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Check out the best photos from Neil Magny’s third-round TKO win over Mike Malott at UFC 297 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.
Check out the best photos from [autotag]Neil Magny[/autotag]’s third-round TKO win over Mike Malott at UFC 297 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. (Photos by Dan Hamilton, USA Today Sports)
Check out what the UFC 297 winners and guest fighters had to say backstage at Saturday’s event in Toronto.
TORONTO – UFC 297 took place Saturday with 12 bouts on the lineup. We’ve got you covered with backstage winner interviews from Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.
You can hear from all the UFC 297 winners by checking out their post-fight news conferences below.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 297.
Neil Magny says he’s used to fighting the young prospects at this point in his UFC career.
TORONTO – It feels like out of all veteran fighters, [autotag]Neil Magny[/autotag] gets matched up with more young, up-and-coming prospects than anyone.
The 36-year-old welterweight returns to the octagon this Saturday to take on undefeated prospect [autotag]Mike Malott[/autotag] on the pay-per-view main card of UFC 297. Magny (28-11 MMA, 21-10 UFC) is aware of this recurring position, but he has no issue fighting Malott (10-1-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC). He sees it as routine and part of the fight game.
“It’s definitely not the plan to find myself in this position over and over again,” Magny said at Wednesday’s UFC 297 media day. “The goal is definitely to move forward that I keep advancing and keep doing my thing, but that stuff happens. It’s the way this port plays out. If you lose a ranked fight, you fall back in the rankings and you kind of have to win yourself back into position to call someone above and keep climbing and moving forward.
“But yeah, here we are again fighting an undefeated up-and-comer in the UFC. It’s something I’m used to at this point. I don’t think I enjoy that pressure, but I think I thrive in that kind of pressure, especially on this fight. I feel like there’s a lot on the line. It’s a main card fight in Canada fighting a Canadian guy in his home turf. The bar is definitely set up pretty high for me to go out there and get it done.”
Although expectations are high for Malott on home soil, Magny argues that he has the same level of pressure, if not more, given his age and that he’s coming off a loss to Ian Garry in August.
“If you’re the older guy fighting the up-and-coming guy, it’s like kind of someone kind of replacing your throne, so to speak,” Magny explained. “In any other ecosystem you look at, when there’s a young challenger coming in to challenge the vet’s position, the vet’s position is in question at that point. I have to go out there and make a statement like, ‘Nope, I’m not going away anytime soon.'”
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 297.
Before UFC 297 on Saturday, the main card and prelim fighters are scheduled to speak to reporters at media day.
TORONTO – UFC 297 takes place Saturday at Scotiabank Arena with a main card that airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and ESPN+.
Before fight night arrives, though, notable athletes from the 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 fighter’s session.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 297.
The best facts and figures about UFC 297, which sees Dricus Du Plessis’ strong offense put Sean Strickland’s record defense to the test.
The UFC on Saturday returns to Toronto for the first time since December 2018 with UFC 297 at Scotiabank Arena.
The first numbered event of the year features a title fight doubleheader. In the main event, [autotag]Sean Strickland[/autotag] (28-5 MMA, 15-5 UFC) will attempt to defend the middleweight title against [autotag]Dricus Du Plessis[/autotag] (20-2 MMA, 6-0 UFC. In the co-headliner, [autotag]Raquel Pennington[/autotag] (15-8 MMA, 12-5 UFC) and [autotag]Mayra Bueno Silva[/autotag] (10-2-1 MMA, 5-2-1 UFC) are set to clash for the vacant women’s bantamweight belt.
For more on the numbers behind all four championship competitors, as well as the rest of the card, check below for MMA Junkie’s pre-event facts for UFC 297 (pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+).
Check out a full recap of 2023’s most significant footnotes and milestones from the events, the fights and individual performances.
Now that the year has come to a close, and with a major assist from UFC research analyst and live statistics producers Michael Carroll, here are some of 2023’s most significant milestones from the events, the fights and individual performances.
Despite being hazed by Ian Machado Garry, Neil Magny took the high road when asked about the recent controversy surrounding him.
Despite being hazed by [autotag]Ian Machado Garry[/autotag], [autotag]Neil Magny[/autotag] took the high road when asked about the recent controversy surrounding him.
Garry (13-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) has been the subject of plenty of criticism and negativity, which only increased after he withdrew from his fight against Vicente Luque on Saturday’s UFC 296 main card.
Some may call it karma after Garry accused former foe Magny of being a child abuser, taking his pre-fight press conference comments out of context. Garry defeated Magny by lopsided decision in their fight at UFC 292, and despite Garry’s comments having repercussions, Magny isn’t the vengeful type.
“If I’m being honest, it’s unfortunate,” Magny told Middle Easy. “Having gone through what I got through based off of some of the statements and antics that Ian Garry said during fight week, it definitely caused some personal turbulence in my life, so to speak. But at the end of the day, I have to take accountability for the things that left my mouth and take accountability for the words that left my mouth.
“I definitely made statements that he was able to spin and play out in a different way than what I have intended it to. At the end of the day, that’s on me. I was the one who made those statements, made those statements publicly. How someone else perceived them or spun them, that’s out of my control, but I kind of gave him that opportunity to be able to do so. I have to own that fact and live with it. I’m fortunate now that like the majority of that stuff is behind me. That didn’t affect me too drastically when it comes to my family life and that kind of thing.”
Prior to withdrawing from UFC 296 due to pneumonia, Garry opted not to attend Wednesday’s media day. The likes of Chael Sonnen lambasted him for not facing the heat, which stems from no longer being welcome to Team Renegade, to his comments on Luque, and his wife’s book labeled, “How to be a WAG” – a term used when referencing the wives and girlfriends of famous athletes.
But despite all that, Magny doesn’t think Garry deserves this much resentment.
“It’s unfortunate to see someone’s personal life be drug up the way his life has been drug up and all the stuff that he has to go through currently,” Magny said. “I wouldn’t wish that on anybody, especially when you consider the entire family dynamic and all the people are involved in there. Him and his wife may have whatever going on, but at the end of the day, regardless of what’s going on, they share a child together.
“That child deserves the right to grow up knowing he has two loving parents. Again, all this stuff drug out into the media, out in the open, that kind of thing, I don’t think anyone is deserving of that regardless what they may or may not have done to me. I’m not going to sit back and necessarily take joy in seeing that play out with somebody.”
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 296.
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.
After his Noche UFC loss, “Big Mouth” Kevin Holland is out for blood… or hair, rather.
[autotag]Kevin Holland[/autotag] usually has a lot to say, but he kept his reaction to his Noche UFC loss short and sweet Sunday with a brief and to-the-point statement posted on his Instagram stories.
Not only did Holland (25-10 MMA, 12-7 UFC) reflect on Saturday’s split decision loss with compliments to his opponent Jack Della Maddalena (16-2 MMA, 6-0 UFC), he looked toward the future.
Already with his sights set on a fellow welterweight contender, Holland wants elevated stakes should his target be next.–
“Props to jack good guard I’d like to go watch it back!” Holland wrote. “I see y’all talking about poor performance I really honestly thought I out worked due but (what the hell) do I know for those that ride with me how about [autotag]Neil Magny[/autotag] loser cuts there [sic] hair.”
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Holland has been one of the promotion’s most active fighters since he joined the promotion in mid-2018, so a quick return could be in the cards. Magny (28-11 MMA, 21-10 UFC) most recently competed Aug. 19 in a unanimous decision loss to Ian Garry at UFC 292 in Boston.
With Saturday’s defeat, Holland had a two-fight winning streak snapped. Magny has alternated wins and losses over his most recent six outings.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Noche UFC.
The best facts to come out of UFC 292, which saw Sean O’Malley, Zhang Weili, Ian Machado Garry and others record statistical achievements.
One of the biggest UFC events of the year thus far went down Saturday with UFC 292, which took place at TD Garden in Boston and featured two championship fights with different results.
In the main event, [autotag]Sean O’Malley[/autotag] (17-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) shocked [autotag]Aljamain Sterling[/autotag] (23-4 MMA, 15-4 UFC) with a second-round TKO to capture the bantamweight belt, while in the co-headliner, [autotag]Zhang Weili[/autotag] (24-3 MMA, 8-2 UFC) got her second strawweight title reign off a dominant start with a lopsided unanimous decision over Brazilian challenger [autotag]Amanda Lemos[/autotag] (13-3-1 MMA, 7-3 UFC).
For more on the numbers behind the two championship bouts, as well as the rest of the card, check below for MMA Junkie’s post-event facts from UFC 292.
