Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Karolina Kowalkiewicz won for the fourth straight time at UFC Fight Night 229 after going more than four years without a victory.
LAS VEGAS – [autotag]Karolina Kowalkiewicz[/autotag] beat Diana Belbita with a unanimous decision Saturday on the preliminary card at UFC Fight Night 229 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
Take a look inside the fight with Kowalkiewicz, who won for the fourth straight time.
Check out these photos of Karolina Kowalkiewicz through the years
Check out these photos of [autotag]Karolina Kowalkiewicz[/autotag] through the years
Check out all the facts from UFC Fight Night 229, which saw Drew Dober pass Dustin Poirier on the all-time lightweight KO list.
The UFC returned from a one-week hiatus on Saturday with UFC Fight Night 229, which took place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and saw four of 10 fights end in a stoppage.
The quickest of those finishes came in the lightweight headliner, where Bobby Green (31-15-1 MMA, 12-9-1 UFC) pulled off a stunning upset of Grant Dawson (20-2-1 MMA, 8-1-1 UFC) courtesy of a 33-second knockout.
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 229.
UFC Fight Night 229 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 Fight Night 229 event took home UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay totaling $189,000.
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 Fight Night 229 took place at the UFC Apex. The entire card streamed on ESPN+.
The full UFC Fight Night 229 UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance payouts included:
* * * *
[autotag]Bobby Green[/autotag]: $21,000
def. [autotag]Grant Dawson[/autotag]: $6,000
[autotag]Joe Pyfer[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Abdul Razak Alhassan[/autotag]: $11,000
[autotag]Alex Morono[/autotag]: $16,000
[autotag]Joaquin Buckley[/autotag]: $11,000
[autotag]Drew Dober[/autotag]: $21,000
def. [autotag]Ricky Glenn[/autotag]: $6,000
[autotag]Bill Algeo[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]Alexander Hernandez[/autotag]: $11,000
[autotag]Karolina Kowalkiewicz[/autotag]: $16,000
def. [autotag]Diana Belbita[/autotag]: $6,000
[autotag]Nate Maness[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]Mateus Mendonca[/autotag]: $4,000
[autotag]Vanessa Demopoulos[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]Kanako Murata[/autotag]: $4,000
[autotag]Aori Qileng[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]Johnny Munoz[/autotag]: $6,000
[autotag]JJ Aldrich[/autotag]: $11,000
def. [autotag]Montana De La Rosa[/autotag]: $11,000
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 2291 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: $6,483,500
2022 total: $8,351,500
2021 total: $6,167,500
Program-to-date total: $21,072,500
Check out what the UFC Fight Night 229 winners and guest fighters had to say backstage at Saturday’s event.
LAS VEGAS – UFC Fight Night 229 took place Saturday with 11 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 Fight Night 229 winners by checking out their post-fight news conferences below.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 229.
The best facts about UFC Fight Night 229, where Grant Dawson brings an 8-0-1 octagon record into his main event vs. Bobby Green.
After a one-week hiatus, the UFC returns Saturday to kick off a loaded October schedule with UFC Fight Night 229, which takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and streams on ESPN+.
A lightweight bout serves as the main event of the card. [autotag]Grant Dawson[/autotag] (20-1-1 MMA, 8-0-1 UFC) gets his first headlining opportunity when he takes on [autotag]Bobby Green[/autotag] (30-15-1 MMA, 11-9-1 UFC), who looks to build momentum off his submission win over Tony Ferguson.
For more on the numbers behind the card, check below for MMA Junkie’s pre-event facts about UFC Fight Night 229.
* * * *
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 Sept. 4-10.
Former UFC strawweight title challenger Karolina Kowalkiewicz returns to action in October against Diana Belbita.
A women’s strawweight matchup between [autotag]Diana Belbita[/autotag] and former title challenger [autotag]Karolina Kowalkiewicz[/autotag] is heading to a UFC Fight Night in October.
On Oct. 7 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Belbita (15-7 MMA, 2-3 UFC) faces Kowalkiewicz (15-7 MMA, 8-7 UFC) in what will be the second appearance of the year for both fighters. MMA Junkie confirmed the matchup with two sources following the bout appearing on the ESPN event schedule.
The UFC Fight Night event features a lightweight matchup between Grant Dawson and Bobby Green, and will air live on ESPN+.
Belbita, 27, will look to keep the momentum going following a unanimous decision win over Maria Oliveira at UFC 289 in June. If successful, she will get back to .500 in her young UFC tenure.
However, standing in her way will be Kowalkiewicz, 37, who is in the midst of a late career resurgence as a winner of three straight. The Polish fighter was thought to be on her way out after dropping five straight through 2018-21, but has since turned things around with consecutive wins over Felice Herrig, Silvana Gomez Juarez and Vanessa Demopoulos.
With the addition, the current UFC Fight Night event on Oct. 7 includes:
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=420030788]
It wasn’t long ago Karolina Kowalkiewicz was on a five-fight UFC losing skid. Now she looks to close 2023 with a fourth consecutive win.
LAS VEGAS – Former UFC title challenger [autotag]Karolina Kowalkiewicz[/autotag] is ready for the next step in her career rebuild.
After a five-fight skid from 2018-2021, Kowalkiewicz’s (15-7 MMA, 8-7 UFC) career was on life support. She needed a change, and made a big move when she relocated from her native Poland to Florida for training at American Top Team.
The move has paid dividends. Kowalkiewicz has won her past three fights and is starting to reestablish herself in the strawweight division.
“I fell in love with the sport once again,” Kowalkiewicz told MMA Junkie Radio at UFC X Radio Row earlier this month. “I started everything from the beginning and it worked very good for me.
Kowalkiewicz, 37, said she hopes to return to action before the end of the year. She named UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi on Oct. 21 or UFC 295 in New York on Nov. 11 as events that would meet her timelines, and even had a potential opponent in mind.
“I want to fight as soon as possible because I am ready,” Kowalkiewicz said. “I am in training right now. I still don’t have a date or an opponent. I don’t know. Maybe Diana Belbita.”
Oftentimes, fighters lay into their opponents for missing weight. That’s not the case with Karolina Kowalkiewicz and Vanessa Demopoulos.
LAS VEGAS – Oftentimes, fighters lay into their opponents for missing weight.
Following her UFC Fight Night 224 win, [autotag]Karolina Kowalkiewicz[/autotag] took a different route when asked about opponent [autotag]Vanessa Demopoulos[/autotag]’ botched weigh-in Friday ahead of their fight.
“Sometimes it happens,” Kowalkiewicz told MMA Junkie and other reporters. “I don’t know why she didn’t make weight. But if the doctors said she cannot cut weight anymore, OK. The health is the most important. So OK, for me it is not a problem.”
Kowalkiewicz (15-7 MMA, 8-7 UFC) went 15 minutes with Demopoulos (9-5 MMA, 3-2 UFC) before she was awarded a unanimous decision victory, her third win in a row. Kowalkiewicz said she didn’t feel a noticeable weight or strength difference from Demopoulos, who weighed 1.5 pounds over the strawweight limit.
[lawrence-related id=2644515,2644520]
As for what’s next, Kowalkiewicz didn’t have an opponent or date on her mind. All she wants is to return relatively soon – and have fans in the building when she does.
“I need to talk with my coach,” Kowalkiewicz said. “If he agrees with me, I want to fight as soon as possible. I need two weeks of vacation because I want to go to my family, to Poland. I need to rest a little bit. I’ll go back to ATT to train again and start preparing for my next fight. … Any open arena event. … I love fans, yeah. We fight for fans, so fighting in big arena is the best feeling in the world. ”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 224.
