Month: April 2025

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As it turns out, Rashad Evans’ instincts were correct.

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A few days after Evans said his boxing match against Quinton Jackson was no longer happening due to unfulfilled contractual obligations, the entire card, which was scheduled for this Saturday at the Pit in Albuquerque, New Mexico, was canceled. The cancellation was announced on the University of New Mexico Athletics website where tickets would have been sold.

“The Signature Punch Promotions card set for April 12, has been canceled,” read a statement on GoLobos.com. “All tickets will be refunded to the card used to make the purchase within 72-96 hours. This will happen automatically, no need to call the box office.”

The New Mexico State Athletic Commission in February approved the card, which was co-promoted Albuquerque’s Tapia Promotions and Florida’s Signature Punch Promotions. In addition to Evans vs. Jackson, the event was also expected to feature a boxing match between…

The Pitbull Brothers team will have two veterans making debuts in new promotions this weekend.

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First, Leandro Higo will make his Professional Fighters League debut on Friday in the evening’s main event against Josh Rettinghouse. The next day, Patricio Freire will make his Octagon debut against Yair Rodriguez at UFC 314.

Higo, who has won five of his last six bouts, discussed sharing a camp with Patricio “Pitbull” and offered insight into both of their upcoming fights in a recent interview with Sherdog.

“I´m really happy to make my PFL debut fighting in the main event. I was so lucky to have Patricio making his Octagon debut in the same weekend, so the camp couldn't have been better,” the Bellator veteran said. “Since I was going to fight a Russian initially, we brought a wrestler from Kazakhstan, who helped me a lot.”

Fighters only get one shot! Watch the PFL World Tournament LIVE Friday, April 11 at 11 p.m. ET on ESPN2..

According to…

Aaron Pico is officially headed to the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

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Multiple outlets confirmed the news following an initial report from ESPN. While there were rumors of Pico making his Octagon debut against Movsar Evloev, a date and opponent for the Bellator MMA veteran’s first UFC foray have not been confirmed at this time. Pico was granted his release from Professional Fighters League, which purchased Bellator late in 2023 before dissolving the promotion this year.

fter years of hard work, dedication, and unwavering belief, I’ve officially signed with the UFC! This is more than just a dream come true; it’s the beginning of a new chapter,” Pico wrote on Instagram. “Thank you to my family, coaches, training partners, and everyone who has supported me on this journey. Your belief in me has fueled my fire. The ultimate goal? To become the UFC champion. I’m ready to work harder than ever before to make that a reality.”

A former Golden Glov…

Juliana Velasquez is unfazed by a last-minute change in opponent in the Professional Fighters League flyweight tournament.

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The former Bellator champion was originally supposed to face Taila Santos in a first-round matchup on Friday at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. However, on Monday the promotion announced Santos had pulled out of the bout and would be replaced by Ekaterina Shakalova.

“When you participate in a grand prix, you know that these kind of short-notice opponent changes are part of the game,” Velasquez told Sherdog.com “In my daily routine at Team Nogueira, I train mostly with men — big ones, small ones, strikers, grapplers. That's what MMA is all about. Of course against Ekaterina I´ll change my strategy a little bit. But I'm ready for any girl in my division.”  

Fighters only get one shot! Watch the PFL World Tournament LIVE Friday, April 11 at 11 p.m. ET on ESPN2..

The Brazilian is coming off a TKO win o…

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Paddy Pimblett (22-3) is looking to make a statement against Michael Chandler (23-9).

Pimblett faces Chandler at the UFC 314 on Saturday at the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida. While this will arguably be the biggest step up in competition for Pimblett, “The Baddy” sounds extremely confident going into his fight against Chandler. Pimblett believes he is better in all aspects than Chandler, who his known for his knockout power. However, Pimblett has famously declared in the past, “Scousers don’t get knocked out.” The Liverpudlian even claims he can beat Chandler more emphatically than lightweight elites Dustin Poirier, Charles Oliveira and Justin Gaethje.

"As soon as he gets punched in the face he just wants to have a brawl,” Pimblett said on the Full Send podcast. “And I'll be using it against him… I don't see where he can beat me. The only way he can beat me is if he throws a hail mary punch and knocks me out. But I don't get knocked out, lad.…

The upcoming Professional Fighters League tournament event has undergone a few changes.

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The promotion announced Monday that Taila Santos has withdrawn from a first-round flyweight pairing against Juliana Velasquez at PFL World Tournament 2 on Friday at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. As a result, Ekaterina Shakalova will step in and face Velasquez in the 125-pound bracket. Santos vs. Velasquez was slated to be the evening’s featured bout; instead a bantameight tilt pitting Leandro Higo against Josh Rettinghouse will now serve as the main event. Saray Orozco was originally supposed to face Shakalova, but it’s currently unclear if she will receive a replacement opponent.

Fighters only get one shot! Watch the PFL World Tournament LIVE Friday, April 11 at 11 p.m. ET on ESPN2..

PFL Tournament 2 features tournament bouts at women’s flyweight and men’s bantamweight. The prelims air on ESPN+ at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT, while the main card begins o…

A middleweight showdown pitting Joe Pyfer against Kelvin Gastelum has been rebooked for UFC 316.

Multiple outlets confirmed the booking after an announcement on Monday from Pyfer’s coach on MMA Today on Sirius XM. Pyfer and Gastelum were initially slated to square off at UFC Mexico on March 29, but Pyer withdrew on the day of the event due to illness. UFC 316 takes place on June 7 at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., and is headlined by a bantamweight title rematch between Merab Dvalishvili and Sean O’Malley.

Pyfer has been victorious in six of his last seven professional outings. After earning a UFC contract on Dana White's Contender Series in 2022, “Bodybagz” finished his first three Octagon foes before fallling to Jack Hermansson in the UFC Fight Night 236 main event this past February. The 28-year-old Pennsylvania native rebounded in his most recent appearance, when he knocked out Marc-Andre Barriault in the opening stanza of their encounter at UFC 3…

Add this one to the list of unusual pre-fight injuries.

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Trevor Peek has been forced to withdraw from a proposed featherweight clash against Jeong Yeong Lee at UFC Des Moines after suffering an injury while jumping rope last week. The five-time UFC veteran shared the details in a video on his Instagram account over the weekend.

“I actually fractured my leg at the Performance Institute on Friday. It’s not a bad fracture, I still have to go get CT scans in the next day or two and figure out if I’ve got any kind of ligament damage or anything like that,” Peek said.

“I wish I had a cool story how I did it, but I got on some soft mats and was jump roping. I was alternating each leg. I’d been jump roping 20-something minutes — got a little tired, a little careless, and wasn’t paying attention. Come down with all my weight on my left leg and it sounded like a shotgun whenever it went off, it popped.”

The 30-year-old Alabama native has lost three of…

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Aljamain Sterling doesn’t think a newfound sense of discipline will help Sean O'Malley (18-2) against Merab Dvalishvili (19-4).

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O’Malley has always been known for his flashy lifestyle, which included smoking marijuana. However, things have seemingly changed for “Suga” since he lost his title to Dvalishvili at UFC 306 last year.

O’Malley will get chance to reclaim his title against Dvalishvili in the main event at UFC 316 on June 7 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The former champ, rather uncharacteristically, recently thanked Dvalishvili for making him a better fighter and human being by beating him. O’Malley also claims to have introduced major lifestyle changes going into his rematch against “The Machine.” O’Malley claims he hasn’t masturbated or smoked marijuana this year.

However, Dvalishvili’s teammate Sterling doesn’t think any of that will matter. The former bantamweight champ believes it will all even…

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Michael Chandler is taking a slightly different approach going into his fight against Paddy Pimblett.

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Chandler will take on Pimblett at UFC 314 on Saturday at the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida. While Chandler is known for his entertaining style, it has now cost him four out of six UFC outings. However, Chandler’s latest loss against Charles Oliveira hit him different.

Chandler claims to have felt the lowest after dropping a split decision against “Do Bronx” at UFC 309 last November. But “Iron” also felt good about being more composed and measured in that fight.

“I feel like I was more let down in my entire career than any other fight in this last fight with Charles Oliveira,” Chandler told Teddy Atlas. “But I saw glimpses of more composure in that fight… There was a loss, but there was a growth in that fight. So it’s hard because your heart says ‘You lost, therefore you’re not good enough.’ But if I use my brain, I think I…

Having an MMA legend as your neighbor can really be a blessing.

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That was the case for Henry Cejudo’s neighbor, who is in his 60s. Cejudo recently shared a clip of his neighborhood, where a policeman can be seen pinning someone down. Cejudo revealed that he was coming out his house when he heard a car rushing by at 80 miles per hour. The car then crashed into the yard of Cejudo’s neighbor.

A teenager who was in the car attempted to flee the scene and attacked Cejudo’s neighbor when confronted. Cejudo intervened and allegedly took the boy down and slapped him a few times before the cops took over.

“I just had a group of teenagers, maybe doing about an 80 miles an hour. I was just coming out with my producer Dylan Ruff. Happened to see this car going by 80 miles per hour… And they smashed into my neighbor’s yard,” Cejudo said on social media. “The guy got up, the guy tried to leave. And he ended up assaulting the owner. I don’t know if these g…

A week ago, it was announced that Fabian Edwards was out of the PFL middleweight tournament. Now the former Bellator MMA title challenger is back in his original spot.

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The promotion announced over the weekend that Edwards will face Impa Kasanganay in the PFL World Tournament 3 headliner on April 18 at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. Edwards had briefly been replaced by Jordan Newman for undisclosed reasons. The main card, which features first-round pairings at middleweight and lightweight, airs on ESPN and ESPN+ at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT, while prelims stream on ESPN+ at 4:30 p.m. ET/1:30 p.m. PT.

Fighters only get one shot! Watch the PFL World Tournament LIVE Friday, April 11 at 11 p.m. ET on ESPN2..

Edwards is a two-time middleweight title challenger in Bellator. He fell to Johnny Eblen on both occasions, most recently dropping a five-round verdict to Eblen at PFL Super Fights "Battle of the Giants." The younger brother of ex-UFC champ L…