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Royce Gracie competed in a superfight against Wallid Ismail on December 17, 1998 after he was challenged by the Brazilian jiu-jitsu competitor. The match was contested without points and with no time-limit in place, with Ismail choking Gracie unconscious with a Clock Choke after four minutes and fifty-three seconds.Gracie returned to defend his title four months later at UFC 2, this tournament would have sixteen fighters and he would have to defeat four opponents to become the champion. Gracie began his defense of the title by submitting Japanese Karatedo Daido Juku and Kyokushin karateka Minoki Ichihara after a five-minute bout, his longest yet, with a lapel choke (which was possible as Ichihara was wearing a Karategi). Advancing into the quarterfinals, Royce Gracie fought Five Animals Kung Fu practitioner and future Pancrase veteran Jason DeLucia, whom he had already fought and defeated before in one of the “Gracie Challenges” in 1991. Gracie submitted DeLucia via armbar just over a minute into the bout. Gracie then submitted 250-lb Judo and Taekwondo black belt Remco Pardoel with a lapel choke (as Pardoel was wearing a Judogi), and arrived at the finals against kickboxer Patrick Smith, who had previously participated at UFC 1. Showing his superior grappling skills, Gracie easily took Smith to the ground and won the fight via submission to punches.

Royce Gracie’s first event in PRIDE was in the “PRIDE Grand Prix 2000”, an openweight tournament that would be divided into two events: the Opening Round, which consisted of the Round of 16 and the Finals which would happen three months later and consisted of the quarter-finals, Semi-finals and Finals. The bouts in the Opening Round had their rules modified to have only one round of fifteen minutes. In the first round, he fought Japanese professional wrestler Nobuhiko Takada. Takada was a very popular wrestler who had headlined Pride 1 and Pride 4 against Royce’s brother Rickson. After a largely uneventful fight, Gracie was declared the winner by unanimous decision and advanced to the Grand Prix Quarter-Finals.

Afterward, Gracie started fighting without a gi so that his opponents could not stall by holding onto it. The grudge match between Yoshida and Gracie took place at PRIDE’s Shockwave 2003 event on December 31, 2003. Gracie dominated Yoshida but, as the match had no judge per Gracie’s request, the bout was declared a draw after two 10-minute rounds.Exactly one year later, on the K-1 PREMIUM 2005 Dynamite!! card of December 31, 2005, Gracie fought Japan’s Hideo Tokoro, a 143-pound fighter, in a fight ending in a draw after 20 minutes. Gracie’s original opponent was scheduled to be the tall Korean fighter Choi Hong-man, another MMA newcomer.

After Gracie defeated Ken Shamrock in the first UFC event, a rivalry developed between the fighters. Shamrock especially wanted a rematch as, according to him, Gracie had used the gi to favor his grappling while he had not been allowed to use wrestling shoes by the promoters, which he considered an unfair advantage to Gracie. Shamrock nonetheless conceded that he had underestimated his opponent.Royce Gracie was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1966. One of the nine sons of jiu-jitsu grandmaster Hélio Gracie, having learned the art from his father since his childhood. He had his first competition at age 8 and started teaching classes when he was 14 years old. When he was 17, Royce was awarded a black belt by his father, Hélio. A few months later he and his brothers Royler and Rickson Gracie moved to Torrance, California to live with their older brother Rorion Gracie, who had moved there in 1978 and had established Gracie Academy. In September 2004 Pride had a disagreement with Gracie about his participation in the 2005 Pride Middleweight Grand Prix. Gracie had issues with the proposed opponents and rules (Grand Prix fights must have a winner and cannot end in a draw). He jumped to Fighting and Entertainment Group’s K-1 organization. Pride sued Gracie for breaching his contract with them. The case was settled in December 2005, with Gracie issuing a public apology, blaming his actions on a misinterpretation of the contract by his manager. Gracie’s final tournament bout was against Dan Severn, a former Pan American freestyle wrestling gold medalist. Severn dominated the fight, securing takedowns and maintaining top control throwing ground and pound for nearly fifteen minutes. However Gracie eventually managed to secure a triangle choke for the submission victory at 15:49 of round one. The match extended beyond the pay-per-view time slot and viewers, who missed the end of the fight, demanded their money back.

At the start of round one, Shamrock immediately scored a takedown with Gracie pulling guard. The majority of the contest consisted of Shamrock in top position defending Gracie’s submission game, occasionally landing ground and pound. After nearly thirty minutes of control time for Shamrock, the contest was given overtime and restarted on the feet. At the beginning of the overtime, Shamrock connected with a punch that led to swelling on Gracie’s eye, with Gracie immediately pulling guard. After another uneventful few minutes, the contest was declared a draw.On March 11, 2011, Royce Gracie’s profile was added back to ufc.com active fighters list as a middleweight. His manager stated that they were actively negotiating with the UFC for a return to the Octagon and said it was just a matter of “getting it nailed down” and that there was plenty of time for it. On November 15, 2013, at UFC 167 on the 20th Anniversary of the UFC, Royce Gracie confirmed to MMA journalist Ariel Helwani that he had retired from competing in mixed martial arts.

Gracie gained fame for his success in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Between 1993 and 1994, he was the tournament winner of UFC 1, UFC 2 and UFC 4, which at the time was an openweight single-elimination tournament with minimal rules. He used his skills in submission grappling to defeat larger and heavier opponents, which made him a major exponent of and helped popularize Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He was also known for his rivalry with Ken Shamrock, whom he beat in UFC 1 and then fought to a draw in the Superfight Championship rematch at UFC 5. Royce would later compete in PRIDE Fighting Championships, where he is most remembered for his 90-minute bout against Kazushi Sakuraba in 2000, and a controversial “Judo vs Jiu-Jitsu” mixed rules match against olympic gold-medalist in Judo Hidehiko Yoshida at Pride Shockwave in 2002.

The situation changed after Pride 8, when Royce’s older brother Royler Gracie was defeated by Kazushi Sakuraba. Sakuraba dominated the match and won by technical submission. This was the first time in 50 years a Gracie had been defeated in a mixed martial arts fight and Sakuraba followed by a challenge to Rickson Gracie. In response, the Gracies argued that Royler’s loss did not count as he had not conceded or tapped out, and the referee’s stopping of the bout went against the special ruleset they had requested for the fight. Many pundits were also affirming that the Gracie pure-BJJ approach was not able to match a well-rounded cross-trainined fighter anymore. In response to that assertion, and to defeat Sakuraba in a rematch, the Gracies signed Royce up to PRIDE.The Gracie brothers in the United States continued the family’s tradition of the “Gracie Challenge”, in which they challenged other martial artists to a no-holds-barred Vale Tudo match in their gym to prove the superiority of Gracie jiu-jitsu. Rorion would later edit footage from the Gracie Challenge fights into a single documentary series known as Gracie in Action, with some footage featuring Royce’s fights. The Gracie in Action tapes inspired Art Davie to create the UFC.

Gracie fought in the finals against karate Kyokushin practitioner and savate world champion Gerard Gordeau. Gracie managed to take his opponent to the ground and secure a rear choke, winning the bout. During the fight, Gordeau bit Gracie’s ear, breaking one of the few rules of the event. Gracie retaliated by holding the choke after Gordeau had tapped out, with the Dutchman tapping in panic before they were separated by a referee. Royce was then declared the “Ultimate Fighting Champion” and was awarded $50,000 in prize money.Gracie was originally going to debut in PRIDE Fighting Championships in their 1998 PRIDE 2 event, where he would be pitted against fellow UFC champion Mark Kerr. The Gracie side demanded special rules without time limit or referee stoppage, which were accepted. However, Royce pulled out due to a back injury after the fight had been advertised.On June 14, 2007, the California State Athletic Commission declared that Gracie had tested positive for Nandrolone, an anabolic steroid, after his fight with Sakuraba. According to the California State Athletic Commission, the average person could produce about 2 ng/ml of Nandrolone, while an athlete following “rigorous physical exercise” could have a level of around 6 ng/ml. Both “A” and “B” test samples provided by Gracie “had a level of over 50 ng/ml and we were informed that the level itself was so elevated that it would not register on the laboratory’s calibrator,” said the CSAC. Gracie was fined $2,500 (the maximum penalty the commission can impose) and suspended for the remainder of his license, which ended on May 30, 2008. Gracie paid the fine.Gracie defeated Sakuraba by a unanimous decision. However, a post-fight drug screen revealed that Royce had traces of Nandrolone in his system. “Use of steroids is simply cheating,” said Armando Garcia, California State Athletic Commission executive director. “It won’t be tolerated in this state.”

At UFC 45 in November 2003, at the ten-year anniversary of the UFC, Shamrock and Gracie became the first inductees into the UFC Hall of Fame. UFC President Dana White said; We feel that no two individuals are more deserving than Royce and Ken to be the charter members. Their contributions to our sport, both inside and outside the Octagon, may never be equaled. A rematch between Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock failed to materialize at the UFC 2, as Shamrock had broken his hand in training and at UFC 3 Gracie withdrew from the competition due to exhaustion (resulting in Shamrock withdrawing from the event too). To solve the problem of the tournament format’s unpredictability, a “superfight” in which Gracie and Ken Shamrock would fight in a bout outside the main tournament was scheduled for the UFC 5.Throughout his UFC days, Royce frequently challenged well-known fighters—though usually to no avail—to “fight to the finish, any place and any time.” Many big-name sportspeople, including Mike Tyson (who was serving a prison term at the time) received a note several times in an open letter fashion, usually published by Black Belt Magazine in The Ultimate Fighter column.

At Bellator 145, it was announced that Gracie would return from retirement to face rival Ken Shamrock in a trilogy fight, taking place on February 19, 2016, at Bellator 149. Gracie won the fight via TKO in round one. The win was not without controversy, however, as replays showed that Gracie landed a knee strike that grazed the groin of Shamrock prior to the finish. Shamrock protested the stoppage, however the bout was officially ruled a victory for Gracie. It was later announced that Shamrock had failed his pre-fight drug test for banned substances.Royce started the fight pulling guard and attempting a heel hook and an armbar, with Hidehiko blocking them and coming back with a gi choke and an ankle lock attempt. Gracie pulled guard again, but Yoshida turned it into a daki age and sought the Kimura lock; then, when the Brazilian blocked the technique, Yoshida passed his guard and performed a mounted sode guruma jime. After a moment of inactivity, the referee Daisuke Noguchi stopped the match in the belief Royce was unconscious and gave victory to Yoshida.

In the semi-finals, Gracie fought against shootfighter and King of Pancrase Ken Shamrock. This was Royce’s most difficult match, as Shamrock had grappling experience (having caught Patrick Smith in a Heel Hook in a previous match). Gracie started the round by attempting a double-leg, which was defended by Shamrock with a sprawl, and Shamrock attempted to stand up back to his feet. Gracie then responded by pulling Shamrock to his guard and started to do small kicks into Shamrock’s kidneys, but he got out from his guard and attempted to pull Gracie into a heel hook, as he had done with Patrick Smith similarly before. The Brazilian defended by wrapping his gi around Shamrock’s arm, and when the latter sat back, it pulled Gracie on top of him. He then proceeded to take Shamrock’s back and used his own gi to secure a rear naked choke. Shamrock later stated it was a gi choke, using the cloth around his neck. Shamrock tapped out to Gracie’s choke, but the referee did not see the tap and ordered both fighters to continue the match. Shamrock then admitted defeat to the referee, saying it would not be fair, and Royce was declared the bout’s victor, with both fighters exchanging a handshake after some taunting.Despite being a 7th degree coral belt, Gracie wears a dark blue belt when training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu paying homage to his father, Hélio Gracie, who primarily wore a dark blue belt despite having the highest possible rank, red belt. Hélio Gracie died in 2009, and Royce said he does not want to be promoted by anybody else.

Gracie immediately protested and footage of the fight was reviewed, which showed that Gracie’s visible arm during the execution of the choke was limp and motionless. Gracie began to argue with Noguchi, the squabble soon resulted in him attacking the referee and it escalated into a full a brawl between the corners of the two fighters. Later backstage, the Gracies demanded it be turned into a no contest, and an immediate rematch be booked with different rules. If not, the Gracie family would never fight for PRIDE FC again. PRIDE, wanting to keep the Gracie family with them, accepted their demands.

Royce said later after the fight with Hughes that he wanted a rematch and that he was not surprised by Hughes’s performance: “No, we knew what he was planning to do. We worked out his gameplan before the fight, and he did exactly what we expected. I over-trained for the fight. That was all. I started training too much, too hard, for too long. He did exactly what we expected.”The draw sparked much debate and controversy as to who would have won the fight had judges determined the outcome, or had there been no time limits, as by the end of the fight Gracie’s right eye was swollen shut. Had there been ringside judges, UFC matchmaker Art Davie believes that Shamrock would have been declared the winner. The fight was poorly received by critics and the live audience, due to the lack of action from both competitors.

Royce Gracie entered UFC 3 now as twice-champion and as the favorite to win. The amount of fighters was scaled down back to eight like the first edition. Royce was matched up in the first round against Kimo Leopoldo, a representative of Taekwondo and former high school wrestler. Leopoldo used his wrestling background to dominate the grappling exchanges, denying several of Gracie’s takedowns and even took his back. As both men began to tire, Gracie held down Leopoldo by grabbing onto his pony tail, eventually submitting him with an armbar at 4:40 of round one. However, he withdrew from his next fight with Gōjū-ryū karateka Harold Howard before it began due to exhaustion and dehydration. Royce entered into the ring and threw in the towel. This was the first event which Gracie did not win.Royce Gracie decided to dispute the allegations during an online video interview in May 2009, saying that his weight in the first UFC event was 178 lb and claiming his weight during his Sakuraba fight was 180 lb, thus only gaining 2 pounds. This was widely disputed by experts. According to ESPN, “In the former contest, he weighed in at 175 pounds; for Sakuraba, he was 188. One may not need to be nutritionist to observe that a muscle gain of 13 pounds in one year at the age of 40 is a strikingly accomplished feat. Athletes nearing the half-century mark are often happy to maintain functional mass, let alone pack it on”.

Gracie entered the tournament wearing his now iconic Brazilian jiu-jitsu gi. In his first match, Gracie defeated journeyman boxer Art Jimmerson. He tackled him to the ground using a baiana (morote-gari or double-leg) and obtained the dominant “mounted” position. Mounted and with only one free arm, Jimmerson conceded defeat.In round one, Hughes secured a straight armbar that hyper-extended Royce’s arm, however Royce refused to tap. Hughes eventually won the fight by TKO at 4:39 of the first round. Gracie began the UFC 4 by submitting 51-year-old Karateka and Kung fu film actor Ron van Clief in the opening round with a rear-naked choke near the four-minute mark. In the semi-finals, he fought American Kenpo Karate specialist Keith Hackney, who was able to defend Gracie’s takedowns for four minutes until he was submitted by an armbar. On April 1, 2015, the IRS sent Royce Gracie and his wife a Notice of Deficiency claiming they owe $657,114 in back taxes and $492,835.25 in penalties for Civil Fraud, based on IRC 6663(a).Gracie has been since retired from MMA competition and has been focusing in teaching Jiu-jitsu. He mostly travels around the world going to schools, teaching in seminars and doing interviews in magazines, websites and talk shows. He has opened his own association of gyms known as “Royce Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Network”, with affiliate schools in 34 locations in the United States, and many throughout the world in Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, Guatemala, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.

Gracie and Shamrock returned for UFC 5, they were both set to headline the UFC’s first “superfight”, a special outside the main tournament to rematch Gracie and Shamrock, as they would have no prior damage from a previous fight. The winner would win a special belt and become the inaugural UFC Superfight Champion. Time limits were re-introduced into the sport in 1995 due pay-per-view limits after the UFC 4 debacle and the fighters were only told a few hours before the event, upsetting both competitors.

Royce was then set to fight Kazushi Sakuraba in the quarter-finals at the PRIDE Grand Prix 2000 Finals. Sakuraba was a professional wrestler who derived his foundation in submissions from catch wrestling and shoot wrestling. He had defeated several opponents and become one of the first Japanese stars of PRIDE. As Royce entered the Grand Prix specially to fight Sakuraba, the Gracies demanded special rules for the fight: an unlimited number of 15-minute rounds, no judges, no referee stoppages, and wins could only come by knockout, submission or throwing in the towel. Sakuraba criticized the different ruleset, the Gracie’s demands to fight under it and their demands for special treatment, but ended up agreeing to the challenge nonetheless.The two battled for an hour and a half, after which Gracie began to fatigue, and could no longer stand due to a broken femur as a result of numerous leg kicks. The towel was thrown in and Sakuraba was declared the winner. Sakuraba went on to defeat other members of the Gracie family, including Renzo Gracie and Ryan Gracie, earning him the nickname “Gracie Hunter.”

Diaz won the first encounter via a second-round knockout. In the lead-up to the fight, the Stockton native stated that he had grown more dangerous as a fighter over the years and believed he would get the better of ‘Ruthless’ again. During an episode of UFC Countdown, he said:Diaz later filed an appeal protesting the commission’s verdict and got the ban reduced to a period of 18 months. But due to his inability to pay the $165,000 fine, the Stockton native was considered ineligible to compete.

After a nearly seven-year long hiatus, MMA royalty Nick Diaz will return to action at UFC 266 later today. He will take on former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler in a five-round non-title and non-main event fight on the main card. The fight will be a rematch. The pair first competed 17 years ago at UFC 47.Who would you like to see Paige VanZant fight next and what did you think of her Peek-a-boo Video? Share your thoughts in the comment section PENN Nation!

It is good to see VanZant smiling and back in good spirits. ‘PVZ’ was admittedly heartbroken following her loss to Ostovich, a setback which marked the fifth in her past six contests overall.“It can be hard when Austin and I are married and he keeps winning and I keep losing but honestly him and his success is the only thing that keeps me going,” Paige explained. “Because I do feel like we win together. His next fight will be for a title and I know he’s going to win. I just know how good it’s going to feel for him and for me and I’m so happy. I’m so proud of him. His title fight to look forward makes it all worth it and makes me feel a little better.”

VanZant, who took her talents to Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship in 2020, is set to compete in the final fight of her current deal with the promotion in the near future.

BJPENN.COM is your premier source for all MMA News. We serve you with the latest breaking news, exclusive fighter interviews, videos and more. It is also the home of 2X UFC Hall of Fame Champion. BJ “The Prodigy” Penn. After a decade of on-line operation BJP has evolved into the most reliable destination for all of your MMA needs.

The addition of top young competitors such as MacDonald is key for Bellator to move beyond the prevalent mindset among fans and media who see it as a second-class organization. Bellator has occasionally damaged its reputation under Coker’s leadership, like the night Kimbo Slice fought Dada 5000 and dinosaurs Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie met in a sad spectacle. The big ratings for Spike allowed Coker to justify the matchmaking. That, though, is fleeting, risky stuff.”This is good for the MMA industry, not just for Bellator or whoever,” Coker said during the press conference introducing MacDonald as a Bellator fighter. “You need to have two buyers. When you only have one buyer, the price will ultimately go down at the end of the day.”

Still on the mend from one of the most savage fights in recent memory, MacDonald returned to the Octagon in June knowing he was physically unprepared to compete at his best. A stiff shot to his nose meant another setback and more pain, yet the consequences were acceptable because MacDonald, win or lose, would get the chance to cultivate his post-Lawler vision once he was done with Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson.

MacDonald said the decision to leave UFC for Bellator came easily. Bellator gave him the opportunity to develop and grow a business together, and he felt the promotion respected him as a professional athlete. His marketability in Canada is a major reason Bellator President Scott Coker signed a fighter who, at a glance, carries the potential of damaged goods. Intent on giving his face a chance to fully heal, MacDonald said he won’t fight until the summer of 2017.

ANAHEIM, Calif. — After 21 violent minutes, Rory MacDonald’s arsenal was spent. Beyond his last breath, the Canadian contender had nothing left to give as he lay shattered on the Octagon canvas.For a man not regarded for his charisma, MacDonald’s comments are curious, and they don’t necessarily reflect the truth of things. Yes, UFC’s fighters are mandated to wear outfits that look like Uno cards, yet some of them have become rich and famous while doing so. With the potential of big-money pay-per-views, UFC is an appealing place to fight as well.

“We built Luke Rockhold. We built Daniel Cormier. We built Tyron Woodley,” Coker said of his leadership at Strikeforce. “These were guys we found from scratch. I think we’re very good star-identifiers, and we know how to build stars in this business, and that’s what we’re doing here. It’s the same formula.”

“There are a lot of opportunities that Bellator is giving me,” MacDonald said. “The belief that they have in me. The weight that they’re putting on me to promote me to go into Canada. We’re going to take Bellator into Canada, and we’re going to do it big. We’re going to reinvigorate that market. Those fans are going to get a proper fight show again.”

Sprinkle in the increasing ability to pluck away some of UFC’s talent, and Coker envisions a future for Bellator that puts it on par with MMA’s premier group that was recently purchased for $4 billion—a notion that has MMA supporters inside Viacom excited about the future.”For me, that title fight against Robbie was an eye-opener,” said MacDonald, who saw the light while his eyes swelled from punches as he pocketed a paltry $59,000. “OK, we got to the show where we wanted to go. It didn’t work out, but now it’s time to start making some money.”

Thirteen months later, on the verge of what should be his prime years as an athlete, having been materially changed by the experience of fighting to his breaking point, MacDonald decided to leave the UFC in hopes of something else, something more appealing.Having thought long and hard about his future, MacDonald concluded that rather than take time off to heal correctly, his freedom was worth the risk of losing consecutively for the first time in his career.

“I can’t be taking a year off between every fight,” MacDonald said. “That’s just not what I’m about. I’m going to give [my nose] the time it needs to heal back to 100 percent, then hopefully I can fight once a quarter. I usually fight once a quarter, so that’s the plan.”Coker is aware that as much as he enjoys the occasional low-hanging fruit of a circus fight, the future of Bellator can’t be tied to those kinds of events. As his short-term and long-term visions for the company merge, the hope is dismissive attitudes—similar to the ones leveled at Strikeforce, which Coker founded, before Zuffa purchased it in 2011—will melt away as talented fighters emerge into known fighters, and, potentially, bankable stars.Few people realized it at the time, but there and then, in MacDonald’s most difficult moment as a professional fighter, the seed was planted for the next phase of his career. Images of the clash with Robbie Lawler at UFC 189 remain raw and impossible to forget. For good or for ill, MacDonald’s ability to endure pain made it a championship bout for the ages.

“We’re going to go after every free agent that’s out there,” Coker said. “And if you’re a fighter fighting in a different league and you want to exercise your free agency, that’s how you’ll know your value. To me, I think Rory did the right thing. And why wouldn’t you? If you don’t, you’re only going to know what one company is offering.”Tate retired after losing via unanimous decision to Raquel Pennington at UFC 205. Just 30 at the time of her retirement, Tate’s decision to walk away surprised many given she was less than a year removed from winning the UFC bantamweight championship.

“I was struggling mentally and emotionally and I was in a very dark place and I needed to take time away. I needed to take time away from everything.”@MieshaTate opened up about her decision to walk away from the sport in 2016. (via @arielhelwani) pic.twitter.com/IIaNdvWGEe”I was struggling mentally and emotionally and I was in a very dark place, and I needed to take time away. I needed to take time away from everything,” Tate told ESPN’s Ariel Helwani.

Aldana, on the other hand, is a rising star in the bantamweight division, with a record of 14-6 in MMA and 7-4 in the UFC. She has been on a winning streak and has shown immense potential in her recent fights.UFC 290: UFC News: The UFC has a storied history of trilogies, with some of the most memorable bouts being Dustin Poirier vs Conor McGregor and Georges St-Pierre vs Matt Hughes. Fans were eagerly anticipating another epic trilogy between Amanda Nunes and Juliana Pena. However, Nunes now has to face a new challenger for her title at UFC 289, which has put the Nunes-Pena trilogy on hold, at least for the time being. Now, Irene Aldana has stepped up to the plate to take on Nunes in what promises to be a highly-anticipated match-up. Follow UFC News Updates with Insidesport.IN

The excitement was short-lived as it was announced on Tuesday by UFC president that Pena had suffered a broken rib and would be forced to withdraw from the main event. While the news was disappointing for fans, it didn’t take long for a replacement to step up to the challenge. Mexican bantamweight fighter Irene Aldana, who has won four of her last fights, with three of them being finishes, was announced as Pena’s replacement. White shared the news on social media, expressing his excitement for the upcoming match-up and the possibility of crowning another Mexican champion in the UFC.

The main event of the June 10th pay-per-view will now see Aldana take on Nunes for the UFC women’s bantamweight title. Nunes boasts an impressive record of 22-5 in MMA, and she has established herself as one of the greatest women’s fighters in the history of the sport. Adarsh Ojha combined his passion for sports with his skills as writer. While he has been writing about sports for over a year, cricket remains his first love. However, after being awestruck by the Kamaru Usman and Leon Edwards 2 fight, Ojha developed a newfound appreciation for combat sports and he is a devoted fan of three King Kohli, MS Dhoni, and Conor McGregor. When he’s not writing sports content, he enjoys penning songs and film scripts. The event will be held at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and promises to be an exciting night of fights. While the Nunes-Pena trilogy fight may have been postponed, fans can still look forward to an epic showdown between two talented fighters as Aldana steps up to challenge Nunes for the title.

With BKFC looking at September as the date for the promotion’s next major card, Feldman isn’t opposed to booking VanZant, Herrig, or possibly both of them that night.

Almost two years have passed since Paige VanZant set foot in the BKFC ring, but despite a lucrative career that she’s built online, the former UFC star isn’t done with fighting. VanZant has gone 0-2 thus far in her bare-knuckle fighting run, losing a pair of decisions to current BKFC strawweight champion Britain Hart and fellow UFC veteran Rachael Ostovich. “Paige, she always comes to fight,” Feldman said. “Some people want to say, ‘She lost twice.’ She lost two close fights. She came to fight both times. She challenged herself both times. She doesn’t have to fight a day in her life ever again and she’s going to live a superstar life. She wants to challenge herself again.Feldman also mentioned that ex-UFC fighter Felice Herrig, who signed with BKFC almost a year ago, has been on the promotion’s radar and may be a potential opponent for VanZant. They previously battled in the UFC in 2015, with VanZant winning a unanimous decision.We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019.“I actually questioned that myself, but she had a conversation with a couple of the guys on the team and I don’t think that she’s moved on,” Feldman told MMA Fighting. “I think she wants one more crack at it.

While there’s no official word on when she’ll be competing again, BKFC president David Feldman confirmed the promotion is still planning on bringing VanZant back for at least one more fight, and preliminary dialogues have begun to make that happen. VanZant was last scheduled to compete this past August in a bout against Charisa Sigala, but the fight was pulled from a planned BKFC event in London just days before the card took place.“I take my hat off to her. Whatever she’s doing outside the ring, that’s on her own and let her do whatever she’s doing to make that kind of money she’s making, but as far as being a fighter, she keeps wanting to challenge herself and how can you not respect that.”Lately, VanZant has been busy building a new house in Florida and earning a very healthy living through her personal website as well as her OnlyFans page. Because she’s making so much money through those avenues, Feldman admits that even he wondered if VanZant will ever fight again, but he apparently got his answer.

According to VanZant, she was told “logistical issues” led to her fight being pulled from the event. BKFC president Dave Feldman confirmed it was the promotion’s decision to pull the VanZant vs. Sigala fight from the card and added it had nothing to do with either fighter involved. “I was frustrated with the way the whole situation was handled,” VanZant told MMA Fighting. “They pulled me like three or four days before Austin’s fight. I don’t know if the timeline is important to anybody, but they pulled me. I will say they’re treating me really well and they’re compensating me for the situation.” “I was just waiting and waiting and waiting for them to announce it,” VanZant said. “I was pretty much on weight. I had cut all the weight early because I would be traveling with Austin and I didn’t want weight to be an issue.“It worked out, it is what it is. These things happen sometimes. I made it right with her and her team. I made it right with Charisa. I didn’t leave them hanging. I did everything I was supposed to do, and we’re going to have that fight later on the year, probably in the November timeframe.