By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch Senior Columnist
There were no events this past week because of the holiday so I’ll
discuss some MMA news. There’s not a lot going on, though, so this
won’t take too long. Sorry about that.
It appears as though Dustin Poirier (30-9, 1 No Contest) has one more
fight in him. He had discussed retirement prior to his fight against
UFC Lightweight Champion Islam Makhachev (26-1) at UFC 302 in June but
now it seems he has a desire to fight once more. Poirier recently
posted a photo on Instagram that said “Big news coming soon. Uno más”.
No word on an opponent but for the sake of Michael Chandler’s (23-8)
sanity let’s hope Poirier’s opponent isn’t Conor McGregor (22-6, 0-1
Boxing), considering that Chandler has been waiting for over a year to
fight McGregor.
*************
The UFC wanted to make a fight between UFC Welterweight Champion Belal
Muhammad (24-3, 1 No Contest) vs. Shavkat Rakmonov (18-0) for UFC 307
on October 7th but Belal turned it down because he wouldn’t be ready
in time. Belal’s last fight was at UFC 304 at the end of July so it
wouldn’t be feasible for him to have a turnaround that quickly.
However, this does give confirmation that this is the route that the
UFC wants to go for the next title challenger. This isn’t surprising,
given that Rakmonov is ranked #3 in the UFC’s official rankings and
the two men ahead of him, Leon Edwards (22-4, 1 No Contest) and Kamaru
Usman (20-4), have either just lost to Muhammad (Edwards) or have lost
three straight fights (Usman) so it makes sense that the surging
Rakmonov and his unblemished record get the next title shot.
*************
UFC Bantamweight Champion Sean O’Malley (18-1, 1 No Contest) will
fight Merab Dvalishvili (17-4) on September 14 at UFC 306. Dvalishvili
recently suffered a cut during training a few weeks ago and he posted
a video on Instagram about it. This sparked debate about whether it’s
a smart move to have posted about it and whether he should pull out of
the fight because of the cut.
The cut appears to be about an inch up and to the right of his left
eye. If the cut were to be reopened during the fight it probably
wouldn’t impair his vision too much. However, it would likely be a
painful experience but it seems Dvalishvili doesn’t think it’ll be an
issue and doesn’t want to run the risk of losing his title shot by
pulling out of the fight. There’s also the risk of the cut getting
bigger and bigger as O’Malley targets it and could lead to the fight
being stopped at some point.
It would be easy for me to say I agree with Dvalishvili not pulling
out of the fight because you never know what could happen if he did.
Plenty of fighters have lost title shots because they pulled out of a
fight. I’m not the one in the fight, though.
Regardless, it appears this fight is still on for now.
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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