Charles Oliveira has warned Conor McGregor not to look past Dustin Poirier after predicting he would become the 12th UFC lightweight champion — Find out what the new champ has said to the Irishman and much more in today's Fightful Fix.
Charles Oliveira tasks Conor McGregor to beat Dustin Poirier:
Charles Oliveira has said he will happily fight Conor McGregor should he defeat Dustin Poirier first. Oliveira was speaking in the post-fight press conference following his huge knockout win over Michael Chandler to become UFC lightweight champion. "The Notorious" was quick to tweet his congratulations and gave a nod to potentially becoming the 12th UFC lightweight champion should he take the title from "Do Bronx." Oliveira was made aware of his comments and warned McGregor not to look past Poirier.
“Conor, worry about Dustin,” Oliveira said via a translator (h/t MMA Fighting). “Then we’ll talk about it."
"That would be fantastic,” he said of fighting on home soil. “Conor, since you’re so tough, first of all, you beat Dustin, and then come over to Brazil and I’ll put you on your ass. I battled hard to get here. Everybody’s talking about who it’s going to be next, Poirier or Conor. I’ll leave that to my manager, and I’m going to go home and rest.”
Alex Volkanovski says he’s had ‘words’ with Brian Ortega on ‘TUF’
Alex Volkanovski has admitted that the return of TUF has been eventful and confirmed Dana White's comments following UFC 262 that Volkanovski and fellow coach Brian Ortega had a heated confrontation during filming. The pair are more known for their fighting ability than their activities outside the cage but the champ has hinted that the return of TUF could be explosive.
“It’s gonna be a pretty interesting series. Obviously, I can’t give much away, but it’s gonna be good. I can tell you this, obviously going in there was no bad blood [between him and Ortega], we had nothing but nice things to say about each other. But, I won’t say that’s how it is right now - I’ll leave you with that," Volkanovski said to SCMP (h/t SportsKeeda). "The competitive side comes out and, I don’t know, yeah, there’s little things. I guess you’ll have to wait and see. There’s definitely words that’ve been said and it’s heating up a little bit.”
Dana White confirms UFC Apex will host fight nights for the rest of the year
Dana White has confirmed that the UFC will only host fights outside the UFC Apex for PPVs only. The Apex has been the home of UFC fights until very recently and during the UFC 262 post-fight press conference, White confirmed that fight nights will remain at the Apex for now. The UFC president did also confirm that once it makes sense logistically then the fight nights will hit the road again.
“I’m sure some of us that live in Vegas are excited to get home and there’s no more masks and all that stuff, but I don’t know about the rest of the country and the rest of the world for that matter,” White said at the UFC 262 post-fight presser. “I have no idea. Take this one day at a time.”
“We’re not even looking at [traveling for] Fight Nights,” White continued (h/t MMA Insight). “We didn’t even have gates in our budget until October or November, so right now to start trying to find places for Fight Nights, it just makes no sense. We’ll stay at the cozy APEX and do our thing for the rest of the year, I think.”
Israel Adesanya calls for harsher 'coward punch' penalties as training partner left fighting for life
UFC middleweight champ Israel Adesanya has called on more severe penalties to be imposed on what he refers to as "coward punchers" after training partner Fau Vake was left fighting for his life after a vicious assault last weekend. Vake, 25, remains in critical condition in an Aukland hospital after he was assaulted early Sunday morning which led to four men being charged with a range of offenses from common assault to injuring with intent.
"I am distraught. My gym brother may die because of the gutless actions of these men," Adesanya said of his friend and training partner (h/t RT Sport). "In the past decade there have been numerous deaths from punches thrown when people are not looking," added Adesanya, whose jaw was broken in 2012 after he was also punched from behind by an assailant. "Given the massive publicity these crimes have received, no one is dumb enough to think there is not a serious risk of death. There is no excuse, it should be considered attempted murder or murder."
Jan Blachowicz expects to finish the best version of Glover Teixeira
Jan Blachowicz will look to defend his title for the second time when he faces Glover Teixeira at UFC 266 and the Polish star is not about to overlook his opponent. Both men have had career resurgences late in their careers, and Blachowicz knows this is likely the Brazilian’s last title fight and he will be gunning to capture the title.
“He’s got a lot of experience,” Blachowicz said in an interview with the UFC. “Similar way to me to get to the title shot. A couple of losses then the win streak. Finally he got his chance, so I have to be careful because also that could be his last fight. For the title or maybe last fight in his career, so he’s gonna be in the best shape ever.
“So I have to be ready for the best Glover ever in his life, and I will be ready. Good boxing, really good takedowns, jiu-jitsu high level,” Blachowicz continued (h/t MMA News). “So, tough opponent, he’s got a lot of experience, so I just have to be careful. But I think I find a way like always to beat him and knock him out and finish the fight before time.”
Daniel Cormier: Tony Ferguson Is Done As A Top Level Fighter
Daniel Cormier believes that Tony Ferguson is finished fighting at the top level. Ferguson was once one of the most feared lightweights in the world and was at one point on a 12 fight winning streak. "El Cucuy" is now on a three-fight losing streak and "DC" doesn't think Ferguson can climb back to the upper echelons of the 155lb division.
“Tony Ferguson, as a top-level mixed martial artist, is done I believe. Make no mistake about it, he’s not losing to scrubs. He’s fighting the best of the best, but those are fights that Tony Ferguson used to win,” Cormier said (h/t MiddleEasy). “He is not only losing, but he is getting dominated. He has now lost 11 rounds in a row, and has not looked competitive. So I think Tony needs to take a step back, and the level of competition obviously needs to drop, and we need to see where he goes.”
Valerie Loureda thinks anyone upset with her post-fight dancing are ‘losers’
Bellator rising star Valerie Loureda doesn’t really care about the opinions of those who criticize her social media presence. Loureda received some backlash after a video of her dancing after knocking out Tara Graff went viral. The video showed Loureda celebrating her win by twerking in the cage and some quarters have disapproved of this. But Loureda is rightly ignoring her haters.
“My TikTok of that got like five million views,” Loureda told FanSided. “On Instagram I blew up, everyone loved it. The people that you are seeing that are upset just like … losers, just people who don’t know how to have fun. I don’t know, the people who are upset about it are losers. And if they are upset about it it’s because they don’t understand the background story of how much I’ve been criticized for doing my TikToks. I’m a well-rounded woman. I have two sides of me, two personalities, and I’m not going to change for anybody. This is who I am. I could celebrate however I want because it represents my Latin roots. It represents who Valerie is and at the end of the day, I’m an entertainer. So if they don’t like, they don’t have to watch but there’s millions of people who love watching me and they’re going to keep following me, and I’m going to keep blowing up because the ratio of people who didn’t like it, to the people who love to is like one percent.”
Edson Barboza doesn’t understand how he knocked out Shane Burgos
Edson Barboza was just as confused as the fans watching about his knockout win over Shane Burgos at UFC 262. After Burgos’ six-second delayed reaction to the KO punch, the Brazilian was unsure what happened and had to ask his coaches. Barboza explained that he isn’t sure where the fight-ending punch had landed but was happy to win anyway.
“I had seen (delayed reactions) before, but not like that. When the fight was over, I asked my coaches: ‘What happened? Where did I hit him?’ I swear I didn’t remember. It was a six-second delay? Wow, I didn’t know that," Barboza said in an interview with Combate (h/t BloodyElbow). "I saw the started to lose his balance a bit, then again and again, until he went down. That’s when I finished the fight. It was a surprise to me.”
Dana White signs two to UFC deals, offers Contender Series to third after scouting Houston event
MMA Junkie has reported Mana Martinez and featherweight Fernando Padilla were offered UFC contracts by UFC president Dana White after he scouted Fury FC 46 in Houston. Welterweight Nikolay Veretennikov, who headlined the event and won by first-round TKO, was offered a shot on the upcoming season of Dana White’s Contender Series, which is expected to launch in August.
Lando Vannata wants three more fights in 2021 – and finally, a UFC winning streak
Lando Vannata defeated Mike Grundy with a split decision Saturday on the preliminary card at UFC 262 in Houston. Vannata has admitted he will look to continue fighting at featherweight and gain some wins as he looks to shoot up the rankings.
“Best I’ve ever felt. I feel fast, I feel strong, my cardio feels amazing, the weight cut was easy. That’s my new home and I’m going to love it here. For some reason, people don’t think I can wrestle, I don’t know. Like I said before the fight, taking me down, that’s going to be really hard. Holding me down, impossible. You can’t hold me down. I proved that just now. I stopped 17 out of 20 takedowns.”
“Let’s fight this summer. Let’s fight in August-September. Let’s fight in the winter before the year ends. Let’s get three fights. Let’s get a number next to my name. Let’s go.” Vannata said (h/t MMA Junkie).
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