Australia's own Jake Matthews, now a ten-plus year veteran of the UFC, faced off with the most active welterweight in promotion history, Neil Magny, at UFC Perth on Saturday. Matthews was finally getting his wish as he had called for a fight with Magny on multiple occasions. Magny holds the record for both most fights and most wins at 170lbs in the UFC, having joined the promotion in 2013 off a stint on The Ultimate Fighter.
Junior Tafa, Oban Elliott, and now Justin Tafa - UFC Perth just can't seem to hold its card together. During Friday's UFC Perth official weigh-in, heavyweight Louie Sutherland hit the scales at 259lbs, successfully making weight for his main card bout with Justin Tafa. The New Zealand-born Tafa, however, had not hit the scales come the close of the weigh-in window, with promotion officials announcing that he was off the card due to illness.
Santiago Luna made his promotional debut at Noche UFC in San Antonio on Saturday, facing off against Quang Le in a bantamweight bout. The pairing kicked off the event's main card, and had been Frankensteined together after Le's original opponent, David Martinez, was shifted to a fight with Rob Font (Le himself was replacing Carlos Vera in the Marinez fight).
Puelles (12-4), once seen as a rising submission threat, has stumbled in his last two fights and needs a decisive win to reclaim momentum. Losses to Dan Hooker and Fares Ziam aren't bad, but a third consecutive loss will have him with his back against the wall. Silva ((13-5) the veteran striker with a reputation for durability and power, enters hopeful that his experience and stand-up skills can outlast Puelles' grappling game in what promises to be a tactical but intense clash.
Lopes is in been there, done that territory here. His own impressive rise up the 145lb division took him to a title fight with Alexander Volkanovski earlier this year. Now, he looks to bounce back from a loss there, an adopted Mexican of sorts originally from Brazil, headlining a card celebrating Mexican independence and the nation's fighting spirit. While Diego Lopes might relate to Jean Silva on one front, he doesn't fully understand his latest opponent.
It's a very long road to get here. I'm internalizing everything because I see everybody - we say something in Brazil that's very popular. We say 'we don't have to pay taxes on having dreams.' So everybody has dreams, everybody has a lot of dreams and aspirations. And I am blessed enough to have worked myself so hard to be able to be living my dream,
Former UFC strawweight Cynthia Calvillo has announced her retirement from mixed martial arts. Calvillo (10-6-1), who competed for the UFC from 2017 to 2023, was last in action a year ago, winning the HEX women's flyweight championship in regional action. In her heyday, she was considered a contender at 115lbs, winning her first three bouts with the company before running into former (and future) women's strawweight champion Carla Esparza. More wins would follow that setback, with Calvillo going 4-0-1 over her next five fights.
Sam Hughes opened up the action moving forward, taking some big, wild swings at times and forcing Bannon to backpedal. Things settled down after a moment, Bannon went after a takedown; that was stuffed, and "Sampage" Hughes then landed her own. Working inside Bannon's closed guard, Hughes was tight to the body, without much space to work. Hughes tried to posture up, while Bannon tied things up,
Brett Okamoto has reported on mixed martial arts and boxing at ESPN since 2010. He has covered all of the biggest events in combat sports during that time, including in-depth interviews and features with names such as Dana White, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Conor McGregor, Nate Diaz, Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao and Georges St-Pierre. He was also a producer on the 30 for 30 film: "Chuck and Tito,", which looked back at the careers and rivalry of Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz. He lives in Las Vegas, and is an avid, below-average golfer in his spare time.