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Daniel Cormier criticizes Julianna Pena for not calling out Kayla Harrison: ‘She dropped the ball’

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Julianna Peña slams Kayla Harrison’s UFC 307 performance: ‘We’re not impressed’

Julianna Pena had the chance to start promoting her next title defense after reclaiming the women’s bantamweight title at UFC 307 but instead turned her attention to an unlikely rematch against a fighter who is currently retired.

Following a controversial win over Raquel Pennington in the UFC 307 co-main event, Pena was asked about what’s next for her and a split screen showed Kayla Harrison backstage waiting to react after she defeated Ketlen Vieira earlier in the night to earn a title shot. Rather than acknowledge Harrison, who the UFC is pretty clearly naming as the No. 1 contender, Pena asked for a trilogy against Amanda Nunes, who called it a career back in June 2023.

“I will say this — she dropped the ball on the callout,” UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier said when addressing Pena after UFC 307 ended. “I mean Kayla’s on the screen. Say her name. Why no sell the person that is clearly going to be your No. 1 contender?

“There is no world where she does not fight Kayla Harrison. She’s fighting her next. You might as well put the sell on it.”

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Harrison moved to 2-0 in the UFC with a unanimous decision win over Vieira in the opening bout on the main card on Saturday. While not as dominant as her debut performance against former champion Holly Holm at UFC 300, Harrison still delivered a win against one of the UFC’s top ranked challengers to cement her spot as the rightful contender at 135 pounds.

During the broadcast, Harrison could only shake her head in disappointment as Pena called for the Nunes fight despite UFC color commentator Joe Rogan specifically mentioning the two-time Olympic gold medalist as her most likely next opponent.

Cormier believes Pena should have started building towards that fight now rather than waiting because there’s almost no world where Harrison isn’t her next opponent.

“Don’t wait until the fight is announced,” Cormier said. “Now you’re a step behind when you had the opportunity to be a step ahead going into your fight with Kayla Harrison, who will be the No. 1 contender for your championship as we go forward.

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“Tonight, it’s not like Kayla Harrison looked the best. Kayla’s looked better. Tonight she looked like a girl that needs to get takedowns and if she doesn’t, she is still in the very early stages of her striking. Julianna Pena should’ve after this performance been more willing to say her name.”

While he wasn’t a fan of her callout, Cormier did offer congratulations to Pena on becoming a two-time champion with her win over Pennington.

As much as the scorecards came into question after the fight, Cormier still praised Pena for putting on a gutsy performance and bringing a title back to the same gym that UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad calls home.

“The one thing you can never question about Julianna Pena is her toughness,” Cormier said. “She will be a deserving champion.

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“At the end of the day, she becomes the champion again and Mike Valle and his team out at Valle Flow now have two UFC champions on their roster. Massive for a gym that is out of Chicago that isn’t a massive, huge gym.”

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Match of the Day 2 analysis: Tottenham lost ‘game of two halves’

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Match of the Day 2 analysis: Tottenham lost 'game of two halves'


Match of the Day 2 pundits Joe Hart, Stephen Warnock and former Brighton manager Graham Potter analyse the Seagulls’ 3-2 victory over Tottenham in the Premier League.

MATCH REPORT: Brighton 3-2 Tottenham

Watch Match of the Day 2 on BBC iPlayer.

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Kevin Holland feels like ‘piece of sh*t,’ but coach confident

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Kevin Holland feels like ‘piece of sh*t,’ but coach confident

Kevin Holland admits his UFC 307 loss stings – literally and figuratively.

Shortly after his TKO defeat due to injury, Holland (26-12 MMA, 13-9 UFC) posted a short statement on Instagram with a screenshot of a critical and insulting direct message he received from one viewer of the fight.

“Can’t have a response to everyone but yeah I feel like a total piece of sh*t,” Holland wrote. “My bad to all the one [sic] who put some bread on the line or told they friend I was gonna win. Ima p*ssy.”

Holland suffered what appeared to be a rib injury late in Round 1 while he was grappling in his main card bout vs. Roman Dolidze (14-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC). Holland made it to the end of the round but clutched his side as he rose to his feet.

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Ultimately, Holland’s coach Bob Perez determined his fighter was not in sufficient enough physical condition to continue and signaled to the referee the fight should be called off.

“We took the L last night,” Perez wrote on Instagram on Sunday. “Rib injury while escaping. Could not continue. I called the fight. It sucks, but was the right thing to do. Thank you for the love.”

The extent of the injury is not publicly known, though Holland still appeared to be in severe pain in a post-fight video of him squashing beef with rival Joaquin Buckley.

Saturday was not the first time Holland was rendered unable to continue during a fight, according to Perez’s assessment. In December 2022, Holland severely broke his hand in a fight vs. Stephen Thompson, which lead Perez to make the same call.

“I’ve had fighters say, ‘Coach, I’ll kill you if you ever stop a fight.’ I’m like, ‘Well, you’re going to have to kill me,’” Perez told MMA Junkie in the days after the Thompson fight in December 2022. “… My point that I’m getting to is I’d rather have Kevin mad at me for a bit, than him hating me for the rest of his life or his family hating me. God forbid something terrible, terrible, terrible were to happen, I wouldn’t want to hate myself.”

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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.

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Joaquin Buckley calls out Kamaru Usman, predicts record KO

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Joaquin Buckley calls out Kamaru Usman, predicts record KO

SALT LAKE CITY – Joaquin Buckley thinks his UFC 307 finish of Stephen Thompson earned him a big fight in the welterweight division, and he’s putting a target on Kamaru Usman’s head.

Buckley (21-6 MMA, 10-4 UFC) extended his perfect run since dropped to 170 pounds Saturday when he scored a third-round knockout of former title challenger Thompson at Delta Center. After the fight, he took the microphone and called out Usman (20-4 MMA, 15-3 UFC).

“(I’m) 5-0 in the welterweight division right now,” Buckley told reporters, including MMA Junkie, post-fight at UFC 307. “Me putting on a tear, I feel like at the end of the day Usman being a former champion will kind of prove and cement my name that I should fight for a title next.”

Usman is currently on a three-fight losing skid and hasn’t competed since a majority decision loss to Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 294 in October 2022. The former titleholder has publicly entertained a variety of matchups in recent months, and also seemed to acknowledge Buckley mentioning his name with some emojis on X.

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For Buckley, 30, he thinks it’s a matchup that will show the world exactly what he’s about in the form of a highlight-reel moment.

“I think I can knock out Usman,” Buckley said. “Immediately – yeah, immediately. Breaking records.”

As Buckley looks to continue his surge to the top of the division, he points to his performance against “Wonderboy” as a confidence-building moment. It was a competitive fight with 19-19, 18-20 and 20-18 scorecards going into the final round.

Buckley took it out of the hands of the judges, though, and he said that was the product of a well-round attack.

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“I knew I just had to mix it up the whole time,” Buckley said. “You can’t just go out there and be one-dimensional, whether that’s just wrestling or striking with ‘Wonderboy.’ You’ve got to mix it up, especially if you’re trying to get him out of there.”

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.

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Match of the Day 2 analysis: How Jonny Evans kept Ollie Watkins quiet

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Match of the Day 2 analysis: How Jonny Evans kept Ollie Watkins quiet


Match of the Day 2 pundit Stephen Warnock discusses the “outstanding” performance of Jonny Evans in Manchester United’s 0-0 draw with Aston Villa in the Premier League.

MATCH REPORT: Aston Villa 0-0 Manchester United

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UFC 308 main card revealed, including Ilia Topuria vs. Max Holloway title fight

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UFC 308 main card revealed, including Ilia Topuria vs. Max Holloway title fight

The UFC and BMF champions will collide when the octagon returns to Abu Dhabi on Oct. 26.

The company officially announced the UFC 308 main card during Saturday’s UFC 307 broadcast, with 145-pound titleholder Ilia Topuria defending his throne for the first time since stopping Alexander Volkanovski. He faces Max Holloway, a former featherweight king who recently claimed the BMF belt with a epic knockout over Justin Gaethje at lightweight.

The co-main event will feature Robert Whittaker battling undefeated Khamzat Chimaev in a pivotal middleweight contest. Chimaev hasn’t competed since scoring a majority decision over Kamaru Usman in October of 2023, while Whittaker walked through Ikram Aliskerov this past June, obliterating the man that stepped in a replacement for Chimaev in Abu Dhabi.

Shara Magomedov vs. Armen Petrosyan will open the UFC 308 main card, followed by Magomed Ankalaev vs. Aleksandar Rakic in a contest that could define the next contender for UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira. The third bout on the list is Lerone Murphy vs. Dan Ige.

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Below is the full fight card and bout lineup for UFC 308.

Main card, 2 p.m. ET, ESPN+ PPV

Ilia Topuria vs. Max Holloway

Robert Whittaker vs. Khamzat Chimaev

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Lerone Murphy vs. Dan Ige

Magomed Ankalaev vs. Aleksandar Rakic

Shara Magomedov vs. Armen Petrosyan

Preliminary Card, 10 a.m. ET, ESPN+

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Geoff Neal vs. Rafael dos Anjos

Mateusz Rebecki vs. Myktybek Orolbai

Said Nurmagomedov vs. Daniel Santos

Abus Magomedov vs. Brunno Ferreira

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Kennedy Nzechukwu vs. Justin Tafa

Farid Basharat vs. Victor Hugo

Rinat Fakhretdinov vs. Nursulton Ruziboev

Ibo Aslan vs. Raffael Cerqueira

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Dana White trashes ‘drowning’ PFL for Kayla Harrison promo

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Dana White trashes ‘drowning’ PFL for Kayla Harrison promo

SALT LAKE CITY – UFC CEO Dana White didn’t hold back in his latest verbal assault on PFL.

Prior to Saturday’s UFC 307 event at Delta Center, PFL put out a promotional video for its upcoming pay-per-view title fight between Larissa Pacheco and Cris Cyborg on Oct. 19 in Saudi Arabia. The video focused on Pacheco’s victory over Kayla Harrison in 2022.

Harrison (18-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) parted ways with PFL one fight after the loss (which was Pacheco’s first win against her in three attempts), and joined the UFC. She has started with back-to-back wins in the octagon, including a unanimous decision over Ketlen Vieira at UFC 307.

White was asked about the promo video following the event, and he said it’s just another example of desperation from the rival promotion, which he claims is bleeding financially.

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“I think when you’re losing as much money as they are, f*cking go for it,” White told MMA Junkie and other reporters at the UFC 307 post-fight press conference. “F*cking throw the kitchen sink at it. (Donn Davis) just came out recently and said, ‘You know, we’re going to spend more money than they did on the Sphere.’ That sounds f*cking brilliant. How many tickets are you going to sell?

“They’re not very bright. It’s all fair. Knock yourself out. They’re drowning. Drowning. They suck. They’re not good at what they do, so I guess you would just keep trying anything you can to make something stick. All good.”

Harrison has quickly become an attraction in the women’s bantamweight division upon joining the UFC roster. She has taken her personality to another level, and White said that’s a product of escaping her previous environment.

“It’s just another level when you get here,” White said. “They feel it. You f*cking rot away in the PFL for years or f*cking Bellator and sh*t and you finally get here – you feel it.”

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Harrison will now seemingly get the chance to maximize her potential and platform. She positioned herself as the top contender by beating Vieira, and later in the night at UFC 307 the title in the weight class changed hands when Julianna Peña won a split decision over Raquel Pennington.

White said he eagerly anticipates a showdown between Peña and Harrison.

“When you get here and you start to break into the top five, top three – it gets tougher,” White said. “Julianna and (Kayla) are both dogs, so it should be fun”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 307.

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Be sure to visit the MMA Junkie Instagram page and YouTube channel to discuss this and more content with fans of mixed martial arts.

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