Tag: UFC

‘Hell Yeah, We Got Goku & Vegeta’ – Fans React As Israel Adesanya Teams Up With Two-Time Rival Ahead Of UFC Return

Israel Adesanya is pulling out all the stops for his next fight, even if it means joining forces with a former rival to sharpen his skills. Adesanya finds himself navigating the toughest stretch of his career to date, with just one win in his last four Octagon appearances. Currently on a two-fight losing streak, he […]

Israel Adesanya is pulling out all the stops for his next fight, even if it means joining forces with a former rival to sharpen his skills.

Adesanya finds himself navigating the toughest stretch of his career to date, with just one win in his last four Octagon appearances.

Currently on a two-fight losing streak, he first suffered a unanimous decision loss to Sean Strickland at UFC 293 in September 2023, a fight where he also relinquished his middleweight crown. The downward trajectory continued at UFC 305 last August, where reigning champion Dricus Du Plessis handed him a submission defeat, deepening the slump for the once-dominant fighter.

“The Last Stylebender” is now gearing up to headline UFC Saudi Arabia, where he will face Nassourdine Imavov on Feb. 1 at the anb Arena in Riyadh. This highly anticipated showdown marks a notable change for the ex-champ, as it will be his first non-pay-per-view bout since July 2018.

With the fight just under a month away, Adesanya’s preparations are in full swing. In a surprising turn, he has brought in his former two-time adversary, Robert Whittaker, to assist with his training.

The 35-year-old Nigerian-born Kiwi recently shared several photos and videos from his sparring sessions with “The Reaper” on social media.

“‘New year, new friends,” Adesanya wrote on X.

MMA fans responded to Adesanya’s sparring session with Whittaker, with many humorously celebrating the unexpected collaboration between the two fighters.

Adesanya and Whittaker first squared off at UFC 243 in October 2019, where “The Last Stylebender” clinched a stunning second-round knockout to seize the undisputed middleweight title.

Meanwhile, their second encounter took place at UFC 271 in February 2022, where the matchup was far more competitive. Despite Whittaker’s resilience, though, Adesanya ultimately gritted through the challenge and earned a hard-fought unanimous decision victory to retain his championship.

Abdul Razak Alhassan Addresses Scary Knockout At UFC Vegas 101: ‘I Got Greedy…’

Abdul Razak Alhassan has made his first public remarks following a brutal defeat at this past weekend’s UFC Vegas 101 event. The promotion’s first card of 2025 wasn’t short on memorable moments and brutal finishes. Unfortunately for Alhassan, he was on the wrong end of arguably the top one. In his main card clash with […]

Abdul Razak Alhassan has made his first public remarks following a brutal defeat at this past weekend’s UFC Vegas 101 event.

The promotion’s first card of 2025 wasn’t short on memorable moments and brutal finishes. Unfortunately for Alhassan, he was on the wrong end of arguably the top one.

In his main card clash with César Almeida, the Ghanaian powerhouse got off to a strong start, dropping his Brazilian counterpart. But he got slightly too wild chasing the finish.

After backing Almeida up against the fence, Alhassan was struck with a vicious counterpunch that rendered him unconscious.

The resulting scene saw the 39-year-old Accra native on wobbly legs after coming to. Thankfully, he appears to have avoided any immediate health issues at UFC Vegas 101 and took to his Instagram Stories to address his supporters.

“I’m sorry fans,” Alhassan said. “I got greedy and I got caught. No excuses. I’m sorry to my fans, my true fans. I got greedy and went for it and got caught. There’s nothing I can do but cry myself to sleep.”

Alhassan is now without a win in his last three, having fallen to a submission at the hands of Joe Pyfer in 2023 and had the disappointment of a no contest after striking Cody Brundage to the back of the head last July.

Almeida, meanwhile, has won two on the bounce since suffering the first loss of his professional career against Roman Kopylov in June 2024.

Khabib Nurmagomedov Issues Statement After Being Kicked Off Flight Ahead Of UFC 311: ‘Did My Best To Stay Calm…’

Former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov has spoken publicly after footage of his removal from a flight before takeoff went viral this weekend. Khabib will be in Los Angeles next week as two of his team’s star fighters compete with gold on the line at the UFC 311 pay-per-view. Inside the Intuit Dome, Islam Makhachev […]

Former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov has spoken publicly after footage of his removal from a flight before takeoff went viral this weekend.

Khabib will be in Los Angeles next week as two of his team’s star fighters compete with gold on the line at the UFC 311 pay-per-view. Inside the Intuit Dome, Islam Makhachev will headline in defense of his lightweight crown, while Umar Nurmagomedov will first challenge for the bantamweight gold.

But while attention will soon be on their showdowns with Arman Tsarukyan and Merab Dvalishvili, respectively, the biggest talking point a day out from UFC 311 fight week has surrounded their coach.

A video emerged on Sunday showing Khabib being removed from a plane due to fly from Las Vegas to LA. Audio from the incident appeared to reveal a dispute with a flight attendant over the Dagestani’s seat on the emergency exit row.

After the video went viral and drew out plenty of reactions from the MMA community online, Khabib took to Instagram to give his side of the story and clarify which airline he was attempting to fly with.

“First of all, I need to clarify that it was @flyfrontier not AlaskaAir. Lady who comes to me with questions was very rude from the very beginning, even though I speak very decent English and can understand everything and agreed to assist, she still insists on removing me from my seat. What was the base for that, racial, national or other one, I’m not sure.

“But after 2 minutes of conversation, she called security and I was deplaned from this aircraft, after 1,5 hour I boarded another airline one and left to my destination. I did my best to stay calm and respectful as you can see on the video. But those crew members could do better next time and just be nice with clients.”

It remains to be seen what will come of the incident, which has spread across the Internet and resulted in some of the former UFC champion’s fans calling for a boycott of the airline in question.

“The Eagle” himself, meanwhile, will no doubt be looking to keep his focus on the task at hand next week, as he gears up for two crucial contests for his team at the UFC 311 PPV on Jan. 18.

Santiago Ponzinibbio Names Ranked Opponent He’s Targeting For UFC 314 In Miami

UFC welterweight veteran Santiago Ponzinibbio is looking to make a late-career surge up the ladder on mixed martial arts’ biggest stage. Ponzinibbio, who formerly had a number next to his name at 170 pounds, showed that he’s got plenty left in the tank at 38 years old in the co-main event of this past weekend’s […]

UFC welterweight veteran Santiago Ponzinibbio is looking to make a late-career surge up the ladder on mixed martial arts’ biggest stage.

Ponzinibbio, who formerly had a number next to his name at 170 pounds, showed that he’s got plenty left in the tank at 38 years old in the co-main event of this past weekend’s UFC Fight Night.

The card, which marked the UFC’s first of 2025, included plenty of memorable fights and finishes. Not many scraps were more entertaining than the “Argentine Dagger’s” with Carlston Harris.

The pair exchanged moments of success and knockdowns through the best part of 13 minutes before Ponzinibbio found the standing TKO finish with less than two minutes remaining in the third and final round.

While the result marked the La Plata native’s first win since 2022 and snapped a two-fight losing skid, he’s still hoping for an opportunity to break back into the welterweight top 15 next time out.

“There are so many good names,” Ponzinibbio said at the post-fight press conference after revealing his intent to fight at UFC 314 in Miami this coming April. “So many good guys come to mind (who) have a long time in the road like me. We can make a great fight. I need to think quickly.

“Maybe Vicente Luque is a name that comes into my mind because the guy has so many years in the sport like me. I have a lot of respect for him. He’s a gentleman. He’s coming off a really good victory,” Ponzinibbio continued. “We both have a lot of Latin people behind us and we can make a good fight. But there are so many good guys. We’ll see what the company says.”

The UFC is expected to head back to Miami’s Kaseya Center for its April pay-per-view.

A clash between Ponzinibbio and Vicente Luque could make sense, especially given that the latter’s teammate and friend Gilbert Burns is expected to battle Michael Morales at the event.

Former Champion Describes Featherweight As ‘Future Of The Division’ After UFC Vegas 101 Win

One of the biggest winners from this past weekend’s UFC Vegas 101 event is being tipped for greatness by a former champion. Among the top talking points to emerge from the UFC’s very first event of 2025 was the performance of featherweight Christian Rodriguez, who further enhanced his reputation as a prospect killer by defeating […]

One of the biggest winners from this past weekend’s UFC Vegas 101 event is being tipped for greatness by a former champion.

Among the top talking points to emerge from the UFC’s very first event of 2025 was the performance of featherweight Christian Rodriguez, who further enhanced his reputation as a prospect killer by defeating the previously undefeated Austin Bashi.

The UFC Vegas 101 result means that all of Rodriguez’s last four wins saw him take an up-and-comer’s ‘O’, with Raul Rosas Jr., Cameron Saaiman, and Isaac Dulgarian also being ousted from the ranks of the unbeaten by “CeeRod.”

With weight issues leading to the end of his bantamweight stint, Rodriguez looks to have found a home at 145 pounds. And a prominent teammate of his, for one, is predicting big things for the 27-year-old.

“Another 0 collected. Christian Rodriguez is the future of the 145 division,” former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis wrote on X in reaction to Rodriguez’s UFC Vegas 101 triumph.

Like Pettis, Rodriguez is part of the team over at Roufusport MMA Academy, where he trains under the guidance of Duke Roufus in Milwaukee.

The renowned coach will be hoping to guide “CeeRod” to the success “Showtime” found on MMA’s biggest stage when he submitted Benson Henderson back at UFC 164 in 2013.

Chris Curtis Ponders His UFC Future In First Statement After KO Loss To Roman Kopylov

UFC middleweight Chris Curtis could be committing to a major change following his latest setback. Curtis was among the fighters tasked with kicking things off for the mixed martial arts leader in 2025, as he got his campaign for the year underway Saturday at the Apex in Las Vegas. After narrowly falling short in a […]

UFC middleweight Chris Curtis could be committing to a major change following his latest setback.

Curtis was among the fighters tasked with kicking things off for the mixed martial arts leader in 2025, as he got his campaign for the year underway Saturday at the Apex in Las Vegas.

After narrowly falling short in a main event rematch opposite Brendan Allen last April — and subsequently requiring a lengthy stint on the sidelines to heal from injuries — “Action Man” was looking to bounce back at the expense of Roman Kopylov.

He was unable to do so, however, with the Russian emerging victorious from a highly entertaining affair. The end came by way of a perfectly timed head kick that saw Curtis stopped with just one second remaining on the clock.

Though the American was furious with the stoppage and berated referee Mark Smith, the knockdown had no doubt sealed a certain decision victory for Kopylov had the scorecards been required.

That was seemingly acknowledged by Curtis, who made no mention or complaint of the finish during his first post-fight statement on Instagram. The 37-year-old instead spoke on his own failure to have his hand raised, and he admitted the result may have signaled the end of his journey at 185 pounds.

“Only job in the world where you can make 200k in a night and still be absolutely heartbroken and questioning where you go from here. No damage, I’m fine. Probably train tomorrow for my sanity but just frustrated and heartbroken. 8 months off. Hamstring tear, broken foot and then a calf tear. Trained through it all. Never lost sight of the goal. Just hurts to come up short. Thank you to everyone who reached out, have had a lot of love online and in person, it means the world to me. I guess I should take some comfort in fight of the night, but I only view tonight as a failure.

“Maybe 170 is the way to go from here. Rest this weekend and I guess we have a talk with the team and management about what comes next. It thanks again to @mickmaynard2 for the opportunity to do what I love. I’m not sure who or where I would be without this. Thank you to the @ufcpi , you guys put me back together 3 times this year. It was an incredibly hard road back, but @gav_pratt and @heatherlinden and their teams really went above and beyond for me, and I will never not be grateful for that. For now, thankfully, we are uninjured and healthy. We work on figuring out what comes next.”

The fact he took home an additional $50,000 for earning Fight of the Night honors was evidently of little consolation for Curtis, who now has just one win across his last five fights.

Curtis began his UFC career with a 3-0 run that included memorable knockouts of Phil Hawes and Allen.

Having subsequently failed to achieve similar consistency after breaking into the rankings, “Action Man” could return to the welterweight division, where he previously held a number of regional titles and fought at under the PFL banner.