Category: Featured

‘The Blessed Era’: Inside Max Holloway’s resume ahead of UFC 245

Max Holloway already has accomplished a lot in his career and has the opportunity to do more in the UFC 245 headliner.

UFC featherweight champion [autotag]Max Holloway[/autotag] returns to the octagon Saturday for what he hopes will be his fourth consecutive title defense, this time against Alexander Volkanovski.

Since his title reign began two years ago, Holloway (21-4 MMA, 17-4 UFC) has proven himself to be one of the most dominant champions in the sport. “Blessed” will attempt to continue that against Volkanovski (20-1 MMA, 7-0 UFC) when they meet in the UFC 245 co-headliner, which takes place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN2 and ESPN+/UFC Fight Pass.

With another significant contest in Holloway’s career just around the corner, there’s no better time to take a closer look at everything he’s achieved to date and what records are in store if he continues his championship form at UFC 245.

General statistics

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Holloway is ranked No. 1 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie MMA featherweight rankings and No. 7 pound-for-pound.

He is set to become the first fighter to reach 20 UFC featherweight appearance.

At 28, he becomes the youngest fighter to make 22 UFC appearances.

His 13-fight UFC winning streak that was snapped at UFC 236 is tied with Jon Jones, Georges St-Pierre and Demetrious Johnson for the second longest in company history behind Anderson Silva (16).

His 13-fight UFC winning streak in featherweight competition is the longest active streak in the division.

At 25, he became the youngest fighter in UFC history to earn 15 victories with the organization at UFC 218 in December 2017. He was also the youngest to reach 10 wins at age 23.

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His 16 victories in UFC featherweight competition are the most in divisional history.

His 10 stoppage victories in UFC featherweight competition are the most in divisional history.

His eight knockout victories in UFC featherweight competition are most in divisional history.

His six third-round stoppage victories in UFC competition are tied with Randy Couture and Yoel Romero for most in company history.

His eight knockdowns landed in UFC featherweight competition are tied with Chad Mendes and Josh Emmett for second-most in divisional history behind Jeremy Stephens (11).

His seven fight-night bonuses for UFC featherweight bouts are tied with Chan Sung Jung and Yair Rodriguez for second most in divisional history behind Cub Swanson (eight).

Championship statistics

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Holloway is one of three fighters in UFC history to win the undisputed featherweight title, along with Jose Aldo and Conor McGregor.

He is one of two Hawaiian-born champions in UFC history. B.J. Penn also accomplished the feat.

His three consecutive featherweight title defenses are most current male UFC champions and second most overall behind Amanda Nunes (four).

He became the first champion in more than nine years to record a successful title defense immediately after suffering a loss when he beat Frankie Edgar at UFC 240.

He has won four of his five UFC featherweight championship fight appearances by knockout.

In-fight statistics

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Holloway becomes the third fighter in UFC history to reach 22 octagon appearances without suffering a knockdown. Penn and Jones also accomplished the feat.

His 1,937 significant strikes landed in UFC competition are most in company history.

His rate of 6.61 significant strikes landed per minute in UFC featherweight competition is second highest in divisional history behind Shane Burgos (7.09).

He landed 290 significant strikes against Brian Ortega at UFC 231, the single-fight UFC record.

He landed 134 significant strikes in Round 4 a UFC 231, the single-round UFC record.

He and Ortega combined for 400 significant strikes landed at UFC 231, the single-fight UFC record.

He is the only fighter in history to land 100 or more significant strikes in nine separate UFC fights. Joanna Jedrzejczyk ranks second with seven such performances.

His total fight time of 4:07:00 in UFC featherweight competition is second most in divisional history behind Darren Elkins (4:09:04).

Daniel Cormier expects Stipe Miocic trilogy in June, but timeline tricky

Daniel Cormier knows it could take at least half a year before he gets to settle his trilogy with UFC heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic.

WASHINGTON – [autotag]Daniel Cormier[/autotag] would prefer to close out his UFC heavyweight title trilogy with Stipe Miocic as soon as possible, but has already accepted he has no control over the timeline.

Cormier (22-2 MMA, 11-2 UFC), the former UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight champion, will meet Miocic (19-3 MMA, 13-3 UFC) in the final fight of his decorated MMA career sometime in 2020. After winning the first meeting in at UFC 226 in July 2018, “DC” dropped the belt in the rematch at UFC 241 in August.

Miocic suffered an eye injury in his title win that required surgery, though, and he’s still recovering. Cormier said that likely puts them on an early summer timeline.

“There’s no time for us to fight until maybe June,” Cormier told MMA Junkie. “The way the UFC quarterly schedule is looking, the UFC essentially, with them announcing Tony (Ferguson) and Khabib (Nurmagomedov) for April, there’s really no time. We’re going to be waiting a little bit.”

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The thing for Cormier is that time is of the essence. He’ll turn 41 in March, and for much of his career he said he’d never fight past 40. Back surgery ultimately delayed his original retirement plan, but he said the next clash with Miocic will be his final octagon appearance no matter the result.

Cormier said he’s feeling in tip-top shape now, and while he could easily jump into a camp and be ready to go in the next few months, he didn’t express much frustration over a potential half-year wait.

“It’s tricky,” Cormier said. “I would like it to happen sooner than later, that’s all I would like to say. I feel like the more time I get away from last year’s back surgery, the better I feel, and I’m starting to really feel like myself now. The further I get away from this surgery, the better I’ll be. They told me when I did it, after about a year is when it would really start to feel everything was back in order and I’m starting to feel that now.

“I’m ready to go, but he’s the champ. He’s the champ, he makes the rules. So I’m on standby and I’m waiting to see when this guy says that we’re going to fight. When he does, I’ll be prepared. I’ll be ready – even more prepared than the last time because I feel I can prepare better from the very start right now.”

Although there’s been a number of trilogies over the course of UFC history, Cormier and Miocic is among the most unique. For Miocic, all three fights will come consecutively, making him the first in UFC history to fight the same opponent three times in a row.

For Cormier, it will be his third encounter with Miocic in his past four, with the lone outlier being a short-notice title defense vs. Derrick Lewis at UFC 230 in November 2018. It’s a compelling dynamic, and Cormier said he’s going to do everything in his power to be prepared for it, including working with boxing legend George Foreman.

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“I had that Derrick Lewis stop in between, but I didn’t even get to train for that,” Cormier said. “I fought on three weeks’ (notice), so we’re pretty much in the same situation. I think what’s great for me is in five rounds of fighting I’ve won the vast majority of those rounds. That’s what feels good for me in my preparation. There are some things I need to change. Obviously he did a great job of adjusting and punching me in the body last time, and that’s what ultimately won him the fight. But I’ve already started to take the steps to try to improve that.

“I’m working with George Foreman now, and he showed me some tips to help with the boxing. The reality is it’s all boxing. Stipe isn’t kicking me very much, he’s punching and punching and I’m punching and wrestling. I’ve started to work on some things to try to shore up that issue that caused me so many problems last time.”

After trading knockouts in their first two meetings, Cormier vowed to defeat Miocic in the trilogy, regain the heavyweight title and exit the sport on top. He’s just waiting to find out the time and place, and once it’s official, he promises to be ready.

“I think Stipe and I have a fantastic rivalry,” Cormier said. “I won the first fight in tremendous fashion, he won the second fight in tremendous fashion. I feel like we’ve had the first two acts of a three-act drama and we have to do the trilogy fight and eventually we’re going to do that.”

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UFC 245: Make predictions for Usman-Covington, Holloway-Volkanovski, Nunes-de Randamie title fights

We want your predictions for Saturday’s UFC 245 event in Las Vegas, which features three title fights at the top of the card.

We want your predictions for Saturday’s UFC 245 event in Las Vegas.

Our staff picks feature includes the consensus picks from MMA Junkie readers. Simply cast your vote for each bout below, and we’ll use the official tallies that are registered by Thursday at noon ET (9 a.m. PT).

Those MMA Junkie reader consensus picks will be part of the UFC 245 event staff predictions we release Friday ahead of the event. UFC 245 takes place Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN2 and early prelims on UFC Fight Pass/ESPN+.

Make your picks for all five main card fights inside:

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How Colby Covington’s infamous ‘filthy animals’ speech in Brazil saved his UFC career

The UFC’s biggest heal was born, in part, because the promotion had lost interest in Colby Covington.

[autotag]Colby Covington[/autotag] almost saw his UFC career come to an end, and he knew he had to do something about it.

Going into his co-main event vs. Demian Maia in October 2017 at UFC Fight Night 119, Covington (15-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC) was on the final fight of his UFC contract. According to him, the promotion wasn’t too keen on re-signing him.

Speaking on “The Candace Owens Show,” Covington detailed how, despite being 7-1 in the UFC at that point, the promotion didn’t think he was entertaining enough. So Covington felt the pressure of proving them wrong.

After Covington dominated for a unanimous decision victory, he grabbed the mic and took charge of his career with his infamous “filthy animals” rant.

“I think my big break – I’ve never told this story before – but three fights ago before I fought the No. 2 guy in the world, this guy named Demian Maia in Brazil, they had told my manager Dan Lambert that they weren’t going to re-sign me,” Covington said. “They didn’t like my style. They didn’t like that I wasn’t entertaining, and this is before I really started to become an entertainer and understand the entertainment aspect of this business. So before this fight, they told me no matter what happens – I was ranked No. 6 in the world – we’re not re-signing you.

“‘We don’t like your character. We don’t like your fighting style.’ And I’m getting paid $30,000 to go fight the No. 2 guy in the world. Like, after you pay taxes and pay your coaches, you’re really going to get like five or 10 thousand dollars. So I go out there. I beat him up and leave him in a pool of his own blood in Sao Paulo, Brazil, his home city, and I shoot this promo on the Brazilians, and I say, ‘Hey, you guys are all a bunch of filthy animals, and, Brazil, you’re a dump.'”

Just like that, the UFC’s biggest heal was born.

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Covington was showered with boos and had anything and everything thrown at him on his way out of the octagon.

“So I go and shoot this promo, and I wasn’t supposed to have my job, but that promo goes so viral on the internet, the UFC’s like, ‘We have to keep him,'” Covington said. “‘We have to re-sign him because that promo was so big,’ so that’s what saved my career, and that was the turning point of my career and the rest has been history.”

After re-signing with the UFC, Covington would go on and challenge for the UFC interim welterweight title vs. former UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos, and was able to put on another stand-out performance for the win.

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Covington never got the opportunity to unify the belts with then 170-pound champ Tyron Woodley and was stripped due to inactivity. He would only enter the cage one year later vs. former UFC welterweight champ Robbie Lawler in August, putting on arguably his best performance and breaking the UFC record for most significant strikes attempted in a fight.

That unanimous decision win would earn Covington a title shot vs. Kamaru Usman in a grudge match that will take place Saturday at UFC 245.

It’s safe to say that Covington’s career has turned around since that night in Brazil.

 

5 biggest takeaways from UFC on ESPN 7: Rozenstruik’s comeback, Miragliotta’s rough patch, Mitchell’s twister

Thought and analysis of the biggest storylines to come out of UFC on ESPN 7.

What mattered most at UFC on ESPN 7 in Washington? Here are a few post-fight musings …

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1. MMA forever remains ridiculous

That main event between [autotag]Jairzinho Rozenstruik[/autotag] (10-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC) and [autotag]Alistair Overeem[/autotag] (45-18 MMA, 10-7 UFC) encapsulated everything that makes this sport so unpredictably wild.

After more than 24 minutes of forgettable fight time between the heavyweights, fans inside Capital One Arena started to hit the exits in sizable doses. Even I was convinced the fight had given us everything we were going to see, but then a ho-hum affair turned into one of the most memorable outcomes of the year in the span of one punch.

Not only did Rozenstruik score the third-latest stoppage in UFC history with his leaping left hand that finished Overeem with just four-seconds left in Round 5, but the impact of the blow led to the one of the nastiest injuries in recent memory.

Overeem’s lip was split open in sickening fashion by Rozenstruik. It’s perhaps the worst injury of its kind in the sport’s history, largely erasing the fact that main event wasn’t all that great before the finishing blow.

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UFC on ESPN 7 rookie report: Grading the newcomers in Washington D.C.

Fighters from around the globe dream of the day they’ll step into the octagon the first time – so how did the newcomers perform on Saturday?

Fighters from around the globe dream of the day they’ll step into the UFC octagon for the first time. For four athletes, Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 7 event marked that special moment in their career.

Check out this week’s rookie report to see what kind of first impression those fighters made on the sport’s biggest stage from Capital One Arena in Washington D.C.

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Mallory Martin

Mallory Martin

Division: Strawweight
Result: Virna Jandiroba def. Mallory Martin via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2, 1:16
Record: (6-3 MMA, 0-1 UFC)
Grade: C+

[autotag]Mallory Martin[/autotag] came in on short notice to face former Invicta FC champ Virna Jandiroba at Saturday’s card, so it’s easy to write off some of her shortcomings – and while she didn’t look fantastic in her UFC debut, let’s not forget that Jandiroba came into this contest ranked No. 11 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie strawweight rankings.

In short, the deck was stacked against Martin, a four-time Invicta FC veteran who also owns a win under the Dana White’s Contender Series banner, as well. To her credit, Martin tried to make the fight exciting, flashing her impressive striking skills during the brief moments she remained upright. But Jandiroba’s perfectly timed takedowns saw her get to the floor early and often, and once she got on the back, the Brazilian’s submission attack was sublime.

Stylistically, there are better matchup available for Martin in the division, so she’ll hope for someone looking to strike in her next time out. A proper training camp will likely help, as well, so while she didn’t necessarily look phenomenal in her debut, don’t close the book on Martin just yet.

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Cynthia Calvillo has no excuses about weight miss; open to flyweight move after UFC DC

Cynthia Calvillo is willing to consider going up to flyweight after once again missing the strawweight mark.

WASHINGTON – [autotag]Cynthia Calvillo[/autotag] will walk away from UFC on ESPN 7 with less money than she anticipated – for two reasons.

In Saturday’s co-main event, Calvillo (8-1-1 MMA, 5-1-1 UFC) fought to a majority draw against Marina Rodriguez (13-0-2 MMA, 2-0-2 UFC), so a win bonus won’t be coming her way.

Additionally, Calvillo was forced to hand over a solid chunk of change when she was fined 30 percent for missing weight by 4.5 pounds on Friday morning. The miss wasn’t her first, either. Prior to her fight against Poliana Botelho in November 2018, Calvillo also missed the strawweight mark.

Post-fight, Calvillo told reporters backstage at Capital One Arena she’s open to moving up in weight – if her body doesn’t allow her to hit the 115-pound mark.

“I don’t want to make excuses,” Calvillo told MMA Junkie. “It’s unfortunate that it happened. It was something we were trying to prepare for again. But once again, I had to deal with my body shutting down. I don’t want to make any excuses. I just want to go back to the drawing board and we’re going to work on that. Whether it means me moving up a weight class and that’s what I’m going to have to do.”

“I would hate to look like I’m unprofessional,” she continued. “I work so goddang hard. If you guys knew me and spent a week with me, you’d know I’m not here to (expletive) around. I definitely didn’t want to give a couple G’s. She went home with a nice paycheck with that draw and my missed weight. It is what it is. I apologize to my opponent and stuff like that. We’re going to make sure that doesn’t happen again. If that means moving up, that means moving up.”

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As for the draw itself, Calvillo didn’t state whether or not she thought she won the fight. Seemingly focused more on her mistakes, Calvillo said she could have done better in certain areas, notably, the clinch.

“You know – it was a tough fight,” Calvillo said. “I did a lot of mistakes in there. Definitely defending in the clinch. She had a really good clinch. But I feel like I got her down in the first round. Second round she was pretty strong.

“But the third round, man, I was goddang this close to finishing her. I let it slip through my fingers. She got up for the last few seconds and it ended up being a draw in the judges’ eyes.”

Having done some of her camp overseas in preparation for UFC DC, Calvillo’s fine stings a little extra. The 32-year-old Californian hopes to be rebooked quickly.

“We’ve got to pay some bills,” Calvillo said. “Hopefully I get a fight really soon – early next year. Dana (White), Mick Maynard. Please. I’ll take a fight January, February, whatever, you know? I got some bills to pay because those four pounds were very expensive.”

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Bryce Mitchell on UFC on ESPN 7 twister submission: ‘I’ve seen Eddie Bravo doing it on YouTube’

Bryce Mitchell breaks down his rare twister submission finish at UFC on ESPN 7 in Washington D.C.

WASHINGTON — [autotag]Bryce Mitchell[/autotag] is now the second man in UFC history to score a twister submission finish.

The featherweight fighter submitted Matt Sayles at Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 7 in Washington D.C. with one of the rarest submissions in the game. The end came at the 4:20 mark of round one and it was worthy of a $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus.

Although the twister is rarely seen in the UFC, Mitchell (12-0 MMA, 3-0 UFC) told the media backstage at the event that he often catches the maneuver in the gym.

“It’s something I do in practice a lot,” Mitchell said. “I’ve seen Eddie Bravo doing it on YouTube and I practiced it, practiced it and practiced it. I remember every step that he told me. I even know the Peruvian twister – it’s the tighter version. I really paid a lot of attention to that video, shout out to Eddie Bravo, and yeah, that’s where I got it from.

Me and my teammates are always practicing it and it’s a good ground-and-pound stop too. If you don’t want to go for the sub, you can just punish them, and they can’t do anything. But I knew I didn’t have a lot of time left, so I just went straight to the submission.”

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Despite Mitchell feeling comfortable locking up twisters on a frequent basis, the unbeaten prospect understands why the submission is rare.

“I’d say it’s rare because it’s hard to do, there’s just so many steps,” Mitchell explained. “So, so many steps; it looks funky, that’s another thing. It looks like it wouldn’t work but it’s a common move for me. I get it, not every time I grapple, but one two or three times a week.

“I get twisters more than I get Kimuras, everyone thinks Kimuras are common. But I guess because it’s funky and it takes a lot of steps and it uses your whole body too. Like, armbar, you just fall back from mount, but a twister you go from regular lockdown to that butterfly style with your leg locked down and then you move the grip over here. So it’s a multi-step process if you’re opponent knows how to defend it.

“If your opponent doesn’t know how to defend it, if they don’t know how to defend, then it’s going to be a one or two-step process because they will just give you the arm. But if they defend, then it’s like a six-step process so it takes time. I think that’s why it’s so uncommon because people don’t know all the steps and how to do it.”

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After impressive win, Jairzinho Rozenstruik says he’ll see Francis Ngannou soon

Jairzinho Rozenstruik wants to fight Francis Ngannou next in order to find out who is the scariest man in the UFC.

WASHINGTON – [autotag]Jairzinho Rozenstruik[/autotag] picked up the biggest win of his career at UFC on ESPN 7 and he’s already got his sights set on a potential next opponent.

As the clock wound down in the fifth round of his main event bout against Alistair Overeem, Rozenstruik (10-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC) landed a huge fight-ending punch. The blow sliced Overeem’s lip open in grotesque fashion.

“First, I got myself beat up and then I knocked him out,” the Surinamese heavyweight told MMA Junkie after the fight. “That’s part of the job. Put in work. He was fighting the fight. He’s so smart to do that. He did it for five rounds.”

Moments after the finishing punch landed, Rozenstruik began celebrating – even before referee Dan Miragliotta waived off the fight. Rozenstruik said he knew Overeem (45-18 MMA, 10-7 UFC) was “really knocked out.”

“I saw he was really knocked out, so I walked away,” Rozenstruik said. “I can be going in like, ‘Boom, boom, boom.’ But I saw (I knocked him out) like right away.”

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While the outcome my seem improbable or surprising to outside observers, Rozenstruik doesn’t view it that way. “Bigi Boy” stated a “never give up” mentality has been instilled in him.

“Don’t give up,” Rozenstruik said. “You always have to go through. And that’s what you do in the gym. You don’t train two minutes, you train two hours sometimes. I showed that today. I showed my heart and I showed that I belonged in this division.”

In his post-fight interview with UFC commentator Jon Anik, Rozenstruik called out the man he’s been targeting for weeks, [autotag]Francis Ngannou[/autotag]. Why Ngannou (14-3 MMA, 9-2 UFC)? Rozenstruik indicated he wants to settle the debate on who the scarier fighter is.

“I like it,” Rozenstruik said. “If he accepts, then I’m excited about it. So I’m going to see him soon. I think it’s going to be a really good fight. He’s strong. He’s big. Even if you look at him, you’re like, ‘You’re big. You’re scary.’ But we have to do it. You know what I mean?”

UFC on ESPN 7 took place Saturday at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. The main card aired on ESPN following prelims on ESPN and early prelims on UFC Fight Pass/ESPN+.

Check out Jairzinho Rozenstruik’s full post-fight media scrum in the video above.

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Francis Ngannou responds to Jairzinho Rozenstruik’s callout: ‘I heard you’

Francis Ngannou sure sounds open to obliging Jairzinho Rozenstruik’s request for a fight.

[autotag]Jairzinho Rozenstruik[/autotag]’s callout didn’t fall on deaf ears.

The Surinamese fighter made waves in the UFC’s heavyweight division on Saturday night at UFC on ESPN 7 in Washington D.C. Rozenstruik (10-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC) viciously knocked out seasoned veteran Alistair Overeem (45-18 MMA, 10-7 UFC) with just four seconds reaming on their main event bout. It was a gruesome scene.

After the fight, Rozenstruik took to the mic to send some words to top contender Francis Ngannou.

“I want to be back in April and I really want to fight this big scary guy [autotag]Francis Ngannou[/autotag],” Rozenstruik said. “So if you hear this right now, I hope you accept this fight. Man, let’s give those people a great show.”

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It didn’t take long for Ngannou (14-3 MMA, 9-2 MMA) to hop on Twitter and respond to Rozenstruik:

“I heard you babayga. You made yourself very clear tonight. Congrats on your come back by the way. #uncrowndedchamp #UFCDC”

 

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