Tag: UFC on ABC 7

Tony Ferguson doesn’t see UFC on ABC 7 as last fight, plans to do ‘some extraordinary sh*t’

Trying to avoid a historic eighth loss in a row, Tony Ferguson has every intention of doing his part to convince the UFC to keep him.

ABU DHABI – [autotag]Tony Ferguson[/autotag] sees new life at welterweight ahead of UFC on ABC 7.

Ferguson (25-10 MMA, 15-8 UFC) will look to avoid the longest losing streak in UFC history when he takes on Michael Chiesa (16-7 MMA, 11-7 UFC) on Saturday’s main card (ABC, ESPN2, ESPN+) at Etihad Arena.

Ferguson has competed only once at 170 pounds since winning Season 13 of “The Ultimate Fighter” in 2011, but he sees it as a more natural fit. He thinks he should have stuck around at welterweight from the start.

“I feel heavy,” Ferguson told reporters, including MMA Junkie, at UFC on ABC 7 media day. “One hundred and seventy pounds is a lot better than 155. I don’t have to worry about cutting those last couple of pounds, which is amazing. I feel strong, I feel sharp, and I feel ready.”

UFC CEO Dana White said he hopes this is Ferguson’s last fight, but “El Cucuy” has no intention of walking away after Saturday, despite his current seven-fight losing streak.

“Well, we want Dana to do a lot of sh*t, too, so we can’t discredit that one either,” said Ferguson, who once won 12 fights in a row. “So I’m being real with it. At 170 pounds, I’m not killing myself to get to 155. I do feel fresher. One hundred and fifty-five pounds is closer to my high school wrestling weight. …

One hundred and seventy pounds, I feel comfortable. I don’t feel like this is going to be my last fight. I have to do some extraordinary sh*t, is what I’m planning to do. So, that’s why I feel sharp.”

Ferguson, 40, has no desire to fight outside of the octagon, and hopes the UFC remains his home.

“I love the UFC, and this is where I’m going to stay,” Ferguson said. “So, I have to earn that right. I do have seven losses, but who gets an eighth chance except for me? I don’t ever ask for a lot of sh*t, so I’m asking myself to go out there and do the best performance I possibly can so that way I can retain my spot. I do want to be here. I don’t want to go fight for another organization. Where the f*ck am I going to go? BKFC and have Conor (McGregor) work for me again? No, I don’t want to do that sh*t.”

[lawrence-related id=2759087,2747184,2746110]

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ABC 7.

Mackenzie Dern throwing out brawler mentality before UFC on ABC 7: ‘I want to be a champion’

Mackenzie Dern wants to be a “two-weight class champion” in the UFC but said she won’t get there if she can’t keep her emotions in check.

[autotag]Mackenzie Dern[/autotag] believes she can achieve her championship aspirations if she makes one critical adjustment to her game entering UFC on ABC 7.

With back-to-back losses on her record for the first time, one might think Dern (13-5 MMA, 8-5 UFC) would be struggling with confidence going into Saturday’s strawweight matchup with Loopy Godinez (12-4 MMA, 7-4 UFC) at Etihad Arena on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi. However, that’s not the case.

In fact, Dern thinks she is on the cusp of her best days and most effective performances. But only if she can keep her emotions under control inside the octagon. Dern has been knocked down five times total in her two recent defeats, per UFC stats, against Amanda Lemos and Jessica Andrade, which she said was a product of getting too wild inside the cage.

Dern’s heart and durability cannot be questioned, and although she received praise from UFC CEO Dana White for her Fight of the Night battle with Lemos at UFC 298 in February, she said it’s not the approach required to reach the pinnacle of the sport.

“From my last fight, the biggest thing I’ve been trying to work on is just like control the emotions,” Dern told MMA Junkie on Wednesday. “We kind of feel like that’s the biggest detail, what my losses are coming from. Not necessarily, ‘Oh, the technique isn’t there. Missing the wrestling. Missing the striking.’ Just that fact like, when you take a punch or something, sometimes I stay in a brawl and make the fight harder than what it needs to be.”

In order to keep her focus dialed in and “clean up” her emotional turbulence, Dern said she’s been working with a psychologist. She also brought her daughter to Abu Dhabi to fight week, which she said “keeps me more relaxed” as she ramps up for battle.

At 31, Dern thinks she still has plenty of time to make a run, starting with the fight against Godinez. She thinks the lessons absorbed through 13 octagon appearances have been immense, and she’s ready to be the fighter everyone expected her to be when she joined the UFC as an undefeated jiu-jitsu champion.

“I want to have a long career,” Dern said. “I want to be a champion. I would like to be like a two-weight class champion. Brawlers don’t really have that. They take the damage. … It’s just unnecessary.

“I always have that card in my back pocket if I need to brawl. I can go out there and brawl. We all know I have that heart in there. I want to have a long career and try to see everything. And I think if I’m more rational and reasonable, I can have everything it takes to be a champion.”

[lawrence-related id=2716061,2695447]

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ABC 7.

Marlon Vera: ‘I’m going to make an example’ of Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC on ABC 7

Marlon Vera aims to put his title-fight loss to Sean O’Malley behind him with a statement performance at UFC on ABC 7.

[autotag]Marlon Vera[/autotag] is ready to put his title-fight loss to Sean O’Malley behind him and start his rebuild at UFC on ABC 7.

After stepping into the octagon two dozen times, Vera (21-9-1 MMA, 15-8 UFC) finally got his long-awaited title shot in March with a rematch against Sean O’Malley. It didn’t go his way as he took a largely one-sided unanimous decision defeat at UFC 299 that sent him back to the drawing board.

According to “Chito,” the damage sustained in the loss to O’Malley wasn’t as bad as it looked superficially. He felt healthy enough to book another fight less than five months later and will take on former two-time flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo (23-3-1 MMA, 12-3-1 UFC) on Saturday’s card at Etihad Arena on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi (ABC, ESPN2, ESPN+).

“Why wait? That experience from my last fight, if I wait too long, I kind of will, not forget, but kind of get my feet too dry,” Vera told MMA Junkie on Wednesday. “I just wanted to stay active. I’m feeling good in the gym with wrestling and sparring. Things are moving forward. We made adjustments. Definitely we made adjustments, and I’m feeling great.”

Figueiredo is 2-0 since moving up to 135 pounds in December, having beaten Rob Font by decision in his divisional debut, then becoming the first to submit former champion Cody Garbrandt in April at UFC 300.

Vera, 31, said he respects what his Brazilian foe has done so far since changing weight classes but thinks this is the fight where he will realize flyweight is the better fit for his future.

“He’s a great fighter,” Vera said. “He seems like he punches hard, seems like he’s a strong guy. He’s been using a lot of his jiu-jitsu and wrestling lately, so maybe he feels that the power and size difference is too much. But he took the ground the last two opponents. Let’s see what he brings to the table. I just feel like I’m going to make an example of him, and I’m going to send him back to (flyweight).”

Vera, No. 10 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie bantamweight rankings, said he thinks he’s corrected the things that went wrong against O’Malley and is confident he can make another run at the title. He acknowledges it would’ve been easy to see his motivation fizzle after reaching a title fight and falling short, but it has only fueled him more.

“It would be the easiest thing to give up and say, ‘This is not for me,'” Vera said. “To be honest, I’m very hungry. I just want to show a good example. Mainly to my kids, to my family, to the people that love me. But at the end of the day, this is a worldwide sport or business, or whatever you want to call it. You can inspire a lot of people by just showing you can come back.

“You can make adjustments in life. You can get up and get it done, and that’s what I’m doing right now. Why stay down when that’s the easiest option? Just let things go? I’m not meant for that. I’m looking forward to showing what I can do.”

[lawrence-related id=2747388,2743361,2724634]

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ABC 7.

Cory Sandhagen rooting for Sean O’Malley at Noche UFC: ‘We’ll give the fans what they’ve been asking for’

Cory Sandhagen calls a potential UFC matchup vs. Sean O’Malley the most asked-for fight right now.

ABU DHABI – [autotag]Cory Sandhagen[/autotag] admits he’ll spiritually be in the corner of the bantamweight champion at UFC 306.

Should he defeat Umar Nurmagomedov after Saturday’s UFC on ABC 7 in Abu Dhabi, Sandhagen (17-4 MMA, 10-3 UFC) thinks he’ll align himself nicely for a crack at title gold.

Sandhagen isn’t particularly interested in a backup role, but plans to attend and root hard for Sean O’Malley to defeat Merab Dvalishvili at Noche UFC, the Sept. 14 pay-per-view at Sphere in Las Vegas. His motivation for partiality is self-benefit, of course.

“Yeah, I’m definitely rooting for O’Malley,” Sandhagen told MMA Junkie on Tuesday. “That’s definitely the bigger fight. That’s a fight that people have been asking for forever. I think that me and him go into a cage and it’s just going to be fireworks. It’s going to be so technical and so skilled, super athletic. That’s what the fans want to see really, really bad. I’m going to get this win. O’Malley, get yourself a win, and then we’ll give the fans what they’ve been asking for, for years. I really think there’s no more exciting fight or no fight I feel like is being asked for more in the UFC than me and O’Malley. That’s what I hope happens.”

[lawrence-related id=2759092,2759143]

O’Malley is currently a slight underdog across all major online sports books, which surprises Sandhagen. Sandhagen relates to O’Malley in that they both are often criticized for a facet of their game they haven’t really shown much.

“I think O’Malley is in a little bit of the same position as me,” Sandhagen said. “We haven’t seen O’Malley fight a ton of wrestlers. There are a lot of unknowns there. You haven’t seen me fight a ton of wrestlers, so you don’t really know how good my defensive wrestling is. I think he is in a little bit of the same boat. Usually, when that’s the case, people choose wrestling. That’s been chosen time and time again, that wrestling is usually the king of combat sports. I think that they’re likely counting him out for that, but we haven’t really seen him do much wrestling. So, who knows? He could be as good as Jordan Burroughs or Kyle Dake or Vito Araujo, but I guess you don’t really know.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ABC 7.

Khabib Nurmagomedov returns to corner cousin Umar at UFC on ABC 7

UFC Hall of Famer Khabib Nurmagomedov will be back on corner duty for his cousin Umar in the UFC on ABC 7 main event.

Undefeated [autotag]Umar Nurmagomedov[/autotag] will have his UFC Hall of Fame family member, [autotag]Khabib Nurmagomedov[/autotag] in his corner this weekend.

At UFC on ABC 7, which takes place at Etihad Arena in Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, Umar (17-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC) confirmed to MMA Junkie that he will once again have his cousin Khabib on hand to help guide him to victory in the main event against former interim title challenger Cory Sandhagen.

It’s a big fight in the UFC’s 135-pound division.

Umar, currently No. 13 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie bantamweight rankings and No. 10 in the UFC’s promotional rankings, said he was promised a title shot with a victory. Sandhagen (17-4 MMA, 10-3 UFC) currently sits at No. 6 and 2, respectively.

In a fight with such high stakes, it’s important for Umar to have his best team available, including Khabib, who was last in his corner at UFC 272 in March 2022 in a first-round submission victory over Brian Kelleher.

“It will be Usman (Nurmagomedov), Shamil Zavurov, Javier (Mendez), and Khabib,” Umar told MMA Junkie.

Through five UFC bouts, Umar has been a dominant force at bantamweight. He has finished Kelleher, Sergey Morozov and Raoni Barcelos, while picking up decisions over Nate Maness and Bakzat Almakhan.

Khabib last appeared as a cornerman at UFC 302. He was part of the coaching team for Islam Makhachev, who defeated Dustin Poirier to retain the lightweight title. It was a return to the scene for “The Eagle” after signaling he was taking time away from the sport completely after turning in a 2022 Coach of the Year campaign with Mendez.

He returns to be in his cousin’s corner to help him navigate his way to victory against a savvy Sandhagen, who once fought for the vacant interim bantamweight title, but came up short against former champ Petr Yan.

The bantamweight title is set to be defended at Noche UFC at Sphere in Las Vegas on Sept. 14 when champ Sean O’Malley meets Merab Dvalishvili.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ABC 7.

Umar Nurmagomedov says he’s been assured title shot with UFC on ABC 7 win over Cory Sandhagen

Umar Nurmagomedov claims the UFC has told him he will fight the Sean O’Malley vs. Merab Dvalishvili winner with a win in Abu Dhabi.

[autotag]Umar Nurmagomedov[/autotag] says he will be fighting for the bantamweight championship if he can get through Cory Sandhagen in Saturday’s UFC on ABC 7 headliner.

Nurmagomedov (17-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC) will take on the biggest test of his career when he steps onto the main event stage for the first time against perennial contender Sandhagen (17-4 MMA, 10-3 UFC) in a five-round showdown at Etihad Arena on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi (ABC, ESPN2, ESPN+).

It’s not often a fighter in the position of Nurmagomedov, who is No. 10 in the official UFC rankings, gets to take on a No. 2-ranked contender such as Sandhagen, but this is the case here. A win would move him up several spots, and Nurmagomedov said he’s been told he will get the winner of Sean O’Malley vs. Merab Dvalishvili, who fight for the 135-pound belt in the Noche UFC headliner on Sept. 14.

“I hope I will fight next, they said I will fight whoever will win (between Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili),” Nurmagomedov told MMA Junkie on Tuesday. “Yes, (they told me I will be next).”

Nurmagomedov said he struggles to make a definitive prediction about who will emerge from Noche UFC with the title. He is indifferent about whom he fights but said O’Malley’s recent prediction that he would pull out of the fight against Sandhagen this weekend shows he is trying to resist a progression toward a championship clash.

“I think they pray,” Nurmagomedov said. “They hope I will pull out and will not take this opportunity to fight for the title. They wish this. For me it doesn’t matter who wins. It’s a very hard fight for both. One is a wrestling, one is a striker weight height. He is tall. Stylistically, for me, personally it’s very difficult to say who is going to win. I don’t know.”

O’Malley, to his credit, has somewhat laid the foundation for a future title bout with Nurmagomedov. He’s said in the past he thinks they will eventually fight, and it could be a new-age version of the UFC’s biggest fight of all-time between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor.

Although Nurmagomedov, 28, can’t ever see a fight with O’Malley (18-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC) reaching that level of personal vitriol, he does agree it would be a marquee matchup for the promotion.

“It’s never going to be close to Khabib and Conor because they have personal hate,” Nurmagomedov said. “He talked bad about religion, family, everything – father. I don’t know. I see Sean’s personality, he’s not too dirty of a person to talk bad about my family or my religion. But if we will fight it’s Irish vs. Dagestan again. It’s going to be interesting, but I think it’s not going to be same.

“I just want to beat him. I just want to take his belt. But personally, for him, I don’t know nothing.”

[lawrence-related id=2759081,2758983]

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ABC 7.

Cory Sandhagen before UFC on ABC 7: Training with Trevor Wittman ‘far exceeded my expectations’

Cory Sandhagen will have a new addition in his corner when he meets Umar Nurmagomedov at UFC on ABC 7.

ABU DHABI – [autotag]Cory Sandhagen[/autotag] has a new addition to his coaching staff heading into UFC on ABC 7.

Sandhagen (17-4 MMA, 10-3 UFC) sought help from renowned coach Trevor Wittman ahead of Saturday’s main event (ABC, ESPN2, ESPN+) vs. [autotag]Umar Nurmagomedov[/autotag] (17-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC) at Etihad Arena.

Wittman has been an integral part of the success of the likes of former UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, former strawweight champion Rose Namajunas, and ex-interim champ Justin Gaethje.

“I’ve been with Trevor for about four months now,” Sandhagen told MMA Junkie on Tuesday. “Working with Trevor has been great. He’s super impressive. He really knows how to work with the athletes on the technical, strategic side of things. I haven’t met anyone better honestly. He far exceeded my expectations on what he was going to be, and that’s really cool because I didn’t really know.

“Although I have known Trevor for a really long time. I never worked this closely with him, and yeah, it’s really exciting. I really feel like me, Trevor, Ryan Hall, head coach Carrington Banks, they came up with the recipe for success in this one, and I just got to go out there and execute.”

Despite Nurmagomedov being ranked eight spots below him in the official UFC bantamweight rankings, he has Sandhagen’s full attention.

“This camp has been a handful,” Sandhagen said. “Fighting someone that’s this well rounded is a handful. So, it’s been everything. I really had to push myself really far in order to learn enough, understand things enough, and also the physical and mental preparation.

“You add in a really unique style of fighting with someone that’s really good at striking and really good at grappling, it makes you work really hard. So, I worked my ass off this camp.”

[lawrence-related id=2758983,2746105,2745703,2744066]

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ABC 7.

Vicente Luque hopes for quick rebooking with Nick Diaz; Dana White ‘not very’ confident it happens in 2024

Vicente Luque has a far higher degree of optimism about getting a new date on the books with Nick Diaz than that of UFC CEO Dana White.

[autotag]Vicente Luque[/autotag] has a far higher degree of optimism about getting a new date on the books with [autotag]Nick Diaz[/autotag] than that of UFC CEO [autotag]Dana White[/autotag].

Luque (22-10-1 MMA, 15-6 UFC) was scheduled to fight Diaz (26-10 MMA, 7-7 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC on ABC 7 co-main event in Abu Dhabi unless less than two weeks out from the date UFC officials announced the matchup was off due to travel issues on Diaz’s side.

There has been little further information as to Diaz’s status for what would’ve been his first fight since a September 2021 loss to Robbie Lawler, and just his second appearance overall since January 2015. Luque talked to MMA Junkie during UFC 304 fight week in Manchester, England, and said he was disheartened by the postponement, but was confident it would be rescheduled.

“The buildup to it, I expected to have some kind of an issue with the weight or some kind of unexpected thing,” Luque told MMA Junkie. “But I didn’t think the fight was going to fall through. I was disappointed. I feel super ready, super excited to step in there and fight a legend like Nick. Hopefully we’re going to get it rescheduled for soon.

“We’re working on rescheduling the fight and I’m going to stay ready. If we can do it soon or maybe September, maybe August. … No word yet.”

It appears Luque could be waiting some time for that word to come through. When asked about Diaz’s situation at Saturday’s UFC 304 post-fight news conference, White told MMA Junkie that he has legitimate doubts it happens in 2024.

“I have no idea,” White said. “Not very (confident he fights this year).”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ABC 7.

UFC on ABC 7: Make your predictions for Cory Sandhagen vs. Umar Nurmagomedov

We want your predictions for Saturday’s UFC on ABC 7 event in Abu Dhabi.

We want your predictions for Saturday’s UFC on ABC 7 event in Abu Dhabi.

Our staff picks feature includes the consensus picks from MMA Junkie readers. Simply cast your vote for each bout below, and we’ll use the official tallies that are registered by Thursday at noon ET (9 a.m. PT).

Those reader consensus picks will be part of the main card staff predictions we release ahead of UFC on ABC 7 (ABC/ESPN2/ESPN+), which takes place Saturday at Etihad Arena in Yas Island, Abu Dhabi.

Make your picks below.

Spinning Back Clique REPLAY: Belal Muhammad & Tom Aspinall’s UFC 304 title wins, UFC on ABC 7 preview, more

On “Spinning Back Clique,” our panel discusses UFC 304, previews UFC on ABC 7 in Abu Dhabi and much more.

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, Nolan King and Danny Segura will join host “Gorgeous” George Garcia live at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) to discuss and debate the following topics:

  • The UFC welterweight division has a new king. [autotag]Belal Muhammad[/autotag] defeated [autotag]Leon Edwards[/autotag] in a dominant decision win in the main event of UFC 304. This is a big shake up for the division. Who should be Muhammad’s first challenger? Where does Edwards go from here? We discuss.
  • In the co-main event of UFC 304, [autotag]Tom Aspinall[/autotag] retained his UFC interim heavyweight title by stopping [autotag]Curtis Blaydes[/autotag] in just 60 seconds. Did Aspinall prove he’s the best heavyweight on the planet? How does this result impact the expected title fight between Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic? We break down the Englishman’s win, along with the state of the heavyweight division.
  • Aside from Muhammad and Aspinall’s wins, there were other important results at UFC 304. [autotag]Paddy Pimblett[/autotag] viciously submitted veteran [autotag]Bobby Green[/autotag][autotag]. [autotag]Muhammad Mokaev[/autotag] continued his unbeaten run, but may have seen his UFC career come to an end. [autotag]Gregory Rodrigues[/autotag],[autotag] Nathaniel Wood[/autotag] and [autotag]Arnold Allen[/autotag] picked up important wins. We discuss it all.
  • UFC on ABC 7 goes down Saturday, and the UFC has brought many impressive matchups to Abu Dhabi. From its main event in [autotag]Cory Sandhagen[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Umar Nurmagomedov[/autotag], to [autotag]Tony Ferguson[/autotag]’s return, the panel previews all the action.
  •  Beyond UFC 304 in Manchester and the upcoming UFC Abu Dhabi, there has been plenty of news since the last Spinning Back Clique episode. We highlight the biggest headlines to close out the show.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=420039400]