If there’s one thing the UFC can credibly claim, it’s that for the better part of the past 25 years, it’s given its fans almost every big fight they could ask for.
Almost.
No, this isn’t another article about dream matchups we wish Uncle Dana had moved heaven and earth to make happen, these are fights that the organization was one step away from making a reality were it not for a few mischievous spoilers.
With UFC 307 on Saturday seemingly designed to set up Alex Pereira and Kayla Harrison for more high-profile bouts, we figured now is a good time to look back at times when the dominoes didn’t fall in the UFC’s favor, and potentially great fights were lost forever in the chaos vortex that is MMA.
OK, technically this one could still happen, but assuming it doesn’t, our best shot at seeing it was a few years ago.
Amanda Nunes had run through the competition at 145 and 135 pounds, including legendary featherweight champion Cris Cyborg. There wasn’t much left for her to accomplish in the UFC, so eyes searched elsewhere for a viable challenger and lo and behold, there was two-time Olympic judo champion Kayla Harrison tearing it up in the PFL SmartCage. Even better, she was approaching free agency at the end of 2021 and all Nunes had to do was run through Julianna Peña—viewed as little more than a mandatory challenger—to set up a superfight.
Whoops.
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Peña submitted Nunes at UFC 269 to cap off a once-in-a-lifetime performance, Harrison reacted to the loss in real time and re-signed with the PFL, and Nunes went on to stomp Peña in the rematch nine months later before retiring in 2023.
Maybe Harrison can still wow us enough to bring “The Lioness” out of her den?
By the time Justin Gaethje and Tony Ferguson squared off for an interim lightweight title in 2020, most fans had probably given up on the highly touted Ferguson-Khabib Nurmagomedov fight ever happening. But it would have if Ferguson beat Gaethje, for reals this time!
Simply put, Nurmagomedov and Ferguson were the two best lightweights in the world for much of the 2010s (sorry, Conor), and the UFC tried and tried and tried to get them into the cage, to no avail. So much misfortune befell this matchup that at one point we had to write a feature called Timeline of Destruction to recap it all. Dana White even promised they’d fight at UFC 249, which went about as well as most of his other promises.
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Sure enough, the COVID-19 pandemic prevented Nurmagomedov from traveling, so Gaethje stepped in as his replacement and thoroughly drubbed Ferguson. This wasn’t just the final nail in the coffin for Tony-Khabib, it was the start of Ferguson’s seemingly interminable losing streak that goes on to this day.
With each passing day, it becomes more difficult to explain to newer fans just how tantalizing it was to imagine the stars of PRIDE crossing over to battle the UFC’s best in the 2000s. And one of the most intriguing possible matchups was PRIDE’s heavyweight knockout machine Mirko Cro Cop going toe-to-toe with “Captain America” himself, Randy Couture.
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Cro Cop’s path to a title shot went through Gabriel Gonzaga, a talented but untested contender in just his ninth pro bout. Everyone expected Cro Cop to kick Gonzaga to the curb and set his sights on the UFC heavyweight title.
Someone got kicked, alright.
In one of the best knockouts ever, Gonzaga head-kicked the bejeezus out of a man known for head kicks, and staked his own claim to Couture’s title, albeit an unsuccessful one. Eight years later, Cro Cop earned a measure of revenge over Gonzaga with a third-round TKO in their rematch, but the Couture fight remained the one that got away.
We all remember the broken foot that forced then-lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos out of UFC 196, which set up the 2016 Conor McGregor-Nate Diaz feud that sent combat sports hurtling uncontrollably into the chortling void that it is today. But could the timeline have corrected itself if McGregor had just beaten Diaz in their first fight?
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Keep in mind, dos Anjos was later scheduled to defend his title against Eddie Alvarez at a UFC Fight Night on July 7, with McGregor rematching Diaz at UFC 200 on July 9. It’s safe to say that dos Anjos vs. McGregor would have headlined UFC 200 were it not for McGregor demanding his chance to avenge the Diaz loss (in reality, McGregor vs. Diaz 2 landed on UFC 202, for reasons that are hardly worth rehashing).
What we ended up getting was dos Anjos dropping the belt to Alvarez, Alvarez dropping the belt to McGregor, McGregor booking a boxing match against Floyd Mayweather Jr., a bunch more weirdness after that and now Jake Paul is boxing Mike Tyson next month.
Michael Bisping became middleweight champion with a shocking first-round knockout of Luke Rockhold (on short-notice, no less) and then proceeded to defend his title against a 46-year-old Dan Henderson. The wonky matchmaking could be forgiven due to Henderson’s popularity and the history between the two, but after Bisping escaped with a narrow decision win, fans were eager to see him take on a hungry challenger like Gegard Mousasi, Robert Whittaker, or Yoel Romero.
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It was Romero that whet the appetite the most as the Cuban juggernaut built up a healthy rivalry with the champ, capped off by this unforgettable moment:
Unfortunately, a lingering knee injury kept Bisping out for months after the Henderson fight, so Whittaker and Romero were booked to battle for an interim belt at UFC 213. Whittaker beat Romero, and then Bisping lost at UFC 217 to a returning Georges St-Pierre, who likely had no intention of sticking around after capturing his second UFC belt.
That was the disappointing end of Bisping vs. Romero, and to this day there are still fans sour it never happened because they’re convinced Romero would have mashed Bisping into British pudding.
One of the great travesties in modern MMA is that Yoel Romero will never be recognized as even an interim champion. This is a man who, for at least a couple of years, was the best middleweight alive and wasn’t given his chance to prove it. When he finally did, the judges robbed him (I believe Romero beat Whittaker the first time around in a very close fight, but there is no debate he deserved to win the rematch at UFC 225).
In a world where MMA was even marginally meritocratic, Bisping wouldn’t have been allowed to do his backyard nonsense of calling his own title challengers, and I truly cannot imagine a worse fight for “The Count” than Romero would have been. They’d still be mopping up the pieces today.
It’s a stretch to say that Aljamain Sterling and Jose Aldo were on a collision course, but it’s not a stretch at all to say that fight should have happened instead of Sterling defending his bantamweight title against a one-shouldered T.J. Dillashaw. A one-shouldered T.J. Dillashaw coming off of a knee injury, a controversial decision win over Cory Sandhagen, and a drug suspension.
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I’m still so, so, so angry about this.
Aldo, one of the five greatest fighters of all time, was right there. The featherweight GOAT was coming off of three straight wins over ranked 135ers and deserved one more chance to become UFC champion. For whatever reason, the matchmakers felt that they just had to do Sterling vs. Dillashaw (how’d that one turn out, guys?), so that was booked for UFC 280 and Aldo had to fight Sterling’s buddy Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 278.
Dvalishvili won a dreary decision, a result so uninspiring that Aldo said “f*ck it I’m going to take a couple of boxing matches” before returning to the UFC earlier this year.
This one doesn’t count because we eventually got to see “The Iceman” and “The Axe Murderer” throw down at UFC 79, and it totally ruled, but there was an insane amount of buzz when these two first entered each other’s orbits in 2003.
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PRIDE set up an eight-man tournament to manufacture a Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva final, but Rampage Jackson had other plans. He knocked Liddell out in the semifinals to set up an epic rivalry with Silva and also scared then-UFC commissioner Dana White from venturing to other promotions with his fighters.
UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar vs. WEC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis wasn’t exactly the most hyped matchup of 2010. Still, it feels weird these two lifers never fought after it seemed like a guarantee they would.
Pettis was hot off of a Fight of the Year-win over Benson Henderson, capped off by the “Showtime Kick” that had Pettis on the cusp of superstardom. As luck would have it, his shot at UFC gold would have to wait as Edgar and Gray Maynard fought to a draw at UFC 125 and their rematch didn’t take place until UFC 136. Pettis couldn’t keep waiting, so he booked a fight with veteran Clay Guida.
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Guida wrestled Pettis into oblivion, forcing Pettis to battle his way back to contention. Ironically, Henderson—the man Pettis beat in the last-ever WEC event—went on to defeat Edgar for the title instead. Pettis eventually defeated his rival again to become UFC champion, but Edgar had dropped to featherweight by then so this intriguing pairing was gone for good.
Unquestionably one of the most talked-about fights that never happened, Ronda Rousey vs. Cris Cyborg doesn’t make the cut due to the fact that you can’t pin down one result to change that would have sealed the deal.
It always felt like so much bluster between these two, with Rousey challenging Cyborg to make an impossible cut down to 135 pounds and Cyborg attempting to coax Rousey into a catchweight bout that Rousey had no incentive to take. Maybe you can blame Holly Holm for derailing Rousey at UFC 193, but Cyborg was yet to make her UFC debut and Rousey wasn’t waiting for her even if she had escaped Holm.
Once upon a time, Jon Jones was supposed to fight Anthony Johnson at UFC 187. A month before that May 2015 event, the light heavyweight champion was involved in a hit-and-run where he crashed into a car containing a pregnant woman, and was subsequently stripped of his title and suspended. That resulted in Johnson fighting for a vacant title at UFC 187, where he came up short.
So why doesn’t this make the list? Because the fighter Johnson lost to was Daniel Cormier.
The Jones-Cormier rivalry was always going to define that era of the 205-pound division, so while it’s fun to imagine how Jones would have fared against Johnson’s fearsome punching power, fans ended up getting the fight they really wanted anyway.
SALT LAKE CITY – The UFC 307 fight card now is set following Friday’s official weigh-ins session, where all 24 fighters successfully hit their marks on the scale.
Saturday’s event at Delta Center (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPNews, ESPN+) is headlined by light heavyweight and women’s bantamweight title fights, as well as a main card and preliminary card with key matchups.
Check out the weigh-in highlights in the video above and a link to the photo gallery from all of Friday’s happenings below.
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 307.
Be sure to visit the MMA Junkie Instagram page and YouTube channel to discuss this and more content with fans of mixed martial arts.
The main and co-main event of UFC 307 are set to go with Pereira (205) and Pennington (135) both successfully making weight for their respective title defenses at Friday’s official weigh-ins. Pereira faces Khalil Rountree Jr., who also weighed in at 205 pounds, and Pennington takes on Julianna Peña in a long-awaited grudge match. Peña stepped to the scale at 134.5 pounds.
See weigh-in video for the top-2 fights below.
Possibly awaiting the winner of the bantamweight title fight is former PFL star Kayla Harrison, who weighed in at 136 pounds for her main card bout against Ketlen Vieira (136). After starting her career in the lightweight division, Harrison has now successfully hit the bantamweight mark twice, though both times she has used the one-pound allowance for a non-title fight.
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Should Harrison defeat Vieira and earn a title shot, she will need to make 135 pounds or lower to be eligible for a championship opportunity.
All 24 fighters competing on Saturday’s card at Delta Center in Salt Lake City successfully made weight, including two-time strawweight champion Carla Esparza who has announced she will retire following her fight with Tecia Pennington.
Check out UFC 307 official weigh-in results below.
A 1-1 draw with Bristol City in the Women’s League Cup on Wednesday gave her an opportunity to test the club’s brightest young talent and it is clear she is pleased with what she saw.
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Among them was 19-year-old winger Shana Chossenotte, who got on the scoresheet, as well as highly rated England youth international Ruby Mace, 21.
“Four or five from the academy could definitely start for the first team,” said Miquel, when asked on Friday about the squad depth she has available at Leicester.
On the same day, four of the club’s youngsters were called up to England’s Under-17 Women’s World Cup squad, with the tournament taking place this month.
Miquel will be without goalkeeper Rebekah Dowsett, defenders Nelly Las and Simone Sherwood, as well as forward Denny Draper.
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But while Miquel is sad to lose them for a month, she is excited to see the talent pool being created within the club’s academy.
“It’s very good. I’m happy to share with England and wish that they go as far as they can in that competition,” added Miquel.
“For me, [developing young players is] the most important thing. I was a bit surprised when I saw the age of my team here, but I saw that I still have the youngest squad out of the 12 [WSL] clubs.
“I think that bigger teams, or ones higher up the table, tend to forget that they need to play. If you want to have a very good player at 18 or 19, she has to start playing at this level at 16. She should be around the team much more.
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“We have four or five that can be in this group. When there are opportunities like this [in the League Cup], we will use them.”
SALT LAKE CITY – Alex Pereira and Khalil Rountree are one step closer to throwing down in the octagon after making weight Friday for the UFC 307 main event.
Pereira (11-2 MMA, 8-1 UFC) will put light heavyweight gold on the line for the third time in 175 days when he takes on Rountree (13-5 MMA, 9-5 UFC)) in the headlining act Saturday at Delta Center (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPNews, ESPN+).
Before they can step into the cage, both athletes needed to make weight. They did that at the UFC host hotel in Utah. Challenger Rountree was the first fighter to come to the scale during the one-hour official weigh-in session and was 205 pounds on the nose. Champion Pereira was the final fighter to weigh-in and registered at 205 pounds on the button to make the fight official.
Watch the video above to see Pereira and Rountree make weight for their UFC 307 title clash.
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 307.
Be sure to visit the MMA Junkie Instagram page and YouTube channel to discuss this and more content with fans of mixed martial arts.
Dricus du Plessis vanquished his greatest rival at UFC 305 and now has a number of options ahead of him.
This past August, the middleweight champion scored a dramatic fourth-round submission of Israel Adesanya to put their feud on ice (for now), and has since been tied to a number of potential title challengers, including the winner of the UFC 308 clash between Robert Whittaker and Khamzat Chimaev, a rematch with Sean Strickland, or even a superfight with light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira.
Du Plessis’ coach Morne Visser told Submission Radio they are expecting a rematch, but it’s actually one with Whittaker, who du Plessis defeated at UFC 290. Strickland has been resolute in claiming he deserves another crack at du Plessis after dropping the title to him via a narrow split decision in their first meeting, but Visser thinks Strickland is still one win away.
“I had a conversation actually yesterday with Dricus,” Visser said (transcription via Denis Shkuratov). “I said to him, ‘There’s only one thing for certain at this stage, only one thing, and that’s that we’ve got to be ready to fight in Sydney in February.’ My opinion is Sean’s overselling it. He’s just had one win after Dricus, that was against [Paulo] Costa. Whittaker had two, and I think he’s going to go for number three now.
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“So, my honest opinion is that next for us in line will be Whittaker in Sydney in February. I think he’s going to beat Khamzat, and I honestly think that they’re going to give him the shot.”
Chimaev is undefeated in 13 pro bouts, though his goal of becoming a champion at middleweight and welterweight has been stifled by grueling stretches of inactivity. When he steps into the cage to fight Whittaker on Oct. 26, it will be just his fourth fight since 2020.
Despite the buzz still swirling around Chimaev, Visser isn’t convinced he has the skills to beat the former UFC champion just yet.
“Rob’s a fast learner,” Visser said. “He learns out of his mistakes. He’s dead honest to himself. That’s very, very important in this sport. If you bullshit yourself, you’re in big, big shit. Even with Dricus, I mean, you guys haven’t seen the Dricus that I coach. People are really, really in shit the day when that Dricus rocks up in a fight night. The same thing goes for Rob. I think that Khamzat—I mean, that fight against [Kamaru] Usman, who’s a genuine welterweight, was way too close for me. His standup is, in my opinion, suspect, his wrestling, he couldn’t do anything with Usman. Rob’s standup is phenomenal. His wrestling and his ground work’s awesome. I honestly think Khamzat’s out of his league here. He’s got to go back to welter where he maybe stands a chance to become something or become a champion.
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“At this stage, I honestly think it’s Rob. Rob beats Khamzat and I don’t think it’s going to be on points. He’s going to grind him. Rob’s a tough dude and he’s smart and he’s got a smart team behind him.”
One other matchup possibility Visser discussed was another fight with Adesanya. The loss to du Plessis put Adesanya on the first losing streak of his MMA career and he’s now lost three of his past four fights, but Adesanya’s performance against du Plessis, the intensity of their rivalry, and Adesanya’s Nigerian roots could still make for a compelling championship bout.
“I think that we will fight Izzy, and Dana is talking about it,” Visser said. “I think that the rematch that will be given to Izzy will be against Dricus, which makes the most sense to Africans in South Africa. I honestly think that we’re going to get the rematch against Izzy sometime next year in 2025.
“Also, you guys saw the Izzy that came out fighting for Dricus, and you saw the Izzy that went to fight Sean. The Izzy that faced Dricus came out to fight Dricus. Sean’s got no chance against that Izzy. That guy, he was the best version of Izzy I’ve ever seen. So if the UFC gives him the rematch, awesome, but I think that Izzy shouldn’t waste his time with shit like that. I think we all saw he’s a lot superior fighter with that Dricus fight.”
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As for Pereira, Visser claims a bout with the Brazilian knockout artist was discussed on the evening of UFC 305 after du Plessis defeated Adesanya. However, they’re more interested in moving up to challenge Pereira for the light heavyweight title than seeing him drop back down to 185 pounds to challenge du Plessis.
“With wrestling and grappling, same as standup, it’s not something you can fix within six months or a year,” Visser said. “When you’re under pressure, your subconscious mind puts you back in what you know, and he knows kind of nothing when it comes to the wrestling and the grappling area. And that’s not where we want to fight him. We want to fight him where he’s good at.
“Dricus won’t be interested in fighting him on the floor. We would want to fight him in standup and in his standup game there’s a lot of flaws. I’ve seen him. He hates going backwards. He hates it. He hates it when you give him punishment. He hates it when you’re in control of the fight and that’s the way Dricus fights. He doesn’t want to fight. It’s not going to be we’re going to be on our back foot and give him his way. That’s the only time that he’s good. I’ve seen him on his back foot where he’s really, really shit. … This game, Dricus has been working at it forever. There’s no way you can fix becoming a wrestler or a grappler or a standup fighter within six months or a year. It doesn’t exist. It doesn’t happen like that.”
Ten Hag has won two trophies in two years at Old Trafford, but an impressive 2-1 victory against Manchester City in May’s FA Cup final proved vital to the Dutchman keeping his job.
Ten Hag ended the club’s six-year wait for silverware with victory against Newcastle in the Carabao Cup final in his first season at the club, also achieving a third-place finish in the Premier League.
But his second season proved far more difficult as United, having been knocked out in the group stage of the Champions League, finished eighth in the league before ending on a high against City at Wembley.
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The initial deal Ten Hag signed when he was appointed in 2022 was due to expire at the end of the current season, in 2025.
Following a review of the team’s performance across the 2023-24 season, which included speaking to potential replacements for Ten Hag, the club – led by Ratcliffe – decided to trigger an extension to keep the manager at Old Trafford until 2026.
But just 10 games into the campaign, with United 13th in the Premier League table and winless in Europe, speculation over his future is mounting – with a trip to high-flying Villa to come before October’s international break.
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