Martial Arts News

GOOD NIGHT! John Castaneda locks in the sub in R3 😴 #UFCVegas47 pic.twitter.com/NiYvIhaLBX

— UFC Canada (@UFC_CA) February 5, 2022

John Castaneda sent a pointed message to anyone who dares to overlook him in the Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight division.

The former Combate Global champion choked Miles Johns unconscious with an arm-triangle in the third round of their featured UFC Fight Night 200 prelim on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Johns (12-2, 3-2 UFC) went to sleep 98 seconds into Round 3, as the Fortis MMA prospect suffered the second setback of his 14-fight career.

After a closely contested first round, Castaneda (19-5, 2-1 UFC) found another gear and ultimately wore down the onetime Legacy Fighting Alliance titleholder with relentless forward pressure. He staggered Johns with a right hook early in the third round, gave chase, connected with a knee and forced him to retreat to the canvas. Castaneda pounced w…

The ref has seen enough! #LFA123 pic.twitter.com/Yn8y8fJSct

— UFC FIGHT PASS (@UFCFightPass) February 5, 2022 Dan Argueta stayed undefeated after his first Legacy Fighting Alliance main event atop the LFA 123 card.

Argueta showed off his superior grappling early as he took down Mairon Santos Alves and that became a theme of the fight. In Round 2, Argueta (7-0) rained down punches from top position and put Alves (12-1) in danger. The final frame was more of the same as "The Determined" obtained another takedown and punished Santos with punches and elbows until the referee mercifully stopped the beating at 2:40 of Round 3.

The co-main event saw Askar Askar gain some pivotal momentum at bantamweight. "AK-47" was able to outstrike Ryskulbek Ibraimov over three rounds with neither fighter ever being in danger of being finished. The work of Askar (13-2) on the feet led to three 29-28 scorecards in his favor. Ibraimov falls to 19-10 with the def…

ONE: FULL CIRCLE goes down on 25 February, headlined by THREE World Title fights and the highly-anticipated trilogy between Aung La N Sang and Vitaly Bigdash! @AungLANsang #WeAreONE #ONEChampionship#ONEFullCircle | 25 February pic.twitter.com/RZMCjnKOin

— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) February 4, 2022 One Championship is stacking the deck for its event at the end of February.

The promotion announced via press release the fight card for One: “Full Circle” that will take place on Feb. 25. Fourteen matches, including seven under MMA rules, will fill out a lineup that is capped off by a trio of championship affairs. The main event will see two-division champ Reinier de Ridder (14-0) attempt to defend his 205-pound crown against hard-charging Kyrgyzstani contender Kiamrian Abbasov (23-4).

The two other title fights take place in kickboxing and muay Thai, with Roman Kryklia defending his 225-pound belt against Murat Aygun, and champ Pe…

Contract is signedFight in March 26

— Alexey Oleynik (@oleynikufc) February 4, 2022 Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app. With this fight, Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight Alexey Oleynik will hope to end a losing streak while recording the 60th win of his career. On previous events, Oleynik (59-16-1) was booked against Greg Hardy, while Ilir Latifi (15-8, 1 NC) was expected to take on Alexander Romanov. Hardy withdrew from the match due to a finger injury, while Romanov pulled out from his fight for currently undisclosed reasons. Instead of preserving the matchups, the promotion pushed the fights back and booked Oleynik against Latifi at UFC on ESPN 33 on March 26 in Columbus, Ohio. The news first broke from BJPenn.com on Friday, and both heavyweights subsequently confirmed the new billing on social media.

Oleynik has not got…

Don’t miss the champ @VenezuelanVixen on @TheEllenShow airing today at 3pm PT pic.twitter.com/XyPbCNXVtu

— UFC (@ufc) February 4, 2022 Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app. “The Ultimate Fighter” will truly never die. The Ultimate Fighting Championship released the news on Friday that TUF 30 will commence on May 3. All 12 episodes of the season will air on ESPN+, and coaches for the teams will be bantamweight champ Julianna Pena against featherweight queen Amanda Nunes. The lineup will consist of heavyweights as well as women’s flyweights, with eight participants in the ranks of each division.

In the heavyweight division, the cast members include: unbeaten up-and-comer Nyle Bartling, Professional Fighters League vet Chandler Cole, ex-Legacy Fighting Alliance powerhouse Jordan Heiderman, former UFC light heavyweight Rob MacDonald, LFA and…

The second Triad Combat show from Triller Fight Club will no longer be taking place at the end of February.

Ariel Helwani broke the news on Friday that Triad Combat 2 had been scratched. The event was slated to take place at the Toyota Center in Houston on Feb. 26, and the Toyota Center confirmed the fight card is canceled. Per the organization, the reason for its cancelation came from rising COVID-19 cases in the Houston area. There is no current date on the calendar for it to return.

The Triller team released a short statement regarding the postponement of the fight card on Thursday, writing, “Triller Fight Club has decided to reschedule the upcoming Triad Combat 2 event slated for February 26th at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. We made this hard decision out of an abundance of caution for the Fight Club athletes and fans of Triad and Jason Aldean; we determined that, given the current state of the Omicron virus, it was in our collective interest to postpone …

On weight and ready to rock 💪

[ @SStricklandMMA | #UFCVegas47 | Saturday | Prelims 4pmET | Main Card 7pmET | LIVE on @ESPNPlus ] pic.twitter.com/4rc48pHckT

— UFC (@ufc) February 4, 2022 Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app. The Ultimate Fighting Championship hits another milestone with UFC Fight Night 200, which is now official after the weigh-ins took place.

While the 200th UFC Fight Night event isn't stacked like the promotion's pay-per-view milestones, it does feature an intriguing middleweight headliner between Jack Hermansson and Sean Strickland. It is joined by 12 other bouts, and not every fighter made weight. Steven Peterson came in three pounds overweight for his featherweight bout against Julian Erosa, he has been fined 30% of his purse and the bout will still proceed.

This is the fourth UFC main event for Herma…

Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app. A big Ultimate Fighting Championship bout at 205 pounds will have to wait a bit longer. In the light heavyweight division, Ryan Spann (19-7) and Ion Cutelaba (16-6-1) were set to throw down at UFC Fight Night 202 on Feb. 26. The 205-pound banger has been postponed as of Thursday, when Sherdog learned of the fight’s removal from the UFC Apex-based card. Cutelaba has since posted on his Instagram that Spann suffered an injury, and that the fight will be pushed back to a later date instead of seeking a replacement opponent.

Spann was looking to get back in the win column after alternating victories and setbacks in his last four. While he has beaten Sam Alvey and Misha Cirkunov in the last two years, a pair of first-round stoppages against Johnny Walker and Anthony Smith has blunted his momentum as of late. “Superman” burst on to…

Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app. Newly minted Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight champ Deiveson Figueiredo has experienced a litany of attacks from fans on the internet since beating Brandon Moreno. Following his fiery interview on the MMA Hour, where Figueiredo asked for one million dollars to make a fourth fight with Brandon Moreno, the champ discarded the possibility for revenge in Mexico. At the end of UFC 270, “Daico” claimed he would be willing to face Moreno in his home country of Mexico, but he has since changed his mind. On Thursday, the flyweight champion held a press conference at his Team Figueiredo gym in Belem, Brazil, where he spoke of racist attacks he has suffered from fans online.

“Since Moreno said I was a great fighter but a terrible human being, I’ve been suffering attacks from Mexicans who are being racist with me, calling me a ‘mo…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p43GrO_2Tjg&w=560&h=315]

The heavyweights will be in the spotlight for Week 6 of the PFL Challenger Series on March 25.

The promotion announced on Wednesday the matchups for all four heavyweight bouts: former UFC middleweight talent Bevon Lewis vs. Brazilian jiu-jitsu champion Marcelo Nunes; undefeated Brazilian prospect Giacomo Lemos vs. 2019 Legacy Fighting Alliance heavyweight tournament champion Brett Martin; undefeated Bellator veteran Adam Keresh vs. ex-Dana White’s Contender Series competitor Chad Johnson and former Temple University fullback Daiqwon Buckley vs. Jackson-Wink MMA representative Jon Cunningham.

One winner will be selected to compete in the heavyweight division for the 2022 PFL season or will receive a developmental contract in hopes of appearing in a future PFL campaign.

The PFL Challenger Series takes place at Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla., and airs on Fubo Sports Network at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT…

It’s not exactly a retirement announcement, but it doesn’t sound like Megan Anderson will be resuming her mixed martial arts career anytime soon, either.

The former UFC featherweight title challenger and Invicta FC champion released a statement via social media providing an update on her fight plans, or in this case — a lack thereof.

“For all those that are asking and continue to ask me daily, I have no plans to fight right now,” Anderson wrote on Instagram. “I'm not saying that I will never fight again, but at this point in my life, I'm loving everything else I'm doing. From gaming and streaming, working as an analyst for ESPN and Invicta, and currently filming my first major feature film. I couldn't be happier and fighting really isn't on my mind.

“I'm currently not affiliated with any gym, I'm not signed to any promotion right now and haven't been pursuing a new fight contract. I appreciate the love and interest from everyone hoping to see me in the cage…

The ground game of @AndreMunizUFC is NO JOKE #UFC269 pic.twitter.com/oWFvJ2Cw4h

— UFC (@ufc) December 12, 2021

Andre Muniz will take a four-fight promotional winning streak into his matchup with “The Ultimate Fighter 17” finalist Uriah Hall at UFC Fight Night on April 16.

“Hall is very tough, experienced guy who already had great fights against top opponents,” Muniz told Sherdog.com. “We already studied some of his fights against jiu-jitsu opponents and we know how hard it is to take him down. He has good takedown defense and strong jabs and spinning kicks.

“So there is no easy way to fight him. I will have to brawl with him, answering every single strike, pressuring him and when I get the right timing, take him down.”

Muniz, who lives in Minas Gerais, Brazil, came to Rio de Janeiro on Jan. 30 to begin his camp at Tata Fight Team.

“I’m already in Rio doing my camp at TFT with my masters Philipe Lima and Tata Duarte,” Muniz sai…