UFC

Kamaru Usman wants to reclaim the UFC welterweight championship.

Speaking to Mike Babcock of TMZ Sports (starts at 1:07 mark), the Nigerian Nightmare said he wants to fight Leon Edwards in early 2023 when UFC goes to London, England.

UFC President Dana White said earlier this month in an interview with Adam Catterall of BT Sport (h/t Donagh Corby of the UK Mirror) the promotion is planning a major card in London next year.

It's expected that Edwards, who lives in Birmingham, England, will headline the show. White hasn't said who his opponent will be, but a rematch with Usman would make sense based on how the previous fight ended.

Edwards stunned Usman with a head kick in the final minute of the fifth round that knocked him out at UFC 278. The loss snapped Usman's 19-fight winning streak and ended his streak of five consecutive successful title defenses.

Prior to the knockout, Usman was controlling the fight. He looked well on his way to earning a victory from the judges are dominating Rounds 2, 3 and 4.

This was the second fight between Edwards and Usman. Their first bout happened in December 2015, with Usman winning by unanimous decision on the preliminary card that aired on UFC Fight Pass.

Both fighters have come far in the subsequent seven years. Usman was arguably the most dominant mixed martial artist in the world before being knocked out at UFC 278. Edwards is unbeaten in 11 fights since that first meeting with Usman.

After being severely limited by a shoulder injury during his bantamweight title fight against Aljamain Sterling at UFC 280, TJ Dillashaw will have surgery to correct the issue.

Speaking to ESPN's Brett Okamoto, Dillashaw said he is going to undergo a procedure on his ailing left shoulder that will likely keep him out of action for one year, but he intends to fight in UFC again.

"Nine months until I can start training rough and tough, and then making sure everything is healed up," Dillashaw explained about his recovery and training timeline. "I've had shoulder surgery before and I'd say another year, maybe, to compete. Either a year to compete, or a year to get back to a training camp."

Shoulder issues have plagued Dillashaw for a number of years. He had surgeries to repair a torn labrum, biceps and additional work on his biceps tendon in April 2019.

The timing of those surgeries came when Dillashaw was serving a two-year suspension handed down from the United States Anti-Doping Agency after testing positive for recombinant human erythropoietin.

Dillashaw relinquished the UFC bantamweight championship in March 2019 after being informed of an "adverse finding" from USADA in a drug test. He returned to the octagon in July 2021 when he defeated Cory Sandhagen by split decision in the main event of a UFC on ESPN show.

Soon after the fight, Dillashaw revealed he tore three ligaments in his knee and had surgery to repair the damage. The 36-year-old was out of action for 15 months before getting his title shot against Sterling.

Current UFC fighter Cub Swanson tweeted after UFC 280 that Dillashaw couldn't lift his arm during training for the bout because his shoulder was so badly injured. There was footage during the main event that showed Dillashaw's corner appearing to pop his shoulder back into place between the first and second rounds.

UFC president Dana White told reporters during the post-show press conference he "had no idea" Dillashaw's shoulder was messed up. White went on to criticize Dillashaw for not telling the promotion about his injury.

"You gotta tell us," White said. "I mean, he looked good, he was in great shape. It’s not like he came in out of shape, he looked like he was injured, or whatever. But yeah, that’s something that he should have told us."

Dillashaw will turn 37 in February. He has only fought three times since 2019 due to injuries and his suspension. The California native has a 17-5 career record in mixed martial arts and is a two-time UFC bantamweight champion.

Jon Jones is once again teasing to his UFC return.

The former light heavyweight champion tweeted Tuesday that he's preparing to fight Stipe Miocic at December's UFC 282 pay-per-view.

Just moments after Jones made his intentions known on social media, the UFC announced Jiří Procházka vs. Glover Teixeira would headline December's event, which takes Jones vs. Miocic off the table for now.

Jones has not fought since defeating Dominick Reyes by unanimous decision at UFC 247 in February 2020. He vacated the light heavyweight championship that August amid a contractual dispute with the UFC and a desire to transition into the heavyweight division.

There have been several starts and stops to Jones' inevitable UFC comeback, ones largely involving money and his own legal issues. In September 2021, Jones was arrested on domestic violence charges in Las Vegas after allegedly assaulting his fianceè. Those charges were later dropped as part of a plea agreement, but Jones vowed to stop drinking alcohol in the aftermath of the incident.

UFC President Dana White has been teasing a return since the summer, saying Miocic or Francis Ngannou would be Jones' next opponent.

“Jon Jones is ready to go,” White said on The Jim Rome Show. “We’re just waiting for an opponent. It’s either going to be Francis Ngannou, depending on how long his knee is going to take to recover or Stipe Miocic.”

Ngannou has been out of commission since suffering a knee injury in January's win over Ciryl Gane. He is also in the midst of a contract dispute with the UFC, so Miocic may be a more realistic opponent for Jones' return.

Miocic has not been in the Octagon since losing the UFC heavyweight championship to Ngannou in March 2021.

Islam Makhachev is the new UFC lightweight champion after defeating Charles Oliveira by second-round submission at UFC 280 on Saturday.

Former UFC featherweight and lightweight double champion Conor McGregor isn't impressed, however. In since-deleted tweets, the 34-year-old said he's capable of beating Makhachev, citing his experience versus "s--t."

MMA Fighting Newswire provided the quotes.

"Nice fight. nice performance. I have built all the tools to beat this style now versus before. Experience vs. s***. Face breaking shots from clinch and baby brain batter shots from bottom. And the rest of my repertoire yous know. Steel left leg. Cannon back hand. Wrist control.

"The thought of shutting down this system of fighting with my own developed system is quite intriguing to me. Whoever of them against. It’s not personal. It’s a skill evaluation and a fight. Even through generations. The [IMMAF’s], amateurs. A war of attrition. To the box."

McGregor is working his way back to the Octagon with an eye toward a comeback in 2023 after suffering a broken leg during a match with Dustin Poirier in July 2021. He is 22-6 for his professional MMA career with 19 knockouts, including a 15-match win streak.

The 31-year-old Makhachev is 23-1 lifetime with 11 submission wins and four knockouts. He's currently on an 11-match win streak.

What happens when you finish the greatest finisher in the history of MMA?

Lots of things. For starters, you win a UFC title. Secondly, you create your own legacy, one that defines itself in years instead of months. And finally, if you’re Islam Makhachev, you step out of the shadow of your legendary mentor and cement yourself as your own legend, an athlete and fighter in full.

Saturday at UFC 280, Makhachev captured the vacant UFC lightweight championship by submitting the great Charles Oliveira at 3:16 of the second round. Despite his status as only a slight betting favorite, Makhachev dominated the contest from pillar to post. Oliveira, who holds the UFC records for most finishes (19) and submissions (16), was never really in the fight.

With coach, friend and retired lightweight GOAT Khabib Nurmagomedov in his corner, Makhachev wrote another chapter in the ongoing saga of MMA greats from Russia’s Dagestan region.

“I always figured this was not going to be an easy fight,” Makhachev told broadcaster Daniel Cormier in the cage after the fight. “Because [Oliveira] always pushes his opponent. But I knew he was gonna be wary of my wrestling skills. That’s why I cannot be pushed too much.”

Indeed. One of the things fans love most about Oliveira (33-9 [1]) is his instinctive willingness to dive directly into the belly of the beast—and then find a way to pull victory out of the fire. For example, he did it fairly recently when he chose to bang with knockout artists like Justin Gaethje and Michael Chandler, and managed to get stoppages both times. That seemed to be his strategy in the first round against Makhachev, when during an early clinch he appeared to drag the Dagestani down to the canvas and into his guard.

It didn’t work out for him. Oliveira hunted for a choke and then a leg lock, but Makhachev was implacable from the top. The action eventually returned to the feet, but Makhachev used a nifty toss to get the fight back to the mat, which is where the round ended. According to UFC stats, Makhachev controlled 3:48 of the five-minute round, landing 12 significant strikes to Oliveira’s six. That’s what they call a dominant 10-9 round.

In its opening moments, the second round felt like it might favor Oliveira. As the action played out on the feet, Oliveira marched forward, firing punches and kicks but not landing anything of consequence.

Clearly preoccupied with Makhachev’s takedown threat, Oliveira was taking a visibly more conservative approach to the standup game than fans are used to seeing from Do Bronx.

Makhachev took advantage. Instead, it was he who was landing the bigger shots, including a sharp one-two combination that appeared to stun Oliveira.

With roughly two minutes remaining in the second stanza, Makhachev dropped Oliveira with a right hook, and the ex-champ appeared stunned. Makhachev fought through up kicks and jumped into Oliveira’s half guard. From there he immediately locked on an arm-triangle choke. Once he passed half guard and reached full side control, the torque was on in earnest, and the squeeze of Makhachev was simply too much. Oliveira quickly tapped, and a new champion was minted.

What was it like to submit the UFC’s submission king?

“I always said this was my goal,” Makhachev told Cormier matter-of-factly.

Makhachev then dedicated his win to Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, his former coach and Khabib’s father, who died in 2020 from complications related to COVID-19, as Khabib stood downcast in the background.

But it went beyond just that bit of symmetry. Statistics are not the be-all and end-all in MMA, but they sure can tell a story sometimes, and they certainly told one here. The new champion outstruck the former champion 30-19, with a sky-high accuracy rate of 73 percent compared with 48 percent for Oliveira. He landed 2-of-3 takedowns—right in line with his career 65 percent success rate, also extremely high. Makhachev managed more than a full round’s worth of control time with 5:05 total; Oliveira checked in with 0:42.

Make no mistake: This was pure dominance, the kind fans expected from Nurmagomedov but not for Makhachev, protégé or no. Makhachev appeared to lack the dynamism, aggression, offensive tool kit and pure meanness that made his mentor the greatest at what he did at 155 pounds. Plenty of people, myself included, pointed to his weak strength of schedule, punctuated by good-not-great names like Bobby Green and Dan Hooker. While Makhachev dominated lesser competition, Oliveira was gun-slinging with the likes of Dustin Poirier and Tony Ferguson.

But here, at age 31 and now with a record of 23-1 and an 11-fight UFC win streak, Makhachev has established himself as an active great in the UFC.

So what does the future hold for the new champ? Let’s let Nurmagomedov tell the story, as he jumped on the mic post-fight to offer some ideas.

“Now it’s our plan to fly all the way to Australia and fight the pound-for-pound king Alex Volkanovski,” Nurmagomedov said. “You know we’re going to finish this guy.”

Volkanovski is, of course, the reigning featherweight champ, but has designs on the lightweight belt as well. UFC president Dana White has indicated a willingness to pit Volkanovski against Saturday’s winner.

So, we shall see. But for now, Makhachev can be secure with his place in the MMA hierarchy—independent of his friend and mentor Nurmagomedov—after finishing maybe the best finisher in the history of the entire sport. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday.