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:
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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.
Aljamain Sterling, former UFC lightweight champion, wrote a post on social media addressed to the organization's current lightweight champion Sean O'Malley. Sterling called Sean a worthless champion.
"You're a worthless champion. Keep bragging about fighting handicappers. You do it to have a high chance of winning. Kid, you're not a real man. Don't try to run away from a top contender again and then fight a guy who's locked in the top 15," Sterling wrote on his social media.
Recall that O'Malley became the UFC lightweight champion by knocking out Sterling and taking the championship belt away from him.
Jan Blachowicz believes Jon Jones, the former UFC bantamweight champion, moved up to heavyweight to avoid fighting him.
"I'm a heavyweight now, so moving up to heavyweight is easy. I'd like to see Jones fight against (Tom) Aspinall, (Alex) Pereira and me. He escaped to heavyweight because I was in my prime when he left [the welterweight division]. He knew if he met me, he was going to lose. It was his best decision to move up to heavyweight. He promised me that fight, so that's what I'm hoping for - maybe someday. Maybe not in the gym, but somewhere in my backyard," Blachowicz told Fanatics View.
Eric Nixick, coach of former UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland, revealed in which round his charge will knockout Paulo Costa.
"I think Shawn will be able to finish Costa by the fourth or fifth round. It's going to be a five-round fight and I feel like that definitely benefits us in terms of toughness and the pressure and pace that Sean can maintain. We've seen what Strickland can do at five-round distance - he's gassing all the time, he's in front of you all the time. So five-round fights are to our advantage," - quotes Eric Nixick portal Sportskeeda.
Recall, the confrontation between Strickland and Costa will take place on June 2 in Newark, USA.
Former bantamweight champion Jan Blachowicz has once again talked about wanting a rematch with current titleholder Alex Pereira, to whom he lost by a controversial split judges' decision last July.
"He's not a better fighter than me and I think I deserve a rematch. When he fights against me, I will still think I will win that fight.
The judges give different scores, but I believe I won the first fight against him and I believe I deserve a rematch. He knocked everyone out - not me. When I come back, I believe I can fight him again," Fanatics View quoted Blachowicz as saying.
No. 2 in the UFC lightweight division rankings, Corey Sandhagen, has spoken out about a fight with tenth-ranked Umar Nurmagomedov.
It was previously announced that these fighters would meet on August 3 at a tournament in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
"At this stage of my career, I no longer want fights with my participation to last the whole distance. During my downtime, I've done some serious work to add power to my hands. I've also worked on a couple of techniques to tear people apart.
I'm usually confident before a fight, but now I'm not just confident - I know I'm capable of hurting him. It will be great to show my skills to the world," the American said on The MMA Hour show.
UFC lightweight title challenger Merab Dvalishvili has revealed how he plans to proceed in his fight with division champion Sean O'Malley.
According to the latest information, the fight between the American and the Georgian could take place on September 14 at UFC 306.
"Yes, I'm one of the best fighters. But don't be surprised if Sean O'Malley takes me down. This is MMA, guys. I'm a humble guy, and anything is possible here.
I'm going to wrestle Sean a little bit first, and then I'm going to use my striking and knock him out in the standup," Dvalishvili told Sportskeeda.
Recall that the 33-year-old Dvalishvili is riding a streak of ten straight wins in the UFC.
