MMA News Roundup: Michael Chandler Desperately Calls Out Conor McGregor in WWE Promo, Mackenzie Dern, Amanda Lemos Handed Official Rankings Update, Tabatha Ricci on the Sets of RAW

Published 02/20/2024, 6:44 PM HKT

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Several stunning developments have taken place in the world of MMA over the last 24 hours. As such, we present to you yet another edition of the daily roundup. Today, we will start with Michael Chandler, who called out Conor McGregor during the recent episode of Monday Night RAW. Then we will shift our focus to some significant changes in UFC rankings. Finally, we will sum up the news compilation with Tabatha Ricci and boxer Callum Walsh making an appearance on the sets of Monday Night RAW as well.

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Without wasting much time, let’s dive into the stories!

Michael Chandler issues a call-out to Conor McGregor in WWE fashion

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5th-ranked UFC lightweight fighter Michael Chandler decided to turn up on WWE’s longest episodic television show, RAW, this week. He was sitting in the crowd when the ring announcer Samantha Irvin introduced him to the people in attendance for the show. Chandler addressed the WWE Universe in Anaheim, California, when he also mentioned how long he had been waiting for the fight against Conor McGregor.

As such, in a desperate attempt to get the big-money fight, Michael Chandler decided to remind Conor McGregor and call him out in true WWE fashion. He said, “Conor McGregor get your candy a** back to the Octagon. We’ve got some unfinished business boys.” It remains to be seen how Conor McGregor reacts to this call-out and if he will do something similar, given that he is the UFC’s biggest showman to date.

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Major changes in UFC rankings following UFC 298

The results of UFC 298 seemed to have some significant impact on the UFC rankings. There have been major shifts in fighters’ positions in the rankings across multiple divisions, including the pound-for-pound rankings. Newly crowned featherweight champion Ilia Topuria has debuted in the P4P rankings and has been placed 5th.

Meanwhile, former champion Alexander Volkanovski lost his place in the top 5 and is now placed 7th in the P4P rankings, whereas Leon Edwards and Alex Pereira jumped one spot above to 3rd and 4th, respectively. When it comes to the men’s bantamweight rankings, Merab Dvalishvili jumped to the 1st position after his win over Henry Cejudo, with Cory Sandhagen, Petr Yan, and Marlon Vera rising up the ranks, placed at 3rd, 4th, and 5th position, respectively.

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With Ian Garry‘s win over Geoff Neal at UFC 298, the Irish star is now ranked 6th in the welterweight rankings, jumping four places above his previous standing on the list. Shifting our attention to the middleweight rankings, Brendan Allen, Jack Hermansson, and Anthony Hernandez also made jumps in the list and have been ranked 6th, 9th, and 13th, respectively. Heavyweight fighter Marcos Rogerio de Lima also jumped one place above in the rankings to the 14th position. Meanwhile, in the women’s strawweight division, Amanda Ribas rose up to the 7th position as Mackenzie Dern went down by one and was placed in the 8th position, and Amanda Lemos found herself in the 3rd position.

Tabatha Ricci and Callum Walsh visit the sets of WWE RAW

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Michael Chandler was not the only UFC star who was present during WWE’s recent episode of Monday Night RAW. ‘BABY SHARK’ Tabatha Ricci also seemed to be present at the sets of the show with Irish boxing sensation Callum Walsh. The latter shared a video clip on his X account, where they were seen coming out to the wrestling squared circle together with the UFC strawweight fighter.

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Not only that, Callum Walsh and Tabatha Ricci were also handed a couple of WWE Championship titles, which they flaunted like a proper WWE superstar while walking to the ring down the ramp. It seems like the WWE-UFC merger is slowly mixing up athletes from both worlds as we wait to see if a crossover fight is in order for the future.

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Written by:

Himanga Mahanta

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One take at a time

Himanga Mahanta is a senior UFC writer at EssentiallySports. An all-rounder in his coverage of the sport, Himanga is a reliable voice with a knack for providing analytical coverage of breaking stories from the world of MMA. His 1700+ articles include perspective pieces on trending UFC stories, and both live and post-event coverage of weekly events.
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Edited by:

Yeswanth Praveen

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