Tag: UFC 267

UFC free fight: Islam Makhachev tears through Dan Hooker in Round 1

Ahead of his lightweight title fight against Charles Oliveira at UFC 280, relive Islam Makhachev’s finish of Dan Hooker at UFC 267.

[autotag]Islam Makhachev[/autotag] made quick work of perennial lightweight contender Dan Hooker.

In a pivotal fight of his career, Makhachev faced Hooker last October at UFC 267 at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.

It took Makhachev less than a minute to close the distance on Hooker, throwing an overhand right followed by a takedown. Makhachev dragged Hooker to his corner, where he received instructions from his team. Makhachev suffocated Hooker with his top pressure, eventually latching onto his arm and cinching in a kimura, which forced “The Hangman” to tap in Round 1.

Makhachev (22-1 MMA, 11-1 UFC) returns to action Oct. 22 when he takes on [autotag]Charles Oliveira[/autotag] (33-8 MMA, 21-8 UFC) for the vacant lightweight title in the UFC 280 main event at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.

Before he faces Oliveira, relive Makhachev’s finish of Hooker in the video above.

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Daniel Cormier wants Khamzat Chimaev to fight Gilbert Burns: ‘Time to give him one of the higher-ranked guys’

Daniel Cormier thinks Khamzat Chimaev should get a significant step up in competition after UFC 267.

[autotag]Daniel Cormier[/autotag] thinks [autotag]Khamzat Chimaev[/autotag] should get a significant step up in competition after UFC 267.

Chimaev (10-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC) ran through Li Jingliang for another dominant finish this past Saturday, and the unbeaten 27-year-old has been hit only once in four UFC fights.

After submitting Jingliang, Chimaev expressed interest in Nate Diaz and although UFC president Dana White is also on board, Cormier would rather see Chimaev go up against former title challenger [autotag]Gilbert Burns[/autotag].

“For Khamzat Chimaev? It’s time to give him one of the higher-ranked guys,” Cormier said on his ESPN show “DC & RC.” “And I think a guy that could be good for him is Gilbert Burns. Because Gilbert Burns has a well rounded skill set, he’s a great wrestler, he’s a great jiu-jitsu guy, his standup has improved, and he’s back. Right? So he lost the title fight to Kamaru (Usman) but then he beat Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson in his last fight and showed that he’s back on the winning track, so that makes sense for (Chimaev).”

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Burns won four straight en route to a title shot against UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman. Although he fell short when he was TKO’d in the second round, Burns was able to hurt Usman in the first. Burns then rebounded from his first loss at welterweight by defeating former title challenger Stephen Thompson at UFC 264 in a fight where his grappling was in full force.

Burns is as game as they come, and with Chimaev entering the UFC’s welterweight rankings at No. 10, he could be the perfect test for Chimaev to prove that he’s a championship-level fighter.

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USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings, Nov. 2: Glover Teixeira ascends to No. 1

Nearly 20 years after beginning his professional MMA career, Glover Teixeira is the world’s No. 1 light heavyweight.

Nearly 20 years after beginning his professional MMA career, [autotag]Glover Teixeira[/autotag] is the world’s No. 1 light heavyweight.

With a rather dominant submission win over former champ Jan Blachowicz in the main event of UFC 267, Teixeira claimed the UFC’s light heavyweight title, as well as the No. 1 slot in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie light heavyweight rankings.

Of course, Teixeira wasn’t the only athlete to make a move at a stacked UFC 267 event. Check out the new look across all divisions using the dropdown menu above.

MMA Junkie Radio #3205: UFC 267 recap, Vyacheslav Kiselev, UFC 268 preview, more

Monday’s edition of MMA Junkie Radio with hosts “Gorgeous” George and “Goze” is here.

Monday’s edition of MMA Junkie Radio with hosts “Gorgeous” George and “Goze” is here.

On Episode 3,205, the guys recap this past Saturday’s UFC 267 event in Abu Dhabi. They discuss Glover Teixeira’s upset of Jan Blachowicz to win the light heavyweight title and the fallout for Blachowicz; Vyacheslav Kiselev’s bad reffing; what’s next for Islam Makhachev and Khamzat Chimaev; and more. They also look ahead to this Saturday’s UFC 268 return to Madison Square Garden, including the big Michael Chandler vs. Justin Gaethje fight at lightweight.

Stream or download this and all episodes of MMA Junkie Radio over at OmnyStudio. You can also catch it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and more. A new episode of the podcast is released every Monday and Thursday.

Lerone Murphy excited by what a KO of Makwan Amirkhani can do for his career

Take a look inside Lerone Murphy’s knockout win over Makwan Amirkhani at UFC 267 in Abu Dhabi.

[autotag]Lerone Murphy[/autotag] beat Makwan Amirkhani with a second-round knockout Saturday on the preliminary card at UFC 267 in Abu Dhabi.

Take a look inside the fight with Murphy, who stayed unbeaten with a brutal knee knockout early in the second after struggling in the first.

Michael Bisping: Khamzat Chimaev’s UFC 267 performance must’ve gotten Kamaru Usman’s attention

Michael Bisping thinks Khamzat Chimaev put the entire welterweight division on notice after UFC 267 – including Kamaru Usman.

[autotag]Michael Bisping[/autotag] thinks [autotag]Khamzat Chimaev[/autotag] put the entire welterweight division on notice after UFC 267 – including champion [autotag]Kamaru Usman[/autotag].

Chimaev (10-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC) ran through Li Jingliang this past Saturday at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, choking him out in the first round for a “Performance of the Night” bonus.

The 27-year-old returned from layoff of more than a year due to lingering effects of COVID-19 and picked up right where he left off with another dominant performance, which left Bisping in awe.

“Khamzat Chimaev, for any doubts people had, this man’s the real deal,” Bisping said on his YouTube channel. “If you’re a welterweight, watch your back. If you’re Kamaru Usman, who’s the pound-for-pound champ right now, he’s paying attention. He saw that on Saturday night and was like, ‘OK, we could have an issue on our hands. We could have a contender. We could have someone who’s going to give me a real fight.'”

Usman (19-1 MMA, 14-0 UFC) puts his title on the line in a rematch against Colby Covington on Saturday at UFC 268, but Bisping has an inkling that “The Nigerian Nightmare” will be seeing Chimaev in the near future.

“Of course he’s got to beat Colby at the weekend, which I think he probably will. But anyway, the point I’m making is everybody is looking at Khamzat Chimaev,” Bisping said. “The guy is unreal. What a freak, and I mean that in a good way. To have the confidence to go forward and just grab (Jingliang) like that, throw him down – and this is what he’s done in every fight.

“Four fights, four finishes, four quick fights, only hit one time. He’s going to get to fight for the belt pretty soon. But I think he needs one more, and that would be a five-fight win streak and then he’ll fight for the belt.”

Although Chimaev called for Nate Diaz, Bisping likes the idea of the streaking contender and violent finisher Vicente Luque in a battle between two of the division’s hottest rising stars.

“Vicente Luque is out there,” Bisping said. “He needs a fight right now. He’s on a terrific streak of his own. Vicente Luque can get the job done everywhere: well-rounded skills, good jiu-jitsu, great striking, as well, and he trains with a bunch of killers down at Sanford MMA with Henri Hooft. So to me, that’s a great, logical matchup. For Vicente Luque, it gives him an opportunity to take out somebody that’s got all the hype, and then that would solidify the title fight for Vicente. And for Khamzat Chimaev, if he gets that done, then he fights for the belt.”

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Justin Gaethje rips Daniel Cormier for suggesting Islam Makhachev should get next title shot, Cormier responds

Justin Gaethje was not happy with how dismissive Daniel Cormier was of his fight with Michael Chandler.

[autotag]Justin Gaethje[/autotag] was not happy with how dismissive [autotag]Daniel Cormier[/autotag] was of his fight with Michael Chandler.

After [autotag]Islam Makhachev[/autotag] made quick work of Dan Hooker this past Saturday at UFC 267 with a first-round kimura, Cormier said Makhachev should be next in line for a title shot.

Saturday, former title challengers Gaethje and Chandler will tussle in a high-stakes matchup at UFC 268, which long has been expected to deliver the next No. 1 contender for a shot at the winner of champion Charles Oliveira and Dustin Poirier.

After Cormier raved about Makhachev’s performance, Gaethje had a rebuttal. Check out their back-and-forth below:

Aljamain Sterling: Petr Yan fought a ‘beautiful fight’ against Cory Sandhagen at UFC 267

Aljamain Sterling praised Petr Yan’s title-winning performance against Cory Sandhagen at UFC 267.

[autotag]Aljamain Sterling[/autotag] praised [autotag]Petr Yan[/autotag]’s title-winning performance against [autotag]Cory Sandhagen[/autotag] at UFC 267.

Yan (16-2 MMA, 8-1 UFC) defeated Sandhagen (14-4 MMA, 7-3 UFC) in an entertaining “Fight of the Night” battle to capture the interim bantamweight title this past Saturday in the co-main event at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.

Sandhagen got off to a good start, but the always composed Yan was able to make reads and take over the fight. He even dropped Sandhagen with a spinning back fist-to-left hand combination en route to a unanimous decision win.

Sterling (20-3 MMA, 12-3 UFC) may not like Yan, but he lauded him for his tactical approach against Sandhagen.

“He did a great job of walking him down,” Sterling said on his YouTube channel. “That defense is very, very tight, very technical. He does a good job of looking through the eyebrows – just touching, slight parries, so every time you throw a jab, he just catches it, catches it nice and clean where almost nothing gets by. When Cory started to do a good job of trying to step in with the elbows, I was like, ‘This is a little bit too late, but it’s a good idea.’ It’s a good thing for other people to see. Even myself.

“I was like, ‘Oh, that was pretty crafty of a switch-up,’ but it’s kind of late in the fight to try and go that route at this point where you don’t have much pop in your punches or much juice left in the gas tank after a hard, 20-minute fight and you still have the last five minutes to go. Sandhagen cuts him off, he attacks the body with clean body kicks. Cory trying to poker face it, played a little game of, ‘Oh that was nothing,’ showing the abs like, ‘Ah, I can eat that.’ But eventually, those wear you down.”

Yan’s win set him up for the highly anticipated rematch against UFC bantamweight champion Sterling – the original matchup booked before Sterling was not medically cleared to compete after neck surgery.

Immediately after the fight, Sterling texted matchmaker Sean Shelby suggesting the first quarter of 2022 for his rematch with Yan, and he’ll aim to leave no doubt after capturing the title by disqualification in their first meeting at UFC 259.

“Yan fought a beautiful fight,” Sterling said. “I got the surgery. I still need a little bit more time. I’m aiming for January, February. … I’ll be at MSG – obviously UFC 268 is this weekend. I’m going to be there. Hopefully we get to talk it out and put something solid together and really get on the same page so we can all get ready to unify this belt and give the fans the fight that they deserve – the two best guys in the weight class really going at it, at their best, not one guy coming in a shell of himself at like 50, 60 percent, gassing out after five minutes of combat. That’s not good. I want to give you guys the show that you deserve. Yan and Sandhagen delivered. That’s what I want do for you guys.”

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UFC 267: Benoit Saint-Denis’ manager irate with referee’s handling of eye poke in Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos loss

Benoit Saint-Denis’ manager is not happy with Vyacheslav Kiselev’s refereeing at UFC 267, but not for the same reasons as most.

[autotag]Benoit Saint-Denis[/autotag]’ manager is not happy with Vyacheslav Kiselev’s refereeing at UFC 267, but not for the same reasons as most.

Saint-Denis (8-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) dropped a lopsided unanimous decision to [autotag]Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos[/autotag] this past Saturday and took an incredible amount of damage.

The Frenchman was rocked by a dos Santos right hand in the second round and took an array of unanswered punches. While Saint-Denis showed plenty of heart by somehow staying on his feet, commentators Daniel Cormier and Paul Felder were losing their minds at how Kiselev didn’t stop the fight.

But the punishment didn’t stop there. Less than a minute into the third round, Saint-Denis was poked in the eye and Kiselev only gave him 45 seconds to recover, despite Saint-Denis claiming he couldn’t see.

And that’s what his manager, Guillaume Peltier, was more upset about than anything else.

“To tell the truth, whether or not to stop the fight (in the second round) is not really what gives me a bitter taste,” Peltier told MMA Junkie. “Where I am angry is the finger in the eye. We know the rules. We know that if the fighter can no longer see, the doctor must intervene. Benoit has said several times that he can no longer see. We also in the area shouted it and yet the referee made him go back to the fight while Benoit tells him that he can’t see. This is unacceptable and played an important role in the third round. Regardless, we are proud of Benoit. We know our axis of work.”

Peltier admitted Saint-Denis’ corner could have stopped the fight at the end of Round 2, but knowing his fighter, he knew he could keep fighting until the end.

“It’s a complicated subject because on one hand, I would like to say that (Kiselev) should have stopped the fight in the second round,” Peltier said. “But on the other hand, the fight proves the opposite. If the fight was finished by TKO in Round 3, we too could have stopped the fight before. But we know Benoit and we know his ability to go through hell and come back, and that’s what he did – he came back in the third round.”

Kiselev, who was scheduled to referee the main card opener between Magomed Ankalaev and Volkan Oezdemir, was pulled from his assignment after what happened in the dos Santos vs. Saint-Denis bout.

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Mick Maynard’s Shoes: What’s next for champs Glover Teixeira, Petr Yan after UFC 267?

See whom 205-pound champ Glover Teixeira and interim 135-pound champ Petr Yan should fight next after their wins at UFC 267.

(ALSO SEE: Mick Maynard’s Shoes: What’s next for Jan Blachowicz, Cory Sandhagen after UFC 267 losses?)

UFC 267 was a night that won’t soon be forgotten, largely because of what happened in the two championship fights that closed the card at Etihad Arena on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi.

In the main event, [autotag]Glover Teixeira[/autotag] (33-7 MMA, 16-5 UFC) became the oldest first-time champion in UFC history when he completely dismantled Jan Blachowicz (28-9 MMA, 11-6 UFC) en route to a second-round submission that gave him the light heavyweight title.

The co-headliner saw [autotag]Petr Yan[/autotag] (16-2 MMA, 8-1 UFC) take one step closer to becoming undisputed bantamweight champion for a second time when he outgunned Cory Sandhagen (14-4 MMA, 7-3 UFC) by unanimous decision in a five-round classic to pick up the interim belt.

What should come next for both men? There are pretty clear-cut paths forward for both Teixeira and Yan. For more insight, watch the video above for thoughts and analysis on both UFC 267 title-fight winners.

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