Your home for local combat sports!

Artem Lobov targets seven-figure paydays in boxing, happy to ‘whoop’ Jake Paul

With Artem Lobov looking to enter the world of boxing in 2021, he wants to secure the bag before calling it quits.

Lobov is set to make his MMA return on Dec. 12 when he faces Ylies Djiroun for the lightweight title in the main event of ARENA FIGHT 2, but is looking to dabble in yet another combat sport next year.

The UFC veteran, who recently made the transition to bare-knuckle boxing, picked up two high-profile wins over Jason Knight and Pauli Malignaggi during his tenure there.

But throughout all his experiences immersing in different combat sports, Lobov sees boxing as the route to the biggest paydays.

“I’m only going to be fighting for two more years and I would like to secure a good future for my family,” Lobov told MMA Junkie Radio. “I’ve been getting six figures for quite some time now, and life is good on six figures. But if you want to secure a good future for the family, you have to be hitting those seven-figure paydays, and I feel the easiest way to do it, if not the only way to do it, is through boxing.

“So I had some interesting proposals at the start of 2020, but corona(virus) (expletive) everything up for me. So I’m hoping to pick up right where I left off. And yes, I will be training MMA because it will make sure that I’m ready for any other combat sport. But yeah, I will definitely be looking toward boxing for sure.”

With YouTube sensation-turned-pro boxer Jake Paul calling out teammates Conor McGregor and Dillon Danis, Lobov is willing to answer the call if offered in what he sees as an easy payday.

“I have absolutely nothing to gain from beating that guy other than financial gains,” Lobov said. “So if they give me the paycheck that I’m happy with, I don’t care. I can whoop Jake Paul or his brother or whoever else in the family wants to get it. They can get it.”

Article source: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2020/12/artem-lobov-seven-figure-paydays-boxing-jake-paul-mma

Manager sure Nick Diaz will return to the UFC in 2021

A few months ago, footage of Nick Diaz training for a UFC comeback surfaced on social media. His manager, Kevin Mubenga, insisted that Diaz was aiming to make a comeback.

Several months into Diaz’s training, in recent comments to Fanatics View, Mubenga once again reiterated that Diaz will be back in the Octagon in 2021.

“The guy has been training. He’s been training for at least four months now,” said Mubenga.

“He took a little break (in November) and now we’re going to pick it back up in December and go into the new year hopefully with a new deal done. Make sure the money is right and the opponent is right and we’ll be able to move forward with all of this.”

The last time Diaz set foot in the Octagon was opposite Anderson Silva in the UFC 183 main event in January of 2015. Silva initially won the bout, but the results was later changed to a no contest after Silva tested positive for steroids and Diaz tested positive for marijuana.

He has since been watching from the outside looking in, while many fans of his and brother Nate have been clamoring for his return.

Nate hasn’t been much more active than his older brother, having fought just four times over the five-year span since Nick faced Silva. Nate did, however, fight two times in the latter half of 2019.

UFC president Dana White has been skeptical of Nick’s return, but considering that he has such a strong fan base, he would surely welcome it.

The UFC and the Diaz brothers coming to terms has always been a struggle, however, and that is certainly something that could hinder a Nick Diaz return in 2021. Mubenga believes there is little chance of that, though, believing there is a 99.99 percent chance that Diaz fights next year.

“We just got to get everything else right with the organization and everything. We’ll be able to move forward.”

Mark Martin expecting one-sided win at LFA 96

Just three days shy of a year since he had last fought, welterweight Mark Martin was finally able to get back into the cage when he took on Tony Grant at LFA 86 this past July.

Though he had an extended layoff, Martin looked as if he didn’t miss a beat, finishing Grant with eight seconds to go in the first round to pick up his third win a row.

“I think I showed a little bit of everything: stand-up, clinch work, wrestling, and a little bit of wrestling,” Martin told MMAWeekly.com. “There was no ring rust for me. I was training pretty much throughout the pandemic, getting rounds in, so it wasn’t too much of a difference.

“I’m very critical of myself. There were a few points in the fight; I think I got hit maybe two or three times when I shouldn’t have; other than that I think it went pretty smooth.”

In the months following his win over Grant, Martin has maintained his training and feels he’ll be even better in his next fight.

“I’m always working on my striking and grappling, and trying to add to my game,” said Martin. “Once I get a call for a fight, I start working on picking up the strength and conditioning, and picking up the harder MMA sparring rounds.”

This Friday in Park City, Kan., Martin (4-1) will look to keep his winning streak going when he takes on Matthew Colquhoun (8-4) in a main card welterweight bout at LFA 96.

“My opponent is a long 170-pounder, kind of wild, unorthodox, but I’m not really too focused on him,” Martin said of Colquhoun. “I think if I come in and perform how I know I’m capable of I don’t think I will have too many problems. I think it will be a one-sided, dominant, affair.”

Having missed an ample amount of time of late for various reasons, Martin isn’t going to bank on anything in 2021 yet, but rather take things as they come.

“I always take it one fight at a time,” said Martin. “Especially in MMA, you’ll have people get injuries, fights drop out, as we’ve got Coronavirus right now people might fail Coronavirus tests, so all I can do is focus on getting better in the gym each and every day.

“Everything else will take care of itself when the time is right.”

Taila Santos impressed by Montana De La Rosa’s heart going into UFC on ESPN 19

By MMA Junkie Staff
December 3, 2020 11:05 pm

Follow @MMAjunkie

Article source: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2020/12/ufc-taila-santos-impressed-montana-de-la-rosa-heart

UFC 256 poster released: Tony Ferguson vs. Charles Oliveira and a historic title-fight turnaround

The UFC puts on its 11th and final pay-per-view of the year on Dec. 12 with UFC 256.

The event is headlined by a flyweight title fight between Deiveson Figueiredo (20-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) and Brandon Moreno (18-5-1 MMA, 6-2-1 UFC). Both men compete just 21 days after their wins at UFC 255, making it the fastest title-fight turnaround in company history.

In the co-headliner, former interim UFC lightweight champion Tony Ferguson (25-4 MMA, 15-2 UFC) returns to action against Charles Oliveira (29-8 MMA, 17-8 UFC), who is on a seven-fight winning streak.

The UFC released the official poster for the event on Thursday, which can be seen below (via Twitter):

Who are you taking next weekend!? Your #UFC256 poster has just released 🏆

[ Decemeber 12th – LIVE on #ESPNPlus PPV ] pic.twitter.com/tnJaifB6eC

— UFC (@ufc) December 3, 2020

The latest UFC 256 lineup includes:

Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Brandon Moreno
Tony Ferguson vs. Charles Oliveira
Dwight Grant vs. Li Jingliang
Kevin Holland vs. Ronaldo Souza
Angela Hill vs. Tecia Torres
Mackenzie Dern vs. Virna Jandiroba
Omari Akhmedov vs. opponent TBA
Serghei Spivac vs. Jared Vanderaa
Dalcha Lungiambula vs. Karl Roberson
Peter Barrett vs. Chase Hooper
Billy Quarantillo vs. Gavin Tucker
Andrea Lee vs. Gillian Robertson
Rafael Fiziev vs. Renato Moicano

UFC 256 will be held at UFC Apex in Las Vegas and airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN2 and ESPN+

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/2020/12/ufc-256-poster-released-tony-ferguson-vs-charles-oliveira-deiveson-figueiredo-brandon-moreno

« Older Entries

Newer Entries »

WELCOME

*** READ ME ***

Welcome to FightFan.net. Your home for local combat sports news and info. Be sure to set up your account for full access. Its EASY. Click the “register” link above. Fill in your name and email. We’ll send a funky password to your email. You log in to your account and set up something not so funky. Oh yeah, and when you’re ready to come back and start checking everything out, just click the “Your home for local combat sports” link at the top of the page. That's it, you’re a member! Tons of stuff to check out, so get after it.