Martial Arts News

Renato Carneiro sent a warning to the rest of the Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight division: Do not forget about him.

The American Top Team-trained Brazilian submitted Brad Riddell with a rear-naked choke in the first round of their featured UFC 281 prelim on Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York. Carneiro (17-5-1, 9-5 UFC) finished it 3:20 into Round 1, as he rebounded from his March 5 defeat to Rafael dos Anjos.

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Riddell (10-4, 4-3 UFC) was a non-factor. Carneiro bludgeoned him with punches, drawing blood under his right eye. He scrambled onto the City Kickboxing rep’s back after an attempted takedown, went to work on the choke and eventually snaked his arms in place. Riddell had no choice but to tap.Spann Devastates Reeling Reyes Former Legacy Fighting Alliance champion Ryan Spann punched out Dominick Reyes in the first round of their light heavyweight encounter. The physically imposing 6-foot-5 Spann (21-7, 7-2 UFC)—who misse…

Flawless!! #KSW76

🇫🇷 @SalahdineP 👑👑 pic.twitter.com/3YJ6tJpe4q

— KSW (@KSW_MMA) November 12, 2022

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Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki has its third two-division champion in promotional history.

In the KSW 76 headliner, 145-pound titleholder Salahdine Parnasse put on a surgical performance at the expense of Sebastian Rajewski with the interim lightweight championship on the line. Parnasse (17-1, 9-1 KSW) kept the contest on the feet in the opening frame to study his opponent’s reactions, then moved the action to the mat in the second period. The Frenchman came close to finishing Rajewski (12-8, 4-3 KSW) with strikes in Round 2, but the Polish fighter showed great heart and survived the storm. The pair exchanged on the feet again in the third frame, where Parnasse showcased much more polished striking skills than his foe. In the fourth, Parnasse took down Rajewski and jumped on his back. After landing some strikes, the Frenchman sa…

Christian Leroy Duncan retains his title in dramatic fashion. In the final seconds of round one he TKO's his opponent, in style 🕹💥

The sky is the limit for The Champ ☝️#CW146 pic.twitter.com/oBnKQuLawx

— Cage Warriors (@CageWarriors) November 12, 2022

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Cage Warriors Fighting Championship’s return to Manchester saw 11 finishes on a 14-bout card.

In the CW 146 headliner, Christian Leroy Duncan notched his first middleweight championship defense after vanquishing Marian Dimitrov. Duncan (7-0, 7-0 CW) showcased composure and good striking skills, putting his adversary through difficulty on different occasions. In turn, Dimitrov (10-3, 0-1 CW) looked for a knockout blow that never came, even though he clipped Duncan a few times. Right before the end of the opening period, Duncan came up with a well-timed spinning-back elbow that visibly shook Dimitrov. Smelling blood, Duncan pushed forward with heavy strikes and dropped hi…

UFC featherweight title holder Alexander Volkanovski will make his bid to become a two-division champion in friendly territory.

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The Las Vegas-based promotion announced Saturday that Islam Makhachev will defend his lightweight crown against Volkanovski in the UFC 284 main event on Feb. 11. The card takes place at RAC Arena in Perth, Australia, and airs via pay-per-view on ESPN+. UFC 284 is also expected to include a middleweight tilt pitting Robert Whittaker against Paulo Costa.

Makhachev claimed 155-pound gold with a second-round submission of Charles Oliveira in the UFC 280 headliner on Oct. 22. The Khabib Nurmagomedov protege has won 11 consecutive fights in the Octagon and has finished his last five opponents. Makhachev has tasted defeat just once in 24 professional appearances overall.

Currently No. 1 in Sherdog’s pound-for-pound rankings, Volkanovski will carry a 22-bout professional winning streak into the matchup with Makhachev. The Ci…

[embedded content] Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to pay-per-view with UFC 281, which features two titles on the line.

Both championship bouts are now official after middleweight champion Israel Adesanya and women's strawweight titleholder Carla Esparza both made weight alongside their respective challengers, Alex Pereira and Weili Zhang. The undercard wasn't nearly as professional as Ryan Spann missed the light heavyweight limit by .6 pounds and Michael Trizano was 1.6 pounds over the featherweight limit.

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While Adesanya (23-1) has been a dominant champ with his only mixed martial arts defeat coming at light heavyweight against then-champion Jan Blachowicz, he was previously knocked out by Pereira (6-1) in kickboxing. The hard-hitting Brazilian will look to repeat this feat on Saturday and officially weighed in at 184.6 pounds. Meanwhile, Adesanya weighed 185 pounds on the dot.

Meanwhile, Esparza (19-6) is the underdog in the first title de…

＼湘南美容クリニック presents／⚔️#RIZIN40 追加対戦カード⚔️

【#RIZINvsBellator 全面対抗戦】武田光司 @koujitakeda0813🆚ガジ・ラバダノフ

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📅：12.31(土) 13:30開始(予定)🏟：さいたまスーパーアリーナ📝：https://t.co/1TgCLzAzCI pic.twitter.com/nuBDWirCQd — RIZIN FF OFFICIAL (@rizin_PR) November 11, 2022

Dec. 31’s joint Bellator MMA and Rizin Fighting Federation card has added an intriguing lightweight matchup as Gadzhi Rabadanov will take on Koji Takeda.

Rabadanov (18-4-1, 3-0 Bellator) is looking for his fourth consecutive victory as he prepares to compete in Japan for the first time in his near 10-year career. The Russian is coming off back-to-back decision victories over Jay-Jay Wilson and Bobby King. In his promotional debut, Rabadanov crushed Daniel Carey via first-round knockout.

Order UFC 281 "Adesanya vs. Pereira" exclusively on ESPN+

Former Deep lightweight champion and suplex-machine Takeda (15-3, 5-3…

PFL 🤝 @SportsIcon

PFL is teaming up with SportsIcon to create the PFL Metaverse experience

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Bringing fans closer to the action pic.twitter.com/MMlRiTOxMz — PFL (@PFLMMA) November 10, 2022

The Professional Fighters League is joining the Metaverse ahead of the upcoming 2022 PFL Championships on Nov. 25 in New York City.

On Thursday, the PFL announced in a press release they joined forces with NFT platform SportsIcon in the creation of the “PFL MMA Metaverse” experience. The league stated mixed martial arts fans could engage with PFL content in new and immersive ways.

“I am excited to announce the Professional Fighters League is partnering with industry leader SportsIcon to create the PFL’s innovative MMA Metaverse experience for fans around the world,” said PFL CRO Jon Tuck. “The PFL’s new Metaverse platform will drive increased fan engagement as well as provides league sponsors with organic activation oppo…

Salahdine Parnasse vs Sebastian Rajewski" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen> Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki's penultimate event of the year will see featherweight champion Salahdine Parnasse and Sebastian Rajewski go toe-to-toe for the promotion's interim lightweight championship.

All 18 fighters on the nine-fight card made weight, including both main event fighters. Originally, the main event was going to see Marian Ziolkowski defend his lightweight belt but a knee injury caused the champion to pull out. As a result, Parnasse (16-1) will now face Rajewski (12-7) instead.

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Parnasse, the pride of France, has been on a roll. Having won his last three fights and avenging his lone defeat to Daniel Torres The featherweight champion defended his title against Daniel Rutkowski earlier this year and will look to go 2-0 in 2022 while claiming a second KSW title. Parnass…

After spending the last eight months in jail, Cain Velasquez left a holding facility in Santa Clara County, Calif., after he posted $1 million bail.

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Former Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight titleholder Velasquez was arrested in late February after allegedly shooting at Harry Goularte, a man allegedly accused of sexually molesting Velasquez’s 4-year-old son, and his family. On Tuesday, Nov. 8, Velasquez was allowed to go home, but he is facing attempted murder and multiple other charges. Velasquez was previously denied bail on several occasions after it was determined too great a risk to release the former UFC heavyweight champion.[embedded content]

“Just feel blessed,” Velasquez said in a statement to San Francisco, Calif.-based television station KRON-4. “Ready to go home, be with the loved ones, family, and friends, and make something positive of this whole situation. Just thank you to everybody who had my support. I love all of you. Ju…

Shane Burgos’ highly anticipated Professional Fighters League debut will have to wait—at least for a while.

Burgos, an 11-fight Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran, was surprisingly not re-signed by the organization after his July win over Charles Jourdain and joined the PFL shortly thereafter. The 31-year-old New Yorker’s premiere was then slated for the 2022 Season Championships on Nov. 25. However, according to a PFL press release Monday, Burgos has been forced to withdraw from his scheduled bout with Marlon Moraes due to an unspecified injury. Burgos will be replaced by Sheymon Moraes, a fellow UFC veteran who has been with the PFL since 2019.

The new pairing will be a rematch, as the two Brazilians met in 2015 under the banner of PFL’s predecessor World Series of Fighting, with Marlon defending his WSOF featherweight title successfully via third-round submission.

The 2002 Season PFL Championships take place on Nov. 25, at the Hulu Theater at Madiso…

and an eighth knockdown for hiramoto. that was a beating #RIZIN_LANDMARK4 pic.twitter.com/asGonxo1tT

— jake (@jakeshreds420) November 6, 2022

The youngsters are taking over Rizin Fighting Federation.

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The Rizin Landmark Vol. 4 headliner featured an intriguing striker vs. grappler matchup as Ren Hiramoto and Satoshi Yamasu collided at featherweight. Even though Hiramoto (2-2, 2-2 Rizin) was the underdog going into the clash, he proved to be a world-class striker against Yamasu (12-7, 2-2 Rizin) en route to a unanimous decision. 24-year-old Hiramoto adopted a karate-style guard out of the gate, waiting to counterstrike every time his opponent closed the distance. The game plan was simple yet effective. Throughout the 15 minutes of the clash, Hiramoto effortlessly nullified Yamasu’s offensive, dropping his opponent on the canvas a plethora of times. While it appeared that some of those knockdowns were almost welcomed by “Dom…

Some crazy line movement in the Shayilan Nuerdanbieke vs. Darrick Minner fight over the last 90 minutes.

Average odds have moved from -237 to -362 for Shayilan

— Aaron Bronsteter (@aaronbronsteter) November 5, 2022 A recent Ultimate Fighting Championship bout is under the crosshairs of an important betting organization.

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On Saturday, Nuerdanbieke Shayilan faced and defeated Darrick Minner at UFC Fight Night 214. Shayilan absorbed a body kick, and Minner clutched at his leg and hobbled back to the cage wall. A knee from the Chinese fighter and some vicious ground-and-pound elbows put an end to the match at 1:07 of Round 1, but that was only part of the story. Ahead of their pairing – as in, within hours of the matchup, after the fight card had begun – some unusual betting activity developed.

Multiple individuals and outlets on social media, including TSN, began to notice that significant money had come in on Shayilan t…