Martial Arts News

Lerone Murphy thought he'd clinched a title shot by knocking out Aaron Pico. | Getty/UFC

Last summer in Chicago, Lerone Murphy thought a title shot was all but inevitable.

After all, he had just knocked out highly-regarded Bellator MMA signee Aaron Pico with a spinning back elbow in the first round at UFC 319. Not only was it a “Knockout of the Year” candidate, but it extended the Englishman’s promotional winning streak to nine. The performance also caught the attention of reigning UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski.

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However, Murphy did not get the championship opportunity he anticipated. Instead, it went to Diego Lopes, who only needed to earn one victory to earn a rematch with Volkanovski at UFC 325.

“To be completely honest, it was rough,” Murphy told the UFC. “After the fight in Chicago, I thought I’d done enough. Everyone thought I’d done enough. I go out there, co-main event, step in on short notice and get a KO…

Colby Covington says he's been iced out by the UFC. | Getty/UFC

Colby Covington’s most recent layoff might not have been completely by choice.

During a recent Q&A session with streamer N3on, Covington addressed the UFC’s negotiating tactics. According to “Chaos,” the promotion plays hardball when it comes to matchmaking.

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“You have no say,” Covington said (transcription via MMAFighting.com). “Hunter Campbell, who is like the UFC lawyer, he kind of just tells you what direction they’re going to go, and it’s either you take it or leave it. So, you don’t really get a choice what you want to do. They just leave you. They ice you. They won’t give you fights. They’ll just let you sit out there. They’ll say, ‘Hey, you turned down this fight, now you’re not going to fight for the year. You’re not going to make money.’ They’ll freeze you out.

“Even if it’s not a good move, and you’re not getting paid what you think you deserve, it doesn’t …

Charles Oliveira's coach was defiant when discussing the Brazilian's dominance at UFC 326. | Getty/UFC

Two weeks after Charles Oliveira's BMF belt win over Max Holloway at UFC 326, Sherdog.com spoke with Chute Boxe leader Diego Lima about his athlete's next steps.

"Actually, Charles is returning from Las Vegas with his whole family this Wednesday. Four days after the fight, he gave a seminar in Germany and another in the Netherlands, returned to Vegas, and flew to São Paulo yesterday,” Lima said.

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According to the Chute Boxe head coach, Charles' first option would be to make himself available to the UFC as a reserve for the main event fight at the UFC White House.

"Hoping that neither of them gets injured, because it will be a great fight, but we have already offered Charles as an option to be the reserve for this fight at the White House," Lima said. “Charles wants the belt, so he could take the winner of Topuria and Gaethje, or if…

Vitor Petrino is building momentum at heavyweight. | Getty/UFC

After watching Vitor Petrino's third consecutive victory over Steven Asplund in the heavyweight division last Saturday, Valter Walker challenged his countryman on social media.

"You're complaining about the ranking, so let's fight in June to see if you enter the rankings. I'm in the top 14," Walker said in a comment right after the fight (Petrino would enter the UFC rankings at 15th on Tuesday).

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Petrino’s coach, Cristiano Marcello, told Sherdog.com that the challenge was not only accepted but also taken to the UFC.Challenge Accepted "Challenge accepted,” Marcello said, adding that the preference is that the fight takes place in July. “Our manager has already taken it to the UFC and we are just waiting for the answer. Valter is a good fight for Petrino. Now it's up there and we'll see which shield breaks through first.”

Walker has won four straight UFC appearances since dr…

Carlos Prates is eyeing a title shot with a potential win over Jack Della Maddalena. 

Prates is scheduled to fight Maddalena in the main event at UFC Perth on May 2. “The Nightmare” is confident that he will knock out Maddalena in front of the latter’s home fans. Prates notes that he will have knocked out two former welterweight champions if he starches Maddalena at UFC Perth. The Brazilian believes a win over Maddalena will make the next welterweight title shot undeniable for him.

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Who Deserves It More? “I will knock JDM out,” Prates said on "The Ariel Helwani Show.” “If we talk about media, I have a lot of media [presence] A lot of people like me, and I have a lot of fans. There’s talk about whether I deserve it or not. I think I deserve it. Of course, I will knock JDM out, and then I will have knocked out two former champions. So who deserves it more than me?”

While Prates (23-7) can already make a legitimate case for a title shot, the welte…

The BMF title fight between Max Holloway and Charles Oliveira failed to impress many, including UFC boss Dana White. 

Holloway (27-9) put his BMF title on the line against Oliveira (37-11) in the main event at UFC 326earlier this month. Oliveira dominated Holloway on the ground for over 20 minutes to earn a unanimous decision victory. Despite Oliveira’s dominant performance, some didn’t find it befitting of the BMF title. 

Not ImpressedJoe Rogan recently revealed that White also wasn’t impressed with the BMF title fight. Rogan was pitching the idea of muay thai and kickboxing fights to White when the UFC head honcho told him that he didn’t like fight between Holloway and Oliveira.

“The fights on [ONE Championship] are amazing, especially the muay thai fights,” Rogan said on his podcast. “I was trying to pitch this to Dana. So I started sending Dana all these high level muay thai fights and high level kickboxing fights. And they are f—-ing phenomenal. He did…

Islam Makhachev denies ever weighing 190 pounds on fight night. 

UFC welterweight champion Makhachev seems to be at least the same size, if not bigger than, most fighters in his weight class. Makhachev amazingly also had a dominant title reign at lightweight. 

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Dustin Poirier, who made a failed lightweight title bid against Makhachev in 2024, recently made a surprising claim. According to Poirier, the UFC keeps a record of every fighter’s weight on fight night. Poirier claims UFC matchmaker Hunter Campbell told him that Makhachev weighed around 190 pounds on fight night for their lightweight matchup. Which means Makhachev allegedly gained around 35 pounds after weighing in at 155 pounds. Meanwhile, Poirier claims he himself weighed only 176 pounds.He Said, He Said “Hunter, I was in his office not too long ago,” Poirier said on "The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast. “And they keep record of all the weights on fight night. They don’t release them…

The ALF Reality Series, also known as the Russian “TUF,” is proving to be too much for Daniel Cormier. 

Cormier and Jones are currently in Thailand, starring as rival coaches for ALF, where things often get out of control. While brawls are pretty commonplace, someone recently pulled out a knife on the show. That was enough for “DC” to consider leaving the show and flying back to America.

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“Brother, I need to go home,” Cormier said. “I might give them their money back to stay at home. I can’t handle this. Someone’s gonna get hurt bad, like bad. I didn’t know it was like this. This is crazy, bro, like knives, everything.” 

While they are known for their bitter rivalry, Jones pleaded with Cormier not to leave the show.

“Please, we all really need you bro,” Jones said.

Not Worth Losing Your LifeJones then gave everyone a speech, explaining that a TV show isn’t worth risking their lives. “Bones” also admitted that even he didn’t want t…

Mike Perry is set to earn the biggest paycheck of his fighting career. 

Perry is scheduled to fight fellow UFC alum Nate Diaz on Most Valuable Promotions’ first MMA card on May 16 at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, California. The event, which will be broadcast on Netflix, also features fights like Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano and Francis Ngannou vs. Philipe Lins. 

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Next is Always Best Perry revealed that the Diaz fight will be the biggest payday of his fighting career. The former UFC fighter answered in the affirmative when Ariel Helwani asked him if it would be the biggest paycheck of his career so far.

“The next one’s always the best one. This is the next one,” Perry said. “I’ve been saying this for 20 years.” 

Perry fought in the UFC welterweight division from 2016 to 2021, going 7-8. Perry parted ways with the promotion in 2021 and joined Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship, where he found the proverbial second wind of his …

Carlos Prates has a lot of respect for Ian Garry. | Getty/UFC

Carlos Prates believes Ian Garry has the tools to beat Islam Makhachev. 

Garry is currently among the frontrunners for the next welterweight title shot against Islam Makhachev. Prates believes that while it’ll be an uphill task, Garry has certain skills needed to beat Makhachev. However, if Prates has to put his money on someone, he is certainly picking Makhachev. But Prates really wants Garry to win so that he can avenge his loss against the Irishman in a title fight, hopefully in Brazil.

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“I think [Garry can beat Makhachev]. It’s hard, but I think he has some skills needed to beat Islam,” Prates said on "The Ariel Helwani Show.” “If I need to bet my money, of course Islam. But I really want Ian to get the belt, and then we do a rematch in Brazil for the title.” Mutual Respect Prates suffered his only loss in the UFC against Garry last year. For “The Nightmare,” av…

Daniel Cormier is an athletic specimen. 

A former Olympic wrestler, Cormier, joined the American Kickboxing Academy in 2009 to start training MMA. Luke Rockhold was already an accomplished fighter at AKA by then. Rockhold recalls that Cormier could do backflips while weighing around 260 pounds and standing 5’10” tall. According to Rockhold, Cormier’s wrestling skills at heavyweight allowed him to reach the pinnacle of the sport. 

A Certain Confidence “‘DC’ was a freak man,” Rockhold said on "the Jaxxon Podcast.”. “‘DC’ walked into the gym 260 pounds, 5’10”, and he could do a backflip. This big fat motherf—-er’s doing backflips. He had a certain confidence and athleticism… Being able to have that wrestling at heavyweight, he could dictate a lot of what’s going on. He always was just very athletic, he had some wrestling and he could throw some hands.” 

Cormier was already 30 when he had his first MMA fight. “DC” joined the UFC in 2013 and went on to becom…

Youssef Zalal will be keenly watching the upcoming UFC London main event. 

Undefeated featherweight contenders Movsar Evloev and Leron Murphy will meet in the main event at UFC Fight Night 270 on Saturday at the O2 Arena in London, England. Zalal believes the key to victory for both fighters will be to deal with their opponent’s strong suits. Zalal picks Evloev to defeat Murphy eventually.

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'His Wrestling is Insane' “I’m interested to see how Lerone deals with the wrestling of Movsar and how Movsar deals with the striking of Lerone,” Zalal told Home of Fight. “… Whoever solves that puzzle first wins that fight… I think Movsar gets it done, his wrestling is insane.”

Evloev (19-0) has nine UFC victories to his name, the last four coming against elite opponents like Dan Ige, Diego Lopes, Arnold Allen and Aljamain Sterling. Murphy (17-0) also has nine UFC wins, most notably against Ige, Edson Barboza, Josh Emmett and Aaron Pico. 

Meanwhi…