Latest news with #IsraelAdesanya
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Israel Adesanya ‘not a real fighter', says Joaquin Buckley after detailing run-in with UFC star
Joaquin Buckley has accused Israel Adesanya of not being a 'real fighter', after the UFC stars offered their respective accounts on a run-in between them. After Buckley suffered a one-sided decision loss to Kamaru Usman on Saturday (14 June), the latter's friend Adesanya hit out at Buckley, saying on his YouTube channel: 'I hate [him], bro. I don't even use the word 'hate' lightly, but I hate [him], bro. Advertisement 'Something about him just f*****g annoys me. The coolest thing about him is that kick [Buckley's 2020 knockout of Impa Kasanganay]. I respect that.' Then, describing a moment in which he met Buckley at the UFC Performance Institute, the former two-time middleweight champion said: 'Literally, I'm just trying to chill, talk. [He says:] 'Hey, man, we've gotta get this going, duh duh duh duh duh duh,' like he's rapping. 'Every single time. He's just so f*****g annoying. At one point, I literally walked away while he was talking... and I think he didn't like that, so he went against me since then. But f*** the dude. Maybe I'm a hater, bro, maybe I'm just a hater.' Welterweight Buckley then used his own YouTube channel to fire back at Adesanya, saying on Thursday (19 June): 'He knows what it is to take an L, but to say that you hate a motherf***** and you're glad that they lost, you're glad that they didn't achieve their dreams is wild to me, bro. Advertisement 'Like, bro, why the f*** you mad at me? What the f*** did I do to you? I kind of find it funny that you're hating on me, you need to be hating on the motherf****** that took your belt. Jaoquin Buckley must go back to the drawing board after losing to Kamaru Usman (Getty) 'He's trying to be funny, he's trying to use his platform to talk s*** on me, but that really just shows me the potential of my name, and how big I'm becoming. Just like when I met his ass at the [Performance Institute], and I ran up on him and was like, 'Hey, bro, I think we'd be a good-ass fight, [Adesanya] was quiet at the time. 'But see, I'm man enough to come up to your face. Tell me how you feel to my face, bro [...] You're all underneath the covers like: 'Man, I hate that [guy].' You ain't no real fighter. You want to be a little pretty boy.' Advertisement American Buckley, 31, appeared to be closing in on a welterweight title shot before his loss to Usman, a former champion in the division. Meanwhile, Adesanya, 35, finds himself in the unusual position of riding a three-fight losing streak. After regaining the middleweight title from old rival Alex Pereira in April 2023, the 'Last Stylebender' lost the belt to Sean Strickland that September. Then, last August, Adesanya suffered a submission loss to Strickland's successor Dricus Du Plessis. The Nigerian-born New Zealander attempted to bounce back against Nassourdine Imavov in February, but he was stopped in round two. Israel Adesanya (right) during his 2024 loss to Dricus Du Plessis (Getty Images) Adesanya's first reign with the belt lasted three years and featured five successful title defences, with those same numbers applying to Usman's welterweight title run. Advertisement After surviving a difficult fifth round to outpoint Buckley, Usman, who had employed his trademark wrestling impressively in the first four frames, held back tears in the cage. 'It's been a while,' he said. 'I needed to get that monkey off my back. I know I'm still able to do this at the highest level. Sometimes when you're going up against a young, hungry guy like that – very talented, very aggressive – you've got to pull out the skills and use the experience. 'Before I go, I just wanted to say that I have a lot of emotions coming into this one [...] a lot of things that I had to battle back from. I'm holding back all the emotions. Unfortunately, my daughter can't be here with me tonight. That's another long story. But man, I just want to say thank you to everybody – thank you to my family, my coaches who kept me going, Buckley for bringing the challenge.'
The Independent
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Israel Adesanya ‘not a real fighter', says Joaquin Buckley after detailing run-in with UFC star
Joaquin Buckley has accused Israel Adesanya of not being a 'real fighter', after the UFC stars offered their respective accounts on a run-in between them. After Buckley suffered a one-sided decision loss to Kamaru Usman on Saturday (14 June), the latter's friend Adesanya hit out at Buckley, saying on his YouTube channel: 'I hate [him], bro. I don't even use the word 'hate' lightly, but I hate [him], bro. 'Something about him just f*****g annoys me. The coolest thing about him is that kick [Buckley's 2020 knockout of Impa Kasanganay]. I respect that.' Then, describing a moment in which he met Buckley at the UFC Performance Institute, the former two-time middleweight champion said: 'Literally, I'm just trying to chill, talk. [He says:] 'Hey, man, we've gotta get this going, duh duh duh duh duh duh,' like he's rapping. 'Every single time. He's just so f*****g annoying. At one point, I literally walked away while he was talking... and I think he didn't like that, so he went against me since then. But f*** the dude. Maybe I'm a hater, bro, maybe I'm just a hater.' Welterweight Buckley then used his own YouTube channel to fire back at Adesanya, saying on Thursday (19 June): 'He knows what it is to take an L, but to say that you hate a motherf***** and you're glad that they lost, you're glad that they didn't achieve their dreams is wild to me, bro. 'Like, bro, why the f*** you mad at me? What the f*** did I do to you? I kind of find it funny that you're hating on me, you need to be hating on the motherf****** that took your belt. 'He's trying to be funny, he's trying to use his platform to talk s*** on me, but that really just shows me the potential of my name, and how big I'm becoming. Just like when I met his ass at the [Performance Institute], and I ran up on him and was like, 'Hey, bro, I think we'd be a good-ass fight, [Adesanya] was quiet at the time. 'But see, I'm man enough to come up to your face. Tell me how you feel to my face, bro [...] You're all underneath the covers like: 'Man, I hate that [guy].' You ain't no real fighter. You want to be a little pretty boy.' American Buckley, 31, appeared to be closing in on a welterweight title shot before his loss to Usman, a former champion in the division. Meanwhile, Adesanya, 35, finds himself in the unusual position of riding a three-fight losing streak. After regaining the middleweight title from old rival Alex Pereira in April 2023, the 'Last Stylebender' lost the belt to Sean Strickland that September. Then, last August, Adesanya suffered a submission loss to Strickland's successor Dricus Du Plessis. The Nigerian-born New Zealander attempted to bounce back against Nassourdine Imavov in February, but he was stopped in round two. Adesanya's first reign with the belt lasted three years and featured five successful title defences, with those same numbers applying to Usman's welterweight title run. After surviving a difficult fifth round to outpoint Buckley, Usman, who had employed his trademark wrestling impressively in the first four frames, held back tears in the cage. 'It's been a while,' he said. 'I needed to get that monkey off my back. I know I'm still able to do this at the highest level. Sometimes when you're going up against a young, hungry guy like that – very talented, very aggressive – you've got to pull out the skills and use the experience. 'Before I go, I just wanted to say that I have a lot of emotions coming into this one [...] a lot of things that I had to battle back from. I'm holding back all the emotions. Unfortunately, my daughter can't be here with me tonight. That's another long story. But man, I just want to say thank you to everybody – thank you to my family, my coaches who kept me going, Buckley for bringing the challenge.'
Forbes
a day ago
- Sport
- Forbes
UFC 317 Loses Main Card Bout As Former Title Challenger Is Out
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY - MAY 31: Paulo Costa of Brazil poses on the scale during the UFC 302 official ... More weigh-in at the Westin Jersey City Newport on May 31, 2024 in Jersey City, New Jersey. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images) With a little more than a week to go before the next pay-per-view on the UFC schedule, the promotion has lost one of the fights that was scheduled for the main card of UFC 317. That fight is a middleweight matchup between former UFC middleweight title challenger Paulo Costa and Roman Kopylov. The news of Costa being off the card came from Robert Tellez on social media. The fight has been removed from the UFC 317 page on the promotion's website. Costa opened his MMA career at 13-0. Since losing a title fight to then-UFC middleweight champ Israel Adesanya via TKO in September 2020, Costa is 1-4. He is coming off a split-decision setback to former middleweight titleholder Sean Strickland at UFC 302 in June 2024. Costa has a history of pulling out of UFC fights. Since he joined the promotion in 2017 after a stint as the Jungle Fights middleweight titleholder, Costa has withdrawn from six fights under the UFC banner. Two of those withdrawals came after Costa said he had not signed a deal for the fights. Reports are the fight between Costa and Kopylov is being moved to UFC 318 as the reason for the Costa being unable to compete at UFC 317 is an illness. The official fight card for UFC 317 is slim. Ilia Topuria vs. Charles Oliveira - For vacant UFC lightweight title Alexandre Pantoja (c) vs. Kai Kara-France - For Pantoja's UFC flyweight title Beneil Dariush vs. Renato Moicano - Lightweight Brandon Royval vs. Manel Kape - Flyweight Jack Hermansson vs. Gregory Rodriguez - Middleweight Payton Talbott Vs. Felipe Lima - Bantamweight Jhonata Diniz vs. Justin Tafa - Heavyweight Viviane Araújo vs. Tracy Cortez - Women's flyweight The following bouts have been announced for UFC 317, but not confirmed by the promotion Terrance McKinney vs. Viacheslav Borshchev - Lightweight Hyder Amil vs. Jose Delgado - Featherweight Niko Price vs. Jacobe Smith - Welterweight ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - OCTOBER 26:Ilia Topuria of Spain prepares to face Max Holloway in ... More the UFC featherweight championship fight during the UFC 308 event at Etihad Arena on October 26, 2024 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC) Ilia Topuria (16-0) is a former Cage Warriors champion. He joined the UFC in 2020 with a 9-0 record. It did not take him long to make a name for himself. He was ranked No. 14 in the featherweight division after three UFC bouts at 145 pounds and one contest in the 155-pound division. Three of those scraps ended with Topuria winning via knockout. In his first fight as a ranked featherweight, Topuria dispatched Bryce Mitchell via submission in the second round, earned his first 'Performance of the Night' bonus and moved to No. 9 in the rankings. A matchup with No. 5 ranked Josh Emmett followed the Mitchell win. Topuria picked up a decision in a 'Fight of the Night' scrap. Topuria's next fight, saw him face Alexander Volkanovski for the UFC featherweight title at UFC 298. Topuria entered that bout as the No. 3 ranked featherweight. He left as the champion after knocking out Volkanovski in the second stanza. In his first defense of the UFC featherweight crown, Topuria made history, becoming the first fighter to finish former 145-pound champion Max Holloway via strikes, knocking out the ex-champion in the third round of their UFC 308 meeting in October 2024. When Topuria decided to move to lightweight and give up his featherweight title, he vowed to sit until he got a 155-pound title shot. That fight takes place at UFC 317. Topuria has a 16-0 record with eight of those wins coming under the UFC banner. NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 16: Charles Oliveira of Brazil prepares to face Michael Chandler ... More during the UFC 309 event at Madison Square Garden on November 16, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC) Charles Oliveira (35-10-0-1) has been fighting with the UFC since 2010. He won the vacant lightweight title with his win over Chandler and defended the title once, beating Dustin Poirier. He was booked to face Justin Gaethje in his second title defense, but Oliveira missed weight for that fight, which he won by submission, losing the title on the scale. Oliveira had a chance to regain the belt in October 2022, but Islam Makhachev submitted him and claimed the vacant belt. Since that loss, Oliveira is 1-1, beating Beneil Dariush by TKO in June 2023 and losing to Arman Tsarukyan via split decision in April of this year. Oliveira is coming off a November 2024 decision win over Michael Chandler. Oliveira is the No. 2 fighter in the official UFC lightweight rankings. Saturday, June 28, 2025 Main card: 10:00 p.m. ET Preliminary Card: 8:00 p.m. ET Early Preliminary Card: 6:00 p.m. ET T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, NV We will have more on the UFC 317 fight card as fight night approaches.
RNZ News
3 days ago
- Sport
- RNZ News
Hooker to host female 'battle royal' in backyard
An earlier event that Dan Hooker hosted in his backyard. Photo: youtube UFC fighter Dan Hooker is bringing back his controversial backyard brawls, inviting 32 women to fight it out for $50,000. In a post on his Facebook page alongside former world middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, Hooker called on female fighters to throwdown in his backyard for his second '1 min scraps' event. "Alright, we are going to let the girls play next, we are going to find out who's the baddest b***h in town," Hooker said. Adesanya added the prize up for grabs. "50k, one minute, or just as long as it takes to finish these b*****s in his backyard." Hooker then implied he would be opening the door for criminals to compete. "So what I need from you ladies is your name, your weight and your record, and maybe send me a little video of you doing something illegal so I know I can trust ya." Israel Adesanya and Dan Hooker announcing the 32 women backyard battle royal. Photo: facebook The UFC lightweight courted controversy in May when he hosted his inaugural 32-man, one-minute fist fight tournament. It saw a senior Mongrel Mob member referred to police, as he was wearing an ankle bracelet. The event prompted New Zealand's Boxing Coaches Association president Billy Meehan to call the event "straight-out thuggery". "What you've got there is just thugs getting in there and going out and they're just like absolutely smashing each other and we're going to see somebody get seriously hurt, if not killed." Following the backlash, Hooker went on the on-line combat sport programme the Ariel Helwani Show last month, and vowed to host more events. "There's a few lefties having a sulk, but once everyone watches the full 45 minutes and sees the respect for the fighters, since when did putting gloves on in the backyard and having a punch up become illegal?" he said. "Since when is that a crime?" -RNZ
Kuwait Times
4 days ago
- Sport
- Kuwait Times
MMA draws thousands in Nigeria as fight sport gains ground
LAGOS: The arena was packed on Friday night in the upscale Lekki neighbourhood of Nigeria's bustling commercial capital, Lagos. Eighteen fighters from eight African countries were slugging it out before thousands of cheering mixed martial arts (MMA) fans. It was the ninth instalment of the African Knockout Championship, an MMA fight league that started off in 2020 as a reality television show in Lagos as the COVID-19 lockdown waned in Nigeria. The formal championship started in May 2023 and has since hosted fighters from 18 countries, the chief operating officer of African Knockout, Ryan Fayad, told AFP. While football remains king in the west African country, combat sports such as boxing and wrestling have enjoyed moderate success and produced continental and world champions in the past. Traditional 'Dambe' boxing has held audiences spellbound for years, especially in the northern region of the country. But the exploits of Nigerian-born Israel Adesanya and Kamaru Usman, former UFC middleweight and welterweight champions, respectively, are spurring interest in organized mixed martial arts in the African economic powerhouse. African Knockout is 'driven by the fact that Africa doesn't have any platform totally oriented for African talent to showcase themselves to the world and progress to reach those international stages,' Fayad, a Lebanese who has lived in Nigeria for 13 years, told AFP. 'The drive behind all this... is to find the next Kamaru Usman and the next Israel Adesanya and promote them all the way to the international stages.' Fayad said Usman is 'totally hands-on' with the championship: apart from speaking publicly about the championship in the past, the former UFC champion has also promoted it on social media. About five thousand fans watched the last edition held in April in person, and several thousands more streamed the fights online. 'Not about money' 'It's not about money,' said Jibrin Inuwa Baba, 28, a four-time national kickboxing gold medallist, who is scheduled to fight the winner of Friday's main event later in August. The main card of the night is the lightweight faceoff between Jean Do Santos from neighbouring Benin and homeboy Emmanuel Nworie. 'I decided to do this sport because of the love of the sport and love of competition,' Baba told AFP. He said that while MMA is growing 'fast in Nigeria,' there is still plenty of work to be done. Eighteen fighters — two of them female — are in the octagon on Friday night. Roughly half of them are Nigerians with fighters from Egypt, Angola, Togo, Burkina Faso and Cameroon also on the card. Cameroon's Styve Essono, who defeated Nigeria's Damilare Abdulrahim, said his victory 'will open up a lot of opportunities for me'. Eighteen-year-old Nigerian Fabian Texas shrugged aside being ill to knock out Egypt's Mahmud Ibrahim in the second-round. 'We are still coming up, and I feel that we are not there yet,' Baba, who holds a degree in civil engineering, told AFP at the weigh-in for the fighters on Thursday. Still, the championship has seen a measure of success since it began, with one of its fighters — DR Congo's Josias Musasa — making his UFC debut in March. Good fights The crowd roared as kicks and punches flew. A valiant performance by Angola's Andre Mukisi, who fought on to victory against Togo's Fred Kudzete, despite being tired, drew one of the biggest rounds of applause. 'The crowd is here for the good fights and not really about home support for Nigerian fighters,' Lois Ogunniyi, a 30-year-old media executive who runs Fist2Fist, a small online community of MMA fans, told AFP. Despite the growing interest and optimism that the championship will eventually be exported to other African countries, Fayad said the lack of infrastructure and the absence of institutional support are impeding the growth of the sport in Nigeria. He said getting visas for foreign fighters was always cumbersome, some officials are flown in, and for now, the championship relies on rented spaces to stage fights. 'We are hoping that the government will also help us have access to proper infrastructure,' Fayad said. 'If we had proper infrastructure, people would go to stadiums to watch. So that's what we are looking for, so it can make our operation easier.' — AFP
