Author: Dan Hiergesell

Mike Perry not only had to deal with a grueling weight cut ahead of his main card scrap with Alex Oliveira later tonight (Sat., April 27, 2019) at UFC on ESPN+ 8 live on ESPN+ from inside BB&T Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but the welterweight knockout artist nearly hung himself in his gym during training camp.

The incident occurred not too long ago while ESPN’s film crew was at Perry’s gym capturing some pre-fight footage. “Platinum” was playing around on the pull-up bar when his workout took a turn for the worse. The next thing Perry knew he was being woken up by his team, who informed the welterweight that Ronaldo Souza, who headlines UFC Fort Lauderdale against Jake Hermansson, had stepped in to save his life.

Perry offered a detailed recount of the incident in a recent interview with Fox Sports Asia:

“Jacare Souza is my hero. He is literally my hero man. I was playing around at the gym, I’m going to drop a story for you here. Alright, so there was like this rubber band hanging from the pull-up bar and this rubber band was like for workouts, it was a thick band. We were about to do filming with the ESPN crew and umm, I don’t know what I was thinking, but I put my head in this thing and was like I’m going to do a neck workout. And work on my ability to take a choke,” Mike Perry explained. “So I lean forward and it wraps around my neck and so I flex myself so that I could hold on. And in two seconds, as soon as lean forward (and flex), next thing I know Alan, from the UFC, and Jacare Souza are there. Alan is like slapping me and they’re pouring water on me. But, they say Jacare, this while he was filming for ESPN, he was hitting a bag and he sees me, and Danielle was right next to me – she thinks I’m playing around, so she’s like ‘Mike quit playing’. So within two seconds I pass out and swing and then she’s hears a bang and she looks up and says ‘Mike stop playing’. So I had hit my face against the metal pull-up bar and I’m passed out. Plus I’m still hanging from this thing. I’m hanging myself at this point and Jacare sees me and runs over quick and pulls me out of this thing. Then they were like waking me up. When I came too I was like ‘Oh man, it was a bad joke. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare everybody.’”

Yikes. That could have ended much worse for “Platinum.” Luckily, Souza was in attendance to pull off his best Avengers impression.

Despite the training camp scare, and crippling weight cut, Perry is geared up for his clash with Oliveira tonight at UFC Ft. Lauderale. Having gone 1-3 in his last four Octagon appearances, it’s imperative that Perry walks away with a win.

MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC on ESPN+ 8 fight card, starting with the ESPN2 “Prelims” undercard bouts at 5:30 p.m. ET, followed by the ESPN “Prelims” at 7 p.m. ET, before the ESPN+ main card start time of 9 p.m. ET.

The Octagon will play host to a slew of high-level fighters later tonight (Fri., April 26, 2019) at UFC on ESPN+ 8 live on ESPN+ from inside BB&T Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Two of the more entertaining names stepping inside of the cage this evening will be middleweight Jack Hermansson and bantamweight John Lineker. Hermanson will try to knock off Brazilian contender Ronalda “Jacare” Souza in the main event and Lineker will lock horns with rising prospect Cory Sandhagen.

In advance to Hermansson and Lineker’s main card matchups UFC has released some of the best Octagon finishes for each fighter. Hermansson’s collection, which includes a TKO finish over former UFC title challenger Thales Leites and a recent submission of former WSOF champion David Branch, can be seen in the above video player.

Lineker’s collection can be seen below, which includes knockout stoppages over former UFC title challenger Michael McDonald and bantamweight veteran Brian Kelleher.

We’ll find out later tonight if Souza or Sandhagen will be added to one of these impressive highlight reels.

MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC Fight Night 150 fight card, starting with the ESPN2 “Prelims” undercard bouts at 5:30 p.m. ET, followed by the ESPN “Prelims” at 7 p.m. ET, before the ESPN+ main card start time of 9 p.m. ET.

Former UFC champion Tito Ortiz is putting retirement aside to make a return to fighting later this year.

That’s according to MMA journalist Amy Kaplan, who captured Ortiz signing a contract with Hispanic-owned mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion Combate Americas cageside last night (Fri., April 26, 2019) at the Reinas event inside Galen Center in Los Angeles, California.

The video can be seen below and features Combate Americas CEO Campbell McLaren putting ink to paper and happily blurting out “it’s an honor” to Ortiz.

ESPN’s Ariel Helwani later confirmed that Ortiz’s first fight under the Combate Americas banner is expected to happen this fall. The opponent is unknown at this time.

Ortiz, 44, was last seen knocking out arch nemesis and UFC legend Chuck Liddell at Oscar De La Hoya’s first Golden Boy MMA event back in November. Before that, the former UFC light heavyweight champion and current UFC Hall of Famer managed to put together a 3-1 record under the Bellator MMA banner from 2014-2017, defeating the likes of Chael Sonnen and Stephan Bonnar in the process.

While Ortiz isn’t the needle mover he once was, people still like to watch him fight. The details of his contract have yet to be released but Ortiz is likely to bank big bucks, especially after earning $200,000 for his thrashing of a 49-year-old “Iceman.”

This is especially a good move for Combate Americas, who has steadily been rising the ranks of MMA with ratings to prove it. The promotion now gains some added recognition.

Stick with Mania for more details on Ortiz’s new deal.

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) will return to The North Star State for UFC on ESPN 3 on June 29 live on ESPN from inside Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as former UFC welterweight champions Tyron Woodley and Robbie Lawler square off in an anticipated main event rematch.

Woodley, 37, is coming off a disappointing title loss to newly-crowned welterweight champion Kamaru Usman at UFC 235 this past March. It was the first loss for “Chosen One” since dropping a unanimous decision to current Bellator MMA titleholder Rory MacDonald back in 2014. Woodley’s long stretch of Octagon victories included a first-round knockout victory over “Ruthless” back at UFC 201 in 2016, which ended Lawler’s near two-year UFC title reign.

Lawler, 37, is coming off a controversial submission loss to Octagon newcomer and Woodley teammate Ben Askren this past March. “Ruthless” looked tremendous in his showdown with Askren as he nearly ended “Funky” in the early moments of the fight, but Askren held on to land this iffy finish. While Lawler has gone just 1-2 inside of the cage since his initial knockout defeat at the hands of “Chosen One,” the veteran fighter still has a lot to offer a jam-packed welterweight division.

Check out the first official poster for UFC on ESPN 3: ‘Woodley vs. Lawler 2’ above courtesy of UFC.

While the Minneapolis card is still a work in progress, it will also feature a recently announced welterweight bout between Brazilian legend Demian Maia and rising contender Anthony Rocco Martin.

For complete UFC Minneapolis fight card news click here.

Artem Lobov and Paulie Malignaggi will settle their beef inside of the ring on June 22 in a bare knuckle boxing grudge match.

It will be an entertaining matchup between a former UFC brawler and a former boxing world champion, which is simply something combat fans have never seen. We got to witness Lobov’s teammate and former UFC champion Conor McGregor square off with undefeated boxing legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. back in 2017, but those guys were wearing 8 oz. gloves.

Things will be quite different this time around as Lobov tries to take his recent bare knuckle debut win over fellow UFC veteran Jason Knight and take out growing rival Malignaggi, who was last seen getting knocked down by McGregor in a sparring session before May-Mac. Despite Malignaggi’s belief that “Russian Hammer” will be out of his element when the two meet this summer, Lobov thinks the former boxer isn’t ready for the pace of a five-round bare knuckle fight.

Here is what Lobov had to say about his upcoming grudge match with Malignaggi in a recent interview with The Delve (transcript via The Mac Life):

“It’s only nine or eight weeks now until the fight. He needs to learn the trade of the clinch. He needs to learn the different pace. He needs to get in shape because he just came off the couch. Big fat pudding. I’ve seen him. Who is going to coach him now? He needs fucking weight watchers to coach him. That’s who he needs to coach, because he’s just a fat guy off the couch. He asked for the fight to be at 154-pounds when he used to fight at 140. What does that tell you? Lazy and fat. Can’t make the weight. Doesn’t want to make the weight. Doesn’t want to stop eating the pizza. Doesn’t want to put the box of donuts down.

“I find it hard to even worry about this fight. What is he going to do? Even in Conor’s spar for example, they did the twelve rounds but the only reason he somehow made it to the twelve round’s end because he did nothing. He was very, very passive. He never let the right hand go, he threw a couple of jabs and covering up the whole time. The head gear and the big gloves, of course, that saved him. So what’s he going to do? Honestly, I’m just thinking back to that spar where I got to witness him live, watched a bunch of his fights now, what’s he going to do to me?”

Malignaggi, who once held the WBA welterweight and IBF light welterweight titles, hasn’t competed professionally since a knockout loss to Sam Eggington back in 2017. The 38-year-old has since transitioned into the commentary booth and has done more talking than fighting over the past two years.

That said, Lobov has never encountered a trained striker quite like Malignaggi. Sure, Lobov has trained alongside McGregor over the years, but even “Notorious” can’t offer the same looks in the gym that Malignaggi will inside of the ring.

Fight fans will just have to wait and see who really has the advantage in a bare knuckle showdown. If Malignaggi comes to the fight out of shape and incapable of finishing the ultra-durable Lobov, “Magic Man” could be in for one of the bloodiest nights of his life. But if Malignaggi comes prepared for war, Lobov will find out the hard way that there’s levels to this game.

Despite successfully making weight (video replay here) earlier today (Fri., April 26, 2019) for his main card clash with Alex Oliveira tomorrow night at UFC on ESPN+ 8 live on ESPN+ from inside BB&T Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Mike Perry had one of his worst weight cuts ever.

Perry, who is coming off a submission loss to Donald Cerrone this past November, has never missed weight in his UFC career. That streak dates back to his Octagon debut in 2016 and stretches nine total fights. Still, Perry narrowly made weight this time around for his anticipated showdown with “Cowboy.”

“Platinum” detailed the harrowing weight cut in the following Instagram post:

“Hardest weight cut to date,” wrote Perry. “Sheesh it’s so crazy the emotional roller coaster you get on and then you get to drink liquid again. In seconds I am 10lbs bigger. Water flowing through me cooling me down. Made it by a sliver too you don’t even know. Grateful for the help from my team right here. Couldn’t have done it without @platinumprincessofficial#Period #Priceless #Perfection My boys was tough in there too but they know what she goes through with me every step of the way.”

Luckily for fight fans all around the world, Perry has not suffered any sort of setback in his recovery from a successful weight cut earlier today. Oliveira, who is coming off his own submission loss to the talented Gunnar Nelson this past December, made the 171-pound benchmark as well.

Perry, 27, is hoping to turn the page in his career and become a legitimate contender in the ultra-stacked welterweight division. “Platinum” has always been regarded as one of the heaviest punchers in the weight class, but the Florida resident is hoping to harness his aggression moving forward and become a more complete fighter.

It all starts with Oliveira tomorrow night in Ft. Lauderdale.

MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC Fight Night 150 fight card, starting with the ESPN2 “Prelims” undercard bouts at 5:30 p.m. ET, followed by the ESPN “Prelims” at 7 p.m. ET, before the ESPN+ main card start time of 9 p.m. ET.