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Daniel Cormier Reacts to Bo Nickal’s Blistering Criticism of UFC 309 Commentary

Daniel Cormier Reacts to Bo Nickal's Blistering Criticism of UFC 309 Commentary Bo Nickal wasn’t happy about Daniel Cormier’s commentary during his scrap with Paul Craig at UFC 309 in New…

Bo Nickal wasn’t happy about Daniel Cormier’s commentary during his scrap with Paul Craig at UFC 309 in New York City.

Nickal returned to the Octagon for a main card clash with ‘Bearjew’ inside Madison Square Garden, and while he secured his sixth straight win in MMA, it was a performance that left a lot of pundits underwhelmed.

Instead of utilizing the world-class wrestling that made him a three-time NCAA Division I national champion, Nickal opted to stand and trade with Craig, eeking out a fairly uneventful unanimous decision. During the three-round affair, fans inside the world’s most famous arena lambasted the former Nittany Lion, calling him overrated and showering him with boos.

Cormier was also critical on commentary, noting that Nickal had a long way to go before he’d be ready for someone like Khamzat Chimaev — a fighter Nickal has called out since his days on Dana White’s Contender Series.

Nickal voiced his frustration over Cormier’s pro-Khamzat commentary which sparked a response from the UFC Hall of Famer.

“Bo Nickal is a bit upset about the commentary during the fight last week,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “I’ve got to be honest, this one took me a little bit by surprise, because I do like Bo, and I do believe that at some point he’s going to be a champion. Bo said he took offense to the commentary, but I think he’s a little misguided. I think he may have misunderstood what I’m trying to say.”

“What I’m more trying to say in this fight is let’s not rush him into fights with people that are much more experienced, much more battle-tested, much more ready to compete at the highest level,” Cormier continued. “Because it feels like one of those situations where a young guy who has shown so much promise gets a little bit fast-tracked. We have seen this time and time again, where an athlete comes onto the scene, they do so well initially that they get overwhelmed because you don’t know what to do with him.”

Cormier went on to clarify his stance on a potential showdown between Nickal and Chimaev in the future, noting that his criticism doesn’t mean Nickal won’t ever be ready to fight ‘Borz.’ He just isn’t ready right now.

“People have already started to compare him to Khamzat Chimaev, how do they stack up, can he wrestle him, can he do this? I’m not saying he’s not ready for Khamzat because I don’t think he ever will be ready for Khamzat, right now he just isn’t,” Cormier added. “Bo Nickal has now seen the opposite side of fame. I wonder how he’s going to handle negativity coming his direction. I wasn’t negative.

“I have no problem with Bo Nickal. I believe he’s going to be fine. I don’t have a problem with the performance. I thought he fought really well, but there’s room for improvement. Everybody said it! Let’s just take our time. We don’t need to rush him, that’s all I’m saying.”

Bo Nickal Responds to Daniel Cormier’s Explanation

To Nickal’s credit, he was quick to squash any beef he had with Cormier after getting a detailed explanation from the former champ-champ.

“Absolutely agree,” Nickal said on X while sharing Cormier’s comments. “I have of room for improvement and I appreciate the clarification @dc_mma thank you.”

Alex Pereira’s Devastating Strikes Leave Opponent Blind in Title Bout

Blind or not, Khalil Rountree wasn’t about to throw in the towel against Alex Pereira. Much to the surprise…

Blind or not, Khalil Rountree wasn’t about to throw in the towel against Alex Pereira.

Much to the surprise of everyone, Rountree found himself with a shot at the reigning light heavyweight king at UFC 307 in Salt Lake City. Though the announcement left a lot of fans scratching their heads, there was no doubt that the two heavy hitters would deliver an absolutely banger in The Crossroads of the West.

And that’s exactly what they did.

For nearly four rounds, ‘Poatan’ and ‘The War Horse’ went toe-to-toe with each fighter landing some big blows on the other. But in the end, it was Pereira who would come out on top, battering and bloodying Rountree en route to a TKO with only 32 seconds left in the penultimate round.

Khalil Rountree Couldn’t see against Alex Pereira but he didn’t care

Looking back on their entertaining clash during an appearance on the JAXXON podcast with Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, Rountree revealed that at one point during the fight he was essentially blind after absorbing some of Pereira’s brutal strikes.

“I mean, in the moment, you don’t necessarily feel it. Like, for instance, in the fight where this cut happened, I got hit –boom,” Rountree said. “I knew I’d been hit hard because my vision started to blur a little. But the second one that landed, the one that actually split my eye, I literally thought, “I’m blind. But f*ck it, I’m gonna keep going.”

“I couldn’t see anything after that. I just saw light — no shadows, no detail. It was like someone put a frosted film over everything. I was like, ‘I can’t see. I’m f*cking blind.’ But whatever, I’m not giving up. The sensation, though — I didn’t feel anything. The adrenaline was too high. I knew my eye was messed up, but I thought, ‘I’ll deal with it later.’”

The loss snapped Rountree’s five-fight win streak while moving Pereira to 9-1 under the UFC banner.

Laura Sanko Gets Chills from UFC Talent Shavkat Rakhmonov

Laura Sanko’s admiration for undefeated finisher Shavkat Rakhmonov has been one of the more entertaining stories to come out…

Laura Sanko’s admiration for undefeated finisher Shavkat Rakhmonov has been one of the more entertaining stories to come out of the UFC in recent years.

It all started during the UFC 279 weigh-in show when Sanko exclaimed that the ‘Nomad’ gave her chills. More than her words, it was the delivery of said declaration that got everyone’s attention.

Things really started to heat up a few months later ahead of UFC 285 when Sanko appeared on the weigh-in show sporting a Kazakh Hat similar to the one Rakhomov wears to the Octagon. As Sanko curiously stroked the tail of the headwear and sang Rakhmonov’s praises, fans online went crazy, and an entire country instantly followed Sanko on Instagram.

Asked about Sanko’s comments during the UFC 285 media day, Rakhmonov acknowledged that he had seen the clip and found it quite humorous.

“Yes, of course. I saw that video,” Rakhmonov said through a translator when asked about the viral clip. “What can I say? As a man, you always like when a woman adores you. So…”

Sanko eventually did attempt to quell the rumors of her manufactured courtship with the welterweight star.

“Can we please address this? I don’t have a crush on the man. I like his fighting style,” Sanko said as she felt forced to clear the air. “An entire country thinks I do and I need to correct the record. Still a fan, I just don’t have a crush. The entire country of Kazakhstan is very excited about it because I got like 20,000 new followers after that day. No, I have a husband.”

Of course, that did little to kill the narrative that was already sweeping across social media.

Laura Sanko Admits She still gets chills from shavkat rakhmonov — and nothing else

Recently, Gabriel Gonzalez — the same MMA reporter who asked ‘Nomad’ about Sanko’s comments in March 2023 — caught up with the UFC color commentator and offered up an apology for his role in perpetuating the rumors.

“I almost forgot that you were responsible for that,” Sanko told Gonzalez. “You ask one question and the whole world lights on fire. I don’t know that you owe me an apology. You don’t owe me an apology. But it was certainly, um, it was really blown out of proportion. But that’s okay — I got quite a bit of Instagram following off of it.

“And I will say this: the Kazakh fans are absolutely amazing, and I’ve kind of fallen in love with this idea of Kazakhstan and its craziness for anything Shavkat-related.”

Though things may have gotten a little blown out of proportion — as Sanko stated — the former fighter admits to still getting chills when Rakhmonov puts his skills on display inside the Octagon, and she’s certainly not the only one.

“The internet — I’m not the only one that’s getting chills, guys. I’m not the only one that’s getting chills.”

Fortunately, Sanko and Rakhmonov’s home country won’t have to wait long to see ‘Nomad’ back in action. On Saturday, December 7, the 18-0 sensation returns to action for a potential welterweight title eliminator against fast-rising Irish star Ian Machado Garry at UFC 310 in Las Vegas.

Netflix Hit with $50 Million Class-Action Lawsuit Over Paul vs. Tyson Streaming Struggles

Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson was a massive success for Netflix, bringing in more than 108 million live viewers…

Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson was a massive success for Netflix, bringing in more than 108 million live viewers around the world. Unfortunately, a lot of those viewers weren’t actually able to watch the fight as it unfolded.

According to the website Downdetector, 500,000 complaints were lodged from people having streaming issues on Netflix long before Tyson and Paul were scheduled to make their walks for one of the most anticipated boxing matches of the last decade.

Adding insult to injury was Netflix’s social media channels which completely ignored the issues half a million people were experiencing.

Understandably frustrated, a Florida man named Ronald ‘Blue’ Denton filed a breach of contract lawsuit in Hillsborough County on Monday. TMZ was the first to report the lawsuit.

“60 million Americans were hyped to see ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson, ‘The Baddest Man on the Planet’ versus Youtuber-turner-prizefighter Jake Paul. What they saw was ‘The Baddest Streaming on Planet,’” reads the lawsuit.

The class-action suit is seeking more than $50 million, saying Netflix failed to deliver on the services it promised.

“Netflix customers experienced massive streaming issues and should have known better because it’s happened before. They were woefully ill-prepared,” the suit states (h/t FOX 5).

Netflix isn’t the only one catching heat following Paul vs. tyson

Of course, those who were able to watch the fight were left infuriated for a completely different reason.

Paul vs. Tyson failed to deliver the fireworks that both fighters had promised in the weeks leading up to their scrap. Instead of giving everyone a highlight-reel knockout, or even a spirited back-and-forth contest, the fight just sort of plodded along for eight rounds.

“They had no intentions to really scrap at all,” three-time Super Bowl champion Michael Irvin said on the It Is What It Is podcast. “If you look through that, I didn’t see one patented uppercut by Mike Tyson. What if Mike Tyson hit him with an uppercut? Then I heard some people talking about they put that in the contract. He couldn’t body and then uppercut. Like, how can you put that in a fight contract?

“You got all these people out here, and he couldn’t body him and do that patented uppercut. All of that is Mike Tyson is not Mike Tyson anyway, and now you taking away Mike Tyson’s best gift, which was that uppercut. Man, that’s a big lie to me. That’s like making me play a game without running a slant route in the deep end or the deep out. You do what you do best. If they take that away you not that dude anymore, and they took that away.”

Perhaps fight fans were better served by not being able to watch Paul vs. Tyson. Sadly, many of those same viewers also missed the epic rematch between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano in the evening’s co-main event.

Mikey Musumeci Details Injury That Nearly Ended His Career: “My Lung Would Have Collapsed.”

Mikey Musumeci shared the alarming details surrounding the injury that took him out of ONE Championship’s return to ‘The…

Mikey Musumeci shared the alarming details surrounding the injury that took him out of ONE Championship’s return to ‘The Mile High City’ in September.

Reigning as the ONE flyweight submission grappling world champion, Musumeci was scheduled to square off with ADCC and CJI Invitational winner Kade Ruotolo at ONE 168. Unfortunately, Ruotolo was forced to bow out of the bout after sustaining injuries during his $1 million run at the inaugural Craig Jones Invitational weeks earlier.

As a result, Musumeci was instead booked to defend his flyweight title against Bebeto Oliveira at the event. The only problem was, ‘Darth Rigatoni’ was never scheduled to defend his title. Instead, he was scheduled to move up three weight classes and challenge Ruotolo for his ONE lightweight submission grappling crown.

Mikey Musumeci flips the switch on Gabriel Sousa at ONE 167 scaled 1

With a new opponent and only a week to cut a whopping 35 pounds, Musumeci immediately got to work. Unfortunately, he’d never make it to fight night. Musumeci missed weight and was subsequently stripped of his flyweight title. Weeks later, he exited ONE Championship.

Appearing on The Ariel Helwani Show, Musumeci shed some light on the situation and revealed that he was suffering from a very rare and life threatening illness while trying to cut the weight for ONE 168.

“So, basically, they offered me another opponent at 178 pounds,” Musumeci said. “I had to be a minimum of, I believe, like 165 or 160-something, but I walk around a lot lighter. I couldn’t legally make that weight because of the Athletic Commission rules. I told them, ‘I can’t make that weight,’ so I preferred to just stick to my division.

“At the time, I was very light. I could’ve made 135 pounds, no problem. But then the lung injury happened, which none of us knew about at the time. I only had two days to make weight, whereas I usually need at least a week. The night before the match, at weigh-ins, I was 140 pounds hydrated. The fight was set at 135 pounds. That night, I sustained the injury, which turned out to be called pneumomediastinum.

“It’s when your lung tears, and air leaks into your throat. I was trying to sweat and kept telling my friends, ‘What is wrong with my throat? It feels so sore.’ It felt like crispy bubbles in my throat. We all thought I was just dehydrated or dizzy. But I knew something felt off.

“I also tried a different style of cutting weight since I had only two days,” Musumeci continued. “I drank a lot of electrolytes, thinking it would help with the hydration test. In ONE Championship, they use a gravity test to check the sodium level in your urine. If it’s above 1.0250, you fail hydration. I thought drinking electrolytes would keep my levels balanced. But when the lung issue happened, my body shut down. I couldn’t sweat anymore and became super dizzy. My urine had so much sodium from the electrolytes that I couldn’t flush it out, even after drinking three gallons of water. Everything got stuck in my stomach.

“At that point, I felt something was really wrong and decided to go to the hospital. It turned out I was incredibly lucky not to have fought. The doctor said my lung would have collapsed in one minute, and I could have died.”

Mikey Musumeci explains why he left ONE Championship

According to Musumeci, the condition usually accounts for one in every 42,000 hospital cases.

“I was there for three or four days,” Musumeci added. “When I left, I couldn’t elevate my heart rate or breathe heavily for two weeks. Even walking made me feel weird. It was scary.”

Musumeci being forced to cut so much weight in such a short span sparked outrage from fight fans who lambasted ONE Championship for putting the New Jersey native in an almost impossible situation and then proceeded to strip him of his ONE flyweight submission grappling title when he couldn’t hit the mark.

Explaining why he decided to leave ONE, Musumeci appeared to hold no animosity toward the organization or it’s CEO, Chatri Sityodtong, who he describes as a parental figure.

Mikey Musumeci shares his reasoning for leaving One Championship and accepting the unprecedented UFC deal. pic.twitter.com/ymqS1CdFH4

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) November 19, 2024

Musumeci has since signed a landmark deal with the UFC and is scheduled to make his debut at UFC Fight Pass Invitational 9 on December 5. ‘Darth Rigatoni’ will take on Felipe Machado at the event.

Jon Jones Bus Trip: Glover Teixeira Plays Hilarious Prank on Tom Aspinall Ahead of UFC 309

Glover Teixeira attempted to play a humorous prank on Tom Aspinall ahead of the UFC’s return to Madison Square…

Glover Teixeira attempted to play a humorous prank on Tom Aspinall ahead of the UFC’s return to Madison Square Garden on Saturday.

Undisputed UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones successfully defended his title in the evening’s main event, smashing his way through Stipe Miocic via a third-round TKO. Aspinall was on hand for the festivities and actually weighed in 24 hours earlier as the official backup for the fight should either ‘Bones’ or Miocic need to be replaced in the 11th hour.

As the backup, Aspinall was required to adhere to strict rules, including no consumption of alcohol up until Jones vs. Miocic actually got underway.

So, of course, Teixeira, who has been known to be a bit of a prankster alongside his friend and light heavyweight successor Alex Pereira, tried to play a little trick on the interim titleholder.

“Tom you know, they just call me,” Teixeira said with a smile. I just got a call, Jon Jones, he trip in the bus, you know? So don’t be drinking, okay?”

“I’m on the water [laughing]!. Top man,” Aspinall replied.

Considering Teixeira couldn’t mask his smile for even a moment, it wasn’t hard for Aspinall to sniff out the lie.

Luckily, the heavyweight headliner went off without a hitch and Aspinall even banked an extra 200k just for showing up and sitting in the stands. Following Jones’ big win, he left the door open for a title unification clash with Apsinall who has held the interim heavyweight belt since a 69-second knockout of Sergei Pavlovich last year.

Interestingly, Aspinall opened as a -135 favorite in a yet-to-be-announced scrap with the consensus GOAT of MMA.