Dana White Reacts To Jake Paul’s Win Over Ben Askren, More News | Fightful Fix Roundup
The UFC president Dana White has finally reacted to Jake Paul’s knockout win over Ben Askren this past weekend — Fightful has you covered on this story as well as all of the other news in the world of combat sports.
Dana White reacts to Jake Paul’s win over Ben Askren
This past weekend Jake Paul and Ben Askren were the main event one of the biggest boxing cards so far this year and it saw Paul who is now 3-0 defeat the MMA veteran Askren via knockout in the first round.
The fight gathered so much attention from the time where it was announced earlier this year and quickly emerged as one of the biggest things in all combat sports.
The UFC president Dana White who brought Ben Askren into the UFC two years ago has now had his say on the fight between the former UFC fighter and the YouTube star Paul.
Prior to the event on Saturday which took place in Atlanta, Dana White said on Mike Tyson’s podcast that he would bet $1 million on Ben Askren to win the fight so this shows that White was supremely confident that Askren would get the fight done.
In a recent interview with Yahoo Sport’s Kevin Iole, White actually praised Paul but also went onto say that Paul’s shtick is only working because of the current state of boxing.
White said “This is the right guy with the right shtick at the right time. This guy is playing this thing perfectly. And boxing is in such a bad place, they’re doing a really good job at sucking in people to buy into this thing. And good for him.”
Do you agree with White’s comments about Paul?
Conor McGregor and Justin Gaethje clash over MMA gloves
Yesterday, Conor McGregor announced via his Twitter that he has released a new brand of MMA gloves.
McGregor FAST MMA fight gloves!
Download the app and join the team today! @McGregorFast pic.twitter.com/GCygcQVUCA— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) April 18, 2021
The gloves look incredibly similar to the ones which Justin Gaethje’s head coach, Trevor Wittman designed a few years ago for his own fighters to stop eye pokes and the glove keeps the hand nearly fully closed.
It turns out that Gaethje was not happy at all with McGregor’s new brand of gloves and he also made his opinion very clear to McGregor on Twitter.
You didn’t design this you just put your name on someone else’s designs, made for as cheap as possible with shit foam and shit materials. They are garbage and you know it. Make your cheese though.
— Justin Gaethje —- (@Justin_Gaethje) April 19, 2021
McGregor then responded to Gaethje by saying that he would “smoke” both Gaethje and his coach Wittman with the exact gloves on.
I’d smoke you and your coach at the same time in these patented @McGregorFast fight gloves. https://t.co/qVWIGJZcpF
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) April 19, 2021
Do you think that Gaethje is right or are the gloves made by McGregor original?
Poster for UFC 262 revealed
At UFC 262 a new undisputed UFC lightweight champion will be crowned as Charles Oliveira and Michael Chandler will fight for the vacant belt after Khabib Nurmagomedov announced his official retirement earlier this year.
Also on the card sees the return of one of the biggest stars in the sport, Nate Diaz.
Diaz returns to the Octagon against top-ranked welterweight Leon Edwards and the bout is going to be five rounds which is a piece of UFC history as it is the first non-title co-main event in UFC history to be scheduled for five rounds and not three.
Check out the poster for the event below.
Under a month away — Your #UFC262 poster has DROPPED! pic.twitter.com/3Fo0NCmsKm
— UFC (@ufc) April 19, 2021
What are your predictions for this event?
Will Diaz be successful on his return to the Octagon?
Will Michael Chandler win the lightweight title in just his second UFC fight?
AJ McKee confident that he will knock out Patricio Pitbull
Bellator’s featherweight Grand Prix has been extremely entertaining so far as we now find ourselves at the final where arguably Bellator’s best ever fighter Patricio Pitbull will defend his featherweight title against young star AJ McKee.
McKee’s road to the final saw him defeat Georgi Karakhanyan and then defeat both Derek Camps and Darrion Caldwell by submission.
Pitbull’s road to the final also saw him pick up some impressive wins too. Pitbull first defeated Juan Archuleta then went on to knockout Pedro Carvalho and then most recently he submitted Emmanuel Sanchez to reach the finals.
Pitbull vs McKee is currently one of the most exciting and intriguing bouts booked in the whole of MMA.
McKee, who has had every single one of his professional bouts in Bellator is confident that he will be able to knock out the champion.
In an interview with BjPenn.com McKee said “I will knock his ass out. Wherever the fight goes, he is an elite striker but I’m too big and strong for him. I will be too much for him. If his game plan is to take me down, he won’t get me down and I’ll pick him apart. Everyone gets into brawls with him and throw hooks, I have almost a foot reach advantage, so I’ll use my jab and straight punches and eventually find the KO punch.”
McKee also went on to say “When I knock his ass out, people will say I got lucky. I will give him an immediate rematch but the rematch will be at lightweight so I can knock his ass out there too and take both his belts.”
How do you think the fight between Pitbull and McKee will go down?
Amanda Nunes opens as a big betting favorite over Julianna Pena
After Amanda Nunes dominated Megan Anderson in her most previous fight it seemed like there was genuinely nobody left for Nunes to fight.
However, Julianna Pena has heavily campaigned for a fight against Nunes for months now and she believes that she has the fight which can beat Nunes.
The bout between Nunes and Pena is now official for UFC 265 and unsurprisingly Nunes has opened as a big betting favorite.
Check out the official odds below.
UFC 265:
Amanda Nunes (-400)
Julianna Pena (+300)https://t.co/9lBr7KVFzG @Amanda_Leoa @VenezuelanVixen— BestFightOdds (@BestFightOdds) April 16, 2021
Do you think that Nunes will ease through the fight or will Pena cause one of the biggest upsets ever?
Edmen Shahbzayan opens up on his loss to Derek Brunson
Prior to his fight against Derek Brunson in 2020, Edmen Shahbazyan was considered by many to be a future UFC middleweight champion.
Ahead of the fight between Shahbazyan and Brunson, many fans expected Shahbazyan to get a quick knockout win but what we got was the complete opposite. Brunson ended up dominating Shahbazyan and showing that experience in MMA is crucial.
The first round of the fight was relatively close but Shahbazyan quickly began to gas out which opened the door for Brunson to land multiple takedowns and finish Shahbazyan in the third round via TKO.
In an interview with BjPenn.com Shahbazyan opened up about his first career loss.
Shahbazyan said “It was my first career loss and I use it as a big-time learning lesson. I was kind of going in there to hunt for the finish and look to finish him right away and I gassed myself out like that because I was looking for one shot to put him out. It’s experience, he is an experienced guy, too. He weathered the storm, stayed calm, and eventually went in his favor. As far as learning from the fight, I learned a lot about myself and some things I needed to change up in training and it has been going really well now and I can’t wait to fight on May 15.“
After his first loss, Shahbazyan heard talk in the media that there was a possibility that he could leave his current camp where he is coached by Edmond Tarverdyan who many people within MMA have criticized but Shahbazyan insists that the thought of leaving never crossed his mind.
Shahbazyan said “I mean, that is just the MMA fans who switch up on you with a win or a loss. In my camp, we made a lot of adjustments to specific training. We have made a lot of switches on that part.”
Even though Shahbazyan took a loss to Brunson, he still has a huge future in the UFC and still has a chance of becoming champion as he is still incredibly young.
Frank Mir still uncertain as to when he will retire from combat sports
Frank Mir has been competing in combat sports now for over 20 years and he is still uncertain as to when he will retire.
Mir made his professional boxing debut this past weekend against Steve Cunningham where he lost by unanimous decision.
In an interview with BjPenn.com Mir explained that a few years ago when he was in Bellator he wanted to retire but after starting to take more care of his body he is feeling the best he has felt in years.
Mir said “As long as I’m able to be healthy. Right now, the things I’m doing at the gym, I haven’t been able to do since I was 32, 33. If you would’ve asked me this question two years ago, I would’ve said I needed to retire now because of how beat up I was and the daily injuries, and the lack of motivation to train when you are hurting. It got harder to get in shape. It hurts to work out, and it hurts after and it’s not very motivating. Now that I have a handle on the aches and pains, I’m squatting, bench pressing, things three to four years ago I couldn’t have done.”
Now that Mir has made his professional boxing debut he now has his sights set on making his debut in BKFC which is bare-knuckle boxing.
“David has been awesome dealing with. Obviously, he wouldn’t like it if I tried to pick up a fight with another bare-knuckle fight league.” Mir said. “But, as far as MMA and boxing, as long as I don’t have a fight scheduled with them they are open to me fighting. When I talked to them about my ambitions were for the last part of my career, being held up and not fighting, look I’m 41, how many more times will I get to strap them on and compete?”
Kelvin Gastelum releases statement following loss to Robert Whittaker
Following on from his loss, this past weekend to Robert Whittaker, Kelvin Gastelum has released a statement onto his Twitter.
Check out the statement below.
— #OnAmission4Gold (@KelvinGastelum) April 19, 2021
Vadim Nemkov ready for either Yoel Romero and Anthony Johnson
Vadim Nemkov successfully defended his Bellator light heavyweight title this past weekend at Bellator 257 with a decision win over Phil Davis.
Nemkov has given his thoughts on the potential of a fight against either Yoel Romero or Anthony Johnson next in the Bellator light heavyweight grand Prix.
Check out the video of Nemkov’s post-fight press conference below.
Who do you think Nemkov will be facing next?
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