Martial Arts News

A women’s flyweight bout pitting Erin Blanchfield against Maycee Barber will serve as the main event for an Ultimate Fighting Championship card on May 31.

The Las Vegas-based promotion announced the pairing on Tuesday. The UFC Fight Night event is expected to take place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, though a location and venue have not been officially confirmed. Blanchfield and Barber were initially slated to meet in December 2021 before Barber withdrew from the contest.

Blanchfield has been victorious in seven of her first eight Octagon appearances, with her lone defeat coming at the hands of top contender Manon Fiorot at UFC on ESPN 54 in March 2024. “Cold Blooded” rebounded from that loss in her most recent outing, when she took a five-round verdict over Rose Namajunas at UFC Edmonton this past November. The New Jersey native owns other notable triumphs over the likes of Taila Santos, Jessica Andrade and Molly McCann.

Barber is in the midst of a six-fi…

Ilia Topuria hinted that a change in moniker would accompany his move to a new weight class. Now that update has become a reality.

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“‘El Matador’ has been my ally in every fight,” Topuria recently wrote on X. “But next time, I’ll step into the Octagon with a new identity.’”

During an interview with Mundo Deportivo, Topuria revealed that his new nickname will be “La Leyenda,” which translates to “The Legend” in English. Topuria was attending a ceremony in Toledo, Spain, where a street was named in his honor.

“‘El Matador’ is something that has accompanied me throughout my entire sporting career, throughout my entire trajectory, and it’s something that’s led me to the new nickname,” Topuria said. “It’s always what I say: You need to believe. You need to see to believe. I believe it first, and then I see it. So the nickname that will accompany me in my next fights is going to be ‘La Leyenda.’”

Topuria began his UFC tenure with eight consec…

Sean Brady goes OFF on ‘salty’ Leon Edwards 😬

“Personally, f*** Leon. F*** him and his whole team. That's how I feel about the whole situation.

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He's just salty... I wish I was even f***ing meaner to this dude.”

🎥 @arielhelwani #UFC #MMA

pic.twitter.com/MUCUjYqqep — Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) March 24, 2025

Sean Brady didn’t like Leon Edwards’ attitude before and after their UFC London fight.

Brady and Edwards headlined UFC Fight Night 255 at the O2 Arena in London last weekend. Brady mostly ragdolled Edwards before submitting the Englishman in front of his home fans in the fourth round.

Brady recently revealed that he didn’t appreciate Edwards’ behavior in the lead-up to the fight. Brady claims Edwards initially made fun of his height during their first face off, which he took in good humor. However, he didn’t like Edwards’ team chiming in shortly thereafter. While Brady is not one talk much trash…

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Vince Morales (16-9) is working among the best bantamweights in the world leading up to his fight against Raul Rosas Jr. (10-1).

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Morales will be looking for his fourth UFC win as he takes on Rosas Jr. at UFC Mexico City at the Arena CDMX on Saturday. “Vandetta” is currently training in Las Vegas under the tutelage of John Wood at Syndicate MMA, which is also home to current bantamweight champ Merab Dvalishvili. While former champ Aljamain Sterling also shows up intermittently, Morales’ cousin, UFC bantamweight veteran Ricky Simon, will be cornering him in his upcoming fight. Morales believes he is getting better by the day in the star-studded camp and plans to exhibit that come fight night.

“Literally, I got the bantamweight champion in the room,” Morales told Home of Fight. “I’m getting countless rounds on him. Aljo comes through, I’m getting rounds on him. I got my cousin Ricky Simon that came through, he’s going out there wit…

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Roman Dolidze prefers Israel Adesanya over Robert Whittaker as a potential opponent.

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Dolidze scored a unanimous decision over Marvin Vettori in the UFC Vegas 104 headliner earlier this month. “The Caucasian” subsequently called out Whittaker, who has since turned down the matchup, saying he has nothing to gain from it. “Bobby Knuckles” also called the bout between Dolidze and Vettori a bar fight.

Dolidze believes Whittaker isn’t in a position to talk in that manner while noting that the former champion has been finished multiple times in his career.

“This is a talking guy who got knocked out a couple of times and he got destroyed in his last fight… You’re speaking too loud,” Dolidze told Home of Fight. “You need to prove that you’re so tough… Too loud for him to speak like that. We already saw what he is capable to do and how many times he was stopped, he tapped.”

Considering Whittaker’s reluctance to accept a fight a…

After a memorable walkout, Alexia Thainara secured a $50,000 “Performance of the Night” bonus by submitting Molly McCann in the first round of her Ultimate Fighting Championship debut.

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A training partner of popular Octagon veteran Amanda Ribas, Thainara was joyful after winning at UFC London on just seven days’ notice.

“The first time I traveled out of Brazil was when Amanda fought [Rose] Namajunas. I still can't believe that my second trip abroad was to fight on a main card in London,” Thainara told Sherdog.com. “Maybe Molly thought she would get a beginner not ready to brawl, but I train at Ribas Family. We have more than 30 tough girls training there, and Amanda Ribas is ranked in two divisions.”

Thainara took an interest in martial arts at an early age, but those pursuits weren’t always well received in her family.

“I started capoeira when I was 8 years old. When I was 15 I fell in love with jiu-jitsu, but as my mother didn't like it, I …

🚨 Former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez is entering the court room to receive his sentence for attempted murder.

He already plead no contest.

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Prosecutors asked for 25 years to life. Defense asked for no prison time. pic.twitter.com/vvG06F0cT3 — Combat Casuals (@Combat_Casuals) March 24, 2025

Former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez was sentenced to five years in prison during a hearing at the Santa Clara County Hall of Justice in San Jose, California, on Monday, according to a report from NBC Sports Bay Area.

Velasquez was present in court Monday after pleading no contest to attempted murder, felony assault and additional gun charges stemming from a February 2022 incident in which the former fighter fired a gun at a truck containing multiple people. During a high-speed chase, Velasquez shot at the vehicle containing Harry Goularte, who was accused of molesting Velasquez’s son. One of the shots hit a…

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Heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk’s main focus is a rematch against Daniel Dubois, but he is keeping his options open beyond that.

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“Dubois is our priority, because he has the belt,” said childhood friend and Team Usyk member Sergey Lapin in an interview with OLBG. “We are waiting for the date of the fight with Dubois. We assume it will take place in Riyadh or London, one of the world capitals of boxing and Usyk will once again prove that he is the best fighter of our generation.”

Widely regarded as one of the top pound-for-pound boxers in the world, Usyk currently holds heavyweight titles with the IBO, WBC and WBO sanctioning bodies. The 38-year-old Ukrainian owns a 23-0 career record in the Sweet Science and is coming off back-to-back triumphs over Tyson Fury. He previously defeated Daniel Dubois via ninth-round knockout in August 2023. Dubois currently holds the IBF heavyweight crown.

What might interest combat spor…

Tom Aspinall was in attendance when Sean Brady submitted Leon Edwards at UFC London.

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Edwards and Brady headlined the card at the O2 Arena in London this past weekend. Brady was all over Edwards throughout their fight en route to a fourth-round guillotine submission victory. Aspinall recorded his reaction to the fight right in the moments leading up to the submission.

Aspinall and Edwards are friends after having honed their skills on the English MMA scene. While Aspinall was sad to see “Rocky” get dominated, he couldn’t help but acknowledge Brady’s elite skillset. Like a large number of fans, “Honey Badger” also felt like leaving the venue as Edwards was submitted. For Aspinall, the fight played out very similar to Edwards’s unanimous decision title loss against Belal Muhammad at UFC 304 last year.

“[Leon’s] on his back again, half guard again. This is Sean Brady’s bread and butter, man. This is Sean Brady 101,” Aspinall said. “Bad, really …

Mayra Bueno Silva has seemingly given up on her flyweight title aspirations.

While Silva started herUltimate Fighting Championship career at flyweight, she soon moved up to bantamweight, where she had a lot of success. However, “Sheetara” dropped backed to flyweight for her last outing against Jasmine Jasudavicius this past February. Silva suffered a unanimous decision loss against the Canadian at UFC Saudi Arabia, which put her on a three-fight slump.

Silva revealed that the UFC advised her against moving down to flyweight for her last outing. Having failed to deliver the show she had promised, Silva has now decided to move back to 135 pounds for good. The Brazilian has already called for a matchup against Irene Aldana, who is seemingly down with an injury at the moment. Silva hopes to trade leather against Aldana at Noche UFC in September or sometime later this year.

“I have a dream [of] fighting flyweight for the belt but it’s not for me… I’m back at my…

At the moment, it remains unclear which title fight — or fights — will top the lineup for UFC 317 on International Fight Week.

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After Magomed Ankalaev stated that he doesn’t want to wait until October in Abu Dhabi for a rematch with Alex Pereira, speculation began that the light heavyweight rematch could serve as the main event for that card.

Meanwhile, Charles Oliveira has thrown his hat into the ring for another potential featured bout at UFC 317. Recently, reigning lightweight champ Islam Makhachev indicated that former 145-pound king Ilia Topuria should win one fight against a contender before receiving a title shot in the new weight class. Meanwhile, the Georgian-Spaniard issued a scathing response to Oliveira after “do Bronx” stated he didn’t see Topuria as a big fight.

“You have 10 losses: [five] by knockout, [four] by submission, and [one] by decision. You are the contender, while I am the champion, the father of the entire division,” …

Jan Blachowicz was a measuring stick fight for Carlos Ulberg.

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The City Kickboxing representative proved himself in the UFC London co-main event, taking a closely-contested unanimous verdict over the former light heavyweight champion at the O2 Arena on Saturday.

“If you look at the current champion [Magomed Ankalaev] and the former champion [Alex Pereira], their last fight with Jan Blachowicz was a very close fight, as well,” Ulberg said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “I beat him with a unanimous decision, so it’s a very good feat for me.”

The triumph wasn’t a thing of beauty, especially for someone who had finished five of his previous seven Octagon opponents. However, Ulberg acknowledged that it’s often difficult to look good against someone with Blachowicz’s style.

“We knew he was gonna come out tough and exactly how he came out,” Ulberg said. “He’s very good at lulling you to sleep. He’s very good at kind of putting this press…