Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Before UFC Fight Night 233 on Saturday, watch as the main-card athletes speak to reporters at media day.
LAS VEGAS – UFC Fight Night 233, which takes place at the UFC Apex with a card that streams entirely on ESPN+, goes down Saturday.
Before fight night arrives, though, notable athletes from the main card spoke to reporters Wednesday at media day.
If you happen to miss any of the individual sessions on the live stream, check below for the archived videos of each media day.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 233.
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.
Nasrat Haqparast wasn’t far removed from a critical second straight UFC lightweight win when he started looking ahead for a teammate.
SYDNEY – [autotag]Nasrat Haqparast[/autotag] wasn’t too far removed from a critical second straight win when he started looking ahead for a teammate.
Haqparast (15-5 MMA, 7-4 UFC) outworked a gritty Landon Quinones (7-2-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC), who was making a short-notice UFC debut, for a unanimous decision on the UFC 293 prelims this past Saturday in Australia.
And while Haqparast said he’s interested in a rematch with Bobby Green, who is booked to fight Grant Dawson, he also thinks his division’s chammpion, lightweight titleholder Islam Makhachev, isn’t going to have his reign supplanted any time soon. In fact, Haqparast thinks Makhachev will “destroy” former champ Charles Oliveira when they run things back.
Haqparast 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.
The best facts to come out of UFC 293, which saw Sean Strickland force a changing of the guard with his title win over Israel Adesanya.
The UFC’s return to Sydney after nearly six years produced one of the most shocking main event results of the year as the middleweight title changed hands at Qudos Bank Arena.
[autotag]Sean Strickland[/autotag] (28-5 MMA, 15-5 UFC) closed out UFC 293 with a massive unanimous decision upset of [autotag]Israel Adesanya[/autotag] (24-3 MMA, 13-3 UFC) to take the belt and force a reset at the top of the middleweight rankings.
For more on the numbers from the title bout, as well as the rest of the card, check below for MMA Junkie’s post-event facts from UFC 293.
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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.
Nasrat Haqparast returns to the octagon at UFC 293 after two recent fight cancellations.
Looks like [autotag]Nasrat Haqparast[/autotag] finally has a fight.
After two canceled bouts that have delayed his return to the octagon in 2023, Haqparast is targeted to fight [autotag]Landon Quinones[/autotag] on Sept. 9 at UFC 293 in Sydney. The fight will be contested at 155 pounds.
Two people with knowledge of the situation informed MMA Junkie of the booking Wednesday, including Oren Hodak of KO Reps, who manages Quinones.
Haqparast (14-5 MMA, 6-4 UFC) last fought in September 2022, when he defeated veteran John Makdessi in a unanimous decision. Prior to that, he had suffered decision losses to Dan Hooker and Bobby Green. Haqparast was scheduled to compete this past February and on Sept. 2, but both bouts were scrapped after his opponents withdrew.
Quinones (7-1-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) will be making his promotional debut at UFC 293. He’s currently on a five-fight wining streak officially. However, he is coming off competing on season 31 of The Ultimate Fighter, where he competed for Team Chandler. There, he suffered a submission loss to Jason Knight in the opening round of the tournament.
Below is the updated card for UFC 293:
MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view ESPN+, 10 p.m. ET)
PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN News, ESPN+, 8 p.m. ET)
PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN News, ESPN+, 6:30 p.m. ET)
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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.
Lightweights Nasrat Haqparast and Jamie Mullarkey will throw down at UFC 284.
Lightweights [autotag]Nasrat Haqparast[/autotag] and [autotag]Jamie Mullarkey[/autotag] will throw down at UFC 284.
Haqparast (14-5 MMA, 6-4 UFC) takes on Mullarkey (15-5 MMA, 3-3 UFC) in a pay-per-view event headlined by Islam Makhachev vs. Alexander Volkanovski on Feb. 11 at RAC Arena in Perth.
Two people with knowledge of the matchup confirmed the booking is in the works to MMA Junkie but asked to remain anonymous as the promotion has yet to make an official announcement.
After dropping back-to-back bouts to Dan Hooker and Bobby Green, 27-year-old Haqparast snapped a two-fight losing skid by defeating John Makdessi at UFC Fight Night 209 in September.
Winner of three of his past four, Mullarkey rebounded from a TKO loss to Jalin Turner in March with a split decision win over veteran Michael Johnson at UFC on ESPN 39 in July.
The latest UFC 284 lineup now includes:
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Whatever beef there might’ve been between Nasrat Haqparast and John Makdessi heading into UFC Paris, consider it squashed.
PARIS – Whatever beef there might’ve been between [autotag]Nasrat Haqparast[/autotag] and [autotag]John Makdessi[/autotag] heading into UFC Fight Night 209, Haqparast considers it squashed after his unanimous decision win in their lightweight bout Saturday at Accor Arena.
“Honestly, it was just like, we trained together seven years ago in 2015 at TriStar,” Haqparast told reporters afterward. “We were like training partners. Then he split the team. It can happen, you know. He found his own way. We got matched in 2019; three years ago I had some visa issues. I pulled out then I wanted to get the fight rescheduled. It didn’t happen. Then we were supposed to fight in February, (but) he got injured. Now this was the third time (being booked).
“In between that, we had a little bit of Twitter trash talk, but it was nothing personal. He didn’t say something against my family, me either. We didn’t cross the line. Just a little bit of trash talk to hype the fight a little bit. Now we squashed the beef, and everything is fine.”
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It seemed like more than that when Haqparast (14-5 MMA, 6-4 UFC) and Makdessi got in each other’s faces at the end of Round 1, but Haqparast simply chalked that up to being in the heat of the moment.
“It’s just a fight,” Haqparast said. “Excites me so much.”
With the win, Haqparast snapped a two-fight skid – losses to Dan Hooker and Bobby Green. He’s looking forward now that’s happy with what he showed against Makdessi.
“We close the book, and we head to the next challenge,” Haqparast said. “He had a lot of experience. He’s a very experienced guy, mature guy, awkward style. Everybody’s fighting like him. I wanted to show a little bit of my real skill set against him, and I’m proud what I did today.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 209.
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