she] has helped me throughout my career, helped me from my world title from 2013 on, I became real close with Arnold,” McGregor explained when speaking to Backstage. “Arnold’s first debut into the movie game was very similar.
“Boom, lands down, solid as a rock [in The Terminator], if Arnie done it, and f****** look at his career, I said maybe I’m onto something. I just rocked with it, and I channeled the inner Arnie, the inner Terminator there and just rocked on.”
So far Road House has received overwhelmingly positive reviews on the updated version of the cult classic from the 80s.
While his personal focus remains on fighting and making his return to the UFC, McGregor said he definitely learned that acting is much harder than it looks, but he enjoyed his first foray into Hollywood.
“It’s very hard work for sure,” he said. “All the characters, when I saw them come to life on the screen, I thought to myself as I was watching the movie, ‘I’m going to f*** this up, I’m going to ruin [the movie], I’m no actor.’
“But what I do when I’m looking [at the movie] with the crowd, I have a lot more to give. I feel I have a lot more.”
Photo by Kendall Torres/picture alliance via Getty Images
For better or worse, Jake Paul has brought a lot of attention to boxing since he decided to lace up his gloves for the first time. But for all the criticism he faced while mowing down a laundry list of ex-UFC fighters, he was still facing high level athletes from combat sports.
Most of them were at worst at the tail end of their careers and even Anderson Silva, who was 47 at the time, just styled on a professional boxer when he defeated Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. before facing Paul in 2022. Lately, Paul shifted his attention towards opponents with actual boxing experience, although neither Andre August or Ryan Bourland made it past the first round with him but both fighters had real records in the sport.
But just days after he demolished Bourland inside three minutes, Paul announced his next fight for July where he’ll face a 58-year-old Mike Tyson, who was known as one of the most ferocious heavyweights of his era but his last professional fight took place all the way back in 2005 and he hasn’t set foot in the ring since an exhibition bout against Roy Jones Jr. in 2020.
UFC welterweight Matt Brown, who has largely supported Paul in his boxing endeavors, feels like fighting Tyson at this age really is a step back and the wrong move for his career.
“I think that’s probably the biggest thing here. It’s a lose-lose for him,” Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “Obviously, he’s going to get a bag. We’re all going to watch it. I’m sure Netflix is paying him good. We’re all going to watch it, we’re going to talk about it. He’s getting that. But it’s a lose-lose in actual fighting. You can’t lose to a 60-year-old man and you also can’t beat a 60-year-old man. It’s a lose-lose. It’s garbage to me.
“Jake obviously, he’s doing that because he wants to be in that position where everybody wants to see him get knocked out and that’s why they’re going to watch, he wants to be the heel but it’s a 60-year-old man and so he’s probably going to be able to pull it out. That’s an obvious storyline. We know the plot here. We know the narrative. It’s not Tyron Woodley where we’re like if Jake’s a decent boxer, he’ll probably win but it’s a f******* great athlete he’s going against that never boxed. This is just f****** garbage. This is just straight f******* garbage.”
Paul’s intentions might be clear, but Brown can’t help but wonder what exactly Tyson is getting out of this?
While the former heavyweight champion famously plummeted to the depths during the tail end of his career and then fell into financial ruin after blowing a massive fortune, Tyson has really turned things around in recent years.
He launched a popular one-man show where he told stories from his career. He’s appeared in several films and even struck a deal for a cartoon series based around his likeness. Tyson even started his own podcast where he welcomed guests from all walks of life including numerous prominent fighters.
But now he’ll put everything on hold to get in shape to face Paul in a boxing match in July and Brown just doesn’t understand why he’s doing it.
“I’m surprised Mike even took it,” Brown said. “That’s what I’m most surprised about. I don’t know what Mike is thinking here. What makes him want to do it. I don’t think he’s hurting for money. I don’t think he has a huge urge to fight. He talks about it all the time. He doesn’t want to be that guy no more. It’s very odd that he’s taking the fight. That’s the odd part to me.”
Brown adamantly defends Paul getting involved in more marquee fights against non-boxers like the ones he’s had in the past with Nate Diaz or even Ben Askren, but he just doesn’t see the need to face off with a man only a few years away from being considered senior citizen.
If Paul wants to pursue a matchup against a big name that poses a risk but doesn’t come from the world of boxing, Brown has the perfect suggestion in mind and it’s not the fight with Tyson.
“I’m all about the sideshows,” Brown said. “I’d love to see him fight more sideshows. Go fight f****** Mike Perry. I think that would be awesome. I think that’s who he should be fighting. Grab Mike Perry, get Mike Perry a bag. He’s obviously a f****** star in BKFC now, everybody’s talking about him. He would make a great promo guy.
“We can name a lot of guys like this that would be a perfect matchup, sideshow matchups. A lot of these. Mike Tyson is not it. Leave the guy alone.”
As much as he doesn’t want to see it happen, Brown can only hold out hope that Tyson is taking this opportunity seriously and he’s gearing up for a real fight with a chance to take Paul’s head off.
“It’s just garbage to me,” Brown said. “Again, it really surprised Mike Tyson took this fight. I’m not sure what his motivation is.
“But what I hope for just like I’m sure everybody hopes for, is that Mike Tyson has that young, 20-year-old rage, gets on some f****** steroids, does some trim, some cheque drops, and he goes in there and bites f****** Jake Paul’s ear and knocks him the f*** out and Jake Paul never wants to box an old man again.”
Listen to new episodes of The Fighter vs. The Writer every Tuesday with audio only versions of the podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeartRadio
The red-hot welterweight prospect has now won 17 straight fights, which includes his technical knockout victory over former 170-pound title challenger Gilbert Burns as part of the UFC 299 pay-per-view (PPV) card last weekend in Miami.
Watch the video highlights here.
His performance was good enough to land Maddalena at No. 5 in the updated UFC rankings. As a result, Burns dropped two places to No. 6. Elsewhere on the chart, Michael Page debuted at No. 13 by styling on welterweight veteran Kevin Holland.
That’s not all.
Here’s how UFC compiles its official rankings:
Rankings were generated by a voting panel made up of media members. The media members were asked to vote for who they feel are the top fighters in the UFC by weight-class and pound-for-pound. A fighter is only eligible to be voted on if they are in active status in the UFC. A fighter can appear in more than one weight division at a time. The champion and interim champion are considered to be in the top positions of their respective divisions and therefore are not eligible for voting by weight-class. However, the champions can be voted on for the pound-for-pound rankings.
Take a look at what the latest rankings field looks like courtesy of UFC.com. Note: (+/- = movement in rankings, T = tie, *NR = Not previously ranked).
MEN’S POUND-FOR-POUND
1. Islam Makhachev 2. Jon Jones 3. Leon Edwards 4. Alex Pereira 5. Ilia Topuria 6. Sean O’Malley +2 7. Charles Oliveira -1 8. Alexander Volkanovski -1 9. Dricus Du Plessis 10. Alexandre Pantoja 11. Israel Adesanya 12. Tom Aspinall 13. Sean Strickland 14. Max Holloway 15. Aljamain Sterling
FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Alexandre Pantoja
1. Brandon Royval 2. Brandon Moreno 3. Amir Albazi 4. Kai Kara France 5. Matheus Nicolau 6. Manel Kape 7. Muhammad Mokaev 8. Alex Perez 9. Tim Elliott 10. Steve Erceg 11. Matt Schnell 12. Tagir Ulanbekov 13. Tatsuro Taira 14. Su Mudaerji +1 15. David Dvorak -1
BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: Sean O’Malley
1. Merab Dvalishvili 2. Aljamain Sterling 3. Cory Sandhagen 4. Petr Yan 5. Marlon Vera 6. Henry Cejudo 7. Song Yadong 8. Deiveson Figueiredo 9. Rob Font 10. Umar Nurmagomedov 11. Dominick Cruz +1 12. Kyler Phillips *NR 13. Mario Bautista +1 14. Jonathan Martinez -3 15. Pedro Munhoz -2
FEATHERWEIGHT
Champion: Ilia Topuria
1. Alexander Volkanovski 2. Max Holloway 3. Brian Ortega 4. Yair Rodriguez 5. Movsar Evloev 6. Arnold Allen 7. Josh Emmett 8. Calvin Kattar 9. Giga Chikadze 10. Bryce Mitchell 11. Edson Barboza 12. Dan Ige 13. Sodiq Yusuff 14. Lerone Murphy 15. Alex Caceres
LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion: Islam Makhachev
1. Charles Oliveira 2. Justin Gaethje 3. Dustin Poirier 4. Arman Tsarukyan 5. Mateusz Gamrot +1 6. Michael Chandler -1 7. Beneil Dariush 8. Rafael Fiziev 9. Dan Hooker +1 10. Jalin Turner -1 11. Benoit Saint-Denis +1 12. Rafael dos Anjos -1 13. Renato Moicano 14. Bobby Green 15. Drew Dober
WELTERWEIGHT
Champion: Leon Edwards
1. Kamaru Usman 2. Belal Muhammed 3. Shavkat Rakhmonov 4. Colby Covington +1 5. Jack Della Maddalena +6 6. Gilbert Burns -2 7. Ian Machado Garry -1 8. Sean Brady -1 9. Stephen Thompson -1 10. Geoff Neal -1 11. Vicente Luque -1 12. Neil Magny 13. Michael Page *NR 14. Kevin Holland -1 15. Michael Chiesa -1
MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion: Dricus Du Plessis
1. Sean Strickland 2. Israel Adesanya 3. Robert Whittaker 4. Jared Cannonier 5. Marvin Vettori 6. Paulo Costa 7. Brendan Allen 8. Nassourdine Imavov 9. (T) Roman Dolidze 9. (T) Jack Hermansson 11. Khamzat Chimaev 12. Anthony Hernandez +1 13. Paul Craig -1 14. Chris Curtis 15. Caio Borralho
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Alex Pereira
1. Jamahal Hill 2. Jiri Prochazka 3. Magomed Ankalaev 4. Jan Blachowicz 5. Aleksandar Rakic 6. Nikita Krylov 7. Johnny Walker 8. Khalil Rountree 9. Volkan Oezdemir 10. Anthony Smith 11. Ryan Spann 12. Alonzo Menifield 13. Azamat Murzakanov 14. Dominick Reyes 15. Dustin Jacoby
HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Jon Jones
1. Tom Aspinall 2. Ciryl Gane 3. Sergei Pavlovich 4. Stipe Miocic 5. Curtis Blaydes 6. Alexander Volkov 7. Jailton Almeida 8. Serghei Spivac 9. Tai Tuivasa 10. Marcin Tybura 11. Jairzinho Rozenstruik 12. Derrick Lewis -1 13. Alexandr Romanov 14. Marcos Rogerio De Lima 15. Rodrigo Nascimento
1. Julianna Pena 2. Mayra Bueno Silva 3. Ketlen Vieira 4. Irene Aldana 5. Holly Holm 6. Pannie Kianzad 7. Yana Santos 8. Miesha Tate 9. Karol Rosa 10. Macy Chiasson 11. Norma Dumont 12. Julia Avila 13. Josiane Nunes 14. Chelsea Chandler 15. Melissa Dixon
You can expect these rankings to change around this time next week, particularly in the heavyweight division, following the UFC Vegas 88: “Tuivasa vs. Tybura” mixed martial arts (MMA) event on ESPN+, scheduled for this Sat. night (March 14, 2024) at APEX in Las Vegas.
For much more on that upcoming fight card click here.
Photo by Suhaimi Abdullah/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Anthony Smith will make his return to action against Vitor Petrino at the upcoming UFC 301 card scheduled on May 4 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Multiple people with knowledge of the promotion’s plans confirmed the matchup to MMA Fighting on Monday following an initial report from Laerte Viana on Instagram.
A perennial contender at 205 pounds, Smith makes his return to action following a loss in his last outing against Khalil Rountree Jr back in December after he took the fight on short notice. That setback followed a hard fought win over Ryan Spann just a few months earlier as Smith engaged in a back-and-forth war before ultimately securing a split decision victory.
As for Petrino, the undefeated Brazilian looks for the biggest win of his career when he faces an established veteran and one-time title challenger in Smith. So far in the UFC, Petrino has gone 4-0 with his most recent win coming against Tyson Pedro in early March.
He’ll now fight close to home in Brazil with the fight against Smith booked for the UFC’s return to Rio de Janeiro in May.
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