Author: Anton Tabuena

Anthony Johnson has reportedly passed away.

Late last October, Anthony Johnson’s manager asked for prayers as the former UFC light heavyweight title challenger was “not doing well” and is said to have gone through serious health problems.

The KO artist, who fought from welterweight all the way up to heavyweight, looked to have lost a significant amount of weight in recent months. They didn’t share much specifics about his long battle with a non-covid illness, but multiple reports are now coming out that Johnson has passed away at just 38-years-old.

Johnson had two stints with the UFC, struggling to make weight at both welterweight and middleweight from 2007-2012, before moving up and having a second stint with the promotion at 205 lbs from 2014 to 2017. He challenged for the UFC light heavyweight title twice, losing both times to UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier.

His most recent fight was at Bellator, where he scored a second round knockout in 2021 at the Bellator Light Heavyweight Grand Prix. He withdrew from the tournament due to this illness.

Johnson went 23-6 in his MMA career, holding quality wins over some of the best fighters from his time in Glover Teixeira, Alexander Gustafsson, Ryan Bader, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Andrei Arlovski, and Phil Davis.

Johnson was also arrested and accused multiple times of domestic violence.

Hear what Pereira’s corner said two minutes before his monumental comback win over Israel Adesanya at UFC 281.

Heading into the fifth round of their UFC 281 title bout, Alex Pereira was down on all the scorecards with Israel Adesanya picking him apart and hurting him on multiple occasions. Much like he did on their second kickboxing match, Pereira found it in himself to pull off another insane comeback, this time winning the UFC middleweight title in the process.

Corner audio from that pivotal round has been released, showing Pereira’s coaches giving him crucial advice. Pereira got both a motivational speech, and quality technical instructions right before he went out for the final stanza.

“One round for you to be a world champion,” his coaches said in Portuguese. “Five minutes. Enough. Enough. You need to get to him. You need to approach him, okay? You have to knock him out. You need to knock him out.

“Always with the stance, high guard. Listen, he’s feeling it when you’re hitting him,” he said. “You only have one round! Active with your defense, and combos! Combos! Two, three strikes!

“Breathe right now. You’re going to be a world champion now. This round is yours. This round is yours. Go for it!”

And go for it he did. Just two minutes after that passionate plea to his pupil, Pereira stopped Adesanya on his feet to claim the crown.

The decorated kickboxer is now the UFC middleweight champion after just eight MMA fights, and only four in the UFC. Pereira is now 3-0 against Adesanya across two sports, ending that four year title reign in the process.

Israel Adesanya opened up on losing belt.

Israel Adesanya lost his belt to Alex Pereira at UFC 281, in a bout that looked eerily similar to their second kickboxing match. Adesanya hurt him on multiple occasions and was ahead on the scorecards, before Pereira pulled off another incredible comeback in the final round.

“F—king crazy end. Similar to the last time. Same story. It’s crazy,” Adesanya said on the post-fight press conference. “He’s durable and he recovers well. Even in the fifth round, I knew he was going to come strong because he was down. Same thing as last time again. It’s another great story for him, but it’s not over. This is still war.”

Adesanya said he was “fine” and “lucid” at the stoppage, but he accepted the loss well and isn’t going to complain about the finish.

“No (the stoppage wasn’t bad). I talked to my coaches, and I trust them,” he said. “My ego would say ‘at least let me go out on my shield’ but I don’t think I would’ve gone out.”

The now former champion went on to say that it was the calf kicks that mainly led to his loss.

“My leg. My leg happened. He got calf kicks on and invested well,” Adesanya said about the defeat.

“He hit my peroneal nerve. So that’s why my footwork was compromised,” he said. “Even when I tripped and went backwards, I had to do the rolie polie. I just tripped over, it’s not like me. Kudos to him for investing in those calf kicks, because it cost me.

“I’m okay. It was just my leg. My leg gave way, and it was really annoying. But again, kudos to him for investing in those. I did the same thing to him. His leg is f—ked, but he just got me better,” he said. “It was hard for me to attack with my wrestling, because I was compromised.”

Adesanya had his moments and seemed to be close to a finish at multiple points, but he refused to deal in any “shoulda woulda coulda” and congratulated his rival on yet another victory over him.

“It doesn’t matter. He is the new champion and congrats to him. He did it again.”

The loss ends Adesanya’s incredible four-year run as middleweight champion, which saw him win seven title fights and basically clean out the division until Pereira came along.

The new champion in Pereira is now 3-0 against Adesanya, with two of those happening in kickboxing.

This is UFC 281 in a few short tweets.

UFC 281 is in the books, and it brought a lot of finishes and a chaotic end to a long title reign. Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira’s MMA bout looked a lot like their last meeting in kickboxing. The longtime middleweight champion was ahead early, wobbling, hurting and tiring out Pereira repeatedly, only for “Poatan” to find a way to land his trademark power shot.

Likely down 3-1 on the scorecards, Pereira came up big in the last round and scored another comeback victory against Adesanya. He won his third bout against Adesanya, and completed a meteoric rise to win the title in just his fourth UFC fight.

In the co-main event, Weili Zhang put on a clinic both on the feet and on the ground, handily beating Carla Esparza to become a two-time UFC strawweight champion.

Below, we analyze the pros and cons of each of the key bouts, with a quick twitter thread that’s short and fitting for people’s social media era attention spans:

And that’s about it. For more social media musings, follow me on twitter over at @antontabuena, and of course you should do that for Bloody Elbow’s official twitter account as well.

Get the lowdown on the two title fights and other key bouts from UFC 281.

Alex Pereira did it again, and we have a new champion.

Their UFC 281 headliner looked a lot like their second bout in kickboxing. Israel Adesanya hurt him bad early, and was picking him apart for the most part. The long time middleweight champion looked to be ahead three rounds to one, with Pereira needing a finish in the final round. And that’s just what he did, pulling off another spectacular comeback.

Pereira pressured and eventually found a home for his trademark power shots, badly hurting Adesanya and unleashing a flurry to stop him on the feet. Adesanya protested the stoppage, but it looked like a proper one to me.

Adesanya hurt and tired out Pereira many times throughout the contest, but he also repeatedly let him off the hook. Like he did for a lot of recent fights, Adesanya laid back and lowered his output, allowing Pereira to recover and keep that power in play even until late. Whether it’s a bad habit that showed again, Adesanya played with fire too much, and it cost him his championship belt.

With the comeback victory, Pereira went 3-0 against Adesanya across two sports, and is now the new middleweight champion.

In the other title fight on the card, Weili Zhang became a two-time UFC champion, and she made it look easy. The Chinese superstar showcased her well-rounded game and just won everywhere the fight went. She landed good shots on the feet, and whenever Carla Esparza went for takedowns, Zhang showed that she was a superior grappler as well. That choke from crucifix was slick, especially since it came against a reputable pure grappler.

• Dustin Poirier vs Michael Chandler was as wild as expected, going back-and-forth with both men getting badly hurt and still pushing forward. The main difference it seems, was Poirier’s insane composure. They’re both tough with good chins, but Poirier never wavers or panics, which is why he never slows down even when in danger or under fire. He paces himself well and remains calm, while Chandler explodes on everything and got himself tired, and eventually submitted.
• I know it’s a grueling fight, but Chandler’s fish hooks and shots at the back of the head were pretty blatant fouls that should’ve been penalized.
• Why was Frankie Edgar even matched up against a young stud on a long winning streak? He’s 41 and on a string of bad losses, and that result was not just sad, it wasn’t at all surprising. Edgar could’ve been matched up for a fun fight against a fellow veteran (Dominick Cruz?), but it feels like UFC just has this need to use people on their way out to build someone up, instead of giving them a proper send off.
• Dan Hooker’s knee might just have popped after those early leg lock attempts, but he refused to tap and was visually limping after. He survived and went on to pick apart Claudio Puelles. He wasn’t even throwing with full power, as he tried to remain cautious of those takedown attempts, but it was more than enough to win it. Hooker got him to bite on a feint, then finished the fight with a perfect front kick to the body that he wasn’t ready for.

Sean O’Malley says he got stem cells injected on his wiener.

Sean O’Malley says he recently crossed the border to Mexico in order to get stem cells injected on his knee to treat some lingering injuries. Apparently, those weren’t the only shots the UFC star got during his stay in the Tijuana clinic.

“There’s one guy there, and he’s like ‘yeah I’m getting my dick done.’ I think he had erectile dysfunction or something, and I’m like ‘well my wiener works perfectly fine. Is there any cons or is it just pros?’” O’Malley said on his podcast.

“(They said) it could supposedly help with girth, performance, explosive orgasms. So I’m like ‘Well, it ain’t the first time I’ve had a needle in my wiener, hit me up doc!’

O’Malley said he got two shots on his pecker.

“It hurt worse than I thought it was going to because they said, ‘Oh it won’t hurt that bad.’ We had an option to have a guy do it or a girl do it. I said ‘I want the hot doctor to do it,’” he said. “She grabbed mine and it started growing right away. I’m like, ‘God dammit, I’m sorry.’ A hot doctor grabbed my wiener, it’s pretty easy to get a boner. Then the male doctor came in and was like, ‘Want me to hold your hand?’ and my wiener went (down).’”

O’Malley and his co-host went on to explain that there are many patients that routinely return to Tijuana, Mexico specifically for that procedure.

“Mine is still bruised. I’m about four inches bigger,” O’Malley said with a laugh. “We’re going back in January, I might get another poke.

“That’s the last thing I need, get more f—king c—k power.”

MMA Mania editor Jesse Holland did the hard research on this very important topic — and risked ruining all the ads he will get now — to explain this penis enlargement procedure:

According to Elite Aesthetics, penis enlargement stem cells, also known as the “P-Shot” or “Priapus Shot,” can increase sex drive, improve erectile dysfunction, and offer increased girth — though extended length from the injection is considered rare.

The procedure takes less than an hour and lasts up to 12 months.

O’Malley is fresh off a razor thin win over former champion Petr Yan, which shot him up to number one at the UFC bantamweight rankings.