Martial Arts News

[embedded content] The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to Las Vegas this weekend with an 11-fight card.

Headlining UFC Fight Night 233 is a bantamweight fight between Yadong Song and Chris Gutierrez. Both UFC mainstays successfully made weight for the headliner. As for the rest of the card, only Luana Santos missed weight. She came in three pounds over the bantamweight limit, weighing 139 pounds for her fight against Stephanie Egger. The bout will move forward, although Santos will be fined 20% of her purse.

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Song (20-7-1, 1 NC) is 4-1 in his last five fights. After losing via doctor stoppage against Cory Sandhagen, "Kung Fu Kid" rebounded with a fifth-round TKO win against Ricky Simon. Prior to the setback, Song had picked up wins against Marlon Moraes, Julio Arce and Casey Kenney. The Chinese fighter officially weighed 136 pounds.

This marks the first UFC main event for Gutierrez (20-5-2). "El Guapo" is 5-1 in his last six and most recentl…

A bantamweight meeting between Daniel Marcos and Qileng Aori has been added to the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s Feb. 10 UFC Fight Night event in Las Vegas. The booking was first reported by MMA Junkie on Thursday.

Marcos (15-0) was initially booked to face Carlos Vera (11-3) at UFC Fight Night 233. However, the last-minute catchweight booking was scrapped due to visa issues faced by the undefeated Peruvian.

A Dana White’s Contender Series 2022 contract winner, Marcos has managed to maintain his spotless record with back-to-back wins inside the Octagon. Following a Round 2 knockout victory against Saimon Oliveira in his Octagon debut at UFC 283, the 30-year-old went on to secure a split-decision win against Davey Grant in July.

Meanwhile, Aori (25-11) currently sports a promotional record of 3-3, most recently securing a unanimous decision win against Johnny Munoz Jr. at UFC Fight Night 229 in October. Before this, the Fight Ready product suffered the firs…

Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight veteran Dan Hooker won't be rushing his return to the Octagon this time around.

Hooker (23-12) was slated to face Bobby Green (31-14) in the co-main event of the recently concluded UFC Fight Night event in Austin, Texas. Unfortunately, the Kiwi was forced to withdraw from the bout merely 10 days ahead of the scheduled date after breaking his arm during one of his final sparring sessions.

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According to Hooker, this is the same arm that went under the knife following a hard-fought split-decision win against Jalin Turner at UFC 290 in July.

“It’s the exact same spot... Speaking with the surgeon, it just never healed properly. It actually never healed. It never set into place and by the time that I realized that it’s not healing, I was too deep in,” Hooker said on the MMA Hour. “I was too close to the fight, everything was booked, so I was just kind of going out of my way to protect it and not let it get hurt.”…

One Championship might want to take a closer look at Carlo Bumina-ang. The Team Lakay rep wiped out Ilyas Dursun with a sensational one-punch knockout in the first round of their ONE Friday Fights 44 bantamweight showcase on Friday at Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand. Dursun (2-1, 0-1 ONE) met his end just 23 seconds into Round 1.

The 29-year-old Bumina-ang (3-0, 3-0 ONE) sat down the Amir Team product with a counter right hook, gave chase and uncorked a devastating straight left. The concussive blow rendered Dursun unconscious in an instant and left him draped over the ropes. Somewhere, Wanderlei Silva smiled and Quinton Jackson shuddered.

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Bumina-ang has finished two of his first three opponents in less than a minute.

Meanwhile, Kak’s Fight Club export Babar Ali leaned on repeated takedowns, suffocating top control and heavy ground-and-pound, as he laid claim to a unanimous decision over Fritz Biagtan in a three-round flyweight attract…

The upcoming Ultimate Fighting Championship card in Canada has taken a huge hit.

According to his UFC 297 opponent Aleksandar Rakic (14-3) on social media this Thursday, Jan Blachowicz (29-10-1) has been forced out of their light heavyweight matchup. The two were expecting to face off on Jan. 20 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. Blachowicz expressed his disappointment about the surgery-requiring shoulder injury he sustained in a post on Instagram, while Rakic was quick to call out another opponent in hopes of staying on the lineup next month.

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“It wasn’t supposed to be this way,” a crestfallen Blachowicz wrote. “It’s hard to express how I feel because it’s a mixture of anger and sadness. Withdrawing from a fight due to injury is one of the most difficult decisions a fighter can make. However, sometimes there is no other option, especially when you are competing in the TOP 5 and want to put on a show at the highest level.”

The Polish fighter contin…

1⃣WEEK OUT

The Biggest Night In European MMA finally goes down in Dublin🏆💰

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[ 🇮🇪 #PFLDublin l 🗓 Fri Dec 8 l 🏟 @3ArenaDublinl 📺 LIVE on @DAZNMMA ] pic.twitter.com/DBnlyWEYMN — PFL (@PFLMMA) December 1, 2023 The Professional Fighters League returns for its final event of the year as it wraps up its European league's first season.

PFL Europe 4 will feature four finals and is headlined by a featherweight clash between Nathan Kelly and Dimitry Solimeis. All finalists made weight, with Frans Mlambo vs. Khurshed Kakhorov at bantamweight, John Mitchell vs. Jakub Kaszuba at lightweight, Dakota Ditcheva vs. Valentina Scatizzi at flyweight and Simeon Powell vs. Jakob Nedoh at light heavyweight.

The lone fighter to miss weight was Andreeas Binder. The would-be lightweight came in 5.7 pounds over the 155-pound limit at 161.7 pounds. This forced the cancellation of his fight against Daniele Scatizzi.

PFL Europe 4 will …

ONE Championship is coming to you LIVE from Qatar 🇶🇦 for the first time on March 1 with FIVE World Championship fights! Who do YOU want to see headline this historic card? 🏆✨#ONE166 | March 1 at 3:30PM AST🎟️ Early bird tickets:https://t.co/Wcx1ykvL1Jhttps://t.co/9mAnyrbScE… pic.twitter.com/GVsiv2aQRd

— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) December 7, 2023 One Championship will be breaking new ground in 2024 in the Middle East.

Per the organization on Thursday, ONE will be running ONE 166: Qatar on March 1. The event at the Lusail Sports Arena in Lusail, Qatar, will bring five separate championship bouts across their four disciplines. The league has not yet stated which titles will be on the line, but that belts will be up for grabs through their MMA, muay thai, kickboxing and submission grappling disciplines. No fights have currently been announced.

Abdulaziz Ali Al Mawlawi, the chief marketing and promotion officer for Qatar Tourism, spok…

[embedded content] The Ultimate Fighting Championship has not had its fill of its flagship reality show just yet.

According to the organization on Thursday, the next season of “The Ultimate Fighter” is on deck. Season 32, which will feature featherweights and middleweights, has opened casting. Unlike past seasons, tryouts will entirely be done remotely, with no physical sessions until the finalists are picked. Prospective competitors can apply through this link. The show will air sometime in June 2024 on ESPN and ESPN+, with the date still to be determined. The coaches of the teams have not been selected yet.

This season will follow one that ran from May to August, with teams captained by Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler, for bantamweights and lightweights. The theme of Season 31 placed former UFC fighters against prospects, and veterans ran the table to the semifinals with the exception of Rico DiSciullo—who lost in the semis to Cody Gibson. Seven of the eight quar…

Another Ultimate Fighting Championship women’s flyweight title challenger might emerge in March.

On March 9, the organization will be running the pay-per-view card of UFC 299. MMA Mania broke the news on Wednesday that Katlyn Chookagian (18-5) will be making her comeback to the cage after nearly a year and a half off against Maycee Barber (13-2) at this show. Both women confirmed their involvement in this 125-pound contender pairing on their social media profiles, while also stating that it will go down in Miami, presumably at the Kaseya Center.

This will be the first appearance for Chookagian since an unsuccessful outing against Manon Fiorot at UFC 280 in October 2022. The New Jersey native fell short to Fiorot on the scorecards, which put a halt to a four-fight win streak—all by decision. In her run from 2020 to 2022 that restored her status as a top contender, she defeated Amanda Ribas, Jennifer Maia, Viviane Araujo and Cynthia Calvillo. In the last five years, Cho…

Ten days out!

The Champ @Leon_EdwardsMMA is ready to do battle at #UFC296! pic.twitter.com/ZEwGo2pyO6

— UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) December 6, 2023

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Leon Edwards is unimpressed with Colby Covington’s recent performances.

Edwards (21-3) is scheduled to defend his strap against “Chaos” (17-3) in the UFC 296 headliner on Dec. 16 at T-Mobile arena in Las Vegas. While Belal Muhammad was widely considered the rightful title contender, the promotion elected to give the shot to Covington, who hasn’t fought since a unanimous decision win over Jorge Masvidal in March 2022.

Covington’s last two wins before that came against Tyron Woodley and Robbie Lawler, which were both followed by title losses to Kamaru Usman. Based on Covington’s recent record, Edwards doesn’t see “Chaos” posing any threat to him on fight night. Instead, “Rocky” believes the Oregon native might be in for a total shock, having not beaten anyone in their pri…

Drakkar Klose believes he’d have Beneil Dariush’s spot in the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s lightweight rankings by now if not for his loss to “Benny.”

Currently unranked at lightweight, Klose’s only loss in seven outings since 2017 came against Dariush (22-5) via a Round 2 knockout in 2020. The Fight Ready representative believes the loss impeded his rise up the lightweight rankings and admits to being haunted by it to this day. Considering the same, Klose is eager to get another opportunity to face off against Dariush.

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“What I really want is that Beneil fight back,” Klose said on The MMA Hour. “You know what I mean, that haunts me every day. That he has that win over me. That should be my number next to my name that he has,”

In his most recent Octagon appearance, Klose (13-2) slammed his opponent Joe Solecki on the side of the head to escape an armbar, leading to the 13th slam KO in UFC history at UFC on ESPN 52 on Dec. 2. Meanwhile, Dariush …

What should be a banger at 145 pounds has been booked for the Apex in February.

The UFC’s broadcast partner of ESPN announced on Wednesday night that “50K” Dan Ige (17-7) would be returning to the cage in February against the unbeaten Lerone Murphy (13-0-1). The two featherweights will toe the line, possibly with top-10 implications for the victor, inside of the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. This Feb. 10 UFC Fight Night showdown has since been confirmed by both men on their respective Instagram pages.

Ige will be looking to re-enter the win column after a tough decision loss to Bryce Mitchell in September, albeit one that some observers thought Ige had done enough to win. The defeat put an end to a two-fight win streak for the Hawaiian, who punched out Damon Jackson in January and then outworked Nate Landwehr in June. Across his last 11 outings, the man known as “50K” has earned himself a pair of $50,000 bonuses with his knockouts of Gavin Tucker and the aforementioned Jack…