Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Check out these photos highlighting UFC stars past and present who threw out the first pitch at MLB games – and hopefully didn’t embarrass themselves.
Check out these photos highlighting UFC and Bellator stars past and present – including Jon Jones, Anderson Silva, Francis Ngannou, Stipe Miocic, Paige VanZant, and more – who threw out the first pitch at MLB games … and hopefully didn’t embarrass themselves.
Check out the full results of PFL vs. Bellator: Champions which takes place at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
PFL vs. Bellator: Champions took place Saturday and MMA Junkie provided coverage of live and official results throughout the entire card.
The event featured PFL fighters vs. Bellator fighters at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Champions of both promotions clashed in the main and co-main bouts. The main event was a heavyweight bout between PFL’s [autotag]Renan Ferreira[/autotag] and Bellator’s [autotag]Ryan Bader[/autotag]. Middleweights battled in the co-feature as PFL’s [autotag]Impa Kasanganay[/autotag] took on Bellator’s [autotag]Johnny Eblen[/autotag].
The 11-fight event featured several notable names including [autotag]Yoel Romero[/autotag], [autotag]A.J. McKee[/autotag], [autotag]Aaron Pico[/autotag], [autotag]Claressa Shields[/autotag], and the pro debut of Muhammad Ali’s grandson [autotag]Biaggio Ali Walsh[/autotag].
Check out the official results, details and highlight clips from each bout below.
Check out these photos from Yoel Romero vs. Thiago Santos, which took place on the main card of PFL vs. Bellator: Champions in Saudi Arabia.
Check out these photos from [autotag]Yoel Romero[/autotag]’s unanimous decision victory over Thiago Santos at PFL vs. Bellator: Champions, which took place at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Photos courtesy of PFL)
Check out which veterans of the UFC are competing in combat sports across the globe this weekend.
This week, the UFC returns to Mexico for UFC Fight Night 237.
The event at Mexico City Arena in Mexico City features a flyweight clash between former champion [autotag]Brandon Moreno[/autotag] and [autotag]Brandon Royval[/autotag].
Many other combat sports events are taking place that feature several familiar names that have competed under the UFC banner.
Check out which veterans of the global MMA leader are competing Feb. 22-25.
Scroll below to see how the UFC veterans fared last week, and see the names and details of this weekend’s competitors.
Upcoming event information from Tapology.
Check out the UFC, PFL, and Bellator fights that were first reported or confirmed by MMA Junkie in the past week.
MMA fight announcements are hard to follow. With so many outlets and channels available, it’s nearly impossible to organize.
But here at MMA Junkie, we’ve got your back.
Each week, we’ll compile all the newly surfaced fights in one spot. Every Monday, expect a feature listing everything you might have missed from the UFC, PFL, and Bellator.
Here are the fight announcements that were broken or confirmed by MMA Junkie or officially announced by the promotions from Jan. 15-21.
Yoel Romero thinks Israel Adesanya’s activity caught up to him, and it showed in his loss to Sean Strickland at UFC 293.
[autotag]Yoel Romero[/autotag] thinks [autotag]Israel Adesanya[/autotag]’s activity likely cost him against Sean Strickland.
Adesanya (24-3 MMA, 13-3 UFC) lost his middleweight belt in an upset unanimous decision loss to Strickland (28-5 MMA, 15-5 UFC) last month at UFC 293. Prior to the defeat, Adesanya was coming off back-to-back title fights against Alex Pereira. Adesanya lost to Pereira by knockout at UFC 281 last November but later avenged his loss with a knockout of his own at UFC 287 in April.
Romero, who lost a lackluster decision to Adesanya in March 2020 at UFC 248, thinks the damage accumulated in both fights against Pereira factored into Adesanya’s performance against Strickland.
“What I think is right now, when you have a fight and you take the damage, like Alex make against Izzy, now Izzy has a little problem, not too much,” Romero said on the Overdogs Podcast. “That’s what I’m thinking. Now he’s scared a little bit because he needs more time to recover. When you take a lot of punches in one fight, you lose – no excuses. Maybe if he had more time to recover, the fight would be different. Believe me … when he lost to Alex, he took a lot of punches.”
Adesanya has been very active throughout his career, with his three title fights against Pereira and Strickland coming in less than a calendar year. Romero would like to see Adesanya get a rematch with Strickland, but not right away.
“If he’s (Du Plessis) good, that’s the guy he needs to fight,” Romero said of Strickland’s next opponent. “After this, ‘Killa Gorilla’ (Cannonier) and after this, the rematch with Izzy.”
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Tim Kennedy reflected on the anniversary of his loss to Yoel Romero at UFC 178 – a “robbery” he claims ended his career.
[autotag]Tim Kennedy[/autotag] reflected on the anniversary of his fight vs. [autotag]Yoel Romero[/autotag] at UFC 178 – a fight he claims ended his career.
Kennedy lost to Romero in their middleweight bout in 2014 by third-round TKO just 58 seconds into the frame, but it didn’t come without controversy. Their barnburner earned Fight of the Night honors.
At the end of Round 2, a visibly tired Romero appeared to receive extra time on his stool before the start of Round 3, where the cutman applied an excess amount of vaseline to the cut over his left eyebrow. That prompted referee John McCarthy to call a cornerman back in to remove the big glob of vaseline. Kennedy was irate at the delay, but Romero and his corner were not reprimanded for it.
Thursday marked the nine-year anniversary of that fight, and Kennedy took aim at McCarthy, accusing him of mismanaging the situation.
“Robbery anniversary and the end of my fight career. Dear Nevada Athletic Commission. NAC 467.728 If a combatant fails or refuses to resume competing when the bell sounds…the referee shall award a decision of TKO.”
Robbery anniversary and the end of my fight career.
Dear Nevada Athletic Commission. NAC 467.728 If a combatant fails or refuses to resume competing when the bell sounds…the referee shall award a decision of TKO.
— Tim Kennedy (@TimKennedyMMA) September 27, 2023
McCarthy responded, explaining what went down in between rounds.
“Tim you are an amazing person and I truly wish the very best life has to offer both you and your family. Perhaps I could of done something differently during your fight. I wish I had the forethought to envision this exact situation before it ever occurred and that way I may have handled it differently. But you are not stating facts about what occurred. Yoel was told to stay seated by the NSAC Inspector. The truth is the Cutman hired and paid for by the UFC did not re-enter the cage when summoned to do so and that is what held up the start of the 3rd round. It is not Yoel’s fault that this occurred and the Cutman is not part of Yoel’s official corner. Language barriers did not help as well. It’s egregious to penalize a person when they are not at fault and that is why there were no point deductions nor DQ. Was it completely fair to you? No I don’t believe it was, but there are times when there is no perfect solution in the moment. I hope the very best for you in all that you do.”
Tim you are an amazing person and I truly wish the very best life has to offer both you and your family. Perhaps I could of done something differently during your fight. I wish I had the forethought to envision this exact situation before it ever occurred and that way I may have… https://t.co/0CZhsBSlVK
— Big John McCarthy (@JohnMcCarthyMMA) September 27, 2023
The loss to Romero snapped Kennedy’s four-fight winning streak. Kennedy lost to Kelvin Gastelum by TKO more than two years later and retired after the fight. He is at peace with that marking the near end of his career, but not how the Romero fight went down.
“I’m super happy I’m done fighting and this fight brought in the end. So thank you for that. You failed to mange control of what was happening in the cage. The entire Yoel team played you like a fiddle and got what they wanted… more time to recover.”
I’m super happy I’m done fighting and this fight brought in the end. So thank you for that.
You failed to mange control of what was happening in the cage. The entire Yoel team played you like a fiddle and got what they wanted… more time to recover.— Tim Kennedy (@TimKennedyMMA) September 29, 2023
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Ray Longo says Aljamain Sterling wanted to put on a crowd-pleasing performance at UFC 292.
Ray Longo says [autotag]Aljamain Sterling[/autotag] wanted to put on a crowd-pleasing performance at UFC 292.
Sterling (23-4 MMA, 15-4 UFC) lost his bantamweight title to [autotag]Sean O’Malley[/autotag] (17-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) by second-round TKO in this past Saturday’s main event at TD Garden in Boston.
Longo praised O’Malley for perfectly timing the right hand, but thinks the fight was going Sterling’s way until the stoppage. Longo also revealed that Sterling feared that his fight with O’Malley could resemble [autotag]Israel Adesanya[/autotag]’s lackluster title defense against [autotag]Yoel Romero[/autotag] at UFC 248, which could have thrown him off.
“The guy is good,” Longo said on the Anik & Florian Podcast. “He’s a great striker – there’s no question about it. Look, all three judges gave Aljo the first round, and I think deservingly so. But in between rounds, I really told Aljo, ‘Let’s go kick heavy. Let’s offset his punches. What I was looking at in the first round was a guy that didn’t want to commit. I think he was afraid of the takedown, and we knew that was going to happen, but I wasn’t really sure. I think O’Malley expected Aljo to do in the first round what he did in the second round.
“Aljo’s point was he could have made it like an Adesanya vs. Romero fight, but it would have been so displeasing to the crowd – which I’m surprised, because normally he doesn’t talk like he gives a sh*t about the crowd. The burden would have been on Sean. He would have been down two rounds if Aljo just does the same thing as in the first round. I don’t think he was making a move. Now I think it’s because he was waiting for Aljo to shoot in, but then somebody said he did have a bad rib. Maybe that played into it, too, that he was just going to keep his distance. But motherf*cker was accurate. He hit a beautiful counter.”
Sterling was initially against making a quick turnaround after defending his belt against Henry Cejudo at UFC 288 in May, but eventually succumbed to it. Longo says the UFC ended up getting their wish.
“It is what it is, but he did make the walk after three months,” Longo said. “He 100 percent didn’t want to do it a couple of months ago, but once he committed, he had a good camp. There’s absolutely no excuses. The UFC wanted what they wanted and they got what they wanted for sure.”
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 292.
Check out all the facts from Bellator 297, where Vadim Nemkov took another step toward arguably the greatest resume in Bellator history.
Bellator’s lone event of the month went down Friday with Bellator 297 at Wintrust Arena in Chicago, and it was arguably the promotion’s biggest show of the year thus far.
Two championship bouts topped the card, and both men who entered the cage with belts, lefts with them, too. [autotag]Vadim Nemkov[/autotag] (16-2 MMA, 9-0 BMMA) handily defeated [autotag]Yoel Romero[/autotag] (15-7 MMA, 2-2 BMMA) by unanimous decision in the headliner to retain the light heavyweight strap, while [autotag]Sergio Pettis[/autotag] (23-5 MMA, 5-0 BMMA) kept hold of bantamweight gold with a unanimous decision over [autotag]Patricio Freire[/autotag] (35-6 MMA, 22-6 BMMA).
For more on the numbers, check below for MMA Junkie’s post-event facts from Bellator 297.
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Check out these photos highlighting Vadim Nemkov’s light heavyweight title defense over Yoel Romero at Bellator 297 at Wintrust Arena.
Check out these photos highlighting [autotag]Vadim Nemkov[/autotag]’s light heavyweight title defense over [autotag]Yoel Romero[/autotag] at Bellator 297 at Wintrust Arena. (Photos courtesy of Bellator MMA/Lucas Noonan)
