Wrestling Inc. is expanding its coverage into MMA. Here’s some of the latest news we’ve been working on.

UFC has reportedly dropped two fighters from its roster after Fight Night 268 in Mexico over the weekend. 

Felipe Bunes and Jose Daniel Medina were in action at the Arena CDMX on Saturday night, with Bunes defeated via Split Decision after three rounds by Edgar Chairez, and Medina beaten by Ryan Gandra via TKO in the first round. 

MMA Fighting has since reported that both had completed their four-fight deals with the promotion, and have been removed from UFC’s roster with no new deals agreed. 

Bunes went 1-3 since joining in 2024, losing his debut against reigning UFC Flyweight Champion Joshua Van. He scored his one and only victory in the following fight, submitting Jose Johnson in the first round, but lost back-to-back decisions against Rafael Estevam and Chairez. 

Medina lost all four of his fights since his 2024 debut, losing via Unanimous Decision, having also lost his previous bout during Dana White’s Contender Series in 2023 via UD. Since then he had failed to get out of the first round, losing via TKO on two occasions with a submission loss in between. He was knocked out in just 41 seconds against Ryan Gandra in Mexico.  

Bunes drew criticism in his Mexico bout against Chairez after spending much of the bout on the ground winding the clock down. It was enough to earn one judge’s approval over his opponent, but the other two favored Chairez to make it a SD victory for the Mexican in front of his national crowd.

As WrestleMania 42 gets closer and closer, many have felt the card for WWE’s marquee event has largely been influx. Nothing has illustrated that more than the Undisputed WWE Championship scene, with reports suggesting everything from champion Drew McIntyre vs. Cody Rhodes, or a multi-person match involving McIntyre, Rhodes, Jacob Fatu, and Sami Zayn could occur. That speculation held even after Randy Orton earned an Undisputed Title shot by winning Men’s Elimination Chamber.

Now, however, it seems WWE has settled on one particular singles match involving for the championship. Fightful Select reports that, as of one month ago, plans called for Orton and Rhodes to be fighting for the Undisputed WWE Championship at WrestleMania. This new information lines up with previous reports from PWInsider Elite and Self Made Sessions, though many had begun to speculate that was the match was happening, regardless of the reports, following Orton’s Chamber win and the announcement that Rhodes would be challenging McIntyre Friday on “SmackDown.”

It was noted that while Rhodes vs. Orton looked like a long-shot one month ago, both had been informed the match was being pitched at the time. Sources also said that part of the reason WWE took the title off Rhodes was because they wanted to include Rhodes in the Men’s Royal Rumble and Men’s Elimination Chamber matches, feeling his presence would add a draw to those matches.

Meanwhile, Bodyslam+ confirmed Orton vs. Rhodes is scheduled for Mania, but claims plans for the match came together in February instead of January due to WWE attempting to shake up the WrestleMania card. It was further suggested that Rhodes and McIntyre only learned of plans to change things up in the past week. As for McIntyre’s Mania plans, it’s believed he will now be moved into a program with Fatu.

TKO’s President and COO, Mark Shapiro, pledged that there will be pay increases for both WWE Superstars and UFC fighters.

UFC and WWE serve as respective branches of the wider TKO Group Holdings, starting from September 2024, with Dana White and Nick Khan serving as Presidents of said branches. 

Less-so in the case of WWE, there has been a consistent discourse over the amount which UFC pays its fighters to compete. Several former and current fighters have gone on record with the issue, specifically after White and TKO launched Zuffa Boxing and signed Conor Benn to a reported $15 million deal. 

“Our margins last year were, adjusted for EBITDA, 33.5%. We have announced a midpoint in our guidance, we’re going to be roughly 39.6%, and that margin is inclusive of an increase of fighter and superstar pay. We take that very seriously,” Shapiro said during the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference on Monday. 

He continued, “We are focused on all the ingredients that make our events what they are, and that starts with fighters and Superstars. Whatever increases we have, and we will have increases, that are inclusive of the margins and guidance we have targeted.”

According to the fighters, UFC is in negotiations to bring Jon Jones and Conor McGregor back, two of the noted exceptions to the rule that made millions with the promotion. Both said that they were in talks over the upcoming White House event on June 14, with that event in itself due to draw a $30 million loss according to Shapiro.

Across the first seven years of AEW’s existence, the promotion has presented some truly exciting wrestling matches, in both the singles and tag team divisions. Many of the company’s best matches came after the first few years, but one early match stands out as one of the absolute best: Kenny Omega and “Hangman” Adam Page taking on the Young Bucks over the AEW World Tag Team Championship.

At the end of 2019, just a few months after the debut of “AEW Dynamite,” Omega and Page were tag team partners, having both suffered disappointing losses at the first AEW Full Gear in November. They found plenty of initial success together, though, defeating Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian for the tag titles on the episode of “Dynamite” taped during Chris Jericho’s annual cruise.

Naturally, that success brought Omega and Page up against Matt and Nick Jackson, Omega’s fellow EVPs and tag team legends in the making. After a series of successful TV defenses from the champs, and the Young Bucks winning a battle royale to become number-one contenders, the highly-anticipated bout was booked for the first-ever AEW Revolution, on Leap Day – February 29, 2020.

Tensions between the Young Bucks and Omega/Page had been building for months, on and off, with most of the emphasis on the growing divide between “Hangman” and his friends. That strife grows throughout this match, made ever more serious by the fact that Omega and Page managed to win the title before the Young Bucks, despite their reputation as arguably the best tag team of their generation.

As the bell rings, the crowd gives its full support to Omega and Page, while the reception to the Young Bucks is much more mixed. The Jackson brothers play up the heelish side of their personalities throughout the match, especially against Page, who also has his dark side on display at times.

Thankfully, in this case, the in-ring action rises to (or even surpasses) the level of the soap opera playing out outside the ring. While all four wrestlers are quite obviously gifted in different ways, in my mind, it’s Omega who has immaculate pacing, and it’s on full display here. Knowing full-well that they’re going 30 minutes, the teams avoid starting off too hot, instead opting to re-establish all their interpersonal issues inside the ring. It’s setup for all the payoffs to come later on in the match.

The pace quickens as the Young Bucks start to enact violence on Page, with the brothers double-teaming “Hangman” and keeping him away from Omega, until Page is able to turn the tables. He targets Matt’s lower back, which the tag specialist had been selling for years (or at least what felt like years). However, when Page goes to tag Omega in, the two get into a brief spat, with the camera capturing Omega’s passive aggressive expression as a breadcrumb for their own eventual schism.

Page tags himself back in after only a short break, with the future world champion continuing to ratchet up the level of violence against his former friends. The Young Bucks get fired up in return, with Nick retaking control of the match and taking on Page and Omega at the same time. He can’t keep it up forever, though, and with Matt indisposed, Omega was there to break up a submission on Page.

Around the halfway point, the pace gets faster yet again, with momentum shifting back and forth through tightly-executed sequences of offense. All the while, the Chicago crowd could not be any more invested in what was taking place, heightening everything going on in the ring.

After the pace reaches a new high, the Bucks slow things down by taking Omega out of commission and brutalizing Page on the ramp, showing the slightest bit of remorse in the process. With Page now down, Omega gets back on his feet only to find himself alone against both brothers. They take turns hitting Omega with superkicks and a double V-Trigger, but they fail to take advantage of the situation, with Omega kicking out of their pinfall attempts.

A turning point in the match takes place when Matt begins ripping the athletic tape off Omega’s body, only for Nick to confront him and question his actions, with Matt becoming regretful. This provides Page with an opening, which he uses to sneak up on Nick to powerbomb him through a table. Then, Omega and Page deliver their Buckshot V-Trigger to Matt, but even this is not enough.

With Matt fighting out of a One-Winged Angel attempt from Omega, Page tags in and delivers Omega’s finisher himself. Nick breaks up that pin attempt, leading to Page hitting Nick with a Buckshot Lariant on the ramp. He then lands the same move on Matt in the ring and then pins him for the three-count, retaining the AEW World Tag Team Championship.

This match remains a high mark in AEW’s catalogue because it was the best early example of the heights this roster could reach when firing on all cylinders. There’s just such a strong aligning of planets around this match, from the long-running storylines, the total engagement of the crowd, the carefully-timed pacing, and the sheer athleticism.

A big reason why the match had such a high degree of investment, beyond involving the company’s most popular wrestlers at the time, was because it intertwined a few stories that had been brewing for awhile. The match addressed the Young Bucks chasing their first tag title win, the drama taking place among The Elite, and though we didn’t know it yet, it was building to the world title reigns of both Omega and Page.

Speaking from my own point of view, this match was an early example of AEW delivering on the promise of its very existence. When AEW first began, mainstream American wrestling was in a pretty bleak place, with Vince McMahon’s iron grip over WWE leading to creative stagnation. When Tony Khan created AEW, the unspoken (and sometimes spoken) promise was to deliver a combination of American independent wrestling and the style of New Japan Pro-Wrestling, and this was (up to that point, at least) the best example of that.

Wrestling Inc. is expanding its coverage into MMA. Here’s some of the latest news we’ve been working on.

Conor McGregor has said he is in discussions to return to UFC, either at the White House event in June or sometime in the Summer. 

“I am in negotiations with the [UFC] about the bout. Either the White House or thereabouts. Sometime in the Summer, McGregor will return,” he told Lily Rayne in an interview posted to Instagram. 

The White House event is due to be hosted on the South Lawn of the President’s residence on June 14, with no bouts currently announced. Jon Jones is another to have said recently that he is in negotiations to fight on the card. 

McGregor is perhaps UFC’s most recognizable face having taken MMA by storm throughout the 2010s. McGregor went undefeated in his first seven fights after debuting in UFC in December 2012, and further went on to win the Featherweight and Lightweight titles to become double champion. 

In 2016 he suffered his first loss to Nate Diaz, but had become popular enough to make millions in a special boxing attraction against Floyd Mayweather Jr., getting beaten by TKO in round seven, in 2017. 

He has fought just four times since in UFC since then, losing three and winning one, including a submission defeat to Khabib Nurmagomedov in October 2018. He has not fought since breaking his ankle against Dustin Poirier in 2021, having had his initial return bout against Michael Chandler in June 2024 cancelled.