UFC heavyweight's Alex Pereira theory about Jon Jones, Joe Rogan guest debunks UFO-nuke claim, Usyk vs. Fury 2 to have AI judge: MMA News Roundup

A fellow UFC heavyweight believes Jon Jones has a secret reason for calling out Alex Pereira and ignoring Tom Aspinall. Elsewhere, Oleksandr Usyk vs. Tyson Fury 2 is set to be monitored by a ground-breaking AI technology.

Get your daily dose of combat sports updates from Sportskeeda MMA's News Roundup.

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Curtis Blaydes' UFC theory about Jon Jones' Alex Pereira callout

UFC heavyweight Curtis Blaydes believes Jon Jones has an ulterior motive behind calling out Alex Pereira for his next UFC fight instead of the interim UFC champion Tom Aspinall. Jones has been ignoring Aspinall's challenges for more than a year and is yet to acknowledge the Brit even though Dana White has promised to make the fight in 2025.

Blaydes, who has fought Aspinall before, told Sportskeeda MMA that he believes Jones is publicly advocating for a fight with 'Poatan' to remain in the headlines:

"I think he knows if he says the opposite of what everyone wants, it'll be controversial and it'll be online. It'll keep him relevant without him having to actually fight. That's my only answer."

When asked to pick his winner for the Jones vs. Aspinall fight, Blaydes said there's a 55% chance for the latter to become the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion. He pointed out a chink in Jones' armor that Aspinall can exploit to achieve the feat.

Check out Curtis Blaydes' comments below (09:00):

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Joe Rogan's podcast guest fact-checks viral UFO-nuke theory

Former Navy F/A-18F pilot Ryan Graves recently appeared on Joe Rogan's podcast and weighed in on the recent drone sightings in New Jersey. During the conversation, Rogan brought up the viral Ukrainian nuke warhead theory by John Ferguson, CEO of Saxon Aerospace, and asked Graves if there was any authenticity to the claim.

Graves dismissed it, stating:

"So there are teams that respond to those types of potential emergencies, typically within the Department of Energy. Having potentially hundreds of drones flying around, trying to identify these, isn't necessarily the best way. Gamma radiation is typically well-shielded in weapons. And at very high altitudes or even moderate altitudes, like we're seeing these objects, it'd be pretty difficult to detect them. And the way that this DOE typically operates in this environment is ground-based teams, searching for radiation itself."

The UFC commentator expressed relief after hearing Graves' clarification, who was admittedly "freaking out" over the claim.

Watch the conversation go down below (03:00):

Graves currently serves as the first Chair of the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Integration & Outreach Committee (UAPIOC) at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

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Turki Alalshikh announces AI judge for Oleksandr Usyk vs. Tyson Fury 2

Turki Alalshikh, Saudi Arabia's Chairman of the General Entertainment Authority, recently announced on social media that the Oleksandr Usyk vs. Tyson Fury rematch in Riyadh will have Artificial Intelligence-powered judging. It will not have any influence on the official result of the fight which will be scored by human judges as usual.

"For the first time ever, an AI-powered judge will monitor the fight 🤖 Free from bias and human error brought to you by The Ring. This groundbreaking experiment, which won’t impact the official results, debuts during the biggest fight of the century, #Usyk2Fury, on December 21. Don’t miss history in the making."

This comes amid mass criticism against the standard of judging in boxing and MMA. The comment section was divided in their opinions on the matter. One half was intrigued to see technology play a role in making the sport fairer, while the other half was not convinced AI could do the job right.