Welterweight champion Muhammad (24-3 MMA, 15-3 UFC) makes his first title defense against undefeated Rakhmonov (18-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) in the UFC 310 main event on Dec. 7 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPN2, ESPN+).
Chiesa, who faces Max Griffin on the same night, thinks Muhammad’s resume cannot be discounted. While he’s not necessarily picking him to win, he wouldn’t be surprised if Muhammad bounced Rakhmonov out of the ranks of the unbeaten.
“It would be easy for people to discredit and dismiss Belal because when you look at Shavkat Rakhmonov, 18-0 with 10 submissions and 8 KOs, (he’s) the boogeyman of the division right now,” Chiesa told ESPN. “But you look at Belal’s strength of schedule in his last six fights: Demian Maia, who was ranked when he fought him; (Stephen) ‘Wonderboy’ (Thompson), who was ranked above the top 10; Vicente Luque, who was ranked (No.) 5 when he fought him.
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“Sean Brady TKO’d him, took his 0; fought Gilbert Burns on short notice in a five-round fight, beat him; and then dethrones Leon Edwards in his own backyard. Before people want to dismiss Belal Muhammad because of who he is fighting, you just look at that strength of schedule and you’ve got to remind yourself: This guy is the champion for a reason, and I would not be surprised if he took Shavkat’s 0.”
Jouban, who spoiled Muhammad’s UFC debut in a Fight of the Night battle in 2016, thinks the champion has the skills to beat well-rounded Rakhmonov.
“Belal has proven time and time again why he deserved the championship fight, he got the championship fight, and he deserves to be the champion now,” Jouban said. “He looked phenomenal against Leon Edwards. Leon Edwards is one of the better grapplers in the division. He has outgrappled guys like Gunnar Nelson and so on.
“And Belal Muhammad goes in there, dumps him on his head numerous times, outwrestled him, manhandled him. Shavkat Rakhmonov though, this guy does everything well, and so this is going to be, I think, Belal’s toughest date. But I do think that Belal does have the grappling to get it done.”
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MMA Fighting has DWCS results for all the action from season 8, week 10 of UFC’s Contender Series on Tuesday night at the UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nev.
In the main event, Nick Klein and Heraldo Souza will clash in a middleweight contest. Klein, who is 5-1 in his career, has picked up two straight wins. Souza, who is 9-1-1, has won has past three fights via finishes.
Undefeated flyweights Luis Gurule and Nick Piccininni will clash in the co-main event.
Check out the DWCS results for season 8, week 10 below.
LOS ANGELES — After the Dodgers intentionally walked Francisco Lindor in the second inning Monday afternoon, the 24-year-old hitting behind the Mets‘ MVP candidate looked perplexed. Mark Vientos raised his sunglasses and tipped his head to the side, almost in disbelief that they wanted to pitch to him.
“I took it personal,” Vientos said after launching the second grand slam of the Mets’ postseason in a 7-3 win that evened the National League Championship Series at one game apiece.
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If the Dodgers didn’t know much earlier this year about the Mets third baseman, who was 10 games into his 2024 season the last time these teams faced off in the regular season, they do now.
“I mean, I want to be up there during that at-bat,” Vientos continued. “I want them to walk Lindor in that situation, put me up there.”
Vientos, now a fixture hitting near the top of the Mets’ lineup, wasn’t even the likeliest 24-year-old to earn his team’s job at the hot corner this year. The 2017 second-round pick’s season began at Syracuse, and he sported a .610 OPS over parts of two big-league seasons entering this year.
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But this version of Vientos, who made the Dodgers pay for the free pass, is not like previous iterations.
“My man’s got a lot of confidence in himself,” Sean Manaea said. “I love that.”
Why wouldn’t he?
On Monday, Vientos’ blast gifted the Mets starter an early 6-0 lead that provided plenty of cushion during his five innings of work.
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“Ever since he got here,” Manaea continued, “he’s been doing some crazy things.”
When the season began, Brett Baty was the Mets’ starting third baseman. But the former top prospect’s struggles out of the gate opened a door, and Vientos, who was recalled on May 15, stepped through with a giant leap. By the time Baty was optioned on May 31, it was clear the full-time third-base job belonged to Vientos, who never looked back.
While his name might not hold the same weight or prestige as perennial third base sensations like Manny Machado or Alex Bregman, Vientos finished the season with a higher wRC+ than both of them. In fact, among MLB third basemen with at least 400 plate appearances this season, the only ones with a higher OPS than Vientos were José Ramírez and Rafael Devers.
“The power is real,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said.
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It is not a coincidence that his ascension coincided with his team’s.
From Vientos’ call-up through the end of the year, New York was one of three teams to compile 70 wins. His steady rise both in production and the Mets’ lineup — he went from hitting in the bottom half of the order in June to behind Lindor in September — helped turn around a team that was 11 games under .500 in early June.
In regular-season games Vientos started this year, the Mets were 61-44. In games he didn’t, they were 28-29.
“He’s embracing every opportunity and enjoying the ride,” Lindor said. “There’s one thing that Mark doesn’t lack, that’s confidence.”
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Lindor is the only Mets player worth more WAR than Vientos. They both had exactly 26 home runs from the time Vientos was promoted in mid-May through the end of the year.
Now, they’ve both come up huge through the team’s magical October run.
For Lindor, there was the game-winning ninth-inning homer he launched against the rival Braves to get them into the playoffs and the go-ahead grand slam in Philadelphia that would send the Mets through the NLDS to face the Dodgers.
When the Mets seemed to forget who they were in Game 1 at Dodger Stadium, getting blanked for the first time this postseason and looking uncompetitive in the process, Lindor got them back on business hours in Monday’s matinee with a leadoff home run that ended the Dodgers’ postseason record-tying streak of consecutive scoreless innings at 33.
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So, you can’t blame them for giving Lindor a free base with two on, two out and a bullpen game threatening to get out of hand quickly.
Unless, of course, you’re Vientos.
“They would rather take a chance on me than him,” Vientos said. “But I use it as motivation. I’m like, ‘All right, you want me up, I’m going to show you.’”
In a postseason field filled with decorated stars, that self-belief is helping a less-heralded Met stand out.
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In the Mets’ first game of the playoffs, it was Vientos’ single off Aaron Ashby in the fifth inning that broke a tie and ended up being the deciding hit.
In their first game of the NLDS, Vientos’ game-tying single in the eighth inning sparked a five-run frame in a comeback win.
In Game 2 of the NLDS, Vientos became the third-youngest player to record 10 total bases in a playoff game.
On Monday, he became the youngest player to hit a grand slam in LCS history. Vientos would add a single in his next at-bat for his sixth multi-hit game in nine postseason appearances.
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He now leads all players this October in hits and RBIs.
“He’s very confident,” Lindor repeated. “He’s a player who believes in himself. He doesn’t back down.”
Despite the self-assuredness and swagger, Vientos has still demonstrated preternatural poise to consistently deliver when presented opportunities.
On his grand slam, Vientos said he wasn’t thinking about going deep. But when Landon Knack lofted a four-seamer right down the middle on the ninth pitch of the at-bat?
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“Yeah,” Vientos said, “I wasn’t going to miss it.”
As he has done to opponents so often this month, and throughout a 2024 season that has solidified his place as the third baseman of the future in New York, Vientos delivered.
While his 391-foot drive would have been a flyout at Citi Field and 23 other major-league ballparks, all that mattered was at Dodger Stadium, it kept going, and going and going … until it dropped over the wall in right-center field, lifting a Mets team that had found its form again and dismantling the Dodgers’ hopes early in a bullpen game.
“You didn’t see a big swing,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “It was, let me put it in play, let me stay in the big part of the ballpark, and he was able to drive that one. You see the next at-bat against a lefty, just going the other way with ease and just shoot the ball the other way. That’s a sign of not only a good hitter but someone that is mature and is under control.”
The Mets have demonstrated all year they’re not going to fold.
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In Game 2, after their worst loss of the postseason, they punched back behind their MVP candidate and the 24-year-old behind him who’s playing like one.
“That’s who he is,” Lindor said. “I’m glad he took it personal. He’s got to continue to climb.”
Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.
Manager Erik ten Hag returned to Manchester United’s training ground on Monday to prepare for Saturday’s Premier League game against Brentford at Old Trafford.
The Dutchman was under intense pressure heading into the international break.
Although he followed a 3-0 home defeat by Tottenham with away draws against FC Porto and Aston Villa, there was huge speculation about his future and United held a monthly board meeting in central London last Tuesday.
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The meeting, which included co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, lasted around six hours but the outcome of what was said was never revealed.
Club officials are not happy at the side’s current position of 14th in the league table and Ten Hag faces a critical few games as he looks to reverse current form, which has seen his side go five games without a win.
After the Brentford game, United travel to Istanbul for a Europa League meeting with Fenerbahce, currently managed by former United boss Jose Mourinho, before a league trip to West Ham.
Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris could sit down with popular podcaster Joe Rogan for an interview in the final stretch of the U.S. presidential campaign, three sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Monday.
Harris campaign officials met with Rogan’s team this week but an appearance has not been confirmed yet, two of the sources said.
Rogan, who runs the most popular podcast in the United States, has a highly coveted and devoted following that leans young, male and numbers in the tens of millions.
The interview will offer Harris an opportunity to make her case to his followers, as she works to shore up support with male voters and Black men in particular. Numerous public polls suggest Republican nominee Donald Trump could overperform among young men of all races.
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On Monday, the vice president released a new set of policy proposals to appeal to Black male voters, and her campaign is ramping up outreach to the typically Democratic voting group.
Her campaign also announced she will sit for an interview with Fox News, whose day-to-day programming is heavy on conservative punditry that often explicitly supports Trump.
On Monday, Trump also indicated he plans to go on Joe Rogan’s podcast before Election Day on Nov. 5.
Trump and Rogan, who also serves as the UFC’s lead commentator, have sparred in the past. As recently as August, Trump took a shot at Rogan on social media platform Truth Social but later called him a “good guy.”
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In 2022, Rogan said he is not a Trump supporter and in August said he preferred Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for president. Kennedy has since dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Trump.
The appearance could offer a shot in the arm for Harris and Trump as polls show an incredibly tight race between the two candidates that is expected to come down to the results in seven swing states.
In March, Spotify (SPOT.N), said that “The Joe Rogan Experience” had 14.5 million followers, almost triple the platform’s second most popular program. He also has over 19 million followers on Instagram and 17 million followers on YouTube.
A poll by YouGov last year found that 81% of his listeners are male and 56% are under 35 years old, feeding the perception that he has a direct line to a cohort that polling suggests tends to support Trump over Harris.
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Rogan reached a new deal with Spotify earlier this year, estimated to be worth as much as $250 million.
Be sure to visit the MMA Junkie Instagram page and YouTube channel to discuss this and more content with fans of mixed martial arts.
Since the early days when the sport was anything but a mainstream endeavor, the MMA industry has thrived and survived through various websites, forums, and – perhaps most importantly – social-media platforms.
Fighters interact with fans, each other and many more through the likes of X, Facebook and Instagram, which helps outsiders get a deeper look into the minds of the athletes.
Following Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 244 in Las Vegas, several of the winning and losing fighters, along with their coaches, training partners or family members, took to social media to react to the event or share a message with supporters.
Check out some of those reactions.
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* * * *
The defeated
The defeated: Dan Argueta
The defeated: Alex Morono
The defeated: Rafa Garcia
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The defeated: Jared Gooden
The defeated: Brad Tavares
The defeated: Tatsuro Taira
The victorious: Cody Haddon
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The victorious: Julia Polastri
The victorious: Junior Tafa
The victorious: Themba Gorimbo
The victorious: Pat Sabatini
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The victorious: Ramazan Temirov
The victorious: Daniel Rodriguez
The victorious: Grant Dawson
The victorious: JunYong Park
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The victorious: Brandon Royval
The Blue Corner is MMA Junkie’s blog space. If you come complaining to us that something you read here is not hard-hitting news, that’s on you.
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