Fabricio Werdum

Even though Werdum’s armbar over Walt Harris is his last pick on the list, it still hold a lot of value.

Werdum was scheduled to fight Derrick Lewis at UFC 216, but things took an unexpected turn the day of the fight. Both Werdum and Lewis had gone through training camp, media day, weigh-ins, and face-offs – the fight was practically set.

However, the day of the fight Lewis had back complications and had to pull out of the bout. The UFC offered Werdum Harris, who was coming off two finishes, as a replacement, and with just hours notice, the Brazilian stepped up to the challenge. It stands as Werdum’s fastest career win.

“Against Walt Harris they changed the opponent last minute,” Werdum said. “I was going to the fight, I was leaving the hotel to the arena, and they called me telling me that I wasn’t going to fight who I was scheduled to fight.

“It was a fight that required me to have a strong head and I had to keep the mind sharp because the opponent changed last minute. And even then, I was able to grab an arm bar from a transition from the back mount.”

Article source: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/lists/with-career-chapter-over-fabricio-werdum-ranks-his-ufc-favorite-submission-wins

By MMA Junkie Staff
January 20, 2021 12:05 am

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Article source: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2021/01/ufc-257-video-dan-hardy-john-gooden-breakdown-analysis-dustin-poirier-conor-mcgregor-rematch

With Chiesa’s grappling intentions being no secret, do not be surprised to see Sikjitsu product get after takedowns early and often.

Although Chiesa traditionally does his best work along the fence, the former high school wrestling standout has shown a diverse takedown ability both in the open and against the cage.

From the clinch, Chiesa demonstrates the competency to hit everything from inside trips to hip tosses. The 33-year-old also keeps solid reactive shots in his back pocket despite having a decent double-leg going forward.

I can see Chiesa getting his counterpart down early in this contest, but keeping Magny down is an entirely different story.

Diligently working his wrestling and jiu-jitsu with Elevation Fight Team, Magny has quietly become a menace to tangle with in close quarters. From his ability to create scrambles from negative positions to the smart decision-making that he displays with his single-leg getups, the former “TUF” contestant has come a long way in when it comes to sharpening his technique and weaponizing his cardio.

Nevertheless, Magny will still need to mind his give-and-take sensibilities considering the specialist at hand.

An inherent hustler for position who seems at home in a dogfight, Chiesa comes alive whenever he can get a glimpse of his opponent’s back. Using his long frame and crafty controls, Chiesa appears to be a nightmare to get off, as Magny will need to be on his best behavior when scrambling.

Magny, who is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu brown belt, appears to have plenty of options from full-guard attacks to half-guard getups. And if he is able to survive the early storms from Chiesa, then none of us should be shocked to see Magny, once again, steadily turn the tides.

Article source: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/lists/ufc-on-espn-20-michael-chiesa-vs-neil-magny-breakdown-prediction

Jake Paul is persistent. You have to give him that at the very least.

The YouTube star is not taking his foot off the gas in his campaign to land a boxing match with former UFC lightweight and featherweight champion Conor McGregor, who currently has much bigger fish to fry in the form of a rematch with Dustin Poirier on Saturday at UFC 257.

Nevertheless, Paul released a video Tuesday on his social media platforms, roasting McGregor from inside a Raising Cane’s restaurant. In it, Paul orders a “Conor McGregor sandwich” (a chicken sandwich) and challenges him once again to a boxing contest. This is Paul’s latest attempt at picking a fight with the McGregor as he’s been heavily pushing for a bout with tweets, photos and videos responses over the past several weeks.

The callouts began after Paul won his second professional boxing bout by knocking out former NBA star Nate Robinson this past November. They haven’t stopped ever since.

Below is the video of Paul’s latest callout of McGregor:

A post shared by Jake Paul (@jakepaul)

The Blue Corner is MMA Junkie’s blog space. We don’t take it overly serious, and neither should you. If you come complaining to us that something you read here is not hard-hitting news, expect to have the previous sentence repeated in ALL CAPS.

Article source: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2021/01/jake-paul-calls-out-conor-mcgregor-raising-canes-chicken-ufc-video

ABU DHABI —Daniel Rubenstein isn’t like some of his peers in the MMA management game.

At times, a few of his contemporaries mistake themselves for being the stars of the show instead of their clients, and you see more of them in the media than you do the fighters themselves.

Rubenstein, however, has built a successful and enduring agency by spotlighting his fighters first and foremost and staying out of the limelight. So when he makes a rare media appearance, his words carry more weight than those you hear from nonstop.

An occasion such as Michael Chiesa’s first UFC main event since moving up to welterweight would be one example. Rubenstein is out on “Fight Island,” for the UFC’s run of three events in eight days to kick off the year, and as Chiesa gets set to take Neil Magny in the main event of Wednesday’s UFC on ESPN 20, it was a chance to explain what he’s been up to since we last saw him in January 2020, when he defeated former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos.

“I think the last year has been good for Mike,” Rubenstein told MMA Junkie. “The pandemic allowed him to take some time off, and not really try to force him into a fight that didn’t really make sense. He had some injuries that he had to recover and he had surgery that he was able to take the appropriate time to heal from. He did a little bit of snowboarding, did a lot of the ESPN desk work, which I think is good for him, it allows him to keep his mind in fighting while not being in fight camp and then obviously when the Magny fight came up, he loved it.

“I think we tried to get him in there in December and Sean (Shelby) kind of said January made more sense. We didn’t know it was going to be ‘Fight Island’ at that point. It worked out well for Mike, he was able to recover and be ready to fight.”

Rubenstein believes that Chiesa has thrived at welterweight in large part because he no longer has to contend with large weight cuts.

“I think him moving up to 170 allows him to spend the eight weeks of fight camp not just getting down to 155,” he said. “He can actually go in there and train for this specific opponent try to learn things throughout the whole camp instead of, you know, I wrestled my whole life, he’s competed his whole life. If you’ve ever been in a sport where you cut weight and you’re not at the right weight class, you’re basically spending your entire career just trying to diet down. I think we’ve seen a lot of fighters not just go up in weight class that make a little more sense, but make it have a little more sense.

“Jorge Masvidal, he had amazing welterweight career since he moved up. I think it helps these guys. … I think Mike being 6-3, cutting to 155 probably wasn’t the smartest idea, he was ranked at 155 it’s hard to step away from that.”

If Chiesa can pass his next test, which is a considerable one in the highly skilled Magny, then Rubenstein believes there are several potential interesting options as Chiesa works toward the top of the welterweight division.

“I think it’s good that division people has a lot of names in it that people do want to fight, there are superstars in that division,” he said. “I think for Mike it’s the next fight for him, he gets past Magny, he’s called out Colby (Covington) before, I could see him calling out Colby again I don’t know if that fight with Masvidal is done, that’s probably what they want, but its a fight that makes sense for us. I think the Wonderboy fight makes sense for us I think Leon Edwards makes sense. Someone who is ranked above us. Someone ranked above us is who we’re going to want.”

Article source: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2021/01/ufc-on-espn-20-michael-chiesa-daniel-rubenstein-explains-170-success