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UFC 295 was one of the most memorable events of the year, and its top performers were compensated accordingly.

The Las Vegas-based promotion handed out seven $50,000 bonuses following Saturday’s card at Madison Square Garden in New York. Of those, five main-card fighters received “Performance of the Night” honors: Alex Pereira, Tom Aspinall, Jessica Andrade, Benoit St. Denis and Diego Lopes.

Pereira became the ninth two-division champion in promotion history by virtue of his second-round knockout of Jiri Prochazka in the evening’s light heavyweight headliner, while Aspinall captured interim heavyweight gold with a 69-second shellacking of Sergei Pavlovich in the co-main event.

Earlier, Andrade set a UFC women’s record with four knockdowns in a second-round stoppage of Mackenzie Dern in a featured strawweight affair; St. Denis secured his fifth straight finish with a head-kick KO of Matt Frevola and Lopes knocked out Pat Sabatini 90 seconds into their main-card op…

Alex Pereira made certain history will remember him.

The surgical Brazilian kickboxer struck gold in a second Ultimate Fighting Championship weight class when he vanquished Jiri Prochazka with a volley of second-round elbows and walked away with the vacant light heavyweight title in the UFC 295 headliner on Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York. Prochazka (29-4-1, 3-1 UFC) checked out 4:08 into Round 2.

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Now the first man to have won UFC championships at 185 and 205 pounds, Pereira weaved in and out of danger. Prochazka secured a takedown and enjoyed some significant control time in the second half of the first round, having chosen to move the action to the floor after the Brazilian tore into his lead leg with a series of punishing kicks. Pereira (9-2, 6-1 UFC) stayed calm under duress, eventually returned to an upright position and extended the fight. Prochazka appeared to have him reeling with a few overhand rights in Round 2, but his aggre…

Sherdog's live UFC 295 coverage will begin Saturday at 6 p.m. ET. BETTING PREVIEW | SCOUTING REPORT | ODDS: Emmers (-258), Buzukja (+210)Round 1 There’s not much like a live sporting event at Madison Square Garden. The UFC makes its annual pilgrimage to the world-famous arena with a show that took several huge hits but came back with a vengeance. The main card alone promises plenty of action, but before then, eight prelims play out on the various ESPN and streaming networks out there. The fights commence with a match scheduled at featherweight only to get a slight tweak on weigh-in day. Coming in one pound heavy, Emmers (19-7, 2-3 UFC) will hope that surrendering a percentage of purse is the only thing he loses today against New York’s own Buzukja (11-3, 0-1 UFC). Buzukja offers his hand outstretched, and the heavy fighter choose not to accept it under the nonsense-free gaze of referee Keith Peterson. It’s on with the show. Buzukja sticks out a few jabs early, and Emmers is …

John Brannigan/Sherdog.com illustration

Steve Erceg passed his first serious test in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

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The 28-year-old Australian operated behind efficient standup and a tactical clinch game, as he was awarded a unanimous verdict over Alessandro Costa in their featured UFC 295 flyweight prelim on Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York. All three cageside judges scored it the same: 29-28 for Erceg (11-1, 2-0 UFC), who has now strung together 10 straight victories.

Costa (13-4, 1-2 UFC) made his presence known in the middle stanza, where he mucked up the proceedings, turned it into a brawl and rocked the onetime Eternal MMA champion with a series of sweeping right hooks. Erceg withstood those efforts, lured him into the clinch in the third round, chewed up valuable time and piled up points while staying out of danger in tight spaces.

Meanwhile, former Legacy Fighting Alliance champion Lupita Godinez became t…

The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s first pay-per-view card of 2024 has been graced with a matchup of elite light heavyweights.

Former champ Jan Blachowicz (29-10) will take on contender Aleksandar Rakic in a rematch (14-3) at UFC 297 on Jan. 20 in Toronto. The booking was announced by the promotion during the UFC 295 broadcast on Saturday night.

Blachowicz and Rakic previously shared the Octagon in the main event of UFC on ESPN 36 in May 2022. It was an evenly-matched affair before Rakic blew out his knee in the third round, bringing the bout to an anti-climactic end. The Austrian has since undergone ACL surgery and has been rallying for this booking to settle unfinished business.

Meanwhile, Blachowicz missed out on a bid for the vacant title against Magomedov Ankalaev at UFC 282 in December with a split draw. The Pole then welcomed former middleweight champ Alex Pereira to the 205-pound weight class at UFC 291 in July. “Poatan” eked out a razor-thin spl…

Bellator lightweight champion Usman Nurmagomedov has been suspended six months by the California State Athletic Commission after testing positive for a banned substance in relation to his Bellator 300 bout against Brent Primus.

As a result, Nurmagomedov’s victory over Primus has been overturned to a no contest and he has been fined $50,000 in addition to his six-month sanction. He was also pulled from Bellator’s lightweight grand prix. Multiple outlets confirmed the news following an initial report from Ariel Helwani. According to ESPN, Nurmagomedov will not be stripped of his 155-pound title.

Nurmagomedov’s positive test reportedly came from a prescription medication, which resulted in a reduced suspension. CSAC executive officer Andy Foster declined to reveal the substance, while confirming that Nurmagomedov will enroll in Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency program as a condition of his settlement.

Nurmagomedov defeat Primus via unanimous decision at Bellator…

The Battle for Radom has been decided!

🇵🇱 @kaczmarczykmma jumps into the crowd to celebrate! XTB #KSW88 pic.twitter.com/tBzPrp0VqR

— KSW (@KSW_MMA) November 11, 2023

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What promised to be a showdown between two of Poland’s favorite sons, No. 6 featherweight Patryk Kaczmarczyk upset No. 2 Daniel Rutkowski by narrow unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28) in the KSW 88 main event at the RCS Hall in Radom, Poland.

In a card that produced eight finishes, five in the first round, Kaczmarczyk (11-2) nearly produced the fastest finish of the night after dropping Rutkowski (16-4) in the first 10 seconds with a flush switch knee. Rutkowski played off his back for the rest of the round and recovered nicely.

Kaczmarczyk’s striking prowess continued into Round 2 as the 25-year-old once again floored Rutkowski with a rear roundhouse kick off the temple. Kaczmarczyk followed Rutkowski to the ground, squandering his opportunity…

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Welterweight contender Belal Muhammad is rooting for Leon Edwards to defeat Colby Covington in their UFC 296 title fight.  

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Edwards (21-3) and Covington (17-3) are slated to compete for the welterweight title on Dec.16 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. While many fans were critical of the American receiving the title shot, UFC CEO Dana White was adamant that the former interim champion was worthy of a title shot despite his inactivity in the division.  

Muhammad, who is currently on a 10-fight unbeaten streak, was hoping to secure a title shot against Edwards before Covington. However, the promotion had other plans.  

Muhammad and Edwards faced each other in the Octagon back in 2021. The bout was ruled a no-contest after Edwards accidentally poked Muhammad's eye 18 seconds into the second frame, rendering "Remember The Name" unfit to continue.   

Considering his history w…

A flyweight meeting between Julija Stoliarenko and Luana Carolina has been confirmed for a UFC Fight Night card set to take place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Feb. 3.

The booking was first announced by Carolina’s management on Instagram. A heavyweight bout between Thomas Petersen (8-1) and Jamal Pogues (10-4) is also set for the event.

Stoliarenko (11-7) is coming off a Round 1 armbar submission victory against English fan favorite Molly McCann this past July. The Lithuanian fighter has a record of 2-4 in the Las Vegas-based promotion and will look to rack up a few wins to secure her spot on the roster.

Meanwhile, Brazil's Luana Carolina (9-4) will enter the Octagon following a hard-fought unanimous decision victory against Ivana Siric Petrovic. That win snapped a two-fight losing streak that included a split-decision loss to Joanne Wood and a knockout loss against McCann.

Alan Belcher defeats Roy Nelson via split decision, do you guys agree with the decision? #GamebredBareknuckle | @GamebredFC pic.twitter.com/eHsLhsTCXb

— Combat Sports Today 📰 (@CSTodayNews) November 11, 2023

Alan Belcher secured his first bareknuckle mixed martial arts victory against Roy Nelson in their three-round Gamebred Fighting Championship 6 main event clash at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, Mississippi, on Friday night.

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Both Ultimate Fighting Championship veterans put on an impressive display of grit and perseverance in a bout that could have been scored for either side. While Belcher (19-8) had significant success in the standup portion of the bout, especially in the first frame, Nelson (24-20) managed to log an overwhelming amount of control time on the ground.

Much to the surprise of many observers, Belcher went home with a split-decision victory (28-29, 29-28, 29-28).

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[embedded content] Two Ultimate Fighting Championship championship fights are now official after the UFC 295 weigh-ins.

Two fighters missed weight for the 13-fight card. First was Jamall Emmers, who came in one pound over for his featherweight fight against Dennis Buzukja. Additionally, Roosevelt Roberts came in two pounds over for his lightweight fight against Mateusz Rebecki. The two weight offenders have been fined currently undisclosed percentages of their purses.

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The main event will be for the vacant light heavyweight title as former champion Jiri Prochazka takes on former middleweight king Alex Pereira. Meanwhile, the interim heavyweight championship will be on the line in the co-main event that sees Sergei Pavlovich go up against Tom Aspinall. At 261.6 pounds, Aspinall will be the slightly heavier fighter, weighing in 1.8 pounds more than the 259.8-pound Pavlovich.

Having previously vacated the title due to injury, Prochazka (29-3-1) return…

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Henry Cejudo sees Sean O'Malley coming up short against Marlon “Chito” Vera once again in their title fight at UFC 299.

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O'Malley (17-1) recently secured the bantamweight title at UFC 292 with an impressive Round 2 technical knockout against Aljamain Sterling. Soon after becoming champion, “Sugar” declared that he intended to face Vera (23-8) in his first title defense and avenge his only professional mixed martial arts loss.

Back in 2020, Vera defeated a surging O'Malley via Round 1 TKO. The Ecuador native came out with a leg-kick-heavy game plan, eventually dinging O'Malley's peroneal nerve and finishing him by ground-and-pound.

According to Cejudo, their second meeting won’t turn out to be any different.

“Chito Vera beats him just based on endurance,” Cejudo said on his YouTube channel. “There’s another problematic thing that Sean is not accustomed to, is taller guys. It’s not like Chito’s a giant either, but he’s a…