Martial Arts News

Former UFC flyweight title challenger Ray Borg has signed an exclusive contract with Bellator MMA.

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The promotion announced the addition of Borg to the roster on Tuesday. Borg is expected to make his Bellator debut this year, though a date and opponent are currently unknown. It appears that the New Mexico native will compete at 135 pounds in the California-based organziation.

“I am beyond excited and very happy to have signed with Bellator MMA,” Borg said. “I feel like they have the best 135ers in the world and I am very excited to get in there and mix it up with all of them on one of the very biggest stages in the sport.”

The 29-year-old Borg will enter Bellator on a three-bout winning streak. He last appeared at Eagle FC 46, where he captured a split verdict against Bellator vet Ricky Bandejas in March 2022. “The Tazmexican Devil” went 7-5 during a UFC stint where he competed at flyweight and bantamweight. He notably challenged for 125-pound…

Mackenzie Dern will square off against Angela Hill at a UFC Fight Night event on May 13.

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MMAjunkie.com was first to report the strawweight bout. UFC Fight Night is headlined by a light heavyweight duel pitting Anthony Smith against Johnny Walker. A location and venue have not been announced for the card.

Dern is coming off a 1-1 campaign in 2022. The Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt earned a split decision over Tecia Torres at UFC 273 before suffering a majority decision defeat to Xioanan Yan in the UFC Fight Night 211 headliner. Dern has won five of her last seven Octagon appearances dating back to 2020.

After losing five of six promotional outings from May 2020 to May 2022, Hill has bounced back to post consecutive decision triumphs over Lupita Godinez and Emily Ducote in her last two UFC bouts. The former Invicta FC title holder is 10-12 over the course of two separate UFC stints.

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Yaroslav Amosov will step into the cage for the first time since June 2021 when he meets Logan Storley in a welterweight title unification bout in the Bellator 291 headliner on Saturday.

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Amosov had good reason to be on hiatus, as he stepped away from MMA to help defend his native Ukraine against Russian invasion early in 2022. That led to him withdrawing from a scheduled championship defense against Michael Page at Bellator 281 last May.

In a powerful feature that will air during the Bellator 291 broadcast, Amosov recounts the hardships of war that he witnessed firsthand and how he recovered his championship belt in the wreckage of his family barn. Now Amosov hopes to inspire his country with a championship victory on Saturday in Dublin.

Bellator 291 takes place at the 3Arena in Dublin and is headlined by the championship clash between Amosov and Storley. The main card airs on Showtime at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT.

A lightweight contender’s bout pitting Charles Oliveira against Beneil Dariush is on tap for UFC 288 on May 6.

Oliveira recently announced the pairing on Instagram, and multiple outlets have confirmed the fight. Club De Las MMA was first to bring word of Oliveira vs. Dariush earlier this year. UFC 288 is headlined by a bantamweight title clash between Aljamain Sterling and Henry Cejudo. The event does not currently have a location or venue.

Oliveira will be competing for the first time since falling to Islam Makhachev via second-round submission in a lightweight title bout at UFC 280 this past October. Prior to that, “Do Bronx” compiled an 11-fight winning streak in the Octagon, with 10 victories coming inside the distance. Notable triumphs during that stretch include Justin Gaethje, Dustin Poirier, Michael Chandler, Tony Ferguson, Kevin Lee, Jim Miller and Clay Guida.

Dariush, meanwhile, has emerged as a top contender at 155 pounds thanks to an eight-bout…

Sidney Outlaw has been booted from the Bellator lightweight grand prix after testing positive for three banned substances in an out-of-competition drug test.

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Associate of Boxing Commissions and Combative Sports president Mike Mazzulli, who is in charge of regulation for the promotion’s overseas events, informed ESPN on Tuesday that Outlaw on Feb. 4 tested positive for ostarine, cardarine and anastrozole — all of which are prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). As a result, Outlaw has been suspended for six months and removed from a 155-pound tournament matchup against Mansour Barnaoui at Bellator 296 on May 12 in Paris.

Ostarine is a selective androgen receptor module (SARM) known for increasing lean body mass; cardarine is a metabolic modulator believed to boost metabolism and increase fat burning; and anastrozole can reduce the side effects of performance enhancing drugs by reducing the estrogen levels in the body. Outlaw will be req…

Jairzinho Rozenstruik will lock horns with Jailton Almeida in a heavyweight bout at an Ultimate Fighting Championship event on May 13.

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Both fighters confirmed the booking on social media following an initial report from MMAFighting.com. The card is headlined by a light heavyweight scrap pitting Anthony Smith against Johnny Walker. A location and venue for the card have not been confirmed.

Rozenstruik snapped a two-bout skid in his last outing, when he knocked out Chris Daukaus in just 23 seconds at UFC 282 on Dec. 10. “Bigi Boy” is 7-4 during his promotional tenure, with all his victories coming inside the distance. He owns other notable victories over the likes of Andrei Arlovski, Alistair Overeem, and Junior dos Santos. Meanwhile, his losses have come to some of the heavyweight division’s best: Alexander Volkov, Curtis Blaydes, Ciryl Gane and Francis Ngannou.

Almeida earned a contract on Dana White’s Contender Series as a light heavyweigh…

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A bantamweight title bout pitting reigning champ Aljamain Sterling against Henry Cejudo has been targeted for UFC 288 on May 6.

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Multiple outlets confirmed the booking after Sterling announced it on his podcast. The May 6 date hasn’t been officially announced by the promotion, but it is expected to be a pay-per-view event. Sterling and Cejudo were initially rumored to meet earlier this year, but “The Funkmaster” revealed that he would need more time to heal from a torn bicep, putting that timeline on hold. UFC 288 doesn’t have a location or venue.

“I can’t wait for this matchup, because I think that it’s two guys that won’t back down, and I think the wrestling might cancel each other out – we will see if I’m able to rag-doll him,” Sterling said on Monday. “We’re going to figure it out in the first five minutes, and from there, we’ll figure out if we want to waste a ton of energy grappling, or do we want to put these [our fists] to the test and show…

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Jeff Novitzky is on board with the Combat Sports Commission of Western Australia’s statement that there is no evidence of illegal IV use regarding the athletes who competed at UFC 284.

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Shortly after Islam Makhachev defeated Alexander Volkanovski in the UFC 284 headliner, Volkanovski’s teammate, Dan Hooker, accused the lightweight champion of illegal IV use on social media. The allegation was later refuted by Makhachev’s manager in a statement, but the controversy continued unitl it was addressed by the Australian commission. In an interview with UFC commentator Brendan Fitzgerald, Novitzky, the UFC senior vice president of athlete health and performance, revealed that athletic commission’s rules regarding IV use differ from USADA’s. With that in mind, if the Combat Sports Commission of Western Australia says there’s no evidence of any wrongdoing, Novitzky is quite confident that Makhachev is in the clear.

“I think the Australian …

Tanner Boser will move to 205 pounds for a matchup with Ion Cutelaba at UFC Fight Night on April 15.

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Both fighters confirmed the booking on social media following an initial report from MMAFighting.com. UFC Fight Night takes place at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Kan., and is headlined by a featherweight scrap pitting Max Holloway against Arnold Allen.

Boser has gone 4-4 in the Octagon as a relatively undersized heavyweight. The 31-year-old Canadian has lost three of his last four outings, including a split-decision defeat to Rodrigo Nascimento in his most recent appearance at UFC Fight Night 210 this past September.

Cutelaba has struggled in recent years, compiling a 1-5-1 mark in the Las Vegas-based promotion since 2020. “The Hulk” is coming off an 0-3 campaign in 2022 in which he was finished by Kennedy Nzechukwu, Johnny Walker and Ryan Spann.

Lina Lansberg is calling it a career after 18 professional fights.

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“The Elbow Queen” announced her decision via social media following a second-round submission defeat to Mayra Bueno Silva at UFC Fight Night 219 on Saturday. Lansberg went 10-8 over the course of a career that began in 2012.

“Thank you so much for all the love and support. This has been a hell of a ride and to start fighting is the best thing I’ve ever done,” she wrote. “It has given me so so much. But now it’s time to move on. I’m done.”

Lansberg began her MMA tenure with victories in six of her first seven outings. She debuted in the Octagon with a second-round TKO loss to Cristiane Justino in a 140-pound catchweight bout in the UFC Fight Night 95 main event. The Swede would post a 5-7 record in the Las Vegas-based promotion, earning wins over the likes of Lucie Pudilova, Tonya Evinger and Macy Chiasson. The 40-year-old Redline Training Center product exits the sport on a fo…

William Knight’s performance at UFC Fight Night 219 was memorable for all the wrong reasons.

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The heavily-muscled light heavyweight attempted just 33 significant strikes — landing eight — while being picked apart at range by Marcin Prachnio in a unanimous decision defeat on Saturday night at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. For the majority of the bout, Knight was simply unwilling to engage, and that allowed Prachnio to control the distance, most notably with a steady diet of low kicks.

After the loss, Knight reacted to the fight in a video on his Instagram account. He didn’t offer any excuses for an effort that resulted in his third consecutive UFC defeat.

“At the end of the day, I went out there, froze up, I didn’t do my part, I lost the fight,” Knight said. “Some of y’all want me to win, some of y’all bet on me, I understand. I completely get it. In life, human beings aren’t perfect, but I’m taking ownership of my actions because I didn’t do s—t. I…