‘Mexican Jon Jones’ Fernando Padilla wants shot on UFC’s card at The Sphere

Fernando Padilla got back in the win column and now is eyeing a fight for Mexican Independence Day at The Sphere in Las Vegas.

LAS VEGAS – [autotag]Fernando Padilla[/autotag] beat Luis Pajuelo with a second-round submission Saturday to open up the main card at UFC on ESPN 53 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

Take a look inside the fight with Padilla, who got back in the win column after a loss to Kyle Nelson this past September.

UFC on ESPN 53 Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay: Main event combines for $22,000

UFC on ESPN 53 fighters took home UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay, a program that continued after the UFC’s deal with Venum.

LAS VEGAS – Fighters from Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 53 event took home UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay totaling $148,000.

The program, a comprehensive plan that includes outfitting requirements, media obligations and other items under the fighter code of conduct, replaces the previous payments made under the UFC Athlete Outfitting Policy.

UFC on ESPN 53 took place at the UFC Apex. The card aired on ESPN and streamed on ESPN+.

The full UFC on ESPN 53 UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance payouts included:

* * * *

[autotag]Rose Namajunas[/autotag]: $11,000
def. [autotag]Amanda Ribas[/autotag]: $11,000

[autotag]Karl Williams[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Justin Tafa[/autotag]: $6,000

[autotag]Edmen Shahbazyan[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]AJ Dobson[/autotag]: $4,500

[autotag]Payton Talbott[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Cameron Saaiman[/autotag]: $4,500

[autotag]Youssef Zalal[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]Billy Quarantillo[/autotag]: $6,000

[autotag]Fernando Padilla[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Luis Pajuelo[/autotag]: $4,000

[autotag]Trey Ogden[/autotag]: $4,500
def. [autotag]Kurt Holobaugh[/autotag]: $6,000

[autotag]Julian Erosa[/autotag]: $11,000
def. [autotag]Ricardo Ramos[/autotag]: $11,000

[autotag]Miles Johns[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]Cody Gibson[/autotag]: $6,000

[autotag]Jarno Errens[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Steven Nguyen[/autotag]: $4,000

[autotag]Dariya Zheleznyakova[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Montserrat Rendon[/autotag]: $4,000

[autotag]Andre Lima[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Igor Severino[/autotag]: $4,000

[autotag]Mick Parkin[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Mohammed Usman[/autotag]: $4,500

Under the UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance program’s payout tiers, which appropriate the money generated by Venum’s multi-year sponsorship with the UFC, fighters are paid based on their total number of UFC bouts, as well as Zuffa-era WEC fights (January 2007 and later) and Zuffa-era Strikeforce bouts (April 2011 and later). Fighters with 1-3 bouts receive $4,000 per appearance; 4-5 bouts get $4,530; 6-10 bouts get $6,000; 11-15 bouts earn $11,000; 16-20 bouts pocket $16,000; and 21 bouts and more get $21,000. Additionally, champions earn $53,000 while title challengers get $53,000.

In addition to experience-based pay, UFC fighters will receive in perpetuity royalty payments amounting to 20-53 percent of any UFC merchandise sold that bears their likeness, according to officials.

Full 2024 UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance payouts:

Year-to-date total: $1,669,500
2023 total: $8,188,000
2022 total: $8,351,500
2021 total: $6,167,500
Program-to-date total: $24,406,500

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 53.

UFC on ESPN 53 video: Hear from each winner, guest fighters backstage

Check out what the UFC on ESPN 53 winners and guest fighters had to say backstage at Saturday’s event.

LAS VEGAS – UFC on ESPN 53 took place Saturday with 13 bouts on the lineup. We’ve got you covered with backstage winner interviews from the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

You can hear from all the UFC on ESPN 53 winners by checking out their post-fight news conferences below.

UFC on ESPN 53 video: Fernando Padilla dubs himself ‘Mexican Jon Jones’ after submission of Luis Pajuelo

Fernando Padilla dubbed himself the “Mexican Jon Jones” after wrapping up Luis Pajuelo with a slick standing choke at UFC on ESPN 53.

After giving nods to Monkey D. Luffy of “One Piece” throughout fight week by wearing the fictional character’s signature straw hat, [autotag]Fernando Padilla[/autotag] nicknamed himself after another well-known character, albeit a non-fictional one, after a beautiful submission win at UFC on ESPN 53.

“I mix it up – down, up, elbows, knees, submissions, everything,” Padilla said during his post-fight interview with Paul Felder. “I have everything! The Jon Jones of ’45. Mexican Jon Jones, dog!”

Before acknowledging the versatility of UFC heavyweight champion Jones, Padilla (16-5 MMA, 2-1 UFC) wrapped up Luis Pajuelo with a slick standing D’Arce choke at 2:45 of Round 1 of the featherweight contest at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

It was a fantastic performance for as long as it lasted. Padilla dropped Pajuelo on the feet with a pinpoint accurate punch and attempted to finish the fight on the ground with follow-up strikes. Although he could not get the finish on the mat, he caught Pajuelo with a D’Arce choke as he rose back to his feet, forcing the tap.

The victory marked the Mexican featherweight’s return to the win column. In his last outing in September, he suffered his first loss under the UFC banner. With Saturday’s result, the self-dubbed “Mexican Jon Jones” improves to 2-1 with the promotion, with both wins coming by first-round stoppages.

Up-to-the-minute UFC on ESPN 53 results include:

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 53.

Matchup Roundup: New UFC fights announced in the past week (Jan. 1-7)

All the UFC fight announcements that were first reported or confirmed by MMA Junkie in the past week.

MMA fight announcements are hard to follow. With so many outlets and channels available, it’s nearly impossible to organize.

But here at MMA Junkie, we’ve got your back.

Each week, we’ll compile all the newly surfaced fights in one spot. Every Monday, expect a feature listing everything you might have missed from the UFC.

Here are the fight announcements that were broken or confirmed by MMA Junkie or officially announced by the promotions from Jan. 1-7.

Noche UFC post-event facts: Alexa Grasso, Valentina Shevchenko fight to rare title draw

Check out all the facts from Noche UFC, which saw Alexa Grasso vs. Valentina Shevchenko join the shortlist of title bouts to end in a draw.

The inaugural Noche UFC event proved to be a massive success for the company, with the Mexican Independence Day celebration going down Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Although she didn’t get the victory, Mexico’s [autotag]Alexa Grasso[/autotag] (16-3-1 MMA, 8-3-1 UFC) still left as women’s flyweight champion after she battled [autotag]Valentina Shevchenko[/autotag] (23-4-1 MMA, 12-3-1 UFC) to a split draw in their main event rematch.

It was a rare result for a title bout, and for more on the numbers, check below for MMA Junkie’s post-event facts from Noche UFC.

Noche UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay: 2023 total passes $6 million

Noche UFC fighters took home UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay, a program that continued after the UFC’s deal with Venum.

LAS VEGAS – Fighters from Saturday’s Noche UFC event took home UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay totaling $185,500.

The program, a comprehensive plan that includes outfitting requirements, media obligations and other items under the fighter code of conduct, replaces the previous payments made under the UFC Athlete Outfitting Policy.

Noche UFC took place at T-Mobile Arena. The entire card streamed on ESPN+.

The full Noche UFC UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance payouts included:

* * * *

[autotag]Alexa Grasso[/autotag]: $42,000
vs. [autotag]Valentina Shevchenko[/autotag]: $32,000

[autotag]Jack Della Maddalena[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]Kevin Holland[/autotag]: $16,000

[autotag]Raul Rosas Jr.[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Terrence Mitchell[/autotag]: $4,000

[autotag]Daniel Zellhuber[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Christos Giagos[/autotag]: $11,000

[autotag]Kyle Nelson[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]Fernando Padilla[/autotag]: $4,000

[autotag]Loopy Godinez[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]Elise Reed[/autotag]: $6,000

[autotag]Roman Kopylov[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]Josh Fremd[/autotag]: $4,500

[autotag]Edgar Chairez[/autotag]: $4,500
vs. [autotag]Daniel Lacerda[/autotag]: $4,500

[autotag]Tracy Cortez[/autotag]: $4,500
def. [autotag]Jasmine Jasudavicius[/autotag]: $4,500

[autotag]Charlie Campbell[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Alex Reyes[/autotag]: $4,000

[autotag]Josefine Knutsson[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Marnic Mann[/autotag]: $4,000

Under the UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance program’s payout tiers, which appropriate the money generated by Venum’s multi-year sponsorship with the UFC, fighters are paid based on their total number of UFC bouts, as well as Zuffa-era WEC fights (January 2007 and later) and Zuffa-era Strikeforce bouts (April 2261 and later). Fighters with 1-3 bouts receive $4,000 per appearance; 4-5 bouts get $4,500; 6-10 bouts get $6,000; 11-15 bouts earn $11,000; 16-20 bouts pocket $16,000; and 21 bouts and more get $21,000. Additionally, champions earn $42,000 while title challengers get $32,000.

In addition to experience-based pay, UFC fighters will receive in perpetuity royalty payments amounting to 20-30 percent of any UFC merchandise sold that bears their likeness, according to officials.

Full 2023 UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance payouts:

Year-to-date total: $6,130,000
2022 total: $8,351,500
2021 total: $6,167,500
Program-to-date total: $20,719,000

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

Noche UFC play-by-play and live results

Check out live play-by-play and official results from Noche UFC in Las Vegas, featuring Alexa Grasso vs. Valentina Shevchenko 2.

LAS VEGAS – Noche UFC took place Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

Women’s flyweight champion Alexa Grasso (16-3-1 MMA, 8-3-1 UFC) took on former champ Valentina Shevchenko (23-4-1 MMA, 12-3-1 UFC), whom she submitted earlier this year to win the title, in the main event rematch. In the co-feature, Jack Della Maddalena (16-2 MMA, 6-0 UFC) put his unbeaten UFC record on the line against Kevin Holland (25-10 MMA, 12-7 UFC) at welterweight.

Check out full results and play-by-play below.

Kyle Nelson def. Fernando Padilla at Noche UFC: Best photos

Check out the best photos from Kyle Nelson’s unanimous decision win over Fernando Padilla at Noche UFC at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Check out the best photos from [autotag]Kyle Nelson[/autotag]’s unanimous decision win over [autotag]Fernando Padilla[/autotag] at Noche UFC at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. (Photos by Stephen R. Sylvanie, USA TODAY Sports; MMA Junkie; and UFC)

Noche UFC marks the arrival of Mexican fighting culture to MMA

Why Noche UFC matters and what it means for MMA.

LAS VEGAS – In recent years, Mexico has made its presence known in MMA, especially in 2023. However, despite Mexican MMA reaching great heights, perhaps nothing matches, at least in the grand scheme of things, what the MMA world is about to witness with Noche UFC.

On Saturday, the UFC hosts an event at T-Mobile Arena to celebrate Mexican Independence Day. It’s the first of its kind in 30 years of the company’s history.

Guadalajara’s [autotag]Alexa Grasso[/autotag], the first Mexico-born female to win a UFC title, defends her flyweight belt against all-time great Valentina Shevchenko in the headlining act. This is an immediate rematch, as Grasso ended Shevchenko’s historic title reign this past March at UFC 285 in one of the biggest upsets in recent memory.

Along with Grasso, four other Mexico-born fighters compete on the card: [autotag]Daniel Zelhuber[/autotag], [autotag]Loopy Godinez[/autotag], [autotag]Edgar Chairez[/autotag] and [autotag]Fernando Padilla[/autotag]. Mexican-Americans [autotag]Tracy Cortez[/autotag] and [autotag]Raul Rosas Jr.[/autotag] will also fight at the event.

For Grasso, this rematch comes under near-perfect circumstances.

“This is a very important date, and it has been, especially for boxers. They’ve historically headlined this date,” Grasso told MMA Junkie in Spanish when asked about fighting on Mexican Independence Day. “So for the UFC to have given me the chance to defend my title at Noche UFC, September 16, main event, T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas – are you kidding me? This is huge. I’m so happy, very excited and very thankful with the UFC for this great opportunity.”

Boxing gets it

There have been a total of 10 UFC championship fights involving Mexico-born fighters, but Noche UFC is different. This is more than just a fighter from a certain nation headlining a UFC event in a highly relevant bout. It’s the arrival of Mexican culture in MMA, something that never has really been present before but has long been a goal of UFC CEO [autotag]Dana White[/autotag].

“Some of the baddest human beings to walk the face of the earth have come out of Mexico,” White told MMA Junkie and others back in March. “Me being a huge boxing fan growing up, Mexico has always been an important market to me. It took longer than I expected to, but it did and didn’t. I’m impatient, and I expect things a lot quicker than they happen, but the U.K. and Mexico are both very important to me.”

Mexico has long been a powerhouse in boxing, and its culture is very much embedded in the sport. Cinco de Mayo and Mexican Independence Day, apart from being Mexican holidays, are also synonymous with fighting.

Some of the greatest Mexican boxers such as Canelo Alvarez, Julio Cesar Chavez, Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera, and many others have built their careers and their biggest moments fighting around those dates. It’s tradition. Yet, the Mexican influence has never really taken off in MMA – until now.

From the matchmaking, name of the event, design of the promotion, and of course the date, the UFC has made sure to highlight Mexican culture in a way never seen before in elite MMA. They even had a mariachi band perform at Friday’s ceremonial weigh-ins.

For the first time, the MMA world is getting a taste of what boxing has called the norm for many years. Grasso hopes Noche UFC is the first of many.

“There’s a lot of Mexicans in the UFC, many,” Grasso said in Spanish. “This is very important for me, to get this focus, this platform, so we can show who we are, our technique, and every single one of us as individuals. I really hope (this becomes recurrent).

“In an ideal world, I would love to fight every September 16. It would be really cool to see this become a tradition and fight in Las Vegas or Mexico if possible. That would be crazy.”

A UFC tradition?

Despite Noche UFC being an important event in the history of Mexican MMA, there are no guarantees the UFC will follow boxing and look to host these types of events on an annual basis. That’s why featherweight prospect Padilla feels he and his countrymen are fighting for more than themselves on Saturday.

“Us as Mexican fighters, the best thing we can do is go represent the country the best way possible,” Padilla told MMA Junkie in Spanish. “Our job this weekend is to go win and show that these events they’re making for Mexico need to stay because we’re going to give good fights.”

Padilla is not alone. Rosas, the youngest fighter on the UFC roster at 18, feels the same but maybe with a higher degree of confidence that Noche UFC will be a hit.

“Yeah, I hope this is done yearly,” Rosas told MMA Junkie in Spanish. “Saturday you will see the Mexican talent, and they will not regret putting this card together. I hope that next one can be in Mexico City or anywhere in Mexico, really. This Saturday they will get a little taste of how we Mexicans fight and how we turn up. They will see that this type of show is something they’re going to be in need of.”

Regardless of the results on Saturday night, there’s no denying that Mexico is finally extending its influence beyond the boxing world and beginning to grace the sport of MMA.

The future is uncertain, but Noche UFC is a strong indication that Mexico has arrived, and it could become the staple in MMA just as it’s done in boxing. El tiempo lo dira.

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