T.J. Dillashaw thinks Cory Sandhagen is a bad matchup for Sean O’Malley.

Sandhagen called for O’Malley (18-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) after “The Suga Show” lost his bantamweight title to Merab Dvalishvili (18-4 MMA, 11-2 UFC) by unanimous decision in the UFC 306 main event at Sphere in Las Vegas. Dillashaw thought Dvalishvili made O’Malley look very weak in the fight.

Sandhagen (17-5 MMA, 10-4 UFC) thinks fans would salivate for a striking battle between him and O’Malley, but former champion Dillashaw thinks it wouldn’t even be competitive.

“I think he pieces Sean up,” Dillashaw said on the Jaxxon Podcast. “When they were getting ready to give a title fight to someone, I thought that Sandhagen would’ve been a dope fight for him. I think Sandhagen’s just better at what O’Malley is good at, to be honest. He’s just more dangerous. But O’Malley’s got great feints. I would love to see that fight.”

Dillashaw knows first hand how good Sandhagen is on the feet. He fought Sandhagen in July 2021, edging him out in a close decision win by using his grappling.

However, Sandhagen may not get his desired fight with O’Malley just yet, after O’Malley announced that he’s set to undergo surgery Oct. 3 for a torn labrum in his left hip, which he suffered 10 weeks prior to his fight with Dvalishvili.

Things are heating up between former UFC champion Sean O’Malley and boxing star Devin Haney.

O’Malley wasn’t going to stay quiet about Haney’s recent comments on his bantamweight title loss to Merab Dvalishvili earlier this month at UFC 306. Haney posted on X, “O’Malley’s b*tch ass lost..” after the fight and in a recent video, O’Malley finally addressed that remark.

“Boxers are f*cking pussies,” O’Malley said on his YouTube channel. “Devin Haney is a b*tch. If David Haney really wants to fight, I’ll put a million dollars me vs. him, no time limit, and we can fight. MMA rules, just a fight, or we can do no rules, so if you wanna eye poke me you can. Let’s do a real f*cking fight. You wanna talk sh*t on Twitter? Really, really actually fight or just don’t talk sh*t.

“Either don’t talk sh*t or let’s actually fight. I would box and put $1 million of my money. Boxing rules just to protect him. I would just simply box him, but he wouldn’t just simply fight me. Don’t talk sh*t.”

Haney appeared to be all in on the challenge as he issued a response Monday on X. However, Haney is only down if the purse was higher than $1 million.

“I don’t fight for a million dollars like you.. @SugaSeanMMA let’s do a boxing fight & give us a shot at making real money!”

I don’t fight for a million dollars like you.. @SugaSeanMMA let’s do a boxing fight & give us a shot at making real money! https://t.co/6smx6Ibt5p

— Devin Haney (@Realdevinhaney) September 23, 2024

O’Malley is expected to undergo hip surgery on Oct. 3 to address an injury he sustained during camp for his title defense against Dvalishvili (18-4 MMA, 11-2 UFC). He expects to be out of competition anywhere from six months to a year.

O’Malley has expressed interest in the past to take his skills to the boxing world in potential fights with Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia, and now Haney.

Firas Zahabi, the head coach of UFC legend Georges St-Pierre, was impressed with Merab Dvalishvili’s wrestling at UFC 306, but if the new bantamweight champ wants to become a big star, he has to change his style.

Dvalishvili earned a unanimous decision against Sean O’Malley in the main event of the UFC’s most recent pay-per-view card earlier this month. Zahabi is familiar with Dvalishvili as a person and as a fighter, but he’d like to see “The Machine” pick up a few wins that don’t involve the judges.

“On the ground, guys, I’ll tell you something, Merab never finishes,” Zahabi said on the Tristar Gym YouTube channel. “Look, I love Merab… I love his personality. I love the craziness, I love the fact that in the beginning of Round 1, Merab is yelling at O’Malley’s corner. … He’s a very charming, lovable character. Dana White called him a moron, he’s like, ‘Ahhh, that guy’s a moron.’ … The only one thing you can predict about Merab is that he’s going to shoot that takedown. His cardio is un-matchable.

“The good thing about Merab, his cardio is amazing. His personality is amazing. The bad thing about Merab, he doesn’t finish — he doesn’t even get close to a finish.”

Throughout St-Pierre’s impressive championship run, he also went to his fair share of decisions. While that gets you victories, it may not get the fan base behind you.

Zahabi was along for the ride with “Rush,” all the way until St-Pierre stopped Michael Bisping at UFC 217 in November 2017 to capture the middleweight title in his final fight. Zahabi’s hope is that Dvalishvili can start adding stoppages to his résumé, and believes if he doesn’t, the fans will turn on him — and quickly.

“His finishing record is abysmal, I’ve got to be honest,” Zahabi said. “I’m telling you guys, I love the guy, he’s a world champion. I think he’s awesome. However, his finishing rate — imagine you can take down almost everybody you’ve ever fought, and you literally only have one submission. That doesn’t make any sense. … You’re literally taking everybody down, how come you never finish?

“He needs to have in-depth, super-deep courses on how to finish — submission, ground-and-pound — he has to change his style. And he can do it. He’s a very talented, intelligent guy. He needs to do it, because if he doesn’t do it, the fans will get sick of him. … They’ll get sick of him running around the ring and just taking people down. They’re going to get sick of that. He has to entertain the crowd, he has to show finishing ability. If he doesn’t, it could be disastrous to his career.”

Daniel Cormier doesn’t see much use in making Tom Aspinall the official backup for UFC 309.

It’s not that he thinks an injury or last-minute withdrawal from Jon Jones or Spite Miocic isn’t possible. Cormier just thinks if something were to happen to either guy, neither Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC) nor Miocic (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) will be willing to fight the UFC interim heavyweight champion on short notice.

“Aspinall is officially the backup fighter, but what happens if somebody gets hurt?” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “Which one of those dudes is going to say, ‘OK, I’ll fight Tom Aspinall,’? Which one will actually stay in the fight?

“Pavlovich was the backup fighter in New York City when Jones and Stipe were scheduled to fight the first time. Jones got hurt, Stipe pulled out, and Aspinall fought against Pavlovich. There’s no guarantee that, because he’s the backup fighter, someone is going to fight him. I would almost guess that if someone gets hurt, Tom Aspinall stays on the card, and he fights neither one of those guys. … Neither one of those guys is fighting Tom Aspinall if they don’t have to.”

Cormier hopes he’s wrong. He wants to see Jones fight Aspinall eventually. After all, Jones is the UFC heavyweight champion and Aspinall the interim. He believes that’s the only fight Jones needs for his legacy and to claim being the No. 1 heavyweight today.

“Hearing Jones say, or hearing the rumor that Jones said ‘this is it for me,’ it sucks because I do believe that there’s some work to be done with Aspinall, mainly,” Cormier said. “I don’t think anyone else warrants him sticking around. I really don’t. We saw what he did to Ciryl Gane.”

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

Mike Tyson has been in the boxing game a long time, and he’s happy to see Dana White jump in.

Ahead of his Nov. 15 fight with Jake Paul, Tyson appeared on the It Is What It Is podcast, where discussed a number of topics, including the White’s potential foray into the squared circle. White recently expressed renewed interest in his oft-discussed Zuffa Boxing promotion, and Tyson believes that the UFC CEO’s promotional style will translate perfectly to this new endeavor.

“That’s going to be the best thing to happen to boxing, just like UFC,” Tyson said. “If you’re in UFC, and if anybody’s booing the fight, you’re not going to see that guy. His next fight is going to be in South Dakota somewhere. Only good fights. If you don’t have a good fight, you ain’t never going to see that guy again.

“Not like boxing, ‘This guy’s going to fight next month again? We don’t want to see that.’ … if any fights stink, you’re not back in the UFC no more, you’re never going to see those guys again.”

Tyson specifically mentioned Shakur Stevenson as an example of a star boxer that continues to receive a lukewarm reception from the fans. Stevenson recently defended his WBC lightweight title with a lopsided decision win over Artem Harutyunyan in a bout that was lambasted by fans and media for a lack of action.

The 58-year-old Tyson expects to draw plenty of eyeballs for his return to the ring in November when he takes on Paul, though that matchup has also drawn its fair share of criticism. Tyson is 31 years older than Paul, who rose to fame as a YouTuber and social media influencer, and is competing professionally for the first time since 2005. He most recently squared off with fellow boxing legend Roy Jones Jr. in an exhibition bout in November 2020 on a card that coincidentally featured Paul fighting basketball star Nate Robinson on the undercard.

Asked for his thoughts on Paul as a boxer, Tyson was brief.

“I don’t know,” Tyson said. “He’s improved since the first time he fought. I started him off, I started Jake off. I let him fight on my undercard four years ago, no one knew who the hell he was. So I started him and, most likely, it looks like I’m going to finish him.”

Much of the criticism surrounding Tyson vs. Paul are concerns over Tyson’s health. The two were actually supposed to fight this past July, but a pre-fight medical scare ahead of that date led to the bout being postponed.

Tyson didn’t speak directly about his own health situation, but he was asked to comment on whether he felt frequently concussed NFL quarterback Tua Tagovailoa should continue playing football and his answer may have reflected his thoughts on his own career and that of other combat sports lifers.

“Let me explain this to you, there’s some athletes you have to protect them from themselves, because they would rather die than quit,” Tyson said. “So that answers the question.”

The Friedkins are immensely wealthy, with their billions being made in the car industry, but the handbrake was pulled on a deal for them to take control of the Toffees only two months ago.

The group agreed a deal in principle to purchase Moshiri’s majority shareholding in June, but talks were called off a month later after the two parties failed to finalise an agreement.

But they had never really gone away, maintaining a relationship with stakeholders after providing a loan of £200m in June, which is expected to be turned into equity.

While US entrepreneur John Textor tried to jump in to do a deal, his involvement was complicated by owning a stake in Crystal Palace, and Moshiri had maintained dialogue in the background with the Friedkin Group.

The deal was reignited and a statement on Monday said that they were looking forward to “providing stability to the club and sharing our vision for its future.”

The group have provided Everton with a further cash injection and would have no trouble clearing further external debt of around £400m.

An agreement has been reached with Rights and Media Funding who are owed £225m by the club, while there is also agreement over a £200m loan from 777 with financial firm A-Cap, who have seized 777’s assets.

The club, meanwhile, posted losses of £89.1m for the accounts covering the 2022-23 season, with net debt rising to £330.6m.

Owner and chief executive, Dan Friedkin, is listed on Forbes, external as the 383rd richest person in the world with a net worth of £5.7bn.

Friedkin is an aeroplane enthusiast, his grandfather founded an airline in the US, while he himself piloted a Spitfire in the Hollywood blockbuster Dunkirk.

He also reportedly owns one of the largest collections of vintage military war planes in America.

After years in the doldrums, are Everton now on course to fly high again and be propelled to new horizons?