Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Check out all the fighter walkout songs from Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 50 event.
While it takes intense training, world-class skills and maybe even a bit of luck to register a UFC win, picking the right song to accompany you to the cage is a key talent, as well.
See what the fighters from UFC on ESPN 50 went with as their backing tracks in Nashville.
Ahead of UFC 290’s flyweight title co-main event, MMA Junkie analyst Dan Tom lists his top five UFC men’s fights at 125 pounds.
(Editor’s note: This story first was published June 1, 2023. Some information may have been updated.)
Whether we’re talking about mainstream sports, combat sports or sports entertainment, the spectacle of large athletes long has been a promotional tool to help draw in casual crowds and create almost larger-than-life standards that helped set the bar to where it is today.
It’s why “the baddest man on the planet” is determined within the heavyweight division and why title fights on cards are typically prioritized from largest to smallest – unless there’s an outlier like Conor McGregor on the card, of course.
The unfortunate byproduct of this traditional format, however, is that lighter-weight fighters, who typically are more technical and arguably more entertaining, often get under-appreciated and sometimes lost in the shuffle.
In fact, the UFC historically has struggled with whichever division falls on the bottom of its proverbial totem pole. Whether we’re talking about the UFC’s three failed attempts to establish its lightweight division, which now is one of the deepest divisions going on two decades, or its self-induced flyweight purge that started around 2018, the organization has not exactly handled these divisions with care.
This week, champion Brandon Moreno will put his title on the line for the first time in his second reign when he takes on challenger Alexandre Pantoja, who owns a win over him. Will it turn out to be a classic? We’ll have to wait and see.
Until we know, take a look back at this first decade of flyweight affairs under the UFC banner and my top five.
Without further ado …
With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best fights from June 2023.
With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best fights from June 2023: Here are the five nominees, listed in chronological order, and winner of MMA Junkie’s Fight of the Month award for June.
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 June 2023.
With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best submissions from June 2023: Here are the five nominees, listed in chronological order, and winner of MMA Junkie’s Submission of the Month award for June.
At the bottom of the post, let us know if we got it right by voting for your choice.
Amir Albazi thinks the commentators at UFC on ESPN 45 showed a little bit of bias toward Kai Kara-France.
[autotag]Amir Albazi[/autotag] believes the commentators at UFC on ESPN 45 showed a little bit of bias toward [autotag]Kai Kara-France[/autotag] in their fight.
Albazi (17-1 MMA, 5-0 UFC) scored a close split decision win over Kara-France (24-11 MMA, 7-4 UFC) in this past Saturday’s headliner – a decision that was disputed by the likes of lead play-by-play commentator Jon Anik and former dual champion Henry Cejudo.
But even after rewatching the fight, Albazi is still confident that he did enough to win.
“I don’t think it was a controversial decision. I think it was a close fight,” Albazi told ESPN. “The highest level we are at right now, so of course it’s gonna be a close fight. I expect it on the way too.”
The Iraq-born fighter thinks the UFC commentary team – which consisted of Brendan Fitzgerald, Michael Bisping and Laura Sanko – helped sway the public’s opinion against him.
I still think I won (Rounds) 1, 2, and 3,” Albazi said. “I came into the fourth feeling like I had done enough. I took three in the bag, so it came to the judges. That’s about it. I feel like the judges were with me on that one. I think a lot of people are also looking at commentary, what the commentary said.
“That’s another part I didn’t like. They were kind of like not giving me credit for what I was doing and giving Kai too much credit for stuff that I don’t believe. They said he defended my takedowns, but let’s be real here. The moment I tried to take you down, I got you down. I didn’t want to take you down, I wanted to punch you in the face. That’s actually what happened.”
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 45.
Henry Cejudo doesn’t like what he sees from judges and believes it’s time open scoring was implemented in the UFC.
[autotag]Henry Cejudo[/autotag] thinks it’s time open scoring is implemented in the UFC.
Cejudo’s comments come after [autotag]Amir Albazi[/autotag]’s split decision win over [autotag]Kai Kara-France[/autotag] in this past Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 45 headliner at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Cejudo thought Kara-France was robbed.
Cejudo himself is coming off a split decision loss at UFC 288, where he was edged out by bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling. He also pointed to Vasiliy Lomachenko’s close setback to Devin Haney as a recent example of a controversial loss.
“Let’s talk about judging,” Cejudo said on his YouTube channel. “That’s right. I’m talking about all you bald-headed fat people who have never fought before who are actually judging fights. Guys, I’m not here just to talk about my fight. I’m talking about Vasiliy Lomachenko. I’m talking about Kai Kara-France vs. Amir Albazi.”
Cejudo thinks open scoring would help solve the problem of close fights. While he has accepted his loss to Sterling, he’s particularly irked by judge Derek Cleary awarding Sterling Round 5 of their fight – a round he thinks was clearly his.
“All these fights happened in the last three weeks,” Cejudo continued. “Robbery upon robbery. Close fights, people giving a fifth round to somebody who I don’t know how it is he actually won it. Where are we going to hold these judges accountable? What are they watching? Could there be a curriculum where a lot of these judges could actually fight or do we make the actual referee into a judge and we make it even because he’s the closest person in there? Or should we have an open scorecard?
“I actually like that. I actually do believe that the UFC should actually change it into an (open) scorecard. We said, ‘Hey man, you lost. That was blue corners or that was red corners round.’ Where people actually know where is it and when is it that you have to put the pedal to the metal. It’s to the point where it’s getting confusing and the last thing we want to do is turn the sport of mixed martial arts into boxing where there’s complete robbery. Where you know that you can knock the guy down 10 out of the 12 rounds and still lose.”
Cejudo suggests a prerequisite for people to have martial arts backgrounds in order to be eligible to judge.
“Where is it that these people are going to be held accountable? Should there be a curriculum for these judges to be able to say, ‘Hey man, you at least to be a judge have to have a background and have to have amateur experience in boxing, wrestling, jiu-jitsu, or mixed martial arts,'” Cejudo said.
“But you need one of those traits in order for you to actually do it because I don’t feel like at times people really count the actual takedown. I don’t think at the time people really count the actual leg kicks or even to the body. This is becoming a problem, and we have to do our best to let the best man win because if not, guys, it’s becoming a sh*t show. It’s becoming a circus.”
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 45.
Brandon Royval doesn’t think Amir Albazi’s performance against Kai Kara-France warrants a title shot.
[autotag]Brandon Royval[/autotag] doesn’t think [autotag]Amir Albazi[/autotag]’s performance against [autotag]Kai Kara-France[/autotag] warrants a title shot.
Kara-France (24-11 MMA, 7-4 UFC) lost a split decision to Albazi (17-1 MMA, 5-0 UFC) in this past Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 45 headliner at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Like many, Royval disagreed with the judges’ scorecards.
Royval (15-6 MMA, 5-2 UFC) is pegged as the backup for the flyweight title fight between champion Brandon Moreno and Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 290. But after Albazi beat Kara-France, not only did he jump Royval in the rankings, but Dana White said the next title challenger is still up for debate.
Dana White says Brandon Royval isn't a lock over #UFCVegas74 winner Amir Albazi for the next flyweight title shot.
Full interview: https://t.co/Xg2Je2G5AI pic.twitter.com/Tnz2SaoMEP
— MMA Junkie (@MMAJunkie) June 4, 2023
“I thought at the very least, even if Albazi won, it’s not deserving of a title performance and it’s not really deserving to jump me in the rankings,” Royval told MMA Underground. “I thought that immediately, I was like, ‘Cool, he ain’t gonna beat me in the rankings and he’s not gonna take my title shot from me.’
“I was pretty stoked. Then I saw Dana White’s interview and I was like, ‘What the f*ck?’ If they’re really gonna jump me over that performance, that’s f*cking crazy. I’m not even trying to say just over my winning over Kai Kara-France.”
Royval beat Kara-France in a more definitive way than Albazi, submitting him at UFC 253. Royval then dropped two straight to Moreno and Pantoja, before rebounding with three straight wins – most recently snapping Matheus Nicolau’s six-fight winning streak with a first-round knockout in April.
“Raw Dog” thinks his body of work has been much more impressive than that of Albazi.
“That was a sh*tty fight,” Royval said on Albazi vs. Kara-France. “It was definitely not him (Albazi) winning. If it was, it was the razor-ist of winning, barely. It was a very underwhelming performance. Then if you compare performance vs. performance and we go the resume that Matheus Nicolau had compared to Amir Albazi, it’s like, ‘There’s no way he’s gonna jump me in the rankings.’ This dude’s never fought anybody and the fight that was supposed to be a big one, nobody really thinks he won it.”
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 45.
It appears Abubakar Nurmagomedov had to battle some early adversity at UFC on ESPN 45.
It appears [autotag]Abubakar Nurmagomedov[/autotag] had to battle some early adversity at UFC on ESPN 45.
Nurmagomedov (17-4-1 MMA, 2-2 UFC) was edged out in a split decision loss to Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos (24-7 MMA, 10-3 UFC) in this past Saturday’s main card at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
Coach Javier Mendez revealed that Nurmagomedov hurt his knee in Round 1, but decided to battle through it. Nurmagomedov was able to win Round 2 on two of the judges’ scorecards, but lost Round 3 on all three.
“It was such a close and competitive fight,” Mendez said on his YouTube channel. “Hats off to dos Santos. He’s a great fighter. He really is a great fighter. I watched him fight, and I said, ‘Man, we got our hands full.’ I was very proud of Abubakar. He fought like a warrior. He popped his knee in the first round. He comes back, he goes, ‘I popped my knee.’ I went, ‘Ohh, boy.’ This is one of those situations where injuries happen all the time.
“Whether you pop your knee, you break your hand, I’m sorry, but you gotta go out and win the fight or you quit right there on the stool. He didn’t wanna quit, obviously. He went and fought, he fought his heart out, and obviously, he couldn’t do what he wanted. But regardless, the other opponent was super tough. And hey, it was a great fight. Not for the fans but for us, it was a great fight in the sense that we didn’t know who won. Both sides didn’t know.”
Nurmagomedov has now split his first four octagon appearances. After an upset loss to David Zawada in his UFC debut, the 33-year-old rebounded with back-to-back wins over Jared Gooden and Gadzhi Omargadzhiev, before dropping a split decision to Zaleski dos Santos.
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 45.
Amir Albazi gets closer to the top of the flyweight divison after defeating Kai Kara-France at UFC on ESPN 45.
The men’s flyweight division is shaken up in this week’s rankings update.
In the main event of UFC on ESPN 45, [autotag]Amir Albazi[/autotag] picked up a split decision win over former vacant interim title challenger [autotag]Kai Kara-France[/autotag]. Although it was a close fight, the result caused a number of movements in the flyweight divisional rankings.
Kara-France is on a two-fight skid, and falls from No. 4 to No. 9. Albazi, who remains undefeated in the UFC, improves from No. 10 to No. 7. This means in between such as Askar Askarov, Alexandre Pantoja, and Brandon Royval move up one spot as Kara-France takes a tumble.
Check out all the latest pound-for-pound and divisional USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings above.
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Jon Anik understands Kai Kara-France’s frustration with the outcome of his fight at UFC on ESPN 45.
[autotag]Jon Anik[/autotag] understands [autotag]Kai Kara-France[/autotag]’s frustration with the outcome of his fight at UFC on ESPN 45.
Kara-France (24-11 MMA, 7-4 UFC) was edged out in a split decision loss to Amir Albazi (17-1 MMA, 5-0 UFC) in this past Saturday’s headliner at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, a decision that had him and his City Kickboxing teammates in disbelief.
Anik agrees with Kara-France and believes the judges got it wrong.
“I certainly had Rounds 1, 4, and 5 for Kai Kara-France,” Anik said in a recent episode of the Anik & Florian Podcast. “A lot of people would argue maybe it was 2-2 going into that fifth round, but there was no argument as to who won that fifth round. So, I felt like it was pretty clear for Kai Kara-France.
“I understand the uproar from his teammates, and certainly it’s lazy to suggest that as an elite-level fighter you can’t leave it in the hands of the judges. More often than not when we talk about these fights that are exceedingly close, we are talking about elite-level fighters, and more often than not we are talking about five rounds.”
According to MMA Decisions, only two media outlets scored the fight for Albazi, whereas 19 others scored it for Kara-France with mixed scores of 48-47 and 49-46. It was a close fight throughout, but the momentum started to sway toward Kara-France in the championship rounds – not according to judge Chris Lee, though.
“In Round 4 of this fight, Kai Kara-France was 27 of 65 (significant strikes) and Amir Albazi was 5 of 29, and Chris Lee gave Round 4 for Amir Albazi,” Anik said. “So when I look at the singularity of that scorecard, I feel like Kai Kara-France was robbed in that Round 4.”
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 45.
