Martial Arts News

A place among the top 10 at flyweight is on the line at the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s return trip to London.

Courtesy of an initial report from MMA Island on Tuesday, 125-pound contenders Jennifer Maia (20-9-1) and Casey O'Neill (9-0) will square off at UFC 286 on March 18. The two flyweights are expected to battle it out inside of the O2 Arena in London, although the contracts have not yet been formalized. Maia has since confirmed this pairing in a comment on Instagram, and other outlets have also done so as well.

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Maia ended her first two-fight skid in November, where she claimed a hard-fought decision over Maryna Moroz. That victory put an end to a rough patch in 2022 where she dropped unanimous verdicts to Katlyn Chookagian and Manon Fiorot. Since making her UFC debut in 2018, the former Invicta Fighting Championships flyweight queen has gone the distance in nine of her 10 outings. The lone stoppage came via armbar over Joanne Wood in 2020.…

Ready to make up for lost time, Ultimate Fighting Championship talent Warlley Alves plans on this year being his most active one yet.

In May 2014, Alves conquered the third season of “The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil” at the age of 23. The Brazilian just turned 32 this week, and he is set to return to the cage for the first time in nearly 19 months. Due to serious injury and subsequent surgery, Alves could not fight for the entirety of 2022, and he is very hungry for his next outing. He will step foot in the Octagon at UFC 283 on Jan. 21, and he will square off against Nicolas Dalby in an important 170-pound tilt. Alves spoke to Sherdog this week about his recovery and what he sees in his future.

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“I’m really motivated for this fight,” Alves was ready to admit. “I love to fight opponents that come to exchange. It will be a classic [battle] of striking styles. His karate against my kickboxing. He has a style pretty similar to [Lyoto] Machida, but he likes t…

The Lightweights are on deck for Week 4️⃣of the Challenger Series

[ #PFLonFuboTV | Lightweights | Fri, Feb 17th | 9pm ET] pic.twitter.com/FoE9DsIeld

— PFL (@PFLMMA) January 5, 2023

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The fourth episode of Professional Fighters League’s Challenger Series in 2023 will carry with it several extremely promising 155ers.

Via press release on Thursday, the PFL has announced its fourth week of matches for the upcoming Challenger Series season. This episode on Feb. 17 will feature lightweights, including two highly touted undefeated up-and-comers as well as those that have appeared on Dana White's Contender Series and One Championship thus far. The fight card, like all others in this year’s Challenger Series, will take place at Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla., and it will air on Fubo Sports.

The main attraction in this four-fight show comes between unbeaten finisher Elvin Espinoza (7-0), who has already fought twice f…

Signed, Sealed, Delivered. Welcome to the Professional Fighters League @jakepaul pic.twitter.com/pgMDUprK6S

— PFL (@PFLMMA) January 5, 2023 Guess who’s coming to dinner.

Per the Professional Fighters League on Thursday via press release and social media, the organization has signed YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul (6-0, 4 KOs Box) to compete under its banner in MMA. Additionally, he has also bought in as a minority equity owner to the parent company along with fellow promoter and former Ultimate Fighting Championship exec Nakisa Bidarian. According to the release, Paul will jump-start the pay-per-view division to stage “PFL PPV Super Fights,” and he is the first person signed to that section of the PFL.

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As the newly appointed Head of Fighter Advocacy, Paul has ordained that the pay-per-view revenue generated from these events will be at least an even 50-50 split with the organization and the competitors. These pay-to-watc…

It’s the end of an era for Francisco Trinaldo.

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The UFC has parted ways with the 26-time Octagon veteran, according to MMAFighting.com. The promotion elected not to renew Trinaldo’s contract after he fulfilled the last fight on his most recent deal this past October.

Trinaldo appeared on “The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil” Season 1 and made his promotional debut at UFC 147 on June 23, 2012. The now 44-year-old Brazilian went 18-8 over the course of his UFC tenure, earning victories against the likes of Ross Pearson, Yancy Medeiros, Paul Felder, Jim Miller, Evan Dunham, Bobby Green and John Makdessi, to name a few.

Trinaldo’s last appearance came at UFC Fight Night 211, where he had a two-bout winning streak snapped in a unanimous decision loss to Randy Brown.

Cain Velasquez moved closer to a trial date as he appeared in Santa Clara County, Calif., court on Wednesday.

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The former UFC heavyweight champion identified his counsel during a hearing before Judge Daniel T. Nishigaya. Velasquez will be represented by California attorney Renee Hessling, who previously worked alongside Mark Geragos during pre-trial proceedings. Velasquez’s next hearing will be on March 8, when a trial date is expected to be set.

Velasquez is facing attempted murder and other charges after allegedy chasing and shooting at Harry Goularte, who has been accused of molesting Velasquez’s young son. During a high-speed chase, Velasquez fired at the vehicle containing Goularte and allegedly hit and injured his stepfather, Paul Bender.

Velasquez was released on released on $1 million bail in November after spending eight months in a holding facility. He remains under GPS surveillance and cannot leave his home without the court’s perm…

Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. Geoff Neal has a new date and venue.

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After a proposed booking at UFC Fight Night 217 on Jan. 14 was scrapped due to a Neal injury, the welterweight bout has been rebooked for UFC 285 on March 4. ESPN was first to report the rescheduled matchup.

UFC 285 takes place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and also includes a middleweight showdown pitting Derek Brunson against Dricus Du Plessis. The card does not yet have a headliner.

Rakhmonov is undefeated in 16 professionals appearances, with four of those triumphs coming under the UFC banner. The former M-1 Global champion last appeared at UFC on ESPN 38, where he submitted Neil Magny in the second frame this past June.

Neal has bounced back from the first two-bout skid of his career to post back-to-back triumphs over Santiago Ponzinibbio and Vicente Luque in the Octagon. “Handz of Steel” is 7-2 within the Las Vegas-based promotion, with other notable victories again…

Endeavor shares fall after video shows UFC boss Dana White hitting wife on New Year's Eve https://t.co/UYisZWB28i

— CNBC (@CNBC) January 3, 2023

Endeavor, the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, could be suffering the consequences of Dana White’s actions.

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According to CNBC, the media and entertainment company saw its shares drop nearly 6% on Tuesday after a video surfaced showing the UFC president slapping his wife during an altercation in Mexico on New Year’s Eve. While White issued a statement in an interview with TMZ, neither Endeavor nor broadcast partner ESPN have commented on the incident.

“My wife and I were out on Saturday night on New Year’s Eve, and unfortunately that’s what happened,” White said. “You’ve heard me say for years, there’s never, ever an excuse for guy to put his hands on a woman, and now here I am on TMZ talking about it. My wife and I have been married for almost 30 years. W…

MMA veteran Phil Baroni has been arrested and charged with killing his girlfriend at a hotel room in San Pancho, Mexico, according to a report from Tribuna De La Bahia.

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The former UFC fighter reportedly flagged down police and informed them that his girlfriend was unconscious and needed help. When police arrived at the room, the woman was lying naked on the bed, covered in a sheet and had no vital signs. She also had bruises on her face and body, injuries that seem to indicate some type of assault.

Baroni told police that while smoking marijuana and drinking beer, the woman revealed that she had cheated on him with another man. Baroni claimed that he told her to take a shower and allegedly threw her into the shower when she refused, causing the woman to fall and hit her head. According to Baroni, he helped her back to the bed and left the room to get her a cigarette and beer at her request. Upon his return, Baroni claimed to notice the woman was u…

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship competitor Kendall Grove will return to action after more than three years away when he faces Michal Materla in the KSW 78 main event.

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The Polish promotion recently announced the booking. Materla defeated Grove via unanimous decision in their first fight at KSW 23 on June 8, 2013. KSW 78 takes place on Jan. 21 in Szczecin, Poland and will also see Tomasz Romanowski square off against Radoslaw Paczuski in the evening’s welterweight co-headliner.

Grove, who won Season 3 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” hasn’t competed since submitting Anthony Ruiz in the first round of their bout at World Fighting Championships 110 on Aug. 10, 2019. The 40-year-old Hawaiian is best known for a 7-6 stint in the UFC from 2006 to 2011, but he also had a nine-bout tenure in Bellator MMA and faced Materla and Mamed Khalidov under the KSW banner. “Da Spyder” owns a 24-18 career mark, with notable wins over the likes of Joey Beltan, Derek Bru…

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UFC president Dana White was caught on camera slapping his wife during a physical altercation that occurred on New Year’s Eve while the couple was on vacation in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

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Video of the incident was released by TMZ Sports on Monday. White and his wife, Anne, were in the VIP section at El Squid Roe, a local bar, when the UFC president appeared to grab his wife by the wrist. Anne then slaps White, who responds by slapping his wife in the face before the couple is separated by others in the group.

White discussed the incident in an interview with TMZ.

“My wife and I were out on Saturday night on New Year’s Eve, and unfortunately that’s what happened,” White said. “You’ve heard me say for years, there’s never, ever an excuse for guy to put his hands on a woman, and now here I am on TMZ talking about it. My wife and I have been married for almost 30 years. We’ve known each other since we were 12 years old. We’ve obvio…

Rising welterweight star Jack Della Maddalena will face arguably his toughest test to date when he squares off against Randy Brown at UFC 284.

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Eurosport confirmed the booking after Brown initially announced the matchup via Twitch last week. UFC 284 takes place at the RAC Arena in Perth, Australia, on Feb. 11 and is headlined by a lightweight title tilt pitting Islam Makhachev against Alexander Volkanovski.

After earning a UFC contract on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2021, Maddalena kicked off his promotional tenure with three consecutive first-round TKO victories this past year. Most recently, the Perth native stopped Danny Roberts 3:24 into the opening stanza of their clash at UFC Fight Night 215 on Nov. 19. The 26-year-old has won 13 straight professional outings overall.

Brown, 32, will take a four-bout UFC winning streak into the showdown with Maddalena. “Rude Boy” went 2-0 in 2022, taking a split decision over Kalin Williams at UFC …