Martial Arts News

As expected, Aleksandar Rakic suffered a serious injury to his knee at UFC on ESPN 36 this past Saturday.

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The fighter’s manager, Marcelo Briagdeiro, told ESPN that an MRI revealed that the light heavyweight tore the ACL in his right knee in a third-round TKO loss to Jan Blachowicz at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Rakic collapsed to the canvas after stepping back on his right leg, and the bout was halted at the 1:11 mark of Round 3.

Rakic is currently returning to Austria and is expected to have the surgery done as soon as possible. “Rocket” posted a message on his Instagram account on Monday, part of which seemed to be directed toward Blachowicz.

“God had other plans for me Saturday night. Sometimes we need to lose small battles in order to win the war,” he wrote. Win or lose, good or bad the experience will change you.

“One thing I promise you, I will be back better than ever. This is not over yet. Unfinished business. Rematch! I waited…

The lineup for the UFC Fight Night card on July 16 continues to grow, as a bantamweight clash between Ricky Simon and Jack Shore and a featherweight tilt pitting Billy Quarantillo against Bill Algeo have been added to the lineup.

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Iridium Sports Agency announced Simon vs. Shore, while Sherdog.com's Tudor Leonte initially reported Quarantillo vs. Algeo. UFC Fight Night is expected to be headlined by a featherweight showdown between Brian Ortega and Yair Rodriguez, with a location and venue to be announced.

Simon has established himself as a person of interest at 135 pounds with a four-bout winning streak that includes a second-round KO of longtime contender Raphael Assuncao in his last outing at UFC Fight Night 199.

A former Cage Warriors champion, Shore is unbeaten in 16 professional appearances — including five in UFC competition. Most recently, “Tank” outpointed Timur Valiev at UFC Fight Night 204.

Quarantillo has lost two of his last…

Brad Riddell will lock horns with Jalin Turner in a lightweight bout at UFC 276.

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Turner’s management, Iridium Sports Agency, announced the pairing on social media. UFC 276 takes place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and is headlined by a middleweight championship clash between Israel Adesanya and Jared Cannonier.

Riddell had a seven-bout winning streak snapped in his most recent Octagon appearance, when he suffered a knockout loss to Rafael Fiziev at UFC on ESPN 31 this past December. The City Kickboxing export kicked off his promotional tenure with successive triumphs against Jamie Mullarkey, Magomed Mustafaev, Alex da Silva Coelho and Drew Dober.

Turner, meanwhile, is in the middle of a four-bout Octagon run in which he has finished all of his opponents inside of two rounds. In his last outing, “The Tarantula” stopped Mullarkey via TKO 46 seconds into Round 2 at UFC 272. The Dana White’s Contender Series alum is 12-5 as a professional, w…

A lightweight showdown pitting Drew Dober against Rafael Alves has been added to the UFC 277 lineup.

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The bout was first reported by MMA Fight Universe. UFC 277 is expected to take place in Dallas on July 30 and features an interim flyweight title tilt between Brandon Moreno and Kai Kara France as well as a middleweight showdown betwee Paulo Costa and Luke Rockhold.

Dober snapped a two-bout skid in his last outing, when he defeated Terrance McKinney via technical knockout 3:17 into the opening round of their UFC Fight Night 203 clash on March 12. The Elevation Fight Team representative enjoyed his greatest success in the Octagon from 2017 to 2020, when he was victorious in six of seven promotional appearances.

A former competitor on Dana White’s Contender Series, Alves has split a pair of UFC bouts, dropping a three-round verdict to Damir Isamgulov at UFC Fight Night 188 before submitting Marc Diakiese at UFC Fight Night 197. The 31-year-old M…

Our 20-week program allows you to step into the cage and test your skills against a fellow Alta Warrior in an amateur #MMA bout! pic.twitter.com/MTkQfhkEtZ

— Alta (@trainalta) May 4, 2022

The next installment of the transformative mixed martial arts program formerly known as Wimp2Warrior is set for the end of May, and a few familiar faces will be at the helm.

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Daniel Cormier, Gilbert Melendez and Jessica-Rose Clark are among those who will serve as head coaches for what is now called Alta’s “Warrior Training Program,” a 20-week journey that begins with basics of the sport and ends with a three-round amateur MMA bout against someone from the program.

Cormier will coach athletes at the Daniel Cormier Wrestling Academy in Gilroy, Calif.; Melendez will work out of the El Nino Training Center in San Francisco and Clark will lead athletes at the Combat Sports Academy in Dublin, Calif. The program will also be held at Xtreme Co…

UFC bantamweight competitor Ashlee Evans-Smith has received a 14-month suspension from USADA for an anti-doping violation.

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Evans-Smith tested positive for “an anabolic androgenic steroid of exogenous origin” in out-of-competition samples collected on Jan. 3 and Jan. 27. Evans-Smith declared dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) on her doping control forms at the time post samples were collected. DHEA is a hormone that the body produces in the adrenal gland and helps to produce other hormones like testoserone and estrogren.

Evans-Smith provided evidence that a physician incorrectly prescribed DHEA to her, which diminished her degree of fault, according to USADA. She also received a reduction in her suspension for her full and complete cooperation. Evans-Smith’s sanction is retroactive to Jan. 3, the date her first positive sample was collected. That means she will be eligible to return to action in March 2023.

The 34-year-old Reign MMA member hasn’t fou…

A second request for bail for Cain Velasquez was denied during a hearing at the Santa Clara County Hall of Justice in San Jose, Calif., on Monday.

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Judge Shelyna Brown, the same judge who denied bail to the former UFC champion during an arraignment on March 7, determined that Velasquez will remain behind bars. Velasquez is facing attempted murder and other charges after allegedly shooting at Harry Goularte, who is accused of molesting a relative of the Velasquez’s on multiple occasions. Goularte’s stepfather, Paul Bender, was shot in the shoulder during the incident, which occurred on Feb. 28. MMAjunkie.com was first to report the latest details in the Velasquez case.

“The reason this court says that is because this was such a reckless disregard for human life,” Brown said. “In this case, it is not just Mr. Goularte and his family. It is every single citizen who was in danger of being shot or rammed with a vehicle at the time of this seven-mile c…

Gregor Gillespie wants to make one thing perfectly clear: He is still very much a part of the UFC roster.

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Rumors of Gillespie’s release began to circulate when Twitter account UFC Roster Watch announced that the lightweight had been removed from the UFC roster. Gillespie took to social media to clarify the situation shortly there after.

“I am removed from the RANKINGS.. Not from the organization,” Gillespie wrote on Twitter. “(Fighters are removed after 12 months of inactivity). I am NOT GOING ANYWHERE! The UFC has always been great to me! 100% class! It is not their fault that I don’t have a fight. They have offered me plenty of fights.”

Gillespie hasn’t competed since UFC on ESPN 24 in May 2021, when he defeated Diego Ferreira via second-round technical knockout. The 35-year-old Bellmore Kickboxing Academy representative explained that he has been on the sidelines because he isn’t interested in facing anyone ranked below him, and that has mad…

Not only did Amanda Ribas move up a weight class on Saturday night, but it sounds as though she was competing at less than 100 percent.

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Ribas was competitive against flyweight contender Katlyn Chookagian at UFC on ESPN 36, ultimately losing a split decision in a bout that received “Fight of the Night” honors at the end of the evening. Marcelo Ribas, the father of the Brazilian fighter, took to Instagram to reveal that Ribas suffered a “total rupture of the biceps tendon” 25 days before the fight.

“A very stressful month,” Marcelo wrote on Instagram. “A golden opportunity to fight world number one. At 25 days, an injury ‘total rupture of the biceps tendon’ comes in, then physical therapy 3 times a day to try to get [her] to fight. ... 25 days without training our strength which is jiu jitsu and judo. And we’d arrive in Las Vegas not knowing if we’d be able to handle grappling or wrestling on the ground.”

Ribas landed three takedowns and contro…

Aleksandar Rakic’s night ended in unfortunate fashion at UFC on ESPN 36, as a knee injury resulted in a third-round TKO defeat to Jan Blachowicz in Saturday’s headliner at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

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As it turns out, the injury was not completely unfamiliar to the American Top Team-trained Austrian, who revealed in a post-fight statement that it was a reoccurrence of something that had affected him during camp.

“A great battle took place in the Octagon tonight but unfortunately, it ended not the way Jan and I or the fans wanted,” Rakic wrote on Instagram. “The same damn injury from [three] weeks ago in camp showed up again tonight.”

Prior to the injury, Rakic felt that he deserved to be ahead on the scorecards in what was shaping up to be a competitive fight.

“I felt I won both rounds, round one being close but round two was just mine then I opened up really good even in the third before my knee buckled,” he wrote. “Knowing the fact tha…

pic.twitter.com/Y2BoxuNz1l

— Sober Costa (@EraserBy) May 15, 2022

Tony Kelley has received widespread criticism from the MMA community for comments he made while cornering Andrea Lee against Viviane Araujo at UFC on ESPN 36 on Saturday.

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Cameras captured Kelley making what were widely perceived to be derogatory remarks toward Brazilians as he coached Lee between rounds at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Araujo is from Ceilandia, Brazil.

“That’s what they’re gonna do,” Kelley said. “They’re dirty f——ing Brazilians. They’re going to f—-ing cheat like that.”

Among those who called out the UFC fighter on social media were Cristiane Justino, Gilbert Burns and Belal Muhammad. Upcoming opponent Adrian Yanez also criticized Kelley. Kelley has since responded to the backlash his comments received.

“Cancel Culture is real,” Kelley wrote on Twitter. “What I said was real and in the heat of battle, and in no way had any typ…

Jan Blachowicz admittedly would have preferred a clean finish against Aleksandar Rakic in the UFC on ESPN 36 main event, but the Polish light heavyweight was nontheless pleased with the final result.

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The fight ended prematurely when Rakic suffered an apparent right knee injury while stepping backward, and the bout was halted immediately at the 1:11 mark of Round 3. The matchup was competitive to that point, with Blachowicz having success on the feet in Round 1 and Rakic controlling positioning following a takedown in the second frame. Blachowicz made a point at Saturday’s post-fight press conference that durability is part of being a successful fighter — and he had the obvious edge in that category on Saturday night at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

“Of course, I’m a fighter, I’m a warrior. It’s better when you win by TKO, KO, submission, clean,” Blachowicz said. “But my body was tougher tonight, that’s it. End of story. I was ready for third, fourth,…