Martial Arts News

Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight Raoni Barcelos is not looking past his next opponent, but he has a very clear plan for the near future.

Once considered by some to be another version of Jose Aldo at bantamweight, Barcelos finds himself in a tough place now. The Brazilian is coming from two losses in a row, with defeats to Timur Valiev and Victor Henry in 2021 and 2022, respectively. Those setbacks put a nine-fight win streak in the rear-view mirror. On Saturday at UFC Fight Night 211, Barcelos will have the opportunity to get back to his winning ways in Las Vegas. The 35-year-old, in an interview with Sherdog, shrugged off any pressure about his place on the roster with a losing streak.

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“I'm not feeling pressured to win, it hinders the athlete,” Barcelos explained. “I know I trained well and studied my opponent. I intend to go there, take [Trevin Jones] down and submit [him].”

Barcelos knows the next event he would like to fight at: UFC …

#Bellator286 Official Weigh-In Result: @PatricioPitbull 144.6-pounds pic.twitter.com/7x6hlcF0y0

— Bellator Public Relations (@BellatorPR) September 30, 2022 Editor's note: The article has been updated at 2:40 p.m. ET on Sept. 30 to include additional information.

The Bellator MMA featherweight championship is on the line in the main event of Bellator 286.

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Featherweight champion Patricio Freire will put his belt on the line against top contender Adam Borics. The fight is now official with both fighters making weight. However, multiple other fighters failed to make weight as Spike Carlyle weighed in at 156.6 pounds for his lightweight co-headliner against A.J. McKee. Additionally, Dominic Clark came in at 158.2 pounds for his lightweight preliminary contest against Lance Gibson, and the bantamweight bout between Juan Archuleta and Enrique Barzola was shifted to a 141-pound catchweight.

"Pitbull" recently bounced back f…

The woman around whom this fight card was built - @MackenzieDern is in at 115.5 pounds ⚖️

[ #UFCVegas61 | TOMORROW | LIVE on @ESPNPlus ] pic.twitter.com/ypMrW1WmfD

— UFC (@ufc) September 30, 2022 After a rare week off, the Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to the UFC Apex in Las Vegas with a card topped by a strawweight clash.

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UFC Fight Night 211 now features 12 fights, with Mackenzie Dern vs. Xiaonan Yan at the top of the card. Both women successfully made weight, along with the remainder of the card that hit the scales. However, Jessica Penne succumbed to an illness unrelated to her weight cut, and her scheduled contest against Tabatha Ricci has been removed from the lineup.

This marks the second UFC main event for Dern (12-2), who previously came up short against Marina Rodriguez over five rounds. Besides that setback, the American has won six of her last seven bouts. The grappler most recently defeated Teci…

5 fights in 1 year. 5 first round finishes. 0 strikes absorbed. Nobody can do it like me. We headed to the top! Much love to all my supporters, bigger things on the way!

— Bo Nickal (@NoBickal) September 28, 2022 When many expected that Ultimate Fighting Championship pickup Bo Nickal would be thrown to the proverbial wolves in his debut, most did not realize just how right they were.

Fresh off a contract-winning performance on the final episode of the 2022 season of Dana White's Contender Series, Nickal (3-0) has his first UFC fight booked. The middleweight wrestling standout will be toeing the line against “The Nightwolf” Jamie Pickett (13-8) at UFC 282 on Dec. 10. The organization’s broadcast partner of ESPN first announced this booking on Thursday.

Three-time NCAA Division I national champion wrestler Nickal made his professional debut in the sport against John Noland in June. It took Nickal 33 seconds to demolish his opponent with pu…

Only one of these two Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweights will have a number next to their name when the dust settles.

On Wednesday, Brazilian outlet Super Lutas reported that the Jan. 21 pay-per-view offering in Rio de Janeiro had its first big fight lined up. In the middleweight category, Brad Tavares (19-7) will square off against rising talent Gregory Rodrigues (13-4) at UFC 283. In addition to other outlets, Rodrigues has confirmed this matchup on his Instagram on Thursday. While there is no headliner on the billing as of yet, another scrap at 145 pounds was also announced earlier this week and confirmed by one of its competitors on Thursday, at 145 pounds between Josiane Nunes and Zarah Fairn dos Santos.

While he is ranked among the top 15, Tavares has won three and lost three dating back to 2018. Most recently, the Hawaiian fell short to Dricus Du Plessis in a thrilling three-round affair. That defeat put an end to a short win streak amassed in 2021 …

We've got ourselves a FIGHT! 🔥#ONE161 | #ONEChampionship🇺🇸🇨🇦🇬🇧🇹🇭 Watch live on ONE YouTube 👉 https://t.co/8qWJXePa0w🌍 Watch live 👉 https://t.co/8MeKhRMtjy pic.twitter.com/2Trzn1HsVC

— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) September 29, 2022 The upsets were frequent and frenetic at the latest One Championship event, culminating with a challenger unexpectedly capturing a throne.

The One 161 headliner featured a featherweight muay thai championship affair between defending titleholder Petchmorakot Petchyindee and Tawanchai PK.Saenchai. The challenger quickly imposed his pace, attacking with his well-known nasty kicks. In turn, Petchmorakot put his fast hands to work. The pair went to battle in Round 3 with a flurry of punches and elbows. Petchmorakot relied on his experience in the championship rounds, but the challenger appeared fresher than his foe down the line. While Petchmorakot adopted a hit-and-run strategy, Tawanchai hunted down his opponen…

#ANDNEW! @lionheartjill DOES IT AND GETS THE REAR-NAKED CHOKE IN THE FIRST ROUND! YOUR NEW INVICTA FC ATOMWEIGHT CHAMPION!#InvictaFC49 pic.twitter.com/1XX92TexfU

— Invicta FC (@InvictaFights) September 29, 2022

Jessica Correa Delboni provided an opportunity, and Jillian DeCoursey took full advantage.

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The Queens, N.Y., native claimed atomweight gold with a submission of Delboni in the Invicta FC 49 headliner at Sugar Creek Casino in Hinton, Okla., on Wednesday night. DeCoursey (6-3, 5-2 Invicta) brought the show to a close with a rear-naked choke 4:49 into Round 1, forcing Delboni (12-4, 4-3 Invicta) to tap for the first time in her professional career.

“Never let anyone doubt you. If you put a goal in mind and you work hard enough, anything is possible,” DeCoursey said. “I definitely proved that tonight.”

It was a measured beginning for both fighters, but Delboni appeared to control the majority of exchanges in …

If manager Jorge Guimaraes gets his way, Lyoto Machida will return to the Ultimate Fighting Championship to settle some unfinished business with Mauricio Rua.

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Guimaraes revealed to Sherdog.com that he is in the process of negotiating with the Las Vegas-based promotion to bring Machida back to the Octagon for a trilogy bout against “Shogun” at UFC 283 in Rio de Janeiro.

“When I heard ‘Shogun was doing his last fight at UFC Rio, I immediately called (UFC chief business officer Hunter Campbell) offering Lyoto for a trilogy,” Guimaraes said. “Hunter told me they initially were planning on someone like Tyson Pedro to fight Shogun, but he liked the idea and told me he was going to talk to Dana [White] about it.

“I have no doubt the Brazilian audience would love that match up. Two champions, two legends of the sport, one win for each, doing their rubber match on the night of both of their retirement fights. Shogun is already a Hall of Famer, Lyoto a…

A matchup of lightweight contenders is on tap for the UFC’s Dec. 17 event, as Arman Tsarukyan will lock horns with Damir Ismagulov.

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Multiple outlets confirmed the booking following an initial report from EuropSport. The UFC Fight Night card takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and is headlined by a middleweight scrap between Jared Cannonier and Sean Strickland.

Tsarukyan had a five-bout winning streak snapped in his last outing, when he dropped a five-round verdict against Mateusz Gamrot in the UFC on ESPN 38 headliner on June 25. The 25-year-old Russian owns an 18-3 career mark, with 12 victories coming inside the distance.

A former M-1 Global champion, Ismagulov has tasted defeat just once in 25 professional outings. He is 5-0 in UFC competition, with victories over the likes of Guram Kutateladze, Thiago Moises and Joel Alvarez.

Bellator will continue to be in the tournament business in 2023.

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During an appearance on "The MMA Hour," Bellator president Scott Coker revealed that the promotion will hold a lightweight grand prix sometime next year. While the participants have yet to be determined, Coker is targeting February for the beginning of the 155-pound bracket.

“We’re going to finish our light heavyweight tournament in November, the [bantamweight] semifinals in December,” Coker said. “I feel like we want to set this off in February. February would be a good month and the bantamweight tournament [finals] sometime in March.”

Some of the athletes Coker mentioned who could take part in the eight-man tournament include Patricky Freire, Usman Nurmagomedov, Tofiq Musayev, Benson Henderson, Brent Primus and A.J. McKee. Signing free agent Eddie Alvarez for the grand prix is also a possibility, Coker admitted.

The Bellator light heavyweight grand prix was delayed afte…

A middleweight clash pitting Nassourdine Imavov against Kelvin Gastelum is expected to serve as the headliner for an Ultimate Fighting Championship event on Jan. 14.

The booking was initially reported by La Sueur on Twitter, and Gastelum has since confirmed the bout on social media. The card will take place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Imavov and Gastelum were initially slated to meet at UFC 273, but visa issues for Imavov resulted in the contest being canceled.

Anchored at the MMA Factory in France, Imavov enters the matchup with Gastelum on a three-bout winning streak. Most recently, the 27-year-old outpointed Joaquin Buckley at UFC Fight Night 209 on Sept. 3. He is 4-1 in the Octagon overall, with his lone setback coming against Phil Hawes in February 2021.

Gastelum, meanwhile, is just 1-5 in his last six promotional appearances and did not compete at all in 2022 after proposed bouts against Dricus Du Plessis and Imavov fell through. His last appearan…

It turns out that Yadong Song dealt with more than just a nasty cut in his loss to Cory Sandhagen in the UFC Fight Night 210 headliner.

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The Team Alpha Male product posted a photo of an X-ray taken after the bout while revealing that he suffered a fractured orbital.

“Since Round 2, I was seeing triple vision because of this orbital fracture,” Song wrote on Instagram. “I was facing three Cory in front of me. A titanium piece will put in for me next week, will come back tougher with the metal.”

Sandagen did the damage in Round 2, when he landed a standing elbow strike that opened a significant cut about Song’s left eye. The wound deepened as the bout progressed, and a doctor waved off the fight prior to the fifth round. A timetable for Song’s return is currently unclear.

The 24-year-old “Kung Fu Kid” had a three-fight winning streak snapped in defeat. He is 8-2-1 in UFC competition with wins over the likes of Marlon Moraes, Casey Kenney a…