Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best fights from July 2023.
With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best fights from July 2023: Here are the five nominees, listed in chronological order, and winner of MMA Junkie’s Fight of the Month award for July.
At the bottom of the post, let us know if we got it right by voting on your choice.
With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best submission from July 2023.
With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best submissions from July 2023: Here are the five nominees, listed in chronological order, and winner of MMA Junkie’s Submission of the Month award for July.
At the bottom of the post, let us know if we got it right by voting for your choice.
Renato Moicano is not the least bit sold on Paul Craig.
[autotag]Renato Moicano[/autotag] is not the least bit sold on [autotag]Paul Craig[/autotag].
Craig (17-6-1 MMA, 9-6-1 UFC) made his successful middleweight debut this past Saturday at UFC Fight Night 224 at The O2 in London when he scored a second-round TKO of jiu-jitsu ace Andre Muniz.
Craig has finished all his professional wins – including stoppages of former champion Jamahal Hill, top contender Magomed Ankalaev, and Nikita Krylov. But Moicano isn’t a fan of “Bear Jew’s” style.
“Man, Paul Craig is terrible,” Moicano said on his YouTube channel. “I know you guys are going to roast me for saying that, but he’s f*cking terrible. Even his top position in the first round, he got reversed very easily. I think what happened in this fight is ‘Sergipano’ is a jiu-jitsu player, too, so he sat in the guard and stuff. But Paul Craig’s standup is terrible.”
Craig expressed interest in matchups against unbeaten grappling powerhouses [autotag]Khamzat Chimaev[/autotag] and [autotag]Bo Nickal[/autotag], but Moicano thinks neither would bode well for him at all.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CvBNiYop7tG/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
“Bo Nickal would destroy him,” Moicano continued. “Khamzat would destroy him. I know you guys like that kind of stuff, but let me tell you something, he’s terrible. I thought he would lose, and he was losing the fight. They got a scramble or something like that, I don’t remember what happened, but he got on top, and he won by TKO. But make no mistake, he’s terrible.”
[lawrence-auto-related count=2 category=420030788]
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 224.
This is quite the take from UFC Hall of Famer Michael Bisping when measuring up Tom Aspinall to Jon Jones.
UFC Hall of Famer [autotag]Michael Bisping[/autotag] has made a bold claim about [autotag]Tom Aspinall[/autotag]’s future.
Aspinall (13-3 MMA, 6-1 UFC) returned from a serious knee injury to steamroll Marcin Tybura by first-round TKO this past Saturday in the UFC Fight Night 224 headliner at The O2 in London.
Aside from blowing out his knee in an 18-second TKO loss to Curtis Blaydes last year, Aspinall is unbeaten in the octagon, with five of his six UFC wins coming in the first round. Bisping, the U.K.’s first UFC champion, has the utmost confidence that Aspinall will wrap gold around his waist in the near future.
“Tom Aspinall was utterly fantastic,” Bisping told Sky Sports. “That’s one of the best performances I’ve ever seen from a heavyweight. Marcin Tybura, the guy that he beat, is no walk in the park. He’s won seven of his last eight against world class opposition, and Tom just blew threw him like he was nothing.
“And I do 100 percent believe that he will be the champion. In fact, I know he will be the champion barring any freak injury or something terrible or bad luck happens. He will be the champion of the world.”
In order to reach that feat, Aspinall may have to attempt to do something no one has been able to do – beat UFC heavyweight champion [autotag]Jon Jones[/autotag] (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC). Bisping went so far as to say that not only would Aspinall beat Jones, he’d make it look easy.
“Jon Jones is the heavyweight champion,” Bisping continued. “He’s an incredible fighter. He’s incredible. He’s one of the greatest of all time. I don’t think he can hold a candle to Tom. I think Tom will do the same thing to Jon Jones as what he did to Marcin Tybura. I don’t think there’s anyone that can stop Tom Aspinall. He’s that good.”
Aspinall appears to have gotten Jones’ attention after the heavyweight champ went on a tweet-and-delete rant about the rising Brit.
[lawrence-related id=2662641,2662520,2662356]
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 224.
UFC heavyweight Tom Aspinall made a successful main event return from injury, but did it shake up the rankings?
The UFC’s return to The O2 in London saw a few big wins throughout the card.
From [autotag]Ketlen Vieira[/autotag]’s unanimous decision win over Pannie Kianzad early on the prelims, to [autotag]Tom Aspinall[/autotag]’s main event first-round finish of Marcin Tybura, there were a number of key wins for fighters already in, or hovering around the top 15 of their divisions.
Vieira entered the week at No. 3 in the USA TODAY SPORTS/MMA Junkie women’s bantamweight rankings, while Kianzad was No. 9. Considering who is above and between both fighters, they maintain their positions in this week’s update.
A similar story played out in the heavyweight division. Aspinall entered at No. 8, and keeps the same spot despite a spectacular finish. Tybura keeps his place at No. 10 as well, but there are a few big fights at heavyweight on the horizon that could shake up the division.
Check out all the latest pound-for-pound and divisional USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings above.
UFC Fight Night 224 didn’t smash the way events in London usually do, but it still had some buzz at The O2 thanks to these fighters.
UFC Fight Night 224 didn’t smash the way events in London usually do, but it still had some buzz at The O2, with most of it attributed to Tom Aspinall’s successful return after a year off.
Still, we’re giving some shine to fighters who might’ve flown under the radar, including [autotag]Paul Craig[/autotag], [autotag]Julija Stoliarenko[/autotag] and [autotag]Nathaniel Wood[/autotag]. Our “Spinning Back Clique” panel of Danny Segura, Farah Hannoun and Brian “Goze” Garcia make their picks with host “Gorgeous” George Garcia.
You can watch the segment in the video above, as well as this week’s full episode below.
Bruna Brasil handed highly touted Conor McGregor protege Shauna Bannon a loss in her UFC debut at The O2 in London.
LONDON – [autotag]Bruna Brasil[/autotag] beat Shauna Bannon with a unanimous decision Saturday on the preliminary card at UFC Fight Night 224 at The O2 in London.
Take a look inside the fight with Brasil, who handed the highly touted Conor McGregor protege a loss in her UFC debut.
At UFC Fight Night 224 in London, Makhmud Muradov outworked an always-game Bryan Barberena and snapped his career’s first two-fight skid.
LONDON – [autotag]Makhmud Muradov[/autotag] beat Bryan Barberena with a unanimous decision Saturday on the preliminary card at UFC Fight Night 224 at The O2 in London.
Take a look inside the fight with Muradov, who got back in the win column after the first two-fight skid of his career.
Fares Ziam beat Jai Herbert at UFC Fight Night 224 in London and won for the fourth time in five fights. Now he wants Matt Frevola in Paris.
LONDON – [autotag]Fares Ziam[/autotag] beat Jai Herbert with a unanimous decision Saturday on the main card at UFC Fight Night 224 at The O2 in London.
Take a look inside the fight with Ziam, who won for the fourth time in five fights.
Maybe it’s just recency bias, but does Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall sound about right after UFC London?
Is it just recency bias, or does UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones vs. [autotag]Tom Aspinall[/autotag] sound about right?
In his return from a devastating knee injury that put him on the shelf for a year, Aspinall looked every bit the top heavyweight contender that he was before as he made quick work of Marcin Tybura in this past Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 224 main event in London.
At the beginning of the year, the talk was all about Jones vs. Francis Ngannou. A few months ago, Jones vs. Sergei Pavlovich was all the rage. For now, we know that Jones is set to put his title on the line against former champ Stipe Miocic on Nov. 11 at UFC 295 in New York.
Assuming Jones wins and continues fighting, would you rather see him defend his belt against Aspinall or Pavlovich? Our “Spinning Back Clique” panel of Danny Segura, Farah Hannoun and Brian “Goze” Garcia answer that with host “Gorgeous” George Garcia.
[lawrence-related id=2662641,2662621,2662520]
You can watch the segment in the video above, as well as this week’s full episode below.
