UFC Paris: Nora Cornolle wants to avenge lone loss – but when she and Jacqueline Cavalcanti are at the top

Nora Cornolle’s fairytale ending would be to face Jacqueline Cavalcanti for the title – the only fighter to beat her.

PARIS – [autotag]Nora Cornolle[/autotag]’s fairytale ending would be to face [autotag]Jacqueline Cavalcanti[/autotag] for the title – the only fighter to beat her.

Cornolle (7-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) and Cavalcanti (6-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) both competed on this past Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 226 event at Accor Arena in Paris, but not against each other. Cornolle defeated Joselyne Edwards by unanimous decision, whereas Cavalcanti defeated Zarah Fairn to kick off the night.

Cornolle’s loss to Cavalcanti came in her professional MMA debut. She has since won seven straight and prefers to get her rematch once they’ve both established themselves in the UFC.

“It will be great storytelling to meet Jacqueline at the top for the belt,” Cornolle told reporters through an interpreter at the UFC Fight Night 226 post-fight news conference. “That each one of us goes their own path because it makes sense for us to face other new fighters, face more experienced fighters in our path. It will be great to face each other and get my revenge.”

Cornolle has already competed four times this year, and hopes to squeeze in one more before the end of 2023.

“I hope to fight again before the end of the year,” Cornolle said. “I have a four-fight contract, and I’m willing to do them well. I hope I introduced myself in this fight, and that they’ll offer me something soon.

“I want to quickly climb the rankings, show that I’m effective everywhere. That I’m a real MMA fighter that’s going to perform, that’s going to climb the rankings, that’s going to go get the belt.”

Cornolle was showered with love from her home crowd in France, which surpassed her expectations.

“All week I’ve been thinking that I’ve never experienced a crowd like this, an arena like this,” Cornolle said. “A lot of stress because we don’t know what kind of crowd we’ll get. The beautiful surprise was to have all the French fans, all of Paris tonight chanting my name. It was incredible.”

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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 226.

Jacqueline Cavalcanti reacts to getting eye poked in both eyes at UFC Fight Night 226

Jacqueline Cavalcanti reacts to getting eye poked in both eyes at during Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 226 fight.

PARIS – [autotag]Jacqueline Cavalcanti[/autotag] got fouled in a way never seen before in the UFC.

The women’s bantamweight fighter got accidentally eye poked in both her eyes by her opponent Zarah Fairn in the opening bout of UFC Fight Night 226, which took place this Saturday. The odd thing is that it wasn’t two separate eye pokes. Instead, it was one motion with two fingers poking both eyes separately.

“Actually it was two fingers, not one, so one in each eye,” Cavalcanti said when asked about the accidental eye poke at the UFC Fight Night 226 post-fight press conference. “One of the eyes got really affected, so I had to stop. Thank God, they stopped it so I could recover, and I could continue to go after my win.”

As soon as the foul happened, the referee stopped the bout and gave Cavalcanti (6-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) time to recover. She would eventually clear her sight and return to outpoint Fairn (6-6 MMA, 0-4 UFC) and win a unanimous decision against the Frenchwoman.

UFC Fight Night 226 marked Cavalcanti’s debut with the promotion.

You can watch her full scrum in the video above.

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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 226.

UFC Fight Night 226 post-event facts: Rose Namajunas’ career hits uncharted territory after loss

Check out all the facts from UFC Fight Night 226, such as Rose Namajunas being on the first true losing skid of her career.

The UFC’s second trip to Paris was another significant event for French MMA with UFC Fight Night 226 going down Saturday at Accor Arena.

Multiple French fighters on the card thrived, but none more than former interim UFC heavyweight champion [autotag]Ciryl Gane[/autotag] (12-2 MMA, 9-2 UFC, who thrived in the main event with a second-round TKO of [autotag]Serghei Spivac[/autotag] (16-4 MMA, 7-4 UFC) to rebound from his loss against Jon Jones earlier this year.

For more on the numbers behind the headliner, as well as the rest of the card, check below for MMA Junkie’s post-event facts from UFC Fight Night 226.

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UFC Fight Night 226 Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay: Multiple fighters top card with $11,000

UFC Fight Night 226 fighters took home UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay, a program that continued after the UFC’s deal with Venum.

PARIS – Fighters from Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 226 event took home UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay totaling $128,500.

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.

UFC Fight Night 226 took place at the Accor Arena in France. The entire card streamed on ESPN+.

The full UFC Fight Night 226 UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance payouts included:

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[autotag]Ciryl Gane[/autotag]: $11,000
def. [autotag]Serghei Spivac[/autotag]: $11,000

[autotag]Manon Fiorot[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]Rose Namajunas[/autotag]: $11,000

[autotag]Benoit Saint-Denis[/autotag]: $4,500
def. [autotag]Thiago Moises[/autotag]: $11,000

[autotag]Volkan Oezdemir[/autotag]: $11,000
def. [autotag]Bogdan Guskov[/autotag]: $4,000

[autotag]William Gomis[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Yanis Ghemmouri[/autotag]: $4,000

[autotag]Morgan Charriere[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Manolo Zecchini[/autotag]: $4,000

[autotag]Taylor Lapilus[/autotag]: $4,500
def. [autotag]Caolan Loughran[/autotag]: $4,000

[autotag]Ange Loosa[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Rhys McKee[/autotag]: $4,000

[autotag]Nora Cornolle[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Joselyne Edwards[/autotag]: $6,000

[autotag]Farid Basharat[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Kleydson Rodrigues[/autotag]: $4,000

[autotag]Jacqueline Cavalcanti[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Zarah Fairn[/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 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: $5,735,500
2022 total: $8,351,500
2021 total: $6,167,500
Program-to-date total: $20,324,500

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 226.

Jacqueline Cavalcanti def. Zarah Fairn at UFC Fight Night 226: Best photos

Check out these photos highlighting Jacqueline Cavalcanti’s unanimous decision win over Zarah Fairn at UFC Fight Night 226 from Accor Arena in Paris.

Check out these photos highlighting [autotag]Jacqueline Cavalcanti[/autotag]’s unanimous decision win over Zarah Fairn at UFC Fight Night 226 from Accor Arena in Paris. (Photos by Per Haljestam, USA TODAY Sports)

Matchup Roundup: New UFC and Bellator fights announced in the past week (Aug. 14-20)

All the UFC and Bellator 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 or Bellator.

Here are the fight announcements that were broken or confirmed by MMA Junkie or officially announced by a promotion from Aug. 14-20.

Fresh Ink: Meet the 15 fighters the UFC signed in June 2023

Find out who joined the UFC in June and learn more about them here.

The UFC roster is bigger than ever – and it continues to expand.

Fresh faces appear on nearly every card, whether onboarded as short-notice opening fillers, “Dana White’s Contender Series” signees, or the increasingly rare straight-up additions. Sometimes, it’s hard to keep track of the hustle and bustle of the mixed martial arts news beat, but here at MMA Junkie, we’ve got you covered.

“Fresh Ink” is your list of fighters added to the UFC roster the previous month and provides background on who they are and where they came from.

Check out the June 2023 list below.