Martial Arts News

⚖️2024 PFL Featherweight World Title bout is official

Brendan Loughnane: 144.8 lbsTimur Khizriev: 144.7 lbs

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[ #PFLWorldChampionship | Friday, Nov 29th | 1PM ET | ESPN+] pic.twitter.com/MGwp9CWXYz — PFL (@PFLMMA) November 28, 2024 The Professional Fighters League will wrap up its 2024 season with all the title fights.

Sitting atop the 2024 Season PFL Championships card is a featherweight title fight between Brendan Loughnane and Timur Khizriev. Both men successfully made championship weight, as they came in under the 145-pound limit. The rest of the card was just as professional as the 10 other title fight participants on the card also hit their marks.

Loughnane (30-5) previously won the 2022 PFL featherweight tournament. He'll now look to gain his second season title after his 2023 outing was derailed by a knockout defeat to Jesus Pinedo. The British fighter has rebounded nicely by picking up wins over Pedro C…

نهائيات بطولة "PFL MENA" | الفيثر ويت

عبدالله القحطاني: 144.3 رطلًامروان بلكَويط: 144.4 رطلًا

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29 نوفمبر | #PFLMENA | جامعة الملك سعود، الرياض، السعودية | التذاكر عبر https://t.co/aZbvEPijAb🔗 | بث مباشر على منصة شاهد، قنوات إم بي سي أكشن و SSC#نصنع_التاريخ #السعودية… pic.twitter.com/qoXOQY2A6M — PFL MENA (@PFLMENA) November 28, 2024 The Professional Fighters League's inaugural Middle East and North Africa season is coming to an end with four championship fights.

While the bill has gone through some slight transformations on weigh-in day, all eight title fight participants successfully made weight for the event. This show serves as the preliminary portion to the 2024 Season PFL Championships event later that day. It will see PFL MENA fighters compete for gold in five-round fights in the welterweight, lightweight, featherweight and bantamweight divisions. Two fighters missed weight: Lilia Osmani, who came in 2.3 pound…

The lineup for UFC Saudi Arabia continues to grow, as a bantamweight clash between Vinicius Oliveira and Said Nurmagomedov and a lightweight tilt pitting Terrance McKinney against Damir Hadzovic have been added to the Feb. 1 event.

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Ag.Fight was first to report Oliveira vs. Nurmagomedov, while McKinney and his management announced the matchup with Hadzovic. The UFC Fight Night event takes place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and features a heavyweight clash between Sergei Pavlovich and Jairzinho Rozenstruik.

Oliveira, who is known as “LokDog,” will take a four-bout winning streak into his fight with Nurmagomedov. The 28-year-old Brazilian has kicked off his UFC tenure with a knockout of Bernardo Sopai and a unanimous decision win over Ricky Simon.

Nurmagomedov has won five of his last six Octagon appearances and is coming off a first-round submission of Muin Gafarov at UFC 294 in October 2023. The Dagestani has endured bad luck in 2024, with three po…

There have been a couple changes to the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s final pay-per-view of 2024.

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The promotion announced on Wednesday that Kennedy Nzechukwu will replace the injured Talisson Teixeira and face Lukasz Brzeski in a heavyweight clash at UFC 310. Additionally, Martin Buday has been removed from a proposed heavyweight matchup against Rizvan Kuniev due to injury and as a result, the bout has been canceled. The nature of the injuries to Teixeira and Buday were not revealed.

UFC 310 takes place on Dec. 7 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and is headlined by a flyweight title tilt pitting Alexandre Pantoja against Kai Askaura. In the co-main event, Shavkat Rakhmonov will square off against Ian Garry.

After competing at 205 pounds for the majority of his promotional tenure, Nzechukwu made his heavyweight debut at UFC 308, where he defeated Chris Barnett via first-round TKO on Oct. 26. That snapped a two-bout skid for the Fortis MM…

Robert Whittaker recently gave due credit to former foe Khamzat Chimaev’s wrestling.

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Whittaker faced Chimaev in potential middleweight title eliminator at UFC 308 on Oct. 26. Chimaev wasted no time in taking Whittaker down before sinking in a face crank that injured the former champion’s jaw, forcing a stoppage in the opening frame.

Whittaker was immensely impressed by Chimaev’s takedowns. While “Bobby Knuckles” felt comfortable for a while on the feet, there was no getting away once Chimaev committed to the takedown. Despite having worked on his wrestling a lot in training camp, Whittaker couldn’t find anyone to replicate the Chechen-born Swede. Whittaker further noted that it isn’t Chimaev’s strength, but his chain wrestling that is most difficult to defend.

“I felt real comfortable standing with him,’ Whittaker recently said on the MMA Arcade podcast. “Then, the dude drops like a millimeter — how do you stop that takedown?... We did a lot …

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Considered the greatest representative for jiu-jitsu practitioners in the 1980s and 1990s, Rickson Gracie revealed in 2023 that he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. And it was the battle against the disease that motivated him to launch his second book, “Comfort in the Dark: The Power of Invisible Jiu-Jitsu” in July 2024.

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In an interview on the “Mundo da Luta” podcast on Monday, Gracie spoke about the launch of his new book. In the interview conducted by journalist Ana Hissa, the jiu-jitsu legend revealed how his learning in the world of martial arts strengthened him in the battle against the recently discovered Parkinson's disease, which inspired the new work.

“The idea was that, with the story of my life, after this biography (in the previous book called “Respira”), it was missing that I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s and I am going through a, let’s say, evolutionary phase of my life,” he said.”And I would like to pass on t…

Kevin Holland (26-12) will face Reinier de Ridder (18-2) in a middleweight bout at UFC 311.

Multiple outlets confirmed the pairing following an initial report from MMA Mania. UFC 311 takes place on Jan. 18 at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles and also includes a light heavyweight clash pitting Jiri Prochazka against Jamahal Hill.

Holland was named Sherdog's “Breakthrough Fighter of the Year” for 2020 thanks to a 5-0 UFC campaign, but he has since fallen on more difficult times. One of the most active fighters on the UFC roster, “Trailblazer” has fought at least three times each year since 2020. However, that has cost him a few fights against opponents such as Khamzat Chimaev and Jack Della Maddalena. Holland is currently 1-3 in his last four bouts and is fresh off a corner stoppage loss against Roman Dolidze at UFC 307 last month.

Meanwhile, de Ridder was undefeated in his first 16 pro outings, a stretch that saw him become a two-division title holder in ON…

Conor McGregor will no longer be the face of Proper No. 12 Whiskey, according to a report from the Irish Independent.

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Proximo Spirits, which owns the whiskey brand, announced that it will no longer use McGregor’s name or likeness in association with the drink. The decision comes after McGregor was found liable for sexual assault during a civil lawsuit in Dublin High Court last week. The UFC star was ordered to pay more than $250,000 in damages to the victim, Nikita Hand.

“Since 2021, Proximo Spirits has been the 100pc owner of Proper No. 12 Irish Whiskey,” Proximo Spirits said. “Going forward, we do not plan to use Mr. McGregor’s name and likeness in the marketing of the brand.”

McGregor and his partners sold their majority stake in the whiskey brand to Proximo Spirits – which had been a 49% owner -- in 2021 for a reported $600 million. Even after the sale, McGregor maintained an active role within the company as a spokeperson and representat…

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Jamahal Hill recently addressed the origins of his beef with Magomed Ankalaev.

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Hill takes on Jiri Prochazka at UFC 311 on Jan. 18 at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, California. The former champ recently went off on Ankalaev, and Hill claims his beef with Ankalaev started primarily because due to the Dagestani being a b—h. Ankalaev had poked fun at Hill when Khalil Rountree got a wild card title shot against Alex Pereira at UFC 307 last month. Despite being widely considered the rightful title contender, Ankalaev was matched up against Aleksandar Rakic at UFC 308. “Sweet Dreams” claims he was making a case for Ankalaev when the Russian turned around and took digs at him.

Why is Jamahal Hill crying? Pereira just made you sleep, get back in the like and work your way up or be ready for Abu Dhabi because Rakic may pull out

— Magomed Ankalaev (@AnkalaevM) August 16, 2024

"I want to knock Magomed out in his …

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Paddy Pimblett recently recalled watching Anderson Silva’s first loss against Chris Weidman with Conor McGregor.

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Pimblett scored his first Cage Warriors win on the same night that Silva put his middleweight title on the line against Weidman at UFC 162 in July 2013. Meanwhile, McGregor was coming off his UFC debut victory and cornering teammate Philip Mulpeter on the same CW card. Pimblett, McGregor and Mulpeter watched together as Weidman scored a second round upset TKO win over “The Spider,” ending the longest title reign in UFC history — a run that spanned 2,457 days which included 10 defenses.

As a fan of Silva, McGregor was visibly devastated and went on to kick the wall, which had Pimblett tickled.

“When I had my first Cage Warriors fight, he’d just been signed by the UFC. I was 19, I had just won my first Cage Warriors fight and he was there,” Pimblett said on the “Still Talking” show. “We were watching Anderson Silva …

A light heavyweight clash has been added to a UFC Fight Night event in February.

Power punchers Ion Cutelaba (18-10) and Ibo Aslan (14-1) will trade leather at a UFC card on Feb. 22, which is expected to go down in Seattle. The matchup was first reported by Marcel Dorff.

Cutelaba is 7-9 in the UFC, putting on entertaining displays while usually falling prey to elite competition. While the Moldovan dropped all of his three bouts in 2022, he has since improved his fortunes. “The Hulk” has sandwiched a loss against Philipe Lins between a KO win over Tanner Boser and most recently, a split decision over Ivan Erslan this past September.

Meanwhile, Aslan came into UFC with a knockout win over Paulo Renato Jr. on Dana White’s Contender Series last year. “The Last Ottoman” scored a technical knockout win over Anton Turkalj in his UFC debut this past March, avenging his lone career loss which came against “The Pleasure Man” under the Brave CF banner in 2020. The Tu…

👀⚡️Cory Sandhagen wants to fight Petr Yan next:

“I still want to get this one back… Maybe we will do it next.”

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🎥 YT @corysandhagenx ▫️ pic.twitter.com/lZYORg5HbY — Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight) November 25, 2024

Cory Sandhagen (17-5) is eyeing Petr Yan (18-5) after the latter’s latest win at UFC Macau.

Yan put on a striking clinic to earn an emphatic unanimous decision win over Deiveson Figueiredo in the main event at UFC Macau last weekend. Sandhagen subsequently called out “No Mercy,” who already has a win over him in 2021. Sandhagen wants to avenge his loss against the Russian even if he doesn’t get that matchup immediately.

“Congrats to Yan. Maybe we will do it next,” Sandhagen said on his YouTube channel. “I don’t really know what the division’s [got] going on. I haven’t really heard too much. I was hoping to hear probably sometime next week about the direction that they are gonna go in. Because I know…