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MMA News wrap-up: Alex Pereira’s fall, Brendan Schaub’s conspiracy theory, Jalin Turner’s retirement, more

March 16, 2025 Frank Doyle MMA, UFC

UFC 313: Pereira v Ankalaev
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

Alex Pereira’s fall could be as fast as his unlikely rise in MMA.

Whether you felt “Poatan” did enough to beat Magomed Ankalaev or not, officially he took a loss at UFC 313 and it’s fair to say this was his most lackluster performance in some time. The now-former light heavyweight champion was No. 2 in our Pound-for-Pound Rankings heading into his fourth defense of the 205-pound belt, which meant either Ankalaev was about to crack the top 3 or Pereira had to make a big drop.

As it turns out, Pereira fell all the way to No. 10 in our rankings, which seems harsh, but it’s a harsh game and it’s possible that this was just a necessary course correction to Pereira maybe being too high in the first place?

Check out our discussion on the latest Rankings Show below.

You all also had plenty to say about our decision, so check out your comments below and more of the best reactions to the biggest stories of the week.

TheTruth#1
How does he drop 8 spots? Naw that’s crazy.

TheX-Factor
He definitely belongs in the top 10, but he is about where he was supposed to be in the first place 8-10 and indeed his performance should change nothing. So at the end of the day, he’s ranked right.

pk76
How did he have an aura of invincibility if he’d already been beaten in both kickboxing and MMA? People talking nonsense.
Alex is a great fighter who’s had a great run and he just had one bad performance against a younger fighter.

SteveHulk
The drop seems rather severe… especially as a lot of people thought he actually beat Ankalaev (nearly 57% of the fan vote and 9/20 media scores & 1 draw – on MMADecisions)

Brendan Schaub believes UFC 313 pay-per-view issues done ‘on purpose’ by ESPN

Brendan Schaub had his theory for why the UFC 313 broadcast went haywire on ESPN+ and it’s fair to say his credibility is in question.

chrisgp123
I’d be more likely to believe Amazon or Netflix hired some nerds under the table to DDOS the ESPN servers before I believe that ESPN would shoot themselves in the foot in front of the world in the middle of contract negotiations. Here let me just throw my own leverage in the trash while I tell you why you should stay with me. Makes zero sense.

flying tiger bomb
Showing that your platform sucks is not good for negotiation? LOL!
Schaub is an absolute moron.

$SOL
Believing something doesn’t make it a fact. They should just rename “news” to “rumors”.
There’s a lot of dummies out there that “believe” they’re experts just because they decide to do a podcast.

ChadTheImpaler
Schaub doesn’t know what’s going on.
True.

TheSesameStreetCount
This boy is on to nothing. It’s a perfect example of the current conspiracy culture, just really dumb dudes trying to add 2 and 2 together and they end up with zero.

Jalin Turner releases statement on retirement at UFC 313, leaves door open for future return

Jalin Turner announced a surprise retirement at the age of 29, leaving many to wonder what could have been.

Daddydaft
If he truly retires, he’ll be up there with Gregor Gillespie and Darren Till in my personal book of wasted talent.
He has the skills and physical attributes to be truly great, but is a prime example of how fighting truly is more mental than anything.

Birdshow1
Interesting comparisons. I had high hopes for Turner also. Like title contender hopes. Seemed like he could be Jon Jones(ish) of the lightweights. Really good skill(not Jones level skill of course) and somehow could weigh in much lower than his body looks like it can reasonably hold.
But he may lack the nastiness to be a great fighter. Nice guy with high level skill.

mburtoni
He’ll be back in 6 months to a year.

MJD1989
You could see v Hooker he doesn’t have the personality for this. Huge technical and physical advantage, but just a nice non-competitive guy

jgtokyo
Wouldn’t mind seeing him in Karate Combat or maybe One Championship — switch things up with a move to Asia.

Dusty Justice
I get rumble vibes, I wouldn’t be surprised if he takes some time off and comes back as a middleweight and starts knocking fools out.

Magomed Ankalaev throws shade at ‘steroid machine’ Jon Jones after spoiling plans with UFC 313 win

Another week, another UFC champion throwing shade at Jon Jones.

Nicolas Caged
Jon, what do you have to say in response to these serious allegations about you from the current UFC LHW Champion?

tedbear
Well, that’s all it took to win me over. Long live Ank

Abstractions
The hero we didn’t know we needed

Manel Kape shuts the door on eye poke controversy, feels Asu Almabayev running away was more of an ‘embarrassment’

Manel Kape isn’t apologizing for his fouls in his UFC Vegas 103 main event win over Asu Almabayev. But maybe he should?

SpawnofCthulhu
Yes of course, Asu should have just stood there and taken his eye rakes like a man.
What a complete piece of shit

UFC_CFU_FUC
I thought there was more than one foul. Also. What are you supposed to do after a third of a finger goes inside your eye? Kape just seems unlikeable to the point he should just shut up and keep fighting. Yes, Manel was winning the fight. Which should mean keep your fingers down/in.
Say Asu did this to Kape and Kape could not see? Should he stand there and take a beating or should he keep his distance until the ref stops it or what? It’s a tough call. I’ll say this…The poke was not the end all until the ref/commish allowed it to be the end all. Not a good look.
CHEERS!

Fist City
Here’s the correct GIF to accompany any story about Kape:

Oscar Meyer
Kape is a front runner for most unlikeable UFC fighter ever.
He’s No.1 IMO when you excuse the actual POS murderers and criminals. Every time he opens his mouth he proves it.

The Newfie
This guy is talking “if you watch the fight closely…” this happened and that happened, yeah I watched close and to me it looks totally intentional. There’s more than once he’s throwing a punch and magically at the very last second his fingers open and scraped across his opponents eyes. Oops!

Barnabus Dupree
Sending this guy a copy of “How to Win Friends and Influence People” stat.

Brian Ortega chops off hair for great cause

Brian Ortega with a nice gesture the MMA community seemed to appreciate.

The Axe Nerderer
Kids’ gonna look fantastic, well done Friar Ortega

Whoever gets this is gonna grin just as much as he did, big respect!

EvilJ
That guy has his heart in the right place, no matter what. Causes like this are where people need to invest, instead of some of the stuff we’ve been hearing about lately.

Choi Hong-Superman
Respect. Ortega is a cool dude in my book.

SaintsWillConquer
I used to be a hair farmer myself. I donated to Locks Of Love twice. It really takes a lot of donations to make just one wig, but it was nice to be a small part of helping some kids feel better.

Who are the least compelling UFC champions right now?

We know this wasn’t a nice question to ask, but thank you for answering anyway.

Scot_McCreight_
Most:
1. The Cannibal
2. Stillknocks
3. Jon Jones (I know, but he is compelling to watch fight)
*Honorable mention: need special category for Justin Gaethje….he may never hold the undisputed LW Belt, but I would pick to watch him fight over anyone on any roster in any promotion
Least:
1. Merab, #1 with a bullet
2. Peña
3. Belal, but he is on the rise I think

Nicolas Caged
That one guy is so boring, I completely forgot his name.

Phalanx7
It’s actually just easier to list those that are compelling, seeing as there’s less of them.
– Aspinall
– Makhachev
Topuria would have been included, but he’s not champion anymore.

Igl00Man
Least compelling is Belal, simply due to his lack of personality, and boring fighting style.
If I count WMMA, runner up goes to Pena, simply for being an absolute cringy person trying to sell a fight, and who fights like a drunken soccer mom doing Tai Bo for the first time after a night of binge drinking.
If not, then I say it’s Jon Jones, without a doubt. His reign was already off to a shaky start, fighting the decomposed shell of Stipe, and ducking Tom Aspinall. I will only be exited for his “reign” when he fights Tom, but I will only believe the fight is on when both guys are standing in the cage, and the ref says “fight”.

As for most compelling, I gotta go with DDP. His fighting style is awkward, and in theory shouldn’t work, but he keeps winning, and his trash talk game is top notch.

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