Martial Arts News

Credit: Getty/UFC Credit: Getty/UFC Credit: Getty/UFC

Robelis Despaigne will attempt to build upon a spectacular Octagon debut when he faces Waldo Cortes-Acosta at UFC on ESPN 56.

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Multiple outlets confirmed the heavyweight pairing following an initial announcement from Despaigne’s manager on social media. UFC on ESPN 56 takes place on May 11 at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis. A headliner has not been announced for the event.

Despaigne turned heads at UFC 299, where he knocked out Josh Parisian in just 18 seconds on March 9 at the Kaseya Center in Miami. The 35-year-old Cuban has finished all five of his opponents inside of a round — including four in 18 seconds or less.

Cortes-Acosta has been victorious in four of his five appearances after earning a UFC contract on Dana White’s Contender Series. Most recently, “Salsa Boy” outpointed Andrei Arlovski at UFC Fight Night 234 on Jan. 13.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗘𝗿𝗮 𝗢𝗳 𝗠𝗠𝗔 𝗜𝘀 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲! @SportsonMax is the 𝗛𝗢𝗠𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 @BellatorMMA 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗠𝗣𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦 𝗦𝗘𝗥𝗜𝗘𝗦 in the US! 🇺🇸

It all kicks off this Friday March 22nd at #BellatorBelfast, exclusively on MAX 📺 pic.twitter.com/usaHYwaZce

— Bellator MMA (@BellatorMMA) March 19, 2024

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Bellator MMA has a new broadcast home in the United States.

Professional Fighters League, which purchased the promotion last year, announced Tuesday that it has inked an exclusive media rights agreement with Warner Brothers Discovery to air Bellator Champions Series events on Max. This will include eight fight cards in 2024, beginning with Friday’s event in Belfast. Bellator Champions Series will be available on all Max plans, according to a release.

In addition to live events, Max subscribers will have access to a Bellator library of more than 300 previous events and 3,000 fights. Two new docu-series – Fight Camp Confidential and Fight Week – will debut toda…

While Sean Strickland has emerged as a success story in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, he is still haunted by his personal demons.

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The former UFC middleweight champion shared his struggles with mental health in a video on his Instagram account Monday night. According to Strickland, he has “everything I could ever want,” but that still isn’t a cure for what ails him.

Strickland’s full video statement is as follows:

“Man, all week I’ve been f—-d up, dude. I’ve been on the Twitter saying crazy s—t, just just f—-ing spiraling. I woke up and I told my girl, I was like, ‘Babe, I feel like a danger to people. I don’t feel like I should be out in the world.’ And I think that, you know, I have everything: I’m rich, I’m famous. Like, I have everything I’ve ever f—-ing wanted, and I still am mentally unwell. And I get in these like, mindsets, to where like, I want to burn everything down in the world. Like, I want to have nothing so I could just f—i…

Conor McGregor’s potential return to the Octagon continues to be a confusing saga.

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The biggest star in the history of the sport hasn’t fought since breaking his leg in a trilogy clash with Dustin Poirier at UFC264 in July 2021. While it’s been a while since he has fully recovered, McGregor has recently spent most of his time promoting his acting debut in the “Road House” remake.

Although “Notorious” finally returned to the promotion’s drug testing pool this past October, his Octagon appearance continues to be pushed back without any clear explanation.

McGregor has been targeting a return to action during International Fight Week in June and a subsequent clash at the UFC’s mega event at the Sphere on Mexican Independence Day in September. However, the Irishman has alluded to a lack of communication from the promotion's side, leading to ambiguity about his future.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did call for that also that would be great for me, June 29 …

Robert Whittaker wants a title eliminator booking after defeating a version of Paulo Costa that he believe would have beaten a lot of elite middleweights.

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Costa hadn’t fought since August 2022 going into his UFC 298 booking against Whittaker last month. In his most recent appearance, “Borrachinha” had bounced back from a two-fight skid with a bizarre decision win over Luke Rockhold, who returned to action after a three-year hiatus. While there was a lot of speculation about how Costa would fare against Whittaker, the former champ was preparing for the best version of his opponent to show up. And show up he did, as the Brazilian put on a valiant effort in going the distance against “Bobby Knuckles” despite coming up on the short side of a unanimous decision.

According to Whittaker, Costa put on the best performance of his career at UFC 298.

“I’m in the gym multiple times a day training for the absolute version of Paulo Costa and unfortunately, …

Marlon Vera has alleged that Sean O'Malley’s head was “extremely greasy,” making it tough for him to get a hold of “Sugar” during their bantamweight title fight earlier this month.

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O’Malley thoroughly outclassed “Chito” in the main event at UFC 299 on March 9 to successfully defend his title via unanimous decision.

“Chito” claims there were other factors at play behind him not being able to turn the bout into a dogfight. According to the Ecuadorian, O’Malley’s braided hair was too greasy for him to get a hold of in the clinch. Having sported braided hair in the past, Vera noted that the UFC person in charge uses just water as opposed to normal salons that use a large amount of gel.

While the former title challenger gave credit to “Suga” for his performance, he didn’t shy away from mentioning his observation regarding O'Malley’s hair. Vera also acknowledged that it might have been unintentional on the part of the reigning bantamweight champio…

The stars came out to honor Ricardo Liborio over the weekend.

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Murilo Bustamante, Ricardo Arona, João Alberto Barreto, Reyson Gracie, Carlos Rosado, Fernando Pinduka and Arthur Virgílio Netto were among more than 50 jiu-jitsu and vale tudo legends that convened at Brazilian Top Team headquarters in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday to attend the coral belt (seventh degree black belt) graduation of Liborio. Liborio is considered to be among the top three most technical black belts ever taught by the legendary Carlson Gracie.

According to jiu-jitsu tradition, coral belts are only awarded to masters who have been active black belts for more than 30 years.

“It´s hard to express what I’m feeling right now with many generations of jiu-jitsu joining in this special moment,” Liborio told Sherdog.com shortly after receiving his coral belt. “From legends like João Alberto Barreto, who defended jiu-jitsu side by side with my master Carlson; my idols when I star…

A temporary setback didn’t stop Mark Coleman for long on his road to recovery.

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The UFC Hall of Famer was readmitted to the hospital with pneumonia over the weekend after rescuing his parents from a house fire in Ohio last week. He was initially hospitalized in critical condition due to severe smoke inhalation as a result of the fire. Coleman has since been released from the hospital again and continues to make progress in his recovery.

“I am healing up very well,” Coleman wrote on Instagram. “My lungs are sore. My eyes are burnt but I’m very much alive and well. I feel so blessed it’s in my higher power’s hands. He wants me to move forward today and I am. I’m overwhelmed by the love and support that I have received. If I had a wish, it would be that I could meet each and every one of you to give you a big hug and thank you in person. Everybody check in on your loved ones. Life is good. Life is what you make it. Everything starts with a thought. …

Petr Yan may have returned to the win column at UFC 299, but the Russian bantamweight didn’t emerge from the event unscathed.

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The former UFC champion revealed on social media Monday that he will need to undergo surgery for a ruptured ACL, torn meniscus and groin injury suffered in his unanimous decision victory over Yadong Song on March 9 at the Kaseya Center in Miami. “No Mercy” is scheduled to go under the knife on Tuesday.

“Nothing will break me,” Yan wrote. “I’m determined to come back stronger than ever in no time.”

So MRI confirmed acl rupture, meniscus tear and groin injury. Surgery is scheduled for tomorrow. Nothing will break me, I’m determined to come back stronger than ever in no time 👊🏼

— Petr “No Mercy” Yan (@PetrYanUFC) March 18, 2024

A timetable for Yan’s UFC return is currently unclear. The former Absolute Championship Berkut title holder shook off a slow start to rally for a unanimous verdict ove…

Ovince St. Preux revealed that Kennedy Nzechukwu’s lack of one-shot knockout power gave him the confidence to keep going forward during their UFC Fight Night 239 clash on Saturday.

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St. Preux put on an impressive showing, using forward pressure to derail Nzechukwu’s excellent distance management on his way to a hard-earned split decision win. After getting tagged by punches early, St. Preux knew he had to put his opponent on his heels. Without the fear of a one-punch KO, “OSP” didn’t hesitate before biting down on his mouthpiece and marching forward.

“I couldn’t give him the chance to go forward,” St. Preux said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “The thing about me is, I do good going backwards, I can fight going backwards. If you put Kennedy on his heels, he don’t do too good going backwards. But also too, with him, if you get him going, he can start letting his hands go. And there was a couple of times he started letting his hand go, I w…

Isaac Dulgarian accuses Christian Rodriguez of cheating pic.twitter.com/2MezwGR9AZ

— MMA Mania (@mmamania) March 17, 2024

Isaac Dulgarian has hurled some serious accusations at UFC Fight Night 239 opponent Christian Rodriguez after their featherweight bout on Saturday.

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Dulgarian came out with guns blazing, ragdolling Rodriguez to win a 10-8 first round on all of the judges’ scorecards. While “The MidWest Choppa” continued his dominant grappling in the second frame, mounting over four minutes of control time, two of the judges bizarrely gave the round to Rodriguez.

Dulgarian was visibly exhausted in the final round, which Rodriguez went on to win 10-8 across all scorecards, securing a split-decision victory. Dulgarian feels he was unfairly dealt the first pro loss of his career.

“Hey guys, I appreciate the support man. I don’t really know what happened in this fight,” Dulgarian said in a video on his Instagram Sto…

Ange Loosa insists that an eye poke from Bryan Battle left him unable to continue in their co-headlining clash at UFC Fight Night 239 on Saturday.

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Battle appeared to be getting the better of Loosa before an unintentional eye poke from “The Butcher” brought the contest to a halt in the second round. Loosa told the cageside doctor that he couldn’t see, which led to the fight being declared a no contest.

Tensions ran high inside the Octagon, as Battle accused Loosa of quitting, insisting that the Congolese fighter could see with his eye. “The Last Ninja” has since addressed the situation, and he claims to still be dealing with his eye injury.

“[The UFC] wants to send me to an ophthalmologist,” Loosa told MMAjunkie.com. “I have to see another one back in Florida. We will check and see what’s going on, but I feel like there’s something inside [my eye]. It’s itchy and hurting a little bit. We’ll check the eye and see how it goes from there.”

Battl…