Author: Anton Tabuena

Israel Adesanya took on the wings of death.

Just two days after his tough upset loss to Alex Pereira at UFC 281, Israel Adesanya pushed through with an appearance in the popular YouTube show Hot Ones.

As with the show’s trademark style, the now former middleweight champion discussed various topics while eating increasingly spicy wings. Among those Adesanya spoke about was his latest anime arc after losing the belt in a bout he was already dominating.

“In so many different ways, (anime) has just helped me tell my own story, be the protagonist in my own story, be Player One in my own game. Right now, I’ve already seen the set up for my next storyline,” Adesanya said on Hot Ones. “The hunter becomes the hunted. Certain characters in certain animes, I draw inspiration from.”

Other UFC stars to have appeared in previous episodes of Hot Ones include Ronda Rousey, Kamaru Usman, Dustin Poirier, and Derrick Lewis.

Kayla Harrison spoke about her first ever loss in MMA

Kayla Harrison lost for the first time in her MMA career, dropping a decision to Larissa Pacheco in their $1 million PFL tournament final. The two-time Olympic Judo gold medalist handled the shocking and “painful” upset pretty well, all things considered.

“I obviously just lost my title. That hurts and it’s going to hurt for a while,” an emotional Harrison said, tearing up while discussing the loss. She also thanked her team for working through the holidays with her for this bout. “I know I have a really blessed life, so although it hurts, I know I’m going to comeback stronger.

“It’s different (from my losses in Judo) in the sense there’s $1 million on the line. I feel like I’m the face of the promotion, so I dropped the ball a little bit. But losing is losing, you know. For me, it’s like I want to crawl out of my skin. I can’t stand it. It’s painful.”

While Harrison admitted that the loss deeply hurts, she says she doesn’t have any excuses and credited Pacheco for her improvements.

“I don’t have an excuse. I don’t have a reason,” Harrison continued. “I have a lot to work on. Failure is my fuel. Some days you’re the nail and some days you’re the hammer. I feel like I’ve been the hammer for a while, and today I experienced being the nail.”

Harrison didn’t really have to speak to the media so soon after the loss, but she explained how that is part of her “legacy.”

“I just think I talk a lot about legacy, right?” Harrison said. “My legacy isn’t just what I do inside the cage. It’s how I carry myself outside the cage. I think about what I want my kids to know and I’m not ashamed of myself tonight. I’m proud. I went out there, I fought and I lost. But I can hold my head high and carry myself with dignity and I think that a real champion shows up in the good times and the bad.

“I want kids everywhere to know that, ‘listen, I fell down tonight. I fell flat on my face. I lost in front of the whole world, and it hurts and it’s going to hurt for a while. But it’s also an opportunity for growth and opportunity for me to become a better fighter, a better person.’ That is part of my legacy, not just the wins, but what I do during the losses, as well.”

After the loss, the now former PFL champion Harrison drops her MMA record to 15-1. Pacheco, on the other hand, not only got to avenge her two previous losses to Harrison, she also took home an extra $1 million for the massive upset.

Former best buddies are in the middle of a lawsuit worth millions.

It seems like money issues might have ended the close friendship between Conor McGregor and Artem Lobov.

According to a report from The Irish Independent, Lobov is suing his long term teammate and sparring partner for millions stemming from a dispute on McGregor’s Proper Twelve whiskey.

Lobov reportedly initiated a High Court action and is claiming that he not only was instrumental in creating Proper Twelve whiskey, he also has an agreement that entitles him to five percent of the money McGregor made from the massive sale.

McGregor and his partners reportedly sold their stake in Proper Twelve for around $600 million in 2021, with the former UFC champion said to have made around $150 million from it.

Lobov believes he should’ve gotten a cut from the proceeds.

“My client is a retired professional fighter with a master’s degree from DCU in Finance and Capital Markets. We have issued High Court proceedings on his behalf to enforce an agreement with Mr McGregor regarding the Proper No. Twelve whiskey brand.” Lobov’s lawyer Dermot McNamara said. “My client was the initial creator and co-founder of the concept to launch an Irish whiskey brand associated with Mr. McGregor. As these matters are now before the court, we will not be making any further comment.”

McGregor’s representative has since issued a brief statement, refuting Lobov’s claims as “incorrect.”

“Proper No. Twelve Irish Whiskey was created, developed, branded and tirelessly promoted by Conor McGregor,” Karen J Kessler said.

Last August, Lobov claimed he was the brains behind Proper Twelve and previously rejected a $1 million offer from McGregor.

“I was the person who came up with the idea to do a whiskey for Conor,” Lobov said in August about how he supposedly started to discuss the idea after the second Diaz fight.

“I said to him before you even look any further (about Vodka), ‘here’s what I know about Irish whiskey.’ I told him about my presentation from college,” Lobov explained. “I told him about the dominance of Irish whiskey and all of that. He said, ‘you go off and see what deal you can put together’ and I went on my way.

“I went on and met all different whiskey distilleries. I called some and met some in person. I did my research and put a beautiful deal together,” Lobov said. “Once the deal was ready, I went to Conor and I said, ‘Conor, I have the deal ready for you. This is going to be a billion-dollar deal, no messing here.’ I’m not sure if he took me seriously or not at the time with the billion dollars.

“Conor offered me $1M but I turned it down, I didn’t accept it,” he said. “You know, throughout my career whenever I have helped Conor with camps, he offered to pay me for them camps, but I never accepted money from him.”

Lobov, 36, retired from MMA competition after a three year stint with the UFC. He went 2-5 with the UFC and 13-15-1 (1 NC) overall in mixed martial arts.

[CW: Suicide]

Actor Jason David Frank has passed away at age 49.

According to multiple reports from TMZ and MMA Fighting, the “Power Rangers” star died by suicide in Texas.

Frank is famously known for his role as Tommy Oliver in the 90’s hit franchise “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.” He was the most popular among the group, and reprised his roles multiple times as the Green Ranger and the White Ranger.

Frank is also a real life martial artist, having black belts in striking arts such as Shotokan Karate, Wado-ryu Karate, and Taekwondo, while also having a background in grappling as a black belt in judo and a purple belt in jiujitsu.

He competed in MMA five times, going 4-0 as an amateur and 1-0 as a professional in 2010. He won three of those fights via submission, and two via KO.

Photo by Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images

Although it never pushed through, Frank repeatedly called for a bout with CM Punk back when the former pro wrestler first signed with the UFC.

Frank’s ties with the sport didn’t end there, as he also used to run an MMA apparel company, Jesus Didn’t Tap, which sponsored a lot of fighters during that era.

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Sean O’Malley argues that the stoppage is only early if you don’t like Adesanya.

Sean O’Malley has weighed in on the debate about the UFC 281 main event stoppage. According to the UFC bantamweight contender, it all depends on whether on not you like Israel Adesanya.

“I liked the stoppage just because I like ‘Izzy’ so much. If you don’t like ‘Izzy,’ you’re like, ‘Early stoppage!’,” O’Malley said in his podcast (transcript via Sportskeeda). “Because, dude, that was trending in a bad way. I would have rather seen it be an early stoppage than see ‘Izzy’ get KO’d and take two years off his career potentially. Like, a fat, like a clean, like that Frankie [Edgar] KO would’ve been bad for ‘Izzy.’”

Adesanya initially protested the stoppage, and says that a part of him believes that he should’ve been given more chances to recover, especially since he already proved in the Kelvin Gastelum fight that he can take heavy damage and still find a way to win.

At the end of the day though, the former champion says he trusts his team’s judgement, and they agree that it was a fair stoppage. For what it’s worth, that also coincides with O’Malley’s quotes, with his team being among those who are genuinely looking out for Adesanya’s long term health.

Jon Jones unsurprisingly tweeted things after seeing Israel Adesanya and Dominick Reyes both lose at UFC 281.

Jon Jones and Israel Adesanya have both traded barbs online in the past. The former light heavyweight champion isn’t one to let an opportunity pass by, and he unsurprisingly took to twitter after Adesanya lost his title to Alex Pereira at UFC 281.

Although it was generally more subtle than some of the vitriol he spewed in the past, he made sure to address some past comments that he didn’t appreciate. As soon as Adesanya lost by technical knockout, Jones immediately brought up Khabib Nurmagomedov’s previous tweet suggesting Adesanya could eventually be on the same level as him.

He then congratulated Pereira, saying he’s “incredibly happy” that he’s now the new middleweight champion.

Finally, Jones responded to a fan about possibly trolling Adesanya, saying “Now why would I go and do something like that?”

On the same event, Jones also reacted to the loss of Dominick Reyes, who many believe deserved to win the close decision in their bout from 2020. After the KO defeat, Jones brought up an old line Reyes said about him.

While his resume as an all time great fighter is unquestionable, Jones has just been reveling in his rival’s losses a lot more than actually fighting these days. The long time UFC champion has been inactive for almost three years now, and hasn’t competed since his controversial decision over Reyes in February 2020.

Jones claims he will move up and return soon, although he has promised that same move to heavyweight for over a decade now.