Fresh off her first win in almost three years, Aspen Ladd is ready to start the next chapter of her career. To her, she’s already vastly ahead of the PFL’s top female talent: Larissa Pacheco and Kayla Harrison. “I think Larissa has progressed incredibly,” Ladd said following her decision win over ex-Bellator champ in her featherweight debut at the 2022 PFL Championships. “She’s done very well with her striking. “I think Kayla has been the queen for a long time. But if you look at either one of their resumes, it’s absolutely nothing compared to the people that I have fought and have come in fighting. So, you have different levels of experience with different levels of opponents.” In the finals of the women’s lightweight tournament, Pacheco upset Harrison on Friday in one of the bigger upsets of the year. It was Harrison’s first loss as an MMA professional after her decorated career in judo, where she was a two-time Olympic champion. The major knock on Harrison and other fighters in the PFL has been their level of competition. Ladd’s arrival bolstered the tournament-based promotion’s roster, though for now, she competes in a different division; she moved up to featherweight after her release from the UFC, the result of another weight issue that scrapped her fight at UFC Vegas 60. The 27-year-old Ladd said the experience of fighting in a bigger weight division was a completely new experience. “Elated,” she said. “I went through some serious health struggles, not just my knee the last couple of years, like, it was bad. Auto-immune stuff, lost all my hair. This little shaved down [hair] is not because I wanted to – it was because I had nothing left. And just getting healthy again and feeling good and being unable to live and fight and do what I love and not feel like crap. It’s been years of a lot of difficult stuff, and it’s just a huge relief.” And while the fight was considerably closer than she wanted, Ladd felt she was the rightful victor on Friday, even if she was worried when the scorecards were being read. “At the end of any fight like that, there’s always doubt,” she said. “I felt that I did enough, absolutely, but it’s still a frustration situation. She’s a very tough opponent, and you never know until they call out your name. So, of course, it was nerve-racking, but did I think I did enough? Yes.” Check out Ladd’s full interview below, courtesy of MMA Sucka.

Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC Deiveson Figueiredo and Brandon Moreno will meet for the fourth time in January to possibly put a bow on one of the sport’s all-time great rivalries. According to Moreno’s manager Jason House, it’s reminiscent to Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier’s epic feud in the boxing world. Figueiredo and Moreno’s tetralogy bout for the flyweight championship is set for UFC 283, which takes place at the Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Both fighters hold a victory over the other, and also were part of one of 2020’s best fights at UFC 256 that was scored a majority draw. Now that they are knocking on the door of a fourth meeting, House looks back on the rivalry between Figueiredo and his client, and he understands how both competitors have significantly helped each other out. “This journey has been surreal, it’s been almost storybook,” House said on The MMA Hour. “I’m so excited for this fourth fight with Figueiredo. You need that dance partner. If you want to leave a legacy in this sport, you need that dance partner. “People are like, ‘Oh, do you like Figueiredo?’ Like, dude, I Iove them. I hope they’re making a ton of money, I hope we’re making a ton of money, and I hope these guys continue to make magic in the cage because I think they needed each other for both of their legacies. [They’re the] Ali-Frazier of the flyweight division.” House joined Moreno in Brazil earlier this month for a UFC 283 press conference to get fans hyped up for the matchup with the champion Figueiredo, and the promotion’s return to the country for the first time since just before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world. To say that Rio de Janeiro is ready for this event would be an understatement. “[The vibe was] awesome,” House said. “You can tell they’re itching to have an event there and everyone’s excited to see this fourth one go down. Rio is a mecca of sorts for MMA so it’s great to be back down there.”

First We Feast, YouTube Israel Adesanya had himself a feast worthy of Thanksgiving following his fight with Alex Pereira at UFC 281. Though Adesanya lost his middleweight title to Pereira at the Madison Square Garden event, he still took the time to appear on the popular Hot Ones YouTube program to take on the challenge of eating the spiciest chicken wings and also answer a few burning questions. How spicy does it get for Adesanya? Watch the episode above and find out. In the interview, Adesanya talks about what he’s grateful for, his favorite press conference moment, breaks down some of his most famous photos, how his love of anime and martial arts films influenced his career, and what makes a proper Nigerian feast, plus “The Last Stylebender” shows off his art skills as he runs the Hot Ones gauntlet. For more of Adesanya on Hot Ones, check out his previous appearance with heavyweight boxing star Anthony Joshua:

Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC Vanessa Demopoulos has a warning for anyone interviewing her after a win: She’s coming for you, and you better be ready to catch her. With her recent wins, “Lil Monster” made a habit of leaping into the arms of whoever is conducting the in-cage post-fight interview. First, it was longtime commentator Joe Rogan, who had the honor of catching Demopoulos as she celebrated her first UFC win at UFC 270. Then, Michael Bisping had to take the relatively diminutive Demopoulos in his arms when she made it two straight with a win over Jinh Yu Frey this past June. At UFC Vegas 65 this past Saturday, after Demopoulos notched another win with a decision nod over Maria Oliveira, Bisping caught Demopoulos again, and this time, she says he did a much better job. “Bisping kind of redeemed himself a little bit this last time,” Demopoulos said on The MMA Hour. “He went to go walk away and I was like, ‘Hey man, Round 2?’” How did it compare to when she debuted the celebration with Rogan? “Rogan’s cool, but Bisping did redeem himself,” Demopoulos said. “He held me really tight this time, that was dope.” Demopoulos’ signature move has generated plenty of buzz among MMA fans, along with the success she’s had since making her pro debut in 2017. The 34-year-old already has a Legacy Fighting Alliance title win under her belt, and she is now 3-0 in the UFC’s strawweight division. She not only seeks more wins, but hopes to add to her list of post-fight party pals, which she thought would already include Paul Felder, who was also working the commentary desk this past Saturday at the UFC APEX in Las Vegas. “Be mentally prepared,” Demopoulos warned. “I thought Paul Felder was going to walk in there because Bisping already did it once, so I was trying to close the circle. Kind of like your Apple Watch at the end of the day when you have the ring, I was trying to close the ring. I love Bisping, but I was just ready to jump into Paul Felder’s arms.” Demopoulos targets a February date for her next fight, preferably on a card taking place outside of the UFC APEX where her past two bouts have taken place. She declined to call for a specific opponent, but did guarantee that her victory leaps are here to stay. Even if the recipient is worried about getting sweat on their suits. “Feel how you feel, but I’m going to jump in your arms,” Demopoulos said. “You’re allowed to feel how you feel, but I’m jumping in your arms.”

Photo by Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC Darren Till was impressed with Alex Pereira’s power display in stopping Israel Adesanya to win the middleweight title at UFC 281 and believes Pereira’s knockout prowess is comparable to another great historic KO artist. Following Pereira’s title win at UFC 281, Till spoke with Michael Bisping about what he saw in the fight to crown a champion in his division, and what Pereira may lack in speed in Till’s opinion, he makes up for it with his ability to stop opponents in their tracks. In Till’s eyes, Pereira’s finishing power reminds him of the late Anthony Johnson, who passed away at the age of 38 on Sunday. “I think Pereira is a big, strong, massive, slow middleweight,” Till said on Believe You Me. “He’s slow, his strikes aren’t devastatingly fast, but my God, does that man carry power. I think I’m two times, three times faster than him — Adesanya as well — but he just needs to land. “It’s like, rest in peace, I don’t even want to say his name because it’s a very sad [time], but Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson, I want to give my condolences, but I’m actually going to give the example of him because he is the best example of it: That man only had to touch a little finger on your head and you’d be knocked out. I think Pereira has that type of thing.” Till will look to take a step closer to a chance to fight for the title when he takes on the surging Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 282 in December. While getting there may take some time, as impressive as Pereira’s run has been, Till thinks the new champion may struggle with high-level wrestlers such as teammate Khamzat Chimaev, and past opponent Robert Whittaker. “He’s young in the sport, but I saw Khamzat call him out and I was like, ‘Khamzat would definitely take him down within 30 seconds,’ yeah, it’s a fight, but that’s not a fight Pereira is ready for,” Till said. “And Whittaker doesn’t just wrestle, he uses his strikes in his wrestling. He did that to me in the fifth round. We went four rounds of just making each other twitch, and then in the fifth round he used strikes into a takedown to get me. At that time, I couldn’t be taken down. I think he’d still have some trouble with Pereira because Pereira is quite strong.” When it comes to Adesanya’s performance, Till thought the now former champion looked as good as he always has — at least, up until the point when the fight was stopped. “With Izzy, he just played the game again,” Till explained. “He looked good, he looked sharp, and he really knows who he is as a person and as a fighter, he’s not trying to be something he’s not — apart from his f****** stupid quotes, he’s cringey with the quotes.”