Martial Arts News

A women’s flyweight clash pitting Tracy Cortez against Melissa Gatto has been added to teh UFC 274 lineup.

ESPN Deportes was first to report the booking. UFC 274 takes place at the Footprint Center in Phoenix on May 7 and is headlined by a lightweight championship bout between Charles Oliveirea and Justin Gaethje.

A contract winner on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2019, Cortez has been victorious in her first three Octagon appearances. Most recently, the 28-year-old Fight Ready representative took a split verdict over Justine Kish at UFC ON ESPN 22. Cortez has won nine consecutive professional outings.

Gatto, meanwhile, has yet to taste defeat in 10 pro fights, although she does have a pair of draws on her ledger. The 25-year-old Brazilian in 2-0 in UFC competition, with finishes of Victoria Leonardo and Sijara Eubanks to her credit.

Things are already starting to heat up ahead of this weekend’s UFC London card.

Ilia Topuria and Paddy Pimblett were involved in a brief altercation at the promotion’s host hotel on Tuesday. Topuria shared a video on social media of the incident, which saw punches and water bottles thrown before the fighters were separated.

“I warned you! This is what happens when you disrespect me and my country!” Topuria wrote on Instagram. “You saw me and wanted to greet me because you s—t your pants… and you should thank my team because if it wasn’t for them separating me, I would have taken your head off. This is not twitter, this is real life.”

Topuria, who is 11-0 as a professional and 3-0 in the UFC, is slated to meet Jai Herbert in a featherweight bout at UFC Fight Night 204 on Saturday. Pimblett, meanwhile, is set to square off against Rodrigo Vargas at 155 pounds after the ex-Cage Warriors champion was victorious in his first promotional appearance.

Pimblett …

When Pride Fighting Championship fans recall the golden era of the Japanese promotion, the rivalry between Chute Boxe and Brazilian Top Team often comes to mind.

After all, the clashes between Carlson Gracie jiu-jitsu black belts from Rio de Janeiro and the muay Thai aces from Chute Boxe team led by Rudimar Fedrigo in Curitiba marked some of the most important chapters of the Japanese organization between 1997 and 2007.

The world of MMA has changed a lot in the last 15 years. On Monday, Conan Silveira, one of the first black belts under Carlson Gracie and one of the founders of American Top Team, launched the first Brazilian branch of ATT in Curitiba, the homeland of Chute Boxe. Wanderlei Silva and Royce Gracie were also in attendance at the ceremony.

“Curitiba has always been one of the biggest producers of top MMA strikers in the history of the sport,” Silveira said. “With this new ATT branch here we will join together great strikers of Brazil and some of th…

This was Kevin Holland's reaction shortly after he and a friend took down a gunman Monday night at a restaurant in Houston.

Full story: https://t.co/OynF23aZqi

( @Trailblaze2top / @ko_reps) pic.twitter.com/YxN2WdtPXI — MMA Junkie (@MMAJunkie) March 15, 2022

Kevin Holland put his mixed martial arts training to use in a potentially dire situation on Monday night.

According to a report from Houston’s NBC-2 TV station, a man pulled out a gun and shot it in the air inside the popular Houston restaurant Ra Sushi at approximately 11:30 a.m. local time. Houston Police Department Sgt. Ricardo Salas said there were about 40-50 people inside the establishment when the shot was fired in the bar area.

Shortly thereafter, Holland and a friend with MMA training, Patrick Robinson, were able to take down the gunman. The two men quickly took action when, as Robinson recalls, they heard a loud “boom.” According to police, a third customer helpe…

UFC president Dana White was among many prominent figures from the MMA world who submitted letters in support of Cain Velasquez to the Santa Clara County Superior Court last week.

Velasquez is facing attempted murder and multiple other charges after firing shots at a man accused of molesting a younger relative of the fighter’s on multiple occasions. Velasquez was denied bail at an arraignment by judge Shelya Brown, who said that the “risk is too great” to release the UFC veteran.

According to ESPN, 34 letters were written to the court asking for leniency on behalf of Velasquez. Many of those praised Velasquez for being a family man, friend and teammate with no criminal record.

"I have known Mr. Velasquez for more than 15 years, and during his time as an active athlete with UFC, he represented our company with dignity and always treated others with respect," White wrote. "He was a model example of how a professional athlete should carry himself, projecting a p…

After eight years living in Thailand in order to improve his muay Thai technique, Brazilian lightweight Bruno Miranda will finally have the chance to make it to the big stage.

The former Road FC fighter will take part in the fifth week of the PFL Challenger Series on Friday at Universal Studios, Florida, when he faces American talent Carson Frei.

"As we could see in the first (few) weeks, they are choosing the ones who bring great shows and that's my goal,” Miranda told Sherdog.com. “If you look at all my fights, I’m always looking for a knockout or submission and it will be no different on Friday.”

The man known as “Robusto” believes Frei will attempt to take him down due to his eight years experience training at Tiger Muay Thai.

“Due to my background, he will probably try to grapple,” said Miranda, a purple belt under Gustavo “Ximu” Machado. “I don’t want to underestimate him, but I´ve also been training for the last six months at Nova Uniao against…

Yadong Song has earned the right to a big-name callout.

Song announced his presence in the UFC’s bantamweight division with authority on Saturday night, knocking former title challenger and ex-WSOF champ Marlon Moraes with an uppercut 2:06 into the opening round of their co-main event clash. It wasn’t necessarily the finish Song expected, but it is part of his training regimen.

“I was not planning for any uppercut, but I practice these combos every day,” Song said through a translator at the UFC Fight Night 203 post-fight press conference. “I’m really thankful for my boxing coach. He taught me some good uppercuts.”

Currently in the midst of a three-fight winning streak in the Octagon, Song hopes to renew the Team Alpha Male rivalry with Dominick Cruz. Only in this case, the “Kung Fu Monkey” considers himself to be a fan of the former UFC bantamweight champion.

“I watched his fights since I was a young kid and I like him very much,” Song said. “I like his s…

Phil Davis is in a bit of a purgatory with Bellator MMA at this point in his career.

“Mr. Wonderful” remains the clear-cut No. 2 in the promotion at light heavyweight following his unanimous decision triumph against Julius Anglickas in the Bellator 276 co-main event at the Family Arena in St. Louis, Mo., on Saturday. Unfortunately, there appears to be no clear path to the top of the division as long as Vadim Nemkov is champion, due to Davis’ two decision losses to the reigning title holder.

Another interesting option would seemingly be to move to heavyweight, where former rival Ryan Bader sits atop the division following a grueling title defense against Valentin Moldavsky at Bellator 273 in January. Davis is also 0-2 against Bader by the narrowest of margins, with a pair of split-decision defeats to the Arizona native – one in Bellator and one in the UFC.

At the moment, Davis doesn’t seem too interested in leaving the light heavyweight division. For the time bei…

The Bellator 276 headliner between Adam Borics and Mads Burnell was billed as a No. 1 contender’s bout, and both men fought with those stakes in mind.

Ultimately, Borics battled his way through five-rounds of back-and-forth standup with Burnell to capture a hard-fought unanimous decision triumph. It was the fourth straight victory and ninth in 10 Bellator appearances overall for the 28-year-old Hungarian, who believes he proved that he is capable of challenging for featherweight gold.

“It was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it,” Borics said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “It makes me confident after five rounds. I wasn’t tired, and it was a high pace. A lot of people were talking about I can’t go a high pace, and I think I showed everyone I’m ready for the title. I can do five rounds easy, so let’s go.”

Borics had success landing multi-punch combinations to the head and leg kicks. He even dropped Burnell with a right hook late in the second round, th…

Bellator MMA had big plans for Fedor Emelianenko’s farewell fight in his home country, but the ongoing conflict betwen Russia and Ukraine have forced the promotion to shift gears.

Bellator president Scott Coker addressed the Emelianenko situation when speaking to reporters following Bellator 276 on Saturday night. Coker added that he’ll be able to gain more clarity when he meets with “The Last Emperor” next month.

“It’s definitely not going to happen in Moscow this year,” Coker said. “We’re not gonna do Fedor’s retirement fight there for obvious reasons. We’ll be looking for an alternative site at some point, but we’re going to sit down with Fedor when he comes to [Bellator 277] in San Jose and see what he’s thinking.”

Emelianenko had an impressive performance at VTB Arena in Moscow on Oct. 23, when he knocked out Timothy Johnson 1:40 into the opening round of their main event clash at Bellator 269. Coker revealed that the promotion initially had a spectacular …

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0_xvM6BjNU&w=560&h=315]

Dustin Poirier is well aware of Colby Covington’s callout, but he doesn’t sound all that interested in pursuing a fight against the outspoken welterweight.

Shortly after vanquishing former American Top Team training partner Jorge Masvidal in the UFC 272 headliner on March 5, Covington turned his attention to Poirier, another ATT stalwart. In an interview on the UFC Fight Night 203 post-fight show, Poirier addressed Covington’s remarks while not completely ruling out a move to 170 pounds in the future.

“It’s cute. It’s all good. It is what it is. People want big fights,” Poirier said. “That’s a big fight. He wants a big fight. Obviously, he’s not in line for the title fight. He lost twice to the champ so he probably needs a few more wins, but I would think if you want to get back to that strap, you’ve got to fight welterweight contenders.

“I don’t know what I’m doing, if I’m going to welterweight, i…

While Magomed Ankalaev won his eighth consecutive light heavyweight bout at UFC Fight Night 203, it wasn’t the type of performance that will raise his stock in the eyes of promotion officials.

Ankalaev took an uneventful unanimous decision win over Thiago Santos on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas in a clash where both competitors were largely hesitant to pull the trigger. Ankalaev was dropped in by Santos in the second round, but for the most part, the Dagestani dictated the terms in the fight. In the aftermath, Ankalaev admitted that it wasn’t his best showing, but he put some of the blame on his opponent for the overall lack of action.

“I am happy that I won,” Ankalaev said at the UFC Fight Night 203 post-fight press conference. “To be honest, it is what it is. We expected him to move forward for the whole fight and to catch him on his mistakes, but he preferred to move backwards. That’s why I preferred to strike with him.

“To be honest, I’m not glad wi…