Check out these photos from the fights at RIZIN 49, their big New Year’s Eve show featuring three title fights at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. (Photos courtesy of RIZIN FF) Hiroto Gomyo def. Koki Akada – RIZIN 49 Hiroto Gomyo def. Koki Akada – RIZIN 49 Hiroto Gomyo def. Koki Akada – RIZIN
Day: December 31, 2024
Mike Valle’s work has been seen in premiere MMA for a long time. However, 2024 was the year when his coaching really stood out. The veteran trainer, who operates out of Chicago with VFS Academy, helped create two UFC champions this year and helped further the trajectories of other UFC and regional fighters. Valle’s most
Kevin Holland sees Belal Muhammad as an easier fight than Dricus Du Plessis. Holland, who has extensive experience under the UFC banner across multiple weight classes, was asked how he would stack up against both welterweight champion Muhammad (24-3 MMA, 15-3 UFC) and middleweight champion Du Plessis (22-2 MMA, 8-0 UFC). Having competed at both
Aaron Pico, once regarded as perhaps the biggest prospect in MMA history, could soon be on the move. At 20, Pico made his MMA debut in 2017 under the Bellator banner. There was some turbulence in the early portion of his career, but he has currently won nine of his past 10 fights, with the
Kyoji Horiguchi experienced multiple scares from Nkazimulo Zulu at RIZIN 49: Decade, but he ultimately found his path to victory and defended the flyweight title. After largely dominating in the opening round of the matchup on Tuesday in Saitama, Japan, Zulu (16-7-1) achieved his biggest moment when he rocked the former UFC title challenger with
Hall of Famer Michael Bisping foresees a changing of the guard in four UFC divisions by the end of 2025. Every year, the UFC crowns new champions in multiple divisions, guaranteeing a new landscape every 12 months. In 2024, titles changed hands seven times, and in 2023, a record-tying 11 times, so Bisping sees a
With the top of the UFC’s featherweight division featuring a slew of names that range from the reigning champ Ilia Topuria to the streaking Diego Lopes, it’s not hard to make a case for multiple 145ers on the come-up when it comes to awarding 2024’s Under-the-Radar Fighter of the Year. Although fighters like Lerone Murphy
The voting for the UFC’s 2024 awards continues this week with some of the best “Say Uncle” moments of the year. Few people hate on a good old-fashioned submission in MMA, and the UFC had plenty to pick from the past dozen months. But they’ve been boiled down to the best four. What would your
If UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja is running out of options, Khabib Nurmagomedov has a suggestion. Pantoja (29-5 MMA, 13-3 UFC) has already notched three title defenses over Brandon Royval, Steve Erceg, and most recently Kai Asakura at UFC 310. He holds wins over the majority of the UFC’s top 15 flyweights. Nurmagomedov thinks former
Thirteen years ago, a former UFC champion made his final walk to the octagon. At UFC 141 in 2011, Alistair Overeem stopped former heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar in a main event at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The event’s poster touted the size of both men: Lesnar standing at 6-foot-3, 265 pounds, and
There were fight cards in 2024 that were put together to be too big to fail. And in the business of selling pay-per-views, that’s obviously a very smart thing. But how often do those shows turn into ones that were merely good for “on-paper” views, and when it came time to deliver the goods, they left