Fabricio Werdum vs. Aleksei Oleinik Headlines UFC Moscow
An intriguing heavweight bout between standout grapplers Fabricio Werdum and Aleksei Oleinik will headlne UFC Fight Night 136, which goes down Saturday, September 15 at Olympic Stadium in Moscow, Russia. The bout was reported by MMAFighting.com. Werdum (23-8-1) is coming off of a surprising KO loss to Alexander Volkov and badly needs to bounce back with a win to stay in title contention. Oleinik (56-11-1) is coming off of a submission win via ezekiel choke over Junior Albini and overall has won five of seven fights inside the Octagon, and the matchmakers are giving him a chance here against Werdum to jump into the title mix with a win. This is a tremendous fight and should be very interesting, but it’s hard not to see Werdum as a big favorite here considering his championship success in the UFC as well as his superior striking in this matchup.
Ian McCall Retires
Former UFC and RIZIN flyweight contender Ian McCall announced Monday on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani that he is retiring from MMA at age 33. The California native began his MMA career back in 2002 and ended his career with a 13-7-1 record. At his highest point, McCall was one of the best flyweights in the world — arguably the best — when he was the Tachi Palace Fights flyweight champion back in 2011 after an incredible run there that saw him beat Darrell Montague, Dustin Ortiz and Jussier Formiga. McCall then signed to the UFC and was one of the original four participants in the first-ever flyweight tournament to crown the UFC’s first champion at 125lbs. In his first fight in the UFC, McCall fought Demetrious Johnson to an extremely controversial draw in a fight many felt he should have won. In the rematch, however, Johnson proved he was the better man and won a clean decision. That followed with another decision loss to Joseph Benavidez for McCall, but he bounced back nicely with decision wins over Iliarde Santos and Brad Pickett. But after losing another decision to John Lineker, McCall and the UFC decided to part ways. That came after McCall suffered numerous bad-luck injuries that interrupted his fight schedule multiple times. McCall then signed with RIZIN and big things were expected of him fighting in Japan, but that didn’t prove to be the case. In McCall’s first fight in RIZIN against Manel Kape, he suffered a cut on his face from the ropes and lost via TKO due to a doctor stoppage. In his second RIZIN fight, and ultimately the last bout of his career, McCall was knocked out in just nine seconds by Kyoji Horiguchi. That fight was two weeks ago and evidently McCall decided that he’s had enough of the sport. He retires as one of the top-10 flyweights ever, and who at his peak was arguably the best 125lber on the planet.
