Author: Anton Tabuena

Nate Diaz was removed from the arena.

Nate Diaz attended the Jake Paul vs Anderson Silva event, where his teammate also fought in the undercard. With a potential boxing match on the horizon, Team Diaz and Team Paul somewhat unsurprisingly got into it backstage. The scuffle immediately made the rounds on social media, with more footage being released since.

One of the clips appears to be Diaz slapping one of the members from Jake Paul’s team, before security breaks it up.

Diaz, who went live on Instagram, was also seen being escorted out of the arena by security after the altercation.

Paul appeared to be aware of the situation, noting how Diaz wasn’t in the arena when he called him out.

“I want Nate Diaz, who’s a b—ch,” Paul said after the decision win over Silva. “He tried to come into my locker room. He tried to cause some shit. And then he always leaves the f—king arena. So Nate Diaz, stop being a b—ch and fight me.”

Diaz, who will be free agent after completing his UFC contract, seems to also be open to the lucrative fight. Paul improved to 6-0 as a professional boxer, and now holds three wins over former UFC stars. Will Diaz be the fourth?

“Stop being a b—h, and fight me!”

Jake Paul won the biggest fight of his career, going back-and-forth and defeating a much older, although far more experienced fighter in Anderson Silva. Paul even stamped his win by knocking down the UFC legend in the final round to win a hard earned decision.

“It’s a surreal moment. Hard work pays off,” Paul said after the win. “I want to say thank to Anderson Silva. He was my idol growing up. He inspired me to be great. He was the first celebrity I ever met.”

He didn’t have the same complimentary words about Nate Diaz though, who had a backstage scuffle with Jake Paul’s entourage before the fight with Silva started.

“I want Nate Diaz, who’s a b—ch,” he said. “He tried to come into my locker room. He tried to cause some shit. And then he always leaves the f—king arena. So Nate Diaz, stop being a b—ch and fight me.

“And Canelo, you too! You guys said you can’t beat a striker, you can’t beat a legend like Anderson Silva. But I just did it, so why can’t I beat Canelo? F—k y’all.”

The fight will push through.

The Arizona Boxing Commission decided to hold a “special meeting” and “executive session” about sanctioning Anderson Silva for his upcoming bout with Jake Paul, stemming from his recent statements. Silva, who has english as his second language, previously said that a sparring partner “knocked me out two times” during training camp.

Silva eventually walked it back, and saying he “misspoke” and “exaggerated the normal back-and-forth action” from a sparring session from back in September, but the commission took it seriously and the bout was put in jeopardy days before the contest.

During the special meeting, Silva was said to have provided a “pristine” MRI, along with a letter and written statement from the fighter and his trainer. The Arizona Boxing Commission then deemed that they’re “completely comfortable” allowing Silva to compete.

“Given all the work we’ve done on concussion protocol and emphasis we’ve been placing on fighter safety, it just left me really concerned,” Commissioner Ara J. Feinstein, a trauma surgeon and ringside doctor said. “However, once I had further information, the letter from Silva, the written statement from his trainer, and more importantly, the results of the medical examinations and the approval of the physician reading the report, I became much more comfortable, and I have no objections to Mr. Silva participating in the event this Saturday.”

Silva stated that the intention of his statements were originally just to elevate his training partners. Paul also got in a similar situation with the Georgia Athletic Commission before his fight with Ben Askren, when he claimed that he had “early signs of CTE,” after just training for a couple of years.

Interestingly enough, since all this controversy started about Silva’s health, betting lines have shifted with Paul now a bigger favorite. Since those statements were made, the money poured in on Paul with the average odds going from -149 to -219 in a couple of days. Silva, who was a -160 favorite early in September, now sits as a +193 underdog.

They have pretty cool posters for this co-promotion too.

Scott Coker has previously dubbed himself as the King of Collaboration, and its not hard to see why. His latest venture into co-promotion involves sending some of his biggest stars from Bellator over to compete in RIZIN’s traditional new year’s eve show.

RIZIN.40 will mark the first NYE event with Japan finally easing travel restrictions and being fully open to tourists again, and the promotion made sure to stack it with top level international talent.

Wednesday in Japan, key matchups were made official for a RIZIN vs Bellator event, involving some of Bellator’s best such as Patricio Pitbull and A.J. McKee, taking on RIZIN champions.

Former Bellator featherweight champion McKee was recently successful in his lightweight debut, and he will now headline the event against RIZIN lightweight champion Roberto Satoshi Souza.

On the co-feature, former two division Bellator champion Patricio Pitbull will take on Kleber Koike, who will have a quick turnaround after just winning the RIZIN featherweight belt this past weekend.

Kyoji Horiguchi, who has held belts in both Bellator and RIZIN, will actually represent the US-based promotion on the card. In a sign on respect, he apologized to the Japanese fans and said he feels like a “traitor” for doing so. Horiguchi will drop back down to flyweight and rematch his countryman, RIZIN BWGP champ Hiromasa Ougikubo.

Also announced for the card is two-division ROAD FC champ Soo Chul Kim, who impressed in his RIZIN return last September, facing former Bellator bantamweight champ Juan Archuleta.

There will be more matchups revealed soon, but Nobuyuki Sakakibara confirmed that each of these bouts will happen in a ring and under RIZIN rules, where soccer kicks and knees to the grounded opponent are allowed.

These fights will happen at the Saitama Super Arena, with the main event ending at night in Japan, as they kick off the new year with another major combat sports event. Bellator will have a tape delay broadcast in the US, at 8 p.m. ET on January 31st.

They also released some well made promotional material that RIZIN has always been known for:

Khabib and Bobby Green had hilarious reactions to the controversial split decision.

Sean O’Malley had the performance of his career Saturday at UFC 280, which got him near universal praise for putting up such a great fight against former champion Petr Yan. That being said, most of those people didn’t seem to think he actually won the fight, leading to a lot of outrage from fighters on social media as soon as the split decision was awarded to O’Malley.

One of the more interesting live reactions to the controversial decision was from Khabib Nurmagomedov, who was captured on camera seemingly going through a range of emotions from shock and confusion, to complete disbelief and then utter disappointment.

“Split?!” Khabib exclaimed as Bruce Buffer started to reveal the scorecards.

When it was announced that O’Malley took the victory, Khabib had a completely puzzled look.

“How? How? No, how? How is it possible, brother?” Khabib reacted. He spoke in Russian after, which supposedly translated to “I swear I gave him every round! It was close but he won every round.”

UFC lightweight Bobby Green also had a pretty hilarious reaction live. Immediately after the third round ended, he recorded himself and posted an Instagram Story congratulating O’Malley for putting up a good fight.

“Sean O’Malley, you fought with the best. You really shot for the stars, brother. I’m not here to kick you while you’re down, you fought a great fight,” Green said. “No knock, you did your thing, brother. I just wanted to see you test yourself, you did the shit. You ain’t ready to fight that in the division yet, but you’re up there. You’re close. You actually proved it this time. I respect you for going out there and trying.”

The very next Instagram story, was a video of Green reacting to the decision, laughing and screaming at his phone “Robbery! Robbery! Robbery!!”

“This shit is fixed,” Green also wrote.

It was a back-and-forth, close and competitive fight, so it’s not at all comparable to any of the worst robberies in the sport. For what it’s worth though, MMA Decisions compiled the scores of 26 media members and outlets, and every single one scored it for Yan.

The Road to UFC finals are set.

A day after UFC 280, the Road to UFC semi-final rounds were completed Sunday in Abu Dhabi, with the finalists for the four Asian tournaments being determined.

The biggest winner from the event was Jeong Yeong Lee, who again picked up another win in under a minute. After a 36-second armbar in the opening round, he followed up with a 42-second KO over Kai Lu to book his ticket to the Road to UFC featherweight finals.

Prior to this tourney, “The Korean Tiger” also had a 10-second KO win at Road FC, meaning that he only needed an insane 88 seconds to dispatch of his last three opponents. He is only 26-years-old, and is certainly the best prospect to watch out of this tournament.

Jeka Saragih, who didn’t really come in with much fanfare, is now carrying Indonesia’s hopes after scoring back-to-back brutal knockouts in this tournament. After a spinning backfist KO in the opening round, he upset Won Bin Ki in the semis with a missile of a right hand. Could he be the first ever Indonesian UFC fighter? Interestingly enough, he will take on Anshul Jubli of India in the lightweight finals, which will represent two countries that are severely underrepresented in the UFC.

Among the top standouts is Hyun Sung Park, who survived an early knockdown against Thai showman Topnoi Kirwam, and ended up getting a rear naked choke victory. With the win over his former sparring partner, Park advanced to the flyweight finals and will face his South Korean countryman in Seung Guk Choi.

In the bantamweight tournament, Rinya Nakamura picked up an early TKO, exploding out of the gate just guns blazing and knocking out Shohei Nose in the first round. He will move on to an all-Japan showdown with Toshiomi Kazama in the finals.

In a non-tournament bout, 23-year-old Samandar Murodov of Tajikistan remained undefeated as he notched a buzzer beating rear naked choke win at 4:59 of the first round. He came in on short notice, against a bigger opponent that missed weight, and made the most of his opportunity. Murodov isn’t in the tournament, but the 8-0 prospect asked for a UFC contract right after, and did make a good case for it.

The Road to UFC finals will likely happen during the planned UFC event in South Korea in February 2023. The final match ups are as follows:

Flyweight: Seung Guk Choi (South Korea) vs. Hyun Sung Park (South Korea)

Bantamweight: Toshiomi Kazama (Japan) vs. Rinya Nakamura (Japan)

Featherweight: Yi Zha (China) vs.

Lightweight: Jeka Saragih (Indonesia) vs. Anshul Jubli (India)

Full event results and videos for Road to UFC: Episodes 5 and 6 are here.