what's up everyone and welcome back to the MMA Zone today let's get started with Shan Strickland refuses to fight at UFC 312 Shan Strickland might have made it clear that he was next in line for a crack of the title after hamzad shmaya beat Robert Whitaker but it sounds like a rematch between him and dra's dupe won't be happening in Australia in February and before we continue make sure to leave a like on the video to help support the Channel with the lightweight title fight between Islam makev and armman cukin rumored to be the headliner
for the UFC's January pay-per-view card it looked like a fight between DDP and Strickland could be a possibility for the UFC 312 card in Australia in February in a post on social media this week Strickland made it clear that the pair won't be running things back down under I'm not fighting in Australia we're thinking Vegas in March I have love for the Aussies but I don't think your government likes me which I take is a compliment hate speech isn't real and I'll always speak up for my kangaroo homies Freedom even though Strickland wants to run
things back DDP has been saying that he wants to fight Hamza Chimay next because that fight gets him more excited than a rematch with Strickland during an episode of submission video this week he weighed in on the middleweight title picture right now we should have an answer soon but I'm more than happy to fight an Australia in February but also if it has to be in March and Vegas I'm more than happy to do that as well in terms of opponent obviously you know Dana said that Strickland was the next guy but after that performance
of hamzat that's a fight that gets me really excited and I think the whole world the fight World excited I think it's a fight where it's something I haven't seen before something I haven't done before and it would be great if it would be awesome for me to go out there and beat a guy like Hamza but I mean if the UFC decides that we're doing the Strickland fight I'm more than happy with that as well if CH does does not end up getting the next crack at the title expect him to fight the winner
of the DDP Strickland fight hanat moano reveals bad news hanat moano has been tearing through the lightweight division over the past few years since losing to hael do angos in 2022 moano has rattled off four straight victories including two back-to-back finishes in his two most recent fights after picking up a win over benois sanani and Paris back in September many fans figured that money moyano was done for the year considering his gnarly shoulder injury but according to him the UFC offered him a chance to headline the UFC Fight Night Tampa card in December during an
episode of he and Gilbert Burns to show me the money podcast moano revealed that he accepted a fight on December 14th but his opponent turned down a potential bout they offer me wait wait wait the main event for December 14th 1st and you say yes I of course I say yes someone say no main event Mone was to be the main event one more time but the opponent he said you know what I don't want that smoke after that they say any day they no not yet I'm still waiting I'm still waiting but I'm pretty
sure I will fight January no word yet on who the UFC wanted moano to fight but fans have been clamoring for a bout between him and Patty the baty for months considering the batd had been pretty open about not making the cut back down to 155 before the end of the year he could very well have been the one to turn the fight and Tampa down whether or not that was the case it sounds like the MMA world is still holding out hope for a fight between the two in the New Year kamaro Usman accepts
UFC 310 fight with shavkat rachmanov since balah mohhamad pulled out of his UFC 310 fight with SH caught Rock manov in December there's been tons of talk about Rock manov fighting another top ranked Contender like Kamar Usman or Leon Edwards for an interim title the noad has been pretty open about wanting to fight Usman but some fans were not sure whether the former champ would be interested in stepping in on short notice considering he's on a three-fight skid and his last fight was a short notice fill in against Hamza Chimay during this week's episode of
he and Henry cejudo's pound-for-pound podcast Usman said that he's ready and waiting for the UFC's call the UFC is going to call who they think is going to be uh legit Tough Enough and manad enough to step in there on crazy enough to step in there on short notice and go out there and possibly Shock the World definitely the UFC know who to call when that situation happens and if they do give me a call I'm going to answer the call we get a couple things straight and you know if we got to do it
we got to do it I don't shy away from any of that from the sounds of things kamaro Usman wasn't the only one to throw his name in the hat during an appearance on submission radio Kobe Covington said that he offered to step in and fight rock manov on short notice despite brushing off a fight with the Nomad after his lost to Leon Edwards I told the UFC that I was willing to step up to the plate I would love to save the show I think the UFC had other plans looks like they're going a
different route they're going to potentially go with Usman versus shovot even though the UFC was not interested in having Covington step in on short notice he did drop some info on his next fight kobby Covington versus Jack DEA maralena next according to the former interim champ he and his team have been in talks with the UFC regarding a potential fight with Jack DEA Melena next year while JDM has been out of action since beating Gilbert Burns back in March thanks to a nasty posttop infection that led to him being hospitalized for 9 days on IV
antibiotics it sounds like he's almost back to 100% you know we've been talking about this fight with Jack matalena I think it makes a lot of sense you know he got a big win in my hometown in Miami last time he was out here so you know he has a little bit of a name out here and you know he's undefeated he's hungry he's Fearless you know he's an exciting fighter so I think that's a fight that the fans will be intrigued with I think it's a high fight it's a top Contender fight that establishes
who's the next Contender for the belt so that's a fight that's out there the MMA world was quick to react to the potential B with predictions immediately pouring in Jack is the best boxer in the division Colby going to really wrestle his off against JDM on another roote Jack would him up but it's cool so see kobby actually call out a real fighter one member of the MMA Community weighed in on the stylistic match up between the two to be clear he's consistently ducked Gary but after watching Gilbert Burns have success with JDM in the
grappling he's all about this match up this guy is so transparent one JDM fan sees the potential fight as easy work do it it'll be a free easy win for JDM and maybe it'll finally flush Kobe out of the rankings another gave Covington props for entertaining a fight against an undefeated Contender like JDM if he actually takes this massive respect this is a harder fight than Gary Covington did say that he's targeting a return in March which means a fight between the two could wind up on the UFC 313 card Bo nickel gets called out
by UFC fighter reer darer is preparing for his UFC debut this weekend against Gerald Mirad but the former one champ champ already has his sight set on a big fight against Haman shamayev or b nickel for his next bout assuming he wins on Saturday during an interview with MMA fighting ahead of his debut Dar reader mentioned both Fighters while talking about what's next for him if he beats mirat this weekend of course chamv is waiting for a crack at the middleweight belt and nickel is a week out from his next fight but that didn't stop
their reader from joking about stepping in on short notice yeah man like hamzad and b nickel would both be amazing that might be a nice next step b nickel he's fighting a Grappler right so maybe we can do something to Paul Craig distract him a little bit I can jump in but it'll be after this fight most likely yeah that's a fun one b nickel already outlined his plan to get into title contention leading up to his fight with Paul Craig saying that assuming he wins the fight he's targeting A ranked opponent for his next
one even though RDR probably won't wind up getting ranked with a win at the Apex this weekend he did say that getting a win isn't enough and he needs to finish mehad if he wants to prove himself as a top fighter which could attract the fight with nickel who's made it clear that he has no problem taking his time while working his way up the rankings considering he's only been fighting MMA for a few years Dana White reveals shocking news to Tom Aspen the UFC president is pretty confident that the winner of the Jon Jones
steepen miic fight will stick around to fight Tom aspal for the Undisputed title even though the MMA world is expecting either one or both of the fighters to retire win or lose mies has made it pretty clear that he won't be making any big announcements regarding his future ahead of the fight and has explained that going all the way back to his UFC debut he approaches every fight with a mindset that it could be his last meanwhile bones' teased retirement on more than one occasion and has made it sound like he's most likely retiring after
his fight with miic and even if he doesn't retire he probably won't be fighting Tom Aspen during an interview with TNT Sports Dana White explained that he believes the winner will stick around to unify the title considering the fact that when both Fighters were working their way up and building their own legacies they had a chance to fight Legends of the sport I truly believe that whoever wins this fight I just competitively the way these guys are wired and the reason they're both massive Legends in the sport they're not going to just ride off into
the sunset without settling the dispute with Tom aspal also when you think about Jon Jones becoming the youngest champion in heavyweight history and all the things that Stipe has accomplished they were given opportunities you know when they were young and I think that they will reciprocate ahead of the fight one thing is certain Tom Aspen will be in attendance next weekend and hopes to fight whoever wins the belt in New York City Jon Jones denies fight with Tom Aspen plus calls out Alex poda Dana White might be expecting the winner of the upcoming Jon Jones
steepen miic fight to stick around for a title unification fight with Tom Aspen but it sounds like if Jones wins he is not planning to fight the interim champ during an interview with Kevin Iola this week Jones said that he more than likely would not stick around for a fight with Tom Aspen because a win over Aspen doesn't do much for his legacy at this stage of his career despite that it sounds like there's one fight Jon Jones might stick around for more than likely not I feel like Tom Aspen is I don't want to
say nobody but he just hasn't proven anything he hasn't done anything and I understand that I mean he won his belt against Sergey Sergey just got slaughtered by someone else so it's just like I'm not here to gamble someone else making a name off of me I'm here to compete against the guys where when we look back you know 10 years from now it'd be like Jon Jones fought this guy and that guy and this Legend and this champion and this Champion if there were to be a fight of a guy that's still on our
UFC roster that would be not only financially worth it but Legacy worth it it would be Alex P the MMA Community roasted Jon Jones over his statement about Tom Aspen here's what the community had to say just retired next Saturday so I never have to hear about this is again LOL you can't just tell the dude with the interim title that he hasn't improved enough he's obviously trolling Tom at this point LOL he knows Tom would at this stage to be honest I always see Tom getting the short end of the stick and when Jon
retires the division will be pretty much dead because Aspen had beaten almost everyone I don't know why they ever did that interim title belt knowing Jon was never going to fight him that's what I hate about Jon the reason he started his journey to be the goat is because the champ gave him a shot now Jon is in Shogun shoes but instead of honoring what's been done for him he's instead denying Tom his shot to prove that he is the one when Jon retires it'll be better for the UFC as a whole and I can't
wait because he's terrified to get Flatline by Tom Tom has wins over three out of the current top five heavyweights just what does he need to prove LOL don't call him the goat then when he missed most of his prime plus is ducking his best challenge next to Alex peda just retire and vacate at the belt we're tired of you bro thanks you had your time now give Tom a chance for reference the last person to earn a fight against Jones was one in one in his last two and lost to the only good fighter
he ever fought considering perea has been non-committal about a move to heavyweight and is expected to defend his belt against magomed an KV next the odds of a fight between him and Jones happening seem pretty slim on top of that with Tom Aspen waiting for a chance to either unify the heavyweight title or be promoted to Undisputed Champion the promotion may not be cool with Jones holding up the division with another Legacy fight [Music]
