April 12 lived up to the hype with Alexander Volkanovski reclaiming the featherweight title following a great battle with Diego Lopes whilst Paddy Pimblett’s stock continued to rise after he stopped Michael Chandler in the co-main event.

There were other big performances from the likes of Yair Rodriguez, Jean Silva and Dominick Reyes on the main card whilst the prelims also produced some talking points.

As fans recently saw via the backstage footage of Lopes’ reaction to his defeat, there is often a harsh reality waiting on the other side of the curtain for these athletes with several fighters receiving indefinite medical suspensions after putting their bodies on the line.

Diego Lopes among five fighters handed indefinite medical suspensions after UFC 314

In the aftermath of UFC 314 on April 12, MMA Junkie posted the full list of medical suspensions handed out by the Florida Athletic Commission (FAC).

Details on the potential injuries that have led to these suspensions are not disclosed though the exact timeframes could be shortened if a fighter gets cleared by a doctor.

Diego Lopes has been suspended indefinitely following his five-round featherweight title clash with Alexander Volkanovski in the main event.

Whilst there could be other injuries that we don’t know about, Lopes’ right eye looked to be completely shut by the end of the fight where ‘The Great’ reclaimed the 145-pound gold.

Volkanovski was suspended just 45 days despite also suffering some damage around his eyes.

For the fighters involved in the co-main event, Paddy Pimblett came through his toughest test without a medical suspension whilst Michael Chandler received 60 days.

Along with Lopes, four other fighters were handed indefinite suspensions due to potential injuries with Virna Jandiroba, Chase Hooper and both Marco Tulio and Tresean Gore, who met in the second fight of the night, all appearing to be on the side lines for the foreseeable future.

In Jandiroba’s case, she’ll be hoping that this isn’t anything too significant after emerging as the top contender in the strawweight division with a win over Yan Xiaonan.

Fighter that fans urged to retire only suspended 45 days

Whilst the likes of Diego Lopes and Michael Chandler may have worn the damage that they received in their bouts, Darren Elkins took a lot of punishment despite his fight only lasting one round.

Elkins was hurt early on by Julian Erosa who landed a clean up kick which Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier highlighted on commentary.

‘The Damage’ has always been a very durable fighter with this trait being one of his best attributes but it simply wasn’t there for him on April 12.

Despite fans calling for Elkins to end his career, a 45 day medical suspension means that there is nothing stopping him from getting back inside the Octagon before the end of the year.

Despite ‘The Last Emperor’ having retired from MMA in 2023 after an unsuccessful Bellator heavyweight title challenge against Ryan Bader, Conor McGregor teased his signing for BKFC.

Although Fedor is widely regarded as one of the greatest fighters of all time, he is one of the only ones in that category who has never competed in the UFC.

Joe Rogan on why Fedor never fought in the UFC

Over the years, there have been many rumors as to why the Russian never fought under the UFC banner, with him previously stating that one of the reasons is because he felt that Dana White hated him.

However, UFC commentator Joe Rogan has revealed the reason as to why Fedor never signed with the promotion, despite years of talks.

“So, Fedor was controlled by some Russian people, that were very rough men, as it were, gangster type characters,” he began to explain in an episode of his podcast.

“They had a bunch of negotiations with the UFC, but they were very unreasonable demands. They wanted part of the promotion, they wanted to own a piece of everything, they wanted a lot.

“Because they knew that with Fedor, they had the golden ticket, and they wanted to play it out as much as possible. The negotiations were very intense and very confrontational, they got bad, (to the point that) Dana had to up his security, it got heavy.

“These were dangerous people… It got crazy,” Rogan continued.

Fedor Emelianenko implored to make his comeback to fighting

The 48-year-old has been implored to make his return to combat sports by UFC legend Andrei Arlovski.

The former UFC champion has recently competed in a new combat sports promotion, Dirty Boxing Championship, which is co-owned by Jon Jones.

With there having already been talks that he may sign with BKFC, Fedor’s comeback to combat sports seems imminent, which worries the majority of the fanbase, considering he is 48 years old.

Instead, the night belonged to Alexander Volkanovski who triumphantly returned to the top of the division by beating Lopes over five rounds in a great contest.

Whilst fans celebrated and praised ‘The Great’ for his remarkable comeback that saw him respond to back-to-back knockout losses with an impressive display, it takes two to tango.

A legendary night for his opponent meant a tough outing for Lopes who already shared his thoughts on what went down in Miami.

Diego Lopes gets emotional after UFC 314 defeat in Miami

A video posted on YouTube by Diego Lopes’ management team, Iridium Sports Agency, captured behind the scenes footage of fight night.

Lopes has had a remarkable journey in the UFC thus far having suffered two losses on his late notice UFC debut and in his appearance on Dana White’s Contender Series.

However, with a five-fight winning streak under his belt, he had an unstoppable confidence ahead of the biggest fight of his career to date against a legend of the division in Alexander Volkanovski.

The rising star was surrounded by positivity as he made his way to the arena and got warmed up backstage with some dancing before getting ready to walk out at the Kaseya Center with a smile on his face.

Cameras immediately cut from Lopes walking out to his return to the backstage area having lost a unanimous decision following a fight of the night bout.

A disappointed Lopes was consoled by his team as he sits in the locker room with emotion pouring out of him after this huge opportunity slipped through his hands.

The video is a great document of the rollercoaster of emotions that fighters go through when they put it all on the line to compete at the highest level.

With his team behind him, Lopes dusts himself off after looking at his reflection in the mirror before getting ready to leave the arena and move on to the next phase of his career.

Diego Lopes will only get better after this experience

Diego Lopes may have come up short in the main event but he was able to answer some questions that fans had ahead of his first title fight.

He proved that he can fight at a more measured pace for five rounds without ever slowing down in a significant way, he was simply beaten by the better man on April 12.

In just his seventh appearance inside the Octagon, the 30-year-old went five rounds with one of the all-time greats and this experience is only going to benefit him in the long run.

Lopes is still one of the top contenders in the featherweight division and he will certainly be back in the mix in the near future once he has had some time to heal.

Post-fight, Paddy Pimblett claimed that everything he had been working on in the gym for the past few weeks had came off in the Octagon at the Kaseya Center.

Now he’s shared footage to prove the most eye-catching shot of the fight was something he was drilling backstage like Conor McGregor did before knocking out Jose Aldo in 13 seconds 10 years ago.

Watch Paddy Pimblett drill flying knee

Pimblett landed a clean flying knee to cut his opponent in the third round of the UFC 314 co-headliner.

The strike signalled the beginning of the end as Chandler was covered in blood and fighting to survive from that moment, which led to him being badly beaten up before the referee stepped in to wave things off.

Now the 30-year-old Englishman has shared footage from his latest fight night, including a clip of him embracing Chandler backstage after beating him up for three rounds.

It also captures Pimblett going through some pre-fight striking drills with one of his coaches, who can be seen hold pads as the he perfects the flying knee he excuted later in the evening.

Apparently, it’s a shot they’ve been working on all camp, and Pimblett has more footage to prove it.

So, fans can expect more clips from Pimblett’s UFC 314 camp to be released in the next few days.

What’s next for Paddy Pimblett?

Pimblett’s seventh consecutive UFC win earned him the #8 ranking at lightweight.

It’s widely believed that he is just one more victory away from securing a UFC title shot.

During his UFC 314 post-fight speech, Pimblett named a legend as his ideal opponent, but expressed his willingness to face anyone in the top five, besides Arman Tsaruykan, who he has been beefing with in recent weeks.

“I respect Dustin [Poirier], Justin [Gaethje] and Charles [Oliveira]” he told Joe Rogan.

“Charles is the biggest legend out of them all and he gets called the best submission artist the UFC’s ever seen.

“Well, I dispute that. I’m here, so me versus Charles.”

While Pimblett has called his shot, it’s currently unclear what Dana White plans to do with him next.

The only thing certain is that the latest UK superstar’s next fight will be absolutely massive.

Ilia Topuria claims the UFC bosses promised him an immediate title shot, but now he believes that 155lb king Islam Makhachev will take another fight after Joe Rogan suggested Dana White is thinking of matching the Russian with welterweight champion Belal Muhammad.

Still, ‘La Leyenda’ has offered the UFC a practical solution for an issue that has plagued MMA for years.

Ilia Topuria’s plan to eliminate weight cutting

In the days before their fights, many UFC stars dehydrate themselves to cut an absorbent amount of weight and gain a competitive advantage over their opponent, who is almost always doing the same thing.

It’s not an aspect of the sport Topuria enjoys, hence why he decided to move up a weight class.

Now he’s called for the UFC to introduce a new system that would stop fighters cutting too much weight.

“If you walk around 8% or 10% over your weight, I would obligate you to move up the weight class,” Topuria said during a recent appearance on Rogan’s podcast.

“Just to give you an example, if you’re fighting at 100kg [220lbs] and I go to your house, I put you on the scale, and you weigh 110kg [242lbs], I would force you to go to the next weight class.”

Joe Rogan hates weight cutting

Rogan famously hates weight cutting, so he unsurprisingly responded well to Topuria’s idea.

In January, he pitched his own plan to revolutionize MMA and remove the ‘worst aspect of the sport’.

“I think weight-cutting should be eliminated,” Rogan declared. “I said this to Ari Emanuel [CEO of Endeavor] when they first bought the UFC. I said, ‘Listen, man, you know what we should do? Get rid of weight-cutting, just stop it.

“Look, if you can randomly test people for drugs, you can randomly test their weight. Show up with a scale, say. ‘Hey, buddy. Step on the scale, you’re 190 pounds, how the f— are you making 145?’ Do something like that.

“And come up with more weight classes. There should be a weight class every 10 pounds. This idea of these giant gaps like 185 to 205, that’s a 20-pound gap, that’s huge! That doesn’t exist in boxing. You have giant guys who can’t fight in the UFC because the weight limit is 265.”

“It’s just like getting steroids out of fighting. It’s sanctioned cheating. Instead of having weight cuts, just find out what the champion weighs. Don’t get rid of the championship belts. Find out what does Islam Makhachev weigh. Islam Makhachev is a UFC champion, the best pound-for-pound fighter on Earth. Find out what he weighs. What do you weigh if you were healthy?”

Though, the highly-anticipated McGregor payday never came through for Chandler, the Irishman withdrawing from their scheduled bout at UFC 303 last summer due to a toe injury.

McGregor vs. Chandler wouldn’t be rescheduled with Chandler ultimately deciding to move on.

‘Iron’ fought and lost to Charles Oliveira off a two-year layoff and most recently Paddy Pimblett at UFC 314, where he was finished in the third round.

Talk about a run of bad luck.

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Renato Moicano says Michael Chandler’s downfall is Conor McGregor’s fault

At 38 years old, Michael Chandler is on the worst losing skid of his career, hearing many calls for retirement.

While some are quick to blame Chandler’s downfall on his inactivity, former UFC title challenger Renato Moicano believes the fault lies with Conor McGregor.

“A lot of people are gonna trash on me because I’m trashing Michael Chandler,” Moicano said on the Show Me The Money Podcast.

“But in reality, McGregor destroyed his career, bro.

“I think that was f****** McGregor’s fault.

“Two years without fighting, waiting, waiting, waiting… plus at his age, you know?”

Renato Moicano: ‘You can not count on Conor McGregor’

A 33-fight veteran of the game, Chandler isn’t getting any younger with his lopsided performance against Paddy Pimblett showing it.

Chandler held out longer than he needed to for McGregor, the biggest fight of his career, but that being said the American did his part in getting to UFC 303 last summer injury-free.

McGregor’s withdrawal against Chandler was a career-first in the UFC. The superstar has not been booked to fight ever since.

“You can not count on McGregor,” Moicano said.

“He’s talking about being the f****** President of Ireland. Imagine that…”

If McGregor doesn’t stick to his retirement admission and decides to fight again, there’s only a handful of opponents that would make sense for the Irishman at this stage of his career.

One of them being former UFC Featherweight Champion Ilia Topuria.

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Ilia Topuria has been in talks to fight Conor McGregor before

During a recent appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience, Topuria mentioned he and the UFC have previously talked about fighting Conor McGregor, the biggest star the sport has ever seen.

“Actually, we had that talks a little bit,” Topuria revealed.

Topuria didn’t elaborate on when these discussions took place, out of fear he might get in trouble with the UFC.

“You know how the UFC is, very specific… ‘don’t say anything to no one’…

“If they offered me a fight with Conor right now, why not?” Topuria said.

“I wouldn’t say no…”

Ilia Topuria says Conor McGregor needs to ‘die and be born again’

The Conor McGregor of today is much different than the McGregor we saw go 7-0 in the UFC featherweight division a decade ago.

McGregor is 1-3 in his last 4 fights with his last win a TKO stoppage of Donald Cerrone in 2020. The 36-year-old hasn’t put in a full training camp in nearly four years.

Undefeated and formerly undisputed, Ilia Topuria sent ‘The Notorious’ a stern warning if they were to ever fight.

“It depends who he’s gonna face,” Topuria said of McGregor’s preparations.

“Because if you put him against me, he needs to die and be born again,” Topuria said.

“His toe is f*****. His chin is f*****. His body’s f*****. With with that that much parties and drugs and all that, you’re gonna have to pay that price at some point.

“You are paying the price with your health. Which is the dumbest thing you can do in in your entire life.
he also suffered a lot with the weight cuts. That’s a a big damage for your body.”

Topuria continued.

“You can have everything in in this life, but if you are not healthy, you don’t have anything.”

After knocking out both Volkanovski and Max Holloway last year, Topuria relinquished the title in February, leaving his former foe and Diego Lopes to fight for the vacant belt last weekend in the main event of UFC 314.

Volkanovski bounced back from two KO losses and a year layoff with a stellar performance against Lopes, reclaiming the title by unanimous decision.

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Ilia Topuria praises Alexander Volkanovski after UFC 314

‘Alexander The Great’ is now 18-1 as a featherweight with his only loss coming to Topuria.

“He’s so great,” Topuria said of his former foe Volkanovski.

“I was so happy for him this this Saturday because he really deserves to get that title back.”

Volkanovski has 7 title fight wins and 5 title defenses and likely would’ve had more had he not challenged Islam Makhachev for the lightweight title twice in 2023.

With a record of 27-4, the Australian has fought every defending featherweight champion in UFC history.

Ilia Topuria asked if Alexander Volkanovski’s title win ‘bothers’ him

No longer the UFC Featherweight Champion as of last Saturday night, Joe Rogan asked Topuria:

“Does it bother you to see someone win your title?”

“No,” Topuria answered.

“Not at all. I’m good. Happy for him,” Topuria said of Volkanovski.

Unlike his Irish predecessor Conor McGregor, who left the division after knocking out then-champion Jose Aldo, Ilia Topuria defended the featherweight title once against Max Holloway at UFC 308 last October.

“I won. I defended,” Topuria continued.

“Right now, I have a completely different challenge in front of me.

“I wish him nothing but the best and to everyone, I wish the best wins all the time,” Topuria said.

Ilia Topuria has his sights set on champion Islam Makhachev’s lightweight belt, not wanting to fight anyone at 155lbs besides him for now.

Even though Joe Rogan claims a prime McGregor may have beaten Nurmagomedov, there’s no denying that on the night, it was the Dagestani who walked away with the bragging rights.

That’s why, nearly seven years on, the former lightweight champion can enjoy rubbing his victory in his rival’s face.

WOW: Daniel Cormier angrily confronted Khabib Nurmagomedov after UFC legend embarrassed him

Khabib Nurmagomedov shared video of himself choking out Conor McGregor

When Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor set foot in the cage together, they broke UFC PPV records.

That’s because the pair genuinely despised one another.

From Nurmagomedov slapping the Irishman’s former friend, Artem Lobov, to McGregor throwing a dolly through a bus window in an attempt to get at his nemesis, the pair delivered a spectacular build-up.

However, when the fight itself finally rolled around, the grappler cruised to victory.

And now he’s rubbed salt in the wounds by sharing a video on his Instagram story of himself submitting the Dubliner.

He captioned the post: “I know you guys don’t like this.”

Khabib Nurmagomedov told Daniel Cormier the real reason he jumped the cage after beating Conor McGregor

While the contest itself wasn’t exactly a barnburner, what occurred afterwards provided entertainment in abundance.

After securing the victory, Nurmagomedov leaped into the crowd and started brawling with his opponent’s teammates.

The outrageous moment has undoubtedly made its way into UFC history books.

Following the incident, Nurmagomedov told Cormier why he jumped the cage.

Another featherweight who’s chomping at the bit to get his hands on Makhachev is Ilia Topuria, who relinquished his title earlier this year for a promised lightweight title fight.

Makhachev vs. Topuria would be a massive super-fight but apparently that’s not the only one that’s on the table for Makhachev.

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Joe Rogan says Dana White’s interested in Islam Makhachev vs. Belal Muhammad

Speaking to UFC CEO Dana White over the weekend, UFC commentator Joe Rogan asked White for inside info on future fights.

“He was telling me all the issues that they’re having with different fights,” Rogan told Topuria on his podcast.

“He was actually specifically talking about what happens if Belal [Muhammad] wins [his next fight].”

Belal Muhammad is the current UFC Welterweight Champion, set to defend his title for the first time against Jack Della Maddalena on at UFC 315 on May 10th.

Makhachev has previously mentioned he wants to move up a weight class for a second belt.

“Islam and Belal have been— they’ve been talking about Islam fighting Belal,” Rogan revealed.

‘That’s gonna happen’ … Ilia Topuria on Islam Makhachev fighting for welterweight gold

One of the only roadblocks in this fight taking place is A: Muhammad has trained with Islam Makhachev and Khabib Nurmagomedov before and B: a potential Jack Della Maddalena upset.

Nevertheless, Ilia Topuria is confident Makhachev and Muhammad will put their friendship aside for legacy.

“That’s gonna happen,” Topuria said of Muhammad vs. Makhachev.

“If [Muhammad] wins, they’re gonna make that fight happen against Islam,” Topuria added.

“The problem with Islam fighting Belal is that they train together,” Rogan explained.

Topuria doesn’t see a problem with Makhachev and Muhammad training in the past.

“How many guys we see fight fighting between each other that they used to train before?” Topuria replied to Rogan.

“Oh, I agree,” Rogan said. ” I definitely think they should fight.

“I think Khabib doesn’t like that idea,” Rogan admitted.