UFC President and CEO Dana White has suggested that, should he defeat Ciryl Gane and become interim heavyweight champion, Pereira would surpass even Jon Jones to become MMA’s GOAT. Of course, a win would mean Pereira would claim a title in a third weight class, a feat never before accomplished in the UFC. And while an interim belt wouldn’t leave Pereira as an undisputed champion, it would be a considerable feat in itself.

Former UFC light heavyweight and heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier doesn’t necessarily agree. And he’s been asked the question by “Poatan” himself, apparently.

“Alex just asked me that directly, and he’s big now, so that’s a hard question to answer when he’s that big. And I actually told him no,” Cormier revealed on Wednesday, appearing at the UFC Freedom 250 media day with outlets including Cageside Press. “I told him I don’t think he’d be the greatest just yet. I think that he would need to defend the championship at heavyweight. He’s defended three times at light heavyweight – is it three times he’s defended? Two or three times?”

Pereira, who did not defend his middleweight title, defended his 205lb belt three times before losing it to Magomed Ankalaev. He later won the belt back in a rematch before vacating the title to facilitate his move to heavyweight.

“He’s fought for that title a lot of times, and I think that he just needs more work,” continued Cormier, who allowed that “I do believe that being a three-division champion is one of the greatest accomplishments ever. But to put him over Georges St-Pierre or Khabib Nurmagomedov, I don’t think quite yet.”

As for his old rival “Bones,” DC added “Jon Jones, you guys know how I feel about that.”

Cormier’s broadcaster partner, play-by-play man Jon Anik, was quick to give DC himself credit in the GOAT debate when he made his own media day appearance this week.

“You know it’s interesting. My broadcast partner Daniel Cormier probably doesn’t get the credit he deserves in terms of his relative all-time greatness,” started Anik. “It’s hard to put this into context. I feel like greatness should be judged on championship title defenses, and if they hung a banner in Albuquerque, New Mexico every time Jon Jones defended the title, they’d have 15 banners hanging up. So I think it terms of chasing down Jon Jones or Georges St-Pierre or Demetrious Johnson, maybe there would still be work to be done. ‘Poatan’ did not defend the middleweight title. But my gosh, Mt. Rushmore’s getting awfully crowded.”

“I just acknowledge a guy like DC who was a simultaneous double champ, defended the belt in two divisions and isn’t necessarily mentioned in these conversations, and I think he should be. But ‘Poatan’ is certainly chasing rarified air that no one has breathed before, and we’ll see if he can check that box.”

Anik later spoke to Cageside Press about the length of UFC cards, particularly Fight Night events. In the past, it has been suggested some could be a little shorter. Of course, the UFC has commitments to fighters under contract, but Anik did have a number of fights per card in mind that he feels is ideal, coming at it from a broadcaster’s point of view.

“Not trying to get in trouble up here; I would say 10 or 11 fights is probably in the wheelhouse. My former broadcast partner Brian Stann would always say to me ‘this is an open book test, you might as well show up with some notes.’ And if this fight card got delayed for five hours, we could obviously make good use of that time.”

“I think part of the reason I’m so consumed by the preparation is that you can always do more. So if I’m assigned 28 athletes, it’s pretty daunting. And if you’re giving each of those guys a couple hours, just do the math, it’s a lot of hours,” stated Anik. “So this is more manageable, just focusing on 14 athletes. We were able to do fighter meetings today with all 14 athletes, we never sit down with all 25 athletes.”

“So more management from that perspective, but yeah I think 10 or 11 would probably be the wheelhouse,” Anik noted. Of course when the UFC calls his number, Jon Anik always shows up, he added. No matter how many fights are on the card.

Watch the full UFC Freedom 250 media day appearances by Daniel Cormier and Jon Anik above.

The post UFC Broadcasters Anik, DC Give Their Take on Pereira’s GOAT Status appeared first on Cageside Press.

“Iron” Mike is also looking to bounce back from a trio of losses, to Dustin Poirier, Charles Oliveira, and Paddy Pimblett, in his fight against Mauricio Ruffy. That last one appears to have gnawed at Chandler (23-10) more than most.

“I’m very disappointed in my performance in my last fight. And I think sometimes as a fighter, you need those to really look at your blind spots, to really look at the areas where you need to improve,” Chandler told media outlets including Cageside Press during the White House card’s media day on Wednesday. “Areas where maybe you feel like you need to improve, where you feel like you need to tweak your training, tweak your mindset, but you’ve just been firing on all cylinders going 100 miles an hour ahead and just keep doing the same of what you’ve been doing.”

“Gave me an opportunity to kind of step back, recalibrate, kind of coil the spring so to speak for the greatest platform and the greatest opportunity of my life. And in my opinion, a great opponent, the perfect opponent to fight on the White House lawn.”

Over the past few years, Chandler has circled a fight with Conor McGregor, one that was briefly booked at UFC 303 only for the Irish star to pull out. The lightweight spent a lot of time on the sidelines waiting for the opportunity that never came, leading to a lot of talk among fans and pundits. Yet in a way, his loyalty to the fight, and the UFC itself, appears to have paid off. After all, he might be mired in a slump, but he’s still fighting at the White House.

That has to be somewhat vindicating, and have the monkey off his back so to speak.

“Yeah a little bit,” Chandler agreed, speaking to Cageside Press. “You’ve got certain fighters [not] on the card who after the fact, after they were not put on this card, say ‘well I didn’t want to fight on the card anyway.'”

“There’s no way in the world that somebody doesn’t want to fight on this fight card. When you talk about eyeballs, when you talk about platform, when you talk about reach, when you talk about the greatest moment of opportunity to showcase your skills to the world. So I always looked at it that way, at that’s me not even putting my blue-blooded American hat on.”

Of course, Chandler is a “very proud American” who wanted to represent the country, and the promotion, on the biggest stage possible, he noted. That’s been the case all along, even when he was chasing the McGregor fight.

“There was a lot of chatter. These last couple of years have been very interesting, but I think I’m a better man because of it, and because I’m a better man because of it, I’m a better husband and father because of it,” Chandler explained. “Sometimes things just don’t work out. Sometimes the things that you are chasing doesn’t work out. Sometimes you hitch your dream to a shooting star, and it just doesn’t work out.”

Throughout the process, Michael Chandler “did a lot of soul searching, and there were a lot of decisions that needed to be made, a lot of pieces needed to be put into place. But as you saw, whenever Conor pulled out of that fight, it was like, recalibrate for a month, lets see what happens, and I threw myself into the fire, Madison Square Garden, co-main event against one of the most dangerous guys on the planet, Charles Oliveira.”

“I stole the show that night even in a loss, and then got right back on the horse probably a little too soon, going into that Paddy fight, coming off an injury and stuff that never becomes public, that you guys never find out about. But here we are. I’ve had a year to lick my wounds and look myself in the mirror and know that I can be better. And I’m going to be better, and I have been better over the last year, and I’m going to show that on fight night.”

Watch the full UFC Freedom 250 media day appearance by Michael Chandler above.

The post Michael Chandler Reacts to Landing on White House Card After Hitching Dream to McGregor appeared first on Cageside Press.

“I hope so. I hope so. I hope he’s going to come out very aggressive,” Gaethje (27-5) told media outlets including Cageside Press during media day on Wednesday.

Gaethje isn’t exactly known for his trash talk, and added that “I’m definitely not trying to be something I’m not. Most of the time I’m just being a funny guy. I think I’m a pretty funny guy.”

The clash between the two seems to stem from Gaethje making comments saying he understood why Topuria’s wife divorced the Georgian fighter. But he noted on Wednesday that those comments were in jest. “When something’s in text, it’s very, very hard to understand the context of things, rather than when you see a video.”

The video of Gaethje’s comments has never surfaced, and he insisted that “I was joking. I thought it was funny.”

Asked where Topuria, who has defeated Max Holloway, Alexander Volkanovski, and Charles Oliveira in his last three fights, ranks, Gaethje was complimentary.

“He’s up there. His last three fights have been spectacular. He is one of the best in the world. He is the best in the world right now. He’s considered the best in the world, top two, he’s number two on the pound-for-pound list, and yeah, this is a huge task for me. Huge underdog. And I love the challenge.”

Of course, this fight comes on the White House lawn. Gaethje is no stranger to big stages, from Abu Dhabi to New York City. Yet he tries not to build things up too much.

“I use it for lessons, for lessons to not repeat. Oliveira was at home, home field advantage in Arizona. I had already failed fighting for the belt once, my second chance, I wanted it so bad and the more you want something, the worse you do sometimes. You can’t make it bigger than what it is.”

One thing to factor in, fighting on the White House lawn, is the weather, however.

“The humidity is the only thing that’s going to be a factor. We’re either going to be sweatier, or hotter.” Gaethje has hit the saunas prior to working out to prepare for that. “Really, really peaked my body temperature so I have to perform in that atmosphere.”

Topuria, he believes, may have also backed himself into a corner.

“The way he’s talked about me and the way he’s diminished my abilities really puts him into a corner where he has to have a spectacular performance or else he’s going to—  even if he wins and has a tough fight, he’s going to have a tough fight against a guy that he says does not belong in the cage with him.”

That puts the pressure on Topuria, Gaethje believes, but “The Highlight” went on to add that “this life comes with pressure.”

Watch the full UFC Freedom 250 media day appearance by Justin Gaethje above. Gaethje faces Ilia Topuria in a lightweight title unification bout this Sunday, June 14 at the White House in Washington, D.C.

The post UFC Freedom 250’s Justin Gaethje: Topuria Has Put Himself in a Corner appeared first on Cageside Press.

That leg break, shades of Anderson Silva and Chris Weidman, has left McGregor, now 37, on the sidelines for years. Along the way, he “retired” and removed himself from the testing pool; his planned return saw the UFC’s relationship with then-drug testing partner USADA decline rapidly after the two sides butted heads over an exemption from the normally required six months of drug testing for fighters coming back from retirement.

While many in the MMA space believed that McGregor retired and exited USADA’s drug testing pool specifically to utilize medications that would otherwise be banned for active fighters, the NYT report is the first to cite multiple sources confirming it, if they are to be believed. They also claim this was an attempt to “evade” anti-doping officials.

Per the New York Times story, published Thursday, their investigation “reveals that he [Conor McGregor] did take powerful, banned drugs, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.” They also point to Dr. Neal ElAttrache, who oversaw McGregor’s surgery in 2021, as supporting McGregor’s use of substances that would have been banned under the promotion’s Anti-Doping Policy (ADP), at the time overseen by USADA.

ElAttrache supported McGregor receiving a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE), which allowed athletes in the USADA program to use substances that would otherwise be banned from competition, with medical oversight. ElAttrache, who is the head physician for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Rams, told the Times that he did not “prescribe hormone or steroid treatment,” but rather wrote a letter in support of the TUE, after McGregor had seen another specialist who was also in favor of it.

Ultimately, McGregor’s TUE was denied, and he would go on to retire and remove himself from USADA’s testing pool as a result. During the years that followed, he filmed a role in the Road House remake alongside Jake Gyllenhaal, and was for a time announced as returning to action against Michael Chandler at UFC 303 in 2024, after the pair coached opposite one another via The Ultimate Fighter 31. He later withdrew from the fight due to a broken toe.

Much of the details from the Times report were already publicly known prior to that, and pertain to the period between McGregor’s catastrophic 2021 injury and UFC 303.

Conor McGregor’s potential return to action became a sticking point in the relationship between USADA and the UFC, one that saw their partnership quickly sour, and come to an end however. That started as early as 2022, when McGregor exited USADA’s testing pool. In a statement issued to multiple media outlets, the drug testing org noted that “In October 2022, the UFC confirmed that McGregor is not in the USADA testing pool and we can confirm that report.”

As first reported by Cageside Press in November 2022, a potential McGregor return was out of their hands. While fighters returning from retirement typically receive six months of mandatory drug testing, that period can be waived, as it was in the case of both Brock Lesnar and Meisha Tate. Lesnar, infamously, later failed a drug test linked to his UFC 200 fight against Mark Hunt in 2016, leading to years of legal action between Hunt and the promotion.

“We do not make the decision to grant exemptions to the six-month return from retirement rule,” USADA officials told Cageside Press at the time. Rather, under the UFC’s Anti-Doping Policy and their agreement with the organization, it was the UFC that had final say.

The following March, before he had returned to the testing pool, USADA publicly cried foul about a possible exemption for McGregor. A statement on the situation in part read “While the rules permit the UFC to make an exception to the six-month rule in exceptional circumstances, when the strict application of the rule would be manifestly unfair to the athlete, our position, which we have made clear, is that Conor should be in the testing pool for the full six-month period.”

That led UFC President and CEO Dana White to publicly exclaim “who cares what USADA says,” perhaps the first sign that the relationship between the two bodies would fail.

McGregor did return to the testing pool, but by January 2024, the relationship between the UFC and USADA was kaput. Following a very public breakup, the promotion engaged Combat Sports Anti-Doping (CSAD) and Drug Free Sport to oversee their Anti-Doping Program.

At the time, USADA CEO Travis T. Tygart called the relationship between the two bodies “untenable.” A press release by USADA directly linked this to the McGregor situation. The UFC later issued a legal letter to USADA in response.

In response to the New York Times, Conor McGregor’s manager, Audie Attar, did not confirm whether the fighter took banned substances while officially retired. “Even with surgery there was a real risk Conor might not walk again, a high likelihood he would face numerous lifelong side effects that would limit his mobility and serious doubts he would ever return to the octagon,” he was quoted as saying, adding that his client exited the testing pool “to focus fully on his recovery,” under the guidance of his medical team.

“It is an unfathomable breach of health and privacy protections that my client’s purported personal medical records would be disclosed,” Attar noted.

UFC Chief Business Officer Hunter Campbell told the Times that McGregor remained “in full compliance with the rules of our comprehensive drug program.”

According to the Times, ElAttrache, the doctor who oversaw McGregor’s 2021 surgery, said the “expert opinions” McGregor received from other physicians had showed “he could optimize his chance of solid union and healing of his fractures and decrease the chances that he would be left with incompletely healed fracture lines.” ElAttrache also noted that “banned drugs” are not the same as “illegal drugs,” and substances banned from competition often have legitimate medical purposes.

However, the Times cited “ten sports doctors” saying they were unaware of any athlete being granted a Therapeutic Use Exemption for substances to heal a broken bone. Only one was named in Thursday’s report, Dr. David Gerrard.

“I could not recall ever seeing a case or agreeing to any performance-enhancing drug to help heal a broken bone,” he said in regards to McGregor’s case.

According to the Times, McGregor did use banned substances while not under purview of USADA (or later, CSAD), citing unnamed sources. However, the fighter has never failed a drug test while in the testing program, and remains the UFC’s most actively tested fighter, with 12 drug test samples collected in 2026.

He previously received an 18-month suspension for whereabouts failures (not keeping CSAD up to date on his location to facilitate sample collection).

Conor McGregor returns to action in the main event of UFC 329 on July 11, 2026, where he faces Max Holloway for the second time.

The post NYT Report: McGregor Utilized Banned Substances to Heal Broken Leg While Out of Testing Pool appeared first on Cageside Press.

After snapping Ziam’s own six-fight run, Nolan’s only sore spot, if any, was that he couldn’t finish the fight as he’d hoped coming in.

“I did think I was going to either chin him or choke him out in the second. I wasn’t sure which one; I knew I was the better fighter in all realms,” Nolan told media outlets including Cageside Press backstage at the Meta Apex following his victory.

Not getting the finish has left Nolan with something to work on, he added. “I wanted the finish, but we’ll get it next time.”

After losing his UFC debut following a win on the Contender Series in 2023, Nolan has marched through each and every opponent since. “Everything’s just coming together for me at a really good time. I feel like I’m taking a boxing camp approach to my game plans now a little bit, in the sense that I’m trying to revolve around exactly what’s in front of me,” he noted. “All year round I’m trying to get better, but I’m not going to work something that’s not specific for the fight anymore.”

Nolan also pointed out a couple of areas where he’s shored up his game, areas he feels have led to his continued success. “Two things going into this fight that I worked on a large amount, one is my mind. I’ve been working with my mental coach, Eric. Dr. Eric Simmons. Just learning to love the game again.”

Nolan suggested that he wouldn’t care if he lost the fight, so long as he gave it everything he had. “I would have genuinely been proud of myself, and that’s what really matters to me.”

“And the second thing is, cutting weight properly. I’m a perfectionist, and I’ve been coming into these fights too light. I’ve had times where I’ve come into Fight Week on weight, and I’m just like maintaining on weight all week, which is just not good for you, it’s really, really bad for you. Which I thought, in my mind, I was like ‘oh I’m not sweating out as much as everyone, so I’m doing it right.’ But I wasn’t.”

“This time I did a proper sweat-out, and it sucked. It wasn’t fun,” admitted Nolan. “But today I felt awesome. I just felt normal. I didn’t feel all bloated and sore.”

Timing is everything in MMA, but so is trajectory, and Nolan is on the right one. Following the win, the Australian called out longtime lightweight and fan favorite Renato Moicano.

As to why, “I respect him so much. I think he’s awesome,” stated Nolan. “I’ve studied him a lot, I studied his fight against BSD for my last fight.”

Tom Nolan even borrowed some techniques from the Brazilian for his own last bout, and added “I think he’s great. I’ve been watching him since I was a child. There’s nothing but respect. I love that dude, he’s cool. I just think that, like I said, I’m back in love with the game, and I want to challenge myself. I think that dude has a scary striking skillset, a scary grappling skillset, he’s fought everybody. He’s awesome, he’s great. So why not fight someone like that? Why not go out there and prove myself right once again?”

Watch the full UFC Vegas 118 post-fight press conference with Tom Nolan above.

The post UFC Vegas 118: Tom Nolan Wants to Fight “Awesome,” “Scary” Moicano appeared first on Cageside Press.

Speaking with media outlets including Cageside Press following the bout, Allen (27-7) reflected on the 15-minute war, and compared his performance against Shahbazyan’s to champ Sean Strickland’s.

“Sometimes you gotta just be a dog and walk him. And that’s what I did, I walked him down, walked him down. That’s what I was doing. Sean won off of staying on his back foot and throwing a jab, but I’m going to give you some power shots, make it dirty.”

In the end, Allen was thoroughly upbeat about his performance. “It was fun. I hope everyone enjoyed it. That’s what I come to do, I come to fight no matter what. Win or lose, I’m coming to fight. I guess I’m not the most likeable guy, I don’t got the most followers or none of that, but I can f*cking fight. I’m 15-4 in this promotion, I’ve fought the best guys I can fight. He was young, he’s motivated as f*ck, he’s a very skilled guy, and he earned his shot.”

Allen added that “he pushed me, he made me find a new version of myself. He motivated me, so hats off to Edmen.”

What comes next for Brendan Allen is anyone’s guess. He’s long been on the outskirts of the title picture at 185lbs, and is currently riding a three-fight win streak. Yet sitting in the #4 spot in the division, there are still a few names ahead of him in line.

“Man it’s hard to say. I don’t think I deserve anything. I try to earn everything I get. F*ck, I hope Sean goes out, he’s the champion, so hopefully he picks me,” exclaimed Allen. “Let’s run this sh*t back. It’s been six years since we fought, I think I was beating him going into it.”

Brendan Allen lost to current champ Sean Strickland by TKO back in November 2020, but added that if you watch their fight from different angles, it shows that Strickland didn’t land on him “with the strikes said. It wasn’t there.”

“I think I get him out of there now. I think Edmen’s a better version of him. He’s younger, he’s more technical, he’s faster. I think Edmen’s a better version of him, and I think I get Sean out of there, and new.”

If not, Allen is open to fighting Nassourdine Imavov, who he also has a loss to, or the winner of Dricus Du Plessis vs. Kamaru Usman. “We’ll see. Right now I’m going to go get these injuries checked, I’m going to talk with Hunter [Campbell, UFC Chief Business Officer], and we’ll see what’s next.”

Watch the full UFC Vegas 118 post-fight press conference with Brendan Allen above.

The post Following UFC Vegas 118, Brendan Allen Hoping for Strickland Rematch, Open to Imavov, DDP-Usman Winner appeared first on Cageside Press.

Both ladies entered the night on two fight skids, but it was Chandler getting her arm raised. That after snatching the arm of Cachoeira for an arm-bar.

The bout came after Chandler expanded her training camp footprint, working with Cesar Gracie, Felipe Martinez, Moses Cortes and others. Lots of cross-training, in other words.

“I felt like I was very prepared in every aspect for this fight. I trained hard rounds for MMA, hard kickboxing, hard punching,” Chandler told media outlets including Cageside Press following the win. “There were so many times that I threw up for this camp that, I’ve never thrown up before.”

“I knew I was pushing my body and my mental fortitude to the hardest it’s ever been pushed, and then out there it was easy. Because I knew I was prepared and ready to go.”

Coming off two losses, Chandler (7-4) admitted that “I put a lot of pressure on myself, and the people that I’ve lost to are the top in this division.”

“I was fighting with injuries, I had it a few times where it was hard keeping my arms up in training, and the UFC took care of me,” she went on to explain. “I got some stem cells in my neck, and I feel like I’ve got a 10 year old neck. It’s good to be able to go to training and not be injured all the time and believe in yourself, be able to push harder.”

Chandler believes all that showed in her confidence on Saturday. “I was happy to be there, I was enjoying the moment, I wasn’t dreading it. And I look forward to bringing that energy into the next fight.”

Watch the full UFC Vegas 118 post-fight press conference with Chelsea Chandler above.

The post Chelsea Chandler Was Throwing Up In Camp Ahead of UFC Vegas 118 appeared first on Cageside Press.

Mitchell (19-3) improved to 2-0 as a UFC bantamweight at Saturday’s UFC Vegas 118, and the weight class appears to suit him well.

“I just feel matched. I don’t feel big, but I definitely don’t feel small. And I feel like when I get my grips, I can take anybody down in that weight class,” Mitchell said following his submission victory, which came late in the third round, speaking with media outlets including Cageside Press. “I don’t think size will be a disadvantage. I think it’s an equal playing field, whereas I was really outsized at 45.”

There’s been talk of a match-up with Aleksandre Topuria, brother of UFC lightweight champ Ilia, next, though Mitchell wants some time off to heal up. “I would take that fight, absolutely,” Mitchell said on Saturday, backstage at the Meta Apex.

There’s only one fight he wouldn’t agree to, in fact. “The only person that I don’t want to fight is [Marcus] McGhee. Because me and McGhee are related. Most people don’t know that, but me and McGhee are brothers. We’ve got the same father. I don’t think it would be fair, to be fighting my brother like that. Besides fighting my brother, I’ll fight anybody.”

It’s unclear whether Mitchell is serious, but he wasn’t laughing when he said it. If Mitchell and McGhee are in fact related, it’s news to the MMA world. He might also be referring to their shared spirituality, but either way, it’s clear he’s not interested in fighting with McGhee.

Bryce Mitchell turned heads this week, ahead of UFC Vegas 118, when he criticized the U.S. government’s involvement in MMA, mainly the UFC Freedom 250 card at the White House. Known for sparking controversy at the best of times, Mitchell was a surprising voice of reason this time out, suggesting that the government isn’t here to entertain, but rather should be minimal and focused on protecting its people.

Seeing fans resonate with his message, “of course I always want people to love me and agree with me,” noted Mitchell. “That’s not my motivation for saying what I say, it’s not a consensus or trying to appease people,” he continued.

“If I say something, it’s because I think it’s the right thing to say, if my heart’s in the right place. But it’s really nice to see people understand what I’m saying, that I’m not being malicious and that I am happy to be part of the UFC. I am grateful to be here. But I have a voice too, and I can have my opinions while still respecting everybody.”

That said, if he were asked to join the Freedom 250 card next weekend, he’d accept.

“Hey if somebody gets hurt and they need me, I’m gonna put some Icy Hot on my back, and I’ll fight bro,” Mitchell exclaimed. “That’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

Watch the full UFC Vegas 118 post-fight press conference with Bryce Mitchell above.

The post Bryce Mitchell Critical of Government Involvement, But Would Fight at UFC Freedom 250 appeared first on Cageside Press.

“I’m very emotional still. It hasn’t dawned on me that I’m here, but I’m here and making my debut in the greatest organization in the world. And coming out with a win,” Chaves (8-0) said following the victory, speaking with Cageside Press and other media outlets.

Despite the judges’ scorecards, Chaves doesn’t feel the bout was truly a split decision. “Happy even though it was a split decision. I do not believe it was a split decision, but that just tells me one thing: the next time you’ve gotta train more, you’ve got to come here and you’ve gotta finish the fight. So that’s what you’re gonna do.”

“You never want to leave things in the hands of the judges. We’ll come back stronger, but we’re very happy with the win,” she added.

In the end, Chaves does feel she made a statement with her debut performance inside the UFC octagon. As to what that statement was, it’s “that I’m always going to bring war, that I’m always going to be somebody that’s going to look for the finish, somebody’s that going to give a rugged performance, and someone that doesn’t fear anybody. No matter what happens, I’m always going to be coming in to put on a show, and you’re always going to love my performances.”

Watch the full UFC Vegas 118 post-fight press conference Jeisla Chaves 

The post Jeisla Chaves Feels She Made a Statement with UFC Vegas 118 Win appeared first on Cageside Press.

This time, at the Meta Apex on Saturday, it was a head kick that sparked the finish. Speaking with media outlets including Cageside Press following a big victory, Souza (17-6) was beaming.

“I’m really happy. How can you not be after a knockout like that?” she exclaimed.

Souza’s aggression was apparent throughout the fight. “I need to come back to my essence, I’m very aggressive, that’s why they call me ‘Esquentadinha,’ which means ‘heated,'” she noted. “So I needed to come back to my essence and be aggressive.”

That aggression paid off, as Souza caught Carnelossi with a kick on the way up from being rocked moments earlier. It was shades of the pair’s first encounter back in 2019, which Ketlen Souza won via body kick.

Moving forward, Souza has a bigger name in mind. A former strawweight champion, in fact: Jessica Andrade.

“I hope I do another fight in 2026, I hope it’s Jessica Andrade. I want to fight people that bring out the best in me, so that’s why I’m asking for that fight,” Souza stated.

Watch the full UFC Vegas 118 post-fight press conference with Ketlen Souza above.

The post UFC Vegas 118: Ketlen Souza Needed to Get Back to Her “Essence” appeared first on Cageside Press.