Martial Arts News

Elisandra Ferreira de Oliveira will defend her atomweight belt against Ana Palacios in the Invicta FC 61 main event.

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The promotion announced the bout on Wednesday. Invicta FC 61 takes place on April 4 at the Grand Casino Hotel & Resort in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and will also see Jamie Edenden square off against Jackie Cataline in the evening’s featherweight co-headliner. The main card airs on CBS Sports Network at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT, while prelims stream on Invicta’s YouTube and Facebook page at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT.

Five other bouts were confirmed for the event: Emily Ducote vs. Sofiia Bagishvili at strawweight; Riley Martinez vs. Jaeleen Robledo at featherweight; Taynara Silva vs. Claire Lopez at atomweight; Joy Pendell vs. Marilia Morais at featherweight and Zoe Nowicki vs. Kellie Marin at flyweight.

Ferreira will take a four-bout winning streak into her first title defense. “Lili” claimed atomweight gold with a five-round verdict …

One Shot to WIN. One Shot to ADVANCE. One Shot at a WORLD TITLE 🏆

Get to know the Middleweights set to compete in the 2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣5️⃣ #PFLWorldTournament

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[ #PFLWorldTournament | Friday , April 18th | 📺 7 PM EST | ESPN | B2YB @atturotires ] pic.twitter.com/DtfGVmhmwR — PFL (@PFLMMA) February 25, 2025

The lineup is official for Professional Fighters League’s upcoming middleweight tournament.

The bracket features 2023 PFL light heavyweight champion Impa Kasaganay, who is coming off a first-round knockout loss to Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov in the 205-pound finals this past November. Kasangany last competed at 185 pounds in February 2024, when he dropped a split decision to former Bellator champ Johnny Eblen.

The 185-pound roster also includes Fabian Edwards, a two-time title challenger under the Bellator MMA banner and Joshua Silveira, who lost to Kasanganay in the PFL light heavyweight final in 2023. Additionally, ex…

Jose Aldo will face Aiemann Zahabi in a bantamweight bout at UFC 315.

The promotion announced the pairing on Tuesday. UFC 315 takes place at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on May 10 and is headlined by a welterweight championship clash between Belal Muhammad and Jack Della Maddalena. In the co-main event, Valentina Shevchenko will defend her flyweight crown against Manon Fiorot.

This is the third consecutive bout in which Aldo has been booked against a rising 135-pound talent. In 2024, the former featherweight king took a unanimous decision over Jonathan Martinez at UFC 301 before dropping a split verdict agianst Mario Bautista at UFC 307. The Nova Uniao standout is 4-4 since moving to bantamweight in 2019.

A native of Laval, Quebec, Canada, Zahabi will take a five-fight winning streak into the matchup with Aldo, with four of those victories coming at 135 pounds. Most recently, the Tristar Gym member earned a unanimous decision victory agai…

The UFC 313 card as taken a significant hit, as Dan Hooker will not be competing on the March 8 card.

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Hooker was supposed to face Justin Gaethje in a five-round, non-title bout in the evening’s co-headliner. However, “The Hangman” announced via his daughter’s YouTube channel that an injury has forced him to withdraw from the event.

“Dad had a fight, or was supposed to have a fight,” Hooker said. “But I’ve busted my paw.”

The UFC has not formally announced Hooker’s exit, so it’s unclear if Gaethje will remain on the card against a replacement opponent. UFC 313 takes place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and is headlined by a light heavyweight championship bout between Alex Pereira and Magomed Ankalaev.

Hooker had won his last three Octagon appearances, posting successive victories over Claudio Puelles, Jalin Turner and Mateusz Gamrot. Prior to that, the 35-year-old Kiwki had lost four of his previous five promotional outings. Hooker …

WE'RE BACK 💪🔥https://t.co/MtQtlR4dBb#CombateGlobal

— Combate Global (@combateglobal) February 25, 2025

Combate Global’s events will be available on YouTube next month.

The promotion on Tuesday announced that it will air its live events for free on the platform, beginning with “Combate Female” on March 13. According to a release, Combate Global is “YouTube’s first premium producer of live MMA programming for global distribution.” The Combate Global Events will be broadcast in Spanish.

“With YouTube in our corner as it grows its interest in live sports, Combate Global will be able to achieve its mission of delivering ‘Much More Action’ to a global Spanish-speaking audience via the biggest streaming video platform on the planet,” said Combate Global CEO Campbell McLaren in a release.  “Combate Global couldn’t ask for a better partner than YouTube as we launch full speed into the future and spearhead the rapid growth and engagement …

A flyweight showdown pitting Jasmine Jasudavicius against Jessica Andrade has been added to the UFC 315 lineup.

The Las Vegas-based promotion announced the bout on Monday. UFC 315 takes place at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and is headlined by a welterweight title bout between Belal Muhammad and Jack Della Maddalena.

Canada’s Jasudavicius has been on a roll of late, winning her last four UFC outings. The 35-year-old Niagara Top Team represenative kicked off her 2025 campaign with a unanimous decision triumph over former bantamweight title challenger Mayra Bueno Silva at UFC Fight Night 250 on Feb. 1. She has also bested Ariane Lipski, Fatima Kline and Priscila Cachoeira during her current winning streak.

After posting back-to-back strawweight victories over Mackenzie Dern and Marina Rodriguez, Andrade returned to 125 pounds in her most recent appearance at UFC Fight Night 242, where she dropped a three-round verdict to Natalia Silva this pa…

Shortly after his hard-fought triumph against Brendan Allen in the UFC Seattle co-headliner, Anthony Hernandez alluded to struggling with some illness-related issues leading up to the bout.

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“I plan on getting better for the next one,” Hernandez told Michael Bisping in the Octagon. “I’m sorry about the performance. I just finished my antibiotics yesterday. I was sick as f—k. But I came here and I made the s—t happen. Hope you guys enjoyed the show.”

“Fluffy” was able to elaborate on what he was dealing with during Saturday’s post-fight press conference, while also revealing some additional injury issues that hindered his performance.

“Let’s just say I got off amoxicillin Friday,” Hernandez said. “I felt like s--t, and I’m not going to lie: I messed up my ribs two weeks ago. My ribs were f---ed before. It was just thank God for the [UFC Performance Institute]. They were here and they helped me every f---ing day. We got it to be good enough for th…

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship and Bellator MMA competitor Guilherme Vasconcelos took his own life last year.

According to TMZ Sports, the case report from Oct. 15 reveals that police determined that Vasconcelos committed suicide the previous night at approximately 11:45 p.m. local time. “Bomba” was found by an unidentified woman in the garage of the Illinois residence at 9 a.m. the next day.

A suicide note was not found, and a toxicology report only revealed the presence of caffeine in Vasconcelo’s system. The house was searched and several vials of anabolic steroids were recovered. Two were nearly empty and two were unopened, according to the report. Vasconcelos was 38 years old.

Vasconcelos went 10-6 over the course of an MMA career that began in 2012. After competing on “TUF Brazil 3,” his lone Octagon appearance came at UFC 175, where he dropped a unanimous decision to Luke Zachrich on July 5, 2014. “Bomba” also went 3-3 during a six-bout stin…

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A welterweight clash between Mike Malott and Charlie Radtke has been added to the UFC 315 lineup.

The booking was recently confirmed by the Las Vegas…

While Fabricio Werdum prepares for his Global Fight League debut against Frank Mir, he has decided to hold a special event for up-and-coming mixed martial artists.

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The MMA challenge will take place on Wednesday and features fighters weighing between 65 and 75 kilograms (143 to 165 pounds). The winner will get the opportunity to compete for the Brazil-based Jungle Fight promotion.

“When I started [fighting] I was so eager to have an opportunity,” Werdum said. “In some cases, I even paid my ticket to fight. The idea of the ‘Werdum Challenge’ is to provide that opportunity for fighters. I talked to Wallid [Ismael], who was the first to give me an opportunity, and he liked the idea. So we will start in Jungle Fight, but the idea is also to do it in other MMA promotions and also include grappling.”

According to Werdum, the first iteration of his challenge will air on his YouTube channel.

“The event will take place in Sao Paulo at the train…

Jean Silva and Bryce Mitchell appear to be on a collision course after UFC Seattle.

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Silva fought Melsik Baghdasaryan, who was returning after almost two years, at UFC Fight Night 252 on Saturday at the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle. Silva starched Baghdasaryan with a right hand to score his fourth straight stoppage win in as many UFC outings. Silva then called out Bryce Mitchell in his post-fight Octagon interview.

Silva targeted Mitchell for his recent anti-semitic comments. Mitchell is flat earth theorist who recently praised Adolf Hitler and went on a widely criticized anti-semitic and homophobic rant. “Thug Nasty” later apologized for his remarks.

Silva elaborated on his callout of Mitchell at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “Lord” acknowledged Mitchell’s skillset while also criticizing his recent comments.

“I think that Bryce Mitchell is somebody who would offer me an opportunity for a very good renewed contract if I beat hi…

In the immediate aftermath of his controversial victory over Henry Cejudo in the UFC Seattle headliner, Yadong Song seemed more than willing to run it back against the Olympic gold medalist.

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It might not matter.

Song defeated Cejudo via technical decision when an inadvertent eye poke rendered “Triple C” unable to continue after three rounds. While the “Kung Fu Kid” appeared to be on his way to victory, Cejudo had been competitive enough up to that point to where the championship rounds might have been interesting had they occurred.

However, UFC CEO Dana White doesn’t appear interested in seeing a rematch between Song and Cejudo at a future event.

“Not at all,” White said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “Not even a little bit. I just don’t want to see it again.”

After Song committed the inadvertent foul in the third round, Cejudo took the full five minutes given to him by referee Jason Herzog to recover. When the round resumed…