Lionel Rivera's MMA Podcast

Du Plessis became UFC middleweight champion after defeating Sean Strickland at UFC 297 via unanimous decision, becoming the first South African Champion of the UFC. Dricus Du Plessis has had a storied professional MMA career, making a name for himself in Extreme Fighting Championship. Dricus debuted at EFC 21, building a strong resume of impressive submissions, especially the rear naked choke, and...

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Ilia Topuria is the Georgian and Spanish UFC Fighter Who Became UFC Featherweight Champion by knocking out Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298. Ilia Topuria, nicknamed “El Matador,” is primed to become one of the biggest stars in UFC history, skin to Conor McGregor and Israel Adesanya. Topuria’s exciting fighting style and mixed martial arts career began in 2015 and over the next 8 MMA fights, he gat...

Georges St-Pierre is the GOAT of MMA and the UFC, even when compared to other greats like Jon Jones, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Anderson Silva, Demetrious Johnson and other Greats in MMA. GSP's story from losing to Matt Hughes and Matt Serra, to avenging both his losses and becoming the dominant champion of welterweight is inspiring to UFC fighters of the modern era. And even if we consider Georges...

Alex Pereira AKA Poatan is one of the most terrifying strikers to enter the UFC and in just 2 years in the UFC, he became the UFC Middleweight Champion by knocking out his rival, Israel Adesanya, and then became the UFC light heavyweight champion by finishing Jiri Prochazka. Alex Pereira used his previous experience as a 2-division, Glory kickboxing world champion to defeat 4 UFC champions, includ...

Bruce Buffer is the iconic announcer for the UFC who seems to have been born for his role as the fan-favorite voice of the octagon. However, while it may feel like Bruce Buffer was always with the UFC, this isn’t the case. In fact, the first UFC announcer was Rich Goins. But the stor of how Bruce Buffer got involved with the UFC is extremely interesting and perhaps shocking, particularly when you...

Mario Yamasaki is one of the most hated UFC referees because over a 13-year span as a UFC referee, he made several horrible mistakes, including not noticing Frank Trigg's clear groin strike over Matt Hughes at UFC 52, pausing the fight between victor valimaki and alessio sakara, Giving Erick Silva a disqualification loss in the UFC over allegedly illegal punches to the back of the head to Carl...

Dana White is the controversial president of the UFC, the largest mixed martial arts promotion in the world. While Dana White has often been hailed as the savvy businessman who made the UFC what it is today, he is not without his critics. Dana White has been described as a ruthless leader who underpays UFC fighters, strongarms UFC athletes into poor negotiations, and has far too many brash public...

This is a Documentary about Chael Sonnen, one of the greatest middleweight and light heavyweight MMA fighters to never become UFC Champion. Chael Sonnen is well known as the Godfather of UFC Trash Talk. His amazing ability to convince UFC fans and Dana White of his skills allowed him to contest multiple world championships including Anderson Silva's UFC Middleweight championship and Jon Jones' Lig...

Joe Rogan is one of the most influential men in popular culture as a well-known comedian, beloved commentator, and famous podcaster of the Joe Rogan Experience. As a martial arts enthusiast, Joe was fascinated with martial arts and became involved with the UFC, becoming a backstage interviewer. His love for the UFC grew as he became a commentator, friend to Dana white, and interviewed some of the...

Alexander Volkanovski has quickly risen as one of the best UFC Champions in not only the current UFC roster, but one of the best UFC champions of all time. He has dominated the featherweight division of the UFC and has only seemed to get better with time. He has fought and defeated massive UFC names like Max Holloway, the Korean Zombie, Jose Aldo, Chad Mendes, Brian Ortega, Yair Rodrigues, and man...

Few MMA fighters in the UFC have reached the level of stardom as Paddy the Baddy Pimblett. The British - scouse UFC fighter came from Cage Warriors and entered the UFC with a lot of MMA fans behind him. During his time as a popular UFC lightweight, Paddy Pimblett has had 4 UFC fights, finishing his first 3 opponents in Luigi Venframini, Kazula Vargas, and Jordan Leavitt. But his hype and popularit...

Jon Jones will soon defend his Heavyweight Championship against arguable UFC heavyweight GOAT and former UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic. But this UFC super fight will not be close…. Jon Jones most recently made his UFC heavyweight debut in a breakout performance against Ciryl Gane at UFC 285, where Jon Jones scored a first-round submission Victory against the former UFC interim heavyweight...

Francis Ngannou vs Tyson Fury is set as a boxing match between the former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou and Current Boxing Champion Tyson Fury. Francis Ngannou had been criticized for leaving the UFC as the sitting heavyweight champion and Tyson Fury is the WBC heavyweight champion since 2020, but has also held the unified WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and IBO titles. Given that this is a boxi...

Israel Adesanya and Dricus Du Plesiss will be fighting soon as Israel Adesanya Defends his UFC middleweight title. Dricus Du Plessis is coming off a very impressive knockout victory over Former UFC Middleweight champion Robert Whittaker at UFC 290. And Israel Adesanya is coming off his middleweight title fight against Alex Pereira where he knocked out his rival to recapture his UFC middleweight ti...

Elite UFC Bantamweight Cory Sandhagen faces surging UFC bantamweight contender Umar Nurmagomedov on August 5th, 2023 for a UFC Fight Night. This is a much higher level fight than most fans know because Umar Nurmagomedov’s skillset in both the grappling and in the striking is very reminiscent of Islam Makhachev more so than it is reminiscent of his cousin Khabib Nurmagomedov. Cory Sandhagen on the...

Current UFC Bantamweight Champion Alajamain “Funkmaster” Sterling will fight UFC megastar Sugar Sean O’Malley At UFC 292 on August 19th, 2023. This is a highly anticipated UFC bout to determine the trajectory of the UFC bantamweight division, which will be left in turmoil if Aljamain Sterling decides to retire after his fourth title defense to Sean O’Malley. Aljamain most revently defeated Henry C...

Dustin Poirier vs Justin Gaethje are fighting at UFC 291 for their rematch years in the making. The two elite UFC lightweights have had quite the careers and are at a crossroads for the second time after both Justin Gaethje and Dustin Poirier became UFC interim lightweight world champions. Both men also fought Khabib Nurmagomedov and lost via submission. Now, after both have picked up stellar vict...

Some of the best UFC fighters on the planet have gotten into streetfights at some point or another, but which professional MMA fighter on the UFC rankings or in all of UFC history would be the best backup for a bar fight or a streetfight? If I had to pick the best UFC fighters for a street fight, I would have a few fighters on my list. Former UFC interim lightweight champions Dustin Poirier and Ju...

The UFC rules are not perfect and need to be fixed in various ways. The unified rules of MMA that the UFC has adopted have led to silly rules like the 12 to 6 elbow and the grounded knee to be banned. Meaning that fighters like Jon Jones would get a disqualification loss for hitting Matt Hamill with 12 to 6 elbows. As well as Petr Yan getting a disqualification loss for hitting Aljamain Sterling w...

Charles Oliveira recently defeated Beneil Dariush at UFC 289 via first-round TKO stoppage in an impressive UFC lightweight title eliminator. That means Charles Oliveira will face Islam Makhachev in Islma’s second UFC lightweight title defense. Islam is of course coming off his lightweight title defense against UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski, which many thought Islam lost. These 2...

Stipe Miocic and Jon Jones may not be fighting later this year, which is tragic for UFC fans and MMA hardcores, but this allows terrifying heavyweight and rising knockout artist Sergei Pavlovich to step into the fold and perhaps challenge Jon Jones for his UFC heavyweight championship. In this episode of the MMA Pod, I explore the exciting UFC matchup between Jon Bones Jones and Sergei Pavlovich,...