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Jake Paul says he’s done with boxing, interested in MMA next

MixCollage 26 Jul 2024 01 26 PM 3046 After banking his 10th career win in boxing, Jake Paul wants to test out his skills in the world…

After banking his 10th career win in boxing, Jake Paul wants to test out his skills in the world of MMA.

In January 2023, ‘The Problem Child’ signed a deal with the Professional Fighters League to help the promotion launch its anticipated Super Fight series on pay-per-view. Since then, it’s been pretty much radio silent regarding Paul’s PFL debut, but it looks like the YouTube star may have finally found a dance partner for his big premiere in the Smart Cage.

Taking to social media following his sixth-round TKO against the BKFC’s undisputed ‘King of Violence’ Mike Perry in Tampa, Jake Paul revealed that the two have already agreed to run it back under the PFL banner “when the time is right.”

“Chopped it up with Mike Perry last night. What a stand up dude. More confidence than most of these fighters. We agreed to run it in PFL when the time is right,” Paul wrote on X.”

Asked about running it back with Perry in bare-knuckle, Paul made it clear that if he’s going to temporarily leave boxing behind, it’ll be for MMA, though he did leave the door open for a fight with ‘Platinum’ in the BKFC star’s new Dirty Boxing Championship promotion.

“If I’m stepping out of boxing, it’s going to be PFL,” Paul added. After that we can do Dirty Boxing.

Mike Perry Launches New Dirty Boxing Promotion

According to Perry, Dirty Boxing Championship will feature hybrid rules bouts that mix the striking of boxing with five-ounce gloves and limited ground-and-pound. Elbows and open-palm strikes will also be allowed according to Perry.

“This promotion has been in the works for over a year, and we started this because of my success in bare-knuckle,” Perry said at a press event. “I feel there that are many great fighters and athletes out there that would like to compete in something like this but don’t exactly want to compete in bare-knuckle and take the gloves off. There are a couple names that come to mind” (h/t MMA Fighting).

DBC bouts will be held in a smaller 18-foot ring and feature three three-minute rounds, with five rounds for championship fights.

Weigh classes are expected to mirror MMA’s traditional divisions with a launch date being targeted for September or October, though no official broadcast deal has been announced.

“I think this rule set is going to be the most exciting thing for the casual fan base that’s been put together,” said Josh McLean of Kanpai Media.

Sean Strickland compares Belal Muhammad to a terrorist

Sean Strickland may have taken things a little too far in his rivalry with UFC 304 headliner Belal Muhammad….

Sean Strickland may have taken things a little too far in his rivalry with UFC 304 headliner Belal Muhammad.

Crossing the line is pretty much Strickland’s official brand at this point, but fight fans weren’t exactly thrilled with his latest dig at Muhammad on social media.

“Belal looks like why I have to take my shoes off in airports…..” Strickland commented on Instagram.

While ‘Remember The Name’ hasn’t responded to the ill-advised comment, Strickland drew the ire of users on both Instagram and X, many of them condemning the “disgusting” statement.

“Sean Strickland implying Belal Muhammad is a terrorist simply because he’s Muslim. Disgusting & despicable behavior but I wouldn’t expect any less & you know a large swath of the MMA community will cheerlead this behavior,” one user wrote.

Another noted how Strickland had nothing to say about another Muslim fighter—Islam Makhachev—while sitting next to him during the UFC 302 press conference in June.

“It’s funny how Sean didn’t [say] anything like that when he was sitting next to Islam at the press conference. He went backstage and said it in one-on-one interviews.”

Sean Strickland and Belal Muhammad trade barbs following UFC P.I. encounter in 2023

Strickland and Muhammad have taken jabs back and forth over the years, but things seemed to escalate last year when ‘Tarzan’ shared a video online that featured Muhammad training in the background. Strickland labeled the top-ranked welterweight ‘thunder thumbs’ in the clip, which you can see below:

pic.twitter.com/RU1GBvtyTp

— Sean Strickland (@SStricklandMMA) May 31, 2023

Unenthused by Strickland’s antics, Belal Muhammad issued a response shortly after, telling the former middleweight champ that he’s simply “not that guy.”

“This guy’s trying to act tough again on social media. Looking for clout chasing, trying to get views for a podcast,” Muhammad said. “I offered to fight you. You turned it down. You putting out this video of you recording from a distance, muttering under your breath, thunder thumbs, which is not even clever. Your racist hillbilly fans are saying ‘Oh man you’re a beast’, ‘you’re a man’, look how crazy he is.

“But look at the distance. It’s like someone recording a lion in the wild. You stay at a safe distance. You don’t get into the danger zone. You didn’t get into the danger zone. Just stop this. You’re not that guy. You’re more of like an emo Peewee Herman.”

Strickland snapped back, welcoming a fight with Muhammad anytime, anywhere.

“Man, you guys believe this f*cking clown? Lmao ok p*ssy tomorrow 11am,” he wrote. “Gloves, no gloves idc….”

As far as we know, that encounter never happened, but if Belal Muhammad manages to defeat Leon Edwards for the welterweight title in Manchester, perhaps we’ll see Strickland move up and try to settle things with ‘Bully B’ inside the Octagon.

Curtis Blaydes opens up about his speech impediment ahead of UFC 304

Ahead of the biggest fight of his UFC career, Curtis Blaydes opened up about his speech impediment and the…

Ahead of the biggest fight of his UFC career, Curtis Blaydes opened up about his speech impediment and the impact it’s had on him.

Razor’ is set to challenge interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall in the UFC 304 co-main event in what will be his first shot at UFC gold since making his promotional debut eight years ago. Ahead of their highly anticipated title tilt at Co-op Live in Manchester, Blaydes looked back on his younger years growing up on the mean streets of Chicago where kids would often make fun of his speech disorder.

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“I never really saw myself as like a spokesman for speech impediments, but it was my dad… He also had a speech impediment,” Blaydes said during his UFC 304 media day appearance. “I got it from him. It’s hereditary. It’s not because of CTE. Let’s get that out there. I know I get asked that the most.

“I used to… Whenever people asked for my name, I used to go c…c…c… They’d look at me like, ‘Are you special? Do you not know how to pronounce your own name?’ It used to make me feel some type of way. Now I judge them. Are you that ignorant that you think that me as a grown man, I don’t know how to pronounce my own name? I have a speech impediment. I’ve gotten over it, but it took me a while.

“I was a kid in high school that wouldn’t raise my hand if I knew the answer. I was embarrassed. I didn’t want people to laugh and call that stuff. I just want those people who also have a speech impediment to know that if people are laughing at you, it doesn’t mean anything about you. It means a whole lot more about them and their character.“

At one point, Blaydes had considered a career as a history teacher but refrained from pursuing it, suggesting that the cruelty of kids played a role in his decision.

“Kids are mean. I can’t be in a classroom with them for eight hours,” Aspinall said in a prior interview with the New York Post. “There [are] so many people who just think, if you cannot speak…medically correct, that you’re not intelligent. Contrary to popular belief, a lot of us who have speech impediments are really, really intelligent.”

For what it’s worth, ‘Razor’ is doing pretty good with his chosen career.

Curtis Blaydes looks to go two-up on Tom Aspinall

Amassing an impressive 13-4 record inside the Octagon, Curtis Blaydes has bested some of the heavyweight division’s heaviest hitters over the years, including former world champions Andrei Arlovski and Junior dos Santos. He’s won four of his last five, earning wins over the likes of Jairzinho Rozenstruik, Chris Daukaus, Jailton Almeida, and his UFC 304 opponent, Tom Aspinall.

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Squaring off at a Fight Night event in London two years ago, Aspinall went down 15 seconds into their scrap due to a devastating knee injury. Aspinall has been chomping at the bit to run it back ever since.

He’ll finally get his wish on Saturday night when he becomes the first fighter in more than a decade to defend an interim title.

LIVE: Watch UFC 304 Weigh-Ins

Watch UFC 304 Weigh-Ins The UFC 304 weigh-ins show will begin at 9:50am ET / 6:50am PT, with the…

Watch UFC 304 Weigh-Ins

The UFC 304 weigh-ins show will begin at 9:50am ET / 6:50am PT, with the ceremonial UFC 304 show booked for 2pm ET / 11am PT, all on Friday July 26.

Watch the UFC 304 weigh ins live right here, to be featuring Leon Edwards, Tom Aspinall, Curtis Blaydes, Bobby King Green, Paddy Pimblett, Muhammad Mokaev, Manel Kape, Arnold Allen, Giga Chikadze and Belal Muhammad, among others.

The UFC 304 event is going down live from Machester, England scheduled for this Saturday night. For more live coverage keep it locked to Low Kick MMA. Also, see interviews with Paddy Pimblett. Plus, our watch guide, on how to watch the event in your specific country and timezone.

LIVE: Watch UFC 304 Weigh-Ins

Watch UFC 304 Weigh-Ins The UFC 304 weigh-ins show will begin at 9:50am ET / 6:50am PT, with the…

Watch UFC 304 Weigh-Ins

The UFC 304 weigh-ins show will begin at 9:50am ET / 6:50am PT, with the ceremonial UFC 304 show booked for 2pm ET / 11am PT, all on Friday July 26.

Alexander Volkanovski ready to be late replacement for Ilia Topuria vs. Max Holloway

Former UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski will be ready to step in on short notice if anything happens to…

Former UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski will be ready to step in on short notice if anything happens to either Ilia Topuria or Max Holloway.

Topuria is set to make his first defense of his featherweight title when he takes on Holloway, however, the fight has not been made official but both have hinted at it on social media. With Volkanovski not getting the title shot, he says he will be on standby and ready to fill in in case anything happens.

“It’s a situation obviously, again, I’m going to be getting antsy but you know, we’ve got plenty of good content coming. I’m going to, you know, I will stay ready and Ash [manager] ain’t going to like this one. I’ll be training really hard and fight fit cuz if there is a late notice, cuz that s*** excites me man, it gets me going but I’ll actually be ready for it this time. I’ll make sure I’m in good nick all year round because I want, so even me having that in my head that if you have to save the day here or there, it’s going to help in training, keep things exciting,” Volkanovski told TheMacLife (via MMANews).

It would make sense for Volkanovski to serve as a backup fighter for the featherweight title fight as he would likely be next in line to face the winner of Ilia Topuria vs. Max Holloway.

Alexander Volkanovski doubts UFC forced Holloway to face Topuria

Although the UFC has yet to officially announce the featherweight title fight between Ilia Topuria vs. Max Holloway, the champ took to social media to claim that the UFC had to force ‘Blessed’ to take the fight.

Topuria had said Holloway was trying to get out of fighting him, but Alexander Volkanovski doubts that was the case at all.

“Let’s be real, you’re not forcing Max to fight,” Volkanovski said to MMAFighting. “I think it’s common knowledge that Max wants to fight him and I think he wanted to fight him sooner rather than later. There’s holdups. I’m pretty sure there’s holdups, and I don’t think it’s on Max-I’m not trying to pick sides, I’m just stating facts. I’ve got nothing against Ilia, but you’re not forcing Max in this one. Let’s be real.”

Luckily, the fight is agreed to as Topuria vs. Holloway is one of the more highly-anticipated bouts to make this year.