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The UFC’s habit of keeping the purse strings tight when it comes to fighter pay has had a couple of long term unintended consequences. First and foremost, over the past handful of years, fans have begun to see increasing stagnation among the title contenders all up and down the promotion’s 12 weight classes. Fighters know that if they’re going to get paid they need to fight for a belt, taking on lower-ranked rising prospects is an all risk, no reward scenario.

The other trend that’s emerged in recent years has been that of the ‘superfight’ and the double champ. Much like the contenders below them, champions are starting to realize that benefits to taking on new challengers are few and far between. If they’re going to make the most money they can by A) keeping their title and B) fighting on the biggest PPVs possible, then it’s not hard to see why a champion vs. champion matchmaking is has only become more popular.

UFC bantamweight champ Sean O’Malley campaigning for fight with Ilia Topuria

It was something of an interesting twist, then, when Sean O’Malley announced last year that he had no real interest in fighting Alexander Volkanovski, in part, it seems, because of Volk’s dominance over the division at 145 lbs.

“[Volkanovski] would be a very very difficult fight,” O’Malley explained at the time. “I mean, do I believe I could knock him out? 100%. I believe I could knock out anybody around 135-145. 55? That would be a little tougher, I’d need to put on some L-Bs. But Volk’s a very difficult fight. I’m not saying I’ll never fight him, that’s just not what I want now.”

That said, with a new champion now in place, it seems O’Malley’s reservations are a whole lot lower. Ilia Topuria took the crown this past weekend at UFC 298. While O’Malley recognizes he’s still got a couple challengers ahead of him, on a recent episode of the MMA Hour he made it sound like the Georgian is definitely on his radar for a future battle.

“I’m trying to call out a fight that I feel is exciting, that’s like holy s***,” O’Malley explained, defending his interest in fighting Topuria (transcript via MMA Fighting). “But I got a lot of pushback on it. I don’t know if people actually want me to fight Merab as much as they just hate the confidence that I have that I would go out there and knock out Ilia.

“But I decided, I’ve said what I needed to say, I’ve sent my message to Ilia. If Merab is next, Merab is next. I can get Ilia whenever, whenever the time comes. I haven’t talked to the UFC because obviously there’s nothing to talk about. I’ve got Chito Vera, March 9. That’s what’s next. That’s what I need to focus on.”

Islam Makhachev’s coach makes case for welterweight title fight

Sean O’Malley isn’t the only one setting his sights on a potential double-champ run. Heir to Khabib Nurmagomedov’s lightweight crown, Islam Makhachev has two title defenses under his belt now, after winning gold back in October of 2022. Both of those, as it happens, against then-featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski.

Among current lightweight contenders, Makhachev has a win over Charles Oliveira, whom he defeated to claim the belt back at UFC 280, and a narrow 2019 victory over Arman Tsarukyan. The path should be wide open for fighters like Justin Gaethje, Dustin Poirier, or Michael Chandler to make a run, but that hasn’t stopped Makhachev’s coach, Javier Mendez, from positing a potential path to fighting for welterweight gold instead in a recent interview with Casino Alpha (transcript via MMA Fighting).

“After Ramadan, I’m hoping the UFC will fight Islam at Madison Square Garden—only because it’s good for his marketability to fight in the U.S.,” Mendez explained. “That’s what I’d like, but right now there’s no fight on the horizon for him just yet. I’m sure soon the UFC will announce a return for him, but just not yet.

“Justin Gaethje, Charles Oliveira, and then the welterweight title. They would be my three next fights for Islam. I’d like to see Islam become the welterweight world champion in 2025. I’d love to see that, and I know he would too. If we get two fights this year, who knows, you might see the UFC offer him a title shot sooner.”

I guess for the moment we should all just be glad that Alexandre Pantoja… uhh… Dricus Du Plessis? No??? Leon Edwards!? … well I guess there’s nowhere else for Jon Jones or Tom Aspinall to go, so at least we’ve got that. In the meantime, it seems like every other champ in the UFC has their eyes set on an eventual run at an upper-division belt.

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Even Dana White knows he talks a whole lot of nonsense. The longtime president and current CEO of the UFC has been feuding with the talent going all the way back to his time as an MMA manager. Whether it’s Frank Shamrock, Paul Daley, Roy Nelson, Nate Marquardt or a dozen other notable fighters from the promotion’s past, White is no stranger to animosity.

It’s something of a surprise, then, to see the UFC putting Wanderlei Silva in the Hall of Fame, considering the place ‘The Axe Murderer’ was in when he left the company back in 2013.

Dana White once banned Wanderlei Silva from UFC Hall of Fame

Wanderlei Silva’s inglorious UFC exit came on the heels of one of the most disastrous fight build-ups in MMA history. A season of the Ultimate Fighter, pitting Chael Sonnen against the Brazilian PRIDE legend was meant to lead to a showdown between the two. Then Silva injured his hand fighting with Sonnen during filming. It only got worse from there.

The bout was immediately re-booked, and then scrapped wholesale when Silva refused to submit to NSAC pre-fight drug testing. In an ultimate case of tragic irony, however, Sonnen failed his own pre-fight drug test shortly thereafter—leading to a four year retirement from competition.

As for Silva? He got stuck with a lifetime ban from the NSAC, as well as a $70,000 fine.

“Nobody has ever run from a drug test before. I didn’t see a lifetime ban coming. Nobody will let him fight. He’s in a very serious situation,” Dana White explained in a 2014 interview.

“There’s going to be no Hall of Fame. The guy’s been Pete Rose’d. There’s going to be no Hall of Fame offers.”

Eventually, Silva’s ban was overturned, and he returned to competition for a short, unsuccessful stint with Bellator. But, the rift between Silva and the world’s largest MMA promotion continued to grow. At one point, it got so bad that the former Chute Boxe talent accused the UFC of fight fixing. The threat of a lawsuit forced a swift apology, and seemingly severed the Brazilian’s ties with Zuffa for good.

Dana White forgot about Silva ban

They say time heals all wounds, however. There may be no better evidence of the truth in that turn of phrase than UFC 298, where the promotion announced that Wanderlei Silva would be part of the next UFC Hall of Fame inductee class. Seated cageside for the event, Silva was all smiles to receive the honor.

“I had no idea, it was a huge surprise. It makes me feel really happy,” Silva told ESPN in a backstage interview.

Dana White was feeling pretty good about it too, even when a reported asked him about his past ‘Pete Rose’ comments to the 2003 PRIDE middleweight Grand Prix champion.

“He deserves to be. He deserves to be in the Hall of Fame,” White told reporters after the most recent PPV event, speaking of Wanderlei Silva. “Back when me and the Fertittas got into this sport, we were huge Wanderlei Silva fans. Everybody that was a hardcore fan back then was a big fan of PRIDE. A lot of big stars came out of there, and Wanderlei has done a lot for the sport in the early days, he deserves to be in there.”

“I’ve been in so many beefs with so many people that I didn’t even remember that until you just told me,” White added, when asked about banning Silva. “It’s a good thing I forgot!”

Silva’s induction into the UFC Hall of Fame is expected to take place during International Fight Week 2024, sometime in late June/early July. At the moment, Frankie Edgar is the only other fighter who has been announced for this year’s event.

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This article originally appeared on the Bloody Elbow Substack on February 18th, 2024. Consider supporting Bloody Elbow with a paid subscription to get first look at all our top stories.

I hate to paraphrase a classic Joe Rogan talking point, but the man has said a whole hell of a lot over the years, every now and then he has to hit the mark. In this case, that mark is all about how tough it is to be the longtime champ; for a fighter to ‘carry a target on their back’ year after year after year.

Eventually, any fighter that finds themselves at that level, usually four-plus title defenses into their reign starts to encounter a very particular phenomenon.

The path to UFC greatness

Early on in their time with the UFC, they’re the one making the charge, the one nobody is prepared for. Remember Anderson Silva coming to the Octagon and his fights against Chris Leben and Rich Franklin? They had no idea at all what was about to hit them. Most talents may not have that kind of shock value these days, where the promotion is much bigger and the path to the belt longer—but then again we’re not too far removed from Alex Pereira blitzing MW and LHW on his way to two different belts.

After that, the new champ has to claim their space. Most likely they’ve been merely one of several contenders, usually a group consisting of other former belt holders and talents who have been rising right up along side them. Their first few defenses, then, are going to be bouts of mutual interest. They’ll know just as much about their opponent as their opponent knows about them. Maybe these fighters have been side-eyeing one another for a bit, but for the bulk of their careers they’ve been focused on the stars of a previous era…

We’ve seen a whole truckload of UFC champions that have cut their way through those challenges. Guys like Israel Adesanya, Kamaru Usman, Dominick Cruz, and Max Holloway had no trouble taking out their share of former and current top talent around them. Where things have gotten tricky however, has been in the new blood.

Topuria as Volkanovski’s final boss

When Alexander Volkanovski first won featherweight gold, Ilia Topuria hadn’t even set foot inside the Octagon. ‘The Matador’ has spent literally his entire career inside the UFC focused at least in part on defeating one Australian man. Contenders like Yair Rodriguez and Brian Ortega couldn’t say that, having both joined the UFC when Conor McGregor and/or Jose Aldo still held claim to the crown. They passed through the whole Max Holloway era before facing Volkanovski.

This was new territory for ‘The Great’. He’d beaten the old guard, beaten his peers, now he had to stamp out this young lion. As we saw in Anaheim, he couldn’t make it happen.

There’s no shame in that. As I said before, even many of the best fighters in MMA history never achieved that goal. And those that have achieved it have often done so only barely hanging on by a thread.

The short list

At one time the MMA world was neck deep in arguments that Jon Jones actually lost to both Dominick Reyes and Thiago Santos at the end of his light heavyweight run. Younger fans may not remember, but Georges St-Pierre’s final welterweight title fight against Johny Hendricks was anything other than a clean cut victory for the Canadian legend.

It’s a huge credit to Demetrious Johnson that he beat both Kyoji Horiguchi and Henry Cejudo decisively before losing that narrow decision in the ‘Triple C’ rematch and getting sent packing off to Singapore. It’s just too bad that ‘Mighty Mouse’ didn’t have more flyweight forerunners to test himself against early on (although victories over Miguel Torres and Ian McCall certainly should count for something).

As it stands, that sort of makes up the entire list—at least as far as men go. Aldo went on to have remarkable success at 135 after Holloway ran him out of featherweight but he could never gain gold again. For the women, Amanda Nunes is the one fighter to really and truly grasp this claim to fame, having beat Tate, Rousey, Cyborg, and Holm, alongside Pennington, GDR, and Shevchenko. Adding later era defenses against Pena and Aldana. For Shevchenko, her victory over Taila Santos is probably her most clear pushback of what would have been considered the ‘new generation’, and that came with its own controversy.

Long story short, there’s a very small (and only lightly sketched out by yours truly) subcategory of all time pinnacle champions. It’s a list that includes Jon Jones, Georges St-Pierre, Demetrious Johnson, Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko. This was Volk’s chance to join that illustrious club and he couldn’t make it happen.

A truly great fighter and a dominant force in his own time, but not one of the true multi-generational championship gods of the UFC.

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UFC 298 looks all set to be an action-packed night of PPV action for the world’s largest MMA promotion. The main event features a top-tier featherweight fight between Alexander Volkanovski and Ilia Topuria alongside a middleweight top contender’s bout with former champion Robert Whittaker taking on fan favorite Paulo Costa.

Further down the card, however, there’s another fight that deserves just as much interest and attention as the top-billed action for the night. A bantamweight scrap between top ranked Merab Dvalishvili and former two-division champion Henry Cejudo. Dvalishvili hopes to earn his first shot at gold and pick up his 10th straight victory, while Cejudo is looking to bounce back from a closely contested loss to then champion Aljamain Sterling at UFC 288 last May.

UFC boss Dana White lays into Henry Cejudo for retiring ‘in his f***ing prime’

Fans might excuse Henry Cejudo for failing to recapture UFC gold by only the narrowest of margins last year, considering he had spent the previous three years sitting on the sidelines, but in a recent interview ahead of UFC 298 Dana White made it clear that he considers the time off something of a stain on ‘Triple C”s legacy. Most notably because White feels Cejudo had no reason not to be fighting.

“I mean, I think it was ridiculous that Henry Cejudo retired.” White explained (Transcript via MMA Junkie). “When you retire, you should stay away and never come back. This guy retired when he was in his f***ing prime. He looked good. This is a big fight for both of these guys.”

“Merab [Dvalishvili] sat out, and didn’t take a title fight because his friend had the title—all that stuff,” White added. “So I think you’re looking at two guys that, in my opinion, have made some mistakes in their careers. Saturday night’s a big deal for both of these guys. This whole f***ing card is incredible. I love this card.”

Dana White spin control

In the case of Merab Dvalishvili, there are two sides to this story in clear opposition to one another. Back in March, Dvalishvili made it clear that he didn’t want anyone asking him about fighting Aljamain Sterling.

“If they want me to fight Aljo, maybe they have to pay $10 billion,” Dvalishvili said at the time. “Then yes, I’ll be ready.”

Shortly afterward, Dana White sort of claimed that the UFC had offered Dvalishvili a chance to fight Sterling for the belt and that he had turned it down.

“Oh, yeah.” White stated when asked if Dvalishvili had been offered the Sterling fight, “He could have that fight tomorrow.”

It’s a claim Dvalishvili has denied on several occasions now, saying that he has never been offered a fight against Sterling. From the sound of things, it doesn’t seem like he’s ever officially been offered a UFC title fight at all. But, considering that most bout negotiations are usually handled by matchmakers and managers, it’s impossible to know where the truth of that lies.

As for Henry Cejudo, however, his case for mid-career retirement has always been crystal clear.

“Show me the money,” Cejudo said in a 2020 interview. “That’s it. I’ve got my legacy. My legacy is written. Everybody knows what I’m after. I’m out here chasing green now. That’s what I want. I’ve got all the gold. I want the green.”

Whether or not Cejudo was able to finally really get paid big money by the UFC or not? We should know better this Saturday in Anaheim since California is one of the few states that still releases fighter contract information to the public. Even if he’s making serious ends now, however, the longtime Fight Ready talent has made it clear that it’s win or go home this time around. At 37-years-of-age he’s looking for one more run at gold. If he can’t get that, it sounds like he won’t stick around.

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MMA and Hollywood have had a somewhat tortured relationship over the last few decades. While there have been a couple decent high points like Warrior and Redbelt, most of the time when MMA is appearing in a major motion picture, it’s gonna be a hot mess.

That probably extends to one of 2024’s most anticipated fight-adjacent cinematic projects as well, the long awaited remake of the Patrick Swayze classic Road House. Once anticipated as a potential Ronda Rousey vehicle (before her limitations as an onscreen talent became more apparent), the movie is set to star Jake Gyllenhaal as Elwood Dalton, an MMA fighter turned night club bouncer. Filmed in part during UFC 285, production problems have become a noted part of the movie’s upcoming release.

Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel tried to save Road House producer

A few weeks ago, signs of problems behind the scenes became apparent with reports that star Jake Gyllenhaal and director Doug Liman had tried desperately to secure a theatrical release for the film with a a screening on Amazon owner Jeff Bezos’ yacht. That report came via Puck News and former Hollywood Reporter Matthew Belloni.

Despite the film’s apparent popularity with screening audiences (no word on what Bezos thought), it’s still geared for a prime exclusive release. A recent report from Variety, however, laid out more details on how the decision became so fraught.

According to Variety’s sources, early on in the project, director Liman and producer Joel Silver (who produced the Swayze original), as well as Gyllenhaal all signed off on the film as a streaming exclusive with the promise of an extra $25 million in the budget for passing on a theatrical release.

From the sound of things, however, it seems that was a deal quickly regretted. And while Gyllenhaal and Liman both campaigned to get the movie to the big screen, Silver especially became contentious with studio staff. So much so that Ari Emanuel tried to step in and save his job, despite few real connections to the project.

Silver continued to push for a theatrical release and grew so combative that the studio threatened to cut ties with him. That prompted Emanuel, CEO of WME parent Endeavor, to lobby on Silver’s behalf. Sources say Emanuel reached out to Salke and begged her not to fire the legendary producer. One source familiar with the back and forth described his pleas as “desperate.” Emanuel enlisted private investigator-turned-quasi consultant Anthony Pellicano in an effort to help Silver keep his job. (WME declined comment.)

“It made no sense why Ari cared,” says an insider. “WME doesn’t even rep Liman. CAA does.”

Despite Ari Emanuel’s attempts, Silver was removed from the project in 2023, and although the filmmakers continued their campaign without him, their pleas fell on deaf ears. Hopefully audience reactions are a better sign of the film’s merits than the studio infighting. The remake feels terribly unnecessary considering that the first one is already a timeless classic, but it’d be nice if it was at least a fun watch.

Rose Namajunas gets executive producer credit on ‘Strawweight’

Speaking of MMA themed movies, it looks like UFC fans will be getting a project sometime in the near future with more than just tenuous ties to the world’s largest MMA promotion. In this case, it’s a fight drama starring Chloe Grace Moretz of Kick Ass fame, alongside Black Panther’s Lupita Nyong’o. Variety reports that former UFC strawweight champion Rose Namajunas has been tabbed as a “fight consultant” for the film and will get an ‘executive producer’ credit as well.

The film — being launched at the European Film Market by WME Independent and CAA Media Finance — follows the journeys of two fighters who find themselves competing against each other in the Octagon. One is a young woman (Moretz) whose life is changed forever when she discovers her passion for the UFC, while the other is a former champion (Nyong’o) who is determined to reclaim her title by reinventing herself. Both want the same thing — respect — but only one can come out on top.

The film will mark the feature directorial debut of James M. Johnston, who served as second unit director for the Green Knight.

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New year, same UFC main event problems.

Really, if we’re being fair the world’s largest MMA promotion has already had a much better start to the year than they did in 2023 when it comes to keeping fight cards together, but the good times couldn’t last forever. Amid numerous reports of struggles to find a headlining fight for UFC 300 a smaller Fight Night main event looks to be the first major cancelled booking of the year.

Vicente Luque gets new UFC Atlantic City opponent, moves to co-main

The UFC had been hoping to book a top flight welterweight bout between action talent Vicente Luque and rising potential contender Sean Brady. Unfortunately, despite announcing the contest to the public, it later turned out that contracts had never actually been signed. Brady was sidelined by injury and couldn’t recover in time to make the booking.

Fortunately for fans, it looks like the UFC found a fun replacement. With Brady out, MMA Junkie reports that Luque will take on human highlight machine Joaquin Buckley. The 29-year-old St. Louis native first shot to prominence back in 2020, with an all time great KO over recently crowned PFL champion Impa Kasanganay. Consistency has been a little hard to find in the time since, but Buckley dropped down to welterweight last year and picked up a head kick KO over Andre Fialho for his trouble. Most recently, Buckley defeated longtime UFC veteran Alex Morono at UFC Fight Night: Dawson vs. Green.

For his part, the 32-year-old Luque will enter the bout off a victory in August of last year, over former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos. That win broke a two-fight losing skid for the Brazilian, dropping a unanimous decision to Belal Muhammad, followed by a KO loss to Geoff Neal. Shortly after the Neal loss, Luque was diagnosed with a brain bleed, keeping him sidelined for a year before he was cleared to fight again.

Erin Blanchfield vs. Manon Fiorot elevated to main event

Despite Luque staying on the card, it seems the UFC didn’t feel his new dance partner merited retaining the main event slot. Instead, that position will go to a women’s flyweight top contender fight between Erin Blanchfield and Manon Fiorot. It’s a move that the New Jersey native has been campaigning for over the last several weeks.

“I don’t know yet,” Blanchfield told MMA Junkie back in December when asked about the possibility of headlining in Atlantic City. “I’m pushing, I want it to be a main event. I’d love to fight five rounds. I feel like that fits my style really well, and prepping myself for a title fight, I think going five rounds would be super beneficial. So I don’t know for sure, but I’m going to push for five rounds.”

Both Blanchfield and Fiorot have looked like obvious contenders over the course of their runs in the Octagon. However, both women are currently coming off less than spectacular showings against elite opposition—with ‘Cold Blooded’ grinding out a decision over Taila Santos last time out, and Manon Fiorot gutting out a hard fight against former strawweight champion Rose Namajunas.

Outside of the flyweight bout, the Atlantic City fight card may also play home to the last fight of Chris Weidman’s career. The former middleweight champion has struggled badly with injuries in recent years, and largely failed to find the form that saw him take the belt from Anderson Silva. Weidman last competed at UFC 292 in August of 2023, losing to Brad Tavares via unanimous decision. He’s expected to take on power punching former M-1 champion Bruno Silva on March 30th.

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A new week, a new batch of MMA headlines to warm your heart or make you palm your face. This time around we’ve got more good works from Jared Gordon and a little advocacy from Loma Lookboonmee. But, we’ve also got Max Griffin with MMA judging complaints and Henry Cejudo stealing the spotlight from everyone with a whole bunch of unnecessary drama.

As always, I’m doing my best to sort through it all and try to separate the wheat from the chaff, the gold from the fools.

LOVE TO SEE IT

Jared Gordon stays on message

One of the things that MMA does like few other sports out there is to connect fans to real, honest to god hard luck stories. In a world where more and more athletes find themselves in private schools and top flight programs from an early age, preparing them for potential future stardom, Mixed Martial Arts remains a true home for misfits.

In point of fact, it’s nearly cliche at this juncture to turn on Dana White’s Contender Series and hear multiple tales of child abuse, neglect, crime, and addiction. The people that find their peace in cage fighting often come to it through fire and brimstone.

That said, it’s not every fighter that finds their way from a tragic past to advocacy for a positive future. For many, the mistakes they’ve made—the harm they’ve caused to themselves or others—are things they’d rather put firmly behind them. It’s can feel a lot easier to start a new chapter in life by severing all association to the person someone used to be.

I’d argue it takes a special kind of strength to make past mistakes as big a part of someone’s reformation as their current successes; to not forget who they used to be and what trials bought them here.

It’s great then to see the level of advocacy that Jared Gordon does regularly for drug addiction awareness and recovery. A self-described heroin user starting at age 19, Gordon was left legally dead from a drug overdose in 2015. An incident that pushed him to finally kick the habit and turn his life around.

Now 35 and with a 13-year MMA career under his belt, he’s still doing PSA work and public outreach to try and help others fight addiction.

There are plenty of fighters out there that get involved with charitable causes, but few seem to do so with the level of consistency and self reflection that Gordon shows. The man is setting a great example and his advocacy should be lauded at every turn.

Loma Lookboonmee campaigns for UFC atomweight division

It has to be said—despite Dana White’s past sexism—no promotion has done more to build the public perception of women’s combat sports than the UFC. The conversation around women’s MMA may have started with things like HOOKnSHOOT, JEWELS, EliteXC, and Strikeforce, but the UFC is what really brought it main stream. In a day and age where sports like boxing and kickboxing are still entirely struggling to create any amount of interest in their best and brightest performers, the UFC is an industry leader.

Currently, the Octagon is the only place where combat sports fans can routinely see women headlining not just smaller Fight Night events, but even PPVs. Nothing else out there compares.

That said, the promotion’s dedication to female athletes still often feels slipshod and halfhearted. Having once put all its eggs in the Ronda Rousey basket the UFC has struggled to bring forward a new generation of stars, especially in higher weight divisions.

But, if a venture into women’s featherweight has entirely failed to pay dividends, the women’s strawweight division has maintained a position of relative strength. Fighters like Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Rose Namajunas, and Weili Zhang may have never risen to superstar prominence, but have proven popular commodities capable of bringing high level MMA to the UFC’s biggest stages.

If it’s clear right now that there’s more talent to be found at 115 lbs than there is at 135, then shouldn’t the UFC be setting its sights lower rather than higher? That’s a question Thai UFC talent Loma Lookboonmee would like answered as well.

“The big surprise for me was just how big [Bruna Brasil] was,” Lookboonmee reporters after her latest victory (transcript via MMA Junkie). “She was so much taller than me. I really hope they open 105.”

“I think that if the UFC opens 105, No. 1, I’ll be the first fighter in there. No. 2, I think it would open up a lot of opportunities for Asian women—not just from Thailand, but from all over Asia. So I really hope they do it. People message me from time to time asking me if they’re going to do it, but obviously I don’t know.”

At 5′ 1″, competing in the strawweight division is always going to be a struggle for Lookboonmee. But with talents like Carla Esparza (5′ 1″), Tecia Torres (5′ 1″), Brianna Fortino (4′ 11″), and Tabatha Ricci (5′ 1″), it feels like the promotion already has a collection of athletes under contract to build from.

The UFC has found repeatedly over the years, that fighting is a great opportunity for smaller athletes. Despite their reluctance to open divisions downward, every time they’ve done so, the quality of their product increases.

There are many parts of the world, including those where the UFC would love to see more expansion, where women tend to be much more in line with a potential atomweight division. It’s not hard to think that Lookboonmee would be proven correct in pretty short order. The featherweight division has failed, but that doesn’t need to mean fewer spots on the roster. Time to try something new.

HATE TO SEE IT

Max Griffin picks the exact wrong time to complain about judging

At this point, complaints about MMA scoring feel nearly as old as MMA itself. Whether it’s the idea that a takedown steals the round, or that guard work is underappreciated, or Dominick Cruz insisting that there’s no more decisive sign of damage than a cut on the eyebrow, it feels like no fight card goes by without some level of controversy.

This past weekend was no exception. We had Bolaji Oki experiencing the dread of a mysterious split score for what should have been a reasonably clear victory over Timothy Cuamba and, earlier in the evening, we had Max Griffin’s fight against Jeremiah Wells.

After his bout, Griffin sat down with reporters to lodge a complaint against one judge in particular, noted longtime MMA official Sal D’Amato. Only, given the fact that Griffin won a fight most observers felt he should have lost, it’s very difficult to figure out exactly what is the man’s damage?

“I cannot stand Sal D’Amato,” Griffin told reporters at his post-fight presser (transcript MMA Junkie). “He has me on Neil Magny losing, he has me on numerous fights. … He picks against me every single time. I don’t know if I did something in a past life to him, if I did something to him, but Sal D’Amato hates me.”

Of course, faced with a claim like that, pundits were quick to fact check Griffin, finding that—far from being a victim of systemic abuse—the longtime welterweight has had exactly four fights judged by D’Amato in his career. Of those four, D’Amato scored two for Griffin and two against him.

I get it, it’s MMA—thin skinned-ness is practically a packaged deal for athletes, along with bad knees and staph infection. At some point, though, I have to wonder if it’s all performative. Ever fighter can’t just be picking the weirdest reasons to get mad all the time can they?

I like Max Griffin, he’s a solid, nose-to-the-grindstone kind of talent who has made a lot of consistent small improvements in his game over the years. But he’s also a decision machine who goes nip-tuck with everyone. He has no one to blame but himself for a lack of clear and easy victories. Especially not a judge that happened to get the last one right.

Henry Cejudo pranks himself?

Unexpectedly, one of the biggest topics in MMA news this past week has been around Henry Cejudo. But rather than a focus on his potential future retirement plans—or on the difficulty of facing Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 298 after losing to Serra-Longo teammate Aljamain Sterling—fighters, fans, and pundits have found themselves faced with an odd bit of UFC shoulder programming.

UFC 298 Countdown cameras appeared to capture what should have been a private moment from Cejudo’s fight camp. In it the former Olympic gold medalist and two division champion dismissed his longtime coach Eric Albarracin.

“I’m getting rid of specific coaches, man, and that’s you included, dude,” Cejudo said, clearly playing the moment for the cameras before explaining that he knew he could publicly strip Albarracin of his duties like that because of the man’s natural humility.

The video led to a hilarious exchange between Dvalishvili and the Fight Ready captain just a couple days later, with the Georgian fighter joking that he had swiped Cejudo’s coach for himself. But it also led to a lot of obvious backlash.

Not because getting some new coaches might not be the right move for Cejudo. Fighters, after all, need to be selfish to a pretty high degree. They take the risk, they take the loss. If ‘Triple C’ felt he needed a new camp to win his next fight, he’s well within his rights to make that move. But to make it a public spectacle the way he did just smacked of unnecessary tactlessness—an unfortunate byproduct of a man often called the ‘King of Cringe.’

With blowback from the video seemingly unabating, Cejudo took to Instagram on Tuesday to announce that the initial video of him firing his coach was, in fact, just a prank for the cameras.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Henry Cejudo (@henry_cejudo)

If that whole thing really was a joke (and this isn’t just some attempt to save face), then Cejudo has to know that the joke was on him, right?

People don’t care if he’s working with Albarracin or not, that’s his business. Some fighters trade coaches like Dana White changes P4P GOAT proclamations, a new one every week. Nobody cares. All Cejudo did was make himself look like an jackass in public for nobody’s gain. The whole discussion will be forgotten in a couple months time to no result beyond the fact that for a few days people thought, “Wow, that guy’s a jerk.”

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We recently got a peak behind the curtain of the UFC’s fight booking apparatus and their struggles to find a headlining fight for the centennial UFC 300 PPV card this coming April. It’s a night that Dana White has promised will wow fans from start to finish with electric matchmaking from the opening prelim all the way to the main evnet.

At the moment, the world’s largest MMA promotion has announced 11 bouts for the card, including a women’s strawweight title fight between Zhang Weili and Yan Xiaonan and a BMF title fight between Justin Gaethje and Max Holloway. But, as of yet, there’s been no word of an official headliner. Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall both announced that they had been asked to take the spot, but Jones declined the offer and Aspinall says Stipe Miocic turned down an opportunity to take him on.

Khamzat Chimaev says no to UFC 300

Following those revelations, MMA Hour host Ariel Helwani threw a little grist into the rumor mill. According to conversations he’d had with various industry insiders, the UFC was working to book any one of four potential fights: Khamzat Chimaev vs. Leon Edwards, Leon Edwards vs. Belal Muhammad, Khamzat Chimaev vs. Dricus du Plessis, or Dricus du Plessis vs. Israel Adesanya.

If that was enough to get fans hyped once again, it didn’t take long for another harsh dose of reality to kill the vibe. Shortly after Helwani’s report, Chimaev released a statement to MMA Uncensored; a resounding denial of any intention to fight on the April 13th card.

“I will fight everybody,” Chimaev explained (transcript via MMA Fighting). “Leon [Edwards], [Dricus] du Plessis, anyone, but not [during] Ramadan. I think Ramadan [is during] UFC 300.

“Maybe somebody in Saudi Arabia. I want to fight there. Not fighting in Ramadan anymore.”

Alongside the concerns over fighting too near Ramadan, it has to be noted that Chimaev has also recently been struggling to get a visa for travel to the US. Likely, in part, owing to his seemingly increasingly close relationship with Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov.

“The thing is, Chimaev doesn’t have Swedish passport,” his coach Alan Nascimento explained back in October of last year. “He’s not a Swedish citizen. He never was. He has a Russian passport. With this situation going on, the war, it’s hard for anyone to travel around the world with a Russian passport. Especially for a Chechen.

“I won’t go into details, but anyone who knows the story and is following what’s going on in the world knows that everybody is trying to corner Russia with sanctions. He’s living that. That’s one of the reasons why he chose to leave Sweden. Like, ‘I fight for the country, I live there since I was a teenager and pay taxes, and I always apply for a citizenship, but never get it.’”

Chimaev training the Kadyrov children

Back in late 2022, around the same time as the mysterious disappearance (and reported death) of former UFC light heavyweight and noted Kadyrov inner circle member Abdul Kerim Edilov, Khamzat Chimaev began appearing in more social media featuring the Chechen dictator and his kids.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Khamzat Chimaev (@khamzat_chimaev)

Chimaev attended UFC 280 with the family, and still regularly posts pictures of himself hanging out with Kadyrov’s sons both in and out of the gym. He dropped this post with Dustum Kadyrov just last week on Instagram.

Chimaev last fought on US soil back in September of 2022, taking a submission victory over Kevin Holland in a hastily rearranged fight card after ‘Borz’ missed the welterweight limit by nearly 10 pounds for a planned fight with Nate Diaz.

Since then, and despite repeatedly claiming that he’s been healthy, training, and ready for action, Chimaev has only fought once, against Kamaru Usman at UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi. Given all that, it’s something of a shock that the UFC thought they could book him for UFC 300 at all, main event or no. For now it seems likely that Chimaev will have to limit his fights to international events, and the UFC’s desperate search for a massive main event battle will have to continue.

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The UFC is no stranger to fighters finding trouble with the law. Dana White once infamously had to reassure fans and media that noted featherweight action fighter Jeremy Stephens would definitely be fighting that night despite finding himself in police custody that day. Stephens did not end up fighting on October 5th, 2012, although he was eventually only charged with a misdemeanor.

That said, in a social media age where younger generations are seemingly uploading their whole lives onto the internet, there’s still a trick or two that the world’s largest MMA promotion has yet to see. In the case of middleweight fighter Sedriques Dumas that means live streaming your own arrest.

UFC middleweight Sedriques Dumas arrested on felony battery charge

TMZ reports that UFC middleweight Sedriques Dumas was taken into custody at Escambia County Jail in Florida early Tuesday morning, following reports from an unidentified woman that her boyfriend had been banging on the door and ringing the doorbell.

“So, it was a disturbance call, in regards to, her boyfriend was banging on the door and ringing the bell,” an officer can be heard telling Dumas, after he claimed that he had been stopped while out for a walk to “blow off steam.”

“I’m not her boyfriend, so that wasn’t me!” Dumas tells the officer, “We been broken up.”

“What, are you trying to say I hit her or some s—t?” Dumas added, “So please don’t f—ing play with me like that. Anyways, so what I was just saying is, bro, I’m not disturbing the peace, I’m just walking. Pure point blank.”

Shortly after that it appears that Dumas was taken into police custody.

According to a report from Yahoo! Sports, Escambia County has 12 recorded arrests for Dumas stretching back to 2012. That includes a previous domestic violence charge and apparently a current open felony marijuana possession charge.

Dumas booked for March 30th UFC card

Currently sporting a 2-1 record in the UFC (9-1 overall), Sedriques Dumas had been set for a March 30th fight against Octagon newcomer Nursulton Ruziboev. The Uzbek fighter made his UFC debut back in July of last year, taking on Brazilian power puncher Brunno Ferreira and picking up a first round KO in the process.

Fortunately for Dumas, in recent years the UFC has tended toward a policy that the promotion will not take punitive measures against their talent without an official conviction first. So, if he’s still free to travel by the March 30th date, it seems likely that he’ll remain on the card.

UFC Atlantic City is set to take place at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The card had been expected to be headlined by a welterweight bout between Sean Brady and Vicente Luque, unfortunately a previous injury for Brady has left him unable to make the fight date. No word yet on a new main event.

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One of the more pleasant surprises of the 2024 MMA media sphere has been Merab Dvalishvili. Long known as ‘that other Serra-Longo bantamweight,’ the ‘Machine’ is set for another big test this next weekend at UFC 298.

In the lead up to that fight, Dvalishvili seems like he’s decided to have a little more fun than normal on social media. Helped along, of course, by his upcoming opponent Henry Cejudo—and the former two-division champion’s boundless ability for public embarrassment.

Merab Dvalishvili claims he’s hired Henry Cejudo’s coach

In the lead-up to the February 17th UFC PPV event, Henry Cejudo decided to use the promotion’s shoulder programming apparatus to take care of some personal business. Namely, sidelining one of the longest tenured members of his training staff.

“Well, Cap, I just want to talk to you and the whole team, man. You were with me for my last Olympic trials. You’ve been there for me. But as of right now, I just want to let you know, man, that for this camp, dude, I’m getting rid of specific coaches, man, and that’s you included, dude.” Cejudo told longtime coach Eric Albarracin on the latest UFC Countdown video. “Sometimes you’re just too close to somebody and people just get too comfortable.”

Wrong or right, it was a pretty crass move from ‘Triple C’, to use his media spotlight to mildly humiliate a member of his team. Fortunately for Albarracin, Merab Dvalishvili was right there to pick up the pieces. The 33-year-old apparently ran into Albarracin out on the street and used the opportunity to tell everyone that he and the Fight Ready captain had joined forces against the former Olympian.

“Henry Cejudo’s coach, he are with us,” Dvalishvili stated as he chased Albarracin down. “And now he’s going to teach how to beat Henry Cejudo.”

“We have a new coach!” Dvalishvili announced after posting a clip of Cejudo firing Albarracin. “Henry, goodbye, goodbye Henry. He is my coach now. I love my coach.”

Dr. Merab, UFC challenger

This wasn’t the only promo Merab Dvalishvili has cut for UFC 298 on his own time. Back on January 26th Dvalishvili took some time to dive into the UFC bantamweight title picture. Most notably, going after Sean O’Malley for his insistance on fighting Chito Vera—but he also had some time to lay a diagnosis on Cejudo as well.

Plus it seems he’s been taking a few more pointers from Cejudo’s training videos.

UFC 298 takes place this Saturday at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA. The card is expected to be headlined by a featherweight title fight between champion Alexander Volkanovski and challenger Ilia Topuria. A middleweight top contender’s bout between Robert Whittaker and Paulo Costa is set for the co-main event.

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A couple of weeks ago, now, Dana White dropped in on social media for an impromptu fan Q&A. Alongside some chatter about Kayla Harrison’s recent signing and White’s belief that she would have no trouble making the bantamweight limit, the UFC CEO teased that a major announcement was on the horizon.

“You’ll get the main event when I’m ready to give you the main event,” White said, speaking of UFC 300. “I’ve been squeezing them out one by one. When I’m ready to give you the main event you’ll get it. You’re not ready yet. You can’t handle the main event.”

UFC wiffs on Super Bowl announcement

If Dana White was playing coy back in late January, it seemed like the stars were aligning for a major announcement this past Sunday at the Super Bowl. Word got out that he was scheduled to appear in a 30-second spot during the game, and fans couldn’t help but assume that the UFC 300 main event would drop then and there in front of millions of sports fans gathered to watch the Kansas City Chiefs play the San Francisco 49ers.

Instead all they got was a beer commercial. Another piece of Bud Light’s image rehab campaign, hoping to ride the coattails of the UFC’s increasing drive for conservative viewers.

Jon Jones reveals UFC booking woes

So what happened? Where’s the big fight? A couple pieces of information have dropped in the last few hours that reveal just where the UFC is in their attempts to find the right ‘major’ headliner what was expected to be one of the year’s biggest PPVs. Most notably, and despite his recent shoulder injury, the UFC tried to get Jon Jones to take on Tom Aspinall in a heavyweight title unification bout. Jones turned them down he revealed in a recent Submission Radio interview.

“I got a call from [UFC Chief Business Officer] Hunter Campbell, one of the head lawyers of the UFC, he said, ‘Jon, I know it’s only nine weeks away, but if there’s any chance you’re feeling up to it, it would be awesome news for the community that you’re coming back and headlining one of the biggest events ever,’” Jones said. “And, as honored as I am for the opportunity, I just don’t think I’ll be ready. I just don’t.

“So, I’m getting up there in age and I only have a few more events left, and I want to give those events my all and make sure that I come back 100 percent.”

What’s more, Tom Aspinall has since revealed that he was offered a fight against Stipe Miocic for the main event as well, but that Miocic declined the bout.

UFC hoping for Khamzat Chimaev vs. Leon Edwards

The other tidbit about the UFC’s booking struggle comes from longtime MMA Hour host Ariel Helwani. On a recent episode of his long-running interview show, Helwani revealed that he had heard the UFC has four go-to options that they’re pursuing for the UFC headliner.

“My understanding is that there are four options,” Helwani stated. “Two-and-a-half of them are pretty understandable… and then there’s one that I think people will be like, ‘Oh, okay!?’… Obviously we know that Leon [Edwards] and Belal [Muhammad] was something that was discussed. But, it seems like they really don’t want that fight at 300 for whatever reason. I think that’s their last resort…

“[Israel Adesanya vs. Dricus du Plessis] is obviously something that’s been discussed, and been hinted at by both. And for the longest time I thought, ‘Okay, maybe this is the one—and I would think is the one that makes the most sense.’ I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up being that, but again, also, the clock is ticking; DDP a little bit banged up after the Strickland fight…

“And then we get to the sort of left field, rabbit in the hat, if you will. Right now, I think, if the UFC had their way—if they could snap their fingers and make the biggest fight in their mind happen, and the fight that they’ve been working on happen, and have their say as to what is the main event of UFC 300—I think they would make Leon Edwards vs. Khamzat Chimaev.

“I believe… that when Dana White is talking about the hurdles and the issues and the different things at play in terms of making this fight and how troublesome it has been? I believe that’s securing Khamzat’s ability to fight in the United States.”

Long-time Bloody Elbow readers know exactly why Chimaev won’t be able to fight in the US as Karim Zidan reported a while back.

“In December 2020, the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued sanctions targeting Kadyrov and his Akhmat MMA fight club.

“According to the OFAC, the measures against Kadyrov and Akhmat MMA are broadly designed to prohibit “any contribution or provision of funds, goods or services by, to or for the benefit of any blocked person or the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods or services from any such person.”

Helwani went on to add that the UFC might also be considering Chimaev vs. du Plessis and to make it clear that none of these are hard and fast plans—merely speculation based on conversations he’s had with people close to the situation. All of it seems pretty believable though. Chimaev is a fighter that the UFC has envisioned as a major star clearly for the last several years, but has been hampered both by injury woes and visa issues.

Unfortunately for fans, assuming the UFC can’t get Chimaev back stateside, and assuming that DDP vs. Adesanya isn’t about to happen (or it likely would already have been announced), it seems more and more probable that fans will end up with Edwards vs. Muhammad as the UFC 300 headliner. A well deserved title shot for the Roufusport talent, but hardly the kind of booking to light the MMA world on fire.

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This column originally appeared on the Bloody Elbow Substack on Sunday, February 11th. Become a paid Subscriber to get more work like this straight to your inbox.

The UFC’s run to regulation has become a cornerstone of the Zuffa story. It’s probably less spin than Dana White gives most of his memory when he talks about how the Fertittas bought a promotion not just one the brink of collapse, but one that could barely find a state that would sanction their brand of ‘no holds barred’ violence.

Truthfully, of course, the UFC had started running toward regulation well before White & Co. stepped in. It didn’t take many events for the SEG owned version of the company to realize that their dojo-heavy tournament style wasn’t going to last. The increasing number of wrestlers and professionally trained athletes opened up the likelihood that some member of the strip mall Karate black belt contingent would get seriously hurt in a no-rules tournament format.

As such, figures like ‘Big’ John McCarthy and Jeff Blatnick and Joe Silva started putting together rules and regulations for the Octagon in conjuction with the ABC and State Athletic Commissions. No Groin strikes, no headbutts, no fish hooking. Gloves became more the norm, etc. etc.

The Zuffa era of MMA

What Zuffa brought, more than anything, was an understanding of the politics of regulation. An ability to lobby. The right money, connections, and a set of new rules already in place paved the way for MMA to become an officially recognized sport and eventually a normal part of the American sporting landscape (if still something of a niche interest).

Along the way, however, there was another, less celebratory outcome from the UFC’s success and eventual market dominance. Namely, the blanding of mixed martial arts. NHB, for all its faults, really was the true sandbox of combat sports. Fighters with limited understandings of the potential for true fighting given room to test themselves with few limitations. Can the TaeKwonDo guy really stay off the ground? Can the BJJ guy force someone to grapple? Can the ninjitsu guy actually disappear?

Insistance on gloves and wraps, credit for top control, and a flat playing surface with cage walls all helped emphasize a wrestle-boxing archetype. Nevermind that wrestlers were also training at a much higher level than most traditional martial arts.

I don’t want to say that the MMA meta would have looked dramatically different had the UFC taken a different path—or not have become the market dominating juggernaut that they ended up as—but it’s hard not to feel a bit like we’re in the most McDonalds version of MMA possible today.

Dogfight Wild Tournament

That’s what made Dogfight Wild Tournament such an amazing breath of fresh air this week. If you haven’t already seen it, you can watch the whole thing for free, right here. A once-annual fight promotion from Spain that ran their second ever grand night of wild action riffing on an MMA theme. In a lot of ways, it feels like a Fight Circus sister, but where the Thailand-based organization really goes off the deep end using combat sports as inspiration for wacky fun & games, Dogfight is built on much more simple lines.

However it might be categorized, it ran on one important ideology: What if fights were unpredictable and fun?

Of course, it goes without saying that a big part of what allowed the promotion to get as weird as they did this past Friday was Spain’s lack of regulation. We got a 1 vs. 5 ‘survival mode’ fight where one trained fighter had to take on five opponents one at a time. There was a 3-on-1 fight that just might go down as the most fun fight of 2024. We had 2 vs. 2 action, and a ‘Bloodsport’ tournament, complete with curved fighting platform. The kind of stuff that state regulations would almost certainly put the kibosh on if this card had been in the US.

Did all of it come off perfectly? Absolutely not. One of the opening round winners got hurt and the Bloodsport finale had to be cancelled. The no-rules MMA fight ended with a bevvy of unanswered blows to the back of the head and an insistance from the loser that he get an immediate rematch (which the winner totally should have taken, but wussed out on). And there were some pacing and production issues standard to a company only barely getting off the ground.

MMA needs to be fun

But, the important thing was that it felt like an experiment. It felt like an attempt to do something new and fun with fights again. A big part of what made MMA the thrill it used to be was its circus aspect. Modified rules fights, combat sports legends from other disciplines trying their hand against seasoned MMA pros. Shootboxing, combat jiu jitsu, Senegalese wrestling, hand-to-hand combatives? The world is full of creative opportunities that create entertaining chaos.

This isn’t an argument against plain old MMA. I still like what the sport is as it exists now plenty. It’s been codified enough to start growing some real high level technique all its own and a meta that’s unique to MMA. But moments like these are something of a wakeup call. A reminder that there’s a whole other reason I got into this stuff and it’s one I’d almost entirely forgotten.

I’m not just here for the power or the violence or the beatiful expression of form. I’m also here for the hijinks and the fun. Boxing has been owning that lately with their celebrity fight cards and the MMA/boxing crossover bareknuckle arena (which I have other problems with). It was hard not to think, when Jake Paul and Nate Diaz fought in 2023, that 15 or 20 years ago MMA would have gotten that fight, but it doesn’t have the cajones for that kind of fun anymore and it shows.

I don’t need it every day, but it’d be awfully nice to see a little more weird come back to this sport. Dogfight Wild Tournament was exactly the right cure for what ails my MMA soul.

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One of the big trends combat sports has seen in the past few years is the re-emergence of hybrid events featuring multiple bout styles, celebrity appearances, and musical acts. Triller really paved the way for this style of show, pouring massive amounts of money into concert acts and celebrity fights with seemingly little return to show for it.

Whether it’s a long term viable strategy for anyone remains to be seen, but it certainly seems to be a promotional style more people are interested in giving a try. On February 9th at the San Miguel Tarraco Arena in Spain, Dogfight Wild is pulling out all the stops.

Dogfight Wild MMA Tournament 2nd impact live stream

For international viewers, the complete Dogfight Wild show is on YouTube, streaming for free. Watch it below.

The event includes a ‘Bloodsport’ style tournament, complete with curved fighting surface, team MMA fights, bareknuckle boxing, 3 vs. 1 fights, a ‘no rules’, 25-minute one round bout, and even a few metal bands. Check it out.

Dogfight Wild 2nd Impact lineup

YouTube Main Card | 1:00pm ET / 10:00am PT
Eduardo Riego vs. Manuel Morales, Karim el Hamzaouy, Tomás Cantó – 3 v 1 MMA
César Alonso vs. Nacho de la Encima, Juan Marín, Mohamed Benchriff, Rodrigo Peñarubia, Tomás Luján – 5 v 1 MMA
Franco Tenaglia vs. Sufiane Bahri – No Rules
Victoria Albons vs. Yamilia Sánchez – Bare Knuckle
Chiky Arroyo/Bogdan Vasilache vs. Alberto Rondán/Nicolás Martínez – 2 v 2 MMA
Aitor Gaspar vs. Zdravko Tarnadzhiev – Sudden Death

Bloodsport Tournament
Sergio Hidalgo vs. Otman Ben Zahra
Emilio Monesclaros vs. Dorian Segovia

(big h/t to Caposa and his Live Combat Sport Schedule for the card info)

Results

Zdravko Tarnadzhiev def. Aitor Gaspar via TKO

Chiky Arroya & Bogdan Vasilache def. Alberto Rondan & Nicolas Martinez via TKO & submission

Dorian Segovia def. Emilio Monescarlos via KO

Otman Ben Zahra def. Sergio Hidalgo via TKO

Victoria Albons def. Yamila Sanchez via. KO

Franco Tenaglio def. Sufiane Bahri via TKO (back of the head strikes)

Bahri tried unsuccessfully to get an instant rematch. Promotion negotiated it on the spot but Tenaglio turned it down.

César Alonso def. Juan Marín via TKO, Iker Carillo via TKO, Nacho de la Encima via Sub (strikes), Rodrigo Peñarubia via TKO, & Mohamed Benchriff via TKO

Eduardo Riego def. Manuel Morales, Ivan, and Tomas Canto via Sub (guillotine, guillotine, & RNC)

‘Bloodsport’ final: Otman Ben Zahra vs. Dorian Segovia – Fight cancelled due to injury

During the broadcast, the booth announced that Otman Ben Zahra had been hospitalized after his victory over Sergio Hidalgo. The ‘Bloodsport’ tournament finale will be rescheduled for a future event.

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For some fighters, a signature win can catapult them to stardom. The young lion defeats the old, and all that. For others, however, getting catapulted to the big stage can be just as much a curse as a blessing.

It may very well be at this point that Ihor Potieria will ever have another moment as big as UFC 283, where the Ukranian snagged the featured prelim spot on ABC—defeating former champion and PRIDE legend Mauricio Rua. That loss proved to be the final fight (at least for now) of the Brazilian’s illustrious career. It’s also the only victory that Potieria has managed to snag in four trips to the Octagon.

Ihor Potieria misses weight for short notice UFC Vegas 86 bout

Following his loss to Rodolfo Bellato at UFC Fight Night: Dariush vs. Tsarukyan Ihor Potieria teased a potential drop to a new division.

“Maybe I really need to think about changing weight division, since I am too small for light heavyweight,” Potieria wrote back in December of last year in a post on his Instagram page. “But I’ve been fighting big boys all my life, and I don’t regret anything.”

Unfortunately, it seems the chance to start fresh came just a little too soon for the ‘Duelist’. Following Albert Duraev’s withdrawal from a planned middleweight bout against UFC newcomer Robert Bryczek due to visa issues, Potieria stepped up on just a few days notice to take on the Polish fighter down at 185 pounds. Or, as it turned out, down at 187 lbs. Unfortunately for the WCA Fight Team talent he failed to make the middleweight limit for this weekend’s bout.

As a result of the miss, Potietia will be fined 20% of his show purse, with the fight continuing at a catchweight.

UFC Vegas 86: Daniel Marcos & Darrius Flowers make weight on second attempt

Potieria wasn’t the only fighter to struggle with the scale this week. Peruvian bantamweight talent Daniel Marcos came in .25 lbs over the 136 lb limit for his fight with Aoriqileng in the prelim opener.

Fortunately, in Marcos’ case, the extra hour allotted for a second weigh in attempt saw him hit 136 lbs on the nose. The fight will go ahead as an official bantamweight bout as planned. Lightweight talent Darrius Flowers also missed weight initially, coming in at 156.25 lbs, but was able to make the limit given an additional hour to cut.

All other fighters made weight for UFC Vegas 86, which takes place this Saturday, February 10th, in Las Vegas. The card is expected to be headlined by a middleweight bout between Joe Pyfer and top-ranked Jack Hermansson.

Complete UFC Vegas 86 weigh in results

ESPN+ Main Card | 7pm Eastern/4pm Pacific
Jack Hermansson (185) vs. Joe Pyfer (185.5)
Dan Ige (146) vs. Andre Fili (146)
Robert Bryczek (185.5) vs. Ihor Potieria (187.5)
Brad Tavares (186) vs. Gregory Rodrigues (186)
Michael Johnson (156) vs. Darrius Flowers (156)
Rodolfo Vieira (185.5) vs. Armen Petrosyan (186)

ESPN+ Prelim Card | 4pm Eastern/1pm Pacific
Trevin Giles (171) vs. Carlos Prates (171)
Bolaji Oki (156) vs. Timothy Cuamba (155)
Loma Lookboonmee (115.5) vs. Bruna Brasil (115.5)
Devin Clark (204.5) vs. Marcin Prachnio (204.5)
Max Griffin (170.5) vs. Jeremiah Wells (171)
Zac Pauga (206) vs. Bogdan Guskov (205.5)
Hyder Amil (145.5) vs. Fernie Garcia (146)
Daniel Marcos (136) vs. Aoriqileng (136)

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No one can question Tyson Fury’s physical gifts or his skill in the ring. A massive 6′ 9″ heavyweight, Fury is best known for his lightening reflexes and his fantastic ability to work behind a powerful jab. There have been, however, plenty of questions asked about his dedication to being a pro athlete.

Despite an Amateur career that saw him win Olympic gold in 2008 and a 34-0-1 unbeaten record, Fury has had notable trouble maintaining his fitness and form over the years—battling substance abuse and depression along the way. Unified heavyweight champion in 2015, the ‘Gypsy King’ left the ring for nearly three years, abandoning his belts, before returning to competition in 2018. Despite a 9-0-1 record since his comeback, rumors that Fury may consider retiring altogether have regularly dogged the WBO champion.

Tyson Fury brushes off retirement talk, lays out future fight plan

For fans who might be extra concerned that Tyson Fury’s recent cancellation of a planned bout with Oleksandr Usyk might mean the end of his career was looming on the horizon, it seems the 35-year-old is hoping to quell his doubters. Despite delaying the Usyk bout twice now, Tyson Fury remains steadfast that he is not only preparing to face Usyk twice in the ring, but has a whole slew of future fights he’s looking to make happen.

“I keep hearing talk of people saying that I should retire or I’m going to retire soon or whatever,” Fury wrote said in a video posted to social media (transcript via MMA Junkie). “I ain’t retiring anywhere, I’ve got two fights with Usyk, for the undisputed twice. Then I’m going to fight AJ at least once. Maybe twice if there’s a rematch, if he wants one after the first battering I give him, and then I’m going to fight Ngannou again and that’s just to start. So there’s five little fights for you to wet your appetite with. I ain’t going nowhere. Nowhere. I’m 35-years-old in the prime of my life.”

Francis Ngannou preparing to return to MMA

Tyson Fury’s revelation has to be good news for Francis Ngannou, who shook the boxing world last year, when he took Fury to a narrow majority decision loss, after knocking down the Fury down early in the bout. For a debut performance that was seen by many as a walkover warmup fight for Fury on his way to fighting Usyk in December, Ngannou’s performance crowned him as an immediate threat to the heavyweight boxing elite.

When Deontay Wilder failed to pick up the win this past December, in a bout that was expected to set the stage for a long teased fight against Anthony Joshua, Ngannou was perfectly placed to step in instead. Ngannou and Joshua will face off on March 8th in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Despite having talked up a Fury rematch as a top priority, however, and despite Fury’s apparent interest in making that bout happen as well, it doesn’t sound like fans should expect to see Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou 2 in 2024.

“We’ll have another event in the second half of the year, this summer likely, and we expect Francis to return to MMA in the PFL Smartcage,” PFL CEO Peter Murray announced in a recent interview with BBC sport.

Although no opponent for Ngannou’s MMA return has been announced at this time, apparently the PFL plans on making the details of the booking public during their upcoming February 24th ‘Champion vs. Champion’ PPV card. That event will feature elite talents from across Bellator & the PFL facing off in Riyadh, as the first crossover following PFL’s acquisition of the former Viacom MMA promotion. From the sound of things, it seems fans can expect to see another PFL PPV event later this year.

As for Ngannou, it seems he only has one thing on his mind at the moment, and that’s his upcoming bout with Joshua.

“They say never say never. Nothing is impossible, right?” Ngannou said of his chances against Joshua in a recent podcast interview (transcript via MMA Fighting). “We don’t know the strength of Anthony Joshua, but even though I don’t believe he has that strength, but we’re going to find out in two months. We’re going to find out, and I think the reverse is going to happen. I’m going to be the one taking his soul.”

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UPDATE: Josh Barnett has a point to make:

Sage Northcutt’s MMA career has slowed to a crawl these past few years. After exiting the UFC back in 2018 ‘Super’ Sage had hoped to make a big splash on the international scene with his debut in Singapore-based ONE Championship.

Unfortunately for Northcutt, a middleweight bout against longtime kickboxer Cosmo Alexandre in May of 2019 left the longtime Team Alpha Male talent with eight facial fractures. A severe case of COVID followed and it was 2023 before the now-27-year-old was able to return to competition. Reports of more injury trouble followed Northcutt’s victory over Ahmed Mujtaba last year, leading to nearly another year of inactivity.

Sage Northcutt reveals reason behind ONE fight exit

Despite all the delays and all the health issues, Sage Northcutt seemed all ready to get his combat sports career underway again this past January, with a planned welterweight bout against longtime JMMA star Shinya Aoki at ONE 165 in Tokyo, Japan. At the last minute, however, news broke that Northcutt had pulled out of the fight, leaving Aoki to take on former ONE bantamweight champ John Lineker as a last minute replacement.

Soon after, reports surfaced that some problem with Northcutt’s corner had caused him to pull out of the fight. In a recent post to his Instagram account, the former youth Karate star gave a more thorough breakdown of events. Most notably, he claims ONE didn’t disclose to him that they had failed to secure proper visas for his team.

One Championship is implying that I pulled out of the Shinya fight for unforeseen circumstances. That is completely inaccurate. I sent One Championship the necessary paperwork they required to get my coaches visas 48 days ahead of the event. I was told by them over the phone and by text my main jujitsu coach Fabio Prado did not need a visa since I paid for his airfare flights and trip so he was not classified as a working employee that needed a visa and that my other coach could get in as a tourist so he didn’t need one either.

My coaches were there for almost a week, and I was not informed that two of them could not coach until hours before my match. I received a text from an unknown number that texted me for the first time that day that was a ticket salesman asking me about getting my two coaches complimentary tickets to watch my fight in the audience. I personally believe that One Championship was not going to inform me that my coaches were not allowed to corner me until I arrived at the arena to fight if I did not hear from a ticket salesman hours earlier.

We were also told hours before my match that if my coaches violated the visa requirements and were caught on camera, they could be arrested and there was a 99.8% conviction rate on all arrests. I made it clear to One Championship that I was not flying from America to Japan if I didn’t have my three coaches. I was told before I left to Japan by an executive that I would not have to fight without my coaches. They knew before I left that I would not be able to have two of my coaches. They never told me my coaches could be thrown in prison for any visa violation.

There has been a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes with One Championship with what caused me to withdraw from my last fight as well as other things that I will talk about at a later time on Facebook, Instagram, and with media outlets.

• drug testing
• weight cutting/ policies
• active athletes/ roster
• One’s stability… etc

If Northcutt really does plan to take further complaints with ONE and their business practices public in media interviews and social media posts, it could provide a fascinating test to the promotion’s draconian contract clauses. ONE infamously includes language in their deals that prevents fighters from disclosing company information, even to other members of their team. The also have anti-disparagement clauses that extend not just for the life of an athlete’s contract, but for the life of the athlete, full stop.

Urijah Faber suggests religious conviction lead to Northcutt’s withdrawal

One of the men there to corner Sage Northcutt in Japan was former UFC title contender and longtime Team Alpha Male owner Urijah Faber. Shortly after news that his fighter wouldn’t be competing broke, the ‘California Kid’ sat down with Middle Easy to explain his version of events. Faber backed up some of Sage’s story, noting that both Fabio Prado and Mark Northcutt (Sage’s father) were told they could not corner Northcutt just hours before the event.

He also added another interesting wrinkle to the conversation, however, with the suggestion that it wasn’t just the circumstances that caused Northcutt to withdraw from the bout, but also the fighter’s religious conviction.

“There’s a lot of misinterpretation there,” Faber explained (transcript via BJPenn.com). “I think if you watch Chatri [Sityodtong]’s interview he kind of said the way it was: there was a last-minute hiccup in the visas of Fabio Prado and Mr. Mark Northcutt, Sage’s dad.

“So, 10:30 at night in Japan, we learned that they were not going to be able to be in the corner,” Faber continued. “I got a message around 11:30 from Mark that Sage was not going to fight, and I talked to him face-to-face and kinda got the lowdown on what was going on. There was a lot of miscommunication and things like that. I was cleared to corner, I was cleared to be in the corner if Sage did want to fight.”

“I didn’t actually get to talk to Sage face-to-face until about one o’clock in the afternoon on fight day,” he continued. “And the general consensus was that he did not feel comfortable fighting with a couple of different things that had happened. He is a very big man of faith—he has a relationship with God and the holy spirit—and felt like things weren’t adding up for him and he didn’t feel like fighting.”

No word yet on when Northcutt might expect to return to action. But if he really does feel the need to spill the tea on ONE’s business, it may just be that fans will have to wait quite a while before they see him back in competition again.

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For those who missed out on last week’s edition, I have a somewhat sheepish revelation. Far from cancelling the column, cutting back on my workload, or just feeling like I couldn’t find the right stories, I simply forgot about the damn thing until it was too late.

I won’t be doing anything to make it up to anyone, sometimes that’s just the way it is. But I hope everyone enjoys this week’s column nonetheless. We’ve got Dustin Poirier giving back to the lightweight community, Weili Zhang and Joanna Jedrzejczyk palling around, as well as a Matt Brown revelation and a Colby Covington update. So, let’s dig in…

LOVE TO SEE IT

Dustin Poirier giving back with Benoit Saint Denis fight

Over the many years since its inception it’s become clear that the UFC created something of a monster with their in-house rankings system. A panel composed almost entirely of fringe media figures has, over the past decade, turned itself into a key element of both the matchmaking and negotiating process. Once something that fighters openly derided and rejected as a useless gimmick, today few cards pass by without multiple calls for a ‘top 15 opponent’ after an especially thrilling victory.

But it’s not just a goal to aim for that’s reshaped the UFC’s weight classes, it’s also a recognition that as a fighter rises in the rankings, their position as a future title contender becomes more and more undeniable. The UFC may not want Belal Muhammad in a title fight, they may not be interested in letting Curtis Blaydes fight for gold. But if these men simply refuse to go away, sooner or later they’ll get their chance. The UFC’s own system demands it.

The fallout of that logic is that, once a UFC talent reaches top 5 status, much of their priority turns away from getting to fight as often as possible, and turns toward getting just the right fight to compete for a belt. More and more, fans see elite MMA talents who are loath to fight anyone who isn’t already in title contention. After all, what’s the point of taking on someone down in the rankings if a loss means exiting ‘the mix’ and a win means nothing more than treading water.

Despite the fact that it may have taken a little extra negotiating to get there, that makes Dustin Poirier’s recent statements on his upcoming bout against #12 ranked Benoit Saint Denis something entirely refreshing. With a only a little tread left on the tires, and with a firm grip on the #3 spot in the lightweight division, the ‘Diamond’ had every reason not to want to fight the former French paratrooper. As he revealed in a recent MMA Hour interview, however, Poirier wanted to give Saint Denis the same chance he got earlier in his career.

“I thought the offer in the UFC would be something more like that,” Poirier said, revealing that he had been looking for something like a ‘legacy’ fight against RDA (transcript via MMA Junkie). “I needed something to get me up in the morning. I respect this sport, and I honor this sport, and I’m 35 years old now. This guy is a young, hungry lion who is on a streak. I think he finished five fights in a row. Somebody gave me my shot to crack in, so I respect the game. That’s what I’m doing. Let’s see if I still (can do it). March 9, buy the pay-per-view and we’ll see. We’ll find out.”

Indeed, go back to 2017, and Dustin Poirier was sitting at the #9 spot in the lightweight division coming off a majority decision win over Jim Miller. Just a few months prior, he had been cold-cocked by Michael Johnson in the first round for a knockout loss. That fact didn’t stop #3 ranked former champion Eddie Alvarez from giving Poirier a chance to secure the biggest win of his career to date.

An illegal knee turned that bout into a no contest, unfortunately. But Poirier’s action forward style and thrilling exchanges up until that moment put him firmly into the elite from that moment forward. Fights with Anthony Pettis and Justin Gaethje followed, as well as the Alvarez rematch. Long story short, the Louisiana native has been a top attraction ever since.

Maybe he can pass on the same kind of shine to Saint Denis? Maybe he’ll slam the door on a next-gen talent looking to use the ATT fighter as a stepping stone. Either way, it should be a hell of a lot of fun. Credit to Poirier for taking a cool fight that he absolutely did not need.

Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Weili Zhang share some quality time

Such is the way of Google these days, and perhaps also of my increasingly foggy memory, that I can only half remember the anecdote I’m about to relay—and can see no easy way to track it down. If that sounds like something your dad would do to drive you crazy, please note that I have no children, so the best I can do is inflict myself up on my readers.

Anyway, years ago now, I recall some fighter who was asked one of the more banal kind of media questions our industry tends to feed fighters when we have nothing more topical on which to latch on. The question went, approximately, ‘What advice would you give to other young fighters?’

I may not remember whether it was MMA or boxing, but the answer always stuck with me. The advice was simple enough: Don’t be afraid to make friends with your competition.

Combat sports, as a rule, tend to run on aggression and isolationism. The person you trained with yesterday might be your opponent tomorrow. For many, the desire to fight breeds its own hostility just for the sake of maintenance.

But the point this old guy had to make was a great one. Essentially, that this kind of lifestyle is lonely. Most other people won’t get it and can’t relate to it. But your opponents can and will. These are the people that will understand what you’ve been through and who can share your experiences. Don’t push them away.

That said, it’s cool to see now-retired former UFC strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk hanging out with current champion Weili Zhang. The two women put on an all time classic war in 2020. Even if their 2022 rematch didn’t live up to that level, they created a piece of MMA history together. A couple years later they’re on social media chumming it up, and the vibes couldn’t be more positive.

Maybe one of these days we’ll get to see Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal out to dinner together at Papi Steak. Wouldn’t that be a beautiful thing?

HATE TO SEE IT

Matt Brown reveals career disinterest in negotiating with the UFC

I guess I’ll start this out with a pretty simple statement. If any pro fighter is happy with their fighting career, I’m happy for them. I’m especially always happy for a guy like Matt Brown, who has made his reputation by being an action-first badass, even if it never brought him particularly close to title contention.

Matt Brown sounds like someone pretty content with what their time in the UFC and MMA in general has brought them, so I can’t knock that. All that said, however, I really do hate to see that that satisfaction has come with little to no pushback against UFC brass and the contracts he’s had from them over the years.

In a recent interview with MMA Fighting, Brown gave his insight on the recent kerfuffle between Dustin Poirier and Dana White. Mostly noting that he doesn’t really understand the idea of negotiating contract terms from one bout to the next. As far as he’s concerned, the UFC gave him a fight, he took it. Negotiations over.

“They ask me if I want to fight this guy and I say OK. I’ve never really negotiated or asked for a different guy, it’s not really been my style. For me, it’s been pretty simple. I’ve always been happy with the way they treated me and the pay they give me and everything. I don’t really know what they mean when they say they didn’t come to terms. The terms are, you’re going to fight a guy on this date, go do it.”

“I probably should have negotiated more than I have,” Brown said with a laugh. “I can only speak to my own personal experience here. When they have offered me a new contract, I said, ‘Thank you, let’s go. Who am I going to fight?’ I never really negotiated that either. Maybe I should have. Maybe in retrospect I should have, but I never did. I’ve always just been happy to fight.”

There was a point in the interview where Brown does admit that he once negotiated one contract with Dana White directly. Saying that the process more or less involved he and White having a friendly chat, White asking him to throw out a number, and immediately agreeing to that number. “I probably should have asked for more,” Brown recalled, “but I thought I got my worth and it was pretty simple.”

I don’t want anyone to think that I’m lamenting this position just for the sake of spiting the UFC. As much as I may think they take advantage of the fact that most talent seems happy just to be there, the truth is that sports in general (but fighting in particular) are one of the few professions out there where the longevity of the most necessary talent is most severely capped.

With a nearly 20 year career under his belt (17 of which have been spent with the UFC), Brown is one of a very rare few who get to make up for a lack of short term earnings with long term staying power. For so many others, they Octagon will chew them up and spit them out, leaving their time as athletes over before they know it. Sometimes even leaving them unable to even take part in that which they’ve built their whole lives around.

For every Matt Brown or Andrei Arlovski there’s a TJ Grant, Alex Reyes, or Chris Holdsworth. Which is to say that, whether it’s the UFC or Bellator or PFL or RIZIN, I want to see fighters squeeze every penny they can out of their time as fighters. Once they’re done fighting, who knows what work will be left for them. Coaches, managers, and promoters can all move on to the next hot talent. Fighters can’t. I’m glad Matt Brown is happy, I just hope other fighters don’t follow that lead.

One legged Colby Covington

There’s no way to sugarcoat this. Colby Covington’s performance against Leon Edwards at UFC 296 was no good. It was butt, plain and simple. Already a two time title contender, Covington looked edgy from the moment go, and it was only after several rounds that he found his way into the contest, securing the final frame on every judges scorecard.

That was close to two months ago. Plenty of time for ‘Chaos’ to synthesize the loss and figure out what his next move was going to be. Only, this is MMA, and like most other high level combat sports, the most important part comes not from learning or correcting, but from the maintenance of the ego. Covington couldn’t have lost to Leon Edwards because Edwards was just a better fighter on the night, more prepared and more ready to perform. There must be another reason. Something that guarantees if they ran back the fight, Covington would win.

“I couldn’t plant or explode off it to use the wrestling and pressure I planned to use,” Covington said in a recent interview with Submission Radio (transcript via MMA Fighting), in which he disclosed an injury to his left foot. “I didn’t want to disclose this information until I had the X-rays back home, but here they are.

“I knew straight away it was bad. It was the first kick I threw, it landed right on his elbow. He was in orthodox so I kind of got a little overzealous and I wanted to rip a high kick to his orthodox side because I didn’t know if he’d be defensively sound from southpaw. So, the first kick I threw, a high kick, it was kind of like a middle kick, it landed on his elbow.”

“Haters will still find a way to hate on me for fighting 25 minutes on one leg while landing over 100 more strikes than Leon,” Covington added. “But you know what, my haters are so broke they can’t even pay attention so f*** them.”

For the record, Covington got out-landed 57 to 44 by Edwards over 5 rounds. Although he did hold a 44 strike advantage (109 to 65) in total strikes, almost all of which came from round 5, where Covington secured three full minutes of top control against the champion.

I don’t want to come off overly harsh on Covington (I already got a chance to take my shots in the immediate aftermath of his loss), but sooner or later fighters gotta realize that this kind of disclosure doesn’t help them much at all. Fighting is dangerous, and people get injured all the time. MMA history is writ large with tales of top talent fighting through gruesome pain to seal a victory. Say what you will about Jon Jones, but his toe was basically falling off when he beat Chael Sonnen to defend his light heavyweight title.

If Covington wants to believe that his injury is the only reason Leon Edwards beat him back in December, that’s his business. But trying to sell it to everyone else more than a month later, after well all watched that fight? No sir, I can’t buy it.

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The UFC has found plenty of defenders over the years within the ranks of fighters who once fought for the promotion. Some, like Forrest Griffin get actual day-to-day jobs working for the promotion in one of their many business interests. Others, like Daniel Cormier and Michael Bisping, are part of a long string of athletes brought in to provide color commentary in the broadcast booth.

Even when it comes to things like fighter pay, there are no shortage of fighters happy to say that the UFC gave them all the money they earned and more.

“To be honest, it makes me mad, because people don’t understand,” Michael Bisping told MMA Fighting way back in 2012. “I’ve worked hard, and I get [the amount stipulated in the contract], but when Dana comes into the locker room and gives me a check afterwards, they don’t have to do that. Far from it. I was already very happy with the money I was getting, but then they’ll hand you another check on top of that and say, ‘Well done…good job,’ and there’ll be another huge check inside the envelope.”

No fighters ask to exit UFC class action lawsuit

Given the amount of support the UFC has as a leader in the industry, then, it may be somewhat surprising to learn that they’re not getting a lot of backup when it comes to the still looming UFC class action lawsuit.

First filed in 2014, but only just recently granted class certification, the lawsuit covers somewhere around 1,200 athletes that competed inside the Octagon between December 2010 and June 2017. In it, the UFC has been accused of a variety of anti-competitive practices aimed to keep fighter salaries low and rival promotions from gaining a foothold in the industry. If successful, the lawsuit could provide not just damages to those fighters who meet the class requirements, but could even potentially shake up the UFC’s current fighter contract structure.

Despite the vocal support the UFC may get in interviews and social media, it seems nobody is willing to take the opportunity to really show their solidarity and pass up the opportunity for an extra check. Combat Sports Law reports that lawyers working on behalf of the fighters produced the following filing this week, formally announcing that no eligible athletes chose to opt out of the lawsuit.

Plaintiffs submit this notice to confirm: (1) the Court’s approved plan for distributing notice to members of the certified Bout Class (the “Notice Plan”) has been effectuated as required by this Court’s November 17, 2023, Order Granting Plaintiffs’ Unopposed Motion to Approve Class Notice Plan, ECF No. 921 (“Class Notice Order” or “Order”); and (2) no members of the Bout Class have requested exclusion from the certified Bout Class. The attached Declaration of Plaintiffs’ Notice Administrator, Steven Weisbrot, President and CEO of Angeion Group, LLC (“Angeion”),¹ and accompanying exhibits detail the implementation of the Notice Plan and the absence of valid exclusions or objections from Bout Class members.

Put more simply, on November 17th, Angeion Group was tasked with notifying those athletes that meet the criteria of the UFC antitrust lawsuit, and with giving them the option to opt out should a decision be made in the plaintiff’s favor. According to Combat Sports Law’s reporting, the notifications included a letter sent to the athletes, an email notice, a media campaign, posted notices at 48 gyms, and a website and hotline dedicated to the lawsuit.

Despite no apparent interest from fighters in removing themselves from the proceedings, the UFC has apparently asked that the opt-out window be extended in response to the plaintiff filing above.

Chael Sonnen rips monopsony complaints, doesn’t opt out

Perhaps few fighters have been so willing to attack some of the arguments at play in the UFC class action lawsuit as former title contender Chael Sonnen. A talent with the UFC from 2009 to 2013, the 46-year-old is right square in the middle of the Bout Class classification. Recently, however, he’s made a point of public criticism of the idea that fighters are entitled to a bigger share of UFC revenue.

“Can you name 1 company on Earth that gives 50/50 revenue split?” Sonnen replied to a post from Combat Sports Law’s Erik Magraken, who noted that the antitrust lawsuit probably wouldn’t exist at all if the promotion weren’t withholding such a large share of their profit from their fighters.

“Price is set by the market,” Sonnen said, continuing the argument in a November 17th video posted to his YouTube—in which he responded to Magraken and the UFC antitrust case at length. “Nothing else sets price. Nothing. Not revenues, not debts, not assets, not longevity, not even talents. Those would all seemingly be good things to go in, when you’re negotiating, and trying to get market value, but they don’t directly set the value, the market does.”

“[Magraken] is coming in and saying the UFC is not paying enough, therefore it’s a monopoly and it’s unfair and there’s nothing fighters can do—when he’s confronted with the idea that they are paying market value. Chatri would not tell you any different, Scott Coker would not tell you any different, Donn Davis at the PFL, they won’t tell you any different. The UFC is paying market value. And they come to us and we can give the same thing, and we can trade them around. As long as the contract is up and we can all do our best to find the matchups that we think are the most compelling, that we can work with. That’s the business, very straight forward.”

Maybe if the UFC is granted the opt-out continuation that they seek, fighters like Sonnen will be lining up to jump ship and make it clear that they believe the UFC doesn’t owe them a dime. If that doesn’t happen, however, then it feels like the chance was given for fighters to stand up and say they don’t support this class action lawsuit, and everyone decided to stick with it and see where it goes.

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Trash talk is a delicate art. So much of what makes a moment of verbal sparring memorable isn’t so much about what a fighter says, but about how they say it.

Is “Who the f*** is that guy?” some all time great line? No. But the context and delivery made it an instant classic.

That said, there’s still a lot to like about a turn of phrase that feels simple and natural and not at all forced. Some fighters come by their gift of gab naturally, others have to put the work in to make it happen.

UFC WW Ian Machado Garry wants to make Geoff Neal ‘quit’ like a ‘s**tting’ dog

Ian Machado Garry has turned himself into one of the fastest rising talents in the UFC welterweight division. With a bright and shiny 13-0 unbeaten record, the ‘Future’ is knocking on the door of contender status. Along the way, however, he’s also made a habit of verbal sparring with his Octagon opponents. Notably lambasting Neil Magny for Magny’s suggestion that he’d whoop Garry like he whoops his kids.

Back in 2023, Garry was booked to take on Geoff Neal. Ahead of that fight, Garry had t-shirts printed up featuring Neal’s mugshot for a 2021 drunk driving arrest. The bout ended up getting cancelled due to injury, but has been re-booked for this coming March at UFC 298. With the fight once again in his sights, the Irishman has returned to needling his opposition.

“What am I going to finish him with? I am going to make him quit,” Garry announced in a video uploaded to his social media accounts (transcript via MMA Junkie). “He’ll choose when he’s done. I’d like to kick him to the body and have him do that, when the dog’s s**tting—the look when the dogs look at you, like, when they’re pooing, for protection. That’s what they do, right? Look at their owners when they’re pooing because that’s when they’re vulnerable for attack?”

Don’t expect Geoff Neal to get into the trash talk battle

With Ian Machado Garry having already re-opened hostilities it seems only fair that fans would expect Geoff Neal to get in on the action. After all, fighters have their pride. In a recent interview, however, ‘Handz of Steel’ made it clear that he’s going to try and be the bigger man. After all, as far as he’s concerned, Garry has already received enough backlash from fans for his past comments, that he doesn’t really need to step in and say anything.

“I’m not gonna engage in too much trash talk,” Neal told longtime MMA reporter James Lynch back in January. “I’ve never been that type of person. But, it’s entertaining, you know what I mean? Him talking shit. The fans got my back on this one. I don’t gotta say s**t anymore.”

As for his own prediction on how the fight is going to go? Neal says he feels “like I’m going to take [Garry] out in the second round. Maybe early in the third round.”

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If it were anything other than combat sports, this would have been felt like something of a minor scandal brewing for the UFC. For MMA fans, though, it’s pretty much all old hat. Ari Emanuel may have put a corporate shine on Dana White’s fight company, but in some of the least appealing ways, it’s still the business we’ve known for decades.

Just how many unsigned bouts has the UFC been promoting?

This last week we saw an announced headlining fight between Vicente Luque and Sean Brady fall apart after it was revealed that—despite the UFC’s assurance that the bout was set—the fighters had not, in fact come to an agreement on the booking. More particularly that Sean Brady had hoped to be able to take the fight, but was recovering from an injury that ultimately prevented him from being ready in time.

More notable than that bout, however, was a whole storm of nonsense kicked up by Dustin Poirier. Currently set for the co-main event of UFC 299, the ‘Diamond’ took to social media in the past couple days to announce that he had failed to reach an agreement with the UFC for his bout with Benoit Saint Denis. With seats already on sale and a couple of weeks of UFC advertising in place, Dana White & co. had apparently been selling wolf tickets…

Ultimately, Poirier course corrected, telling fans that he hadn’t spoken to his manager in the past few days and did not realize that a deal had actually been reached in the meantime. The fact remains, though, that between Poirier’s reveal that a contract had seemingly just been signed and a statement from Saint Denis’ coach that neither he nor his fighter knew who their opponent was before the bout had been announced, that the whole thing held onto the stink of standard UFC negotiating tactics.

It’s not hard to understand where these tactics come from. When the Fertittas first purchased what would become the world’s largest MMA promotion it was firmly in the ‘dark ages’ trying to find a foothold with a government that had seen their early events and decided that it was too violent for sanctioning. In that tenuous financial environment, and with Joe Silva as the pitboss in talent negotations, the UFC made absolutely sure that no matter what fighter they were working with or what fight they were trying to make, they had to come out on top. To put a finer point on it, the UFC built its reputation on being ruthless.

The UFC may be huge but they still negotiate like a hungry start-up

Fifteen years of that steely resolve later, and the business went up for sale with a price tag over $4 billion. They had concentrated their power over fighters in every single way possible. They took away sponsors, they took away clothing options, they secured image rights. Exclusive contracts became the norm, as did long-term multi-fight deals with matching clauses and negotiation windows. Meanwhile, the UFC also created pipelines for finding fresh fighters that ensured that cards could always be filled. Anyone who really did want to leave wouldn’t be missed for long.

Today, the UFC is a financial juggernaut, raking in money through corporate partnerships, licensing and broadcast fees that ensure whether they’re putting on events in front of a crowd of 20,000 or 20 they’re making millions. And while Silva may be gone, as long as Dana White is still here the cheapskate attitude that brought them up doesn’t look like it’s about to go away.

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We’ve heard it from athletes all across the sports landscape, there’s nothing they hate more than talking to the media. They spend weeks in the gym getting ready to fight. Talking to reporters about their job is, for many, a chore they could do without.

Unfortunately for most, those duties are also written into their contracts surrounding competition. In the case of the UFC, the duties are even rolled into their sponsorship deal with their official outfitting partner. Starting with Reebok, but continuing with Venum, fighters get a small bonus for performing ‘fight week’ duties including weigh-ins, media day interviews, and post-fight scrums while wearing Venum gear. Veteran fighters can get as much as $42,000 for showing up and following the UFC’s ‘Code of Conduct’, but even newcomers collect $4,000 for their work.

UFC welterweight Charles Radtke demands pay for interviews

Just because it’s there in black and white when fighters sign up for a bout, however, doesn’t mean everyone gets the message. This past weekend at UFC Vegas 85, un-ranked welterweight talent Charles Radtke decried his lack of compensation for having to sit down with the media following his knockout victory over Gilbert Urbina.

“How much money you got? That’s what it is,” Radtke shot back when a reporter asked him how soon he’d like to return to competition. “You guys get these interviews for free, I need to get paid. Let’s go.

“Up next is?” Radtke asked a suddenly silent room. “Good. I’m out.”

Not Radtke’s first struggle with post-fight interviews

This isn’t the first time that ‘Chuck Buffalo’ has come off like a man carrying a large chip on his shoulder, even after getting his hand raised inside the Octagon. The 33-year-old made his debut last September in Sydney Australia, picking up a grinding unanimous decision win over City Kickboxing talent Mike ‘Blood Diamond’ Mathetha.

After the victory, Radtke addressed the booing crowed—who were vociferously unenthused by his clinch heavy performance.

“F*** all you f****ts up in the f***ing crowd,” Radtke told the audience. “Come down here and get some you p***y-a** b****. F*** you.”

Not long after the fight, however, Radtke took to social media with a note of apology for his choice of words.

Fair play to Radtke, complaining about media obligations is a really solid step up from where he started. Something tells me he’ll be getting a lot more chances to “learn from my mistakes” over the course of his Octagon career. In the meantime, the UFC might want to give him a refresher course on his contract obligations.

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Another weigh in for a UFC card is another chance for drama on the scales. Cutting those last few pounds down to competition weight over the course of fight week always seems to be one of the most difficult parts of any camp and regularly results in last minute fight cancellations.

For this week’s UFC event, fortunately, everything is still set to go ahead as planned. Well, everything except for a women’s flyweight fight between Luana Carolina and Julija Stoliarenko. That fight will now be contested at a catchweight.

UFC Vegas 85: Luana Carolina blows cut

For the second time in her UFC career, former bantamweight and current flyweight fighter Luana Carolina has failed to make the 126 lb weight limit. The Brazilian is still set to take on former Invicta bantamweight champion Julija Stoliarenko this Saturday at the Apex facility in Las Vegas, NV, however that fight will now have to go ahead at a catchweight after ‘Dread’ came in heavy.

Carolina’s last blown weight cut came back in May of 2021 when she faced Poliana Botelho at UFC on ESPN: Reyes vs. Prochazka. The Capital da Luta talent weighted in at 128.5 lbs for that bout, defeating Botelho by split decision.

Julija Stoliarenko demands Carolina lose an extra pound

Fortunately for Carolina she did get a chance for a second weigh in attempt. But that also meant a conditional demand from Stoliarenko in order to keep their fight on UFC Vegas 85. Stoliarenko demanded that Carolina hit at least 128 lbs on her second weigh in attempt or the fight would be off.

As a result of the weight miss, MMA Fighting reports that Carolina will forfeit 20% of her show money to her opponent.

UFC Vegas 85 is set to go with 13 bouts. The main card is expected to be headlined by a top-ranked middleweight bout between Roman Dolidze and Nassourdine Imavov. A lightweight bout between Renato Moicano and Drew Dober will serve as the evening’s co-main event.

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It’s been a classic negotiating tactic of the UFC for years now. Get fans hyped up by announcing a booking, only for it to later turn out that the fight everyone was excited for was never actually booked. It was a tactic that truly became obvious to fans during Gilbert Melendez’s time with the UFC, specifically a planned Khabib Nurmagomedov fight that was announced by Dana White & co. while Melendez was still negotiating for a new contract with the promotion.

Melendez instead opted to go to Bellator, but was pulled back to the world’s largest MMA promotion via a ‘matching clause’. He then went on to face Anthony Pettis as opposing coaches on the Ultimate Fighter before vying against ‘Showtime’ for the lightweight title. The Nurmagomedov bout never materialized.

Dustin Poirier turns down Benoit Saint Denis fight

More so than contract negotiation tactics, the current version of the UFC has seen a consistent problem with stagnation at the upper ends of their divisional rankings. A voting panel that seems inconsistent on demoting fighters for inactivity or for a lack of relevant wins, and a realization from fighters that there’s more risk than reward in taking on lower-ranked opposition, has created a series of contender pools populated by the same few familiar faces seemingly for years on end. Nowhere has this problem been more present than the lightweight division.

Perhaps that’s why Dana White took a stab at announcing a bout between former interim lightweight title holder—and #3 ranked—Dustin Poirier against fast rising #11 ranked talent Benoit Saint Denis. A surefire banger that also seemed like an all risk/no reward booking for the ‘Diamond’. If fans might have been wondering why Poirier might take on such a dangerous opponent who had so little to offer him in terms of name recognition or title fight relevance, it turns out he hadn’t.

“I reached out to [Dustin Poirier] about his tweet that the BSD fight at 299 is off,” MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani reported. “His response: ‘There was no contractual agreement before the fight was announced and we couldn’t come to terms.”

Even Benoit Saint Deni’s coach recently admitted that neither he nor his fighter had any clue about the fight booking right up until the day the announcement was made public.

Or then again, maybe this was all just one big misunderstanding.

Dustin Poirier backtracks, says UFC 299 fight is still on

Chalk one up for Dana White. The UFC boss may have pushed the news that Dustin Poirier was fighting Benoit Saint Denis as a pressure tactic to get him to take a less desirable booking than he might otherwise have been looking for, but it sounds like it actually worked.

Shortly after denying that he had accepted the fight at all, Poirier came back to Twitter to announce that his team had, in fact, come to terms with the UFC in the last few days. UFC 299 is still a go.

Never one to miss a chance to gloat—and despite the fighters themselves involved saying that they only came to an agreement after the bout was announced—Dana White quickly took to social media to bash MMA Fighting’s Guilherme Cruz for picking up Poirier’s statement and fleshing out the reporting.

It has to be noted that nothing in the screenshots White shared suggested that either a contract had been signed or even that Saint Denis knew the Poirier would be his opponent. All these screenshots from White show are that Saint Denis had verbally agreed to a potential fight at UFC 299. Seems like a strange reason to put someone on blast considering even Poirier didn’t know his fight had been 100% agreed upon just within the past couple days.

End of the day, it’s good news for fans. Saint-Denis vs. Poirier promises to be an absolute war. UFC 299 is set to be headlined by Sean O’Malley vs. Marlon Vera for the bantamweight title. Alongside the main and co-main events, the card is expected to feature the debut of former Bellator star Michael Page, taking on Kevin Holland as well as Gilbert Burns vs. Jack Della Maddalena and Petr Yan vs. Song Yadong.

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Jake Paul’s slow transition from celebrity meme fighter to honest professional boxer appears to be at something of a midpoint. The man once best known for prank videos and Disney appearances has carved out a surprising career for himself as one of the biggest stars in combat sports. Never mind the fact that most of his bouts exist purely on the low end of pugilistic craft.

Notably, Paul has made his name picking off former MMA/UFC champions and title contenders and other celebrity athletes that want to try their hand in the boxing ring. He may not be a great boxer, but he’s put in more dedicated boxing training camps than the likes of Tyron Woodley and Ben Askren. That’s a path, however, that has left plenty of critics in its wake; fight fans that want to see Paul take on more ‘real boxers’ instead of moonlighting mixed martial artists.

Jake Paul to fight 35-year-old journeyman Ryan Bourland

It’s seemingly in answer to those critics that Jake Paul has selected his last two opponents. Back in December, the ‘Problem Child’ took on 35-year-old 10-1 can crusher Andre August, finishing the fight via KO in round 1. Now he’s announced a bout against Ryan Bourland on March 2nd.

Much like August, Bourland has a record that looks pretty on paper. He’s 17-2 as a pro, stretching all the way back to 2013. A closer look at his career however, provides a lot more evidence as to why he’s been selected for this task. First and foremost, Bourland has only fought once since 2018, a 2022 win against 4-6 Santario Martin. Second, his 17 wins include just four knockouts (never mind the six listed on the poster, which includes two retirement TKOs).

Not one of Bourland’s KO wins had a record over .500, two were debuting fighters that never competed again. Video of Bourland’s fight against Codale Ford in 2018 shows a fairly light-fisted, busy fighter who likes to lead and work in combination. Not un-technical, but much like his record would suggest, not dynamic or dangerous either.

Be careful what you wish for

It’s been said before (especially by Jake Paul to his detractors), but fighting former pro MMA fighters is honestly a lot more of a challenge than most boxers take on early in their journey. Despite the criticism that Paul had been avoiding real competition, relative to his skill level, he actually was picking some tough fights.

Now however, it seems he’s looking for a couple of really big paydays. A chance to step in the ring with a legit top-level boxing draw someday and maybe even fight for a belt. It all has the sound of a pipe dream, especially the parts where Paul starts claiming that he’ll challenge Canelo Alvarez. But if he’s ever going to do it, he needs to pad out his record, get in the rounds and the ring time and the wins. Something he can’t do fighting once or twice a year against whatever name free agent the UFC happens to cut loose.

Essentially he’s giving fans what they want. A chance to see him in action against real, life-long boxers. It just turns out that means fights that are a lot less competitive or interesting than taking on the likes of Anderson Silva and Nate Diaz in 10oz gloves.

Also on the card, Jake Paul client Amanda Serrano will defend her featherweight IBO, WBO, and WBA titles against Nina Meinke. Owner of the IBF intercontinental featherweight title, Meinke (18-3) is on a six fight winning streak. Serrano has won four fights in a row since losing to undisputed lightweight champion Kaite Taylor in a 2022 ‘superfight’ event at Madison Square Garden. Earlier in the night, WBO light flyweight champion Jonathan Gonzalez will take on Rene Santiago.

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Fighter pay is one of the most notable and unrelenting debates in the MMA industry. A business all but conquered by the UFC sees the promotion absorb far and away most of the revenue generated by their most notable talents. Past estimates have pegged the promotion as regularly taking more than 80% of revenue. With contracted athletes receiving less than 20%.

Despite those kinds of numbers, many current and former stars have defended the industry’s pay standards, claiming that they got a fair shake from UFC brass during their time there. Don’t expect former UFC champion Tyron Woodley to be among those voices, however.

Ex-UFC champ Tyron Woodley says he was making Donald Cerrone money

In a recent conversation with former flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson, longtime Roufusport talent and former welterweight king Tyron Woodley revealed that even during his time fighting for the UFC he had serious disagreements with Dana White & co. over the promotion’s pay scale. Most notably it sounds like he was pissed off to realize that he wasn’t making any more to be champion than perennial action favorite Donald Cerrone was to be a contender.

“I was going to leave the UFC after (fighting) Darren Till,” Woodley revealed (transcript via MMA Junkie). “I told them, ‘F—king cut me, dog. Ya’ll don’t want me here. Why ya’ll keep holding on to me, dog?’ We (kept) fighting and sh*t every fight because you know how I was. I was a gorilla. … I knew the numbers so well. I knew what everybody was making. I’m not finna go out there and be making the same as ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone.

“That motherf—ker ain’t never touched gold in his life. That’s just a principle thing. Sometimes when you’re an African-American in this game, they think you should just be appreciative. I’m not just appreciative. I’m thankful that you gave me an opportunity, but you didn’t give me the gifts. God gave me the gifts. I’m thankful to him.”

Woodley went to bat for Demetrious Johnson

Alongside his feelings about his own contract during his UFC run, Tyron Woodley also apparently got wind of Demetrious Johnson’s struggles to get a good deal from the world’s largest MMA promotion. Notably, that Johnson defended his belt multiple times without a typical $500k champion’s purse, and never got his share of PPV points. Once again, Donald Cerrone (reportedly making $350k a fight) was a source of comparison and consternation.

“You got DJ who got (11) titles, but you going to pay ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone the same as him?” Woodley asked, after revealing he’d argued with the UFC brass over Johnson’s contract. “Cowboy was making [$350,000]. He never touched gold ever. So, your reason behind him making $350,000 per fight is that he never complains, he takes any fight that you offer him, he’ll even fight injured, he’ll even fight last-minute notice. That don’t work for me.”

Tyron Woodley claimed Jake Paul fight was biggest purse of his career

We don’t have all the exact numbers from his MMA career, but Woodley reportedly banked $2 million for his fight against Jake Paul plus PPV points on top of that for the event’s 500,000 buys. It’s a number that, heading into the bout, Woodley claimed was the biggest of his career.

“Easiest fight of my career & biggest purse of my career all in one night. Basically, they brought me in to take out the trash,” Woodley crowed before losing a split decision in their first meeting.

Bloody Elbow’s own research has estimated that Woodley made somewhere in the neighborhood of $3,000,000 for his draw against Stephen Thompson at UFC 205, a PPV he shared with Conor McGregor vs. Eddie Alvarez. It’s not hard to see how, with a $2,000,000 base purse for his bout against Paul, the ‘Chosen One’ might have exceeded that figure for his debut inside the ring. Woodley was reported to have earned a $1,000,000 purse for the December rematch against Paul, which only sold 200,000 buys on PPV.

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MMA is full of rules that act more as guidelines than hard and fast regulations. Things like strikes to the back of the head, 12-6 elbows, eye pokes, cage grabs; all of these happen often enough in the UFC that fans feel like they know and recognize them, but rarely are they so strictly enforced that they end up changing the outcome of a bout.

One rule that has come up several times lately in key situations, however, is the ‘grounded fighter’ rule. More specifically, the ability to throw knees to the head of a downed opponent especially when they have only one hand and both feet touching the canvas. The severity of the strikes in play in these situations often mean that fighters find themselves too injured to continue after eating what may be an illegal knee. But after years of regulatory meddling, what exactly makes a strike legal or not is one of constant debate.

Arnold Allen takes a loss at UFC 297

Even as recently as the UFC’s latest PPV, top featherweight contender Arnold Allen had a chance for victory snatched away during his bout with Movsar Evloev. After two rounds of getting soundly out-wrestled and out-struck by the former M-1 Global champion, Allen turned things around in round 3. Most notably, he landed a series of heavy knees with his opponent in a 3-point stance—knees that appeared to have Evloev badly hurt.

Unfortunately for Allen, despite many referees and jurisdictions in the US adhering to a version of the downed fighter rule whereby a fighter’s hands must be ‘weight bearing’ for them to be considered a grounded opponent, Ontario’s regulations state that any body part touching the canvas other than the soles of a fighter’s feet renders kicks or knees to the head an illegal strike.

The action was paused, Allen was served with a strong warning, and Evloev was given time to re-gather his bearings—with the Russian eventually going on to win a unanimous 29-28 decision.

“Caught a head-and-arm with about three minutes left in the round, I fired off some knees, and in the moment I believe they were legal,” Allen told fans on his YouTube channel (transcript via MMA Junkie). “I asked the rules backstage, and there was nothing to clarify. Mark Goddard is getting a lot of flack for his call, but when he came in and said he was reffing, me, my coach and my manager were very happy, and I still think he’s one of the best refs out there. I believe he made a mistake, and you know, it’s a tough one. … I do feel I was on to a sequence where I was about to set up a finish.

“My opponent was really hurt. The way he sat down, the way he was reacting from the knees. His hand was off even with the rule. Every knee that landed his hand was in the air. I lifted him up, knee, I lifted him up, knee, I lifted him up, knee. Even with that hand down, hand up rule, they were all legal. Then also its palm on the ground, a weight-bearing palm, not fingertips. So at minimum, it was fingertips when I lifted him up, and it wasn’t weight-bearing. It was just poking the floor, poking the floor. I do believe I would have set up a finish from there.”

California looking for large scale rules revision

It’s situations like the one outlined in the Arnold Allen fight that have California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) director Andy Foster looking to make a change to the grounded fighter rule that will have a sweeping impact on the UFC and MMA in general. Over the years, this rule has gone through a number of revisions that have left a massive mess behind them.

Initially most commissions held that anything other than the soles of a fighters feet touching the mat made them a grounded fighter. That regulation was amended by the ABC in 2017 to say that a fighter must have two points of contact other than their feet (i.e. both hands down), but most commissions ignored that directive creating wildly inconsistent application across the US. Later the regulation was tweaked again, to say that just one hand down would make a fighter grounded, but that the hand must be weight bearing. Once again some commissions made the jump, some didn’t.

At this point, it’s entirely on fighters to know exactly what rules are allowed by which commissions wherever they’re fighting. The UFC runs rules meetings for their cards, and athletes have chances to meet with officials—but as is obvious from Allen’s statement above, even those precautions are hardly foolproof.

Hopefully Foster’s latest move can relieve some of the burden from talent when it comes to jurisdictional inconsistency (although international commissions will likely still be a world unto their own).

“We’re going to get rid of the hand,” Foster said in a recent interview on the MMA Hour. “That’s my proposal. We’re going to get rid of it. If you want to be down, you need to put something else down. Knee, back, anything. Anything other than — you can’t be standing up, putting your hand on the ground. It’s caused too much confusion. A rule that we put in for safety has in fact created an unsafe environment, and it’s created an untenable environment for referees to regulate this. They all view it differently.

“Herb [Dean] likes weight bearing, others do different things, different commissions look at it different ways. You can’t have unified rules where the rules aren’t unified. We’ve got to get rid of this. It’s a situation that we, the regulators, have created. It’s our creation, it hasn’t worked, and we need to fix it.”

Reportedly, Foster expects the ABC to approve his proposal. The question then becomes, however, whether or not other athletic commissions will carry this legislation forward on their own. New ABC guidelines are all well and good, but if we’ve seen the landscape fracture with each new set of rules, it’s hard to think that another change will be the solution that fixes it all.

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One of the most surprising pieces of fallout from the UFC’s latest PPV card came not from any of the fights or even the fighters. Shortly following the event, UFC commentator Jon Anik made headlines when he spoke about the backlash he’d received from Sean Strickland fans, after revealing that he agreed with the official decision that Dricus du Plessis deserved to win the middleweight title.

“And I don’t know if these fans are casual fans or not, right?” Anik told podcast co-host Kenny Florian. “But, I appreciate the passion. But, I’m getting to a point at 45 years of age, where I don’t know how much time I have left in this MMA space. Because, if I go do pro football I’m not necessarily going to be dealing with this lowest common denominator all the time. And, I dunno, man. I just feel like there’s a lot of malice and disrespect from the fanbase.”

Unfortunately for Anik, if he’d hoped that his feelings would quell divisiveness, that doesn’t seem to have been the case. Especially not from Sean Strickland.

Ex-UFC champ Sean Strickland responds to Jon Anik

After Anik’s statement started making the rounds in the MMA blogosphere Sean Strickland took a moment from reflecting on his title loss to respond to Anik’s feelings of despair over fan malice. Unsuprisingly, Strickland had no sympathy for someone that wasn’t himself.

Anik climbs down

Maybe it was Strickland’s words, maybe it was continued fan backlash, maybe it was a call from UFC brass? Or, maybe it was purely further reflection on the state of affairs. However, in a post to his Instagram account on Saturday, January 27th, Anik posted an apology to “those MMA fans whom I’ve offended.”

“Last week on my podcast, I was in a heightened emotional state following myriad allegations of bias at UFC 297 and I made some regrettable comments relating to the MMA fan base,” Anik’s statement reads. “While I was surprised at the extent to which my comments were re-purposed and sensationalized, I need to be more responsible on an open microphone. So much work goes into the execution of just one UFC pay-per-view so it can be tough when my integrity on broadcast is called into question.

“That doesn’t excuse my retort. I am just a fiery, passionate, flawed, empathetic guy and sometimes my emotions lead the dance. To those MMA Fans whom I’ve offended, I am sorry. That was not my intention. For 12 years, I’ve prided myself on being accessible to the fan base and that will continue. I’ve learned a lot over the last 48 hours. On to Anaheim…”

Well, for those fans worried that we might find ourselves short of Anik’s services in the near future on UFC broadcasts, it doesn’t sound like he’s actually considering stepping away any time in the near future. So, that’s a plus. In the meantime, it seems like what had been a well-intentioned push-back on toxic fan culture and needless hostility as been snuffed out, quick. That’s a bit of a shame.

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Update: Vince McMahon has resigned from his roles at WWE and parent company TKO after disturbing new allegations surfaced.

“Out of respect for the WWE Universe, the extraordinary TKO business and its board members and shareholders, partners and constituents, and all of the employees and Superstars who helped make WWE into the global leader it is today, I have decided to resign from my executive chairmanship and the TKO board of directors, effective immediately,” Vince McMahon said in a statement.

For the past several years WWE chairman Vince McMahon has been embroiled in a series of sexual misconduct scandals, some of them stretching back to allegations made more than 30 years ago. In 2022, the company’s board of directors launched an investigation into ‘hush-money’ settlements paid by McMahon totaling nearly $20 million.

As a result of that investigation, Vince McMahon was forced to step down as CEO of the WWE, and eventually announced his retirement. That move was short lived, however, with Vince McMahon returning to the pro-wrestling promotion just six months later to once again take control. In a recent report from the Wall Street Journal, however, one of the apparent recipients of McMahon’s payoffs has filed a lawsuit, exposing his alleged conduct in more disturbing detail.

Wall Street Journal exposes Vince McMahon’s sexual assault claims

The Wall Street Journal has gained access to court documents from a former WWE employee as part of a lawsuit filed in January of 2024. In those documents, the employee claims that they were subjected to sex trafficking perpetrated by Vince McMahon.

This lawsuit appears to have come about after McMahon failed to follow through on a $3 million NDA agreement. Paying only $1 million of the money promised before allegations of his past misconduct became public knowledge in 2022, at which point he stopped further payments. As a result the current lawsuit would nullify the terms of the NDA, along with granting unspecified damages.

In the WSJ article, the accusing party alleges that they met McMahon through a manager at her apartment building in 2019, where the WWE executive lived in the penthouse suite. McMahon reportedly showered them with gifts and pressured them into sex in exchange for employment with the WWE. After sharing photos and stories of his sexual exploits to other WWE employees, the plaintiff alleges that they were also coerced to have sex with former WWE head of talent relations John Laurinaitis, who is also named in the lawsuit.

McMahon controlled her professional and personal lives and subjected her to degradation, according to the suit. In the June 2021 encounter inside the WWE office, the suit said McMahon and Laurinaitis forced themselves on her and took turns restraining her for the other, while saying “No means yes” and “Take it, b—.”

The lawsuit also claims that at one point, during a sexual encounter McMahon “defecated” on the plaintiff’s head, as detailed in a report from Variety.

Citing an example of McMahon’s “extreme depravity,” on May 9, 2020, “he defecated on Ms. Grant during a threesome, and then commanded her to continue pleasuring his ‘friend’ — with feces in her hair and running down her back — while McMahon went to the bathroom to shower off,” the lawsuit says.

Eventually McMahon reportedly paid for an extended stay at a health clinic for the plaintiff due to her deteriorating physical and mental health.

Brock Lesnar named

One of the most notable names to come up in this new lawsuit is former UFC and current WWE superstar Brock Lesnar. Allegedly Vince McMahon shared sexually explicit material featuring the plaintiff with Lesnar, as a lure to get the former NCAA D1 national champion wrestler back under contract in 2021. Afterward, McMahon apparently texted the plaintiff that “part of the deal was f—ing U.”

WSJ reports that Lesnar asked the plaintiff to send a video of themselves urinating, then called them a “b—h” after they complied. Lesnar then attempted to “set a play date,” only to cancel the plan after a snowstorm prevented him from traveling.

TKO statement

The Wall Street Journal claims they have reached out to McMahon, his attorney, Lesnar, and the WWE for comment, but did not receive a response.

In the Variety report, a spokesperson for TKO claimed the company was currently “addressing this matter internally.”

“Mr. McMahon does not control TKO nor does he oversee the day-to-day operations of WWE,” TKO said of the current lawsuit. “While this matter predates our TKO executive team’s tenure at the company, we take [the plaintiff]’s horrific allegations very seriously and are addressing this matter internally.”

Bloody Elbow merch available

Bloody Elbow is pleased to announce our partnership with Revgear. They have been a pioneer in the MMA gear industry and have grown into a formidable brand and true leader in the market. Revgear now have Bloody Elbow t-shirts, hoodies and hats so you can show your support for independent MMA journalism.

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At one point Sage Northcutt looked as though he were the future of the UFC. Signed with a shiny 5-0 record at just 19 years old, the former poster boy of non-contact sport karate seemed headed for big things with his clean cut, wholesome personality and dynamic traditional martial arts style.

Unfortunately, the UFC is a terribly hard place to learn the ropes. A couple surprising upset losses and a few fights that were more difficult that expected and the Northcutt hype train felt all but derailed by the time he and the world’s largest MMA promotion parted ways in 2018.

Northcutt landed in ONE FC a year later, with the expectation of becoming a star for Asia’s largest MMA promotion instead, but a brutal loss to Cosmo Alexandre in his debut and bouts with injury and illness saw him sidelined for the next four years.

Sage Northcutt returns again

Finally, in May of last year, Northcutt made his return to competition—submitting relatively unknown AKA talent Ahmed Mujatab just 39 seconds into round 1 with a heel hook. Sadly, for fans hoping this would jump start his return to action, his injury troubles weren’t totally behind him.

“I would have liked to fight sooner than the six to eight months since my last fight, I wanted to fight very soon but I had a little nagging injury that I had going into my fight with Mujtaba and I got it checked up again after my fight,” Northcutt said in a recent interview.

No word on exactly what that injury might have been. Northcutt suffered multiple facial fractures in his bout against Cosmo Alexandre, but hasn’t publicly disclosed any other more recent injury problems. It may be worth noting, however that Northcutt did pull out of a 2017 bout against John Makdessi citing injury, but the exact nature of that issue was never disclosed.

Sage Northcutt talks prep for Aoki

Known primarily for his striking prowess, Sage Northcutt shocked a lot of fans when he won his last bout with a heel hook submission, the first joint-lock submission win of his career, and only submission since beating Cody Pfister in 2015. However, in a recent interview with MMA Junkie, Northcutt admitted that he’s been putting a whole lot of time into his grappling game. It’s something he says he won’t necessarily look to avoid, even against a submission artist with Aoki’s reputation.

“I’ve been working my grappling for the past several years a lot,” Northcutt revealed. “Great grapplers, great teammates, great coaches. So, I’ve been really, really preparing and training my grappling a whole lot to improve.”

“A lot of people know that Shinya is known for his grappling, but it’s not just a grappling match out there,” Northcutt said. “It is mixed martial arts. You have a whole different set of tools and same thing, it’s not just a striking match. So, I think really going out there and being ready for anything is very important.”

Of course, it doesn’t hurt Northcutt’s chances that Aoki is a full 13-years his senior, and has competed as low as 145 lbs in the past. While Northcutt pinged between lightweight and welterweight during his UFC run, he made his ONE debut up at 185 lbs. It seems very likely that the Team Alpha Male talent will hold a pretty decent strength advantage when he meets ‘Tobikan Judan’ on January 28th in Tokyo.

Bloody Elbow merch available

Bloody Elbow is pleased to announce our partnership with Revgear. They have been a pioneer in the MMA gear industry and have grown into a formidable brand and true leader in the market. Revgear now have Bloody Elbow t-shirts, hoodies and hats so you can show your support for independent MMA journalism.

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UFC 300 is still a work in process. As recently as this past Wednesday, January 24th, Dana White was on camera telling fans that the main event had not yet been set for the centennial PPV. There is one guaranteed action fight, however, that fans can already start getting excited about, with Justin Gaethje welcoming Max Holloway back to the lightweight division.

Holloway previously took a stab at 155 lbs back in 2019, when he fought and lost to Dustin Poirier for an interim lightweight title. A brutal war that had ‘Blessed’ looking notably out-gunned for power, the loss pushed the Hawaiian back to featherweight where he’s racked up five more wins and three more losses (with each loss coming to Alexander Volkanovski).

Justin Gaethje didn’t want to fight Max Holloway at UFC 300

It’s those losses that have left the 32-year-old Gracie Technics talent at something of a loose end. With no clear path back to title contention, fans have been left talking about potential superfights for Holloway with the likes of Aljamain Sterling, Henry Cejudo, or perhaps Charles Oliveira. Then Justin Gaethje came along and seemingly spoke this fight into existence.

“I kind of talked this into existence on accident,” Gaethje said in a recent interview (transcript via MMA Junkie). “I said, ‘I didn’t want to punch Max Holloway, but he’s also a guy that could fight for a BMF belt.’ That turns out into going to be having to punch Max Holloway. It’s the name of the game, and I am the best in the world at creating damage.”

Hopefully we avoid Gaethje/Cerrone vibes

This isn’t the first time Justin Gaethje has stepped into the UFC Octagon against an opponent he’d rather not face. Back in 2019, just a few months after Holloway’s fight with Poirier, the ‘Highlight’ took a fight with friend and sometimes training partner Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone.

“That was my friend, I didn’t want to do that to him, I’ll be honest with you,” Gaethje told the crowd after knocking Cerrone out, noting his anger at the referee for not stopping the bout earlier.

In the years since that victory, Gaethje has gone 4-2, winning an interim title for his 2020 bout against Tony Ferguson, but losing unified title shots to Khabib Nurmagomedov and Charles Oliveira. Most recently Gaethje avenged a 2018 loss to Dustin Poirier, knocking the ‘Diamond’ out with a head kick in the second round at UFC 291 last July. Stay tuned for more news and notes on the UFC 300 lineup as fight night approaches.

Bloody Elbow merch available

Bloody Elbow is pleased to announce our partnership with Revgear. They have been a pioneer in the MMA gear industry and have grown into a formidable brand and true leader in the market. Revgear now have Bloody Elbow t-shirts, hoodies and hats so you can show your support for independent MMA journalism.