Martial Arts News

Andre Fialho continues to be the most active fighter on the UFC roster in 2022, as he will lock horns with Jake Matthews at UFC 275 on June 11.

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Multiple outlets confirmed the booking following an initial report from Full Violence. UFC 275 takes place at Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang, Singapore and is headlined by a light heavyweight title clash between Glover Teixeira and Jiri Prochazka.

Fialho will fight for the third time in three months and the fourth time overall this year when he squares off against Matthews. After dropping a decision against Michel Pereira at UFC 270, the Bellator veteran has rebounded to score back-to-back KO/TKO victories over Miguel Baeza and Cameron VanCamp in the Octagon.

The 27-year-old Matthews will be making his first appearance of 2022. The Australian known as “The Celtic Kid” had a three-bout winning streak halted in his last outing, when he was submitted in the third round by Sean Brady at UFC 259.

Credit: Getty/UFC Credit: Getty/UFC Credit: Getty/UFC

After kicking off his Octagon tenure with two impressive wins, Alex Pereira will make his third promotional appearance against ranked middleweight Sean Strickland at UFC 276 on July 2.

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As a result of two kickboxing victories against Israel Adesanya, another impressive performance against Strickland could fast track Pereira to a title shot against “The Last Stylebender.”

While oddsmakers have “Poatan” as a slight favorite against Strickland, Brazilian trainers Rafael Cordeiro and Vinicio Anthony are not so optimistic about Pereira’s chances.

"He went to Kings [MMA] a couple of times and did tough sparring with [Marvin] Vettori,” Cordeiro told Sherdog.com. “He is very hard to spar against. Long range, very aggressive, always walking forward. I agree ‘Poatan’ should be favored but I don’t visualize an easy fight.”

Antony, the former head coach of Vitor Belfort and Lyoto Machida, takes it on…

As his first light heavyweight title defense draws near, the finish line is in sight for Glover Teixeira.

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Teixiera is scheduled to face Jiri Prochazka in the UFC 275 main event on June 11 at Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang, Singapore. The 42-year-old Brazilian has his ideal scenario laid out, which of course begins with a win over Prochazka.

“The perfect plan would be winning this fight, which I have full focus on,” Teixeira said on the Mundo da Luta podcast (translation via MMAFighting.com). “And fighting one last time in November, in New York, which is close to the city I live for 20 years, and close to my gym. It would be my farewell from fighting. That’s what I’m thinking right now.”

The UFC has not announced an event for New York, but November is typically when the Las Vegas-based promotion travels to the Empire State, including UFC 268 last year. If Teixeira does call it a career, he wants his retirement to stick. That isn’t so co…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPn48bMd6V8&w=560&h=315]

If Junior dos Santos takes care of business at Eagle FC 47, big things could be in store for the Brazilian heavyweight.

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That is, if Eagle FC promoter Khabib Nurmagomedov gets his way. Dos Santos will face fellow UFC veteran Yorgan De Castro in the Eagle FC 47 main event on Friday at FLXCast Arena in Miami.

“If Dos Santos wins, I really want to make Dos Santos versus Fedor [Emelianenko],” Nurmagomedov said at the Eagle FC 47 pre-fight press conference. “He has to focus on Yorgan next because Friday he has a tough opponent.

“He has to stay focused but I want to talk to my friend [Bellator president] Scott Coker because Fedor is under Bellator contract. I don’t know what they’re going to do next with him but definitely we can talk and we can create some good stories.”

Emelianenko is expected to have his farewell fight with Bellator at some point this year. Coker and the California…

Though it was a successful financial year by most any account, Conor McGregor is no longer the highest-paid athlete in professional sports.

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According to Forbes, the former UFC two-division champion ranks 35th among the 50 highest-paid athletes for 2022. The Irish star reportedly garnered $43 million in total: $33 million from a UFC 264 bout against Dustin Poirer in July 2021 and another $10 million in endorsements and sponsorships.

That is a significant drop-off from the previous year, when McGregor ranked No. 1 among athletes with $180 million in earnings. That figure was due in large part to selling a majority stake of Proper No. Twelve whiskey for $150 million. He also reportedly banked $22 million for his first meeting with Poirier at UFC 257.

Topping on the 2022 list are soccer star Lionel Messi ($130 million) and NBA standout LeBron James ($121.2 million). Messi ranked second the previous year.

McGregor is the only mixed martial …

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Undefeated UFC featherweight Lerone Murphy was hospitalized after a cycling accident led to a “near death experience.”

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The Manchester Top Team representative posted a photo on Instagram of himself in a hospital bed while providing an account of the incident.

“Ffs I can’t catch a break,” Murphy wrote. “Another near death experience. Yesterday while cycling, an oncoming car turned right without looking and we collided at speed. Which caused a nasty head wound. The ambulance took 45 minutes to arrive which nearly caused me to bleed out. I’m here still breathing for a greater purpose clearly.”

Murphy previously had a brush with death when he was shot three times in 2013 after leaving a barber shop in Fallowfield, England. Bullets hit Murphy in the face and neck and he underwent surgery after spending a week in intensive care. A tiny shard of bullet remains permanently embedded in his tongue from the attack. L…

The Professional Fighters League is ready to continue its 2022 campaign with a full slate of lightweight and light heavyweight bouts on June 17.

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The promotion on Tuesday announced matchups for PFL 4, which takes place at Overtime Elite Arena in Atlanta. The main card airs on ESPN and ESPN+ beginning at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, while prelims stream on ESPN+ at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.

PFL 4 will be headlined by a lightweight showdown between Clay Collard and Alexander Martinez, while Antonio Carlos Jr. will face Bruce Souto at light heavyweight in the co-main event. Rounding out the main draw is a lightweight tilt pitting Raush Manfio against Olivier Aubin-Mercier and a 155-pound scrap between Jeremy Stephens and Myles Price.

Five bouts will kick off the preliminary portion of the card: Omari Akhmedov vs. Teodoras Aukstuolis at light heavyweight; Natan Schulte vs. Marcin Held at lightweight; Emiliano Sordi vs. Delan Monte at light heavyweight; Rober…

A recent positive test for the long term metabolite of the steroid dehydrochloromethyltestosterone (DHCMT) — known as the M3 metabolite — will not keep Manel Kape from competing at UFC 275 next month.

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The Nevada State Athletic Commission ruled on Monday that Kape must be tested twice per month for six months and the results must either be negative or below the 100-picograms-per-millileter threshold for the M3 metabolite in order to be licensed by the commission.

The M3 metabolite is the same one that came to prominence when Jon Jones tested positive for the long-term metabolite in multiple screenings beginning in late 2018. USADA ruled that in cases like Jones and numerous others that followed, that it could not determined how long ago the fighter might have ingested the banned substance before it turned into the metabolite. That led to the anti-doping body instituting the 100 pg/ML threshold as a tipping point to potentially discipline the athlet…

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The dates for Season 6 of Dana White’s Contender Series are now official.

The promotion, which serves as a feeder system for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, received approval from the Nevada State Athletic Commission to hold cards at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Tuesday nights from July 26 to Sept. 27. If that holds, the upcoming season of the Contender Series would be 10 events.

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The Contender Series held eight cards apiece in its first two seasons, but has since expanded to 10 events for Seasons 3 through 5. Cards typically feature five bouts barring late cancellations, but a few have included as many as six fights.

Some of the notables to sign with the UFC from the Contender Series include Sean O'Malley, Geoff Neal, Ryan Spann, Jamahal Hill, Brendan Allen, Tracy Cortez, Andre Muniz, Taila Santos, Johnny Walker, Marina Rodriguez, Maycee Barber, Sodiq Yusuff, Jimmy Crute, Alex Perez and Grant Dawson, to name a few.

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After submitting Nasrudin Nasrudinov to earn a contract on Dana White’s Contender Series, Jailton Almeida impressed yet again in his Octagon debut with a first-round TKO of Danilo Marques at UFC Fight Night 200.

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Almeida was originally slated to meet Maxim Grishin in a light heavyweight bout at UFC Fight Night 206 on Saturday before his opponent withdrew as a result of an injury. Instead, he’ll move up a weight class in order to remain on the card.

“Mick Maynard offered us an opportunity at heavyweight against Parker Porter and since I want to be active, I decided to accept,” Almeida told Sherdog.com.

A self-proclaimed fan of Khabib Nurmagomedov and Khamzat Chimaev, Almeida revealed that fighting Porter is part of his plan to follow in Chimaev’s footsteps.

“In our last interview I told you I want to be the Khabib Nurmagomedov of 205-pound division,” he said. “But I also want to be just like Chimaev, fighting in two divisions. The opportu…

"I'm Argentinean, but I'm a nice guy.”

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With that introductory statement on the Globo broadcast of “The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil 2,” Santiago Ponzinibbio, the only non-Brazilian on the season, was able to win over the audience and make them forget about the country’s longstanding soccer rivalry with Argentina. Always smiling and speaking Portuguese with a strong Spanish accent, Ponzinibbio went on to be one of the most popular fighters on the season.

Ponzinibbio won all his fights on the show but was unable to fight in the finale due to an arm injury. Once he recovered, Ponzinibbio signed with the UFC and relocated to Florida to train at American Top Team. He authored a seven-bout winning streak between 2015 and 2018 to establish himself as a serious contender at 170 pounds, but a bacterial infection put him on the shelf for more than two years.

Ponzinibbio returned to the Octagon in 2021, losing two of his three bouts, including a competitive s…

A light heavyweight scrap pitting Devin Clark against Azamat Murzakanov is on tap for the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s Aug. 13 card.

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Hosheh MMA was first to report the booking. The event current does not have a location or headliner.

A former Resurrection Fighting Alliance champion, Clark ended a two-bout skid in his last outing, when he stopped William Knight in the third round of their matchup at UFC on ESPN 34. “Brown Bear” is 7-6 during his tenure with the Las Vegas-based promotion.

Murzakanov earned a UFC deal with a first-round TKO of Matheus Scheffel on Dana White’s Contender Series in August 2021. In his Octagon debut, the 35-year-old Russian knocked out Tafon Nchukwi with a flying knee at UFC Fight Night 203 to run his professional mark to 11-0.