Month: December 2021

‘Pay me my money’ – Logan Paul claims ‘corny weasel of a human’ Floyd Mayweather still owes him

Posted on by Zane Simon in Boxing, Front Page

If estimates are to be believed Floyd Mayweather’s exhibition boxing match against Logan Paul was a major financial success. Showtime projections following the June PPV card estimated that the event had sold more than 1 million buys at a price of $49.99—somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 million in revenue just from PPV sales alone (with total revenue estimates potentially much much higher).

Heading into the bout, Paul suggested he could make as much as $20 million for his part in the fight. Although with reports suggesting he stood to make $250,000 guaranteed, plus 10% of PPV sales, that would have put him at an estimated $5.25 million. Whatever the actual figure might have been, however, it seems as though the YouTube star and former Disney actor doesn’t feel he got everything he bargained for.

That’s according to a recent post uploaded to Paul’s Instagram Stories, where he claimed Mayweather still owes him money.

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Considering Mayweather apparently forgot which Paul brother he even fought during an interview earlier this month, maybe a couple checks ended up in the wrong bank account too. Neither side has elaborated on just how much money Paul might be talking about, or even necessarily if it’s all tied to their fight. But if Paul is serious about these allegations, the whole thing may very well end up in court before it’s all settled.

Most recently, Paul teased a possible trilogy fight against rapper & YouTuber KSI, with a potential official announcement set to be made on January 4th. The two men first fought to a draw in an amateur bout in 2018. They met again a year later, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, for a rematch, with KSI winning that bout via split decision. No word yet on what the potential date of their third fight might be.

‘There’s always more to learn’ – Israel Adesanya gives Saenchai kick a spin

Posted on by Zane Simon in Front Page, UFC News

If there were any remaining questions as to whether or not Israel Adesanya was going to be fighting Robert Whittaker again this coming February, at the very least it appears that the champ is indeed getting ready to perform at UFC 271.

‘The Last Stylebender’ recently uploaded a UFC 271 Fight Camp video blog to his YouTube page, featuring a trip to Taekwon-Do champion Carl Van Roon’s martial arts academy in Auckland, New Zealand.

In the video, Adesanya showed off some of his prodigious kicking skills, working with a few students at the academy, even testing out a Saenchai-style cartwheel kick at one point. Despite a wealth of world class experience, and his own elite striking prowess, the UFC middleweight champion extolled the virtues of working with the younger generation of martial artists.

“There’s always more to learn,” Adesanya said, following the training session (transcript via MMA Fighting). “You can learn from anyone, from the young’ns because a lot of them — I’m sure most of them — look at me and think, ‘He’s a UFC champion. Stylebender. What can I possibly teach him?’ Trust, they can teach me a lot. And they’ve taught me a lot today already just watching the way even in the first drill the way they were snapping the kicks, I was like, ‘OK, I need to bring that back.’”

“Watching the way [Van Roon] fights, watching his old fights and the way he moves,” Adesanya added. “It kind of inspires me to want to do some more cool sh-t because I’m about the cool sh*t, I’m about the highlights and he’s a dangerous man.”

UFC 271 takes place on February 12th in Houston, TX. Outside the championship main event, the card is expected to feature a middleweight top contender’s bout between Derek Brunson and Jared Cannonier.

Report: Jake Paul taking boxing hiatus to promote Amanda Serrano vs. Katie Taylor

Posted on by Zane Simon in Boxing, Front Page

Jake Paul may not be taking any time away from riling up UFC fighters with offers of potential multi-million dollar paydays they aren’t contractually available for, but it sounds like he won’t be rushing back to the ring anytime soon either. That’s according to a report from the Mirror, who say that the celebrity pugilist plans on taking a seven month break from fighting.

The reason? Apart from a supposedly much needed vacation, Paul has also apparently set his sights on promoting a boxing superfight between undisputed lightweight world champion Katie Taylor and WBC, WBO, & IBO featherweight champion Amanda Serrano.

Serrano (42-1) signed with Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions company earlier this year and has competed as the featured co-main event to both Paul’s bouts against Tyron Woodley. On a recent episode of Logan Paul’s Impaulsive podcast, he spoke about why making this fight has become such an important focus for him.

“She deserves to be able to retire from boxing and not work again,” Paul said of the 33-year-old Serrano. “That hasn’t been the case for women’s boxing, they’ve been underpaid and taken advantage of.

“It’s an amazing accomplishment for me to be able to help her and she’s such an awesome person.”

Taylor (20-0) has been fighting under the Matchroom Boxing banner for her entire time as a professional, following the end of her amateur career in 2016 (including an Olympic gold medal in the 2012 London Games). Matchroom chairman Eddie Hearn spoke to the Mirror back in November about negotiations for a fight with Serrano, making it clear that he expects booking the fight to be a fairly smooth process.

“She’ll make what she needs to make,” Hearn said of Serrano. “They’ve made a request for a purse for that fight and I’m confident that we can get there.”

At the moment it sounds like both sides are aiming for the bout to take place in April or May of this year, with Madison Square Garden a likely front runner for the venue. And in the meantime, Paul will likely keep picking away at the likes of Jorge Masvidal, Nate Diaz, and Conor McGregor, in the hopes of finding a path forward to a fight with one of them.

‘I hate losing a lot more than I like winning’ – Ryan Hall talks post-fight shrugs, volatility of MMA

Posted on by Zane Simon in Front Page, UFC Interview, UFC News, Videos

MMA is home to plenty of odd personalities and unconventional talents. But, few fighters are as unusual to in their approach to combat itself as longtime grappling ace and featherweight UFC talent Ryan Hall.

And it’s not just down to his Imanari rolls and leg lock prowess, MMA has seen its fair share of exciting guard grapplers. It’s also baked into a striking style that’s largely based around defensive movement, distance maintenance, and a regular output of creative kicks. Fighters that face Hall inside the Octagon often find themselves with a puzzle to solve that runs against the meta of the sport at large.

When Hall wins, it can feel like he’s done so by breaking down the ability for his opponent to have a fight with him at all. He forces foes into aggressive pursuit, only to spring on them with a thrilling submission attempt when their aggression gets too wild. And when it all works (as it often has) he follows up those moments of victory with a shrug to the camera.

In a recent interview with the MMA Hour, Hall explained his trademark post-fight celebration. One he says is a nod both to the chaotic and unpredictable nature of MMA, and to the fact that, as far as he’s concerned, winning isn’t nearly as important as not losing.

“Ah, well, that happened,” Hall elucidated (transcript via MMA Fighting). “You can win, and you can lose. Every single fight that I ever won, I could have lost.”

“I would say I’ve had times in fights where I’ve been lucky,” Hall added, after talking about what he felt were a few “lucky” turns for Ilia Topuria in the Georgian fighter’s recent victory over Hall. “You step this way instead of that way, and I’ve gotten good outcomes and I’ve gotten bad outcomes. … So I guess what I would say is I’m here to learn, I’m here for the challenge, I’m here to fight with everything that I have and face the best opposition that I can. I just need to get the experience and need to keep pushing forward.”

“But win, lose, or draw, I will push forward,” he said. “I recognize the volatility of the game; I recognize the seriousness of the game. When you win, you’re like [shrugs].

“I hate losing a lot more than I like winning.”

‘I need 1 minute to take your head’ – Khamzat Chimaev & Belal Muhammad go full twitter feud

Posted on by Zane Simon in Front Page, UFC News

If Dana White was recently complaining that nobody wanted to fight Khamzat Chimaev, it seems at least one offer has been laid firmly on the table.

“It’s about who’s getting that push right now in that right moment,” UFC welterweight Belal Muhammad told MMA Fighting in a recent interview. “Right now in that right moment, [with] Khamzat, you get the most hype from beating a guy like him than anybody [else] honestly.”

Whether or not the UFC ends up interested in putting together a fight between the fast-rising uber-prospect out of Sweden’s Allstar Training Center and the long time Roufusport talent remains to be seen. But, if Muhammad was hoping to spark some interest in a bout between himself and Chimaev, it seems he may have touched off a bonfire.

‘Borz’ took to Twitter following Muhammad’s comments, to make it clear that he doesn’t think ‘Remember the Name’ represents much in the way of competition. From there things just got ugly.

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And if it seems like Muhammad’s callout got the desired reaction out of Chimaev, then the needling from the 27-year-old Chechen-born Swede also appears to have worked just as well.

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It all just keeps going, and going, and going…

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Muhammad is coming fresh off a 3-round dominating victory over former title challenger Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson, back at UFC Vegas 45: Lewis vs. Daukaus. After that win, the Chicago-based fighter called for a shot at champion Kamaru Usman. Chimaev last fought back on October 30th, at UFC 267, where he picked up his fourth straight finish inside the Octagon, submitting Li Jingiang just over three minutes into the first round.

Whatever direction the UFC had hoped to go with either man after their latest victory, at this point it seems clear that the stage has been set for a top-tier bout in the welterweight division. If for no other reason than that it seems like neither man is about to log off until they’re on their way into the cage.

Kevin Lee says Diego Sanchez fight set for Eagle FC event in March, then deletes post

Posted on by Zane Simon in Front Page, MMA News

Khabib Nurmagomedov’s upstart MMA promotion, Eagle FC, is looking to make a real splash in the combat sports market. And, like so many promotions that have come before it, their principal strategy seems to revolve around signing as many of the most notable free agents on the MMA market as they can get their hands on.

Their upcoming show, Eagle FC 44, on January 28th, is set to feature former GLORY kickboxing star Tyrone Spong, taking on PRIDE & Bellator talent Sergei Kharitonov in the main event. The card is also expected to feature former UFC fighters Ray Borg & Cody Gibson, Renan Barao, John Howard, and Rashad Evans.

So, it’s with little surprise, then, that the Dagestan-based organization would also be the landing point for two more of the UFC’s most notable former talents: Kevin Lee & Diego Sanchez.

Lee announced via Instagram (before deleting) that he and Sanchez have agreed to a bout on March 11th, at an as of yet unannounced Eagle FC fight card.

“Christmas came early this year! Contract signed. I’m fighting the first ever Ultimate Fighter March 11th in Miami #EagleFC”

Lee’s exit from the UFC was announced just back in November, shortly following news of a six month suspension from competition by the Nevada Athletic Commission—due to his failure to get a therapeutic-use exemption for Adderall to treat ADHD symptoms. That capped a difficult several-years long run for the ‘Motown Phenom’, who is just 2-4 over his last six bouts since competing against Tony Ferguson for the UFC’s interim lightweight championship back in 2017. Most recently, Lee lost to rising welterweight talent Daniel Rodriguez—his only fight of 2021.

For Diego Sanchez, his removal from the UFC’s roster was made official in April of 2021, following a series of questionable interactions between Sanchez’s then head coach, Joshua Fabia, and other fighters and members of the UFC’s staff. Coupled with apparent concerns from the UFC about Sanchez’s ability to pass pre-fight medicals the promotion decided to part ways with the Ultimate Fighter Season 1 winner.

If there’s any surprise about the announcement of this booking at all, its that Sanchez is only a few weeks removed from a case of COVID-19 serious enough to require hospitalization. Even as of December 12th, Sanchez was posting about his continued recovery on Twitter.

Hopefully, with the fight against Lee still more than two months away, that will be all the time needed for Sanchez to prepare for a return to the cage. At the moment, no other bouts have been announced for Eagle FC’s March 11th fight card, and a location for the event has yet to be named.

Kickboxing’s biggest superfight has a date: Tenshin vs. Takeru set for June

Posted on by Zane Simon in Front Page, Kickboxing

It feels as though the moment Tenshin Nasukawa captured his first Rise kickboxing title, back in 2015, the stage was set for him to take on K-1 champion Takeru Segawa. Both men were fighting at 55kg, both making their names as stars of the Japanese kickboxing circuit, and both competing in a sport that has consistently provided top tier sporting rivalries between legendary talents.

Somehow, however, that fight just never seemed to materialize. Takeru has kept his career almost entirely limited to the K-1 stage, while Tenshin bridged his success in Rise over to a consistent spot with Japan’s premiere MMA platform, Rizin. For a sport where multiple meetings between the best fighters in the world – over careers that often stretch into triple-digit ring appearances – are a commonplace occurrence, it almost felt like this was a fight that was never going to happen.

Thankfully, though, that no longer appears to be the case. Rizin CEO, and former mastermind behind PRIDE FC, Nobuyuki Sakakibara made an announcement on Friday, December 24th, that Tenshin vs. Takeru will take place in June of 2022.

Assuming everything goes to plan, the bout will take place at Tenshin’s consistent fighting weight of the last several years, 58kg (128 lbs). That will require a bit of extra cutting and weight management from Takeru, who has been competing at 60kg (132) lbs since 2018.

As part of the announcement, the two men faced off during a press conference for the assembled media.

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According to a report from MMA Fighting, an exact date, venue, or even hosting promotion has not yet been finalized. In fact, the two men have yet to even settle on the exact rules or number of rounds. With The-Fighter.net reporting that Takeru has requested the bout have an unlimited number of rounds in case of a draw, until a clear winner can be declared.

During the press event, Takeru spoke about the delays in getting the fight booked, and his desire that the bout be held on a “neutral” playing field (transcript via The Fighter).

“Due to a number of reasons, it took a lot of time for this fight to happen. I’m sure both Tenshin and I have had a lot of painful experiences [as a result of this]…In order for this fight to come to fruition, I’ve been saying for the longest time that it has to be in a neutral ring. By having it in a neutral ring, things like barriers between the promotions [will be knocked down]. In the past, fighters used to face strong fighters regardless of which promotion they came from – I want to present a stage like that. That’s why I thought it was paramount to have it in a neutral ring and at the same time, it was one of the reasons why it took so long.”

At just 23-years-old, Tenshin has also made it clear that he expects this bout to be the final fight of his kickboxing career before he transitions to professional boxing. ‘TEPPEN’ infamously made his exhibition boxing debut against Floyd Mayweather at RIZIN 14, back in 2018. He lost that bout via TKO, just 2:20 into the first round.

Tenshin is currently undefeated as a professional kickboxer, with a record of 42 wins and 0 losses (with 30 of those victories coming via TKO/KO). Takeru (42-2) has not lost a kickboxing bout since 2012, when a broken nose prevented him from continuing past round 1 of a fight against Yuki Kotani. The only decision loss of his career came in his debut bout against future IBF flyweight boxing title contender Eaktwan BTU Ruaviking.

‘I couldn’t give a sh-t’ – Michel Prazeres says fertility treatment to blame for 4-year USADA ban

Posted on by Zane Simon in Drugs and PEDs, Front Page, UFC News

It seems that Michel Prazeres’ MMA career may have limped to an unfortunate close. The longtime lightweight and welterweight athlete has seemingly stepped away from mixed martial arts, on the heels of a recent USADA press release—stating that the 40-year-old had accepted a four year suspension from the drug testing agency due to multiple positive samples for performance enhancing substances.

Prazeres, 40, tested positive for clomiphene and its metabolites (desethyl-clomiphene, clomiphene M1, and clomiphene M2), oxandrolone metabolites, and the exogenous administration of testosterone and/or its precursors as the result of urine samples collected out-of-competition on August 27, 2021, September 16, 2021, October 15, 2021, and November 2, 2021.

USADA used Carbon Isotope Ratio (CIR) testing to determine the presence of externally administered hormones in Prazeres’ system, along with the presence of the drug clomiphene—a substance often used to help athletes recover from the physical side effects of steroid use.

This is the second time Prazeres has faced USADA sanctions. In February of last year, the drug testing agency announced that ‘Trator’ had accepted a two year ban—stretching back to March of 2019. He had tested positive for the anabolic agent Boldanone in two out-of-competition samples collected shortly following his loss to Ismael Naurdiev. Prazeres returned from that suspension on June 26, 2021, where he lost to Shavkat Rakhmonov by submission.

The Tractor Team talent will be eligible to compete once again in the US (and/or other USADA tested events) on August 27th, 2025, at which point he’ll be 44-years-old.

Shortly before this latest USADA announcement, Prazeres had announced his exit from the UFC saying that he had asked to be released from the promotion and planned to focus on his Jiu Jitsu business interests for the immediate future. At the time, Prazeres declined to explain what had prompted his desire to leave the world’s largest MMA organization.

While reports were made that Prazeres had retired from MMA in light of his latest drug test failure,he has since spoken to MMA Fighting, where he gave an unabashed take on his current status as a competitor.

“I couldn’t give a sh-t [about USADA],” Prazeres stated. “I can fight in Brazil, I can make money in Brazil.”

He also explained his side of the ordeal, saying that his positive tests were the result of fertility treatments. Prazeres even apparently admitted to past use of oxandrolone, but claimed he hadn’t done so for nearly a decade.

“I told [USADA] everything. I said my wife and I were doing treatment to have another baby,” Prazeres said. “This is not a steroid, this is a medication. They interviewed me, my wife and my doctor, they took all the receipts and medical records, the exams I’ve done, and these sons of b-tches still do that?”

“USADA is a b-tch, it’s a wh-re,” Prazeres said. “They punish the person as they please.”

Prazeres went 10-4 over his 8 years with the UFC, picking up victories over Mairbek Taisumov and Gilbert Burns along the way. If this truly is the end of his MMA career, he’ll retire with an overall record of 26-4 along with a couple serious asterisks.

The MMA Depressed-us: A very Pudzian Christmas

Posted on by Zane Simon in Front Page, MMA Podcasts

With the UFC taking a long break for the holidays, the MMA Depressed-us is set to put in some overtime. And to start off this three-week stretch of episodes, we’re taking on one Polish MMA’s biggest stars. Former World’s Strongest Man: Mariusz Pudzianowski.

What seemed to start as a vanity project for ‘Pudzian’ has turned into a more than decade long fighting career for the multiple time champion strongman. Over the years he’s taken on several of the biggest, weirdest freak fight competitors in the industry, all while thriving under the KSW banner.

For this week’s show, we’ve selected four bouts, spanning his time inside the cage. Starting off with Pudzian’s 3rd pro fight (and only fight outside Europe), at 9:11 with Moosin: God of Martial arts, against former UFC champ Tim Sylvia. From there, we’re jumping 3.5 years into the future, for one of the few decision victories claimed on Pudzianowski’s record at 36:40: his KSW 29 bout against former PRIDE talent Pawel Nastula. After that, we’re watching some late-career Pudzian, at KSW 61, against tournament winner Łukasz Jurkowski at 56:50. And finally, just to end on a thrilling note, we’re dipping all the way back to 2010 and KSW 14, for Pudzianowski vs. Butterbean at 1:15:02.

Unlike our normal shows, this time we’re watching all the fights on YouTube. However, as always, we’ll be starting each video from the beginning. So if you want to watch along with us, just hit play when Zane says “go.” If you’re watching the fights on another platform, Connor will try and announce the start of round 1, so that you can sync your video from there.

June M. Williams

During the holiday UFC break we will continue to bring you podcast content every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday minimum, more days if we can. Watch for shows like Crooklyn’s Corner, Show Money, The MMA Depressed-us, 6th Round Retro, maybe even an episode or two of The Eugene S. Robinson Show Stomper! — among others! On behalf of all of our crew on the entire Bloody Elbow Presents Podcast Network Team, have a safe and happy Holiday Season & be sure to stay tuned!

If you enjoy our shows, give us a shout out in the comments here on Bloody Elbow, or give us a “like”, share & subscribe over on whichever BE Presents Podcast Channel happens to be your listening platform of choice: SoundCloud, YouTube, iTunes & Apple TV, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, Spotify, TuneIn, OverCast, Player FM, & Amazon Music – While you’re there, don’t forget to subscribe to Bloody Elbow Presents; that way you’ll always be the first to get all of BE’s daily MMA offerings. For previous episodes of the show, check out our playlists on all of our BE Presents channels.

Happy Holidays from the entire Bloody Elbow Presents Podcast Network Crew!
June M. Williams

‘Make that $20’ million – Masvidal counters Jake Paul’s offer, says UFC needs to get a piece

Posted on by Zane Simon in Boxing, Front Page, UFC News

It seems terribly unlikely that any fighter still under UFC contract is going to get a chance to fight Jake Paul in the boxing ring. The celebrity pugilist has made a habit of calling out UFC stars as he continues his still-developing PPV boxing career, and has already bested Ben Askren and Tyron Woodley (twice now), most recently picking up a violent KO victory over the former welterweight champion.

And while oddsmakers may say that a fight with former UFC middleweight king Anderson Silva is the most likely next fight for the former Disney actor and YouTube star, that hasn’t stopped Paul from taking shots at Nate Diaz and Jorge Masvidal. But, is there any way a bout between the ‘Problem Child’ and a current talent from the Octagon gets made?

For his part, Masvidal was helpful enough to provide a potential pathway to getting him in the ring, following an offer from Paul for $5 million + PPV points. To hear Masvidal tell it, that number would need to be at least four times higher, in part because he’ll need to give the UFC a cut of his profits.

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And if the UFC still isn’t interested in buying what Paul is selling, even with a potential $20 million payday on the table? Well, ‘Gamebred’ has a contingency plan in mind for that eventuality as well.

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That seems like a pretty clear summation of why fans shouldn’t expect to see Paul in the ring with a currently contracted UFC fighter anytime in the near future.