Author: mmafighting
Chris Curtis scored a big win at UFC 297, even if he didn’t win over everyone. During Curtis’ three-round fight with Marc-Andre Barriault this past Saturday in Toronto, “The Action Man” and his opponent were occasionally booed as they engaged in a tactical striking battle. Curtis went on to earn a split decision and snap a three-fight winless skid, but the moment was somewhat spoiled by the bout’s critical reception. What bothered Curtis the most was the commentary by analysts Dominick Cruz and Daniel Cormier, who Curtis says have never given him a fair shake. “I get s*** on by…
Jiu-jitsu wizard Mahamed Aly scored a vicious stoppage in his MMA debut Saturday night in Houston, TX. Aly faced one-time Bellator veteran John Ott in the co-main event of PCS 4 and bloodied the heavyweight before connecting with a perfect right kick to the head to drop Ott out in the opening round. Check the finishing sequence below. “I’m not here just to be a jiu-jitsu guy that comes here and finishes people, even though I will finish a lot of people,” Aly said in his post-fight interview. “I want to show that I’m getting better in my striking. I…
The UFC and ESPN are expected to sit down at the negotiating table to discuss a new broadcast rights deal in the very near future. That’s according to UFC CEO Dana White, who acknowledged plans for those talks ahead of the expiration for the current deal that runs through 2025. The UFC inked a lucrative seven-year deal with ESPN in 2018 that was reportedly worth more than $1.5 billion, which eventually included pay-per-view broadcasts. Now, with the deal coming to a close, the UFC will first sit down with ESPN before potentially branching out to discuss broadcast rights with other…
Julianna Peña was far from dazzled by what she saw from UFC 297’s co-main event. “It was a snooze fest. I was not impressed. Not impressed with their performance, as my friend Georges St-Pierre likes to say,” Peña said Monday on The MMA Hour. “Nobody won. The fans lost. Literally, there was no winner.” A former UFC women’s bantamweight champion, Peña watched from home as her division crowned a new champion at UFC 297 following the retirement of Amanda Nunes. Peña was expected to be part of the vacant title bout, however injury prevented her from competing, so instead Raquel…
UFC 297 went down this past Saturday in Toronto and let’s just be honest: It was not the best fight card we’ve ever seen. That being said, some things did happen. Two new champions were crowned, one new contender emerged, and the great Canadian had one of the most impressive implosions in recent memory. So let’s talk about all the fallout from UFC 297. Dricus du Plessis Does the hot potato state of the middleweight division right now remind u of the LHW division before Jones got the belt and does that mean we are on the cusp of a…
The upcoming PFL vs. Bellator card has already taken a hit. Current PFL welterweight champion Magomed Magomedkerimov has been forced out of his fight against Bellator champion Jason Jackson due to undisclosed reasons. In his place, former PFL champion Ray Cooper III now faces Jackson on the card that takes place on Feb. 24 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The new matchup is expected to happen at a 182-pound catchweight. Multiple people with knowledge of the promotion’s plans confirmed the news to MMA Fighting on Monday following an initial report from MMA Junkie. Cooper accepts the fight as a two-time PFL…
Sean Strickland offered congratulations to Dricus du Plessis after dropping a close split decision in the UFC 297 main event. Forty-eight hours later, he’s had a change of heart. The now-former UFC middleweight champion showed off the aftermath from a gruesome cut he suffered during the fight, along with video showing where an accidental head butt opened a nasty gash over his eye. He wiped blood away from cut on his eyelid throughout the fight, but he said there was never a moment when he thought about asking for a way out. Instead, Strickland doubled down on his belief that…
Welcome to the latest update to the MMA Fighting pound-for-pound rankings, where every month our esteemed panel sort through the noise to answer one question: Who are the best overall male and female MMA fighters in the world? With the first UFC pay-per-view of 2024 in the books, how has the start of the MMA calendar affected the global pound-for-pound landscape? Let’s take a look. Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images MMA Fighting Dricus du Plessis is the latest UFC middleweight champion to flip the pound-for-pound rankings upside down. For the fourth time in a row, the middleweight belt changed hands…
Dricus du Plessis accomplished his goal of becoming UFC champion on Saturday night with a hard fought decision win over Sean Strickland in the main event of UFC 297. While du Plessis has his sights set on Israel Adesanya for his first title defense — possibly at UFC 300 — where does Strickland go after losing the title? On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee discuss what’s next for du Plessis and Strickland from a matchmaking perspective following Saturday’s pay-per-view event. Additionally, future matchups will be discussed for new…
Israel Adesanya is happy for Dricus du Plessis, but he still has his sights set on the new UFC middleweight champion. Du Plessis claimed that title this past Saturday at UFC 297 in Toronto after winning a narrow split decision over Sean Strickland. The back-and-forth fight had the Scotiabank Arena crowd entranced and Adesanya was also watching closely at home. In a reaction video posted to YouTube, Adesanya explained why he felt du Plessis did enough to win the fight, and also why the two sill have a score to settle. “The main event, it was nice to watch,” Adesanya…