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At the bottom of the post, let us know if we got it right by voting on your choice.
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At the bottom of the post, let us know if we got it right by voting for your choice.
Sean Strickland doesn’t think too highly of former UFC middleweight champ Robert Whittaker.
[autotag]Sean Strickland[/autotag] doesn’t think too highly of former UFC middleweight champion [autotag]Robert Whittaker[/autotag].
Whittaker (25-7 MMA, 15-5 UFC) suffered a second-round TKO loss to Dricus Du Plessis (20-2 MMA, 6-0 UFC) earlier this month at UFC 290, where he claimed that he didn’t show up.
Strickland (27-5 MMA, 14-5 UFC), who could be closing in on a title shot soon, was not impressed with Whittaker’s performance.
“Whittaker kind of looked like sh*t, man,” Strickland told Helen Yee. “I think it’s kind of weird. I think everybody thought Whittaker kind of looked like sh*t. Maybe Dricus is that awkward that he made him look like sh*t. But like, Whittaker’s just this one-trick pony. Whittaker can fight, but he is a one-trick f*cking pony. The moment that f*cking trick doesn’t land, and now it comes down to fighting in the pocket – when it comes to doing anything else besides a karate blitz, he doesn’t really have it.
“He did some sh*tty shot. I think Whittaker, whenever that karate blitz wasn’t landing, he started having those f*cking wheels start spinning, like, ‘Oh man, the thing that I do to everybody is not working. What do I do now? I guess we wrestle.’ And that didn’t work. It’s like, ‘What do we do now?’ When you’re a one-trick pony and that one trick works a lot, it’s f*cking great. But when it doesn’t work, it’s time to f*cking do the man dance.”
With champ Israel Adesanya insinuating that No. 1 contender Du Plessis can’t make UFC 293 on Sept. 9 in Sydney, “The Last Stylebender” called for Strickland to face him, but Strickland wants an increase in pay before jumping into the title opportunity.
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 290.
South Africa’s Dricus Du Plessis is not interested in the racial narrative being built up between him and UFC champion Israel Adesanya.
[autotag]Dricus Du Plessis[/autotag] is not interested in the racial narrative that’s being built up between him and [autotag]Israel Adesanya[/autotag].
UFC middleweight champion Adesanya (24-2 MMA, 13-2 UFC) was not pleased with Du Plessis’ comments on wanting to be the first real African champion – where he argued that Africa-born Adesanya, Francis Ngannou, and Kamaru Usman all won titles training outside of Africa.
Those comments made things personal for Adesanya, who was praying Du Plessis beats Robert Whittaker at UFC 290 – and that’s exactly what Du Plessis did. Adesanya took the opportunity to step into the octagon after the fight, lobbing multiple racial slurs towards Du Plessis (20-2 MMA, 6-0 UFC), who eventually just walked away from the face-off.
“Going with racial slurs which does not belong in sports,” Du Plessis said on Cameron Saaiman’s YouTube channel. “It doesn’t belong in the world, in my opinion. I do not want that a part of anything that I’m doing. This sport is so amazing, and it’s given so many people so much things.
“And bringing race, color, with racial slurs, all of that stuff into it, immediately made me like, ‘I don’t want to be a part of this.’ And that’s why I just walked away. I’m not going to engage in that because that is not the example I want to set for people. That is not what my message to anybody in the world is.”
Adesanya released a video slamming Du Plessis for allegedly not being ready for UFC 293 on Sept. 9 in Sydney, calling for Sean Strickland instead. While Du Plessis never said he’s definitely out of the fight, he did say he wants to sit back and smell the roses for at least a bit of time before thinking about what’s next.
“I’m definitely going to have to go on a little holiday,” Du Plessis said. “I’ve been active… You need to celebrate these moments. That was one thing that I thought when I landed on home soil again, everybody starts talking about, ‘OK, what’s next? Adesanya?’ And I’m like, ‘Whoa, I just beat Robert Whittaker. One of the greatest fighters ever, and one of my heroes. I’m not going to be talking even about the other fight right now.’ I want to – just for this week, give me to just celebrate this.”
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 290.
UFC champions Israel Adesanya and Jon Jones squashed their beef after they ran into each other in Las Vegas.
[autotag]Israel Adesanya[/autotag] and [autotag]Jon Jones[/autotag] apparently squashed their beef after they ran into each other in Las Vegas.
During UFC 290 fight week, Adesanya encountered Jones at the hotel bar and the two champions chopped it up. Videos emerged of them lightly sparring which warmed some fans’ hearts.
For years, middleweight champion Adesanya and heavyweight champ Jones traded barbs, and even angled for a fight. However, “The Last Stylebender” said their pure chance run-in officially has ended any rivalry they had.
“I said it’s no one’s business,” Adesanya said on his YouTube channel. “Like, when I posted about it, I was like, it’s between me and him. That’s it. But it definitely wasn’t a fake encounter. I think it was divine intervention. I honestly do because I feel like there are so many timelines that could have ended up just differently.”
Jones and Adesanya’s back-and-forth happened during Jones’ light heavyweight title reign. Adesanya even attempted to move up a weight class during Jones’ time off, but failed to capture the 205-pound title against then champion Jan Blachowicz in a decision loss at UFC 259.
“We have understanding, common ground, and we’re competitors – that’s it,” Adesanya said. “We’re competitors. But why should I hate my brother, if that makes sense?”
Not only did Adesanya and Jones have a conversation, but the pair plan on training together soon.
“Already – it’s in the works. It’ll happen,” Adesanya said.
Adesanya is gearing for the first title defense of his new reign against Dricus Du Plessis, which will potentially take place at UFC 293 on Sept. 9 in Sydney. Meanwhile, newly crowned heavyweight champion Jones will meet Stipe Miocic in the UFC 295 headliner on Nov. 11 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
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A lot of things had to fall in line perfectly for Josiah Harrell to avoid a potentially life-threatening medical event.
Some people might feel bad for [autotag]Josiah Harrell[/autotag]. But 10 days removed from a life-changing diagnosis, Harrell considers himself nothing but lucky.
“If I took another path in however many lives I have, if I took a different path, they were finding this when I’m 40 and it’s already too late and I’ve seized up,” Harrell recently told MMA Junkie. “It’s very, very weird.”
On July 7 following UFC 290 weigh-ins, Harrell, through pre-fight medical testing, was diagnosed with a rare brain disease called moyamoya, which resulted in a canceled debut fight vs. Jack Della Maddalena.
It’s been a rollercoaster week-and-a-half for Harrell, but the craziness even stretches back further than that. That’s why circumstances some may perceive as terrible luck, Harrell views as hitting the lottery.
“If LFA doesn’t call me and I don’t go through the cage, I don’t get most of the eyes I had, because I know that went viral,” Harrell said. “Maybe the UFC had seen me before, but that moment going viral through the cage, that is probably where it all started where they go, ‘Well, it’s about his time.’ Even though I’m 6-0 or 7-0 or whatever with seven finishes, that puts it on. They started talking. For me to have to go through the cage perfectly because that cage was locked. They check it. It just happened to be a fluke, me going through the cage. If that doesn’t happen, which who knows, that’s one in a million again? Then, going onto this, Brady has to pull out because of injury.”
“… It’s insane to look back on life and go, ‘How else would they have found this?’ Let’s say I took a football career. OK, maybe I get an MRI, but do I need one? Let’s say I go back to school and stay and study. They’re not finding that sucker until I go to the hospital.”
Harrell, 24, had never had an MRI prior to his onboarding process with the UFC. He accepted the UFC 290 matchup on six days’ notice and went through a whirlwind of media responsibilities and onboarding processes. Required to do a second brain scan unexpectedly, Harrell started to realize something might be up.
“They told me I might need to get a new MRI or something, (because) something came up blurry,” Harrell said. “In my head, I’m like, ‘Hell no.’ I was in the MRI and they’re scanning me, and I didn’t even fart. I didn’t move an inch. I’m like, ‘There’s no way this scan was blurry.’ The first thing that came into my mind was that I have something wrong with my head. I went worst case scenario immediately, ‘I probably have cancer.'”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cucqrv9OT3n/
Cancer was not present, but the scans showed moyamoya, a tightening of the vessels on one side of his brain. Had he continued through intense training in pursuit of MMA fighting notoriety without treatment, the end result could’ve been fatal.
“I don’t have health insurance,” Harrell said. “There would’ve been no reason for me to go to the hospital. This is one of the only paths I could’ve taken where they find this this early. If I took another path in however many lives I have, if I took a different path, they were finding this when I’m 40 and it’s already too late and I’ve seized up. It’s very, very weird.”
When news of Harrell’s medical diagnosis went public, thousands of messages of well wishes flooded in. Fans, fighters, and media members tried to empathize and sympathize with Harrell. But pity is not his way. He’s leaned on positivity and humor instead.
“Everything is a joke to me,” Harrell said. “That’s how I deal with trauma, anyway. I was just cracking jokes like, ‘I knew there was something wrong with me.’ I was just doing whatever I can, like, ‘Is that it?’ As soon as I was done making the jokes, I was like, ‘It’s treatable. Cool.’ In my head, the little kid in me was like, ‘No, you want this now. You just spent all this time and cut weight. You want this now.’ Then I was thinking about it like, ‘OK, you’ve just got to be patient. Just be patient. The doctors are going to figure this out.”
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Despite moyamoya’s rareness, Harrell isn’t the first fighter in UFC history to receive the diagnosis. In 2019, Vince Murdock had a near-identical issue. After surgery, Murdock returned to fighting. Harrell plans to connect with Murdock in the coming weeks as he awaits word from Stanford Medical as to when a surgery of his own can take place.
As level-headed as Harrell is in the face of major adversity, there is a side of this experience that turns down the dials of humor and positivity. The financial burden of such a procedure will likely be hefty, Harrell admitted.
“I hate asking for help, so I won’t do that,” Harrell said. “I don’t know. We’ll have to figure that out. If anything is going to cause me stress, it’s going to be that. We’ll figure it out. I always have, so there’s no need to think I’m not going to now. If the UFC helps out, God bless them. If I have to figure this out, then I will. We haven’t had anything together as far as a GoFundMe. … I probably should get some sort of fundraiser together. Otherwise, I’m going to be sh*tting bricks for a while.”
As of right now, Harrell is still on the UFC roster. USADA showed up to test his urine Friday, which Harrell found to be a good sign. Whether the UFC releases him or keeps him around, Harrell vows to make the walk to the cage eventually, as he looks at at least a 14-month delay for surgery and recovery.
His dreams and aspirations haven’t changed. Greatness is not usually achieved without adversity, and Harrell is fired up to make his story the most incredible and inspirational one possible.
“I may have to starting getting some sort of journal together and start writing things down,” Harrell said. “We’ve got to make a story out of this – especially when I’m at the top with the UFC belt around my waist, 155, maybe 170, or who knows, maybe they’ll bring in the cruiserweight class, 165, and I’ll have three belts around me.”
Check out the full interview with Harrell below:
Israel Adesanya already envisioned confronting Dricus Du Plessis after UFC 290, but admits his emotions were high in the moment.
[autotag]Israel Adesanya[/autotag] already envisioned confronting [autotag]Dricus Du Plessis[/autotag] after UFC 290, but admits his emotions were high in the moment.
Du Plessis (20-2 MMA, 6-0 UFC) upset former champion Robert Whittaker with a second-round TKO at UFC 290, setting him up for a title fight against middleweight champion Adesanya.
Adesanya (24-2 MMA, 13-2 UFC), who was in attendance, stepped into the octagon to face off with Du Plessis. He threw racial slurs at the South African fighter, which led to plenty of criticism.
“He worked hard,” Adesanya said on his YouTube channel. “I manifest for myself and I make sure I do the work to get that manifestation right. It’s not just sit there and ‘Kumbaya.’ What’s going to happen? I do the work. Trust me: There’s levels … Even at the prep point, I was giving him energy. Like f*ck yeah – positive affirmations, like ‘Let’s go.’ But yeah, when (the faceoff) happened, I just lost my sh*t.”
Adesanya’s intensity stems from Du Plessis’ comments on how winning a UFC title would make him a true African champion since he still trains and resides in Africa.
It’s not the first time Adesanya has taken matters personally in a fight. After he regained the title from Alex Pereira by knockout at UFC 287, Adesanya taunted Pereira’s son, who mocked him years ago when he was knocked out by Pereira in kickboxing.
But the finish, overcoming adversity and his post-fight speech had plenty of people admiring him. He may not be receiving love with how he’s handling the Du Plessis situation, but Adesanya says at least he’s capturing everyone’s attention.
“After my last fight (against Pereira), I grabbed the mic. People say it’s the best post-fight speech in history of the company, ever,” Adesanya said. “I grabbed the mic after his (Du Plessis) fight and people feel like, ‘Ah, it’s cringe.’ Bad look. This and that. Either way, I make you feel something.
“When I grab the mic and I really speak from the heart, or speak from my gut, I really make you feel something. Whether you love me or hate me, you will feel something. I’m not trying. I wasn’t. I just make sh*t happen because that’s how I feel, and I want to make it happen. I want to make him feel me. He doesn’t understand. … People say I turned heel. It’s not heel. I can just feel myself switch and the beast comes out.”
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 290.
Henry Cejudo isn’t sure Alexandre Pantoja can remain UFC flyweight champion for long.
[autotag]Henry Cejudo[/autotag] isn’t sure [autotag]Alexandre Pantoja[/autotag] can remain UFC flyweight champion for long with his fighting style.
Pantoja (25-5 MMA, 9-3 UFC) outlasted Brandon Moreno (21-6-2 MMA, 9-3-2 UFC) in a five-round war to claim the 125-pound title in this past Saturday’s UFC 290 co-headliner at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Cejudo praised Pantoja for fighting with a lot of heart but questions his strategy.
“What scares me with Pantoja a bit is his style of fighting,” Cejudo said on his YouTube channel. “Pantoja’s style of fighting, man, it’s – will a guy like that be able to last and be able to have six to seven to eight title defenses? Or is it short-lived? Can Pantoja become a little more technical defensively? Can he do a really good job of that?”
Cejudo pointed to Pantoja’s aggression costing him against former champion Deiveson Figueiredo, who was able to land big shots in a Fight of the Night decision win in 2019.
“I go back, and I watch that fight with Brandon, and it’s the same thing in the first and second fight that they’ve had,” Cejudo continued. “He takes a lot of hits. He got hit by Brandon quite a bit, and a guy like Deiveson Figueiredo, when he fought him, it was a good stylistic matchup for him (Figueiredo) because Deiveson focused on power, and Deiveson actually really did hurt him. When you hurt somebody, you slow them down.”
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 290.
Michael Chandler isn’t counting out Dricus Du Plessis against Israel Adesanya in their upcoming UFC middleweight title fight.
[autotag]Michael Chandler[/autotag] isn’t counting out [autotag]Dricus Du Plessis[/autotag] against [autotag]Israel Adesanya[/autotag].
Du Plessis (20-2 MMA, 6-0 UFC) emerged as the next title challenger when he scored a Round 2 TKO of former champion Robert Whittaker this past Saturday at UFC 290.
UFC middleweight champion Adesanya (24-2 MMA, 13-2 UFC), who was in attendance for the fight, entered the octagon to get into Du Plessis’ face in what was a heated faceoff. Chandler has trained with Du Plessis at Kill Cliff FC before and is excited for his matchup with Adesanya.
“I should probably do a fight prediction now,” Chandler said on his YouTube channel. “I’ve trained with Dricus. I like Dricus. He’s trained with me down in Florida. I think he surprised a lot of people in the way he finished Robert Whittaker. He even said it himself in the post-fight press conference, ‘Look at Izzy’s fights against Whittaker and look at my fight against Whittaker.’
“Simple deduction, deductive reasoning, simple fight mathematics: ‘I beat him faster than Izzy did, so I’m going to go out and beat Izzy.’ Ahh, it’s not always true. I think we’ve got a phenomenal title fight on our hands.'”
Although Chandler is leaning toward Adesanya retaining his belt, he thinks Du Plessis has the physical attributes to surprise him.
“Dricus has a very tall task ahead of him, but Dricus proved to us all that he is that dude and he deserves to be right where he is,” Chandler said. “I think Izzy has more weapons. I think Izzy obviously has more championship fights, which then would give him more championship experience, more championship mentality. But can Dricus go out there, steal the show and shock the world? (It’s) definitely a possibility. With that build, with that talent, I think it’s definitely a possibility. If I had to put money on it, I think Izzy still has the edge.”
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 290.
