UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Julianna Peña has issued a challenge for those who continue to doubt and discredit her title-winning performance at UFC 269.
At the final pay-per-view of 2021, Peña finally had her long-awaited clash with then-two-…
UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Julianna Peña has issued a challenge for those who continue to doubt and discredit her title-winning performance at UFC 269.
At the final pay-per-view of 2021, Peña finally had her long-awaited clash with then-two-division titleholder Amanda Nunes. Having dominantly reigned over both the bantamweight and featherweight classes for years, most expected the “Lioness” to brush “The Venezuelan Vixen” aside and add another defense to her résumé.
What transpired inside Las Vegas T-Mobile Arena couldn’t have been further from the predictions of most. After getting through the first round unscathed, the challenger put her plan into action. After hurting and tiring Nunes on the feet, Peña sent the Brazilian crashing to the mat before choking her out and taking her title.
Despite executing her game plan to perfection and completing one of the greatest upsets in UFC history, some fans and pundits have questioned whether Peña beat Nunes, or if the former champion simply quit after being put into a position she hadn’t faced since 2014.
“It was great. That’s the second time I’ve finished (a fight with that rear-naked choke). I finished Sara McMann in January. It’s something that is not a regular rear-naked choke. I know that a lot of people want to discredit me, people wanna say that I didn’t have any hooks in and that wasn’t real and she just tapped because she quit.
“I guarantee you, and Jim, maybe one day you can take me up on this, or any of your listeners, if any of them out there want to come to my house and let me put that choke on them, I guarantee you they’re gonna tap as well and I guarantee you they’ll be able to feel that force and pressure that I was putting on Amanda.”
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Having ascended the bantamweight mountaintop, the next step for Peña to further legitimize her spot on the throne will likely be a second clash with Nunes.
After UFC President Dana White confirmed the option of an immediate rematch would be made available to the former champ, the “Lioness” quickly accepted. The pair will seemingly enter the Octagon together again in the first half of 2022.
Do you think Amanda Nunes had to tap to Julianna Peña’s choke at UFC 269?
After Julianna Peña submitted Amanda Nunes to become the new bantamweight champion, her friend Tate said she thought of dropping down to women’s flyweight. If she does drop down in weight, the Brazil…
Jéssica Andrade has her eyes set on Miesha Tate.
After Julianna Peña submitted Amanda Nunes to become the new bantamweight champion, her friend Tate said she thought of dropping down to women’s flyweight. If she does drop down in weight, the Brazilian Andrade would love that fight.
“I recently read that Miesha is thinking about the idea of going down to 125 pounds and I would love to be her first opponent in this new weight class,” Andrade told MMA Fighting. “Maybe she never thought about it, but I entered the UFC because of her, when she went to shoot TUF with Ronda [Rousey] and withdrew from a fight with Liz Carmouche, and I was signed as her replacement.”
Image Credit: Zhe Ji/Getty Images
As JéssicaAndrade said, she and Miesha Tate were both fighting at bantamweight when Andrade joined the UFC. Yet, after going 3-3, she dropped down to strawweight and eventually claimed UFC gold.
After losing her belt and then dropping the rematch to Rose Namajunas, she moved up to women’s flyweight. She quickly made her mark with a TKO win over Katlyn Chookagian and got a title shot but lost to Valentina Shevchenko.
In Andrade’s last fight, she TKO’d Cynthia Calvillo. But given the fact that she just lost to champion Valentina Shevchenko, she is in a weird position because she likely won’t get a title shot anytime soon.
With that, Andrade would love to face the former bantamweight champ in Tate, as she believes it would be an interesting fight for the fans that is years in the making.
“[Tate and I] went different directions in the organization, but I followed her this entire time in the UFC when I still competed at 135,” Andrade said. “She won the 135 belt right after I dropped to 115. I believe that a fight between a former strawweight champion and a former bantamweight champion would be an interesting show for the fans.”
Would you like to see Jéssica Andrade vs. Miesha Tate?
Former Belgian kickboxing champion Frederic Sinistra has passed away at his home after a severe case of COVID-19.
Sinistra had been admitted into the hospital back in November at the request of his kickboxing coach. Just weeks later, Sinistra check…
Former Belgian kickboxing champion Frederic Sinistra has passed away at his home after a severe case of COVID-19.
Sinistra had been admitted into the hospital back in November at the request of his kickboxing coach. Just weeks later, Sinistra checked himself out of the hospital against the advisement of doctors and opted to treat himself with oxygen at his home.
About a month later, he would suffer from cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead due to complications stemming from the virus.
“[I] will fight to the end so that the truth is restored and his name is washed away from all these slanderers both family and around his death,” she said on his Facebook page. (h/t MSN)
Sinistra had been scheduled to fight on December 4th before COVID-19 restrictions forced the event to be canceled.
Frederic Sinistra Had Previously Mocked The Pandemic
The 41-year-old Sinistra refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine despite the virus surging throughout Europe. He also downplayed the pandemic as “the little virus” in late November.
“I was born premature and I will continue to fight to the death like a man without ever giving up and dying without regrets,” he wrote in an Instagram post.
The COVID-19 pandemic has rocked sports around the world, but MMA and combat sports have managed to stay afloat. The UFC, in particular, helped lead the charge to re-boot events as the world began to shut down in early 2020.
Sinistra accumulated a 39-9 heavyweight kickboxing record while also earning a national title back in 2004. At one point, he had been nicknamed as “Belgium’s strongest man”.
What is your reaction to Frederic Sinistra’s death?
After he originally named Ciryl Gane as the top male fighter of 2021, Daniel Cormier has changed his mind and tabbed Kamaru Usman with the top spot.
Usman went 3-0 in 2021, with dominant performances over the likes of Jorge Masvidal, Gilbert Burns,…
After he originally named Ciryl Gane as the top male fighter of 2021, Daniel Cormier has changed his mind and tabbed Kamaru Usman with the top spot.
Usman went 3-0 in 2021, with dominant performances over the likes of Jorge Masvidal, Gilbert Burns, and Colby Covington. After earning the title over Tyron Woodley at UFC 235 in 2019, he’s emerged as arguably the best MMA fighter on the planet.
Cormier has turned into one of the most prominent voices in MMA media after an accolade-filled UFC career. He recently named Gane as his Fighter of the Year after earning the interim heavyweight title.
“I did the weigh-in show a few weeks ago, and I picked Ciryl Gane,” Cormier said. “Because he beat Alexander Volkov, Jairzinho Rozenstruik, and beat Derrick Lewis for the interim title to face Francis Ngannou. But then when I started to think about it and looked at who Kamaru Usman has beaten, how he’s beaten them. We don’t get champions like him who is as dominant and fights as often. He’s not only defended the belt three times but has also made a jump in terms of his profile, visibility, and marketability. Everything is at an elite level after beating those top guys.”
Kamaru Usman Ended 2021 As The UFC’s Pound-For-Pound No. 1
Usman had arguably the best year of his career in 2021 and capped it off with the top spot on the UFC’s pound-for-pound list. He earned the top spot over stars such as Israel Adesanya and Jon Jones.
Usman’s final hurdle of the year came in a highly-anticipated title rematch against Covington. It was another back-and-forth battle, but Usman was able to endure Covington’s late surge and retain the title.
Usman has also teased a potential boxing super-fight against Canelo Alvarez, although it remains to be seen if it’ll come to fruition.
There are arguably a plethora of MMA fighters worth of Male Fighter of the Year, but Cormier thinks Usman deserves the award more than anyone in the sport.
UFC welterweight Stephen Thompson has discussed his latest setback in the Octagon and explained what went wrong on the night.
In early 2021, Thompson was riding high off back-to-back wins against Vicente Luque and Geoff Neal. As an in-form top-five…
UFC welterweight Stephen Thompson has discussed his latest setback in the Octagon and explained what went wrong on the night.
In early 2021, Thompson was riding high off back-to-back wins against Vicente Luque and Geoff Neal. As an in-form top-five fighter and one of the few top contenders Kamaru Usman is yet to face, many predicted a title shot down the line.
“Wonderboy” seemingly had the chance to secure one at UFC 264 against Gilbert Burns. Instead, he was controlled and comfortably beaten on the scorecards. With his motivation unwavering, the 38-year-old hoped to get back on track by fitting in another fight before the close of the year.
After Belal Muhammad answered his prayers, many expected Thompson to re-enter the win column and stake his claim for a matchup with the champion. But once again, the two-time title challenger failed to keep the fight on the feet and was dominated throughout, falling to yet another unanimous decision.
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Thompson: “I Got Manhandled For Three Rounds”
During a recent episode of his podcast, Stephen Thompson addressed his defeat and analyzed what went wrong in the UFC Vegas 45 co-main event.
While he conceded that he was “manhandled” for the best part of 15 minutes, Thompson suggested a botched rehydration process may have had a part to play. Despite having a good camp, “Wonderboy” admitted he was a lot more tired and exhausted at the start of the fight, something he says he noticed even before entering the Octagon.
“I lost my fight, got manhandled for three rounds. Yeah man, it was a sucky experience, to be honest with you. Like, you know, I don’t know why this happens but when you know I had a great camp, camp was awesome. I was in the greatest shape of my life, you know. Was in shape, felt strong and then you know things start to kind of get a little weird whenever you’re getting ready to go out you’re in the back kind of warming up and your legs start to feel tingly, that’s not a good sign…Maybe it had something to do with my rehydration; not sure. But I felt exhausted, felt super tired right out of the first round. I didn’t want to say anything to my coaches or anything that my legs were feeling tingly.
“It was the rehydration, that was just difficult. You know back in the past, it was kind of like an unwritten rule or untalked about thing that before USADA, we were allowed to IVs you know and it was kind of… something we did back in our hotel. Everybody did it. It was such an easier way to get those fluids back and you felt so much better, like, instantly. And now having to do everything orally, it’s difficult, it takes longer, you don’t know if you have drank enough.” (h/t Sportskeeda)
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Given his age and losses in 2021, some fans and pundits have suggested Thompson isn’t capable of competing at the highest level anymore. But “Wonderboy” has no plans to hang up his gloves anytime soon.
Having previously revealed his desire to become the oldest fighter in UFC history, Thompson has now questioned why fans want him to retire. According to the 38-year-old, his body feels better than it did five years ago when he fought Tyron Woodley for the title.
“I feel like people that do retire, when they sit down on the chair, they just feel like they should retire. Like just, their bodies beat up, aches and pains… When I sit here and I’m sitting down in this chair, I feel great. I feel fine. I feel fine. I feel better than I was five years ago. I just don’t get it.” (h/t Sportskeeda)
With his motivation to compete as high as ever, we’ll likely be seeing Thompson attempt a resurgence in 2022.
Do you think Stephen Thompson can still compete at the highest level in the UFC welterweight division?
Boxing royalty Teddy Atlas believes rising UFC bantamweight Sean O’Malley has all the makings of a star in combat sports.
O’Malley has quickly grown into one of the most recognized and talked about names in the world’s premier MMA organization. Tha…
Boxing royalty Teddy Atlas believes rising UFC bantamweight Sean O’Malley has all the makings of a star in combat sports.
O’Malley has quickly grown into one of the most recognized and talked about names in the world’s premier MMA organization. That’s down to his unique combination of charisma, eccentric appearance, and clear talent once the cage door closes behind him.
Since a defeat to Marlon Vera briefly stalled his surge up the bantamweight ladder, O’Malley has been back to his best. In three 2021 appearances, “Sugar” secured a trio of finishes and a $50,000 bonus to make each one that bit sweeter. After triumphs over Thomas Almeida and Kris Moutinho, O’Malley made his biggest impact at the final pay-per-view of the year.
In the main card opener, the Montana native faced the toughest test since his setback against “Chito,” the formerly-ranked Raulian Paiva. Inside the opening round, O’Malley recorded another highlight-reel knockout and had the crowd inside Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena on their feet.
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With his latest Octagon success, O’Malley entered the top 15 at 135 pounds. Now sitting at #12, “The Suga Show” is well and truly on its way in the UFC, something that doesn’t surprise one of the most experienced men in combat sports.
In an interview with The Schmo, Atlas, a renowned boxing trainer, spoke about O’Malley’s rise in the UFC. According to him, the 27-year-old has all the traits and characteristics of a future star.
“He’s got all the makings of a star. Obviously the look, the ‘it’ factor when he gets into the ring; he lights it up. He’s charismatic, he’s smart… He’s got that ‘it’ factor. But he can fight, too… With all that stuff going on, O’Malley can fight.
“We wanna see him tested, of course. But there are special privileges out there, let’s be real. When a guy can bring money in, when a guy can be Conor McGregor, or potentially Conor McGregor, they get a little special privileges, where they can fight, maybe, a little bit of a lighter competition as they’re allowed the build. I think he’s (O’Malley) probably fallen under that category. They wanna use him a little bit, I think, to help the brand again, you know, build UFC like any other brand, like the NFL. Why do they go to Europe? To build the brand.”
Teddy Atlas Cautions O’Malley Against Davis Callout
Sean O’Malley, Gervonta Davis
O’Malley has often been compared to MMA’s biggest superstar Conor McGregor. After becoming a two-division champion in the UFC, the Irishman ventured to the squared circle to take on the undefeated Floyd Mayweather in the sport’s biggest ‘money’ fight.
While some distance away from that level of superstardom and success in MMA, some have suggested O’Malley could be a potential crossover sensation in the future. Th comes at a time when the likes of Tyron Woodley, Vitor Belfort, and Anderson Silva have all laced the gloves in recent months.
UFC Welterweight Champion Kamaru Usman has even called for a clash with Canelo Alvarez, a bout that would mark the first boxing P4P vs. UFC P4P contest. While Atlas acknowledged Usman’s improving striking and immense physicality, he believes a fast and slick fighter on the feet like O’Malley would fare better in-between the ropes.
“Just because he’s (Usman) a strong guy, you gotta be honest, he couldn’t just come in, you know, because he doesn’t have one area where you can say he’s real cute, he’s real elusive. You know who’d have a better shot? In putting him in boxing in a more open way or a more across-the-board way, that he could have some success? O’Malley. Because he’s a bit more like a cutie, you know, where he can be slick. You could put him in with a guy who’s maybe a little slow-footed, a guy that’s not really busy.”
Despite having aspirations of grandeur in the UFC, O’Malley has discussed a potential future in the ring. He even recently called out former multi-weight world champion Gervonta Davis. Although Atlas sees that callout as perhaps a little extreme, he does believe “Sugar” can find success in boxing.
“Listen, Davis isn’t necessarily a seek and destroy guy. He likes to counterpunch, he’s a real smart guy, and everything. But you’re (O’Malley) calling out a guy who’s very dangerous. You make one mistake with him, in a new place, that’s obviously a new realm for him, you make one mistake and you’re not surviving. So that’s a tough callout.
UFC 269: Sean O’Malley vs. Raulian Paiva (Image Credit: Louis Grasse/PxImages)
“But O’Malley, again, could probably pick more guys, because there’s versatility that he could do well in boxing, than you could with Usman. There’s not one area where you could say Usman was real slick, or he’s got a great jab, or he can fight not he inside, so it’d be more problematic finding a guy, even though Usman has incredible physical abilities.”
O’Malley’s boxing credentials could be further tested in his next appearance. The rising contender has called out fellow surging striker Adrian Yanez, whilst also leaving the door open to a clash with Rob Font, a contender well known for his jab.
Whoever O’Malley faces next and in the future, it stands to reason that if he keeps winning, we’ll be seeing him test the waters of the sweet science before his career is out.
Do you agree with Teddy Atlas? Would Sean O’Malley find more success in the ring than Kamaru Usman?
