By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch Senior Columnist
There were no UFC events this past weekend due to their partner company WWE holding an event (which I thought was good, I always like Royal Rumble matches) so I’ll just cover some fight game news.
Kayla Harrison (16-1) has signed with the UFC and is expected to make her promotional debut at UFC 300 in April against Holly Holm (15-6, 1
No Contest). She’s also dropping to bantamweight for the fight.
Harrison has a lot of deserved hype around her and has opened as a massive favorite in her fight against Holm.
If you’re not familiar with Harrison, she’s an incredibly talented
judoka and is a two-time Olympic gold medalist (2012, 2016).
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The PFL has scrapped their women’s featherweight division for the 2024
season, replacing it with a women’s flyweight division. Featherweight
stars such as Larissa Pachecho (23-4) and Cris Cyborg (27-2, 1 No Contest) are expected to compete in out-of-season events or in the Bellator series of events, which will retain a featherweight division.
It’s hard to say right now how big this news truly is. It might just
be a semantical thing. It could just be that everyone fights roughly the same amount, just not in the official 2024 season. I would assume that’s the case but we’ll have to wait to see what happens.
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PFL vs. Bellator: Champs will take place on February 24th. The main card on pay-per-view includes seven fights.
Clay Collard (24-11, 1 No Contest) vs. A.J. McKee (21-1)
Thiago Santos (22-11, 1 No Contest) vs. Yoel Romero (15-7)
Bruno Cappelozza (15-6, 1 No Contest) vs. Vadim Nemkov (16-2, 1 No Contest)
Ray Cooper III (25-9-1) vs. Bellator Welterweight Champion Jason Jackson (17-4)
Jesus Pinedo (23-6-1) vs. Bellator Featherweight Champion Patricio Pitbull (35-7)
Impa Kasanganay (15-3) vs. Bellator Middleweight Champion Johnny Eblen (14-0)
Renan Ferreira (12-3, 3 No Contests) vs. Bellator Heavyweight Champion Ryan Bader (31-7, 1 No Contest)
You’d expect the Bellator champions to win their fights but you never know what could happen. Favorites lose and upsets happen a lot in sports, especially in fighting. I’m interested and excited for this card.
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ONE 165: Superlek vs. Takeru was this past weekend and featured the usual mix of fights you’d expect from a ONE Championship fight card.
The main card on pay-per-view featured seven fights across the
disciplines of MMA, Kickboxing, and Submission Grappling.
The results were:
Atomweight MMA- Ayaka Miura (13-5) def. Itsuki Kirata (6-3) by Decision
Featherweight MMA- Garry Tonon (9-1) def. Martin Nguyen (15-7) by Submission at 4:41 in Round 1
Catchweight (156.5 lb) Kickboxing- Marat Grigorian (67-13-1, 1 No Contest) def. Sittichai Sitsongpeenong (128-35-5) by KO at 1:20 in Round 3
Catchweight (187.25 lb) Special Rules (alternating disciplines)- Nieky Holzken (1-0) def. Yoshihiro Akiyama (0-1) by TKO at 1:40 in Round 1
Openweight MMA- Shinya Aoki (48-11, 1 No Contest) def. John Lineker
(37-11, 1 No Contest) by Submission at 3:00 in Round 1
Lightweight Submission Grappling- Champion Kade Ruotolo (26-2) def.
Tommy Langaker (I’m unsure, has at least 100 wins) by Decision
Flyweight Kickboxing- Champion Superlek Kiatmuu9 (137-29-4) def. Takeru Segawa (43-4-0) by Decision
My apologies if any of the records are off and for not knowing
Langaker’s record. I tried to find information but was unable to.
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The UFC 300 card on April 13th is coming together.
As it stands at the time I’m writing this the card is-
Jim Miller (37-17, 1 No Contest) vs. Bobby Green (31-15-1, 1 No Contest)
Jessica Andrade (25-12) vs. Marina Rodriguez (17-3-2)
Sodiq Yusuff (13-3) vs. Diego Lopes (23-6)
Holly Holm (15-6, 1 No Contest) vs. Kayla Harrison (16-1)
Deiveson Figueiredo (22-3-1) vs. Cody Garbrandt (14-5)
Bo Nickal (5-0) vs. Cody Brundage (10-5)
Calvin Kattar (23-7) vs. Aljamain Sterling (23-4)
Jiri Prochazka (29-4-1) vs. Aleksandar Rakic (14-3)
Charles Oliveira (34-9, 1 No Contest) vs. Arman Tsarukyan (21-3)
Justin Gaethje (25-4) vs. Max Holloway (25-7)
UFC Strawweight Champion Zhang Weili (24-3) vs. Yan Xiaonan (17-3, 1 No Contest)
There’s several good and very interesting fights there. You certainly don’t want to get ahead of yourself because a lot can happen in the next few months and it’s almost assured that a handful of these fights
are going to be changed. I hope not as I’m looking forward to a lot of these fights but rarely are we able to be so lucky so as to not have fights upended due to injury.
Dana White has also said that he’s still working on the main event and
that it’s going to be crazy. What is it? Who knows? It could be a lot of different fights so there’s no point in speculating because of the myriad of possibilities.
My new epic fantasy book is out. It’s called Kingdom of Zarias: The End’s
Beginning. The exciting epic fantasy series Kingdom of Zarias returns with the 4th book in the series. After the harrowing events of
Book 3 the residents of the Kingdom of Zarias continue on their paths.
Serena Summers continues to learn and grow as a fighter, desperately seeking to become stronger before she loses anyone else in her life.
Daniel Summers discovers new parts of the world that open his eyes to just how little he truly knows. A new hero, Lamar Abeers, arrives to join the fight against evil. Plus, Zach Summers, Tiana Highsmith, and Xavien Ekens continue their journeys with their friends, and a new ruler of Vhaharen is crowned. The world has found a little peace.
However, that peace is only temporary. In a shocking act of violence, the monstrous villain Galren strikes from the shadows and changes the
world forever. This is Book 4 in the series. There’s lots of action,
magic, and monsters in the Kingdom of Zarias. It’s like a tabletop
game in novel form. It’s on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and many other places. If you’re interested, I would greatly appreciate it if you would check it out and support me. Also, here’s the link to my Compendium book about the Kingdom of Zarias series- KoZ Compendium Thank you very much, have a good day.
Comments and suggestions can be emailed to me at
hydenfrank@gmail.com and you can follow me on Twitter at @hydenfrank.
Thanks for reading and have a good day.
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