Check out these photos from the Invicta FC 57 weigh-ins and fighter faceoffs ahead of the event taking place at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kan. (Photos by Dave Mandell, Invicta FC)
MMA
‘There’s no difference between our bodies and other athletes’
Cris Cyborg, the featherweight world champion, is admired around the world for her fearlessness as a mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter, but the 35-year-old has fears about how body-image pressures affect young women.
The Brazilian is preparing to defend her Bellator title against Australian Arlene Blencowe on Thursday night at the Mohegan Sun Resort in Connecticut.
“You see a lot of girls who are not eating, [who] feel like they must be skinny,” she told Telegraph Sport. “The media, Instagram — none of it is real. They photoshop everything. You have to be happy with who you are, not with what others want you to be. I’ve had problems in my life when I was younger but I love who I am now. I take care of my body and I’m healthy.”
After 15 years in the sport, Cyborg says it is only recently that her profession is not given a second glance. “I’ve been happy with my body, but people would look at you weird. This is ten years ago. Especially when you’d say you’re a fighter, it was always a response of ‘what?’ But now fighters are commonplace.
“When I told my mum I wanted to be a fighter she thought I would end up on the street. It was a different time. My mum didn’t like it in the beginning, but once she saw it was a real sport she now likes it.”
Cyborg was the first woman in the sport to claim the “grand slam” of titles in Bellator, Strikeforce, the UFC, and Invicta, the all-female fight league. She has often blitzed through opponents, with 18 knockouts in her 22 victories. Her standing and maturity is reflected in the way she carries herself, and her work away from the cage with charities and children in Africa.
There is an aura about her. Not just of destruction, but as an ambassador for the sport.
“I think you have a lot of different types of guys and girls and they decided for themselves which body they like. I’ve always had this body, I started training when I was 12 years old,” she explained. “I think the most important thing is to feel great.
“If you carry a little more weight and feel great then that’s you. Make yourself happy. If you’re happy with yourself then it doesn’t matter what people say.
“I think women in this sport have an athletic body. I like that look and I think all the girls do. You’re in shape. I don’t think there’s difference between our bodies and other athletes’.”
Women’s MMA has exploded in recent years and Cyborg is surfing the crest of a wave which she helped to create.
“I feel so blessed to be fighting at this moment. When I started my career there were no fighters, no events. I always believed in it, though, that it would grow. Now you can see people love women’s MMA. I know it’ll grow and grow and I’m really happy to be part of this story. Yes, I believe we get respect. It grows. Once we had the opportunity we showed up.”
By dint of her success, Cyborg has become a target for every rising star, with Bellator having grown its 145lb roster into a powerful line-up. It only makes Cyborg more ambitious, more determined.
There has even been talk of an attempt to become a women’s boxing world champion. Katie Taylor, the Irish fighter who is undisputed lightweight champion, has been touted as one possible opponent. It would be a seismic match-up.
“It would be another thing for my legacy to be a world champion in boxing and MMA,” Cyborg said. “I want to show everyone you can achieve anything with hard work. You have to trust and have faith. For now, I’m not thinking about Katie Taylor. I’m not focusing on it.”
Have there been discussions with Eddie Hearn, Taylor’s promoter ?
“We didn’t talk to him but maybe Scott Coker did. I’ll let Audi Attar [her manager] decide what’s next. For sure, it’s my dream to do boxing. Katie Taylor next would be great, but I have my fight on Thursday.”
“But everyone knows boxing is a dream for me.”
Bellator 249 is live on Sky Sports Main Event from 3am on Friday morning.
MMA
UFC fighter Conor McGregor announces retirement
He busted the nose of Cerrone in the fight’s first skirmish before finishing him in a first-round TKO.
McGregor had not won since November 2016 when he stopped Eddie Alvarez, the lightweight, to become the first fighter in UFC history to hold two championship belts at the same time.
McGregor then fought his only boxing match with Floyd Mayweather in 2017 before losing a one-sided UFC bout to lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov in 2018.
UFC President Dana White has already said McGregor is next in line for a title shot at the winner of lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov’s bout with Justin Gaethje this summer.
The UFC’s schedule is in upheaval due to the coronavirus pandemic, but McGregor was expected to get his title shot later this year, and he recently had been talking to White about taking another fight even earlier. Earlier this week, McGregor posted photos and videos of himself training for fights.
White was still willing to take McGregor’s retirement announcement at face value – at least publicly – when he learned about it at his news conference following UFC 250 in Las Vegas.
“If Conor McGregor feels he wants to retire, you know my feelings about retirement,” White said.
“You should absolutely do it. And I love Conor.
“There’s a handful of people that have made this really fun for me, and he’s one of them.”
Retirements are a time-honoured device for gathering attention and increased bargaining power in combat sports. From Muhammad Ali and Floyd Mayweather to Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell, countless champions of boxing and MMA have gone back on their solemn announcements whenever need or ego brought them back to the sport.
The 31-year-old retires with a 22-4 record.
MMA
Invicta FC 57 weigh-ins and fighter faceoffs
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Football
Champions League 2024-25: First impressions of new format
This new ‘league phase’ – instead of lots of groups all containing four teams – is going to take some getting used to.
One big table with 36 teams is something we do not even see in league football, and taking it all in involves some serious scrolling. You can check out the full thing here.
Remember, teams who finish in the top eight will qualify automatically for the last 16, while those who place ninth to 24th will compete in a two-legged knockout play-off for the chance to join them.
Whoever finishes 25th or lower will be eliminated. So only one-third of teams actually go out after everyone plays eight games.
According to Opta, 16 points from a possible 24 gives a 98% chance of a top-eight finish.
Ten points is 99% likely to lead to a top-24 finish, so teams who won this week only need two more wins and a draw for a chance of reaching the last 16.
Fifteen teams won their opening games (meaning 15 teams lost) which leaves six clubs in between on one point.
In a nutshell, if you won you’ve got a great chance of going through. If you lost… you’ve still got a great chance of going through.
MMA
UFC 307 official fight poster released featuring both title fights
We are officially on the road to UFC 307.
On Monday, the UFC released its official poster for the upcoming pay-per-view event which takes place on Oct. 5 at Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. In the main event, Alex Pereira defends his light heavyweight title against Khalil Rountree Jr., while in the co-main event, Raquel Pennington puts her bantamweight belt on the line against former champion Julianna Peña, and the UFC 307 fight poster puts the focus on both fights.
Pereira is the current front-runner for 2024 Fighter of the Year, with successful title defenses against former champions Jamahal Hill and Jiri Prochazka at UFC 300 and UFC 303 respectively. Rountree is on a five-fight winning streak but has not competed since last December, in part due to a suspension for failing a drug test.
Pennington won the vacant women’s bantamweight title by defeating Mayra Bueno Silva at UFC 297 back in January. This will be her first title defense. Peña, meanwhile, won the title by defeating Amanda Nunes at UFC 269 in one of the biggest upsets in UFC history. She then dropped the title back to Nunes in their rematch seven months later and has not competed since.
UFC 307 also features a number of other marquee matchups, including a bantamweight bout between Jose Aldo and Mario Bautista, a featherweight contest between Movsar Evloev and Aljamain Sterling, a women’s bantamweight battle between Kayla Harrison and Ketlen Vieira, and a welterweight clash between Stephen Thompson and Joaquin Buckley, among other fights.
MMA
Lucie Bertaud interview: ‘It’s not a man’s world
Lucie Bertaud is accustomed to fighting for her right to be visible in boxing, mixed martial arts and even as a presenter on television through her role on a combat sports channel in France. Now, finally, having become a mixed martial arts fighter six years ago, she realises her dream to compete in Paris as MMA makes its debut under the Bellator banner there on Saturday night.
To say that Bertaud is excited is an overstatement for the 35-year-old from Thouars, who faces Maguy Berchel in the preliminary fight card which will shown around the world, on the BBC, Channel 5 and on CBS Sports in the USA. It is a huge moment for the woman who came to MMA late after a career in boxing.
“I think I am the proof you can do whatever you want in your life. When I started boxing, they told me I couldn’t be a champion,” explained the flyweight fighter, who has competed in boxing against the likes of Katie Taylor.
“I became a champion. When I started journalism they told me I couldn’t do anything in journalism and I did. I was a pioneer in that because I was covering combat sport and there were no women in that. I was proud to be a commentator and broadcaster. When I was boxer, we would produce these amazing performances at a high level and nobody would care. There was no media there.
“I decided to become a commentator just so I could promote it myself. I wanted to show we were undiscovered heroes. I knew there was potential and I like to be at the beginning of something. I kept going in this MMA field and I fell in love. I wanted to show people I could be great in that as I was in boxing. It takes time and sometimes you need to overcome struggles. Out of the comfort zone, you start to evolve. I want it because I know I will evolve.”
The struggle to get MMA legalised in France was a long one. And Bertaud was deeply involved. “We had to fight a lot to make this possible. In the current context, the issues were very complicated to bring MMA in France. It was, for sure, political. I think now they’ve started to think this is a normal sport. As ambassadors of MMA, we are showing that. We are showing courage and respect and honour. What is wrong with that? Finally they have another point of view here in France. We are still fighting. We still have issues. We are making our way in France. We are making history. Definitely, we are coming and there’s nothing they can do.”
Women’s MMA is on a meteoric rise, too, and has been since the American Ronda Rousey became a global figurehead and pioneer six years ago. Does Bertaud feel the pressure of performing in front of crowd of 1,000, on home soil, for the first time ? “There’s always a lot of pressure before fighting. When you get in the cage you’re never quite sure how you’ll be when you get out again. Everything has just aligned. It’s not random for me. I will take heat. I will embrace it and feel it. I will remember this night my entire life so I will be the best version of myself. I just want to be the best possible for myself. I want a good ending to this story.”
MMA
Will UFC star Conor McGregor ever fight again?
The closest we got to a potential return for Conor McGregor was the UFC 303 main event booking against Michael Chandler this past summer. And, well, as we now know, that wasn’t meant to be. Then last week Chandler moved on to a different fight, accepting a rematch with Charles Oliveira at UFC 309.
This begs the question: What is going on with McGregor? Will he ever fight again, or is he done for good?
McGregor, easily the biggest star MMA has ever seen, has been sitting on the sidelines since breaking his leg in his trilogy bout against Dustin Poirier in 2021. The Irishman has been preparing for a return for a good while, yet it just hasn’t materialized, and recently he said he feels “out of the loop” with the UFC.
MMA Junkie’s Farah Hannoun, Mike Bohn, Danny Segura, and host Gorgeous George discuss the latest with McGregor and the state of his fighting career.
Watch their discussion in the video above, and don’t miss this week’s complete episode of “Spinning Back Clique” below on YouTube.
“Spinning Back Clique” is released each Monday LIVE on MMA Junkie’s YouTube channel at noon ET. You can also find each episode on your favorite podcast platforms – including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and more – on Tuesday mornings.
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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