Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Puja Tomar became the first Indian woman to win in the UFC.
[autotag]Puja Tomar[/autotag] beat Rayanne Amanda with a split decision Saturday to open the preliminary card at UFC on ESPN 57 at KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Ky.
Take a look inside the fight with Puja Tomar, who became the first Indian woman to win in the UFC.
UFC on ESPN 57 fighters took home UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay, a program that continued after the UFC’s deal with Venum.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Fighters from Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 57 event took home UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay totaling $186,500.
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 on ESPN 57 took place at the KFC Yum! Center. The card aired on ESPN and streamed on ESPN+.
The full UFC on ESPN 57 UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance payouts included:
* * * *
[autotag]Nassourdine Imavov[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]Jared Cannonier[/autotag]: $16,000
[autotag]Dominick Reyes[/autotag]: $11,000
def. [autotag]Dustin Jacoby[/autotag]: $11,000
[autotag]Raul Rosas Jr.[/autotag]: $4,500
def. [autotag]Ricky Turcios[/autotag]: $4,500
[autotag]Brunno Ferreira[/autotag]: $4,500
def. [autotag]Dustin Stoltzfus[/autotag]: $6,000
[autotag]Zach Reese[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Julian Marquez[/autotag]: $6,000
[autotag]Punahele Soriano[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]Miguel Baeza[/autotag]: $6,000
[autotag]Ludovit Klein[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]Thiago Moises[/autotag]: $11,000
[autotag]Carlos Prates[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Charlie Radtke[/autotag]: $4,000
[autotag]Brad Katona[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]Jesse Butler[/autotag]: $4,000
[autotag]Montana De La Rosa[/autotag]: $11,000
def. [autotag]Andrea Lee[/autotag]: $11,000
[autotag]Daniel Marcos[/autotag]: $4,500
def. [autotag]John Castaneda[/autotag]: $6,000
[autotag]Denise Gomes[/autotag]: $4,500
def. [autotag]Eduarda Moura[/autotag]: $4,000
[autotag]Taylor Lapilus[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]Cody Stamann[/autotag]: $11,000
[autotag]Puja Tomar[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Rayanne dos Santos[/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 $4,570; 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 $57,000 while title challengers get $57,000.
In addition to experience-based pay, UFC fighters will receive in perpetuity royalty payments amounting to 20-57 percent of any UFC merchandise sold that bears their likeness, according to officials.
Full 2024 UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance payouts:
Year-to-date total: $3,451,000
2023 total: $8,188,000
2022 total: $8,351,500
2021 total: $6,167,500
Program-to-date total: $26,188,000
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 57.
Find out who joined the UFC in October 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 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 October 2023 list below.
The UFC admittedly has struggled to enter the India market, but Puja Tomar, the first India-born female in promotion history, could help.
India will soon have female representation in the UFC.
On Tuesday, strawweight [autotag]Puja Tomar[/autotag] revealed she recently signed with the UFC, making her the first India-born woman in the promotion’s history. The news was also confirmed by her management, First Round Management Europe.
No debut date or opponent was announced.
Tomar (8-4 MMA, 0-0 UFC) is on a four-fight winning streak. She is the Matrix Fight Night strawweight champion. Her UFC signing marks her second major promotional stint. Tomar competed in four MMA fights and one muay Thai bout for ONE Championship from 2017-2020. She was successful in one of the five outings, a 2019 split decision victory over Priscilla Gaol.
“Today marks a moment in history, where a young girl from UP Budhana bijrol can turn her dream into reality,” Tomar wrote on Instagram. “It marks a moment where anything is possible, no matter where we are from, becuase if I can get here, so can many of us.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CyfL3igyiVz/
While Tomar is the first India-born woman, Bharat Khandare, who made one UFC appearance in November 2017, was the first overall. Khandare lost to Song Yadong by first-round submission and was later flagged by USADA for prohibited substances. He was suspended two years and has not competed since.
Thailand’s two-sport martial arts champion Stamp Fairtex continued a winning start to her MMA career.
Thailand’s two-sport martial arts champion [autotag]Stamp Fairtex[/autotag] continued a winning start to her MMA career with a first-round finish of Indian wushu champion [autotag]Puja Tomar[/autotag] at “ONE Championship 106: A New Tomorrow.”
Twenty-two-year-old Fairtex already holds ONE Championship’s atomweight muay Thai and kickboxing titles, but she now aims to make history as the organization’s first three-sport champion by capturing the MMA strap.
Her unbeaten start to life in MMA continued Friday at Bangkok’s Impact Arena, defeating Tomar via ground-and-pound TKO in front of an appreciative crowd in Thailand.
After a cagey start, Fairtex (4-0) backed Tomar (4-4) into the corner and connected with a pair of powerful roundhouse kicks to the body before the Indian changed levels and took the Thai to the mat.
Fairtex reversed position and returned to her feet but was quickly brought back to the canvas once again by another takedown. This time, however, she went on the offensive as she took Tomar’s back and attempted to lock up a rear-naked choke. Tomar rolled to her front, and Fairtex pulled her arms free, then proceeded to unload a succession of ground strikes to her helpless Indian opponent until referee Olivier Coste stepped in to end the contest at the 4:27 mark of Round 1.
Stamp Fairtex 🇹🇭 runs through Puja Tomar 🇮🇳 in DOMINANT fashion, winning by first-round TKO on her quest for a third ONE World Title! #WeAreONE #ONEChampionship #ANewTomorrow pic.twitter.com/IVCQR3AsGr
— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) January 10, 2020
After registering her fourth MMA victory, Fairtex told the crowd that she plans on working her way up until she’s ready to challenge for the atomweight title currently held by Angela Lee.
“I want to keep fighting MMA and improving my skills,” she said. “And soon, I’ll be coming for the belt!”
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The preliminary card saw a pair of first-round finishes as Russian welterweight [autotag]Raimond Magomedaliev[/autotag] and Mongolian featherweight [autotag]Shinechagtga Zoltsetseg[/autotag] registered impressive stoppages of their respective opponents.
Magomedaliev (6-1) made his presence felt early on against debuting American [autotag]Joey Pierotti[/autotag] (12-2), utilizing a succession of punishing elbows and knees from the clinch to assert his dominance in the early exchanges. The Dagestani fighter’s barrage of strikes forced the bout to be paused as medics inspected the damage sustained by Pierotti in that early salvo.
The bout eventually resumed, with Magomedaliev connecting with a huge head kick with the first strike after the restart. Pierotti initiated the clinch, and was punished with a series of knees as the Russian dominated once again. When Pierotti looked to take the fight to the ground, Magomedaliev locked up a D’Arce choke and forced the quick tap at the 3:50 mark in the opening round.
😱 WHAT A FINISH 😱
Russian warrior Raimond Magomedaliev 🇷🇺 submits Joey Pierotti 🇺🇸 with a TIGHT guillotine choke in Round 1!#WeAreONE #ONEChampionship #ANewTomorrow pic.twitter.com/ZIRIqNTRAq— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) January 10, 2020
Earlier on the card, Mongolian powerhouse Zoltsetseg (6-2) completed his work in quick-fire fashion with a 55-second finish of in-form Chinese wrestler [autotag]Ma Jia Wen[/autotag] (6-3).
Zoltsetseg went to work immediately from the opening bell and closed the distance on the heavy-handed Chinese wrestler before letting fly with powerful strikes. Zoltsetseg briefly staggered Ma with a solid shot in the opening seconds then, after working another opening, he connected with a fastball right hook that connected flush to the Chinese fighter’s temple and sent him to the canvas.
In addition, the non-broadcast early prelims featured a unanimous decision win for Roel Rosauro (5-3), who edged out Indonesia’s Yohan Mulia Legowo (8-9), and a submission finish from in-form Japanese judoka Ayaka Miura (10-2), who finished Maira Mazar (6-3) via second-round Americana.
Full MMA results from “ONE Championship 106: A New Tomorrow” include:
MAIN CARD
PRELIMINARY CARD
Stamp Fairtex will bid to move one step closer to her third ONE Championship title when she takes on Puja Tomar in Bangkok at “ONE: A New Tomorrow”.
[autotag]Stamp Fairtex[/autotag] might not necessarily be a household name in the United States, but the 22-year-old from Pattaya is a star in her native Thailand, and she’s set her sights on an historic achievement as a ONE Championship athlete.
Fairtex (3-0) exploded onto the scene in Asia as a contestant in Rich Franklin’s ONE Warrior Series, a talent-finding roadshow that assesses undiscovered prospects across the region, then pits them in head-to-head matchups with the winner earning a contract to compete on the main ONE Championship roster.
Fairtex’s high-level muay Thai striking instantly stood out to Franklin, who pitched her into her first MMA-rules bout against Indian prospect Rashi Shinde. Nineteen seconds and one spectacular head-kick later, Fairtex was a ONE Championship fighter.
She kicked off her career on the big stage by competing in ONE’s striking-based series, ONE Super Series, as she challenged for, and won, the ONE atomweight kickboxing title. She then returned to her muay Thai roots and captured the ONE atomweight muay Thai title to become ONE’s first two-sport champion. Now the Thai starlet is looking to make history again by working her way up the promotion’s MMA ranks and challenging for the ONE atomweight MMA title.
That journey continues Friday in Bangkok, Thailand, at “ONE Championship 106: A New Tomorrow” when Fairtex faces off against India’s [autotag]Puja Tomar[/autotag] in the featured MMA bout of the evening at the Impact Arena.
Tomar (4-3) picked up the biggest win of her career last January when she defeated Indonesian contender Priscilla Hertati Lumban Gaol at “ONE: Eternal Glory”. And, after a year that saw her compete just once more – in muay Thai competition – “The Cyclone” will look to derail the Fairtex hype train.
But Fairtex has looked more accomplished with each appearance to date and, after picking up back-to-back victories over Asha Roka and Bi Nguyen in 2019, she will look to register her third straight MMA win by defeating Tomar on home soil.
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Joining Fairtex and Tomar on the main card in Bangkok is a familiar face to hardcore UFC fans. “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 22 and Dana White’s Contender Series competitor [autotag]Thanh Le[/autotag] takes on Japanese Shooto featherweight champion [autotag]Ryogo Takahashi[/autotag] in a lightweight matchup.
[jwplayer Km0HFvIU-RbnemIYZ]
Le’s clinical striking saw him claim stoppage victories in both “TUF” and the Contender Series, but he didn’t get his chance to show his striking prowess inside the UFC octagon. But the UFC’s loss has been ONE’s gain, with the former LFA interim featherweight champion arriving in Asia with a bang in 2019.
Le (10-2) starched fancied featherweight contender Yusup Saadulaev with a knee on his promotional debut at “ONE: For Honor” in May, then trumped that performance with a one-hitter quitter as he finished former ONE lightweight champion Kotetsu Boku at “ONE: Dreams of Gold” in August. Now he takes on Takahashi (13-3) in a bout that could propel the winner into the orbit of current ONE featherweight champion Christian Lee.
The preliminary card in Bangkok will feature the ONE Championship debut of former CFFC fighter [autotag]Joey Pierotti[/autotag], who will take on dangerous Russian [autotag]Raimond Magomedaliev[/autotag] in a welterweight bout.
Magomedaliev (5-1) lost his undefeated record on his ONE debut as he dropped a unanimous decision to rising contender James Nakashima at “ONE: Conquest of Champions” in November, and will be looking to put things right in Bangkok against Pierotti (12-1), who hasn’t lost since a 2018 submission loss to current UFC prospect – and 2019 MMA Junkie Upset of the Year winner – Tristan Connelly. Eleven of Pierotti’s 12 career wins have come inside the distance, with six victories coming by way of knockout and five by submission.
[jwplayer rxq0Auwp-RbnemIYZ]
The full 12-fight card for Bangkok features six MMA matchups, one kickboxing contest and five muay Thai bouts, including the overall main event, as Thailand’s ONE flyweight muay Thai champion, Rodtang Jitmuangnon, takes on the man he defeated to win the belt last year, England’s Jonathan Haggerty.
Full MMA card for “ONE Championship 106: A New Tomorrow” includes:
MAIN CARD
PRELIMINARY CARD
