Author: Dan Hiergesell

Miesha Tate will make her long-awaited return to MMA later this month when the former UFC women’s bantamweight champion meets veteran Marion Reneau at UFC Vegas 31. It will be the first time Tate is competing inside of the Octagon in nearly five years.

Tate, who announced her retirement back in 2016 following a decision loss to Raquel Pennington at UFC 205, decided to return to fighting this past March. The former UFC champion revealed that her retirement left her in a dark place and she’s ready to return to action and make another push towards a title. Despite her long layoff, Tate remains just 34 years of age.

Leading up to her return later this month at UFC Vegas 31 Tate has released some in-depth training footage. Having not competed in so long and coming off the birth of two children many fight fans are curious how “Cupcake” looks ahead of her comeback fight.

The first two episodes of Tate’s comeback video series can be seen below:

While Reneau is a veteran fighter well past her prime this is still a stiff test for Tate. After all, “Cupcake” has lost her last two trips to the Octagon. After losing her UFC women’s bantamweight title to Amanda Nunes at UFC 200 she lost the aforementioned matchup to Pennington just four months later.

Jeremy Stephens is hoping his newfound sobriety outside of the cage will put an end to the worst streak of his professional fighting career.

Stephens, who is currently scheduled to fight rising lightweight contender Mateusz Gamrot later this month at UFC Vegas 31, hasn’t won a fight since a brutal knockout win over Josh Emmett back in 2018. Over his past five Octagon appearances Stephens as produced a dismal 0-4 (1 NC) record, including knockout losses to Jose Aldo and Calvin Kattar.

While Stephens has faced some of the best featherweights on the planet during that time it remains the worst stretch of fights in his entire career. The 35-year-old veteran is now in a must-win situation later this month if he wants maintain his promotional stock heading into the second half of 2021.

Luckily, Stephens has made some necessary adjustments outside of the cage to improve his focus and preparation for his return to action. This includes finally getting sober, which Stephens did in advance to his cancelled bout with Drakkar Klose back in April.

“I just feel in a really good place mentally, physically,” Stephens told MMA Junkie. “I feel like I’m even looking better. The no alcohol, it’s opened up a lot of things for me. I’ve really faced my demons. I’ve sat. I’ve been alone. I’m not scared to be alone no more. I really sat with myself and dealt with a lot of fears facing those things and more mental. It’s just really helped ripple effect the outside of my life.”

With his sobriety in check Stephens is eager to prove he’s still one of the best fighters in the world. The former featherweight contender will be making his first appearance at 155 pounds since 2012. In his return, “Lil Heathen” is hoping to prove his doubters wrong and remind everyone how vicious of a finisher he can be.

“I’m going to f—king prove you wrong and I’m going to do it very nasty-like with a highlight reel KO with a shin upside your head, a knee upside your head, an uppercut from hell,” Stephens said. “Then, boom, everybody’s talking about, ‘Oh man. He’s back in the mix, back in the mix.’”

Unfortunately for Stephens, Gamrot is a really good fighter. The former KSW champion is coming off a brutal knockout finish over Scott Holtzman back in April and is on the cusp of truly breaking out as a member of the UFC’s stacked lightweight division. It will be up to Stephens to stop the hype train and find the finish he’s looking for.

Conor McGregor has confirmed that he does not have staph infection leading into his trilogy bout with Dustin Poirier next weekend at UFC 264. We can all now breathe a big sigh of relief.

Earlier this week it was rumored that McGregor may have a case of staph infection. The ailment was mere speculation as nothing concrete came through the MMA media stream, but “Notorious” seemed to have a pretty bad skin condition on his elbow during a recent bike ride. One fan noticed the ailment and the rumor mill began to swirl.

Luckily, McGregor caught wind of the speculation and decided to chime in himself. Responding to a fan who asked if he has staph infection McGregor confirmed that he in fact does not. Check out his reply below:

“No. Just vicious brain damaging elbows.”

This is great news. If McGregor did have a case of staph infection it would have put his trilogy bout with Poirier next weekend at UFC 264 in doubt. That would have been a massive deal as UFC 264 is pegged to be one of the biggest events of 2021 and the first UFC fight card in Las Vegas to offer a sold-out crowd since the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Now that McGregor is staph-free he’ll be able to get his revenge on “Diamond” next weekend in Las Vegas. Remember, Poirier handed McGregor his first career knockout loss back in January at UFC 257. It was a rematch between the two fighters after “Notorious” knocked Poirier out in a featherweight contest back in 2014.

Vasyl Lomachenko (15-2, 11 KO) reminded the boxing world just how good he is last night (Sat., June 26, 2021) live on ESPN+ from inside Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas, Nevada, as “Matrix” worked beautifully to finish Masayoshi Nakatani (19-2, 13 KO) via ninth-round TKO.

Lomachenko, who lost his WBA (Super), WBO, and The Ring lightweight titles to Teofimo Lopez back in Oct. 2020, was out to prove a point in this fight. He broke Nakatani down from the opening bell and eventually score a knockdown in the fifth. Lomachenko continued his onslaught in the later rounds and lined up for the finish in the ninth. Nakatani was busted up and tired so his chances were slim. “Matrix” would find a home for a beautifully combination that toppled Nakatani and forced the referee’s hand.

Check out the video highlights below:

Fedor Emelianenko is headed back to the Bellator MMA cage and former UFC champion Jon Jones is taking notice.

On Friday, it was revealed that Emelianenko will be making his return to MMA and headlining Bellator’s upcoming card in Moscow, Russia, this October. Fedor’s opponent has yet to be announced, but Bellator president Scott Coker believes heavyweight legends Alistair Overeem and Junior dos Santos are in the running.

After learning of Fedor’s upcoming return to action Jones decided to Facetime “The Last Emperor” to pay his respects. Watch the video below, which was provided by Bellator MMA:

“Hey what’s up? How are you man?” – Jones asked.

“Thank you sir. Thank you. Very good.” – Fedor replied.

“Hey, I just want to say congratulations and welcome back.” – Jones said.

“Thank you my brother.” – responded Fedor.

“Yea I am very excited for you. I will talk to you later.” – replied Jones.

“Thank you my brother.” – Emelianenko finished.

This is pretty cool considering Jones didn’t have to reach out to the legendary heavyweight to congratulate him on his return to action. Emelianenko, who turns 45 this September, hasn’t competed since a win over Quinton Jackson back in Dec. 2019. In five fights under the Bellator banner Fedor has managed to compile a 3-2 record with finishes over Chael Sonnen, Frank Mir, and the aforementioned “Rampage.”

As for Jones, he hasn’t competed since a light heavyweight title defense over Dominick Reyes back at UFC 247 in Feb. 2020. Since then “Bones” has relinquished his title, announced his move to heavyweight, and is currently trying to lock down a superfight with UFC heavyweight king Francis Ngannou if he can land the payday he believes he deserves.

The action delivered earlier today (Sat., June 26, 2021) at UFC Vegas 30 live on ESPN+ from inside UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada, as Ciryl Gane went toe-to-toe with Alexander Volkov in a massive heavyweight main event. In the end, it was Gane who commanded the center of the Octagon and walked away with the dominant win (highlights HERE).

In addition to the main event showdown, UFC Vegas 30’s main card and “Prelims” undercard produced memorable action throughout. Check them out below and let us know your favorite:

• Heavyweight contender Tanner Boser toppled veteran fighter Ovince Saint Preux with a vicious second-round knockout (see it HERE)
• Renato Moicano scored another lightweight win with a second-round submission victory over Jai Herbert
• Light heavyweight prospect Kennedy Nzechukwu scored another comeback stoppage with a knockout finish over Danilo Marques (see it HERE)
• Bantamweight contenders Timur Valiev and Raoni Barcelos battled it out in an exciting main card matchup with Valiev recovering from some knockdowns to earn the win
• Undefeated welterweight sensation Shavkat Rakhmonov finished another hard-nosed UFC veteran with a second-round submission over former lightweight Michel Prazeres
• Short-notice replacement Jeremiah Wells shocked welterweight veteran Warlley Alves with a brutal second-round knockout (highlights HERE)
• Light heavyweight veteran Marcin Prachnio earned another win with a come-from-behind liver kick against Ike Villanueva
• Julia Avila reminded the women’s bantamweight division that she’s a contender on the rise with an impressive submission finish over Julija Stoliarenko (watch it HERE)

In order to sift through the action and see which fighters took home an extra $50,000, we take a closer look at the official UFC Vegas 30 bonus winners below:

• Fight of the Night: Timur Valiev vs. Raoni Barcelos
• Performance of the Night: Kennedy Nzechukwu
• Performance of the Night: Marcin Prachnio

For complete UFC Vegas 30 results and coverage click here.