(Courtesy of ONE Championship)

It was hard to believe the bone-crushing knockout Cosmo Alexandre landed on Sage Northcutt in the UFC veteran’s ONE Championship debut recently. But if you just couldn’t come to grips with it, ONE Championship released a new cut on the KO, providing the shot heard round the world from every angle imaginable. 

The day after the fight, Northcutt posted on his Instagram account, revealing that he suffered eight fractures as a result of the punch, which took a nine-hour surgery to repair. 

A couple days later, one of Northcutt’s coaches at Team Alpha Male, UFC Hall of Famer Urijah Faber, said that not only did Northcutt suffer eight fractures, but the bones in his face shattered into 30 pieces, much like smashing an egg shell.

TRENDING Low Down Podcast: Sage Northcutt horrific injury in ONE Championship debut

Northcutt is expected to make a full recovery, according to Faber, and could conceivably fight again if he wants.

Full ONE Championship: Enter the Dragon fight highlights, including Sage Northcutt’s KO

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Article source: https://www.mmaweekly.com/check-out-sage-northcutts-face-shattering-knockout-from-all-angles-video

UFC, the world’s premier mixed martial arts (MMA) organization, on Monday announced it will host its first event in Shenzhen on Saturday, August 31, at Universiade Sports Centre. UFC FIGHT NIGHT SHENZHEN, presented by AirAsia, will be UFC’s third consecutive event in mainland China since its sold-out inaugural outing in Shanghai on November 2017.

“We continue to add new cities in China to our global calendar of events, and we are excited to see the momentum that is steadily building,” said UFC Senior Vice President Asia-Pacific, Kevin Chang.  “China is the most important growth market for UFC, and our ongoing success is a testament to the loyalty of our passionate fans, the on-going support from our partners, and the work we are doing to fast-track the development of UFC ready athletes in this region.”

Support for UFC in China is surging following its commitment to accelerate the development of MMA talent in the region.  In June, the UFC Performance Institute Shanghai will open its doors in the Jing’An district, providing elite athletes the opportunity to train in a multi-million dollar state-of-the-art facility utilizing the UFC High Performance System, which has already had tremendous impact with athletes from a wide range of sports, including several Chinese Olympic teams.  UFC has signed China’s best MMA athletes, such as UFC women’s strawweight Zhang Weili, who has proven herself to be one of the best female strawweights in the world.  Now ranked at number 6, Weili has the potential to be the first UFC champion out of China. 

“Endeavor China is excited to once again bring UFC, the world’s premier professional MMA organization, to Chinese audiences,” said Michael Ma, Endeavor China CEO.  “After the great success of events in Shanghai and Beijing, we are happy to announce that this year’s UFC Fight Night event will take place in Shenzhen.  MMA’s popularity is quickly rising in China, and we look forward to bringing our growing fanbase the best that UFC has to offer.”

Article source: https://www.mmaweekly.com/ufc-announces-return-to-china

PFL 2018 heavyweight champion Philipe Lins is out for the 2019 season because of injury. Lins has been replaced on the 2019 PFL season roster by Zeke Tuinei-Wily because of an undisclosed injury that will not allow him to compete.

The 2018 heavyweight champion rode a four-fight unbeaten streak to the inaugural PFL heavyweight title and the $1 million championship prize. The League wishes Lins a speedy recovery.

Wily is a former Division I football player from the University of Utah. He is 3-1 as a professional mixed martial artist and will be taking on former Olympic Judo gold medalist Satoshi Ishii at PFL3 on Thursday, June 6, at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, NY.

PFL3 will be broadcast on ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes and will be streamed on ESPN+.

TRENDING Khabib Nurmagomedov’s coach believes Conor McGregor is still his biggest threat

Watch Philipe Lins defeat Josh Copeland for the 2018 PFL heavyweight championship

(Courtesy of PFL MMA)

Article source: https://www.mmaweekly.com/pfl-2018-heavyweight-champion-philipe-lins-injured-out-of-2019-season

(Courtesy of UFC)

Former boxing champion Paulie Malignaggi and UFC veteran Artem Lobov got heated when they squared off at a press conference on Monday for their upcoming bout under the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship banner on June 22. The situation devolved to the point where Malignaggi spat at Lobov.

The two have been on a crash course pretty much ever since Malignaggi had a falling out with Lobov’s teammate Conor McGregor while helping the Irishman prepare for his boxing debut opposite Floyd Mayweather.

Also a close friend of McGregor’s, Lobov has staunchly supported his teammate and when it became clear that Malignaggi was going to return to active competition under the new Bare Knuckle rules, they quickly took aim at each other, mostly because of the friction regard McGregor.

TRENDING Watch Sage Northcutt get face planted in ONE Championship debut (fight highlights)

It has certainly helped Malignaggi regain the spotlight and gives Bare Knuckle FC some drama to build around as the promotion tries to gain traction.

Article source: https://www.mmaweekly.com/paulie-malignaggi-spits-at-artem-lobov-at-bare-knuckle-fc-press-conference

As he begins his pursuit of another $1 million grand prize in Professional Fighters League, Lance Palmer has been reinvigorated after his move to a new training camp.

The former Ohio State All-American wrestler has long wanted to work with head coach Mark Henry, who came to prominence after working with fighters such as Frankie Edgar, Eddie Alvarez and Zabit Magomedsharipov.

Unfortunately a season ago Palmer was in the same featherweight tournament as another fighter working with Henry and the camp based in New Jersey so he stayed away to avoid any potential conflict.

Now that has passed and Palmer has spent the last few months working under Henry as well as coaches Ricardo Almeida, Nick Catone and several others as he prepares for PFL season 2, which starts for him this Thursday night.

“It’s been awesome,” Palmer said about his new team. “It’s closer to home. I can drive home on the weekends, see my wife, it’s been really good. These guys are really good and they took me in like family. So it’s been an easy transition.”

Palmer, who previously worked with Team Alpha Male in Sacramento and more recently trained in Las Vegas, has spent the majority of his career training without a dedicated head coach. Team Alpha Male famously switched head coaches several times over the years from Duane ‘Bang’ Ludwig to Martin Kampmann and several others also filling that role.

In Las Vegas, Palmer worked primarily out of the UFC Performance Institute where he always had a bevy of top notch training partners but didn’t necessarily have one person leading the ship when it came to his preparation.

Palmer says the differences now working with Henry have been huge as he prepares for another arduous road to a $1 million grand prize in the second season of PFL.

“It’s night and day difference,” Palmer said. “They are overseeing every single day. He does all my training and then coach [Sam] Calavitta at the Treigning Lab oversees all of my nutrition and strength and conditioning plan. So those two together have made a huge difference in my game the last night weeks.”

According to the former World Series of Fighting champion, it’s Henry’s attention to detail that makes him such an incredible coach.

Henry is well known for the meticulous way he breaks down his fighters and their opponents while preparing a game plan to help lead them to success.

“The main thing was just the focus that Mark Henry puts on each guy,” Palmer said. “Nobody spars without him watching. He’s always watching you, recording it with his phone, just everything from a coaching perspective he does at the highest level. That’s what intrigued me about it at first.

“I would have been out last year if Timur [Valiev] wasn’t at my weight in the tournament. Just because that was my plan a year ago after I left [Team] Alpha Male in 2017. It ended up working out this time. I’m happy here.”

Palmer hopes this will be a long term solution to his training camp but especially as he embarks on the second season of PFL kicking off this Thursday night.

“I have a feeling it is,” Palmer said about making the New Jersey based camp his permanent home. “I like it a lot. All the guys here are cool. The coaches are awesome. Between Mark and Ricardo Almeida and Nick Catone, how close it is to Princeton and I can go wrestle at Rutgers.

“There’s a lot of guys that are really well known in other organizations and there are guys who are still coming up who are super tough who have been training with these guys for years. There’s a partner for every look I can think of, especially for this year’s tournament. It’s a great place. I’m excited that they let me come into their family.”

Article source: https://www.mmaweekly.com/lance-palmer-found-a-new-training-family-in-new-jersey-ahead-of-pfl-season-2