Author: Dan Hiergesell

Jake Paul is under the assumption that former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley is underestimating him for their upcoming boxing match later this month. If that is true, Paul believes it will be Woodley’s ‘biggest mistake.”

Whether or not you believe Paul is making a worthy transition into the world of boxing it’s hard to dispute his ability to sell a fight. The social media influencer has helped generate some serious attention for the sport of boxing over the past year or so and is hoping to turn even more heads when he meets Woodley inside the squared circle for his biggest fight yet.

While Woodley is a proven champion in the sport of MMA and has knocked off some of the best fighters in the world, Paul believes he’s the better boxer at this point in time. If Woodley isn’t taking Paul seriously it could greatly benefit the YouTube sensation.

“I think he’s just going through the motions,” Paul told MMA Junkie. “I don’t know if he has really digested how good of a fighter I am. I still think there’s like this mental block for him where he’s just like, ‘Oh, this kid’s a YouTuber. How hard could this fight be?’”

“He says he’s training hard, and he says he’s doing all the right things, but I still think in the back of his head he’s like, ‘I’ve fought Kamaru Usman, I fought Gilbert Burns. This is gonna be an easy fight,” added Paul.

Woodley, who parted ways with UFC this past April following his fourth-straight loss inside of the Octagon, has been training alongside the legendary Floyd Mayweather Jr. to prepare for his transition to boxing. While Woodley should only benefit from his time with Mayweather Paul believes “Money” could be gassing the former UFC champion up to overlook him.

“I’ve seen the little clips of him and Floyd training,” Paul said. “Floyd’s telling him the same thing, you know, like, ‘Just go out there and fight, he’s not a real fighter. He’s never been in there with a real fighter.’

“Them underestimating me will be the biggest mistake and he will be exposed for that.”

While Woodley has displayed some serious knockout power throughout his MMA career he’s never been the most technical striker. It will be interesting to see how he moves inside of the boxing ring and if Paul can make him regret his decision to fight in the early going.

Clay Collard thought he did enough to win his semi-final matchup against Raush Manfio last night (Fri., Aug. 13, 2021) at PFL 7 and advance to the $1 million lightweight finale, but the former professional boxer was ultimately robbed by the judges.

Collard came into the semi-final contest riding a four-fight win streak, which included a decision win over former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis this past April. The fighter known as “Cassius” was as confident as ever in his matchup with Manfio and seemed to bring the perfect gameplan.

From the opening bell Collard was the one to push forward and bring the action to Manfio. He scored more total strikes, mixed it up to the head, body, and legs, and seemed to get the best of the clinch exchanges when they occurred. Manfio did come on strong in the third and final round, but most watching believed Collard had done enough to punch his ticket to the PFL lightweight tournament finale.

Unfortunately, the judges ruled the contest in favor of Manfio by way of unanimous decision. It was quite shocking to say the least. Check out the official scorecard below:

After the fight, Collard caught up with MMA Junkie to discuss his controversial loss and how it feels to miss out on a potential $1 million payday.

“I mean, what do you want me to say? That s—t sucks,” said Collard. “I definitely got the first two rounds. Third round, he might have squeaked by.”

“I felt like I was trying to mix things up, I went for a few takedowns, I was even going for a few submissions like that, and he was just throwing slappy shots the whole time,” added Collard. “I feel like I did enough to win the fight, you know? The judges didn’t think that and he gets to go fight for a million dollars, so good for him.”

Collard, 28, was hoping to continue his combat resurrection and give himself a shot to take out Loik Radzhabov in the lightweight finale later this year. However, the MMA gods did not shine down on Collard at PFL 7 and he must now go back to the drawing board.

For complete PFL 7 results and coverage click HERE.

Vicente Luque may have to wait a little longer to get his hands on current UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, but he’s confident that he can finish “Nigerian Nightmare” when the time comes.

Over the past few years Luque has become one of the best finishers in UFC. He may not receive the recognition he deserves, but that’s why they call him “The Silent Assassin.” Luque has finished four-straight fights, including back-to-back submissions over Michael Chiesa and Tyron Woodley, and 13 out of 14 total UFC wins. He has done it on the back of high-level striking and a very underrated ground game.

Coming off a recent victory over Chiesa at UFC 265 Luque is lining himself up to test his finishing ability against the top fighters at 170 pounds, which includes the current champ. While Usman used to get the better of Luque when they were training partners “Silent Assassin” believes he has the key ingredients to take the champ out when they lock horns inside of the Octagon.

“Kamaru has a very strong rhythm. In many fights, it imposes strength, resilience, it’s a strong point. I also push the rhythm up there, especially in my area, the striking. This can complicate it. Colby was one of the guys who came closest to putting him in danger because he put a lot of volume in the standup. I can do it too, but with knockout power, I hit pretty hard for the division, I know I could knock out anyone, including Kamaru,” Luque told Combate. “And I have the ground game. Kamaru has already faced and dominated guys on the ground, but I’ve been developing the wrestling defense and the anti-game on the ground, if I’m on the bottom or in transition. The D’Arce choke I’ve been doing a lot, but there are other weapons I’ve been working on. I’m complete like him, but I have a game to complicate things, because I fight him in any area, whether on the ground, standing, or on the fence. I’ve been working not to be controlled and undermine the opponent as well. This complete game that I’ve been developing can go up against Kamaru.”

Luque, who is 10-1 inside of the Octagon since late 2017, is arguably one fight away from a matchup with Usman. The champ is currently expected to defend his title in a rematch against Colby Covington at UFC 268 later this year, but after that Luque could wiggle his way in for a title shot. Streaking contender Leon Edwards is also in the mix, but it seems like UFC may side with the fighter who finishes fights.

That said, Luque would have his hands full in a matchup with Usman. “Nigerian Nightmare” is undefeated at 14-0 since making his UFC debut six years ago and has knocked off some of the best fighters in the world during that span, including Jorge Masvidal, Gilbert Burns, Covington, and Woodley. So while Luque has the knockout power and deceptive submission skills to give the champ a run for this money, Usman will certainly have his own gameplan in place to thwart Luque and smother him with pressure and takedowns.

Ciryl Gane is already lined up to face Francis Ngannou for the undisputed UFC heavyweight title his next time out, but “Bon Gamin” is also trying to bring the fight back to his home country of France.

Gane, who smashed Derrick Lewis at UFC 265 to claim the interim heavyweight strap (watch it HERE), has decimated the competition since his Octagon arrival back in 2019. The French fighter has produced a 7-0 record as a member of the UFC roster while displaying some of the most patient and tactical striking we’ve ever seen at the heavyweight level.

Now Gane has to prepare to match up with his former training partner in Ngannou, who crushed Stipe Miocic to win the heavyweight title this past March. It’s a bout that fight fans want to see and that UFC president Dana White is practically salivating over.

While the title unification bout has some details to iron out Gane is hoping to lock horns with “Predator” sometime at the end of the year or the beginning of 2022. The kicker is “Bon Gamin” wants the heavyweight matchup to take place on French soil.

“I’m going to rest a little bit because I started to prepare for camp in July of last year. Since then, I have continued every week to prepare a new fight, just fight-after-fight-after-fight,” Gane told BJPENN.com. “I just want to rest a little bit and I have my wife due soon with my daughter. It complicates training camp a little bit but maybe the end of this year or the beginning of 2022. If it’s possible in France as well.”

There’s a really good chance UFC is able to work through current contract issues with Ngannou and book this fight before the end of the year, but it’s highly unlikely that it takes place in France. The infrastructure isn’t completely there to stage a fight in France at this very moment and UFC usually likes to host its heavyweight title fights in Las Vegas. It’s a longshot, but Gane is still holding out hope.

“For the first UFC event in Paris, France it will be a success for sure,” Gane said. “It will be really great.”

What do you think, fight fans? Will we see Ngannou vs. Gane by the end of 2021? Any chance it happens in France?

Sound off!

It’s rare that Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) lets a fighter compete outside of their contract, but that’s exactly what happened to former title challenger Chad Mendes in his pursuit for a bare knuckle boxing crossover.

Mendes, 36, stepped away from UFC after his TKO loss to Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 232 all the way back in 2018. It was “Money’s” third knockout loss in his last four Octagon appearances and the writing seemed to be on the wall. While Mendes had no real interest in returning to combat sports in a professional manner he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to test his hand at bare knuckle boxing. The only issue for Mendes is that he’s still under contract with UFC.

Fortunately, UFC did what it normally doesn’t do and granted Mendes permission to compete under the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) banner this coming October. It is unknown at this time who Mendes will fight, but at least he got the greenlight to do so.

“They technically could have said, ‘You’re not going anywhere – if you’re not fighting here, you’re not fighting,’” Mendes told What the Heck (via MMA Fighting). “But I’ve always had a great relationship with the UFC, and I think this is an awesome thing for them to let me make some money.

“My hat’s off to them for being cool in this situation. I didn’t [think they would be], honestly. I thought it would be a ‘hell no.’”

Mendes, who hasn’t competed in nearly three years, has been staying in phenomenal shape. He’s still training and capable of making a return despite the long layoff.

“I turn 36 in May,” he said. “I probably have maybe two years, maybe three years before I’m going to be like, that’s enough for me. But this opportunity came up. I’m training. I feel good. So why not get in there?”

While Mendes seems eager to make his BKFC debut he isn’t too keen on stepping foot inside of the Octagon again. That’s because his current UFC contract wouldn’t pay him enough to do so. However, if the numbers were re-negotiated then “Money” would be open to returning to UFC in the future.

“I can’t say no,” he said. “Of course, if the money….for what my contract is right now, hell no. Not a chance in hell. But if we were to talk and numbers made sense and we could get something that does make sense, I would think about it. It’s something I’m not done with. But I just don’t know if that’s ever going to happen.

“It was fun, but it’s not something I’m missing extremely bad.”

Ciryl Gane took his stock to new heights last weekend at UFC 265 with a dominant TKO win over Derrick Lewis to win the interim heavyweight title (highlights HERE). The victory propelled Gane to 7-0 under the UFC banner and now lines him up for a clash with former training partner and current UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou later this year (or next).

Gane, who turned pro just three years ago, made it look easy against Lewis. “Black Beast” is widely regarded as one of the best knockout artists in UFC history and was riding a four-fight win streak, but he still struggled to connect much of anything. Instead, it was the patience and precision of Gane that allowed him to break Lewis down and score a third-round finish.

As always, UFC is rolling out the post-fight coverage with an all-new edition of “Fight Motion,” which brings us UFC 265 replays in super-slow motion. It’s pretty impressive to watch, especially considering the dominance displayed by Gane in just his 10th professional fight. Check out the UFC 265 “Fight Motion” video in the above player.

Gane, 31, now has to prepare to face arguably the most destructive heavyweight in MMA history. Ngannou has been absolutely obliterating opponents of late and certainly has the power to match the precision of “Bon Gamin.” Things should get interesting to say the least.

For complete UFC 265 results and coverage click here.