Martial Arts News

Ihor Potieria will be returning to action a little sooner than originally anticipated.

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The 27-year-old Ukraine native will step in and face Michel Pereira at UFC 301 on May 4 in Rio de Janeiro. Potieria is a replacement for Makhmud Muradov, who recently announced his withdrawal from the event. Multiple outlets confirmed the new middleweight booking following an initial report from MMA Mania. Potieira was originally slated to face Sharabutdin Magomedov at UFC Saudi Arabia on June 22 before accepting the fight against Pereira.

UFC 301 takes place at Rio Arena and is headlined by a flyweight title tilt pitting Alexandre Pantoja against Steve Erceg.

Potieira snapped a two-bout skid in his first appearance of 2024, as he took a unanimous decision win against Robert Bryczek at UFC Fight Night 236 on Feb. 10. “The Duelist” is 2-3 during his promotional tenure and 20-5 as a professional overall.

Pereira, meanwhile, has won seven straight UFC bo…

Tom Aspinall has made it clear that he prefers Curtis Blaydes as his next opponent over Ciryl Gane.

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Despite winning the UFC interim heavyweight title with a knockout over Sergei Pavlovich last November, Aspinall is currently in a bit of a fix regarding his next fight. While champ Jon Jones is sidelined with an injury, he is expected to return against Stipe Miocic. That leaves Aspinall with only two logical opponents, Blaydes and Gane.

Having seemingly given up all hopes of fighting Jones or Miocic next, Aspinall's next choice is Blaydes, who derailed Brazilian contender Jailton Almeida’s hype train at UFC 299 last month with a second-round knockout. The interim champion wants to correct an unfortunate injury loss he suffered against Blaydes in 2022, when he blew out his knee in 15 seconds, leading to the only blemish on his UFC record.

“Curtis Blaydes… Because we were supposed to fight, we had a fight for 15 seconds, I injured my knee and he …

All The Way to the 🔝@PaulHughesMMA unleashed relentless aggression in our #CW170 Co-main event! pic.twitter.com/VzidYjPmWi

— Cage Warriors (@CageWarriors) April 8, 2024

Top prospect Paul Hughes, who is currently a free agent, has expressed his interest in a potential clash with Paddy Pimblett.

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Hughes exhausted his contract with Cage Warriors, scoring a first-round knockout over Fabiano Silva at Cage Warriors 170 on April 6 in his final bout with the European promotion. Hughes shared much of his limelight at Cage Warriors with Pimblett, who signed with the Ultimate Fighting Championship in 2021.

While both held the Cage Warriors featherweight title, they never crossed paths, as Pimblett moved up to 155 pounds in 2018. Hughes also made the move to lightweight last year, vacating his featherweight strap.

In a recent Instagram post where Hughes invited suggestions for his future, a fan proposed a tilt against “The B…

Sean Strickland has given his reason for seemingly turning down a booking against Paulo Costa.

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Costa recently revealed that Strickland had snubbed a proposed matchup between the two for UFC 302 on June 1 in Newark, New Jersey.

Costa is coming off a unanimous decision loss against Robert Whittaker at UFC 298 in February, where the Brazilian put on a gritty performance in his return to action after a year and a half.

“Borrachinha” was reportedly in talks about a potential clash with Jared Cannonier next before the Ultimate Fighting Championship abruptly suggested the Strickland booking. While Costa was even more excited about fighting “Tarzan,” the former champ seemingly turned down the offer.

“This is great stuff. UFC, suggest I fight [Jared] Cannonier. It’s a nice fight and I love the idea to fight Cannonier and they suggest that fight for June,” Costa said on The Coach and The Casual podcast

“But then, two days ago UFC come and say, …

A matchup of promising middleweights has been added to a UFC Fight Night event on June 15.

Andre Muniz (24-6) will take on Ikram Aliskerov (15-1) at UFC Fight Night at the promotion’s Apex in Las Vegas. The matchup was first reported by Brazilian mixed martial arts reporter Laerte Viana on X (formerly known as Twitter). Both Muniz and Aliskerov have since confirmed the pairing on social media.

Muniz is coming off a split-decision win over Jun Yong Park in his last outing this past December. “Sergipano” kicked off his Ultimate Fighting Championship career with a five-fight winning streak before suffering consecutive stoppage losses against Brendan Allen and Paul Craig.

Meanwhile, Aliskerov’s last pro loss came against Khamzat Chimaev under the Brave CF banner back in 2019, which “Borz” has labeled the toughest matchup of his career. The Dagestani standout earned his UFC contract with a Round 1 submission victory on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2022 a…

A women’s flyweight matchup between Viviane Araujo against Jasmine Jasudavicius has been added to a UFC Fight Night event scheduled for July 13.

The booking was first reported by MMAjunkie.com and later announced by Jasudavicious on social media. The event does not have a confirmed location or headliner.

Araujo is coming off a unanimous decision loss against Natalia Silva in February and is 1-3 in her last four. Her only win in this stretch came via unanimous decision over Jennifer Maia in October 2023.

Meanwhile, Jasudavicius comes off a bonus-winning submission win over Priscila Cachoeira at UFC 297 in June and is 3-1 in her last four. The Canadian’s most recent Octagon outing saw her bounce back from a unanimous decision loss against Tracy Cortez in September 2023.Viviane Araujo vs Jasmine Jasudavicius

Andrei Arlovski will lock horns with Martin Buday in a heavyweight bout at an Ultimate Fighting Championship event on June 15.

Buday confirmed the booking on social media following an initial report from MMAjunkie.com. UFC Fight Night is expected to take place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. A headliner has not been announced.

The matchup with Buday will mark Arlovski’s 42nd Octagon appearance — the second most in UFC history behind Jim Miller. After winning four straight contests from April 2021 to April 2022, the 45-year-old Belarusian has dropped his last three promotional outings. Most recently, “The Pit Bull” suffered a unanimous decision defeat to Waldo Cortes-Acosta at UFC Fight Night 234 on Jan. 13.

A winner on Dana White’s Contender Series in October 2021, Buday kicked off his UFC tenure with four consecutive triumphs. That ended in his last outing, when the Slovakian suffered a second-round TKO loss against Shamil Gaziev at UFC 296.

Makhmud Muradov has withdrawn from a proposed middleweight booking against Michel Pereira at UFC 301.

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The 34-year-old Uzbekistan native announced the news in a post on social media.

“In 20 days, for the second time, an infection emerged that needed to be removed, and my team and I decided to cancel the fight,” Muradov wrote on Instagram (via translated text). “…We will be back soon.”

UFC 301 takes place on May 4 at Rio Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and is headlined by a flyweight championship clash between Alexandre Pantoja and Steve Erceg. It is unclear if Pereira will remain on the card against a replacement opponent. Pereira va. Muradov was slated for the pay-per-view portion of the event.

Muradov has won just once in his last four Octagon appearances. His last outing against Aliaskab Khizriev ended via no contest in just 11 seconds when Muradov was unable to continue following an accidental eye poke from his opponent at UFC Fight …

Alex Polizzi believes Sean Strickland’s intentions are to always pull his teammates up, even though the UFC fighter might appear a bit harsh at times.

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Polizzi has been promoted to the main event spot at PFL 2 opposite Impa Kasanganay at The Theatre at Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas on Friday after Phil Davis was forced out of the originally scheduled headliner against Rob Wilkinson. Going into matchup, Polizzi is putting in work with the likes of UFC veterans Chris Curtis and Sean Strickland at the Xtreme Couture gym in Las Vegas.

Never very far from the headlines, Strickland recently generated more controversy by putting a beating on streamer Sneako during a sparring session. While many believe Strickland could have gone easier on the untrained streamer, Polizzi doesn’t have an issue considering it was consensual.

“It’s kind of what you said, a lot of fighters want to, not all are gonna do it,” Polizzi said in an interview with The AllStar. “…

Jose Mariscal called out old foe Bryce Mitchell after his win over Morgan Charriere at UFC Fight Night 240 on Saturday.

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Mariscal derailed the French standout’s hype train by putting on an impressive display of pace and pressure to rope in a split-decision win. “Chepe” subsequently called out Mitchell, who defeated him on the regional scene in 2017.

“There’s a lot of guys but the one specific ranked guy – I fought him in the regional scene, I fought him in his hometown and they gave it to him obviously,” Mariscal said during a post-fight media scrum. “I was cool about it, I said, ‘I will see you again one day.’ And I would like to callout Mr. Bryce Mitchell.”

Mariscal would ideally want the rematch at The Sphere in Las Vegas, where the UFC is planning a unique card to honor Mexican Independence Day on Sept. 14.

“Yeah man, I’m that Mexican that deserves to be in that Sphere fight, you know,” Mariscal said. “I go out there and show exactl…

While Sean Strickland had initially advised Chris Curtis against accepting a short-notice clash against Brendan Allen, he was certainly impressed with his teammate’s performance.

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Curtis replaced Marvin Vettori against Allen at UFC Fight Night 240 on three weeks’ notice. Curtis put on a gritty display, losing a split decision that some observers felt could have gone in his favor. Strickland also had “The Action Man” winning even though he had initially suggested turning down the booking.

UFC "Curt we need you on a week notice"

ME "Curt you haven't really been training because you wanted to take time off for you new baby, just say no"

Curt goes and out strikes a guy coming off the couch with a week of training lmao! pic.twitter.com/hJKvDfMeRm

— Sean Strickland (@SStricklandMMA) April 7, 2024

During the filming of a promo video, Strickland claims to have gone easy on Curtis, who according to him was out of shape and…

Ben Tynan revealed his inspiration for the pair of jeans shorts he wore in his impressive win over Duke Didier at One on Prime Video 21.

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Tynan sent the Australian crashing to the canvas with an elbow and followed it up with vicious ground-and-pound, securing a stoppage at the 2:36 mark of Round 1. “Vanilla Thunder” improved his perfect finishing streak to six, which includes two ONE Championship outings. If that were not impressive enough, Tynan wore a pair of jean shorts while doing it.

Asked about the shorts, Tynan explained that they were inspired from pro wrestling, which he grew up watching.

"I’ve always had a vision of fighting in these jean shorts,” Tynan said at the post-fight press confeence. “I don’t know where it started from. It might’ve come from the days of watching professional wrestling as a kid and seeing big beefy dudes in jean shorts beat each other. I always had that image that I wanted to be one of those guys, so being a…