UFC president Dana White has come out and said that he believes that Khamzat Chimaev will not retire after his issues with COVID-19 — Fightful has you covered on this and all of the other news in the combat sports world.
Dana White believes that Khamzat Chimaev will not retire
After Khamzat Chimaev presumably announced his retirement via an Instagram post just a few days ago, it seems that Chimaev may not be finishing his career after all.
Take a look at Chimaev's post below.
In the post, Chimaev said "I want to say thank you to everyone for their support in my path in this sport я I think I’m done, yes, I know that I didn’t take the belt, but this is not the most important victory in this life, it may upset you, but my heart and body tell me everything.
I want to say a huge thank you to my team @allstarsgymsweden
I want to say a huge thank you @ufc".
Chimaev is currently in Las Vegas receiving specialist health treatment to try and get him better following his awful effects of COVID-19.
The UFC president Dana White believes that these comments from Chimaev were emotional and that Chimaev will not be retiring.
“When he got here, the doctors took care of him, and they put him on prednisone, which is a nasty fucking steroid,” White told MMA Junkie. “So he’s on prednisone, and he’s supposed to be taking this thing and chilling, relaxing, and letting himself recover. He went in and fucking trained today, felt like sh*t, and got super emotional and posted that."
“He’s not supposed to be training, but you know, this guy’s a savage. He wants to fight like every fucking weekend, and now he can’t even train, so he just got emotional and posted that, but he ain’t quitting.”
White also revealed that although Chimaev has been heavily instructed by doctors to relax and take it easy, Chimaev has continued to train.
White said "He was flown out here so that we could take care of him, we get him taken care of. They got him on medication. He’s going to be fine, and he goes in and starts fucking training. He’s not supposed to be training, and he’s super frustrated."
“He’s training when he’s supposed to be resting. He’s got to stay off, at least while he’s on this medication.”
Hopefully Chimaev can make a full and successful recovery and continue fighting.
Valentina Shevchenko big favorite against Jessica Andrade at UFC 261
The UFC women's flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko has opened as a big betting favorite in her next title defense against former women's strawweight champion Jessica Andrade.
Opening lines for Shevchenko’s fight with Jessica Andrade, which takes place April 24 at UFC 261, currently have the flyweight queen as a -335 favorite. Although this puts Shevchenko as a huge betting favorite, the odds are massively smaller compared to Shevchenko's last defense against Jennifer Maia.
Andrade is opening as a +275 underdog.
So for the people who don't understand how odds work, A $100 bet on Shevchenko would return $29.85 in profit, while the same bet for Andrade would return $275. Shevchenko initially opened as a -350 favorite, which indicates money has already been wagered on the Brazilian
How do you see this fight going down?
Israel Adesanya urges Paulo Costa to stop with the excuses
It is fair to say that the UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya is rather amused by Paulo Costa's most recent excuse about their fight.
When Adesanya and Costa met at UFC 253, Adesanya dominated the fight and ultimately finished Costa in the second round via TKO.
Since then, Costa has come out with a few different excuses, but his most recent is by far the most absurd.
In a video posted on Costa's YouTube channel, Costa revealed that the night before he fought Adesanya he drank a full bottle of wine to help him sleep, he then said that this hindered his performance as he was fighting with a hangover.
In an interview with MMA Junkie, Adesanya reacted to Costa's comments.
Adesanya said "That’s just funny, there are certain things I’ve done before some of my fights in the past where I learned my mistakes, but I went in and got my job done. Some people aren’t cut out for that lifestyle.”
Adesanya also went on to say that Costa should just move on and accept that he lost.
“I’ll tell you one thing: The best thing to do in his position is accept the fact he lost,” Adesanya said. “He got his ass whooped. The fact that he keeps trying to make all these excuses, it’s only going to do him worse in the long run. He’s making excuses because his ego can’t handle the fact that ‘The Skinny Clown’ whooped his ass badly then double-tapped him twice."
“Just swallow your ego. You got your ass whooped. Get back to the drawing board and reassess your whole game. You can’t just rest on that because if you do – this is my advice – you’ll never get far in life, or in this game.”
Joe Rogan will not count Conor McGregor out in rematch against Dustin Poirier
UFC commentator Joe Rogan has revealed that he will not count out Conor McGregor in a rematch against Dustin Poirier.
Speaking on a recent episode of the JRE MMA Show, Rogan also praised Poirier's performance against McGregor. He said "I don’t think it’s necessarily a rich thing,” Rogan told guests Kevin Holland and Travis Lutter. “I don’t know if that affects him that much. I do think it’s inactivity and I do think Dustin has gotten a lot better. At 145, Dustin was depleted and diminished. At 155, he’s fucking huge. He doesn’t even look like a 155er. He looks like a 170. His back is fucking gigantic. … Dustin is fucking good, man. He is fucking good.”
Although Rogan heavily praised Poirier, Rogan has refused to count out McGregor in a rematch.
Rogan said "I would never say ‘hands down,’ (Poirier will win again). You never know because Conor did have moments in that fight. He had moments in the first round. Dustin said there was a moment in the first round where he got his bell rung and he was in trouble. Imagine if Conor connects again. That’s how fights are. Weird things happen.”
How do you think a rematch will go down between Poirier and McGregor?
Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier reignite their feud
On Monday, Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones' feud was reignited.
It was reignited when Jones reacted to a comment from Cormier where Cormier said that Jon Jones does not have enough power to knock out heavyweight fighters.
It was a fair opinion from Cormier as Jones has never really had one punch knock-out power down at light heavyweight.
Jones responded to Cormier's comment by posting the following video on Twitter.
hope you like this quick little edit I threw together for you @dc_mma pic.twitter.com/oBAiNLLGo5
— BONY (@JonnyBones) March 2, 2021
Cormier then responded to Jones by mocking that fight as it did not officially count due to Jones testing positive for a banned substance after the fight.
There is a difference punch vs kick, you’re still as dumb as you’ve always been, you’ll never surprise me. Dance for me, I can always make you move. And lastly , this fight didn’t count if you forgot there was an issue...... remember? https://t.co/JMP2lVXP9R
— Daniel Cormier (@dc_mma) March 2, 2021
These guys will never be friends, will they?
Amanda Nunes warns fans that she is a different beast now that she is a mother
In September of last year, Amanda Nunes and her partner Nina Ansaroff became mothers for the first time.
In an interview with TSN, Nunes expressed how happy she has been since her daughter, Raegan, came into the world.
“This little girl’s amazing,” Nunes said. “I don’t even know how to explain it to people.”
Nunes also went on to say that the birth of her daughter has reignited a new fire in her and a new motivation has been found.
Nunes said "This time it’s different. This time I’m gonna be able to share with my daughter, to see my hand raised on March 6, it’s gonna be the first time she’s gonna be there, and so I want to dedicate it for her. It’s just a new moment in my life. I’m pretty excited, and it makes me very happy. When I train happy, it’s one of the best camps that I’ve had. Raegan is bringing me that happiness that I can’t even explain to people sometimes.”
Nunes also spoke about her upcoming fight against Megan Anderson and she believes that although Anderson has advantages in height and reach, she thinks that she will have a big speed advantage over Anderson.
The Brazilian said "I feel like I’m gonna be fast, and I don’t think she’s gonna be able to see when I’m gonna do something, I feel like sometimes being too big is not really a good advantage. I feel like I’m gonna be fast, and she’s not gonna be able to keep up.”
Do you think Nunes will retain her belt or will Anderson pull off a huge upset?
Brandon Moreno very confident ahead of rematch with Deiveson Figueiredo
After already going a full five rounds with the champion Deiveson Figueiredo, UFC flyweight contender Brandon Moreno is extremely confident that he will have his hand raised in the second fight after a draw in the previous bout.
During an interview with MMA Junkie, Moreno gave his opinions on the champion.
Moreno said "This is how I see it: Yes, the guy is dangerous and hits hard and he’s strong. But I can’t respect him and have that whole aura of the bully Deiveson Figueiredo – watch out, he might run through me – and all that."
Moreno also revealed that he is much more confident in this fight than he was in the previous one.
The Mexican said "So I know he’s dangerous, I know he hits hard, but I’m not going to let that intimidate me – and much less now that I know what he’s got. I’m more confident. I know I can exchange with him. Yes, he can change the fight with a single hit, but I have the natural ability to absorb punishment and move forward.”
The fight between Moreno and Figueiredo was one of the fights of the year and fans were very eager to see a rematch. Moreno has revealed that although he is very confident, there is still a lot of work to be done before the fight takes place.
He said "There are things that I won’t change because I did them beyond well and I know that they work. There are some things that maybe I’ve could’ve made adjustments so that it could’ve given me another combination in the fight. Based on that, maybe we’re looking to add a new weapon. If you lose, the bad things are noticeable and you have a bigger pool to improve from and learn. But since it was a tie and it was just so close, I just try to do good work and polish and sharpen everything that was done well. That’s it.”
Do you think that Moreno is capable of beating Figueiredo in the rematch?
Amanda Ribas wants to return in June against Michelle Waterson
Popular UFC strawweight contender Amanda Ribas is hopeful to get back into the Octagon in June and she already knows who she wants to face.
Ribas wants to fight women's MMA veteran Michelle Waterson in June.
Ribas believes that the fight against Waterson is the fight to make because "everyone else has fights booked right now.”
Before Ribas met Marina Rodriguez in January, she was previously scheduled to fight Waterson and she believes that, that is a fight which the UFC have to look at once again.
“I think it would be a good matchup,” Ribas said. “Since we already agreed to it once before, it was booked, so it’s basically agreed again. There’s a good hype, it would be a beautiful fight to watch, and fans want to see it. The UFC has agreed to that idea in the past so it would be a good fight for us. And she’s ranked higher than me, which would be good for me.”
“I think it’s a tough matchup for me so I have to work on my guard, my takedowns, and attacks on the ground,” Ribas said. “She doesn’t only defend on the ground, she attacks as well, so I have to have my jiu-jitsu super sharp.”
Are you interested in a fight between Ribas and Waterson?
Will Brooks claims that Michael Chandler "is not hard to beat"
Former UFC fighter Will Brooks has two wins over Michael Chandler on his MMA record. Although it has been a long time since the two fought, Brooks still believes that if they were to fight again he would win again.
In an interview with MMA Fighting, Brooks gave his opinions on how he thinks the third fight between himself and Chandler would look.
“I’ve never wished ill on anybody,” Brooks said. “I want nothing but success for everyone. I’ve beaten the guy, but we all evolve, we continue to get better. Things change, especially in MMA, the landscape changes, the timing on when you come in and when things happen for you, you might just hit that jackpot and I think if I’m being completely honest, one of the things that I’ve always respected about Michael Chandler is the people that he had around him. He’s had a really great established team around him. I’m talking about not just in the fighting and training, but he’s had a great business team and people that are kind of navigating and helping him during the politics of all this stuff. How to time this, how to time this, and how to move that."
Although Brooks does not fight in the UFC anymore he still believes that he has what it takes to compete in the UFC once again.
Brooks said "Whatever, he’s had success, and hey man, best of luck to him, keep doing your thing, but I tell you what, as a competitor it gets you fired up,” Brooks continued. “You get a little angry, you get a little bitter, you get a little pissy taste in your mouth because I’d beat any of those guys. Especially, you look at a guy like these Dan Hookers that he knocks out, and blah blah blah, as a competitor you’re like, ‘Yo, you just got knocked out by a ‘45er and then you beat up some old man Ben Henderson,’ and you come in and I get pissed at Dan Hooker because I’m like, ‘Yo, that guy’s not hard to beat. He’s not hard to beat.’ I’m sounding like a jerk now, but as a competitor, that’s where I’m at. It lights a fire."
To watch the full interview from MMA Fighting with Brooks, click below.
Israel Adesanya: "Don’t be surprised if I weigh in at 193 [pounds]."
The UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya is set to make his light heavyweight debut against Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259 for the light heavyweight title.
Adesanya is currently the betting favorite against Blachowicz, but could Adesanya's most recent comments change that?
In an interview with ESPN's Ariel Helwani, Adesanya told fans to not "be surprised" if he weighs in at 193 pounds.
"Don’t be surprised if I weigh in at 193 [pounds]."
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) March 2, 2021
Even though he's preparing for a light heavyweight fight, @stylebender says he's keeping "the same energy" and not changing his fight week routine ahead of #UFC259 (via @arielhelwani) pic.twitter.com/aFb5hW05Yu
If Adesanya does weigh in at 193 then Blachowicz will have a huge size, strength, and power advantage in the fight.
Blachowicz is not the biggest light heavyweight around but he still has to cut some weight to get down to the 205-pound limit.
So if Adesanya does weigh in at 193 then Blachowicz will then presumably have a 20-25 pound advantage when the two step into the Octagon.
Have these comments from Adesanya changed your opinions on how you think the fight will go down?
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