Author: mmafighting
Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall do not see eye to eye. The two UFC heavyweight champions view their 2024 plans very differently if the past few days are any indication. On one side is Jones, the injured titleholder who won his belt in March 2023 with a walloping of Ciryl Gane and now refuses to budge from his goals of fighting Stipe Miocic for his first — and possibly only — title defense once he has recovered later this year. And on the other side is Aspinall, the interim champ who’s made it his duty to convince anyone who will…
Aleksandar Rakic isn’t worried about Jiri Prochazka’s unorthodox style. The April 13 duel between Rakic and Prochazka at UFC 300 is expected to be a striker’s delight, with both fighters known for doing damage in the standup. Rakic has had plenty of time to study the former light heavyweight champion, as he’s been on the shelf since May 2022 after suffering a serious knee injury in a loss to Jan Blachowicz — and from what he knows of Prochazka, he’s confident that he can take his spot in the contender’s line. “If you see the fights with Jiri, in almost…
Daniel Zellhuber will fight in front of his countrymen in his next octagon appearance, as “Golden Boy” and Francisco Prado have agreed to face off at the upcoming UFC Mexico City card on Feb. 24, multiple people with knowledge of the booking told MMA Fighting. Zellhuber and Prado verbally agreed to the contest but contracts have yet to be signed, sources said. UFC Mexico City will be headlined by Brandon Moreno vs. Amir Albazi in a flyweight showdown at the Arena CDMX in Mexico City, Mexico. Zellhuber (14-1) re-enters the octagon looking for his third straight UFC victory after scoring…
Jorge Masvidal beat Nate Diaz once before and oddsmakers believe he can do it again. On Monday, rumors began circulating that Masvidal and Diaz will face each other in a boxing match this March in Las Vegas. And while the fight is not yet official, SportsBetting.ag still dropped odds for the hypothetical matchup with Masvidal coming in as a sizable betting favorite. Jorge Masvidal: -325 Nate Diaz: +250 The odds imply that Masvidal has a 76.5 percent chance of winning the fight, with a $100 bet on Masvidal returning $30.77. Diaz, meanwhile, has a 28.6 percent chance of winning, and…
Francis Ngannou left the UFC and has made it work better than anybody in recent memory, and with another massive boxing match ahead of him against Anthony Joshua in March, many want to know if Ngannou will still have any interest in returning to MMA competition. If you’re the PFL, are you worried Ngannou may not have that interest? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck discusses Ngannou’s MMA future following his appearance on The MMA Hour, and why things could get real interesting if he beats Joshua. Additionally, listener topics include the Dustin…
Khamzat Chimaev doesn’t really feel the need to get into an ugly war of words with UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland because a fight between them will solve everything. During a charity appearance raising money for Palestine, Chimaev addressed Strickland’s often controversial comments but more specifically targeting some particularly fiery messages he sent to Belal Muhammad on social media. The exchange started after Muhammad posted “pray for Palestine” amid the ongoing conflict with Israel on Twitter, which led to Strickland taking aim at him in a series of posts. Chimaev had a similar message posted on his own social media…
Conor McGregor may have announced his plan to return to fight Michael Chandler in June, but Matt Brown still isn’t convinced it’s actually happening. Following months of delays and rumors about his next bout, McGregor made a surprise announcement on social media on New Year’s Eve about finally booking the matchup against Chandler, which will come 15 months after they squared off against one another as coaches on The Ultimate Fighter 31. McGregor sounded confident in his declaration and Chandler already accepted the date, but the UFC has yet to actually announce anything as official, much less kick off promotion…
Just hours after undergoing elbow surgery, Jon Jones took time to fire back at Tom Aspinall for his repeated callouts on social media. The reigning UFC heavyweight champion, who suffered a torn pectoral muscle last year that delayed his fight with Stipe Miocic, will likely return in the summer but he’s been the center of attention for Aspinall for the past few days. After he claimed the interim UFC heavyweight title on Jones’ absence, Aspinall has rather loudly called for a title unification bout rather than rebooking the fight with Miocic. The latest jab came via TikTok when Aspinall posted…
Israel Adesanya wanted to pull the trigger in his last fight. The journey to UFC 293 in September felt eerily similar to the looming UFC 300 this coming April. Sure, there’s a bigger time gap between now and the “super show,” but the MMA world was waiting longer than expected, wondering, “What the hell are they going to do with UFC 293’s main event?” It always had to be Adesanya with the event announced for Sydney, Australia with the then-middleweight champion’s return guaranteed … without an opponent, and before Robert Whittaker and Dricus Du Plessis fought at UFC 290 in…
Francis Ngannou plans to test the chin of Anthony Joshua. 2024 kicked things off with a bang last week as it was announced that Ngannou will face Joshua in a 10-round heavyweight boxing match expected to take place in March in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The bout was announced two weeks after Joshua put on a showcase performance against Otto Wallin on the same evening his then-planned next opponent, Deontay Wilder, suffered a surprising upset loss to Joseph Parker, ruining that long-awaited matchup. And according to Ngannou, that’s when he got his shot at Joshua. “That’s when I stepped in,” Ngannou…