Martial Arts News

Israel Adesanya was a massive -600 favorite going into his UFC 293 title defense against Sean Strickland on Sept. 9.

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Mixed martial arts fans watched in awe as the odds steadily changed after every round with Strickland emphatically outclassing the Nigerian-born Kiwi to the point where the challenger was a -125 favorite going into the final frame.

Adesanya looked out of his wits, especially after getting dropped in the first round of the bout, en route to a lopsided unanimous decision loss in one of the greatest title fight upsets in the history of the sport.

Adesanya’s head coach at City Kickboxing in Auckland, Eugene Bareman, has come under somewhat undue criticism in the aftermath of the championship loss for "The Last Stylebender" against Strickland.

While Bareman is credited with forming an elite MMA hub in that part of the world, honing the likes of Alexander Volkanovski and Kai Kara-France, one upset loss was seemingly enough to earn hi…

Khusein Askhabov’s sophomore Octagon appearance has been scrapped after the Russian was arrested in connection with a home invasion and robbery in Phuket, Thailand, earlier this month.

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The Las Vegas-based promotion announced Askhabov’s removal from his UFC Fight Night 229 bout against Daniel Pineda on Monday evening.

“UFC is aware of the recent arrest and allegations regarding Khusein Askhabov,” the statement read. “The organization will continue to gather additional details regarding the incident. UFC will allow the legal process to play out before making any additional statements, however, his scheduled fight on October 7 has been canceled.”

According to a report from the Phuket News, Asksabov and his twin brother, Khasan, were arrrested in connection with three Kazakh nationals forcing their way into an Italian man’s villa at a Thailand resort, where the man was bound, gagged, beaten and eventually robbed. According to a police report, As…

Comparisons between Anderson Silva and Israel Adesanya have been common in fan middleweight GOAT debates in recent years.

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Those discussions intensified after Adesanya defeated “The Spider” via unanimous decision at UFC 234 in February 2019 and then captured the middleweight belt later that year — this despite Silva having twice as many title defenses as his counterpart overall. On Saturday, after Sean Strickland defeated “The Last Stylebender” to claim the belt in a massive upset at UFC 293, Silva sent a strong message regarding the GOAT debate to his 4.9 million Instagram followers.

“I'm the one in charge of this s—t here, and you're not going to open your mouth again to compare yourself to me in this s—t,” Silva wrote in a message that has since been deleted. “Do you understand? I'm the one in charge of this s—t here.”

Shortly after posting, “The Spider” changed the caption to some skull and hawk emojis and shared a video from one of his fa…

City Kickboxing coach Eugene Bareman sounded just as surprised as the rest of the MMA world by Sean Strickland’s upset victory over Israel Adesanya at UFC 293.

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“The universe does things. I think Sean is a great fighter and I never thought that Sean wasn’t capable of beating Israel, but I thought if Israel performed to the fullest of his capabilities, that it would be hard for Sean,” said Bareman, who fielded questions from the media after UFC 293 in place of Adesanya, who only made a brief statement before leaving the podium.

“There was an alternate kind of universe where Israel performs his poorest or poorly where Sean could win, and I’m sitting in that universe right now. Training camp was great. I’m not going to make any excuses in regard to that,” Bareman continued. “Leading up to the fight was great, sparring partners, everything. All the technical things that have to do with the camp were perfect. No excuses there. He came in, he had an off n…

Jack Jenkins dislocated his elbow during a technical knockout loss to Jose Mariscal at UFC 293.

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The Melbourne, Australia, native suffered the injury while defending a takedown from his opponent in their preliminary featherweight bout at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney. Jenkins’ arm bent gruesomely when he attempted to post on the mat, ending the contest at the 3:19 mark of Round 2.

Jenkins provided an update on his status in a video post on social media. While Jenkins avoided any fractures, he did confirm the dislocation. It is currently unclear whether he’ll need surgery.

“Dislocated my elbow yesterday, went straight to the hospital,” Jenkins said. “No fractures or anything like that, but I’m going to need an MRI. They’re a little bit worried about some of the ligaments having ruptured. So, best case scenario, none of them are ruptured, and I can get back pretty soon. Worst case scenario, I’m going to need surgery but not much we can do about tha…

It’s all systems go for Week 6 of Dana White’s Contender Series, as all 10 athletes hit their contracted marks at Monday’s weigh-ins.

The Contender Series takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Tuesday and airs on ESPN+ beginning at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. The evening’s featured bout is a lightweight clash pitting James Llontop (156) against Malik Lewis (156).

Llontop takes an 11-fight winning streak into his matchup with Lewis. He is the reigning welterweight champion in the Peru-based Fusion Fighting Championship, where he has earned 10 of his last 11 victories.

Lewis, meanwhile, will be making his second appearance on the Contender Series after suffering a second-round TKO loss to Trevor Peek in September 2022. He returned to the win column with a third-round stoppage of Paulo Silva at Peak Fighting 26 this past February.

Contender Series Weigh-in Results:James Llontop (156) vs. Malik Lewis (156)Eduardo Jose Neves (263.5) vs. Jhonata Diniz (254)A.J. Cunn…

Carlos Ulberg has emerged as an intriguing talent in the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s light heavyweight division.

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The 32-year-old Auckland, New Zealand, native earned his fifth consecutive triumph at UFC 293, as he submitted Da Woon Jung 4:49 into Round 3 of their featured bout at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney on Saturday night. The fight initially made it to the final horn, but after a video review, it was determined that Jung tapped to a rear-naked choke in the waning seconds.

“I felt the tap,” Ulberg said in an interview with the UFC. “I knew he tapped somehow. I heard my coaches yell out that he was tapping. I thought that he went out, but he continued to fight. I’m glad that the fight ended so quickly, and the way that it did was amazing.”

After defeating his previous three opponents by knockout or technical knockout, Ulberg was able to earn his first career submission victory against a veteran opponent.

“I’ve seen how he takes down his…

Joaquin Buckley will lock horns with Alex Morono in a welterweight tilt at UFC Fight Night 229 on Oct. 7.

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MMAjunkie.com was first to confirm the pairing after the bout appeared on the event page for promotion broadcast partner ESPN. UFC Fight Night 229 takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and is headlined by a lightweight showdown pitting Grant Dawson against Bobby Green.

Buckley snapped a two-bout skid in his first outing of 2023, as he scored a second-round technical knockout victory against Andre Fialho at UFC Fight Night 223 on May 23. “New Mansa” is 6-4 during his tenure with the promotion and 16-6 as a professional overall, with 12 of those wins coming via KO or TKO.

Morono, an 18-time Octagon veteran, has been victorious in five of his last six UFC appearances. Most recently, the Fortis MMA product submitted Tim Means in the second round of their encounter UFC on ABC 4 on May 13.

Controversial persona aside, Sean Strickland reminded everyone that he’s also a high-level fighter with his upset of Israel Adesanya at UFC 293.

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Still, even Strickland himself was a little bit suprised by his performance against an opponent who was regarded as one of the greatest middleweights of all-time.

“F—k, I think I proved myself wrong,” Strickland said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “F—k, you watch Izzy go and f—k everybody up and you walk through him pretty easily, it’s kinda weird. Kinda weird. Just a weird day, guys, a weird f—-ing day. Weird day. Here we are.”

In addition to becoming the first foe to score a knockdown of Adesanya, Strickland largely outworked the City Kickboxing stalwart on the feet over the course of the 25-minute affair. That wasn’t necessarily the game plan heading into the fight.

“The game plan was to wrestle, you guys. We wrestled all camp,” Strickland said. “But when you’re a little autistic…

Israel Adesanya kept it brief after being on the wrong end of one of the biggest upsets in Ultimate Fighting Championship history.

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Few expected Adesanya to have much trouble with Sean Strickland in the UFC 293 main event, but after five rounds, it was Strickland who walked away with the middleweight belt in tow following a unanimous decision victory at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney on Saturday night.

Adesanya, who is generally one of the more thoughtful athletes on the UFC roster when it comes to interviews, made only a brief statement at the post-fight press conference before deferring to City Kickboxing head coach Eugene Bareman.

“I had a different plan for this but again life throws curveballs at you,” Adesanya said. “Win or lose, I wasn’t going to say much anyway but right now, I lost tonight to the better man on the night. I just want to go and be with people who care about me — my team and they’re waiting for me so I’m going to do that.

“B…

If Israel Adesanya had an off night at UFC 293, he may very well get a chance to right that wrong in short order.

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“The Last Stylebender” relinquished the middleweight strap to Sean Strickland via unanimous decision in Saturday’s headliner at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia. It’s a result that will likely go down as one of the biggest upsets in UFC history.

“Israel looked like he was in slow motion,” UFC president Dana White said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “He looked like he couldn’t get off. He looked like he was really stiff tonight. He looked very slow.

“There are a million things that could go wrong. Some days you wake up and you’re just not there, man. It’s just not there. He looked bone-dry tonight, standing up really tall. He looked very slow. He looked like he couldn’t get off at all. Even in the fifth round when everybody knew he needed a knockout to win the fight, there was no sense of urgency to try to finish the…

How good did it feel to get your first UFC victory?pic.twitter.com/2de7nAfLRU

— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) September 10, 2023

Charlie Radtke was a relative unknown heading into UFC 293, but that likely changed following his post-fight interview.

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After relying on cage control to outpoint local favorite Mike Mathetha in a largely forgettable welterweight bout at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney on Saturday night, Radtke used a homophobic slur to address those in attendance while speaking with UFC commentator Daniel Cormier.

“It felt great. So f—k all you f--gots in the fu--ing crowd,” Radtke said. “Come down and get some you pu--y ass b—ches.”

That led to Radtke getting much more attention than he otherwise would have for a fight that wasn’t especially memorable. The 33-year-old known as “Chuck Buffalo” would later apologize for his remarks in a statement on social media.

My sincere apologies to …