Joshua Culibao and his brother pulled off some media day hijinks at UFC 305 in Perth, Australia.
PERTH, Australia – [autotag]Joshua Culibao[/autotag] met the media Wednesday ahead of his fight at UFC 305.
Culibao takes on Ricardo Ramos in a featherweight fight on the ESPN preliminary card at RAC Arena in Perth, Australia. At media day in Perth, Culibao took questions from media members before his fight.
If his playfulness at media day is any indication of what will happen fight, Culibao (11-3-1 MMA, 3-3-1 UFC) might find himself feeling loose against Ramos (16-6 MMA, 7-5 UFC) when the cage door closes. Before his session with reporters, his brother took the stage for him and got on the microphone to ask who had the first question.
Culibao appeared quickly after, laughing, and said his brother hatched the plan seconds earlier – and nearly pulled it off.
Check out Culibao’s full media day interview in the video above.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 305.
Fighters from around the globe dream of the day they’ll step into the octagon the first time – so how did the lone newcomer perform on Saturday?
Fighters from around the globe dream of the day they’ll step into the UFC octagon for the first time. For one athlete, Saturday’s UFC on ESPN+ 26 event marked that special moment in their career.
Check out this week’s rookie report to see what kind of first impression he made on the sport’s biggest stage from Spark Arena in Auckland, New Zealand.
Sydney native Culibao was all smiles ahead of his first UFC appearance, and he grinned his way to the octagon as he soaked up the occasion of his octagon debut.
But, despite his sunny outlook, things didn’t go “Kuya’s” way on fight night as he was finished in the second round by Jalin Turner in Auckland.
Fighting a weight class above his usual featherweight division, Culibao was physically outmatched by the rangy Turner (9-5 MMA, 2-2 UFC), who held significant height, reach and weight advantages over the 25-year-old. Those physical discrepancies played out throughout the matchup, as Turner used his advantages to good effect to score the stoppage win.
Culibao looked loose early on as he circled the cage and moved in and out to score with strikes from close range. But Turner looked like a man used to operating a weight class higher than Culibao as he took the debutant to the mat with relative ease before stepping back up to allow the fight to return to the feet. Culibao was then taken down again by Turner, and had to stay composed to survive a tight-looking mounted guillotine choke as he made it to the stool at the end of the round.
Culibao struggled to get inside the perimeter of Turner’s striking range in Round 2 as “The Tarantula” kept the debutant on the end of his strikes. Then, just over a minute into the round, disaster struck for Culibao as he appeared to sustain a twisted ankle while circling on the outer reaches of the octagon. Turner saw his moment and pounced, as he took Culibao down, established top position and peppered the Aussie with strikes to score the TKO victory.
Fighting on less than three weeks’ notice at a weight class higher than usual, against a much bigger, rangier athlete, Culibao had an uphill battle from the start. Suffering an unfortunate mid-fight injury only made things go from bad to worse as he lost a one-sided fight by second-round TKO.
It’s impossible to give Culibao a positive grade on the strength of his debut showing, but it’s also unfair to judge him solely on the basis of that matchup, considering all the disadvantages he faced going in.
Hopefully, he’ll get another shot, this time at his usual weight class and with a full fight camp under his belt, and he can do himself justice in a more evenly-matched contest.
All the notable stats and figures to come out of UFC Auckland, which saw Dan Hooker beat Paul Felder in the main event.
The UFC made its third visit to New Zealand on Saturday with UFC on ESPN+ 26. The 12-fight card took place at Spark Arena in Auckland and streamed entirely on ESPN+.
In the main event, [autotag]Dan Hooker[/autotag] (20-8 MMA, 10-4 UFC) elevated his status as a lightweight contender when he edged out a memorable “Fight of the Night” clash with [autotag]Paul Felder[/autotag] (17-5 MMA, 9-5 UFC) by split decision in front of his hometown fans.
The headliner wasn’t the only fight to produce notable results, though. For more, check below for 45 post-event facts to come out of UFC on ESPN+ 26.
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General
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The UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance payout for the event totaled $137,000.
Debuting fighters went 0-1 at the event.
Hooker, Felder, [autotag]Jimmy Crute[/autotag] and [autotag]Priscila Cachoeira[/autotag] earned $50,000 UFC on ESPN+ 26 fight-night bonuses.
UFC on ESPN+ 26 drew an announced attendance of 10,025 for a live gate of $1,239,625.
Betting favorites went 8-4 on the card.
Betting favorites improved to 4-1 in UFC headliners this year.
Total fight time for the 12-bout card was 1:59:19.
Main card
Dan Hooker
Hooker improved to 7-1 since he moved up to the UFC lightweight division in June 2017.
Felder has suffered four of his five career losses by decision.
Crute (11-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC) has earned eight of his 11 career victories by stoppage. That includes all three of his UFC wins.
Crute became the fifth fighter in UFC history to earn multiple submission victories by Kimura. Krzysztof Soszynski, Rani Yahya, Frank Mir and George Sotiropoulos also accomplished the feat.
[autotag]Michal Oleksiejczuk[/autotag] (14-4 MMA, 2-2 UFC) suffered consecutive losses for the first time in his career.
Oleksiejczuk has suffered both of his UFC losses by submission.
Yan Xiaonan
[autotag]Yan Xiaonan[/autotag] (12-1 MMA, 5-0 UFC) improved to 9-0 (with one no contest) since returning from a nearly five-year layoff in July 2015.
Xiaonan’s five-fight UFC winning streak at strawweight is tied with Tatiana Suarez for the longest active streak in the division.
Xiaonan has earned all five of her UFC victories by decision.
[autotag]Karolina Kowalkiewicz[/autotag]’s (12-6 MMA, 5-6 UFC) four-fight losing skid is the longest of her career. She hasn’t earned a victory since April 2018.
[autotag]Marcos Rogerio de Lima[/autotag] (17-6-1 MMA, 6-4 UFC) has alternated wins and losses over his past nine fights.
De Lima improved to 3-1 in the UFC at heavyweight.
De Lima has earned 15 of his 17 career victories by stoppage. He’s finished 14 of those wins in Round 1.
[autotag]Ben Sosoli[/autotag] (7-3 MMA, 0-1 UFC) suffered the first knockout loss of his career.
[autotag]Brad Riddell[/autotag] (8-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) has earned both of his UFC victories by decision.
[autotag]Magomed Mustafaev[/autotag] (14-4 MMA, 3-2 UFC) suffered the first decision loss of his career.
Preliminary card
Zubaira Tukhugov def. Kevin Aguilar
[autotag]Kevin Aguilar[/autotag] (17-3 MMA, 2-2 UFC) suffered consecutive losses for the first time in his career.
Aguilar has suffered both of his career stoppage losses by knockout.
[autotag]Jalin Turner[/autotag] (9-5 MMA, 2-2 UFC) has earned all eight of his career victories by stoppage. He’s finished both of his UFC wins by knockout.
[autotag]Joshua Culibao[/autotag] (8-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) had his eight-fight winning streak snapped for the first defeat of his career.
[autotag]Jake Matthews[/autotag] (15-4 MMA, 9-4 UFC) improved to 5-1 since he moved up to the UFC welterweight division in November 2017.
Matthews has earned four of his five UFC welterweight victories by decision.
[autotag]Emil Meek[/autotag]’s (9-5-1 MMA, 1-3 UFC) three-fight losing skid is the longest of his career. He hasn’t earned a victory since December 2016.
Meek has been taken down 21 times in his four UFC appearances.
Meek has suffered all three of his UFC losses by decision.
[autotag]Callan Potter[/autotag] (18-9 MMA, 1-2 UFC) has suffered all nine of his career losses by stoppage.
Song Kenan has earned 13 of his 15 career victories by stoppage. That includes three of his four UFC wins.
[autotag]Kai Kara-France[/autotag] (21-8 MMA, 4-1 UFC) has earned all four of his UFC victories by decision.
[autotag]Tyson Nam[/autotag] (18-11-1 MMA, 0-2 UFC) has suffered eight of his 11 career losses by decision. That includes both of his UFC defeats.
Angela Hill
[autotag]Angela Hill[/autotag] (12-7 MMA, 7-7 UFC) became the first to earn two UFC victories in 2020.
Hill improved to 6-5 since she returned to the UFC for a second stint in February 2017.
Hill’s seven victories in UFC strawweight competition are tied with Jessica Andrade for second most in divisional history behind Joanna Jedrzejczyk (nine).
[autotag]Loma Lookboonmee[/autotag] (4-2 MMA, 1-1 UFC) suffered the first decision loss of her career.
[autotag]Cachoeira[/autotag] (9-3 MMA, 1-3 UFC) snapped her three-fight losing skid for her first victory since September 2017.
Cachoeira’s 40-second knockout marked the fastest stoppage in UFC women’s flyweight history.
[autotag]Shana Dobson[/autotag]’s (3-4 MMA, 1-3 UFC) three-fight losing skid is the longest of her career. She hasn’t earned a victory since December 2017.
Dobson suffered the first knockout loss of her career.
UFC research analyst and live statistics producer Michael Carroll contributed to this story. Follow him on Twitter @MJCflipdascript.
UFC on ESPN+ 26 fighters took home UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay, a program that launched after the UFC’s deal with Reebok.
Fighters from Saturday’s UFC on ESPN+ 26 event took home event took home UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay totaling $130,000.
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+ 26 took place Saturday at Spark Arena in Auckland, New Zealand. The entire card streamed ESPN+.
The full UFC on ESPN+ 26 UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance payouts included:
Under the UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance program’s payout tiers, which appropriate the money generated by Reebok’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 $3,500 per appearance; 4-5 bouts get $4,000; 6-10 bouts get $5,000; 11-15 bouts earn $10,000; 16-20 bouts pocket $15,000; and 21 bouts and more get $20,000. Additionally, champions earn $40,000 while title challengers get $30,000.
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 2020 UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance payouts:
Check out all the fighter walkout songs from Saturday’s UFC on ESPN+ 26 event in Auckland, New Zealand.
While it takes intense training, world-class skills and maybe even a bit of luck to register a UFC win, picking the right song to accompany you to the cage is a key talent, as well.
Inside, see what the fighters from UFC on ESPN+ 26 went with as their backing tracks in Auckland, New Zealand.
