Author: Anton Tabuena

The UFC 275 card in Singapore is shaping up.

UFC 275 will have two title bouts in Glover Teixeira vs Jiri Prochazka and Valentina Shevchenko vs Taila Santos, along with a recently booked FOTY rematch between Weili Zhang and Joanna Jedrzejczyk on its pay-per-view line up. Those three key bouts alone likely guarantees this would be the UFC’s best ever event in South East Asia, but the promotion is now also starting to fill up the rest of the card.

After recently losing Robert Whittaker vs Marvin Vettori due to injury, several other fights have been made official for the UFC’s return to Singapore. As expected, it features a lot of their Asian fighters, along with some from Australia and New Zealand.

Two South Korean UFC vets have been added, with Kyung Ho Kang set to have his 11th UFC bout against Mongolia’s Danaa Batgerel, and Seung Woo Choi having his 7th Octagon appearance against Filipino-Australian Josh Culibao.

Also on the card are two popular fighters looking to rebound from tough UFC debuts. Ramona Pascual, a well known fighter from Hong Kong, will try to improve on her short notice debut as she faces Joselyne Edwards, while decorated kickboxer and Isreal Adesanya’s teammate “Black Diamond” Mike Mathetha takes on Orion Cosce.

China and Australia will also get some representation on the current fight card, which can be seen below.

As reported earlier, four 8-man tournaments also will kick off earlier in Singapore during UFC 275 fight week, in a series dubbed as “Road to UFC.”

UFC 275: Teixeira vs Prochazka
June 11, 2022, Singapore Indoor Stadium

Glover Teixeira vs Jiri Prochazka [Light Heavyweight title]

Valentina Shevchenko vs Taila Santos [Flyweight title]

Weili Zhang vs Joanna Jedrzejczyk

Kyung Ho Kang vs Batgerel Danaa

Seung Woo Choi vs Josh Culibao

Na Liang vs Silvana Gomez Juarez

Ramona Pascual vs Joselyne Edwards

Jack Della Maddalena vs Ramazan Emeev

Orior Cosce vs Blood Diamond

Brendan Allen vs Jacob Malkoun

Nate Diaz still wants out.

Despite asking since last year, Nate Diaz apparently still can’t get a fight booked.

Diaz is on the last fight on his contract, and as he’s one of the company’s biggest draws, the UFC seems to be handling this situation differently. The Stockton native has been seemingly growing impatient with the UFC after repeatedly (and publicly) asking to either get the final fight booked or to just release him.

This has been going on for months, but if his latest tweet is any indication, nothing has progressed and Diaz’s frustration is mounting.

“I been trying to fight everybody and no go what’s the hold up ufc?” Diaz wrote. “I’m not fighting Conor he sucks. I’ll fight some one quit slow rolling me please. Thanks.”

It’s interesting to see how this all develops, as the parties haven’t agreed on a new deal and Diaz is seemingly set on just completing his UFC contract to enter free agency. With Diaz being such a big draw, they likely want to maximize earnings or at least use him to build up another star, instead of just letting him walk into other promotions/sports — like a big money boxing match with Jake Paul.

A trilogy with Conor McGregor would certainly be a money maker for the UFC, but the timing of his return from that broken leg is still unknown. To reportedly buy some time, UFC is said to have extended Diaz’s contract — despite not getting a new deal done — by just using controversial tolling provisions.

Diaz isn’t interested in waiting for McGregor, so will the UFC book a different match up that they like, or will they find a way to impose that contract hold long enough?

Alexander Volkanovski tells Chan Sung Jung not to be too hard on himself after their UFC title bout.

Alexander Volkanovski was so dominant in his last title defense at UFC 273, that he started “feeling bad” in the middle of the fight about the damage he was inflicting on Chan Sung Jung. There’s mutual respect between them, and despite Jung’s toughness, Volkanovski didn’t want to dish out more unnecessary head trauma after three straight one-sided rounds.

“I started feeling bad with some of the shots I was landing in there. I could see obviously he was done,” Volkanovski told TMZ.

After the tough loss was another heartbreaking scene, as the fan favorite in “The Korean Zombie” weeped and opened up to the public about how he’s considering retirement as he now doesn’t believe he can be a champion anymore.

The UFC featherweight champion urged him to reconsider, as he felt that things would’ve been completely different if Zombie faced a different fighter instead.

“I felt bad because you could see he was a bit emotional after the fight,” Volkanovski said. “You could see — I obviously couldn’t understand him, but I knew he was talking about retiring and all that.

“I wanted him to understand that it doesn’t matter who was there in front of me, that was going to happen. So don’t be so hard on yourself, because if you were in front of someone else that night, it wouldn’t have looked that way.”

After two close and competitive wins against Max Holloway, Volkanovski has churned out very impressive title defenses against Jung and Brian Ortega.

Volkanovski, 33, is currently 11-0 in the UFC and is even flirting with the idea of moving up to lightweight for a bigger challenge.

Tyson Fury reiterated his plans to retire.

Shortly after impressively knocking out Dillian Whyte with a huge uppercut, Tyson Fury spoke about his intentions to retire, while also hyping an exhibition bout with UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou.

“I think this is it, it might be the final curtain for The Gypsy King and what a way to go out,” Fury said in the post-fight interview.

It doesn’t seem like a statement born of just emotions after the win, as Fury calmly reiterated his plans to retire and move on from high-level professional boxing soon after.

“I’m walking out on the top,” Fury said during a post-fight scrum. “I’m doing an Andre Ward. I’m 32 and 0, I’m retiring baby.

“There will always be somebody else, and there will always be somebody else to fight,” Fury said about Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk (HT: Bad Left Hook). “There’s plenty of good heavyweights coming up and time for them to have their moment in the sun. And me, this old, bald, fat guy — we’re out. I’ve done enough, I’m very happy with who I am, where I am, what I’ve done. Very, very happy with my career.

“You might see me at SummerSlam very soon. Big shout out to Vince McMahon. You’re gonna see me in exhibitions, WWE, movies,” Fury said. “Ngannou’s on that list. If I fight again it’ll be an exhibition fights only, wrestling matches, stuff like that. Fun and entertaining, stuff that isn’t nerve wracking, stuff that doesn’t keep you up at night, stuff that’s not gonna get you severe injuries.”

Fury repeatedly assured people that he’s “done” at just 33-years-old. If this is indeed The Gypsy King’s final professional bout, he will leave the sport with a 32-0-1 record and likely the distinction as arguably the best heavyweight champion in this era.

Check out results and videos from Bellator 278.

At 38-years-old, Liz Carmouche is finally a world champion, but it wasn’t without controversy.

Carmouche earned a shot at the Strikeforce belt in 2011, and two shots at the UFC title in 2013 and in 2019. Unfortunately, she dropped those bouts to talented champions from various eras in Marloes Coenen, Ronda Rousey and Valentina Shevchenko. Friday night was her fourth attempt at taking home a major MMA title, and “Girl-Rilla” succeeded.

She improved to 4-0 in Bellator, defeating Juliana Velasquez and taking her flyweight title in the process with a fourth round TKO. Although no fault of her own, the title win was mired in a bit of controversy.

Carmouche secured an opportune takedown near the end of the fourth round of their title bout, where she slickly moved to a crucifix position. She started landing some ground and pound from the dominant position, before referee Mike Beltran quickly stepped in to stop the contest. It looked to be a premature stoppage that Velasquez immediately protested, seeing as she wasn’t hurt at all.

Scorecards were also released after, having Velasquez up on all the scorecards on the three rounds prior with 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28.

Due to the stoppage, Carmouche officially won by TKO in the fourth round, and she also took Velasquez’s flyweight title in the process.

Watch videos from the fight below, along with full results from the event.

Bellator 278 Results

Liz Carmouche def. Juliana Velasquez by TKO (strikes), 4:47 R4

Enrique Barzola def. Nikita Mikhailov by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Danny Sabatello def. Jornel Lugo by unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 30-26)

Grant Neal def. Christian Edwards by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Manny Muro def. Nate Andrews by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)

Weber Almeida def. Fabricio Franco by TKO (kick), 3:01 R1

Dante Schiro def. Scotty Hao by TKO (strikes), 1:03 R3

Blake Perry def. Makoa Cooper by submission (anaconda choke), 4:14 R2

UFC will have 8-man tournaments in four divisions.

In a bit of a throwback format, the UFC is set to host eight-man tournaments across four divisions, with the winners taking home contracts and officially joining their roster.

As officially announced by the promotion, the series is dubbed “Road to UFC” and will feature Asian MMA prospects from flyweight, bantamweight, featherweight and lightweight.

The opening round will kick off on June 9 and 10 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, just a couple of days before UFC 275 is hosted in the same venue on June 12. There will be 10 fights per day, which will also include two non-tournament bouts each.

The semifinal and final rounds will happen later in the year.

No specific fighters in the tournament have been revealed just yet, but some of the athletes are expected to come from countries such as Japan, Korea, Philippines, China, Thailand, Indonesia and India. Sources close to the situation also informed Bloody Elbow that some of the Dana White’s Contender Series veterans from China are expected to be among the participants.

Road to UFC will be broadcast all over Asia with the promotion’s various media partners in the region, and on UFC Fight Pass for other countries.