Vanessa Demopoulos has another big opportunity in front of her next month, and from here on out when those happen, they might seem a little more personal.

Demopoulos (10-5 MMA, 4-2 UFC) takes on Emily Ducote (13-8 MMA, 2-2 UFC) at UFC Fight Night 241 on May 11. For Demopoulos, a win would give her five in six fights – which would put her in great position in the women’s strawweight division.

But it will have to come against someone she’s got some familiarity with.

“Not only do I know a lot about her – Emily’s a sweetheart,” Demopoulos told MMA Junkie Radio. “She came here to Las Vegas. She trained over at Xtreme (Couture) and, in fact, me, her and Hannah Goldy all went hiking together over at Red Rock. So we’ve spent a little bit of time together. It was nice to kind of get to know her on a little bit of a personal level.”

Demopoulos has been training in Las Vegas, where she utilizes not only Xtreme Couture, but the UFC Performance Institute. She said that has been a game-changer for her, especially when it comes to nutrition.

Then there’s the consistency in her coaching, which she thinks was missing earlier in her career.

“I feel like everybody’s really on the same page,” she said. “Being a part of the PI and being able to have access to my food, have access to recovery, have access to the strength and conditioning, the PT, the facility – it just makes my life so much easier being in fight camp and being able to be here in Las Vegas.”

This fight camp, though, for Ducote was for someone she’s spent time with. And even looking down the road, her division’s champion, Zhang Weili, spends a lot of time at the PI, herself.

In a division that isn’t the biggest in the UFC, and given her training in Las Vegas where so many fighters come through at one point or another, Demopoulos is confident this situation will happen again.

“When we got the fight contract, it’s not like I (called) her out. She didn’t hit me up, either,” Demopoulos said. “We both knew that it might happen even while she was here. It’s OK. It’s going to happen. I feel like for being here in Las Vegas, we see so many people, it would be almost impossible for me not to fight somebody that I knew.”

Demopoulos got back in the win column this past October with a decision over Kanako Murata in a fight in which Murata was a decent favorite. Earlier in the year, she had a three-fight winning streak snapped by Karolina Kowalkiewicz.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 241.

Chael Sonnen doesn’t want to see Tom Aspinall vs. Ciryl Gane next.

Interim heavyweight champion Aspinall (14-3 MMA, 7-1 UFC) confirmed that he’ll be fighting at UFC 304, which will take place July 27 in the newly built Co-op Live arena in Manchester, England.

Aspinall dismissed Gane as a potential opponent after Gane refused to acknowledge his presence this past September in Paris. Aspinall watched Gane finish Serghei Spivac, but didn’t get his desired face-off. Gane hasn’t competed since, but Aspinall wound up facing Sergei Pavlovich for the interim title at UFC 295, and knocked him out to claim the belt. Now Aspinall is making Gane wait his turn.

Cormier likes Aspinall vs. Gane (12-2 MMA, 9-2 UFC) next, but Sonnen sees a big problem with that fight.

“I believe that the problem is if you do bring Ciryl back, if he wins, you put a belt around Ciryl,” Sonnen said on his ESPN show “Good Guy/Bad Guy” with Daniel Cormier. “If Jon Jones is agreeable, you’re going to do a rematch between Jon Jones and Ciryl.

“I think that’s too tough after the performance that Ciryl gave (at UFC 285), or did not give. I just don’t think there’s any scenario where they re-do that match, and you would run into a big risk if you put the belt around him.”

Aspinall wants to run things back with Blaydes. Blaydes handed Aspinall his only octagon loss when Aspinall blew out his knee just 18 seconds into their fight in July 2022. Blaydes is coming off an impressive knockout of Jailton Almeida at UFC 299 – snapping the Brazilian contender’s 15-fight winning streak.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 304.

UFC Light Heavyweight Bogdan Guskov Sees A Golden Opportunity To Break Into The Rankings With A Win Over Ryan Spann At UFC Fight Night: Nicolau vs Perez

Read the Full Article Here