Martial Arts News

Two high-level matchups have been added to the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s return to Singapore in August.

On Friday, Instagram account Freak MMA first broke the story that Taila Santos (19-2) would be battling it out with Erin Blanchfield (11-1) at 125 pounds on Aug. 26. The two flyweights will duke it out at UFC Fight Night 225 inside of the Singapore Indoor Arena in Kallang, Singapore. Blanchfield confirmed this fight on her own Instagram right after the fight news dropped.

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This will be Santos’ first walk to the Octagon since she lost an ultra-close split decision to former champ Valentina Shevchenko in June 2022. While some observers including one judge thought she did enough to dethrone Shevchenko, a clash of heads caused major swelling around Santos’ right eye to potentially compromise her in the later rounds. Before the championship defeat, Santos had strung together four straight wins, including a trio of decisions over Molly McCann, Gil…

What A Fight!!@RoseNamajunas will face @ManonFiorot_MMA at #UFCParis!!

Get your tickets 🎟️ https://t.co/vwLifSPSne pic.twitter.com/0b15gjUB9c

— UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) June 23, 2023 The former two-time Ultimate Fighting Championship strawweight queen is taking her trade to a new division.

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According to MMA Junkie on Friday, Rose Namajunas (11-5) will be relocating to 125 pounds on Sept. 2. At that UFC Fight Night 226 event in Paris, she will be meeting top contender Manon Fiorot (10-1). News of this pairing has since been confirmed by the UFC shortly after it broke.

This will be the former 115-pound titleholder’s first trip back to flyweight since she was an amateur, all the way back in 2011. “Thug Rose” surrendered her throne to Carla Esparza a second time in May 2022, dropping a razor-close split decision to her nemesis. That defeat snapped an impressive three-fight win streak, with a revenge decision over Jessica …

#RIZIN43 北海道大会💥計量結果💥

⚔️第13試合⚔️メインイベントRIZIN MMAルール 66.0kg

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🟥クレベル・コイケ【66.40kg】🧍‍♂️178cm💪ﾘｰﾁ183cm@KoikeKleberーーー🆚ーーー🟦鈴木千裕【65.95kg】🧍‍♂️173cm💪ﾘｰﾁ177cm@Chihiro__0514

📅6/24(土)12:30~📡全試合無料配信https://t.co/FdfbqVl0kD pic.twitter.com/bW39wWe6fB

— RIZIN FF OFFICIAL (@rizin_PR) June 23, 2023 Rizin Fighting Federation has stripped Kleber Koike Erbst of the featherweight championship. Rizin Fighting Federation returns for its first event of the summer with Rizin 43.Taking place in Hokkaido, Japan, the event features 12 mixed martial arts fights. Headlining the card is what was supposed to be a featherweight title fight between Erbst and Chihiro Suzuki. However, Erbst failed to make weight, exceeding the championship limit by coming in at 146.3 pounds. As a result, he's been stripped of his title, penalized with a yellow card costing him 20% of his purse, and only Suzuki will be…

El evento del 16 de septiembre me confirman será en el T-Mobile Arena y la idea es que se llegue a un acuerdo y una de las peleas por título sería la revancha entre Alexa Grasso 🇲🇽 vs Valentina Shevchenko 🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/5p8AhOIUFq

— MMA Latinoamérica (@ClubDeLasMMA) June 8, 2023 The Ultimate Fighting Championship is running back the biggest upset of the year thus far in September.

Earlier in June, MMA Latinoamerica reported that the UFC was putting together the rematch between flyweight champ Alexa Grasso (16-3) and former queen Valentina Shevchenko (23-4). The report stated that the fight would be held on Sept. 16 in Las Vegas, and further reports have noted that it will likely be taking place in the T-Mobile Arena. UFC head Dana White informed Yahoo! Sports on Thursday that the fight would indeed go down on this date in Las Vegas, while not confirming the venue itself.

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With the UFC still traveling to Sydney on Sep…

[embedded content] Pride Fighting Championships pioneer Rickson Gracie has revealed that he has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.

Considered to be one of the more revered names in the vaunted Gracie family, Brazilian jiu-jitsu coral belt Rickson Gracie revealed during Kyra Gracie’s podcast on Wednesday that he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease two years ago. Now 63 years of age, the son of Helio Gracie said the disease, a chronic degenerative disorder, affected his motor system, causing tremors in his hands and decreasing his ability to move. Despite this, Rickson made it clear that the diagnosis “wasn't traumatic.”

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“Two years ago, I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s,” Rickson explained. “So, a lot of things that I would like to do physically, I’m decreasing. For me, [the diagnosis] was nothing dramatic. I’m ready for anything in my life. I accept my mistakes and my victories. I accept my life well, so I’m happy today. But this neurological d…

🚨 𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗙𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧𝗦 🚨

Sioux Falls, we're coming in hot on Friday, August 11th!

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✅ Nikita Mikhailov vs. Leandro Higo✅ Diana Avsaragova vs. Justine Kish#Bellator298 tickets on sale NOW 👉🎟 https://t.co/A0jjLIKwTw pic.twitter.com/Ouf0bsUjzn — Bellator MMA (@BellatorMMA) June 22, 2023 Bellator MMA has added a slew of new fights to its August card, including a rescheduled bantamweight battle.

Per Bellator on Thursday via press release, five new fights have been added to the Bellator 298 lineup. This event on Aug. 11 will be held at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and its headliner of Logan Storley vs. Brennan Ward is still on track. The league also announced that the start time would be pushed to 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT instead of 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT, and the prelims are slated to kick off at 5:30 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. PT earlier that day. Of those five matchups, three contain combatants placed on the Bellator rankings.…

⚖️Lightweight Main Event Bout is official!Olivier Aubin Mercier: 155.6 lbsAnthony Romero: 155.4 lbs

[Fri, June 23rd | 6pm ET on ESPN+ | 9pm ET on ESPN | #PFLRegularSeason] pic.twitter.com/D8z5rHCkhC

— PFL (@PFLMMA) June 22, 2023 One Professional Fighters League finalist from last year's tournament failed to make weight ahead of Friday's show.

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The lightweight and welterweight divisions will be on display for PFL 6, the final event of the regular season, with a 155-pound "win or go home" matchup between Olivier Aubin-Mercier and Anthony Romero atop the card. While both headliners made weight, a pair of undercard fighters did not. 2022 welterweight finalist Dilano Taylor was penalized one point in the standings after coming in at 171.2 pounds, and he will also forfeit 20% of his show purse to opponent Carlos Leal Miranda. Additionally, featherweight Brahyan Zurcher missed weight, hitting the scales at 146.8 pounds for hi…

A bantamweight showdown between Rob Font and Yadong Song has been added to the UFC 292 lineup.

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The Las Vegas-based promotion announced the booking on Wednesday evening. UFC 292 takes place at TD Garden in Boston on Aug. 19 and is headlined by a bantamweight championship bout pitting Aljamain Sterling against Sean O'Malley.

Font snapped a two-bout skid in his last outing, as he defeated rising prospect Adrian Yanez via first-round technical knockout at UFC 287 on April 8. The 35-year-old Boston native owns other notable victories against the likes of Cody Garbrandt, Marlon Moraes, Ricky Simon, Sergio Pettis and Matt Schnell.

Song, meanwhile, has won four of his last five Octagon appearances. The Team Alpha Male product is coming off a fifth-round technical knockout win over Simon in the UFC on ESPN 45 headliner on April 29.

The finish line could be nearing for Steven Ray.

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The Professional Fighters League lightweight initially announced his retirement from mixed martial arts in 2020, citing chronic knee issues as the reason behind the decision. That was the end of Scot’s UFC tenure, but he made a triumphant return last year, making the 2022 PFL Championships before losing to Olivier Aubin-Mercier in the finals.

After losing to Natan Schulte in his first bout of the 2023 season, Ray is considering calling it a career in the near future. Exactly when that happens depends on how he fares against Clay Collard at PFL 6 on Friday night.

“To be honest, I’m f—ing really excited for this fight. It’s less pressure for me as well,” Ray said at a virtual PFL media day. “I’m just going out there to enjoy it. Worst case scenario is still a good scenario for me. (If I lose), it’ll be the first time I’ve lost three fights in a row. That could be a message that it is time to hang …

Two months after winning the Rizin featherweight title with a submission victory against Juntaro Ushiko, Kleber Koike Erbst came up short against Bellator featherweight champ Patricio Freire in a cross-promotional event this past December.

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Even after that decision loss, Erbst emerged confident that he will remain Rizin champion for a long time.

"Patricio is one of the best featherweights in MMA history, and after fighting him for 15 minutes, I feel I can bring trouble to any fighter in that division in the world,” Erbst told Sherdog.com shortly after that fight.

On Saturday, Erbst will defend his belt against Japanese kickboxing ace Chihiro Suzuki at Rizin 43. The 24-year-old Suzuki has won five straight bouts under the Rizin banner. Shortly after the Rizin 43 press conference, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt said that he planned to finish Suzuki in the first round.

"He was talking too much trash at the press conference saying he would pro…

UFC champions Jon Jones and Leon Edwards have received two ESPY nominations apiece.

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ESPN on Wednesday announced the nominees for its annual awards show, which this year takes place on July 12 in Los Angeles. Jones and Edwards are joined by Amanda Nunes and Islam Makhachev as the candidates for the Best MMA Fighter Category. Additionally, Jones is on the list for Best Comeback Athlete, while Edwards is in the running for Best Championship Performance.

Jones returned to action following a three-year layoff at UFC 285, where he claimed the vacant heavyweight crown with a first-round submission of Ciryl Gane. “Bones” is going up against the Denver Nuggets’ Jamal Murray, the Connecticut Sun’s Alyssa Thomas and the New York Mets’ Justin Verlander in the Best Comeback Athlete category.

Edwards was nominated for Best Championship Performance thanks to his improbable fifth-round KO of Kamaru Usman to claim welterweight gold at UFC 278 last August. The…

Jeremy Stephens and Chris Avila will meet in a boxing match on the undercard of the Jake Paul vs. Nate Diaz event on Aug. 5.

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Most Valuable Promotions and Real Fight Inc. announced the bout on Wednesday. The fight will take place at 168 pounds and will be contested over eight rounds. Paul vs. Diaz will be held at the American Airlines Center in Dallas and airs via pay-per-view via Dazn as well as all major cable and satellite providers.

Stephens made his professional boxing debut under the Gamebred Boxing banner on April 1, when he battled fellow UFC veteran Jose Aldo to a majority draw. “Lil Heathen” owns a 29-21 record with one no contest in MMA and is coming off a 1-2 stint with Professional Fighters League in 2022.

“I am super excited to be in these times of MMA mixing with boxing — it is a huge opportunity,” Stephens said. “And to have all the eyes in the world on this card, I plan on stealing the f—king show and giving the fans the ‘too …