LAS VEGAS, Nevada — LFA CEO Ed Soares recently announced that the promotion will host its historic LFA 100 event in the state of Kansas. The main event of LFA 100 will feature a flyweight world title fight between the winningest fighter in LFA history and a top undefeated prospect. The winner will become the seventh 125-pound champion in LFA history. The four most recent champions are currently fighting in the UFC.

LFA 100: Altamirano vs. Mota takes place Friday, Feb. 19 at the Hartman Arena in Park City, Kansas, which is a suburb of Wichita. The main event will feature a flyweight title fight between LFA’s all-time wins leader Victor “El Magnifico” Altamirano and top undefeated Brazilian prospect Carlos “Tizil” Mota. The co-main event will showcase the second middleweight tournament semi-final between LFA standouts Anthony “SugaFoot” Adams and Gregory “RoboCop” Rodrigues. The winner will face the winner of the LFA 98 headliner for the LFA middleweight title. The entire main card will be available worldwide on UFC FIGHT PASS® at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT.

“We are excited to celebrate LFA 100 by bringing the flyweight championship and second LFA middleweight tournament semi-final to Kansas,” stated LFA CEO Ed Soares. “Victor Altamirano just broke the LFA’s all-time wins record in November. He will now fight top undefeated Brazilian prospect Carlos Mota for the LFA flyweight title. Anthony Adams and Gregory Rodrigues will also meet with a shot at the LFA middleweight title on the line.”

There are a limited number of tickets available for LFA 100: Altamirano vs. Mota. These tickets are available for purchase through Ticketmaster.com.

Altamirano (8-1) became the LFA’s all-time wins leader in November with a spectacular second round Triangle Choke submission against fellow LFA standout Lloyd McKinney at LFA 95. The win snapped a tie with current UFC fighter and former LFA featherweight champion Damon Jackson for the most wins in LFA history. The proud Texan has won all eight of his professional bouts for LFA and was hoping to build on that record-setting tally with LFA gold on the line. The charismatic 30-year-old, who moonlights as a cellist, will get that title shot at LFA 100.

Mota (5-0) is one of the most popular and promising flyweight prospects to emerge from the MMA hotbed of Brazil in recent years. The Brazilian dynamo burst onto the global MMA scene with a thrilling performance in his LFA and North American debut at LFA 79. The jiu-jitsu black belt faced another top undefeated prospect George Martinez that night, but he surprised his American opponent with a body kick KO just 36-seconds into their highly-anticipated encounter. The 25-year-old is now looking to become the fourth Brazilian to capture LFA gold.

The co-main event of LFA 100, will feature the long-awaited showdown between Anthony “SugaFoot” Adams and Gregory “RoboCop” Rodrigues. They were originally set to fight each other in April of 2020, but that event was postponed due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. As fate would have it, their paths are set to meet again. However, this time around the stakes are even higher. It will take place in the LFA middleweight four-man tournament. The first semi-final bout of the tournament features Josh Fremd and Bruno Oliveira. That fight takes place this Friday in the main event of LFA 98. The winner of that bout will face the winner of Adams vs. Rodrigues for the LFA middleweight title later this spring.

TRENDING Dustin Poirier’s KO of Conor McGregor one of top selling UFC PPVs of all time

Currently Announced LFA 100 Main Card

• Main Event | Flyweight Title Bout (125 lb)- Victor Altamirano (8-1) vs. Carlos Mota (5-0)
• Co-Main Event | Middleweight Tournament Semi-Final Bout (185 lb)- Anthony Adams (8-2) vs. Gregory Rodrigues (7-3)
• Featherweight Bout (145 lb)- Steven Nguyen (6-1) vs. Raihere Dudes (8-1)
• Flyweight Bout (125 lb)- Charles Johnson (7-2) vs. Karlee Pangilian (6-0)
• Bantamweight Bout (135 lb)- Christian Natividad (2-0) vs. Evan Woolsey (1-1)

Article source: https://www.mmaweekly.com/lfa-100-fight-card-announced-for-landmark-event

After seeing Conor McGregor’s performance against Dustin Poirier, American Kickboxing Academy coach Javier Mendez has no doubt that Khabib Nurmagomedov would have dominated him again.

McGregor (22-5 MMA, 10-3 UFC), who suffered a second-round TKO to Poirier in the UFC 257 main event this past Saturday, was angling for a Nurmagomedov rematch had he beaten Poirier.

Prior to that fight, Mendez had no hesitation dubbing McGregor as Nurmagomedov’s toughest matchup. But after McGregor fell short against “The Diamond,” Mendez no longer thinks that’s the case.

“(McGregor) would’ve got smashed,” Mendez told Submission Radio. “Khabib’s gotten better. He would’ve gotten smashed. He would have gotten smashed, straight up. Khabib’s better. He’s better than he was when they fought two years ago. Conor didn’t appear to be better. He’s regressed a little bit. Khabib’s gotten way better. He would have gotten smashed.”

Mendez, who had picked McGregor to win, was critical of “The Notorious’” performance against Poirier. He was surprised at McGregor’s inability to adjust or prepare for Poirier’s calf kicks, which proved to be a game changer.

“When I saw Dustin start going for the leg kicks, I go, ‘Oh my god, Conor’s stance is not made for checking properly leg kicks like that,” Mendez said. “Especially calf kicks. So, I thought that was going to be a major problem. And then when he hit Dustin with the good shot and Dustin took it, that’s when I kind of knew, ‘Oh boy, things are gonna change.’ And sure enough, they did. And it was a great game plan from Dustin to work the leg kicks, calf kicks. And it was a bad judgment on Conor’s part to not be prepared for that.

“I don’t understand how you cannot be prepared for something like that, when that’s what everyone’s going to. Khabib, I told him, I reminded him every day that Justin’s coming after your legs, Justin’s coming after your legs. Every day I was telling him that. And you would think that you would be reminded also because that’s a big weapon. Until fighters learn how to deal with it, it’s gonna be a big weapon, guys.”

A potential rematch between Nurmagomedov (29-0 MMA, 13-0 UFC) and McGregor was being lauded as the biggest fight in UFC history, but after the UFC 257 main event outcome, Mendez doubts Nurmagomedov comes out of retirement.

“You’re never gonna get that rematch,” Mendez said. “Just like you’re never gonna get the Tony and Khabib fight. That’s never gonna happen either. It’s not gonna happen. I mean, Khabib doesn’t need it. He seems fulfilled. And like I said, I think the only juicy part for him is what his father wanted, GSP. I’ve said it many times. And who knows, maybe that’s out of the question now. Maybe GSP doesn’t want it, maybe Khabib don’t want it now. I don’t know, because I never talked to Khabib about what he wants, I’ve always listened to him.”

Article source: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2021/01/javier-mendez-khabib-wouldve-smashed-regressed-conor-mcgregor-in-rematch

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