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Andrew Whitelaw
SCMP Contributor
Andrew Whitelaw is a freelance commentator and reporter specialising in football and combat sports who has been working in Asia for 11 years. He was previously multimedia lead at Fox Sports Asia in Singapore.
No 2-ranked UFC light heavyweight Jiri Prochazka doesn’t think Jon Jones vacated his title because he saw him coming, but is open to a fight down the road.
Alexander Volkov insists ‘I will handle everything’ in Francis Ngannou’s game if he secures a heavyweight title shot with victory over Ciryl Gane at UFC Vegas 30.
Ciryl Gane wants to fight Francis Ngannou for the heavyweight title in Paris, France where they used to train together, if he beats Alexander Volkov at UFC Vegas 30.
Anthony Pettis says he’ll be ‘a lot more basic, lot more clean’ after losing PFL debut, with former UFC champ ‘thinking of nothing else’ but winning another world title.
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Jiri Prochazka says he likes Israel’s Adesanya’s fighting style and even aims to be ‘much better’ than the UFC middleweight champ, as he returns to face Dominick Reyes.
Bellator bantamweight champ Juan Archuleta excited to face ‘the best Kyoji Horiguchi’ after Japanese icon reclaims Rizin title in spectacular comeback win.
UFC legend Alistair Overeem, 40, says ‘everything until 42 is good’ and sees Anderson Silva’s decline as a cautionary tale.
Conor McGregor insists ‘I’m always open’ to boxing Manny Pacquiao, but former two-weight champ should go all in on MMA after shock UFC 257 defeat by Dustin Poirier.
Former Bellator champ Michael Chandler fights Dan Hooker in UFC 257 co-main event, and thinks his and Conor McGregor’s paths will cross if he gets debut victory.
Max Holloway insists ‘not just fans, my competitors’ like Dustin Poirier, Justin Gaethje, Nate Diaz and Jorge Masvidal all think he deserved to reclaim UFC featherweight belt.
Former featherweight champ Max Holloway says ‘I’m just a call away’ if UFC 257 main event between Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier falls through.
Kyoji Horiguchi avenges loss with first-round TKO over Kai Asakura, saying ‘I got my Rizin belt back, and now it’s time to go after the other one’.
Israel Adesanya’s City Kickboxing striking coach Mike Angove already deciphering a game plan to beat Jon Jones but says former UFC light heavyweight champ must get in line.
Jon Jones can gripe all he wants but UFC lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov has earned his place at top of the pile, especially if he hangs around and goes for 30-0.
Win over Justin Gaethje would set UFC lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov up for run at 30-0 and retirement fight vs Georges St-Pierre – and there’s a beautiful symmetry to that.
‘Queen of Violence’ Ariane Lipski ‘preparing everything’ to win Valentina Shevchenko’s belt in 2021, as Brazilian gets set to fight Kyrgyzstani’s elder sister Antonina at UFC 255.
Michael ‘Venom’ Page headlines historic Bellator 248 card in France vs Ross Houston but is hell bent on Douglas Lima rematch – ‘if he wants to move up to heavyweight, I’m going to meet him there’.
Israel Adesanya tweets ‘what EA curse?’ after emphatic UFC 253 win over Paulo Costa, as undefeated middleweight champ hammers home that he’s something special.
UFC strawweight star Amanda Ribas plots similarly meteoric rise to get to Chinese champ Zhang Weili, and insists ‘it’s not an easy fight for her’.
Eddie Alvarez ‘almost positive’ he’ll fight this year in US, with ONE Championship lightweight champ Christian Lee on his mind – not a trilogy with free agent Michael Chandler.
Eddie Alvarez wants his favourite fighter Justin Gaethje to put UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov away – ‘I like watching him more than anyone’.
Dana White laments return of rising star injury curse as Sean O’Malley is stretchered out of arena after suffering first loss – something that could make or break the 25-year-old.
Dana White insists winner of Stipe Miocic trilogy with Daniel Cormier will determine the greatest MMA heavyweight of all time, but Fedor Emelianenko still stands above them all.
Buffet of knockouts including stunning soccer kick finish from Kai Asakura over Hiromasa Ogikubo mark Japanese MMA promotion Rizin’s epic return after six uncertain months.
