Day: 1. April 2025

Fabricio Werdum won’t be taking part in the Global Fight League after all.

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Initially scheduled to face Frank Mir in a heavyweight bout under the GFL banner, Werdum revealed Tuesday on the Mundo da Luta podcast that he will no longer be fighting for the fledgling organization.

“Frank Mir was a fight that motivated me to return. After he announced his withdrawal, I also lost my motivation,” Werdum said upon returning to Florianópolis and his normal routine.

“The atmosphere in Andre Dida’s academy in Curitiba is unbelivable. It was such a great experience to return do training routine with master Rafael, Wanderlei, Dida, Brunno Hulk and Blindado, but I have to feel the same motivation to return and that was not the case when Mir (was not an option).”

Werdum last appeared at Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA 5, where he lost a split decision to former UFC opponent Junior dos Santos. The GFL on Monday officially announced the full lineups for its …

UFC 316 will feature a pair of title bouts at the top of the bill.

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In the main event, Merab Dvalishvili will defend his bantamweight crown in a rematch against Sean O'Malley, while Julianna Pena will square off against Kayla Harrison in a women’s 135-pound title tilt in the evening’s co-headliner. UFC CEO Dana White announced the bouts on Tuesday. UFC 316 takes place on June 7 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey and airs on pay-per-view via ESPN+.

Dvalishvili will take a 12-fight winning streak into his rematch against O’Malley. “The Machine” claimed bantamweight gold with a lopsided unanimous decision win over O’Malley at UFC 306 this past September. The Georgian wrestler then made a successful defense of the belt at UFC 311, where he took a five-round verdict over the previously undefeated Umar Nurmagomedov.

O’Malley will be competing for the first time since relinquishing the bantamweight strap to Dvalishvili. “Suga” underwent …

While Carlos Prates won’t be fighting at UFC 314 as originally planned, he has received an even bigger matchup a couple weeks later.

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The Las Vegas-based promotion announced Tuesday that Prates will lock horns with Ian Garry in the new UFC Kansas City headliner on April 26. A light heavyweight bout pitting Jamahal Hill against Khalil Rountree was the card’s original main event. No reason was given as to why that fight was scrapped.

Prates, who was slated to meet Geoff Neal at UFC 314, has been victorious in his first four Octagon appearances — all by way of knockout. Most recently, The Fighting Nerds representative stopped Neil Magny in the opening stanza in the UFC Fight Night 247 headliner this past November. “The Nightmare” has won his last 11 professional outings dating back to December 2019.

Garry, meanwhile, suffered his first loss in 16 pro bouts at UFC 310, when he dropped a narrow five-round verdict to Shavkat Rakhmonov on Dec. 7. Pr…

Jessica Eye isn’t done with combat sports just yet.

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The former Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight revealed on ”The Ariel Helwani Show” that she has signed a contract to compete for the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship later confirmed the deal via social media. Eye is expected to make her promotional debut on May 10 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Her current deal with BKFC is for one fight.

“After a long time of negotiation, I am signing with Bareknuckle Fighting Championship. I started out boxing,” Eye said. “… They finally came financially correct and motivated me enough to be like, ‘You know what?’ Maybe these guys will take care of me in a way that I wasn’t taken care of in my UFC fights and that’s financially rewarding.”

Eye announced her retirement from MMA following a loss to Maycee Barber at UFC 276 in July 2022. That was the fourth straight defeat and fifth in six outings overall for the 38-year-old Ohio native.

Eye went 5-1…

After Alex Pereira lost to Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 313Alexandre Pantoja was left as the only Brazilian holding a UFC belt.

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This week, the reigning flyweight king was in Brazil for the launch of the new UFC Fight Pass documentary “Long Story Short,” which stars Pantoja and middleweight contender Caio Borralho. The launch event will be closed to the press on Wednesday in Sao Paulo.

Before heading to São Paulo, however, Pantoja stopped by his hometown of Rio de Janeiro, where he spoke with Sherdog.com about his expectations for his return to the Octagon and also about the UFC return of his great friend and training partner, Kyoji Horigushi.

“I was really happy with Kyoji’s return. When they hired Kai Asakura, I even joked that they hired the wrong Japanese guy,” revealed the champion. “Jokes aside, I am a huge fan of Kyoji and very grateful because without him I would not have won the UFC belt. I will only fight him if it is for the belt, which…

👀🔥Cory Sandhagen breaks down how he would beat Merab Dvalishvili:

"Don’t run from him, and hit him when he comes in.

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Make your movement a lot smaller because it is all that footwork that really tires people out."

🎥 @lthomasnews ▫️ pic.twitter.com/7QDAWOl3fb

— Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight) March 31, 2025

Cory Sandhagen believes he sees a path to victory for Umar Nurmagomedov against Merab Dvalishvili if they were to meet again.

Dvalishvili defended his bantamweight title against Nurmagomedov via unanimous decision at UFC 311 this past January. Sandhagen believes Nurmagomedov did an excellent job of countering Dvalishvili’s wrestling. However, Sandhagen thinks the Dagestani contender would have done better to control his footwork instead of tiring himself out. Sandhagen believes standing one’s ground instead of backing up is the key to victory against a pressure fighter like Dvalishvili.

“If I was Umar …