Martial Arts News

2022 Professional Fighters League women's lightweight champion Larissa Pacheco doesn't see her upcoming opponent as a serious threat.

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After capturing the lightweight strap against Kayla Harrison in 2022, Pacheco decided to compete in the promotion’s inaugural featherweight season with hopes of securing two-division champion status.

The Brazilian is coming off a 14-second knockout of Olena Kolesnyk in their featherweight semifinal at PFL 8 in August. The impressive victory allowed Pacheco to book a spot in the 2023 PFL Championships against Russia's Marina Mokhnatkina.

A six-time combat sambo world champion, Mokhnatkina is renowned for her grappling prowess and ability to grind out fights on the canvas. However, having faced and defeated a former Olympic judo gold medalist in Harrison, Pachecho doesn't see the sambo specialist posing any threat to her inside the SmartCage.

“I know Marina's game. When Marina fought against Kayla, it was …

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Tom Aspinall firmly believes Jon Jones should be stripped of the Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight strap.

Aspinall recently secured interim heavyweight champion status after defeating Russian powerhouse Sergei Pavlovich within 69 seconds of their short notice-meeting at UFC 295.

The original matchup that was scheduled to headline the event was a heavyweight bout between Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic. Unfortunately, Jones suffered a pectoral tear a few weeks ahead of the bout and was forced to pull out. Instead of offering a replacement opponent to Miocic, the promotion elected to put on an interim heavyweight title bout between Aspinall and Pavlovich on the grounds that offering Miocic an interim title fight would be “disrespectful.”

However, unlike Jiri Prochazkha or Jamahal Hill, there was no mention of Jones relinquishing the title due to his inability to compete for a considerable amount of time. Instead, as per UFC CEO Dana Whi…

Eduardo Henrique secured the Legacy Fighting Alliance flyweight championship in the fourth round of his LFA 172 main event against Cody Davis on Friday at the Arizona Financia Theatre in Phoenix.

Considering his striking background, Henrique (12-2) looked to keep the fight on the feet and succeeded in doing so. The Brazilian even managed to drop Davis (8-2) with a sharp check hook in Round 1, all while stuffing multiple takedown attempts. Henrique continued to tag Davis on the feet while fending off all takedown attempts until the third round. Despite being taken down, “Chapolin” kept his composure and got back to his feet, eventually hurting Davis with a knee on the break. Round 3 ended with a hurt Davis shooting in for a takedown, only to be mounted and pounded for the remainder of the period.

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The fourth frame saw a determined Henrique pressure a visibly exhausted Davis with his leg kicks and forward movement, eventually securing a technical knock…

UNDENIABLE 😱@TAKM_MMA has done the unthinkable! He stops @YaroslavAmosov!!! #Bellator301 | LIVE NOW | @SHOsports 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/g1qJ1hxUp9

— Bellator MMA (@BellatorMMA) November 18, 2023

They call him “The Ass Kicking Machine” for a reason.

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Jason Jackson shocked the world Friday night after ending mixed martial arts’ longest unbeaten streak when he masterfully knocked out Bellator MMA welterweight champion Yaroslav Amosov (27-1) in the third round (2:08) of the Bellator 301 main event at Winstrust Arena in Chicago.

Jackson (17-4) may have come in as the underdog but after winning his last six fights, the Kingston, Jamaica, native fought with the poise of a polished champion. Amosov tried desperately to get the heavy hitter to the mat and Jackson turned him away at every opportunity.

Forced to engage with him on the feet, Amosov looked to bait Jackson into a big shot or a takedown, but again Jackson wouldn’t …

Sherdog's live Bellator 301 coverage will begin Friday at 5 p.m. ET. Round 1 We have reached what Bellator has so far claimed is just its “final event of the year.” The chatter about the future of the promotion has reached a fever pitch on fight night, but regardless of what comes next, 16 fights are on the docket in Chicago including several huge ones on the main card. We start off in the featherweight division, as France’s Landu (19-9, 4-1 BMMA) tries to make Kobayashi (27-5-2, 0-2 BMMA) feel unwelcome in his return to the promotion. Referee Mike Cimmarusti takes the first assignment of the night, and he watches a glove touch, as the fighters get down to it. Landu marches forward out of his corner, only to have his lead leg kicked hard. Landu counters with an overhand right, and he tumbles to the mat and recovers. Landu crowds his opponent, tossing out a kick or two to find his range. Kobayashi returns fire with a low kick and ducks a looping punch, and he misses on a seco…

Our Main Event is locked in! 🔒@BrendanAllenMMA is in at 186lbs for tomorrow's #UFCVegas82 Main Event! pic.twitter.com/PPveKbHoSi

— UFC (@ufc) November 17, 2023 The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to Las Vegas for its latest card, which is now set after the UFC Fight Night 232 weigh-ins took place.

Headlining the 14-fight card is an intriguing battle between Brendan Allen and Paul Craig. Both middleweight fighters successfully made weight for the five-round fight. As for the rest of the card, two fighters came in heavy. Both Lucas Alexander and Rafael Estevam were both two pounds over for their fights against Jeka Saragih and Charles Johnson, respectively. Meanwhile, Ailin Perez initially checked in half a pound over for her fight against Lucie Pudilova, but she returned to make 136 pounds with extra time. Alexander and Estevam were fined as a result.

This marks the first UFC main event for Allen (22-5), who is riding a five-figh…

[embedded content] After taking some time away from in-cage activity, referee Mario Yamasaki is ready to get back down to business.

The longtime referee will be returning to the sport to officiate the Professional Fighters League Finals on Nov. 24 in Washington, D.C. The 59-year-old born in Sao Paulo currently resides several miles outside of the U.S. Capitol, where he and his brother operate Yamasaki Academy. Its main stable located in Rockville, Maryland, he splits time between the U.S. and Brazil. Yamasaki spoke to Sherdog about his past career as well as his comeback.

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“I’ll be with my brother Fernando and Jerin [Valel], who is coming from Canada,” Yamasaki explained about his upcoming event coverage. “The rules are basically the same except for the elbows which are not allowed in PFL. Very anxious to ref some of those six finals. The promotion here in Washington is huge after all, the show will pay six million dollars for six finalists that night.…

Ruslan Satiev showed he could swim in deep waters.

The undefeated Dobryna Gym prospect made a successful One Championship debut with a split decision over Galaktic Sports rep Farid Alibabazade in a three-round ONE Friday Fights 41 flyweight showcase on Friday at Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand. Two of the three ringside judges sided with Satiev (5-0, 1-0 ONE), who was forced beyond the first round for the first time in his career.

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Alibabazade (8-6, 0-1 ONE) answered repeated takedowns with an active bottom game and nearly sprang the upset. However, Satiev successfully navigated the Azerbaijani’s spidery guard, more often than not dictated the terms of their engagement and racked up points with positional advances and intermittent ground-and-pound. Knees to the head proved to be his most effective weapon on the mat.

Further down the undercard, Satiev stablemate Gadzhimurad Amirzhanov kept his perfect professional record intact and did s…

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Even the undefeated, undisputed Chael Sonnen is man enough to shed tears at a powerful story.

On Thursday, Paramount+ released the documentary series of Ultimate Fighting Championship great Anderson Silva. The five-part series, currently out in Brazil and titled “Anderson ‘Spider’ Silva,” spans five episodes and chronicles much of Silva’s life. The show begins in his childhood and showcases his accolades in competition including winning and defending the UFC middleweight title.

To hype up the release of the docuseries, Paramount+ also posted a video of Silva and Sonnen getting together to watch it together. Sonnen famously posted on Tuesday a few photographs of a tattoo on his shoulder of former rival Silva, and the video took fans behind the scenes. As it turned out, this tattoo resulted from a bet between the two fighters.

“If [Sonnen] cried [while watching the series], he would have to tattoo my face on his arm,” Silva revealed. “If he didn’t, I would have…

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Brendan Allen doesn’t agree with Khamzat Chimaev being ranked in the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s middleweight division.

Chimaev (13-0) made his long-awaited permanent move to middleweight at UFC 294 last month against short-notice replacement Kamaru Usman (20-4), who also made his debut at 185 pounds. A -300 favorite on some sportsbooks going into the fight, “Borz” managed to eke out a majority decision.

While the fight was widely believed to be a middleweight title eliminator, Chimaev was allegedly not even discussed as a potential opponent while booking Sean Strickland’s upcoming defense against Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 297 on Jan. 20.

However, “Borz” landed directly at No. 8 on the middleweight ladder as per the newly updated UFC rankings.

No. 10 ranked middleweight Brendan Allen slammed the UFC ranking system for giving Chimaev a spot in the Top 10 of the division, despite him having not fought a true middleweight, let a…

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Bellator MMA bantamweight champion Sergio Pettis is finally coming into his own as a mixed martial arts star and out of the shadow of his elder brother Anthony Pettis.

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Despite making his professional debut back in 2011, Sergio for the longest time felt he was known solely as the younger brother of former World Extreme Cagefighting and Ultimate Fighting Championship king Anthony. It was back-to-back losses against Rob Font and Jussier Formiga in his UFC days that changed things for “The Phenom.”

After exiting the UFC with a win over Tyson Nam, Pettis went on to rack up five consecutive wins under the Bellator banner, which includes three title fights. Pettis returned to action in June after an 18-month layoff due to an ACL surgery and successfully defended his throne against featherweight champ Patricio “Pitbull” Freire.

Pettis is now scheduled to defend his throne at Bellator 301 on Nov. 17 against Patrick Mix (18-1), who …