Martial Arts News

Even though he has achieved much in the sport, ex-Ultimate Fighting Championship champ Fabricio Werdum still holds one former foe in much higher regard than himself.

Werdum stands as the only man on the planet to ever submit Fedor Emelianenko in MMA competition, doing so atop a Strikeforce card in 2010 to shock the world. Following the news that Brazilian channel Combate will carry events through Bellator MMA and Professional Fighters League even though its UFC arrangement has ended, Werdum has drawn the assignment as a color commentator for Bellator 290. Speaking to Sherdog on Wednesday about the event, Werdum spoke at length about his former foe, his plans for the future and much more.

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“Nobody ever did what [Emelianenko] did in heavyweight division,” Werdum explained. “Ten years undefeated, no doubt he must be considered the GOAT. The other four, I would put [Mirko Filipovic] ‘Cro Cop,’ [Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira] ‘Minotauro,’ Cain Velasquez and mys…

Two top Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight contenders will get their names on the marquee unexpectedly.

On Thursday night, news broke that Marlon Vera vs. Cory Sandhagen had been shifted to UFC on ESPN 43 in March, leaving UFC Fight Night 219 with no headliner. The anticipated co-main event of Taila Santos (19-2) vs. Erin Blanchfield (10-1) for that Feb. 18 event at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas has been elevated to the headliner slot, with this announcement coming via the UFC on Friday. The two flyweights will now be fighting across five rounds instead of three atop the billing.

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Santos suffered her first defeat in a few years when she came up just short against champ Valentina Shevchenko in June 2022 – in a fight that several media scorers scored the fight for Santos. The loss snapped a four-fight win streak, where she topped Molly McCann, Gillian Robertson, Roxanne Modafferi and Joanne Wood in the span of about 16 months. The Brazilian made her…

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A promising young Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight has just hit a huge snag in his career.

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On Friday, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency announced that Hamdy Abdelwahab failed a post-fight drug test on July 30, 2022, for methenolone, an anabolic steroid. Additionally, before USADA notified him of his failure, they tested him again on August 27 of that year, and once more he had methenolone in his system. Due to the lack of notification on USADA’s end, the two failed tests will be considered one violation, and he will receive a two-year suspension effective the July test date.

Abdelwahab made his debut on short notice at UFC 277 on July 30, and he defeated Don'Tale Mayes by split decision in a thriller. The agency requires that fighters entering the testing pool disclose any substances they have taken in the last year, so that they can sit out until testing clean without suffering a penalty. If fighters do not disclose a substa…

⚖️ Evelyn Martins comes in at 146.8 lbs

The bout will go forward at 147 lbs and she will be penalized 20% of her show purse.

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Fights are 𝗟𝗜𝗩𝗘 & 𝗙𝗥𝗘𝗘 on @fubosports

[ #PFLonFubo | Women's Featherweights | Fri, Feb 3rd | 9pm ET] pic.twitter.com/P5CiS14res

— PFL (@PFLMMA) February 2, 2023 The latest Professional Fighters League Challenger Series show will feature eight fighters in the women's featherweight division.

Main event fighters Amanda Leve and Naranjargal Tsendayush had no issue making weight, as did most of the members on the four-fight card. The lone miss came from Evelyn Martins, who checked in at 146.8 pounds. Due to being .8 pounds over the limit, Martins' bout against Jeslen Mishelle will now be held at a 147-pound catchweight, and she has been fined 20% of her show purse.

Philadelphia's Leve (1-0) came in at 144.8 pounds, while her Mongolian opponent weighed 146 pounds. Both will look to st…

The first three Professional Fighters League regular season events will feature some high-profile pairings.

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The league on Thursday announced the headliners and co-main events for cards scheduled for April 1, April 7 and April 14. All three events will take place at the Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas and air live on ESPN and ESPN+.

PFL 1 on April 1 will feature a featherweight showdown between 2022 champion Brendan Loughnane and former UFC bantamweight title challenger Marlon Moraes. In the co-main event, defending light heavyweight champion Rob Wilkinson will welcome 24-time UFC veteran Thiago Santos to the organization.

The following week, PFL 2 will be topped by a clash between 2022 heavyweight winner Ante Delija and Yorgan De Castro, a former UFC competitor who is coming off a victory over Junior dos Santos under the Eagle FC banner. In the co-feature, defending lightweight queen Larissa Pacheco will attempt to build on the momentum of her up…

The Ultimate Fighting Championship appears to have listened to the fans.

On Thursday night, Sports Illustrated first broke the news that Marlon Vera (20-7-1) vs. Cory Sandhagen (15-4) will no longer be taking place atop UFC Fight Night 219. That event booked at the UFC Apex will not keep Vera-Sandhagen on its billing anymore, as the five-round bantamweight bonanza has been moved to UFC on ESPN 43. This March 25 fight card will go down at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, rather than the confines of the Apex. It has not yet been determined which bout will serve as the headliner of the Feb. 18 show, but news of this shift has been confirmed by multiple outlets.

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After Vera vs. Sandhagen was announced, fan and media sentiment reflected that a large audience should be treated to the potential violence that is their five-rounder. The specific reason for its relocation was not announced, but neither fighter appear to have suffered an injury that would …

Ryan Bader admittedly wasn’t initially excited about the prospects of a rematch with Fedor Emelianenko.

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It didn’t take him too long to come around.

“At first I kind of felt that way, and then I started thinking about it,” Bader said at a press conference on Wednesday. “Being on CBS was a big factor. Anytime you’re in a Fedor fight it’s a huge fight. I’m proud to be a part of his legacy and for him to be a part of mine.

“It’s hard to turn down a Fedor fight. I didn’t necessarily know it was going to be his last one. It’s one of those things where I got more excited about it and when I finally put pen to paper, I was all in.”

Bader initially faced Emelianenko in the finals of the heavyweight grand prix at Bellator 214, where he claimed the belt with a 35-second technical knockout victory. The Power MMA Team stalwart isn’t taking away much from that first meeting — in large part because of the abbreviated nature of the fight. He expects the rema…

It’ll be hard for Johnny Eblen to top the fight that earned him the Bellator MMA middleweight championship.

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The American Top Team product claimed 185-pound gold with a five-round verdict over Gegard Mousasi in the Bellator 282 main event last June. After vanquishing one of the sport’s all-time great middleweights, Eblen will face a lesser known commodity in his first title defense when he locks horns with Anatoly Tokov in the Bellator 290 co-main event. While Tokov isn’t a household name, his seven-fight winning streak in Bellator and gaudy 31-2 overall mark made him an attractive opponent to Eblen.

“It’s just another challenge, another step in the right direction,” Eblen said at a press conference on Wednesday. “It’s the reason I called him out in the first place. I knew about his record. I knew he was 7-0 in Bellator. And I know he’s really good. So I want to take him out and put on a show in front of all these fans and on CBS.”

While the …

A number of mixed martial arts luminaries will be in attendance for Fedor Emelianenko’s swan song at Bellator 290.

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During an appearance on ”The MMA Hour,” Bellator president Scott Coker revealed a star-studded guest list that includes former opponents such as Mark Coleman, Dan Henderson, Quinton Jackson and Chael Sonnen. Other notables expected to be in attendance include Randy Couture, Renzo Gracie, Royce Gracie, Matt Hughes, Chuck Liddell and Frank Shamrock.

According to Coker, many of the aforementioned legends reached out to him about attending Bellator 290 on their own.

“It’s something that’s really special and means a lot to me because I look at this from a martial arts perspective,” Coker said. “These are the greatest martial artists of their time and their era and they really built what MMA is today and they really built the evolution of what mixed martial arts is today. They deserve to be in the cage with Fedor. It’s going to be a …

The decision by the UFC not to renew its broadcast deal with Rede Globo after a partnership that spanned more than 10 years has made a significant impact on the combat sports market in Brazil.

After the world’s largest MMA promotion decided to invest in its own streaming platform (UFC Fight Pass) with TV Bandeirantes as a partner, many fans of the sport thought that Combate, the only cable channel dedicated 24 hours a day to martial arts, would would be finished. After all, it would make no sense for more than 300,000 subscribers to keep paying a monthly fee of RS 49.90 ($9) without having access to the UFC as part of the subscription.

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Instead, the approach of having “everything but UFC” at a more affordable price for the subscriber was put into practice. After signing deals with One Championship, Glory, Rizin, Jungle Fight, Top Rank and Karate Combat, Combate is expected to announce the addition of Bellator and PFL to its broadcast roster in the ne…

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📅：4.1(土) 14:00開始(予定)🏟：丸善インテックアリーナ大阪📝：https://t.co/ussCpDnsNl

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🎟チケット一般発売 2.19(日)~※ファンクラブ/RIZIN 100 CLUB先行 2.6(月)~ pic.twitter.com/pyxhbcqDo6 — RIZIN FF OFFICIAL (@rizin_PR) February 1, 2023

Rizin Fighting Federation’s schedule for the first half of 2023 is beginning to take shape.

The Japanese promotion recently announced the locations and venues for its next three events. The first of those is Rizin 41, which takes place on April 1 at Maruzen Intec Arena Osaka in Osaka, Japan. Meanwhile, Rizin Landmark, Vol. 5 is set for April 30 at Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo, and Rizin 42 will take place on May 6 at Ariake Arena in Tokyo.

Four MMA bouts were confirmed for Rizin 41: Makoto Takahashi vs. Daichi Kitakata at flyweight; Vugar Karamov vs. Yoshinori Horie at featherweight; Yuto Hokamura vs. Koichi Ishizuka at bantamweight an…

Brazilian Vale Tudo icon Wilson “Passarito” Oliveira died on Sunday at the age of 94.

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A Brazilian judo champion in the 1950s and a former marine, Wilson de Oliveira became known as “El Passarito” when he represented Brazil in judo at the Pan American Games in Buenos Aires in 1951.

A great friend and training partner of Waldemar Santana, “Passarito” was a student of Augusto Cordeiro in judo and Euclydes Hatem in Luta Livre, coming from the same lineage of capoeira and Luta Livre fighters who came together to face the Gracie hegemony. “Passarito” faced Carlson Gracie three times at Vale Tudo events. The first was at the legendary Maracanã Stadium in 1953, three years before the historic fight in which Carlson avenged his uncle, Hélio Gracie, against Waldemar Santana.

Carlson began fighting while wearing the gi, but after being taken down many times, Helio Gracie convinced him to take the gi off during the course of the match. Despite “Passari…