Martial Arts News

[embedded content] The Ultimate Fighting Championship makes its Saudi Arabia debut with an intriguing 11-fight card that is now set after the official weigh-ins took place.

The main event will see former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker take on short-notice replacement Ikram Aliskerov, who is filling in for an ill Khamzat Chimaev. Both men stepped on the scales looking ready to go all five rounds, with Whittaker coming at 186 pounds and Askerov arriving at a svelte 184 pounds. All 22 fighters on the card successfully made weight.

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This marks the second fight this year for "Bobby Knuckles." The Australian previously beat Paulo Costa to rebound from his defeat to now-champion Dricus Du Plessis. Whittaker, who is still just 33 and holds a record of 25-7, will look to show he's still a dangerous contender. The former titleholder comes into the fight having won two of his last three.

This is easily the biggest fight in the career of Aliskerov (15-1…

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The main event for PFL 5 is official, as both Clay Collard and Mads Burnell hit their contracted marks on Thursday.

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Collard tipped the scales at 155.8 pounds, while Burnell checked in at 155.6 ahead of their lightweight headliner, which is scheduled for Friday at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City. PFL 5, which features regular season bouts at lightweight and light heavyweight, begins with a preliminary card on ESPN+ at 4:30 p.m. ET/1:30 p.m. PT before moving to the main draw on ESPN and ESPN+ at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

A 2023 PFL lightweight finalist, Collard kicked off his current campaign with a second-round technical knockout victory against Patricky Freire on April 12. He currently sits xth in the PFL lightweight standings with five points.

Burnell has some work to do if he is to advance to the posteason. The UFC and Bellator MMA veteran had a two-bout winning streak snapped at PFL 2, where he suffered a second-round …

Ian Garry is not buying into any of the hype behind Michael Page.

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Garry (14-0) and Page (22-2) are slated to trade leather at UFC 303 on June 29 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. It is a high-stakes matchup that could catapult the winner into the conversation for welterweight title contendership.

While rallying for the booking, Page aimed multiple shots and promised to punish Garry in “10 different ways,” also calling out the “fake” online image of the Irishman, who has been a dividing personality since the beginning of his Ultimate Fighting Championship tenure.

Responding to “MVP,” Garry has now declared himself levels above the former Bellator MMA star in every aspect.

“He’s a legend? You said that to line me up… I believe I’m levels above him in every single way, shape and form,” Garry said in an Instagram post. “And this is just an opportunity to show, to prove to people. I go, ‘You guys think this guy’s good? OK: I’ll use him a…

Saturday’s dynamic UFC on ABC 6 card has seen yet another change.

Joilton Lutterbach (38-9) is out of his fight against Sharabutdin “Shara Bullet” Magomedov, 12-0, which was scheduled to go down in Riyadh on June 22. Fellow Brazilian Antonio Trocoli (12-3) has stepped up to replace Lutterbach against Magomedov on three days’ notice. The change was first announced by Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White on social media. Lutterbach subsequently revealed that he wasn’t allowed to fight due a substance found in his urine.

This is Magomedov’s third opponent for his sophomore UFC outing after Ihor Potieria, who accepted a short-notice matchup against Michel Pereira at UFC 301. Meanwhile, Trocoli was scheduled to fight Ikram Aliskerov last weekend before the Dagestani agreed to replace Khamzat Chimaev against Robert Whittaker in Saturday’s main event. While this will mark Trocoli’s UFC debut, “Malvado” has been with the promotion for two years and has no…

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Ikram Aliskerov (15-1) claims Khabib Nurmagomedov’s coaching style is similar to that of his father.

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Aliskerov is scheduled to fight Robert Whittaker (25-7) in the UFC on ABC 6 headliner on June 22 at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Hailing from Dagestan, Aliskerov often trains with former lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov and his protégé Islam Makhachev. Like most other elite fighters from the region, Aliskerov has also had had the privilege of training under Nurmagomedov’s late father, Abdulmanap, who is widely regarded as the pioneer of mixed martial arts in the region.

Aliskerov recently detailed what made Nurmagomedov arguably one of the best coaches in the world. According to Aliskerov, it was Abdulmanap’s emphasis on discipline over talent that set him apart.

“You know the biggest thing about him and I always say this, he put a huge emphasis on discipline,” Aliskerov told Shakiel Mahjouri. “He even had this …

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Sharabutdin “Shara Bullet” Magomedov (12-0) had an interesting encounter with local law enforcement on a previous visit to Saudi Arabia.

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Magomedov is slated to face Brazilian debutant Antonio Trocoli (12-3) at UFC on ABC 6 on June 22 at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. However, this isn’t Magomedov’s first visit to the region, where he has achieved surprising popularity. The Russian has previously been to the country for Hajj, which is the annual Islamic pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. While Magomedov hasn’t been out of the fighter hotel much this time, he was overwhelmed by fan support the one time he journeyed beyond.

“Yes, I’m surprised that people recognize me here like they do in Russia,” Magomedov told Red Corner MMA. “People ask to take pictures in the most unusual places. It’s nice. We’ll be taking over the whole Arabian peninsula. People know me in Saudi and the UAE. We’re conquering more shores. There’s nowher…

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Longtime mixed martial arts veteran Shannon Ritch shot and killed a man in a parking lot dispute outside of Phoenix restaurant, according to a report from Fox 10 Phoenix.

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According to a police investigation, Ritch, 53, and Alejandro Samplina, 32, were involved in a confrontation regarding an issue over parking outside of a Twin Peaks on June 15. Ritch allegedly shot and killed Samplina after he claimed that Samplina chased him around his car with a knife.

"Ritch was able to retrieve his handgun from the open door of his vehicle. Samplina proceeded to walk towards Ritch with the knife in a threatening manner. In response, Ritch fired one round, striking Samplina," Phoenix Police Sgt. Mayra Reeson told Fox 10.

Samplina died at a local hospital, per the report. Police released Ritch after he “provided a self-defense claim consistent with witnesses and surveillance video.” The exact nature of the argument remains unclear.

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Joshua Silveira isn’t leaving anything to chance.

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The American Top Team export arrived in Salt Lake City more than a week ahead of his PFL 5 encounter with Rob Wilkinson in order to get acclimated to the Utah capital’s 4,265 feet of elevation.

“I know Rob trains out of Colorado, so I had to give myself that same type of elevation workout,” Silvera said during PFL media day. “We’re high up in the mountains. I’m from Florida. You’re like 100 feet above sea level [there]. I’m not used to 5,000 feet, but I came out early, [to] be responsible. We’re at the top level here, so I want to be responsible. I made my investment.”

One of the advantages of training at American Top Team is that Silveira can call upon a whole stable of training partners who have experienced fighting at elevation. Silveira took advantage of that knowledge and put it to use.

“At the end of the day, it’s science. I wasn’t gonna find out on fight night,” Silveira said. “But it…

A bantamweight showdown pitting Chris Gutierrez against Javid Basharat has been added to the UFC on ABC 7 lineup.

Gutierrez confirmed the booking on social media following an initial report from Marcel Dorff. UFC on ABC 7 takes place at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi on Aug. 3 and is headlined by a bantamweight tilt between Cory Sandhagen and Umar Nurmagomedov.

Gutierrez is coming of a unanimous decision loss to Yadong Song in the UFC Fight Night 233 headliner this past December. Prior to that, “El Guapo” had been victorious in five of his previous six Octagon appearances dating back to 2021.

Basharat, meanwhile, suffered his first defeat in 16 pro outings at UFC Fight Night 238, where he dropped a unanimous verdict to Aiemann Zahabi on March 2. Basharat owns victories over Mateus Mendonca, Tony Gravely and Trevin Jones in UFC competition.

ONE Championship three-division title holder Anatoly Malykhin will defend his heavyweight crown against Oumar Kane when the promotion heads to Atlanta on Nov. 8.

ONE announced the main event booking in a release on Wednesday. ONE Championship 169 takes place at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta and marks the organization’s second trip to the United States in 2024. In the evening’s co-headliner, Tawanchai PK Saenchai will defend his featherweight (155-pound) muay thai belt against Joe Nattawut. The card will air live on Prime Video in the United States.

Malykhin is coming off a third-round technical knockout victory against Reinier de Ridder to claim the middleweight (205-pound) title at ONE 166 on March 1. The 36-year-old Russian owns a 14-0 professional mark — which includes six victories under the ONE banner. He captured heavyweight gold with a third-round stoppage of UFC veteran Arjan Singh Bhullar in June 2023.

A native of Senegal who is commonly known a…

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Colby Covington has slammed Sean Strickland for criticizing the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s fighter pay.

Strickland recently engaged in a back-and-forth with Mike Perry over fighter pay in the BKFC. When Perry responded by calling out the UFC’s fighter pay, Strickland admitted that both promotions needed to better their fighter salaries.

However, Covington disagrees with Strickland. Covington noted that while the UFC typically pays $10,000 + $10,000 to show and win to entry-level fighters, Strickland is probably drawing close to $1 million per fight. “Chaos” believes it is hypocritical of the former middleweight champ to criticize UFC fighter pay when he has built a comfortable life for himself with that.

“My thoughts are, Sean changed his life, so he’s kind of hypocritical to be saying this,” Covington said on the SOSCAST with Adam Sosnick. “Now he lives in like a really nice mansion-style type house, you know, has great cars, and …

Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight Carlos Prates began his habit of smoking cigarettes at a young age.

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Prates recently shut down Charlie Radtke with a violent knee to the body in the first round of their UFC on ESPN 57 clash earlier this month. The Brazilian was seen smoking a cigarette when he learned that his victory earned a “Performance of the Night” bonus. Prates also revealed that smoking before and after a fight is a fairly common ritual for him..

Prates recently opened up further on his smoking habits during an appearance on the ”Show Me the Money” podcast. Prates revealed that he had started smoking at the age of 12 or 13 — though the habit has increased over the years. The pandemic affected Prates, and “The Nightmare” started smoking a lot of marijuana. When he noticed adverse effects of cannabis on his mental health, Prates decided to stick to cigarettes.

“I think I started to smoke when I was 12 or 13. Not like today, of…