Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Amanda Ribas is prepared to bounce between strawweight and flyweight after her win over Viviane Araujo at UFC 285 in Las Vegas.
LAS VEGAS – [autotag]Amanda Ribas[/autotag] beat Viviane Araujo with a unanimous decision Saturday on the preliminary card at UFC 285 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Take a look inside the fight with Ribas, who got back in the win column, but has alternated losses and wins for five fights.
See how the UFC stars sitting cageside reacted to Alexa Grasso’s stunning finish of Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 285.
[autotag]Alexa Grasso[/autotag] left many people speechless with her showing against all-time great Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 285.
The Mexican fighter ended Shevchenko’s historic title run on Saturday night in the co-main event in Las Vegas. Shevchenko (23-4 MMA, 12-3 UFC), who was attempting to further her record for the most consecutive title defenses in women’s UFC history, was submitted by Grasso (16-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC) with a rear-naked choke in the fourth round.
Like many watching from home, numerous UFC stars, including [autotag]Islam Makhachev[/autotag], [autotag]Brandon Moreno[/autotag], [autotag]Mackenzie Dern[/autotag], and others sitting cageside, were completely shocked.
Below you can watch their real-time reactions to Grasso’s championship win.
The Octagon-side reactions to @AlexaGrasso's MASSIVE title victory! #UFC285 pic.twitter.com/opzHyeQadn
— UFC (@ufc) March 5, 2023
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Grasso remains unbeaten since moving up to 125 pounds. She left strawweight and switched to flyweight in 2020 and racked up four consecutive wins before getting the title opportunity. En route to the belt, she defeated Ji Yeon Kim, Maycee Barber, Joanne Wood, and Viviane Araujo.
Grasso is now the first Mexico-born woman to win a UFC title.
For Shevchenko, the loss halted a historic championship run as she had seven consecutive title defenses. This was also her first loss at flyweight since she dropped from bantamweight in 2018.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 285.
For a brief moment, there may have been a chance Jon Jones didn’t step foot in the octagon at UFC 285.
LAS VEGAS – [autotag]Jon Jones[/autotag] almost wasn’t going to enter the octagon at UFC 285.
As Jones was about to walk up the steps to enter the cage for his vacant heavyweight title fight against Ciryl Gane this past Saturday at T-Mobile Arena, a Nevada Athletic Commission official stopped him for having too much tape on his foot. His cornerman proceeded to partially cut off the tape, only leaving some of it to protect his toe.
The moment was a brief scare for Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC), who said it could have been much worse if the commission forced him to remove the tape entirely.
“I used a different tape,” Jones told MMA Junkie and other reporters at the UFC 285 post-fight news conference. “I usually use a certain brand of tape. I’ll give them a shoutout, War Tape. I feel like it’s just a lot stickier. I used the UFC’s tape tonight and as soon as my body started to sweat, the tape was sliding all over the place.
“So I made almost like a little cast around my toe that linked down to the middle of my foot so that the tape wouldn’t slide off my toes. And when I got out there, the commission was like, ‘You can’t tape your feet.’ And I’m like, ‘Dude, I’ve always taped my feet.'”
The abrupt moment just seconds before his fight didn’t seem to affect Jones, who steamrolled Gane by first-round submission to claim the vacant heavyweight belt. After the fight, Jones told ESPN that he broke his toe when he fought Chael Sonnen in 2013 and has been taping his toe in practice ever since.
Jones made it clear that he won’t compete if he can’t wrap his toe.
“I’m not going to compete if I can’t tape my toes,” Jones said. “I just won’t do it. I want everyone to know that in the future, so thank God we didn’t have a disaster out there tonight.”
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 285.
This week’s “Spinning Back Clique” live stream reacts to UFC 285, where Jon Jones and Alexa Grasso claimed titles to shake up the sport..
Check out this week’s “Spinning Back Clique,” MMA Junkie’s weekly live show that takes a spin through the biggest topics in mixed martial arts. This week’s panel of Brian “Goze” Garcia, Farah Hannoun and Dan Tom will join host “Gorgeous” George Garcia live at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) to discuss and debate:
“Spinning Back Clique” is released each Monday LIVE on MMA Junkie’s YouTube channel. You can watch this week’s episode in the video above.
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Ian Garry had to work through a knockdown from Song Kenan in the first round, but the 9-1 favorite rallied for a late stoppage win.
LAS VEGAS – [autotag]Ian Garry[/autotag] beat Song Kenan with a third-round TKO Saturday on the preliminary card at UFC 285 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Take a look inside the fight with Garry, who found himself in trouble in the first round, but rallied for the late win as a favorite of 9-1.
Daniel Cormier doesn’t expect Jon Jones to have as easy of a time with Stipe Miocic as he did Ciryl Gane.
[autotag]Daniel Cormier[/autotag] doesn’t expect [autotag]Jon Jones[/autotag] to have as easy of a time with [autotag]Stipe Miocic[/autotag] as he did [autotag]Ciryl Gane[/autotag].
Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC) ran through Gane to claim the vacant heavyweight title in this past Saturday’s UFC 285 headliner at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Jones was able to push Gane against the cage and choke him out in 2 minutes.
UFC president Dana White said former champ Miocic (20-4 MMA, 14-4 UFC) is next up for the title, and Cormier believes Miocic’s NCAA Division I wrestling background should pose problems for Jones.
“This will be a much tougher fight,” Cormier told ESPN. “And honestly, most thought that it should be Stipe Miocic in the octagon tonight. But Ciryl Gane was the one that was chosen to fight. Many thought he could present some real challenges to Jon Jones.
“But it was proven very quickly that they weren’t on the same level. Stipe Miocic, though, will be much tougher for Jon Jones. Because not only does he have the wrestling to defend takedowns, he also is a champion himself with a lot of championship experience.”
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Miocic was last seen in action two years ago at UFC 260 when he lost his heavyweight title in a knockout loss to Francis Ngannou. Miocic is considered by many as the greatest heavyweight of all time after notching three consecutive title defenses, the most in the division’s history.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 285
Dana White reflects on Jon Jones’ title win at Saturday’s UFC 285 and what’s next for his career.
LAS VEGAS – [autotag]Dana White[/autotag] can’t praise [autotag]Jon Jones[/autotag] enough.
The UFC president was impressed by Jones’ title win in his long-awaited return in the main event of Saturday’s UFC 285 at T-Mobile Arena. Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC) submitted [autotag] Ciryl Gane[/autotag] (11-2 MMA, 8-2 UFC) in the first round of their contest for the vacant heavyweight title.
White expected it to be a competitive fight, but it was far from it.
“There were a couple of interviews leading up to this fight where he said, ‘I’m going to make this look easy,’ and I thought that was a silly thing to say,” White told reporters at the UFC 285 post-fight press conference. “The guy is unbelievable. He really is.”
Jones hadn’t competed in more than three years, which makes his title win even more impressive. White thinks Jones is the greatest of all time, and he’s glad “Bones” committed to a return to the octagon.
“There’s no doubt that Jon is special,” White said. “He’s the greatest of all time. He’s undefeated. He’s never lost a fight in the UFC ever. He’s fought all the best competition out there, but dealing with him is like dealing with an artist. That’s the best way to explain it. I don’t know what’s going to happen from here on out. I’m just happy we got to see what we saw tonight.
“Many of us that have been in the game for a long time. Some of you might agree, some disagree. I’m a big believer in ring rust, and we didn’t even get to see any ring rust. Who knows if there’s any ring rust. He just literally went in there and made it look like nothing, like it was the easiest thing in the world to do. He’s a total freak of nature. He’s the best ever.”
As far as what’s next, Jones expressed his interest in fighting former champion [autotag]Stipe Miocic[/autotag] in July, and Miocic also shared the same sentiment. White is unsure if summer will host that heavyweight matchup, but he say that’s certainly happening next.
“I don’t know when, but he’s definitely fighting Stipe.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 285
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Former UFC champion Cody Garbrandt reveals he suffered a neck injury that almost delayed his return at Saturday’s UFC 285.
LAS VEGAS – [autotag]Cody Garbrandt[/autotag] entered UFC 285 compromised, he said.
The former UFC bantamweight champion revealed following his win over Trevin Jones that he suffered a neck injury that almost prevented him from making his long-awaited return to the octagon. Garbrandt (13-5 MMA, 8-5 UFC) defeated Jones (13-10 MMA, 1-4 UFC) by unanimous decision to close out the preliminary card Saturday and said he did so under difficult circumstances.
“I had a lot of things going on in the last 16 months. Even just prior to last week and this morning, there were so many things that were just trying to block and not let me get to the octagon,” Garbrandt told reporters at the UFC 285 post-fight press conference. “I ended up injuring my neck and had to have a nerve block put in my neck last week.
“My last takedown in my warmup this morning, I ended up slamming on my neck and ended up losing all full range of motion on my left arm. I was like, ‘You know, there’s never going to be an ideal situation, just like in life. There’s never going to be an ideal situation.’ I was just excited and believed in myself.”
Garbrandt said that the neck injury not only affected his training camp and his warmup the day of the fight, but it also bothered him during the fight itself. The 31-year-old had to battle plenty of adversity.
“In one of the takedowns I got, I ended up, for about two minutes of the round, I kept looking at the clock because I had a really bad stinger,” Garbrandt said. “He almost got me in a guillotine and fought out of it and the arm was completely dead.
“Like I said, there’s never an ideal situation. You have another trained killer trying to take your head off to get his money, and who knows what he’s facing, what he’s got going on in his life. I’m just forever grateful that we didn’t come out with any serious injuries.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 285.
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Check out these photos of Oscar-nominated actor Jake Gyllenhaal at UFC 285, where he shot a fight scene for the “Road House” movie reboot.
Check out these photos of Oscar-nominated actor Jake Gyllenhaal at UFC 285, where he shot a fight scene for the “Road House” movie reboot alongside former UFC fighter Jay Hieron. (Photos by The Associated Press)
Ciryl Gane now is 0-2 in undisputed UFC title fights after a blowout loss to Jon Jones at UFC 285. What’s next for him?
(ALSO SEE: Mick Maynard’s Shoes: What’s next for Jon Jones after UFC 285 win?)
[autotag]Ciryl Gane[/autotag] failed to provide the stern test to Jon Jones’ heavyweight debut that many thought would happen Saturday when he suffered a one-sided loss in the UFC 285 main event.
Gane (12-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) drew the assignment of welcoming Jones (26-2 MMA, 20-2 UFC) to a new division at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, and though he had plenty of support on his side to win going into the event, the reality played out much differently. He was overwhelmed en route to a first-round submission loss.
Now 0-2 in undisputed UFC title fights against Jones and former champ Francis Ngannou, there are questions about whether Gane ever can get his hands on UFC gold. If he wants to do it, there’s much work to do.
How should Gane proceed? Watch the video above for thoughts and analysis on his future after UFC 285.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 285.
