ABU DHABI – Ibo Aslan beat Rafael Cerqueira with a first-round TKO Saturday to close out the preliminary card at UFC 308 at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.
Take a look inside the fight with Aslan, who despite one of the fastest finishes in the UFC this year was denied recognition with a post-fight bonus award.
Ibo Aslan def. Rafael Cerqueira
Ibo Aslan def. Rafael Cerqueira, UFC 308 (via UFC)
“Like always, I go inside the cage, I knock my opponent out, and I come out. This is, for me, something normal – not special. ”
Aslan on his family being there to see him fight
“I was in the camp for three months. I didn’t see my family. As soon as my mother (got to the airport), she hugged me. She gave me the energy. She gave me the motivation. If there was an ox in front of me, I would take it down. It doesn’t matter to me. My mother came to watch me fight for the first time in 10 years. She was very motivated, so I was very confident.”
“The UFC knows already I am the future rising star. This is just the beginning. I don’t want to rush. Every opponent, everything has its time and step, step, step – then become champion. (Alex Pereira) is a great champion. I like him. I wish him all the best. I don’t know (if I hit harder than him). I don’t know. We must see this in the cage.
“I am ready (to fight often). I have no injuries, nothing. I don’t feel like I fought tonight. My warmup was longer than my fight. I’ll take tomorrow rest, and Monday I start again with training.”
To hear more from Aslan, check out the video of the full post-fight interview above.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 308.
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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.
Our staff picks feature includes the consensus picks from MMA Junkie readers. Simply cast your vote for each bout below, and we’ll use the official tallies that are registered by Thursday at noon ET (9 a.m. PT).
Those reader consensus picks will be part of the main card staff predictions we release ahead of UFC Fight Night 246 (ESPN+), which takes place Saturday at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Ilia Topuria and Khamzat Chimaev both accomplished something that had never been done before at UFC 308 as the rising stars capped off a wild pay-per-view event in Abu Dhabi. Now that the dust has settled, what comes next for both guys?
On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee discuss what could for Topuria after he became the first man ever to knock out Max Holloway in the main event to retain the UFC featherweight title. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Holloway, Chimaev — after being the first UFC fighter to submit Robert Whittaker in the co-main event — Magomed Ankalaev following his decision win over Aleksandar Rakic, Lerone Murphy after earning a hard fought decision against Dan Ige, Shara Magomedov following his wild knockout win over Armen Petrosyan, and more.
Watch the UFC 308 edition of On To the Next One in the video above. Audio-only versions of the podcast can be found below, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and wherever you find your favorite podcasts.
ABU DHABI – Ismail Naurdiev was surprised when the UFC pink slip came through his email in 2020.
He went 2-2 with the promotion before he was released. But a little more than four years later, he’s back on the promotion’s roster – winning fights once again.
At UFC 308 on Saturday at Etihad Arena, Naurdiev (24-7 MMA, 3-2 UFC) dominated seasoned veteran Bruno Silva (23-12 MMA, 4-6 UFC) en route to a unanimous decision victory.
“It feels amazing,” Naurdiev told MMA Junkie and other reporters at a post-fight news conference. “I feel so grateful to be back, especially a win against that kind of opponent. It’s for sure something big and will bring me up in the rankings.”
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Naurdiev, 28, went 4-3 during his time between UFC stints, competing mainly for BRAVE CF in the Middle East. Over the course of that time, Naurdiev said he learned a lot and has a much different approach to the fight game.
“I’m much, much stronger,” Naurdiev said. “I’m much more mature (and) much, much better and faster right now. The first run in the UFC, I was too young and too excited. I didn’t really have a right team and right coaches who were telling me how to do, what to do. I was also too naive, doing all that crazy stuff and things. Now, I have a very good team, a great team. I trust them. There was a plan. They told me, ‘Please, man. You remember your last run in the UFC. This time, listen to us. Just follow the plan and you will see everything works out.”
If possible, Naurdiev wants to return Feb. 8 at UFC 312 in Sydney. But there’s a big decision he’ll need to make before accepting a fight. Saturday’s bout was at middleweight, but Naurdiev considers himself more of a welterweight.
“I saw an announcement for February in Sydney,” Naurdiev said. “That will be interesting for me. I wanted always to visit Sydney. … To be honest, no. Actually, I’m a welterweight. First of all, when we go back, I’ve got to discuss with my team. So what do we do next? Stay at middleweight or welterweight? Let’s see how my weight goes, if I’m heavy or not. We will see from there. But first I will enjoy my victory. ”
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 308.
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 Boston Celtics are months removed from becoming NBA champions for an 18th time, after knocking off the Dallas Mavericks in five games in the 2024 NBA Finals.
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But the path to another championship won’t be a cakewalk, with a number of real contenders in both conferences.
Here’s a look at the NBA title odds at DraftKings Sportsbook as of Oct. 28.
Still, there will be questions about health when it comes to the Sixers, considering George has played 70-plus games just once in the past five seasons and Embiid has never played 70-plus games in a season.
In addition, Maxey missed 12 games last season and 22 in 2022-23.
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As far as the West goes, the Thunder are second on the board, followed by a trio of contenders in Dallas, Minnesota and Denver.
In the West, the move that created the biggest shift near the top of the oddsboard was Oklahoma City’s signing of center Isiah Hartenstein.
Follow along with FOX Sports for the latest news on the NBA and other sports.
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Welcome to the latest update to the MMA Fighting pound-for-pound rankings, where every month our esteemed panel sort through the noise to answer one question: Who are the best overall male and female MMA fighters in the world?
Ilia Topuria and Khamzat Chimaev defeated a pair of legendary opponents in unexpected ways at UFC 308, plus Bellator champion Cris Cyborg shined in her PFL debut, so let’s take a look at how the charts were shaken up at the end of October.
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Khamzat ChimaevPhoto by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
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Ilia Topuria just turned the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world debate into a three-horse race.
For much of the past year, Islam Makhachev has been the man to beat with the ever-active Alex Pereira breathing down his neck. Few expected Topuria to put on such a commanding performance against Max Holloway that he would have to be mentioned alongside those names. When Topuria blew the doors off at UFC 308, becoming the first fighter ever to score a knockout of Holloway, it’s now inconceivable to have the discussion without him.
Topuria leaps over Pereira to claim the No. 2 spot on the list, with one panelist going as far as to mark him down at No. 1. The case for Topuria? How about an undefeated record with finishes of two of the greatest fighters of all time? He was the first to defeat Alexander Volkanovski in a 145-pound bout and, as mentioned, the only fighter to put Holloway away with strikes.
Add in featherweight being an absurdly deep division and you can see how Topuria’s resounding title defense has him leading Fighter of the Year talk—and possibly the Pound-for-Pound list next year.
Also of note, you may have noticed the return of one Mr. Khamzat Chimaev to our rankings. Not only does Chimaev have a number next to his name again, he flies in at No. 13 ahead of former UFC champions Sean Strickland, Sean O’Malley, and Charles Oliveira. Chimaev is still yet to even book a title shot, but when you force a frantic tap from Robert Whittaker—who had only been submitted once before—you’re going to get people’s attention again.
And let’s not forget Francis Ngannou is also back, though his knockout of PFL heavyweight tournament champion Renan Ferreira didn’t convince everyone he deserves to be back on the pound-for-pound list. We were all over the place here, with one panelist having “The Predator” as high as No. 6 and two others leaving him off completely. It might not be fair, but if he can’t work with PFL to bring in at least a couple of big-name opponents to face him, we might not see Ngannou get close to the top of the charts again.
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 4 Ilia Topuria vs. No. 9 (tied) Max Holloway
Falling out of the rankings (previous ranking shown): No. 19 Israel Adesanya, No. 20 Patricio Pitbull (20)
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Cris CyborgJose Peñuela, PFL
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Cris Cyborg has nothing left to prove to anyone. That didn’t stop her from reminding everyone she’s still as good as any woman alive when it comes to cagefighting.
In her PFL debut, Cyborg went five hard rounds with league darling Larissa Pacheco and came out on top with a convincing decision win, putting to rest the notion it was time for her to pass the torch. There may come a day when Cyborg and Pacheco square off again with Pacheco getting the upper hand next time, but that day is yet to arrive.
Cyborg snapped Pacheco’s three-year, 10-fight win streak, and improved her own ridiculous record to 28-2 (1 NC). One of her losses was to Amanda Nunes, and even if Cyborg never surpasses Nunes on the all-time list, the fact she’s still racking up wins and claiming a top-5 Pound-for-Pound spot well after Nunes’ retirement is a unique accomplishment on its own.
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When people talk about an athlete being one of one, they’re talking about Cyborg.
The six-person voting panel consists of MMA Fighting staffers Alexander K. Lee, Guilherme Cruz, Mike Heck, E. Casey Leydon, Damon Martin and Jed Meshew.
Updates to the rankings will be completed following every UFC pay-per-view. Fighters will be removed from the rankings if they do not compete within 18 months of their most recent bout.
Should a fighter announce their retirement, our panel will decide whether that fighter should immediately be removed from the rankings or maintain their position until further notice (let’s put it this way: we’d have taken Khabib Nurmagomedov out of our rankings a lot quicker than the UFC did).
As a reminder, the notion of pound-for-pound supremacy is always going to inherently be subjective. When you’re debating whether someone like Sean Strickland should be ranked above someone like Charles Oliveira, there is no true right answer. In other words: It’s not serious business, folks.
Thoughts? Questions? Concerns? Make your voice heard in the comments below.
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