Martial Arts News

Charles Jourdain is set to take on Jean Silva in a featherweight bout at UFC 303.

The promotion announced the pairing on Friday via social media. UFC 303 takes place on June 29 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and is headlined by a welterweight clash between Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler. In the co-main event, former light heavyweight champion Jamahal Hll takes on Khalil Rountree.

Jourdain (15-7), a mainstay in the 145-pound division since 2019, will enter the matchup coming off a split-decision loss at the hands of Sean Woodson at UFC 297 in January. The loss to Woodson snapped a two-fight winning streak for the Canadian that included victories over Kron Gracie and Ricardo Ramos.

Meanwhile Silva (12-2), a Dana White’s Contender Series graduate, recently made his promotional debut against Westin Wilson in January and walked off with a Round 1 technical knockout victory. “Lord” has only suffered two defeats throughout his professional career and …

A featherweight bout pitting China’s Nuerdanbieke Shayilan against former Legacy Fighting Alliance competitor Melquizael Costa has been added to UFC on ESPN 58 on June 15 at the Apex in Las Vegas.

The news was first reported by Eurosport Nl’s Marcel Dorff on X (formerly known as Twitter) and also confirmed by Costa on his social media handles. The card will be headlined by a flyweight meeting between Alex Perez and Tatsuro Taira.

Shayilan (39-11) will be aiming to return to winning ways following a Round 2 knockout loss at the hands of Steve Garcia at UFC 287 in April last year. Prior to that, the Chinese national was on a three-fight winning streak in the promotion, with wins over T.J. Brown, Darrick Minner and Sean Soriano.

As for Costa (20-7), the Brazilian is also coming off a Round 2 knockout loss against Garcia in December of last year. He currently sports a 1-2 Ultimate Fighting Championship record.

A matchup between two promising flyweights has been added to a UFC Fight Night event set to go down at the Apex in Las Vegas on July 20.

Cody Durden (16-5) will take on Bruno Silva (13-5) in what will mark the Covington, Georgia, native's 10th appearance inside the Octagon. The news was first revealed by Durden in an appearance on the KrazyKevMMA podcast and later confirmed by Silva on social media.

Durden will enter the Octagon on the heels of a Round 2 submission loss at the hands of Tagir Ulanbekov in December. That defeat snapped a four-fight winning streak which included wins over the likes of J.P. Buys, Jake Hadley, Carlos Mota and Charles Johnson.

Meanwhile, Silva is currently on a three-fight winning streak, most recently submitting Tyson Nam in the second frame of their UFC Fight Night 221 clash in March.

Patrick “Patchy” Mix’s claim as the best bantamweight in the world was tested on Friday after the Bellator MMA bantamweight champion was put through hell over five rounds against former foe Magomed Magomedov in the Bellator Champions Series Paris main event at Accor Arena.

Despite taking Magomedov out in two rounds in their first fight, the Russian challenger adapted to Mix’s length and hurt the champion multiple times with overhand shots. Mix showed the heart of a champion and kept Magomedov on the backfoot despite being on wobbly legs and took the fight to the scorecards. After a long deliberation, Mix was awarded the split decision win (46-49, 48-47, 48-47) much to the ire of the Paris crowd.

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Magomedov made wonderful adjustments from the first fight and consistently caught Mix coming in. Unfortunately for the challenger, his lack of pace allowed Mix to control the action and keep him at bay.

Each round could’ve been a toss-up as both men made th…

Sherdog's live Bellator Champions Series Paris coverage will begin Friday at 12 p.m. ET. Round 1 Sherdog Scores Brian Knapp scores the round:Jay Pettry scores the round:J.L. Kirven scores the round:

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Round 2 Sherdog Scores Brian Knapp scores the round:Jay Pettry scores the round:J.L. Kirven scores the round:Round 3 Sherdog Scores Brian Knapp scores the round:Jay Pettry scores the round:J.L. Kirven scores the round: The Official Result Round 1 Sherdog Scores Brian Knapp scores the round:Jay Pettry scores the round:J.L. Kirven scores the round:Round 2 Sherdog Scores Brian Knapp scores the round:Jay Pettry scores the round:J.L. Kirven scores the round:Round 3 Sherdog Scores Brian Knapp scores the round:Jay Pettry scores the round:J.L. Kirven scores the round:The Official Result Round 1 Sherdog Scores Brian Knapp scores the round:Jay Pettry scores the round:J.L. Kirven scores the round:Round 2 Sherdog Scores Brian Knapp scores the round:Jay Pettry scores th…

𝘽𝙊𝙉𝙅𝙊𝙐𝙍 𝙇𝙔𝙊𝙉! 🇫🇷

The PFL Europe Championship comes to the @LDLC_Arena in Lyon-Decines on Saturday 14th December as FOUR European champions will be crowned 👑

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Enjoy a stacked night of mixed martial arts in December! Stay tuned for further announcements and ticketing… pic.twitter.com/zo9UgLdg38 — PFL Europe (@PFLEurope) May 17, 2024 The French city of Lyon will be getting its first major MMA fight card when Professional Fighters League comes to town at the end of the year.

The organization announced on Friday via press release that the 2024 PFL Europe Finals will be taking place on Dec. 14. The venue of the LDLC Arena in Decines, Lyon, France, will play host to the championships of their $100,000 spinoff tourney. The arena finished construction in November 2023, and the WWE has put on a pair of shows in the building in May.

The PFL Europe season of 2024 will conclude on this date, wrapping up its four brackets in th…

Britain’s David Cooke prepared a delightful breakfast of violence in a hurry on Friday morning.

The latest offering of One Championship’s Friday Fights series staged one single MMA bout on the lineup. This curtain-jerker saw Cooke (2-0, 1-0 ONE) put on a quick and exhilarating performance against Kohei Takegami (3-4, 1 NC; 0-1 ONE) in his promotional debut. The 21-year-old Cooke claimed a knockout victory in 87 seconds to open up ONE Friday Fights 63.

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Right from the opening bell, Cooke treated fans in the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium to action. Cooke was quick to pressure his foe, backing him up with jabs and a stiff right hand. Once he had Takegami against the ropes, the Englishman unleashed slicing elbows and knees before tying his man up to control the action. After the two disengaged, Takegami attempted to turn things around by getting his offense going.

Starting FAST ⚡️ David Cooke debuts with a first-round TKO!

#ONEFrid…

The #UFCVegas92 main event is OFFICIAL 🔒@EdsonBarbozaJR hits the scale at 145.5lbs!

[ TOMORROW on @ESPNPlus | 7pmET/4pmPT ] pic.twitter.com/bjf8q3HKnB

— UFC (@ufc) May 17, 2024 After back-to-back events with raucous crowds, the Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to the UFC Apex for UFC Fight Night 241.

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Headlining the 12-fight event are featherweight contenders Edson Barboza and Lerone Murphy. Both main event fighters came in under the 146-pound limit, and the five-round fight is now official. All other fighters also successfully made weight, keeping the card intact.

This marks the fifth main event for Barboza (24-11), who has gone 1-3 in prior outings. However, the Brazilian is on a winning streak after knocking out Billy Quarantillo with a devastating knee and winning a clear decision over Sodiq Yusuff. The 38-year-old looks to go on one final run and came in at 145.5 pounds.

Meanwhile, this is the first …

Is costa out? pic.twitter.com/ImSS63WcGj

— Sean Strickland (@SStricklandMMA) May 15, 2024 Several UFC fighters have expressed concern about “announced” matchups lately.

In April, the promotion announced at the UFC 300 post-fight press conference that the co-main attraction for the June 1 show in Newark, New Jersey, would be a five-rounder between middleweights Sean Strickland (28-6) and Paulo Costa (14-3). Strickland posted on social media on Wednesday expressing his concerns that the fight at UFC 302 might be in jeopardy, or perhaps was never signed in the first place.

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The former middleweight champ said, “Well, g-- d--- Costa, I’ve heard you have yet to sign that contract, and I’ll tell you what man, I didn’t f---ing believe it. I did not think you’d be acting like a coward. I thought you would man up, sack up, but instead, you're acting like you got f---ing ovaries.”

The antagonistic Strickland continued, “So I wen…

Having learned from two straight Ultimate Fighting Championship losses, Adrian Yanez believes he will walk away with a resounding win this weekend.

Yanez (16-5) kicked off his UFC journey with five consecutive wins, including four finishes, before suffering a first-round knockout loss to perennial contender Rob Font at UFC 287. Yanez went on to drop his next outing to Jonathan Martinez, succumbing to leg kicks at the midpoint of the second round. A torn meniscus following that bout sidelined him to his upcoming May appearance.

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Looking back on his first career slump, Yanez revealed that the Font loss was still on his mind going into his clash against Martinez. While he initially thought he could get past that defeat, the first few leg kicks from Martinez sent him spiraling.

“Honestly, I had changed up my whole stance, almost like my whole style for that fight and I had to stay what’s true to me,” Yanez said during the UFC Fight Night 241 media day.…

The Ultimate Fighting Championship run for Themba Gorimbo has been an emotional rollercoaster.

Gorimbo (12-4) is scheduled to fight Ramiz Brahimaj (10-4) at UFC Fight Night 241 this weekend at the promotion’s Apex in Las Vegas. The Zimbabwean welterweight revealed that his wrestling coach from South Africa has been helping him with his training camp in the U.S. for the past eight weeks, despite the latter’s mother suffering from cancer. Shortly before UFC Fight Night 241 media day on Wednesday, his coach’s mother died.

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Vowing to win for his coach, the 33-year-old said, “All I know is I’m going to win in spectacular fashion for my coach whose mother just died like two hours ago. He’s been here with me for eight weeks. He tells me his mother is sick with cancer. He never told me it was that bad. I just say to him, ‘Okay, after the fight, we go back to South Africa together.’ I didn’t have a plan to go out there, but I was gonna go with him to see his m…

Carlos Ulberg is hoping for a quick turnaround after his knockout victory over Alonzo Menifield last weekend.

Ulberg (10-1) took just 12 seconds to starch Menifield (15-4) with a brutal volley at UFC St. Louis on May 11, snapping the American’s five-fight undefeated streak while earning himself a performance bonus. The previously unranked standout also landed himself the 14th spot on Sherdog’s Official Rankings at light heavyweight with the victory.

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Coming out of the fight relatively unscathed, Ulberg is eyeing a quick return to action, perhaps as soon as next month.

Former light heavyweight champ Jamahal Hill (12-2) will take on streaking contender Khalil Rountree (13-5) at UFC 303 on June 29, on a card that will also feature Conor McGregor's Octagon return against Michael Chandler. Looking for a leap up the rankings, Ulberg is ready to serve as a replacement for Hill vs. Rountree if either man cannot compete on fight night. If not, he is gunnin…