Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Tagir Ulanbekov won for the fourth time in five fights and second straight time by submission at UFC 296.
LAS VEGAS – [autotag]Tagir Ulanbekov[/autotag] beat Cody Durden with a second-round submission Saturday on the preliminary card at UFC 296 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Take a look inside the fight with Ulanbekov, who won for the fourth time in five fights and second straight time by submission.
The best facts to come out of UFC 296, which saw Colby Covington and Tony Ferguson join exclusive and unfortunate clubs in defeat.
The UFC’s final event of the 2023 started with a bang, but ended somewhat slow as UFC 296 unfolded at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The two championship fights to close out the calendar year saw both belts stay put. [autotag]Leon Edwards[/autotag] (21-3 MMA, 13-2 UFC) defeated [autotag]Colby Covington[/autotag] (17-4 MMA, 12-4 UFC) by unanimous decision to defend welterweight gold in the headliner, while [autotag]Alexandre Pantoja[/autotag] (27-5 MMA, 11-3 UFC) also got the nod on the scorecards over [autotag]Brandon Royval[/autotag] (15-7 MMA, 5-3 UFC) to retain flyweight gold.
For more on the numbers behind the card, check below for MMA Junkie’s post-event facts from UFC 296.
Fighters from Saturday’s UFC 296 took home UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay totaling $339,500.
LAS VEGAS – Fighters from Saturday’s UFC 296 event took home UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay totaling $339,500.
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 296 took place at T-Mobile Arena. The main card aired on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN2 and ESPN+.
The full UFC 296 UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance payouts included:
* * * *
[autotag]Leon Edwards[/autotag]: $42,000
def. [autotag]Colby Covington[/autotag]: $32,000
[autotag]Alexandre Pantoja[/autotag]: $42,000
def. [autotag]Brandon Royval[/autotag]: $32,000
[autotag]Shavkat Rakhmonov[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]Stephen Thompson[/autotag]: $16,000
[autotag]Paddy Pimblett[/autotag]: $4,500
def. [autotag]Tony Ferguson[/autotag]: $21,000
[autotag]Josh Emmett[/autotag]: $11,000
def. [autotag]Bryce Mitchell[/autotag]: $6,000
[autotag]Alonzo Menifield[/autotag]: $11,000
def. [autotag]Dustin Jacoby[/autotag]: $11,000
[autotag]Irene Aldana[/autotag]: $11,000
def. [autotag]Karol Rosa[/autotag]: $6,000
[autotag]Cody Garbrandt[/autotag]: $11,000
def. [autotag]Brian Kelleher[/autotag]: $16,000
[autotag]Ariane Lipski[/autotag]: $11,000
def. [autotag]Casey O’Neill[/autotag]: $6,000
[autotag]Tagir Ulanbekov[/autotag]: $4,500
def. [autotag]Cody Durden[/autotag]: $6,000
[autotag]Andre Fili[/autotag]: $21,000
def. [autotag]Lucas Almeida[/autotag]: $4,000
[autotag]Shamil Gaziev[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Martin Buday[/autotag]: $4,500
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: $8,188,000
2022 total: $8,351,500
2021 total: $6,167,500
Program-to-date total: $22,707,000
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 296.
Check out what the UFC 296 winners and guest fighters had to say backstage at Saturday’s event in Las Vegas.
LAS VEGAS – UFC 296 took place Saturday with 12 bouts on the lineup. We’ve got you covered with backstage winner interviews from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
You can hear from all the UFC 296 winners by checking out their post-fight news conferences below.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 296.
Tagir Ulanbekov tried, tried, and tried again – until he finally tapped out Cody Durden at UFC 296.
LAS VEGAS – [autotag]Tagir Ulanbekov[/autotag] tried, tried, and tried again – until he finally tapped out [autotag]Cody Durden[/autotag].
At UFC 296, Ulanbekov (14-2 MMA, 3-1 UFC) put forth a relentless performance against Durden (16-4-1 MMA, 5-2-1 UFC), who he submitted with a rear-naked choke at 4:25 of Round 2. The flyweight bout took place at T-Mobile Arena as part of the event’s prelims.
The bout was full of scrambles, submission attempts, and near-sunk-in chokes. While Durden shut down many of Ulanbekov’s attempts, he didn’t shut down them all – and that’s what mattered.
After a lengthy along-the-fence battle with Ulanbekov on his back, Durden was dragged to the canvas during a rear-naked choke attempt. The tap came seconds later.
DOMINANT from start to finish 🤫
Tagir Ulanbekov gets the tap in R2 over Cody Durden! #UFC296 pic.twitter.com/TgHXVJCLsj
— UFC (@ufc) December 17, 2023
With the win, Ulanbekov, an Islam Makhachev training partner, has now won back-to-back fights. His only career loss was a unanimous decision dropped to Tim Elliott in March 2022.
With the loss, Durden has a four-fight winning streak snapped. The stretch of success turned his career around after a 1-2-1 start to his promotional tenure.
Up-to-the-minute UFC 296 results include:
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 296.
Check out the best photos from Tagir Ulanbekov’s second-round submission win over Cody Durden at UFC 296 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Check out the best photos from [autotag]Tagir Ulanbekov[/autotag]’s second-round submission win over [autotag]Cody Durden[/autotag] at UFC 296 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. (Photos by Stephen R. Sylvanie, Getty Images)
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. 18-24.
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 10-16.
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 May 22-28.
For Tagir Ulanbekov, iron sharpened iron while he trained with Umar Nurmagomedov ahead of UFC Fight Night 214.
LAS VEGAS – [autotag]Tagir Ulanbekov[/autotag] believes things went smoothly against Nate Maness thanks to his preparation with [autotag]Umar Nurmagomedov[/autotag].
The UFC flyweight says Nurmagomedov played a crucial role in getting him ready for Saturday’s bout at UFC Fight Night 214. And it’s not only because Nurmagomedov is a quality fighter but also because Nurmagomedov himself had fought Maness in his most recent outing.
“Umar and I have been training together for about 10 years at this point,” Ulanbekov told reporters afterward. “When we get together in the cage for practices, we spar really, really hard, and we go way harder than what you saw today. So what he did was he helped me with my game plan. He fought this guy before, so he kind of told me what’s going to work against him and what’s not. If it wasn’t for him, it be much harder to prepare.”
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With the win, Ulanbekov was able to bounce back from his defeat to Tim Elliott back at UFC 272 in March. He’s 3-1 since joining the promotion in 2020.
You can watch Ulanbekov’s full post-fight interview in the video above.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 214.
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