9 months ago
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UFC came to Anaheim, CA's Honda Center on Saturday for UFC 298, which saw a new UFC Featherweight Champion crowned, as Ilia Topuria knocked out champion Alexander Volkanovski and some of the stars of UFC's sibling promotion WWE were in attendance for the night of fights. Throughout the broadcast, former WWE Champion and UFC Fighter CM Punk was shown in the arena, as well as WWE power couple Montez Ford and Bianca Belair.
Punk even got to go backstage and meet some of the fighters, including Oban Elliott. Elliott was caught chatting with Punk, described as the welterweight's "icon," following Oban's decision win over Val Woodburn on the preliminary card.
How good is this?! 👏
🏴 Oban Elliott meeting one of his idols @CMPunk post-fight at #UFC298! pic.twitter.com/wVrsKIbJ1W
— UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) February 18, 2024
Belair and Ford have been making the rounds as their reality series "Love & WWE" premiered on Hulu earlier this month, and the appearance clearly hyped up Ford, who took to social media to say he'd happily step inside the octagon, and Belair also said that she would be open to training for MMA, citing former WWE Superstar and UFC Hall of Famer Ronda Rousey as an inspiration. Punk infamously lost both of his fights in UFC, submitting to Mickey Gall in his 2016 debut and then losing to Mike Jackson by unanimous decision, a result which has since been overturned and ruled a No Contest due to Jackson testing positive for Marijuana.
WWE and UFC are now under the same corporate umbrella after last year's merger between the two companies formed TKO Group Holdings, which is owned by UFC's parent company Endeavor.
