Martial Arts News

Just a day on the Ultimate Fighting Championship roster, and Patricio Freire is already calling his shots.

After months of mystery, Freire was announced on Wednesday by Dana White as a new UFC featherweight. The former Bellator MMA great will make his new promotional debut at UFC 314 in Miami on April 12, where he will come to blows with former interim beltholder Yair Rodriguez. Full of vim and vigor, “Pitbull” talked to multiple Brazilian YouTube channels on Thursday, revealing details about the negotiation process and where he sees himself in the landscape.

Advertisement

“This guy thought I was old, but my manager was able to convince him on the contrary by recalling that I was born in the same, day, month and year as [Alex Pereira],” Freire explained to “Sexto Round.”

The fighter believed that he was being held out of the UFC because one of the matchmakers did not want him on the roster. When that concern fell away, Freire wanted to hit the ground running, …

Bantamweights will be on the marquee for the UFC’s first trip to Iowa since 2000.

Brazilian journalist Leo Guimaraes first broke the news on Thursday that Cory Sandhagen (17-5) and Deiveson Figueiredo (24-4-1) would be throwing down on May 3. The two 135ers will serve as the main attraction to UFC Des Moines, which will take place in the Wells Fargo Arena in Iowa’s capital city. The pairing has since been confirmed by other outlets.

Both fighters are coming off five-round decision losses to top contenders. In August 2024, Sandhagen came back after a year layoff to face Umar Nurmagomedov, falling short to the Russian in a bout closer than the scorecards of 50-45, 49-46 and 49-46 indicated. That defeat halted a three-fight victorious stretch for the Colorado native, who had forced the doctors to intervene in his 25-minute match against Yadong Song before claiming decision verdicts over Marlon Vera and Rob Font.

Former flyweight king also saw a three-fight win st…

Two championship bouts will get featured billing at UFC 315.

Advertisement

UFC CEO Dana White announced on Wednesday night that the May 10 card will be headlined by a welterweight championship tilt between Belal Muhammad and Jack Della Maddalena. In the co-main event, Valentina Shevchenko will defend her flyweight strap against Manon Fiorot. UFC 315 takes place at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

While Shavkat Rakhmonov was expected to be the next title challenger at 170 pounds, White revealed that the Kazakhstan native suffered an injury and was unable to compete. That led to Della Maddalena being pulled from his original booking: the UFC London headliner against Leon Edwards on March 22.

Muhammad will return to action for the first time since capturing the welterweight crown with a five-round verdict against Edwards in the UFC 304 main event this past July. “Remember the Name” is in the midst of an 11-fight unbeaten streak in the Octagon that…

Ilia Topuria’s reign at 145 pounds will be short lived.

Advertisement

UFC CEO Dana White announced on Tuesday night that Topuria will vacate the featherweight title as he transitions to 155 pounds. As a result, Alexander Volkanovski will face Diego Lopes for the vacant 145-pound belt in the UFC 314 main event. Topuria captured the belt with a second-round knockout of Volkanovski at UFC 298 and defended the title with a third-round stoppage of Max Holloway at UFC 308 this past October. UFC 314 takes place on April 12 at the Kaseya Center in Miami.

According to White, a fight for Topuria will be announced soon.

Volkanovski has not competed since the aforementioned loss to Topuria. Prior to that, the 36-year-old Aussie had an impressive run at 145 pounds, accumulating 12 consecutive victories and five successful title defenses along the way. However, he did suffer a pair of losses against Islam Makhachev at lightweight in a bid to become a two-division champ…

Sean Brady will fill the spot vacated by Jack Della Maddalena when he meets Leon Edwards in the UFC London headliner.

The Las Vegas-based promotion announced the new welterweight bout on Wednesday night. Maddalena was tabbed to challenge Belal Muhammad for the welterweight crown at UFC 315, clearing the way for Brady to step in against Edwards. UFC London — also known as UFC Fight Night 255 — takes place at the O2 Arena and also includes a light heavyweight showdown between Jan Blachowicz and Carlos Ulberg.

Brady has been victorious in seven of his eight Octagon appearances, with his lone setback coming at the hands of Muhammad in October 2022. The Renzo Gracie Philly product has since rebounded to post back-to-back triumphs against Kelvin Gastelum and Gilbert Burns.

Edwards will return to action for the first time since relinquishing the 170-pound strap to Muhammad in a unanimous decision defeat at UFC 304 this past July. Prior to that, “Rocky” had gone u…

The UFC 314 card will have plenty of depth.

Advertisement

In the evening’s co-headliner, Michael Chandler will lock horns with Paddy Pimblett in a five-round, non-title affair. Meanwhile, former Bellator featherweight champ Patricio Freire will make his promotional debut against Yair Rodriguez in another featured clash. UFC CEO Dana White announced the pairings on Wednesday night. UFC 314 takes place at the Kaseya Center in Miami on April 12 and is headlined by a showdown for the vacant featherweight title between Alexander Volkanovski and Diego Lopes.

Multiple other bouts, some previously reported, were also confirmed for UFC 314: Geoff Neal vs. Carlos Prates at welterweight; Nikita Krylov vs. Dominick Reyes at light heavyweight; Dan Ige vs. Sean Woodson at featherweight; Xiaonan Yan vs. Virna Jandiroba at strawweight; Jim Miller vs. Chase Hooper at lightweight; Darren Elkins vs. Julian Erosa at featherweight; Sedriques Dumas vs. Michal Oleksiejczuk at middlewe…

Dricus du Plessis reacts to Belal Muhammad saying he sucks:

“Has he ever finished anyone?… the UFC doesn’t even like Belal Muhammad…

Advertisement

He’s definitely better on Twitter than he is in fights.” 👀🍿

🎥 @arielhelwani #UFC #MMA

pic.twitter.com/klzBNQYrG9 — Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) February 18, 2025

Dricus Du Plessis is downplaying a potential clash against Belal Muhammad.

Muhammad recently teased a move up to middleweight to challenge Du Plessis for the title. “Remember the Name” also slammed the entire division —with the exception of Khamzat Chimaev — citing Du Plessis’ title defence against Sean Strickland at UFC 312 earlier this month.

Responding to Muhammad’s comments, Du Plessis brought up the lack of finishes on the welterweight champ’s record. The South African also noted that Muhammad has yet to defend his title since winning it against Leon Edwards at UFC 304 in July 2024. Du Plessis is confiden…

[embedded content]

While Dan Hooker would have liked to fight on the same card as his City Kickboxing teammates, he won’t mind sitting cageside for their return.

Advertisement

Alexander Volkanovski is expected to challenge Ilia Topuria in a featherweight title rematch at UFC 314 on April 12 at the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida. Hooker believes their teammate, Kai Kara-France, is also likely to be on the same card. The Topuria-Volkanovski rematch has not been confirmed by the promotion.

Meanwhile, “The Hangman” will take on Justin Gaethje in fan favorite matchup at UFC 313 on March 8 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. While the Kiwi would have liked to fight on the same card as his teammates, he doesn’t mind getting done with his assignment earlier.

“I'm pretty sure Alex and Kai will be on the same card,” Hooker told ESPN Australia. “I would've liked for all the three of us to be fighting in April together, but I got chucked on a little earlier. But hey,…

Eric Nicksick is owning up to his mistake.

Advertisement

Nicksick recently admitted that criticizing friend and pupil Strickland in public was the wrong decision. Strickland received a lot of criticism in general for his lopsided unanimous decision title loss against Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 312 earlier this month. Nicksick later called Strickland’s effort uninspiring after failing to motivate the former champ to push harder until the end of the fight.

However, UFC veterans like Daniel Cormier and Matt Brown didn’t approve of Nicksick publicly denouncing Strickland. While recently commenting on the issue, Brown noted that there might be a lot more to the whole thing than is visible to the public eye. Regardless, Brown thinks the relationship between a coach and fighter is too personal for their differences to be publicly exposed.

Responding to Brown’s comments, Nicksick admitted to having a made a mistake. While the Xtreme Couture head coach says his real …

Alexa Grasso will be back in action for the first time since losing the flyweight crown when she meets Natalia Silva at UFC 315.

The promotion confirmed the 125-pound pairing on Tuesday. UFC 315 takes place on May 10 at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. A headliner has not been announced for the card.

Grasso is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Valentina Shevchenko in a flyweight championship trilogy bout at UFC 306 this past September. The Lobo Gym MMA standout claimed 125-pound gold with an upset victory over Shevchenko at UFC 285 in March 2023 and retained the strap following a controversial split draw against her rival at UFC Fight Night 227 in September 2023. This will be the first non-Shevchenko opponent for Grasso since she defeated Viviane Araujo in the UFC Fight Night 212 main event in October 2022.

Silva, meanwhile, is a rising star in the division who enters the matchup with Grasso on a six-bout winning streak in UFC competiti…

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

Get to know the Women’s Flyweights set to compete in the 2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣5️⃣ #PFLWorldTournament

Advertisement

[ Friday , April 11th | 📺 11:30 PM EST | ESPN 2 | B2YB @Cloudbet ] pic.twitter.com/yJ92NHxYJT — PFL (@PFLMMA) February 18, 2025

The field is set for Professional Fighters League’s upcoming women’s flyweight tournament — but one notable name is missing from the lineup.

The promotion announced the eight-woman roster for the 2025 World Flyweight Tournament on Tuesday, and it includes quite a few familiar faces. However, 2024 flyweight champion Dakota Ditcheva will not be part of the bracket. That likely means that Ditcheva, who is one of the PFL’s top stars, will be part of one of the promotion’s high-profile events in the coming months.

The tournament roster will include six fighters who competed in the PFL season format last year (Taila Santos, Liz Carmouche, …

Gregory Rodrigues began the UFC Vegas 102 main event like a man on a mission.

Advertisement

However, after dropping Jared Cannonier twice in the opening stanza, the hard-hitting Brazilian began to fade, ultimately falling to his veteran opponent via fourth-round technical knockout this past Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. “Robocop” never looked the same after that strong first round, and as it turns out, there might have been a good reason for that decline.

“Cannonier is a highly experienced fighter who taught me a lot in this fight! I saw several details that can be improved—things that will be changed. Winning ‘Fight of the Night’ was a gift for two warriors who weren’t afraid to go to battle,” Rodrigues wrote on Instagram. “Most people don’t know this, but I had serious issues to recovery after weight cut—my body just wasn’t responding. I keep wondering how things would’ve played out if I had been at 100%.

“But no sad stories here—Robocop never d…