Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
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 the promotions from Oct. 16-22.
John Makdessi seemed none too thrilled with the scoring in his loss to Jamie Mullarkey at UFC 293.
SYDNEY – John Makdessi seemed none too thrilled with the scoring in his loss to [autotag]Jamie Mullarkey[/autotag] at UFC 293.
But from where Mullarkey (17-6 MMA, 5-4 UFC) is sitting, he thinks Makdessi (18-9 MMA, 11-9 UFC) doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on. The round scoring, Mullarkey said, should have been pretty clear.
Mullarkey talked about that and more at Saturday’s UFC 293 post-fight news conference in Sydney.
Check out the full interview in the video above.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 293.
Fighters from Saturday’s UFC 293 took home UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay totaling $209,000.
SYDNEY – Fighters from Saturday’s UFC 293 event took home UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay totaling $209,000.
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 293 took place at Qudos Bank Arena in Australia. The main card aired on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPNews and ESPN+.
The full UFC 293 UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance payouts included:
* * * *
[autotag]Sean Strickland[/autotag]: $32,000
def. [autotag]Israel Adesanya[/autotag]: $42,000
[autotag]Alexander Volkov[/autotag]: $11,000
def. [autotag]Tai Tuivasa[/autotag]: $11,000
[autotag]Manel Kape[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]Felipe dos Santos[/autotag]: $4,000
[autotag]Justin Tafa[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]Austen Lane[/autotag]: $4,000
[autotag]Tyson Pedro[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]Anton Turkalj[/autotag]: $4,000
[autotag]Carlos Ulberg[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]Da Woon Jung[/autotag]: $6,000
[autotag]Chepe Mariscal[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Jack Jenkins[/autotag]: $4,000
[autotag]Jamie Mullarkey[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]John Makdessi[/autotag]: $16,000
[autotag]Nasrat Haqparast[/autotag]: $11,000
def. [autotag]Landon Quinones[/autotag]: $4,000
[autotag]Charlie Radtke[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Blood Diamond[/autotag]: $4,000
[autotag]Gabriel Miranda[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Shane Young[/autotag]: $6,000
[autotag]Kevin Jousset[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Kiefer Crosbie[/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 2011 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: $5,944,500
2022 total: $8,351,500
2021 total: $6,167,500
Program-to-date total: $20,533,500
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 293.
Check out what the UFC 293 winners and guest fighters had to say backstage at Saturday’s event in Sydney.
SYDNEY – UFC 293 took place Saturday with 11 bouts on the lineup. We’ve got you covered with backstage winner interviews from Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney.
You can hear from all the UFC 293 winners by checking out their post-fight news conferences below.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 293.
Jamie Mullarkey finds himself backed into a corner again and in need of a bounce-back, and he’s confident he’ll deliver.
SYDNEY – [autotag]Jamie Mullarkey[/autotag] finds himself backed into a corner again and in need of a bounce-back, and he’s confident he’ll deliver.
Just when back-to-back wins over Michael Johnson and Francisco Prado gave him some momentum with four wins in five fights, Mullarkey was knocked out by Muhammad Naimov in June. Mullarkey was as much as a 5-1 favorite in the fight.
Saturday, Mullarkey (16-6 MMA, 4-4 UFC) takes on John Makdessi (18-8 MMA, 11-8 UFC) in a lightweight bout, and he said the humility he learned in the loss to Naimov is going to serve him well with a big rebound.
Mullarkey talked about that and more at Wednesday’s UFC 293 media day in Sydney.
Check out the full interview in the video above. UFC 293 takes place Saturday at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPNews and ESPN+.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 293.
Before UFC 293 on Saturday, the main card and prelim fighters are scheduled to speak to reporters at media day.
SYDNEY – The UFC 293, which takes place at Qudos Bank Arena with a main card that airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPNNews/ESPN+ and early prelims on ESPN+, goes down Saturday.
Before fight night arrives, though, notable athletes from the main card and preliminary are scheduled to speak to reporters Wednesday at media day,.
If you happen to miss any of the individual sessions, check below for the archived videos of each media day (Story will update throughout the session).
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 293.
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 July 24-30.
Check out the facts and stats to come out of UFC on ESPN 45, where Jim Miller continued to stack historic figures on his resume.
The UFC opened a non-stop schedule of summer events on Saturday with UFC on ESPN 45, which took place at the promotion’s home base of the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
The main event saw [autotag]Amir Albazi[/autotag] (17-1 MMA, 5-0 UFC) remain undefeated inside the octagon and take the next step as a flyweight contender when he edged [autotag]Kai Kara-France[/autotag] (24-1 MMA, 7-4 UFC) by split decision.
There were a number of other noteworthy results on the card. For more on the numbers, check below for MMA Junkie’s post-event facts from UFC on ESPN 45.
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UFC on ESPN 45 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 45 event took home UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay totaling $199,500.
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 on ESPN 45 took place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The main card aired on ESPN following prelims streamed on ESPN+.
The full UFC on ESPN 45 UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance payouts included:
* * * *
[autotag]Amir Albazi[/autotag]: $4,500
def. [autotag]Kai Kara-France[/autotag]: $11,000
[autotag]Alex Caceres[/autotag]: $21,000
def. [autotag]Daniel Pineda[/autotag]: $11,000
[autotag]Jim Miller[/autotag]: $21,000
def. [autotag]Jesse Butler[/autotag]: $4,000
[autotag]Tim Elliott[/autotag]: $16,000
def. [autotag]Victor Altamirano[/autotag]: $4,500
[autotag]Karine Silva[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Ketlen Souza[/autotag]: $4,000
[autotag]Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos[/autotag]: $11,000
def. [autotag]Abubakar Nurmagomedov[/autotag]: $4,500
[autotag]Daniel Santos[/autotag]: $4,000
[autotag]Johnny Munoz[/autotag]: $4,500
[autotag]Don’Tale Mayes[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]Andrei Arlovski[/autotag]: $21,000
[autotag]John Castaneda[/autotag]: $4,500
def. [autotag]Muin Gafurov[/autotag]: $4,000
[autotag]Muhammad Naimov[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Jamie Mullarkey[/autotag]: $6,000
[autotag]Elise Reed[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]Jinh Yu Frey[/autotag]: $6,000
[autotag]Da’Mon Blackshear[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Luan Lacerda[/autotag]: $4,000
[autotag]Philipe Lins[/autotag]: $4,500
def. [autotag]Maxim Grishin[/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 $4,500; 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 $45,000 while title challengers get $45,000.
In addition to experience-based pay, UFC fighters will receive in perpetuity royalty payments amounting to 20-45 percent of any UFC merchandise sold that bears their likeness, according to officials.
Full 2023 UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance payouts:
Year-to-date total: $3,414,000
2022 total: $8,351,500
2021 total: $6,167,500
Program-to-date total: $18,003,000
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 45.
Muhammad Naimov was the biggest underdog on the card at UFC on ESPN 45, but he overcame the odds with a TKO of Jamie Mullarkey.
[autotag]Muhammad Naimov[/autotag] took his octagon debut on just days’ notice at UFC on ESPN 45 and was pegged by oddsmakers as the biggest underdog on the card against [autotag]Jamie Mullarkey[/autotag].
Naimov (9-2 MMA, 1-0 UFC) had other plans, however, as in the second round of Saturday’s lightweight bout at the UFC Apex, he caught Mullarkey (16-6 MMA, 4-4 UFC) with a brilliant counter right hand that led to the TKO.
Mullarkey controlled the opening round of the matchup and took momentum into the second frame. Naimov didn’t get discouraged, though, and waited for his moment to connect with a fight-changing shot that ended the bout at the 2:59 mark of Round 2.
Check out the replay of the finish below (via Twitter):
THAT RIGHT HOOK SENT HIM DOWN 😳😳😳 #UFCVegas74 pic.twitter.com/KzTrwu3JLc
— UFC (@ufc) June 3, 2023
With the win, Naimov became the second fighter in UFC history from Tajikistan to earn a victory inside the octagon. He had a massive crowd at home watching the fight just shy of 5 a.m. local time in his home country.
Naimov was emotional in the aftermath of the fight but was bold in calling for what the future holds.
“I’m not surprised to beat this guy,” Naimov said in his post-fight interview with Michael Bisping. “I can beat any lightweight, any featherweight. I can beat anyone.
“Nobody believed I could beat this lightweight, but I swear, put me with welterweight next week, I’m ready. Featherweight, you guys have problem. You guys have big problem. 145, I’m here. You guys have new king. That short guy, Max Holloway, forget about them. I’m here. I’m here.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 45.
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