Latest news with #DoBronx
USA Today
26-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Charles Oliveira: Dustin Poirier sharpest boxer I've faced, beats Max Holloway at UFC 318
Charles Oliveira: Dustin Poirier sharpest boxer I've faced, beats Max Holloway at UFC 318 Charles Oliveira rates UFC 318 headliner Dustin Poirier's striking very highly. Oliveira (35-10 MMA, 23-10 UFC) has fought the lightweight division's elite, from the likes of Islam Makhachev, to Arman Tsarukyan, to Dustin Poirier, and Justin Gaethje. "Do Bronx" was dropped by Poirier in their lightweight title fight at UFC 269, but rallied to submit him in Round 3. Poirier will step into the octagon for a final time when he challenges BMF champion Max Holloway in the UFC 318 main event on July 19 from his home state of Louisiana. Having fought both Poirier (30-9 MMA, 22-8 UFC) and Holloway (26-8 MMA, 22-8 UFC), Oliveira shared his prediction for the fight. "When I fought Holloway, I didn't have the chance to fight because it was too fast because I had an injury," Oliveira told Full Violence in a translated interview. "I think Holloway is a guy who moves a lot, a guy who catches. But man, Dustin Poirier is a guy that I have huge respect for. For me, of all of the guys I've fought, he's the one with the sharpest boxing. He fights more consciously, he has a very heavy hand. He knows how to play the game. He will fight at home practically, so I think Poirier wins." Oliveira will look to reclaim the lightweight title when he takes on Ilia Topuria (16-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) for the vacant belt in the UFC 317 headliner on June 28 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+).
USA Today
15-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Aljamain Sterling can't bet against Ilia Topuria at UFC 317: 'Who's stopping this guy?'
Aljamain Sterling can't bet against Ilia Topuria at UFC 317: 'Who's stopping this guy?' Aljamain Sterling thinks Ilia Topuria has proven too unstoppable to lose at UFC 317. Topuria (16-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC), who relinquished the featherweight title in February, meets former champion Charles Oliveira (35-10 MMA, 23-10 UFC) for the vacant lightweight title in the June 28 headliner from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Topuria is coming off back-to-back knockouts of Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway in title fights. With Topuria's power and Oliveira's tendency to take damage in fights, Sterling worries for the Brazilian. "Oliveira gets dropped every fight – just about every fight ... the last eight fights I would say," Sterling said on his YouTube channel. "With that said, we know Ilia Topuria can crack. We've seen him get dropped before by Jai Herbert, came back. That was the first time he fought at 155. He says he feels better at 155, his power is way different at 155. We know he could already crack at '45. "How is that power going to translate into at 155? If he could touch Charles the way he hits everybody else, I think it's a bad night, and I think Ilia is a two-division champion. But the grappling department, we haven't seen anyone force the grappling issue against Ilia, and I wonder if 'Do Bronx' will try to do that to see if he can gas him out, and take away some of the pop from his punches." Oliveira is no stranger to defying the odds. He holds finishes over the likes of Dustin Poirier, Justin Gaethje, Beneil Dariush and Michael Chandler, but Sterling sees Topuria in prime form. "This is a hard one," Sterling said. "I like Ilia in this one, but it's hard to count out 'Do Bronx.' 'Do Bronx,' I still think, he's him. But then I said that about Max (Holloway), I said that about Volk. I'm not saying that those guys were going to win against Ilia, but you say that those guys are still 'them,' and then Ilia goes out and does that to them. You're like, f*ck. Who's stopping this guy?"
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Ilia Topuria vs Charles Oliveira booked to crown new UFC lightweight champion as Islam Makhachev vacates
Ilia Topuria will square off with Charles Oliveira at UFC 317, it has been announced, as the former title holders vie to crown a new lightweight champion. Topuria held the featherweight belt from February 2024 until this February, before vacating the gold to move up to lightweight, with the intention of challenging for a second title. Advertisement With the Georgian-Spaniard adamant that the UFC would honour his wish, all that was left was to determine Topuria's opponent; then-lightweight champion Islam Makhachev had his own plan to challenge for the welterweight strap, but said he would not fight friend Belal Muhammad, who owned that belt until Saturday. As such, Muhammad's decision loss to Jack Della Maddalena has opened the door for Makhachev to challenge for the 170lb title, meaning Topuria has been left to face Oliveira for the vacant lightweight gold. And the pair will meet at UFC 317 on 28 June, as Topuria aims to become a two-weight champion, while Oliveira tries to kickstart his second reign at lightweight. The Brazilian, 35, won the vacant title in 2021, stopping Michael Chandler to do so. He then recorded a successful title defence by submitting Dustin Poirier, but his second defence – against Justin Gaethje in 2022 – was affected by a narrow miss at the weigh-ins. Oliveira was stripped of the title the night before fighting Gaethje, and he was also ineligible to win back the gold in that bout. Ilia Topuria (left) and Charles Oliveira will meet in a lightweight title fight (Getty) In any case, 'Do Bronx' submitted Gaethje, setting up a meeting with Makhachev later in 2022. In that fight, Makhachev submitted Oliveira – the greatest submission artist in UFC history, statistically – to win the belt. The Russian then achieved a record four successful title defences. Advertisement A rematch was planned with Oliveira in 2023, but the Brazilian suffered a nasty cut over his eye, costing him a title opportunity. That episode occurred after Oliveira had stopped Beneil Dariush, and he has since lost to Arman Tsarukyan and beaten Chandler for the second time. The latter result, in November, marked Oliveira's most-recent outing. Meanwhile, Topuria kept his unbeaten record intact while storming to the featherweight title, which he won with a knockout of long-reigning champion Alexander Volkanovski last February. In October, the 28-year-old retained the belt with a knockout of former champion Max Holloway.
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Michael Chandler promises to 'absolutely eviscerate' Paddy Pimblett: 'It's going to be different than Jordan Leavitt'
Michael Chandler is ready to make up for lost time. After waiting patiently throughout the Conor McGregor saga — perhaps too patiently — Chandler returned to action against Charles Oliveira in November at UFC 309, coming up short against "Do Bronx" for the second time and losing a unanimous decision. It was Chandler's first fight in two years after McGregor reneged on their planned bout, and he's wasting no time getting back to work. He'll take on rising lightweight star Paddy Pimblett in UFC 314's co-main event on April 12 in Miami, Florida. "It's a big fight," Chandler said Monday on "The Ariel Helwani Show," revealing the five-round affair was actually booked two weeks ago despite being announced this past Wednesday. "No matter which way you look at it, man, it's a big fight, and it's the life cycle of a fighter. "I will tip my hat to Dustin Poirier — he fought Benoit Saint Denis when not very many people knew him, right? Justin Gaethje fought Rafael Fiziev. I see it often on the social media webs, everybody's like, 'Man, you're fighting everybody in the top three, top two, top five. You need to go fight a young, hungry up-and-comer.' Well, here you go, boys and girls. Here's my opportunity, here's his opportunity. This is Paddy's opportunity to get inside the top 10. This is my opportunity to show you that there are different levels to this sport." Chandler instantly serves as the toughest test of Pimblett's 25-fight career — and he doesn't believe it's even debatable. Pimblett enters the fresh off his two most notable wins, a unanimous decision over Tony Ferguson and a first-round guillotine submission of King Green. Pimblett's latest victory extended his UFC win streak to six and earned him a spot at No. 12 in the promotion's official lightweight rankings. Depending on his performance, a win over the No. 7-ranked Chandler could launch him as high as the top five. But Chandler is confident that these are the types of matchups in which he thrives. "You can talk about my record, you can talk about losses, you can talk about how it's all went down, my run in the UFC thus far, but I have done nothing but fight first ballot Hall of Famers, former champions," Chandler said. "Every single loss that I have has been to one of those guys. And when I don't fight one of those guys — knock out, Dan Hooker, in two and a half minutes. That brutal KO of Tony Ferguson, which was KO of the year. Something spectacular happens when my back is up against the wall or I'm fighting a guy that's not named Dustin Poirier, Justin Gaethje or Charles Olivera. So we'll see what happens." Pimblett, 30, entered the UFC to plenty of fanfare after capturing two titles in the UK's Cage Warriors promotion. Between his outspoken nature and irrepressible self-confidence, Pimblett quickly became an easy target among his UFC peers. Chandler, 38, believes Pimblett will benefit from the stiff jump in competition for UFC 314, regardless of the outcome. "I think he's gotten a lot of undue criticism because when you're a big personality, you talk a certain way, you talk a little bit of trash," Chandler said. "Obviously he's had some run-ins with Ilia Topuria and some of these other guys where he's gotten these little animosities going on. The fans will either love that or they will hate that. They will either say, 'Hey, you're propped up way too much,' or they'll say, 'Hey, I love Paddy Pimblett. "You see it with a lot of guys — Bo Nickal is a great example right now. Guys, when they get into the UFC and they're fighting the toughest competition, and they're fighting these big fights on these big stages in these big arenas, there's a certain learning curve that they need. I was very fortunate. I did all my learning curve back at Bellator, had to come into the UFC as a 32-year-old salty veteran and wanted a top-five guy right away. That was the path that I wanted. I told [UFC CBO] Hunter Campbell that when I sat in his office, 'I don't want to putz around the top 20, top 25. I don't need a tune-up fight. I want to get thrown into the shark-infested waters of the lightweight division.' That is what I have done since September 2020. "Paddy's good, he's growing," Chandler continued. "I think the pressure I'm going to put on him, he's obviously going to keep that evading [style], throwing a lot of kicks, kind of throwing some wild punches, trying to keep things interesting in there, because he knows when one of these hands lands, it's going to be different than Jordan Leavitt. It's going to be different than Bobby Green. It's going to be different than a lot of the guys he has fought. But I'm up to the challenge. Prove me right, prove me wrong — let's see what happens." UFC 314 already appears to be one of the most loaded cards of the year, at least on paper. In a surprising twist of fate, Chandler will be joined by an old rival on the card, as former four-time Bellator champion Patricio Pitbull makes his UFC debut in a featherweight tilt opposite Yair Rodriguez. Pitbull, 37, enters the UFC in a similar manner as Chandler did. Both did all they could do in Bellator and established themselves as two of the promotion's all-time best — Pitbull at featherweight and Chandler at lightweight. Although their UFC paths differed — Pitbull requested his PFL release while Chandler explored free agency — Chandler expects his ex-foe to have a similar experience and realization. "[I'm] not surprised at him [signing with UFC] or the laundry list of everybody who is tweeting at Donn Davis and PFL [asking for their release]," Chandler said of Pitbull. "It just continues to solidify that the UFC is the only place for mixed martial arts. Take it from me. Take it from a guy like Patricio Pitbull. Two years from now, a year from now, sit him on your show and have him answer honestly what the difference is and how much bigger it is, how much more significant it is over here. And if he plays his cards right and does his job, how much more lucrative it is. It's just very interesting, man, because obviously I think I have the best perspective of anybody in mixed martial arts when it comes to the significance of the UFC. I love the UFC, not because it's the UFC. "I love UFC because I know what the opposite of the UFC is. I know what it's like being outside of the UFC. I know what it's like to go to UFC events and have people ask me to take pictures of Ryan Bader and Gray Maynard and Michael Johnson and Robbie Lawler, and then ask me who I am, and I'm like, 'Well, I actually just beat Eddie Alvarez a couple of months ago.' And they're like, 'Oh, you're that Bellator guy.' "I know what it's like, right?" he continued. "So I bit my tongue, I swallowed my pride. I kept working, I kept my nose to the grindstone. I patiently waited, biding my time. Built my platform, built my skill set, built my mind, body, and soul and spirit until it was the right time. And that door — it was abundant and clear that the door was open to go to the UFC, and now it's worked out perfectly. I think if you asked 80% of the roster of PFL, GFL, Bellator, all these other ones, they want to be right where I'm at." For now, both Chandler and Pitbull have business to worry about in their respective UFC divisions. And considering his recent run, Chandler is supremely motivated to secure his first win since 2022. "I don't need to hate Paddy Pimblett to want to separate him from consciousness," Chandler said. "I don't need to have any kind of animosity to absolutely eviscerate this man. It's what I've been doing since I was 14 years old. And I prefer a fight like this."
