Martial Arts News

[embedded content] The Professional Fighters League listened to the mixed martial artists who comprise its roster, to the fans and to the critics. One year after their purchase of Bellator MMA, the PFL decision makers moved to abandon their season and points-style format in favor of a single-elimination World Tournament in 2025.

While it was easy to bring over Bellator fans and some of the company’s well-known veteran fighters, the PFL gave rise to its own stars in 2024, most notably Dakota Ditcheva. The American Top Team standout proved she was the best women’s flyweight in the promotion by cruising to the 125-pound championship in convincing fashion. The PFL leaned into Ditcheva and other young talents, including Ireland’s Paul Hughes, who shined in a closely contested defeat to Bellator lightweight champion Usman Nurmagomedov in January.

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By altering its format, moving on from some of the biggest names on the integrated roster and building toward …

You can't miss this middleweight main event tomorrow night 🤩

Jared Cannonier vs @Gregory_MMA

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[ #UFCVegas102 | TOMORROW | 7pmET on @ESPNPlus ] pic.twitter.com/E9kW8lPTpI — UFC (@ufc) February 14, 2025 The Ultimate Fighting Championship continues its busy February with UFC Vegas 102, which had one speed bump at the weigh-ins before its otherwise quick conclusion.

The main event is a middleweight showdown between former title challenger Jared Cannonier and Gregory Rodrigues. Ever the professionals, both men made weight for the five-round headliner. Every fighter that hit the scales made their proper marks, however Mashrabjon Ruziboev never weighed in due to illness and his match with Jared Gordon was nixed.

Cannonier (17-8) is looking to snap a two-fight losing streak against Nassourdine Imavov and Caio Borralho. "The Killa Gorilla" had previously won four of five fights, with key wins over Marvin Vettori, Sean S…

Count Caio Borralho among those who think Dricus Du Plessis should stay in his lane at 185 pounds.

Right after cornering Bruna Brasil at UFC 312, top-ranked middleweight Borralho, conducted an interview with Brazilian journalist Laerte Viana. There, the top contender broke down what he thought about the champion of his division, Du Plessis, as well as what the future lies for him and the rest of the weight class.

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“He doesn’t have a beautiful game but he makes it work,” Borralho said of the champ. “He has heavy hands [and] a strong chin. His biggest quality in my opinion is that even [when] tired, he keeps the same pace. [He is] always very disciplined on his strategy and never leaves a punch without an answer.”

Outside of the top five and looking in courtesy of his latest win, a decision over former title challenger Jared Cannonier, Borralho has his sights on the best middleweight currently offers. Even if he does not want a specific fight for hims…

It might come as a surprise that the man known as “The Black Belt Hunter” is expecting to pick up a submission win in his next outing.

Rodolfo Vieira (10-2) will make his Octagon return against Andre Petroski (12-3) at UFC Fight Night 251, which is scheduled for Feb. 15 inside of the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The middleweight grapplers are expected to ply their trade on the main card of an event also headlined by 185ers. Vieira talked with Sherdog about this upcoming pairing, who discussed what he expected and where he wanted to go from a win.

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“The camp was excellent,” Vieira admitted. “We just have to make some adjustments, because I was initially scheduled to face Jacob Malkoun, [Robert] Whittaker’s training partner, but five weeks to the fight he got injured, so Andre Petroski replaced him. [Considering] Petroski is a southpaw, we had to make some adjustments.”

With only a few weeks to prepare for an entirely new styled opponent, the Brazilian stuc…

.@UFC announces updates to #UFCSeattle ⤵️https://t.co/ZiBGw71mlYhttps://t.co/ZiBGw71mlY

— UFC News (@UFCNews) February 13, 2025 Editor's note: The article was updated at 3:45 p.m. ET on Feb. 13 to add another fighter withdrawal.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s Seattle comeback is falling apart at the seams.

Over the last few days, rumors or reports have come up about numerous alterations to UFC Seattle, also known as UFC Fight Night 252, going down on Feb. 22. Most notably is the breaking of the news that Macy Chiasson suffered an injury and has been forced out of her bantamweight contest with Ketlen Vieira, without replacement planned for either woman.

The UFC announced on Thursday that fight’s cancelation along with two new pairings and the confirmation of one bout shifting to a later event. Curtis Blaydes and Rizvan Kuniev were expected to battle in this Seattle showdown, but they have been bumped to UFC 313 two weeks lat…

pic.twitter.com/vflbCX75a8

— Sean Strickland (@SStricklandMMA) February 12, 2025

Eric Nicksick’s very public critique of Sean Strickland could have consequences for the Xtreme Couture coach.

Nicksick, who has been Strickland’s main coach during his rise to becoming middleweight champion, wasn’t pleased with his charge’s performance against Dricus Du Plessis in the UFC 312 main event this past Saturday. Nicksick made that very clear when he referred to it as "uninspired fighting” during a recent interview on “The Ariel Helwani Show.”

Strickland, who lost a clear-cut unanimous decision in his rematch with Du Plessis, has responded to the criticism via social media. It appears that the ex-UFC champ will no longer have Nicksick in his corner going forward.

“I like Eric. He’s a friend of mine and he’s going to continue to be a friend of mine. Will he probably be in my corner? Probably not,” Strickland said in a video on X. “We have so …

The Good Guy vs The Bad Guy 👊@DC_MMA and @ChaelSonnen will coach Season 33 of #TUF! pic.twitter.com/x2Lo53ycx9

— UFC (@ufc) January 19, 2025

The cast for the 33rd season of “The Ultimate Fighter” is now official.

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The UFC on Wednesday unveiled the full 16-fighter roster for “TUF 33,” which will feature flyweights and welterweights. The new season will debut on May 27 via ESPN2 and ESPN+. Daniel Cormier and Chael Sonnen will serve as opposing coaches on the long-running reality show.

With three prior UFC appearances on his resume, Joseph Morales is a familiar face on the flyweight cast. He went 1-2 during that stint but has since put together three consecutive triumphs on the regional circuit.

“TUF” 33 will also feature a pair of Dana White's Contender Series alums: flyweight Roybert Echeverria, who suffered a third-round TKO defeat to Jafel Filho in September 2022, and welterweight Matt Dixon, who suffered a thir…

A featherweight clash pitting Josh Emmett against Lerone Murphy is expected to headline the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s event on April 5.

MMAFighting.com was first to report the bout. The UFC Fight Night event will take place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and also includes a 145-pound tilt between Giga Chikadze and David Onama.

Emmett will be back in action for the first time since December 2023, when he scored a brutal first-round knockout victory against Bryce Mitchell at UFC 296. Prior to that, the Team Alpha Male product had suffered back-to-back losses against current featherweight champ Ilia Topuria and former No. 1 contender Yair Rodriguez. Emmett owns notable victories over the likes of Calvin Kattar, Dan Ige, Shane Burgos, Michael Johnson and Ricardo Lamas during his Octagon tenure.

Murphy is unbeaten in 16 professional outings, with the lone blemish on his ledger coming via split draw against Zubaira Tukhugov in his Octagon debut at UFC 242.…

Professional Fighters League has officially revealed the fighters who will compete in the upcoming welterweight and featherweight tournaments.

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The welterweight division is highlighted by former Bellator MMA champion Jason Jackson, who won eight consecutive fights before relinquishing the belt to Ramazan Kuramagomedov in a unanimous decision defeat at Bellator Champions Series Dublin last year. Also part of the field is Magomed Umalatov, who reached the welterweight finals of the 2024 PFL season, where he suffered a third-round technical knockout loss to Shamil Musaev. Former Bellator 170-pound champion Andrey Koreshkov and ex-interim title holder Logan Storley will also be part of the bracket.

Meanwhile, the featherweight field features the return of 2023 PFL champion Jesus Pinedo, who did not compete at all in 2024. Pinedo’s opponent in the 2023 finals, Gabriel Braga, is also part of the 2024 lineup. Another featherweight favorite figures to be M…

Khamzat Chimaev recently cleared the air about his citizenship after acquiring a new passport.

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Chimaev became an official citizen of the United Arab Emirates last week. This is the third country that “Borz” can now call his home. Born in the Chechen Republic of Russia, Chimaev moved to Sweden at just 19 years of age and now most recently to the UAE. Chimaev says both Russia and the Emirates are dear to him and he would love to be an inspiration to the youth in both countries.

“I’m grateful to the people who trusted me and gave me the opportunity to live both here and there,” Chimaev recently told Ushatayka. “Russia is my motherland and I represent the UAE. They always help me when I have fights. Abu Dhabi became a sporting hub. There are always events here. I’ll be happy to help the youth in these countries.”

After having built up his MMA career at the All Stars Training Center in Stockholm, Sweden, Chimaev has been blamed for deserting the c…

Khabib Nurmagomedov’s kindness even extends to his fellow coaches.

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American Kickboxing Academy coach Javier Mendez recently revealed yet another benevolent gesture from the former Ultimate Fighting Championship champ. During a recent episode of Mendez’s podcast, his co-host congratulated him on his new apartment.

“Thank Khabib. He got me a new apartment,” Mendez replied.

The relationship between Nurmagomedov and Mendez goes back to 2012, when the Dagestani’s father first brought him to the U.S. Mendez played a key role in shaping Nurmagomedov’s career, their relationship transcending that of just a coach and pupil. While Nurmagomedov retired from the sport in 2020, he continues to coach his cousins and teammates from Dagestan alongside Mendez.

Mendez also shared a close bond with Khabib’s father, the legendary Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov. Abdulmanap had envisioned his son to become a world champion and for his other pupils like Islam Ma…

Belal Muhammad claims to have the strategy to beat Dricus Du Plessis.

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Muhammad is the latest of several UFC champs who are looking to move up a weight class to fulfil double-champ aspirations. “Remember the Name” is teasing a move up to middleweight to challenge Du Plessis, who recently defended his title with a dominant decision over Sean Strickland at UFC 312 last weekend.

According to Muhammad, he’ll beat “Stillknocks” in every aspect of the game for the first two rounds, leaving him frustrated by the third round. When Du Plessis attempts to implement his awkward style, Muhammad plans on taking his back and submitting him in the third frame.

“I'd come out him with a 1-2, then he'd wing an overhand. I'll duck it, change levels and take him down. Then he'd shrimp and get the underhook to get out, but he'll be too weak to get up, so then I'll hit him with ground-and-pound for the rest of Round 1,” Muhammad wrote on social media. “Round 2 start…