Roberts (10-1), who joined the UFC off a 2018 appearance on Dana White’s Contender Series, in the pre-UFC Apex days, is gunning for a fight with Matt Frevola. He called out “The Steamrolla” after his UFC Vegas win, and explained the reasoning behind it while speaking with Cageside Press in a virtual media scrum post-fight.

A fight that happened at the UFC Apex, the new home of the Contender Series. And UFC events as well, for the foreseeable future.

“It’s cool. I like it. The cage was the same size as Contenders,” Roberts told us. “So yeah, it was cool to actually be in a smaller cage, I don’t gotta worry about a lot of moving around. Yeah, I feel good.”

On the Contender Series, athletes fight without any walkout music, similar to walkouts on The Ultimate Fighter. Despite the lack of a crowd, music was back at UFC Vegas over the weekend — not that Roberts noticed.

“To be honest with you, with this walkout man, my heart was pumping and I was ready to go, so I couldn’t hear [it],” he said. “I was just focused and ready to get to it. But I like the fact that it did have music playing. It wasn’t like just like crickets, like everybody just eyes on me, waiting for me to go. So yeah, it was actually a pretty cool experience.”

As for Roberts’ callout of Matt Frevola, the reasoning is simple. “He fought my brother. I didn’t like the outcome. So I need that,” he explained. Not Robert’s literal brother. Rather, teammate Jalin Turner. A fighter, he explained who watched him make it. Roberts watched Turner make it in return.

“I’m in the same weight class. If I if I don’t like something about somebody, I’m gonna say it to them,” he continued. “So I called [Frevola] out and let him know I want to fight. We were supposed to fight and it didn’t happen, but that doesn’t mean I still don’t want to fight. I mean, I still want to fight. Just because it got pushed back. I wanted it to be Matt that I fought tonight. But it wasn’t, it didn’t play out like that. So next one moving forward is Matt Frevola.”

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Speaking with Cageside Press following the fight, the welterweight noted that “COVID is affecting everybody. You know, especially fighters, gyms are closed. Fighting Gabriel Green was something that was scheduled to happen a few years ago. He’s a top guy in the state on the local circuit in California.”

It’s a fight that Rodriguez was seeking out. “I don’t have nothing against the guy. But competition-wise I always wanted to fight him. We were supposed to fight for a title, but he had a couple injuries he had to take care of.” As a result, Rodriguez moved on with his career. Fate, however, brought them back together at UFC Vegas. “I continued my career and sure enough, dude ended up taking this fight on short notice. Nothing but respect towards the guy. He’s a tough guy. He’s got all my respect.”

It feels like fate has played a hand in bringing Rodriguez to the UFC. Back on the Contender Series in July of 2019, “D-Rod” was the only winner on his episode not to get a ticket to the big show. Instead, he took another fight outside the promotion before getting a huge short-notice opportunity of his own last time out.

“After the Contender Series fight, I was the only fighter that didn’t get a contract that night. I was a little bit bummed out, man,” Rodriguez admitted. Heading back home, “I told myself I wasn’t gonna get too down on it. I still got the victory. My plan was to continue fighting, riding that Contender Series victory.”

The goal, back on the regional scene, was to take only championship fights, racking up title fights off the exposure he’d gained. “Fought one fight and I got the call on on on short notice against Tim Means. I was in no position to say no to the UFC. I know I had to step up to the opportunity and so going into that fight I was willing to leave it all, everything I got in the cage.”

So where do we go from here? With a couple of wins in the UFC, things are looking up. For Rodriguez, it sounds like he just wants to stay busy.

“I’m 33, I feel like I’m in my prime so I’m ready to just keep the ball rolling, man, because I just love to fight. This is what I do,” he said. “Since coming into the UFC, it’s become my job, full time job and I take my job seriously. Being in the UFC, I respect the sport 100%. I respect every fighter and as long as they show me some respect, it’s gonna be on all-respect levels.”

Rodrgiuez went on to call even fighting right now — at a time when there’s more video game competitions than real sports in action — an honor. “I know I’m being watched by the whole world right now. To pull off a victory is just a blessing.”

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Yet despite a second round submission via arm triangle choke, Royval (11-4) was visibly upset post fight, saying his showing wasn’t good enough. Unhappy that he’d have to go back to work come Monday.

Plenty of fighters work to train, especially starting out. A few — Stipe Miocic comes to mind — stick with their jobs despite reaching the highest levels of the sport. Speaking to Cageside Press following UFC Vegas, however, Royval shed some light into just why he wasn’t thrilled with the prospect of clocking in Monday.

“I work overnight to train full time. So I work overnights,” the flyweight fighter explained. “And then I go out and I have a two hour session in the morning. I get like four hours of sleep, if I have strength and conditioning that night, I get four hours of sleep in the day. And I go right back to training at five.”

“I get off work at 8:30 go to the gym at 9AM. Get out of there at 12. And then if I don’t have strength and conditioning, then I get to go home and go to bed. And then I go back to the gym at five,” he continued, detailing the rather tight schedule he lives by. “It’s just like a 30 minute drive home. Then I go sleep for maybe three, four hours and then I go right back to the gym and then I get ready for the day again. But if I have strength and conditioning, I have strength and conditioning from 1 to 2, and then I go sleep for an hour and a half, two hours and then I go do it all over again. My life sucks, bro. No, I’m just kidding.”

While he joked at the end, it’s clear Royval felt his performance wasn’t good enough to get him away from his day job. Fortunes changed, however, when the UFC announced the UFC Vegas bonus winners. Royval vs. Elliott earned Fight of the Night.

As to what was going through his head during his debut, Royval broke things down for us. “In my head I kind of thought he would probably shoot right off the bat, but I thought we’d probably exchange a little bit. Me getting taken down four seconds into the fight is not how I pictured my debut going,” he admitted. “Right when I got hit the mouth, I’m like ‘shoot, is this how this is gonna go?'”

“So that was going through my head right off the bat. I just want to go out here make some good money. I want to go out here and change my life a little bit,” Royval added. He also took issue with the pace, though from an outsider’s perspective, it was a fast-paced fight.

“I’m glad you said that man,” Royval told us. “Because they’re telling me like, that was a good pace. But I felt so slow out there. And I felt like I wasn’t scrambling when I should scramble and all that stuff. You know, I’m happy with the win, but I’m not satisfied.”

The extra $50,000 he earned off the Fight of the Night bonus will hopefully alleviate that just a little.

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Gilbert Burns

Gilbert Burns’ victory this past weekend should spring him directly into the number one contender conversation. The welterweight division is somewhat already planned out so it only leaves a few options for Burns. Champion Kamaru Usman is a teammate of Burns but has still said that he has no problem with Burns challenging him for the title. Although it is looking like the UFC will do two fights to determine who will be the number one contender. Jorge Masvidal already has a past with Leon Edwards so it would make sense for them to fight next. Which leaves Burns to fight Colby Covington in the meantime.

Burns’ Next Fight: Colby Covington

Roosevelt Roberts

Roosevelt Roberts was able to secure a submission win over Brok Weaver in the second round this past weekend. After his fight, he got on the mic and called out Matt Frevola. Frevola is already set to fight Frank Camacho on June 20th but Roberts said after that fight Frevola should be ready to sign the contract. This callout comes because Frevola beat Roberts’ teammate Jalin Turner in April of 2019.

Roberts’ Next Fight: Matt Frevola 

Katlyn Chookagian

Following her loss to Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 247, the UFC matched Katlyn Chookagian up with Antonina Shevchenko this past weekend. Chookagian was able to dominate the fight on her way to a unanimous decision win. This win should ensure that she stays at the top of the women’s flyweight division. Also at the top of the division is Jessica Eye. Jessica Eye is set to take on Cynthia Calvillo on June 13th. Eye and Chookagian both have lost to Valentina Shevchenko for the title. The most logical thing to do would be to have Chookagian fight the winner of Eye-Calvillo to see who will challenge Shevchenko next.

Chookagian’s Next Fight: Winner of Jessica Eye vs. Cynthia Calvillo

Who do you guys think these fighters should fight next? Let us know in the comments down below.

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Brazil’s Abreu has held gold in Brave CF, and is certainly no slouch. But it was sweet dreams early in the fight, with Hill landing a crushing knee to the body to set up the finish.

The TKO at the UFC Apex was his first stoppage inside the octagon. It likely won’t be his last. Speaking of the Apex, it was a bit of a homecoming for Hill, who competed there just last summer on the Contender Series. Only, that time there were a few more bodies in the building.

“It’s a little up close and personal, you know what I’m saying?” he told Cageside Press about the empty venue, speaking in a virtual media scrum. “Everybody gets to hear everything. I don’t mind it at all.”

It certainly didn’t seem to hamper his performance any. Speaking to Daniel Cormier post-fight, Hill exclaimed that “I think I made a statement, I know I’m not somebody to be taken lightly. A lot of people like to play with my name, but keep on sleeping on me and I’ll let the doctor wake you up.” He refrained, however, from calling anyone out.

There are plenty of names though. Khalil Rountree Jr. Jimmy Crute. Alonzo Menifield.

“They all just sound like victims to me,” said Hill to those suggestions. “Whoever wants to sign their name, put your name on the dotted line. I don’t need to call nobody out. I’m here. Everybody gonna have to run into me, and we’ll have to see. So it is what it is.”

While he’s not clamoring for a specific name, there’s no question Hill is game for a tough test. After all, he has said he wants to make a highlight out of Jon Jones.

“I said when I got signed — throw me in the water, see if I can swim,” Hill stated. “Seems like I’m doing the back stroke right now.”

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Underdog?  Off a title fight, against an opponent who was just 2-1 inside the octagon to start the night?

Of course, Antonina is the elder sister of flyweight champ Valentina.  But a far less decorated fighter in MMA.  For Chookagian (14-3), who put on the most dominant performance of her career, leading to a unanimous decision win on Saturday, it was something of a shock.

Chookagian gave her thoughts on the odds speaking to Cageside Press in a virtual media scrum following the bout.

“When I first saw the odds, I looked at my husband like ‘did you see these odds?’  Because I know he sees them but doesn’t say anything,” Chookagian recalled.  “And he’s like, ‘I think the oddsmakers just got into it.’  He’s like, ‘they’re just confused with like, the last name and the last fight and stuff.’  And I was like, ‘this is crazy.'”  Chookagian was convinced that the odds would change by the time the fight came around.  “And it didn’t.”

“I don’t understand,” she admitted.  “I just assumed that the oddsmakers were uneducated on women’s MMA and just maybe got used.”

In the build-up to the fight, a lot was made of the family tie between the sisters, and Chookagian fighting them back-to-back.  “I think they forgot that they’re different people.  They don’t really have the same style at all,” Chookagian said of those who focused on the name more than anything else.  “And You know, Antonina’s, her older sister.  Not a lot of people have heard of her.  I mean, she is her sister but it doesn’t matter.  That didn’t affect me at all, and they’re two totally separate fighters and they don’t really even do a lot of the same things.”

Nor was it any sort of revenge.  Revenge will only come against the champ, Chookagian noted.  “It didn’t matter. If anything, it was a little annoying.  Everyone’s like, ‘it’s just gonna be revenge for [the loss] against Valentina.  No, revenge is going to be beating her, not her sister who is 2-1 in the UFC.”

Valentina Shevchenko currently has a fight scheduled with Joanne Calderwood for later this year.  In the meantime, Chookagian is just looking to stay busy.

“I’m 31, so I just don’t want to waste my time here, I want to get as many fights as I can,” she told us.  “I’m not injured.  I train all the time and I’m ready to go.  I was lucky that I fought for the title about three months ago and I got to fight again, and that’s what I love.  I’m always ready and improving so I just don’t want long layover.  I just want to be able to fight as as much as possible and I don’t care who it is.  I don’t care if they’re ranked above me, below me, coming off a win, a loss, whatever.  Just give me anyone.”

The post UFC Vegas’ Katlyn Chookagian: Revenge Will Only Come in Beating Valentina Shevchenko, Not Her Sister appeared first on Cageside Press.

At times, all Morales could do was grasp the cage to keep from toppling over.  In the end, stranded at center, legs taken out from under him again, the ref mercifully put a stop to the affair.

The win over Morales makes it three in a row for Chris Gutierrez (15-4-1).  But performances are remembered far longer than records, and Saturday’s was a performance that will be remembered for a while.

Speaking to media outlets including Cageside Press post-fight, Boston’s “El Guapo” was asked about the finish.  “It always feels good to get a stoppage, right?  You don’t need no judges, you don’t need no controversy about them.  So, to get a stoppage especially in the biggest promotion in the world, man it’s just nice.”

No doubt.  While Gutierrez clearly targeted his opponent’s legs throughout the fight, it wasn’t necessarily something he’d planned on from the outset.  “I just go in and go with the flow, honestly,” he said.  “That’s what I do. I just go in there, go with the flow and listen to my coaches.”

His coaches clearly steered him in the right direction at the UFC Apex on Saturday.  The card-opening fight was the first of four straight finishes, and among the most memorable.

A solid performance, for a short-notice fight up a weight class at featherweight.  The Factory X fighter, training under Marc Montoya, usually competes at bantamweight.  He could have made the cut on short notice — but the preference was to protect his health.

“Bantamweight is my home, that’s where I fight at.  But this one, I took it on what, like nine or ten days’ notice?  I don’t want to hurt myself going down an extra ten pounds,” he stated.  “So anytime your body doesn’t suffer — making 35lbs is no problem when I have the proper timeframe, but if you do that in ten days, then you can really fatigue, you can really hurt yourself.  So of course not dropping the extra ten, it worked out.”

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Opponent Spike Carlyle came storming out of the gate, hurting Quarantillo early. Proving slow and steady (well, not slow, let’s say measured) wins the race, Quarantillo weathered the storm, and wound up capturing rounds two and three for the unanimous decision win.

There was one point in the fight, however, that had just about everyone talking. In the dying seconds of round one, Carlyle stood up, turned his back on Quarantillo, and walked away. Before the bell had sounded.

Protect yourself at all times. Quarantillo, seeing an opening, charged in and landed a heavy — but legal — blow on the unsuspecting Carlyle, while the ref yelled at “The Alpha Ginger” to keep fighting.

Whether Carlyle was cocky, or just lost track of time, is the question. Quarantillo told Cageside Press during the UFC Vegas virtual post-fight scrum that it’s something he’d seen from his opponent before, however.

“He’s done in other fights, where he turns his back and there was like a big spinning back fist. We were getting ready for that,” Quarantillo explained. “But if I hear one person tell me I’m a dirty fighter. I’m gonna lose it because there, it was him doing a weird-ass thing. I wasn’t trying to be dirty.”

“[Carlyle] stood up and the ref goes ‘keep fighting, keep fighting,'” Quarantillo recalled. “He had plenty of opportunity to stay in there. He could have stayed on top and you know, defend yourself at all times, man. He shouldn’t have done that. If he would have turned his back and landed a spinning back fist and knocked me out, people wouldn’t even have thought twice about it. So it’s a fight man, and there was no crowd noise. So there’s really no reason for him to do that. Whatever.”

For his part, Quarantillo doesn’t feel too bad about taking advantage of the situation. And to be clear, his actions were very legal. Fighters are expected to protect themselves at all times throughout the round.

“You’ll never see me doing something like that. From bell to bell I’m looking at my opponent, I’m not turning my back unless I’m throwing some spinning stuff,” Quarantillo said. “I don’t feel bad about it, especially since his last fight [against Aalon Cruz], he landed some elbows to the back of the head. All is fair in this game. And I got the win. So it’s on to the next one.”

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The kneebar submission, in the opening round of her main card fight with Hannah Cifers, earned Dern (8-1) a Performance of the Night bonus.  It also marked her return to the win column, after suffering her first defeat last year against Amanda Ribas.

It’s something of a surprise that it’s taken this long for a leg lock to be utilized on the women’s side of things.  Women entered the UFC back in 2012, with Ronda Rousey at the forefront.  Her arm-bar, of course, became a widely feared weapon.

Maybe Dern’s leg locks will one day be looked at the same way.  Speaking with Cageside Press post-fight, the BJJ star — winner of essentially every major jiu-jitsu tournament at the black belt level — expressed surprise at being the first woman to successfully use a leg lock in the UFC.  “When they told me, for MMA, women, this is the first leg lock— for us in jiu-jitsu, it’s normal, leg locks.  It was always my specialty in the jiu-jitsu world.”  In fact, noted Dern, her leg locks were a crowd favorite.

“It feels great, like in jiu-jitsu,” she said, asked whether pulling off the submission gave her the same feeling as it would have in the jiu-jitsu world.  “But the fact that they told me it was the first one ever in [UFC] women’s history, it was like ‘wow, okay!’  I’m happy that I’m able to bring my jiu-jitsu talent to the octagon.”

Dern admitted during the UFC Vegas virtual post-fight media scrum that she’s a fighter who excels with a crowd present.  Which obviously wasn’t the case at the UFC Apex on Saturday. Still, she said, “I felt good. I was really dialed in, focused.”

“I always fight better when I have the crowd, then when I’m sparring or something like that,” she noted.  And so she tried to put herself in that mindset. “In my mind, everyone’s watching.”

UFC President Dana White helped out with a little pre-event speech, added Dern.  “Dana [White] told us ‘hey, this is the biggest platform, there’s no other event happening right now. Everyone’s quarantined at home.  Now is the time to show why we’re here, why we worked so hard, why we’re going through all these problems.’  So I tried to put on a good show for everyone, for everyone battling the coronavirus and COVID-19.”

Now, Dern’s hoping that a history-making win will afford her a quick turnaround.  The strawweight fighter had been vocal, ahead of UFC Vegas, about the promotion seemingly cooling on her following her loss to Ribas last October.  Suddenly, the phone stopped ringing.  That may very well change now.

“I hope so,” Dern told us Saturday.  “If this didn’t work, I don’t know what will.”

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The three-round catchweight scrap (no one missed weight, this was a rare agreed upon 150lb fight in the UFC) was wildly entertaining. It started with Spike Carlyle charging across the cage to deliver a flying kick off the opening bell. That led to him unloading on Quarantillo, then some mad scrambles, with both men having control at times. Carlyle clearly took the frame, though he nearly got himself knocked out when he turned his back on the opponent seconds before the buzzer to end the round.

The second round was fast and furious as well. Carlyle seemed to hurt Quarantillo early. Later in the round, Quarantillo was in control. Hunting for submissions. Ultimately, round two was a toss-up.

In the final frame, the pace slowed a tick. Albeit they swung to the end. Quarantillo clearly took the round, meaning the decision would come down to how the judges saw round two. In the end, all three awarded the fight to Billy Quarantillo, 29-28.

It was edge-of-your-seat stuff, but somehow didn’t earn Fight of the Night. Something Dana White immediately addressed at the post-fight press conference following UFC Vegas.

“No gate. No fans. I want your opinion on something too. Fight of the Night was Elliot and Royval. And Performance of the Night was Dern and Burns,” he opened.

“What did you guys think was the Fight of the Night?” he then asked the assembled media, a smaller group these days as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The resounding answer was Carlyle vs. Quarantillo.

“Is that what everybody thinks? Yeah,” White responded. “We had a hard time back there tonight. Which is always good, when it’s a hard time. But I hate seeing some of these kids get— We’ll figure it out. I’ll give them something.”

That’s good news for both Billy Quarantillo, and Spike Carlyle, who both look to be fighters to watch moving forward. Carlyle (9-2), known as “The Alpha Ginger,” is just two fights into his UFC career. At 1-1 inside the octagon, he’s made a big impression in both fights. And Quarantillo (14-2), a Contender Series winner, is 2-0 on the big stage.

The decision on the bonuses, White later noted, comes down to himself and matchmakers Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard. “We blew it, huh? Is that what you’re telling us? You’re telling us we blew it tonight?” White asked.

“That bums me out. That bums me out. We all felt like, if you looked at that Tim Elliott fight with Royval, it was super technical,” he explained. “That fight was super technical, they were going back and forth. I dunno. We felt that was Fight of the Night.”

“The other dudes, was an absolute straight up dogfight. Absolutely the Carlyle fight was a straight dogfight. I’ll kick those kids something,” he reiterated.

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