Martial Arts News

Tomorrow's #UFCVegas95 main event is official 🚨@MarcinTybura weighs in at 252 pounds! pic.twitter.com/3tUO5lNkPR

— UFC (@ufc) August 9, 2024 Chelsea Chandler just cannot seem to find the bantamweight limit.

After back-to-back weeks overseas, the Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to Las Vegas for UFC on ESPN 61. The 10-fight card will be headlined by a heavyweight fight between Marcin Tybura and Serghei Spivac. Tybura will be the larger man inside the cage, weighing in 14 pounds heavier than Spivac.

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While both heavyweights comfortably made weight, three other fighters on the card did not. Most notable was co-main event competitor Jose Mariscal, who came in 3.5 pounds over the featherweight limit for his bout against Damon Jackson. That wasn't even the biggest miss, though, as Chelsea Chandler came in five pounds over the bantamweight limit for her fight against Yana Santos, with this being her second time missing …

Utah, we're coming BACK 👊#UFC307 is headed to Salt Lake City!

For more info: https://t.co/FLA3QMZl6f@StateOfSport #StateOfSport | @DeltaCenter #DeltaCenter pic.twitter.com/6JbaXCjfcD

— UFC (@ufc) August 8, 2024 For the third year in a row, the Ultimate Fighting Championship is posting up a pay-per-view party in Salt Lake City.

In 2016, the promotion first took to the city once coined “The Crossroads of the West” with a Fight Night card featuring Yair Rodriguez and Alex Caceres. Six years later, the league staged UFC 278 in the same building, then named the Vivint Arena. The company came back for UFC 291 in 2023, and UFC 307 will be the next one in the line of consecutive yearly cards. This show will be held at the Delta Center, home of the National Basketball Association’s Utah Jazz, on Oct. 5, with this venue officially confirmed by the promotion on Thursday. There is currently no headliner on the books.

Several marquee matches …

🚨 BREAKING 🚨

HE'S BACK!👑The Return of @francis_ngannou4⃣𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒2⃣𝗦𝗨𝗣𝗘𝗥 𝗙𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧 𝗕𝗘𝗟𝗧𝗦 𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗘1⃣Gigantic night of MMA

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and it all goes down on October 19th #PFLSuperFights pic.twitter.com/mDHCFd6PBp — PFL (@PFLMMA) August 7, 2024

Professional Fighters League is going big for its second pay-per-view event of 2024.

The organization announced on Wednesday that the card will be headlined by a heavyweight clash between former UFC champ Francis Ngannou and 2023 PFL champion Renan Ferreira. In the co-main event, reigning Bellator MMA featherweight title holder Cris Cyborg will square off against 2023 PFL 145-pound queen Larissa Pacheco.

The PFL pay-per-view event — which is titled “Battle of the Giants: Brace for Impact” — takes place on Oct. 19 and is available via ESPN+. A venue and a price point for the card were not announced. In both bouts, PFL Super Fights Championship Belts will be on the line.

Ngannou…

Former middleweight champion Chris Weidman will return to action against Eryk Anders at what is expected to be UFC 309 on Nov. 16.

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Anders’ management, Iridium Sports Agency, first brought word of the booking. While UFC 309 has not been officially announced by the promotion, it is likely to be held at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Weidman will be making his second appearance of 2024 and third overall since suffering a gruesomely broken leg against Uriah Hall at UFC 261 in April 2021. In his last outing, “The All-American” earned his first victory since August 2020, as he took a unanimous decision over Bruno Silva at UFC on ESPN 54 on March 30.

A former linebacker at the University of Alabama, Anders has competed at both middleweight and light heavyweight during his promotional tenure. The 37-year-old has won two of his last three Octagon appearances, including a three-round verdict over Jamie Pickett in his most recent outing at UFC Fight…

Belal Muhammad doesn’t see himself being very far from a potential move up to middleweight to fight for his second title.

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Muhammad got his welterweight title shot against Leon Edwards at UFC 304 after mounting a 10-fight unbeaten run. “Remember the Name” outdueled Edwards throughout five rounds in front of the latter’s home crowd in Manchester to earn a unanimous decision win.

Muhammad is already discussing a future move up to middleweight to attempt to become a two-division champion. Muhammad believes he is just two more title defenses away from being able to make that goal a reality.

Making his case, the Chicago native argues that neither of the two potential opponents for his first title defense, Kamaru Usman or Shavkat Rakhmonov, is a clear No. 1 contender. Muhammad notes that when he fought Edwards for the title, he was the undeniable title challenger. With Muhammad having already beaten several top 10 contenders on his way up to title c…

Umar Nurmagomedov has fired back at Merab Dvalishvili after the “The Machine” accused him of getting privileges in the UFC because of his connection to Khabib Nurmagomedov.

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Nurmagomedov climbed eight spots to No.2 in the UFC’s bantamweight rankings with an impressive unanimous decision win over top contender Cory Sandhagen at UFC on ABC 7 last weekend. Nurmagomedov is expected to be fight for the title next against the winner of Sean O'Malley-Dvalishvili, which headlines UFC 306 on Sept. 14.

However, Dvalishvili isn’t excited about a potential clash against Umar Nurmagomedov, as he believes the Dagestani has been fast tracked on his way to title contention. Dvalishvili claims Nurmagomedov hasn’t paid his dues as much as other elite contenders and has been pushed because of Khabib Nurmagomedov, who is his cousin.

“He has a push because we all know why,” Dvalishvili recently told heavywgt MMA. “Because he’s Khabib’s cousin. He’s a good fighte…

While Kai Kamaka III hasn’t had the worst of it, the Hawaiian has seen the Professional Fighters League season format take a toll on fellow fighters.

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Kamaka headlines PFL 9 opposite Brendan Loughnane in a featherweight semifinal on Aug. 23 at The Anthem in Washington, D.C. It will mark Kamaka’s third outing within a span of four months, a campaign that began with back-to-back decision wins to advance to the PFL postseason.

“The Fighting Hawaiian” says his gym, Xtreme Couture, which has built a reputation for preparing fighters for short-notice outings, has been of help while fighting so frequently in the PFL season format. However, Kamaka has also seen the format take on toll on others like his teammate, PFL light heavyweight Sadibou Sy. Kamaka revealed that the Swede, who dislocated his thumb in a freak injury loss to Joshua Silveira to start off the 2024 season, has been “banged up” all season. However, “The Swedish Denzel “has since bounced b…

Let's get it on! 🏆

Head to https://t.co/VeFJNoH35S to cast yours.#worldmmaawards #fightersonly pic.twitter.com/I4S77fCR00

— Fighters Only (@FightersOnly) August 6, 2024

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Nominees for the 16th annual World MMA Awards have been announced, and Sherdog.com is among the candidates for Best MMA Media Source.

Fighters Only Magazine, which launched the awards in 2008, announced the full list of nominees in more than 20 categories on Tuesday. In addition to Best MMA Media Source, winners will be selected for Fighter of the Year (in multiple categories), Fight of the Year, Knockout of the Year, Upset of the Year, Coach of the Year, Gym of the Year, Referee of the Year, Best Promotion — and much more. Award nominees are selected by a panel of insiders based on their performances between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024.

Voting is now live and continues through Sept. 30. Fight fans can visit the World MMA Awards website and cho…

Fans of the UFC and Professional Fighters League are going to have to endure another price hike in they want to keep watching the events held by those organizations.

Disney on Tuesday announced that the ESPN+ monthly subscription fee will increase from $10.99 to $11.99 on Oct. 17. The majority of UFC events and PFL offerings are available through ESPN+, though some can be viewed on ESPN lineal networks, as well. Meanwhile, an ESPN+ subscription is required to be able to access UFC pay-per-view events — which, of course, include an additional charge to purchase.

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When the UFC initially became broadcast partners with ESPN, the price for ESPN+ was $4.99 per month. Subscription price increases have become the norm over the years, as the price was raised to $6.99 per month in 2021 and to $9.99 in 2022. Last October, it went up to $10.99.

The UFC’s broadcast deal with ESPN will expire in 2025. UFC CEO Dana White recently indicated that the promoti…

A middleweight clash pitting Caio Borralho against Jared Cannonier will serve as the main event for UFC on ESPN 62.

The Las Vegas-based promotion announced the booking on Tuesday. UFC on ESPN 62 takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Aug. 24 and also includes a welterweight showdown between Neil Magny and Michael Morales. The evening’s main card airs on ESPN and ESPN+ at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, while prelims stream on ESPN+ at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.

After earning a pair of victories on Dana White’s Contender Series, Barralho has kicked off his Octagon tenure with six consecutive triumphs. Most recently, The Fighting Nerds standout scored a second-round knockout of Paul Craig at UFC 301 on May 4.

A former middleweight title challenger, Cannonier is coming off a controversial fourth-round TKO loss to Nassourdine Imavov at UFC on ESPN 57 on June 8. Prior to that defeat, “The Killa Gorilla” had been victorious in four of his last five UFC appearances, a run…

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Jose Mariscal recently shared some details of his lethal judo game.

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A lifelong mixed martial artist, Mariscal boasts a suffocating grappling skillset with a combination of judo and jiu jitsu. Mariscal owns a black belt under Bob Schirmer in what he labels “hood judo” based on its Chicago origin. Mariscal revealed that it was that judo skillset which mostly got him out of physical altercations unscathed.

“I call it ‘hood judo’ because it’s from Chicago,” Mariscal recently told MMAjunkie.com. “Nobody really knows where I got my black belt from… It was under Bob Schirmer, the Combat-Do team. I never got into a street fight because I threw people before they even tried to punch me or try to do anything. So when I toss them, someone will lose the air out of their stomach. Someone will be kind of concussed. I’m glad I never got caught up on that.”

While Mariscal admired watching judo being translated into MMA by the likes of Georges St. Pierre and …