UFC Betting Sites – The Best MMA Online Bookies

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) makes its return to the pay-per-view (PPV) market with the upcoming UFC 301 mixed martial arts (MMA) event on Sat. night May 4, 2024 inside Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, headlined by the flyweight title fight pitting reigning division champion Alexandre Pantoja against once-beaten 125-pound contender Steve Erceg. In addition, former UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo returns to action opposite red-hot bantamweight “Dragon” Jonathan Martinez in the UFC 301 PPV co-main event.

Check out their “Countdown to UFC 301” preview in the embedded video above.

MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 301 fight card on fight night, starting with the early ESPN+ “Prelims” matches at 6 p.m. ET, followed by the remaining undercard balance on ESPN2/ESPN+ at 8 p.m. ET, before the PPV main card start time at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN+ PPV.

To check out the latest and greatest UFC 301: “Pantoja vs. Erceg” news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive events archive right here. For the updated and finalized UFC 301 fight card and ESPN+ lineup click here.

Masvidal saved the UFC’s big Fight Island debut during the COVID-19 pandemic after it’s original main event fell out. It made him a lot of money, but may have cost him his dreams of a title.

While boxers like Ryan Garcia are celebrating $50 million paydays for fights, UFC fighters are just grateful when they can pull a $5 million payday out of the promotion.

Jorge Masvidal may have never won a proper UFC title, but he did become a bona fide star that could move the needle pay-per-view wise. In the UFC, you rarely get a cut of the PPV unless you hold a belt. Jorge Masvidal found a way, though. He fought Nate Diaz for the first ever BMF belt title fight in 2019. Then when COVID hit and the UFC needed to make a big bang for their Fight Island debut, he agreed to fight Kamaru Usman on six days notice.

“We ended up selling right under 1.3 million pay-per-views,” he told VladTV in a recent interview. “If I hadn’t struck that deal with the UFC, I wouldn’t have gotten nowhere near $5 million. I would have sold the same amount and gotten no nowhere near $5 million. And I would have just felt like I got taken advantage of.”

Prior to that, “Gamebred” was at an impasse with the UFC over pay.

“Give me more money, not on the guarantee, but on the pay-per-views I bring in,” Masvidal said of the situation. “If I sell $100 million in pay-per-views, I want a much bigger share than what you guys are offering me. And [negotiations] comes to a halt. We just don’t get to do that, you know?”

“So they go another route, and six days before the fight, the other route catches Corona. And now the UFC calls me, and they need somebody that can fill in on six days notice, fly across the world, and cut 20 pounds of water in these six days to fight for a world title. There’s only one motherf—er in the whole world that could get that call, for the Bat Signal, and that’s this dude here.”

“But I had to get paid, and I had to get paid very f—ing handsomely for doing this,” he added. “So they gave in to all my demands that I had. And as far as that goes, I made out like a bandit because I got what I wanted.”

Masvidal had previously fought for a title in Strikeforce, earning a paltry $16,000 for his efforts. He had vowed to never get taken advantage of again like that, but still feels like the short notice fight cost him his chance to win against Kamaru Usman.

“So part of me, the business side of me, was very, very satisfied and happy, you know?” he concluded. “For my kids, for myself, my family. But the guy that always wanted that world title belt wasn’t, you know?”

Joe Rogan claims Topuria refused to go down under for his first title defense in a rematch against Alexander Volkanovski.

Ilia Topuria is serious about calling the shots now that he’s the UFC featherweight champion.

“El Matador” won the belt off Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298 in February, and has gone back and forth on who he wants to fight for his first title defense. A rematch against Volkanovski would be acceptable … but perhaps not first. After UFC 300, Topuria declared he’d fight Max Holloway next. But only if Max puts his newly won BMF belt on the line.

“I decide who, when, and where,” Topuria declared in a lengthy rant on X (formerly Twitter). “If you don’t like the terms I’m sure Ortega will oblige.”

Typically it’s the UFC that decides those things, no matter how much bluster from the champion. But Topuria is a superstar in the making with a European fanbase on the brink of exploding. And he’s using that to call his own shots.

In a new episode of his podcast, Joe Rogan claimed Topuria had turned down a second fight with Volkanovski in August.

“I don’t know who he wants to fight next,” Rogan said during a conversation with Max Holloway. “But I guess he feels like he’s the champ, he can call the shots. I know that he turned down the Perth one — [UFC] 305, the Volkanovski rematch.”

As for his demands towards Holloway? “Blessed” laughed them off.

“He writes like a freaking paragraph to me,” Max told Joe. “I didn’t even read it, that’s how long it was. He writes a paragraph to me, and I was just tripping out. It was like an angry girlfriend text, you know. Like my wife don’t even text me like that.”

“I read the first sentence and I was like, ‘I’m not reading this bro.’ What the hell is wrong with you? I don’t know what’s going on. I read the first two and then I saw you had to scroll, I was like what the f—? Did I make my wife mad? I had to make sure that wasn’t her.”

While Ilia does need to learn that brevity is the soul of wit, hopefully the UFC stops messing around and gets Topuria vs. Holloway booked. In Spain, where it belongs.

UFC Vegas 91 returned to the infamous APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada, this past weekend (Sat., April 27, 2024), leaving several fighters feeling the post-fight blues. Among them was Ryan Spann, who was knocked out by Bogdan Guskov (see it again here).

And Austen Lane, who was knocked out by Jhonata Diniz in the second round o their Heavyweight fight (see it again here). And let’s not forget about Tim Means, who was knocked out by Uros Medic in the first round (highlights here). But, which fighter is suffering from the worst post-fight hangover, now a few days removed from the show?

Matheus Nicolau.

Coming into the event, Nicolau was preparing to face Manel Kape since the beginning of the year, but the fight was scrapped on two separate occasions. Therefore, a few weeks from fight night, Nicolau had to switch his focus over to Perez, who agreed to step in on short notice after Kape suffered a rib injury.

And while I am not saying Nicolau underestimated Perez, one might not blame him if he did. That’s because Perez had lost his last three fights, two via first round submission and was simply hadn’t looked good since his great run that earned him a title shot in 2020.

Unfortunately for Nicolau, Perez came in on his “A” game, eventually scoring a second round knockout win to get him back on track (see it again here). As for Nicolau. The loss is his second straight — both via knockout — after enjoying a six straight win streak, four inside the Octagon.

Currently ranked No. 5 in the Flyweight division, Nicolau will likely stumble a few spots, but he will still remain in the Top 10. As far as what could realistically be next for the Brazilian bruiser, perhaps a fight against Kai Kara France is in order because it may be the only one that makes sense.

Like Nicolau, France has lost his last two fights after getting knocked out by Brandon Moreno (watch highlights), and then losing a unanimous decision to Amir Albazi. Sure, France (and I’m not sure why) is still currently ranked No. 4 in the division, but since both men are struggling, let’s see who gets back on track and who suffers his third straight defeat.

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For complete UFC Vegas 91 results coverage and highlights click HERE.