MMA news updates

Instead of spamming the boards everytime I see some cool news, I’ll post it here. I’ll also keep track of prospects I like, new signings to ufc/dwcs/Bellator/etc.

* Edited at 05.02.2022, 4:44 PM ET *

I'm down for that. An old school way to pick a challenger.

Also, David Bollea won another short notice fight yesterday. He called for a shot on the contender series.

* Edited at 07.02.2022, 12:51 PM ET *

Bro no way🤣🤣🤣that’s actually so funny. Was the guy he beat any good? 

No, he was not

No surprise there

Disagree. They dont need more old guys. It's a show for the future of the sport. If he gets on they can give him someone good like Patterson or Anthony Romero. Actually make him work for a roster spot.

Ah okay I was concerned there for a second but glad everyones on the same page lol

I was dumb enough to write about BFL and LFA but totally forgot they happen this week, not last, so here they are again + events that are actually happening this week

BFL 73 - Thursday 

The prospect i have my eyes on here is Navid Zanageh. So this one is actually fascinating to me because nobody knows about this kid and hes very under the radar. So why am i interested in a guy who 1. Nobody knows about and 2. Has 0 mma experience at any level? Well my friends, this is because Navid is a former member of Iran’s U23 wrestling team. Not only that, he has won gold at the Asian Games, a Silver Medal at the 2019 U23 Asian games, and a bronze at 2018 worlds. Hes only 25 years as well, so he hasnt even hit his athletic prime. Clearly, BFL thinks very highly of him because they are throwing him right into a 5 round title fight, against a guy with 13 fights combined pro and ammy (5-3 pro, 4-0 ammy). Now, obviously hes not fighting a good guy, but going from 0 experience in mma at any level, to fighting for a title against a guy with lots of experience is a pretty tough test for a debut. If he wins, he is definitely someone to look out for, especially fighting in a stacked division like 155

LFA 135 - Friday 

As pretty much every week, LFA has the most fighters i like and the best prospects and matchups. Despite being listed, the Lena Bishop vs Luana Santos fight is off because santos got signed to dwcs. 

First, we have An Ho. Ho is only 1-0, but he is coming off of a crazy spinning back fist in his pro and LFA debut. He had a 7-0 record that saw him claim the tuff-n-uff 125 ammy belt. He trains out of the MMA Lab, where their guys are alway crazy well rounded, and has shown that skillset throughout his pro and ammy career. Hes also only 21 so i am very intrigued with this kid. Hes just fighting a can, so this is just a fight for experience but hopefully he gets another highlight reel finish. 

Maria Henderson, the wife of Benson Henderson, is also fighting on this card, making her pro debut. Im not totally sure how good she is skillwise, but it has been fun to watch her fight throughout her amatuer career. She also trains at the mma lab and has shown a very solid grappling game thus far. Like her teammate, Ho, this is basically just an experience fight for her. Even if shes not that great, if she wins fights we will likely see her on dwcs. 

We have the return of LFA 135 title challenger, Allan Begoso. He is also getting basically a setup fight, but it will be good for his career. He hasnt fought since he lost to top prospect richard palencia, but hes only 26 so the time off is good. His wins had a combined 24-5 record, so he is fighting very good competition, has a great ground game, and trains at team alpha male. Hes gonna run through stanford (hopefully i dont curse him ahaha). Hopefully with a few more wins we see him get picked up by some org or get a dwcs shot. 

Next we have what very well could be a LFA title eliminator in Lucas Clay vs Austin Wourms. Clay is someone i rate as a pretty solid prospect and he is coming off of a razor close loss to another very good prospect in Aaron Mckenzie. Clay trains at St. Charles MMA, which is a gym im really fond of, and has fought very good competition, beating guys like mike breeden, JJ Okanovich, and Brant Moore. Despite the ugly record, he is fighting a solid opponent who has some good hype on him, subbing his last three opponents with first round armbars. He is 2-0 in LFA, beating two very good prospects as a massive underdog. However, i think the streak will end here as clay is a very competent grappler in his own right. 

One of my top 5 prospects is fighting on this card in Marcus McGhee. He is very interesting because he has been very inconsistent in his career, with long breaks inbetween fights. But as a pro, he has notched 4 fights in the past two years which is nice. Despite the inexperience and age (hes 34 which is very old for a prospect), he is very impressive to me. He trains at the mma lab which, if you couldnt tell, is a gym i rate highly. He is 4-0 as a pro with 4 kos and has ran through everyone hes fought. He is a pure striker but has good tdd, great balance, and has a pretty good get up game. He excels in the striking however; hes one of those guys you watch and you can just tell he knows what hes doing. Hes always moving and giving you different looks, but also throws incredible volume without gassing. He has beautiful combinations, has tons of power, and mixes shot selection very well. He fights his best test in 6-1n(should be 7-0 but had a dq loss) Rafael do Nascimento. I expect him to dominate and get on dwcs. He may be 34, but he has little damage on the body and is very athletic so i think he can fight for a solid amount of time, hes also hungry which dana likes. 

Now, the main event is a prospect ive been high on for the last year in Alfonso Leyva. He is 5-0 with 5 kos and trains out of entram gym. He competed at the 2016 and 2020 Olympics and has since switched over to MMA. Funny enough, he hasnt used his wrestling at all, instead striking and showing ridiculous power. I would like to see his wrestling in mma, but im sure its obviously very good. He hasnt fought great competition, but gets his stiffest test in 8-1 Daniel reis. I think being in the main event slot, he is a guy who could outright get signed to the ufc, as i think he is super talented, but dwcs would also make sense 

Babilon MMA 

Lukasz Soldaski - 9-1 5 ko 1 sub. Lukasz fought on dwcs last year and unfortunately got ko’ed in the first round. He’s not a world beater but he has looked very solid in Babilon and is fighting for their 205 belt this week. Since losing, he rebounded with a split decision over polish vet, Michal Pasternak. His opponent this week isn’t notable, but he is coming off of a big upset win against formerly undefeated, dwcs and TUF alum Kenneth Bergh.  

Beatdown Promotions 1 

Junior Tafa - 0-0. The brother of UFC heavyweight, Justin tafa makes his mma debut this week. Tafa was supposed to fight on dwcs last year, but that fell through (probably for the best tbh). Now, he’s making his mma debut on the regional scene. Tafa was a former glory kickboxer where he held a record of 23-5 with 19 ko’s. Unlike his brother, tafa is in much better physical shape, standing at 6”3 236 lbs. it will be interesting to see how he looks (he should look good considering he’s fighting a can). Considering they wanted to sign him with no experience, it will be interesting to see what the ufc does should he win 

Elliott Compton - 0-0. Here, we have another former kickboxer making their mma debut in Elliott Compton. CoMpton was a former ranked contender in ONE holding a MT/KB record of 46-14. He is a bit old for someone making their mma debut, at the ripe age of 33, but Compton has been doing bjj since the age of 10 and also owns his own mma gym, so he has some practice with the sport. He is getting a pretty tough debut fight in facing an 11-6 vet, likely because beatdown wants to push him considering he’s gotten into the game late. Should be interesting to see how he looks 

ACC 11 

Assia Miri - 1-0. Assia trains at the MMA Factory in Paris and, like just about everybody at that gym, she has a striking background. Her sport is Muay Thai and she held a record of 103-19-3 and was a two time world champion, all at the very young age of 18 (she may be 19 now but I don’t remember; either way, she’s very young). She looked great in her mma debut, putting on a striking clinic for a 30-27. Now, she gets a big step up fighting a girl who is 4-0 (granted she’s can crushed but still, it’s a good record). Being so young and active in the sport, we could see her on the big stage soon 

Shamrock FC 339 

Dustin Lampros - 7-0 5 ko 1 sub. Dustin competed on TUF 29 last year and lost by ko to vince Murdock (mega can and a loss that has aged like milk). He remains unbeaten as a pro and has aligned with sanford mma for his last few. He is fighting for the shamrock fc 145 belt, unfortunately fighting another not so great fighter (although it is a step up compared to what he’s normally faced). Being a TUF guy, we could probably see him get a dwcs opportunity sooner than later, but he’s really gotta beat someone with a pulse or at least fight in lfa to help get back to where he needs to be. 

MMA Grand Prix 

Delyan Gieorgiev - 1-0 1 ko. Gieorgiev is really promising imo. He is only 1-0 as a pro, but he holds a reported 17-1 ammy career (28-1 according to him) with his only loss being a split decision, so likely could be 18-0 or 29-0 (I believe 29-0 considering a lot of ammy stuff is not reported). Now, he wasn’t just any old amatuer, as he spent the majority of his time in the imaaf, picking up the 2017 European championship, 2017 world championship, 2018 world championship, and the 2019 world bronze medal. Besides immaf, he is also a Bulgarian adcc gold medalist, so he has grappling to go along with his wrestling. He also beat some really good amateurs like enrique hecher sosa, eduard kexel, and juan Carlos izuiqerdo. He fights 2-0 ibrahim idigov. Delyan may be someone to look out for if he keeps his winning ways 

Cedric doumbe- 1-0 1 ko. My favorite prospect fighting this week, Cedric doumbe, continues his foray into mma. The name may ring a bell from his unbelievable kickboxing career, where he was the two time Glory WW champ and was consistently ranked the #1 WW in the world up until he transitioned to mma. Cedric holds a record of 75-7-1 and racked up 5 title defenses as a champ, he also was the WAKO 170 champ, and won titles in K-1. He has many notable wins such as murthel groenhart (2x), nieky holtzken (2x), brad riddell, Jimmy Vienot, karim Ghajji, and thongchai sittsongpeenong. Doumbe has managed to accomplish all this, and hasn’t even reach his prime yet (29 years old at the moment). He is fighting a can, but it’s just someone to get him more experience, I’m sure next fight he will get better opposition. I expect to see Cedric get to the big leagues if he continues winning, he is very good and being so young, he doesn’t need to be rushed either so he could be a beast by the time we see him in a major org 

* Edited at 07.03.2022, 4:11 PM ET *

Also the card isn’t up on tapology yet, but the next jck fight nights actually has some decent talent, zhang shifa from dwcs last year (not a good fighter, but great in the Chinese scene) and Aili muratbek who was supposed to be on road to ufc. If Aili wins, maybe we see him get a dwcs opportunity considering g they wanted him before 

DWCS Update

Heavyweight
Waldo Cortes-Acosta | 6-0 | August 2 vs Danilo Suzart (CONFIRMED)
Danilo Suzart | 9-1 | August 2 vs Waldo Cortes-Acosta (CONFIRMED)
Caio Machado | 6-1-1 | August 9 vs Paulo Renato Jr (CONFIRMED)
Paulo Renato Jr | 10-1 | August 9 vs Caio Machado (CONFIRMED)
Eduardo Neves | 5-0 | August 23 vs Michael Parkin (CONFIRMED)
Michael Parkin | 5-0 | August 23 vs Eduardo Neves (CONFIRMED)
Jimmy Lawson | 4-1 | September 6 vs Kevin Szaflarski (SIGNED, FIGHT NOT CONFIRMED)
Kevin Szaflarski | 11-1 | September 6 vs Jimmy Lawson (SIGNED, FIGHT NOT CONFIRMED)
Austen Lane | 11-3 | September 20 vs Richard Jacobi (CONFIRMED)
Richard Jacobi | 5-0-1 | September 20 vs Austen Lane (CONFIRMED)


Light Heavyweight
Anton Turkalj | 7-0 | July 26 vs Acacio Dos Santos (CONFIRMED)
Acacio Dos Santos | 14-4 | July 26 vs Anton Turkalj (CONFIRMED)
Rodolfo Bellato | 8-1 | September 6 vs Vitor Petrino (CONFIRMED)
Vitor Petrino | 6-0 | September 6 vs Rodolfo Bellato (CONFIRMED)


Middleweight
Joe Pyfer | 8-2 | July 26 vs Ozzy Diaz (CONFIRMED)
Ozzy Diaz | 7-1 | July 26 vs Joe Pyfer (CONFIRMED)
Bo Nickal | 1-0 | August 9 vs Zachary Borrego (CONFIRMED)
Zachary Borrego  | 3-0 | August 9 vs Bo Nickal (CONFIRMED)
Claudio Ribeiro | 9-2 | August 16 vs Ivan Valenzuela (CONFIRMED)
Ivan Valenzuela | 8-1 | August 16 vs Claudio Ribeiro (CONFIRMED)
Matez Penaz | 6-0 | August 30 vs SD Dumas (CONFIRMED)
SD Dumas | 6-0 | August 30 vs Matez Penaz (CONFIRMED)
Ikram Aliskerov | 12-1 | September 13 vs Mario Sousa (CONFIRMED)
Mario Sousa | 14-2 | September 13 vs Ikram Aliskerov (CONFIRMED)
Leon Aliu | 10-1 | September 20 vs Brunno Ferreira (CONFIRMED)
Brunno Ferreira  | 7-0 | September 20 vs Leon Aliu (CONFIRMED)


Welterweight
Billy Goff | 7-2 | August 2 vs Shimon Smotritsky (CONFIRMED)
Shimon Smotritsky | 8-1 | August 2 vs Billy Goff (CONFIRMED)
Amiran Gogoladze | 14-2 | August 23 vs Darrius Flowers (CONFIRMED)
Darrius Flowers | 11-5-1 | August 23 vs Amiran Gogoladze (CONFIRMED)
Gabriel Bonfim | 12-0 | vs Felix Klinkhammer (SIGNED, FIGHT NOT CONFIRMED)
Felix Klinkhammer | 8-0 | vs Gabriel Bonfim (SIGNED, FIGHT NOT CONFIRMED)


Lightweight
Charlie Campbell | 8-1 | August 2 vs Chris Duncan (CONFIRMED)
Chris Duncan | 6-1 | August 2 vs Charlie Campbell (CONFIRMED)
Mateusz Rebecki | 15-1 | August 9 vs Rodrigo Lidio (CONFIRMED)
Rodrigo Lidio | 12-2 | August 9 vs Mateusz Rebecki (CONFIRMED)
Esteban Ribovics | 10-0 | August 16 vs Thomas Paull (CONFIRMED)
Thomas Paull | 11-3 | August 16 vs Esteban Ribovics (CONFIRMED)
Ahmad Hassanzada | 8-1 | August 16 vs Nazim Sadykhov (CONFIRMED)
Nazim Sadykhov | 6-1 | August 16 vs Ahmad Hassanzada (CONFIRMED)
Ismael Bonfim | 17-3 | vs Nariman Abbasov (SIGNED, FIGHT NOT CONFIRMED)
Nariman Abbasov  | 28-3 | vs Ismael Bonfim (SIGNED, FIGHT NOT CONFIRMED)


Featherweight
Connor Matthews | 5-0 | August 2 vs Francis Marshall (CONFIRMED)
Francis Marshall | 5-0 | August 2 vs Connor Matthews (CONFIRMED)
Anvar boynazarov | 3-0 | August 9 vs Erick Silva (SIGNED, FIGHT NOT CONFIRMED)
Erick Silva | 8-1 | August 9 vs Anvar boynazarov(SIGNED, FIGHT NOT CONFIRMED)
Kaleio Romero| 6-1 | (SIGNED) 
Emiliano Linares| 7-1 | (SIGNED) 


Bantamweight
Willian Souza | 11-1 | July 26 vs Farid Baharat (CONFIRMED)
Farid Baharat | 8-0 | July 26 vs Willian Souza (CONFIRMED)
Jack Cartwright | 10-0 | August 16 vs Jose Johnson (CONFIRMED)
Jose Johnson | 14-7 | August 16 vs Jack Cartwright (CONFIRMED)
Cameron Saaiman | 5-0 | August 23 vs Josh Wang-Kim (CONFIRMED)
Josh Wang-Kim | 5-1 | August 23 vs Cameron Saaiman  (CONFIRMED)
Roy Echevarria | 7-0 | September 20 vs Jafel Filho (CONFIRMED)
Jafel Filho | 13-2 | September 20 vs Roy Echevarria (CONFIRMED)


Flyweight
Clayton Carpenter | 5-0 | July 26 vs Steve Erceg (CONFIRMED)
Steve Erceg | 8-1 | July 26 vs Clayton Carpenter (CONFIRMED)
Andres Luna Martinetti | 12-0 | July 26 vs Alessandro Costa (CONFIRMED)
Alessandro Costa | 10-2 | July 26 vs Andres Luna Martinetti (CONFIRMED)
Vinicius Salvador | 13-4 | August 2 vs Shannon Ross (CONFIRMED)
Shannon Ross | 13-5 | August 2 vs Vinicius Salvador (CONFIRMED)
Edgar Chairez | 8-2 | August 9 (SIGNED, FIGHT NOT CONFIRMED)
Erisson Ferreira | 11-1 | August 23 vs Jesus Santos Aguilar (CONFIRMED)
Jesus Santos Aguilar | 7-1 | August 23 vs Erisson Ferreira (CONFIRMED)
Joao Elias | 17-3-1| September 27 vs Rafael Ramos (CONFIRMED)
Rafael Ramos | 10-0| September 27 vs Joao Elias (CONFIRMED)


WBantamweight
Claudia Leite | 7-2 | August 16 vs Hailey Cowan (CONFIRMED)
Hailey Cowan | 6-2 | August 16 vs Claudia Leite (CONFIRMED)


WFlyweight
Nayara Maia | 6-0-1| September 6 vs Tereza Bleda (CONFIRMED)
Tereza Bleda | 5-0 | September 6 vs Nayara Maia (CONFIRMED)
Luana Santos | 3-0 | (SIGNED) 


Strawweight
Sandra Lavado | 10-2 | August 9 vs Karolina Wojcik (CONFIRMED)
Karolina Wojcik | 8-2 | August 9 vs Sandra Lavado (CONFIRMED)
Rayanne Amanda | 11-5 | August 23 vs Denise Gomes (CONFIRMED)
Denise Gomes | 5-1 | August 23 vs Rayanne Amanda (CONFIRMED)
Viktoriya Dudakova | 5-0| August 30 vs Maria silva(CONFIRMED)
Maria Silva | 8-0 | August 30 vs Viktoriya Dudakova (CONFIRMED)
Bruna Brasil | 7-2-1| September 13 (SIGNED, FIGHT NOT CONFIRMED)
Marnic Mann | 5-0| (SIGNED) 


TOTAL RECAP: 80/100 SIGNED
Missing at least 1 flyweight, 1 wflyweight

Jaqueline Amorim is also signed and it's confirmed on twitter.

She’s actually not. Got confirmed to me on Twitter; she decided to get more experience first 

* Edited at 07.04.2022, 10:09 AM ET *

When was this? My latest update comes from June 30th when it was reported she signed on.

Shawn bitter told me yesterday 

If true that okay because there us still Laura fontoura, Josefine Knuttson, Dakota Ditcheva, Jamie Horth Wessels, Bella Mir as possible signings.

True, idk why knutsson hasn’t been signed yet 

I would guess it's because she's 4-0 probably needs another fight or two. Even if shes ready UFC is usually hesitant to sign fighters like that because after ine or two losses there record looks like trash.

Funny story, for a while I suspected you were Shawn Bitter because his twitter posts and your news/opinions seemed to line up.

Hahahaha no I am not sadly