Navajo
Stirling saw a fighter in shambles right before his
Dana White's Contender Series bout.

Stirling earned his
Ultimate Fighting Championship contract with a knockout win on
Contender Series in 2024. He was sharing the locker room with
Quemuel
Ottoni, who was set to face Kody
Steele. Ottoni eventually didn't make the walk to the Octagon
and Stirling has now detailed what happened behind the scenes.

Navajo Stirling recalls Quemuel Ottoni's dramatic Dana White's
Contender Series fight-week incident

Stirling (10-0) recently revealed that Ottoni (12-4) was aggressive
towards Steele, and even other fighters, throughout fight week
until the weigh-ins. However, the Brazilian's nerves got the better
of him right before stepping out for his bout and he allegedly
started crying backstage, even ripping off his hand wraps multiple
times.

Cutman Brad Tate, who was in charge of wrapping Ottoni, refused to
repeat it after a point. The bout was eventually called off and
Steele won his contract in a later Contender Series outing.

“The guy that was on Contenders [Series] was probably the worst
one,†Stirling told Full Send MMA. “He was fighting Kody Steele. He
choked out Alex
Pereira back in the day. I was in the locker room with him… At
the weigh-ins, he is puffing his chest, he is even looking at me,
like, ‘You wanna go?' I'm like, ‘Bro, save it for tomorrow.' He's
staunching Kody Steele out at the weigh-ins. And I was thinking,
‘This is going to be a banger.' We get to the fight night and he
just started crying. He took his gloves off three or four times.
They had to re-wrap his hands. I think he had cutman Tate. The
cutman said, ‘F*ck this guy, I'm not wrapping his hands
anymore.'â€

Both Tate and Steele have confirmed Stirling's story about Ottoni,
who had choked out UFC superstar Pereira in the latter's
professional MMA debut in 2015. Ottoni and Pereira's careers have
taken contrasting trajectories since. While Pereira went on to
become a two-division champion, Ottoni is yet to make it out of the
regional scene. He has fought only once since the Contender Series
fiasco, suffering a first-round technical knockout loss.

Meanwhile, the undefeated Stirling already has five UFC wins to his
name. The Kiwi is now scheduled to face Jan
Blachowicz (29-11) on less than three weeks' notice at
UFC Belgrade in Serbia on Aug. 1.

Wiz Khalifa has legitimate striking skills, per a reputed MMA
coach.

Khalifa's enthusiasm for combat sports is no secret. The rapper
recently had a training session at
Syndicate MMA in Las Vegas with coach John Wood, who trains
former
Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight king Merab
Dvalishvili, among other big names. Wood recently detailed just
how good the 10-time Grammy-nominated artist really is.

John Wood praises Wiz Khalifa's striking after Syndicate MMA
training session

Wood has some serious praise for Khalifa's standup game. The
veteran coach claims Khalifa is a serious striker with an athletic
build and solid training experience. He also praised the rapper's
ability to learn, claiming their training session was in a flow
state towards the end. Wood believes he could be a serious threat
on the amateur kickboxing circuit.

“He brought his whole squad in, and we did a session, and it went
great,†Wood told Home of Fight. “That dude is legit. He could
whoop some ass, man… I don't know if he's got some ground base. But
in an amateur stand-up fight, absolutely. It's legit; he is real.
He's like 6'4â€, lanky, long, hits pretty good, flexible. He's been
training for a long time… He's athletic. He picked up everything
that we're doing, and we were just flying at the end.â€

Former
Ultimate Fighting Championship fighters Darren Till
and Yoel
Romero are set to collide in bare-knuckle boxing.

Till (18-5-1) and Romero (17-7) are set to meet in a light
heavyweight matchup at BKFC 94 on Sept. 26 in Manchester,
England.

Darren Till and Yoel Romero will meet in a light heavyweight
bare-knuckle bout on Sept. 26 in Manchester

Till parted ways with the UFC in 2022 on a three-fight slump,
promising to return to the promotion someday. “The Gorilla†then
won three boxing bouts under the Misfits banner, even winning the
title against Luke
Rockhold last year. The Brit then parted ways with Misfits
earlier this year to sign with BKFC, where he knocked out Aaron
Chalmers in his debut this past May.

Meanwhile, Romero has competed in various boxing, bare-knuckle
boxing and wrestling promotions since retiring from MMA in 2024.
“Soldier of God†earned a knockout win in his BKFC debut last year,
but dropped a decision at IBA Bare Knuckle this past March. The
49-year-old has since rebounded with a knockout win at Gamebred
Bareknuckle MMA in May.