Tag: Joshua Van

UFC 295 Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay: Title fight athletes net $32,000 each

Fighters from Saturday’s UFC 295 took home UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay totaling $272,500.

NEW YORK – Fighters from Saturday’s UFC 295 event took home UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay totaling $272,500.

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 295 took place at Madison Square Garden. The main card aired on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPNews and ESPN+.

The full UFC 295 UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance payouts included:

* * * *

[autotag]Alex Pereira[/autotag]: $32,000
def. [autotag]Jiri Prochazka[/autotag]: $32,000

[autotag]Tom Aspinall[/autotag]: $32,000
def. [autotag]Sergei Pavlovich[/autotag]: $32,000

[autotag]Jessica Andrade[/autotag]: $21,000
def. [autotag]Mackenzie Dern[/autotag]: $11,000

[autotag]Benoit Saint-Denis[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]Matt Frevola[/autotag]: $6,000

[autotag]Diego Lopes[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Pat Sabatini[/autotag]: $6,000

[autotag]Steve Erceg[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Alessandro Costa[/autotag]: $4,000

[autotag]Loopy Godinez[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]Tabatha Ricci[/autotag]: $6,000

[autotag]Mateusz Rebecki[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Roosevelt Roberts[/autotag]: $6,000

[autotag]Nazim Sadykhov[/autotag]: $4,000
vs. [autotag]Viacheslav Borshchev[/autotag]: $4,500

[autotag]Jared Gordon[/autotag]: $11,000
def. [autotag]Mark Madsen[/autotag]: $6,000

[autotag]John Castaneda[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]Kyung Ho Kang[/autotag]: $11,000

[autotag]Joshua Van[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Kevin Borjas[/autotag]: $4,000

[autotag]Jamall Emmers[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]Dennis Buzukja[/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: $7,305,500
2022 total: $8,351,500
2021 total: $6,167,500
Program-to-date total: $21,824,500

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 295.

UFC 295 video: Hear from each winner, guest fighters backstage

Check out what the UFC 295 winners and guest fighters had to say backstage at Saturday’s event at Madison Square Garden in New York.

NEW YORK – UFC 295 took place Saturday with 13 bouts on the lineup. We’ve got you covered with backstage winner interviews from Madison Square Garden in New York.

You can hear from all the UFC 295 winners by checking out their post-fight news conferences below.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 295.

Joshua Van def. Kevin Borjas at UFC 295: Best photos

Check out the best photos from Joshua Van’s unanimous decision win over Kevin Borjas at UFC 295 at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Check out the best photos from [autotag]Joshua Van[/autotag]’s unanimous decision win over [autotag]Kevin Borjas[/autotag] at UFC 295 at Madison Square Garden in New York. (Photos by Sarah Stier, Getty Images)

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.

Dana White’s Contender Series, Season 7 roster filling up for summer 2023 launch

Dana White’s Contender Series will return this summer. Check out the fighters and fights that have been booked thus far.

Dana White’s Contender Series, Season 7 is in the works.

DWCS debuted in 2017 with an eight-episode inaugural season. Season 2 was held in 2018 with eight episodes, followed by a three-episode DWCS: Brasil. In 2019, DWCS was extended to 10 episodes for its third season. The length was repeated in 2020, 2021, and 2022.

Each season, the number of fighters signed has increased. Thus far, the show has produced UFC notables including Sean O’Malley, Maycee Barber, Geoff Neal, Ryan Spann, Sodiq Yusuff, Jamahal Hill, Taila Santos, Johnny Walker, Alex Perez, Bo Nickal, Jailton Almeida, Jack Della Maddalena, and Marina Rodriguez among others.

In recent weeks, the UFC matchmakers have been gearing up for a summer DWCS return, expected to launch Aug. 8. Athletes and matchups have slowly but surely been booked. The number of episodes for Season 7 is not yet known.

Scroll below to see the latest athletes and fights booked, which have been confirmed by MMA Junkie or posted about by the fighters involved. This list will be updated as more fighters and matchups come to light.

Burmese fighter: Joshua Van details pioneering journey to plant Myanmar’s flag on UFC turf

From Myanmar to Malaysia to Houston, it was an improbable journey for Joshua Van to make UFC history.

[autotag]Joshua Van[/autotag] remembers asking his mother why they had to live in Houston. Why couldn’t they just go back home where things were familiar?

He was 12 years old at the time, and Van wanted to go back to where he lived the first decade of his life, in Myanmar. Life wasn’t easy for an undersized pre-teen who spoke little English and was picked on during school for both of those attributes.

Looking back, the math adds up that he’d become the first Burmese fighter to compete in the UFC.

“I was a small kid,” Van recently told MMA Junkie. “From where I come from, you get picked on. It’s kind of like I fight everyday, and I got to the point where I enjoyed fighting. I watched clips on street fights and how to win street fights. I tried it in my next fight and things like that. That’s what got me into my career.”

Van grew up one of five siblings in Myanmar, a country ridden with military and political conflict. When things increasingly worsened, Van’s parents decided to move to Malaysia. Van was 10 years old.

“The military in Myanmar is always bad,” Van said. “It got worse. At that time, my parents were looking for a better education and a better job, things like that. They were thinking about us, the kids. They wanted to come over here and were looking for a bigger education and freedom.”

[lawrence-related id=2656867,2656848]

Three years later, Van and his family moved to the United States and settled in Houston, where he still resides today. Bullying and his love for Bruce Lee formulated a love for MMA.

In 2020, Van made his amateur debut before he turned professional in 2021.

After a 2-1 start to his pro tenure, Van went on an atypical run up the regional ladder. He won Fury FC gold in December and was signed for a short-notice bout UFC on ABC 5 in June.

The signing was historic as Van became his native country’s first to make the UFC walk. But the history didn’t stop there. Van also notched Myanmar’s first win in promotion history June 24 when he defeated Zhalgas Zhumagulov via split decision.

The Burmese love poured in.

“It meant a lot of things for me,” Van said. “It meant everything to me, to be able to represent my country on the biggest stage. It felt amazing, man. The only thing was I can’t have my flag in there, man. If I was able to have the Myanmar flag in there, that would be amazing. That’s the only thing that was going on.”

While the endearment and pride was felt across borders and bodies of water, Van knows for the time being he cannot experience it in person until Myanmar becomes safer.

For the time being, Van will hold fond memories of the first 10 years of his life close to his heart as he continues to be Myanmar’s most prominent MMA flag bearer outside of ONE Championship star Aung La Nsang.

“It was amazing, my memory from Myanmar. I lived there until I was seven or eight and then I moved to Malaysia. Then Malaysia, from there, I came here. Every memory I have over there was amazing, man. Everybody loved everybody. Everybody supported everybody. Everybody was respectful and stuff like that.

“… This platform that I have right now, I feel like the UFC is the biggest platform you can have. I want to the world to see what’s really going on. The military be cutting off our internet and stuff like that. It’s hard for the other part of the world to really know what’s going on and stuff like that. I will use this platform to know what is really going on over there.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ABC 5.

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.

UFC on ABC 5 medical suspensions: Josh Emmett out indefinitely from damage sustained

Josh Emmett and Justin Tafa suffered graphic injuries at UFC on ABC 5 and are among those suspended indefinitely by the Florida commission.

UFC on ABC 5 took place Saturday at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla. and featured 13 fights.

There were back-and-forth battles, knockouts, an eye gouge, and a submission. Through these fights, the athletes involved sustained injuries that will put them on the shelf for some time, unless cleared by a doctor.

Tuesday, MMA Junkie acquired a list of athlete medical suspensions from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR), the sanctioning body that oversaw the event. The DBPR does not disclose injury specifics, but does show the durations of the suspension.

Atop the card, [autotag]Ilia Topuria[/autotag] proved he’s a premiere contender when he dominated [autotag]Josh Emmett[/autotag] en route to a unanimous decision, including a rare 10-7 scorecard. The two headliners were suspended indefinitely by DBPR afterward.

Seven fighters total were handed indefinite suspensions, while two were handed terms of specific durations and the rest of the card was cleared on fight night. Fighters are permitted to return prior to the end of their assigned durations if they are cleared by a doctor.

Scroll below to see the suspensions for the full UFC on ABC 5 card.

21-year-old Joshua Van felt at home during UFC debut, wants to be most active fighter in promotion

Joshua Van impressed UFC fans when he stepped in on short notice and defeated Zhalgas Zhumagulov – at just 21 years old.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – [autotag]Joshua Van[/autotag] is only 21 and he’s already pocketed a win in the UFC.

At UFC on ABC 5, Van (8-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) won his short-notice promotional debut when he defeated Zhalgas Zhumagulov (14-9 MMA, 1-6 UFC) by split decision. The flyweight bout took place on Saturday’s prelims at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena.

Van hasn’t been on the UFC roster for even a month. But when it came time to fight, Van was comfortable on the big stage under the bright lights.

“It felt like home,” Van told MMA Junkie and other reporters at a post-fight news conference. “When I was on my way here, going to the locker room, I was a little nervous. But then after we got a little warmup, I felt at home, man.”

[lawrence-related id=2655232,2655220]

Van didn’t have a callout prepared to ask for when the cameras turned to him post-fight. But that’s not due to lack of preparation, but rather disinterest in watching fights from a third-person perspective.

“I don’t really watch fights, so I don’t really know who I was fighting,” Van said. “I don’t know his name. Jon Jones? Yeah, yeah, yeah. … I watch my own fights. … I don’t know, man. Everybody has different styles, so I feel like if I focus on my style, my technique, I feel like I’ll be better off like that.”

In place of an opponent or venue pitch, Van laid out a goal. He wants to fight as often as possible going forward – more often than anyone else.

“I want to stay active, bro,” Van said. “I want to be the most active UFC fighter over here.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ABC 5.

UFC on ABC 5 post-event facts: Ilia Topuria’s main event beatdown makes history

Check out all the facts and figures from UFC on ABC 5, where Ilia Topuria’s main event win was boosted by a rare achievement.

The UFC returned to Florida for the second time this year on Saturday with UFC on ABC 5, which took place at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville and saw eight of 13 bouts go to a decision.

The main event was one of those bouts to go to the judges, but it was a clear result with [autotag]Ilia Topuria[/autotag] (14-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) defeating [autotag]Josh Emmett[/autotag] (18-4 MMA, 9-4 UFC) in historic fashion in the form of a lopsided unanimous decision in the matchup between featherweight contenders.

For more on the numbers to come out of the headliner, as well as the rest of the card, check below for MMA Junkie’s post-event facts from UFC on ABC 5.