Author: Anton Tabuena

Big words from Raul Rosas Jr.

18-year-old Raul Rosas Jr. isn’t lacking in confidence.

The teenage prospect is set to have his second UFC fight against Christian Rodriguez at UFC 287, but he’s already looking ahead in the future… way ahead. According to Rosas, he will not only become the youngest ever UFC champion, he vowed to win his first of three UFC belts within the year.

“I’m ready to go out there and show my skillset, like I’ve always done. I don’t care who I face. I’m ready to show that there’s levels. Tune in April 8, I will show my skillset and that I deserve to fight for the title,” Rosas said during an appearance at Fury FC 73.

“Right now, me saying that I’m going to be champion—a lot of people think that I’m crazy (when I say) that I’m going to become the youngest UFC champion, but I believe in myself. Mark my words, I will be champion in one year or less,” he stated.

“I’m just getting started. Like this is nothing to me. I ain’t celebrating nothing yet until I have them three belts around my waist,” Rosas proclaimed. “135, 145, 155. Let’s go! Wooo!”

Rosas made those seemingly outrageous promises at Fury FC 73, where his older brother, Kevin Rosas, lost his professional MMA debut.

Rosas previously stated that he’s already good enough to beat Aljamain Sterling and take his belt right now. The UFC bantamweight champion, who previously trained with Rosas in the past, recently revealed some pretty bad gym etiquette from the teenager.

Confidence is important in sports, but these statements might just age out worse than the time Brandon Vera notoriously proclaimed himself as a future two division UFC champion back in 2006. Vera had a solid career, but he would never earn even a title shot.

For what it’s worth, Vera made those claims when he was a heavily hyped 8-0 prospect, with a WEC title and four UFC wins capped by a TKO over former champ Frank Mir. Rosas has one UFC win to his name, and six regional bouts that all happened within a year.

Jon Jones became the youngest ever UFC champion at 23 years and 242 days old. Rosas still has a lot of time if he wants to go for that record, but any talk about title shots — let alone three belts — are just immensely premature right now.

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About the author: Anton Tabuena is the Managing Editor for Bloody Elbow. He’s been covering MMA and combat sports since 2009, and has also fought in MMA, Muay Thai and kickboxing. (full bio)

Valerie Loureda debuted at WWE’s NXT Level Up.

After five fights with Bellator, Valerie Loureda announced in 2022 that she’ll be leaving MMA after signing with the WWE, and making the full time switch to pro-wrestling.

The 24-year-old, who is 4-1 in MMA, made her debut on Friday night at WWE’s NXT Level Up. She entered the ring under the name “Lola Vice,” which she will be using moving forward in her pro-wrestling career.

The MMA veteran leaned into her taekwondo background during her debut, landing various kicks including axe kicks and spinning kicks, eventually pinning her opponent, Dani Palmer.

Watch some of her highlights below, or on the longer clip embedded above.

Here’s a glimpse of her skills on the mic.

Loureda, or I guess Lola Vice, fought in Bellator from early 2019 to late 2021. Her last bout was a split decision victory over Taylor Turner, which bumped her overall, and likely final, MMA record to 4-1.

Jake Paul and Tommy Fury got heated for a bit.

Jake Paul and Tommy Fury got in a bit of a scuffle and had to be separated by security during the Artur Beterbiev vs Anthony Yarde event in London.

Right before the main event, both boxers stepped in the ring to promote their upcoming bout. They faced off in the middle, but things got heated once Paul pointed and poked at Fury’s cheek.

After a brief scuffle, tensions cooled down and they naturally still talked some smack, where a shirtless Fury questioned Paul’s previous opponents.

“This shit’s been going on too long. He will never box again. I’m not 50, I ain’t 40, I ain’t an MMA guy. I’ve been doing this my whole life, and I swear to God, you’re finished come 26th of February,” Fury proclaimed.

“I guarantee you, I swear to God, if it’s the last thing I do in boxing, you are over in four weeks. Enjoy the last few weeks of your so-called boxing career.”

Paul responded by calling Fury’s opponents “taxi drivers” and brought up his more accomplished brother, Tyson Fury.

“Tommy has so much to lose. His family’s gonna disown him when I knock him the f—k out,” Paul said. “Sorry, Tyson, I love you, but it’s over for your brother.”

While both men tried to talk smack and intimidate each other, the heavyweight champion in Tyson Fury was seen cackling about the entire situation after.

After their first bout fizzled due to visa issues, Jake Paul and Tommy Fury have been rebooked to face each other once again, this time in Saudi Arabia, on February 26.

Duke Roufus says MMA coaches need to protect their fighters more.

With aging veterans like Glover Teixeira and Lauren Murphy taking an exorbitant amount of damage for multiple rounds at UFC 283, the clear lack of corner stoppages in MMA was once again highlighted.

Fighters will naturally always want to fight, and Duke Roufus reiterated that it’s the coaches job to protect their athletes. The veteran MMA coach called for a culture shift in the sport, while also pointing to his own mistakes and regrets.

“I’ve been on the wrong end too. I’ll tell you two fights that I’ve messed up on, and I’ve learned a lot from,” Roufus told Jimmy Smith at Sirius XM. “Anthony (Pettis) broke his orbital against RDA, and we kept trying to have a song and dance and a prayer that he pulled something out. And you know what? He ended up getting thrashed for many rounds, which was detrimental to his career at that time.”

“Paul Felder, when he broke his arm against Mike Perry, I should have stopped that fight. I learned a lot from those two experiences. When I had to live with the regret of that, it’s something I bring now into my coaching skill set is empathy, sympathy.”

Roufus believes there’s two reasons why MMA coaches don’t really throw in the towel, especially compared to their counterparts in boxing.

“The title is so hard to get in MMA that sometimes our passion for glory is too strong for our wits and humanity in doing what’s the right thing,” he said, noting how that’s why he made the mistake about not stopping the Anthony Pettis vs. Rafael Dos Anjos title fight.

“The other problem — what I’ve got going for me is I’ve gotten my ass kicked,” Roufus said. “I’ve been destroyed, been wrecked in fights. I know what it feels like. I think there’s a lot of coaches who’ve had some success coaching, but they’ve never got their heart torn out and destroyed in the ring like some of these kids are getting, and I think we’ve got to shift that culture. Again, it’s your job to protect the fighter.”

Apart from lack of corner stoppages, Roufus also notes that there’s a real lack of focus on “striking defense” in MMA, and calls it a “disservice to these kids” over their long careers.

Several former UFC employees have spoken out against Dana White and Endeavor.

Three weeks after Dana White was caught on video slapping his wife, Endeavor, UFC, ESPN and TBS all remained silent, with the UFC President announcing himself that there won’t be any punishments or repercussions for his actions.

White then basically said he’s rich enough to not get affected by any sanctions, and claimed his absence would only hurt the UFC.

“What should the repercussions be? I take 30 days off? How does that hurt me? I told you guys when we were going through COVID, COVID could last 10 years. I could sit it out.” White said in his first public appearance since the incident. “Me leaving hurts the company, hurts my employees, hurts the fighters. It doesn’t hurt me. I could’ve left in 2016.”

Now that it’s clear that White won’t be held accountable in any kind of way, “several” former UFC employees have spoken out on the condition of anonymity. Each of them stated that they were “shocked” as they never saw White get violent, but they weren’t surprised with the inaction from Endeavor.

“Those inside knew nothing was going to happen,” one former UFC employee told A.J. Perez of Front Office Sports. “Dana is that powerful. In any other sport, a league president putting his hands on his wife would lead to immediate action. It’s sad and disgusting at the same time.”

“He’s convinced Ari that he has the secret sauce,” another former employee said. “Endeavor thinks that there’s nobody but Dana who can run UFC.”

As reported in-depth in Bloody Elbow, the UFC is Endeavor’s cash cow, carrying about 90% of the company’s “Owned Sports Properties” division that brought in $1.1 billion in the past year. The other Endeavor property responsible for about 10% of that is the Professional Bull Riders or PBR.

“In theory, Endeavor really only owns two tangible assets: UFC and PBR,” one former employee said. “You think they’d let the head of the PBR hit his wife — on video — and keep his position? Hell no. Compared to UFC, Endeavor makes nothing with PBR. It’s disappointing and sad at the same time.”

Even without suspensions or true professional repercussions, an ex-employee also noted how White wouldn’t go along even with minor punishments like anger management sessions.

“He’d never accept, let alone seek out, therapy,” the source said. “The only way he’d ever go to counseling would be if a judge ordered it.”

Front Office Sports’ sources also gave insight on White’s outlook concerning the controversial issue of low pay, with fighters shown to be getting less than 20% of the revenue—a far cry from the 50% athletes get in other major sports.

“Dana will tip a doorman of a hotel $1,000, but if anyone comes to his office and asks for a raise, that pisses him off,” one former UFC employee said. “It’s so bizarre. To Dana, money is love. It’s not seen as an instrument to buy goods or services. If you are asking for money, it means you don’t love him. It’s very primitive.”

During this whole incident, numerous public figures have spoken out about White being handled with kid gloves, and the uneven treatment compared to other sports. The list includes Senators, Hollywood actors, and sports stars, but as the ex-UFC employees alluded to, none of these were from the voices of those who actually wield power over White and his business.

Jon Jones reveals details on how it led to the vacant heavyweight title bout.

After a three-year layoff, Jon Jones is scheduled to return for a vacant UFC heavyweight title bout against Ciryl Gane.

The longterm light heavyweight champion spent years in the sidelines dealing with personal and legal issues, along with a long and very public contract dispute with the UFC. Unlike Francis Ngannou, who walked away from the UFC as champion, Jones was able to come to terms with the promotion and sign a lucrative new eight-fight deal.

Jones, who says he now feels “valued” by the company, shared a few details on how this planned heavyweight debut came together. He reveals being offered three heavyweights, and claimed that Dana White wasn’t really being truthful about a previous planned bout with Stipe Miocic.

“Dana said that there was never a Stipe fight on the line, but there was, there was,” Jones told The UG. “They just couldn’t come to an agreement.

“So I’ve been trying to prepare for Francis, I did a whole training camp preparing for Stipe, and now we got Ciryl Gane,” Jones said. “I’ve been ready for a long time. I’ve been training non-stop for three years, some days, three times a day.”

Jones ended up with a fight with Gane for the vacant heavyweight belt, but also notes how he preferred to face the other two heavyweight stars instead.

“It does (take something away),” Jones said about not having to fight Ngannou anymore. “I feel like Francis is the more intimidating of the two. I feel like he’s more known in America. Francis is this big scary intimidating man, where Ciryl is relatively unknown. Obviously Francis has the belt, so taking it from him would have been nice.

“The fight that meant the most to me was fighting Stipe Miocic, because Stipe is the greatest heavyweight of all time,” he continued. “I’m very honored to fight Ciryl Gane, and I knew that would be happening eventually, inevitably, but that’s the fight that I was really bummed didn’t happen.”

While he didn’t get a shot at Miocic, Jones says he’s already eying him next if he beats Gane and wins the heavyweight belt.