“I had a long phone conversation with Kevin,” said Tedesco.

“He has asked to skip this camp and also November, to be able to take care of his body.

“The schedule has become even busier due to the World Cup for clubs. That is why he is not there now and in November. But when it really counts – the World Cup – he will be there.”

Rodri, De Bruyne’s club team-mate, said in September that players were close to striking in protest at the increased playing schedule.

De Bruyne raised questions over his international future following a 2-0 loss to France on 9 September.

However, Tedesco says De Bruyne remains committed to playing for his country.

“He has an injury, but he is very motivated to continue with the Red Devils and to play the World Cup in 2026,” Tedesco said.

Iasmin Lucindo has the chance break Jon Jones’ record as the youngest UFC champion in history, but she’s not treating that as a career goal.

Lucindo has won three in a row in the UFC, defeating veteran Karolina Kowalkiewicz in her most recent appearance this past May, and now faces top-ranked Marina Rodriguez at UFC 307 on Saturday night. Lucindo would need to clinch the UFC strawweight belt by Sept. 5, 2025, to break Jones’ record (23 years 242 days).

“[The title shot] might come [in 2025], but I was hurried before in my life to make things happen, so now I just want to live the moment,” Lucindo said in an interview with MMA Fighting. “I want to take things slow and enjoy the moment. I’m in no rush, but I want to show my work and evolution. The more fights I have before the belt, the more experienced I will be. No rush. If it comes next year, great. If it comes in three years, it’s great as well.”

Lucindo, who turns 23 in January, started fighting professional at age 14 after taking martial arts classes to defend her mother and aunts from domestic violence. Lucindo says that breaking Jones’ record would be “awesome,” but learns from mistakes made by others who have tried that in the past and failed.

“I see the new generation on a rush to make things happen, and the more you rush things up, the longer it takes,” Lucindo said. “We have to respect the process. If it’s meant to happen, it will. I’m here. I’m respecting the process and evolving. but if it’s not meant to be, we have other records to break [laughs].”

“Also, I’m rooting for Virna to be the next champion,” she continued, referring to training partner Virna Jandiroba, who faces Tatiana Suarez at UFC 310 on Dec. 7. “We joke that I’ll get there when she retires. I hope Virna becomes champion because she deserves a lot. Before we started training together, she showed me it was possible, so I really want her to become champion.”

Lucindo sees the Rodriguez match-up as “a great opportunity” to prove herself against one of the best strikers in the division, and admits “I didn’t expect that opportunity” sitting so low in the rankings.

“I’m a striker, and every striker likes to battle, and you’re definitely getting 15 minutes of war,” Lucindo said. “I love challenges like this. Marina and I, that’s going to be a very technical fight. She will get the best out of me, because she’s a top striker. I believe I can [knock her out] but we have to be careful because we’re dealing with a striker and we don’t waste opportunities. I believe I have a good strategy to get that knockout.”

UFC 307 takes place this Saturday at Delta Center in Salt Lake City, featuring two title fights and 10 other marquee matchups. In the main event, Alex Pereira puts his light heavyweight title on the line against Khalil Rountree Jr., and in the co-main event, women’s bantamweight champion Raquel Pennington makes the first defense of her belt against former champion Julianna Peña. Let dive into which bouts are worth betting on this weekend.

All odds are courtesy of our friends at FanDuel Sportsbook.

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Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC

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Straight Bets

Julianna Peña (+140)

Let’s start with the downsides of this bet: Peña has not fought in two years, she hasn’t won a fight in nearly three years, and she doesn’t have any victories over fighters currently competing in the UFC. That’s not great!

However, Peña does have two very important things working in her favor. First, she’s a good grappler and wrestler. Pennington is a bit of a jack-of-all-trades but historically, one of the most successful strategies against her has been scoring takedowns, as Pennington isn’t a threat off her back.

Second, Peña is tougher than advanced algebra and has absolutely zero quit in her. If something doesn’t work, she will doggedly keep trying it until it does work. That sort of relentless effort makes her a more effective striker than she should be, and should play into her hands in the championship rounds of this fight.

Ultimately, this is a coin flip fight since Pennington is good but not incredible, and so there’s value on Peña.

Jose Aldo (+118)

Jose Aldo is one of the six greatest fighters of all time. Mario Bautista is a very good fighter, but the ocean of distance between “very good” and “Pantheon level” is vast. Even at his advanced age, Aldo is still a master and creating the fight he wants. More to the point, he’s one of my favorite fighters of all time and I’m always going to back him to win.

Prop Bets

Kayla Harrison by KO/TKO or Submission (+105)

Harrison faces Ketlen Vieira on the main card in a matchup that is more or less a setup fight to get Harrison to the bantamweight title.

Harrison is a two-time Olympic gold medalist judoka and a physical force of nature. If Vieira could keep this fight on the feet, she’d stand a chance. But she simply will not be able to do that against Harrison meaning the question is whether or not Harrison can get the finish. Vieira has proven very durable in her career but this version of Harrison is a different beast and I think she gets the statement finish.

Parlays

There’s nothing I love more than a gimmick parlay and there are two prime opportunities this week. The first is the Pennington Parlay, which I’m passing on given my support of Peña this week. The second is the Glory Parlay.

Pereira is a famously a two-division Glory Kickboxing champion, where he (less) famously had a rivalry with Cesar Almeida. Now the two men are in the UFC and train together under Glover Teixeira, and are heavy favorites at UFC 307.

Alex Pereira (-506)

As far as the actual fight goes, I wrote a big breakdown over on SB Nation, so you should check that out, but the short version is that Pereira is most likely going to clobber anyone who willingly engages in a kickboxing match with him, which is what Rountree is going to do.

Cesar Almeida (-400)

And on the prelims, that same dynamic takes places when Almeida takes on Ihor Potieria, the man who famously ended Shogun Rua’s MMA career. This is basically an off-brand version of the main event, and the outcome should be similarly expected.

Parlay these two bets together for -212 odds

Wrap Up

UFC Paris was a mixed bag. We spiked a big underdog in calling Renato Moicano’s win, but lost everything else which is obviously less than ideal. Let’s hope we do better this weekend,

Until next week, enjoy the fights, good luck, and gamble responsibly!

All information in this article is provided to readers of MMA Fighting for entertainment, news, and amusement purposes only. It is the responsibility of the reader to learn and abide by online gambling laws in their region before placing any online sports betting wagers.

Veteran boss Steve Bruce is relishing his return to the game with Blackpool.

The 63-year-old had been out of work for almost two years before taking over at the League One club in September.

Bruce, in his 13th managerial appointment in a career that started in 1998, spoke to Mark Clemmit for BBC One’s Football Focus after four wins and a draw from his first five games as Seasiders boss.

“When I was out for nearly two years, at the end of the day I wanted and needed to do something,” he said.

“I had to have something to get me out of bed in the morning and this opportunity came along and I thought ‘why not?’”

He added: “I’ve been to South Africa and done a safari and been to places I never thought I’d go but I wasn’t just ready to pack up.

“I think you know when the time is right and for me it was ‘let’s go and do a couple more years and see where we are’.”

“I still think I’ve got something to offer and as long as you maintain the enthusiasm that you’ve got… if that goes away, I’ll know it’s time.”

Bruce was sacked as West Bromwich Albion boss in October 2022 after an unhappy nine months at The Hawthorns.

That followed a difficult two years in charge of hometown club Newcastle.

In his whole managerial career he had never previously been out of work for more than six months and admitted he needed to take a longer break before returning.

“I wanted to make sure that I took at least 12 months off,” he said.

“I think all my family know that I was wanting to go back to work and good for them that they never tried to stop me either and I’m grateful for that.

“It’s just being involved in football – the winning on a Saturday or even the disappointment like we had on Tuesday of conceding a last minute equaliser.”