The pre-fight showdown between former UFC star Paige VanZant and OnlyFans content creator Elle Brooke turned out to be painfully awkward as the two traded insults ahead of their fight in Texas this weekend. The pair headlined Misfits Boxing 15 at the NRG Arena in Houston, Texas in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Brooke, 26, has a 3-1 record since turning to impact boxing, and heads into the fight following a dominant TKO victory over former Love Island star AJ Bunker. VanZant was one of the UFC’s rising stars before she lost four of her final six fights inside the Octagon and was released in 2020.
Since then, VanZant, 30, has competed in bare-knuckle boxing and professional wrestling, and has gained a huge fan base thanks to the risqué content she shares on OnlyFans and other platforms. Before the fight, the pair sat across the table to awkwardly exchange their opinions about each other and the fight.
The conversation was interrupted by a series of awkward silences, during which Brooke focused on the former MMA prodigy in particular. “I think people don’t talk about you as much these days,” Brooke said. “When you were in the UFC there was a lot of talk about it, but now you’ve lost that appeal. Whether it’s views or just people taking an interest in you, I think you’ve fallen.
“I guess you don’t really care about fighting anymore. I think you’re probably making your money elsewhere, I think your heart is no longer in the game and I think that’s your biggest weakness.
VanZant responded to Brooke’s claims that fans have lost interest in her fighting career by bluntly saying, “Is this your first main event appearance?” Brooke nodded in response and VanZant smiled smugly at her.
VanZant urged fighters to place an OnlyFans-style side bet on the fight. “It should be,” she told MMA Fighting. “There definitely should be something extra to it. But I do not know. She wouldn’t shake my hand [during] fight week. So we’ll have to come back to that conversation after the fight.”
Vanzant also suggested that they have a drink together after the fight in Texas, although Brooke had a stern warning for her opponent. “You won’t look very pretty,” Brooke said. “You’ll be all bloody and fucked up and you’ll be like, ‘I just got beat by a powerful man, damn it.'”
Tyson Fury vowed to “seriously hurt” him in Saturday’s rematch with Oleksandr Usyk.
Fury is for revenge first defeat his professional career when he meets Usyk at the Kingdom Arena in Riyad, seven months after he was dropped by split decision at the same venue.
“The Gypsy King” has put in a solemn performance throughout the build-up and continued that attitude during Wednesday’s public training session.
The 36-year-old put on his gloves, greeted the audience and took off his gloves without landing a single blow on his pads.
The Briton, who is generally in a cheerful mood, revealed little in the interview DAZN then, but sent his rival a dire warning.
“A lot of pain.
“Smash and destroy.
“A lot of pain, solemn hurt.”
Fury, who is aiming to become a three-time world heavyweight champion, held a training camp in Malta ahead of the rematch and earlier this week claimed he had not had contact with his wife Paris for three months.
Usyk secured the undisputed heavyweight title in May but vacated the IBF belt to secure a rematch, while Daniel Dubois, who arrived in Riyadh earlier this week, was elevated to full champion after winning the interim title.
If the fighter from Morecambe exacts revenge, according to Fury’s British promoter, Frank Warren, a third fight with the Ukrainian has already been contracted.
However, Fury promised a victory so comprehensive that the 37-year-old would never fight again.
Roberto Ramirez Jnr has been appointed referee for the highly anticipated rematch between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk, and his past has been controversial.
The two heavyweight titans will clash again next weekend, with the “Gypsy King” looking to settle the score following his first professional loss to the Ukrainian in May in Riyad, Saudi Arabia.
However, main center Ramirez Jnr, who will be overseeing the fight, has been embroiled in controversy before. Last year he officiated Chantelle Cameron’s high-profile rematch with Katie Taylor, in which Cameron became the first to defeat the Irish star before losing in the next fight. After the match, Cameron’s coach Jamie Moore criticized Ramirez Jnr, blaming him for Cameron’s defeat.
“She’s clearly devastated, you can imagine,” Moore revealed to BBC 5 Live Boxing. “She just feels like this whole scenario was set up for her to lose. In a way, we were determined to prove everyone wrong, just like we did last time. But last time she got away with it. I’m not saying, “First of all, I just want to say that from what I watched, it was a close fight that could have gone either way.”
“We were denied a knockdown in the first round, which should have happened. The knockdown is 100% justified. Before the fight, I was begging the referee in the locker room, please, she got away with it last time, holding tight. My athlete’s best work is close. Please don’t let her hold you like last time. And he let her do worse this time than last time. After securing victory, brawler Bray became the undisputed world champion in two weight classes.
Cameron herself later expressed doubts about the referee’s choice for their rematch with Taylor, speaking to BBC Radio Northampton: ‘It wasn’t just me and Katie in that ring. If that were the case, I would have accepted defeat and said I had won the better women that night. I had everything against me. The referee that night… it was such a high level fight, why would you hire a referee no one had heard of. It’s not my job, it’s my job, it’s my job to fight, don’t look at who’s refereeing, I’m just frustrated – if I could go back, I’d make sure everything was taken into account.
Eddie Hearn has changed his mind about the outcome of Saturday’s rematch between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury.
Hearn will be a guest pundit on Riyad’s DAZN broadcast as Fury looks to exact revenge on Usyk, seven months after losing his undefeated record to the Ukrainian in the same arena via split decision.
The Matchroom boss initially sided with Usyk and secured his second victory in a row over “The Gypsy King”.
“I think it’s demanding for anyone to pick Tyson Fury to win the fight with balance,” Hearn said. talkSPORT.
“I think it will be an incredibly close fight. I think the last one was too.
“But I think given what we saw from Usyk in the first fight, his ability to absorb information, I think he’s very complex to put.
“I want Fury to win, I think he can win.
“I think he will have to do something extraordinary that we have seen before.
“But I think with common sense it is very complex not to choose Oleksandr Usyk in this fight.”
Fury took a disastrous ninth round to a eternal eight count before reaching the final bell and earlier this week vowed to end the 37-year-old’s career, although his promoter Frank Warren insists a third fight will be booked if he emerges victorious.
However, Hearn has now changed his mind and is backing his compatriot to seek revenge for the only loss of his professional career.
“I expect another really close fight on Saturday,” said the 45-year-old Boxing in the match room.
“I choose Tyson Fury for many reasons.
“I just have a sneaky feeling.”
“You start focusing on your pre-fight preparations.
“I saw these things yesterday [at the grand arrivals].
“I thought he looked very relaxed.
“Usyk talks really cocky, really different.
“I don’t know if it’s good or bad, but I’m going with Tyson Fury and Tyson Fury on points.”
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