Hernandez, who returns to action in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship at UFC
332 on Oct. 3, was scheduled to face Johnson at
UFC 324 in January. However, the fight was canceled at the last
minute amid suspicious betting-line movement.

Alexander Hernandez recounts federal questioning after canceled
Michael Johnson fight

Hernandez opened as a sizable favorite, but money reportedly began
pouring in on Johnson a day before the fight, shifting the odds in
his favor. Hernandez said he was subsequently questioned by federal
agents about whether he was planning to throw the fight.

Hernandez recently recalled the “embarrassing†episode. According
to Hernandez, the agents asked whether he had any incriminating
apps, a question he initially did not understand. At their request,
Hernandez said he downloaded the Signal messaging app again on his
phone.

Hernandez said his Signal account contained a message from a bot
and another exchange in which he tried to procure a gram of
marijuana in Brazil. While Hernandez acknowledged being embarrassed
by the amount of marijuana he was trying to obtain, he dismissed
the notion that the exchange indicated anything related to the
canceled fight. Hernandez said the questioning lasted nearly an
hour before he was allowed to leave.

“They're like, ‘Do you have any incriminating apps?' I'm like, ‘I
don't even know what an incriminating app would look like.' They
say, ‘Signal,' and I'm like, ‘What's Signal?'… I open it up, and
one was a bot message saying hey or something, and the other was me
buying like a gram of weed in Brazil,†Hernandez told Ariel
Helwani. “I was like, ‘OK, that's kind of embarrassing. That’s a
p*ssy amount, I'll admit that, but it was certainly not insider
trading, not throwing a fucking fight.' Embarrassing exchange,
sure. Federal charge, I'd say not… I probably sat in there spinning
our wheels together for nearly an hour, I'd imagine.â€

Hernandez has since suffered a decision loss to Rafa Garcia
in April, snapping a four-fight winning streak. He is now scheduled
to face former champion Rafael dos
Anjos at UFC 332 on Saturday at Delta Center in Salt Lake
City.

The longtime
Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight contender is
scheduled to face Charles
Radtke in his retirement bout at UFC
334 on Nov. 14 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Thompson has explained his reasoning for accepting a fight against
the unranked welterweight.

Stephen Thompson wants to give Charles Radtke the opportunity
veterans once gave him

“Wonderboy†explained in an interview with Full Mount MMA that he
wants to leave the door open for a new wave of fighters. Thompson
believes he would not have become a perennial presence in the
welterweight rankings if established fighters had not given him
similar opportunities earlier in his career. He now wants to give
Radtke the chance to work his way up the rankings.

“Why not go out with a chance to give these other guys an
opportunity to work their way up?†Thompson said. “I wouldn't have
made it where I am today, especially being in the Top 5 – Top 10
for so long, if it wasn't for the guys giving me the shot. Radtke
has got tremendous potential; he is good everywhere. Why not give
this guy a chance to, if he beats me, move up the rankings?â€

Thompson has won four times since his back-to-back unsuccessful
welterweight title bids against Tyron
Woodley in 2016-17. He is currently on a three-fight losing
streak, with his most recent victory coming in 2022. Meanwhile,
Radtke is 5-2 in the UFC, with his losses coming against Mike Malott
and Carlos
Prates.

Talbott defeated former
Ultimate Fighting Championship two-division titleholder
Henry
Cejudo in his most recent outing in December. The bantamweight
prospect returns to action at UFC
332 on Oct. 3 after spending much of the year focused on
training while waiting for his next fight.

Payton Talbott explains what changed before facing Deiveson
Figueiredo

Talbott, who faces former flyweight champion Deiveson
Figueiredo on Saturday at Delta Center in Salt Lake City, said
the extended time spent working on his game allowed him to reinvent
aspects of his fighting style.

“Yeah, it was kind of weird,†Talbott told the UFC when asked about
his nine-month hiatus. “This is all still new to me, so I tried to
just stay training and just stay ready. I mean, I trained pretty
much the whole year, and I feel like I kind of reinvented myself a
little bit and went back to my roots, went inward.â€

Talbott explained that his evolution has involved collecting
techniques and lessons while making sure he doesn't lose the
qualities that made him successful in the first place.

“You go and train out of town, and you pick people’s brains and
sometimes you take things from them and implement them into your
game,†Talbott added. “But a lot of the times, the reason you got
where you are is because of you. And so, you just have to correctly
learn how to implement it and not let it fully change you, but just
use the best of what you learn.â€