Category: UFC

Aljamain Sterling: Merab Dvalishvili ‘just standing on business’ by dismissing Umar Nurmagomedov

Aljamain Sterling says Merab Dvalishvili not wanting to fight Umar Nurmagomedov is out of principle.

[autotag]Aljamain Sterling[/autotag] says [autotag]Merab Dvalishvili[/autotag] not wanting to fight [autotag]Umar Nurmagomedov[/autotag] is out of principle.

UFC bantamweight champion Dvalishvili (18-4 MMA, 11-2 UFC) was heavily chastised for calling out Petr Yan (18-5 MMA, 10-4 UFC) after he defeated Deiveison Figueiredo this past Saturday at UFC Fight Night 248. Dvalishvili already beat Yan before, winning a lopsided unanimous decision where he shot a single-fight UFC record 49 takedown attempts.

Dvalishvili insists that beating just one ranked contender in Cory Sandhagen isn’t enough for Nurmagomedov (18-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) to earn a title shot, and Sterling defends his argument.

“Some people actually think he’s afraid, which is actually hilarious,” Sterling said on his YouTube channel. “From what I understand when we talk, Merab is just standing on business, like, ‘Bro you haven’t done anything and I’m supposed to be busting my ass over here?’

“I’m from the same area as you, in relation to the area – the Caucus mountains – and I had to come here and bust my ass just to get a title shot and you’re going to get it off of one win? And I had to fight all these contenders. That’s crazy.”

Nurmagomedov was quick to remind Sterling of his initial stance on who should be next in line for a title shot.

“@funkmasterMMA When you weren’t afraid to speak the truth.”

Sterling explains that when comparing Yan and Nurmagomedov’s accolades and strength of schedule, former champion Yan’s is more impressive.

“I think that was way more dominant than Umar’s performance over Sandhagen, and Yan beat Sandhagen,” Sterling said. “I know you can’t do MMA math, but in terms of notoriety, then technically Yan should jump both of them to be No. 1 as a contender. If you’re using logic, that’s the way that it should go. But if we’re talking strictly what have you done lately, I guess Umar does have the highest credible win.”

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Jon Anik answers whether Jim Miller deserves to be in UFC Hall of Fame

Jon Anik thinks Jim Miller deserves to be recognized for his record-setting longevity, but isn’t sure about the UFC Hall of Fame.

[autotag]Jon Anik[/autotag] thinks [autotag]Jim Miller[/autotag] deserves to be recognized for his record-setting longevity, but isn’t sure about the UFC Hall of Fame.

Miller (38-18 MMA, 27-17 UFC) is the UFC’s all-time leader in wins. He extended his streak after submitting Damon Jackson in the first round less than two weeks ago at UFC 309.

Miller’s 19 stoppage wins in UFC competition are second-most in company history behind Charles Oliveira (20). The 41-year-old is still trucking, and Anik has no issue seeing him in the UFC Hall of Fame – as long as he’s in a different category.

“It’s pretty simple, right? I have hosted the UFC Hall of Fame induction ceremony for 12 or 13 years, but the Hall of Fame is a little bit clunky,” Anik told MMA Junkie Radio. “Not only is there no voting body, but the Hall of Fame is comprised of four separate unique wings. So there are a lot of different ways to get into the Hall of Fame.

“Robbie Lawler right now is in the Hall of Fame for a fight in which he took part. My thesis statement largely dovetails with Daniel Cormier’s that Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone and Jim Miller can be Hall of Famers if they are in a different wing than Daniel Cormier and Khabib Nurmagomedov.”

Daniel Cormier argued that neither Miller or Donald Cerrone should be in the UFC Hall of Fame, and Anik sees where his fellow commentator is coming from.

“The Greatest Of All Time fighters, the Mount Rushmore fighters – Demetrious Johnson, Georges St-Pierre, Jon Jones – shouldn’t be in the same wing with fighters who have longevity-type records,” Anik said.

“Now, Jim Miller is the all-time wins leader. Donald Cerrone did amazing things. Charles Oliveira did a lot of the things that Jim Miller and Donald Cerrone did, but he also won the sport’s ultimate prize. Donald Cerrone had a longer winning streak than Jim Miller did. He at least competed for the undisputed championship. Every case is unique. I would like to see it be a broad voting body that determines these things.”

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After suffering personal tragedy, Nate Landwehr plans on coming out ‘guns blazing’ vs. Doo Ho Choi

Nate Landwehr is coming into UFC 310 with a heavy heart.

[autotag]Nate Landwehr[/autotag] is coming into UFC 310 with a heavy heart.

Landwehr (18-5 MMA, 5-3 UFC) takes on Dooho Choi (15-4-1 MMA, 4-3-1 UFC) Dec. 7 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPN2, ESPN+).

Landwehr revealed that his wife Robyn recently suffered a miscarriage, a personal tragedy that will play in his mind going into UFC 310.

“It’s just like a fight, man,” Landwehr told Middle Easy. “You’ve just got to keep fighting. We had to go through IVF, so they’ve got to go in, they’ve got to strip my wife’s eggs, and they fertilize them. So we ended up with X amount of embryos that were viable. We had five boy embryos and one girl embryo.

“We tried to put the girl in a little bit ago. She attached, and she just didn’t quite make it. Her name was going to be June Marie. I think about it. All the things that could have been. … You start plotting and planning and then God laughs at you like, ‘I’ve got a plan for you,’ and it just wasn’t meant to be.”

Landwehr is coming off a first-round knockout of Jamall Emmers at UFC on ESPN 54 in March. He was able to rebound from his loss to Dan Ige at UFC 289 – the lone fight he didn’t receive a bonus in from his past five appearances.

Although Landwehr noticed that Choi has been more reserved in his second UFC stint, he plans on bringing out the dog in him.

“You’ve put that in the air,” Landwehr said. “I was expecting that kind of thing when I was fighting Dan Ige, and it didn’t play out. It was a decent fight, but that’s kind of one of my biggest regrets in the UFC since I’ve been there so far. I can accept getting knocked out by Herbert Burns, but it weighs on me.

“It should’ve been kill or killed in that last round (vs. Ige). Every fight I’ve been in has been a bonus except for that fight. I tried to make up for it in my last fight, I was hyper-aggressive, came out swinging, took a little bit more damage. I’m going to try to protect myself this time, but I’m just going to come out guns blazing, swinging, and we’re going to see what happens.”

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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 310.

Daniel Cormier: Conor McGregor will suffer ‘long-term effects’ from sexual assault case

Daniel Cormier isn’t sure if Conor McGregor’s image will ever recover from his ongoing sexual assault case.

[autotag]Daniel Cormier[/autotag] isn’t sure if [autotag]Conor McGregor[/autotag]’s image will ever recover from his ongoing sexual assault case.

This past Friday, McGregor was found liable for a 2018 sexual assault of a woman at a Dublin hotel. As a result, the jury ordered McGregor pay approximately $260,000 in damages to the victim, Nikita Hand.

With Proper No. Twelve parent company Proximo Spirits announcing that it will no longer feature McGregor in association with the brand, and IO Interactive also announcing that McGregor’s character will be removed from the popular “Hitman” video game series, Cormier says McGregor will likely continue facing real-life consequences.

“It’s unfortunate because this is one of the biggest stars that this sport has ever seen. We’ve never seen anything like a Conor McGregor in mixed martial arts,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “For a guy of that stature to come from our sport and be tied to something as bad as this, it really does suck. There are going to be some long-term effects from this.”

Cormier clarifies that he isn’t trying to judge McGregor since he doesn’t really know what happened that night. McGregor’s longtime fiancée, Dee Devlin, made it very clear that she is standing by her man, but with McGregor being previously involved in sexual assault cases, Cormier is unsure what to make of the situation.

“When I hear things like this, sometimes (celebrities) are targeted – especially guys that carry that type of cache, that type of name recognition,” Cormier said. “But with Conor, it seems like there has been more than one instance where stuff like this has come up. Like I said, I am not judging this man. I don’t know.

“I wasn’t there. You know who knows? Conor and that girl. But, this isn’t the first time that we have seen something like that so, you’re a little less inclined to be, ‘Oh, this is a gold digger that’s trying to do this.’ But do know that as long as there have been sports, there have been instances like this.”

Former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and current champion Islam Makhachev jumped at the opportunity to take shots at McGregor. Cormier was especially surprised with Makhachev’s reaction, but acknowledges that there is deep-rooted hatred between both sides.

“It was a matter of time till this filthy bastard be exposed. Alcoholic, drug junkie + rapist. Many more facts to come out, trust me!”

“Honestly, it seems a little bit off-brand for Islam,” Cormier said. “I know the boys. The boys love to talk trash. The boys love to mess around. The boys will tell you what they feel. It feels off-brand, but in this case, I feel like it could be because this rivalry between these boys from Dagestan and Conor McGregor has been as nasty as any rivalry as we have seen in mixed martial arts.”

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Jamahal Hill fires back at Jiri Prochazka ahead of UFC 311: ‘We’re not the same’

Jamahal Hill and Jiri Prochazka continue to trade barbs ahead of UFC 311.

[autotag]Jamahal Hill[/autotag] and [autotag]Jiri Prochazka[/autotag] continue to trade barbs ahead of UFC 311.

Hill (12-2 MMA, 6-2 UFC) and Prochazka (30-5-1 MMA, 4-2 UFC) square off in a pivotal light heavyweight clash Jan. 18 at Inuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif.

Both Hill and Prochazka are coming off of knockout losses to UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira. Prochazka took issue with Hill questioning his fight IQ, saying that “Sweet Dreams” showed nothing in his loss to Pereira.

Hill went off on Prochazka by comparing their losses to Pereira.

“Bro, are you kidding me?” Hill responded on his YouTube channel. “So we had the same opponent last fight, right? In your last performance, you got dominated – dominated and knocked out, completely shut down, completely exposed, and then got done bad. I got caught, (but) you got dominated. There’s a huge difference. My man literally had your ponytail leaning to the left. I hope you wear that same ponytail in L.A. so I can lean that motherf*cker to the left right back for you.

“This is insane. We’re talking about a dude that was getting his ass whopped in every fight that you’ve been in, and because you are (unintelligent), you can take some shots – and people get tired and make low-IQ moves. The only reason you became champ is because Glover (Teixeira) made a low-IQ move in a moment and you took advantage of it. Good on you – that’s why you’ll be regarded as a champ.”

Hill and Prochazka also share a common opponent in Glover Teixeira. Prochazka rallied late to submit Teixeira in their title fight at UFC 275, whereas Hill dominated the Brazilian for five rounds at UFC 283 to claim the vacant belt which Prochazka vacated.

“But you got your ass whopped for most of that (Teixeira) fight,” Hill said. “I set a record – complete domination, didn’t drop a single round – and you barely scraped by. We can talk about performances, talk about my last performance – we can go into every performance. I put on dominant performances. You survive and get a win. We’re not the same.”

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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 311.

Terrance McKinney vs. Damir Hadzovic joins February’s UFC Saudi Arabia card

Terrance McKinney’s 10th UFC bout will go down February in Saudi Arabia, and so far he hasn’t had a fight go past eight minutes.

[autotag]Terrance McKinney[/autotag] will bring his action-packed style back to the octagon in February when he takes on [autotag]Damir Hadzovic[/autotag] in a lightweight bout in Saudi Arabia.

McKinney (15-7 MMA, 5-4 UFC) is set to clash with Hadzovic (14-7 MMA, 4-5 UFC) at UFC Fight Night: Riyadh on Feb. 1 at The Venue. Both fighters recently confirmed the matchup on social media.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DC2uTMpvqpG/

https://www.instagram.com/p/DC4FcsoNwrI/

The fight will mark McKinney’s 10th octagon appearance, and so far he hasn’t had a fight go past eight minutes. He has experienced mixed results, but one way or another, he has proven himself to be a violent figure with notable wins over Fares Ziam and Matt Frevola.

Hadzovic, meanwhile, has had ups and downs of his own inside the cage, but has maintained a spot on the UFC roster since April 2016. He hasn’t seen action in more than two years, and will try to beat McKinney to break out of a 1-3 slump in his past four contests.

The latest UFC Fight Night lineup for Saudi Arabia now includes:

  • Sergei Pavlovich vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik
  • Ikram Aliskerov vs. Andre Muniz
  • Said Nurmagomedov vs. Vinicius Oliveira
  • Damir Hadzovic vs. Terrance McKinney
  • Abdul-Kareem Al-Selwady vs. Jordan Leavitt
  • Lucas Alexander vs. Bogdan Grad
  • Muhammad Naimov vs. Kaan Ofli
  • Hamdy Abdelwahab vs. Jamal Pogues
  • Mayra Bueno Silva vs. Jasmine Jasudavicius
  • Shamil Gaziev vs. Thomas Petersen

UFC free fight: Aljamain Sterling wins third title defense in narrow split vs. Henry Cejudo

Watch Aljamain Sterling pick up his third UFC bantamweight title defense by earning a close decision over Henry Cejudo.

[autotag]Aljamain Sterling[/autotag]’s biggest win during his bantamweight title reign was arguably his victory over Henry Cejudo at UFC 288.

After stopping T.J. Dillashaw at UFC 280 to record his second title defense, Sterling would meet another former champion in Cejudo. In the headlining act of UFC 288 at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., Sterling and Cejudo went toe-to-toe for 25 minutes, leaving the judges split in their decision.

It was a fantastic title fight with ebbs and flows, and each man left the octagon feeling as if they did enough to win the fight.

Sterling (24-4 MMA, 16-4 UFC), who now competes in the featherweight division, returns to the octagon at UFC 310. He takes on undefeated Movsar Evloev (18-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) in an important fight with potential title implications.

UFC 310 (pay-per-view, ESPN 2, ESPN+) takes at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Check out Sterling’s big win over Cejudo in the video above.

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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 310.

Jon Anik: UFC 310 headliner Alexandre Pantoja ‘just doesn’t get his due’

Lead UFC commentator Jon Anik is pleased to see Alexandre Pantoja get another PPV main event spotlight at UFC 310.

UFC play-by-play commentator [autotag]Jon Anik[/autotag] is pleased to see flyweight champion [autotag]Alexandre Pantoja[/autotag] get another main event spotlight on the promotion’s final pay-per-view of the year.

Pantoja (28-5 MMA, 12-3 UFC) will attempt to make a third consecutive defense of his title when he takes on Kai Asakura (21-4 MMA, 0-0 UFC) in the UFC 310 headliner on Dec. 7 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPN2, ESPNews).

Pantoja vs. Asakura wasn’t originally slated to top the lineup, but when welterweight champ Belal Muhammad withdrew from his fight against Shavkat Rakhmonov due to a health issue, the matchup was elevated.

For Anik, it’s a deserved and rightful position as he views Pantoja as one of the very best in the sport.

“How do you have (the pound-for-pound conversation) without this guy? What type of human weapon is actually going to be able to put Alexandre Pantoja away?” Anik told MMA Junkie Radio. “You think about all the wars he’s been in, to have never been finished and to have never really come that close to being finishes, there is so many things to be impressed about with this man. The world ethic, the coach ability. The ability to go to that place that people like me can’t go to, athletically or otherwise. The ability to dig deep when your cardiovascular base isn’t there. I think that’s what really sets him apart. Yeah, sure, he’s got every skill. He’s got finishing ability, but I just think it’s that mental toughness that allows him to go to that place when maybe his body fails him, is maybe what sets him apart.”

Pantoja, No. 10 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie pound-for-pound rankings and No. 1 at flyweight, will be tasked at UFC 310 with welcoming former RIZIN FF champion Asakura to the promotion.

Anik said he thinks highly of Asakura, but he struggles to overlook the greatness of Pantoja heading into fight night.

“Very excited to see Kai Asakura live for the first time – electric fighter,” Anik said. “I just think that Pantoja is the absolute man. He just doesn’t get his due.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 310.

Rico Verhoeven clarifies Tom Aspinall sparring footage after Conor McGregor called it ‘woeful’

Rico Verhoeven is amused by Conor McGregor using his sparring footage with Tom Aspinall as analysis for a fight with Jon Jones.

[autotag]Rico Verhoeven[/autotag] is amused at the idea of [autotag]Conor McGregor[/autotag] or anyone else trying to use his sparring footage with interim UFC champion [autotag]Tom Aspinall[/autotag] as analysis for a potential title unifier with Jon Jones.

Verhoeven, the current GLORY Kickboxing heavyweight champion, is a good friend of Aspinall, with the pair frequently using each other in training camps for their respective bouts. They were in the gym recently, with Aspinall (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) getting some rounds for his potential backup role at UFC 309 this month when Jones (28-1 MMA, 22-1 UFC) took on Stipe Miocic, as well as assisting Verhoeven ahead of his title defense with Levi Rigters at GLORY COLLISION 7 on Dec. 7 in the Netherlands.

After Jones defeated Miocic by third-round TKO, UFC CEO Dana White said he will do everything in his power to make the fight with Aspinall next. In anticipation of that, Aspinall recently said on “The Ariel Helwani Show” that Jones is worried about facing him because of the lack of fight footage he has to prepare off.

That prompted former two-division UFC champion McGregor to chime in on social media and point to some of the sparring videos that have surfaced between Aspinall and Verhoeven, to which he said Aspinall looked “woeful.” That takeaway was comical to Verhoeven.

“Come on – me and Tom, you really, really, really think me and Tom are going to spar for real and share that on the internet? Come on,” Verhoeven told MMA Junkie. “You’ve got to be kidding me. But that’s the mindset of the world today. They’re all like, ‘Yo, what’s on the internet, that’s what’s for real.’ Come on. We’re too smart for that. We’ve been playing this game for such a long time and that’s one of the reasons we’ve been dominating for such a long time, because we’re trying to outsmart everybody. So it’s definitely not a thing we would be posting. We were just having fun.

“Tom had to stay in shape and ready for either potentially fighting either Stipe or Jon at (UFC 309). So we were just having fun and imitating Jon a little bit, going left to right and moving around. That’s what we were doing. It’s not a true something you can analyze like, ‘He wasn’t looking that good vs. Rico.’ Because believe me. Tom is an amazing kickboxer. He would give definitely give the top three in GLORY their hands full in a fight. Every time he comes we talk and he’s such an amazing listener and he’s a learner. Every time I give him stuff, he comes back and he masters the trick I told him. I love it.”

Verhoeven said he ultimately knows the truth of what happens between Aspinall and himself when they are going at full speed and the camera aren’t running. It gives him extreme confidence that Aspinall would be the one to hand Jones his first true defeat in MMA competition, but it remains to be seen if the UFC can finalize the fight.

As goofy as Verhoeven thinks it is for anyone to look at his public sparring videos with Aspinall as having any substantial value, he doesn’t mind as long as it leads to the Jones fight coming to fruition.

“He has to take that fight,” Verhoeven said. “I understand his position. I understand why he’s not really eager to take that fight, because Tom’s a different type of animal. He’s a different type of monster. He’s fast. He’s agile. He can grapple. He can wrestle. He’s good on the ground. He can box. He can kick box. So I don’t think Jon wants a piece of Tom Aspinall.”

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Alexandre Pantoja responds to Kai Asakura claiming UFC prefers him to lose

UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja is excited to defend his title against Kai Asakura.

UFC flyweight champion [autotag]Alexandre Pantoja[/autotag] is excited to defend his title against [autotag]Kai Asakura[/autotag].

Pantoja (28-5 MMA, 12-3 UFC) defends his 125-pound belt against former RIZIN bantamweight champ Asakura (21-4 MMA, 0-0 UFC) in the UFC 310 headliner on Dec. 7 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPN2, ESPN+).

Asakura told MMA Junkie that him dethroning Pantoja would be good business for the UFC, and if Asakura is as big of a star as he’s implying, the Brazilian sees that as beneficial for him.

“I think it’s good if he’s right because for me, it’s going to be better,” Pantoja told MMA Junkie in an interview facilitated by Stake.com. “I see he fights very well, very good entertainment for everyone, but in this high level in the UFC, it’s so hard – especially in my division. The flyweight division, the guys are so good in the cardio, striking, grappling. We don’t stop any second. It’s so hard, that division.

“He fought very good names. He fought Kyoji Horiguchi, he fought Manel Kape – (he’s fought) with very good guys. He fought Ulka Sasaki – I fought that guy, too, before … (Hiromasa) Ougikubo. He fought very good names, but in the UFC, I think it’s different.”

Michael Bisping expressed concern on whether Asakura will be able to adapt to the UFC’s cage after competing in the RIZIN ring, but Pantoja expects the Japanese star to shine bright under the big lights.

“I think for him, it’s motivation to go to the UFC and have everything like that,” Pantoja said. “(It’s) a huge motivation for him because he’s a big star. He knows how to be a star in Japan. Now he has an opportunity to be a big star in the world, and this makes me more excited to have the opportunity to fight a guy like him.”

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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 310.