Tag: UFC on ESPN 11

Bobby Green: Nate Diaz friendship adds personal element to Clay Guida fight at UFC on ESPN 11

Bobby Green’s disdain for Clay Guida hasn’t completely gone away ahead of UFC on ESPN 11.

[autotag]Bobby Green[/autotag] admits some of his disdain for [autotag]Clay Guida[/autotag] has fizzled nearly two years after they were first scheduled to fight, but the personal element is still there.

Green (24-10-1 MMA, 5-5-1 UFC) and Guida (35-19 MMA, 15-13 UFC) were originally scheduled to fight in June 2018, but the matchup fell apart when Green withdrew from the card, and Guida went on to suffer a quick submission loss to replacement opponent Charles Oliveira.

The tension spilled over after the bout, though, when Guida called Green a “coward” for not fighting him and referred to him as “Bobby Yellow.” That didn’t sit well with Green, who fired back with some intense messages, including that Guida got “punk’d worse than CM Punk” in reference to the former WWE star who lost by decision on the same UFC 225 card.

Fast forward to present day, where the pair are finally scheduled to share the octagon at UFC on ESPN 11. Green, however, said he’s been forced to channel his emotions going into Saturday’s ESPN-televised card at UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

“Yes and no,” Green told reporters, including MMA Junkie, when asked if things are personal with Guida during UFC on ESPN 11 virtual media day. “Because at the end it’s just business. It’s just business in the aspect that I’m going to beat you up no matter what, so I’m not worried about who said what, because at the end of the day you’ve got to come in and see me, and you’ve got to pay for what you said. I keep telling myself not to get too emotional with like, ‘Hey, what were you saying?’ Then you take (a punch).”

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Green said his issues with Guida stem less from himself and more from his friend, Nate Diaz. There’s a history with Guida handing Diaz his first octagon defeat at UFC 94 in January 2009. The pair have had some run-ins since then, and Green said he doesn’t like how Guida has conducted himself.

“Nate (Diaz) is like a cousin to me,” Green said. “I used to live on Nate’s couch. He let me sleep on his couch for free for like two weeks while I trained with him and stuff. Nate and him got into it, so to me it’s like, ‘Ah, I’ll give him a one up for my dog, really.’ In that way it’s personal.”

For Green, UFC on ESPN 11 represents a critical moment in his career. He’s got just one victory in his past seven fights dating back to November 2014. All but one of those losses have been relatively competitive decisions, though, and Green intends to make some adjustments in his approach to ensure there’s a bigger gap.

“I can’t let these fights get close,” Green said. “I’m like a quarterback, and I’m making these calls and these decisions, and there’s a lot of risk in fighting. So, sometimes I tend not to take those risks because you can blow the whole opportunity. I played it safe thinking, ‘Oh, the judges will see, and the judges will know.’ They don’t know, and they don’t see, so maybe I’ll take more risks to show my true me. This fight you’re going to see a lot more flashy stuff. It’s going to be on.”

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Curtis Blaydes knew he’d fight Alexander Volkov: They don’t want Derrick Lewis to lose

Curtis Blaydes isn’t the type of guy to talk trash, but he’s also not one to hold back his opinion, either.

LAS VEGAS – [autotag]Curtis Blaydes[/autotag] isn’t the type of guy to talk trash, but he’s also not one to hold back his opinion, either.

So as Blaydes surveyed the UFC heavyweight landscape following his impressive January win over former champ Junior Dos Santos, he realized there was only one logical matchup on the horizon: [autotag]Alexander Volkov[/autotag].

“After I beat Junior, I knew it was going to be Volkov,” Blaydes told MMA Junkie. “I knew they weren’t going to give me [autotag]Derrick Lewis[/autotag]. They don’t want him to lose, and they know if they gave him me, I would destroy him, so I knew he was off the table. I knew it had to be Volkov, so as soon as it was offered, I said yes.”

Blaydes (13-2 MMA, 5-2 UFC) and Volkov (31-7 MMA, 5-1 UFC) now meet in the main event of Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 11, which airs on ESPN and streams on ESPN+ from the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

Blaydes currently sits at No. 4 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie heavyweight rankings, with Volkov checking in at No. 7, so it’s certainly a meaningful fight in the division. However, Blaydes believes his wrestling prowess will prove beneficial in the matchup.

“I respect every opponent,” Blaydes said. “I know he’s got skills. I know he’s efficient in striking, but I also know he’s not the best grappler in the world. I know he’s not the caliber grappler I am, and I believe I have the better conditioning.”

Blaydes has been steadily building as a title contender since his 2016 debut in the promotion. However, his stock rose to an all-time high with his win over Dos Santos. Blaydes said he does appreciate the added attention, but it doesn’t change any beliefs or expectations he had for himself.

“I already knew I was somebody,” Blaydes said. “I guess it opened other people’s eyes, which is good, because the more eyes on you, the more Instagram followers, the more Twitter followers, the better pay sponsorships you get, so I do appreciate everyone else’s eyes being opened, but I’ve always known I was good. I’ve been good my whole life, ever since high school. I won state in high school. I won juco nationals. I’m used to this. This isn’t out of the norm for me.”

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In Volkov, Blaydes will face another striking specialist, albeit one with a 6-foot-7 frame. However, “Razor” doesn’t seem overly worried about any height discrepancies.

“He’s going to shrink,” Blaydes said. “He’s going to get in a deep stance, a more defensive stance, because he’s not going to want to give his hips us. Guys when they face me, they adjust to me. I don’t adjust to them.”

A win would likely leave him second in line for a title shot behind the only man that’s ever beaten him, Francis Ngannou. Blaydes understands his position and has said he’ll wait to see how Stipe Miocic vs. Daniel Cormier 3 plays out on Aug. 15 before determining his next move.

After all, Cormier has promised to retire after the fight, and Miocic has admitted he might not be long for the sport either, so Blaydes sees a few ways he might be summoned for a title shot sooner rather than later.

And should it happen to be against Ngannou, fine, but he’s not actively pursuing any revenge.

“I mean, everyone puts so much power on Ngannou,” Blaydes said. “It’s not like I lie awake at night, thinking about beating him. It’s just a fight. He won. He knocked me out. I’m over it. If it’s him that I get to fight against, yeah, it would be nice to get that back. But if it’s not him, I’m not going to be like, ‘No, I’m not going to fight this guy. I want Ngannou.’ No. I want the belt. I don’t care either way.”

The next step of that journey is scheduled for Saturday night. Blaydes says he always does his best not to get overly emotional for any one particular fight, so he’s not adding any emphasis to the matchup.

But he does want to move forward towards his ultimate goal.

“I don’t have to prove anything to the world,” Blaydes said. My record speaks for itself. Me getting my hand raised is enough for me, so if it goes to a five-round decision or first-round KO or second-round TKO, as long as my hand is raised, that’s enough for me. There’s enough pressure in this sport, regardless. I’m not going to add pressure on myself, life I have to knock him out. No. That’s how you make mistakes.

“I plan for him to be there, in my face, pressuring me, tossing kicks at me for five rounds. Now, the likelihood of it going all five rounds? Not that likely. But the possibility is there, so I prepare for the worst.”

Alexander Volkov, Kenny Johnson insist ‘Drago’ ready for Curtis Blaydes’ wrestling

According to oddsmakers, Curtis Blaydes is a heavy favorite over Alexander Volkov, but the Russian heavyweight believes they got it wrong.

LAS VEGAS – According to the oddsmakers, [autotag]Curtis Blaydes[/autotag] is a heavy favorite over [autotag]Alexander Volkov[/autotag], but the Russian heavyweight believes they got it wrong.

“I used to fight with guys who want to wrestle me all my career,” Volkov told MMA Junkie. “All people try to take me down to do something on the ground. I’m really used to it, and of course I know how to work with it. I always work on my wrestling.”

Volkov (31-7 MMA, 5-1 UFC) and Blaydes (13-2 MMA, 8-2 UFC) meet in the headlining bout of Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 11, which airs on ESPN and streams on ESPN+ from the UFC Apex.

With 20 career knockouts to his credit, it’s easy to point out Volkov’s striking abilities. But he points to longtime wrestling coach Kenny Johnson as his secret weapon in the grappling department. Johnson believes they’ve laid a groundwork over the past eight years that is paying dividends.

“It’s not so much focusing, ‘OK, I’m fighting a wrestler. We’ve got to focus on wrestling,'” Johnson explained. “He comes from Russia. He has a lot of very good, very big wrestling partners. Throughout his career, everybody has wanted to put him down because he’s such a good striker, so we’ve been focused on technical pieces, but always keeping his skills in striking sharp, his jiu-jitsu and his wrestling.”

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Volkov actually thought he might be matched up with Francis Ngannou for a bit, and so he spent some time in Thailand getting ready for a striking specialist. When the opponent changed, so did Volkov’s approach, and he says even the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic couldn’t disrupt his preparation.

“We came back from Thailand and signed a contract with Curtis Blaydes and changed our camp to more grappling and wrestling,” Volkov said. “With the pandemic, I wasn’t able to do as much work in the gym with wrestling partners, so I did a lot of work on my own with my own physical form. After that, I concentrated on technical stuff, like wrestling.

“I was training a lot. I trained all this time. I’ve stayed focused and ready for any fights. I’ve been staying in good shape this whole time, and I’m feeling great.”

At its most basic level, the fight is a tale of striker vs. grappler, but at the sport’s highest level, everyone has well rounded skills. Volkov knows he can’t rely on such a simple assessment of Blaydes and is therefore ready for all possibilities.

“Fights can go any way, so it can go five rounds,” Volkov said. “I’ll be ready for it, for sure. I’m in really good shape right now. It could be a short fight, because I’m also ready to knock him out in the first two rounds. Either way, I’m ready for the fight, and I can fight any type of fight he wants.

“It doesn’t matter how it goes because I’m ready for anything. I’m ready for five rounds.”

And victory could prove very rewarding for Volkov, especially if it’s done in impressive fashion. Volkov’s lone career loss in the UFC to date came in a stunning, last-second finish of a fight he was clearly dominating against Derek Lewis. “Drago” doesn’t let himself worry too much about the future, but he knows the stakes are high.

“I don’t think about it because it doesn’t matter for me,” Volkov said. “It’s better for me how I’m feeling about myself and my skills and what I can do. For me, it’s about fighting the best fighters, the best guys in the division, and trying to beat them. I’m sure if I win this fight, I will be close to the title shot.”

To hear more from Volkov, check out the video above.

Top 10 fighters meeting on prelims? Roxanne Modafferi excited for an early dinner

While bout orders aren’t always an exact science, Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 11 has one fight that seems in a bit of an odd spot.

LAS VEGAS – While bout orders aren’t always an exact science, Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 11 has one fight that seems in a bit of an odd spot.

[autotag]Roxanne Modafferi[/autotag] (24-16 MMA, 3-4 UFC) and [autotag]Lauren Murphy[/autotag] (12-4 MMA, 4-4 UFC) face off in just the second fight of the night in a prelim that airs on ESPN and streams on ESPN+ from UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

According to the UFC’s own rankings, Modafferi sits at No. 6 in the women’s flyweight division, with Murphy checking in behind at No. 7, and the winner could very well be in discussion for an upcoming No. 1 contender bout. Yet two will meet at approximately 2:30 p.m. PT local time, some five hours before the night’s headliners enter the cage.

“I’ve gone back and forth on that,” Modafferi told MMA Junkie. “At first, when I heard about it, I was very surprised and I was disappointed, and then I thought, ‘It’s fine. Whatever. You’re still going to beat her, and you’re going to make your money. You’re going to rise in the ranks, and it doesn’t matter.’

“I’m not on any media day. I don’t have any interviews. I don’t really feel that important. But I’m kind of used to it. I’m not a super cute, young, up-and-comer star. I think I’m going to have a hard path back up to the title. Lauren’s probably about the same. We’re both veterans. I don’t know. I’m just going to operate in the UFC system and take what fights and cards that they offer me, and since I’m early, I’ll be able to get out early and go eat Mexican food with my team. Fiesta Mexicana, here I come.”

It’s the type of positivity you’d expect from Modafferi, the 17-year veteran known as “The Happy Warrior.” In fact, even that matchup, itself, was booked largely because she and Murphy have such respect for each other’s body of work, they asked to be paired together.

“As I looked at the top-10, five of them have missed weight, and I don’t do well with women that miss weight,” Modafferi said. “I’m not saying that I lost because they missed weight, but to be real, my only losses outside of the title fight were to women who missed weight. I beat everybody else.

“We’re ranked next to each other, so we’re both like, ‘Yeah, this seems good.’ Let’s do it. That’s how that came on.”

Modafferi looks to build on the strength of a decision win over formerly undefeated prospect Maycee Barber in January. The upset result caught plenty of attention at the time, but Modafferi said she doesn’t put too much stock in one performance.

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“I think every win is huge at this point for me,” Modafferi said. “I don’t know. It’s very interesting how people’s perspectives are different. It felt like a good win, I’ll say that.”

It wasn’t the first time Modafferi has unseated a rising contender, having downed a then-undefeated Antonina Shevchenko in 2019. She’s been a bit of a “prospect killer” as of late, but Modafferi said she hasn’t made that a priority.

“I guess cool if I’m known like that,” Modafferi said. “That’s fine. I just want to keep winning and keep beating up other ladies in my division.”

To that end, Modafferi has used her time in isolation during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic to better herself as a martial artist. At 37, Modafferi appears to be physically in the best shape of her life, and she credits added strength training with Lorenzo Pavlica, wrestling sessions with Neil Melanson and Tywan Claxton and continued striking training with A.J. Matthews for her improvement during quarantine.

Now that Syndicate MMA is operational once again, Modafferi believes her work is all coming together under the watch of John Wood.

“I try to put on a strong front, but things are really crazy,” Modafferi said. “Up and down. Huge emotional rollercoaster all the time. I was super stressed. I wasn’t sure if I should leave the house, but man, I think it’s been one of the best times in my life, to be honest with you.

“I really got to focus 100 percent on myself. I feel like I really made strength gains, and I couldn’t wait to get back to Syndicate to try out all this new and improved stuff on my teammates, which finally happed, thank goodness. So part one of my training camp was basically in a garage and at the park. Then part two was Syndicate opened up again, and I got to back back in the cage and train with the team again.”

Modafferi will get to put her work to the test on Saturday. Is the fight scheduled where it should be on the night’s lineup? Perhaps not. But that doesn’t matter once the bell sounds.

Nearly two decades into her professional career, Modafferi believes she’s reached a new level and is anxious to prove it.

“I’ve always felt like just a martial artist who fights, but nowadays, people have become athletes,” Modafferi said. “UFC fighters are athletes. I finally feel like I’m not behind. Before, I felt behind. … Now I feel like I’ve caught up and can hold my own, so we’ll see. Maybe I’ll feel super strong in this fight. It will be cool. I’m excited to see what happens, actually.”

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Lyman Good copes with father’s death heading into UFC on ESPN 11 return from coronavirus

Lyman Good couldn’t hide the pain of the recent loss of his dad, especially as he readies to compete on Father’s Day weekend.

LAS VEGAS – [autotag]Lyman Good[/autotag] couldn’t hide the pain of the recent death of his dad, especially as he readies to compete on Father’s Day weekend.

Good revealed that, in addition to his battle with COVID-19 in recent months, he’s also coping with the loss of his father.

“It’s definitely been a long road,” Good told reporters Thursday in a virtual media day session. “A few weeks ago, my father had passed away, so it’s been a roller coaster ride emotionally, physically – you know, on all levels. But for me, one of the things we’re trained in as martial artists is how to maintain integrity of your focus. Stay the path no matter what happens and stay the course because, at the end of it, you’re going to feel a lot better about yourself knowing that you stuck to your path, you trained hard, and then you kept at it. So I’m definitely looking forward to this fight. I’m excited to go out there and make everybody proud.”

Good (21-5 MMA, 3-2 UFC), who lives and trains in New York, was expected to face Belal Muhammad (16-3 MMA, 7-3 UFC) on April 18 at UFC 249. However two weeks before the event was scheduled, he was forced to withdraw from the card after testing positive for the novel coronavirus that is currently wreaking havoc on the world.

Good recovered in relatively quick fashion, and he credits the physical conditioning he achieved during his fight preparation for assisting in his return to health.

“I did feel it in my lungs,” Good said. “I felt it in my energy, because I was very fatigued. I just felt a lot of achiness and stuff. I went through a lot of symptoms with pretty much what you’re hearing out there, but I think it was a blessing for me to at the time have been training for a fight because I think the health from that camp got me through the COVID virus a little easier than most people.”

UFC 249 eventually was rescheduled for May 9, and as Good’s health improved, his fight with Muhammad was rebooked for Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 11, which airs on ESPN and streams on ESPN+ from the UFC Apex.

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Good said he was happy the promotion was able to keep his original matchup together and imagines Muhammad feels the same.

“I like to finish what I started, and I’m sure on his end, he’s excited about taking the fight, as well,” Good said.

But just as Good overcame the physical hurdles that he was facing, he was handed a devastating emotional challenge, as well. His father, who Good admits was a lifelong smoker and drinker, died.

“He had a lot going on with him,” Good said. “They did rule it as natural cause, but he just wasn’t a healthy person. After the military, he lived a life with a lot of alcohol, a lot of smoking, so it was one of those things that was just inevitable.”

Good struggled to hold back tears as he discussed the loss of his father. Now he will compete on the eve of Father’s Day, and he said he will do so while dedicating the performance to his dad.

“I felt like for me to not fight would be an injustice to his honor and his name, and I felt like if anything, try to use this as an opportunity to go out there,” Good said. “It’s literally a day before Father’s Day, and I told myself let’s go out there and let’s do this for him. This is a fight that was expected to happen a while ago, so this definitely feels like something we re-routed and we went through a lot from the original time I was supposed to fight, and things happen for a reason.

“God put us in this path for a reason. I know I was meant to fight him on June 20.”

To hear more from Good, check out the video above.

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