Liverpool’s Chris Fishgold (18-2-1) got back on track in Prague last month, defeating Daniel Teymur with a second round guillotine, bouncing back from being on the receiving end of his first loss in three years in his UFC debut against Calvin Kattar.
We caught up with the former Cage Warriors lightweight champion to discuss his plans for 2019 as well as the MMA Culture in gyms, including ones in his hometown of Liverpool.
It has been announced via Russian reporter Azamat Bostanov, Khabib Nurmagomedov has disclosed his timeline for his return to the Octagon.
⚡@TeamKhabib next fight will take place in September – this is reported by the journalist Azamat Bostanov, referring to Khabib himself.
"I, Zubaira and Abubakar will fight in September" – said Khabib.— MMA TEAM DAGESTAN (@MMATeamDagestan) March 13, 2019
Since his showstopping win over Conor McGregor, the Eagle has made a decision to pause his activity in MMA in protest to the severity of charges placed on him because of the post-fight brawl at UFC 229, in comparison to Conor’s, by the Nevada Athletic State Commission.
During the UFC 229 melee post win, corner mates Zubaira and Abubakar were caught in the scrap inside of the cage after Khabib jumped outside of the cage to attack Dillon Danis. Both have received fines and suspension sentences for their part in the altercation as well.
The 30-year-old’s voluntary absence resulted in a stall in the lightweight, at which point the UFC president Dana White along with matchmakers decided to create an interim fight between the #3 ranked lightweight Poirier and The featherweight champion Max Holloway.
For the time being, Nurmagomedov is still in Dagestan taking this time interacting with the citizens of his country, waiting out the sentence.
The Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship received a further bump in it’s already surging popularity when two former UFC fighters, Jason Knight and Artem Lobov, engaged in a recent twitter spat and through dialogue alone, sealed the deal for a Bare Knuckle fight in early April. I caught up with ‘The Kid’ to talk about the upcoming battle with Lobov along with a number of other exciting things coming up in his sights.
A lot has happened recently in women’s MMA: new champions have been crowned, former champions have gotten back into the win column and new stars have risen to stake their claim for a shot at UFC gold.
Last weekend was no exception with the Czech Republic’s first ever UFC event. Coming off a dominant win in the main card of UFC Prague, American Top Team’s rising flyweight star Gillian Robertson is full of fire and is determined to make her mark at 125lbs. Continue reading “MMAMotion Exclusive: Gillian Robertson – “I feel like Paige Van Zant is someone who you know for a fact that I’ll be able to finish”” →
The Czech Republic hosts its first UFC event to witness a spectacular Light-Heavyweight bout between #6 ranked Thiago Santos, hailing from Brazil, coming from middleweight, and hoping to climb higher within the division against the pride of Poland, #4 ranked Jan Blahowicz.
The co-main is a heavyweight co-main event against the Skyscraper Stefan Struve and Brazilian powerhouse Marcos Rogerio de Lima.
The Main Card starts at 2:00pm EST on ESPN+. Prelim card will be live on ESPN 2 at 11:00am EST.
Live tweets and play-by-play will be by @thedantyman on the MMA_Motion twitter account.
Main Card(ESPN+ at 2:00pmEST):
Thiago Santos def. Jan Blachowicz via Third Round TKO
Stefan Struve def. Marcos Rogerio de Lima via Second Round Submission (Arm Triangle)
Michal Oleksiejczuk def. Gian Villante via First Round KO
Liz Carmouche def. Lucie Pudilova via Unanimous Decision (30-27 , 29-28 x2)
Petr Yan def. John Dodson via Unanimous Decision (30-27 x3 )
Magomed Ankalaev def. Klidson Abreu via Unanimous Decision (30-27 x2, 29-28)
Prelim Card(ESPN 2 at 11:00amEST:
Dwight Grant def. Carlo Pedersoli Jr. via First Round TKO
Chris Fishgold def. Daniel Teymur via Second Round submission(RNC)
Gillian Robertson def. Veronica Macedo via Second Round Submission (RNC)
Damir Hadzovic def. Marco Polo Reyes by Second Round TKO
Ismail Naurdiev def. Michel Prazeres via Unanimous Decision (30-27 x2, 30-26)
Diego Ferreira def. Rustam Khabilov via Unanimous Decision (30-27 x2, 29-28)
Damir Ismagulov def. Joel Alvarez via Unanimous Decision (30-27 x3)
Tonight, Kelvin Gastelum arrived at Rod Laver arena, Melbourne, Australia for a media scrum holding freshly polished UFC championship belt.
Gastelum explained that he received the news about Whittaker pulling out of the scheduled championship fight at UFC 234 this morning via a knock on his hotel room dor. A UFC staff member informed him about the cancellation of the match. Whittaker suffered a hernia and had to be sent to a nearby hospital to conduct surgery immediately. He discloses his own health update on an internal staph infection.
.@KelvinGastelum arrived into Rod Laver with a belt on his shoulder, we tried to find more info about what's going on! #UFC234 pic.twitter.com/wn4DUCDxLG
— Submission Radio (@SubmissionRadio) February 10, 2019
Further into the interview, Gastleum proclaims that as far as his status as champion, he has “earned it”. He goes on to say, due to Whittaker being unable to compete tonight, the decision is declared as a forfeit, thus gifting the championship belt to Kelvin.
Gastelum assures the press that he will give Whittaker a chance to fight him as soon as he has recovered and continues to inform the press Gastelum how he has his eye on the new main event between Israel Adesanya and Anderson Silva, keeping his word to defend against the winner of that fight as well.
No official word from neither the UFC or Robert Whittaker in light these recent events.
Also coming up is the explosive co-main between Aaron Pico and Henry Corrales.
Prelims are 6:30pm EST/3:30pmPST exclusively on DAZN.
Follow MMAMotion @MMA_Motion on twitter for live tweets, tweeted by @mrdantyman.
Main Card is 9pm on Paramount and DAZN.
Main Card Results:
Preliminary Card results:
After a dominating TKO finish over Alexander Hernandez, Donald Cerrone takes the opportunity in his post-fight interview to put the lightweight division on notice.
His request was for anyone in the top five of the UFC lightweight division, specifically Conor McGregor. Subsequently, the “Notorious One” fired back at Cerrone via Twitter in the moments after the post fight interview:
For a fight like that Donald, I’ll fight you.
Congratulations.— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) January 20, 2019
With the win over Hernandez, a hungry Donald Cerrone completes his 40th fight under Zuffa and 22nd win by stoppage as he picks up some momentum in the rankings. With such milestones and momentum from his victories in two divisions, time will tell if this call out to the first ever Champ Champ yields results with the UFC brass.
For the past week, Khabib Nurmagomedov’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, has spoken publicly about being reluctant to allow lightweight title contender, Tony Ferguson a shot at Khabib’s gold next.
However, it appears there may be some cross of opinion between Abdelaziz and Khabib. As per the Team Dagestan Twitter account, when Khabib was questioned by a slightly disappointed fan, he seems to suggest the breakdown in the match up with Ferguson was a choice Abdelaziz rather than his own:
⚡@TeamKhabib reaction to fan outrage over the fight with @TonyFergusonXT pic.twitter.com/XbwRa94mSa
— MMA TEAM DAGESTAN (@MMATeamDagestan) January 7, 2019
Although brief, the Tweet seems to suggest that Khabib may not be 100% happy with the decision to avoid the fight with “El Cucuy” and was more so a choice of Abdelaziz.
In the lead up to UFC 229, the UFC’s lightweight division had regained hope in respect to potential fights after a previous year of injuries and hiatus’. With the unfortunate turn of events post-fight after Khabib’s win and the subsequent pending trial with the NSAC, the wheels have again grinded to a halt in the 155lb division.
Now, discussions about who fights next after the trial and who deserves it more are aplenty in the MMA community. This development from Khabib adds further ambiguity in matchmaking at the top of the division.
Now that the New Year has arrived I’m afraid I have to announce that the UFC has declined to re-sign me and my time with the promotion has come to an end. I just want to thank everyone at the promotion who made me feel welcome and appreciate at every single show.
— Jimmy Smith (@jimmysmithmma) January 1, 2019
Before his time at the UFC, Smith spent a good amount of his career announcing, interviewing, analyzing, and providing play-by-play in Bellator MMA. This vast extensive knowledge of MMA and presence in analysis made him an asset whether it was his color commentary on UFC 223, or his continued work as an analyst on FOX cards.
His welcome to the UFC was reassuring considering the good terms of his departure, described on an interview with Ariel Helwani right after the move from Bellator.
He was given abundant praise by UFC’s Joe Rogan on his podcast ahead of his eventual acceptance into the fold.
No word from Rogan or any of the Analyst team during the minutes of this news.
MMAJunkie later found out that the 41 year old has no immediate plans but will want to soon commentate. As for right now Jimmy Smith is free-agent.
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