MMA

Gilbert Burns had a message for Jorge Masvidal as he looks to set up a new welterweight bout.

"I respect you so much. I think you're one of the BMFs," Burns said, per TMZ Sports. "You're a legend, over 50 fights, but brother, I have a lot of bad intentions. I respect you, but I still want to beat the s--t out of you."

Masvidal notably won the "BMF Belt" in a 2019 fight against Nate Diaz, honoring him as the "baddest motherf--ker." He has lost three straight bouts since then, however, including two title fights against Kamaru Usman.

Burns also fell to Usman in 2021 and is coming off a loss against Khamzat Chimaev.

They are both still ranked in the top 10 of the welterweight division, but they could both use a high-profile fight to get back on track. The two competitors each showed interest in a matchup last month:

"I think Jorge Masvidal, he's a big name, he's the name that I'm looking forward to, and I think we'll put on a show," Burns told TMZ. "UFC is interested, he's interested, I am. I think he got a little injury, so we wait for him to get a little bit more recovery, and then we go forward."

Glover Teixeira may have lost his UFC light heavyweight title, but he's not going anywhere.

The 20-year MMA veteran confirmed he has no plans on retiring during his post-match interview following his loss to Jiri Prochazka at UFC 275.

"Did I look 42 out there? No? Then I'm going to keep going," Teixeira told Daniel Cormier in the Octagon after being submitted late in Round 5.

Teixeira was ahead on two of the three judges' scorecards heading into the final round and likely would have earned, at worst, a draw if he saw out the final 28 seconds of the fight. Instead, Prochazka locked Teixeira in for a rear-naked choke and finished him for just the third submission victory of his career.

"I'm ready to end it first or fifth round, doesn't matter," Prochazka said after the fight. "Doesn't matter which technique. ... That came naturally. I just watched the moment, what opportunity is before me."

Ironically, Teixeira won the title from Jan Blachowicz in October using the same move that felled him in this fight. That victory allowed him to become the oldest first-time champion in UFC history at age 42, reaching the apex of the division nine years after his debut and seven years after his first title shot.

It feels almost certain that Teixeira will be in line for a quick rematch, but Prochazka's victory confirmed his status atop the light heavyweight division. The 29-year-old has now won 13 straight bouts overall and all three of his matches since debuting in the UFC.

Jiri Prochazka capped off his rapid ascent in the UFC with a fifth-round submission win over Glover Teixeira to capture the light heavyweight crown in the main event at UFC 275 from Kallang, Singapore.

It didn't take long for Prochazka to see more adversity than he saw in his first two UFC fights. Teixeira scored a single-leg takedown early in the first round, and the challenger spent much of the first round trying to get back to his feet.

The second round featured some of the highl-level striking that got Prochazka his quick shot to the title. He tattooed Teixeira with a few uppercuts and controlled most of the round. Then the champion came roaring back to complicate the scorecards.

A flying knee and two clean jabs to the nose created a turning point in the third round. Teixeira absorbed the punishment but had to survive the moments after the two jabs landed flush.

The wild swings in momentum continued in the fourth round. Teixeira nearly locked in an arm-triangle choke before Prochazka slid out and did some damage of his own.

The back-and-forth came to a shocking conclusion when an exhausted Prochaazka grabbed on to a Hail Mary rear-naked choke and drew the tap from Teixeira.

Prochazka's rise to the top has not taken long in the UFC. He brought a 10-fight win streak with him into his organizational debut. Of those 10 wins, only one was by decision.

In short, Prochazka has been knocking people out since his career started in 2012. We are just now seeing it happen in the UFC.

It only took two fights for Prochazka to earn his crack at the title. Now, he's the Czech Republic's first UFC champion.

“I’m so glad to fight for the Czech Republic—to represent such a small country,” he said, per E. Spencer Kyte of UFC.com. “We’re a small country with such big potential, but not everybody is living up to that potential, so I’m just trying to live my best.”

Prochazka not only expands the global reach of the UFC champion club, but he breathes new life into the light heavyweight title picture.

Since Jon Jones left to chase the heavyweight crown, the division has seen 39-year-old Jan Blachowicz and 42-year-old Teixeira win the belt. The two combined for just one successful title defense.

Prochazka has the confidence, unique style and skills to become a mainstay in the division for a while. He'll be looking to take on all comers and establish a new era in the division.

Valentina Shevchenko successfully showed her dominance once again with a split-decision win over Taila Santos in the co-main event of UFC 275 from Kallang, Singapore.

The first round featured a rare moment of vulnerability for the champion. Santos took advantage of a miscalculation from the champion and took her back in transition from the clinch.

Santos had a body triangle and fished for a rear-naked choke after a neck crank but couldn't get anything locked in.

The 28-year-old's title bid became even more real in the second round. She was once again able to get the fight to the ground and held top position. Despite a gogoplata attempt from the champ, she held control over much of the round.

Santos met some unfortunate adversity in the fourth round. As Shevchenko started a combination, the two combatants butted heads and Santos' eye swelled shut as a result.

The fifth round saw both fighters have their moments. The competitive round put an inconclusive end to a fight that wasn't an easy one to score.

It's been established throughout Bullet's reign as the flyweight champion that she is the best fighter in the weight class.

Her win over Santos gives her seven consecutive title defenses. That run has included wins over Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Katlyn Chookagian and Jessica Andrade.

Of course, when someone has dominated a division for as long as she has, the next question inevitably becomes centered on a superfight. Shevchenko has already fought former bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes twice.

Her two losses to the Lioness are the only ones under the UFC banner. This win may have set up a trilogy if Nunes hadn't fought for the title, but Shevchenko has already spoken on the possibility of fighting current champion Julianna Pena.

“Definitely Julianna has all the chances to win, but if Amanda is gonna be in the same fight shape as when she fought me, I think she will get back her belt, and we are gonna still come back for this third fight,” Shevchenko said, per Nicolas Atkin of the South China Morning Post. “Either way I don’t care really. I can fight both of them at the same time, like whatever."

At this point, a fight with whoever is holding the bantamweight belt after Pena and Nunes' rematch is the only obvious answer for who Shevchenko should see next. She's proved time and time again to be too much for the contenders at 125 pounds.

Former UFC women's strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk announced her retirement from mixed martial arts competition Saturday night.

After her second-round knockout loss to Zhang Weili at UFC 275, Jedrzejczyk said she was walking away from the sport in her post-fight interview inside the Octagon.

UFC President Dana White praised Jedrzejczyk for having a stellar career and helping shape the course of women's mixed martial arts.

"She was such a huge part of the growth of women’s MMA, and it was incredible to have her be a part of this company," White told Yahoo Sports' Kevin Iole. "We will ALL miss her!

When Jedrzejczyk signed a new UFC deal in April and agreed to her bout with Weili, she told MMA Fighting's Damon Martin it was a multi-fight contract with the promotion.

"It’s a multiple-fight deal," Jedrzejczyk told MMA Fighting. "I always said that I want to retire in the UFC, and of course people would love to see me doing this or that after, but I feel like if I retired from MMA, I would retire from the UFC, the best MMA league in the world."

Saturday marked Jedrzejczyk's first fight in 27 months. The Polish superstar lost to Weili at UFC 248 in March 2020 in a match for the women's strawweight title.

Jedrzejczyk has lost five of her last seven fights, with four of those bouts for either the women's strawweight or flyweight championship.

For most of her career, Jedrzejczyk was the best fighter in the women's 115-pound division. She become the second strawweight champion in UFC history when she beat Carla Esparza by TKO at UFC 185.

Jedrzejczyk began her career with 14 consecutive wins, including five successful title defenses. No other woman in the strawweight division has ever successfully defended the championship more than once.

Only counting her UFC tenure, Jedrzejczyk's 10 wins are tied with Esparza for most in the women's 115-pound weight class.

The UFC announced on Saturday night that Kamaru Usman would defend his welterweight title on Aug. 20 in a rematch with Leon Edwards at UFC 278 at Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City.

Usman won the first fight between the men all the way back at UFC on Fox: dos Anjos vs. Cowboy 2 in 2015.

Usman, 35, won the welterweight title at UFC 235 in 2019, defeating Tyron Woodley. He's defended it five times, beating Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal twice apiece and Gilbert Burns in his impressive run.

He's now 20-1 in his professional MMA career and is considered the UFC's best pound-for-pound fighter in the entire promotion.

Edwards, 30, is 19-3-1 in his professional MMA career and hasn't lost in the UFC since his defeat against Usman. He's the No. 2 contender in the division behind only Covington, making him the next logical opponent for the champ.

He last fought at UFC 263 in June 2021, defeating Nate Diaz.

Since first fighting one another, both men have seemed to be on an eventual crash course, with neither losing since. A winning streak will end in the main event of UFC 278.

"He's improved loads, but so have I," Edwards told Harry Davies of the Mirror back in March. "When I fought him I was 22 years old. I'm now 30 years old. I've learned a lot over that space of time, but so has he. It'll be a totally different fight from what it was back then, so we have to look at it as a new fight."

The UFC will return to Salt Lake City for the first time since 2016, when it held a UFC Fight Night promotion. It will be the city's first UFC pay-per-view event.

Fresh off an impressive win over Tony Ferguson at UFC 274 last month, Michael Chandler has his sights set on Conor McGregor.

In an interview with TMZ Sports (beginning at the 2:55 mark), Chandler discussed his desire to fight arguably the biggest star in UFC history:

"I would love the opportunity to compete against him," Chandler said. "If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, you know, I'm not going to lose sleep at night. But it's definitely the fight that I want."

Since a lengthy run in Bellator MMA that saw him hold the promotion's lightweight title three times, Chandler has made a strong transition to UFC.

Chandler is 2-2 under the UFC umbrella, beating Dan Hooker and Ferguson and losing to Charles Oliveira and Justin Gaethje, although the Gaethje fight went the distance and was named Fight of the Night.

With a career record of 23-7 with 11 knockouts and seven submissions, Chandler is a dangerous fighter and would undoubtedly pose a stiff challenge to McGregor.

The 33-year-old McGregor has already established himself as a UFC legend, having held the featherweight and lightweight titles, but success has eluded him in recent years.

After starting his career 19-2, McGregor has lost four of his past seven fights, three of his past four and two in a row.

McGregor fell to Dustin Poirier at both UFC 257 and 264, and the UFC 264 loss saw him suffer a broken leg that has kept him on the shelf for the past 11 months.

UFC president Dana White said this week that he is hopeful McGregor will return in late 2022 or early 2023 and a fight with Chandler is possible, as White said he "really likes" the idea of McGregor vs. Chandler.

If Chandler were to beat McGregor, he would likely find himself right back in the UFC lightweight title hunt.