The 2024 MMA calendar is formally underway, because the UFC and ONE have main playing cards booked in January. Additionally, PFL’s acquisition of Bellator must assemble for a fascinating agenda combine for clash enthusiasts to experience.
Because the era rolls ahead, information and rumors will start with updates on doable matchmaking, promotion updates and clash places. As such, we’ll have all of it lined proper right here, with research from perception from our journalists and writers.
Which opponents will major tournament at UFC 300? Who will remove the problem to be Francis Ngannou‘s first opponent in PFL? Will Stipe Miocic or Tom Aspinall be the upcoming challenger for Jon Jones‘ UFC heavyweight name? Take a look at our actual updates now and refresh steadily for the actual because the era unfolds.
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Jan. 23: Grievance mounts for UFC ladies’s bantamweight department and name
Former UFC welterweight and UFC analyst Alan Jouban didn’t accumulation again when giving his opinion at the UFC’s 135-pound ladies’s department then Saturday’s name clash between Raquel Pennington and Mayra Bueno Silva. Pennington received by way of unanimous determination, changing into best the second one fighter no longer named Amanda Nunes to accumulation the name since 2016.
Even then the department topped a brandnew champion, Jouban doesn’t like its tide status, and in comparison it to the brightness heavyweight department for standpoint.
“There was a while, maybe even still, where the men’s light heavyweight division just made no sense,” Jouban stated at the podcast “The Fighter vs. The Writer.” “When Jon Jones left, and [Daniel Cormier] went up, and all these things happened and it’s just new champ after new champ and all the things that happened with the draws and the no-contests, this and that. The division makes no sense. There’s no clear-cut contender or superstar. Obviously, [Alex] Pereira came in and now wears the gold. [When] we look at the women’s division, the bantamweights … it’s a wasteland.”
Jouban believes that Julianna Peña is the largest draw within the ladies’s bantamweight department. On the other hand, she doesn’t have the belt and hasn’t fought since dropping to Nunes in her first protection of the name at UFC 277 in July 2022.
Coincidentally, Peña shared her ideas following the ladies’s name clash as smartly, pointing out that she was once no longer entertained.
“It was a snooze fest,” Peña stated of Pennington’s win over Bueno Silva on “The MMA Hour” with Ariel Helwani. “I used to be no longer inspired with their performances, as my pal Georges St-Pierre likes to mention. … It was once throughout only a entire sadness.”
Jan. 22: Don’t not include an Amanda Nunes comeback
“The Lioness” was once in attendance at UFC 297 to observer the hour Raquel Pennington beat Mayra Bueno Silva to say the ladies’s bantamweight name. Nunes, who held the name for all however seven months between July 2016 and June 2023, relinquished each the bantamweight and featherweight titles all through her escape then beating Irene Aldana at UFC 289. However even on the future of her escape, some believed we would possibly see her within the Octagon once more quickly.
All over an interview at the UFC 297 Publish Display, Nunes looked as if it would entertain the speculation of a comeback.
“I think I [made] the right decision, you know [to] retire, rest a little bit, and take care of the babies … and then see what happens,” Nunes stated. “I’m still young [and] fresh, you never know. We have a lot of things to do … to see what happens.”
When requested if that supposed the door for a go back would possibly nonetheless be seen for her, Nunes stated, “I don’t know. We never know. I’m a fighter — this is my job. I enjoy not being in the gym every day and having a normal life. But I’m still healthy and powerful [and] smart. I think like a champion and I still feel like a champion. We’ll see.”
Era she won’t have an actual plan to get again into the Octagon on the hour, it without a doubt seems that the ladies’s MMA GOAT isn’t ruling out a go back.
Jan. 10: Funkmaster staying at 145 kilos
Former UFC males’s bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling isn’t having a look again.
Nearest keeping the UFC’s 135-pound name for over two years, Sterling was once dethroned by means of second-round knockout by way of “Suga” Sean O’Malley. Following the loss, in spite of Sterling’s callouts for a rematch towards O’Malley, the UFC determined to journey in a special route — reserving him to assemble his first name protection towards Marlon Vera in the principle tournament at UFC 299 in March.
Together with his bantamweight name hopes now within the rearview replicate, Sterling has booked a clash to assemble his featherweight (145 kilos) debut towards Calvin Kattar at UFC 300. Sterling, who was once at all times fat for the bantamweight department, hopes that slicing ten fewer kilos may assistance prolong his combating profession.
“There’s no more 135,” Sterling stated in an interview with MMA Junkie. “I didn’t even want to do it the last time.”
Jan. 6: Cejudo — Belal Muhammad is ‘the nearest particular person to a man like Khabib’
Few in MMA were on a roll like Belal Muhammad, as his undefeated 10-fight run comprises 9 wins over revered opponents like Gilbert Burns, Stephen Thompson and Vicente Luque. On the other hand, his one no-contest all through this era was once because of an unintended vision poke from tide welterweight champion Leon Edwards in 2021, and the UFC will most probably rebook the 2 in a rematch of their milestone UFC 300 card in April.
Henry Cejudo, a former Olympic gold medalist and two-division UFC champion, analyzed the conceivable rematch via his YouTube channel and raised a fascinating comparability to Muhammad — Khabib Nurmagomedov.
“It’s going to be a great, competitive fight. Stylistically, the way that Belal Muhammad — what he did to Gilbert Burns and how he did it to him, he’s only gotten better. I will say this: The closest person to a guy like Khabib Nurmagomedov, his name is actually Belal Muhammad. They do the same kind of cross steps. They kind of run and shoot. They do the same kind of feints with that lead hand to eventually level change for the takedown.”
Of their 2021 matchup, Edwards was once a -275 favourite over Muhammad.
“I’m going to have to go back and rewatch their fight the first time and see how that actually went,” Cejudo stated of Muhammad’s first accident with Edwards. “I will say this: They both have gotten better, but if there’s one person that I would say that has evolved more than the other, his name is Belal Muhammad. He’s just gotten so, so freaking much better. He’s a freestyle fighter.
Jan. 5: Raul Rosas Jr. returns at Noche UFC to face Ricky Turcios
19-year-old bantamweight prospect Raul Rosas Jr. will return to the Octagon at UFC Mexico City on Feb. 24 to face former Ultimate Fighter standout, Ricky Turcios, first reported by Eurosport’s Marcel Dorff.
Raul Rosas Jr. will clash Ricky Turcios at #UFCMexico on February twenty fourth. #UFC #MMA #UFCESPN #UFC2024 pic.twitter.com/xVWXDez5MI
— Marcel Dorff 🇳🇱🇮🇩 (@BigMarcel24) January 5, 2024
Rosas Jr. is 2-1 since earning a contract on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2022, just two weeks after turning 18. In his most recent victory, Rosas Jr. scored a highlight-reel TKO over Terrance Mitchell at Noche UFC this pace September.
“El Nino Problema” will take on Turcios, who, since being featured on TUF back in 2021, is also 2-1, with both wins coming by way of split decision.
Jan. 5: Aspinall-Miocic trade words on Twitter as fight with Jones looms
Newly minted UFC interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall has his eyes set on the ultimate prize in the weight class. So too does Stipe Miocic.
Both heavyweight stars have eyes on Jon Jones, the current heavyweight champion. Miocic was supposed to fight Jones at UFC 295, but Jones suffered an injured pectoral and was forced out of the match. Instead of Aspinall stepping in for Jones to face Miocic, the UFC booked Aspinall vs. Sergei Pavlovich for the interim title. Moreover, the UFC hit the reset button and will book Jones vs. Miocic when the champion is healthy. With Aspinall’s defeat of Pavlovich, he could have to wait a year to get his shot at the No. 1 spot.
Needless to say, Aspinall’s not pleased with the long waiting game, and took to Twitter to voice his opinion on the matter.
Last time Stipe fought and won, GTA: San Andreas had just come out on PS2. He will fight next for the undisputed heavyweight title, ahead of me, who’s the interim champ, active and ranked #1 in the world right now. This makes me quite upset
— Tom Aspinall (@AspinallMMA) January 4, 2024
While GTA 2: San Andreas was released in 1999, Miocic hasn’t fought in nearly three years and hasn’t won a fight in over three-and-a-half years. Miocic defended his place in line, but offered an olive branch to Aspinall, if he can dethrone Jones later this year.
I have never caused a delay in the Jon fight.⁰⁰Tom, once I get this win, let’s talk to unify the belt.
— Stipe Miocic (@stipemiocic) January 5, 2024
