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USA Today
27-07-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
UFC on ABC 9 bonuses: Record-breaking knockdown performance appropriately rewarded
The UFC handed out four bonuses after Saturday's card in Abu Dhabi, including a record-breaking performance. After UFC on ABC 9, four fighters picked up an extra $50,000 for their performances at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. Check out the winners below. Performance of the Night: Muslim Salikhov Age is no problem for the 41-year-old Muslim Salikhov (22-5 MMA, 9-4 UFC), who came into his fight against Carlos Leal (22-7 MMA, 1-2 UFC) as a massive underdog. "The King of Kung Fu" blasted an overly aggressive Leal with a clean counter shot for a sub-minute knockout, to notch his second straight opening-round finish – both of which earned Perfomance of the Night bonuses. Performance of the Night: Steven Nguyen Steven Nguyen (10-2 MMA, 1-1 UFC) picked up his first win under the UFC banner with a record-breaking performance. Nguyen repeatedly put Mohammad Yahya (12-6 MMA, 0-3 UFC) on the canvas with accurate punches, totalling a record six knockdowns en route to a TKO stoppage by the cageside doctor after Round 2. That's two fights and two bonuses in the UFC for Fortis MMA's Nguyen, who returns home with an extra check and his name in the record books. Fight of the Night: Shara Magomedov def. Marc-Andre Barriault On the main card, middleweights Shara Magomedov (16-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC) and Marc-Andre Barriault (17-10 MMA, 6-9 UFC) put on an incredible back-and-forth war over 15 minutes. After a close opening round, all hell broke loose when both fighters had near-finishing moments. Barriault flattened Magomedov's nose, but he ended up in big trouble as the round came to a close. The bloody affair somehow reached the final horn, where Magomedov was announced the winner by unanimous decision. For their efforts, they both take home an extra $50,000.
USA Today
26-07-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
UFC on ABC 9 bonuses: Record-breaking knockdown performance appropriately rewarded
The UFC handed out four bonuses after Saturday's card in Abu Dhabi, including a record-breaking performance. After UFC on ABC 9, four fighters picked up an extra $50,000 for their performances at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. Check out the winners below. Performance of the Night: Muslim Salikhov Age is no problem for the 41-year-old Muslim Salikhov (22-5 MMA, 9-4 UFC), who came into his fight against Carlos Leal (22-7 MMA, 1-2 UFC) as a massive underdog. "The King of Kung Fu" blasted an overly aggressive Leal with a clean counter shot for a sub-minute knockout, to notch his second straight opening-round finish – both of which earned Perfomance of the Night bonuses. Performance of the Night: Steven Nguyen Steven Nguyen (10-2 MMA, 1-1 UFC) picked up his first win under the UFC banner with a record-breaking performance. Nguyen repeatedly put Mohammad Yahya (12-6 MMA, 0-3 UFC) on the canvas with accurate punches, totalling a record six knockdowns en route to a TKO stoppage by the cageside doctor after Round 2. That's two fights and two bonuses in the UFC for Fortis MMA's Nguyen, who returns home with an extra check and his name in the record books. Fight of the Night: Shara Magomedov def. Marc-Andre Barriault On the main card, middleweights Shara Magomedov (16-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC) and Marc-Andre Barriault (17-10 MMA, 6-9 UFC) put on an incredible back-and-forth war over 15 minutes. After a close opening round, all hell broke loose when both fighters had near-finishing moments. Barriault flattened Magomedov's nose, but he ended up in big trouble as the round came to a close. The bloody affair somehow reached the final horn, where Magomedov was announced the winner by unanimous decision. For their efforts, they both take home an extra $50,000.
Yahoo
26-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
UFC on ABC 9 video: Steven Nguyen makes history, deforms Mohammad Yahya's face
Steven Nguyen made history Saturday – at the expense of Mohammad Yahya's face. On the UFC on ABC 9 prelims, Nguyen (10-2 MMA, 1-1 UFC) dropped Yahya (12-5 MMA, 0-2 UFC) a record-breaking six times. The fight was stopped between Round 2 and Round 3 due to Yahya's grotesquely swollen eye. The fight took place at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. Yahya hung tough throughout the beatdown, but the human body (or in this case, face) can only take so much. The swelling escalated around the final knockdown, which took place in Round 2. When his face was shown on the big screen between rounds, his distorted face got an audible reaction from the crowd. Nguyen picks up his first UFC victory in what was his first fight since his debut in March 2024. The Fortis MMA product moves to 4-1 in his most recent five. Yahya could be on the chopping block after coming up empty-handed three times in as many UFC fights. Up-to-the-minute UFC on ABC 9 results Steven Nguyen def. Muhammad Yahya via TKO (doctor stoppage) – Round 2, 5:00 Martin Buday def. Marcus Almeida via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28) This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC Abu Dhabi: Fighter's face severely deformed in history-making bout
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
If you don't know UFC 317's Jacobe Smith, now's the time to pay attention
The first big knockout of the 2025 came from Jacobe Smith, a fighter fresh off the Contender Series, who blasted a left hand through the head of Preston Parsons at a UFC Fight Night on Jan. 11. We say 'through' because the shot was so clean that, well, it was like the proverbial hot knife through butter. In fact, that left hand just kind of kept going, as if Parsons' head wasn't even its final destination. Six long months later, Smith is finally making his return to action at UFC 317, where he'll face Niko Price on Saturday night's preliminary card. That punch to kick off the year, it turns out, was money. Smith finds himself as much as an 25-to-1 favorite on BetMGM over a foe with nine times as many fights in the UFC. Advertisement And if you talk to 'Cobe,' as he's known, you get the idea that he's one of the best-kept secrets in the welterweight division. 'I understand what [Price] is and I understand my capabilities,' Smith says, 'and if you know me — if you've followed me through my wrestling career — I could wrestle a trash-ass opponent or the number one guy in the country, and either one of those matches could be close. It's more so focusing on me and what I want to do — and once I figure that out, it ain't no stopping me.' Confident? Maybe, but bursting at the seams might be more like it. Smith is anxious for fans to see what Vegas already knows — which is that he's a dark horse to make some serious noise in a division already teeming with contenders. To understand that dark horse status, you have to work backward. Advertisement Smith lives in Crandall, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. He trains at Fortis MMA, which is half an hour from his house, and near enough to his combat roots, as he was a standout collegiate wrestler at Oklahoma State University. It was his wrestling buddy (and former Bellator fighter) Kyle Crutchmer who introduced Smith to Daniel Cormier, a fellow OSU Cowboy. The two became fast friends. Smith has trained with Cormier and the likes of Khabib Nurmagomedov up in California whenever he can. At one point he was even signed to fight in Nurmagomedov's Eagle FC, but the pandemic prevented him from ever debuting. Still, he has raced out to a 10-0 professional MMA record, including two wins thus far under the UFC umbrella, one of which came on the aforementioned Contender Series. The wrestling pedigree is in his back pocket. Advertisement But the hands might be the difference-makers. Those hands, he says, came from trading with his older brother, Lonnie Wilson, who was a Golden Gloves boxing champion. It was hang or be hung. 'He was three or four years older than me, too' he says. 'And my daddy was so hype, he was always, 'Get your ass up, let's train.' I'm like, dude, I don't train.' This is where we work backward some more to understand where Smith is now. Smith's father was a football player who was drafted by the Oakland Raiders, and his mother was a volleyball player in the Junior Olympics. Athletes all around him, but Smith didn't train because he couldn't. At least not until he was around 12 or so. He was born with asthma. It was so severe that the doctors told him he wouldn't be able to compete. Advertisement 'I couldn't walk up the stairs to go to my room as a kid a lot because it would f*** me up,' he says. 'My parents didn't know what to do. I was in the hospital pretty much my whole life, couldn't breathe. I remember being a kid and times were so hard that I would — I knew how to make myself go unconscious because I couldn't breathe in my normal state. So I knew how to basically put myself to sleep. And once I grew out of that, my body was just so conditioned to the hard life that this regular fighting was easy.' It was a gradual escalation from losing his breath just walking up the steps to getting to the point where he could run. Then he could hang with other kids in sports. Then he could box with his brother. Then he could find the wind to begin distinguishing himself as an athlete. Jacobe Smith strolls away after a knockout victory over Preston Parsons in his UFC debut. (Chris Unger via Getty Images) 'I started with football, and I did track, and then wrestling was the Christmas season and that was pretty much the last one of that year,' he says. 'But I did everything. As soon as the doctors released me, I tried football track, soccer, basketball and wrestling. And wrestling was what I fell in love with.' Advertisement These days Smith sees his early struggles with asthma as a silver lining to his supreme conditioning. He says it 'calloused' him up to where he's 'five or 10 steps ahead' of the field. It's been a wild ride going from not being able to breathe as a kid to outlasting opponents on wrestling mats. His path was hard enough that he sees professional MMA as almost a reprieve. 'Wrestling is way harder,' he says. 'It is just way more high-maintenance due to every weekend I'm making weight, every weekend I'm cutting that weight and cutting my body, depleting it. 'But outside of that, I feel like I've mastered fighting to a sense, where I can put that pressure on people without them being able to put it back on me. My biggest obstacle is dodging the strikes before I get into where I want to get. My instincts are f***ing fire.' Advertisement Confident? Maybe, but carrying a chip on his shoulder might be more like it. That knockout that he scored on Parsons — a thing of pure and violent beauty — didn't come with a bonus, after all. 'No sir, it didn't,' he says. 'I feel like that, I mean, first knockout of the year, 2025, I was the first knockout on the card, and they gave it to the other person (Cesar Almeida). I watched the card back and everything — it should have been me, but nobody looked as skilled as me. Everybody else was sloppy.' This weekend is another chance. Price has shown a propensity to stand in the pocket and trade. For a long stretch he was a feast or famine fighter. The opportunity will be there for Smith, who is close to showing up on the welterweight radar. Should he do to Price what he did to Parsons, people might be talking about the dark horse, Jacobe Smith. Advertisement 'I'm so used to being looked over and not given what I deserve, that I don't care what it is,' Smith says. 'I could take the hardest route. Nobody ain't going to be able to do nothing with me. I say you throw me one of them Russians and see if their wrestling can stick up with mine or if I got to rely on that. 'But I don't think any of these regular strikers are going to have anything for me. These regular jiu-jitsu guys aren't going to have nothing for me because I manage my energy so well. You ain't going to catch me gassed or f***ing struggling for something that I need, because I'm ahead of the curve.'
Time of India
15-06-2025
- Sport
- Time of India
UFC Atlanta results: Usman vs Buckley Fight Night highlights and main card winners
Main card opens with Edmen Shahbazyan victory UFC Atlanta opened its main card with Edmen Shahbazyan securing a unanimous decision over Andre Petroski (30-27, 30-27, 29-28). Shahbazyan demonstrated patient, measured striking while neutralizing Petroski's wrestling. In the third round, body kicks widened the margin, as Shahbazyan earned his second straight win and continued improving under coach Jason Manly. The victory positions Shahbazyan as a re-emerging contender in the middleweight division. Now 3-1 in his last four appearances, the 27-year-old aims to build momentum and work toward a Top 15 placement. Also read: UFC Atlanta: The Nigerian Nightmare brings "respect back to his name" Raoni Barcelos earns win over former champion Cody Garbrandt In bantamweight action, Raoni Barcelos defeated former champion Cody Garbrandt by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28). Garbrandt started quickly but faded as Barcelos asserted control through pressure and effective wrestling. Barcelos dictated the pace from the second round onward, limiting Garbrandt's opportunities for counters and finishing exchanges with precision. Live Events Barcelos now holds consecutive wins in 2025 and three straight victories overall. At age 38, the Brazilian remains active and well-rounded, maintaining a competitive position near the bantamweight division's Top 15. Abdul-Malik remains undefeated with technical decision win Middleweight prospect Mansur Abdul-Malik remained unbeaten by earning a technical decision win over Cody Brundage (30-27, 29-28, 29-28). Abdul-Malik controlled the opening two rounds with superior striking and cage control. In Round 3, a head clash during an exchange led to Brundage collapsing, prompting a medical stoppage. After video review, the bout proceeded to scorecards, where Abdul-Malik was awarded the win. A graduate of Dana White's Contender Series, he advances to 3-0 in the UFC and continues to climb in the division. Also read: UFC Atlanta: Live streaming, venue, date, time of Joaquin Buckley-Kamaru Usman main fight Menifield outpoints Sy in tactical light heavyweight match Alonzo Menifield earned a unanimous decision over previously undefeated Oumar Sy (29-28, 29-28, 29-28). The light heavyweight contest saw minimal action as both fighters exchanged single shots and engaged in clinch work with limited output. Menifield's consistent activity in later rounds earned him the edge. Menifield's second win of 2025 improves his position in the light heavyweight rankings. Training at Fortis MMA, he continues to present as a durable and experienced fighter within the UFC light heavyweight division. Namajunas outpoints Maverick in co-main event Rose Namajunas defeated Miranda Maverick by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28) in the co-main event. Namajunas outworked Maverick in the striking exchanges and succeeded in grappling sequences. After Maverick threatened a choke late in the second round, Namajunas rebounded with a knockdown in the third and controlled the ground position to close the bout. The win keeps Namajunas competitive in the flyweight rankings and marks a strong bounce-back performance. The veteran remains a top-tier presence in the 125-pound division as the 2025 season progresses. Also read: UFC Atlanta: Joaquin Buckley challenges Kamaru Usman ahead of fight night - live streaming details, date, time and other main card matches Usman dominates Buckley in return to form In the main event, Kamaru Usman defeated Joaquin Buckley by unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 48-47). Usman implemented a wrestling-heavy approach, securing takedowns in four of the five rounds and controlling Buckley on the mat with effective ground-and-pound. Buckley found brief success in the final round but was unable to shift momentum. This marked Usman's first victory since UFC 268 and reaffirmed his elite standing in the welterweight division. At age 38, the former champion showcased strategic execution and durability, remaining in contention near the top of the rankings.
