UFC Freedom 250: Topuria vs Gaethje - Jun 14 🇺🇸

[wandshogun09]

OK, a rare Sunday card. No idea how this show is gonna look, or work, or if we’re gonna get a staged assassination attempt between fights or what. But this White House card is fast approaching…

PARAMOUNT+ CARD
Ilia Topuria©️vs Justin Gaethje - Lightweight Title 

Alex Pereira vs Ciryl Gane - Interim Heavyweight Title 

Sean O’Malley vs Aiemann Zahabi 

Derrick Lewis vs Josh Hokit 

Mauricio Ruffy vs Michael Chandler 

Bo Nickal vs Kyle Daukaus 

Diego Lopes vs Steve Garcia 

 

Where do you start with this? First off, the card itself is pretty great, I reckon. Not the ‘greatest card ever’ or any of that cobblers but any show featuring a Topuria/Pereira double header is a bit special, right? There was the usual negativity when it was announced but you always get that with these hyped up events. The key is to never put too much stock into Dana’s promises. I like that it’s only a seven fight card. Should be a breeze to watch if you’re only interested in the fights themselves and not all the other bollocks which is no doubt gonna pollute this card. Just whack it on the next day and skip all the Trump worship shite.

This image was put out a while back depicting what the show is supposedly gonna look like. We’ll see. Still think it’s absolute madness that with everything going on in the world right now, they’re doing this shit. And let’s be honest, this is not really a show to celebrate 250 years of the ol’ USA. Not really. This show got moved to this specific date for one reason. It’s Trump’s 80th birthday. It’s all a big ego thing. No clue how it’s gonna work with the crowd, how many they can even let in etc. But chances are there’s not gonna be many actual fight fans in attendance so the atmosphere might be shit as well. It’s just gonna be Trump’s cronies, Epstein people and whoever Dana wants there. I’m off work that week so I could actually stay up and watch this live on the Sunday night if I wanted. Fuck that though. No way I’d be able to stomach sitting through all the political arse licking. Just gonna watch it on the Monday and skip everything bar the fights.

 

 

Ilia Topuria vs Justin Gaethje headlines then. As hard as it’s gonna be to ignore on a card like this, I’ll try to keep the political bollocks to a minimum. But, while I do like Gaethje, given the current climate I have to admit, there is something oddly satisfying about the likely ending of this show being the son of two immigrants ironing out an American on the White House lawn. Because that’s what’s gonna happen here, isn’t it? Just can’t see past Topuria sparking him in brutal fashion. And I actually do hope Topuria wins. Nothing against Gaethje personally but fuck it. Sod the star spangled circle jerk. It’s not the ideal fight really and I don’t think it was the UFC’s first or even second choice of headliners. By all accounts this was supposed to be Topuria against Islam Makhachev. That fell apart due to Makhachev picking up a hand injury. And of course, the second choice was clearly Topuria against Paddy Pimblett. It was so obvious the UFC wanted Paddy to beat Gaethje in January. Gaethje is third choice. But I guess it makes sense to have a Yank headline this one. Even if he is gonna get chinned badly. A Georgian/Spaniard vs a Russian or Scouser as the White House main event would’ve been a bit weird when you think about it. Especially when the co-main is a Brazilian vs a Frenchman. You have to have an American in there somewhere at the top of the card really, don’t you?

Topuria’s the man. One of the very best fighters MMA has to offer in 2026. Undefeated at 17-0 with 15 not making it to the scorecards and 9-0 in the UFC. Among his UFC wins he beat Youssef Zalal in his debut, knocked out leg lock specialist Ryan Hall, came back from eating a flush headkick to KO Jai Herbert, submitted the submission artist in Bryce Mitchell handing him his first loss, and schooled Josh Emmett for five rounds on his way up the ladder. From there he was mixing with the elite of the Featherweight division. He got a title shot against Alexander Volkanovski, arguably the 145lb GOAT, in early 2024 and knocked him out to become champ. He followed that up by successfully defending it against another all time great Featherweight in Max Holloway, becoming the first man to knock Holloway out. Then in June last year, he relinquished the Featherweight belt to move up to Lightweight and knocked out Charles Oliveira in less than three minutes to become a two division UFC champion.

The real deal. As Snoop Dogg once said, “realer than ‘Real Deal’ Holyfield.” That three fight stretch of knockout wins over Volk, Holloway and Oliveira was insane. We talked about it at the time but it might just be the best three consecutive wins of any fighter in UFC history. It’s up there anyway. Although him routinely smashing up fan favourite after fan favourite seems to have gained him more haters than fans. As impressive as he’s looked, he keeps battering all our favourites! The bastard. What a run though. He’s been vocal for a while now about wanting to fight Islam Makhachev. That’s the fight he seems most interested in. It seemed to be his main motivation for even moving up to 155 in the first place last year but then Makhachev moved up to 170. I badly wanted to see Topuria vs Makhachev, still do, but I think the best and fairest weight class for that fight to take place would’ve been Lightweight. Doesn’t seem like Makhachev has any plans to come back down in weight now though. He’s the Welterweight champ and Topuria is still chasing that fight. He’s up for moving up another weight class. And yeah, it was apparently in the works for this card but fell through. According to Topuria, it went down like this…

“Listen, I don’t know the real story. What I know is that the first phone call that I got from the UFC, I had two options. Islam and Justin Gaethje. We said we want Islam because it’s a bigger fight. Then, the day before they were about to announce the event, they called me in the middle of the night, they wake me up and tell me, ‘Islam is injured. Something happened with his hand or whatever, you’re going to fight Justin.’ That’s the story from my side. That’s all I know. Whatever happens, it’s good for me. If it’s Islam? Good. It’s Justin? Good. The result is going to be the same. If they call me tomorrow and tell me that Justin is injured and I have to fight Arman Tsarukyan, I will fight Arman. No problem. Whoever, whenever.”

“It may sound a little cocky but I feel that I’m one of the biggest names right now that the UFC has. If they are going to have one of the biggest events in their history, they have to have their biggest stars on the card. So I knew since the first moment that the event was announced, that I will be on that card.” - Ilia Topuria

People talk about him being cocky but I think he’s class myself. He seems down for whatever and that’s how a champion should be. I love that he threw Tsarukyan’s name in there as well. That’s the real Lightweight number one contender, no doubt. For all the talk of Makhachev, Gaethje and Pimblett, people who know ball know that Topuria vs Tsarukyan is the real fight that needs to happen at 155. And there’s been beef and talk back and forth between them for a bit now. That rivalry is bubbling away nicely and that’s another fight I badly wanna see. Fuck knows if we ever will though because Dana seems to legit hate Tsarukyan.

Gaethje has been one of the most consistently exciting fighters in UFC history, regardless of weight class. Yeah, he isn’t the most deserving contender in the division but I can’t really begrudge him this shot. And they kind of have to do it at this point anyway because he’s the interim champion now. It probably shouldn’t have even come to that though. When Topuria took time out last year to sort his personal shit out, I totally got why the UFC created the interim belt. At that point there was no concrete timetable for Topuria’s return and the division had to move on. So I got it. Didn’t have a problem with that. My problem was that they had an interim title fight between the #4 vs #5 ranked Lightweights in Gaethje vs Pimblett, when #1 ranked Tsarukyan was left on the sidelines for no good reason. He wasn’t injured. He said he was up for fighting in January but they went with Gaethje vs Pimblett instead. Clearly hoping Pimblett would come out on top.

Didn’t work out that way. Gaethje won a pretty clear decision in an entertaining but sloppy fight. In a way it was satisfying to see Paddy get shut down. But I was half hoping he’d win so we could finally see Topuria put Paddy to bed. That feud was brewing since 2022 and now we’ll probably never get the payoff to it. But whatever. I was happy for Gaethje. He’s had his ups and downs in the UFC. He’s fought for the proper belt twice, came up short and was finished by Khabib in 2020 and Oliveira in 2022. He suffered one of the most crazy, devastating and legendary knockouts in MMA history when Max Holloway faceplanted him at UFC 300. At that point, I don’t think anybody thought we’d ever see Gaethje challenge for UFC gold again. It felt like that ship had well and truly sailed. But he beat Fiziev in the rematch, beat Pimblett and he’s back in the hunt. It’s almost certainly gonna end in tears but he’s getting that one last opportunity. He was quite vocal going into that Paddy fight in January that he was close to retiring. It’s all about the title for him now. If he never got that interim title shot, I think he’d have called it a day. If he lost that Pimblett fight, he’d have probably laid the gloves down post-fight. He seems to want out. This is his last hurrah. His coach Trevor Wittman confirmed it recently…

“This is our last run. If we don’t win this fight, we’re not going on. We’re not gonna go out there and be a gatekeeper and look at money fights. He knows he’s gotta be there for the family and take care of his health.” - Coach Trevor Wittman

Hopefully he sticks to this. The man’s fought wars in that Octagon for years on end now. As great as he’s been to watch, I dread to think of the state he might be in years down the line. Even in the fights he won, he usually took his licks. And at 37 years old, given the way he fights, it’s a bit of a miracle that he’s even had the longevity he’s had really. There was another quote from Wittman saying the plan is for Gaethje to obviously win the title, then invite Trump into the Octagon and have him put the belt on him. If I didn’t already want Topuria to win, that would’ve done the trick. Love Gaethje as a fighter but I really could do without the post-fight Trump orange arse rimming if he somehow pulls this off. Let’s face it, Trump’s gonna be unavoidable for anyone tuning into this show anyway. Last thing we need is the Yank winning the main event and having a big love-in with half the Epstein list. Fuck that. But yeah, I’d be very surprised if Topuria doesn’t scupper that anyway.

“Gaethje will most likely end up asleep in round one. It’s a tough fight, but at the same time, there are levels to this. Based on his fighting style, how he comes out in every fight, I see it ending quickly. I don’t see him as someone who’s going to trade and then back up, or fight while moving backwards. If he’s not going to start walking backwards, I’m going to knock him out in the first round.”

“As I always say, I feel that no-one can match my level of skills inside the Octagon. And when I say that, they start calling me cocky, that I’m this, that I’m that. But prove me wrong. It didn’t happen yet. I win my UFC championships in the gym. I just go to the fight to collect them.” - Ilia Topuria

Yeah, I think Gaethje is getting steamrolled here. He’s gonna be prepared and he’s always game for a gruelling war. It’s Justin Gaethje. You can never question his willingness to go into the trenches. But I just don’t see a path for him to win this one. I think he’s outgunned in power and speed and Topuria is clearly the better technical striker of the two. If they end up in a grappling situation, which seems unlikely, I’ve seen enough of Topuria that I think he’ll be just fine there as well. Then you factor in Gaethje’s age, all the miles on the clock and all the hard battles he’s been in, the fact he’s already thinking about retirement, the pressure he’s probably gonna feel knowing it’s his last chance at a UFC belt and at the fucking White House of all places. I can’t see an ending to this where Gaethje isn’t flat on his back. Maybe I’m underestimating him but what can he realistically do here outside of the old ‘puncher’s chance?’ And I’m not even sure he has that great of a ‘puncher’s chance’ in this one anyway. He’s gonna put everything he’s got into this but I don’t think it’s gonna matter. He’s not fast enough or slick enough and he’s way too hittable for a sniper like Topuria to not capitalise on. Hopefully Topuria wins and we finally crack on with those Tsarukyan and Makhachev fights. The sport needs those fights right about now.

 

Alex Pereira vs Ciryl Gane is our co-main. For the interim Heavyweight title thanks to Gane and his pokey fingers. A very interesting fight and the intrigue of Pereira at Heavyweight helps it but, again, you can’t think this was the first choice for the UFC. Despite Dana repeatedly saying he wasn’t even considering putting Jon Jones on this card, I’m not buying it. Even if he truly felt that way, I think he’d have ended up caving when he realised how few stars they had for this card and they’d have gone with Jones vs Pereira. Helwani claimed that the UFC were definitely at least talking to Jones about this card and he wanted the same $30 million offer he got for the planned Tom Aspinall fight last year. He said the UFC came back with a $15 million offer and neither side would budge so negotiations broke down. Once again, they had to go with Plan B and here we are with Pereira vs Gane.

Is this about to become reality? Pereira has the opportunity here to become the first fighter in UFC history to hold gold in three different divisions. History. Although even if he wins this fight, it won’t feel like he’s fully, legitimately completed that accomplishment because it’s an interim belt. Technically he’d be kind of a three weight UFC champ, but the argument will still be able to be made that he kind of didn’t quite do it. And that’s annoying to me. It’ll still be a huge achievement for him either way though, and if he becomes interim champ, that should set him up to challenge for the undisputed title anyway. What a mad career Pereira’s had. Who’d have ever predicted his UFC run would have gone the way it has when he came in back in late 2021? He had the ready made rivalry with Israel Adesanya, crossing over from their Kickboxing days, and I don’t think people thought much further ahead than that. Now here we are less than five years later and he’s arguably the biggest active star on the roster. He’s definitely the guy they’ve relied on the most over the last few years anyway. Quick turnarounds, fighting injured, saving cards, he’s been the UFC’s go-to guy when they needed a big fight for a while now. Knocked out Sean Strickland, ended the reign of Adesanya to become Middleweight champ, moved up and became Light Heavyweight champ, stopped Jiri Prochazka twice, meme KO’d Jamahal Hill at UFC 300, smashed up Khalil Rountree, lost the title to Ankalaev and then wrecked him in the rematch to regain the belt. Just a wild run. And now he’s going after the Heavyweight strap.

Heavyweight Pereira loading…

He’s packing on weight the old fashioned way by the looks of things. Nah seriously, I don’t know what to expect out of Heavyweight Pereira. I’ve seen a few pics and videos doing the rounds of him stuffing his face and pics of him looking a bit porky. Read something about him being around 240lbs now. Fuck knows? I don’t know what to think. Is it all just a bluff and a mind game? I’m hoping those pics of him with the potbelly and stuff were from when he was out of training camp and he’s using it to mislead people. I expect he’ll look in decent shape by the time fight week arrives. But even then, how’s his power gonna carry up to Heavyweight? It carried up just fine from 185 to 205 but there’s always the chance that this could be a step too far and his strikes just don’t have the same effect against the big lumps at Heavyweight. Or maybe he’ll be KOing the big lads just the same. You never know with Pereira. He’s gonna be a better striker than pretty much anyone in the division and he should be quicker than a lot of them as well (probably not faster than Gane though, oddly enough), providing he isn’t just gonna come in as a complete bloated mess. It’s size that is probably gonna be the big obstacle for him to overcome at Heavyweight. It could come into play in the striking and it’s definitely gonna be an issue in clinch and grappling situations. It’s why I was never as interested in the Jones vs Pereira fight as many fans. Don’t get me wrong, I’d have been swept up in it if the fight got made. But I always saw that as a favourable matchup for Jones and he’d almost certainly be looking to just take Pereira down and sub him early. There’s a reason Jones wanted that fight but showed zero interest in the Ngannou or Aspinall fights. I really hope Pereira wins this one though.

Doing that to someone earns you a title shot these days apparently. This is why we’re even in this mess. Because Ciryl Gane can’t control his fingers. The Heavyweight division was already in shambles before that. We’d seen Jon Jones hold the belt hostage for ages, cherry picking an old, inactive, knackered Stipe Miocic as a title defence while blatantly ducking the interim champ Aspinall. The whole thing was exhausting but when Jones finally fucked off and Aspinall was upgraded from interim to full champ status, there was a sense of relief that at least now the division could finally move on. So Aspinall vs Gane was booked for October and Gane goes and gouges his eyes out in the first round. Aspinall hasn’t fought since, has had to have eye surgery, has had to put up with ridiculous backlash and accusations of ‘quitting’ and faking the injury from idiot fans, and even now six months later, still has no timetable for a return. Now he’s fucking about with Eddie Hearn and Matchroom and is probably gonna leave the UFC as soon as he’s contractually able to. Absolute disaster. The division was already a mess, then Gane goes and blinds one of the only Heavyweights on the roster who’s worth a shit? Cheers, Ciryl. Nice one, mon frere.

Gane’s been a real frustrating one for me. I quite liked him at the start of his UFC run. He wasn’t always the most exciting to watch but he was still green and making the transition from Kickboxing himself at the time. Somewhere along the line though, he started pissing about and there was a lot of talk of him ducking fights. It was well documented that he swerved the Aspinall fight a few times before they actually fought. Curtis Blaydes also claimed Gane ducked him at some point. Gane became one of those fighters who seemed to just wanna sit on the sidelines and then come back and just keep getting title shots, despite already having a couple of failed attempts and shitting the bed badly in the Jones fight in 2023 especially. I soured on him big time. Then the way the Aspinall eye poke fight played out didn’t help and it shone a light on his history of repeated fouls in his past fights. I never had Gane down as a dirty fighter but, man, you look back through his career and the footage is hard to argue with. And now here he is again getting rewarded with another crack at a belt. Hopefully they let Pereira wear some fucking goggles.

How does this play out then? For all my negativity on Gane, I do think this is a really intriguing fight for Pereira’s Heavyweight debut. On paper, it’s not an easy fight at all. Gane’s a bit of a goof and has been prone to making silly mistakes in the past. But he’s awkward and moves well for a big man. I do feel like he’s kind of regressed over the years but he did actually look good against Aspinall, fouls aside, which made that fight even more frustrating. Gane has reportedly brought in Artem Vakhitov for his camp for this fight. Vakhitov was the last man to beat Pereira in Kickboxing. I also read that he tried to bring Phil De Fries in for his camp for the Aspinall fight and De Fries had to tell him no because he’s Aspinall’s actual full-time teammate! Gane’s a dodgy sod, isn’t he? Always seems to be up to some bullshit. This is a weird fight to even picture for me. Tricky to call until we actually see how Pereira looks at Heavyweight but I really hope he gets it done. The division badly needs a shot in the arm and, while Pereira doing well at Heavyweight wouldn’t cure all the division’s problems, it’d be better than what we’ve got now, wouldn’t it? Best case scenario here is for Pereira to hopefully avoid all the eye pokes and groin strikes Gane will no doubt be throwing in his direction, win by KO and then set up a big unification fight against a returning Aspinall later in the year.

 

Sean O’Malley vs Aiemann Zahabi is alright. I don’t hate it or anything but it’s not a fight I think anyone was really clamouring for. I was actually half expecting them to give O’Malley another title shot next, to be honest. You know O’Malley is a promotional favourite with a bit of that ‘Dana White Privelege’ so, with Petr Yan as the new champion and O’Malley having that win over him, I don’t think anyone would’ve been shocked if they booked Yan vs O’Malley 2. It looks like we’re getting Yan vs Merab 3 next though. Zahabi deserves a biggish fight, to be fair. From his point of view, this is great for him. He’s on a seven fight streak and coming off wins over Jose Aldo and Chito Vera. At 38 years old, he’s got a small window of opportunity to make the most of whatever’s left of his career. He’s at #6 in the Bantamweight rankings at the moment, O’Malley’s ranked #2. So a win here for Zahabi would be huge for him. And I don’t think it’s out of the question. I’m sure most will be favouring O’Malley because he’s the bigger name and, while Zahabi’s been winning, he hasn’t wowed anyone and he doesn’t do anything flashy. I’m probably leaning towards O’Malley myself but I wouldn’t be surprised if Zahabi beats him. I really felt like O’Malley might be a bit headfucked after the second loss to Merab last June, and I wasn’t blown away by his performance in his win over Song Yadong last time out. I’m probably 60/40 leaning towards O’Malley but we’ll see.

 

Derrick Lewis vs Josh Hokit is gonna be ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** at the White House. Actually highlighting a Heavyweight fight, who’d have thunk it? This is pure babyface against heel for me. Could be fun, could be a stinker, could be over in 30 seconds, could be the worst three round plodfest you wished you never bothered watching. The joys of Heavyweight MMA! As much as I loathe Hokit though, I can’t deny that there’s something about this pairing that jumps off the page when looking down the undercard. And it wasn’t even gonna be on the card originally. This was a late addition.

Hokit had that absolutely batshit war with Curtis Blaydes at UFC 327 in Miami in April. A fight that surpassed all expectations. It was a big step up for Hokit on paper. He’d made short work of a couple of jabronis in his previous two UFC fights, Blaydes was a significant jump in levels. Turned out to be a slobberknocker. Both had each other rocked multiple times, both survived some rough moments, somehow it went the distance. Hokit definitely won. As much as I can’t stand the prick, he rightly got the decision. People lost their shit, calling it the ‘greatest Heavyweight fight ever’ and all that. We went into it all in the 327 thread but I think that’s a bit much myself. Nutty fight though. Definitely the best Heavyweight fight we’ve seen in a long time. The way the fight played out had a direct and immediate impact on this card as well. Dana was sat cageside with Epstein’s pal and it all came together that night. Dana said this while 327 was still going on…

“The President leans over to me and says, ‘Why is Derrick Lewis not on the White House card?’ So I say, ‘I’ll be back in five minutes.’ I step away and I call Derrick Lewis. I say, ‘The President is asking why you’re not on the White House card. Do you wanna fight on the White House card?’ And he goes, ‘Of course I do.’ Then the Hokit fight plays out, he beats the #5 ranked guy in the world and Joe Rogan says, ‘Is there still room on the White House card?’ Went back and talked to him…Hokit vs Lewis was just added to the White House card in the last ten minutes. President Trump built half of that fight and Rogan built the other half. Both guys have accepted and agreed to the fight, so we’re adding one more to the White House. Pretty badass how that played out organically during the fight.” - Dana White

It’s on then. Goes without saying I’d love to see Lewis fucking obliterate Hokit. And he definitely has the capability and punching power to do it. Is anyone confident in him in 2026 though? Love Lewis but he’s always been pretty inconsistent, you couldn’t really rely on him at the best of times. He seems to come into fights, especially these days, with the mindset of ending it quick and if his opening volley doesn’t work, he almost instantly checks out. He looked about done against Waldo Cortes Acosta in his last fight in January. Just looked completely disinterested and got plopped down in the second round by what looked like a bit of a nothing shot. He’d won his previous two fights by TKO though, so he’s still got that dig on him. I’m hoping he comes in actually giving a shit here and wallops Hokit but, honestly, I’ve got a bad feeling about this one. I feel like Hokit might dust off his wrestling here. If he’s got any brains, and it’s debatable, that would definitely be his easiest and least risky path to victory. I hope he slugs it out and eats a bomb though. It’s a quick turnaround for Hokit after a rough fight with Blaydes as well so maybe that will give Lewis a better chance. I hope. 

 

Mauricio Ruffy vs Michael Chandler feels like a case of the UFC giving up on Chandler and trying to put him out to pasture. He came to the UFC from Bellator late really but he’s been good value for them in terms of delivering entertaining fights. The Gaethje and Poirier dogfights especially were incredible. But he lost both and that’s basically been the story of his UFC run. Fun fights, mostly losses. He’s gone a dismal 2-5 since jumping to the UFC in 2021 and aside from the quick KO over Dan Hooker in his debut, his only other win has been that front kick KO over the corpse of Tony Ferguson. They used him as a stepping stone for Paddy Pimblett in his last fight just over a year ago and he got beat up, bloodied and stopped. Now he’s 40 years old, coming off a year long layoff and facing a dangerous up and comer? Yeah, the UFC are finishing him up aren’t they? Got a feeling Chandler is gonna look back on this last few years of his career with a lot of regret. He’s wasted so much time begging for that McGregor fight and waiting for the rapist junkie to get his shit together. It was actually embarrassing seeing him grovel. He’s probably gonna be insufferable in the run up to this card as well with all the Trump worship. Actually hope Ruffy does make a highlight reel of him. I’m not fully convinced about Ruffy though. He’s definitely an exciting fighter to watch but I can’t shake the memory of him getting schooled and submitted by Benoit Saint Denis in Paris last year. He looked great knocking out Rafael Fiziev in his last fight but I don’t know. If Chandler had some Fight IQ and actually used his wrestling, I might genuinely give him a chance in this fight due to Ruffy’s apparent lack of grappling. But you know little Mickey’s gonna just ‘stand and bang’ to impress the Wotsit, so he’s probably getting sparked.

 

Bo Nickal vs Kyle Daukaus is probably the weakest fight on the card, or at least the fight that’s gonna get the least discussion and buzz going in. The fight itself is fine though. There was a lot of talk when this card was being built that a Bo Nickal vs Colby Covington fight was in the works. Of course, Colby being a long time Trump rimmer, was always gonna want to get on this card. Sounds like he wasn’t so interested once Bo’s name came up as the opponent though.

“The UFC told him, ‘If you want to be on this card, you have to fight Bo’, and he said no. He would rather be a coward and not fight me than be on the White House card, which is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Everyone knows it would basically be like leading a lamb to the slaughter.” - Bo Nickal

I’m not a fan of Bo really but I’m on his side on this one. Fuck Covington. I love that he’s pathetically going out on a whimper. All that Trump arse licking over the years just to duck rather than fight at the White House. Bum! Bo looked good in his last fight. He was coming off his first loss, the knee to the body stoppage loss to De Ridder, but he bounced back in style on the MSG card in November, knocking Rodolfo Vieira out cold with a headkick.

Not bad for a wrestler. Think it was @Bruce85 on here who called him ‘Mirko Bo Cop’ after that one. What a KO. Wish we got to see him clobber Covington with one of them. It’s kind of nice to see Daukaus get this opportunity as well, to be fair. He had a previous UFC stint from 2020 to 2022 that didn’t really work out, went away, won some fights and came back with a vengeance last summer. He returned on the Shanghai card in August and knocked out Michel Pereira in just 43 seconds. Then in his next fight at MSG, he needed just 50 seconds to submit Gerald Meerschaert. Not sure how much he’s improved since his first run because we’ve barely seen him in there. Two fights in less than two minutes combined? There’s not much to look at. But what a way to come back and he’s at least coming into this fight with some momentum. I like this fight. Bo vs Colby would’ve had more hype and Bo most likely embarrassing him would’ve been very satisfying to watch. But purely on fight quality, this is probably better.

 

Diego Lopes vs Steve Garcia kicks off the night. First fight ever at the White House. Seen some complaining about this being on here but, while Garcia isn’t a name that would’ve sprung to anyone’s mind for this card, he’s a scrapper and I can’t see any way this isn’t a wild shootout for however long it lasts. Lopes always gets on these big cards. He was on UFC 300, he was on the Sphere card, now here he is at the White House. He’s 27-8 now and in his last three fights he’s gone 1-2. Knocked out Jean Silva in a barmy fight back in September but that win was sandwiched between those two losses to Alexander Volkanovski. Lopes is great to watch in general but it was clear he was out of his depth against Volk. No shame in that. But let’s not see any more unjustified title shots. There are plenty of fun fights to make with Lopes. This being one of them. And if you were one of the people who were baffled by seeing Garcia get on this card, maybe this had something to do with it?…

Never knew this myself until the other day but apparently Garcia was somehow friends with Charlie Kirk. Disappointing. Garcia has been an entertaining fighter to watch himself. He’s gone under the radar until recently but I’ve enjoyed pretty much every fight I’ve seen of his. He’s 19-5 now, with 15 knockouts, and he’s on a seven fight win streak. Hasn’t been beating a who’s who of the Featherweight division but he took a decision off Calvin Kattar last July and then stopped David Onama in the first round of their Apex headliner back in November. This is a step up for him. Lopes is clearly his toughest test to date. But at 34 years old, Garcia needs to be getting a move on. I’m expecting an action packed fight here and I’ll be surprised if there’s not a finish. I’d like to see Lopes get back to winning ways here as long as the matchmakers don’t decide to do Volk vs Lopes 3 straight after!

 

 

Happy Birthday President…

Edited June 7 by wandshogun09

[jimufctna24]

You could make the argument that Gane is the biggest MMA bottle job in recent memory. 

- Managed to lose to Ngannou, who was carrying a severe knee injury.

- Low blowed Jones early on. Then attempted a risky shifting attack as Jones was advancing, in turn giving Jones his body to take him down. The ground was the place Gane least wanted to be in this fight, as shown by how easily Jones subbed him. 

- Survived Aspinall's early onslaught, and looked to be in a position to take Aspinall into deeper waters where he was largely untested, but then committed the infamous eye poke which ended the bout. 

On paper, Poatan is a good match-up for Gane. Gane has a great chin, so Poatan's power at heavyweight should be tested. Also, Poatan probably isn't going to be looking to take Gane down and grapple with him, which proved to be his undoing against Jones and to an extent Ngannou. But due to the above, I will not be surprised if Gane finds a way to lose yet again.

Edited April 26 by jimufctna24

[Dai]

Haven't read the write up yet, but credit where its due to that poster. We have shat on the two minutes of effort they put into the posters for years now, but this one is a belter.

[Carbomb]

Sadly, I think Hokit gets to continue being a villain for a while more. I've had the impression that Lewis is just done against anyone half-decent. Last good opponent that he beat was Blaydes, and that was five years ago.

As an extension of the discussion of the HW division on the other thread, I think it would be fair to say that it's the kingdom of the blind at the moment, and Hokit is potentially one of the one-eyed men, at least until Aspinall (who is a two-eyed man, which is ironic, given what took him out) comes back, if he ever does. I've got a horrible feeling that cunt becomes HW champion at some point. Realistically, if Aspinall leaves, Big Fran doesn't come back, and Jones does us all a favour and stays retired, who else stops him? Blaydes may not be in his career prime, but he's still good, and Hokit passed that test.

Only other guy I can think of is Poatan, and we don't know if he's got the goods at HW to take out the likes of Hokunt.

[wandshogun09]

I’d actually root for Gane to foul Hokit into oblivion and I think he might. Maybe Volkov could be tricky given his height but the annoying thing with Hokit is he’s always gonna have that wrestling to fall back on and that could potentially get him out of any trouble he might find himself in against guys like that. Yeah, given the state of the division, it wouldn’t really shock me if Hokit had a turn with the belt at some point. 

People are gonna bring up Gable Steveson as the future of the division and I don’t know if we’ve even mentioned on here that he did recently just sign with the UFC. But the jury’s out on him for me. Yeah he’s got the wrestling but he’s already flaked out of football and pro wrestling so how passionate is he about MMA really? It’s his third choice. People are hyping him up big time already and he might turn out to be all they’re cracking him up to be. He also could be one of them wrestlers who unravels spectacularly the second they take a clean dig. Time will tell but he hasn’t beat anyone of any note yet so any talk of his future is based on gut feelings at the moment and nothing more. He’s also a rapey cunt so I’m actively rooting against him anyway. 

1 hour ago, Dai said:

Haven't read the write up yet, but credit where its due to that poster. We have shat on the two minutes of effort they put into the posters for years now, but this one is a belter.

I think they’ve hired a new poster guy. There’s still been some laughably shite ones but they’ve had a few I’ve really liked this year now. The Mexico one for Moreno vs Kavanagh was really nice, I liked the Holloway vs Oliveira 2 one despite it being colourless and this White House one and the one for the upcoming Macau card are good.

@Dai Saw someone on Twitter did a red, white and blue version of this card’s poster. I like the purple one but I’m surprised they didn’t go with something more like this, to be honest…

Edited April 27 by wandshogun09

[Carbomb]

43 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

People are gonna bring up Gable Steveson as the future of the division and I don’t know if we’ve even mentioned on here that he did recently just sign with the UFC. But the jury’s out on him for me. Yeah he’s got the wrestling but he’s already flaked out of football and pro wrestling so how passionate is he about MMA really? It’s his third choice. People are hyping him up big time already and he might turn out to be all they’re cracking him up to be. He also could be one of them wrestlers who unravels spectacularly the second they take a clean dig. Time will tell but he hasn’t beat anyone of any note yet so any talk of his future is based on gut feelings at the moment and nothing more. He’s also a rapey cunt so I’m actively rooting against him anyway.

I guess it would depend on what you mean by "flaked out" - as far as I understand, Hokit did both as well, though he was collegiate. Steveson not keeping both up might be because he's more passionate about MMA, who knows? But as you say, he's a wrongcock, so I wouldn't root for him.

It all does lead me to wonder if there's a bit of a space in MMA for non-American heavyweights to cultivate a career; as jim points out, there's more money in the US for big sporty fuckers to earn a living via NFL or NCAA coaching, but we don't have that system here or in Europe. In some respects, I'm surprised there aren't more Turks having a go, given that the Mongols appear to have sewn up the sumo market. I daresay there would be more Iranians if it weren't for the current situation. 

[wandshogun09]

12 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

I guess it would depend on what you mean by "flaked out" - as far as I understand, Hokit did both as well, though he was collegiate. Steveson not keeping both up might be because he's more passionate about MMA, who knows?

Maybe. I admit I don’t know much about his football days, or American football in general actually, and I never looked into his WWE stint or why it didn’t work out. I just think if he was always more into MMA, he would’ve pursued that first. It’s such a natural progression from amateur wrestling to MMA. I don’t know. The fact he didn’t take either his football or pro wrestling careers all the way just makes me feel like he might be a bit of a flake. I guess it worked out alright for Brock Lesnar, Steveson’s flitting from one thing to the next kind of mirrors Brock’s career. But Brock was obviously a way bigger star in WWE and used that to his full advantage to drive his price up in MMA. Steveson didn’t stick around enough to establish himself anywhere after his amateur wrestling career. The fact he’s aligned himself with Jon Jones is probably gonna be as much a detriment as it is a help as well. What a combination of wrong ‘uns those two make.

Actually, I’m a tad surprised they didn’t shoehorn Steveson onto this White House card. Plenty of useless plodders they could’ve fed him for an easy debut squash. 

Edited April 27 by wandshogun09

[wandshogun09]

Ergh. What’s this belt? 

You just know they’re gonna set aside a segment of the card where they present old orange bollocks with this. When the card was announced as just seven fights I naively just thought it’d be quite refreshing to have a shorter card. Now I’m thinking they’re gonna have loads and loads of waffle and ceremony between each fight. I’ll be watching the next day and skipping all that anyway but I can see this being absolutely unbearable for people watching live.

In other news, might be something of nothing but Pereira’s fat face isn’t exactly filling me with optimism for the Heavyweight Poatan era. 

[Bruce85]

On 5/6/2026 at 9:05 PM, wandshogun09 said:

Ergh. What’s this belt? 

You just know they’re gonna set aside a segment of the card where they present old orange bollocks with this. When the card was announced as just seven fights I naively just thought it’d be quite refreshing to have a shorter card. Now I’m thinking they’re gonna have loads and loads of waffle and ceremony between each fight. I’ll be watching the next day and skipping all that anyway but I can see this being absolutely unbearable for people watching live.

In other news, might be something of nothing but Pereira’s fat face isn’t exactly filling me with optimism for the Heavyweight Poatan era. 

Oh this is definitely just going to be a full blown ass licking for the orange overlord. I’ll be watching this the next day so I can skip all that bollocks but I’m not against a fight card with fewer fights. 
 

Seems counterintuitive with how many events they have but if they just did 5 or 6 fights on the apex cards I think it would be much easier to keep up with and follow. 
 

I really like this card, would rather have seen Paddy in the main event and seen him get walloped into oblivion but this will do nicely. Can’t seen any path for victory for Justin and feel this could be an easy night for Topuria but I’m still invested and want to see it happen. 

[Egg Shen]

Eeesh, the state on this:

 

[wandshogun09]

Yeah. And that makes it look like they’re even gonna be making the non-Americans wear it, which makes zero sense. Plus, Topuria and Pereira’s actual custom shorts are way better than that load of old star spangled wank. 

[wandshogun09]

Yeah, this card was a great idea wasn’t it?

Three weeks today until the show. 

[Carbomb]

I'd find it very amusing if someone did it on the day and got the event shut down.

[wandshogun09]

The outrage and it ruining Dana’s year would be hilarious. 

[Cousin Jim Bob]

Aren't they also having a huge outdoor thing with big screens nearby, for the general public ?

If someone was planning something stupid, they are certainly giving them the venue for it.