Tag: UFC 299

UFC 299 adds Maycee Barber vs. Katlyn Chookagian

Maycee Barber vs. Katlyn Chookagian will take place at UFC 299 in a women’s flyweight contender fight.

UFC 299 continues to fill, this time with the addition of a women’s flyweight fight.

Contenders [autotag]Maycee Barber[/autotag] and [autotag]Katlyn Chookagian[/autotag] will collide at the March 9 pay-per-view event. While no location is official, Miami is the frontrunner for the event.

Two people with knowledge of the matchup recently informed MMA Junkie of the booking but asked to remain anonymous as the promotion has yet to make an official announcement. MMA Mania first reported the bout.

Barber (13-2 MMA, 8-2 UFC) looks to extend her current winning streak to six. The stretch of success has solidified her as a top contender in the division with wins over Amanda Ribas, Jennifer Maia, and Viviane Araujo, among others. This will be Barber’s first fight post-foot surgery.

Chookagian (18-5 MMA, 11-5 UFC) has remained a stalwart member of the top of the flyweight division since it’s conception in 2018. She hasn’t competed since October 2022 when her four-fight winning streak was snapped by Manon Fiorot.

With the addition, the UFC 299 lineup includes

  • Champion Sean O’Malley vs. Marlon Vera
  • Maycee Barber vs. Katlyn Chookagian
  • Pedro Munhoz vs. Kyler Phillips
  • Asu Almabayev vs. CJ Vergara

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 299.

Henry Cejudo: ‘I still don’t see Sean O’Malley as the best in the world’ ahead of UFC 299

Henry Cejudo is not sold on Sean O’Malley as UFC bantamweight champion.

[autotag]Henry Cejudo[/autotag] is not sold on [autotag]Sean O’Malley[/autotag] as UFC bantamweight champion.

O’Malley (17-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) knocked out Aljamain Sterling to become 135-pound champion at UFC 292, whereas Cejudo is coming off a close title loss to Sterling at UFC 288.

O’Malley will make his first title defense against Marlon Vera in the UFC 299 headliner on March 9, and Cejudo is still adamant that “Chito” beats O’Malley again – despite being a sizable underdog.

“I still don’t see Sean O’Malley as the best in the world,” Cejudo said on Daniel Cormier’s YouTube channel. “I don’t. I do believe ‘Chito’ Vera is going to beat him. You have good defense, you walk that dude down, you kick his freaking legs – he still has that wide leg – you kick his legs, you just bring the fight to him and grit.

“This is what Sean O’Malley will do: He’ll look at the clock because he throws a lot of power. He is precise, but he throws a lot of it. I would bet the house on ‘Chito.’ Once I beat Merab (Dvalishvili), I’m going to get ‘Chito’ next, and I like that fight, too. I like either fight, really. Walk him down, good defense, and you’ll beat Sean O’Malley.”

Former dual-champion Cejudo (23-3 MMA, 15-3 UFC) is currently angling for a matchup with top contender Dvalishvili at UFC 298 on Feb. 17. He acknowledges Dvalishvili’s relentless grappling, but looks forward to the challenge.

“I love the style. He comes into wrestling,” Cejudo said. “I did get taken down by Aljamain, which I don’t like, and now bringing the guy that probably has better cage work than Aljo – but I like it.”

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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 299.

Marlon Vera: Sean O’Malley very talented, but ‘I really believe I’m going to make him quit’ at UFC 299

“I’m going to make him just be a shell of himself and just kick his ass,” Marlon Vera said of Sean O’Malley before their rematch at UFC 299.

[autotag]Marlon Vera[/autotag] doesn’t see UFC bantamweight champion [autotag]Sean O’Malley[/autotag] surviving five rounds with him.

Vera (21-8-1 MMA, 15-7 UFC) challenges O’Malley (17-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) in the UFC 299 headliner on March 9. Vera handed O’Malley the lone loss of his career back in 2020, a first-round TKO after kicking him in his peroneal nerve and finishing him on the ground.

“Chito” envisions a similar fate for O’Malley when they run things back.

“I beat the f*ck out of him and walk away with a bag of cash and the belt,” Vera said on the “Believe You Me” podcast. “I really believe I’m going to make him quit. I really believe I’m going to make him just be a shell of himself and just kick his ass, almost like beg me to stop kind of thing.”

Vera gave O’Malley credit for claiming the bantamweight title with a knockout of Aljamain Sterling at UFC 292 but said he’s a completely different striker than Sterling.

“He’s really good at catching you coming in,” Vera said. “But at the level of striking that someone like Aljamain is, head in the middle, just swinging left and right, not even seeing the target, that’s a very poor, low-level striking game.

“He’s (Sterling) so good of an athlete and a very good wrestler that he managed to figure it out, how to just go like a zombie and get a hold of the leg. With me, it’s different. I’m making math in my head in there.”

Vera plans on meeting O’Malley in the middle and forcing him to fight, something he sees playing in his favor.

“He’s a very talented guy,” Vera said. “He can fight and everything, but I said it before and I’ll say it again: He won’t keep up in a hard fight. He’s a guy that moves well, and he plans to use his athleticism, and I’m going to make him fight. He will have to face me.

“I’ll be ready. I’ll be prepared. I just know that the moment we start fighting, I know everything I’ve been through, so I’m going to get that belt. I’m going to go through him, I’m going to stop him, and I’m going to be world champion.”

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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 299.

Sean O’Malley says Snoop Dogg’s commentary during DWCS win played ‘massive, massive’ role in UFC stardom

Snoop Dogg was high on Sean O’Malley during his DWCS appearance well before he became UFC bantamweight champion, and that was a big deal for his career.

[autotag]Sean O’Malley[/autotag] is one of the UFC’s most popular fighters today. There are many reasons why that’s come to be, but perhaps the biggest was how his UFC-contract-winning performance was presented.

O’Malley joined the UFC after his impressive first-round knockout of Alfred Khashakyan was enough to seal the deal on the second season of Dana White’s Contender Series in 2017. What really pushed O’Malley into the spotlight that night was rapper Snoop Dogg’s reaction while he served as an alternative commentator – along with Urijah Faber – for the event.

“Oh, huge. Massive, massive,” O’Malley told “The Breakfast Club” when asked what role played Snoop Dogg in his rise to stardom. “It’s crazy how my career has played out. That was the beginning of the craziness. Snoop Dogg is commentating on my fight when I was 21, 22 on the Contender Series.

“It’s the first time they’ve done it. I knock that dude out, and he yells ‘O’Malley’ like 30 times. That was crazy.”

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After the win at DWCS, O’Malley got to hang out with Snoop Dogg and take a picture, which put a bow on his arrival in the UFC.

“I don’t even remember, I got so high,” O’Malley said, attempting to recall hanging out with Snoop. “We were in the trailer, and they just kept passing it. I walked out of the trailer, and there were a bunch of cameras. A bunch of people around. I hadn’t smoked, probably for three or four weeks leading up to a fight. I just got a crazy knockout. I just got signed to the UFC. Now I’m smoking with Snoop and when I was leaving the trailer, that felt like a movie. That was crazy. I don’t remember what we talked about at all.”

O’Malley definitely did his part to live up to expectations after that. He beat notable names such as Eddie Wineland and Petr Yan en route to a title shot. He then knocked out Aljamain Sterling to become UFC bantamweight champion in August, which has all fed into the growing hype around “Suga.”

O’Malley returns to the octagon in March at UFC 299. He’s scheduled to take on Marlon Vera, who’s the only man to beat him. Vera stopped him in the first round of their co-main event clash back at UFC 252 in 2020.

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Video: Discussing UFC’s 2024 tantalizing trio of title tilts

Did the UFC get it right with its first series of title matchups slated for the first quarter of 2024? Our “Spinning Back Clique” discusses.

The UFC has already announced three title fights to kick off the first quarter of 2024.

Starting things off in January, UFC 297 in Toronto, Canada will be headlined by a middleweight championship fight between champ [autotag]Sean Strickland[/autotag] and challenger [autotag]Dricus Du Plessis[/autotag]. The fight will be Strickland’s first title defense after taking it from Israel Adesanya in a dominant display at UFC 293. Du Plessis is coming off a stoppage of former champ Robert Whittaker at UFC 290 and has won his last eight fights.

The following month, at a location and venue yet to be announced, [autotag]Alexander Volkanovski[/autotag] returns to featherweight to defend his title against an undefeated challenger in [autotag]Ilia Topuria[/autotag]. Volkanovski is back to his division after a short-notice rematch against Islam Makhachev for the lightweight title. Topuria topped Josh Emmett in their main event tilt in June.

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In March, [autotag]Sean O’Malley[/autotag]’s first bantamweight title defense will be a rematch against [autotag]Marlon Vera[/autotag]. O’Malley defeated Aljamain Sterling to become champion at UFC 292. Vera is coming off a unanimous decision win over Pedro Munhoz in August. “Sugar” and “Chito” first met at UFC 252 in 2020, where Vera won by TKO in the first round.

Did the promotion get these matchups right, or should these champions be facing other contenders? Our “Spinning Back Clique” panel of Mike Bohn, Nolan King and Brian “Goze” Garcia answered that question with host “Gorgeous” George Garcia.

You can watch their discussion in the video above and check out this week’s full episode on YouTube below.

Henry Cejudo: UFC champ Sean O’Malley ‘hasn’t gone through the trenches,’ loses to Marlon Vera again

Henry Cejudo stands by his opinion that Marlon Vera is a bad matchup for UFC champ Sean O’Malley.

[autotag]Henry Cejudo[/autotag] stands by his opinion that [autotag]Marlon Vera[/autotag] is a bad matchup for UFC bantamweight champion [autotag]Sean O’Malley[/autotag].

O’Malley (17-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) will defend his title in a rematch against Vera (23-8-1 MMA, 15-7 UFC) in March. Vera is the only fighter to beat O’Malley, kicking him in his peroneal nerve and finishing him by ground-and-pound TKO in August 2020. O’Malley is adamant that the loss was a fluke, but Cejudo thinks “Chito” poses problems for him.

“‘Chito’ Vera beats him just based on endurance,” Cejudo said on his YouTube channel. “There’s another problematic thing that Sean is not accustomed to, is taller guys. It’s not like ‘Chito’s’ a giant either, but he’s about (5-foot-8), 5-9, while Sean O’Malley is 5-11.

“When you start getting people at the same height and they fought before, one of them already has seen him literally break. You can take him there again. If ‘Chito’ Vera can really up his defense and be able to just keep your hands up, there’s nothing that he can do to your legs. The only thing that he can really do, ‘Chito,’ is right here – your face or your body.”

Cejudo was also critical of O’Malley’s resume. His past two wins came over former champions Petr Yan and Aljamain Sterling, but Cejudo isn’t sold on his overall body of work.

“A guy like Sean O’Malley hasn’t gone through the trenches,” Cejudo said. “Hasn’t really gone through the who’s who. Yeah, he got a controversial win, which still, I don’t believe he beat Yan and then he’s got one that he happened to throw a right hand and he caught Aljamain Sterling.

“Was it an early stoppage? Yeah, I’m not here to complain. What I’m saying is he hasn’t been through the trenches against really tough guys, and I do believe that ‘Chito,’ if he can just do the same game plan as he did his last fight and take out his legs, it’ll be the exact same outcome.”

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Video: Sean O’Malley, Marlon Vera face off ahead of UFC 299 title rematch

Sean O’Malley and Marlon Vera got the promotion started for their UFC 299 rematch with a faceoff on Wednesday in New York.

[autotag]Sean O’Malley[/autotag] and [autotag]Marlon Vera[/autotag] got the promotion started for their UFC 299 rematch with a faceoff on Wednesday in New York.

O’Malley (17-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) will attempt to avenge his lone career loss when he runs it back with Vera (21-8-1 MMA, 15-7 UFC) in the March 9 pay-per-view headliner, which does not have a venue or location.

Although the fight is still several months away, the build to the rematch has already begun, with O’Malley and Vera coming face-to-face for an intense staredown.

Check out the video above to see the bantamweights face off.

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Vera earned a first-round TKO of O’Malley in their initial encounter at UFC 252 in August 2020. The tension between the two has only grown since then, with O’Malley refusing to acknowledge the result as legitimate, and “Chito” insisting he would get a repeat result if they shared the octagon again.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 299.

Cory Sandhagen bummed out Sean O’Malley vs. Marlon Vera isn’t happening sooner: ‘March? Damn.’

UFC bantamweight contender Cory Sandhagen isn’t thrilled with how the timing of Sean O’Malley vs. Marlon Vera will affect his return.

The [autotag]Sean O’Malley[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Marlon Vera[/autotag] rematch does not fit [autotag]Cory Sandhagen[/autotag]’s timeline.

UFC CEO Dana White announced Monday that O’Malley (17-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) will defend his bantmweight title against Vera (23-8-1 MMA, 15-7 UFC) in March. Sandhagen (17-4 MMA, 10-3 UFC), who holds a recent win over Vera this past March, was hoping that O’Malley and Vera would run things back sooner.

“Why March? Fight earlier so that I can fight earlier,” Sandhagen told Luke Thomas. “I don’t think it’s the most favorable matchup for O’Malley, but I still think that O’Malley will likely win. March? I was hoping that they’d fight in January and then I would be able to come back in like April or May or something.”

In a recent interview with MMA Junkie, Sandhagen said he plans on fighting for the title upon his return from tricep surgery. But with Sandhagen targeting a comeback in the first half of 2024, he could end up fighting again before getting his desired title shot.

“I’ll see what they say, I guess,” Sandhagen said. “Yeah, I don’t know. That’s a bummer. March? Damn.”

Sandhagen is currently on a three-fight winning streak with wins over Song Yadong, Vera, and a dominant unanimous decision against Rob Font in the UFC on ESPN 50 main event in August. Sandhagen tore his right tricep in the first round of his fight against Font.

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