Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best fights from October 2022.
With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best fights from October 2022: Here are the five nominees, listed in chronological order, and winner of MMA Junkie’s Fight of the Month award for October.
At the bottom of the post, let us know if we got it right by voting on your choice.
Check out our MMA rankings update after some key contests at Bellator 286, UFC Fight Night 211, and One on Prime Video 2.
UFC, Bellator, and ONE Championship all had events causing changes in the Oct. 4 edition of the USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings.
The main event of UFC Fight Night 211 saw Yan Xiaonan defeat Mackenzie Dern in a 25-minute clash of styles. Yan entered the contest at No. 9, but her win shakes up the division, claiming Dern’s No.5 position, and bumping her defeated opponent to No. 6.
Bellator 286 was capped by a featherweight title fight, where Patricio Freire defeated Adam Borics by unanimous decision. Freire’s victory moves him past Max Holloway to take the No. 2 spot at featherweight.
At ONE on Prime Video 2, Jing Nana Xiong picked up another hard-fought win over Angela Lee to defend the strawweight title in their trilogy bout. As a result, Xiong moves up one spot to take No. 12 among women’s strawweights.
Check out all the latest pound-for-pound and divisional USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings below.
Find out how much weight all 26 fighters at Bellator 286 gained from the Friday morning official weigh-ins to Saturday’s fights.
In California, fighters have their weights checked on the day of their fights – not just when they have to hit their marks on the scale.
In 2017, the California State Athletic Commission put a plan in place to try to cut back on excessive weight cutting. Within those rules was a cap on how much a fighter could gain from the official weigh-ins to the fight.
If a fighter gained more than 10 percent back before the bout, the commission then could make a recommendation that he or she move to a higher weight class. If a fighter gained more than 15 percent, the commission had plans in place to potentially cancel fights.
At Bellator 286, which took place this past Saturday in Long Beach, Calif., 13 of the 26 fighters on the card gained more than 10 percent of their weight back. Five of those 13 exceeded the 15 percent threshold. MMA Junkie obtained a list of fight-night weights from the CSAC.
Check out the weight gains and percentages for all 26 fighters on the card at Long Beach Arena.
Henry Cejudo thinks it’s the perfect time for the Bellator and UFC featherweight champions to go at it.
[autotag]Henry Cejudo[/autotag] thinks it’s the perfect time for Bellator champion [autotag]Patricio Freire[/autotag] and UFC champ [autotag]Alexander Volkanovski[/autotag] to fight each other.
Freire (34-5 MMA, 22-5 BMMA), who retained his featherweight title by beating Adam Borics in the Bellator 286 main event on Saturday, continued to express interest in a crossover fight with Volkanovski (25-1 MMA, 12-0 UFC).
Cejudo thinks Freire isn’t getting his due as a featherweight great, and the best way to prove how good he is would be going up against fellow No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter Volkanovski.
“I say we start challenging the UFC,” Cejudo said on “The Triple C & Schmo Show.” “To me, I’m not a UFC fighter. I’m a fighter that wants to say I am the best, and I believe in competing and going up against anybody that is the best, and if it does happen to be Alexander Volkanovski that they think, give him ‘Pitbull’ (Freire). ‘Pitbull’ has been there, defeated some of the greats. I think it’s time for the crossover.”
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Having trained with Freire, Cejudo admits there’s some bias to his take. But the Olympic gold medalist wrestler pointed to Freire’s first-round knockout of Michael Chandler to claim the lightweight title in 2019 as an example of where he stacks up amongst the elite in the lighter weight divisions.
“I just think Patricio’s IQ, his power in his hands, the fact that he could wrestle,” Cejudo said. “I mean, he’s a real mixed martial artist. I think people need to really pay him respect even though he’s not part of the UFC. He got rid of a guy like Michael Chandler in a minute-and-a-half. Think about it, a real guy that’s a top guy in the world at 155 pounds, this dude got rid of him in a minute-and-a-half, which is crazy. Would Max Holloway or would Alexander Volkanovski do that to somebody like Michael Chandler?”
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Sumiko Inaba moved to 5-0 as a professional with Bellator this past Saturday.
LONG BEACH, Calif. – [autotag]Sumiko Inaba[/autotag] is looking to compete with the upper echelon of the division after Bellator 286.
Inaba (5-0 MMA, 5-0 BMMA) remained unbeaten when she grinded out a unanimous decision against Nadine Mandiau on Saturday at Long Beach Arena. It took Inaba only 65 seconds to beat Mandiau (2-6 MMA, 0-1 BMMA) by TKO when they were amateurs back in October 2018, but this time Mandiau gave her a tough outing.
“I knew she was going to come with the fight,” Inaba told MMA Junkie and other reporters. “I don’t complain – more experience in the ring, just getting me more comfortable for higher-ranked opponents, and it was great. …
“Completely new, different ring, bigger crowd, more to the fight week and all the emotions that come with it. So, I took it as a completely new fight. She was a great new opponent, as well. She came with a lot more skill and a lot more fight, and she gave it to me.”
Despite moving to 5-0 as a professional, Inaba finds herself even more motivated, and her next goal is to land a spot in the Bellator women’s flyweight rankings.
“This camp just put a fire underneath my butt to train harder,” Inaba said. “Hopefully get into the rankings and work my way up.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 286.
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Bellator featherweight champion Patricio Freire wants to drop to bantamweight and take an event to Brazil.
LONG BEACH, Calif. – [autotag]Patricio Freire[/autotag]’s ideal future looks quite busy.
The Bellator featherweight champion envisions plenty going on in what’s left of his fighting career. Freire (34-5 MMA, 22-5 BMMA), who defended his belt Saturday in the main event of Bellator 286, plans to drop to bantamweight at some point in the near future in hopes to become the first fighter to hold Bellator titles in three different weight classes. “Pitbull” is a former lightweight champion.
An historic move to 135 pounds may not be exactly his next move given the landscape of the division, but it’s one he’s determined to make at some point.
“The champion is hurt and the interim champion right now, it’s (Raufeon) Stots,” Freire said at the Bellator 286 post-fight press conference. “They have to do the final of the grand prix, so we have a lot of time, and we have to see what’s going to happen in this division and see which is going to be my next step. But I’m ready. I know if I ask for that, Bellator is going to give me the shot.
“Let’s do it. I want that belt.”
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On top of wanting Bellator to give him a shot at the belt at bantamweight, Freire also hopes to take an event to his home country. Freire thinks it’s time for Bellator to host an event in Brazil, as they have big Brazilian names on the roster – including Freire’s brother, Patricky, who’s champion at lightweight.
“I’ve been 12 years in this organization, and I’ve defended this flag,” Freire said. “I believe it’s very important to promote a show in Brazil, a very big show. We deserve that. I’m champion. My brother is a champion. We have Cris Cyborg as champion, Douglas Lima (as a former champion) – a lot of guys. If Bellator goes to Brazil, it’s going to be big.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 286.
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Jeremy Kennedy’s win over Aaron Pico came in an unexpected manner.
LONG BEACH, Calif. – [autotag]Jeremy Kennedy[/autotag]’s most recent win in the Bellator cage came in an unexpected manner.
The bantamweight contender took on standout Aaron Pico on the main card at Bellator 286 on Saturday. Kennedy (18-3 MMA, 3-1 BMMA) got his hand raised, but it was a shoulder injury by Pico that ultimately gave Kennedy the TKO win.
It was a bizarre scene. Pico continually triedd to pop his shoulder back into place mid-fight, and even at the end of Round 1, when he was in his corner getting ready for the second, he was trying to pop his shoulder back in with the help of his coach. Pico couldn’t recover, though, and the doctor officiating the bout didn’t allow him to continue fighting.
Kennedy witnessed everything first hand.
“I was just focused on that first round getting that finish, and I can kind of tell that the mat returns were getting easier and easier, and he was giving less resistance,” Kennedy said at the Bellator 286 post-fight press conference. “I thought maybe something was up, but I didn’t know. He didn’t say anything, and he’s still fighting.
“But that’s my position. I get the back and I try to be really sticky with it. So I didn’t really give him much of an option to fight out. I had the body lock and I knew I was going to be there for the round unless I got the choke.
“In between rounds, I wasn’t really focusing on him. My coach grabbed me, and he’s like, ‘Hey, listen. This is what we have to do.’ And then I kind of looked over his shoulder and I saw him reefing on his arm, and I was like, ‘Oh damn. This isn’t going to go.’
“It looked like they got it sorted out, and I thought maybe that’s a problem they’ve had in the past, and it’s just a simple pop in, and he’s good to go again. I was ready to go guns blazing at him. … I was expecting a fight when I stoop off the stool. I was expecting a second round because I thought they had fixed it or figured it out. Unfortunate, honestly. You can’t control anything, especially with shoulders.”
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Regardless of the nature of the result, it’s still an official win for Kennedy, who’s now on a two-fight winning streak.
Kennedy hopes to return early next year to the Bellator cage, and he wants former title challenger Pedro Carvalho next.
“The only thing announced outside the rest of the year, it’s that February card. I’ve had a lot of history with Pedro (Carvalho), so that’s the one I’m gunning for. I just talked to (matchmaker) Mike (Kogan). He loved the idea. Pedro is probably sitting there shuttering in Ireland, wishing he didn’t send out those tweets. But it is what it is. Now he has to back that up.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 286.
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Former champion Juan Archuleta reflects on his unanimous decision win over Enrique Barzola at Saturday’s Bellator 286.
LONG BEACH, Calif. – [autotag]Juan Archuleta[/autotag] is back in the win column.
The former Bellator bantamweight champion snapped a two-fight skid Saturday. Archuleta (26-4 MMA, 8-3 BMMA) outpointed Peru’s Enrique Barzola in a unanimous decision after a high-paced, back-and-forth scrap. It was a big moment for Archuleta, who hadn’t tasted victory since September 2020.
“It’s been very unfortunate, my last two fights, because I’ve been working so damn hard to stay on top,” Archuleta said at the Bellator 286 post-fight press conference. “These last few months have been really scolded, molded, belittled, told what I’m doing wrong over and over every day – but I’m fortunate to have that because to be uncomfortable in those situations in practice, not many people can do it and I see them leave the workout room every day.
“It brought me back to the workout room every day thanks to Tiki Ghosn and Paul Herrera just constantly on my ass about being perfect, being perfect, being perfect. It showed a little bit tonight, but not all the way because obviously I didn’t get the finish I wanted. But I was trying. Enrique is a tough motherf*cker. He took some bombs and his neck was a good size, so I couldn’t slap that choke in, so props to him.”
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Archuleta hopes to be considered an alternate in the bantamweight grand prix – which is currently in the semifinal round. He thinks having beaten a formidable opponent in Barzola could get him just that if someone were to fall out.
Archuleta took the fight with “El Fuerte” knowing it would be one of the toughest matchups he could get in the division.
“They brought Enrique up to the mountain, and they said, ‘Hey, you’re fighting Enrique. What do you think?’ and I said, ‘He’s a tough motherf*cker. I’ll take it. Let’s go,’ and that’s what we ended up going with,” Archuleta said.
“We knew how durable he was and how good he is. I mean, he beat Darrion Caldwell, who’s a previous world champ, as well. I just didn’t want him to make his name off me.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 286.
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Check out these photos highlighting the action from Bellator 286 at Long Beach Arena in Long Beach, Calif.
Check out these photos highlighting the action from Bellator 286 at Long Beach Arena in Long Beach, Calif. (Photos by Lucas Noonan, Bellator MMA)
It was quite the scene at Bellator 286 when Aaron Pico ordered his coach to pop his shoulder back into place so he could keep fighting.
[autotag]Aaron Pico[/autotag] says he injured his shoulder in the opening minute at Bellator 286.
Pico (10-4 MMA, 10-4 BMMA) had his fight with Jeremy Kennedy (18-3 MMA, 3-1 BMMA) stopped at the end of Round 1 on Saturday after his coach failed to pop his dislocated shoulder back into place. The cageside physician waved the fight off, resulting in a TKO loss for Pico.
The images of Pico’s coach, Brandon Gibson, aggressively pushing and pulling his shoulder turned heads, but the 26-year-old contender said he asked him to do so. He provided an update on his injury and vows he won’t be deterred in his quest for Bellator gold.
“My shoulder’s still a little sore,” Pico said in an Instagram post on Sunday. “Yesterday in the first round, I think it was the first 30 seconds, I threw a hook, and my shoulder popped out. My strategy was just try to make it through the first round to get to the second round and put the shoulder back into place, and I tried in the fight. Midway through the fight I kept trying to put it back into place, but it just wouldn’t go. So I made it out of the first round, and my order to my coach was – keep in mind, guys, he’s not an expert, he’s not a chiropractor, he doesn’t know how to put shoulders back into place.
“My orders to him were, ‘Hey, my shoulder’s out, do whatever you possibly can to put it back into place.’ So we tried everything, and we couldn’t do it, and ultimately the fight was stopped, which was probably the smartest thing, and I was rushed to the hospital and put it back into place. I still feel like there’s some things that we need to clear up, but I’m gonna see a shoulder doctor on Tuesday and get some MRIs done and heal this thing. I will be champion one day. The road is a little bit rougher than I would like, but it’s all good. I’m in good spirits.”
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The loss to Kennedy snapped Pico’s six-fight winning streak. Prior to that, Pico had finished five of six opponents, and was looking to jump into title contention with a win over UFC veteran Kennedy.
Bellator president Scott Coker said Pico wants to run things back with Kennedy, and he’s open to the idea if their timelines align.
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