For the first time ever, Netflix will hold an MMA event as they continue their relationship with Jake Paul\u2019s MVP promotion.<\/p>\n
The headliner features former UFC bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey returning to action for the first time in nearly a decade against former Strikeforce lightweight champion Gina Carano, fighting for the first time in 17 years. It will likely be the final bout for both women.<\/p>\n
The co-main event will see former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou battle former UFC fighter Philipe Lins.<\/p>\n
In a high-profile fight between two fan favorites, Nate Diaz returns to the MMA cage against Mike Perry who transitioned from MMA to bare knuckle fighting to raise his profile.<\/p>\n
The rest of the main card features Salahdine Parnasse vs. Kenneth Cross at lightweight and former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos against Robelis Despaigne.<\/p>\n
Our live coverage kicks off with the main card at 9 pm Eastern.<\/p>\n
**********<\/p>\n
Former UFC Welterweight champion Tyron Woodley is on the analyst desk along with Ariel Helwani. Cain Velasquez is interviewed cageside before the first fight featuring his long time rival Junior Dos Santos and he doesn\u2019t think it will go long.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mauro Ranallo and Kenny Florian are the play by play team for this card.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Junior Dos Santos (21-10) vs Robelis Despaigne (5-2) \u2013 Heavyweights<\/p>\n
JDS out to \u201cGonna Fly Now\u201d from Rocky. Gets a nice response from the late arriving crowd. JDS comes in on a 5 fight losing streak, having lost won in 2019. Despaigne lost his last two UFC fights before being cut in 2024 and this is his first fight back. Frank Trigg is the referee.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despaigne rocks JDS with his first few shots. JDS makes an impact with a hard leg kick. JDS drops him with a leg kick. Despaigne lands a nice punch combo to the head and follows up with an uppercut. Great punch combo and a head kick by Despaigne and JDS is reeling. He\u2019s busted open and bleeding from the mouth. Despaigne knocks him out cold with a beautiful combo.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Winner \u2013 Robelis Despaigne (6-2) by KO at 2:59<\/p>\n
Ariel Helwani interviews Despaigne after the fight.\u00a0Asks if he will stay in MMA now after leaving in 2024 or go back to karate. Calls out Francis N\u2019Gannou but says he\u2019d like to do both. He also wants a bonus for the knockout and Ariel tells him to talk to \u201cJake\u201d (Paul).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Salahdine Parnasse (22-2) vs Kenneth Cross (17-4) \u2013 Lightweights<\/p>\n
Cross is training partners with Gina Carano, who fights later tonight in the main event. Parnasse is a 2 division champion of KSW in Poland and comes in on a 4 fight win streak. Cross has also won 4 straight but lost his only fight for a major promotion, in Bellator, in 2023. Jason Herzog is the official for this fight.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Parnasse immediately catches a kick and takes Cross down but he gets right up. They fight for control on the cage before Parnasse takes him down again. Cross up fairly easily. Both guys landing wild strikes after they separate. Cross stuffed on a takedown attempt. Parnasse takes him down again and lands some ground and pound. Takes the back and working for a rear naked choke. Parnasse flattens him out with punches. Cross is turtling and the ref warns him to fight back. Cross to his feet but still eating a lot of punches. Parnasse mixing in strikes to the head and body and Cross goes down clutching his liver and the ref stops it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
WInner \u2013 Salahdine Parnasse (23-2) by TKO at 4:18<\/p>\n
That was the first knockout loss of Cross\u2019 career. Parnasse interviewed after the fight and talks in both English and French. Says he\u2019d be willing to box or fight MMA and just wants another fight in this company. Was asked if he felt pressure for this fight and he said he didn\u2019t because he feels he\u2019s the best fighter in the world. Is asked who he\u2019d like to fight next and says \u201canyone, anytime\u201d. Then says Diaz or Perry.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One of the promoters was interviewed by Helwani. Says he\u2019s pleased with the show so far. Will not commit to doing another show. Asked if he\u2019ll try to convince Ronda to fight again and he says she\u2019ll always have a place with MVP either as a fighter or promoter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Francis Ngannou (18-3) vs Philipe Lins (18-5) \u2013 Heavyweights<\/p>\n
Lins comes in on a 4 fight win streak in UFC, but hasn\u2019t fought since March 2024. Ngannou is being billed as the linneal heavyweight champion, having left UFC as champion in a contract dispute. He is on a 6 fight win streak in MMA. Herb Dean is the referee.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ngannou throwing a lot of kicks early. Lins with a takedown attempt and Ngannou takes his neck. Gives the choke up quickly. Both guys having good success with leg kciks. Ngannou sprawls out of a takedown attempt and gets Lins on his back. Lands some ground and pound before Lins ties him up. Lins up but Ngannou stalking him with punches. Lins lands a nice hope shot. Ngannou up 22-3 in strikes landed 3 minutes in. Seems to be tiring already. Ngannou starting to work the body in the clinch. They separate with 45 seconds left. Ngannou knocks him out cold.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Winner \u2013 Francis Ngannou (19-3) by KO at 4:31<\/p>\n
Ariel interview Ngannou after the fight. Says he respects Lins, who was tougher than he thought. Says this was a reminder of just who he is. Says he wasn\u2019t worried about cage rust. It\u2019s an instinct that\u2019s always in him. Ariel asks about Robelis Despaigne. Said he had a good knockout. They are both in the running for performance of the night and they are on a collision course. Jon Jones was watching and Ariel points him out at the analyst desk. Says Joes is a great fighter but he has something to learn about business. Said this fight needs to happen before they retire. But it has to be here. Said that Jake Paul is just a blah blah guy and he doesn\u2019t respect him. He\u2019s glad he found someone to run the business side. Says Jones is tied up but Paul isn\u2019t and if he wants him next. Says if he\u2019s grown up, then maybe. Asks Jake about it. Crowd gives him the loudest boos of the night. Says he\u2019ll fight him. They\u2019re here to get fighters paid more and to get them watched more than people in the UFC. Says he\u2019ll box him, doesn\u2019t seem to want to fight him. Ngannou closes saying he\u2019s the best heavyweight in the world, period while Jon Jones smiles from the desk.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Woodley and Jones talk on the desk. Jones says he\u2019s trying to get out of his UFC contract. Wants to fight Francis and since Dana won\u2019t make the fight it\u2019s got to happen here. Jones says Francis fought a light heavyweight tonight but he looked good. Woodley says that he should get Netflix to pick up the legal tab to get him out of his UFC contract. Jones is asked about the main event. Says that Ronda is the main reason he\u2019s here. He\u2019s close friends with her and think she\u2019ll do amazing tonight. Also says that Gina is the reason Rousey was able to do what she did and puts her over as the most important woman in the history of MMA. Jones closes by saying he\u2019s officially retired. He\u2019s asked about Ronda and Gina coming back after being retired and he says \u201cwell they don\u2019t have arthritis and I do\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mike Perry (14-8) vs Nate Diaz (21-13) \u2013 Welterweights\u00a0<\/p>\n
Perry is fighting MMA for the first time since 2021 where he lost his last two fights in UFC. He last won over Mickey Gall in June 2020. Diaz won his last UFC fight, and the BMF title, in September 2022 over Tony Ferguson and has gone 1-1 in boxing matches since then. He gets the loudest pop of the night so far for his walkout. Mike Beltran is the ref.<\/p>\n
Perry all over Diaz early. Diaz trying to clinch up. Diaz takes him down but Perry takes top position. Perry landing ground and pound. Diaz working a sub from his back. He\u2019s got Perry\u2019s legs all tied up. Loud DIAZ chants from the crowd. Perry gets up and forces Nate to follow. Perry starting to work the body. both guys looking tired. Perry lands a knee to the body and Diaz seems to be in real trouble. Diaz covering up his body which opens up the head.\u00a0 Diaz starting to fight back with 2 minutes left. Diaz is busted open with a cut over his right eye. Diaz firing back with hard jabs. Perry cut open now beside his nose. More DIAZ chants. Diaz takes the back standing but Perry quickly takes control> Elbows to the head to close the round. 10-9 Perry<\/p>\n
Mauro brings up that Diaz would like a rubber match with Conor McGregor which is interesting since his return fight for UFC was just announced for July 11. Perry looking really good early in the 2nd, landing a lot of punches standing. Perry mixing in elbows to the head and punches to the body. Diaz still firing back. Perry is definitely looking most tired although Diaz\u2019 face is covered with blood. Perry takes his back standing. Tries for a choke and that allows Diaz to escape. The blood is dripping into Diaz\u2019 eyes, which is bothering him. Perry throws Diaz to the matt and then follows up with punches to the head. Diaz throws up an armbar but Perry escapes easily. Perry backs off, forcing Diaz up. He gets up very slowly. He\u2019s now bleeding from the back of his head as well. The blood is really getting bad and this could be stopped after the round. Diaz needs the cage to hold him up at points. Perry continuing to stalk him. Perry drops him to close the round. 10-8 Perry but this could be over.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The fight is indeed stopped between rounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Winner \u2013 Mike Perry (15-8) via corner stoppage at 5:00 of Round 2<\/p>\n
Ariel Helwani interviews Mike Perry. Says he got tired from hitting Diaz so much. Puts him over as being tough and has no quit in him. Says they did their job. Crowd cheered Diaz and booed him. He\u2019s thankful for the opportunity given by Netflix and MVP. Ariel asks him if he\u2019s disappointed for not winning emphatically, which was kind of a dumb question and Perry says it was emphatic. Couldn\u2019t have been more definitive than that. He calls out Conor McGregor and the fans cheer that. He asks for an MMA fight with Jake Paul and Jake is up for that. Paul beat him in a boxing match. Says cardio wasn\u2019t an issue tonight because he didn\u2019t get to the championship rounds. He\u2019s asked if he\u2019ll stick with MMA now. Says he\u2019s an all around fighter and great in the clinch so seems up to another fight.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He talks to Diaz as well. Congratulates him on a valiant effort. Says Perry did everything he was expecting. Broke his finger two minutes in. Says he\u2019ll come back and get Perry and even says he\u2019ll take out Paul and Helwani. He congratulates Perry on a good fight and says the stoppage was warranted. Perry seems up for another fight.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the first time ever, Netflix will hold an MMA event as they continue their relationship with Jake…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-674756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}