Alexander Volkanovski will look to go 3-0 against Max Holloway when the pair square off this summer.
[autotag]Alexander Volkanovski[/autotag] will look to go 3-0 against [autotag]Max Holloway[/autotag] when the pair square off this summer.
On Thursday, MMA Junkie confirmed that verbal agreements are in place for featherweight champion Volkanovski to face Holloway July 2 at UFC 276, which takes place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Ariel Helwani was first to report that the bout is in the works for July.
Volkanovski (24-1 MMA, 11-0 UFC) was scheduled to face Holloway for a third time at UFC 272 in March, but Holloway withdrew due to injury. Instead, Volkanovski faced Chan Sung Jung one month later at UFC 273, dominating “The Korean Zombie” for a fourth-round stoppage win.
Meanwhile, former featherweight champion Holloway (23-6 MMA, 19-6 UFC) rebounded from his second straight title fight loss to Volkanovski at UFC 251 with back-to-back Fight of the Night wins over rising contenders Calvin Kattar in January 2021, and most recently Yair Rodriguez this past November in the UFC Fight Night 197 headliner.
Volkanovski, No. 4 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie pound-for-pound rankings, took the belt from No. 13 pound-for-pound Holloway with a unanimous decision at UFC 245 in December 2019.
With the addition, the UFC 276 lineup includes:
Alexander Volkanovski vs. Max Holloway – for featherweight title
According to Michael Chandler, Tony Ferguson is right: “I’m Dana’s favorite fighter.”
PHOENIX – [autotag]Tony Ferguson[/autotag] no longer finds “Dana White privilege,” a phrase he coined last year, to be funny, but that doesn’t mean [autotag]Michael Chandler[/autotag] can’t have fun with it.
Ferguson (25-6 MMA, 15-4 UFC) came up with it during the UFC 262 pre-fight press conference where both he and Chandler were competing on the same card. Ferguson was referencing big opportunities the UFC handed Chandler upon his arrival from Bellator as he faced Charles Oliveira for the vacant lightweight title in just his second octagon bout.
Now, Ferguson and Chandler (22-7 MMA, 1-2 UFC) will go from simply sharing a card to sharing the cage Saturday in the UFC 274 pay-per-view main card, but Ferguson is less than jovial heading into this bout. He took aim at the UFC and its treatment of him and appears to be taking his own coined phrase personally.
Chandler’s response? He’ll happily own that statement.
“I’m sorry, Tony, but that ‘Dana White privilege’ line might be the funniest thing that has ever been said on a microphone in the context of mixed martial arts,” Chandler told reporters, including MMA Junkie, at Wednesday’s media day. “He’s right. I am his boss’ favorite fighter. I’m Dana’s favorite fighter. Dana White privilege is not on the line here, I’ve already got it, and it’s all fun.”
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Although Ferguson appears to have a chip on his shoulder, Chandler said there’s no bad blood between the two. With Ferguson on a three-fight skid and Chandler a loser in back-to-back fights, both men are eager to get back into the win column. Chandler doesn’t plan on holding back.
“I saw him after the press conference. It’s all respect,” Chandler added. “He’s gonna go out there and try and take my head off, and I’m gonna do the exact same thing, but when it comes to animosity, I got no animosity towards him. He’s all business. Is it true? Is it blunder? Is it just words? Is it lip service? We don’t know. All I know is he’s gonna run into a buzzsaw Saturday night, and my ‘Dana White privilege’ is not gonna make a difference no matter what.”
UFC 274 takes place Saturday at Footprint Center. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and early prelims on ESPN+.
Jessica Andrade made history, Claudio Puelles snatched another knee, but which submission was our “Spinning Back Clique” panel’s favorite?
The month of April delivered a number of fight-finishing submissions in big fights, including a first in the UFC.
In the main event of UFC Fight Night 205, former strawweight champion [autotag]Jessica Andrade[/autotag] made history against Amanda Lemos. The fight scheduled for 25 minutes lasted just a few seconds over three, ending with a finish for the record books as Andrade became the first fighter to tap an opponent with a standing arm triangle.
Historic moments are hard to ignore, but was there another submission this month that deserved the nod as the best of the month?
At 44 years old, [autotag]Aleksei Oleinik[/autotag] is still finding ways to lock his opponents in tight squeezes. At UFC 273, the Russian locked in a neck crank on Jared Vanderaa to record his 47th career submission.
[autotag]Claudio Puelles[/autotag] pulled off a beautiful kneebar submission on UFC Hall of Famer Clay Guida at UFC Fight Night 205, a hold that came seemingly out of nowhere during a slick transition.
Did either of these rank higher than Andrade’s finish for best of the month? Was there another one to consider as well?
Our “Spinning Back Clique” panel of Mike Bohn, Nolan King and Danny Segura choose their favorite sub with host “Gorgeous” George Garcia. Check it out in the video above.
And don’t miss the complete episode below.
“Spinning Back Clique” is released each Tuesday on MMA Junkie’s YouTube channel. You can watch the full episode in the video below.
Light heavyweights are slated to headline the UFC’s first event of August.
A light heavyweight bout is scheduled for a UFC headliner Aug. 6.
Contenders [autotag]Jamahal Hill[/autotag] (10-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC) and [autotag]Thiago Santos[/autotag] (22-10 MMA, 14-9 UFC) will go toe-to-toe in a five-round bout atop the UFC Fight Night event scheduled for that date, at a location and venue to-be-announced.
Two people with knowledge of the matchup recently informed MMA Junkie of the booking but asked to remain anonymous as the promotion has yet to make an official announcement.
Hill is coming off arguably the best win of his career in his first UFC headliner when he flattened Johnny Walker with a violent right hand. The win put his streak at two, joining a 48-second knockout win over Jimmy Crute in December. His only career win came via TKO due to injury against Paul Craig in June 2021.
As for Santos, a former UFC title challenger, he’ll look to bounce back from a unanimous decision loss to Magomed Ankalaev in March. The defeat was his fourth in five fights. The lone win in that stretch was a unanimous decision over the aforementioned Walker in October. Despite his recent struggles to win, Santos has continued to prove to be a tough outing for any of his fellow contenders.
No other fights have been announced for the event at this time.
Nate Diaz will be a UFC Hall of Famer but only because fans like him, explained Justin Gaethje.
PHOENIX – Fight fans might like him, but [autotag]Nate Diaz[/autotag] doesn’t receive the same amount of adoration from [autotag]Justin Gaethje[/autotag].
At a UFC 274 pre-fight news conference Wednesday, Gaethje let his true feelings come out when MMA Junkie asked him about a recent exchange he had with Diaz on social media.
“That motherf*cker has lost over 15 times, like, come on,” Gaethje said. “So for him to be criticizing me for one loss, I found it funny. And I think he’s jealous because he’s done. He’ll never be here. He’ll never be fighting for a world championship. He’ll never achieve a world championship. In the history books, I’m already a world champion. I don’t like it. I don’t accept it. I need to make it right on Saturday but I’ll be in the Hall of Fame. He should be, too, but just because the fans love him.”
The beef between the next-in-line UFC lightweight title challenger Gaethje and the all-time fan-favorite Diaz sprouted from a comment made by the latter, which questioned the former’s confidence about his upcoming fight Saturday at UFC 274.
At the time, Gaethje simply responded, “I ain’t your bruh you jealous b*tch,” via Twitter.
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After he elaborated on his disdain Wednesday, Gaethje was asked if he thought Diaz would defeat surging welterweight Khamzat Chimaev if that fight happens. Rumors are circulating about the matchup after footage of the UFC “war room” matchup wall went viral.
“I heard he turned down Khabib about 20 times. So for him to sh*t on me for losing to Khabib, I find that hilarious. But if he’s fighting Khamzat next, then I have to give him some credit. … Of course (I don’t think he’ll win). But I’m a fan of the sport because anything can happen at any time. He’s not going to outwrestle him. He doesn’t even have the power to shut someone’s light out on accident. So, no. No chance. He has a zero percent chance – a one percent chance.”
Diaz has not competed since June 2021. In recent weeks, he’s voiced urgency to fight, but the promotion has not come to terms with him yet on his next bout, which is also the final one on his current UFC contract. Meanwhile, Gaethje battles champion Charles Oliveira for the title Saturday.
UFC 274 takes place at Footprint Center with the main card airing on ESPN+ pay-per-view after prelims on ESPN/ESPN+.
“Straight shooter” Tony Ferguson got a lot off his chest about fighter pay and treatment during UFC 274 media day.
PHOENIX – It took some self-convincing for [autotag]Tony Ferguson[/autotag] to get back to a point where he was ready to fight again. Now that he’s here, he’s speaking his mind.
Ferguson held court Wednesday for an extended period – the first time in a long time – during UFC 274 media day. His session lasted nearly 25 minutes, much longer than the rest of the fighers who took the podium. A lot of the classic Ferguson quirks were present. “El Cucuy” led off with a smile and “Sup, f*ckers?” before he flipped the chair around, straddled it and looked out into the media pool through his sunglasses.
But something was a tad different, or perhaps more pronounced than before: his frustration.
In many of his answers, Ferguson vented about fighter mistreatment from the company, and especially UFC president Dana White, even if the question wasn’t about that topic. This airing of grievances apparently wasn’t in full either. Ferguson said he plans to say more after the fight but gave everyone a sneak peek.
What peeved Ferguson initially Wednesday was a reference to “Dana White privilege,” a term he coined to describe Saturday’s opponent, Michael Chandler, at a press conference ahead of his last fight last year. Everyone laughed at the time, even White himself. It has since been added to the MMA lexicon, but no one ever asked Ferguson if it was meant to be taken as a joke.
“I don’t think it’s very funny,” Ferguson said. “Everybody is looking at it. They’re smiling and laughing, but nobody is saying sh*t. I’m the kid that’s up here with Dana Brown privilege, I guess, or whatever you want to call it. I don’t think it’s very funny anymore. I don’t think you guys should think that’s very funny. I’m taking this weekend very f*cking seriously. I’ll kick this Dana White boy’s ass.”
Ferguson’s promblem isn’t with Chandler, he clarified. It’s with the company and its “retaliation tactics” that bother him. That’s why he’s remained off the grid for nearly 12 months.
“This is why I haven’t done any interviews,” Ferguson said. “This is why I’ve kept my mouth shut for a long time. A lot of fighters have been keeping their mouths shut for a long time. You should ask some of the other fighters who have been f*cking treated like sh*t for a long time, too. I’m not the only one thinking it or f*cking saying it or seeing it. So maybe you should ask them, too?”
‘Questions to be raised’ about UFC’s treatment of fighters
Ferguson walked a line of not wanting to say too much while also giving vague hints and accounts of perceived mistreatment. Fighter pay he brought up multiple times. He revealed that, like fellow UFC notables Francis Ngannou and Kamaru Usman, he recently asked White for a chance to box professionally and was shut down.
“I think we’re underpaid, personally, to be real,” Ferguson said. “… I asked Dana to box. He said, ‘F*ck no.’ I’m like, ‘Why? I want to go play baseball. I want to go do other pro sports. I’m an athlete. I grew up playing different sports at a high level. … I want to go do all these couple things but then I have this guy right here acting like a f*cking drug dealer telling me I can’t go and do this sh*t. I want to go make more money for my family.
“… You make your money by showing up, winning and having good performances. Right now, we’re getting paid crypto, I guess, huh? They’re following everybody’s suit. They’re waiting for everybody to speak up. They’re waiting for everything else like that.”
Ferguson also mentioned vented about his 2018 knee injury suffered in a freak accident on the FOX lot in Los Angeles. When Ferguson tripped on a wire, the injury he sustained forced him out of his scheduled title fight vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov. He was stripped of his interim belt shortly thereafter.
“I mean, when it comes down to that and I get stripped of my title because I took a fall and had a bad accident, I should’ve sued,” Ferguson said. “But what I did was I felt good for my company. I wanted to be the man. I wanted to make sure everybody knew that I can f*cking do this stuff without anybody else’s help. That’s a little bit of a chip on my shoulder, to kind of keep coming here and smiling and being used to be on a poster, so I have that high value.”
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When he started to feel under-appreciated, Ferguson said he built his brand on social media in an effort to make up for it. He was successful, with hundreds of thousands of followers rolling in. Ferguson said he more recently has tuned down the efforts, however, as he doesn’t think it should solely fall on him to build himself.
Additionally, Ferguson mentioned how he severely injured his leg in his most recent fight, which knocked him out of action for some time. It peeves him that the UFC didn’t give him special treatment given the circumstances for his travel home.
“Chris Weidman got a personal flight back,” Fergusons said. “I couldn’t f*cking walk. I couldn’t do the same sh*t. So I’m not sure if the corporate is talking about that. There (are) some questions to be raised on how they treat their athletes, that’s for sure.”
‘I’m a straight shooter now’
Tony Ferguson at UFC 274 media day.
Despite all of these issues, Ferguson said he wants to remain with the company. It also sounds like the UFC would like to keep him around regardless of Saturday’s outcome. Although Ferguson said he still has fights left on his current deal, he added that the UFC recently offered him an extension anyway. He hopes things can smooth over but also said he doesn’t want to take small prizes as a substitute for long-term value.
“The promoters here, they act like drug dealers sometimes,” Ferguson said. “They throw around a couple bucks like, ‘Come here, kid. Come here, kid. Come here, kid. Take this. Take this. Take this. Take this.’ If you don’t have the will to say no to that stupid sh*t, you’re going to get f*cked. I’ve seen Terrance McKinney in the same f*cking way and a couple other people. Even for me to go out there, I had to say no a couple times. I had to f*cking ignore Dana’s call once during the pandemic. I’m chilling, man. I’m skateboarding. You know why? Because you didn’t answer my phone call.”
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When he steps into the cage Saturday opposite Chandler at UFC 274, it will be nearly a year since he last competed. In the time between his May 2021 loss to Beneil Dariush and now, Ferguson has remained largely off-the-grid – and come to learn from his pre-fight news conference, it was not an accident.
Fixes have been made, though, in his estimation. His perception of the business has changed, but so have views of his own necessary development as a fighter. He thinks he’s ready to show the doubters that he’s not done yet and snap a three-fight skid against former the Bellator champion.
“I have space on my shelf,” Ferguson said. “I looked at it a couple days. I walked past it and looked at it again. ‘Man, it’s empty there. I need something to put there.’ I was like, ‘It’d look kind of nice to put a belt right there.’ I started getting kind of hungry again, kind of figuring it out, putting things together like a puzzle. I started, and it clicked. I’m a straight shooter now, man. Everything is cool.”
UFC 274 takes place Saturday at Footprint Center with the main card on ESPN+ pay-per-view after prelims on ESPN/ESPN+.
All this talk from Justin Gaethje – and about Justiin Gaethje – only fuels Charles Oliveira’s goal of adding to his legacy.
PHOENIX – MMA math doesn’t always work, but for lightweight champion [autotag]Charles Oliveira[/autotag], this is the equation heading into UFC 274.
“He fought a guy for three rounds. I knocked him out with my left hand,” Oliveira told reporters, including MMA Junkie, at Wednesday’s media day. “So whatever the hype is, whatever the talk is, I don’t listen to it. The champion is Charles Oliveira, and it’s gonna stay this way.”
“He,” of course, is [autotag]Justin Gaethje[/autotag]. And as for “him,” that’s Michael Chandler Oliveira is talking about.
Oliveira (32-8 MMA, 20-8 UFC) dropped Chandler with a left hook that led to a second-round TKO last May to claim the vacant lightweight title. Six months later, Chandler pushed Gaethje (23-3 MMA, 6-3 UFC) to the limits in the 2021 Fight of the Year, which Gaethje won by decision after three hellacious rounds.
That Gaethje victory earned the former interim champ an undisputed title shot against Oliveira, and the two will headline UFC 274 on Saturday at Footprint Center in a fight that very well could be a war, which tends to happen when Gaethje is involved.
“Listen, (Gaethje) is a truck,” Oliveira said. “He only moves forward; I only move forward. So there’s definitely gonna be collisions, definitely gonna be a clash. I’m not a jiu-jitsu fighter anymore. I’m a complete MMA fighter. I want everyone to know. It seems like guys are not getting the picture.”
Oliveira’s heart has been questioned repeatedly in the past, but it shouldn’t be after consecutive impressive finishes of Chandler and Dustin Poirier (by second-round submission) in two title bouts.
For Oliveira, that’s just talk. And talk is cheap.
“Listen, to each their own. People approach fights differently – people talk, people don’t like to talk,” Oliveira said. “If I liked to talk, I’d bring a parrot up here instead of myself. I let my fight do my talking for me. He can say whatever he wants. It does not bother me. I’m only worried about what I’m gonna do in the fight.”
Kayla Harrison paid her respect to Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano following their historic boxing title fight at MSG.
ARLINGTON, Texas – They don’t share the same sport, but [autotag]Kayla Harrison[/autotag] can respect the work Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano displayed in their historic boxing title fight last weekend.
Taylor overcame adversity to defeat Serrano in a split decision and retain her undisputed lightweight championship in front of a sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden last Saturday. Taylor vs. Serrano arguably was the biggest and most high profile fight in women’s boxing history.
Harrison (12-0), a two-time PFL champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist in judo, has a new level of respect for Taylor and Serrano and what they were able to do for women’s boxing and women’s sports in general.
“For me as a female athlete and as woman in general, and I think just an athlete, it was super inspiring to watch,” Harrison told reporters, including MMA Junkie, at the 2022 PFL 3 media day on Wednesday. “My hat goes off to both of them. They couldn’t have done a better job in the ring, out of the ring – class all the way.
“They raised women athletes to a whole new level that night. And I think that’s the goal besides trying to beat people up for money. The goal is to raise the bar and make it a little easier for the next generation so they don’t have to fight as hard to just get noticed. The goal is to take over.”
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Harrison returns to the cage this Friday in the main event of 2022 PFL 3, her first fight since re-signing with the promotion after a long free agency period. She takes on Marina Mokhnatkina in a lightweight bout. Harrison won the two previous seasons of women’s lightweight, capturing two titles and cashing two $1 million prizes. The 31-year-old is regarded by many as one of the best female fighters in MMA today.
Dan Hardy also thinks Conor McGregor should want Justin Gaethje to win at UFC 274.
[autotag]Dan Hardy[/autotag] thinks it’s in [autotag]Conor McGregor[/autotag]’s benefit if [autotag]Justin Gaethje[/autotag] captures the lightweight title at UFC 274.
Gaethje (23-3 MMA, 6-3 UFC) challenges 155-pound champion [autotag]Charles Oliveira[/autotag] (32-8 MMA, 20-8 UFC) in Saturday’s main event at Footprint Center in Phoenix and although McGregor declared that he’ll be waltzing into a welterweight title shot upon his return, he has also bounced the idea of facing Oliveira before.
McGregor (22-6 MMA, 10-4 UFC), a former UFC featherweight and lightweight champ, has put on some size in his injury layoff but has fought the majority of his career at 145 and 155 pounds. From a stylistic standpoint, Hardy thinks McGregor would fare much better against Gaethje than he would Oliveira.
“Does McGregor want to fight Charles Oliveira?” Hardy asked in an interview with Submission Radio. “Is it a fight that’s gonna really, really sell? Is it worth taking that fight knowing full well that most likely he’s gonna get beaten up and submitted? I think there are lots of really interesting fights for Conor McGregor, but unless something drastic has changed in the last few months while he’s been healing his leg, I don’t think he has the skillet to beat Charles Oliveira.
“I do think he has the skillset to beat Gaethje, and I think that’s a very marketable fight. Especially because they speak the same language, they can (go) back and forth. Gaethje is a funny dude. He’s not gonna back down, but he’s gonna bring brutality to the octagon, and Conor McGregor brings sharp shooting to the octagon, but he does get tired, and he does get worn down and for as long as Justin Gaethje can take those shots, Conor will be getting tired.”
Hardy thinks a Gaethje win could lure McGregor back into lightweight and that the idea of challenging UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman wouldn’t be a good idea, either.
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However, if Oliveira retains his title, Hardy has another idea for McGregor’s return fight.
“I think if Gaethje wins, you might see Conor McGregor in there,” Hardy said. “I think if Oliveira wins, I don’t think we’ll see him anywhere near that lightweight belt. Whether he wants to fight for it or not, I don’t think he’ll get it, and I don’t really think Usman is better for him either to be honest. We’ve got Tony Ferguson against Chandler, that is a banger, and if I was Conor McGregor, I’d be looking at something like that.
“It doesn’t matter who Conor McGregor is fighting. He could fight Artem Lobov in Dublin, and he would sell the arena out. It doesn’t really matter who he’s fighting. What’s most important right now is that Conor maintains his brand and stepping in there against Charles Oliveira, for as cool as it would be for him to beat him and win the belt, it’s a shot in the dark, and it could just push his brand in the combat sports world off a cliff.”
That being said, Hardy thinks Oliveira likely gets his hand raised against Gaethje.
“I’m leaning slightly towards Oliveira because he’s got a lot of technical advantages,” Hardy said. “I feel like he is gonna be able to win the striking as long as he doesn’t get hit with that big shot and take too many low kicks, but he stands high on his rear leg, so the lead leg is less vulnerable.”
“You’re still talking about No. 5 vs. No. 7 in the nastiest division in the sport.”
[autotag]Michael Chandler[/autotag] and [autotag]Tony Ferguson[/autotag]’s future with the UFC won’t be in jeopardy Saturday.
Skidding lightweights Chandler and Ferguson square off on the UFC 274 pay-per-view main card at Footprint Center in Phoenix, where UFC president Dana White says a loss for either man won’t dictate their future with the company.
“You’re still talking about No. 5 vs. No. 7 in the nastiest division in the sport,” White told The Underground. “So if you look at who they’ve lost to, it’s all the best in the world. These guys always bring it. They always come to fight. Nobody’s fighting for their life in this one.”
Ferguson (25-6 MMA, 15-4 UFC), on the other hand, went from a 12-fight winning streak, including capturing the interim lightweight title in October 2017, to three straight lopsided losses to Gaethje, Oliveira, and most recently Beneil Dariush at UFC 262.
On the contrary, White says the loser of the PPV main card opener between Donald Cerrone (36-16 MMA, 23-13 UFC) and Joe Lauzon (28-15 MMA, 15-12 UFC) should consider hanging it up. Lauzon has lost three of his past four, whereas Cerrone is winless in his past six bouts.
“They’re a different story,” White said. “That one should be the loser probably packs it up and rides off into the sunset. That I would agree with.”
