Tag: UFC 297

MMA Junkie’s 2024 Comeback of the Year: Neil Magny turns tables on Mike Malott

At UFC 297, Neil Magny seemed doomed – until he pulled a Reverse Uno card on Mike Malott in enemy territory.

When it seemed like there was no hope for him at UFC 297, [autotag]Neil Magny[/autotag] showed the world that things aren’t always as they seem.

Dominated for nearly 14 minutes in enemy territory in Toronto, Magny turned the tables on surging Canadian prospect [autotag]Mike Malott[/autotag] for a TKO at 4:45 of Round 3.

Mounted in Round 2, Magny was taken down early in Round 3. What seemed like was going to be a wash, rinse, and repeat decision for Malott reached an improbable climax. Magny stood up and shot for a takedown on Malott, who pulled for a guillotine.

Big mistake.

With less than two minutes left on the clock, Magny went to work from guard on top. He stood up and landed some ground-and-pound on the downed Malott, who attempted to grab hold of a leg for a kneebar.

Malott rolled in a torque attempt, and Magny gained a better position. He eventually shifted to side control – then mount. Much to the disbelief of those in attendance and those watching around the world, Magny swarmed Malott.

As Magny gained power and momentum, Malott faded. After dozens of ground-and-pound shots landed, referee Kevin MacDonald stepped in and waved off the fight.

Given the sheer improbability of the moment and the exertion of the rally, Magny’s UFC 297 win over Malott earns the 2024 MMA Junkie Comeback of the Year award.

Apr 13, 2024; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Renato Moicano (blue gloves) reacts after defeating Jalin Turner (red gloves) during UFC 300 at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Honorable Mentions

While these didn’t take the top spot for best comeback in 2024, check out other plot-twist victories that deserve recognition:

MMA Junkie’s Fight of the Month for January: DWCS rematch thrills at UFC 297 in Toronto

With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best fights from January 2024.

With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best fights from January 2024: Here are the five nominees, listed in chronological order, and winner of MMA Junkie’s Fight of the Month award for January.

At the bottom of the post, let us know if we got it right by voting on your choice.

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Nominees

UFC champ Raquel Pennington brushes off Ryan Clark’s call to scrap her division: ‘You’re not living in our shoes’

Since Ryan Clark has no idea what it is to be a UFC fighter, Raquel Pennington couldn’t care less about his opinion.

[autotag]Raquel Pennington[/autotag] has fired back at former NFL star Ryan Clark for suggesting that the UFC should terminate her division.

Pennington (16-8 MMA, 13-5 UFC) defeated Mayra Bueno Silva (10-3-1 MMA, 5-3-1 UFC) by unanimous decision to capture the vacant women’s bantamweight title in the UFC 297 co-main event. Clark, who works as an ESPN NFL analyst but also dabbles in MMA with Daniel Cormier, was harsh in his reaction to Pennington’s title win, calling the fight awful. He then went on a rant explaining why the UFC should consider scratching the division as a whole.

“It looked like a fight between two people who got a game plan, and as they were walking to the octagon, they said, ‘F*ck the game plan, I’m going to do whatever the hell I want to do,'” Clark said on a recent episode of “DC & RC.” “Two people who knew good and dang well it’s no way they should be fighting for a championship. If that is what’s going to be the highest level of bantamweight division for the UFC, there should be a serious discussion of getting rid of it.”

Pennington responded to Clark’s criticism by simply stating that the former Super Bowl champion can’t relate.

“At the end of the day, I don’t care what people say. I’m not here for their expectations and to live up to that,” Pennington said on Sirius XM’s “Unlocking the Cage.” “I’m here for me, conquering goals, achieving things for myself. Like I said, we’re fighting. Everything can be different. People can criticize, but it’s a lot of people who wouldn’t step in our shoes for 10 seconds. They have no clue what it’s like.”

Pennington was criticized for not pulling the trigger on a seemingly exhausted Bueno Silva. Currently on a six-fight winning streak, Pennington says she still has a lot more to give.

“I went out there, got the job done, but I have so much more to offer,” Pennington said. “I have a ton of experience here, I’ve been in multiple different fights, I have submission finishes, so there’s a lot more that’s coming. For everybody else who just wants to talk, keep sitting on your couch and talking and criticizing because you’re not living in our shoes.”

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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 297.

MMA Junkie’s Submission of the Month for January: Jim Miller makes more history

With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best submissions from January 2024.

With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best submissions from January 2024: Here are the five nominees, listed in chronological order, and winner of MMA Junkie’s Submission of the Month award for January.

At the bottom of the post, let us know if we got it right by voting for your choice.

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Nominees

Dana White on Sean Strickland: ‘It’s his right’ to say what he wants on UFC platform

Dana White doesn’t agree with everything his fighters say, but he isn’t about to filter Sean Strickland or anybody else on the UFC roster.

UFC CEO [autotag]Dana White[/autotag] isn’t about to try and filter [autotag]Sean Strickland[/autotag] or anybody else on the roster.

Strickland went viral on social media during UFC 297 fight week after going on an anti-LGBTQ rant during media day in Toronto. He verbally attacked a reporter who asked him about past comments he’d made.

A heavy advocate for free speech, White defended Strickland and said the reporter baited him by asking about his stance on the LGBTQ community. Using the likes of Tyron Woodley and Colby Covington as examples, White says the UFC provides a platform that allows anyone to express themselves the way they want to.

“We had a guy early on when the COVID thing started, Tyron Woodley. He came out in Black Lives Matter everything. I think he had Black Lives Matter socks on, covered head to toe in Black Lives Matter,” White said on “The TRUTH Podcast” with Vivek Ramaswamy, referencing a September 2020 situation with Woodley before his fight against Colby Covington. “At the press conference leading up to his fight, they would ask him a question and he would say, ‘Black Lives Matter.’ They’d ask him anouther one, (he’d answer) ‘Black Lives Matter.’ I didn’t say sh*t to him, knock yourself out. …

“This is America. Everybody can have their own opinion. I’m not telling anybody what to do, what to say, what to think, how to feel. We’re human beings in America, do your thing, knock yourself out, I’ve got the platform. People get pissed off, people get offended, people get this and that. We just had it happen with Sean Strickland.

“We’re up in Canada. Sean Strickland said a lot of things. I don’t agree with 95 percent of what this guy says, but it’s his right to say it. And if you don’t like it, tune in on Saturday night, he’s gonna get punched in the face. If you don’t like him, you get to see him get punched in the face, so there you go. Don’t get too upset and don’t take it too serious.”

Strickland wound up losing his middleweight title to Dricus Du Plessis by split decision in the UFC 297 main event.

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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 297.

MMA Junkie’s Knockout of the Month for January: Neil Magny shocks Canada with epic comeback

With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best knockouts from January 2024.

With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best knockouts from January 2024: Here are the five nominees, listed in chronological order, and winner of MMA Junkie’s Knockout of the Month award for January.

At the bottom of the post, let us know if we got it right by voting for your choice.

Nominees

Arnold Allen opens up on UFC 297 loss to Movsar Evloev: ‘I just felt like I deserved to win that’

A frustrated Arnold Allen thinks he should have gotten his hand raised against Movsar Evloev.

A frustrated [autotag]Arnold Allen[/autotag] thinks he should have gotten his hand raised against [autotag]Movsar Evloev[/autotag].

Allen (19-3 MMA, 10-2 UFC) lost a unanimous decision to undefeated Evloev (18-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) on the main card of UFC 297 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

All three judges awarded Evloev Rounds 1 and 2, but Allen disagrees.

“Everyone’s saying (I won) Round 1 and Round 3. I agree,” Allen said on his YouTube channel. “That’s what I felt, too. I felt after Round 1, I was like, ‘Yup, won that one.’ Round 2, no I f*cked that one up. And Round 3, that was mine. Very, very, very, very, very frustrating. Not the way I wanted to start things off (in 2024). … I just felt like I deserved to win that.

“I don’t want to be b*tching and moaning or anything like that. No ill will against his team or the opponent. I watched it back a few times. I wanted to watch it back before I gave a video saying how I felt. I didn’t want to be like, ‘I felt like I got 1 and 3’ just on the base that everyone else said it, and that’s what I felt immediately after.”

In Round 3, Allen had Evloev in a front headlock and landed three consecutive knees. As the knees landed, Evloev was elevating his left hand up and down the canvas. Referee Marc Goddard deemed the knees illegal and called timeout. Allen wasn’t deducted a point but he thought the knees he landed, which split Evloev open, were legal.

“Caught a head-and-arm with about three minutes left in the round, I fired off some knees, and in the moment I believe they were legal,” Allen said. “I asked the rules backstage, and there was nothing to clarify. Mark Goddard is getting a lot of flack for his call, but when he came in and said he was reffing, me, my coach and my manager were very happy, and I still think he’s one of the best refs out there. I believe he made a mistake, and you know, it’s a tough one. … I do feel I was on to a sequence where I was about to set up a finish.

“My opponent was really hurt. The way he sat down, the way he was reacting from the knees. His hand was off even with the rule. Every knee that landed his hand was in the air. I lifted him up, knee, I lifted him up, knee, I lifted him up, knee. Even with that hand down, hand up rule, they were all legal. Then also its palm on the ground, a weight-bearing palm, not fingertips. So at minimum, it was fingertips when I lifted him up, and it wasn’t weight-bearing. It was just poking the floor, poking the floor. I do believe I would have set up a finish from there.”

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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 297.

Dricus Du Plessis: Sean Strickland’s been walking back an admission that he lost at UFC 297

According to Dricus Du Plessis, Sean Strickland thought he lost their fight at UFC 297.

According to [autotag]Dricus Du Plessis[/autotag], [autotag]Sean Strickland[/autotag] thought he lost their fight in its immediate aftermath at UFC 297.

Du Plessis (21-2 MMA, 7-0 UFC) dethroned Strickland (28-6 MMA, 15-6 UFC) to become middleweight champion in a tightly contested main event in Toronto earlier this month.

Days after their fight, Strickland said he thought he won, but Du Plessis revealed that that’s not what Strickland told him before the judges rendered their scorecards.

“This is the first time publicly I’ll say this: He came to me in the cage directly before they announced me as the new champion. I went to him and I shook his hand and I said, ‘You’re a warrior. Well done – (that) was a great fight.’ And he said, ‘No, you definitely beat me,'” Du Plessis told SuperSport.

“He said to me, ‘You deserve it. You won that fight. You beat me.’ And I said, ‘I also think so. I have to agree with you on that.’ After I won the fight, you could see in his face – he knew. When the ref held our hands, he knew he wasn’t winning that fight.”

Strickland pointed to an alleged head butt by Du Plessis that he claimed impaired his vision and contributed to the outcome of the fight. Du Plessis denied the clash of heads.

“Of course, he talks about the head butt – which is not true,” Du Plessis said. “I remember the exact punch according with when his eyes started bleeding. Then afterwards when we went in the doctor’s rooms, he came to me and he said, ‘You’re a warrior. I wouldn’t have wanted to lose to anybody else because you deserve this.’

“But then he goes on Twitter and he says, ‘You will never be a champion’ or something along those lines. Just the way he said it … to ask for a rematch is one thing in a way you want to. But I have to say I have nothing against the guy. What I’ve experienced is not really I think he’s an emotional guy. let’s be honest. But I don’t think he’s a bad dude.”

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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 297.

Chris Curtis calls for Fight Night main event at the UFC Apex: ‘Give me a five-round fight’

Chris Curtis is itching to get a five-round fight in the UFC.

[autotag]Chris Curtis[/autotag] thinks it’s time for him to headline a UFC event.

The veteran fighter, who now has seven fights in the organization, wants to the opportunity for a headlining slot of a Fight Night event, and in particular one at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. On top of the prestige of being a main event fighter, Curtis (31-10 MMA, 5-2 UFC) just really wants to show what he’s capable of doing over 25 minutes opposed to a traditional three-round bout.

“Everyone hates the Apex, I like the Apex. I have no issue with the Apex,” Curtis told MMA Junkie Radio. “I fought everyone you’ve asked me to fight, and I’ve done well against most of them. Let me main event an Apex card.

I’m totally happy. Let me main event an Apex card. I promise you, give me a five-round fight and let me show you something great. My biggest weakness is that I’m so geared towards five-round fights. Three-round fights are kind of hard to adjust to. Give me a five-round fight and I will show you something magical.”

Curtis is coming off a split decision win over Marc-Andre Barriault at UFC 297 this past weekend in Toronto. Although middleweight has been his home throughout his UFC tenure, Curtis is keen on exploring the possibility of a return to welterweight – which could change the type of names he could potentially be fighting if given the chance at a main event.

“I think next week we’re going to meet the dietitian and get my body scan done and see what everybody thinks about my weight and whatnot,” Curtis said. “I have not made 170 pounds in three years, so it will be interesting to see what they say. I’m about to do that. But even at 185, there’s still (names left). There’s Paul Craig, who’s right above me. I don’t really care who.”

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