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Ex-MMA champ sees Jon Jones only needing ‘two and a half minutes’ to finish Alex Pereira in potential fight

Ben Askren expects Jon Jones to make quick work of Alex Pereira if the two ever tussle inside the…

Ben Askren expects Jon Jones to make quick work of Alex Pereira if the two ever tussle inside the Octagon.

Following Pereira’s sensational first-round knockout of Jamahal Hill at UFC 300, ‘Bones’ took to social media to gauge interest in a potential superfight between himself and the reigning 205-pound champ. Needless to say, fans exploded with excitement online and pundits immediately began debating who would come out on top in the potential champion vs. champion clash.

Speaking with UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier, former Bellator MMA and ONE world champion Ben Askren suggested that Pereira wouldn’t last much longer against Jones than Ciryl Gane did.

“People want to see him have the ability to stop takedowns, because of you can’t stop takedowns [from] Jon Jones, he’s going to take you down and submit you,” Askren said on an episode of Funky & Champ.

“We saw Pereira get taken down by [Israel] Adesanya and he was kept down for, actually, a significant portion of time. And it is kind of wild that we have this guy Pereira, and there’s no doubt he’s making his mark as, possibly, one of the best ever if he keeps winning, yet [there] are questions about his wrestling. Like, how would he do against good wrestling? And we don’t know because somehow Jamahal Hill didn’t try a takedown, [Jiri] Prochazka didn’t try a takedown, [Jan] Blachowicz actually did take him down and keep him down for a round, Strickland didn’t try a takedown. … Like, these guys, they don’t try takedowns.

“He’s won all of these fights … and as he’s fought Sean Strickland and on, besides one round with Jan — and Jan’s not really a wrestler, he possesses some skills but he’s not really a wrestler. [Pereira] has still not fought a wrestler. So we still have all of these questions. So if he fights Jon Jones, I think there’s a chance it’s over in like two and a half minutes. I mean, look what Jon did to Ciryl Gane. He’s a large man, he’s a high-level wrestler, he’s got great grappling skills. Yeah, I think there’s a possibility of that for sure” (h/t MMA Fighting).

Jones secured a quick two-minute submission victory over Gane at UFC 285 to claim the vacant heavyweight title.

‘Bones’ was expected to defend the title against the division’s consensus GOAT Stipe Miocic in November, but a pectoral injury forced him to bow out of the bout.

Askren believes Jon Jones needs to fight Tom Aspinall before Alex Pereira

In the meantime, the UFC has crowned an interim champion in Tom Aspinall after the UK-based star scored a 69-second KO against Sergei Pavlovich inside the world’s most famous arena.

Traditionally, the undisputed champion would unify his belt with that of the interim titleholder upon their return. Unfortunately, that won’t be the case this time around as both Jones and the UFC have remained adamant that ‘Bones’ vs. Miocic will move forward.

With rumors of retirement and now talk of a potential fight with Alex Pereira, it has become increasingly more clear that Jones has no intention of ever fighting Tom Aspinall, much to the chagrin of fight fans and Ben Askren.

“We want to see Jon Jones fight Tom Aspinall,” Askren said. “Aspinall’s got the interim belt, Jon’s got the [other] belt. It just doesn’t make any sense. Just freaking make them fight, and then if Jon beats him, then Pereira vs. Jon.

“You can’t leave Tom Aspinall sitting here with the interim belt.”

‘We Gotta Get Out Of The Apex’

Photo by Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

White sounds serious about taking the UFC out of the miserable Apex and back on the road to all the smaller markets they’ve been ignoring since the pandemic. The UFC was i…

UFC 300: Pereira v Hill — Photo by Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

White sounds serious about taking the UFC out of the miserable Apex and back on the road to all the smaller markets they’ve been ignoring since the pandemic.

The UFC was in St. Louis, Missouri last night for a fun event at the Enterprise Center which featured Derrick Lewis knocking a dude out and hometown hero Joaquin Buckley beating tough challenger Nursulton Ruziboev.

According to UFC CEO Dana White, the event marked the highest gate ever for a UFC Fight Night, generating $2.47 million with 15,960 fans in attendance. And those fans were hyped. It was a nice change of vibes after we’ve had to suffer through eight listless Fight Nights at the UFC Apex so far this year.

On a recent TKO Inc. earnings call, the corporate owners of the UFC suggested the Apex might get phased out over time, despite the obvious cost benefits of holding shows there. White seemed to echo similar sentiments after St. Louis.

“Even if you’re watching on ESPN, I mean, everybody — I’m sure you guys were getting text too. They’re like, ‘Jesus Christ. It’s like a pay per view there right now.’”

“And this is, when you think about how we built this business, it was taking it out of the big markets. When we first got into the fight business, everybody just went to Vegas, Atlantic City, sometimes New York, sometimes LA. That’s the only place that really had fights unless you had a local kid.

“We built this business taking this thing to every city all over the world,” he repeated. “And as we start to get our s— together, I will call it, and start to move out and start to go to these different cities like we used to, the whole sport just goes to another level.”

Asked if this meant the end of the Apex as the most used venue for UFC events, White replied yes.

“It’s what I’ve been saying for a long time,” he said. “We gotta get out of the Apex and start doing more events in all these different cities, and we’re starting to do it. We’re getting it done this year.”

We’ve been saying since the end of the pandemic that the Apex is a hype-killer that hurts the product and the UFC’s ability to develop the next generation of stars. With gates like St. Louis, even the nerds in accounting can’t deny it makes sense to get back on the road.

Dustin Poirier refused to give up on guillotine after being told ‘no more’ by coach Mike Brown at UFC 299

Dustin Poirier just can’t help himself. The former interim UFC lightweight champion loves “jumpin’ the gilly” anytime the opportunity…

Dustin Poirier just can’t help himself.

The former interim UFC lightweight champion loves “jumpin’ the gilly” anytime the opportunity presents itself. That was never more present than during his clash with Benoit Saint-Denis at UFC 299 in March. ‘The Diamond’ made multiple attempts to choke out the Frenchman with his favorite maneuver despite being explicitly told not to by head coach Mike Brown.

Following the first round of his scrap with Saint-Denis, Brown was caught on camera telling Poirier to stop with the guillotines. As it turns out, there was more to the conversation that the cameras missed.

“They actually didn’t play it in between the rounds, after the first round I said, ‘No more guillotines,’ and then they switched to the other corner,” Brown told MMA Fighting. “But right after I said that, Dustin said, ‘No, but I can hit it! I can hit it!’ I just replied, ‘You crazy bastard.’

“I literally said that and then he went and jumped another one. They didn’t play that part, but there was more words said after I said don’t jump the guillotine.”

Dustin Poirier ultimately won the fight with a spectacular second-round comeback KO.

‘The Diamond’ has never actually finished one of his opponents inside the Octagon with a guillotine, but he’s done it plenty of times at the gym according to Brown.

“He puts a lot of guys to sleep in the gym, to be honest,” Brown said. “He does have a very good one. He just hasn’t hit them in the fight.”

Dustin Poirier has nothing left to prove

Dustin Poirier’s undeniable love for guillotines has taken on a life of its own following the Saint-Denis fight, but this is far from the first time that Brown has been left frustrated by the lightweight’s love for the move.

“The fight where I was losing my mind is the fight with [Dan] Hooker,” Brown said. “Because he had lost the first two rounds and then he was battling back and then he was jumping guillotine in those later rounds, and had he got stuck on bottom in any one of those rounds, he would have lost the third round and wouldn’t have won the decision.

“But somehow he wouldn’t hit the guillotine, but he would somehow scramble to get back to his feet and start dropping bombs on him and doing damage, and then somehow stealing the round anyway. He would somehow find a way to make it work. He made us sweat and bite our nails in that one, that’s for sure.”

Three months removed from his return to the win column against Saint-Denis, Poirier will step into the main event spotlight at UFC 302 on Saturday, June 1. There, he will square off with reigning lightweight world champion Islam Makhachev in what will likely be his last crack at UFC gold.

Poirier previously challenged Makhachev’s mentor, Khabib Nurmagomedov, five years ago at UFC 242. ‘The Diamond’ went for a guillotine and had fans on the edge of their seat, believing he could hand the Dagestani the first loss of his mixed martial arts career.

Instead, ‘The Eagle’ escaped and used his position on top to reign down a flurry of strikes before securing a rear-naked choke in round three.

If he can pull off the guillotine against Nurmagomedov’s protege in The Garden State next month, it would be nothing short of poetic.

“It absolutely could happen,” Brown said. “He’s done so much in the sport. I almost feel like he doesn’t have anything more to prove, but this is the one box he has to check. I feel like he’s a champion even though he hasn’t won a title, a true UFC title. He’s won the interim. I feel like he’s a champion in my eyes.”

Dustin Poirier refused to give up on guillotine after being told ‘no more’ by coach Mike Brown at UFC 299

Dustin Poirier just can’t help himself. The former interim UFC lightweight champion loves “jumpin’ the gilly” anytime the opportunity…

Dustin Poirier just can’t help himself.

“They actually didn’t play it in between the rounds, after the first round I said, ‘No more guillotines,’ and then they switched to the other corner,” Brown told MMA Fighting. “But right after I said that, Dustin said, ‘No, but I can hit it! I can hit it!’ I just replied, ‘You crazy bastard.’

“I literally said that and then he went and jumped another one. They didn’t play that part, but there was more words said after I said don’t jump the guillotine.”

Dustin Poirier ultimately won the fight with a spectacular second-round comeback KO.

‘The Diamond’ has never actually finished one of his opponents inside the Octagon with a guillotine, but he’s done it plenty of times at the gym according to Brown.

“He puts a lot of guys to sleep in the gym, to be honest,” Brown said. “He does have a very good one. He just hasn’t hit them in the fight.”

Dustin Poirier has nothing left to prove

“The fight where I was losing my mind is the fight with [Dan] Hooker,” Brown said. “Because he had lost the first two rounds and then he was battling back and then he was jumping guillotine in those later rounds, and had he got stuck on bottom in any one of those rounds, he would have lost the third round and wouldn’t have won the decision.

“But somehow he wouldn’t hit the guillotine, but he would somehow scramble to get back to his feet and start dropping bombs on him and doing damage, and then somehow stealing the round anyway. He would somehow find a way to make it work. He made us sweat and bite our nails in that one, that’s for sure.”

Instead, ‘The Eagle’ escaped and used his position on top to reign down a flurry of strikes before securing a rear-naked choke in round three.

If he can pull off the guillotine against Nurmagomedov’s protege in The Garden State next month, it would be nothing short of poetic.

“It absolutely could happen,” Brown said. “He’s done so much in the sport. I almost feel like he doesn’t have anything more to prove, but this is the one box he has to check. I feel like he’s a champion even though he hasn’t won a title, a true UFC title. He’s won the interim. I feel like he’s a champion in my eyes.”

Khabib’s Next Opponent: The Russian Tax Service?

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

Former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov may be in trouble with Russian tax authorities over financial ‘irregularities’ found in businesses the Dagestani fighter owned. Khabib …

UFC 272: Kelleher v Nurmagomedov — Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

Former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov may be in trouble with Russian tax authorities over financial ‘irregularities’ found in businesses the Dagestani fighter owned.

Khabib Nurmagomedov may be in trouble with tax authorities in his home country, according to unconfirmed reports coming out of Russia.

Online news outlet Mash.ru was the first to make the allegations, which have now been picked up by other major Russian sites including state-controlled outlet RT. They all tell the same story: that Khabib is being investigated for underpaying his business taxes by 300 million rubles ($330 million US dollars).

The investigation from the Federal Tax Service (Russia’s version of the IRS) has reportedly been going on for a while, and was kicked off after Nurmagomedov stepped away from the MMA world in 2023 and divested himself from a number of businesses. RT claims preliminary examinations of these businesses “uncovered irregularities in documents,” leading to a full-fledged audit.

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Now the government has allegedly frozen several business bank accounts related to Khabib’s businesses including the Eagle FC promotion and his charity fund.

An interesting note from the initial Mash.ru report indicates that Russian authorities were upset that money which should have gone to taxes were instead diverted into business ventures outside of the country like the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.

This is a developing story and has not been confirmed. But there’s more and more smoke on this one, with major Russian outlets now reporting on the situation. If the situation is verified, is this a simple situation where Khabib can just pay the amount owed? Or are we about to see punitive penalty interest applied, or even a Wesley Snipes situation develop?

We’ll keep you in the know as this story develops.

Watch – Boxing announcer declares the wrong winner in WBA title fight: ‘Is this for real?!’

Ring announcer Daniel Hennessey had a bad night on the job. For the most part, Saturday’s Top Rank Boxing…

Ring announcer Daniel Hennessey had a bad night on the job.

For the most part, Saturday’s Top Rank Boxing event in Perth, Australia went off without a hitch. In the main event of the evening, Vasyl Lomachenko defeated George Kambosos Jr. via an 11th-round TKO to claim the vacant IBF lightweight world championship.

Before that, the UK’s Nina Hughes returned to the ring set to defend the WBA world female bantamweight title against Australia’s own Cherneka Johnson. Initially, it appeared as though she was successful, winning a majority decision according to Hennessey’s announcement.

However, seconds later and without any explanation, Hennessey once again read off the scorecards, this time announcing Johnson as the winner.

Needless to say, everyone was left very confused and undeniably frustrated.

“Is this for real?” ringside announce Joe Tessitore said immediately following the second announcement. “Is this guy, ‘Lieutenant’ Dan Hennessey, for real?”

Joe Tessitore calls out ring announcer Daniel Hennessey’s ‘amateur hour’ performance

Tessitore was far from done, calling the entire incident an “absolute clown show” before getting confirmation from Bernardo Osuna of what happened and who actually won the 10-round contest.

Joe Tess unloads on the "absolute clown show garbage amateur hour" ring announcer and gets the corrected results pic.twitter.com/d1czlIp3B1

— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) May 12, 2024

“I want clean up what we saw with this absolute clown show garbage amateur hour we saw with the ring announcer moments ago,” Tessitore said.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the first time Hennessey flubbed the scorecards that night. He incorrectly announced the Pedro Guevara vs. Andrew Moloney match which was the first televised bout of the evening.