Salahdine Parnasse Continues His Reign of Dominance with ANOTHER Title Defense

Salahdine Parnasse Continues His Reign of Dominance with ANOTHER Title DefenseKSW lightweight champion Salahdine Parnasse impressively retained his title at the promotion’s final event of 2024. Parnasse delivered another…

Salahdine Parnasse Continues His Reign of Dominance with ANOTHER Title Defense

KSW lightweight champion Salahdine Parnasse impressively retained his title at the promotion’s final event of 2024.

Parnasse delivered another dominant showing atop the KSW 101: Le Classique card inside París La Défense Arena in France, scoring a destructive ground-and-pound TKO against Wilson Varela, snapping his opponents’ six-fight unbeaten streak.

Parnasse caught Varela with a right cross early in the second stanza and promptly bounced on him, reigning down strikes until the referee was forced to step in and call for the stoppage at the one-minute mark of the round.

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With the win, Parnasse moved to 12-2 under the KSW banner and 20-2 overall with a 65% finish rate, including five knockouts and seven submissions.

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Salahdine Parnasse re-signed with KSW after receiving lowball offer from the UFC

Parnasse re-signed with KSW in June after fielding offers from other organizations, including the UFC. However, Parnasse’s coach and manager, Stéphane Chaufourier revealed that the UFC’s offer was significantly less than what he was offered to stay with the Poland-based promotion.

“The seesaw is huge,” Chaufourier told RMC Sport. “You should know that I won’t give figures but we had very, very good proposals. We earn two and a half times what we used to earn. So it’s just huge. It’s largely in the six figures, yes, of course. The UFC was between 20 and 30 times less” (h/t MMA Mania).

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In the end, Parnasse just wants to fight the best possible opponents available but that doesn’t mean he’s willing to go back to a life of financial instability to do it.

“I want to fight the best, that’s normal, so I’ll end up facing the best fighters,” Parnasse said. “I’ve never chosen a fight in my life, I’ve always fought to make a living. Basically, I worked as a plumber at the town hall of Aubervilliers, and at the same time, I played sports. I continue in this way except that now I don’t have to continue working and I also do this sport to support myself.

“It’s my personal life. It’s a combat sport, it’s a difficult sport and I was still working at the town hall three years ago when I was trying to find stability. Now if I go back to the UFC, I’ll have to work again (laughs) so… But it’s the truth, it’s a truth. Whereas now I can live fully from my sport and I’m very happy, very happy like that. I’m ready to face any opponent I’m offered.”

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Cristiano Ronaldo Signs Jerseys for Francis Ngannou Ahead of Usyk vs. Fury 2

Cristiano Ronaldo Signs Jerseys for Francis Ngannou Ahead of Usyk vs. FuryFormer UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou scored him some autographed swag after having dinner with football icon Cristiano Ronaldo….

Cristiano Ronaldo Signs Jerseys for Francis Ngannou Ahead of Usyk vs. Fury

Former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou scored him some autographed swag after having dinner with football icon Cristiano Ronaldo.

In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to take in Saturday’s highly anticipated rematch between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury at Kingdom Arena, Ngannou revealed in a social media post that he not only had dinner with Ronaldo but also walked away with a handful of autographed jerseys courtesy of ‘CR7.’

Earlier this year, Ronaldo sat cageside at the PFL Battle of the Giants pay-per-view to witness Ngannou’s long-awaited return to mixed martial arts against heavyweight knockout artist Renan Ferreira.

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Ronaldo Offered Francis Ngannou a few words of encouragement ahead of PFL debut

According to Ngannou’s coach Eric Nicksick, ‘El Bicho’ was sitting backstage at one point and insisted on giving ‘The Predator’ a few words of encouragement just before he made his way to the Smart Cage.

“He was so cool and super down to earth,” Nicksick told MMA Junkie. “He was a super cool guy and actually a huge fighting fan, so he had a bunch of questions, he was talking to me about [Sean] Strickland, this and that, whatever fight it was. He was really down to earth and then at one point Francis got up to wrap his hands, and Ronaldo was kind of talking about how he could feel Francis’ energy, and he goes, ‘I’m just going to give him words of encouragement…’

“He was talking about the loss of one of his children and kind of how he related to that and things like that. It was kind of cool. I know how big of a star he is, but sitting next to me and having this very personal conversation made him feel like he was part of the team right then and there. His son was in there with us and hanging out so it was a very much welcomed energy to have in the room. Especially someone of that stature who understands the highest of pressure, so it was cool and he was a great guy” (h/t Bloody Elbow).

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Ngannou ended up scoring a dominant first-round TKO against Ferreria in his PFL debut — an especially impressive feat when you consider that he hadn’t competed inside a cage in nearly three years.

What’s next for Ngannou remains to be seen, but ‘The Predator’ has left the door open for a return to boxing despite going 0-2 with back-to-back losses against Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.

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Manel Kape vs. Brandon Royval Booked for UFC Flyweight Title Eliminator on March 1

Manel Kape vs. Brandon Royval Booked for UFC Flyweight Title Eliminator on March 1Manel Kape and Brandon Royval are set for a scrap on March 1 to determine flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja’s…

Manel Kape vs. Brandon Royval Booked for UFC Flyweight Title Eliminator on March 1

Manel Kape and Brandon Royval are set for a scrap on March 1 to determine flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja’s next challenger.

Kape scored an impressive third-round knockout against Bruno Silva at the promotion’s final event of 2024. Having won five of his last six, ‘Starboy’ is on the cusp of his first shot at UFC gold. To get there, he’ll have to go through Royval per a report from AG Fight.

According to the report, Kape and Royval will square off on March 1 when the UFC heads back to The APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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After seeing his four-fight win streak snapped at the hands of the recently released Muhammad Mokaev, Kape bounced back in a big way against Silva at UFC Tampa. Through two rounds, ‘Starboy’ delivered a dominant performance accompanied by a healthy amount of trash talk and showboating before finishing Silva just under the two-minute mark of the third round.

Kape goes into the title eliminator sporting a 5-3 record inside the Octagon, 20-7 overall, and is the sixth-ranked contender in the flyweight division.

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Brandon Rovyal earn a third crack at Pantoja with a win over Manel Kape

Standing across from ‘Starboy’ this spring will be Brandon Royval, a former UFC title challenger coming off an impressive performance against Tatsuro Taira at a Fight Night event in October.

Like Kape, Royval has won five of his last six and is currently sitting on back-to-back wins over Taira and former flyweight titleholder Brandon Moreno. ‘Raw Dog’ also holds victories over Tim Elliott, Kai Kara-France, and Matheus Nicolau. Royval has already gone toe-to-toe with Pantoja on two separate occasions — once before and once after ‘The Cannibal’ claimed the 125-pound crown.

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Royval came up short on both occasions, the most recent being their flyweight title tilt at UFC 296. Pantoja earned a decisive unanimous decision victory and has since followed that up with wins against Steve Erceg and two-time RIZIN FF bantamweight champion Kai Asakura.

Royval is currently sitting as the No. 1 ranked contender in the division and holds a 7-3 record in the UFC, 17-7 overall.

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Heather Hardy’s Fight Beyond the Ring: Battling Brain Damage and Boxing’s Broken System

Heather Hardy’s Fight Beyond the Ring: Battling Brain Damage and Boxing’s Broken SystemHeather Hardy put everything she had into fighting. Now she’s paying the price for it. Despite being a relatively…

Heather Hardy’s Fight Beyond the Ring: Battling Brain Damage and Boxing’s Broken System

Heather Hardy put everything she had into fighting. Now she’s paying the price for it.

Despite being a relatively small and unassuming woman out of Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn, ‘The Heat’ was one of boxing’s most fierce females. While some MMA fans may remember her run under the Bellator banner, it was inside the squared circle where she truly shined, building an impressive 24-3 record and capturing the WBC world featherweight championship.

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Sadly, Heather Hardy’s career came to a crashing halt in August 2023 after going 10 rounds with former undisputed light-welterweight queen Amanda Serrano. Immediately following their fight, Hardy knew that something was seriously wrong.

“My vision was split, and double, and bloody,” Hardy said in an interview with Hamilton Nolan. “Sometimes that happens after sparring, you get a headache, but now it had lasted two days. So I went for the MRI, because fighters know that’s when you go to the doctor. You have health insurance for 30 days [after a fight]. So I went, I got my MRI, I went to the eye doctor. That’s when they told me that I can’t get hit in the head, ever.

“There was swelling, likely around the optic nerve. There’s a lot of research that was done with fighters who’ve lost their sight, and the things that happen with those kind of traumas, combined with multiple concussions. They explained that every time you get a concussion, a piece of your brain dies, and you just go on living without it. And I’ve had too much dead brain.”

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Before getting the diagnosis that would end her career in an instant, Heather Hardy had planned on competing in three different sports in 2024, including a bare-knuckle fight and a potential mixed martial arts bout with Serrano.

“By February of 2024 I had decided I needed to do this bare knuckle fight,” Hardy continued. “And by April 11, I had the diagnosis that I could never get hit in the head again. And it wasn’t until September that I got health insurance and got my own MRI. Because for all that time, the commission was just sending me to the eye doctor. And that doctor was so nice, but he kept saying, ‘It’s not your eyes, it’s your brain.’ They were slapping glasses on my face.

“Let me tell you, CTE is a real thing. TBIs, traumatic brain injuries, are a real thing. I was leaving messages, asking for a therapist. Because I kept saying, when you think of CTE and people getting really angry—like Aaron Hernandez killed those people. He also killed himself. You know, you get very angry, and then very sad. I kept on saying that I was the First Lady of Brooklyn boxing. I’m the First Lady of brain damage.

“Look at me, study me, help me! Like, do something for me. They had wanted to send me to some Cleveland Clinic in Vegas, where they weren’t even going to help me. They just wanted to take notes. And it just felt like, am I even a person? Is this real life?

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Hardy received no help from the Association of Boxing Commissions, leaving her little option for medical treatment. Fortunately, she was able to get help through NYU Langone, one of the nation’s premier academic medical centers.

“When I got hurt, I wasn’t getting any help from the boxing commission,” Hardy said. “Because I didn’t have health insurance, I didn’t get the MRI. I wasn’t aware that all I needed to do was pay $1,200 and I could have got it. NYU Langone saved my life. They gave me an MRI, they gave me a therapist, they gave me a regular doctor, they gave me an OB-GYN.

“They’re gonna help me file for disability. I can’t work. I can’t concentrate. I have to smoke [weed] just to kind of relax my face. I have no peripheral vision. I have serious PTSD. And having no peripheral vision, if you can imagine, it’s my brain, not my eyes. So my brain didn’t understand that I couldn’t see anymore.”

Hardy revealed that she was eventually classified as disabled, noting that she can’t be outside for more than a few hours each day before it affects her vision — an affliction that makes it very difficult for her to continue training the next generation of talent at Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn where she originally cut her teeth.

“Physically, the results of the brain injury, I have an official letter of disability from multiple doctors,” she said. “Because between the PTSD, I can’t even begin to tell you the physical stuff—I’m in bad shape. But I will say I’m in a safe place. So I’m feeling okay. I’m on the mend. I have about four outside hours a day before my eyes hurt.

“The only time I go outside is to teach my girls. I come to Gleason’s. It’s like a mental health check… it’s hard for me to hold pads, but all of my girls have kind of huddled around to make sure mom can get through four hours of work.”

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Heather Hardy Wouldn’t change a damn thing

Asked what she believes the sport of boxing could do to prevent more fighters from ending up in her position, Heather Hardy had a hard time coming up with an answer.

The only thing she knows for sure is that nobody should have to go through the pain and suffering that she has and continues to experience on a daily basis.

“I don’t know what I deserve,” Hardy admitted. “A lot of people, you know, you don’t get your flowers until you’re dead. I’m fine with that. My daughter will be at the service one day. I know what I did. I don’t know what the sport of boxing could have done different, but I know that the First Lady of Brooklyn boxing, the First Lady of DiBella Entertainment, never should have spent 2024 the way I did.”

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As for whether or not she would do it all over again, Hardy didn’t hesitate to answer that question.

“Everybody asked me, ‘Would you do it again?’ I would not do a single thing different,” Hardy said. “Because nobody ever did it before. So who the f*ck is gonna tell me I did it wrong, or I should have did it another way? Nobody did the sh*t I did. They said, ‘No Heather, you can’t do it.’ I said, ‘Got it. I can’t do it? Let me show you how I can.’

“I won a world f*cking title on HBO. What? I’m a little beach rat. If I can do that, I can f*cking do anything.”

“Disgusting” Colby Covington Vows American Justice: I’ll Smash Gilbert Burns for Leaking Uncle Chael’s Number

"Disgusting" Colby Covington Vows American Justice: I’ll Smash Gilbert Burns for Leaking Uncle Chael’s NumberColby Covington is coming to the defense of fellow three-time UFC title challenger Chael Sonnen. ‘The American Gangster’ was…

"Disgusting" Colby Covington Vows American Justice: I’ll Smash Gilbert Burns for Leaking Uncle Chael’s Number

Colby Covington is coming to the defense of fellow three-time UFC title challenger Chael Sonnen.

‘The American Gangster’ was in Covington’s corner at the UFC’s final event of 2024 in Tampa. Now ‘Chaos’ is ready to return the favor by putting a beating on welterweight standout Gilbert Burns who leaked Sonnen’s number on social media.

In a recent video on his YouTube channel, Sonnen claimed that Burns was retired from the sport. ‘Durinho’ didn’t appreciate the comment and made Sonnen pay by posting his personal phone number on X. As a result, Sonnen received a slew of calls from excited fight fans hoping to have a word with the man from West Linn, Oregon.

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While Sonnen took the whole thing in stride, Covington found it to be downright “despicable” and issued a challenge to Burns.

“That’s disgusting, man, that’s despicable, that’s not right man, that’s really messed up,” Covington said. “Now he’s getting tons of people calling him with stupid sh*t and calling him with stupid pranks, it’s a security concern… What are we, in high school? That’s really messed up that Gilbert did that to Uncle Chael.

“I said, ‘Hey Uncle Chael if you want me to handle that inside the Octagon, I will get justice for us, I will get justice on Gilbert’s f*cking face, I will make sure he never shows his face in America ever again, that’s how badly I’d beat him” (h/t Bloody Elbow).

‘Durinho’ Responds to Colby Covington’s Call Out

Burns has since responded to Covington’s call out, agreement to meet him inside the Octagon this spring — assuming ‘Chaos’ actually signs the contract.

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“Miami April! Just [sign] the contract! I know you not showing up!” Burns wrote in response.

With Burns sitting as the No. 8 ranked contender in the division and Covington dropping to ninth following his lopsided loss to Joaquin Buckley, a fight between the two makes a lot of sense from a rankings perspective.

Both fighters would also enter the bout in desperate need of a win, adding another interesting wrinkle to their potential showdown.

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Exclusive | Abdullah Al-Qahtani: Saudi Arabia’s MMA Pioneer Inspired by Badr Hari

Abdullah Al-Qahtani Badr HariAbdullah Al-Qahtani made history on November 29, 2024, by winning the PFL MENA Featherweight Championship in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia….

Abdullah Al-Qahtani Badr Hari

Abdullah Al-Qahtani made history on November 29, 2024, by winning the PFL MENA Featherweight Championship in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The 26-year-old fighter defeated Marouane Bellagouit by TKO in the first round, securing his place as one of the top names in MMA. With this victory, Al-Qahtani improved his professional record to 10-2, earning both the championship belt and a $100,000 prize.

Abdullah Al-Qahtani

This PFL MENA title was the culmination of years of hard work. “Oh, it’s perfect,” Abdullah Al-Qahtani told me in a conversation. “I worked for this, and now I got my belt. This is what I wanted from the beginning of my journey. I wanted something big.”

Badr Hari

Raised in Saudi Arabia with Moroccan roots, Al-Qahtani was inspired by the legendary kickboxer Badr Hari, a household name in Morocco. As a child, he would watch Hari on YouTube and TV, marveling at his knockout power. “When I saw Badr Hari, I thought, ‘This guy is huge!’” Al-Qahtani said. “I wanted to be like him.” What Badr Hari did for combat sports in Morocco, Al-Qahtani is looking to do the same in Saudi Arabia alongside the PFL.

Badr Hari

Looking ahead, Al-Qahtani is already planning his next steps. He’s excited for the future and eager to represent Saudi Arabia on the global stage. “I don’t just want to be a normal fighter,” he said. “I want to be someone people look up to.”

Abdullah Al Qahtani
Photo By Tim Wheaton

Interview with Abdullah Al-Qahtani