Day: 12. März 2025

Andrei Arlovski is set to return to action for the first time since parting ways with the Ultimate Fighting Championship last year.

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Arlovski will square off against Terrance Hodges under the Dirty Boxing banner on March 22 at the Regatta Harbour in Miami, the promotion announced Wednesday. DBX 1 is expected to be headlined by a clash between Yoel Romero and Ras Hylton. DBX uses four-ounce gloves, with elbows and “conditional ground-and-pound” allowed.

A former heavyweight champion, Arlovski fulfilled his last UFC contract with a split-decision loss against Martin Buday at UFC 303 this past July. He was also drafted by the Los Angeles team in the fledgling Global Fight League earlier this year, but the promotion has yet to formally confirm any dates or locations for upcoming events.

Arlovski initially rose to prominence during his first UFC stint from 2000 to 2008, when he captured heavyweight gold and had a memorable trilogy with Tim Sylvia.…

Cristiane Justino is staying active in her combat sports career.

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For the second time this month, Justino will compete in a professional boxing match in Columbia. This time, “Cyborg” will lock horns with 23-year-old Josefina Travecedo (3-3, 2KOs) in a four-round bout at 154 pounds. “Cyborg” announced the bout in a release on Wednesday.

The pairing comes on the heels of the Brazilian’s second-round knockout victory over Karen Fernandes in Medellin, Columbia, on March 3. According to the release, “Cyborg” remained in the country “to receive post fight therapy at BioXcellerator, the leading stem cell treatment and research facilities in the world.”

With a win over Travecedo, Justino is targeting a boxing match against WBC champion Cecilia Braekhus this winter.

The Chute Boxe standout’s lone MMA bout of 2024 occurred at PFL Super Fights "Battle of the Giants: Brace for Impact,” where she took a five-round verdict over former PFL two-divisi…

Mauricio Ruffy had some special inspiration for the highlight-reel kick that dispatched Bobby Green at UFC 313.

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In an interview with Sherdog.com, The Fighting Nerds representative confirmed that Brazilian soccer idol Neymar Junior motivated him to unleash that maneuver.

“Neymar always does a sequence of dribbling that confuses his oponents. I just thought how it could be applied in MMA, and that’s the movement I did with Green, a sequence of hand feints that confounded him and permitted the kick to enter,” Ruffy said. “I´ve been practicing that movement alone for a long time. I have to avoid using it in sparring because there is no way to control the speed, which may hurt my training partners.”

To make the move even more impressive, Ruffy revealed that he had to undergo an urgent meniscus surgery in January that prevented him from kicking until two weeks before UFC 313.

“It was at the limit,” he said. “I was just allowed to kick in the last …

Paul Hughes has a dance partner for his upcoming Professional Fighters League appearance.

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The promotion announced on Wednesday that Hughes will lock horns with Bruno Miranda in the PFL Europe Belfast headliner on May 10 at the SSE Arena. The card will also include PFL Europe tournament pairings, where fighters must win three bouts to earn a $100,000 cash prize. Participants in the tournament will be announced at a later date.

A former Cage Warriors champion, Hughes was a prized free agent before signing with the PFL in 2024. He made his presence felt at PFL “Brace for Impact” last October, when he defeated ex-Bellator MMA featherweight champ A.J. McKee via split decision. “Big News” then challenged Usman Nurmagomedov for the lightweight belt at PFL Road to Dubai, losing a narrow majority decision in one of the best fights of 2025 thus far.

Miranda is coming off a split-decision triumph over former Bellator stalwart Patricky Freire at a PF…

Arman Tsarukyan believes it’ll be unfair for Justin Gaethje to get the next lightweight title shot.

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Gaethje earned a unanimous decision win in a rematch against Rafael Fiziev at UFC 313 last weekend, going 2-0 against the Kazakh. “The Highlight” is now asking for a title shot after rebounding from a knockout loss against Max Holloway to make it 3-1 in his last four.

However, Tsarukyan believes Gaethje must pass one more test to deserve a title shot. According to “Ahalkalakets,” Gaethje has to fight either him or Charles Oliveira before he can challenge Islam Makhachev.

“I wanna fight someone from Top 5, Gaethje or Oliveira,” Tsarukyan told The Schmo. “Gaethje wants to fight for the title, it makes sense to fight with me. Because nobody gonna give him title fight. It’s not gonna be fair that he’s gonna get title fight. So he gotta beat me or Oliveira to get the title fight… So I think they’re gonna give me Oliveira, or Gaethje or title fight.”…

Chidi Njokuani doesn’t mind the absence of a crowd once he enters the Octagon.

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Seven fights into his promotional tenure, Njokuani has mostly fought at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and has never been on a pay-per-view card. Njokuani is now scheduled to co-headline UFC Fight Night 254 against Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos on Saturday at the Apex.

Njokuani won’t miss the crowd. A major part of Njokuani’s preference of fighting in Vegas is because he lives there, which makes everything easier. And “Chidi Bang Bang” doesn’t really care who’s watching once he starts trading leather. While he doesn’t mind traveling, the rather reserved Njokuani just likes the ease of things while fighting at home.

“I don’t think that really matter to me,” Njokuani told MMAjunkie.com. “I like fighting at home because I get to cut weight here, I don’t have to travel, I get to sleep more a bit. I don’t see how people don’t like doing that. But I get it. The crowds don’t real…

Rafael Fiziev (12-4) is eyeing a move to featherweight.

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Fiziev suffered a unanimous decision loss against Justin Gaethje at UFC 313 last weekend. “Ataman” is now looking to move down to featherweight despite having competed at lightweight for the most part of his career.

Fiziev’s plan to move to 145 pounds is influenced by his weight cut for UFC 313, which he claims was really easy. Fiziev says his nutritionist was focused on making him gain weight during the cut, as he was shedding pounds too fast.

“I’m start to thinking right now about change weight divisions,” Fiziev told Ariel Helwani. “Because I really cut weight really easy this time, and this is short notice. Very easy bro. All this week, my nutritionist, Jason, he tried to gain my weight because my weight go low so fast. Yeah, right now I have to think about it.”

Fiziev also said that he weighed 170 pounds on fight night, while he thinks Gaethje was much heavier. When asked if t…