Former UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway is one of the most storied fighters in UFC history.

In his “Year of the Fighter,” Holloway takes us through the most momentous year of his career, winning his first three title fights at just 25 years old and landing a movie role, while keeping grateful and grounded along the way.

(Courtesy of UFC)

TRENDING Georges St-Pierre addresses potential UFC return to fight Kamaru Usman

Flashback UFC 240: Max Holloway vs Frankie Edgar Recap

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Article source: https://www.mmaweekly.com/max-holloway-takes-us-through-his-ufc-year-of-the-fighter

Jake Paul promises he’s not taking Ben Askren lightly.

Paul, a YouTube personality, actor and rapper who has transitioned to the boxing world and instantly become a polarizing figure, is scheduled to clash with former Bellator and ONE Championship titleholder Askren in an eight-round bout under the Triller banner on April 17. A location for the event has not been disclosed.

Due to his previous life before combat sports and the antics he’s displayed since coming over, Paul has gained a reputation for being brash and outright ridiculous. He’s poked his fun at Askren since the fight was announced, and Askren has engaged with him right back.

Paul can honestly admit that’s all just promotional fodder, though. He said he’s training hard behind the scenes and is well aware that no matter what approach he takes, he’s not going to be able to get to Askren mentally off-track before they step in the ring.

“I don’t think Ben Askren is the type of guy to have any mental weakness at all,” Paul told MMA Junkie. “He’s going to go into the fight completely confident. He’s going to be focused in on what he’s going to do. I know he’s the type of guy that likes the sh*t talk, that likes the joking. I think the content that he’s posting is funny, as well. He’s funny. He’s got a good personality. There’s still going to be a lot of sh*t talk back and forth. I don’t hate the guy, but he’s going to get his ass kicked, and he looks like a middle aged Dutch woman. I like to make fun of him.

“His striking ability sucks. He punches like a 4th grader. So there’s going to be the sh*t talk in the build up, but I’m not doing any of it to get into his head. He’s gone up against championship opponents. The Robbie Lawlers, the Demian Maias, the Jorge Masvidals – I don’t think any of those guys got into his head at all. I don’t think Ben is scared. But guess what? You don’t have to be scared of someone to get your ass kicked. He can be as prepared as he wants and as mentally ready as he wants, but the outcome will still remain the same.”

Paul is adamant he’s preparing himself accordingly to step in the ring with Askren, who will be making his professional boxing debut. In additional to standard boxing training, Paul said he relocated his camp to Miami because of the higher density of MMA fighters in South Florida who can help him get ready for the non-traditional look Askren may bring.

One of those fighters is Jorge Masvidal, who unforgettably finished Askren with the quickest knockout in UFC history with a five-second flying knee at UFC 239 in July 2019.

Masvidal may not have got much time in the octagon to feel out all of Askren’s game, but Paul said “Gamebred” offered valuable insight as to what’s coming his way.

“(Masvidal) said, ‘Look, Ben is going to try to hang onto you and wrestle you and clinch you and try to wear you out,’” Paul said. “We were just working on clinch drills and fighting on the inside, and he was trying to show me how to knock out Ben faster than he did. So, we’ll see what happens. I might go running at Ben right in the first two seconds to try to break (Masvidal’s record). But Masvidal is great. He’s very supporting. He’s always been my homie and supported me, and that goes both ways. I’m excited to see if I can knock out Ben faster than Masvidal.”

Although Paul claims he has big respect for Askren, he’s made no secret a fast win is in his mind. Askren, for his part, has predicted a seventh-round TKO in the fight, but Paul doesn’t see it going anywhere near that long.

For Askren, the fight will mark a return to competition after he retired from MMA in early 2020. He underwent a hip replacement surgery in the time since and told MMA Junkie in January that his motivation for fighting Paul was simply to make money and get himself back in top shape.

Askren said he’s getting a lot of support going into the match, as well. He recently revealed he would soon be training with famed boxing coach Freddie Roach and will also have good friend and former UFC champion Tyron Woodley in his corner when he faces Paul.

None of that changes what Paul thinks will happen when they step in the ring together, though.

“I’m expecting a quick knockout,” Paul said. “I don’t see him making it out of the first round. I know he’s tough. I know he’s going to work hard. He can get whoever he wants to train him. People forget that Floyd Mayweather was calling Nate Robinson almost every day to give him tips and advice on boxing, and guess what? Floyd’s not getting in the ring. Freddie Roach is not getting in the ring for Ben. Tyron Woodley isn’t getting in the ring for Ben, and by the way if he did, I would beat the sh*t out of Tyron Woodley. It’s a loser training another loser. He can get whoever he wants. It’s still going to be a quick night. He can train as hard as he wants. It doesn’t matter. My athleticism, my speed, my power, my accuracy is too much for these guys to handle.”

It may sound like a cocky prediction from Paul, but he said it all stems from confidence in his own abilities. Paul only has a mere two boxing bouts on his resume. However, he’s still certain Askren can’t hang with him.

“This guy is 19-2 (in MMA), he has less losses than (Conor) McGregor, he’s a two-time NCAA Division wrestling champion, he’s an Olympic athlete,” Paul said of Askren. “I wanted to challenge myself. I know this is a serious opponent. It’s going to be a movie. Eventually I want to fight Conor McGregor – I want to show the MMA world, ‘Be careful before you come over here and try to box us.’ You saw what Floyd did to McGregor. You’re going to see what I do to Askren.”

Article source: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2021/02/jake-paul-serious-opponent-ben-askren-will-get-knocked-out-quick-in-boxing-match

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