Jose Aldo made the jump to boxing this past week, while Khamzat Chimaev set his sights on a new opponent. Power Slap continues to underwhelm, while Tommy Fury no showed a press conference with Jake Paul. Now where have we seen that before? It’s your Sunday MMA Quick Hits!
Jose Aldo Is Undefeated
As a professional boxer, that is. Aldo made his boxing debut Friday at a Shoot Brazil Boxing event that aired live on UFC Fight Pass. With a second match already booked for Gamebred Boxing in April, Aldo had a fair amount of attention on him as he took on the little-known (okay, unknown) Alberto Emmanuel Zambrano.
“Scarface” did not disappoint. He cruised past Zambrano, earning a unanimous decision win, with only one judge scoring even a single round for Aldo’s opponent.
Death, taxes, whiffing on punches against Jose Aldo#ShootoBoxing pic.twitter.com/5LwAFJXvtP
— UFC FIGHT PASS (@UFCFightPass) February 11, 2023
Onward and upward. Aldo is already talking about an exhibition bout with Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Khamzat Doesn’t Fear “The Reaper,” Wants Whittaker Next
Khamzat Chimaev is chasing a fight with Robert Whittaker, after a potential match-up with Paulo Costa fell through.
“Borz” is billing this as good guy vs. bad guy.
Power Slap Ratings Continue to Tank
Power Slap really only gets mentioned in this column (and essentially nowhere else in this publication) because it’s not MMA-related. It’s barely a sport, and not a very interesting one at that. But what is notable is the amount of time the UFC has spent pushing it through their social media channels — with little to show for it, at least in terms of ratings.
Slap fighting is a sport almost designed for social media — a brief clip of a hard slap can bring the usual ‘ohhs and ahhs’ from scrollers, but does anyone want to sit through an hour-long show of it, including a TUF-style format? Apparently not. The latest Power Slap ratings hit a new low, with the episode losing roughly two thirds of its lead-in on TBS, AEW Dynamite.
The show didn’t even crack the cable top 60 for the night. #68 overall for the week, in fact (via Showbuzz Daily).
We’re not doing a weekly update on this; we haven’t really mentioned Power Slap much since week one, when there was a firestorm of controversy following UFC President Dana White slapping his wife, resulting in the show being pushed back a week. But if ratings continue at this rate, don’t expect to find Power Slap on the TBS calendar next year.
Dillon Danis Did It First
Tommy Fury failed to show up for his pre-fight press conference with Jake Paul. The pair allegedly fight later this month, though Mike Perry has been called in as a back-up fighter.
Quite frankly, Dillon Danis was no-showing press conferences before it was cool. Like, last month.
Okay fine. It was never cool. But it feels like these celebrity boxing bouts get more coverage when things go sideways than when they actually go according to plan. So we figure there’s a good chance it will be Perry in action on Feb. 26. Which might be a more entertaining fight, frankly.
Diaz Camp Responds to Chimaev’s UFC 279 Claims
Khamzat Chimaev recently claimed that Nate Diaz was offered millions to stay in their fight at UFC 279, despite Chimaev badly missing weight. Even though he was the villain of the piece, Khamzat has claimed that a real-life villain, Ramzan Kadyrov, offered Diaz $2 million to stay in the fight.
Is that in Chechen currency, Monopoly money, or U.S. dollars? In any case, a Diaz rep told ESPN the story was a “fairy tale.”
“It is fun fiction for Khamzat. Just lacks a shred of truth, including what he was supposed to make,” wrote Zach Rosenfield in a statement to the outlet. “At what point in Khamzat’s fairy tail (sic) did he ask Nate? When he tapped out of his weight cut at 2am? When he was being hold in isolation at the UFC PI so the story wouldn’t get out? The only millions that were negotiated on that Friday were the millions more we got for fighting Tony [Ferguson] after Khamzat was no professional enough to show up for the fight we asked.
Nate Diaz rep Zach Rosenfield sent ESPN a statement on Khamzat Chimaev’s claims that Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov offered Diaz $2 million to take the Chimaev fight back in September after Chimaev missed weight pic.twitter.com/Xu1kF59iuh
— Marc Raimondi (@marcraimondi) February 11, 2023
