Month: April 2025

زمزم الحمادي تنظم لرابطة "PFL MENA"! 🤩

البطلة الإماراتية البالغة من العمر 17 عامًا، لاعبة متألقة في رياضتي الجوجيتسو والفنون القتالية المختلطة، حيث فازت ببطولة العالم للفنون القتالية المختلطة فئة الشباب "IMMAF"، وبطولة العالم للجوجيتسو للناشئين والشباب "JJIF" في عام 2023. pic.twitter.com/caZ5cPMyFc

— PFL MENA (@PFLMENA) April 23, 2025

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Professional Fighters League MENA has signed 17-year-old Zamzam Al Hammadi with designs on showcasing the decorated grappler in amateur MMA bouts during the upcoming season.

Al Hammadi, who hails from United Arab Emirates, earned championship victories at IMMAF Youth World Championships and the JJIF World Youth Championships in 2023. Her mother is a judo practitioner and her sister also competes in grappling and MMA. According to Sherdog.com records, Al Hammad boasts a 9-0 amateur MMA record.

“We’re thrilled to bring in one of the fastest rising young stars, not just in the Middle E…

  After 11 years of retirement, Alexandre Franca Nogueira is making a comeback.

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The 47-year-old “King of the Guillotine” has accepted a special invitation from Japanese promotion Roman Combat to face another previously retired veteran, 41-year-old Hatsu Hioki, who last competed against Mikur Azakura at Rizin 12 in 2018. The 155-pound bout will take place on Saturday at Gen Sports Palace in Tokyo.

“The best moments of my career were in Japan. When the Japanese promoter invited me to fight there against another veteran, I immediately accepted,” said Nogueira, who is known in Brazil by the nickname “Pequeno,” which means small.

A Shooto champion between 1999 and 2005, Nogueira likes the special rules of the event.

“One round of 15 minutes, with gi in Pride rules and the weigh-ins 20 minutes before each fight. I loved that,” said Nogueira.

Known for his amazing guillotine technique that finished the likes of Rumina Sato, Stephen Pallin…

😅Carlos Prates’ mother asks him to KO Ian Machado Garry quickly:

"Don't give the opponent a chance to play too much. Finish the war quickly. The way mommy likes it."

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🎥 @espnmma ▫️ pic.twitter.com/kd6TqBa3fv — Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight) April 22, 2025

Carlos Prates’ mother wants her son to finish Ian Garry in style.

Prates headlines UFC Kansas City opposite Garry on Saturday at the T-Mobile Center in Kansa City, Missouri. One of the quirkiest fighters on the roster, Prates is also known for his heavy smoking habits along with his finishing skills.

After losing his father at the age of 1, Prates was primarily brought up by his mother, Regina Prates. Prates admittedly starting getting into fights as a kid while simultaneously developing drinking and smoking habits. That’s when his mother decided to put him into sports, and he initially became a muay thai fighter. Regina revealed that fighting, which comes natural…

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Movsar Evloev believes the UFC doesn’t want him to fight for the featherweight title.

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Evloev is unbeaten in nine UFC outings with wins over Dan Ige, Diego Lopes, Arnold Allen and Aljamain Sterling. However, the undefeated Russian is yet to receive a title shot.

Even Lopes surpassed him for the gold bid, suffering a unanimous decision loss against Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 314 earlier this month. With Evloev being essentially undeniable, both Volkanovski and Lopes had agreed to fight him if they won the title.

But Evloev believes his title shot might still be out of reach. The 31-year-old was in attendance at UFC 314 and tried to congratulate Volkanovski personally. However, he was allegedly stopped by UFC security and taken to a different side of the room, away from the cameras. While Evloev believes he is already deserving of a title shot, he is undeterred and willing to prove himself as many times as needed.

"As …

👀😱 Israel Adesanya wants to rematch Sean Strickland because after losing the fight he felt bullied, the same way as in his childhood:

"This time I am gonna come at him correct. I used to get bullied a lot as a kid. He's an embodiment of that, in the sense that he attacked… pic.twitter.com/s240fZlqck

— Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight) April 22, 2025

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Israel Adesanya is linking up with David Goggins to try and avenge his loss against Sean Strickland.

Adesanya lost his middleweight title to Strickland via a lopsided unanimous decision at UFC 293 in 2023. While Adesanya was fighting twice a year on an average during his title reign, the Strickland loss admittedly made him realize that he needed to slow down. “The Last Stylebender” has since fought only twice, suffering consecutive stoppage losses against Dricus Du Plessis in 2024 and Nassourdine Imavov this past February.

Adesanya now wants to return to action with a rem…

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Former UFC signee Pietro Menga on Tuesday was jailed for 15 and five months years after pleading guilty to conspiracy to sell or transfer prohibited weapons and conspiracy to supply cocaine.

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According to a statement from the Greater Manchester Police, Menga had a “lucrative job as a middleman for an organized crime group, where he was directly involved in sourcing large quantities of cocaine for customers across the region, all of which he made commission on.”

Over time, authorities were able to identify Menga through a messaging platform service called Encrochat. Through a series of anonymous messages, it was determined that Menga used the handle “wirelessshark” to have conversations with other criminals “openly discussing the sale and purchase of wholesale amounts of drugs and firearms.” Based on the messages on his phone, a drug expert estimated Menga had been involved in the the sale of drugs with a street value well over $50…

Mark Hunt won’t be able to sue the UFC, promotion CEO Dana White and Brock Lesnar, per a ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday.

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According to courthousenews.com, the Ninth Circuit upheld a previous ruling from U.S. District Judge Jennifer Dorsey in 2023, when she determined that Hunt failed to prove that the promotion and White booked him against Brock Lesnar at UFC while knowing that his opponent was using performance enhancing drugs. The Ninth Circuit took a slightly different stance than Dorsey in its decision.

"Unfortunately, Hunt does not point to any evidence in the record of any physical, emotional, economic, or reputational damage or harm attributable to Defendants-Appellees’ conduct," the three-judge panel wrote in its ruling. "Indeed, while maintaining that such evidence does in fact exist, Hunt acknowledged both in his reply brief and at argument that evidence of damages has not yet been 'adequately presented.'"

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Mario Bautista is eyeing a rematch against Cory Sandhagen if both of them win their next outings.

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Bautista is scheduled to fight Marlon Vera at UFC 316 on June 7 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. While Bautista isn’t looking past Vera, he is expecting a Top 5 opponent if he wins at UFC 316. And Bautista’s first preference would be Sandhagen, who submitted him in the first round of his UFC debut in 2019.

“Don’t want to look too far forward, but if I get past ‘Chito’ my No. 1 pick would be against Sandhagen,” Bautista told Home of Fight. “I would love to get that rematch back, and it would feel a little weird if I somehow passed him in the rankings without fighting him.”

While Bautista is now 9-2 in the UFC and riding a seven-fight winning streak, Vera is on a two-fight skid. Meanwhile, Sandhagen comes off a unanimous decision loss against Umar Nurmagomedov that ended a three-fight winning streak. “The Sandman” i…

Carlos Prates is well prepared for his next headlining opportunity.

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The Brazilian, who arrived in Kansas City, Missouri, on Monday, spoke to Sherdog.com about his upcoming fight with Ian Garry in the UFC on ESPN 66 main event on Saturday night. Prates was originally supposed to face Geoff Neal at UFC 314 in a three-round bout on April 12 before his opponent withdrew from the event.

"I didn’t do anything different in that camp. Actually I always train for five rounds, even when I fight three rounds, so it was basically the same,” Prates said. “The only difference is that I brought BJJ master Vagner Motta to help me with takedown defense and ground skills.”

According to The Fighting Nerds representative, the scale will not be a problem for him, either.

"Since my last fight I started to work with my nutritionist to gain weight and get stronger in the division. I started this camp weighing 90 kilograms (198 pounds), but I'm already weighing 82 k…

Vitor Belfort recently interacted with larger-than-life figure from another sport for the second time.

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Having lived in Florida with his family for more than 10 years, the former UFC champion was in attendance at UFC 314 in Miami earlier this month.

In an exclusive interview with Sherdog.com, Belfort commented on his meeting with basketball legend Shaquille O'Neal, praised The Fighting Nerds and advised former opponent Jon Jones to not face Tom Aspinall.

“In this video I made with Shaquille, he remembered the day we met 29 years ago. It was at my debut at Super Brawl 2 in Hawaii in 1996. I was 18 years old and he went to the event with the entire Los Angeles Lakers team,” Belfort told Sherdog.com. “If I'm not mistaken, the next day would be Kobe Bryant’s debut with the Lakers. In this meeting, I told him, remember I told you that you would fall in love with this sport. It was so nice to meet him again, [with both of us] in attendance as MMA…

🚨 Nassourdine Imavov on why he isn't interested in the Caio Borralho fight:

"He'll get KOed. He'll sleep. Then they're gonna say 'It's normal. He was [ranked] #1, you see'.

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That's their way of managing their careers. Falling forwards. It's better to fall forwards than… pic.twitter.com/t1s5b8dg6i — Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) April 21, 2025

Nassourdine Imavov believes losing to him would be Caio Borralho’s biggest claim to fame.

Borralho was rallying for a matchup against Imavov until recently. However, Imavov explained why the matchup didn’t make sense for him. The UFC middleweight contender has no doubt that he would knock Borralho out. However, the Frenchman believes Borralho’s team would then claim that it was expected that he would lose to the top contender.

"He'll get KO’ed. He'll sleep,” Imavov said. “Then they're gonna say 'It's normal. He was [ranked] No. 1, you see.’ That's their way of managin…

Arman Tsarukyan defends Islam Makhachev's stance of not fighting Ilia Topuria.🤝

"Islam doesn't want to fight him because if he beats Topuria, people gonna say 'You again beat a 145-pound fighter.' And if Islam beats me, I think he's done with this division."

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🎥 @JaxxonPodcast pic.twitter.com/CL4Y9W8qCL — Red Corner MMA (@RedCorner_MMA) April 21, 2025

Arman Tsarukyan understands why Islam Makhachev doesn’t want to fight Ilia Topuria.

Topuria recently vacated his featherweight title and is rallying for a lightweight gold bid against Makhachev. However, Makhachev isn’t willing to fight “La Leyenda” immediately, as he claims he has little to gain from the matchup.

Makhachev has defended his title twice against two-time featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski, who was once the No. 1 pound-for-pound UFC fighter. Regardless, many undermined those wins, saying Makhachev beat a smaller opponent. Hence, Makhachev doesn’t …