UFC flyweight Maycee Barber is dealing with a losing result yet again.

At UFC 258 this past Saturday, Barber (8-2 MMA, 3-2 UFC) dropped a unanimous decision to Alexa Grasso in the card’s co-main event. The defeat came on the heels of a 13-month layoff due to a knee injury sustained in her first career loss to Roxanne Modafferi in January 2020.

Training camp went great for Barber, and she gives full credit to Grasso (13-3 MMA, 5-3 UFC) for the winning performance. That said, Barber admitted that despite her knee being healed at 100 percent, what happened in her past appearance was still on her mind.

“I felt like my camp went great,” Barber told BJPenn.com in a recent interview. “Training was awesome. (My) weight cut went great, but I didn’t realize how much I would feel my knee in there and think about it. My timing was also off. My range was off. A lot of different things were not what I expected them to be. But props to Alexa because she had a great gameplan, and she did what she needed to do and she got the win.”

In Rounds 1 and 2, Barber struggled to match the offensive success of Grasso. The Mexican fighter seemed a step ahead, though Barber continued to throw at a high volume, as well. In Round 3, Barber turned up her pace and found success of her own. However, she couldn’t get a finish, and the momentum swung a little too late.

“I’m definitely happy with how the third round went, and I learned a lot,” Barber said. “Obviously, as soon as I lost, I wanted to deal with it. There were no injuries. I’m healthy, so it was a bitter pill to swallow like, ‘Dang, I didn’t perform. I didn’t do what I felt was going to happen.’ I was a little more bitter, so I didn’t think back about the lessons. Now, I am going to sit down and go through the whole camp, the training, and what I can learn from it.”

From the time Barber entered the UFC, she had the ambition of becoming the promotion’s youngest champion ever. Her confidence and abilities garnered a lot of attention. With the supporters came doubters, some of whom have celebrated Barber’s recent failures. She insists sh isn’t bothered by them.

“I think there are always going to be people that are, like, when they see someone with a goal or a plan, they either want to see you achieve it, or they want to see you fail miserably,” Barber said. “There are going to be both either way. Like I told you before, at least they’re watching. But yeah, there are always going to be people that want to see you fall on your face and laugh at you while you’re down. That’s fine. At the end of the day, I’m still the one getting in there, and not many people can do that.”

Despite the setbacks, Barber’s goals have remained constant. Barber doesn’t consider herself rushed, just someone experiencing bumps in the road. She said she hopes to get back in the cage as soon as May to continue her journey toward gold.

“The destination is still the same, but we just have another detour we need to go around,” Barber said. “The path might change a little bit, but the title is still the goal in the long run. How we get there, whether it is beat a bunch more people and make some money, we will find out. … There should be a lot of growth, and you will see a lot more grittiness and a lot more going after it and finishing the girls – a meaner version (of me).”

Article source: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2021/02/ufc-258-maycee-barber-opens-up-about-loss-detour-alexa-grasso

Santiago Ponzinibbio’s UFC return did not go as planned, but that hasn’t changed his big-picture plans.

The UFC welterweight suffered a first-round knockout to Li Jingliang at UFC on ABC 1 last month, spoiling his highly anticipated comeback.

Ponzinibbio (27-3 MMA, 9-2 UFC) had been out since November of 2018. Despite being highly ranked and on a seven-fight winning streak, the Argentine was forced out to the sidelines by a series of unfortunate events.

Ponzinibbio had to battle a life-threatening infection that kept him out of commission for many months. Then the global pandemic hit and that put a halt to UFC operations for some time, delaying his return.

And his run of bad luck didn’t end there, as he suffered a broken toe and then a month-long COVID-19 infection.

Ponzinibbio had a long road full of adversity to get to UFC on ABC 1 to say the least, which makes the result of the fight even harder to process.

“Without a doubt it was the toughest defeat of my career because of the winning streak that I was on, I had a lot on the line, and I had been out for a while,” Ponzinibbio told MMA Junkie in Spanish. “I would’ve been on an eight-fight wining streak and the layoff wouldn’t have mattered as much and I would’ve been back at the top.

“And with this result, things do come to a halt a bit. I’m still not in the rankings, so I do feel like there was a lot on the line. And look, if I was going to lose, at least I would’ve liked to lose after three rounds, giving it my all in the cage because I do feel I’m in the best moment of my career. I was super prepared.

“I had so much to show in that fight and I was just getting started. I was warming up, I was doing everything well, measuring the distance and timing, but taking my time to not rush in there. Maybe it was the inactivity and wanted to ease into the rhythm. But yeah, without a doubt I had a lot on the line and I suffered a tough loss. But that’s how it is. You have to take the positives, which is that I’m healthy and ready to return. Hopefully one day we cross paths and fight again. But I’m just focused on what’s next.”

In addition to result in and of itself, the 34-year-old feels frustrated he wasn’t able to show his full self in his return and prove why in 2018 he was considered a threat to the UFC welterweight title and one of the biggest names at 170 pounds.

“That’s why it hurts so much, I couldn’t demonstrate how good I am,” Ponzinibbio explained. “I was just getting started, just warming up, and it was over. I kept it all in me. If I would fought three rounds and had recovered from that maybe the taste wouldn’t have been so bitter.

“But with the way it went, knowing I had so much to give and wasn’t able to show it, you’re left with frustration. But the truth is that the weight cut was perfect, the training camp went well, I was extremely prepared everywhere. There’s no excuse, I was well prepared.”

It took a little time, but Ponzinibbio has come to terms with the result. It wasn’t what he had pictured, but his desire to be champion and the confidence to get to the top remain the same.

“To be honest with you, I think I can beat anyone in the division,” Ponzinibbio said. “What happened in the fight was a fatality. A hand went through and that’s how this sport is. It’s not like I was dominated and ran over  throughout the course of three rounds and there was a glaring weakness in my game that shows I’m not up to par. No, the truth is that a hand went through, it was bad luc.

“I think my level is among the best of the division and I have everything to become champion. I think if tomorrow I fight (Kamaru) Usman, I have a chance to knock him out, I have a chance to beat him. I know he’s great and everyone in the top 10 is good. I don’t want to disrespect anyone, but I think I can beat them all. I’m very confident in my work. This fight doesn’t change anything for me.”

Article source: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2021/02/ufc-santiago-ponzinibbio-disappointed-unsuccessful-return

Fresh off one of the biggest events in company history, Bare Knuckle FC returns to action on March 19 for a fight card headlined with a competitor well-remembered for all-action brawls during his MMA career.

Leonard Garcia will meet Joe Elmore in the lightweight main event of the evening’s card, which will take place at the Biloxi Civic Center in Mississippi.

During a six-year run in the WEC and UFC, the former WEC featherweight title challenger won six “Fight of the Night” bonuses and one “Knockout of the Night,” including a split-decision victory over Chan Sung Jung at WEC 48 which is regularly name-checked among the greatest fights in MMA history.

Garcia made his BKFC debut in February 2019 and earned a second-round finish of Julian Lane, then lost to Jim Alers in a bout six months later. His opponent, Elmore, is a regional MMA vet with a knockout win over Jerrid Burke at Bellator 88 in his sole major-league appearance. He’s 2-0 in BKFC.

The co-feature bout for the pay-per-view event is a bantamweight matchup between 46-year-old former WBO junior welterweight champion DeMarcus Corley and BKFC mainstay Reggie Barnett Jr.

“Leonard Garcia against Joe Elmore is a true bad-blood match and perfect for our main event,” BKFC president David Feldman said. “Both guys have wanted to fight each other for a long time and both have promised to finish the other in striking fashion. DeMarcus Corley is a former world champion boxer who has fought numerous big names over the last twenty years and surely will be tested by Reggie Barnett Jr. who is excited to welcome him to BKFC.”

Article source: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2021/02/bare-knuckle-fc-announces-next-event-on-march-19

We know what we were getting into when we became fight fans: There’s the thrill and the rush and the exhilaration of following an exciting fight.

And then there are the bumps and bruises that are the results of a solid scrap: The bone breaks and the bloodshed and the hematomas. They happen to real people who have to live with them, not video game characters.

Even though we know all this, since the fighters fight their fights and then tend to vanish from our television sets until we see them compete again, we sometimes forget what the aftermath looks like.

And that’s why, even though we know the damage that gets done, sometimes we’re still shocked when we see behind-the-scenes footage following MMA fights.

Which brings us to Brian Kelleher. An undeniably tough competitor, the Long Islander didn’t see things go his way Saturday night at UFC 258. He hung in there and went the distance during a unanimous decision loss, but found himself with wounds that needed tending afterwards.

Tuesday, Kelleher gave us a graphic look at the damage — and straight into his skull — over Twitter:

Scar too deep for a bandaid solution pic.twitter.com/IFsCqav2L3

— Brian BOOM Kelleher (@brianboom135) February 16, 2021

At least Kelleher has a sense of humor about the situation. We’ll no doubt see Kelleher back looking good as new soon enough, but in the meantime, this is a good reminder what fighters endure for our entertainment.

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/2021/02/ouch-brian-kelleher-shares-gruesome-pic-of-ufc-258-cut

The rankings take into account a fighter’s wins/losses, quality of competition, finishing rate/dominance and frequency of fights.

Fighters are no longer eligible to be ranked after they’ve been inactive for 24 months, either due to injuries, drug/conduct suspensions, contract disputes or self-imposed hiatuses.

Fighters serving drug/conduct suspensions are eligible to be ranked, so long as they’re not inactive for more than 24 months.

To the best of our ability, fighters will be ranked in their primary weight class. Catchweight fights and bouts outside the fighter’s primary weight class can have a positive or negative impact on the ranking. However, non-titleholders can be ranked in only one weight class at a given time, and in most cases, they won’t be ranked in a new weight class until they’ve had their first fight at that weight.

Article source: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2021/02/usa-today-sports-mma-junkie-rankings-feb-16-kamaru-usman-keeps-climbing