Fight Announcement Thread

[Kfogg1991]

Yeah I've been seeing such belief and all of a sudden talks to how much of a test gane will be for Tom for this first (but not first is it) undisputed title defence. 

I watched his sit-down with Ariel and genuinely it is fucking disgusting how they have treated him and the utter disrespect given to a man who has been respectful/professional and in his prime made to sit out and not be doing his intended regular fights while Dana fed Jones and his Trainwreck career and go offering bigger money than any fighter has been offered just cos its jones, and they give the news its been for nothing and oh yeah we're making you out official undisputed heavyweight champion.....by learning the same as us all watching the press conference with a shoddy follow-up call as Dana continues the presser.

The fact that Tom is such a nice guy and cares about being the best not what the title will bring him benefit/monetary wise was dumb luck deep down he must be fucking crushed this was his culmination of his lifelong work to be at the top of the mountain in the biggest and best company in the world 

 

Jesus Christ 

[wandshogun09]

Eubank Jr vs Benn 2 set for Sep 20th. Article says they’re looking at Spurs or Wembley.

I’ll watch and no doubt be swept up in it again but I’m not feeling the rematch so much. Obviously it’s no surprise they’re doing it, it was common knowledge there was a rematch clause and the way the first fight played out it’s an easy money spinner. So I’m not shocked in the slightest, this was always gonna happen. But it felt like that first fight really should’ve been a one-off. And they’re not likely to top how good it was last time.

Hopefully Eubank goes 2-0 and puts this shit to bed. 

[Egg Shen]

Anthony Yarde's utterly bizarre career path continues...

 

[Gooner]

https://x.com/ringmagazine/status/1940975456599113874/photo/1

I'm looking forward already to the whole card and hopefully get at least couple more decent fights added to the bill. It's just a shame it is likely to be on PPV like most any decent shows on paper are. 

Edited July 4, 2025 by Gooner
Adding

[Egg Shen]

Uber-elite Heavyweight grappler Marcus Almeida has signed with the UFC. He's 35 so needs to get a shift on, but could be interesting.

 

[Carbomb]

Should put him in a tag-team with Jailton - "The Grappling Almeidas".

[wandshogun09]

Not ‘announced’ officially yet but…

Red Corner are a legit source aren’t they? Apparently Dana’s gonna make an announcement today about something or other. Looks like he might’ve been beaten to it.

It was blatantly obvious this was gonna be the fight as soon as they announced Alexander Volkov vs Jailton Almeida. Just by process of elimination, Gane was the only other real option. And the Abu Dhabi card makes sense with it being two Europeans, this will air in prime time over here. Get ready for them to whack this on Box Office. You know it’s coming. 

[Egg Shen]

Yeah, this has BT PPV written all over it.

[Bruce85]

3 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

Not ‘announced’ officially yet but…

Red Corner are a legit source aren’t they? Apparently Dana’s gonna make an announcement today about something or other. Looks like he might’ve been beaten to it.

It was blatantly obvious this was gonna be the fight as soon as they announced Alexander Volkov vs Jailton Almeida. Just by process of elimination, Gane was the only other real option. And the Abu Dhabi card makes sense with it being two Europeans, this will air in prime time over here. Get ready for them to whack this on Box Office. You know it’s coming. 

Just been confirmed by Dana on instagram live, better open the wallets for the ppv I guess. 
 

He also announced the main and co-main for 320 

Ankalaev vs Pereira

Dvalishvili Vs Sandhagen

 

[wandshogun09]

Here we go…

[Egg Shen]

[Kfogg1991]

We're getting two retrains and one new I think Alex gets his belt back 

Corey is getting spanked

Tom keeps his record going under 2 minutes 

[Carbomb]

Difficult to say. I'm leaning towards Ankalaev - but he's one single second in time away from being undefeated. Plus, that defeat was to a grappler; historically he does well against strikers.

I think you're right about Merab/Cory. Merab just looks like he's on another level right now.

Aspinall/Gane - well, I wouldn't bet against Big Tom, but it's HW, and Gane is one of the actually good heavies. He's not even "the best of a bad bunch", he's genuinely good, even with that brain-fart against Jones. I'm leaning towards Aspinall based on how he well he's dealt with the other top heavyweights, but anything can happen in this weight class.

[jimufctna24]

Ankalaev has been known to be very vulnerable to leg kicks and take too long to attempt takedowns  (see the Blachowicz bout)

Based on that performance I didn't think he matched up with Pereira all that well, but Ankalaev actually surprised me on the night, constantly advancing, hand checking Pereira's lead hand and attempting takedowns. I still felt it was very close fight when scored round by round (you could have made a case for 48-47 to Pereira), but over the full 25 minutes Ankalaev clearly got the better of the fight imo (he dominated rounds 2 and 4 from what I recall)

Based on gut feeling and little more I think Ankalaev wins the rematch, but it's a tricky fight to call imo. 

Edited July 23, 2025 by jimufctna24

[Egg Shen]

Think we may actually see Tom leave the first round in this one. I kind of hope we do as well, I want to see what else he has in the locker.