Michael Chandler returned fire after Arman Tsarukyan’s most recent jab.

Tsarukyan has continuously poked at Chandler’s fight IQ and recently told MMA Junkie that he’s an easy fight for Charles Oliveira. Chandler (23-8 MMA, 2-3 UFC) rematches Oliveira (34-10 MMA, 22-10 UFC) in the Nov. 16 co-main event at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Tsarukyan (22-3 MMA, 9-2 UFC) is currently linked to a title fight with lightweight champion Islam Makhachev (26-1 MMA, 15-1 UFC) on Jan. 18 at UFC 311, although nothing is confirmed. Chandler was respectful toward Tsarukyan for the most part in his response but made sure to sneak in his own jab right at the end.

“He’s just a young, hungry dude making his presence be known,” Chandler told the New York Post. “He’s matured. He’s got some great wins. His last win was over Oliveira, my next opponent, so he’s earned this title shot. This is going to be a rematch with him and Islam. He’s doing his thing, but yeah, he doesn’t like me, says bad things about me. After he beat Oliveira, I actually went back and congratulated him. It’s one of those things where I don’t hold any animosity towards anybody. I’ve had my spats with Poirier.

“I’ve had my spats with these different guys in the past. I enjoy competing against people whether they like me or don’t like me. I’m going to always operate like I don’t necessarily like my opponent, but I don’t have anything against him. I don’t go into the octagon with any malice or ill-will in my heart. That’s where I perform the best. Like I said, a happy fighter is a dangerous fighter, and that’s my own personal anecdote of my career thus far, but Arman’s doing his thing. I wish him well. I think Islam absolutely smokes him, but at least he’s got great hair.”

Chandler is seeking redemption against Oliveira. The pair met for the vacant lightweight title at UFC 262 in May 2021, where Oliveira rallied to knock out Chandler in Round 2.

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

Hull City’s Ecuadorian midfielder Oscar Zambrano has been suspended until further notice by the South American football confederation Conmebol for breaching anti-doping rules.

The 20-year-old has scored one goal in eight appearances for the Tigers since joining from Ecuadorian club LDU Quito on a season-long loan in August, with the option to make the transfer permanent.

Zambrano reportedly tested positive, external after the second leg of the Recopa Sudamericana in March but remained eligible to play.

Hull have said he has now been suspended from all football with immediate effect for breaching doping rules “set out in Articles 6 and 7 of the Conmebol Anti-Doping Regulations”.

“Zambrano and his defence will use their right to appeal this decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas),” the club added., external

“The club is not in a position to provide further information at this time.”

Zambrano scored his first Hull goal in their 4-1 win against Cardiff in September.

The Tigers are 15th in the Championship after three wins and six draws in 13 games.

The full UFC Tampa card is now official.

On Tuesday the UFC officially revealed the full lineup for the final show of 2024 which takes place on Dec. 14 at Amalie Arena.

In the main event, undefeated Irish superstar Ian Machado Garry takes on the surging Joaquin Buckley in a welterweight scrap that could determine the next title challenger at 170 pounds. Both Garry and Buckley threw their names in the hat to serve as replacement opponents against Shavkat Rakhmonov for UFC 310 the weekend prior to UFC Tampa, but instead were booked against each other in this main event.

The co-main event features a top-10 strawweight battle as multiple time BJJ world champion Mackenzie Dern faces off with Amanda Ribas in a rematch of their 2019 matchup that Ribas won via unanimous decision.

A ranked men’s flyweight matchup will also be on the card as Manel Kape takes on Bruno Silva as Kape looks to rebound from his July loss to Muhammad Mokaev, while Silva hopes to move up the rankings by adding on to his four fight win streak.

The complete UFC Tampa fight card can be seen below.

Alexander Volkanovski’s coach, Joe Lopez, doesn’t think UFC featherweight champion Ilia Topuria has earned the right to fight for a second belt just yet.

Topuria (16-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC), who’s coming off back-to-back knockouts of Volkanovski and Max Holloway, expressed interest in moving up to lightweight to challenge champ Islam Makhachev.

Volkanovski is currently campaigning for a title-fight rematch with Topuria and is even willing to face Diego Lopes for an interim title if he doesn’t get his wish immediately. Volkanovski failed in his bid to become dual champion when he challenged Makhachev for the lightweight title at UFC 284 but not before defending his featherweight title four times.

“That’s great (Topuria eyeing Makhachev), but you’ve got to have – like with anybody, you’ve got to have at least five or six title defenses before you start looking at doubling up,” Lopez told Submission Radio. “You’re just holding up divisions. When you’ve cleared out a division, then you’ve got the right to jump up a division.

“Until then, you’ve just got to fight the cause in your division, you know? I guess it’s like jumping the queue, and you want to have the title shot before somebody else that’s above you, you know? But it’s just human nature, I guess. Everybody wants that double-champ status because it’s very rare to get.”

Volkanovski pushed Makhachev to the brink in their first lightweight title fight at UFC 284 but fell short. He then defended his featherweight title a fifth time by finishing Yair Rodriguez at UFC 290, which earned him a short-notice opportunity against Makhachev a second time at UFC 294. However, Volkanovski was knocked out in the first round.

Topuria went as far as saying he’d be the first to submit Makhachev. While Lopez thinks it’s a bold claim, he doesn’t fault Topuria for his confidence.

“Islam, he’s very good striking, and he’s got good wrestling, too,” Lopez said. “And he’s the bigger man, so who knows? Look, you can’t take that way from Ilia because what he’s said, he’s been doing. So, he might just be the first guy to do it (submit Makhachev). So, you can’t take that away from him.”

No wonder Tom Breese had such a disappointing tenure in the PFL.

Back in April, Breese face Rob Wilkinson in the opening round of the PFL’s 2024 light heavyweight season and things could not have gone much worse as Wilkinson demolished him in just 70 seconds. It was a disappointing outcome for the British fighter but perhaps not an unexpected one as Breese recently told Polish Fighters Info that he was actually under the influence on fight night.

“I was on drugs in the fight,” Breese said. “I did magic mushrooms. I was taking drugs all week. That’s honest. [Laughs] It is what it is. It was a rough time.”

While the PFL does test for performance-enhancing drugs via USADA, psilocybin mushrooms are not currently prohibited.

But Breese’s substance use doesn’t stop there. During the interview, Breese also revealed that he struggled with drug use for some time, which blames for his underwhelming performances the past few years.

“For me, obviously I’ve had some ups and downs, but I was always a very disciplined person, and then I started letting some bad habits come into my life,” Breese said. “Smoking, some drugs, stuff like that. And that was he cause of a lot of these issues, to be honest. Now I’m back on the straight and narrow. It’s not really going to be a thing. I’m going to blow through all my competition. I just had some problems with drugs.”

Undefeated in his first nine professional fights, Breese made a name for himself in the UFC but was released from the promotion in 2020 after a fight day withdrawal from a scheduled bout with Antonio Arroyo at UFC Vegas 28. He then competed for Levels Fight League before signing with KSW for three fights. Most recently Breese competed for Levels Fight League again, winning a unanimous decision over Renato Rangel back in October.

And with his PFL career seemingly over for now and his personal life now in a better spot, Breese hopes to return to KSW in the near future.

“I’d like to come back to KSW,” Breese said. “I really enjoyed my time in KSW, and I feel like there’s a lot of good fights there for me. I’d love to fight Pawel [Pawlak] again. I’d really like that fight.”