Martial Arts News

[embedded content] Micael Galvao and Amit Elor met backstage at a jiu-jitsu championship event in San Francisco in 2017, unaware of the future in store for the two of them.

Recently turning 21 years of age, Galvao has established himself as a major player in the jiu-jitsu scene. After conquering the so-called “Super Grand Slam”—victories in the Brazilian, Pan American, European and World Championships events—the youngster has ambitions that rival his ample skills. Galvao, also an ADCC champion, revealed to Combate’s Mundo da Luta podcast last Monday that he is considering representing his home country in the Olympics. Galvao’s girlfriend, Elor, won the Olympic gold medal in freestyle wrestling at the 2024 games at 68 kg (150 pounds), and he would like to match her accomplishment in 2028.

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“I have this desire to compete in the Olympic games, and I believe that wrestling would be the easiest path,” Galvao claimed. “I tried to see if it would be possible …

Our #UFCVegas98 main event is official ✅@BrandonRoyval hits the scale at 125.5lbs

[ Live TOMORROW on @ESPNPlus| 7pmET/4pmPT ] pic.twitter.com/21p2aAky9a

— UFC (@ufc) October 11, 2024 Editor's note: The article was updated at 2:15 p.m. ET to reflect the cancelation of one bout.

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After an electric pay-per-view event in Salt Lake City, the Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to the UFC Apex for UFC Fight Night 244.

Headlining the 12-fight card is a five-round flyweight contest between former title challenger Brandon Royval and Tatsuro Taira. Both mixed martial artists came in under the 126-pound limit. However, the rest of the card wasn't nearly as professional. Three fighters missed weight: Jared Gooden came in 1.5 pounds over the welterweight limit for his fight against Chidi Njokuani, Josh Fremd hit the scales in three pounds overweight for his middleweight fight against Abdul Razak Alhassan and Dan Argueta clocke…

Rising Ultimate Fighting Championship talent Carlos Prates has already earned a place on the marquee.

Per MMA Fighting on Thursday, the promotion has pulled Prates (20-6) from his welterweight pairing with Randy Brown at UFC 309. Instead, the surging Brazilian will collide with grizzled veteran Neil Magny (29-12) in the main event of UFC Fight Night 247, also known as UFC Vegas 100. An excited Prates has since confirmed the matchup on his Instagram page.

Fan-favorite Magny has alternated wins and losses in his last eight, staving off tough outs Mike Malott and Daniel Rodriguez while coming up short to elite threats in the division like Shavkat Rakhmonov and Gilbert Burns. Most recently, the 37-year-old saw his brief bit of momentum from the Malott victory dry up when Michael Morales punched him out in the first round. Magny, who now goes by the nickname of “The Haitian Sensation,” holds a litany of records at 170 pounds including the most appearances (33), the most …

Artem Vakhitov, the last man to beat Alex Pereira in kickboxing, just got a UFC contract 👀

Dana White says he gave him the contract because Alex Pereira said he deserves it 🤝 #DWCS #UFC #MMApic.twitter.com/8FhySR8MhE

— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) October 9, 2024

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Ultimate Fighting Championship light heavyweight kingpin Alex Pereira helped rival Artem Vakhitov get into the UFC.

Vakhitov (3-1) earned a first-round technical knockout over Islem Masraf at DWCS 2024: Week 9 on Tuesday. However, UFC CEO Dana White contemplated before giving Vakhitov a contract as he did not expect the amount of clinching that transpired. White called on his biggest star and Vakhitov’s former foe in Pereira, who was sitting cageside, for his opinion.

“This was an interesting fight, more clinching than I expected. And you obviously got the job done, you got the finish. And I actually called Alex back with me to talk about this fig…

The woman many feel is the WMMA GOAT might be plotting a return.

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Amanda Nunes (23-5) recently hinted that she might be coming out of retirement in a message to Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White. “The Lioness” asked the UFC head honcho to “Call me” in a video posted on Instagram.

White reacted to Nunes’ message at the DWCS 2024: Week 9 post-fight press conference.

“She looks good. She looks great. Looks like she’s still in shape. So, you know where her head’s at. And I love that about her. There’s a lot of things I love about her, I love that about her. She’s keeping an eye on who wins the title next. I think she’s teasing that she might be interested in coming back.”

Nunes’ legendary championship run came to an end via a shock upset submission loss against Julianna Pena (12-5) at UFC 269 in 2021. Nunes reclaimed her belt via a one-sided unanimous decision over Pena in their rematch at UFC 277 the next year. They were s…

Kody Steele found the on-off switch.

The undefeated Syndicate MMA prospect was one of four hopefuls to secure an Ultimate Fighting Championship contract during Week 9 of Dana White’s Contender Series, as he took out Chasen Blair with punches in the second round of their lightweight showcase on Tuesday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Steele (7-0, 1-0 DWCS) brought it to a close 4:07 into Round 2.

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Blair (6-3, 0-1 DWCS) went tit for tat with the Texan and held his own for a time. Steele applied merciless pressure, let fly with heavy punching bursts and put visible damage on his opponent across the first five minutes. Blair appeared to turn the tide in the first half of the second round, where he operated behind an effective counter game, basic one-twos and intermittent leg kicks. Steele was unimpressed and undeterred. He pressed forward with supreme confidence and connected with a sweeping left hook the liver that felled Blair at the base of the cage. …

Daniel Cormier reveals that the Alex Pereira camp let the UFC know that they may pull out of #UFC307 before heading to Salt Lake City. This would have resulted in Pennington vs Pena being the main-event.

“The UFC said to him ‘That would suck, but let us know how it goes. We have… pic.twitter.com/d2hgrsTg6z

— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) October 7, 2024

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The UFC 307 main event was close to being postponed.

Alex Pereira (12-2) put his light heavyweight title on the line against Khalil Rountree (13-6) in the main event at UFC 307 at Salt Lake City, Utah, on Oct. 5. While Rountree took Rounds 1 and 2 on the official scorecards, Pereira put on a striking clinic as the fight progressed to earn a fourth-round technical knockout victory.

Pereira subsequently revealed that aside from a tough test against Rountree, he also had a grueling camp. “Poatan” dealt with visa issues, a fever that needed antibiotics and linger…

It has been a long time, to be honest. How are you doing with drugs? Are you still on steroids? https://t.co/Da50uyFXoL

— Ilia Topuria (@Topuriailia) October 3, 2024

Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight king Ilia Topuria is rallying hard for a double champ bid against lightweight champ Islam Makhachev.

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Topuria (15-0) has recently been exchanging words with Makhachev (26-1) and his team. The feud started with a Q&A session where Topuria said he would get the better of Makhachev in a street fight but would rather do it inside the Octagon to avoid paying the Dagestani’s medical bills. Makhachev’s teammate Usman Nurmagomedov fired back at Topuria, who took a dig the Bellator MMA lightweight champ’s recent drug testing failure. Abubakar Nurmagomedov and Tagir Ulanbekov from the Dagestani crew also chimed in to defend their teammates.

In an interview with Match TV, Makhachev warned Topuria about crossing person…

Michael “Venom” Page versus Carlos Condit has been booked for Polaris 30 on Nov. 2, per promotion officials.

MVP has been working on his grappling as of late and this popped up as a good test. pic.twitter.com/hqB2ivO259

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) October 7, 2024

Michael Page and Carlos Condit will meet in a grappling match at Polaris 30.

The grappling bout will headline the European promotion’s next event on Nov. 2 in London. The matchup was first reported by Ariel Helwani.

Known for his flashy striking, Page (22-3) will debut in pure grappling against Condit (32-14), who comes from a jiu-jitsu background.

“MVP” made his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut at UFC 299 in March when the 37-year-old earned a unanimous decision over Kevin Holland. The Brit has since dropped a unanimous decision against undefeated Ian Garry at UFC 303 in June.

Meanwhile, Condit, 40, retired from the sport following a unanimous d…

Top Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight title challenger Kayla Harrison’s body is not reacting well to her weight cuts.

According to an interview with TMZ on Monday, recent victor Harrison (18-1) admitted that a week before UFC 307, she was forced to go to the hospital. The two-time Olympic gold medalist in judo, who competed at 172 pounds in the games and 155 pounds while in Professional Fighters League, has struggled greatly to reach the 136-pound cap. Despite the issues, Harrison still defeated Ketlen Vieira on the scorecards to likely claim a shot at 135-pound gold. It was not all sunshine and rainbows for the judoka.

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“I’m still learning, I’m still growing,” the 34-year-old told TMZ. “I feel like there’s a lot of room for improvement for me, it definitely wasn’t my best night in the cage. There are a lot of things that happened…I don’t like to make excuses, but I had to go to the hospital the week before, I was peeing blood and there was…

An ex-Bellator MMA champ wants to make a statement against a rising Ultimate Fighting Championship star.

Former two-time Bellator bantamweight king and current Combate commentator Eduardo Dantas will be shifting gears soon to go over to the realm of grappling. The 35-year-old will face Umar Nurmagomedov in a no-gi featherweight grappling contest at ADXC 7 on Oct. 25 at the Mubadala Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. While he was considering continuing his MMA career, according to an interview with Sherdog, he received an offer he could not refuse.

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“I was getting ready to take an MMA fight in December when the promoter of ADXC made me that proposal to face Nurmagomedov, so I just had to stop my boxing and muay thai preparation to focus on my jiu-jitsu training,” revealed Dantas.

According to the Nova Uniao representative, the confrontation of a classical Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and a top Dagestani wrestler like Umar was his biggest mot…

[embedded content] The penultimate episode of Dana White's Contender Series is good to go after a brief scare on the scales.

After one fighter needed an extra hour to get to his proper marks, all 10 combatants for Week 9 of DWCS is official. The show that posts up in its usual location of the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Tuesday night saw Anthony Drilich briefly come in heavy for his flyweight match with Sean Gauci. After initially hitting 127 pounds, he returned an hour later to reach the 126-pound cap, and all systems are go.

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The ninth edition of the 2024 season will be headlined by a light heavyweight collision between power-punching Frenchman Islem Masraf (204.5) and former Glory kickboxing great Artem Vakhitov (205.5). The Tuesday card, as always, kicks off at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on ESPN+.

Just three bouts listed on his pro resume, Masraf made a splash in Ares FC in 2023, tapping Azamat Aboukhanov in the second round. A pair of first-round knocko…