Tag: Bantamweight

REPORT | Sean O’Malley X-Ray ‘Came Back OK’

Sean O'MalleyAs we all know, ‘Sugar’ Sean O’Malley was injured this past weekend in his UFC 252 fight with Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera. He looked good in the fight up until the injury happened, and this marks just the first setback of his professional career. Ariel Helwani from ESPN MMA gave us an update regarding O’Malley’s injury […]

Sean O'Malley

As we all know, ‘Sugar’ Sean O’Malley was injured this past weekend in his UFC 252 fight with Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera. He looked good in the fight up until the injury happened, and this marks just the first setback of his professional career.

Ariel Helwani from ESPN MMA gave us an update regarding O’Malley’s injury earlier today via his twitter account:

This is a truly unfortunate occurrence. O’Malley injured himself in his second fight in the UFC with Andre Soukhamthath as well, though that didn’t happen until round three, and he won the first two rounds. However, this injury happened midway through the first round, and Vera is far too talented and dangerous of an opponent to fight on one leg.

After his fight with Soukhamthath, he didn’t fight again for two years either, due to two run ins with USADA for tainted supplements. Unfortunately, he’s going to need some more time off now that his knee has been tore up. Luckily he’s still only 25-years-old, turning 26 in October.

O’Malley has the gift, the it factor, he’ll come back better than ever, just like he did in March. He’s now 4-1 in the UFC, and 12-1 overall as a professional.

Though it was ruled a TKO (elbow and punches), it could also be considered a TKO (injury) loss. He did get hurt badly by that elbow Vera cracked him with, but he never would’ve ended up on his back if his leg didn’t give out.

It’s great that his ankle and lower leg are fine, but it was evident that the issue was with his knee. We’ll have to wait a few days to see what happens next. Hopefully he only tore one ligament, but even then it can take a while to recover and come back.

Guys like Dominick Cruz and Georges St-Pierre spent over a year outside of the cage with ACL tears alone. Thiago Santos tore all four ligaments in his knee when he fought Jon Jones, that was 13 months ago and he hasn’t fought since. Either way, we probably won’t see O’Malley fight again until next year.

Who would you like to see Sean O’Malley fight upon his return?

UFC Releases Former Flyweight Title Challenger Ray Borg

Former UFC flyweight title challenger and bantamweight prospect Ray ‘The Tazmexican Devil’ Borg was released by the UFC recently after he withdrew from his UFC Fight Night 173 bout with Nathan Maness on the day of weigh-ins for undisclosed reasons. (Via BJPenn.com) Borg has had issues making weight for much of his career, missing the […]

Former UFC flyweight title challenger and bantamweight prospect Ray ‘The Tazmexican Devil’ Borg was released by the UFC recently after he withdrew from his UFC Fight Night 173 bout with Nathan Maness on the day of weigh-ins for undisclosed reasons. (Via BJPenn.com)

Borg has had issues making weight for much of his career, missing the mark four times in the UFC, one even in a bantamweight fight. His bout with Maness was also scheduled at 135 lbs, it’s a wonder why he continues having these issues.

Borg has also pulled out of a serious amount of fights since being signed to the UFC, not only for injuries, but now five times he’s pulled out of a bout citing undisclosed reasons or medical issues.

Many people worried whether he’d make weight for his title fight with Demetrious Johnson back in the fall of 2017, considering he’d missed the flyweight limit twice prior, but he did make it that night.

However, he was supposed to fight Johnson for the title a month prior, but withdrew from the fight the day before weigh-ins citing an illness. He actually has made the flyweight limit six times in his UFC career, but also missed it three times at 125 lbs, and now twice at 135 lbs.

That’s four misses in twelve UFC fights, and what appears to be five misses in an attempted thirteen UFC fights. The UFC was able to schedule Maness a featherweight bout with the undefeated, fellow debuting Johnny Munoz, a fight he won via unanimous decision (29-27, 29-27, 29-27).

It’s unfortunate to see Borg’s career pan out this way. He’s still only 27-years-old, and he’s always been such a bright young prospect with all the potential in the world. He’s always had an insanely high level ground game, mixing his wrestling and grappling better than just about anyone out there, and his stand up has come along as well.

Though he lost his last fight to Ricky Simon via split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28), his boxing looked great in that fight. He even beat a prime Jussier Formiga, something less than a handful of flyweight talents have ever done.

Hopefully he can get his weight cutting issues under control, whether it be a discipline thing, a medical issue, or something else. He belongs in the UFC, but who knows, maybe he’ll end up in another major promotion like Bellator or ONE Championship.

Where would you like to see Ray Borg go from here?

Marlon Moraes vs. Cory Sandhagen Booked For October Main Event

Marlon MoraesIt looks like we have quite the epic bantamweight main event coming later this year between a pair of former multiple-time kickboxing champions, as the No. 1 ranked UFC bantamweight contender Marlon Moraes takes on the No. 4 ranked Cory Sandhagen in a five-round main event this October. Combate initially broke the news earlier today, […]

Marlon Moraes

It looks like we have quite the epic bantamweight main event coming later this year between a pair of former multiple-time kickboxing champions, as the No. 1 ranked UFC bantamweight contender Marlon Moraes takes on the No. 4 ranked Cory Sandhagen in a five-round main event this October.

Combate initially broke the news earlier today, and it will go down at UFC Fight Night 181, October 10. These two have both been nothing but astounding in their MMA and UFC careers. Moraes almost claimed bantamweight gold just over a year ago but fell short to Henry Cejudo after having one of the most dominant first rounds in the sport’s history.

Sandhagen had a No. 1 contender fight with Aljamain Sterling two months ago in June at UFC 250, a fight he lost in round one via submission (rear naked choke).

Dana White made it clear he didn’t know who was next in line for a shot at the UFC Bantamweight Championship, when everyone knows it’s Sterling, he’s the only guy that makes real sense.

Now that Moraes is booked, it looks like we may get to see Petr Yan fight Sterling next as well. There was some back-and-forth about that, considering Moraes KO’d Sterling in just 67 seconds in their fight back in December of 2017. However, he’s gone 5-0 since, while Moraes has gone 3-1 since, having already had a title shot, and having won a very controversial decision in one of those victories.

The 32-year-old, 23-6-1 Moraes has done just about everything you can do inside of an MMA career, aside from win UFC gold. He won the WSOF Bantamweight Championship and defended it five times, a promotional record. It should be six defenses really, but his opponent for his first title defense missed weight, thus making in a non-title fight.

He’s gone 5-2 in the UFC with wins over John Dodson (split decision), Aljamain Sterling (KO), Jimmie Rivera (KO), Raphael Assuncao (guillotine choke), and Jose Aldo (split decision).

The 28-year-old, 12-2 Sandhagen has gone 5-1 inside the octagon with wins over Austin Arnett (TKO), Iuri Alcantara (TKO), Mario Bautista (armbar), John Lineker (split decision), and Raphael Assuncao (unanimous decision). As you see, their UFC records are pretty similar. Take Moraes’ UFC debut out of the equation, and they’re identical, he did avenge that loss to Assuncao.

One thing to point out about this match up, being a main event, Moraes has gone five rounds just two times in his mixed martial arts career, while Sandhagen has yet to see a five round fight. With that being said, we haven’t really seen Sandhagen tire, and we certainly have seen Moraes tired.

What do you think of this insanely entertaining five round bantamweight main event between Marlon Moraes and Cory Sandhagen?

EXCLUSIVE | Marlon Vera Calls For Dominick Cruz Fight Next

Marlon VeraUFC Bantamweight Marlon “Chito” Vera believes he should face former champion Dominick Cruz in his next fight. Speaking to Ryan Galloway in a LowKick MMA exclusive, Vera explained why this matchup makes the most sense for him following his recent controversial loss to Song Yadong. “I think Dominick Cruz paper wise make the most sense. […]

Marlon Vera

UFC Bantamweight Marlon “Chito” Vera believes he should face former champion Dominick Cruz in his next fight.

Speaking to Ryan Galloway in a LowKick MMA exclusive, Vera explained why this matchup makes the most sense for him following his recent controversial loss to Song Yadong.

“I think Dominick Cruz paper wise make the most sense. We are like two or three rankings apart, he’s coming off a loss, I’m coming off a loss. I feel that’s the perfect fight to make right now.

Vera also shared that he would be interested to face Uriah Faber should he decide to fight again.

“If Uriah have the balls to actually fight for real instead of just making a show for weigh-ins and acting like a guy that will do it any time, he won’t. He’s broke. his last fight he got destroyed and I’m sure he don’t want to get that feeling again because he don’t train anymore. But if he got the balls to do it one more time, I’ll put him out for sure. I will send a message to him ‘Hey you don’t belong here anymore’. But that’s not the main focus, he is doing it for the social media. He have a team, he have a name so he has to do it so often just to stay relevant so I get it.”

When asked, Chito shared how he believes a fight with Cruz would play out.

“I think I put the pressure on him, and I break him. I’m a younger better version and I still have enough tools. His wrestling is pretty good so if this fight goes to the ground he’s not going to hold me there I think I can tap him out too, I’m pretty confident that I can beat him up in the stand-up and on the ground so I hope that fight happens.”

At this stage, neither Vera nor Cruz has scheduled opponents or dates for their respective returns.

Check out the full interview at the link below.

Who would you like to see Vera face next?

Frankie Edgar Issues Statement On Moving Down To Bantamweight

The MMA world received some exciting news this morning when it was announced Frankie Edgar would finally move down to bantamweight. The move was one that had been discussed for several years. However, “The Answer” remained steadfast in his …

The MMA world received some exciting news this morning when it was announced Frankie Edgar would finally move down to bantamweight. The move was one that had been discussed for several years. However, “The Answer” remained steadfast in his opposition. That is until he lost a somewhat lackluster decision to featherweight champion Max Holloway at […]

The post Frankie Edgar Issues Statement On Moving Down To Bantamweight appeared first on MMA News.

T.J. Dillashaw loses title, gets 1 year suspension due to positive drug test

T.J. Dillashaw had been the bantamweight champion for just over a year when he went down a weight class to compete for Henry Cejudo’s flyweight title in January. A fight in which he ultimately lost by knockout in just 32 seconds. Unfortunately fo…

T.J. Dillashaw had been the bantamweight champion for just over a year when he went down a weight class to compete for Henry Cejudo’s flyweight title in January. A fight in which he ultimately lost by knockout in just 32 seconds. Unfortunately for Dillashaw he lost much more than just the fight. As Dillashaw revealed […]

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