[MMA] Centraal MMA topic #452 Moose time

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Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighters Kamaru Usman, Justin Gaethje and Henry Cejudo are the trio in a video posted online by the notorious Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov in November last year, celebrating their visit to his compound in Russia to see “how real men and defenders of the Fatherland learn to fight.”
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Yet the appearance of the three stars – all former UFC title belt holders – alongside Kadyrov last year isn’t the only question being raised about the UFC’s oversight of the sport. There’s also its decision to allow Russian fighters in general to compete in the world’s premium mixed martial arts organization.

Some critics have suggested Russian fighters in general should be suspended, like has happened in some other sports, for the country’s involvement in the invasion of Ukraine.

But against the backdrop of $21 billion merger between the UFC and the World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE), Russian fighters appear to remain an integral part of the UFC’s business model.

Despite the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the restrictions put on Russian athletes and teams in some other sports, fighters from the country remain free to compete in UFC.

The sport, which has a global fan base of over 700 million, with events broadcast in 50 different languages to more than 170 countries, has relied on the popularity of its Russian fighters to provide appeal to certain areas of the world, according to MMA and boxing financial analyst for Bloody Elbow, John S. Nash.

Nash told CNN that he estimates Russian fighters in the UFC have helped bring in approximately $50 million in TV and sponsorship deals.

“The Southern Caucasus have such great wrestlers and it’s a predominantly Muslim area,” Nash said. “And so those Muslim fighters appeal to the Middle East, the Gulf states. And that’s the UFC’s primary focus … for the monetary reasons.

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Op zaterdag 20 mei 2023 22:19 schreef Nober het volgende:

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Kennelijk (nog) geen kinderwens.

Marion Reneau zal het UFC record hebben met 44 jaar.

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Karolina Kowalkiewicz could be in the final years of her fighting career. Motherhood is on the horizon for the UFC strawweight contender, and when she makes the choice to have children, she will hang up her gloves for good.

Kowalkiewicz (12-3 MMA, 5-3 UFC), who meets Michelle Waterson (16-6 MMA, 4-2 UFC) on Saturday at UFC on ESPN 2, said her partner has been pushing to have children. She wants to fight for several more years, though, so she made a “compromise” to only compete for a few more years.

The exact timeline of her potential retirement depends on success inside the octagon, though.

“I want to have children,” Kowalkiewicz told MMA Junkie at UFC on ESPN 2 open workouts. “For sure I want to fight three years, but we’ll see. Maybe it will be three or four years.”