Martial Arts News

ONE Championship is teaming up with @SkySports, Europe's leading sports broadcaster, on an exclusive partnership to air the world's largest martial arts organization in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 and Ireland 🇮🇪

The partnership kicks off with #ONEFightNight18 on January 13 at 1AM… pic.twitter.com/tF9PqXeSsy

— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) December 12, 2023

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ONE Championship has partnered with Sky Sports to broadcast its events — along with ancillary programming — to viewers in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The Singapore-based promotion announced the agreement on Tuesday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The partnership will begin with One on Prime Video 18 on Jan. 12. The card takes place at Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, and is headlined by a 135-pound kickboxing title bout between Superlek Kiatmoo9 and Elias Mahmoudi. Additionally, UFC veteran John Lineker will compete in muay thai against Liam H…

Veteran official Herb Dean will be the third man in the cage when Leon Edwards and Colby Covington square off for the welterweight crown at UFC 296.

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The Nevada State Athletic Commission on Tuesday approved referee and judging assignments for the two championship bouts atop Saturday’s card at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Dean, who has officiated Edwards’ last four fights, will be paid $2,600 for his work. Dean also oversaw Covington’s last Octagon appearance, a five-round verdict over Jorge Masvidal at UFC 272.

Meanwhile, Derek Cleary, Sal D’Amato and Chris Lee will serve as cageside judges for the UFC 296 headliner. They will earn $2,300 apiece. Lee submitted a 48-46 tally for Edwards in the Englishman’s majority decision triumph against Kamaru Usman at UFC 286 this past March.

Marc Goddard will referee the flyweight title bout between Alexandre Pantoja and Brandon Royval in the UFC 296 co-main event. Like Dean, Goddard will be paid $2,6…

A heavyweight clash pitting Tai Tuivasa against Marcin Tybura is on tap for UFC 298.

The Las Vegas-based promotion recently announced the booking. UFC 298 takes place on Feb. 17 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, and is headlined by a featherweight championship bout between Alexander Volkanovski and Ilia Topuria.

Tuivasa is in the midst of a three-fight skid in which he has been finished by Alexander Volkov, Sergei Pavlovich and Ciryl Gane. Prior to that, the affable Aussie won five straight contests from October 2020 to February 2022, stopping all of his opponents by knockout or technical knockout. “Bam Bam” is 8-6 over the course of his UFC tenure and 14-6 as a professional overall.

Tybura, meanwhile, is coming off a first-round technical knockout defeat to current interim heavweight king Tom Aspinall at UFC Fight Night 224 on July 22. Prior to that, the 38-year-old Pole had been victorious in seven of his previous eight Octagon appearances. Hi…

Ilia Topuria believes he’ll dominate Alexander Volkanovksi in their upcoming featherweight title fight.

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Topuria released a theatrical trailer predicting victory right after his booking against Volkanovksi was announced for UFC 298 on Feb. 17. While “El Matador” has been on a collision course with Volkanovski for a while now, the matchup was slightly delayed when “The Great” stepped in a for a short notice rematch against lightweight champ Islam Makhachev at UFC 294 this past October.

Volkanovski went on to suffer a head kick knockout in the first round and later attributed the loss to accepting the fight on short notice. The featherweight champ believes people have somewhat forgotten who he really is due to the manner of his last loss, but he has vowed to give Topuria a a lesson in humility in their fight.

Meanwhile, Topuria’s confidence is on a whole new level. While “El Matador” doesn’t exactly see any holes in Volkanovski’s game, he beli…

With less than a week to go before their headlining clash at UFC 296, Leon Edwards still can’t make sense of how Colby Covington got a title shot.

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Edwards successfully defended his belt in a rematch against Kamaru Usman at UFC 286 in March. While Belal Muhammad was widely considered to be next in line for the title shot, Dana White dropped Covington’s name in the post-fight media scrum. Despite protests from Muhammad, widespread media criticism and Covington having not fought since March 2022, White adamantly insisted on “Chaos” getting the shot.

Edwards recently reiterated his disapproval of Covington’s gold bid, noting most of his recent wins came against fighters who are no longer in the UFC. With no other possible reasoning for the move, Edwards has only one explanation: Covington enjoys “Dana White privilege.”

“I couldn’t tell you. That’s what the UFC, that’s what everyone [wants]. I don’t know, I don’t know what the excuse is,” Edwards s…

Paddy Pimblett would like to see upcoming opponent Tony Ferguson return to the win column — just not at his expense.

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Pimblett is scheduled to return to action at UFC 296 on Saturday after being shelved for a year due to an injury that that was aggravated in his last fight against Jared Gooden and needed surgery. “The Baddy” is unbeaten in his last six outings, including four in the UFC. Ferguson, by contrast, has lost six straight.

While Ferguson was once touted to be the only threat to former lightweight king Khabib Nurmagomedov, “El Cucuy” hasn’t appeared to be the same fighter since a lopsided beating against Justin Gaethje in 2020.

Pimblett is also a fan of Ferguson and wants the former interim champ to register one more win before hanging up his gloves. However, the 28-year-old Liverpudlian can’t let it happen in their upcoming clash on Dec. 16.

“I really respect Tony Ferguson. He’s one of the Top 5 lightweights of all time. Who w…

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Shavkat Rakhmonov has had a tough time getting fights against Top 10 fighters in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and he plans to make the most of his showcase this Saturday.

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Rakhmonov (17-0) is slated to meet two-time welterweight title challenger Stephen Thompson at UFC 296 on Dec. 16 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The event will be headlined by the division’s current titleholder, Leon Edwards, defending his welterweight strap against Colby Covington. While Rakhmonov sits at No. 5 in the UFC’s official rankings, a win over Thompson could catapult him into title contention considering the Kazakh has finished all 17 of his professional MMA fights.

Rakhmonov believes he is ready to fight for the title and is expecting to do so soon, though he is yet to have a conversation with the UFC in that regard.“Nomad” said on The MMA Hour:

“No, I didn’t have this conversation or any promises, but all I want to say is that I’m …

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While some are wondering whether this Saturday represents Colby Covington’s last, best chance at an undisputed title, he already has his sights set on two-division glory.

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Former Ultimate Fighting Championship interim welterweight titleholder Covington (17-3), who challenges Leon Edwards (21-3, 1 NC) in the main event of UFC 296 on Saturday in Las Vegas, has been vocal about his plans for the near future. Despite not having fought since last March and despite two of his last four outings being title losses, “Chaos” earned himself another shot against Edwards, thanks in part to his penchant for incendiary statements.

While Covington is a slight underdog going into this week’s matchup, he has already disclosed his next target: UFC middleweight champ Sean Strickland. While Strickland is notorious for expressing his unhinged opinions on a variety of controversial topics, Covington claims to see through Strickland’s public persona, an…

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As he is known to do, Dana White is hinting at big things in the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s future.

In this particular case, the UFC CEO recently indicated on the Full Send podcast that a superfight is in the works for the Las Vegas-based promotion. Other than confirming that said bout didn’t involve Conor McGregor, White wouldn’t reveal any further details.

“We’re talking about one right now, actually, that just popped up a few days ago,” White said. “I can’t talk about it until we get everybody... well, every fight that you would consider a ‘superfight’ would involve McGregor but this one isn’t, no.”

That led to speculation that UFC Hall of Famer Georges St. Pierre might be part of White’s plans. The former two-division champion hasn’t competed since 2017, when he submitted Michael Bisping at UFC 217 to claim middleweight gold. St. Pierre officially announced his retirement from MMA in 2019.

St. Pierre quickly shut down ru…

Kevin Holland would prefer Michael Page on the Ultimate Fighting Championship roster but admits that he can’t really blame “Venom” if he signs with the Professional Fighters League.

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The Bellator veteran has generated his fair share of attention since announcing his free agency in July. Page was subsequently spotted at UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi in October, with Dana White confirming mutual interest between the fighter and promotion. However, Page didn't close the door on potentially signing with the PFL, either.

Most recenlty, “MVP” was seen in attendance at PFL Europe 4 at the 3Arena in Dublin on Friday. The 36-year-old squared off with French star Cedric Doumbe, leading to speculation of a potential deal in the works.

According to Holland, Page would be choosing money over legacy if he signs with the PFL instead of the UFC. However, “Trailblazer” admits that he can’t exactly blame Page for prioritizing money considering the name of the game is …

Beneil Dariush is wondering if he can still compete at the sport’s highest level after a knockout loss to Arman Tsarukyan in the main event at UFC on ESPN 52 on Dec. 2.

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It was the second consecutive knockout loss for the Kings MMA product, who fell to former champ Charles Oliveira in the opening round of their clash at UFC 289 in June. However, Dariush revealed that there is a significant difference in his mindset in aftermath of the two losses.

“Remember how I told you guys I just didn’t feel like I showed up that fight [against Oliveira]?” Dariush told Submission Radio. “No matter how I looked at it, I was like, ‘Man maybe I did something wrong in camp, I’m gonna go back and fix it.’ So that was my focus, I’m gonna go back and fix my camp and everything will be better.

“So I went in back into camp and just tried to do everything the best that I can and I had a really good camp for this fight. Great weight cut, great conditioning, everything…

Jan Blachowicz will admittedly need some time to regain his famed “Polish Power” as he awaits a shoulder surgery that has him sidelined.

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The former Ultimate Fighting Championship light heavyweight champ was scheduled to fight Aleksandar Rakic in a rematch at UFC 297 in January but was forced out of the matchup due the injury. While it was initially assumed that the injury happened in camp, Blachowicz revealed that it had been building up for a while.

“I feel it for like three years, something like this,” Blachowicz told BJPenn.com. “I feel pain in my shoulders, but I accept the pain. Last three months, two months, I started losing my power, my strength. Forty percent goes, I tried and do something with physiotherapy and doctors, and they tried to fix it but every training was worse.

“When I did wrestling, I’d hold someone and they’d just grab my hand and open it like this, too easy. We did an MRI on both shoulders because I feel pain in both …