ONE Championship will be on TNT this spring, beginning with the returns of a pair of former UFC champions.

The promotion has announced that it will hold a “ONE on TNT” series, which will feature events every Wednesday for four consecutive weeks beginning April 7. Each event will feature prelims streamed on B/R Live at 9 p.m. ET, with a three-fight main card beginning at 10 p.m. ET on TNT.

The series is highlighted by two titles fights and the returns of former UFC champs Demetrious Johnson and Eddie Alvarez, who will compete in the first event April 7. Both men missed all of 2020 because of travel bans caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Johnson (30-3-1) last fought Oct. 13, 2019 when he defeated Danny Kingad to win the ONE flyweight grand prix, making him 3-0 with the promotion. Alvarez (30-7), meanwhile, submitted Eduard Folayang in his last fight on Aug. 2, 2019 to bounce back from a TKO loss to Timofey Nastyukhin in his promotional debut.

The slate of shows and current fights booked includes:

ONE on TNT 1, April 7

• Champ Adriano Moraes vs. Demetrious Johnson – for flyweight title
• Eddie Alvarez vs. Iuri Lapicus

ONE on TNT 2, April 14

• Champ Christian Lee vs. Timofey Nastyukhin– for lightweight title

ONE on TNT 3, April 21

• Aung La N Sang vs. Vitaly Bigdash

ONE on TNT 4, April 28

• No fights booked at this time

Article source: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2021/01/demetrious-johnson-eddie-alvarez-returns-one-championship-on-tnt-series-april

ABU DHABI — It just might be the most anticipated UFC fight of 2021 that hasn’t actually been announced yet: Jorge Masvidal vs. Colby Covington.

It’s a real grudge match between two former American Top Team teammates who fell out, with Masvidal (35-14 MMA, 14-8 UFC) staying with his gym and Covington moving on. It’s a matchup of charismatic and controversial stars who, whether you love or hate them, can get you to tune in. And it’s a matchup of top-level welterweights, with both competitors getting title shots in the past year-and-a-half, and Covington (16-2 MMA, 11-2 UFC) once holding an interim belt.

One man who had a front-row seat for both fighters’ gym work is Mike Brown, the former WEC featherweight champion turned one of the game’s great coaches at ATT. And while he knows Covington is going to be a tough foe, he believes they gleaned enough info to make preparing for the all-but-announced bout to be easier than it otherwise might be.

“You train like you always do, except now you know exactly what you need to do to train for, you know?” Brown told MMA Junkie during UFC 257 fight week. “You know what the guy does, so it’s a little easier to fine tune the training. You know exactly what his strengths and weakness is. You’re not guessing. I guess it’s very black and white. You know exactly what you need to do, and I think it will be a little easier to train for, to be honest.”

In the meantime, as someone who was once grinding away and trying to get a break as a young fighter right around the same time Masvidal was, Brown’s glad to see that Masvidal seems to be playing his cards well as he looks to maximize his time in the biggest spotlight.

“He’s finally in a place where he can make big money, and it should be something very big,” Brown said. “It should be a title fight. It should be one of the biggest names in the sport. They should sell pay-per-views. It’s not a co-main event on a Fight Night. This should be a pay-per-view headliner against another equally big draw, and I think Jorge is probably the second-biggest draw in the sport probably to Conor (McGregor), honestly. And hopefully he is rewarded for what he’s done and what he’s created and is compensated appropriately.

“Jorge is in a place he has carved his own path and put himself in position more deserved than anybody. This guy’s like a 50-fight veteran, fought everybody in the world for so long and done it all, I think it will be a very big fight. In his mind, I think he’s right. He wants somebody that will be very big, very entertaining, and where he gets the most money out of it.”

Article source: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2021/01/ufc-jorge-masvidal-colby-covington-mike-brown-training-history-little-easier

ABU DHABI — Coronavirus has made the past year a difficult path for everyone in the fight game, but it was especially troublesome for a competitor like Kayla Harrison.

The two-time Olympic judo gold medalist was just starting to come into her own in mixed martial arts in 2020. Harrison (8-0) was the PFL’s 2019 women’s lightweight champion, and with seven fights under her belt at that point, she was just reaching the point that she no longer felt like a newbie in the cage.

When the pandemic hit, the PFL had to cancel its season, as, unlike other fight promotions, the PFL’s regular season and playoffs format can’t be condensed in a sport as physically demanding as MMA.

Harrison eventually was able to get a fight in under the Invicta FC banner. Meanwhile, her coach, American Top Team’s Mike Brown, says she used her year showing up to the gym as if she had a fight booked anyway,

“This is someone who, whether she’s got a fight or not, she’s in the gym,” Brown told MMA Junkie during UFC 257 fight week. “She’s there pretty much twice a day, every day, whether there’s a fight for her or not. She’s another very, very, very dedicated athlete who’s made huge strides, huge gains. I mean, you would expect this from somebody who is obviously, I would say, gifted genetically and I would say all in, and fully committed in every way. She lives her life to be the best fighter on the planet.”

With the PFL set to resume operations with the 2021 season, which gets underway in April, Brown believes Harrison, who went down to featherweight for her Invicta win over Cortney King, is ready for higher-level competition.

“She’s made unbelievable gains from Day 1, but now she’s 8-0,” Brown said, “Now she’s had eight fights with all the experience and now very comfortable in the cage, and she’s really at the point, I think, to start fighting anyone they can throw at her. Whoever in the world they got, throw it at her. I think she’s at that point she can take big, big challenges, and she’s at that point she can take anybody, I think. 

Harrison’s PFL contract expires after the upcoming season, and at times it has appeared she’s running laps around the competition. But given recent high-profile signings like former UFC and WEC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis, Brown is confident PFL will find Harrison real challenges this year.

“The big names, she’s ready for,” Brown said. “PFL has been great. PFL is growing, it would be great to see them bring in some big names. They could bring in a (Cris) Cyborg or somebody of this nature to challenge her. I think she’s in a great spot. I think they’re doing good things, and it’s growing. You got guys like Pettis, world champions in other organizations now coming to the organization. I think it’s going to be a different PFL this year.”

Article source: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2021/01/pfl-kayla-harrison-ready-big-challenges-coach-mike-brown-says

Ever since he finished Conor McGregor in brutal fashion this past Saturday at UFC 257, Dustin Poirier has been on Twitter making some bold claims that he’s the new lightweight champion.

Just take a look:

Should @DustinPoirier simply be granted the lightweight title with Khabib out of the picture? 🏆💎#UFC257 | More: https://t.co/YYiSpNfF9K pic.twitter.com/xnKOIHY0A5

— MMA Junkie (@MMAjunkie) January 26, 2021

The problem, of course, is that the title wasn’t on the line, as it still technically belongs to Khabib Nurmagomedov even though he retired last October. There was talk that if UFC president Dana White couldn’t convince Nurmagomedov to come return for a 30th fight before UFC 257, that maybe he would be stripped, but things didn’t pan out that way. Now, with Nurmagomedov seemingly not willing to budge on his retirement, that has Poirier feeling a certain way.

On this week’s episode of “Spinning Back Clique,” we debated bold statements, asking if they were overreactions or on the money. So … Dustin Poirier is the uncrowned champion of the UFC. Overreaction or on the money?

Watch the video above to hear Brian “Goze” Garcia, Danny Segura, and Nolan King weigh in.

Article source: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2021/01/dustin-poirier-uncrowned-ufc-lightweight-champion-reaction-video

It was quite a week for the UFC on “Fight Island.”

Two cards went down with consequential results for the USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings: UFC on ESPN 20 and the big one, UFC 257.

Let’s start with the first show, which was headlined by Michael Chiesa’s one-sided decision victory over Neil Magny. Chiesa improved to 4-0 since he moved up to welterweight, and that bumps him to No. 11 in the divisional rankings.

Then we move on to UFC 257, where, from a rankings perspective, Michael Chandler makes the biggest splash. The three-time Bellator lightweight champion turned heads with his UFC debut, a vicious first-round finish of the respected Dan Hooker in the evening’s co-feature. Chandler was unranked before this, and while one can certainly debate that decision, there’s no denying him now: Chandler enters the new rankings at No. 8.

As for the big one: Dustin Poirier’s victory over Conor McGregor was certainly impressive. But Khabib Nurmagomedov remains recognized as UFC lightweight champion as of this writing, and Poirier was already ranked No. 2, so that’s where he stays. Likewise, McGregor looked sharp in Round 1 and losing to Poirier is nothing to be ashamed of, so we’re keeping him at No. 6.

Those are just a few of the fights of note over the past week. So to see where your favorite — or least favorite — fighter places in the current edition of the USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings, click on the drop-down menu above.

Article source: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2021/01/usa-today-sports-mma-junkie-rankings-jan-26-michael-chandlers-big-move