Day: 7. Juni 2026

The Ultimate Fighting Championship gala extravaganza has encountered a legal hitch.

On Friday, the Public Integrity Project—a firm with the mission statement to “stop corruption”—sued the U.S. government on behalf of two individuals from Virginia. The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (D.D.C.), defendants include the Acting Director of the National Park Service (NPS) Jessica Bowron, the National Capital Region Director of the NPS Jen Nersesian, the U.S. Department of the Interior and its Secretary, Doug Burgum. The plaintiffs request that the court deems the organization of the event itself unlawful and shuts it down, while removing the structures built on the White House lawn to accommodate the fight card.

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In the suit itself, the demand for relief declares that the arrangement between the Ultimate Fighting Championship and the White House is corrupt, partially due to the personal relationship between President D…

Dana White has an exchange offer of sorts for Eddie Hearn.

As of March, boxing promoter-slash-manager Hearn picked up a major client: Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall. Since that arrangement came into place, Hearn has been harshly criticizing the UFC for underpaying Aspinall. The Matchroom Boxing chairman recently asked for Aspinall’s release from the UFC, promising to increase the Englishman’s earnings substantially more than what he is currently making.

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Responding to Hearn’s comments, White snapped back by asking for the release of one of Hearn’s most valued boxers, two-division champ Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez (23-0, 16 KOs). White said at a Zuffa Boxing press conference:

“[Hearn] said he wanted [Aspinall] released, right? Well, you release ‘Bam’ Rodriguez then. Sounds pretty stupid, doesn’t it? Congratulations again, Eddie. You sound stupid again.”

The current WBC, WBO and “The Ring” super flyweight titleholde…

Jeisla Chaves was surprised by the result in her Ultimate Fighting Championship debut.

Chaves made her promotional debut against Yuneisy Duben at UFC Fight Night 278 on Saturday. “A Braba” earned a hard-fought split decision win over Duben at the Apex in Las Vegas. However, the flyweight was surprised by the split nature of the verdict. While Duben managed to win the third round on all the scorecards, judge Tony Weeks also gave her the first round. While Chaves admits that Duben deserved Round 3, she was confident that she did enough to win the first two. Chaves said in a post-fight interview:

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“Very happy with a win in my debut. It was a split decision. I gotta confess, I was really surprised. I was like, ‘Oh my God. We’re gonna have some emotion. Why not? It makes it more fun.’ Thankfully, the win came… I was confident. My corners came to me and said, ‘You won 2-1.’ I felt that we had done enough to win.”

Chaves (8-0) got introduced to combat spor…

Bryce Mitchell feels like he belongs in the bantamweight division.

Mitchell (19-3) was originally scheduled to fight Victor Henry at UFC Fight Night 278 on Saturday. However, Henry was forced out with an injury and replaced by a previously undefeated Santiago Luna (8-1) on short notice. Mitchell dominated Luna on the ground throughout the fight before securing an arm-triangle choke, forcing Luna to tap with less than ten seconds left. While the fight was not very fan-friendly apart from the finish, Mitchell explained that he largely burned his arms out trying to control his opponent. Mitchell remarked in a post-fight interview:

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“I’m squeezing so hard with my arms the whole fight; it was actually hard for me to elbow and punch him. Because you do that with your hands too… When he moves, I finally get to punch, but I don’t get to do very big punches because he is moving. So, you get a heavy grappling match, an exhausting pace, with very little room for…

Tom Nolan’s only professional loss taught him a lot of lessons.

Nolan closed as a betting underdog going into his lightweight clash against Fares Ziam at UFC Fight Night 278 on Saturday in Las Vegas. Nolan outclassed Ziam on the ground while holding his own on the feet to earn a unanimous decision win. This was Nolan’s fifth straight victory after his lone professional loss in his 2024 promotional debut.

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Nolan made it to the Ultimate Fighting Championship with the reputation of a highly touted prospect. In his UFC debut against Nikolas Motta, however, Motta derailed Nolan’s hype train by knocking him out a bit over a minute into the fight. Nolan revealed that he was inexperienced and doing a lot of things wrong as a 23-year-old. However, the Aussie doesn’t want to take away from Motta’s performance. As his stock fell, he rediscovered his love for the game, slowly building himself back. “Big Train” claims he felt no fear of losing going into his clash…