Max Holloway, former UFC featherweight champion and current BMF belt holder, has stated that he wants to become a three-time champion of the organization.
"In a perfect world, it would be like this: I would fight Elijah Topuria, win the featherweight title, and then whoever the next lightweight champion is, I would fight him. I want to try to achieve the status of a two-time champion or even a three-time champion. Put the BMF title on the line in a fight for the bantamweight belt and become champion. And then move up to lightweight and do the same thing. That would be crazy," Give me Sport quoted Max as saying.
Gegard Mousasi, the former Bellator middleweight champion, is unhappy with the PFL management, which has yet to offer him a fight after the promotions merger.
"In Bellator you get paid well, but you don't fight often enough. In the UFC you fight a lot, but they don't pay you enough. In the PFL, I don't fight at all. So every promotion has its own nuances. I even offered to let me fight in the welterweight division. The answer was silence. The UFC did the same thing with Orlovski when they didn't give him a fight for a year. I don't know. Apparently, it's politics," MMA News quotes Mousasi.
Recall, his last fight Mousasi held in May last year, losing to Fabian Edwards at the tournament in Paris.
Max Holloway, former UFC featherweight champion, has stated his desire to fight the promotion's current featherweight champion Elijah Topuria in Las Vegas.
"Hopefully the fight with Topuria will be in Vegas. How about the 66,000-seat Elligent Stadium? Now that would be something. Did you see how many Hawaiian flags there were at UFC 300? Vegas is our ninth island. Since we can't have a UFC tournament in Hawaii, let's fight in a soccer stadium in Vegas. Let's make it crazy," Holloway stated on Joe Rogan's podcast.
Recall, earlier Holloway reported that he was knocked out during his fight with Justin Gaethje.
Max Holloway, former UFC featherweight champion, has responded to all those who think he's on the decline right now.
"The problem is these guys have seen me grow up. Coming into the UFC, I was 20 years old, and a lot of people think I'm about 42 years old like Daniel Cormier. But I'm actually a young guy. Especially after the trilogy with Wolf. The first two fights went okay, and the third fight made everybody say, "Oh, he's done." Brother, that was Wolf's night. He was on a roll. It is what it is, and now they're doing MMA math because Elijah was able to knock out Wolf. Even Elijah is doing MMA math, "I beat the guy that beat you." Bro, that's not how it works. I lost to Dustin Puryear and Justin Gaethje sent him to knockout. Can I say now that I beat Dustin? No. Styles make fights," Middle Easy quoted Holloway as saying.
Today it was reported online that two UFC lightweights, Arman Tsarukyan and Benoit Saint-Denis, would have a grappling bout. However, it was later revealed that this bout would not take place. According to Saint-Denis, it was Tsarukyan who withdrew from the confrontation.
"Arman, once again you opened your mouth in vain. Besides lying, you're also disappointing the fans. I can't wait to meet you in the octagon to strangle you," St. Denis wrote on his social media.
As previously reported, the Tsarukyan-Saint-Denis bout was supposed to be the main event of the ADXC 4 tournament on May 18, which will take place in Paris.
Former UFC bantamweight title challenger Anthony Smith said that the promotion's former middleweight champion Shawn Strickland has impressed him a lot in their joint workouts.
Rafael Cordeiro, the coach of UFC ranked American lightweight Beneil Dariush, told why his ward put his career on pause.
Dariush suffered two first-round knockout losses in 2023 - in May to Charles Oliveira and in December to Arman Tsarukian.
"Last year turned out to be very difficult for Beneil. He was knocked out twice and knocked down three times. Plus, he was knocked out once in the gym. All in all, he's suffered head trauma five times in one year. He's still relatively young, so I've asked him to take a break and rest.
My concern for him is not as a trainer, but as a father. He's won eight of his last 10 fights, but there are people advising him to end his career. That's absurd, very disrespectful to Beneil. Let's see what will be the right fights when he fully recovers," MMA Fighting quotes the specialist as saying.
Ali Abdel-Aziz, manager of UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev, described how the organization's CEO Dana White helped him during his illness.
"Honestly, if we talk about Dana White's personality - he is a noble, wonderful person. For example, if he knew you had a sick child, he would definitely call, find you a doctor, send you medicine. When I had covid, I was literally dying. I was transferred to another hospital. That's when Dana called. And for three weeks, he made sure I was taken care of. They gave me a deluxe room. I was treated like I was the president of the United States. Dana is a cool man," Abdel-Aziz told Show Me The Money.
Chael Sonnen, former UFC fighter and current analyst and commentator, explained why a bout between Cyril Gagne and Tom Aspinall, the interim UFC heavyweight champion, is dangerous for the promotion.
"I think if they bring Cyril back to the UFC and he wins and puts the belt on, it's going to be a problem for the promotion. If Jon Jones accepts, the UFC will have to make a rematch between Jon and Cyril. And my guess is that it will be very difficult to do so, given Gan's performance in their previous fight. I don't think there's any scenario for a re-match of this fight. Ghana's belt is a risk for the UFC," Sonnen said on ESPN MMA's YouTube channel.
The manager of UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev revealed who the fighter will face in the octagon after his fight against Dustin Puryear.
"Islam will defend in the fight against Porier, and then we will have a fight with Arman (Tsarukyan). We have to admit, he deserves this fight, he got out to the top of the rankings and beat all the opponents. For now we have these two fights on the horizon, and then we'll see. A fight with Tsarukyan this year? Yes, it could be in Abu Dhabi or New York," said the functionary.
Recall that the fight between Islam Makhachev and Dustin Porier will be held on June 1 in the framework of UFC 302.
