Martial Arts News

[embedded content] Backups will not be necessary, as every fighter ahead of the the Ultimate Fighting Championship's final pay-per-view of the year successfully made weight on Friday.

UFC 296 is headlined by two championship bouts, with the welterweight title fight between Leon Edwards and Colby Covington as the main event. Meanwhile, flyweight king Alexandre Pantoja will look to make his first defense against Brandon Royval. Both title fights are now official, as each set of champ and challenger successfully made weight.

Edwards (21-3, 1 NC) hasn't lost a fight since 2015. Riding high with two wins over Kamaru Usman, "Rocky" will look to take out Covington next. The English fighter stepped on the scale weighing 170 pounds on the dot.

Primed for a third shot at the undisputed 170-pound title, Covington (17-3) previously came up short twice against Usman. "Chaos" most recently defeated Jorge Masvidal last year but hasn't been active since. The 35-year-old will l…

Leon Edwards THREW A WATER BOTTLE AT COLBY 😳 #UFC296 pic.twitter.com/cXyH92Xspo

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) December 15, 2023

Colby Covington has proven once again that he is willing to cross all lines in order to get under the skin of his opponents.

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Fans certainly expected Covington (17-3) to come out with his over-the-top trash talk during the press conference. The former interim champion was more than happy to take aim at other fighters on the podium including Stephen Thompson and Tony Ferguson.

However, during one of his verbal back-and-forths with Leon Edwards (21-3), “Chaos” opted to go with a distasteful joke about Edwards' late father, who was murdered when “Rocky” was just 13 years old.

“On Saturday night, I’m going to bring you to a place you never want to be,” Covington shouted. “I’m going to bring you to the seventh level of hell. We’ll say what’s up to your dad while we’re there.”

While “Rocky” seemed un…

Suleyman Suleymanov threaded the needle with picture-perfect technique.

The unbeaten Dobrynya export made a successful One Championship debut, as he put away Nursultan Toktorov with a guillotine choke in the second round of their ONE Friday Fights 45 lightweight showcase on Friday at Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand. Suleymanov (10-0, 1-0 ONE) coaxed the tapout 12 seconds into Round 2.

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Toktorov (4-1, 0-1 ONE) acquitted himself well in the first round, where he battered his counterpart with kicks to the lower leg. Twice Suleymanov was swept off his feet. The 30-year-old Azerbaijan native was unshaken. Toktorov moved on an ill-advised takedown attempt at the start of the middle stanza, wandered into Suleymanov’s waiting arms and found himself hopelessly entangled in the guillotine. Surrender was his only option.

Suleymanov has finished five of his 10 wins, four of them via submission.

Further down the card, undefeated Kak’s Fight Cl…

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According to former Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight king Cody Garbrandt, his UFC 296 appearance this weekend will mark the first time he enters a fight without any nagging injuries or recurring personal issues since his title bout with Dominick Cruz at UFC 207 back in December 2016.

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Garbrandt (13-5) is set to take on Brian Kelleher (24-14) on the preliminary portion of Saturday’s UFC 296 card at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday.

Following his title win back in 2016, Garbrandt had to deal with considerable adversity, both inside and outside the Octagon: back-to-back losses, divorce and even a team change.

Nevertheless, coming off a unanimous decision victory against Trevin Jones at UFC 285, “No Love” is confident in his preparation for his upcoming fight.

“This is the best I’ve felt in all of my camps,” Garbrandt told ESPN's Marc Raimondi. “I haven’t been able to train this consistently and this mu…

Per sources: Russian bantamweight Dariya Zheleznyakova set for her UFC debut March 23rd. vs. Montserrat Rendón (Rendón was expectated to fight Nora Cornolle but she is OUT due to medical issues).

Vía @ESPNDeportes pic.twitter.com/aWYfUFUZnL

— Carlos Contreras Legaspi 🦁 (@CCLegaspi) December 12, 2023

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A women’s bantamweight meeting between Mexico’s Montserrat Rendon and Russia’s Dariya Zheleznyakova has been booked for a UFC Fight Night event on March 23. The matchup was first reported by ESPN Deportes’ Carlos Contreras Legaspi. The event will take place at UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

Zheleznyakova (8-1) will make her UFC debut on the back of a Round 1 technical knockout victory against Marie Loiseau under the Ares Fighting Championship banner in April. Out of her eight victories as a professional mixed martial artist, the Russian has secured five by way of TKO.

Meanwhile, Rendon (6-0) is undefeated in six professional…

Some sort of flu wave seems to be washing over the fighter hotel in Las Vegas this week.

On Wednesday, Ian Garry was forced out of his pairing with Vicente Luque due to a flu illness that developed into pneumonia. Another welterweight matchup from UFC 296 is off the table due to a similar situation. First reported by MMA Mania, Randy Brown (17-5) succumbed to the flu that put him in the hospital. As a result, he has withdrawn from his battle with Muslim Salikhov (19-4) on Saturday.

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It is unclear if the promotion will be able to slot in late replacement fighters for either Luque or Salikhov, or pair them up against one another. Kevin Holland has been calling for the former, asking for a 180-pound catchweight contest with Luque. The news was subsequently confirmed by multiple outlets as well as Brown on Thursday night.

A disappointed Brown posted about his illness on Thursday, writing, "The news is unfortunate. I did everything possible to stay in t…

Daniel Rodriguez Accepts Sanction for Violation of UFC Anti-Doping Policy https://t.co/e3fo7SmTVW

— USADA (@usantidoping) December 14, 2023 Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight Daniel Rodriguez has already completed his suspension for unwittingly taking a performance-enhancing substance.

In August, Rodriguez announced that he had failed an out-of-competition drug test for a low level of ostarine. He claimed that he did not knowingly take it, and that it must have been from one of his dietary supplements. According to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency on Thursday, this theory was proved to be correct, as “he was able to prove that his positive test was caused by a contaminated product.”

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Due to the extremely low levels of the substance in his system—still banned quantities, but not the type that would have likely impacted his performance—and the cooperation from Rodriguez with USADA, the agency was able to determine this…

Sean Strickland’s head coach believes dictating the pace will be key to a successful title defense against Dricus Du Plessis.

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The Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight champ will put his strap on the line in the main event at UFC 297 next month in Toronto.

Nicksick, Strickland’s head coach at Xtreme Couture, recently laid out the champ’s roadmap to victory against the South African standout. Nicksick expects “Stillknocks” (20-2) to come out guns blazing in the initial rounds, where he believes it’ll be crucial for Strickland (28-5) to establish control. While Nicksick expects an exciting scrap, he claims Strickland will take over as the fight progresses. Nicksick recently told Inside Fighting:

“I think it’s going to be a matter of setting a precedent on the pace. I feel like Dricus is going to come out hard, heavy and fast right away, and we’re going to have to manage that pace in the first couple of rounds. Once Sean gets into the fig…

Dana White has slightly altered his stance on the Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight title picture.

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Heavyweight champ Jon Jones (27-1) was scheduled to defend his strap against former champ Stipe Miocic (20-4) at UFC 295 last month but was forced out due to an injury. The Las Vegas-based promotion then swiftly put together a short-notice interim title fight where Tom Aspinall (14-3) shocked the world with a Round 1 knockout of Sergei Pavlovich (18-2).

White subsequently said that Aspinall would go to fight the winner of Jones vs. Miocic in a title unification bout despite the Englishman’s call to strip “Bones” of the title. However, the UFC head honcho has now seemingly altered course, hinting at Aspinall potentially defending his interim strap while awaiting Jones’ return.

“Aspinall could possibly fight again,” White told TNT Sports. “I don’t know. We’ll see how this plays out going into the next year, but Jones and Stipe, the fight…

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Belal Muhammad’s long-awaited title shot will have to keep waiting—if Colby Covington has anything to say about it.

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Former interim champ Covington (17-3) is set to challenge Leon Edwards (21-3, 1 NC) for the welterweight title on Saturday in his first outing since March 2022. While many considered the 23-3 Muhammad to be the rightful next challenger thanks to his 10-fight unbeaten streak, the promotion elected to award the title shot to the brash “Chaos.” Edwards himself has called the challenger’s credentials into question as well, pointing out that the last three opponents Covington beat are no longer in the UFC.

Covington fired back at Wednesday’s press conference, referring to Muhammad as a “racist” and “race baiter.”

“No, who wants to fight a racist?” Covington said. “I mean could you imagine if I said someone earned something off the color of their skin? That’s absolutely despicable. It’s disgusting. That guy hasn’t des…

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After missing out on seeing Ian Garry at the UFC 296 pre-fight presser, fans have now been robbed altogether of his clash against Vicente Luque.

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Garry (13-0) was originally scheduled to trade leather with former Kill Cliff FC teammate Luque (22-9) at UFC 296 on Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. “The Future” has now pulled out of the matchup due to pneumonia and flu, which was confirmed by Dana White after Chael Sonnen initially broke the news. White said on Instagram:

“Alright guys, I know it's out there, there is some speculation that Ian Garry and Luque is off. It is true. Ian Garry started with the flu that turned into pneumonia. So that fight is off and is not happening. It is true.”

That illness was also the reason for Garry’s absence from Wednesday’s pre-fight media scrum, which was highly anticipated by fans due to the recent drama surrounding the Irishman. Garry is engaged in an online feud with Sean Str…

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Former Strikeforce lightweight king Josh Thomson believes Justin Gaethje can give 155-pound Ultimate Fighting Championship ruler Islam Makhachev a run for his money.

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Makhachev (25-1) recently expressed interest in taking on a new opponent in Gaethje (25- 4) instead of rematches against Charles Oliveira or Arman Tsarukyan. Thomson believes “The Highlight” is the toughest fight in the division for Makhachev, owing to the intricacies of their contrasting styles.

Thomson noted that while Gaethje is notorious for avoiding wrestling, Makhachev’s wrestling isn’t very conventional. The Dagestani, self-admittedly, likes to work on sweeps and trips from the clinch, where Gaethje can be very dangerous on the break.

“I believe right now out of all of them, the hardest fight for him is Justin Gaethje. You say ‘no’ because of the wrestling, and I understand why you say no,” Thomson said on the “Weighing In” podcast. “But I say this: Isl…