Martial Arts News

Dana White’s Contender Series alum Ange Loosa will step in on short notice to face Mounir Lazzez at UFC on ESPN 34 this Saturday.

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Loosa is a replacement for Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos, who withdrew from the event for personal reasons. The Wrestling Observer was first to report the new welterweight booking. UFC on ESPN 34 takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and is headlined by a 170-pound showdown pitting Vicente Luque against Belal Muhammad.

Loosa came up short on the Contender Series, dropping a unanimous verdict to Jack Della Maddalena this past September. The 28-year-old Fight Move Academy representative rebounded to take a unanimous decision win against UFC veteran John Howard at XMMA 4 on April 2 to run his professional mark to 8-2.

Lazzez will return to action for the first time since UFC on ESPN 20, where he suffered a first-round TKO loss to Warlley Alves in January 2021. “Sniper” debuted in the Octagon with a decision win agains…

Israel Adesanya might be a little bit biased, but he believes Alexander Volkanovski has reached a historic level among featherweights in mixed martial arts.

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Volkanovski earned his 21st consecutive professional triumph at UFC 273 this past Saturday, dominating Chan Sung Jung en route to a fourth-round stoppage at Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla. The 33-year-old Aussie is 11-0 in UFC competition, with four victories in title bouts to his credit, and his resume includes triumphs over the likes of Jung, Brian Ortega, Max Holloway (twice), Jose Aldo and Chad Mendes.

“Standout fight [at UFC 273], Volkanovski, of course,” Adesanya said on his YouTube channel. “The G.O.A.T. The featherweight G.O.A.T. Yeah, I’m hyped right now. I haven’t even had breakfast, I couldn’t eat because my adrenaline’s been running. Volkanovski, I said it was going to be bad. It was bad.”

Adesanya and Volkanovski, of course, both have ties to City Kickbox…

Your official #InvictaFC47: @ducote_brunette vs @aleshazapp poster has just dropped!

Current strawweight champion Emily Ducote meets her first challenger in Alesha Zappitella LIVE on Wednesday, May 11th! Witness the event streaming exclusively on @youtube at 8/7c! pic.twitter.com/OHNzpg4DXG

— Invicta FC (@InvictaFights) April 12, 2022

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There have been some changes to the Invicta Fighting Championships 47 card.

According to a release from the all-female promotion, former bantamweight title challenger Lisa Verzosa has been forced to withdraw from a proposed clash with Serena DeJesus. As a result, Brittney Cloud will replace Verzosa and lock horns with DeJesus in a new 135-pound pairing.

Meanwhile, a strawweight bout pitting Fatima Kline against Sidney Trillo has been added to the bill, expanding the Invicta FC 47 lineup to seven bouts in total.

Invicta FC 47 takes place at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kan., …

@ajmckee101 already has his eyes on @PatrickyPitbull and the Lightweight gold but @PatricioPitbull says not to underestimate the fight in front of him #Bellator277@SHOsports | @SAPCenter | Friday, April 15th pic.twitter.com/h4ovOLpGOa

— BellatorMMA (@BellatorMMA) April 11, 2022

Although A.J. McKee and Patricio Freire won’t ever be the best of friends, McKee believes he owes it to his rival to give him a rematch given the Brazilian’s credentials in Bellator MMA.

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“I would say it’s a respect thing,” McKee said at a press conference to promote his rematch with Freire at Bellator 27. “He’s been the reigning champ for a long time. For me, I’d honor him with that rematch at any point.

“The goals I’ve set for myself, I want to be champ-champ. The [Team Body Shop] saying is to be a champion, you’ve got to beat the champion. I still see him as the [lightweight] champ.”

While the animosity didn’t reach the level it did ahead …

After a career filled with ups and downs, Corey Anderson is on the verge of taking home some championship hardware if he can defeat Vadim Nemkov at Bellator 277 on Friday night.

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The bout will serve as the finals of the promotion’s light heavyweight grand prix, and Anderson has been impressive thus far, earning TKO wins over Ryan Bader and Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov to make his way through the bracket. The man known as “Overtime” has enjoyed a resurgence in Bellator after suffering a first-round knockout loss to Jan Blachowicz in his last UFC appearance, a defeat that removed him from consideration for a potential title shot in the Las Vegas-based promotion.

It’s not the first time Anderson has bounced back. He also lost three of four UFC bouts from from 2016 to 2017 — including two via KO. This time around, Anderson says a new mindset accompanied the move to a new organization.

“It came full circle. I started off in this game young. A lot of pe…

The Bellator bantamweight grand prix has undergone yet another change, as Nikita Mikhailov will step in for Josh Hill against Enrique Barzola in the wild card round.

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The promotion announced the new pairing, which is slated for Bellator 278, on Monday. Reasons for Hill’s withdrawal have not been disclosed. The Mikhailov-Barzola winner will advance to face Magomed Magomedov in the 135-pound semifinals at Bellator 282 on June 24.

Bellator 278 takes place on April 22 at Neil S. Blasdell Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, and is headlined by a women’s flyweight championship tilt between Juliana Velasquez and Liz Carmouche.

A 23-year-old Fedorteam export, Mikhailov has been victorious in eight of his nine professional outings thus far. The Fight Nights Global veteran kicked off his promotional tenure with a decision win over Brian Moore at Bellator 269 and a third-round TKO of Blaine Shutt at Bellator 273.

After a 6-3-1 stint in the UFC, Barzola ma…

The Ultimate Fighting Championship is parting ways with longtime veteran Alex Oliveira.

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The promotion elected not to re-sign the 22-time Octagon competitor after Oliveira completed his current contract in a second-round TKO defeat to Kevin Holland at UFC 272 on March 5. MMAjunkie.com was first to report the news.

Oliveira exits the Las Vegas-based organization on a four-bout skid, falling to Holland, Niko Price, Randy Brown and Shavkat Rakhmonov in his last four outings. The 34-year-old Brazilian known as “Cowboy” went 11-10 with one no contest over the course of a UFC tenure that began in March 2015.

The Rio de Janeiro native enjoyed his greatest run of success in the promotion from May 2015 to September 2018, when he was victorious in nine of his 12 UFC appearances while establishing himself as a reliable action fighter. Oliveira’s resume includes notable wins over the likes of Carlos Condit, Tim Means, Max Griffin, Will Brooks and K.J. No…

Legend LegendPudzian Materla

This. Is. Happening #KSW70 pic.twitter.com/zULEU4Kuqv

— KSW (@KSW_MMA) April 11, 2022

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A heavyweight superfight between five-time “World’s Strongest Man” Mariusz Pudzianowski and ex-middleweight champion Michal Materla will headline KSW 70 on May 28.

The Polish promotion announced the booking Monday. KSW 70 takes place at Atlas Arena in Lodz, Poland, and is available via pay-per-view at KSWTV.com. Pudzianowski and Materla are two of the most popular athletes in KSW history and according to a release, “both men are credited with having a major impact on the growth of KSW and are sporting icons in their native Poland.”

Pudzianowski, 45, is in the midst of a four-bout winning streak in which he has finished all of his opponents by knockout or technical knockout. Most recently, the WCA Fight Team member knocked out Serigne Ousmane Dia, also known as “Bombardier,” in 18 seconds at KSW 64 th…

Khamzat Chimaev is one of the most heavily-hyped talents to compete in the UFC in recent memory, but until Saturday night, he hadn’t truly been tested in the Octagon.

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Chimaev rolled through his first four UFC opponents, with his most notable victory coming in the form of a first-round submission against Jingliang Li this past October. While Li was on the fringe of the welterweight rankings, stepping up to face Gilbert Burns was another matter entirely. The Brazilian known as “Durinho” entered Saturday night as a former title challenger with wins over the likes of Stephen Thompson, Tyron Woodley, Demian Maia and Gunnar Nelson at 170 pounds.

Heading into UFC 273, Chimaev vs. Burns was arguably the most anticipated fight on the card – including the two title bouts – and it delivered beyond any reasonable expectation. Most importantly for Chimaev, he survived his first real adversity to capture a unanimous decision triumph against one of the top welte…

The championship fights at the top of the UFC 273 card were apparently enough to inspire Henry Cejudo to come out of retirement.

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Cejudo’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, informed ESPN that the former UFC two-division champion will re-enter the USADA drug testing pool on Monday. Fighters are generally subject to six months of drug testing before they can return to active competition, according to the UFC’s anti-doping policy.

"Henry will focus on his fight and training," Abdelaziz told ESPN. "He never stopped training. I truly believe Henry can come back to win the [bantamweight] title and go up to 145 and win that. He will be the only fighter in UFC history to win three world titles.”

I’m getting back in the pool!

— Henry Cejudo (@HenryCejudo) April 10, 2022

Shortly after the conclusion of UFC 273, Cejudo tweeted, “I’m getting back in the pool,” which signaled that the Olympic gold medalist is planning to end his retire…

Gilbert Burns is holding his head high following a decision loss to Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 273.

The bout was lauded as an instant classic, and Burns clipped his opponent on multiple occasions during a back-and-forth slugfest but was unable to do enough to get the nod in the eyes of the cageside judges. The former welterweight title challenger did give Chimaev the toughest test of his career to date, and their bout earned “Fight of the Night” honors and could be up for “Fight of the Year” down the road.

Burns released a couple statements on his social media, one via video and another that was written, both of which expressed positive sentiments in the face of defeat.

“Thank you everybody for the wishes, everybody for the messages. It was a tough one,” Burns said in a video on his Instagram stories. “I mean, I had fun. It wasn’t the result that I wanted. But unfortunately, life’s like that. A lot of work, a lot of discipline, but it is what it is. … [I’m] out, but…

While blowout victories are nice, Khamzat Chimaev gained a measure of credibility in his three-round war against Gilbert Burns at UFC 273.

To hear him tell it, it was exactly the type of test that Chimaev desired.

“I like that s—t,” Chimaev said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “I love my face bloody and sweaty and kick somebody, punch somebody. Make money, I got [$50,000]. I’m happy.

“Before, I didn’t get that fight. It was my first fight like that. I loved it. I was waiting for that for a long time. I had 10 fights and 10 finishes but this fight happened. I bled, sweat and fought three rounds.”

Indeed, Chimaev vs. Burns figures to be at the top of the list for “Fight of the Year” in 2022 when all is said and done. Chimaev appeared to be on the verge of a finish after dropping Burns in Round 1, but his opponent was able to survive the follow-up salvo of ground-and-pound. From there on, it was a back-and-forth war in which both men showcased impr…