Author: Anton Tabuena

Watch UFC grappling legend Demian Maia take on BJJ star Mica Galvao.

Grappling stars from two different eras of jiujitsu got to test out their skills against each other.

UFC grappling legend Demian Maia dropped in to train with Mica Galvao ahead of the 19-year-old’s stint at the 2022 ADCC World Championships, and they posted video of their session together.

Maia is a former ADCC and BJJ world champion that became known as one of the best grapplers in UFC history. He’s a former two-division UFC title challenger, with submission wins over some of the best MMA stars during his 14-year stint with the promotion.

Galvao on the other hand, is a BJJ phenom that took jiujitsu by storm. Routinely beating bigger and older black belts in the professional circuit as a teenager, Galvao quickly established himself as one of the best grapplers in the world today. He was promoted to black belt at just 17-years-old, and became the youngest ever Abu Dhabi World Pro champion in 2021 and youngest ever IBJJF world champion in 2022.

Watch the video of their full roll below:

It’s worth noting that while Maia did have a couple of grappling matches recently, he is already 45-years-old and seemingly retired from MMA competition. He was also helping out the 19-year-old Galvao, who was also in shape and in-camp for the ADCC championships during this session.

Galvao ended up winning silver in that ADCC tournament, only losing to fellow teenage phenom Kade Ruotolo in the final.

Dillon Danis is getting flack again.

Perhaps to the shock of no one, Dillon Danis pulled out of his boxing match against KSI at the very last minute. The YouTuber’s manager speculated that it was simply due to Danis being “under-prepared.”

Danis has done far more clout chasing than actual fighting, with the 29-year-old not competing since he submitted a 3-3 journeyman almost three years ago. With his lack of actual competition and rather unappealing online persona, Danis naturally got a lot of flack for pulling out of another bout.

Interestingly enough, he was trashed by boxers, MMA fighters, grapplers and YouTubers alike for this latest blunder.

Danis is a BJJ blackbelt that rose to fame being a grappling training partner of Conor McGregor several years ago. He is officially 2-0 in MMA, but has been inactive for years, with Bellator CEO Scott Coker also expressing frustration in trying to get him to compete and honor his contract.

BJJ star Gordon Ryan previously described Danis as ‘an absolute master at managing to stay relevant without actually doing anything.’

Manny Pacquiao has announced a fight with RIZIN in 2023.

Legendary eight-division boxing world champion Manny Pacquiao made a surprise appearance at RIZIN’s New Year’s Eve event, announcing that he will be fighting with the Japanese MMA promotion in 2023.

There weren’t enough specifics on the initial announcement in front of the packed crowd at the Saitama Super Arena, but Pacquiao revealed a few more details to the local media soon after.

“Yes, boxing (rules). One time, but it’s not the last,” Pacquiao said, confident he can have a continuous relationship with RIZIN after this one-fight deal that’s in place. “There’s great action and great fights in RIZIN. The atmosphere of the crowd is amazing.”

He then confirmed his RIZIN debut is targeted for around summertime in Japan, and that he has plans to keep active in the exhibition scene in 2023.

“I might have one more (fight before that also),” Pacquiao said in Filipino and translated by Bloody Elbow.

As for an opponent, Pacquiao says it definitely won’t be Floyd Mayweather, even with his former rival already having two exhibition bouts with RIZIN in the past. Pacquiao revealed that early discussions will likely have him facing one of the MMA fighters in RIZIN’s stable instead.

“My plan today is one at a time. So let’s finish first this commitment with RIZIN, and then we can talk about (a potential Floyd Mayweather rematch after),” Pacquiao said.

“(I’ll fight) anybody, as long as he has experience in boxing or knows how to throw punches,” he explained. “Right now I don’t have an idea, but that’s why I challenged RIZIN to get an opponent that can compete in the fight.

“It’s good to have an exhibition fight last December 11. I was so happy, but my opponent was a martial artist that doesn’t know about boxing at all, so that’s why he experienced a hard time in the ring,” he said. “But this next exhibition match here in Japan, this is different because I think probably my opponent is a professional MMA fighter who knows how to punch and of course (defend).

The 44-year-old boxing great officially retired after losing to Yordenis Ugas in 2021. He has now jumped into that exhibition boxing scene, soon after his failed — and expensive — nationwide campaign to become the President of the Phillipines.

Pacquiao’s first exhibition bout since retiring was against DK Yoo, who as he alluded to, is a more of a Korean celebrity martial artist rather than an actual professional fighter.

As with JMMA tradition, RIZIN had another major NYE event.

It’s really a treat for combat sports fans to get important co-promotions like this. While other promoters like to talk and endlessly posture about how they’re supposedly better than others, RIZIN and Bellator were both actually willing to risk their biggest stars losing in order to bring us an excellent major event to end the year. Regardless of result, both promotions deserve props for that alone.

At the end of it all though, it was a clean sweep of 5-0, with Bellator every single one of their clashes against RIZIN. (I thought it should’ve been 4-1, but more on that later)

In the main event, former Bellator featherweight champ AJ McKee continued his stint at 155 lbs, taking on RIZIN lightweight champion Roberto Satoshi Souza. McKee looked to be the more well-rounded fighter, but willingly played with fire and engaged with the strong grappler in Satoshi on the mat. That made for a far more entertaining fight though.

McKee got in some bad positions against the BJJ expert, but acquitted himself well enough to land good ground and pound. He also mixed in some stomps and soccer kick attempts as he adjusted to the RIZIN ruleset well.

In the end, McKee won with a hard fought and well earned decision in the main event, saying that it’s good redemption for his father Antonio McKee’s loss against Shinya Aoki in the same venue all those years ago.

In a champion vs champion super-fight, Bellator champ Patricio Pitbull calmly picked apart RIZIN champ Kleber Koike en route to a decision victory in the co-main event. Walking out in a gladiator outfit — that awkwardly needed some pliers to take off — the longtime face of Bellator represented the promotion well by completely shutting down Koike’s game.

Koike looked to have improved some of his striking, but he didn’t land enough with power to get Pitbull’s respect. It wasn’t his flashiest contest, but the Bellator champ showed superior striking and better power, along with good defense on the ground to the relatively easy win.

• Also on the card, Kyoji Horiguchi put on a dominant performance, notching his third win over Hiromasa Ougikubo. He technically scored a win for Bellator, but let’s be honest, this seemed more like RIZIN vs RIZIN. Either way, perhaps another quality win like this convinces Bellator to finally open up a flyweight division.
• Juan Archuleta won a split decision over Soo Chul Kim, but I thought it was a pretty bad decision. Archuleta had some wrestling control early in the contest, but the damage and striking was pretty wide for Kim, with the South Korean having deep submission attempts as well.
• While Bellator vs Rizin fights all ended in decisions, the RIZIN.40 side of things had a lot of nice entrances along with a bunch of particularly nasty finishes. Three UFC veterans also picked up nice finishes, while one lost pretty badly.
• RIZIN.40 had eight straight finishes, leading up to a razor thin split decision in the Super-atomweight GP final that was won by Seika Izawa to remain undefeated at 8-0. Si Woo Park finished the fight very strong, and it was a close and competitive bout, but judges awarded it to Izawa for winning most of the fight.
• John Dodson is as explosive as ever at 38-years-old. The UFC vet followed up his BKFC win with a successful RIZIN debut and a backflip celebration to boot. Dodson landed hard body shots against Hideo Tokoro, before eventually landing one to the jaw that put his fellow veteran out cold.

Also hilarious is him listing his height almost a full foot taller.

• Japanese UFC veteran Naoki Inoue got a nasty armlock over Kenta Takizawa. The 25-year-old, whose UFC tenure surprisingly ended after only one loss in 2018, has now won seven of his last eight bouts
• UFC vet Rogerio Bontorin was flatlined and upset by Yuki Motoya. The Japanese veteran landed a nice body kick that hurt him a little, before following up with a brutal knee that put Bontorin out cold.
• Johnny Case lost his original opponent, and handled business as he dispatched his late replacement Nobumitsu Tyson early. It’s a much needed win for the UFC vet as it halted his three fight losing streak with RIZIN, where he’s now 4-3.
• Chihiro Suzuki was getting picked apart by Yoshiki Nakahara, but he weathered the storm and got a nice comeback KO.
• Sho Patrick Usami got a pretty brutal KO, landing a clean left hook very early and putting Noah Bey out cold for an extended period.

Manny Pacquiao says he will fight in Japan next year.

Manny Pacquiao made a surprise appearance at the RIZIN.40 New Year’s Eve special.

The Filipino boxing superstar entered the ring with Japanese MMA promoter Nobuyuki Sakakibara, and announced that he has “agreed to fight in RIZIN next year.” No specific date or opponent has been revealed, but Pacquiao says he’s “excited to fight a Japanese fighter” of RIZIN’s choosing.

Sakakibara pressed him a little, double checking if he’s really willing to fight “any Japanese fighter,” with Pacquiao nodding and repeating that he’ll fight any Japanese opponent.

Pacquiao, a legendary eight-division boxing world champion, officially retired from professional competition in September 2021 after a loss to Yordenis Ugas. He returned earlier in December 2022 for an exhibition bout though, with the 44-year-old dominating South Korean celebrity martial artist DK Yoo.

The Filipino was in attendance in Japan during his former opponent Floyd Mayweather’s last exhibition bout with RIZIN. Pacquiao’s fight, while clearly not yet signed, is likely to be a boxing exhibition as well.

Bellator and RIZIN are putting on a fun co-promotion for NYE.

Japan has a tradition of hosing big combat sports events for New Year’s eve, and this year we’ll be getting a special co-promotion between RIZIN and Bellator. Instead of MMA promoters just posturing and talking about how their fighters are supposedly better, these two organizations actually took the risk and stepped up to put some of their best athletes in very fun match ups.

Five stars from each promotion will go head to head, and we’ll be getting current and former champions facing off in a pretty fun RIZIN vs Bellator card.

A.J. McKee will face RIZIN lightweight champion Roberto Satoshi in the main event, with the co-headliner being a featherweight champion vs champion super-fight as Bellator’s Patricio Pitbull takes on RIZIN’s Kleber Koike Erbst. Former Bellator and RIZIN champ Kyoji Horiguchi, and two-division ROAD FC champ Soo Chul Kim will also be in separate match ups on the card.

Prior to the five Bellator vs RIZIN bouts, RIZIN.40 will kick things off with more fun match ups including an atomweight tournament final, and bouts involving UFC vets John Dodson, Naoki Inoue, and Johnny Case.

Join us live, with RIZIN.40 starting at 12 a.m. ET and the Bellator vs RIZIN card to follow soon after, likely around 5 a.m. ET on December 31st.

Full fight card can be seen below, along with a live stream of the event. Unfortunately, for those in the US, the Bellator vs RIZIN portion will only be available on tape delay on Showtime. More details on how to watch here.

Fight Card and Results

Bellator MMA vs. RIZIN FF

AJ Mckee Jr. def. Roberto de Souza by Decision (Unanimous)

Patricio Freire def. Kleber Koike Erbst by Decision (Unanimous)

Kyoji Horiguchi def. Hiromasa Ougikubo by Decision (Unanimous)

Juan Archuleta def. Soo Chul Kim by Decision (Split)

Gadzhi Rabadanov def. Koji Takeda by Decision (Unanimous)

RIZIN.40

Seika Izawa def. Si Woo Park by Decision (Split) [super-atomweight grand prix final]

Naoki Inoue def. Kenta Takizawa by Submission (arm lock), R2

Junior Tafa def. Tsuyoshi Sudario by TKO (Punches), R1

John Dodson def. Hideo Tokoro by KO (Punches), R1

Ren Hiramoto def. Genji Umeno KO (Left hook), R2 [Boxing Rules]

Yuki Motoya def. Rogerio Bontorin by KO (knee), R2

Johnny Case def. Nobumitsu Tyson by TKO (Punches), R1

Chihiro Suzuki def. Yoshiki Nakahara by KO (Punches), R1

Sho Patrick Usami def. Noah Bey by KO (Left hook), R1

Yushi def. Tatsuya Nakazawa by decision (Unanimous)

Live Stream: (Fite TV or the embed below)