what's up everyone and welcome back to the MMA Zone today let's get started with ilot topura sends a warning to Alexander volkanovski recently Alexander volkanovski informed the MMA world that he'll be in Abu Dhabi for UFC 308 and if the need arises he might be willing to step in for a headlining spot but the man who knocked out volkanovski this past April is cautioning the legend against it as you likely know the man who brutally ko'ed vul at UFC 298 was the current featherweight King Ilia toia topia has booked to defend the title against another
featherweight great Max Holloway on October 26th well ahead of UFC 305 in Perth Australia volkanovski was asked about the possibility of serving as a backup for the UFC 308 Main Event at the time the Aussie star stated I reckon I'll be there you know what I mean I'm usually hanging around and pestering my managers and the matchmakers I'm always hanging around you can't get rid of me I'll be there more recently those comments were run by tupia while he spoke with MMA Junkie The Undefeated star was quick to toss volkanovski's proposal in the not a
good idea bin listen I don't know if that's a good idea he wants to get knocked out every year twice maybe someone has to give him good advice he needs some rest I'm telling you he needs some rest his head at least now even volkanovski's biggest fans have to admit that Topia isn't way off base here while vul is one of this generation's greatest Fighters he is 35 years old now and was ko'ed twice in less than 6 months the first one being in October 2023 when Islam makev defeated him with a head kick what
do you think should vul agree to be the backup Fighter for UFC 308 Main Event or sit this one out MMA Community calls out Dana White for unfair treatment recently sha cot Rock manov reported that the UFC was hoping to have him battle the new welterweight champ balal Muhammad October 5th but according to Rak manov Muhammad's cam turned down the fight due to timing issues while shot fans are probably disappointed he's not getting a title shot just yet a lot of other folks are piling on Dana White and the UFC for proposing the fight all
together after putting together a 10-fight undefeated streak Muhammad finally got his chance to fight for the title at UFC 304 on July 27th the rugged vet proceeded to take the welterweight Crown from Leon Edwards with a clear-cut decision win well following rockman's Revelation about the UFC's plans it prompted some pretty fiery feedback here was some of it that's a three-month turnaround for balal after going five rounds with Lon and getting cut in a fifth round UFC pulled the same move forcing aljo to fight om Ali 3 months after the Henry fight that's a move UFC
Dana White the aljo omali fight was 96 days between Alex fighting round Tre is 99 days they wanted bully be to fight 70 days after winning the belt against the guy who hasn't fought himself since last December Islam beat Charles and fought voke 113 days later not 70 two-month turnaround LOL UFC got rid of aljo with the same dirty tactics and he fell into the Trap very smart of DDP and bow to stand up for themselves I mean why risk your well-earned title for some extra dollars the UFC really don't want bala's champ do they
scam Bill scummy trying to force Champions into unfavorable quick turnarounds for a popular Contender what's new they probably offered shovot the fight before Bal even left the Octagon UFC is trying to get Bal beat and what world do they need to rush balal give him at least 6 months to rest make sha cot versus Usman or sha cot versus jdn or shot versus Ian for the number one Contender the UFC is wild and I say that as a fan of both Bal and shot just book it for December the only good thing about this is
that kamaro Usman won't get the actual title shot so what's your take on this is the UFC trying to ensure bal's rain is a short one or are they just trying to run a business okay up next Alex P will knock out khil rry given the recent casualties KH rry and his nasty Muay Thai skills have inflicted on the light heavyweight division some have argued Alex Pata could be in for a lot more trouble than many expect at UFC 307 but clearly one man who has trained with round tree does not see P's reign as
Champion ending on October 5th round tree has been tapped for a title shot after winning five straight in which the noted Striker has scored four finishes while Pata is one of the most feared Strikers in the Galaxy some including chel sunnen have argued that round tre's game will pose a serious problem for poan recently Carlos pratz spoke spoke with sherdog.com and while the WWE proceeded to outline why he doesn't see CLE hearing and new at UFC 307 he said this to be honest I trained before with khil rry he's a nice guy he's a good
fighter but I don't think he can fight with poen poen is a different level of striking I also saw an interview of khil he said he has no plans to try to take down so I think he the first round poen going to knock him out and that's it in light heavyweight maybe an kalive can fight good against him but that's it other guys I don't think they win a fight against poan now poan is the guy of the moment the guy of the UFC right now as noted prattes certainly isn't the only person who
feels this way this take seems like the consensus opinion and was one of the reasons so many questions were asked when anv was booked to fight Alexander rakic at UFC 308 rather than getting a title shot but what do you think are people looking past Round Tree Israel adna gets called out by UFC fighter now that Kyo Balo is a top five ranked UFC middleweight it looks like the surging fighter is targeting the division's former King Israel Adisa not only that Balo says he's certain he would finish the last sty Bender if and when the
fight takes place Balo recently took on longtime Contender Jared caner and recorded a unanimous decision win on account of that Victory the Brazilian fighter leaped into the number five spot at 185 lbs well more recently badio spoke with submission radio and while doing so he was asked to weigh in on adna's t Tapout loss to the champion drus dup C at UFC 305 while some people thought Izzy looked engaged and pretty on point in that fight considering it was his first bout of 2024 Balo clearly wasn't one of those folks there was a moment that
he gave up the fight and actually it was like a minute before he actually got finished I think he got tired and I think he lost focus and he was starting to do things that he doesn't usually do and when discussing how he sees a scrap between himself and Izzy playing out Kyo argued that he would be the one scoring a finish he was of what he had to say about why he likes to move backwards actually but I might be the only guy that uses faints that we're going to kick him the same way
that he's going to kick me and I have the advantage on wrestling and grappling too so I think he'll always be in doubt if I'm going to put him down and if I'm going to just trade punches with him I'm going to put pressure and maybe get a good knockout or a good takedown and definitely going to finish him with all the respect always but that's the way I see this fight going do you want to see this fight happen and do you see baralo taking out the former champ up next Jon Jones Praises Dana
White it wasn't that long ago that Jon Jones was at war with the UFC over his contract and you were more likely to hear a unicorn signing than Jon Jones saying something nice about Dana White but as of 2024 that has all changed if you followed MMA for a while now you know that Jones and the UFC have had a rocky relationship at several points in this career whether because of the many incidents outside of the cage or for how much money Jones should be paid for example some folks have forgotten that when Francis enanu
was still in the UFC roster Dana White blasted bones over what he was allegedly asking for that fight in fact white argued at one point that it was Jones who was ducking in ganu not vice versa well in the last year or so Dana White and Jon Jones have clearly been aligned in the UFC's plans to have bones fight steepen miic next even though an increasing number of people would rather see Jones throw hands with Tom Aspen and more recently white has been ferociously defending his claim that Jones is the number one pound-for-pound fighter on
the planet even though the heavyweight champ has fought just once since 2020 whether it's an account of all this or not isn't entirely clear but recently Jon Jones heaped Praise on white via social media the legendary fighter said this you put Dana White in a business meeting with any man on this effing Planet there's only one man coming out on top real recognize real so what's your reaction to Jones's comments here given some of the previous disputes he's had with white and the UFC up next Dan hooker reflect on bad mistake following UFC 305 Dan
hooker is back in the title shot mix at lightweight and it sounds like the hangman is going to plan his next steps very carefully hooker faced the grappling machine Matt's gamron at the recent event and surprised many pundits by scoring a split decision win with the key Victory the New Zealand Contender now moves into the number five ranking at the 155b division well if you follow hooker you know that for much of his career he's been willing to throw down with pretty much anyone but recently Rec he told ESPN Australia that probably won't be the
case moving forward at this stage of his career why well the hangman noted I kind of have learned that from my first rodeo is to just kind of not do anything dumb this time around I mean the last time I was number five I agreed to fight Michael Chandler gave Michael Chandler a shot it was his first fight in the UFC I flew to Abu Dhabi so the other side of the world with absolutely no coaches and went and fought him with a guy I'd been training for 6 months in my corner it was not
the smartest of decisions so I guess this time around I'm just not going to do anything dumb or sell my title shot again if you need a refresher Chandler stared hooker not long into the fight with booming punches so given hooker's Age and what he's had to do to get back into the title shot mix it's hard to blame him for taking this approach Umar nurmagamedov shuts down backup roll Umar nurmagamedov has made it abundantly clear he wants and expects to fight for the UFC's bantamweight Crown but the undefeated dagistan fighter won't be heading to
Las Vegas for UFC 306 just in case something happens to sha Ali or morab divashi nurma gdov has moved into the number two ranking at 135 on account of his memorable win over longtime Contender Cory sandhagen on August 3rd leading up to the scrap Umar said that a win would move him into a title fight and he repeated that claim following the win well since Ali is set to defend his title against the at UFC 306 on September 14 some have wondered if Umar could serve as the backup for the fight but while talking to
Daniel corm recently the 28-year-old shot that possibility down and then some why would I be the backup fighter when I'm already the best in the world now at the risk of waiting too far into the semantic weeds here most people probably don't think of the backup fighter in this case as necessarily the less talented or dangerous one but you can also understand why given umar's position agreeing to be the backup fighter just in case something happens would be less than ideal given Umar is very likely next for a title shot and makes sense to wait
and see who he'll be fighting and to tailor your training camp accordingly it also seems clear the fact that it's going to take place at the sphere in Vegas he doesn't really care about that that probably shouldn't surprise anyone but what do you think should Umar have agreed to be a backup the MMA Community is concerned for UFC 306 after a new video emerges of morab out partying and allegedly drinking just a few weeks out from the fight here's what the MMA Community had to say morab deash seems to be enjoying his time in Mexico
beer and doing shots that's because he's getting pulled from the fight is he really drinking one week out I hope this is pre-recorded he's really making sure to sell this fight lol one fan speculated that morab was drinking water and this is a skit before people start thinking he's drinking 2 weeks out look closely beer ain't translucent Uncle Dana every time Mor ra posts on social media bro is drinking 2 weeks before the fight couldn't Spar for like 2 weeks now his training camp is effed and he knows it to those wondering you can clearly
see that it's not beer coming out of that bottle looks like water to me guy's such an used to like him until he's become a social media hope Malik K owes him people think he's tripping but I think he's not worried about Shawn at all and thinks he'll beat him easy top comments Jones could never beat Aspen not in his prime not now not later he couldn't finish the likes of Smith and Rey as while Tom is finishing peoples twice their size in 1 minute John saying he would Maul Tom but proceeds to say he
won't fight him Jones and Dana have ruined any credibility the UFC had left not watching Jones versus Stipe vog should defo wait for the title shot rest up and then go get the belt back [Music]
