MMA News Round-Up: Islam Makhachev on Pavlovich vs Jon Jones, Nate Diaz and Jake Paul Agree on 10 Rounds, Sean O’Malley’s Separate Promotion Idea Gets Response From Former Champion

A lot has eye-catching incidents have taken place in the world of MMA over the last 24 hours. Amidst the sea of so many noteworthy headlines, we have gathered some of the biggest news from mixed martial arts in our compilation of the daily news round-up.

We will start with the news of former UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg responding to Sean O’Malley after he suggested that the UFC should create a separate promotion for women. Secondly, we will take a look at the changes made to the boxing match between Nate Diaz and Jake Paul. And lastly, we will see what lightweight champion Islam Makhachev has to say about Sergei Pavlovich’s chances against Jon Jones.

Cris Cyborg responds to Sean O’Malley’s suggestion for a separate women’s MMA promotion

In a recently posted YouTube video, the bantamweight title contender Sean O’Malley suggested that the UFC could introduce a separate promotion for female fighters. He understands the skill level of these women. However, O’Malley believes it would be interesting to find out if the female fighters can garner interest without having any male fighters on their card.

“What if there was a ‘WUFC’, women’s UFC? What if they had their own program? Would it last? Would they be able to sell pay-per-views? Will they be able to sell out arenas? I’m just asking,” said ‘Suga’. However, former UFC featherweight champion Cris Cyborg didn’t take too kindly to O’Malley’s comments.

She shared a tweet taking a jibe at Sean O’Malley on Twitter. Cyborg hinted at the fact that she was headlining and main-eventing UFC PPVs when he was still fighting on her undercard. She wrote, “I remember the Suga Show fighting on my undercards…UFC was trying to introduce him to the market.”

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Furthermore, she even mentioned how he lost his fight that night and said, “I can’t remember but I think he lost that night.” Cyborg believes that UFC made use of the star power she possessed to help introduce the fans to Sean O’Malley.

Jake Paul vs Nate Diaz set to be a 10-round bout

The Stockton native will compete in his first post-UFC fight on August 5th in Dallas, Texas against ‘The Problem Child’ Jake Paul. Their bout was initially set to be an 8-rounder. However, now both fighters have agreed to set their fight up for a 10-round scrap. Nate Diaz and Jake Paul agreed to change the rounds last week and the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) approved their request, as reported by the co-founder of Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions, Nakisa Bidarian.

The fight against Nate Diaz will be the first time that Jake Paul would compete in a 10-round boxing match. ‘The Problem Child’ will also become the first social media boxer to compete for 10 rounds ever. It will be Diaz’s debut boxing match. Meanwhile, Paul will be heading into the fight after suffering his first loss to a professional boxer, Tommy Fury. He has already defeated a couple of UFC stars and would hope to get the same result on August 5th.

Islam Makhachev opines on how Sergei Pavlovich would fare in a fight against Jon Jones

Islam Makhachev has been out of action since defending his title for the first time against featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 284. Fans spotted him at a recent Eagle FC event where he gave his opinion about Sergei Pavlovich’s chances against Jon Jones if they ever fought each other. Makhachev had recently trained with Pavlovich at the American Kickboxing Academy.

Having sparred with the heavyweight fighter, the reigning lightweight champion said, “It will be hard [Fighting Jon Jones], but Pavlovich can deal with anyone.” Makhachev also mentioned his experience of training with Pavlovich, claiming that the Russian heavyweight is a powerful fighter. The Dagestan native added, “We worked together on the ground. He has crazy strength. He pushed me so hard, I even injured my neck. Physically gifted guy.” (Translated by YukaHero)

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