Following the historic UFC 300, the former dual-weight champion was confirmed to return to the Octagon at UFC 303 on the 29th of June. The shaggy fight will make the octagon a lot more chaotic. Michael Chandler, a hard-hitting powerhouse, is the opponent. The American, who has previously won a number of Bellator titles, is poised for his relentless attack and knockout power.

In addition to the tremendous excitement in the UFC community, the contrasting fighting type of this opponent assures a game well deserving anticipation. This article details everything you need to know about the battle and also provides my selection of the bout.

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), primarily the UFC, is littered with well-educated people. It’s common for people to think that the UFC is just a lot of people with more muscles than brains, but these fighters break the stereotypical mold.

Wanting to finish a degree is a common thing for many people. You could pay people to do your homework, and getting HW for money may be used as an easy way to land a degree. I’d hire someone to do my homework if I could spend more time training. It’s not wrong to pay someone to do my homework if I’m too busy preparing for a fight.

These MMA fighters demonstrate that having a degree as a fallback position is an excellent choice for an athlete. Being a competitor means learning more about the world around you. According to Angelina Grin, a writer and editor at Studybay, certain fighters’ academic backgrounds have likely played a significant role in defining their strategic approach to combat, allowing them to predict and neutralize their opponents’ moves with pinpoint accuracy.

These fighters are well-trained athletes, but they never neglect their mental abilities in favor of it. Let’s look at some of the most educated UFC/MMA fighters.

Bellator lightweight champion Patricky Pitbull dropped a bombshell on MMA Fighting’s Trocação Franca podcast recently, hinting at a potential featherweight run in 2025. The move would require a significant weight cut to 145 pounds, marking a new chapter in Pitbull’s storied career.

“My brother and a few training partners are insisting that I move down to 145,” the Brazilian said. “Who knows, maybe after this season I’ll fight on the 145 season. I think there’s a good possibility I’ll put on good performances and win fights at 145.”

Despite no prior experience at featherweight (145 lbs), Patricky draws confidence from his successful lightweight run in Bellator since 2011. His current nutritionist, the same one who helped his brother Patricio make the cut to bantamweight (135 lbs), fuels his belief in a smooth transition.

“I just need to get used to training lighter and faster,” Pitbull continued. “I would need to adapt before the season starts, and not just cut weight for the season. My body reacts well to diets and I lose weight pretty easily.”

When it comes to Irish MMA stars, there are none as exciting as Conor McGregor. Back in 2014, he managed to defeat Diego Brandao at the Dublin O2 Arena. At that point, he became a famous name in the MMA scene, and went on to become the very first “Champ Champ”.

At that fight in 2014, five different Irish MMA fighters managed to win their matchups as well. At this point, it looked like Irish fighters were going to become the biggest names in MMA, but since then we haven’t seen the same success from them. This has been especially disappointing for those in the betting scene, who were hoping to see more from Irish Fighters. Irish bookmakers seen at Betfree.ie offer betting on pretty much every MMA event, but unfortunately at the moment not many Irish stars are listed. With MMA becoming a bigger deal and no one in betting, Irish punters want to bet on the home fighters.

Now though, there are several different MMA fighters who are looking to replicate that success and become the top names in the sport. Here are just some of these fighters that you need to be watching right now.

These days, it’s not enough to hold a title in a major MMA organization.  Why not two? Hell, Anatoly Malykhin is currently simultaneously holding the middleweight, light-heavyweight, and heavyweight titles at ONE Championship. And so every new major title holder seems to ignore the realities of defending their freshly won divisional title, preferring to immediately chase the ‘champ-champ’ status.

This craze began with Conor McGregor becoming the first UFC champion to hold title belts in two divisions at the same time.  There have been others before him, though none simultaneous. In this article, we will look back at every fighter who has held more than one divisional title (whether simultaneous or one at at time) in the UFC history, in chronological order. Interim titles count; tournament titles do not.

* indicates titles held simultaneously

 Randy Couture

Randy ‘The Natural’ Couture was a pioneer of MMA in many ways.  One of the first well-rounded fighters who sucessfully utilized more than one discipline, Couture was also the first fighter in the UFC to win multiple titles. The Natural made his UFC debut in 1997, winning the UFC 13 Heavyweight Tournament. He then defeated young ‘Phenom’ Vitor Belfort in a title eliminator, before capturing the UFC heavyweight title with a decision win over Maurice Smith. Couture never did defend that belt, vacating it amidst a contract dispute with UFC, which saw Randy going to fight over in Japan for a period of his career. Upon returning to UFC in 2000, Couture immediately won back the heavyweight title and defended it twice.

After dropping two fights at heavyweight, the aging Couture decided to try his luck at 205 lbs. Making his light-heavyweight debut at UFC 43, Couture stopped Chuck Liddell in the third round for the Interim title (the real title having been held by Tito Ortiz at the time), becoming the first man in UFC history to win title belts in two different divisions. Couture unified the belts in a routing of Ortiz, but then dropped it in a rematch with Vitor Belfort, due to a cut on the eyelid of Couture caused by the very first strike thrown by Belfort. After winning the title back from Belfort, Couture lost his next two battles to Chuck Liddell and retired from the sport.

Couture’s retirement didn’t last long: a year later, he returned to the heavyweight division, shocking the world with a dominant decision win over a much larger man in Tim Sylvia. Randy defended the heavyweight title once, before losing it to Brock Lesnar.  He didn’t fight for another title after.

Khabib Nurmagomedov was a well-rounded Mixed Martial Arts fighter who has made his name as the greatest lightweight in MMA  and one of the most dominant UFC champions of all time.  His background in the Russian martial art of sambo made him one hell of a grappler! Basically, once you are on the Octagon floor with Khabib, you are sure to lose. The highlight of Khabib’s career is capturing the UFC lightweight championship belt and defending it four times.  His most viewed UFC fight was against Conor McGregor. Actually, UFC 229 was the most viewed fight on Pay-Per-View in UFC history, as there were over 2,400,000 viewers. Likely Khabib’s most challenging opponent was Dustin Poirier. Nurmagomedov retired as the lightweight champion.  His overall MMA record is unblemished at 29-0, and he is the only UFC champion who retired undefeated.

Born in 1986, Francis Ngannou grew up impoverished in Cameroon.  At the age of ten, he began working in the sand mines. He did this type of work until he was 17. In search for a better quality of life, Ngannou moved to France at 26, with dreams of becoming a professional boxer.

While in France, Ngannou met coach Didier Carmont.  Due to the potential that Carmont had anticipated, he allowed Francis to train at no cost in his gym. While training in boxing, he was introduced to MMA coach Fernand Lopez; thus beginning a career in MMA.

In the opinion of many fans, Anderson Silva is the greatest MMA fighter of all time. Whether you agree or not, he is certainly a legend of the Octagon. From a young age, he was a prodigy in martial arts. Here are some fun facts you may not know about ‘The Spider’:

The UFC has seen some truly incredible fighters over its storied 31-year history, but only the best of the best have been able to see periods of sustained dominance over an entire weight class. While there is plenty of nuance that goes into a long win streak in the UFC, namely the quality of opponents, at some point a run of victories becomes so long that we as viewers have no choice but to appreciate greatness. The UFC, with its 625 million fans, is a top-viewed combat sport. This popularity has brought in online sports betting brands, giving fans a fun way to be part of the action.

A quick note before we get started, six fighters are technically tied for 4th place. Demetrious Johnson, Max Holloway, Islam Makhachev, Georges St. Pierre, Jon Jones, and Khabib Nurmagomedov all have recorded 13 fight win-streaks. Still, we’ve decided to highlight just the below that we think come with important caveats that put them above the rest.

The MMA calendar for 2024 is already jam-packed full of exciting events in the coming months. One of the most anticipated right now is the O’Malley vs Vera, that is scheduled for the 9th of March 2024.  who is everything you need to know about the events, and who is the bookie’s favourite to win.