The best MMA fighter in the world went under the knife
Monday.
UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman had surgery to repair a ligament in his hand, Usman’s manager Ali Abdelaziz of Dominance MMA confirmed to ESPN. UFC president Dana White posted a gruesome photo of the operation on social media.
Abdelaziz stated Usman is targeting a return for International
Fight Week, the UFC’s big annual summer celebration in Las Vegas. UFC 276, the
culmination of this year’s festivities, is arranged for July 2 at T-Mobile
Arena. Abdelaziz would not say which hand Usman had surgery on.
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White has said that Usman’s next title defense likely will come versus top contender Leon Edwards, who is coming off a win over Nate Diaz last June.
ESPN has Usman ranked as the top pound-for-pound MMA fighter in the world.
Usman (20-1) is putting together one of the best resumes in UFC history. The Nigeria native, who grew up in Texas, has won 15 consecutive fights, one off the UFC record winning streak held by former middleweight champion and all-time great Anderson Silva. Usman, 34, is coming off a unanimous decision victory over Colby Covington at UFC 268 last November.
Usman has been welterweight champion since 2019, collecting
five title defenses.
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As an active fighter, Khabib Nurmagomedov was one of the most influential figures in mixed martial arts. It seems he will continue to be one in his retirement.
Nurmagomedov, 33, revealed on Wednesday that his MMA promotion, Eagle FC, has signed former UFC lightweight Kevin Lee to an exclusive contract. Nurmagomedov also said his company plans to permanently open a new 165-pound weight class — a topic of debate in the sport for some time.
Lee (18-7) fought in the UFC from 2014 to 2021. He competed
at 155 and 170 pounds but campaigned — unsuccessfully — for the addition of a
165-pound weight class.
“It’s going to be big news for a lot of fighters around
the world,” Nurmagomedov told ESPN. “I know a lot of fighters want
165. A lot of fighters can’t make 155 and they are a little small at 170.
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“Honestly, this is not only about Kevin Lee. This is
about a lot of fighters. I know because when I was a fighter, how I was feeling
in there and I was talking with a lot of fighters around the world, they were
asking, ‘Why other promotions — UFC, Bellator, PFL — why they not make
165?'”
Nurmagomedov even encouraged UFC lightweight Dustin Poirier to join his 165-pound weight class.
Poirier is signed to the UFC and just came up short in a title bid versus Charles Oliveira at UFC 269 over the weekend in Las Vegas.
Born in Dagestan, Nurmagomedov purchased Eagle FC in 2020. The promotion is holding its first U.S.-based event on Jan. 28 in Miami. The retired former champ says he has big plans for his promotion, and expects it to become a global brand.
“I have so much knowledge and I can share my knowledge with a lot of people,” Nurmagomedov said. “I can make comfortable position for a lot of fighters around the world. Right now, we are going to create a new system.
You guys will know very soon about this platform, where fighters will be happy. More happy than they’ve been with other organizations. Nothing against our big brothers, but this business have to move on.”
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Two titles will be on the line Saturday night at UFC 269. The UFC’s final pay-per-view of 2021 will feature two veteran lightweights who have waited a long time to be a champion.
Brazil’s Charles Oliveira (31-8) claimed the vacant title in May and will make his first defense versus Dustin Poirier (28-6) in the main event of UFC 269 in Las Vegas (10 p.m. ET, ESPN+ PPV).
Even though Oliveira is the champ, and has won nine in a row, many in the sport consider he needs to defeat Poirier to validate his status as a real champ.
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Poirier, of Louisiana, could have fought for the championship earlier this year, but he elected to take a lucrative detour versus Conor McGregor.
Now that he’s coming off back-to-back victories over McGregor, Poirier has set his focus solely on claiming the undisputed title, something he’s never done in his decorated MMA career.
In the other title fight of the night, Amanda Nunes (21-4) makes her sixth bantamweight title defense versus Julianna Pena. Nunes has made it look relatively easy at the top in recent years, as she has dominated both the 135- and 145-pound weight classes.
Pena, of Spokane, Washington, has been very vocal in her belief that she is the one to truly challenge the female GOAT. Pena is only 2-2 in her past four fights, but she has a physical, grinding style of offensive wrestling, which she used most recently to defeat former U.S.
Olympic wrestler Sara McMann at UFC 257 in January. As usual, Nunes is a strong favorite to retain her title, but does Pena have a chance at the upset?
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According to his longtime attorney, Ross Goodman, Diaz, 37, signed a fight agreement Tuesday to face Robbie Lawler at UFC 266 on Sept. 25 in Las Vegas.
Lawler has not signed his agreement yet, sources told ESPN, but wants the fight, and is expected to sign his side shortly. The non-title fight is expected to be five rounds, and will be on the main portion of the pay-per-view card.
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Diaz (26-9) is the older brother of UFC star Nate Diaz, and a pioneer in mixed martial arts.
He is a former Strikeforce welterweight champion, and was involved in big fights with the UFC versus B.J. Penn, Carlos Condit, Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva from 2011 to 2015.
In September 2015, the Nevada State Athletic Commission
suspended Diaz for five years after he tested positive for marijuana
metabolites after his fight versus Silva in UFC 183. It was his third
marijuana-related offense in the state of Nevada, which led to the harsh
punishment.
Ironically, the NSAC voted just last week in favor of no
longer disciplining combat sports athletes for marijuana use.
Diaz and Lawler have a history that runs back to 2004. They met on the undercard of UFC 47. Diaz won via knockout in a highly entertaining contest.
Lawler (28-15) is a former UFC welterweight champion. He won the 170-pound title by defeating Johny Hendricks in 2014 and defended it twice in instant classics versus Rory MacDonald and Condit.
The 39-year-old has dropped his past four bouts, all against very high-level competition.
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Dustin Poirier now owns two triumphs over the biggest star in the history of mixed martial arts. This one, though, didn’t end in the cleanest way.
Poirier hit Conor McGregor with a combination at the end of the first round of Saturday night’s highly anticipated UFC 264 main event. McGregor went to plant his left foot and his leg buckled, sending him to the mat. Poirier followed up with punches on the ground as time expired in the round.
With McGregor clearly hurt, referee Herb Dean called the
lightweight fight. The official result was Poirier by TKO (doctor’s stoppage)
at 5:00 of the first round. A stretcher was brought in to transport McGregor to
the hospital. The video replay showed McGregor’s lower leg bent gruesomely as
his foot hit the canvas.
UFC president Dana White later stated the injury
was to McGregor’s lower tibia and that he will have surgery Sunday morning.
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The finish left the sold-out crowd disappointed. There was a
mixture of boos and cheers when Poirier was declared as the winner. This was
one of the most anticipated trilogy fights in UFC history.
“I beat the guy,” Poirier said in his postfight
interview.
Poirier explained that he hurt McGregor’s ankle on a checked
kick and then the ankle buckled at the end of the first round. McGregor denied
that it was a checked kick that did it. Poirier picked up his 15th career
first-round finish.
“This is not over,” McGregor said.
White said Poirier will fight for the UFC lightweight title next versus champion Charles Oliveira and that when McGregor is healthy he will probably get a fourth fight against Poirier.
“When Conor is healed and ready to go, we’ll do the
rematch, I guess,” White said. “Poirier will do his thing until Conor
is ready.”
Oliveira told ESPN’s Mike Coppinger he expects the fight
with Poirier to possibly be in December.
“It’s really sad what happened [to McGregor], but if
you look at Poirier’s game, he’s been improving a lot, he’s been putting a lot
of pressure, so he deserves the win,” Oliveira said of Saturday night’s
result.
White said he believes that had McGregor not been injured,
he would have gotten out of the first round.
“His ankle snapped from throwing punches. He was
fighting back,” White said. “It wasn’t like he was up against the
cage with Dustin unloading punches on him. If his ankle doesn’t break, I think
we get to the end of the round.”
Poirier, for his part, said he and McGregor “are going
to fight again, whether it’s in the Octagon or on the sidewalk. … He was
saying that he was going to kill me. You don’t say stuff like that.”
Poirier said he wasn’t sure he felt a sense of closure
following the trilogy.
“I need to digest it all, because right now, it kind of
feels weird,” he said. “It’s not a good feeling.”
Poirier stopped McGregor at UFC 257 in January via
second-round TKO. In 2014, at UFC 178, McGregor knocked out Poirier in less
than two minutes.
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Robert Whittaker doesn’t create a lot of headlines. He doesn’t talk any trash. Never has he made a spectacle of himself.
But quietly, Whittaker has built a résumé that rivals some
of the most impressive in mixed martial arts.
The former UFC middleweight champion put forth another brilliant performance Saturday, defeating Kelvin Gastelum by one-sided unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 50-45) in the main event of UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas.
Whittaker beautifully mixed up his striking over all five
rounds, landing jabs, straight rights, left hooks, leg kicks and even a front
kick to Gastelum’s jaw in the final frame. It was a sublime showcase against
another one of the top middleweight fighters in the world.
“I’m feeling on top of the world,” Whittaker said. “Obviously, this was a very hard fight. A lot of people were selling Kelvin short. … He’s one of the best fighters in the division. That was a very tough fight.”
ESPN had Whittaker ranked No. 2 in the world at middleweight coming in. This victory should put him in line for a shot at champion Israel Adesanya, who beat him for the belt two years ago.
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“Nothing but respect,” Whittaker said of Adesanya.
“He’s a great fighter. But I think we should talk, mate. I think it’s time
we crossed paths again.”
Whittaker and Gastelum were first supposed to fight at UFC
234 on Feb. 10, 2019, when Whittaker was the UFC middleweight champion. But
Whittaker withdrew from the fight the day of the card due to a hernia. A
collapsed bowel caused him to have to undergo emergency surgery.
On Saturday, Gastelum was replacing Paulo Costa, Whittaker’s original opponent, who had to pull out due to lingering effects of COVID-19.
The change of opponent did not affect Whittaker at all. He
rocked Gastelum in the first round with a head kick and never really slowed
down from there. The very tough Gastelum hung around for all 25 minutes, but
rare was a minute when Whittaker was not in total control.
Later in the first round, Whittaker took Gastelum down and
landed some ground-and-pound. In the second, Gastelum had some success with his
boxing and straight left hands, but Whittaker landed some nice jabs and
counters. Whittaker rocked Gastelum again with a combination in the third, a
round in which Gastelum had some success early.
Whittaker landed two nice uppercuts in the fourth round and
got right up from a Gastelum takedown. In the fifth, Whittaker was starting to
wear some of Gastelum’s offense — Gastelum was bruised up, as well — but
Whittaker capped the technical performance with a surprising front kick to
Gastelum’s face.
Whittaker outlanded Gastelum in meaningful strikes 150-62,
and 115 of those from Whittaker were to the head, according to UFC Stats.
Whittaker (23-5) has won three consecutive fights and 12 of
his past 13 overall. The New Zealand-born Australia resident has just one loss
since 2014, versus Adesanya. Whittaker, 30, held the middleweight belt from
2017 to 2019, dropping it to Adesanya at UFC 243 in October 2019.
Whittaker is 14-3 in UFC.
Gastelum (16-7, 1 NC) was coming off a unanimous decision victory over Ian Heinisch at UFC 258 on Feb. 13. The California native had lost three straight prior to that.
The 29-year-old Gastelum was once considered one of the best middleweight fighters in the world, fighting Adesanya for the interim belt at UFC 236 in April 2019.
Saturday’s card was held with no fans at the UFC Apex, a facility across from the promotion’s corporate campus, with COVID-19 protocols in place.
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Curtis Blaydes made no apologies about his strategy coming into a huge heavyweight fight with Derrick Lewis. Blaydes was going to use his dominant wrestling early and often. He told anyone who would listen.
Maybe it was a decoy. But Blaydes should have stuck to his original game plan, as Lewis crushed him with an uppercut knockout at 1:26 of the second round in Saturday’s main event of UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas.
Blaydes gained confidence on the feet in the first round and attempted only one takedown, which Lewis stuffed. And Lewis, one of the most dangerous KO artists in the history of MMA, made him pay.
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It was the biggest upset in a UFC main event since Michael Bisping defeated Luke Rockhold at UFC 199 in 2016, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. Lewis was a +350 underdog, per Caesars Sportsbook by William Hill, ESPN’s odds provider. Bisping was +400 against Rockhold five years ago.
With the stoppage, Lewis ties Vitor Belfort with the most knockouts in UFC history (12).
Lewis also is now tied for the second-most wins in UFC heavyweight history (16) with Frank Mir. Andrei Arlovski is the all-time UFC heavyweight victories leader, with 19.
Saturday’s finish came when Blaydes ducked in, trying to
close the distance for a clinch or a takedown. Lewis saw it coming and let
loose with a massive uppercut. Blaydes’ body shook on impact, and he was
unconscious as he fell to the canvas. Lewis followed up on the ground with
punches, until referee Herb Dean came in to pull him off.
“That was the only punch I was waiting for the entire fight,” Lewis said. “I knew he was gonna come in. … That’s all I was waiting for. I wasn’t worried about throwing a one-two, a jab or anything.”
The fight was originally arranged for Nov. 28, but Blaydes tested positive for COVID-19, and the contest was pulled one day prior to the event before official weigh-ins.
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Kamaru Usman and Gilbert Burns were full of emotion while embracing in the middle of the Octagon on Saturday night. Burns had blood and tears running down his face. Some of their cornermen behind them were trying not to cry.
Usman stopped Burns, his former teammate, via TKO at 34
seconds in the third round to defend his UFC welterweight title in the main
event of UFC 258 in Las Vegas.
Usman landed a right hand as he was switching stances to
floor Burns, then slammed Burns with punches on the ground until referee Herb
Dean pulled him off.
“Gilbert is a guy that I’ve known from the start,” Usman said in his postfight interview. “I love him. This one was tough for me to deal with.” Usman picked up his 13th consecutive win, surpassing legend Georges St-Pierre for the most consecutive victories in UFC welterweight history.
Only Anderson Silva has won more than 13 straight fights in UFC history, winning 16 in a row from 2006 to 2012.
Usman is tied with six other fighters with 13 consecutive wins.
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Usman and Burns were teammates in South Florida since 2012, first with the Blackzilians and most recently with Sanford MMA.
Usman departed for Colorado to train under coach Trevor Wittman last year after the initial fight with Burns was scheduled for July.
But Burns tested positive for COVID-19 and withdrew from that bout. Henri Hooft, the longtime head coach for both Usman and Burns, did not corner either man and said he would not even watch the fight.
The fight had major implications outside of the personal
story. Coming in, ESPN had Usman ranked No. 5 in the world in its
pound-for-pound MMA rankings. In the welterweight division, ESPN has Usman
ranked No. 1 and Burns at No. 5.
Burns rocked Usman twice early with huge right hands. But Usman
hung in through a tumultuous first round. He then took over in the second,
working a beautiful jab and stymieing Burns’ power and explosiveness. Usman’s
striking looked better than ever, as he switched stances and landed with power
from each one.
In the second round, Usman dropped Burns twice, the second
time with a jab. In the third, it was a right hand that resembled a jab that
put Burns on his butt before Usman pounced and finished on the ground.
Usman outlanded Burns 83-45 in significant strikes, per UFC
Stats.
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The UFC’s 2021 debut on ABC was big news for everything that
happened inside the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on
Saturday, and everything that didn’t.
Max Holloway put on one of the most punishing, one-sided displays of boxing in UFC history, landing a record 445 significant strikes in his unanimous decision triumph over Calvin Kattar. Despite absorbing all of that damage, Kattar stood up to the barrage and made it to the final bell.
But just as big as Holloway’s declarative statement for a return shot at the featherweight championship was, the biggest question going into the night centered around the recently retired Khabib Nurmagomedov.
While Nurmagomedov announced his retirement after defeating Justin Gaethje in October, Dana White has been actively trying to draw him back into the fold for one more megafight, with Conor McGregor the likeliest opponent.
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White promised an update on Nurmagomedov’s position on a return fight, and while there wasn’t a definitive answer either way, White’s assertion that Nurmagomedov could be persuaded back into action with a particularly dominant performance in either of two key fights at UFC 257 — set to be headlined by McGregor and Dustin Poirier — left the door open a crack.
With an eye toward the fallout of Saturday’s events, Brett
Okamoto answer some of the UFC’s most pressing questions as they project what’s
to come.
A rematch versus Khabib Nurmagomedov is Conor McGregor’s to
lose
Okamoto: One million percent. Nurmagomedov has spent the past two years basically saying he has no interest in McGregor, but the narrative around McGregor has changed in the past two years. After Nurmagomedov defeated him in 2018, McGregor’s career was really up in the air. It was not a question of whether he was about to retire but rather what he wanted out of the sport at that point.
A money fight once a year? Or did he want to try and get back to where he was in 2016, at the top of the lightweight division?
Would that loss to Nurmagomedov reignite his desire to be the best in the world, the same way he was obsessed with evening the score with Nate Diaz in 2016? It appears to have done the latter. McGregor looks motivated, just as he appeared motivated in 2020, before circumstances out of his control interrupted his plans for the year.
If he looks great versus Poirier and someone hands him a mic, McGregor is going to be the obvious choice to fight Nurmagomedov; and based on White’s comments on the matter, I now expect Nurmagomedov to take that fight, if offered.
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With a latent light heavyweight title shot on the line,
41-year-old Glover Teixeira managed to pull out another classic presentation.
Teixeira managed to survive some big scares to submit Thiago Santos in the main
event of UFC Fight Night from Las Vegas’ UFC Apex facility.
Santos, who was returning for the first time since suffering a knee injury in a split-decision loss to then-champion Jon Jones in July 2019, came out fast and hard, rocking Teixeira in the first round.
Teixeira survived the scare and fell back on his grappling, scoring a takedown and dominating the rest of the round from top position. The grappling of Teixeira would dominate in the second round as well, this time without the scare.
Teixeira put Santos down early and stayed on top for the entire round before locking in a deep rear-naked choke only to see Santos saved by the bell.
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Time running out in the second almost led to a nightmare
scenario in the third round when Santos instantly dropped Teixeira with a
crushing left hand and followed him to the ground, scoring with a series of
heavy punches from the top position. Santos quickly ran out of gas, however,
and Teixeira reversed position, ending up on top and shortly after locking in another
rear-naked choke.
This time there was no safety to be found as Santos was
forced to tap at the 1:49 mark of Round 3.
The victory ran Teixeira’s winning streak to five and seems to set him up to challenge recently-crowned champion Jan Blachowicz for the light heavyweight title — a belt Teixeira fought for in a losing effort in 2014. However, UFC president Dana White has recently called a fight between Blachowicz and middleweight champion Israel Adesanya “the fight to make.”
“Dana White, come on, man,” Teixeira said. “I’m an old man here. You’re going to give the shot to Adesanya and make me wait? Five fights in a row beating these young guys, it’s not easy. Give me that title shot, man.”
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