Martial Arts News

Two fan-favorite Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweights will battle it out for top-10 contention this June.

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A report from Combate first broke the news on late Thursday that Amanda Ribas (11-3) would be returning to the cage on June 24. The flyweight will be taking on Maycee Barber (12-2), reportedly in Jacksonville, Florida, which would likely put it at the Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena. This event is rumored to air on the ABC airwaves in some fashion, and therefore is currently titled UFC on ABC 5. The 125-pound pairing has since been confirmed by both ladies on their respective Instagram pages.

Both women are coming off decision wins in March. For Brazil’s Ribas, she rebounded from her first loss on the scorecards – coming against perennial contender Katlyn Chookagian – to claim a unanimous verdict against Viviane Araujo. Before the 2022 Chookagian setback, Ribas had won five of six in the Octagon, with the lone defeat in her rise a knockou…

[embedded content] The Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight title will be on the line in the UFC 287 main event.

Both champion Alex Pereira and challenger Israel Adesanya successfully made weight for the upcoming championship rematch. All of the fighters except one for the 13-fight card, which is co-headlined by a welterweight fight between Gilbert Burns and Jorge Masvidal, also made weight. The lone miss was Christian Rodriguez, who came in at 137.5 pounds. Due to being 1.5 pounds over the bantamweight limit he has been fined a percentage of his purse for his bout against Raul Rosas Jr.

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Pereira (7-1) has been perfect inside the Octagon and dispatched his former kickboxing rival in their first mixed martial arts meeting. It wasn't easy, though, as it took a late TKO rally for "Poatan" to claim the belt. The Brazilian will look to dispel any notions of the victory being a fluke in the rematch. Pereira stepped on the scale at 185 pounds on the …

⚖️@JuliaBudd weighs in at 145.6 lbs for her main event Women’s Featherweight bout

[ Friday, April 7th | 10pm ET on ESPN 2 | #PFLRegularSeason |🎟 https://t.co/hxZi2fEbA9] pic.twitter.com/fEB6uSO0MX

— PFL (@PFLMMA) April 6, 2023 Editor's note: The article has been updated at 4:15 p.m. ET to reflect that Kolesnyk did not continue cutting weight to reach the featherweight limit.

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The 2023 Professional Fighters League season is about to begin for the heavyweight and women's featherweight competitors.

The 10-fight PFL 2 card is headlined by an intriguing 145-pound women's pairing between Larissa Pacheco and Julia Budd. Both women had no trouble making weight, as did the rest of the event with the exception of Olena Kolesnyk, who came in .4 pounds over the featherweight limit for her bout against Aspen Ladd. Additionally, one fight was moved, as PFL announced that Michal Andryszak was out of his encounter with Patrick Brady…

Jorge Masvidal’s Gamebred Boxing promotion paid out nearly $3 million in disclosed salaries for its most recent event.

According to a release from the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services, Unarmed Combat Sports branch, salary totals from Gamebred Boxing 4 on April 1 combined for $2,827,700, per MMA Junkie. The event held at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, played host to a baker’s dozen boxing matches, featuring several Ultimate Fighting Championship veterans and even a few ex-champions.

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The top salary figure from the event came for headliner Roy Jones Jr. ($700,000), who dropped a majority decision to Anthony Pettis ($650,000) in the main attraction. While the fight was Pettis’ pro boxing debut, it was the 54-year-old Jones Jr.’s 76th and first since 2018. The two discussed a rematch after the match concluded, although Jones Jr. might elect to return to retirement instead.

The majority of the competitors featured flat …

[embedded content] A number of Brazilian talents including a few Ultimate Fighting Championship greats voiced their thoughts on the upcoming title fight this weekend.

Atop UFC 287 on April 8 in Miami, Alex Pereira (7-1) and Israel Adesanya (23-2) will collide for the second time in the cage, in their fourth meeting across combat sports. “Poatan” has gotten the better of Adesanya on all three prior engagements, winning a close decision in 2016 in kickboxing, and the second ended with Pereira landing a vicious one-punch knockout. Pereira joined up in the MMA ranks and stopped his rival late at UFC 281 in 2022 to claim the title, and the promotion decided to run it back immediately. Sherdog spoke to several notable Brazilian competitors about this matchup, who all had plenty to share about their countryman ahead of his first middleweight title defense.

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Paulo Costa: “Every time they face each other, they are very even,” Costa noted. “Adesanya has the spe…

The Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight strap will be unified once again come July.

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International Fight Week for the UFC now has its first bout coming together, although it has not yet been signed by the competitors. At UFC 290 on July 8 inside of the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Alexander Volkanovski (25-2) will look to unify his 145-pound belt against interim titleholder Yair Rodriguez (15-3, 1 NC). The news was first reported on Thursday by Ariel Helwani, and it has since been confirmed by other outlets. It has not yet been determined if that match will headline the tentpole event.

Volkanovski saw his bid for a second strap fall to pieces when he moved up to pieces to take on Islam Makhachev. The Aussie fell short against the 155-pound king in hopes of becoming a two-division champ. According to Fox Sports Australia back in March, Volkanovski had been pushing for an immediate rematch, but the promotion wanted him to return to his form…

[embedded content] An extended run in the Ultimate Fighting Championship has taught Gilbert Burns to expect the unexpected.

The Kill Cliff Fight Club standout will try to move one step closer to securing another shot at the undisputed welterweight crown when he faces Jorge Masvidal in the UFC 287 co-headliner on Saturday at Miami-Dade Arena in Miami. Approaching the nine-year anniversary of his arrival in the promotion, Burns has compiled a 14-5 record across his 19 appearances inside the Octagon.

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“I’ve amassed a lot of experience in the UFC,” Burns told Sherdog.com. “At first, I thought my path would be shorter. I thought I would become champion in short order. In the end, things didn’t quite work out that way. I had great wins but also a few losses.”

A multiple-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion, Burns touched down in the UFC as a prized lightweight prospect in 2014 and later repackaged himself at 170 pounds. He fought for the welterweight…

Jorge Masvidal fight with Kevin Holland in lobby ufc Miami#ufc #ufcmiami #ufc287 #jorgemasvidal #kevinholland #fight #mma #miami pic.twitter.com/yJHv5UOxZR

— Florida Man (@BarryMacokner94) April 5, 2023

UFC 287 is a few days away, but tensions are already high.

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Video surfaced on Wednesday of Jorge Masvidal and Kevin Holland engaged in a shouting match at the UFC fight hotel.The two athletes were separated by security, and according to multiple reports, the altercation never got physical.

It’s unclear what started the incident, but it is reportedly common knowledge that Masvidal and Holland are not on the best of terms. In a since-deleted Instagram post, Holland commented on the altercation.

“That video is going to come out,” Holland said. “Then, they’re probably going to do an opponent change again.”

Masvidal is slated to meet Gilbert Burns in Saturday’s welterweight co-main event, while Holland will f…

While she was competing for Bellator MMA, Julia Budd always hoped to be involved in a tournament.

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Though that didn’t come to fruition with the Scott Coker-led promotion, Budd will get that opportunity — in a sense, at least — with the Professional Fighters League season format at 145 pounds. It will mark the debut of the weight class in the league after the PFL previously held women’s fights at 155 pounds.

“This is something I always wish Bellator did,” Budd said during a PFL media day. “When I fought for them for seven years and they started doing those tournaments, I thought it would be so cool if they did a female 145 tournament. Now PFL is doing it and I’m here. It just feels like the perfect timing.”

Budd will square off against defending lightweight champion Larissa Pacheco in the PFL 2: 2023 Regular Season headliner on Friday at The Theater at Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas. The evening’s main card airs on ESPN 2 beginning at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.…

Diego Ferreira will lock horns with Michael Johnson in a lightweight scrap at an Ultimate Fighting Championship event on May 20.

MMA Mania was first to report the booking. The UFC Fight Night event does not yet have a location or headliner.

Ferreira, 38, hasn’t competed since December 2021, when he suffered his third consecutive promotional defeat at the hands of Mateusz Gamrot at UFC Fight Night 199. The ex-Legacy Fighting Championship title holder enjoyed his greatest success in the Octagon when he authored a six-bout winning streak from 2016 to 2020 that include triumphs over the likes of Anthony Pettis and Olivier Aubin-Mercier.

Johnson, meanwhile, won two of his three UFC appearances in 2022. Most recently, “The Menace” outpointed Marc Diakiese at UFC on ESPN 42 this past December. Johnson has struggled in recent years overall, going just 2-7 in the promotion before his mini-resurgence last year.

After relinquishing the lightweight crown to Islam Makhachev at UFC 280, Charles Oliveira is scheduled to return to the Octagon against Beneil Dariush at UFC 288.

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Oliveira’s coach, Diego Lima, likes the matchup.

"That was the fight that made sense for us,” Lima said. “Dariush is coming from an impressive sequence and is a complete fighter. Good everywhere, just like Charles. I have no doubt it's going to be a great war that will not last three rounds.

While the fight with Dariush will be tough, the Chute Boxe leader still dreams about a rematch with Makhachev for Oliveira.

"Sooner or later that fight must happen,” he said. “Unfortunately that was not our night. Everything we planned didn’t work out, but Charles is training harder than ever and evolving everywhere. If that rematch happens, you can bet it will be a different fight. But the level in the UFC is really high. Let´s have one [battle at a time]. Our…

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It doesn’t look like Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship will be an option for ex-UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou.

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During a press conference for BKFC 41 on Tuesday, promotion president David Feldman briefly addressed the possibility of signing Ngannou. The topic initially arose when Ben Rothwell was asked about fighting Ngannou under the BKFC banner.

“Francis Ngannou, he’s somebody we’ve certainly reached out to,” Feldman said. “We’ve reached out to him, we’ve reached out to his team, and we just feel like he’s asking for unrealistic money, and we’re not willing to pay that kind of money for him.”

Ngannou was released from his UFC contract at the beginning of the year after failing to come to terms with the Las Vegas-based promotion for a fight with Jon Jones. Ngannou recently said that he is in talks for a boxing match against Deontay Wilder this summer, but thus far nothing has been announced. Ngannou has also rep…