MMA News Round-Up: Bellator Sweeps Rizin 5–0, Nick Diaz Spotted at UFC PI, Shogun Rua Reflects on Fedor Emelianenko

In the first edition of the MMA round-up of the year, we have Bellator MMA with a victory shout-out. Bellator trumped Rizin 5-0 to establish their dominance. The win was highlighted by A.J. Mckee‘s special ground game in his fight against Rizin champion Roberto de Souza. With a career that spanned 20 years and 41 fights coming to an end Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua rues the missed opportunity he had to fight Fedor Emelianenko in a  ‘super fight’. To wrap it up with have some good news for the ‘209’ fans as Nick Diaz was spotted at the UFC performance institute ahead of his possible return sometime this year.

Bellator MMA crushes Rizin 5-0

Brilliant performances from A.J. Mckee and Patricio Pitbull saw them destroy the Rizin fighting federation at Saitama Super Arena in Japan. Mckee put on a superb display of ground defense and ground and pound. The weapons of choice for Mckee were the short inside elbows that he inflicted in plenty on de Souza.

He was declared the winner by a unanimous decision against Roberto de Souza. Patricio Pitbull also put on a good performance against Kleber Koike. The other fighters who won for Bellator MMA were flyweight fighter Kyori Horiguchi, bantamweight Huan Archuleta, and lightweight Gadhzi Rabadanov. A.J. Mckee felt fighting in Japan was like a dream come true. He said, “Hopefully I get to come back and put on another show for you.” 

Former UFC champ rues the missed chance to fight Fedor Emelianenko

As his long and successful comes to an end Mauricio Rua must be looking back at the highlights of his career. ‘Shogun’ Rua has a career record that reads 27-13-1. He has a finish rate of 82% with 21 knockouts. This impressive stat however would have been graced by a fight against heavyweight legend Fedor Emelianenko. In an interaction with Sherdog, ‘shogun’ Rua talked about the time he was about to face Fedor Emelianenko.

Rua said, “After I won the light heavyweight [grand prix] and he won the heavyweight grand prix, the promoters started to talk about a superfight, but it never happened,”

He then continued, “Coincidentally I was probably closer to fighting my idol Wanderlei [Silva before he lost to Ricardo Arona in the seminfinals]. But It would have been an honor to fight Fedor when we both were in our primes. In my opinion, Fedor is among the three best pound-for-pound fighters ever.” 

Read More: A Tribute to Mauricio Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua’s Career

Fans will see Rua fight for one last time on 21st January at UFC 283. Rua will be facing Ukraine’s Ihor Potieria.

209 boy sr. spotted at UFC PI before a possible comeback

Nick Diaz has not won a UFC fight in the last 11 years. His last victory came against B.J. Penn in 2011. Diaz has fought only 4 times since then and has been struggling with injuries in the recent past. Diaz had fought Robbie Lawler at UFC 266 back in 2021. Reports suggest that he may have been fighting with two ruptured discs in his neck. Lawler knocked out Diaz in the third round and Diaz has not fought again.

It looks very likely, however, that we will see the elder Diaz in the UFC octagon soon. He was spotted outside the UFC Performance Institute. While Diaz had his eyes set on the last style bender Israel Adesanya, he has not found a confirmed match-up yet.

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It seems thought that Diaz is determined to make a comeback. Jake shields reported that Diaz was in good shape and the workout regime suggests he will be a tough nut to crack.

Some More MMA News

• Undefeated Cage warrior Christian Leroy Duncan has signed with the UFC.
• Adrian Yanez will take on Rob Font at the UFC’s event on April 8th.
• Mohammad Mokaev headed for surgery after dislocating his shoulder