Martial Arts News

People want to hear from me, I needed time. I know I made mistakes. Six years ago, I should have never responded to her outreaches. I should have shut the party down. I should never have stepped out on the woman I love the most in the world. That’s all on me.

As much as I…

— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) November 25, 2024

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Conor McGregor has released a statement after being found liable of sexual assault against a woman named Nikita Hand.

Hand accused McGregor and a man named James Lawrence of raping her in a Dublin hotel on Dec. 9, 2018. A jury in a Dublin court recently ruled against McGregor in a civil lawsuit, finding him liable of sexual misconduct. While McGregor wasn’t pronounced “guilty” as it was a civil case, he is ordered to pay Hand more than $250,000 in damages.

“Notorious” recently addressed the ruling, continuing to deny the rape allegations while claiming to have had consensual sex with Hand in …

The worst may be over for Daiane Silva after spending more than a month in the hospital following a bad weight cut ahead of her proposed Bellator MMA debut.

Silva recently returned home to Brazil after spending more than a month under medical care and is gradually making progress in her recovery, according to an initial report from Yahoo! Sports. Silva was scheduled to compete at Bellator Champions Series London on Sept. 14, but was hospitalized due to severe dehydration while trying to cut to the featherweight limit of 146 pounds. The Brazilian fighter suffered from kidney failure as a result and was placed into a medically induced coma.

Manager Alexis Davis provided additional details regarding Silva’s progress in an interview with MMAFighting.com.

“The first prognosis we had was that she could be with dialysis for the rest of her life and it could take months for her to regain consciousness,” Davis said. “… Out of a very sorry prognostics, she is [now] walk…

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Conor McGregor is already beginning to feel the repercussions from his civil lawsuit for sexual assault.

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On Friday, the former UFC two-division champion was found liable for the sexual assault of Nikita Hand in 2018. As a result of the ruling in the case, McGregor was ordered to pay Hand 248,603.60 euros ($259,025) in damages. McGregor denied the allegations during testimony and also vowed to appeal the decision in a since-deleted post on social media.

However, that didn’t prevent video game developer IO Interactive from announcing that McGregor would be removed from all content in its “Hitman: World of Assassination” game. McGregor’s likeness was used for a downloadable character, but it will no longer be available. Those who already purchased the add-on will still be able to play as McGregor’s character.

“In light of the recent court ruling regarding Conor McGregor, IO Interactive has made the decision to cease its collab…

After being submitted by Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 308, Robert Whittaker recently underwent oral surgery to implant six teeth in his lower jaw area.

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"His middle teeth were unstable since the fight with Dricus [Du Plessis]. Chimaev’s [face crank] was exactly on top of these three front teeth that broke immediately,” Whittaker coach Alex Prates told Sherdog.com.

According to Prates, Whittaker returned to training on Monday following the procedure — albeit with some limitations.

"After he had his six teeth implanted, he returned to training on Monday, but without any contact. He will train muay thai, run, everything —but without contact,” Prates said. “Maybe he will still have an operation on his elbow to remove some bone fragments, but we haven't decided yet. It's a minor surgery, but it would cost another month. Our plan is to return to the Octagon in June.”

Another Prates pupil, Jacob Malkoun, has a UFC bout scheduled for Feb. 15 in Las Ve…

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Francis Ngannou knows a thing or two about big-money negotiations with the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

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Ngannou parted ways with the UFC in 2023 after he was unable to come to terms with the Las Vegas-based promotion on a new deal. Since then, he has secured a big-ticket boxing matches against Tyson Fury (which he nearly won) and Anthony Joshua while also signing a contract with Professional Fighters League that provided much of the freedom and perks he desired. When he was still with the UFC, a showdown with current heavyweight king Jon Jones was a hot topic. The narrative currently presented by the UFC is that Ngannou left the promotion because he didn’t want to face Jones. However, when “Bones” was on a three-year hiatus and Ngannou was an active UFC champion, the story was framed quite differently.

Jones returned to action at UFC 309, where he successfully defended the heavyweight crown with a third-round stoppage of Stip…

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Jon Jones is certain about the outcome of the upcoming clash between Jiri Prochazka (30-5) and Jamahal Hill (12-2) — and he also offered some insight into his own future.

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The former light heavyweight champs will clash at UFC 311 on Jan. 18 at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles. Jones expects Hill to get the better of Prochazka through sound basics despite the Czech being an unorthodox puzzle.

“I think Jamahal Hill will win. Jiri has really unorthodox striking, but Jamahal seems like the more technical, more clean striker,” Jones recently told The Schmo. “I'm a big fan of basic techniques, and Jamahal has a really strong, basic, clean kickboxing style.”

Prochazka was riding a 13-fight winning streak and undefeated in the UFC when he fell short in a bid for the vacant title against Alex Pereira at UFC 295 last year. While “BJP” bounced back with a technical knockout win over Aleksandar Rakic, he suffered another stoppage win in a …

Merab Dvalishvili continues to call out Petr Yan:

“Great fight Petr. I like your callout, and I like your respect. Let’s go again, after 2 years. March 8th, T Mobile. Let’s f***ing go.”

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🎥 @MerabDvalishvil #UFC #MMApic.twitter.com/pKx2kxwAYC — Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) November 23, 2024

Merab Dvalishvili wants to defend his title against Petr Yan next.

Yan earned a shutout unanimous decision win over former flyweight champ Deiveson Figueiredo in the main event at UFC Macau on Saturday. Yan subsequently called for a rematch against Dvalishvili, who beat him via unanimous decision in March 2023. Dvalishvili wasted no time in accepting the rematch against “No Mercy.” “The Machine” wants to defend his bantamweight strap against Yan at UFC 313 on March 18 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

“Great fight Petr. I like your callout, and I like your respect,” Dvalishvili said in a video on social media. “Let’s go agai…

Bogdan Grad (14-2) will make his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut against Lucas Alexander (8-4) in February.

The Austrian will take on Alexander at a UFC Fight Night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Feb. 1. The matchup was initially reported by Marcel Dorff and subsequently confirmed by Grad on social media.

Grad has finished 11 of his 14 career wins, eight of them via knockout. “The Unleashed” was riding a five-fight winning streak when he got his first Dana White's Contender Series shot in August 2023. However, Grad went on to suffer a first-round stoppage loss against Australian prospect Tom Nolan. Grad subsequently racked up back-to-back finishes on the regional circuit to earn another chance at redemption on the Contender Series. The 29-year-old edged out a hard-fought split decision win over Michael Aswell this past August to make his way into the UFC.

Meanwhile, Alexander came into the UFC as a highly-touted prospect riding a five-fight winning str…

Top light heavyweight contenders will collide at UFC 311 in January.

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Former champs Jiri Prochazka (30-5) and Jamahal Hill (12-2) are scheduled to fight at UFC 311 on Jan. 18 at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles. The matchup was announced during the UFC Macau post-fight show and subsequently confirmed by “BJP” on Instagram. Multiple outlets have since confirmed the pairing.

🚨 On the #UFCMacau post-fight show, Dan Hellie said that Jamahal Hill will be fighting Jiri Prochazka in January 👀

(h/t @certifiedzester) #UFC #MMApic.twitter.com/a1D8ySvemr

— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) November 23, 2024

Both Prochazka and Hill are coming off losses against champion Alex Pereira. Prochazka saw a 13-fight winning streak snapped with a title loss against Pereira at UFC 295 last year. The Czech bounced back with a come-from-behind stoppage win over Aleksandar Rakic but went on suffer another stoppage loss in a failed title remat…

SPINNING WHEEL KICK KO 🤯 #UFCMACAU pic.twitter.com/25KJ8OqmSx

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) November 23, 2024

Muslim Salikhov has a knack for spinning offense.

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“The King of Kung Fu” received a $50,000 “Performance of the Night” bonus for his first-round finish of Kenan Song in their welterweight clash at UFC Macau on Saturday at Galaxy Arena. Salikhov dropped his adversary with a perfectly placed spinning wheel kick and sealed his victory with a standing-to-ground hammerfist at the 3:49 mark of Round 1. It is the second time the 40-year-old has used a spinning wheel kick to end a contest in UFC competition.

Elsewhere, Gabriella Fernandes garnered a $50,000 bonus for her upset victory over Cong Wang in a women’s flyweight bout. Wang appeared to have a comfortable lead on the scorecards when Fernandes hurt her foe with a head kick and dropped her with an ensuing left hand. From there, the MMA Masters product secured a rear-naked…

Petr Yan reminded his peers he still possesses all the tools that could someday see him return to power in the Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight division.

“No Mercy” outboxed, outfoxed and outhustled Deiveson Figueiredo to a five-round unanimous decision in their UFC Fight Night 248 headliner on Saturday at Galaxy Arena in Macau, China. Yan (18-5, 10-4 UFC) swept the cards with identical 50-45 scores from the judges, further distancing himself from the three-fight skid that plagued him from April 9, 2022 to March 11, 2023.

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Figueiredo (24-4-1, 13-4-1 UFC) had no answer for the volume and variety the former 135-pound titleholder brought to bear. Yan kept him off-balance with feints and stance switches, creating openings for his finely tuned offensive weapons. Biting leg kicks, accurate punching combinations and slashing uppercuts at close range tipped his spear, but he also found time to mix in a few flying knees, a spinning backfist and a j…

The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to China Saturday at 3 a.m. ET with UFC Macau. The event is also known as UFC Fight Night 248. Round 1 Round 2

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