Tag: News

With Belal Muhammad now reigning as the welterweight champion and his next challenger already lined up for the first quarter of 2025, it doesn’t look like Islam Makhachev will be making the jump to 170-pounds anytime soon. The pound-for-pound number one has spoken about wanting to challenge himself up a weight class many times.

Having fought and defeated Alexander Volkanovski, who was the featherweight champion at the time, on two occasions, Makhachev wanted his opportunity to try and win a second belt. Instead, he’s now gearing up for a rematch with Arman Tsarukyan in the near future.

One fighter that was very outspoken about the idea of Makhachev moving up was the former interim welterweight champion, Colby Covington. Given his trash talking public persona, a fight between him and the lightweight king would’ve been a huge fight.

He recently criticized Makhachev for going back on his plans during a recent interview with Submission Radio where he accused the champion, and Khabib Nurmagomedov, of being weight bullies who don’t commit to anything they say.

“Not really, you know. We saw the same thing with Khabib. He talked a big game his whole career, ‘Oh I’m going to go to 170, I’m going to stop cutting all this weight,’ because both those guys are legitimately cutting chromosomes off their bodies. Those guys are huge lightweights. I mean they’re bigger than me and I’m a weight class up so those guys are walking around at 190 plus, probably closer to 200. So, you know, they’re just weight bullies and that’s what they do best.

“They talk a big game like they’re going to come up to welterweight but they’ve never actually done it so if he wanted to come up and look for big fights, look no further than me. USA versus Russia, this is the biggest fight you could possibly get. I mean it’s a mega blockbuster fight but I think Islam’s all talk just like Khabib. They’re never actually going to come up to welterweight, they’re just going to stay at lightweight and throw stones from the lightweight division.”

Continue Reading Colby Covington: ‘Weight Bully’ Makhachev’s Champ-Champ Plans ‘All Talk’ Like Khabib at MMA News.

UFC bantamweight Miles Johns is preparing to face the biggest name of his UFC run to date when he returns to the Apex this weekend. At UFC Vegas 100, he will take on the former 135-pound champion, Cody Garbrandt.

Johns has been on a good run recently with three unanimous decision wins and a no contest against Dan Argueta in between. For his fight against Garbrandt, he intends on making use of the smaller Octagon inside the UFC facility.

He wants to put pressure on “No Love” and is expecting the former champion to try and counter strike off the backfoot, using his speed and footwork to circle around the outside of the cage. However, Johns believes that he can disrupt this by playing on his opponent’s tendencies.

We have seen a far more reserved version of Garbrandt in his recent fights with the likes of Deiveson Figueiredo, Brian Kelleher and Trevin Jones. When he was on his difficult run of results after losing the belt, he was more well known for getting into firefights but it wasn’t working in his favor.

Therefore, Johns told MMA Junkie in a recent interview that he believes he can try to bait Garbrandt to stray from a more patient style if he is able to pressure him and play on his emotions. He wants to bring out the old version of the former champion who would often throw strategy out of the window and engage in a kill or be killed approach.

“I’m expecting for him to crack back but I think that if I get him up against the wall and I start putting some heat on him, he’s not going to like that and I want to make it an exciting fight. I want a fight that the fans have fun watching and that they enjoy so we’ll see what happens. Hopefully, I also know he’s a little bit emotional so if he’s waiting a little bit and I tell him like, ‘Come on man, what we waiting on? Let’s get this thing popping.’ I think that he will oblige but we’ll see.”

Continue Reading Cody Garbrandt’s Next Opponent Believes He Can Force Him Out Of His Gameplan: ‘He’s A Little Bit Emotional’      at MMA News.

UFC featherweight champion Ilia Topuria cemented his reign as the best in the weight class by defending the belt for the first time at UFC 308. After doing what he said he would do and becoming the first man to knock out Max Holloway, he’s becoming harder to deny.

“El Matador” has got a proven track record at this stage for making his goals come true and if that’s going to continue being the case, we’re in for an all-time great UFC run. Having stopped two of the greatest champions in UFC history in back-to-back fights, the champion wants more belts.

Topuria has spoken many times about his goal to not only move up to lightweight but to one day compete at welterweight also. Following his impressive display in Abu Dhabi, the intrigue of seeing him go up against the 155-pound king Islam Makhachev certainly increased.

During a recent episode of the Weighing In podcast, Josh Thomson and “Big” John McCarthy discussed this fight and how they think it would play out. Thomson, who previously trained with Makhachev at AKA, does not think it would go well for Topuria.

Instead, he believes that the 145-pound champion should stay in his weight class where several contenders await him. Considering how quickly he rose to the top of the division, following his likely rematch with Alexander Volkanovski next time out, there’s still other challenges like Diego Lopes or the winner of Movsar Evloev vs Aljamain Sterling for him to attend to.

Thomson said that in his opinion, he thinks Topuria should stay put for the time being so that he can continue to beat opponents at his natural weight class before going for a second belt.

“You’ve just dominated two of the best guys that have ever graced that weight class. If I was to say hey, make your easy money, and I’m not saying these guys are easy fights. They’re not easy fights but I’m saying they’re not going to get easier going up so why not just stay where you’re at, cash out as much as you possible can on these type fights, guys that you’re comfortable fighting. You’ve been training your whole life to fight at this weight class.”

Continue Reading MMA Analyst Urges Ilia Topuria To Stay At Featherweight: ‘Make Your Easy Money!’ at MMA News.

The heavyweight division has been one of the major talking points across the MMA world in 2024. Whether it’s the conversation surrounding Jon Jones’ upcoming UFC title defense against Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 or the recent PFL debut of Francis Ngannou.

After Ngannou’s triumphant return to MMA last month where he stopped Renan Ferreira at PFL’s Battle of the Giants, this then prompted the question as to whether he’s still the best fighter in his weight class.

The former UFC champion wasn’t beaten for his title because he vacated it when parting ways with the promotion at the start of last year. This debate becomes a lot more interesting because many fight fans would make the case for a UFC heavyweight other than Jones being the top guy in the promotion right now.

Interim titleholder Tom Aspinall also has to be in the conversation which includes Ferreira to varying degrees based on who you ask. In a recent interview with Inside Fighting, one of the competitors in this weight class gave his thoughts on the top of the division.

ONE Championship athlete Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida is a submission grappling icon who after going 4-1 in his transition to MMA, is finally back at ONE 169 to try and regain the momentum he had before suffering his first defeat last time out.

He believes that despite the fact that we’ve only see him compete at heavyweight on just one occasion, the best is still “Bones”.

“I think not putting Jon Jones as first one, I think it’s hard. I think for sure is the number one.”

Almeida then ranked the rest of his top four but surprisingly didn’t include Aspinall in his current heavyweight Mount Rushmore. He instead picked the current ONE heavyweight champion Anatoly Malykhin, who also holds belts in ONE at light heavyweight and middleweight.

“Number second I would say between Renan Ferreira and Francis and Anatoly. Those three guys are there. Francis just won the fight so I think he deserves to be still on the top position after that, Renan. He’s doing crazy things in this sport. He won the PFL tournament, he beat Ryan Bader from Bellator and just did the fight with Francis so I think he’s there too like number three. Number four, Anatoly, of course it’s hard to put like a rank like that but for sure these four guys I think would be my four favorites for sure.”

Continue Reading Heavyweight Contender Ranks His Top Four In The Weight Class, Excludes Tom Aspinall at MMA News.

Erin Blanchfield returns this weekend to try and get back on the right path following a tough result last time out. The #3-ranked flyweight faces Rose Namajunas in the co-main event in Edmonton on Saturday night.

Following a six-fight winning streak inside the Octagon, many had high hopes that Blanchfield’s incredible rise would lead to her fighting for a title. The 25-year old came into her last fight against Manon Fiorot knowing that these were the stakes hanging over the fight.

Her bout against the French striker showed that for how exciting the new contender is right now, she still has some key areas to work on. She was convincingly beaten by Fiorot who won every round on all three of the scorecards.

Though losing any fight is always a difficult moment to overcome, Blanchfield told Shakiel Mahjouri in a recent interview that her mindset helps her to take lessons from these experiences and move forward. She said that approaching these setbacks in the same way that she would when she was competing as a kid helps to put them into perspective.

We will find out this Saturday night whether she’s able to put those lessons into practice against the former two-time strawweight champion.

“I feel like the last time I lost, I went on a huge winning streak like previous to this fight so I know I can, I’ve been training my whole life. I’ve won a lot, I’ve lost a lot as a kid so I feel like I’ve learned how to deal with losses pretty well and really how to grow from them and not like let them stunt you. I think some people kind of get into that rhythm. It’s still a sport at the end of the day and it’s still kind of like following that same mindset as like a kid like oh, you just get better, you just keep training and improve so once I was over the initial like sucking of losing, I was definitely ready to go back in the gym.”

Continue Reading Erin Blanchfield Explains How She Overcame One-Sided First UFC Loss at MMA News.

Erin Blanchfield returns this weekend to try and get back on the right path following a tough result last time out. The #3-ranked flyweight faces Rose Namajunas in the co-main event in Edmonton on Saturday night.

Following a six-fight winning streak inside the Octagon, many had high hopes that Blanchfield’s incredible rise would lead to her fighting for a title. The 25-year old came into her last fight against Manon Fiorot knowing that these were the stakes hanging over the fight.

Her bout against the French striker showed that for how exciting the new contender is right now, she still has some key areas to work on. She was convincingly beaten by Fiorot who won every round on all three of the scorecards.

Though losing any fight is always a difficult moment to overcome, Blanchfield told Shakiel Mahjouri in a recent interview that her mindset helps her to take lessons from these experiences and move forward. She said that approaching these setbacks in the same way that she would when she was competing as a kid helps to put them into perspective.

We will find out this Saturday night whether she’s able to put those lessons into practice against the former two-time strawweight champion.

“I feel like the last time I lost, I went on a huge winning streak like previous to this fight so I know I can, I’ve been training my whole life. I’ve won a lot, I’ve lost a lot as a kid so I feel like I’ve learned how to deal with losses pretty well and really how to grow from them and not like let them stunt you. I think some people kind of get into that rhythm. It’s still a sport at the end of the day and it’s still kind of like following that same mindset as like a kid like oh, you just get better, you just keep training and improve so once I was over the initial like sucking of losing, I was definitely ready to go back in the gym.”

Continue Reading Erin Blanchfield Explains How She Overcame One-Sided First UFC Loss at MMA News.