Author: mmafighting
A familiar face will be the third man in the cage for UFC 298’s main event. Veteran referee Jason Herzog has been selected to oversee the featherweight title bout between UFC champion Alexander Volkanovski and undefeated challenger Ilia Topuria. The three judges scoring the contest are also familiar names: Ron McCarthy, Derek Cleary, and Sal D’Amato. UFC 298 takes place Saturday, Feb. 17, at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. The California State Athletic Commission provided the event’s judging and referee assignments to MMA Fighting on Thursday. Volkanovski, 35, seeks to become the oldest champion in UFC history under 170…
Paulo Costa has bigger things on his mind than running back a fight with Khamzat Chimaev. As he prepares to take on former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker in the UFC 298 co-main event, the one-time title challenger addressed Chimaev after a nasty infection in Costa’s elbow forced him to drop out of their previously scheduled matchup this past October. With Costa unavailable, Chimaev earned a razor-close decision win over Kamaru Usman, who accepted the fight and made his middleweight debut on just 10 days’ notice. Costa admits that there’s no love lost with Chimaev — a fighter he nearly got…
Sean Strickland really wanted to fight Jake Paul, but he claims the UFC wouldn’t give him permission. The former middleweight champion recently got into a war of words with Paul after the 27-year-old boxer slammed Strickland for beating up an inexperienced social influencer during a sparring session. As a result, Paul challenged Strickland to come to Puerto Rico for a fight, and if Strickland won, he would pay $1 million out of his own pocket. If Strickland lost, the ex-UFC champ had to get a tattoo of the logo from Paul’s betting app, BETR. Strickland said he reached out to…
Alexander Volkanovski caught Ilia Topuria jumping the gun. On Saturday, Volkanovski and Topuria face off in the main event of UFC 298 with Volkanovski’s featherweight championship on the line, and earlier this week, the two men got a little preview of what’s in store during a tense but friendly backstage run-in. A clip posted by UFC on social media shows Topuria taking the belt for a spin when Volkanovski walks by and chirps at his trash-talking challenger. The two featherweights exchange a few words, but it’s all in good fun as they prepare to do battle on Saturday. “May as…
The amount of questions surrounding the UFC featherweight championship main event of UFC 298 between Alexander Volkanovski and Ilia Topuria are astounding — not just heading into the fight, but the roads both fighters will take based on the result. Can Volkanovski continue his 145-pound dominance, or will the incredibly confident Topuria be put on the rocket ship to superstardom? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel will preview Saturday’s main event, the stakes involved for both Volkanovski and Topuria, and where the champion goes, win or lose. Additionally, topics include the rest of the UFC 298…
Ilia Topuria expects to have his hand raised in his first UFC title fight, with the judges not being part of the equation. On Saturday, Topuria faces the tall task of attempting to dethrone long-reigning featherweight king Alexander Volkanovski when they collide in the main event of UFC 298 in Anaheim, Calif. Neither man has ever tasted defeat competing at 145 pounds and barring a draw or no-contest, something has got to give. Volkanovski’s big game experience could give him the edge, but Topuria has studied plenty of the champion’s tape and he doubts that Volkanovski can match him in…
A high stakes flyweight bout will now headline the UFC’s return to Atlantic City. The promotion announced on Thursday that the scheduled matchup between Erin Blanchfield and Manon Fiorot has been promoted to the main event of UFC Atlantic City, which takes place March 30 at Boardwalk Hall. UFC CEO Dana White originally announced that a welterweight contest between Sean Brady and Vicente Luque would be the main event, but the bout never fully materialized due to Brady dealing with an injury. Blanchfield enters her second UFC headliner on an impressive nine-fight win streak, including a 6-0 start to her…
Max Holloway doesn’t care too much about where he’s fighting at UFC 300, because he knows the whole world will be watching him throw hands with Justin Gaethje. As the UFC continues to search for a headliner for the historic event on April 13, Holloway is preparing for a five-round showdown with Gaethje for the “BMF” title. So far, there’s only one other title fight at UFC 300 — the strawweight matchup between Zhang Weili and Yan Xiaonan — but it’s likely the promotion will add at least one more before all is said and done. By any measure, Holloway’s…
Brian Ortega is ready to cause some chaos within the 145-pound ranks. It’s been a tough couple of years for Ortega since his rise through the featherweight division as an undefeated 14-0 superstar. The 32-year-old submission wizard has gone 1-3 in his four fights that have followed his first title shot against Max Holloway in December 2018. Ortega last fought in July 2022 when he suffered a shoulder injury in round one of his UFC Long Island main event vs. Yair Rodriguez. Therefore, the result was a TKO loss on “T-City’s” record and he will seek redemption in a rematch…
UFC 300 is expected to deliver a loaded lineup for the promotion’s historic April event. Following one of the most chaotic years in recent memory, the UFC will bring UFC 300 to its home base of Las Vegas on April 13. UFC CEO Dana White has promised one of the most stacked, and perhaps, unpredictable lineups in company history. With four title fights already on the books for the first quarter of the year, including Sean Strickland vs. Dricus Du Plessis for the middleweight title, and Mayra Bueno Silva vs. Raquel Pennington for the vacant women’s bantamweight title at UFC…