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Sean O'Malley has been earmarked for stardom ever since the “Sugar Show” arrived on Dana White's Contender Series in 2017.

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The question is, how high can he climb? According to the reigning UFC bantamweight champion, he’s already near the top of the mountain. During UFC 306 media day on Wednesday, O’Malley acknowledged that Conor McGregor remains the promotion’s biggest draw. However, the Irishman’s lack of activity and success has made him a more attainable target in recent years.

"I think I'm close [to catching McGregor]," O'Malley said. "I think Conor still has one more big fight in him, but the big question mark is if he can come back and beat Michael Chandler. I think Conor has one more huge fight. But if he goes out and loses his next fight, that's like six in a row or something? [His star power] has to die down eventually. Maybe not. But that's a big testament to how big of a star he is. If he loses, I'm there. I'm the guy…

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Brian Ortega doesn’t think his fight against Diego Lopes will go the distance.

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Ortega was preparing for a move to lightweight when he accepted a featherweight booking against Lopes on two weeks’ notice at UFC 303 this past June. When Ortega faced trouble cutting weight, Lopes accepted the fight at lightweight. However, Ortega had to pull out on fight night.

In an unprecedented turn of events, Dan Ige replaced Lopes on four hours’ notice at a catchweight of 165 pounds, dropping an entertaining unanimous decision. Ortega has since expressed his admiration for both Ige and Lopes for agreeing to fight on four hours’ notice.

Ortega’s booking against Lopes has been remade for UFC 306, which goes down at the Sphere in Las Vegas on Saturday. Ortega notes that they are both evenly matched on the ground as well as on the feet to an extent that he is almost fighting a slightly different version of himself.UFC 306: O'Malley vs. Dvalishvil…

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UFC 306 keeps getting more and more interesting.

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It is well known that the Noche UFC Riyadh Season card, which goes down at the Sphere in Las Vegas on Saturday, will be the promotion’s first and only venture at the venue. The promotion has already made known that there will be films playing on the entire media plane with the fights as chapters of the films.

Dana White recently revealed another surprise for viewers within those films. The UFC head honcho announced a $25,000 reward for anyone who can spot all the “Easter eggs” that will be there in the films. White also confirmed that the Easter eggs will be related to the event, which is a tribute to Mexico’s contribution to combat sports.

UFC 306: O'Malley vs. Dvalishvili Saturday at 10 ET on ESPN+. Order Now!

“There are also going to be Easter eggs in each one of these films,” White said during the post-fight press conference for the Contender Series on Tuesday night. “We’…

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Diego Lopes recently shared details about his move to Mexico, where he has now found a new home.

Having started training jiu-jitsu very early in his career, Lopes made his MMA debut at the age of 17 and fought five times within the span of a year. However, things weren’t going well for Lopes academically, forcing him to chose between studying and working.

So when someone approached him with a job in Mexico as a jiu-jitsu instructor, Lopes couldn’t refuse — although he had no idea about the culture or language of that country. At 19 years of age, Lopes left his home in Sao Paulo, Brazil, for Puebla, Mexico. The Portuguese-speaking Lopes also had initial trouble communicating with his students, forcing him to quickly learn Spanish.

“School wasn’t going well for me,” Lopes recently said on UFC Connected. “One day my mom said, ‘Either you work or you study. What do you want to do?’ But I wanted to keep fighting to stay on the path. She asked, ‘What…

Henry Cejudo says he has inside information on Sean O'Malley's camp for #NocheUFC and says "he's having trouble" getting up from a bottom position 😳

He also says he's planning on moving down to flyweight, but will stay at bantamweight to fight Sean O'Malley if he loses to Merab… pic.twitter.com/HtbdvYwZs1

— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) September 10, 2024

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Henry Cejudo claims to have heard about Sean O'Malley’s training camp from multiple sources.

O’Malley puts his bantamweight title on the line against Merab Dvalishvili in the main event of UFC 306 at the Sphere in Las Vegas this Saturday. Just days out from fight night, “Sugar” crashed Cejudo’s podcast with Kamaru Usman for about 20 seconds to praise “The Nigerian Nightmare” and roast “Triple C” for being easily taken down by Aljamain Sterling.

Cejudo is now plotting a matchup against O’Malley if the latter gets dethroned by Dvalishvili at UFC 306, which the Oly…

Alexa Grasso recently named potential opponents she would like to face if she gets past Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 306.

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Grasso will put her women’s flyweight title on the line in a trilogy clash against Shevchenko in the co-main event at UFC 306 on Saturday at the Sphere in Las Vegas. While Grasso would ideally like to clear out the whole flyweight division, the Mexican isn’t looking past “Bullet.”

Currently the No.1 ranked women’s pound-for-pound fighter in the UFC rankings, Grasso named strawweight champion and No.2 ranked Zhang Weili Zhang as her dream opponent.

''Weili Zhang is my dream fight,” Grasso told Stake.com. “It will be one of my biggest fights to date. She is strong, powerful and well-rounded. She is a great fighter and I even heard she would love to test herself at 125, so I would love to welcome her.''

Currently on her second strawweight title run, Zhang has defended her strap with unanimous decisions against Amanda Lemos and…

Navajo Stirling backed up the considerable hype with a memorable performance.

The impressive City Kickboxing prospect was one of three hopefuls to net an Ultimate Fighting Championship contract during Week 5 of Dana White’s Contender Series, as he felled Phillip Latu with a sensational one-punch knockout in the second round of their light heavyweight showcase on Tuesday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Stirling (5-0, 1-0 DWCS) sealed the deal 2:21 into Round 2.

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Latu (6-2, 0-1 DWCS) had issues with managing distance against the 6-foot-4 Kiwi but managed to connect with a few power punches, a counter right uppercut chief among them. Stirling answered with a variety of weapons: low kicks, front kicks to the body, jabs, lead left hooks and forearm strikes in close quarters. Midway through the middle stanza, both men uncorked left hooks. Stirling’s landed first and sent the Forge Fight Club rep crashing to the canvas in a dazed-and-confused state. No follo…

Sherdog's coverage of Dana White's Contender Series Week 5 begins Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. Round 1 Kerry Hatley will ref the first fight of the evening. Laframboise backs Caliari into the fence and they trade immediately. Laframboise punches her way into the clinch and gets tagged on the way in. Caliari muscles her opponent to the canvas and gets to work inside full guard. Caliari stands and backs away, and Laframboise is back up to her feet. The Canadian pressures with punches and Caliari answers with a flurry of her own. The women are alternating brawling exchanges with clinching. After a tie-up, Caliari tosses Laframboise to the canvas. Laframboise is active with her guard, and she looks to frame an inverted triangle. She uses it to create a scramble and transitions to an inverted crucifix. The Canadian lands some short elbows to the side of Caliari’s head as she controls both arms. Caliari is struggling to free herself from the predicament, but eventually the Braz…

Raul Rosas Jr. may be only 19 years old, but he has lofty expectations.

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“I’m ready to begin my journey for the belt,” Rosas Jr. said in a recent interview with UFC.com. “Give me a chance to fight somebody that’s going to put me up there faster. I feel like that’s what I want.”

The Dana White’s Contender Series alum will square off against Qileng Aori in a bantamweight bout at UFC 306 on Saturday night at The Sphere in Las Vegas. Rosas has been victorious in three of his four Octagon appearances thus far and is looking forward to the challenge that his Chinese opponent presents.

“My opponent’s good, he’s tough, he’s durable, he’s experienced. I give him props,” Rosas Jr. said. “I’m excited to step in the cage with him and put him out. I visualized this fight that I’m going to go out there and finish him. I’m excited because he does have good striking, he does have some power in his hands. He’s dangerous as well. So it’s gonna be a really good fi…

Dana White is asked about the next UFC broadcast deal. Says many of the potential media partners will be at Sphere this weekend. pic.twitter.com/JkCjSmYSQg

— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) September 10, 2024

In terms of visual presentation, UFC 306 is expected to be an unprecedented event.

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That’s largely because of the venue. The Sphere in Las Vegas has quickly become known for its immersive video and audio capabilities, and UFC CEO Dana White made it his goal to become the first entity to hold sporting event at the arena. That will come to fruition on Saturday night for a card headlined by a bantamweight championship clash between Sean O'Malley and Merab Dvalishvili.

White has stated that the Sphere will be the star of the show, and that will include a movie paying tribute to Mexico’s contribution to combat sports between fights as well as different worlds depicted on the massive LED screen while the bouts themselves…

Though their last meeting officially ended in a split draw, Valentina Shevchenko remains adamant that she deserved the nod against Alexa Grasso at UFC Fight Night 227 last September.

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The deciding scorecard ultimately came from judge Michael Bell, who submitted a 10-8 fifth round in favor of Grasso. Prior to that, Bell had Shevchenko ahead 3-1 through four rounds. If he had scored the final stanza 10-9 for Grasso, Shevchenko would have regained the flyweight crown via split decision.

Shevchenko will get a chance to erase the sting of that moment when she squares off against Grasso for a third time in the co-main event of UFC 306 at the Sphere in Las Vegas on Saturday night.

“Our previous fight, I won that fight and only because of an interesting decision of one judge, it went to the draw decision,” Shevchenko recently told UFC.com. “If you ask the world of martial arts, everyone who understands fighting, all the judges and everything, they defi…

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It will be a familiar crew on hand to call the action at UFC 306 on Saturday night.

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Veteran play-by-play man Jon Anik will be joined by color commentators Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier for the event, which takes place at the Sphere in Las Vegas. MMAjunkie.com was first to report the team for the broadcast booth. Rogan, who no longers travels to international pay-per-view events, was replaced by Dominick Cruz at UFC 305 last month in Perth, Australia.UFC 306: O'Malley vs. Dvalishvili Saturday at 10 ET on ESPN+. Order Now!

Additionally, Megan Olivi will serve as the cageside reporter, offering updates and conducting interviews, while Din Thomas will be on hand to offer further analysis throughout the broadcast.

UFC 306 is headlined by a bantamweight championship clash between Sean O'Malley and Merab Dvalishvili. In the co-main event, Alexa Grasso will defend her strawweight belt in a trilogy bout against Valentina Shevchenko. …