The lightweight division is the UFC’s most prestigious. It’s housed some of the most dominant and highest-skilled champions in the sport’s history and it’s always been stacked with title contenders.
Tom Aspinall will officially become the longest-reigning interim champion in UFC history April 29, passing Renan Barao’s record of 534 days. The end to Aspinall’s streak is nowhere in sight.
It’s no secret that the UFC awards some privileges to their money-making superstars. Israel Adesanya was granted an immediate rematch for the middleweight belt after suffering the worst loss of his career to a short-notice Sean Strickland.
It’s not often that the UFC alerts its fans of an impending announcement. So when they took to social media to announce that president and CEO Dana White had big news on Wednesday night, over 40,000 people tuned in to the boss’s Instagram Live, where he detailed a series of landscape-altering matchups alongside other news.
A two-week span between UFC cards can often feel like an eternity. Fights are rarely announced, promotional material is hard to come by and waiting for the first fight on the next card feels like waiting for Christmas as a child. This week was definitely an exception.
Merab Dvalishvili’s UFC career got off to a rocky start at the end of 2017 — two consecutive losses introduced him to the promotion. He has not lost in 15 UFC contests since.
“This is karma.” One of the most powerful lines in Donald Trump’s victory speech last Wednesday morning was not spoken by a politician, a campaign aide or even a family member. Instead, it was UFC CEO Dana White who made the remark.
A new champion was crowned and another retained their belt in Salt Lake City, Utah, at UFC 307: Pereira vs. Rountree Jr. Raquel Pennington was dethroned by Julianna Peña in a split-decision loss, and Alex Pereira defeated Khalil Rountree Jr. by technical knockout in the fourth round of their main event fight.
This past Saturday, one of the best heavyweights in the world just barely eked out a split-decision victory over a debutant. Tyson Fury — the World Boxing Championship heavyweight champion — had to go the distance against Francis Ngannou, a man boxing professionally for the first time in his life.
