On the night of May 12, the UFC On ESPN 56 tournament will take place. On the eve of the event, all its participants underwent a weigh-in ceremony.
UFC lightweight championIslam Makhachev has revealed when he will be ready to fight in the welterweight division.
Islam Makhachev, UFC lightweight champion, recalled the beginning of his career in the promotion.
Jon Jones, the reigning UFC heavyweight champion, has spoken extensively about his bout with Tom Aspinall, the promotion's interim featherweight champion.
"Agree that his behavior is selfish. This guy - a perfectly healthy interim champion who is only 30 years old - is sitting around waiting for an opportunity to fight the winner of a fight between a 42-year-old man and a 36-year-old man. No one is stopping anyone, I'm on a mission. My goal is to make the fight with Stipe. But you're suggesting that I should neglect all the training I've been doing in the run-up to this fight and fight this "hype train" who may not be in the league in three years! I'm not going to change my plans because of anyone. Stipe is the best heavyweight to ever step into the octagon. My job is to give this guy what he wants and take his scalp to my collection. Whatever happens next, our fight will happen. Besides, I was talking about ending my career after the Stipe fight long before the UFC introduced the interim belt. And nothing would have changed if Sergey had it. I love that the Brits have convinced themselves that Jon Jones is afraid of their interim champion. It's opened up a whole new fan base for me. They all know who the real champion is."
Ben Askren, former Bellator and ONE champion and former UFC fighter, has spoken out about a possible fight between Jon Jones and Alex Pereira.
"People would be interested in seeing that fight. If Alex were to have a bout with Aspinall, he would probably have to stop a few of the takedowns. Fans are curious to see what Alex is like in wrestling, if he can defend against translations. After all, if you don't have those skills, Jones is just going to transfer you and sub you out. We saw Pereira get transferred by Izzy. He stayed underneath him for a significant portion of the time.... Let's say their fight with Jones does happen. I think it would be over in two minutes in the octagon. Look at what Jon did to Cyril Gunn. Jon is a big man, a high-level fighter, he has great grappling skills. It's a very likely outcome," Askren was quoted as saying by Middle Easy.
Corey Sandhagen, a fighter in the UFC's lightweight division, has not ruled out the possibility of changing weight classes in the future.
UFC heavyweightDerrick Lewis has spoken out about his upcoming bout with Rodrigo Nascimento.
UFC On ESPN 56 will take place on the night of May 12 in St. Louis. The tournament will be headlined by a bout between Derrick Lewis and Rodrigo Nascimento. The prelims broadcast will begin at 11:00 p.m. on May 11. The main card broadcast will start at 02:00. Below are links to the broadcast and the event's fight card:
WATCH ONLINE
WATCH ONLINE
Main card:
Derrick Lewis - Rodrigo Nascimento
Nursulton Raziboev - Joaquin Buckley
Alonzo Menifield - Carlos Ulberg
Diego Ferreira - Mateusz Renbiecki
Alex Caceres - Sean Woodson
Waldo Cortez-Acosta - Robelis Despagné
Prelims:
Vyacheslav Borshchev - Chase Hooper
Terrence McKinney - Esteban Ribovich.
Tisha Torres - Tabatha Ricci.
Billy Goff - Trey Waters
Charles Johnson - Jake Hadley
Jared Gooden - Kevin Jausset
J.J. Aldrich - Veronica Macedo
UFC middleweightJared Cannonnier has revealed that he could have fought Paulo Costa at UFC 301
"Initially, the management offered me a fight with Paulo Costa at UFC 301, but I didn't receive permission from the doctors to participate in the tournament until the end of March. So I would have only had a month to prepare for the fight. I didn't want to go back to fighting without proper preparation because I needed to tighten up my wrestling. Also, my knee hadn't fully recovered yet. It wasn't something I wanted to do. Of course, my goal is a contender fight against some of the highly ranked guys. I had hopes of fighting Costa a little later in June, but they gave it to Strickland," Middle Easy quoted Jared as saying.
American mixed martial arts titlist Daniel Cormier assessed UFC bantamweight champion Alex Pereira's prospects in the heavyweight division.
"He can have success in the heavyweight division. I'm no longer betting against Alex Pereira and I'm no longer saying he's not capable of anything. Alex has proven time and time again that he can do anything he wants to do. Every challenge has its challenges and every great thing will be difficult.
To think that Alex will not succeed would be a huge mistake. If Alex can be the guy to win a third belt, this dude better be talked about as the greatest fighter of all time," MMA Junkie quoted Cormier as saying.
Recall, on April 13 at UFC 300 Pereira made the first defense of his title by knocking out Jamal Hill.
