Bellator 238: Sergio Pettis media day interview

Sergio Pettis talks to MMA Junkie at Bellator 238 media day

Bellator 238 pre-event facts: Cris Cyborg looks to end Julia Budd’s dominant reign

Check out all the facts and figures about Bellator 238, which takes place Saturday with a Julia Budd vs. Cris Cyborg title-fight main event.

The first Bellator event of the year goes down Saturday with Bellator 238, which takes place at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., with a main card that streams on DAZN following prelims on MMA Junkie.

In the main event, the only women’s featherweight champion in Bellator history, [autotag]Julia Budd[/autotag] (13-2 MMA, 7-0 BMMA), will attempt to continue her reign atop the division when she takes on her biggest test yet in former UFC champion [autotag]Cris Cyborg[/autotag] (21-2 MMA, 0-0 BMMA), who gets a title shot in her promotional debut.

The card also includes a matchup in the ongoing Bellator featherweight grand prix, as well as some other often-seen notables. For more on the numbers behind the card, check below for 30 pre-event facts about Bellator 238.

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Main event

Budd’s only career losses came against current UFC bantamweight and featherweight champion Amanda Nunes and ex-titleholder Ronda Rousey.

Budd competes in her eighth Bellator featherweight bout, the second-most appearances in divisional history behind Arlene Blencowe (nine).

Budd enters the event on an 11-fight wining streak. She hasn’t suffered a defeat since November 2011.

Budd’s three consecutive Bellator title defenses are tied with Patricio Freire for second most among current champions behind Ilima-Lei Macfarlane (four).

Budd’s seven-fight Bellator winning streak is tied for the third-longest active streak in the company behind A.J. McKee (16) and Macfarlane (10).

Budd’s seven-fight Bellator winning streak in women’s featherweight competition is the longest active streak in the division.

Budd’s seven-fight Bellator winning streak is the second longest active streak among female fighters in the promotion behind Macfarlane (10).

Budd’s seven victories in Bellator women’s featherweight competition are most in divisional history.

Budd’s three stoppage victories in Bellator women’s featherweight competition are tied with Blencowe and Amanda Bell for most in divisional history.

Cyborg can become the first in history to win titles in Bellator, UFC, Invicta FC and Strikeforce.

Cyborg can become the second in history to win titles in Bellator and UFC. Eddie Alvarez also accomplished the feat in the men’s lightweight division.

Cyborg makes her Bellator debut following a seven-fight UFC stint where she went 6-1 and held the promotion’s women’s featherweight title.

Cyborg’s four victories in UFC women’s featherweight competition are most in divisional history.

Cyborg outlanded her seven UFC opponents 460-148 in significant strikes.

Cyborg has earned 17 of her 21 career victories by knockout. She’s finished 10 of those wins in Round 1.

Co-main event

[autotag]Darrion Caldwell[/autotag] (14-3 MMA, 11-2 BMMA) is 5-0 in Bellator featherweight competition. He’s 7-0 in the weight class during his career.

Caldwell’s five-fight Bellator winning streak in featherweight competition is tied for the second-longest active streak in the division behind McKee (16).

Caldwell has earned five submission victories in Bellator competition. The company record is seven, which is currently held by Goiti Yamauchi.

[autotag]Adam Borics[/autotag]’ (14-0 MMA, 5-0 BMMA) five-fight Bellator winning streak in featherweight competition is tied for the second-longest active streak in the division behind McKee (16).

Borics’ five-fight stoppage streak in Bellator competition is the longest among active fighters in the company.

Borics’ five stoppage victories in Bellator featherweight competition are tied for third most in divisional history behind McKee (11) and Patricio Freire (10).

Remaining main card

[autotag]Juan Archuleta[/autotag] (23-2 MMA, 5-1 BMMA) was a three-division champion under the King of the Cage banner, holding titles at lightweight, featherweight and bantamweight.

[autotag]Sergio Pettis[/autotag] (18-5 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) makes his Bellator debut following a 14-fight UFC stint where he went 9-5.

Pettis earned all nine of his UFC victories by decision.

Pettis is the only fighter in UFC history to earn his first nine wins with the promotion by decision.

[autotag]Raymond Daniels[/autotag] (1-1 MMA, 1-0 BMMA), 39, is the oldest of the 12 scheduled main-card fighters.

Daniels was successful in his return to MMA competition after nearly 11 years when he won at Bellator Europe 1 in May.

[autotag]Ava King[/autotag] (3-4 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) is on a three-fight winning streak after starting her career 0-4.

Preliminary card

[autotag]Aaron Pico[/autotag] (4-3 MMA, 4-3 BMMA) is 4-2 since he dropped to the featherweight division in September 2017.

Pico has suffered all three of his career losses by stoppage.

Bellator 238: Make your predictions for Julia Budd vs. Cris Cyborg

We want your predictions for Saturday’s Bellator 238 event in Inglewood, Calif.

Our staff picks feature includes the consensus picks from MMA Junkie readers. Simply cast your vote for each bout below, and we’ll use the official tallies that are registered by Thursday at noon ET (9 a.m. PT).

Those MMA Junkie reader consensus picks will be part of the Bellator 238 event staff predictions we release Friday ahead of the event. Bellator 238 takes place Saturday at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif. The main card streams on DAZN following prelims on MMA Junkie.

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Make your picks for all five main card fights inside.

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UFC in 2019: A ridiculously robust look at the stats, streaks, skids and record-setters

A full recap of 2019’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 2019’s most significant milestones from the events, the fights and individual performances.

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EVENTS

The UFC held 42 events in 39 different cities across 15 countries and five continents.

Within those events, there were 516 fights across 13 different weight classes (including catchweight bouts).

Those 516 fights combined for a total cage time of 94:59:04.

The longest event of the year was “UFC on ESPN+ 19: Joanna vs. Waterson” in Tampa, Fla., at 2:57:27. It was the second longest in company history behind “UFC Fight Night 121: Werdum vs. Tybura” (3:04:18).

The shortest event of the year was “UFC on ESPN 3: Ngannou vs. Dos Santos” in Minneapolis at 1:38:12.

“UFC on ESPN+ 13: de Randamie vs. Ladd” featured 62 seconds of total fight time in the main and co-main event, the single-event record in company history.

At those events, the UFC drew an announced total attendance of 548,023 for a live gate total of $61,050,133.74 (Note: Live gate was not announced for 11 events; no attendance was revealed for one event).

The highest reported attended event of the year was “UFC 243: Whittaker vs. Adesanya” in Melbourne (57,127), which was the all-time company record, while the lowest attended event was “UFC on ESPN+ 20: Maia vs. Askren” in Singapore (7,155).

The highest reported income gate of the year was “UFC 244: Masvidal vs. Diaz” in New York ($6,575,996.19) while the lowest reported income gate of the year went to “UFC on ESPN+ 4: Lewis vs. Dos Santos” in Wichita, Kan. ($636,417.26).

In 2019, 168 fight-night bonuses were given out for a sum of $8.4 million.

In 2019, athletes were paid $7,370,500 in Promotional Guidelines Compliance money.

The most knockouts at a single event went to “UFC on ESPN 3: Ngannou vs. Dos Santos,” “UFC 244: Masvidal vs. Diaz” and “UFC 245: Usman vs. Covington” with seven each.

“UFC 238: Cejudo vs. Moraes” featured a total of 1,818 significant strikes landed, a new single-event record. UFC 231 held the previous high with 1,647.

The most submissions at a single event went to “UFC on ESPN 5: Covington vs. Lawler” with five.

The most fights to go to a decision at a single event went to “UFC on ESPN 4: Dos Anjos vs. Edwards” with 10.

“UFC on ESPN 4: Dos Anjos vs. Edwards” featured nine consecutive decision results, tied for the single-event UFC record.

“UFC on ESPN 4: Dos Anjos vs. Edwards” started with nine consecutive decision results, the single-event record.

“UFC on ESPN 7: Overeem vs. Rozenstruik” marked the third event in company history to feature two draws. UFC 22 and UFC 216 were the others.

Betting favorites went 319-182. Fifteen fights ended in a draw, no contest or had even odds.

Betting favorites went 22-18 in event headliners. Two fights ended in a no contest or had even odds.

“UFC on ESPN 3: Ngannou vs. Dos Santos” and “UFC on ESPN+ 22: Blachowicz vs. Jacare” had the most favorites come through victorious, with 10 each. On the flip side, seven underdogs won at three separate events.

A total of 30 fighters officially missed weight for their respective contests. The 28 fighters in that group to compete went 10-17-1 in their respective bouts.

A total of 135 fighters made their UFC debut in 2019. Those fighters went 57-74-2 with two no contests. Debuting fighters who faced an opponent with at least one bout of UFC experience went 43-58-2 with two no contests.

A variety of circumstances caused a total of 19 UFC main event or co-main event fights to be adjusted, postponed or canceled entirely.

One entire event was canceled (UFC 233 in January in Anaheim, Calif.)

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Sergio Pettis gets opponent, main card slot for Bellator 238 debut

Sergio Pettis’ Bellator debut will come against a fellow promotional newcomer at Bellator 238 on Jan. 25.

[autotag]Sergio Pettis[/autotag]’ Bellator debut will take place next month.

After a 14-fight UFC stint, Pettis (18-5 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) switched promotions last month and is set to make his first appearance when he meets [autotag]Alfred Khashakyan[/autotag] (11-4 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) in a bantamweight bout at Bellator 238, which takes place Jan. 25 at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., and streams on DAZN following prelims on MMA Junkie.

MMA Junkie confirmed the matchup with multiple people close to the situation.

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Following a six-year tenure that spanned across the UFC’s bantamweight and flyweight divisions, Pettis closed out his contract with the organization with a unanimous decision win over Tyson Nam at UFC on ESPN+ 17 in September. Just weeks later, he signed with Bellator.

In his debut, Pettis will face a fellow newcomer of the Bellator roster. Khashakyan, who is a veteran of Dana White’s Contender Series, is coming off a streak of three consecutive first-round knockouts.

The latest Bellator 238 lineup now includes:

MAIN CARD (DAZN, 10 p.m. ET)

Julia Budd vs. Cris Cyborg
Adam Borics vs. Darrion Caldwell
Alfred Khashakyan vs. Sergio Pettis

PRELIMINARY CARD (MMA Junkie, 7 p.m. ET)

Aaron Pico vs. Daniel Carey
AJ Agazarm vs. Adel Altamimi
Mario Navarro vs. Jay Jay Wilson
Khonry Gracie vs. Hector Saldana
David Pacheco vs. Craig Plaskett
Brandon Bender vs. Gabriel Green
Dominic Clark vs. Ricardo Seixas Filho
Tyler Beneke vs. Jarrett Connor
Curtis Millender vs. Moses Murrietta

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Spinning Back Clique: What do we think of Greg Hardy now?

MMA Junkie’s John Morgan, Gorgeous George and Goze unpack the latest MMA news and notes in Episode 2 of “Spinning Back Clique.”

Welcome to “Spinning Back Clique,” MMA Junkie’s weekly show that takes a spin through the biggest topics in mixed martial arts. In this week’s episode, John Morgan, Gorgeous George and Goze touch on the biggest storylines from UFC on ESPN+ 21 and around the world of MMA.

Show rundown:

[autotag]Greg Hardy[/autotag] traveled all the way to Moscow on short notice for the biggest test of his early career and came away with a three-round unanimous decision loss to former Bellator heavyweight champion [autotag]Alexander Volkov[/autotag] at UFC on ESPN+ 21. What did this performance tell us about the controversial former NFL standout? Did it tell us anything significant about his MMA outlook moving forward?
[autotag]Zabit Magomedsharipov[/autotag] remained undefeated in the UFC at 6-0 with a three-round unanimous decision win over [autotag]Calvin Kattar[/autotag] in the UFC on ESPN+ 21 headliner. Afterward, Magomedsharipov called for a title shot. Was this the performance that sealed the deal? Or does Magomedsharipov need a more signature victory to stake his claim?
At first, [autotag]Nate Diaz[/autotag] said he wanted an immediate rematch with Jorge Masvidal. Then he was like, “peace out fight game.” Now he’s clarified he isn’t actually leaving the fight game, after all. What does all of this mean for Diaz’s future?
UFC light heavyweight champion [autotag]Jon Jones[/autotag] has made it clear that [autotag]Dominick Reyes[/autotag] is his next title defense of choice over Corey Anderson. Is that the right next move? What about heavyweight?
[autotag]Sergio Pettis[/autotag] is off to Bellator and has detailed the reasons why he left the UFC to jump ship. What do we make of this move and his outlook with Bellator?

For answers to all of those questions, watch Episode 2 of “Spinning Back Clique” in the video above.

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