LAS VEGAS – Bernardo Sopaj has designs on one day being a UFC champion, so Saturday’s matchup with Ricky Turcios at UFC Fight Night 247 has a high degree of importance.

Sopaj (11-3 MMA, 0-0 UFC), a 24-year-old bantamweight out of Albania, stumbled in his octagon debut in March when he was on the receiving end of an all-time highlight reel flying knee knockout against Vinicius Oliveira after starting the fight strong.

It was an ugly way to be introduced to the UFC, but an important lesson and setback for Sopaj. It didn’t deter his goal of being champion, but starting 0-2 in the octagon would make his title trajectory that much longer, although it’s been done before.

“(A victory is) just one step closer to what I want, one step closer to the belt because I’m here to take the belt and nothing else,” Sopaj told MMA Junkie at Wednesday’s UFC Fight Night 247 media day. “I didn’t come here to celebrate a victory. I didn’t come here to say that I’m a UFC fighter. If I would come here for this it would be the wrong decision. When I started with MMA I said, ‘OK, if I want to do this, I have to be the best.’

“To be in the UFC, for me, is just the beginning. My goal is to be the best, my goal is to get the belt and be the greatest fighter.”

Sopaj will look to secure his first octagon triumph when he takes on Turcios (12-4 MMA, 2-2 UFC) at the UFC Apex (ESPN+). His opponent brings an unorthodox style to the cage, but it’s not an approach that breeds any concern from Sopaj.

“He’s a very good all-around fighter,” Sopaj said. “He has a little bit of a weird style. He’s like a street fighter. But I believe I’m better than him everywhere. I’m a more complete fighter than him, stronger than him and more technical.”

Originally, the matchup between Sopaj and Turcios was merely a piece of the six-fight main card on Saturday. Then former champion Cody Garbrandt withdrew from the co-main event against Miles Johns, and the lineup was shifted with Sopaj vs. Turcios now in the co-headliner.

That’s a bigger spotlight for Sopaj, but he said it’s only enhancing his motivation to deliver a spectacular performance.

“No pressure,” Sopaj said. “I feel very good, very confident. This gives me extra excitement. I feel very good. I learned about this (on Tuesday) and I feel very good about it. I’m happy. … I feel very good. I’m very grateful.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 247.

Chelsea did get the Conference League record score but they fell some way short of their own club record in Europe, a 13-0 Cup Winners’ Cup victory over Luxembourg side Jeunesse Hautcharage in 1971.

This 8-0 ranks as their joint second highest win, alongside three other games.

With Chelsea leading 6-0 against Noah at half-time, and the Armenians looking like they could concede every time there was an attack, the only surprise was that they only scored twice more.

Maresca was asked afterwards if he was disappointed not to break their record.

“You have to be serious,” he said. “It is never easy. It is most important we are serious and professional. We needed to show that.”

Noah’s Portuguese boss Rui Mota said: “It’s hard to take, 8-0. We know that Chelsea are on another level as a team, but still, we wanted to do better.

“If we didn’t concede so early in the game or maybe after two minutes when we had a very good chance, if we had scored a goal, things would be different.

“Congratulations to Chelsea, they were very strong.”

Chelsea defender Tosin Adarabioyo, who opened the scoring with his first goal for the club, said: “We’re in the competition to win it.

“Any competition we’re in, we strive for the best and this competition we definitely want to win.”

Daniel Cormier values Khabib Nurmagomedov’s loyalty.

Former UFC champions Cormier and Nurmagomedov spent years training together at American Kickboxing Academy. Throughout their careers, both partook in two of the biggest rivalries in UFC history.

Cormier and Jon Jones’ bad blood was well documented, and “DC” still doesn’t see a world where they can completely bury the hatchet. Jones heaped praise on Nurmagomedov, and included him in his top five greatest fighters list.

Nurmagomedov respects Jones’ achievements, but said he can’t be friends with him because of his conflict with Cormier (h/t Bloody Elbow). Upon hearing that, Cormier understood just why Nurmagomedov wasn’t happy with him once having a friendly encounter with his arch rival Conor McGregor.

“We as Americans, we as a culture, we don’t abide by those same rules all the time,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “If you are in such a great conflict with someone, as my friend, we as Americans may not see the need to kind of fall in line and feel or operate in the same way. Conor McGregor, who I met back in the day – he was at a couple of fights, and we’ve always been cordial with each other. I don’t really know Conor very well. Khabib and Conor were cordial in the beginning, also, but it became so nasty now that there was that massive build to the fight, the way the fight ended, everything.

“I saw Conor McGregor in Abu Dhabi. I don’t know who he was fighting – maybe it was Dustin Poirier. We were shaking hands, and we were talking a little bit, and were very kind of chummy. And Khabib was like, ‘Brother, I don’t understand this.’ He said, ‘If I see Conor with his wife, I’ll shake his hand because that’s what you’re supposed to do, but brother …’ And I initially kind of fought it, but people close to me said, “He’s right. Look at the stance he’s taken in regards to everyone you deal with. Why in the world would you not take that same stance?’”

Since then, Cormier says he’s taken Nurmagomedov’s words into regard and has changed his attitude toward McGregor.

“I don’t try to request McGregor for interviews,” Cormier continued. “I don’t think that I would get him, but I’m just saying it’s not a request I make every time I’m there. But it’s like par for the course for these dudes because honestly, Khabib’s not just a teammate, he’s family, and they’re like that with everyone.

“And they feel like if someone’s in conflict, especially at the level that Jones and I were in conflict, they’re very stern in the side they pick, and it’s kind of refreshing because most people aren’t like that, guys. They’re just not – especially us as Americans. So watching that wasn’t crazy for me. Dude, he really is the man. Khabib is the man. He’s got to be one of the most genuine humans I’ve ever met, and I don’t know if there’s anything I wouldn’t do for this dude.”

Colby Covington likes the idea of fighting Jack Della Maddalena next.

Covington (17-4 MMA, 12-4 UFC) says there’s been discussions for him to potentially face Della Maddalena (17-2 MMA, 7-0 UFC), who’s unbeaten in the octagon.

The Aussie hasn’t competed since rallying to knock out Gilbert Burns at UFC 299 in March, and has since been recovering from complications due to arm surgery. It’s been a while since Covington fought as well, most recently falling short in his title fight against then champion Leon Edwards at UFC 296 last December.

“We’ve been talking about this fight with Jack Della Maddalena,” Covington told Submission Radio. “I think it makes a lot of sense. He got a big win in my hometown in Miami last time he was out here, so you know, he has a little bit of a name out here.

“He’s undefeated, he’s hungry, he’s fearless. He’s an exciting fighter, so I think that’s a fight that the fans would be intrigued with. I think it’s a high-level fight. It’s a top contender fight that establishes who’s the next contender for the belt.”

Ian Machado Garry (15-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) recently revealed that the UFC came to him with Covington’s name, and he immediately accepted. However, Covington insists he’s never been offered that fight.

“There is no contract,” Covington said. “If there was a contract, he’d be plastering it all over the internet and the whole world would see it. This fight has never been talked about. If there was a contract, he would be showing it. He would be putting it everywhere.

“He’s irrelevant. He hasn’t done anything to deserve a fight of this magnitude. The fight’s never been offered. I don’t know why he’s talking about that. I’ve been offered three other fights, they weren’t him. They didn’t have his name on it. There was no contract offered, and he’s still a cuck.”

If Francis Ngannou were to face Jon Jones, Eric Nicksick would advise him to bring the fight to him.

PFL heavyweight superfights champ Ngannou (17-3) and UFC heavyweight champion Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC) were on a collision course in the UFC until Ngannou opted to sign with PFL.

UFC CEO Dana White is not a fan of cross promotion, but if a deal was ever reached where a superfight between Ngannou and Jones happened, Nicksick broke down what their game plan would look like.

“I definitely think you had to put Jon on his backfoot,” Nicksick told Kevin Iole. “You had to put pressure on him, you had to put him up against the corner post, and you couldn’t get in a technical fight with Jon. And you couldn’t allow him to dictate the hand play, right – where he starts to occupy your hands and that’s a slow-paced type of fight where Jon is very technical there, and he starts to pick you apart with elbows, and the clinch, and the knees and the things that he does so well.

“For me, I thought we’ve got to get this guy on his backfoot, and we’ve got to apply pressure right away and make it an ugly fight. Don’t make it a technical fight. You’re going to have to make this grimy and try to get him out of there in the first two, three rounds. I think the longer a fight would have gone between him and Francis, it would have favored more Jon, and that was where I felt like if we put a game plan on him, we were going to have to put the pace on him.”

Jones makes his first heavyweight title defense when he takes on Stipe Miocic (20-4 MMA, 14-4 UFC) in the UFC 309 headliner Nov. 16 at Madison Square Garden.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 309.