MMA NEWS
**Cody Garbrandt is out of the flyweight title fight at UFC 255 in November due to an injury. Combate was the first to report with ESPN confirming that Garbrandt is out and Alex Perez will replace him to challenge UFC flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo on Saturday, November 21st.
Garbrandt has since tweeted that he suffered a torn biceps this past Monday. Perez was signed off Dana White’s Contender Series in 2017 and has gone 6-1 in the UFC with his lone defeat to Joseph Benavidez. His last two fights at flyweight occurred this year where he submitted Jordan Espinoza and beat Jussier Formiga by TKO at UFC 250 in June. Perez was already scheduled to fight at UFC 255 against Brandon Moreno when he was moved to the title fight.
UFC 255 will also feature a women’s flyweight title fight with Valentina Shevchenko defending against Jennifer Maia.
Cody Garbrandt went on Instagram Live to explain why he had to withdraw from his UFC 255 flyweight title bout against Deiveson Figueiredo. pic.twitter.com/mCX6IzSm9B
— Aaron Bronsteter (@aaronbronsteter) October 2, 2020
**The UFC’s Fight Night card from Fight Island takes place Saturday night with the main card airing on both ESPN & ESPN+ in the United States while the prelims will stream on ESPN+. All fighters made weight on Friday with the results of the weigh-ins below:
MAIN CARD (10:30 pm ET on ESPN & ESPN+ and TSN3 & TSN5 in Canada)
*Holly Holm (136) vs. Irene Aldana (136)
*Yorgan De Castro (261) vs. Carlos Felipe (263)
*Germaine de Randamie (136) vs. Julianna Pena (135.5)
*Kyler Phillips (136) vs. Cameron Else (136)
*Dusko Todorovic (186) vs. Dequan Townsend (186)
PRELIMINARY CARD (7:30 pm on ESPN+)
*Carlos Condit (171) vs. Court McGee (170.5)
*Charles Jourdain (145) vs. Josh Culibao (145.5)
*Jordan Williams (182) vs. Nassourdine Imavov (185.5)
*Jinh Yu Frey (116) vs. Loma Lookboonmee (116)
*Casey Kenney (136) vs. Heili Alateng (136)
*Jessin Ayari (156) vs. Luigi Vendramini (156)
**In Canada, the UFC prelims on Saturday will start at 8:30 pm ET on TSN5 and at 9:30 pm on TSN3 (right after the MLS game). Both TSN channels will carry the main card in its entirety beginning at 10:30 pm.
**Last Saturday’s UFC 253 prelims airing on ESPN2 saw the numbers take a hit with 523,000 viewers and a 0.18 in the 18-49 demographic, which saw UFC finish 25th for the night on cable. The prelims last weekend was headlined by Jake Matthews vs. Diego Sanchez leading into the pay-per-view. The UFC 252 prelims in August that aired on ESPN did 831,000 viewers and a 0.29 demo rating. This past Saturday also featured a lot of sports competition including the NBA playoffs, and college football.
**ESPN’s Ariel Helwani reported that Rustam Khabilov and Brett Johns have signed with Bellator MMA after their UFC deals expired. Khabilov, 33, has fought for the UFC since 2012 and has won seven of his last eight fights going back to February 2016 and last fought in November 2019 where he beat Sergey Khandozhko by decision. Johns, 28, made his UFC debut in November 2016 in the bantamweight division where he has gone 5-2 with the UFC and is coming off wins against Tony Graveley and Montel Jackson this year.
Johns confirmed his departure and wrote the following on Instagram:
Right where do I start, firstly I would like to thank the @ufc and all the staff for the last 4 years in the organisation from the @ufcpi team to the fight week staff always taking care of me and my team. Thanks to @danawhite for the opportunity memories that will last a lifetime.
I have decided to take a different road in my career, as fighters our health is put on the line every time we sign on the dotted line and I’m okay with that. But I’m here to get paid what I believe Is fair.
My last bout was the final on my 2nd contact with the ufc. I accepted a bout for November 7th in Las Vegas against a tough (15-1) opponent, If you’ve followed my career you’ll know I’ll fight any man on the planet. But we couldn’t agree on a figure that was right for both parties on the new contract. 7 fights, 5 wins and 2 losses to the top guys in the division, once ranked 13th, 2nd calf slicer in the ufcs history and currently on a 2 fight win streak to up and coming prospects is valued differently between us.
And that’s just business nothing personal it’s never personal in my eyes, I wish the @ufc all the best in the future.
A different offer was made an offer that I couldn’t turn down an one I believe I deserve. I’m grateful that it was made and I’m excited to put my skills on show for another worldwide organisation.
That’s that for now still training the same way, still aims of adding another world championship to the CV with the welsh flag over my shoulders.
I’ll always be in the history books first welsh fighter to fight in the UFC.
**LFA has a card tonight at 9 pm Eastern on UFC Fight Pass headlined by a bantamweight fight between Kevin Wirth and Askar Askar, and a co-feature fight between Andre Fialho and Antonio Dos Santos at a catchweight of 180 pounds.
**Bellator 247 aired Thursday afternoon from Milan, Italy, and was the promotion’s launch on the CBS Sports Network. The event was hit the previous day when headliner Paul Daley was taken off the card due to weight cutting issues that forced the welterweight to be sent to the hospital. This followed Daley stepping on the scales 2.5 pounds over the limit. Here are the main card results from the show in Milan:
*Christopher Duncan def. Iamik Furtado by TKO at 3:58 of Round 2
*Brian Moore def. Simone D’Anna by KO at 3:55 of Round 2
*Norbert Novenyi Jr. def. Laid Zerhouni by triangle submission at 4:36 of Round 1
*Denise Kielholtz def. Kate Jackson by KO at 0:43 of Round 1
**Bellator holds another card in Milan this Saturday at 5 pm Eastern with its latest European Series event headlined by James Gallagher fighting Cal Ellenor.
**Bellator has signed undefeated lightweight prospect Usman Nurmagomedov. He is the younger cousin of UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and a training partner. The younger Nurmagomedov began fighting professionally in March 2017 and is undefeated including five wins in 2019 and has already fought three times since February this year. Bellator described the deal as a multi-year, multi-fight contract.
G1 CLIMAX PODCASTS
Day 8 – Tetsuya Naito vs. SANADA
Day 7 – Shingo Takagi vs. Tomohiro Ishii
Day 6 – Tetsuya Naito vs. Hirooki Goto
Day 5 w/ Wai Ting & Mike Murray – Okada vs. White, Ospreay vs. Takagi)
Day 4 – Naito vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
Day 3 – White vs. Ibushi
Day 2 – Naito vs. Tanahashi
Day 1 – Okada vs. Ibushi
*****
upNXT 9/30/20: “The Real Debate”
The BDE run down WWE NXT featuring a Face-To-Face between Kyle O’Reilly and Finn Balor hosted by Shawn Michaels ahead of their huge NXT Championship match at TakeOver: 31.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/10/01/upnxt-9-30-20-the-real-debate/
*****
REWIND-A-DYNAMITE 9/30/20: Moxley defends, Jericho-MJF, Raw Ratings, NXT Call
John Pollock and Wai Ting review AEW Dynamite with another Jon Moxley title defense, notes from the NXT media call, Raw ratings, Harold Meij out at New Japan, and more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/10/01/rewind-a-dynamite-9-30-20-moxley-defends-jericho-mjf-raw-ratings-nxt-call/
*****
REWIND-A-WAI #71: WCW Slam Jam Vol. 1 (1992)
Wai Ting welcomes Kris Ealy and Nate Milton to review World Championship Wrestling’s 1992 theme song compilation, WCW Slam Jam Vol. 1.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/42168635/
*****
REWIND-A-RAW 9/28/20: “Those Are Night Vision Goggles”
John Pollock and Wai Ting discuss WWE Raw featuring Drew McIntyre defending the WWE title, night vision goggles, a report on the status of Retribution, and the latest from Conor McGregor.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/09/29/rewind-a-raw-9-28-20-those-are-night-vision-goggles/
*****
WWE Clash of Champions POST Show
John Pollock & Wai Ting review WWE Clash of Champions: Gold Rush featuring Roman Reigns vs. Jey Uso for the Universal Championship and Drew McIntyre vs. Randy Orton for the WWE Championship.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/09/27/wwe-clash-of-champions-2020-post-show-live-link/
*****
UFC 253 POST Show with John Pollock & Phil Chertok
John Pollock & Phil Chertok host the UFC 253 POST Show and discuss Israel Adesanya’s dominant title defense against Paulo Costa.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/09/27/ufc-253-post-show-israel-adesanya-vs-paulo-costa/
*****
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