UFC Betting Sites – The Best MMA Online Bookies
UFC best betting sites and the best MMA odds and gambling news
UFC Hall of Famer Vitor Belfort has been pumping iron ahead of his ONE Championship debut. Back in May 2018, Belfort took on Lyoto Machida in what was supposed to be “The Phenom’s” final bout. After suffering a knockout loss, Belfort …
UFC Hall of Famer Vitor Belfort has been pumping iron ahead of his ONE Championship debut. Back in May 2018, Belfort took on Lyoto Machida in what was supposed to be “The Phenom’s” final bout. After suffering a knockout loss, Belfort took off his gloves and announced his retirement. It didn’t take long for the […]
The post Video: Vitor Belfort Looks Jacked Ahead Of ONE Championship Debut appeared first on MMA News.
Mixed martial arts promotion One Championship announced plans to resume its major events July 31 with a show in Bangkok. Three fights are slated for the card. According to the Associated Press (via ESPN…
Mixed martial arts promotion One Championship announced plans to resume its major events July 31 with a show in Bangkok. Three fights are slated for the card. According to the Associated Press (via ESPN…
ONE Championship welterweight Cosmo Alexandre scored one of the knockouts of the year in 2019 with his brutal first-round stoppage of Sage Northcutt at ONE: Enter The Dragon. It attracted plenty of media attention at the time. It also left Northcutt requiring immediate facial surgery as well as an extensive recovery period, which is only […]
ONE Championship welterweight Cosmo Alexandre scored one of the knockouts of the year in 2019 with his brutal first-round stoppage of Sage Northcutt at ONE: Enter The Dragon.
It attracted plenty of media attention at the time. It also left Northcutt requiring immediate facial surgery as well as an extensive recovery period, which is only now coming to an end. When talking about the fight recently with South China Morning Post, Alexandre questioned what made Northcutt take the fight, given what he had going on in other fields.
“I don’t wanna hurt nobody. The way it happened, I don’t know why he was fighting. He doesn’t need to fight – he was doing some movies already, working as an actor. I don’t know, it’s hard to say because if it is in his heart to be a fighter, I can’t say anything. But in his position I wouldn’t fight, I wouldn’t,” Alexandre said, speaking to SCMP.
At 38-years-old Alexandre is a combat sports veteran with over a decade of professional experience under his belt, so to a certain extent, he understands Northcutt’s sporting ambitions but, as the Brazilian points out, if the roles were reversed and he was being offered similar opportunities, you can bet he would be taking them.
“For me it’s easy to say that because I have 104 fights in just kick-boxing and Muay Thai so I’m kinda tired – ‘Oh, I have to travel again, cut weight, train hard’. For me to say that, ‘Oh no, you just need to stop fighting’, it’s easy to say that. But he has like 10 fights? Of course, he wants to fight more, that’s kinda normal. I wouldn’t fight if I had the opportunities he has, working in the movies, doing all this stuff. But for me I have had more than 105 fights so for me it’s easy to say [that].”
Fans could have expected that after such an impressive performance, Alexandre would have been back competing almost immediately, especially since it took him less than a minute to defeat Northcutt.
However, following his win over Northcutt, the Brazilian has been working on getting a better contract with ONE and with the sides struggling to reach an agreement, fans were starting to wonder when they would next see Alexandre fighting again.
The issue came to a head recently after Alexandre tweeted about his frustrations. Thankfully, this reignited negotiations and a breakthrough was achieved.
“Last Saturday I talked to Chatri, I had a meeting with him, it was kind of a good talk. I see the problem is the company is growing fast and it’s really big now, it’s huge. So sometimes it’s hard to talk straight to him, so he tried to fix my situation.
“Of course, it’s about money, about my purse, and we got a deal now, but I’m just waiting to sign the contract. I’m waiting for them to send it to me. I was one year without a fight because I didn’t want to fight for the same purse, my contract wasn’t good. We are trying to fix that,” Alexandre said.
Now that he has a new contract on the way, Alexandre will hopefully be back competing under the ONE banner in the near future.
Are you excited about seeing Alexandre fighting again?
ONE Championship is back and will hold its first major event since February on Friday, July 31. The card which is called ONE: No Surrender, will take place in Bangkok, Thailand. ONE CEO, Chatri Sityodtong, announced the news today on his Facebook page. So far, there has been no announcement regarding who will be competing, […]
ONE Championship is back and will hold its first major event since February on Friday, July 31. The card which is called ONE: No Surrender, will take place in Bangkok, Thailand. ONE CEO, Chatri Sityodtong, announced the news today on his Facebook page.
ONE Championship is BACK!
After a successful ONE Hero Series 13 and 14 in China last weekend, ONE Championship will…
Posted by Chatri Sityodtong on Friday, June 26, 2020
So far, there has been no announcement regarding who will be competing, but due to the location of the card, it will likely feature a host of Thai fighters, which is a good sign for stand-up fans.
The news will come as a relief for the promotion’s fighters who have been itching to return to action. Hopefully, today’s announcement will soon be followed up with further news about the company’s plans for future events following ONE: No Surrender.
Are you excited about ONE’s return?
ONE lightweight champion Christian Lee has not given up on his dream of capturing featherweight gold, despite his success at lightweight. Lee had a banner year in 2019. In May, the 21-year-old stopped Japanese veteran Shynia Aoki to claim the lightweight strap, before adding another belt to his collection five months later after defeating Dagestan’s […]
ONE lightweight champion Christian Lee has not given up on his dream of capturing featherweight gold, despite his success at lightweight.
Lee had a banner year in 2019. In May, the 21-year-old stopped Japanese veteran Shynia Aoki to claim the lightweight strap, before adding another belt to his collection five months later after defeating Dagestan’s Saygid Guseyn Arslanaliev to become the promotions inaugural lightweight Grand Prix Champion. However, Lee still feels he has unfinished business at featherweight. A division currently ruled over by the one man to have gotten the best of Lee, Martin Nguyen.
“For me, featherweight is where I started my career, and I don’t feel like it is right to leave that division before claiming that belt, ” Lee said, speaking to LowKickMMA.
” I definitely plan on winning that featherweight belt before I move on, but the fight I want is with Martin Nguyen. He has dominated that division; he has taken out everyone in his path so far. He has done a great job of it, so that is the fight I want. I see him staying champ for quite a while longer, so I think that we will see a fight between the two us within the near future.”
The pair have fought twice before with Nguyen, emerging the winner on both occasions. The last time they met was in 2018 in Singapore at ONE: Unstoppable Dreams, with Nguyen, getting his hand raised via a split decision victory. The fight was more a slow burn than the attacking extravaganza fans had anticipated. Still, Lee sees a third meeting between the pair being the polar opposite of their last outing.
“I see the fight playing out completely different than that second time we met in the cage,” Lee explained.
“The reason that fight was so close is because I went in there with no sparring. The whole eight weeks of that camp, I wasn’t able to spar a single time because, in a previous fight against Kazunori Yokota, I broke my thumb. They [ONE] offered me the fight while I was in a cast. They said, ‘you got a featherweight title shot do you want to take it?’ so as a young kid, I was excited I took the shot.
“So when I went in the cage, I was in the best shape of my life, but I didn’t have my timing my range I didn’t have all of these things that are essential in preparing for a world title match. That’s why my game was so different, that’s why it ended up such an underwhelming performance, and so I am very disappointed with the outcome of that match.
“I know that both of us as fighters were going in there to finish each other. I think it is only right to make things right, and we take another match and finish it right this time.”
Lee and Nguyen both have title defenses scheduled for their next bouts, so depending on when ONE returns a third meeting between the pair would be unlikely to happen until 2021. The Singapore-based promotion is still unable to hold events, leaving its fighters playing a waiting game regarding when they will be able to compete. Lee may be unsure as to when ONE will be back, but he predicts some major fight announcements once the show starts again.
“The way ONE Championship works they like to do it big, and so I am sure that whenever we start up again it’s going to be a string of huge world title fights, super fights and it’s going to be exciting. “
Who would you pick between if Lee and Nguyen fought for a third time?
The gas tank is full; the tools are sharp. What ONE Lightweight Champion Christian Lee needs now is a date, location, and opponent. ONE Championship is still waiting for the green light to return, but when it does get the all-clear, expect to see Lee back in the mix ASAP. Based out of Hawaii, Lee […]
The gas tank is full; the tools are sharp. What ONE Lightweight Champion Christian Lee needs now is a date, location, and opponent. ONE Championship is still waiting for the green light to return, but when it does get the all-clear, expect to see Lee back in the mix ASAP.
Based out of Hawaii, Lee is fortunate enough to be surrounded by both his coach and gym partners, meaning when it comes to training, he hasn’t missed a beat during this period of global lockdown.
“Thankfully, my whole team consists of my family. I got my dad here coaching me, Angela [Lee] and Bruno [Pucci] are here in the gym every day with me. So between our family alone, we got a good mix of people so we can continue building our skills but also continue staying in the best shape possible,” Lee said, speaking to LowKickMMA.
“If everything clears up and they wanted me to fight right now. I would be ready.”
The 21-year-old had a breakout year in 2019, overcoming Japanese veteran Shinya Aoki to capture the lightweight strap in May before beating Saygid Guseyn Arslanaliev in Japan five months later to add the inaugural ONE Lightweight Grand Prix Championship to his trophy cabinet.
Lee took the fight against Arslanaliev on short notice after Eddie Alveraz pulled out of the bout due to an injury. Arslanaliev came into with just one defeat on his record— a technical DQ loss— and on the back of three first-round KO victories. The hard-hitting Dagestani is rightfully regarded as one of the most dangerous lightweights in the division, which makes Lee’s unanimous decision win look even more impressive.
“That was one of my favorite fights, not only how the fight played out, it being for the first-ever Grand Prix title, but just the fact I had literally ten days to prepare,” Lee said.
“I was going out there, joining my sister fighting in Tokyo for the first time. Everything about that trip was very special to me. I am grateful that the hard work I put in ahead of time was able to carry over with me.”
Since arriving at ONE in 2015, it always seemed a matter of when and not if Lee would claim his first title. However, as he points out, nothing is ever guaranteed when it comes to mixed martial arts, no matter how skilled a fighter is.
“For me, winning the title, I just feel very grateful. A lot of very good talented fighters will go their whole career and never touch gold once. And they definitely deserve it, they definitely have the skills, but under the circumstances, they were just not able to touch gold. Donald Cerrone is a famous example, a great fighter that has never been able to touch it. “
Winning a title and defending it come under two different categories. First in line for a shot at Lee’s belt is likely to be Moldova’s Iuri Lapicus. A grappler by trade, Lapicus has found a home training under one of the world’s top strikers Giorgio Petrosyan in Milan, Italy.
Lee has been impressed with what he has seen so far from Lapicus, who secured the No. 1 lightweight ranking following back to back submission wins over Shannon Wiratchai and Marat Gafurov.
“I think he is definitely well deserving of it. He is undefeated; he probably has the best record in the division so far just by being undefeated. I think he is going to be a very good challenge.”
Lee has always looked to a be fighter who relishes a challenge. He demonstrated that in 2019 and now he is waiting for that call to prove it all again in 2020.
Are you excited about seeing Christian Lee back in action again?
