UFC president Dana White made it clear that he’s hoping to schedule a highly-anticipated fight between heavyweight champion Jon Jones and interim heavyweight…
UFC president Dana White made it clear that he’s hoping to schedule a highly-anticipated fight between heavyweight champion Jon Jones and interim heavyweight…
UFC featherweight Sean Woodson sees himself as a difficult matchup for champion Ilia Topuria. Woodson was one of the biggest winners to emerge from this past weekend’s year-ending UFC Fight Night in Tampa, where he stopped the highly touted Fernando Padilla with strikes seconds out from the first round coming to a close. The result […]
UFC featherweight Sean Woodson sees himself as a difficult matchup for champion Ilia Topuria.
Woodson was one of the biggest winners to emerge from this past weekend’s year-ending UFC Fight Night in Tampa, where he stopped the highly touted Fernando Padilla with strikes seconds out from the first round coming to a close.
With that in mind, Woodson is looking to join them in the top 15 soon enough as he looks to surge all the way to the gold, which is currently held by the undefeated Topuria.
And should “El Matador” still be on the throne when he gets there, the Missouri native likes his chances.
During his post-fight press conference, Woodson expressed confidence when it comes to how he matches up against the Spaniard.
Given his height and frame, “The Sniper” insisted that he wouldn’t fall to the same fate against Topuria as both Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway did this year.
“(Topuria’s) super good – what he’s done so far is,” Woodson said. “But I’m not going to hold my tongue at all. I don’t feel like he’d be able to do me the way he’s done other people at all. He’s too small, too short. I’m a bad matchup for him. I saw online somebody say he gets up to like 187 (pounds), 190 (outside of camp). I don’t believe that at all. I don’t even get that big. He carries himself like he’s better than he is.
“I will say that I would love to fight him. I know I’m a long ways off from that, but I want that fight bad. I would love to fight him one day. I know it sounds crazy. I haven’t had the best (résumé). I ain’t fought (big names), whatever,” Woodson continued. “But I’m telling you right now, they do not do me like he’s done everybody.”
Woodson has plenty of work to do before having the opportunity to prove that assessment correct opposite Topuria inside the Octagon.
For now, he’ll be celebrating his latest triumph on MMA’s biggest stage and looking ahead to what he’ll no doubt hope will be a big 2025 in the career of “The Sniper.”
Following his win over Aleksandar Raki? at UFC 308 in October, it looks like the next time that we see Magomed Ankalaev, he will finally get his long awaited title shot against Alex Pereira. Many expected that this would be the next test for “Poatan” following his wins over Jamahal Hill and Ji?í Procházka earlier […]
Following his win over Aleksandar Raki? at UFC 308 in October, it looks like the next time that we see Magomed Ankalaev, he will finally get his long awaited title shot against Alex Pereira. Many expected that this would be the next test for “Poatan” following his wins over Jamahal Hill and Ji?í Procházka earlier this year but instead, he defended the title at UFC 307 by finishing Khalil Rountree Jr.
In Abu Dhabi, Ankalaev got his hand raised once again after sticking to his word and beating Raki? over three rounds by only striking with him. The Russian has continued to push the idea that when he eventually faced Pereira, he will do the same and will knockout the kickboxing specialist to win the 205-pound gold.
One fellow top contender who doesn’t think this that applying the same approach is the best idea is the former champion, Jan B?achowicz. In his last outing at UFC 291, “Polish Power” became the closest of anyone to beating Pereira at light heavyweight when he welcomed the former middleweight champion to his new weight class.
B?achowicz came out on the wrong side of a split decision and though he wasn’t able to land a lot of offense, he did have some success with his grappling and once he became tired, he was able to avoid eating anything too damaging from the Brazilian. B?achowicz gave his thoughts on that potential title fight in a recent interview with James Lynch for Home of Fight.
He believes that in order for Ankalaev to leave with the title, he needs to take more risks to really put a stamp on the fight instead of simply trying to win each round without taking damage.
“If Ankalaev will fight like last fight with [Aleksandar] Rakic, he’s going to lose the fight. He needs to do something more. He needs to be like, I don’t know, but – he is good fighter, but it’s not enough for Pereira in this kind of style. He needs to change.
“He needs to be more – he has to believe in that which he’s doing. I think he doesn’t believe. He just wants to win the fight, but don’t take too much punches. He is very careful in this what he’s doing and I think this kind of way, fighting with Pereira, will not work.”
For the first time in his pro career, Colby Covington is currently coming off of back-to-back losses. The former UFC interim welterweight champion returned this past weekend in Tampa where he was beaten by the surging Joaquin Buckley. “Chaos” has already spoken about the defeat where he outlined the significance of taking the fight on […]
For the first time in his pro career, Colby Covington is currently coming off of back-to-back losses. The former UFC interim welterweight champion returned this past weekend in Tampa where he was beaten by the surging Joaquin Buckley.
“Chaos” has already spoken about the defeat where he outlined the significance of taking the fight on short notice and the cut that he suffered above his right eye which eventually led to the doctor waving the fight off in the third round. Covington stated that he was only just getting going at the time of the stoppage but up until that point, “New Mansa” was clearly and comfortably winning the fight.
Many fans and fellow fighters were also very critical about Covington’s previous outing at UFC 296 last December where he was totally shut out by Leon Edwards in a welterweight title fight. Having been 15-1 heading into his first meeting with Kamaru Usman in 2019 to now being 17-5, some may simply put his decline in form down to his age.
At 36-years old, it’s not surprising that Covington would begin to slow down especially as a fighter whose biggest weapon is his cardio and output. Josh Thomson, however, believes that the controversial welterweight might not be preparing as well as he could be.
Covington’s nine years at American Top Team in Florida ended in 2020 following several altercations with some of his teammates who had made it very clear that they no longer wanted him on the team due to some of his comments about them. The likes of Jorge Masvidal and Dustin Poirier have remained at ATT whilst Covington has since moved to MMA Masters in Miami.
Thomson, who is a former fighter turned commentator, said on the Weighing In Podcast that he believes this is taking away from the three-time title challenger.
“I’m going to simply say that once you’ve trained at a prestigious gym like American Top Team [ATT], and then you find your way out of it, running your own camp in a smaller facility without many top-level people to train with, especially after leaving a gym with a plethora of world-class fighters…. it’s noticeable. You saw it tonight. I don’t know if it’s the age, because I know he’s older, but let’s be honest, within two fights, he doesn’t look like the same person since he left American Top Team.”
Thomson believes that not having the kind of people that he needs to really push him has taken away what made Covington so effective in the first place. If he was going to beat Buckley on Saturday night, he needed to put the pace on him but if anything, it was the other way round.
“Those are the rounds where you’re trying to catch your second, sometimes third, wind. But not having the talent that he needs to help push his pace in training is what I feel like I’m seeing right now. I’m seeing a fighter who is having a hard time setting a pace inside the cage against world-class fighters because he doesn’t have world-class fighters to train with anymore.”
One of the stand out performances from the final UFC event of 2024 came courtesy of Manel “Starboy” Kape. The flyweight contender returned to the win column with one of his best performances inside the Octagon to date against Bruno Silva. Kape looked incredibly fast and accurate in Tampa and though he can still be […]
One of the stand out performances from the final UFC event of 2024 came courtesy of Manel “Starboy” Kape. The flyweight contender returned to the win column with one of his best performances inside the Octagon to date against Bruno Silva.
Kape looked incredibly fast and accurate in Tampa and though he can still be a divisive character, displays like this make it easy to remember why some fans were so excited for him to arrive in the UFC. It doesn’t seem like this win will be enough for him to get his first shot at the title but he won’t be far off following this victory.
Former UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya was enjoying some food whilst watching the Portuguese stand out go to work during his YouTube reactions to the fights.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, he heard his own name after Kape used his time on the mic to reignite an old feud. At UFC 293, Kape and Adesanya got into a heated exchange at the press conference due to the flyweight’s comments about one of Adesanya’s close teammates, Kai Kara-France.
After getting his hand raised, Kape spent part of his post-fight interview calling out the likes of Kara-France, Adesanya and Brandon Moreno. Having just given “Starboy” lots of credit for his performance, “The Last Stylebender” was caught off guard but he did find the whole thing amusing rather than taking it to heart.
“Why’d he say f*** me for? Man, I give this guy this credit like he’s looking nice and then he said ‘F*** you’. Hey, I still keep it real man, he f****** showed out. Hey man, this shows I been in his head this whole time, I didn’t even think it was like that but he did well, good job… little b**** a** n****.”
If the doctor hadn’t have called off Colby Covington’s UFC Tampa main event this past weekend, cornerman Chael Sonnen was seemingly prepared to. Sonnen had a cageside view as the former interim welterweight champion returned to action 12 months on from his third failed attempt at capturing the undisputed crown. Covington made the walk to […]
Sonnen had a cageside view as the former interim welterweight champion returned to action 12 months on from his third failed attempt at capturing the undisputed crown.
Covington made the walk to headline the year-ending UFC Fight Night on short notice, doing battle with the charging Joaquin Buckley inside Amalie Arena.
The polarizing veteran’s pursuit of a fourth shot at the gold began in difficult fashion, with “New Mansa” opening up a deep cut above his eye early before largely beating “Chaos” up through two rounds. And the first-round wound became so severe that the doctor stepped in to call off proceedings.
During a video uploaded to his YouTube channel, Sonnen reflected on fight night in Florida, where Covington fell to a 2-4 record across his last six bouts and 0-4 against names currently inside the rankings at 170 pounds.
Interestingly, “The American Gangster” suggested he had the towel close by to throw in after seeing Covington’s struggles to fight through the deep and bloody cut.
“Colby was getting hit on his feet with everything you could do, he’s busted open so bad that the doctor has to look at it three times,” Sonnen said (h/t Bloody Elbow). “Twice, he stops the action to let it keep going, the third time he goes, ‘Man we can’t keep going anymore.’ I was going to stop that fight, I already grabbed the towel.
“When the doctor came in for the third time, and I’m watching that blood, it’s not stopping,” Sonnen continued. “It’s going into the eye, and that’s the only thing you’re really looking for. When we as fight fans, as ‘tough guys’, think the doctor should’ve stopped it, we’re talking about it doesn’t matter how bad the cut is from our perspective, as long as it’s not going in the eye. If it’s blinding the guy, it doesn’t matter if it’s a little or a lot…it’s the exact same thing. I said, ‘Hand me that towel, I’m stopping this.’”
That ultimately wasn’t required, however, with the cageside doctor advising referee Dan Miragliotta to wave off the contest in fear of Covington losing his eyelid.
With that, “Chaos” has now gone winless across a second straight calendar year, having not had his hand raised since a pay-per-view main event opposite longtime rival Jorge Masvidal in March 2022.