Martial Arts News

Umar Nurmagomedov is eager to stay active instead of waiting for a title shot against Merab Dvalishvili.

Advertisement

Dvalishvili recently won the bantamweight title with a dominant unanimous decision win over Sean O’Malley in the main event at UFC 306 on Sept. 14. Joe Rogan asked Dvalishvili about potentially defending his strap against Nurmagomedov immediately afterwards as the camera focused on the Dagestani, who was attending the event.

While the UFC appears keen on setting up a clash between Dvalishvili and Nurmagomedov, the newly-crowned champ has been critical of the undefeated contender for a while now. Dvalishvili has accused Nurmagomedov of being promoted by the UFC due to his relation to his cousin, Khabib Nurmagomedov. “The Machine” also stalled Rogan when asked about a potential Dvalishvili matchup and later went on to call out former flyweight champ Deiveson Figueiredo.

While Dvalishvili’s camp is rallying hard for the champ to call his own …

Jean Silva is rallying for a wild-card entry into the UFC featherweight title picture.

Advertisement

Silva has called for a clash against undefeated contender Movsar Evloev, who is in search of an opponent after Aljamain Sterling withdrew from their scheduled bout at UFC 307.“Funkmaster” pulled out of the contest last week due to an injury suffered in sparring.

Silva has now called out Evloev, although he won’t be able to replace Sterling at UFC 307. The Brazilian would instead like to fight Evloev at UFC 309 on Nov. 16 at Madison Square Garden in New York.

"Evloev, I know your fight is off and I will accept to fight you but I cannot fight on [Oct. 5] as the UFC staff and my doctor Daniel didn't allow me to fight, but on [Nov. 16], if you agree on the Jon Jones card, I guarantee you will have a war. Let’s go,” Silva said on Instagram.

Evloev is 8-0 in UFC competition, going the distance in all of his victories. Meanwhile, Silva has finished his firs…

[embedded content]

While Max Holloway is the UFC’s BMF champ, he is strongly against unnecessary violence outside of the Octagon.

Advertisement

Holloway recently spoke out against gun violence, which has recently been rampant in his home state of Hawaii. When asked about a shooting in West Oahu, the former featherweight champ urged Hawaiians to put down the guns and find other ways to solve their issues.

Holloway noted that settling beefs with fist fights is better than using guns. “Blessed” also suggests people to go to the gym or play shooting games instead of taking up real guns.

“It sucks, man. Put the guns down, boys. Put ‘em down,” Holloway told Hawaiian outlet KHON2. “If you guys got a problem, do it the old-school way. Go to the boxing gym, put on some gloves and punch each other and then shake hands and be on with it. I remember when we was growing up, street fights, I wouldn’t say do it, but shooting someone is something different. At the end of …

Belal Muhammad is getting some well-deserved recognition.

Advertisement

Muhammad’s hometown of Chicago recently honored him by officially declaring Sept. 20, 2024 “Belal Muhammad Day.” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson made the announcement in a ceremony at the Harold Washington Library Center on Friday.

😳👏September 20th is now “Belal Muhammad’s day” in his hometown Chicago.

Via. IG @bullyb170 ▫️ pic.twitter.com/tuR06VJ4ef — Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight) September 20, 2024

Johnson also wrote on his Instagram Stories about the Bogan High School and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign graduate.

"Proud to congratulate UFC Champion [Belal Muhammad]! First Palestinian-American (and Chicago Public Schools grad) from the South Side of Chicago to win the title,” Johnson wrote.

“Remember the Name” also uploaded an Instagram post regarding the honor, reminding everyone to now “remember the date.”

The honor comes after M…

Raul Rosas Jr. recently elaborated on his UFC 306 bonus request, which faced widespread criticism.

Advertisement

Rosas took on veteran Qileng Aori in the first preliminary fight at UFC 306 on Sept 14 at the Sphere in Las Vegas. The 19-year-old went on to earn a unanimous decision over Aori in what was seen as a lukewarm affair.

However, fans were surprised to see Rosas ask for a bonus for his performance in his post-fight Octagon interview. “El Nino Problema” has since explained his bizarre call for a bonus at UFC 306. To begin with, Rosas admits that he called for a bonus in heat of the moment out of habit, having earned “Performance of the Night” bonuses for all three of his previous UFC wins.

While Rosas admits that he didn’t deserve a bonus for his win over “Mongolian Murderer,” the Mexican prospect had some reasoning to justify getting one. Rosas takes the credit for attracting fans early on in the card.

“It was just the heat of the moment,” Ro…

إصابة ولا أقوى لعبدالله القحطاني 😳

بث مباشر الآن على قناة إم بي سي أكشن ومنصة شاهد!#نصنع_التاريخ #السعودية pic.twitter.com/1eY6TMgYI2

— PFL MENA (@PFLMENA) September 20, 2024 When it comes to MMA, nothing is ever guaranteed.

Advertisement

Bantamweights, featherweights, lightweights and welterweights were on display on Friday, along with a few showcase matchups with one featuring a rising amateur prospect. The Professional Fighters League completed its four-division playoffs of its Middle East, North Africa (MENA) series, setting the four finals bouts that had their fair share of intrigue. Both victors in the main and co-headlining spots crashed the party at PFL MENA 3 with upset wins.

The main attraction of the 10-fight show came at 145 pounds, as the favored Abdullah Al-Qahtani (9-2, 4-1 PFL) suffered his first defeat under the PFL banner in arguably the biggest fight of his career. “The Reaper” had the crowd on his side, and the…

حدث الميزان لوزن الفيثرويت لنزالات مرحلة نصف النهائي لبطولة #PFLMENA

عبدالله القحطاني: 145.4 رطلاًعبدالرحمن الحياصات: 145.9 رطلاً

Advertisement

20 سبتمبر | 📍 بوليفارد سيتي، الرياض | التذاكر متوفرة عبر https://t.co/F2H6Q4rdSt 🔗 | بث مباشر على قنوات SSC وإم بي سي أكشن ومنصة شاهد!… pic.twitter.com/GhcIwPQWHP — PFL MENA (@PFLMENA) September 19, 2024 The Professional Fighters League's Middle East and North Africa series continues this week as the playoff fights are now official.

The PFL MENA 3 main event is a featherweight semifinal match between Abdullah Al-Qahtani and Abdalrahman Alhyasat. It is one of eight playoff fights in the featherweight, welterweight, lightweight and bantamweight divisions. All fighters on the card successfully made weight.

Al-Qahtani (9-1) will look to provide the first loss on the record of Alhyasat (4-0). "The Reaper" is riding a four-fight win streak and previously finished Yazeed Hasanain via TKO. …

[embedded content]

Aljamain Sterling has been forced to pull out of a proposed featherweight booking against Movsar Evloev at UFC 307.

Advertisement

The ex-bantamweight champion announced the news via YouTube on Wednesday.

“Unfortunately, I have to break the news I will not be competing in Salt Lake City at UFC 307,” Sterling said. “In sparring, I had an injury not requiring surgery, but I was advised by the UFC medical staff that I will not be able to properly compete in this short of a turnaround.

“I did the stem cells. I took time off. I tried to rehab it as much as I can, as best as I can with the [UFC Performance Institute] team here, and unfortunately, it’s out of my hands now. I apologize to Movsar and his team. We’ve been talking and I was really looking forward to punching this guy in his face.”

While Sterling did not specify the nature of the injury, MMAFighting.com is reporting that an elbow issue caused “Funkmaster” to withdraw from the event. S…

Said Nurmagomedov will square off against Daniel Santos in a bantamweight bout at UFC 308.

The Las Vegas-based promotion announced the booking on Wednesday. UFC 308 takes place on Oct. 26 at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi and is headlined by a featherweight championship tilt pitting Ilia Topuria against Max Holloway.

Nurmagomedov has been victorious in five of his last six Octagon appearances dating back to 2020. Most recently, the 32-year-old Dagestani rebounded from a loss to Jonathan Martinez by submitting Muin Gafurov in the opening stanza at UFC 294. Nurmagomedov was slated to face Montel Jackson at UFC Saudi Arabia in June before withdrawing from the contest.

After dropping his promotional debut to Julio Arce, Santos has scored back-to-back triumphs over John Castaneda and Johnny Munoz in UFC competition. The fight vs. Nurmagomedov will mark the Brazilian’s first appearance since June 2023.

[embedded content]

Herb Dean’s activity in the UFC 306 main event didn’t go unnoticed by Aljamain Sterling.

The UFC 306 main event clash between Sean O'Malley and Merab Dvalishvili on Sept. 14 at the Sphere in Las Vegas started off bizarrely, though that wasn’t necessarily due to Dean. Dvalishvili suddenly stopped fighting in the opening seconds, frantically pointing at O’Malley coach Tim Welch in the corner.

Dean issued a stern warning to Dvalishvili for taking the liberty to stop the action by himself. Meanwhile, Welch, who has a history of shouting instructions to O’Malley’s opponents, also received a warning for excessive coaching. However, Dean began attracting attention, including those of the commentators, thank to his repeated intervention as the fight progressed.

Despite a lopsided grappling display from Dvalishvili, Dean inexplicably kept calling for more action, threatening to stand them up even as “The Machine” kept working continuously. Like th…

[embedded content]

Head coach John Wood is rallying hard behind new bantamweight champ Merab Dvalishvili.

Advertisement

Dvalishvili dethroned Sean O'Malley via unanimous decision in the main event at UFC 306 on Sept. 14 at the Sphere in Las Vegas. Leading up to the fight, Dvalishvili had already shown some disregard for bantamweight contender Umar Nurmagomedov.

“The Machine” claimed Nurmagomedov’s name was pushed into the title picture off of only one notable win due to his relation to Khabib Nurmagomedov. Regardless, immediately after Dvalishvili’s title win, Joe Rogan asked him about potentially fighting Nurmagomedov, who was also shown on the big screen while attending UFC 306.

Dvalishvili refused to immediately plot his next move, claiming he needed to soak in the moment. The Georgian then went on to call out former flyweight champ Deiveson Figueiredo at the post-fight press conference.

Wood is now backing Dvalishvili’s call to fight Figueiredo ov…

Max Holloway believes that the UFC was "shelling" Ilia Topuria away from him 😳

"I believe that the UFC made me fight every other contender at 145 except for [Ilia] for a reason...

Advertisement

I'm gonna prove come October 26th why the UFC was shelling him away from me."

🎥 YT /… pic.twitter.com/GXuCr2znT1

— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) September 17, 2024

Max Holloway believes the UFC was protecting Ilia Topuria from him and he plans to show why in their upcoming matchup.

Holloway will challenge Topuria for the featherweight title in the main event at UFC 308 on Oct. 26 at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. Topuria earned the belt with a second-round knockout win over Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298 this past February. Many believe it Volkanovski’s short return timeline from a knockout loss against Islam Makhachev in October 2023 that affected his performance in that bout.

But Holloway doesn’t want to take anything …