MMA

UFC president Dana White made it clear that he's hoping to schedule a highly-anticipated fight between heavyweight champion Jon Jones and interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall next year.

During an appearance on ESPN's First Take on Monday, White was asked by Stephen A. Smith about what fight he most wants to see in 2025, and he named the heavyweight title unification bout.

"So I get asked this every year, and this year it would be Aspinall-Jones," White said around the 3:05 mark. "That's the biggest fight in heavyweight history, and at the end of the day, what my job is, is to give the fans what they want, and that's what the fans want."

White's comments echo his stance from his post-fight press conference this past weekend when he said, "Yeah, I'll say 100 percent [guaranteed]" of the possibility of Jones and Aspinall facing each other next year.

Fans have been clamoring for Jones to face Aspinall ever since Jones suffered a torn labrum that kept him out of the Octagon for over a year. During that time, Aspinall was crowned interim champion and defended his belt once. Jones made his long-awaited return last month in the main event of UFC 309 and defeated former heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic by third-round TKO to retain his title.

However, Jones has long resisted the possibility of fighting Aspinall, claiming that the 31-year-old isn't deserving of a fight against him.

Still, it sounds like White is motivated to make the fight happen, so there's a chance that he makes Jones an offer that he can't refuse to step in the Octagon against Aspinall.

Former two-time UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya is set to return to the Octagon in February.

According to ESPN's Andreas Hale, UFC announced Saturday that Adesanya will face Nassourdine Imavov in the main event of UFC Fight Night at the ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Feb. 1.

The bout will mark Adesanya's first nontitle fight since 2019, breaking a string of 12 consecutive bouts with a championship on the line.

Adesanya, 35, is coming off back-to-back losses for the first time in his career, and he has dropped three of his past four outings.

In his sixth middleweight title defense, Adesanya lost to Alex Pereira by fifth-round technical knockout at UFC 281 in 2022. However, in their rematch at UFC 287 in April 2023, Adesanya won back the middleweight title.

"The Last Stylebender" lost the title once again in a unanimous-decision defeat at the hands of Sean Strickland at UFC 293 in September 2023.

Nearly one year later, Adesanya returned to face the new UFC middleweight champion in Dricus du Plessis, but du Plessis won by fourth-round submission to retain the title.

While it can be argued that a nontitle fight against Imavov represents a step down for Adesanya, it is possible that the winner could be thrust right back into the UFC middleweight title conversation.

The 29-year-old Imavov is not as experienced as the 24-4 Adesanya, posting a record of 15-4 with one no contest in 20 career bouts.

However, since losing to Strickland by unanimous decision in 2023, Imavov is undefeated. His fight against Christ Curtis was ruled a no contest due to an accidental headbutt, and he followed that up with wins over Roman Dolidze, Jared Cannonier and Brendan Allen.

Imavov has never vied for a championship, but beating Adesanya would give him the type of signature win he needs in order to he considered a contender.

At UFC 312 on Feb. 9, du Plessis will defend the UFC middleweight title against Strickland in a rematch, and given the close proximity to Adesanya vs. Imavov, it would make sense for the winners of both fights to meet in a title bout in the near future.

Shavkat Rakhmonov is once again set for a crack at the UFC welterweight title, but he came far closer to losing that opportunity to Ian Machado Garry than most fight fans expected.

Kazakhstan's Rakhmonov, 30, was originally set to challenge welterweight champ Belal Muhammad for the title in the main event of Saturday's UFC 310 card in Las Vegas. When Muhammad was forced out of the fight with a serious infection in his toe, however, Rakhmonov accepted a short-notice fight with his fellow contender and former training partner Ian Machado Garry.

The booking was an immediate hit among fans, as Rakhmonov would enter the cage with an 18-0 record — and a stunning 100 percent finishing rate — while Ireland's Garry was also undefeated, at 15-0. Still, the widespread expectation was that Rakhmonov would win handily — probably by way of stoppage.

That's not the way it happened. Instead, the Rakhmonov finally lost hold of his flawless finishing rate, settling for a closely contested unanimous decision.

"Ian Garry is a great opponent and it showed in the fight," the soft-spoken Kazakh said in his post-fight interview with commentator Joe Rogan. "I'm glad I won. Thanks for supporting me."

The fight got off to a fairly slow start.

In a somewhat surprising turn, Rakhmonov relied heavily on his clinch game in the early going, racking up more than three minutes of control time against the cage by the end of the first round. He opened up a bit more in rounds two and three — as did Garry — but he still spent much of those 10 minutes pressing his opponent into the chainlink.

Rakhmonov's clinch attack was so relentless that the back of the Garry's shorts ripped open. It was something we'd never seen in the Octagon before and forced the Irishman to make a wardrobe change between the third and fourth rounds.

"That means they're spending way too much time on that Octagon side," joked former two-division champ turned color commentator Daniel Cormier.

Changing shorts seemed to wake Garry up.

Shavkat finally scored his first takedown of the fight in round four — he succeeded on just two of 10 attempts overall — but the Irishman significantly cranked up the offense through the championship rounds. His biggest moment came in the fifth round when he came very close to finishing his foe with a rear-naked choke — close enough that Rogan and Cormier were pushed into a frenzy of excitement.

"That was close," DC said, only to have Rogan repeat the same sentence seconds later.

Rakhmonov, of course, survived the submission attempt, but as his decision victory was announced by Octagon announcer Bruce Buffer, he looked more human than ever before thank to Garry's impressive effort.

While it was not the blowout many fans expected, Rakhmonov's UFC 310 win reasserted him as the top contender for Muhammad's title, and any lingering doubt that he is next in line disappeared when the champion entered the cage for a face-off with the unbeaten Kazakh.

"I'm excited," the criminally underrated Muhammad said as the fans in the T-Mobile arena booed, and bright blue Kazakh flags waved in the bleachers. "I hear the crowd booing, those boos are gonna turn to tears."

"No more injuries," Rakhmonov responded, referencing the infection that caused their planned UFC 310 fight to fall apart. "We'll find out who's better."

It remains to be seen when Muhammad and Rakhmonov will meet in the cage, however, the champion has been cleared to compete, so it should be sometime in the first half of the new year. Whenever it happens, it's going to be one of the most anticipated fights on the calendar.

After his rousing performance against Rakhmonov, Garry's next fight should be almost as anticipated as the title fight. While he will undoubtedly spend the next few weeks mourning the loss of his undefeated record, he proved himself as a truly elite welterweight at UFC 310, and it would not be remotely surprising to see him fighting for the belt — and perhaps even rematching Rakhmonov — sometime in the next few years.

It will take a few more wins to make it happen, but after the performance he put forth in Las Vegas, it's hard to imagine many welterweights giving him much of a challenge.

Alexandre Pantoja continued piling up title defenses at UFC 310 with a second-round submission win over Kai Asakura at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

It didn't take long for the action to get going in this one. The champion confidently came to the center of the cage and tried to land the first salvo, but the contender responded with a flying knee.

The ensuing exchange turned into a scramble and top control for Pantoja.

However, that was short lived and the two worked their way back to the feet. Pantoja wasn't afraid to exchange with the former bantamweight champion and still survived the round.

The second-round didn't work out so well for the challenger. He was able to land a few shots, but the champion jumped to a back take gainst the fence. From there he was able to sink in a rear-naked choke that rendered Asakura unable to continue.

Pantoja now has three consecutive title defenses since winning the title back in July 2023 and joined a few good lists.

The flyweight title has been pretty slippery since Demetrious Johnson's reign of 11 title defenses from September 2012 to August 2018. Pantoja is the first champion to defend it three times since then and Deiveson Figueiredo is the only other champion to defend it twice in that time frame.

The Brazilian continues to make his case that he's the best in the world at 125 with a seven-fight win streak. His victory over Asakura, who was the bantamweight champion of Japan's RIZIN Fighting Federation, lends more credence to that claim.

However, there's still a long way to go before he can reach the likes of Demetrious Johnson. Steve Erceg was ranked 10th in the flyweight division when they met and this title defense comes against a UFC newcomer.

There are plenty of challenges awaiting the champion.

Rematches with Brandon Royval and Brandon Moreno are both options. He mentioned them in an interview with Stake heading into this fight.

"It was meant to be Brandon Royval who has just come off two victories," he said of his next challenger. "Then you have Brandon Moreno who is a big star and the former champion doing a great job with Amir Albazi. Kai Kara France is also up there but he only has one victory after two losses."

Pantoja has two wins over Royval so it's hard to picture that being the next fight. However, a rematch with Moreno would make some sense. The first fight was a split decision and Moreno just beat rising contender Amir Albazi.

Regardless, Pantoja showed why he's the champion again on Saturday night.

Shavkat Rakhmonov maintained his undefeated record and set himself up for a title shot with a unanimous decision win over Ian Machado Garry in a battle of undefeated welterweight contenders.

The bout got off to a slow start as Rakhmonov was happy to direct the fight to the fence and Garry Machado was hesitant to pull the trigger. His lack of activity allowed Rakhmonov to conserve some energy and drew plenty of criticism.

Machado Garry woke things up a little more in the second round. He opened up his striking and was able to bank some decent offense to take the round on some of the media cards.

Garry's success in the third frame brought a little more energy out of Rakhmonov. He took Garry down, landed some ground and pound and banked another important round to set up a fifth-round.

Machado Garry needed to get a finish in the fifth round. Though he wasn't able to get one, he did come close to locking in a rear-naked choke that made for a great back and forth fight in the final round.

Rakhmonov should be celebrated for even taking this fight in the first place. The 30-year-old was originally slated to meet welterweight champion Belal Muhammad in the main event of UFC 310, but Muhammad withdrew from the fight due to a foot injury.

Rakhmonov could have simply waited for Muhammad to return to action. No one would blame him for holding out for a title shot, but he elected to take a replacement fight and stay on the card anyway.

Now, he's a no-brainer to take on Muhammad in his first title defense.

Getting back in the cage was important for Rakhmonov. He took some time off after his December 2023 victory over Stephen Thompson. The contender recognized it was a good decision to get his body right and prepared for the opportunities ahead.

"Sometimes you need to step back and focus on evolving as a fighter without the pressure of a fight camp," Rakhmonov told E. Spencer Kyte of UFC.com. "This time allowed me to refine my skills, work on areas I wanted to improve, and take a step toward reaching the next level. It's been a period of growth, and I feel like a more complete fighter because of it."

An evolving version of Rakhmonov is a scary thought for the rest of the welterweight division. He was a favorite against Muhammad when the fight was originally announced and his undefeated record is littered with impressive finishes.

He's undoubtedly heading toward a title fight with Muhammad where he'll be a notable favorite.