Martial Arts News

Bellator MMA’s upcoming card in San Diego is down two fights.

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The promotion recently announced that Raufeon Stots vs. Marcos Breno and Grant Neal vs. Khalid Murtazaliev are now off the Sept. 7 card. As a result, a women’s flyweight clash pitting Sumiko Inaba against Mackenzie Stiller has been elevated to the main draw. A reason for the cancellations was not revealed.

Bellator Champions Series San Diego takes place at Pechanga Arena and is headlined by a lightweight championship clash between Usman Nurmagomedov and Alexandr Shabliy. The event will air in its entirety on Max beginning at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

Stots is coming off a unanimous decision victory over Danny Sabatello at Bellator 301 and is 8-1 since joining the promotion in 2019. Breno, meanwhile, hasn’t competed since April 2023, when he suffered a second-round submission defeat to Sabatello at Bellator 294.

Neal had a three-bout winning streak snapped on March 22, when he dro…

The PFL MENA semifinals have been finalized for Sept. 20 in Riyadh, Saudia Arabia.

After regular season events on May 10 and July 12, the brackets at featherweight, welterweight, lightweight and bantamweight remain largely intact with the exception of one 155-pound matchup. According to a release from the PFL, Abdullah Saleem has failed an in-competition drug test and has been removed from his semifinal bout against Omar Reguigui. As a result, Georges Eid will step in and face Reguigui.

PFL MENA 3 takes place at the promotion’s studio in Boulevard City and is headlined by a featherweight semifinal clash between Abdullah Al-Qahtani and Abdalrahman Alhyasat. In the co-main event, Jarrah Al-Silawi will lock horns with Omar El Dafrawy in a welterweight semifinal. Winners of the semifinal bouts will advance to a PFL MENA championship event later this year.

“We’re very excited to be heading into the playoffs of the inaugural PFL MENA season. Fighters in the ba…

Norma Dumont recently went off on Julianna Pena, who will receive the next UFC women’s bantamweight title shot.

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Pena is set to challenge Raquel Pennington for the bantamweight title in the co-main event at UFC 307 on Oct. 5 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. According to Dumont, Pena getting the next title shot is a slap in the face of the rest of the division. Dumont believes “The Venezuelan Vixen” has done nothing of significance to warrant a title shot.

Pena’s biggest claim to fame is a submission win over Amanda Nunes to win the bantamweight title at UFC 269 in 2021 in one of the biggest upsets in the history of the sport. Dumont claims Pena’s win over Nunes came on a night when the “Lioness” just wasn’t herself. Dumont also recalled Pena’s lopsided beatdown on the way to a unanimous decision loss against “The Lioness” in their rematch at UFC 277 in July 2022. Dumont believes it is really unfair that the upcoming title shot goes to P…

Getting lectured by a guy who drinks blood and wears a purse.. Dawg you had a mid life crisis and tattooed your entire body. The "the x community of intolerance" yall I'd hang out with you toxic trolls any day over this cunt... Go back to cutting yourself you fucking weirdo https://t.co/4CY2L7gypT

— Sean Strickland (@SStricklandMMA) August 27, 2024

Sean Strickland has a developing beef with rapper/musician Colson Baker, who is professionally known as Machine Gun Kelly.

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It all started with Strickland running into MGK at a Power Slap event back in February. The former UFC middleweight champ asked the rapper to dress like a man, also questioning actress Megan Fox’s rationale in choosing him as a partner.

“You guys what the f— is going on.......... Transformers Megan Fox is with that thing..... what the actual fuck has happened to the world?! What did I miss? Is she OK? Is this man the devil? [Megan Fox] are you ok? Do you …

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Shavkat Rakhmonov considers himself the clear No. 1 contender for the next UFC welterweight title shot and believes Kamaru Usman should be ashamed to even compete in that race.

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The welterweight title recently changed hands with Belal Muhammad dethroning Leon Edwards via unanimous decision at UFC 304 in Manchester in July. Rakhmonov, Usman, Jack Della Maddalena and Edwards appear to be among the leading contender for the next shot at Muhammad.

However, Rakhmonov believes that while others are close, he is clearly the most deserving candidate with all 18 of his career wins coming via stoppage — six of them in the UFC.

“UFC thinks that I’m the No.1 contender and I should be next,” Rakhmonov told Submission Radio. “Because there’s no [other] clear contender anyway. I got 100% finishes, all wins on the UFC. So I rightfully should be next. Everyone else [is] also very close but I think they need couple of wins to get this title sho…

Miranda Maverick has issued a warning to Tracy Cortez ahead of their upcoming fight.

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Maverick and Cortez will trade leather in a flyweight matchup on Dec. 14 at the Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida at UFC on ESPN 63, which also marks the promotion’s return to the city for the first time since 2019. The matchup was first announced by Maverick and confirmed by multiple outlets.

While announcing the fight, Maverick also issued her opponent a warning about fake eyelashes. Cortez is coming off a unanimous decision loss against former strawweight champ Rose Namajunas at UFC Denver this past July. The fight also saw Namajunas send one of Cortez’s fake eyelashes flying with a punch, a moment which was meme fodder for weeks after the bout. On Tuesday, Maverick cautioned her opponent against putting on fake eyelashes at UFC Tampa.

“[Rose Namajunas] got it last time; now it’s my turn,” Maverick wrote on Instagram. “I have a long time until the fight which…

Malcolm Wellmaker dropped the hammer.

The Faglier’s MMA rep was one of four hopefuls to nail down an Ultimate Fighting Championship contract during Week 3 of Dana White’s Contender Series, as he punched out Adam Bramhald in the first round of their bantamweight showcase on Tuesday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Bramhald (13-3, 0-1 DWCS) crashed and burned 2:29 into Round 1, his 11-fight winning streak having run its course.

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Wellmaker (8-0, 1-0 DWCS) operated behind a punishing jab, absorbed a few leg kicks and waited for an opportunity to present itself. The Augusta, Georgia, native countered a jab from Bramhald with a crushing counter right hook and dropped the Asylum Vale Tudo where he stood. No follow-up shots were necessary.

Middleweight Marco Tulio will join Wellmaker on the UFC roster, along with featherweight Bogdan Grad and middleweight Andrey Pulyaev.

Chute Boxe’s Tulio buried Hexagone MMA champion Matthieu Letho Duclos with a spinnin…

Sherdog's coverage of Dana White's Contender Series Week 3 begins Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. Round 1 Sherdog Scores Round 2 Sherdog Scores Round 3 Sherdog Scores The Result Round 1 Sherdog Scores Round 2 Sherdog Scores Round 3 Sherdog Scores The Result Round 1 Sherdog Scores Round 2 Sherdog Scores Round 3 Sherdog Scores The Result Round 1 Sherdog Scores Round 2 Sherdog Scores Round 3 Sherdog Scores The Result Round 1 Sherdog Scores Round 2 Sherdog Scores Round 3 Sherdog Scores The Result

The financial strain of being a professional mixed martial artist has become too much for Darren Stewart.

The 33-year-old Brit announced his retirement from MMA on Tuesday in a post on his Instagram account. According to Stewart, continuing to pursue a fighting career has become a burden on his family.

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“It hurts me to write this, but I think it’s time to call it a day,” Stewart wrote. “Not by choice, but I’m forced to because I’ve lost a lot to this game trying to survive, and I can’t do it no more. When UFC let me go I should have invested something, but instead I put all my eggs in one basket AGAIN to get back to the top and life has gotten even worse. I’ve got family, and it’s not fair on them stressing just to keep food on the table.

“I love fighting, and I don’t want to call it as I’m only 33, but I’m not getting any help financially. Spoke about it a few times, so not going to go into it. Maybe I’ll get into boxing if it ever arises, bu…

A lightweight bout pitting Myktybek Orolbai against Mateusz Rebecki has been added to the UFC 308 lineup.

Full Violence was first to report the pairing. UFC 308 takes place on Oct. 26 at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi and is headlined by a featherweight championship tilt between Ilia Topuria and Max Holloway.

A native of Kyrgysztan, Orolbai has been victorious in eight consecutive professional outings. The 26-year-old has kicked off his UFC tenure with back-to-back triumphs against Uros Medic and Elves Brener.

A winner on Dana White's Contender Series in 2022, Poland’s Rebecki began his UFC career with three straight victories. However, a 16-bout professional winning streak came to an end in his last appearance at UFC on ESPN 56, where he fell to Diego Ferreira via third-round TKO.

Twenty-fight mixed martial arts veteran Andrew Osborne was recently sentenced to 25 years in prison for stabbing a man to death earlier this year.

According to a statement from the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office (via via MMAjunkie.com), Osborne pleaded guilty to first-degree aggravated manslaughter this past Thursday. Osborne must serve at least 85 percent of his sentence before he is eligible for parole.

Osborne, 36, stabbed 47-year-old Brian Wilkinson to death inside at hotel room at Ocean Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on May 30. According to a separate report from NJ.com, Osborne stabbed Wilkinson in the head and neck and left the room wearing the victim’s shoes and pants. Osborne then fled with his wife to Philadelphia, where he was located by detectives from the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office’s Major Crimes Unit and arrested.

Osborne competed as a pro MMA fighter from 2011 to 2017, compiling an 8-11 mark with one no contest. He fought…

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Randy Couture isn’t surprised about the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s spat with Francis Ngannou given his own history of the promotion.

Ngannou exited the promotion as the heavyweight champion in January 2023 over a lengthy contract dispute. Couture, meanwhile, had a lengthy legal battle with the UFC in 2007, even publicly resigning for a brief period. Ngannou had fought for rights to simultaneously compete in boxing along with other stipulations like health insurance for fighters and an advocate to represent fighters at contract meetings.

Ngannou went on join rival promotion Professional Fighters League, where he will make his debut against the 2023 season heavyweight king Renan Ferreira on Oct. 18 in Saudi Arabia. Former UFC champ Israel Adesanya, who considers himself one of the first three Africa UFC champs along with Ngannou and Kamaru Usman, recently called out the promotion for trying to erase “The Predator’s” legacy.

And Cou…