Author: mmafighting
The Mixed Martial Arts Hour is back in your life! Below is a rundown of Wednesday’s show, which begins at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT / 6 p.m. UK time. 1 p.m. ET: I answer all your questions in the latest edition of On the Nose. 1:40 p.m. Steve Erceg reflects on his UFC 295 win and sudden rise up the flyweight ranks. 2 p.m.: Andre Ward returns to discuss the latest news in the boxing world. 2:30 p.m.: Benoit Saint-Denis joins us in-studio following his sensational win at UFC 295. 3:30 p.m.: Jake Paul previews his Dec.…
Jamahal Hill has full confidence that he’ll be a two-time UFC light heavyweight champion. UFC 295, in theory, could have been the first title defense attempt for Michigan’s Hill. Unfortunately for “Sweet Dreams,” he suffered a ruptured achilles tendon earlier in the year, which has left him sidelined since capturing gold over Glover Teixeira by unanimous decision at UFC 283 in January. As a result, the UFC 295 main event featured a vacant 205-pound title tilt between the former champion Jiri Prochazka and one-time middleweight king Alex Pereira. Brazil’s “Poatan” came out victorious by second-round TKO, giving him the record…
Francis Ngannou wanted to fight Jon Jones while he was still in the UFC, and he has no doubt Jones was making the same request. So why didn’t these two meet in a heavyweight clash for the ages? Ngannou believes the responsibility falls back on the UFC rather than trying to place blame at his feet, or Jones for that matter. “First of all, when I was around, Jon Jones wasn’t around,” Ngannou said on The Last Stand podcast. “Even three years before, we were negotiating. I was asking for this fight after I fought Jairzinho Rozenstruik. “I was pushing…
Elizeu Zaleski completed his UFC contract with a thrilling majority draw against Rinat Fakhretdinov earlier this month at UFC Sao Paulo. Now he hopes to secure a good deal going forward. Zaleski told MMA Fighting he feels he should’ve won the Nov. 4 fight in Brazil and sees the draw as “unfair”, but doesn’t expect the outcome to affect his negations with the company. “I believe the UFC has great plans for me,” Zaleski said. “I’m always open to negotiations. I feel great in the organization, I’m always giving my best in every fight. But everything is negotiable. I need…
Dana White won’t tell his fighters what they should or shouldn’t say, and it turns out he applies that same rule to himself. During an appearance on comedian Theo Von’s podcast, the UFC CEO revealed that a major UFC sponsor attempted to censor him after he made a video post supporting former president Donald Trump. Of course, White has called Trump a friend for many years and even spoke on his behalf at the 2016 Republican National Convention prior to his election. “I posted a video for Trump on my personal social media,” White said. “One of our big sponsors…
Francis Ngannou may not have beaten Tyson Fury, but he did delay him. Per a report from ESPN on Tuesday, Fury will unify the boxing heavyweight titles against Oleksandr Usyk on February 17 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In October, Fury faced Ngannou in a 10-round boxing match that was largely seen to be a tune-up fight for Fury before his then-planned heavyweight boxing title unification bout against Usyk on December 23. Instead of a warm up, Fury got all he could handle for 10 rounds, and was even dropped by Ngannou, before eking out a split decision victory. The harder-than-expected…
UFC bantamweight Miles Johns will remain on temporary suspension pending an adjudication agreement with the Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) following a failed drug test in relation to his fight on Sept. 23. On Tuesday during a monthly commission meeting, Mike Detmer, deputy attorney general for the state of Nevada, revealed that Johns tested positive for the M3 metabolite, which is found in DHCMT — better known as oral turinabol, an anabolic steroid. Johns had his temporary suspension extended and a disciplinary hearing is expected to take place at a later meeting. The M3 metabolite should sound familiar after Jon Jones…
Loopy Godinez earned her fourth win of 2023 by taking a decision over Tabatha Ricci at UFC 295 on Saturday, however her momentum was nearly stalled when one judge turned in a controversial scorecard. Bryan Miner gave Ricci all three rounds for a 30-27 scorecard, while other judges Sal D’Amato and Derek Cleary both gave 29-28 scores to Godinez. As a result, Godinez had to eke out a split decision despite what seemed to be a fairly clear-cut win after three hard-fought rounds. In the moment, Godinez didn’t totally realize what happened because Bruce Buffer announced the scorecards so quickly…
While the idea of a Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic had little buzz ahead of their scheduled matchup at UFC 295 before Jones was forced to withdraw due to injury, whatever buzz was there seems to be fully gone after Tom Aspinall’s 69 second destruction of Sergei Pavlovich to win the interim heavyweight title on Saturday at Madison Square Garden. The MMA world now wants to see Jones vs. Aspinall, but will we ever get it? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck reacts to Aspinall’s performance, talks the likelihood of a Jones vs.…
Mackenzie Dern has to pick up the pieces after suffering the first knockout loss of her career with her setback against Jessica Andrade at UFC 295 on Saturday. The multi-time grappling champion was once touted as the future of the UFC strawweight division, but has gone just 2-3 over her past five octagon appearances. Dern also openly discussed struggles in her personal life after going through an ugly divorce as well as enduring changes to her training camp following the closing of her former gym. UFC welterweight Matt Brown considers himself a fan of Dern, but he was stunned by…