Tag: UFC News

Ahead of his return this weekend, Israel Adesanya has fond memories on his four-fight series with foe, Alex Pereira — claiming he always “knew” he could beat the Brazilian — despite dropping a trio of consecutive losses against the Brazilian megastar.

Adesanya, a former two-time undisputed middleweight champion, returns to action this weekend in the main event of UFC Saudi Arabia, making the trip to Riyadh to take on the streaking Russian-French contender, Nassourdine Imavov over the course of five rounds in a pivotal pairing.

Entering the matchup off the back of a two-fight losing skid, City Kickboxing star, Israel Adesanya dropped a recent submission loss to Dricus du Plessis back in August, having suffered a shutout unanimous decision defeat to common-foe, Sean Strickland the summer prior in a championship fight upset.

Israel Adesanya claims he always knew he could stop Alex Pereira

Adesanya would enter that pairing with the polarizing North American striker off the back of his first-ever career win over former duel-weight champion, Pereira — snapping a winless run spanning three-fights against the ex-GLORY Kickboxing favorite, and has fond memories of their lengthy rivalry in combat sports.

“I feel the same way,” Israel Adesanya said during an interview with Ariel Helwani for Uncrowned. “I think God blessed me with a great opponent like Alex Pereira. He blessed me with a great challenge like that. And it’s easy to say that now on this side, but f*ck, you know, it takes a lot to take on that man. And I always knew that it would have history and I always knew I could best him. And I’m glad God blessed me with that challenge, to be able to rise to the occasion.

"God blessed me with a great opponent like Alex Pereira. He blessed me with a great challenge like that. And it's easy to say that now on this side, but fuck, it takes a lot to take on that man.

I always knew that we would have history, and I always knew I could best him. I'm… pic.twitter.com/tXSA7JCjoZ

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) January 28, 2025

“And I’m glad we can kind of share even the way we ran to each other at the airport,” Israel Adesanya explained. “Um, like what, two years ago? Three years ago, we were still kind of like beefing, but there was a little we had — this was before he fought Jan (Blachowicz). We had a little conversation after the TSA at LAX or whatever. And then, um, went our own ways. And it was — it was a cordial civil conversation with, uh, limited language barrier, I guess. But, uh, yeah, I respect the guy, and I want the best for him. I like what he’s doing. I like the fact that he’s running through everyone because, again, it just shows how good he is.”

Following news of his free agency, Jeremy Stephens is expected to pen a deal to remain with the BKFC (Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship) according to founder, David Feldman — who also confirmed his interest in booking the Iowa veteran in a super fight with Mike Perry next.

Stephens, an experienced alum of the UFC’s featherweight and lightweight limit — made his third outing in the ring over the course of the weekend at BKFC Knucklemania V in Philadelphia, headlining the card in a grudge fight with Eddie Alvarez.

And scoring his third straight win in the promotion, Jeremy Stephens landed an impressive third round corner stoppage TKO win over former UFC lightweight champion, Alvarez — having broken his jaw in the goings of the grudge fight.

However, earlier this week, Jeremy Stephens confirmed he had entered free agency following his victory over Alvarez, and was unsure on his immediate fighting future — as was newly-minted BKFC heavyweight champion, Ben Rothwell.

BKFC plan to resign Jeremy Stephens, target fight with Mike Perry next

And according to the above-mentioned, Feldman, however, the promotion plan to re-up Stephens to a multi-fight deal in the future — and are interested in booking him to fight Flint striker, Perry in his return to the ring.

“Yeah, he’s (Jeremy Stephens) a free agent,” Feldman told Ariel Helwani for Uncrowned. “Um, but, you know, we’re going to we’re going to work on that this week with the with his management team, but, um, he is a free agent. I know you also talked to Ben (Rothwell), and I know you’re probably talking about that. We have a deal, uh, a verbal deal, and we’ve had a deal, and we just said we’re going to we’re going to tie it up after the fight. And, look, I think his, uh, his management team is going to be ethical about this and honor our deal.”

Dave Feldman talks Jeremy Stephens and Ben Rothwell.#HelwaniShow pic.twitter.com/cPDNFS6AS4

— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) January 28, 2025

“It’s an increase for Ben. You know, it’s he’s going to make more money, which is obviously why he does this,” Feldman explained. “And, um, you know, he won the championship. So I don’t think that’s any issue there at all. Ben loves it here at Bcfc. And he wants to continue to fight here. And we’re going to make that work in the next couple of days. But there was a deal agreed upon. It’s not like I went into this thing blind and said, oh no, what am I doing now? We had everything worked out. We just didn’t paper it up in time.

Ahead of his return at UFC Saudi Arabia this weekend, Michael Venom Page has dismissed the skillset of current middleweight kingpin, Dricus du Plesis — claiming beyond being a “tough guy”, the South African gold holder is far from special.

Page, a former Bellator MMA title challenger, makes his third Octagon appearance this weekend in Riyadh, co-headlining the promotion’s return to the region in a high-stakes pairing with the highly-touted, Shara Magomedov.

And making an impromptu middleweight move, British striker, Page has been sidelined since last summer, where he featured at UFC 303 during International Fight Week, suffering a one-sided unanimous decision loss to Irish contender, Ian Garry.

Debuting in the Octagon after years of speculation in April of last year, London Shootfighters star, Page turned in his own dominant unanimous judging win over veteran challenger, Kevin Holland.

Michael Venom Page calls into question Dricus du Plessis’ ability

However, ahead of his mark in middleweight waters, Page has questioned the ability of Pretoria native, du Plessis — claiming the current divisional kingpin is far from special.

“When I look at DDP [Dricus du Plessis], I… I don’t — I’ve never looked at him and thought anything special of him,” Michael Venom Page told Inside Fighting during a recent interview ahead of his return at UFC Fight Night Saudi Arabia. “But he always seems to just win.

“One thing he just knows how to do is scrape out the win, regardless of how he performed,” Michael Venom Page explained. “Because I’ve seen him do some technically really, uh, bad things during the fight. But still, like I said, he just knows how. He’s just a tough guy. He just knows how to grind out the result.”

Veteran UFC color-commentator, Joe Rogan has revealed he pleaded with Endeavor CEO, Ari Emanuel to abolish the practice of weigh cutting when he penned a deal to purchase the promotion back in 2016, claiming the act of shedding weight before competition should be “eliminated.

Rogan, a long-time color-commentator during his lengthy tenure with the UFC, called the action earlier this month during UFC 311 — with a pair of championship fights closing the bill in California.

Joe Rogan lays out plea to stop UFC fighters cutting weight

And taking prime example from the weight cut of undisputed lightweight champion, Islam Makhachev en route to his dominant submission win over Renato Moicano via D’Arce choke, Rogan claimed the practice should be “eliminated” — and natural weight of combatants should be taken into consideration.

“I think weight-cutting should be eliminated,” Joe Rogan said during an interview with Jiri Prochazka on his podcast this week. “I said this to Ari Emanuel when they first bought the UFC. I said, ‘Listen man, you know what you should do? Get rid of weight-cutting, just stop it. Look, If you can randomly test people for drugs, you can randomly test their weight. Show up with a scale, say. ‘Hey, buddy. Step on the scale, you’re 190 pounds, how the f*ck are you making 145?’ Do something like that.

“And come up with more weight classes,” Joe Rogan explained. There should be a weight class every 10 pounds. This idea of these giant gaps like 185 to 205, that’s a 20-pound gap, that’s huge, that doesn’t exist in boxing. They should have every 10 pounds, 85, 95, 205, 225 and then unlimited… Find out what does Islam Makhachev weigh. Islam Makhachev is a UFC champion, the best pound-for-pound fighter on Earth. Find out what he weighs. What do you weigh if you were healthy? If weight cutting didn’t exist? Would it be 185, 190? Whatever that is. That’s how you fight now and we’re not going to weigh you in the day before and let you rehydrate. That’s crazy talk. Fight people your size,”

Former undisputed UFC bantamweight titleholder. Cody Garbrandt has been branded the biggest threat to the title reign of current kingpin, Merab Dvalishvili — by former two-fight rival and fellow ex-champion, T.J. Dillashaw.

Garbrandt, who has been sidelined since UFC 300 last year, most recently saw his impressive two-fight winning run halted in a one-sided, eventual second round rear-naked choke submission loss against former flyweight titleholder, Deiveson Figueiredo.

Prior to that, Ohio veteran, Cody Garbrandt had turned in a pair of back-to-back wins over both Trevin Jones, and then Brian Kelleher — finishing the latter with a thunderous first round knockout win at UFC 296.

As for Dvalishvili, the Georgian fan-favorite successfully defended the bantamweight crown for the first time at UFC 311 earlier this month, handing the streaking, Umar Nurmagomedov his first-ever professional loss in a hard-fought unanimous decision win in the night’s co-main event.

Cody Garbrandt backed as massive threat to Merab Dvalishvili

And himself linked with a stunning comeback from retirement to take on champion, Dvalishvili in a return to competition, Angels Camp veteran, Dillashaw has actually claimed former training partner turned bitter enemy, Cody Garbrandt is the champion’s current toughest test.

“I’d like to see (Cody) Garbrandt fight him (Merab Dvalishvili) eventually,” T.J. Dillashaw said during an interview on the JAXXON Podcast. “once Garbrandt gets a couple of wins back under his belt. Like Garbrandt can wrestle, dude. Like I train with Garbrandt a lot. He’s so f*cking fast. He’s like a cat on his feet.

“He’s hard to take down. And as soon as he gets his confidence back, he hits like a truck,” T.J. Dillashaw explained. “He’s faster than I think. He could do really good if he can get a run going and get believing in himself and like he could be a threat.”

During his promotional run, Garbrandt scooped the undisputed bantamweight title with a stunning upset win over Dominick Cruz back in 2016, and has turned in other notable wins over the likes of Raphael Assuncao, Marcus Brimage, Thomas Almeida, and Takeya Mizugaki.

Booked for his return at UFC 313, Alex Pereira admits he has one keen eye on expected proceedings between Jon Jones and current interim heavyweight champion, Tom Aspinall — claiming he is open to a super fight with the British favorite for gold as soon as this annum.

Pereira, the current undisputed light heavyweight champion and a former middleweight titleholder during his gold laden run with the promotion, is set to headline UFC 313 in March, looking to settle his lengthy grudge with surging number one contender, Magomed Ankalaev.

Most recently landing his third successful defense of the 205lbs championship back in October of last year in the main event of UFC 307, Pereira stopped surging contender, Khalil Rountree in a bloody barrage at the Octagon fence in the fourth round.

Alex Pereira open to super fight with Tom Aspinall this year

And long-rumored to be considering a major heavyweight divisional leap in pursuit of a staggering third championship reign in the organization, Sao Paulo star, Pereira claimed he would be open to fighting the streaking interim force, Aspinall if afforded the chance.

“I’ll fight anybody at heavyweight,” Alex Pereira said on told Ariel Helwani for Uncrowned when asked if he was interested in fighting Tom Aspinall. “”But I’m the champion, and Jon Jones is the champion. If Aspinall was the champion, I’d want to fight him.”

As mentioned, Pereira has sights also fixed on a monstrous pairing with fellow former two-weight champion, Jones, insisting he would relish the opportunity to stand opposite the former pound-for-pound number one.

Jon Jones,” Alex Pereira said when asked if he would rather fight Jones or the above-mentioned, Israel Adesanya. ” Because already four years or four times [I fought Adesanya]. And talk about Jon Jones is a new challenge. And he’s the champ.”