Bryce Mitchell has a bone to pick with current featherweight champion, Alexander Volkanovski.
Fresh off his first UFC loss, ‘Thug Nasty’ has taken to venting his frustrations concerning Volkanovski’s attempt to secure his status as a simultaneous two-division champion opposite Islam Makhachev at 155 pounds on February 12th.
His main point of contention? the fact that the Australian champ gets to take the ‘easy’ fights (never mind the trilogy opposite one Max Holloway), whilst top contenders are left to duke it out – a possible reference to his recent fight opposite fellow prospect Ilia Topuria.
“I’m tired of him talking about, ‘There’s no other contenders,” Mitchell said of Volkanovski in a recent interview with ESPN . “He ain’t fighting the toughest motherfuckers.”
“He’s getting the easy fuckin’ fights,” He continued. “These contenders are taking each other out. That’s what’s going on. He’s getting paid 100 times what I get paid to fight motherfuckers that aren’t even as hard as motherfuckers I’m fighting. That’s what’s going on.
“So, Alexander Volkanovski, he wants to fight an easy contender? Right here. Somebody he can just beat up and get paid easy money. Hey, come on, buddy, I’m easy money. Come on.”
The AllStar MMA roundup
- Roxanne Modafferi: MMA is a small world and that can be a problem
The best of the rest
- Kelvin Gastelum out, Sean Strickland now faces Nassourdine Imavov in UFC Vegas 67 main event – MMAFighting.com
- Khabib Nurmagomedov ‘taking some time off for his family’ but undecided on longterm future in MMA – MMAFighting.com
- Looking for a challenger, UFC champion Valentina Shevchenko wonders why flyweight division is ‘so quiet’ – MMAJunkie.com
- Kevin Lee sees big opportunity with PFL, says he’d be ‘hurting leverage’ if he returned to UFC – MMAJunkie.com
- Report: Phil Baroni moved to state prison ahead of hearing on murder charges – BloodyElbow.com
The soapbox
Imavov reacts to his opponent change:
A little back and forth:
Khabib watch:
An interesting tidbit:
Jessica Eye is feeling the ache:
Platinum Perry drops some names:
Bros for life:
The morning view
Justice Torres caught up with JHK ahead of FURY CS 2:
Familiarise yourself with Nassourdine Imavov:
MMA On Point and the fights we need in 2023:
Done Deals
Tuesday:
- Kelvin Gastelum to be replaced by Sean Strickland opposite Nassourdine Imavov at UFC Vegas 67 (per Brett Okamoto)
- Da Un Jung to fight Devin Clark at UFC Vegas 69 on February 4th (per Cole Shelton)
- Lerone Murphey to fight Nathaniel Wood at UFC 286 on March 18th (per UFC)
Monday:
- Guram Kutateladze to be replaced by Melquizael Costa opposite Thiago Moises at UFC 283 on January 21st (per Guilherme Cruz)
- Nurullo Aliev to fight Rafael Alves at UFC Vegas 70 on February 25th (per Nolan King)
UFC Roster Watch
Fighters removed this week:
- Mike Jackson
- Leah Letson
Fighters Added this week:
- Francisco Prado
- Melquizael Costa
Credit to UFC Roster Watch
On this day in MMA…
On the 9th of January, 2010, Benson Henderson unified his interim WEC Lightweight championship belt with a defeat of Jamie Varner at WEC 46 to becoming the undisputed 155-pound king.
Henderson would submit Varner, the champion of two years, with a guillotine choke midway through the third round of their main event title bout.
With the gold belt in tow in just his 12th professional MMA bout, the then 26-year-old had a bright future ahead.
Despite losing his belt to Anthony Pettis later that same year, Henderson went on to defeat Frankie Edgar (twice) to secure the UFC lightweight title in 2012, which he would defend three times in total. It would be Anthony Pettis, once again, who snatched the belt from his waist.
