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UFC Returns To Australia For UFC 284 In Perth

The Octagon Heads West For UFC 284 As UFC Returns To Australia

OCT. 11, 2022

UFC, the world’s premier mixed martial arts promotion, today announced its return to Australia for UFC 284 at Perth’s RAC Arena on Sunday, February 12, 2023.

In partnership with the Western Australian Government, through Tourism Western Australia, this event marks UFC’s return to Perth with a Pay-Per-View event following the success of UFC 221: ROMERO vs. ROCKHOLD in February 2018 in front of a capacity crowd.

For those who don’t want to miss a second of the action, fans can start locking in their plans and securing their tickets early as UFC Travel Packages are now available to purchase. Head to www.sportsnetholidays.com/UFC284 to book your spot.

Fight fans wanting to keep up to date with all further bout and ticketing information for UFC 284 can register their interest at www.ufc.com/perth.

This highlight on the Australian summer calendar marks UFC’s highly anticipated return to Aussie shores since October 2019, when the global UFC attendance record was set at UFC 243: WHITTAKER vs. ADESANYA at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium.

“Australia, we’re back!” said UFC President, Dana White. “I’m so pumped we are returning to Perth for UFC 284 – it was an amazing host city in 2018 and this February we’re bringing a stacked card headlined with a championship fight. Australian fans are some of the best in the world and they’ve had to wait a long time for this. I can’t wait to put on another massive show for them. I will see you there!”

Helping make the announcement today at RAC Arena was UFC featherweight champion and No.1 Men’s Pound-for-Pound athlete in the world, Alex Volkanovski; Peter Kloczko, Vice President of Australia and New Zealand, UFC; and the Hon. Roger Cook, Deputy Premier and Minister for Tourism, Western Australia.

"Australia has a real appetite for UFC and the event attracts spectators to Perth from across the country,” said Hon. Roger Cook, Deputy Premier and Minister for Tourism Western Australia.

“The McGowan Government, through Tourism WA, is proud to support the return of this event back to Perth, after the huge success of the 2018 event. Hosting UFC at RAC Arena is expected to attract thousands of people to WA, who will patronise our local accommodation and hospitality business, and inject millions into our State’s economy.”

Peter Kloczko, UFC Vice President Australia and New Zealand added, “We are absolutely thrilled to finally be returning to Australia. Our athletes, fans and partners have been extremely patient to have a UFC event back on Australian soil. I want to thank the McGowan Government and Tourism Western Australia for their continued support for UFC, MMA and making UFC 284 in Perth possible.”

Since 2010, UFC has presented 15 live events in Australia, including sold-out shows at Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena, Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena, Perth Arena, Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Adelaide Entertainment Centre and Gold Coast Convention Centre. Collectively, these events have seen over 265,000 fans in attendance and millions worldwide watching on PPV and broadcast television. The six host cities to date – Sydney, Gold Coast, Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth – have produced a cumulative gross gate of more than $45 million and hundreds of millions more in economic impact.

For more information or current fight news, visit ufc.com.

Information regarding media accreditation for the event will be sent out at a later date.

Paddy Pimblett - December 2022

“I got so much stick for picking Charles against Islam, which is crazy because a lot of people picked Charles but still on social media posts and stuff oh you picked Charles. Yeah, cause Charles had fought the better people and I thought Charles was going to win,” Pimblett said at UFC 282 media day. “Can’t I have a prediction anymore? People saying you haven’t given props to Islam, I have. He looked unbelievable that night, he absolutely dominated Charles. I would’ve put up a better fight that night than Charles did, to be honest.”

Danny Sabatello on Bellator 289 - 7th December 2022

“I’m absolutely f*****g pumped. The second that Higo fight ended I was already looking forward to smashing Stots’ face,” Sabatello said on Just Scrap Radio on BJPENN.com. “It has been a little bit of a while, the Higo fight was months and months ago. I have been able to zone in on some new techniques that I will be able to showcase in this fight against Stots. I’m more than pumped to go f**k this guy up.”

Against Stots, Sabatello is confident he won’t just win but will finish the interim champ.

Danny Sabatello doesn’t think Raufeon Stots is that good and is confident he is better everywhere. With that, the plan is to control the fight and dominate him en route to a violent stoppage win.

“I just think I’m going to showcase my skills as I’m better than him in every area,” Sabatello said. “If you look at my last fight against Higo, it was a very dangerous fight because he can snatch up your neck or get you in an armbar or leg lock at any moment. With a guy like Stots, I can very much open up and take risks and chances because the risk vs. reward is so rewarding because he doesn’t have many finishing capabilities. I think it will be a very exciting fight. I think I can open up more and I see it being one of the Fights of the Year.

“I’m glad it’s five rounds of maybe pure anarchy. But, I do think I can finish him before that fifth round… I’m going to expose him,” Sabatello continued. “I’m not just going to beat him. It won’t be a win in my book if I just beat him, it will be a win in my book if I slice him open and give him stitches and scars and just dominate him.”

If Sabatello does finish Stots, he’s confident he would beat the winner of Magomed Magomedov and Pachy Mix to win the grand prix. After that, he would then face Sergio Pettis which is a fight he expects Pettis to not want.

“Yup, absolutely. I don’t think he will want to fight me. But, this shit does end with Sergio Pettis,” Sabatello said. “I think Bellator will have my back when he doesn’t want to fight me and fakes another injury or whatever he does, Bellator will say you have to fight him or give up the belt. I hopefully will fight him eventually but he knows I will f**k him up,” Sabatello said.

UFC News: Anderson Silva

Ed Soares, the manager for former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, told MMAjunkie.com that "The Spider" has been cleared to return to training MMA. Silva broke his leg last December when Chris Weidman checked a kick.

"We've talked with the UFC, and we'll see what they come up with," said Soares, when asked when Silva might fight again.

Silva (33-6) has lost his last two - both two Weidman - after setting a UFC record with 16 straight wins. His 2,457-day title reign remains the longest in promotion history.

Many, though, wondered if Silva would be able to return from such a devastating injury. The 39-year-old has kept fans up-to-date on his progress, posting numerous videos and messages on social media sites.

- Former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos has suffered a hand injury and will not be able to meet Stipe Miocic later this month at The Ultimate Fighter Brazil 3 Finale. The UFC confirmed the news, which was first reported by Combate.

Dos Santos (16-3) was looking to get back into the win column after a 2013 loss to Cain Velasquez for the UFC heavyweight title. Two of his three career losses have come to Velasquez. "Cigano" is expected to miss several weeks of training with the injury.

So far, the UFC has yet to announce plans for Miocic (11-1) or the main event role at the May 31 card from Sao Paulo. Miocic posted on Twitter that he is "bummed about the news. Wishing dos Santos a quick recovery. Not sure where things stand, but whatever the UFC wants me to do I'm game."

Website

UFC.com

HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from Bellator 288 and UFC Fight Night: Nzechukwu vs. Cutelaba, and Anthony “Rumble” Johnson Dies
(MMA Torch)

By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch Senior Columnist

Bellator 288 and UFC Fight Night: Nzechukwu vs. Cutelaba were both
this weekend and featured some interesting fights. The Bellator card
featured two title fights while the UFC card was hurt by injury. Who
won and who lost? Let’s get to the rundown.

Bellator 288
GOOD- Roman Faraldo vs. Levan Chokheli
Chokheli gets an early takedown but Faraldo is able to stand, only to
get hurt by some Chokheli punches. Faraldo reverses a Chokheli
takedown attempt and they spend the rest of the first round on the
mat. The second round begins with both men swinging. They go to the
mat but neither fighter can gain a real advantage. Back to the feet
and Faraldo drops Chokheli with a right hand but can’t finish him.
Faraldo remains active and is landing a lot of strikes but gets
deducted a point for grabbing the fence and the second round ends. The
third round opens with them trading a few strikes. Chokheli gets a
takedown and glues himself to Faraldo and that’s how the last few
minutes of the fight go. Chokheli wins the decision from the judges
and improves to 11-2 with 1 No Contest while Faraldo drops to 8-1 and
tastes defeat after winning his first 8 fights. Good win for Chokheli.

Daniel James stops Tyrell FortuneGOOD- Daniel Weichel vs. Timur Khizriev
They exchange strikes throughout the first round. Things heat up a bit
in the second round, as Weichel is barely missing with his big strikes
while Khizriev is able to connect but without a ton of power and we
move to the third round. Weichel is cut under his left eye but the
third round is pretty similar to the previous ones, neither man is
connecting with anything dangerous so we go to the scorecards and
Khizriev wins the decision. Khizriev remains undefeated at 12-0 while
Weichel drops to 42-14. Good win for Khizriev.

GOOD/BAD- Patricky “Pitbull” Freire vs. Usman Nurmagomedov
Freire was defending his Bellator Lightweight Championship here but
didn’t seem interested in doing anything in the first round. I’ve
never understood fighters who do this. I know they’re trying to
conserve energy for the later rounds but putting yourself in a hole
early isn’t a very good strategy. Anyway, the first round ends without
much happening. The second round opens with Nurmagomedov getting a
takedown and he starts beating the hell out of Pitbull. Elbows,
hammerfists, and punches to the body batter the champion. Right at the
end of the round Nurmagomedov turned it on and nearly ended the fight
but Pitbull survived. If he had started that sooner things would have
been over. The third round is another boring round where nothing
happens. The fourth round sees a few fleeting moments of excitement
but is overall another boring round. The fifth round finally sees a
little more action as Nurmagomedov gets a takedown and works some
ground-and-pound. Pitbull can’t get up and that’s how the fight ends.
Usman Nurmagomedov is your new Bellator Lightweight Champion and
improves to a perfect 16-0 while Freire drops to 24-11. Good win for
Nurmagomedov.

GOOD- Vadim Nemkov vs. Corey Anderson
This was the Finals of the Bellator Light Heavyweight World Grand Prix
and Nemkov was defending his Bellator Light Heavyweight Championship.
Nemkov works his jab early and often, with Anderson returning fire.
Nemkov drops Anderson with a spinning wheel kick but can’t finish him
before the first round ends. The second round starts with more
striking exchanges but neither fighter can get a real advantage. The
third round opens with Nemkov continuing to stuff Anderson’s takedown
attempts. They’re exchanging more strikes, with Nemkov seemingly
coming out ahead but it’s very close. The fourth round is more of the
same. Anderson just cannot get a takedown and Nemkov is battering him
with strikes as he tries. The fifth round continues that, as Nemkov
lands a lot of kicks. We go to the scorecards and Nemkov wins the
decision, retaining his Bellator Light Heavyweight Championship and
improving to 16-2 with 1 No Contest while Anderson drops to 16-6 with
1 No Contest. Good win for Nemkov.

UFC Fight Night: Nzechukwu vs. Cutelaba
GOOD- Charles Johnson vs. Zhalgas Zhumagulov
They exchange strikes early, with Zhumagulov working the body. Johnson
gets a takedown and they exchange more strikes. The second round
starts with leg kicks from Zhumagulov, who’s the more active fighter
right now. Zhumagulov with the takedown but the round ends. The third
round sees Zhumagulov land a ton of low kicks while Johnson goes
upstairs more. It’s really close but Johnson wins the Split Decision
and improves to 12-3 while Zhumagulov drops to 14-8 and has lost 3
straight fights. Good win for Johnson.

GOOD- Jack Della Maddalena stops Danny Roberts
Della Maddalena beats up Roberts and drops him early. However, Roberts
gets up only to eat more strikes from Della Maddalena. He pours it on
until the referee is forced to jump in to stop the fight not quite
three and a half minutes into the first round. Della Maddalena
improves to 13-2 and has won 13 straight fights while Roberts drops to
18-7. Good win for Della Maddalena.

GOOD- Muslim Salikhov stops Andre Fialho
They trade kicks early before mixing in some punches. Salikhov gets a
takedown but Fialho quickly gets up. Fialho works the body and lands a
nice uppercut before the first round ends. The second round sees
Salikhov open up with a spinning back kick and jabs to the body. Then
he lands a spinning back fist and works the body some more before
landing a good hook. Salikhov is moving much more smoothly here. He
staggers Fialho with a Superman punch and follows him to the ground
but doesn’t do much before the round ends. The third round sees a
spinning wheel kick and some punches from Salikhov force the referee
to stop the fight just over a minute into the third round. Salikhov
improves to 19-3 while Fialho drops to 16-6 with 1 No Contest. Good
win for Salikhov.

GOOD- Waldo Cortes-Acosta vs. Chase Sherman
They trade kicks early before mixing in punches. Cortes-Acosta lands
some punishing strikes but Sherman is fighting back as the first round
ends. The second round opens with more of the same. Cortes-Acosta is
landing some big strikes but Sherman’s fighting him off. Sherman’s
hurt but he manages to fight back and survive the round. The third
round sees Sherman continuing to fight. He’s not backing down, despite
the punishment from Cortes-Acosta he’s absorbed. Things have slowed
down but they’re still fighting hard. It goes to decision and
Cortes-Acosta wins to remain undefeated at 9-0 while Sherman drops to
16-11. Good win for Cortes-Acosta.

GOOD- Kennedy Nzechukwu stops Ion Cutelaba
Cutelaba comes out firing and hurts Nzechukwu. He gets a quick
takedown but Nzechukwu gets up. Cutelaba lands a throw but Nzechukwu
fights him off and the first round ends. The second round starts with
them trading strikes. Cutelaba shoots into a knee but survives.
Nzechukwu then knees Cutelaba again and finishes him off with punches
to force the referee to jump in to stop the fight one minute into the
second round. Nzechukwu improves to 11-3 while Cutelaba drops to
16-9-1 with 1 No Contest and has lost 3 straight fights. Good win for
Nzechukwu.

*************

Anthony “Rumble” Johnson died last Sunday at the incredibly young age
of 38 years old. He fought in a lot of different weight classes but
one constant was his amazing knockout power. His MMA record was 23-6,
with 17 of those wins coming by Knockout. He fought in a lot of
different promotions and knocked out a lot of guys, 12 of them in the
first round. It’s hard to pick just one highlight from his career but
knocking out Glover Teixiera in 13 seconds or Alexander Gustafsson in
Sweden in 2:15 immediately springs to mind. He was an exciting fighter
that I used to love to watch fight. I would count him among my
favorite fighters. May he rest in peace.

My new fantasy book is now out. It’s called Kingdom of Zarias: A Fight For
Survival. It’s the third book in my epic fantasy Kingdom of Zarias
series and follows the adventures of the Summers siblings as they
fight to defend the world from an evil villain named Galren. This book
also introduces lots of other characters as the scope of the world
grows. 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 new Compendium book about the Kingdom of Zarias
series- KoZ Compendium
Thank you very much, have a good day.

UFC 284 tickets on sale to public Friday 18 November
(Fight News Australia)

With the card quickly filling up, UFC 284 tickets will go to sale to the public this Friday, 18 November at 10am AWST (Perth time) via Ticketek.

Pre-sale tickets were made available for ‘Ultimate Package’ UFC Fight Club members on Wednesday. They will need to use their UFC Fight Club login to access the code while those that signed up at https://www.ufc.com/perth should expect to receive their unique code to purchase tickets from Thursday 10am AWST.

The remainder will need to wait for the general public sale commencing at 10am AWST on Friday.

UFC 284 will be headlined by a UFC lightweight title fight as featherweight champ and pound-for-pound number one, Alex Volkanovski steps up to face the lightweight champion, Islam Mackhachev.

SBW stunned! 48yo MMA great Mark Hunt ends cross-code star’s unbeaten run in boxing boilover - 6th November 2022
(Fox Sports)

MMA great Mark Hunt has stunned Sonny Bill Williams with a fourth-round knockout of the cross-code superstar in their boxing clash in Sydney.

Hunt was a major underdog given he is 48 years old and lost to Paul Gallen back in 2020.

Williams in contrast came in unbeaten, having been 9-0 in his professional boxing career, last beating Barry Hall back in March. He is also 11 years younger.

But that meant little given Hunt’s incredible power which was all the former UFC star, who has battled greats like Brock Lesnar, Alistair Overeem and Frank Mir, needed.

After three rounds he had landed just 18 of his 73 thrown punches, whereas Williams had landed 38 of 105.

But the momentum swung Hunt’s way in the fourth round after a few body shots with Williams’ corner screaming “Move, Sonny, move! Dance, Sonny!”

On commentary Stan’s Andy Raymond yelled: “Sonny Bill is down.

“He’s hurt. Against the odds, Sonny Bill Williams has been dropped.

“His eyes are not clear... Mark Hunt, in his final fight, stops the legend that is Sonny Bill Williams. What a fight.”

He fell to the floor and the fight stopped briefly before more big punches from Hunt saw the referee call it off.

Hunt declared: “Heavyweights pack a lot of power, a shot like that could have ended anyone.”

Williams conceded he could follow Hunt into retirement.

“At this stage I’m not even sure if I’ll fight again. That could be it for me, too,” Williams said.

“We’ll see what unfolds over the next few weeks.”

Asked if he was genuinely considering retirement, Williams replied: “Yeah, for sure. I’m 37, I’ve always said that if I cop a lot of punishment, that could be it.

“I wasn’t trying to be the heavyweight champion of the world, I was just out there doing my best. Mark read my punches, they were obviously a bit too telegraphed, he caught me and that was it... we’ll see what the future holds.

“If this is the end of my sporting career, it’s been a good one.”

Hunt had dropped around 30 kilograms in preparation for his farewell fight and it paid off, with the MMA great reminding the sporting world of his deadly power.

“Wow, that was unbelievable,” Australian boxing great Danny Green said.