Author: Anton Tabuena

Gervonta Davis took on Rolando Romero on Saturday night.

Three-division boxing champ Gervonta Davis headlined a PPV event on Saturday night, having a WBA lightweight title clash against Rolando Romero. Both fighters came in undefeated, with the massive favorite in Davis at 26-0 and Romero at 14-0. After the contest, it was “Tank” that keeps his unbeaten record intact.

As Romero came in, Davis landed a perfectly timed counter left hook that dropped him and ended the fight in the sixth round. Gervonta seemed to have relished the KO win a little extra, especially after all the talk during the build up.

“I didn’t even throw it that hard. He ran right to it,” Davis said about the perfect counter punch, comparing it to the time Manny Pacquiao got knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez.

Stats also showed that Davis only landed 25 punches throughout the contest, but he only needed that one big punch to win it.

Official result: Gervonta Davis TKOs Rolando Romero, 2:30 of Round 6

Watch highlights from the boxing main event below:

Edmen Shahbazyan is making big changes, leaving controversial coach Edmond Tarverdyan and Ronda Rousey.

“The Golden Boy” Edmen Shahbazyan joined the UFC at just 20-years-old, and quickly won his first four fights with the promotion. Then undefeated at 11-0, Shahbazyan was hyped as the next big thing, until he ran into a grizzly vet in Derek Brunson in his first ever UFC main event.

He then dropped two more bouts in 2021 to Jack Hermansson and Nassourdine Imavov. After that third straight loss, he is making massive changes to his long time team that is headed by controversial coach Edmond Tarverdyan.

Shahbazyan grew up training at Glendale Fight Club, and was managed by that stable’s sole star in Ronda Rousey. He has now switched coaches and management, and has moved to Las Vegas in pursuit of better training.

While Shahbazyan says there’s no hard feelings between them, he believes the move was “long overdue.” He also noted how he hasn’t spoken to his now former manager Rousey in months.

“Going off my past two fights, I feel a change was definitely needed and it was long overdue,” Shahbazyan told MMA Fighting. “I looked at my options to see where I can be that I feel I can unleash my full potential and I believe Vegas had the best thing.

“Of course the gyms, the high level partners to work with. There’s a lot of good guys out here and constantly coming in because of having fights. It’s great. I look at my last few fights and a change was needed so this was the best choice.

“I needed to change,” Shahbazyan said. “It was time. It was definitely time for me. It could have been done sooner but now I’m just happy to be here and get the new work in. I have not talked [to them] since I left. From my end, I have a good relationship [with them]. I don’t have any problem. All respect cause I respect what they’ve done for me but on my end, I’m good.

“I haven’t talked to [Ronda] in say a few months. I don’t have anything against her, respect from my end. As far as my end, I don’t have no ill will.”

Shahbazyan says he will take the next few months to just train and improve, instead of rushing back into the cage. He plans to train at Xtreme Couture with coaches such as Eric Nicksick, Dewey Cooper, Jake Shields and Jason Manly.

Still just 24-years-old, he feels that he can right the ship after this latest losing streak against top contenders.

“I got signed off The Contender [Series] when I was 20 and had my UFC debut 10 days after turning 21. I’ve got lots of time,” Shahbazyan said. “Once I start going to Xtreme [Couture] as well, I’ll get all the good sparring there. You’re going to see Edmen 2.0, no doubt about it.”

The UFC’s four Asian tournaments have all been made official.

As reported earlier, UFC’s four Asian tournaments will kick off on June 9 and 10, ahead of UFC 275 in Singapore. The brackets and the full list of top prospects from Asia vying for a chance to earn a UFC contract have been revealed, and it will feature fighters from countries such as China, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, India and the Philippines.

Dubbed as “Road to UFC,” the promotion will host eight-man tournaments at flyweight, bantamweight, featherweight and lightweight. The finalized brackets are as follows:

Apart from these opening round match ups, four supporting bouts have also been set. These non-tournament bouts will feature fighters such as URCC welterweight champion John Adajar, and 19-year-old Shooto prospect Takeru Uchida among others.

These bouts will be split into four “Road to UFC” episodes that will air on UFC Fight Pass and their various broadcast partners in Asia. These bouts will happen on UFC 275’s fight week, as it leads into the promotion’s first major PPV event in South East Asia.

The full schedule and fight card is as follows:

Episode 1, June 9

Yi Zha vs Keisuke Sasu – Featherweight Tournament

Balajin vs WonBin Ki – Lightweight Tournament

Maimaiti Tuohati vs Toshiomi Kazama – Bantamweight Tournament

SeungGuk Choi vs Rama Supandhi – Flyweight Tournament

Zhang Mingyang vs Tuco Tokkos – Non-tournament bout

Episode 2, June 9

MinWoo Kim vs Xiao Long – Bantamweight Tournament

JunYoung Hong vs Koyomi Matsushima – Featherweight Tournament

Qiu Lun vs Wallen Del Rosario – Flyweight Tournament

Ailiya Muratbek vs Pawan Maan Singh – Lightweight Tournament

Shaun Etchell vs Takeru Uchida – Non-tournament bout

Episode 3, June 10

JeongYeong Lee vs Xie Bin – Featherweight Tournament

Yuma Horiuchi vs Top Kiwram – Flyweight Tournament

Anshul Jubli vs Sho Patrick Usami – Lightweight Tournament

Rinya Nakamura vs Gugun Gusman – Bantamweight Tournament

YeDam Seo vs Josefine Knuttson – Non-tournament bout

Episode 4, June 10

Shohei Nose vs Wulijiburen – Bantamweight Tournament

Asikerbai Jinensibieke vs Kyung Pyo Kim – Lightweight Tournament

Lu Kai vs Angga Hans – Featherweight Tournament

HyunSung Park vs Jeremia Siregar – Flyweight Tournament

John Adajar vs HanSeul Kim – Non-tournament bout

Masvidal sent a DM that made things personal.

Michel Pereira added a quality name to his resume Saturday night, taking a split decision victory over long time contender Santiago Ponzinibbio at UFC Vegas 55. After the contest, he called his shot for what he wants next.

“Now I need top 15, top 10,” Pereira said on his post-fight interview. “Hey Nate, I’m ready! Hey Jorge Masvidal, come my friend!”

Apparently, the Masvidal callout has extra meaning for him. As he revealed soon after, Pereira has a “problem” with Masvidal, over an emoji he sent.

“I really want to fight Nate Diaz because I think it would be really fun to slap each other around,” Pereira said at the post-fight press conference. “Also, Jorge Masvidal because I have a little bit of a problem with him and I want to settle it.

“(Masvidal) sent an emoji to my wife. The (praying hands) emoji,” Pereira said. “He sent it to my wife and didn’t send it to me.

“I never actually crossed paths with him, never had the chance to ask him. So I figured I really want to understand, but might as well understand inside the Octagon. So let’s just settle it over there.”

With the win over Ponzinibbio, Pereira will likely enter the top 15 rankings. The backflipping Brazilian has now won five straight bouts dating back to the 2020 bout against Diego Sanchez, a match he was dominating until the illegal knee that got him disqualified.

Anderson Silva and Floyd Mayweather put on good performances in each of their exhibition bouts in Abu Dhabi.

It wasn’t on a skyscraper helipad anymore, but Floyd Mayweather and Anderson Silva still tried to put on a show at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.

The UFC legend in Silva is now 47-years-old, while the boxing legend in Mayweather is 45, but they still dominated their exhibition bouts against Bruno Machado and Don Moore, respectively.

Silva picked Machado apart and landed a knockdown in the fifth round. Mayweather showboated and did the same, landing a body shot knockdown in the eight. Both survived and made it to the final bell, and with it being exhibitions, no winner was declared.

After the contest, Mayweather teased another return to UAE this year.

“I told the fans I’m here to entertain, have fun,” Mayweather said. “I will bring another fight here this year. Absolutely. It’s a secret. I don’t want to let the cat out the bag right now but we have an opponent.”

Watch highlights from the two bouts below.

Silva’s knockdown of Machado:

Mayweather vs Moore:

Still interested in Junior dos Santos vs Fedor Emelianenko?

Junior dos Santos may have officially lost his fifth straight bout on Friday night, but Eagle FC promoter Khabib Nurmagomedov still wants to push through with booking him against Fedor Emelianenko next.

The former UFC heavyweight champion looked good early on, but suffered a freak shoulder injury after throwing a punch and resulted in a loss to Yorgan De Castro. Khabib previously stated that Dos Santos needed a win, but it looks like the injury loss won’t be changing his plans to try and co-promote with Bellator.

“I think it’s still viable,” Nurmagomedov told The UG (transcript via MMA Fighting) after Eagle FC 47. “Because even if he lost, Junior looked amazing. Everybody see tonight, he’s improved a lot and he was looking amazing. And I think it’s still interesting.

“I think for his shoulder, [as an] athlete — because I know when you have an injury, what you need, how many months you need to recover, everything — I think if he makes this next week, surgery, I think definitely he needs surgery,” he said. “I’m not a doctor, but I see a lot of injuries inside the gym like this with shoulders, with knees. I think after three or four months, he can come back to sparring, and at the end of the year we can make this fight.

“Next week I’m going to sit with Scott Coker and we’re going to discuss about this fight.”

Apart from looking to book Fedor vs Dos Santos, Khabib also noted that with the win, De Castro could go on to face Eagle FC heavyweight champ Rizvan Kuniev next.