Author: Erik Fontanez

Megan Anderson had to withdraw from her UFC 214 title fight against Cris Cyborg. Now Tonya Evinger will get a shot at vacant gold.

Cris Cyborg will fight at UFC 214 for the vacant women’s featherweight title, but not against Megan Anderson as originally expected.

With Anderson having to withdraw from the bout, Invicta FC bantamweight champion Tonya Evinger will step in for a chance at the UFC’s 145-pound title. UFC officials announced the fight on Tuesday evening.

Cyborg and Evinger will serve as the fight card’s co-main event on Saturday, July 29, in Anaheim, Calif.

UFC officials did not officially announce why Anderson withdrew from the fight, but ESPN reported that Anderson was pulled due to personal reasons. Sources within Anderson’s camp told the outlet that she is “looking forward to fighting Cyborg for a UFC title at a later date,” but wouldn’t comment any further on the situation.

Cyborg and Evinger will fight for the featherweight title after the UFC stripped former champion Germaine de Randamie, who bested Holly Holm for the belt back in February. UFC officials said in a statement that a “champion is expected to accept fights against the top contenders,” suggesting she was unwilling to fight Cyborg.

The promotion then worked to book Anderson against Cyborg, ultimately announcing the fight for the vacant belt just last week to take place at UFC 214. Evinger was scheduled to fight for Invicta FC in July, but with Anderson out, the UFC moved to sweep up the Invicta title holder and maintain the pay-per-view’s co-featured bout.

UFC 214 is scheduled to be headlined by a light heavyweight title fight between champ Daniel Cormier and former title holder Jon Jones.

Holly Holm capped off UFC Singapore with a return to the win section. Now she’s back in the hunt.

Holly Holm finished Bethe Correia and nearly took her head off with a well-placed kick in the main event at UFC Singapore on Saturday.

Holm, who has in the past found success with kicks to the dome, executed a question mark kick that floored Correia, earning her first win since 2015.

This fight started out with both fighters waiting for their opponent to commit to something. The problem there was that no one was committing to much anything for a least a couple minutes. Apart from a few kicks from Holm and a horribly timed Superman punch from Correia, the opening round didn’t have much action and the Singapore crowd let the fighters know about it.

The dull tone continued into the second round of the fight. As the crowd booed, Holm and Correia stayed largely out of each other’s range and missed several strikes. The only moment where anything remotely happened was when Correia landed a spinning back fist.

By the third round, the crowd sounded like they just wanted their money back. Luckily for them, Holm made sure they got at least some of their money’s worth. After Correia taunted her opponent, Holm landed a beautiful question mark kick. The strike dropped Correia to the floor, and Holm rushed in for one more punch before the referee stopped the action at 1:09 of Round 3.

With the win, Holm picked up her first victory since knocking out Ronda Rousey in November 2015 to become the UFC women’s bantamweight champion.

What was the highlight of the fight?

With this fight having very little to get excited about, the finish is arguably the only highlight one can look back on to remember the bout even happening.

For whatever reason, Correia thought taunting Holm to engage was a good idea. Turns out it was a really, really, really bad idea. In the moments that followed, Holm measured her distance perfectly and caught her opponent square on the chin to lead to a knockout. It was this moment that the boos turned to cheers and the tone of the crowd did a 180-degree turn.

The finish was so nice that it prompted Twitter to describe the finish as “sweet shin music.”

Where do these two go from here?

Holm is finally back in the win column with her finish in the UFC Singapore main event. It’s wins like this that put her back in the conversation, especially when she’s finishing with question mark kicks that remind you what she’s capable of doing. Reasonably thinking, the win should start her climb back into title contention, but her agent, Lenny Fresquez, apparently thinks the fighter is ready for a shot now.

Oh, Bethe, what do we do with you? Your only win in the last two years has come against Jessica Eye, going 1-3-1 during that time. Maybe at this point she gets to call to test out upcoming fighters like Katlyn Chookagian or anyone outside of the top 15.

Watch now, later, or never?

The only time you should never watch a fight is when it’s an absolute snoozefest, and this one came dangerously close to being that. Luckily, Holm picked up the fancy finish so the bout warrants your attention when you get a chance to fire up Fight Pass a while later.

Derrick Lewis’ UFC rise came to a stop last night thanks to Mark Hunt. Afterwards, fellow heavyweights Francis Ngannou and Travis Browne took their opportunities to throw shade at the fallen fighter.

Derrick Lewis was finding his way to the top of the UFC’s heavyweight division. He was on a six-fight win streak and largely considered one of the fighters to watch when talking about the next contenders for the title.

Then he met Mark Hunt.

Hunt, 43, showed that age is but a number, beating Lewis, 32, in the main event at UFC Auckland on Sunday. The two went into the fourth round before Hunt unloaded a series of strikes that led to the fight being stopped and Lewis found himself defeated for the third time in the Octagon.

Moments later, Lewis explained during his post-fight interview that the Hunt fight was probably his last, indicating retirement might be on the horizon. Being relatively young in the division, Lewis can arguably return and have years ahead of him in the fight game, but he explained that he didn’t want to put his family through anything like they’ve dealt with while he’s been fighting.

When fighters win, they tend to get called out for possible future matchups. But this wasn’t the case last night on social media, when Francis Ngannou and Travis Browne took shots at Lewis.

Ngannou, who is ranked slightly ahead of Lewis in the UFC rankings, was on his laughing emoji game when talking about how the defeated fighter lost to someone 11 years his elder.

Lewis and Ngannou have recently gone back and forth, trading barbs in the media and building up to a potential future bout. With Lewis announcing that he’s most likely retired at this point, there’s a level of uncertainty surrounding a showdown with Ngannou any time in the near future.

As for Browne, he set his sights on Lewis through Instagram, posting a message that touched on domestic abuse allegations. Browne was accused of abusing his ex-wife back in 2015, and Lewis took that as an opportunity to take shots at him in the media before they fought earlier this year. Additionally, when Lewis beat Browne in February, he used his post-fight interview to make some sexual comments towards Browne’s fiancee, former women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey.

Lewis’ comments no doubt still bother Browne, and his Instagram post in which he tagged Lewis is clear indication.

Lewis’ future is still up in the air. He’s getting married next week, and last night’s post-fight interview suggests he’s probably not going to fight again.

If he does choose to fight, however, he has two fighters willing to trade shots with him — not just on social media, but face to face.

Max Holloway is looking for championship paydays. Now that he holds gold, he’s calling out UFC brass to make it happen.

Max Holloway walked out of UFC 212 an undisputed champion. Now he wants to get paid like one.

Holloway defeated Jose Aldo on Saturday night in Brazil, beating the once unbeatable champion and taking his place as the best featherweight in the world. As he exited the Octagon, wearing his new championship belt, his shoulders wrapped in Hawaii’s state flag, Holloway wasted no time in calling out UFC president Dana White for a meeting and subsequent payday.

“Dana, I want my meeting!” Holloway shouted into a camera held by MMAJunkie’s John Morgan. “Pay the man! Pay me money! You said you were big-game hunting! Tell me what big game! I just got one on your head now!”

Holloway picked up $50,000 in a bonus for earning Fight of the Night at UFC 212. Because he fought in the championship main event, he also got a $40,000 payday from the Reebok sponsorship. As more and more fighters air grievances about the struggle to earn a living under the UFC banner, Holloway aimed to make it clear that what he’s done warrants income up and above the norm.

What the newly crowned champ likely seeks now is a fight purse that hits the seven-figure mark, like other title holders that have come before him. Names like Conor McGregor, Jon Jones, Ronda Rousey and some others have reportedly received multi-million dollar paychecks for one night’s work, and it’s only reasonable that a fighter with an 11-fight win streak and a title might want the same.

The size of the check depends on the size of the fight, according to what Holloway said UFC brass explained to him. He said during the post-fight press conference that White told him “this is big-game hunting” and the larger the fight, the bigger the payday. Since he just took out Aldo, Holloway sees that as the biggest game one can score on a UFC safari.

“The bigger the game you bring in to the table, the bigger paychecks you get,” he said, adding, “and I think Aldo is a silverback gorilla. Now I want my paycheck. I don’t want money fights; I want to get paid.”

Junior dos Santos thought things were going well at UFC 211. Then they took a turn for the worse.

Junior dos Santos left the Octagon last Saturday in Dallas without getting his hand raised. His defeat at the hands of heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic was obviously difficult, but what’s more is that it seemed entirely unexpected.

Up to the point when he suffered a right-handed punch to the side of his head, dos Santos thought things were going well for him. He worked his game plan and felt good, applying several strikes and scoring on the champion.

But then the referee pulled Miocic off the top of him and brought an end to the fight. For a man once considered the baddest on the planet for his destruction of the heavyweight division, the tables have certainly turned.

“That’s the heavyweight division, you know?” dos Santos said during the post-fight press conference. “I think I’ve made many, many guys feel like that. It’s terrible, man. It’s terrible. Because I was prepared … and I had a lot to give there and everything, like I said, everything was working very well. The way we expected.”

The disappointment appeared to set in during the press conference. JDS became emotional when answering questions, using a towel to wipe away the tears.

There was an extra sting for the former heavyweight champ because everything was going as planned. When things are going so well and then they suddenly take a turn for the worse, it can be overwhelming, even for the most ferocious and biggest combatants on the planet.

“I’m very disappointed,” he said. “Not because he won the fight, but because I lost. I didn’t do any mistake in the fight. Actually, everything was working very well. I know he walks forward all the time, and I like to walk backwards and enjoy the opportunities that my opponents give to me.”

Although beaten, dos Santos isn’t prepared to wallow around in defeat. He said he wants to fight again as soon as possible, if only to erase the memory of UFC 211.

Loving your job allows you the opportunity to get over the times it’s tough.

“You know, I’m here to fight,” he said. “And now I’m looking forward for my next fight already because I want to delete this thing … I’m still looking forward for my future fights because that’s what I love to do.”