Martial Arts News

Challenger Series: Week 2 Welterweights

February 25thPM ET@fuboSports pic.twitter.com/SIazxuVTY8

— PFL (@PFLMMA) January 21, 2022 The second edition of Professional Fighters League’s Challenger Series on Feb. 25 will bring welterweights to the table in search of a contract. Via a press release sent out on Friday, the organization has announced its second Challenger Series event that will take place on Feb. 25 at the Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla. In a similar vein to Dana White's Contender Series, the league plans on either issuing a PFL contract at the end of show or signing a victor to a developmental deal that will ultimately lead to another Challenger Series appearance or a PFL roster spot.

The first event on Feb. 18 was announced on Wednesday, in which it will bring in eight fighters to compete in four bouts in the light heavyweight division. This format will stay the same all season, where four fights will take place on each c…

145. I'm not allowed on the official scale cause the fight is off.9days. I did my part. pic.twitter.com/Vwy0N3ATEr

— CharlesAirJourdain (@JourdainAir) January 21, 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 first Ultimate Fighting Championship pay-per-view of 2022 took a pair of huge hits before weigh-ins began. Early on Friday morning, ESPN Deportes reported that Rodolfo Vieira had been forced out of his UFC 270 meeting with Wellington Turman due to medical reasons. Per MMA Fighting, Turman will be paid his show money, and it is not certain if the fight will be rebooked or if the two will face different opponents in the future. The promotion confirmed the loss of this fight shortly before the weigh-ins with an updated lineup excluding the middleweight matchup. The welterweight pairing between Trevin Giles and Michael Morales has since…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EUp-hhaIhY&w=640&h=360] The Ultimate Fighting Championship's first pay-per-view of 2022 is set with two title fights after the official UFC 270 weigh-ins took place.

Headlining the card is a heavyweight unification bout between champion Francis Ngannou and interim titleholder Ciryl Gane. The co-main event will see flyweight king Brandon Moreno face Deiveson Figueiredo for a third time. While all four fighters in the championship bouts made weight, two undercard bouts were canceled as Ilia Topuria was pulled from his featherweight bout against Charles Jourdain due to issues with his weight cut, and middleweight Rodolfo Vieira was pulled from his fight against Wellington Turman due to medical reasons.

This is the first bout for Ngannou (16-3) since claiming the title from Stipe Miocic last year. "The Predator" finished Miocic just 52 seconds into the second round of their rematch, and comes into this battle on a five-fight knocko…

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 is stacking the deck for its first jaunt to Europe since 2019. Per the UFC’s broadcast partner of ESPN on Thursday night, UFC Fight Night 204 on March 19 in London now has a headliner. At heavyweight, Alexander Volkov (34-9) will square off with rising British talent Tom Aspinall (11-2) in a five-round affair. Additionally, MMA Latinoamerica Fight Club broke the news that Paddy Pimblett (17-3) will be returning to the Octagon as well on this fight card, but against Rodrigo Vargas (12-4) and not the recently announced Jared Gordon.

Volkov will be aiming to make it two in a row at the expense of Manchester’s Aspinall, as he pulled off a unanimous decision win over Marcin Tybura in October 2021 to get back in the win column. Before the Tybura performance, “Drago” fell short to future interim title…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdzaS1MB9b0&w=560&h=315] About a month out from its 2022 return to its adopted hometown of Uncasville, Conn., Bellator MMA has set its lineup for its first Mohegan Sun show of the year.

The organization sent out via press release the full 14-fight lineup of Bellator 274, which confirmed several rumored matches, adding a few more and changing at least one participant. This event will take place at the famed Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., on Feb. 19, in an event that will air on the Showtime network. Of note, this fight card will be capped off by Bellator’s first non-title, non-tournament five-round headliner when Neiman Gracie takes on Logan Storley in the welterweight division.

Bellator added five new fights to the preliminary card, perhaps most notably with the return of ex-middleweight title challenger Brennan Ward (14-6) after over for years away. The Connecticut local, the subject of a recent feature which chronic…

The lineup for UFC 272 appears to be nearly complete, as the promotion confirmed multiple previously rumored or reported bouts for the March 5 event.

The following bouts are now official for UFC 272: Tagir Ulanbekov vs. Tim Elliott at flyweight, Jalin Turner vs. Jamie Mullarkey at lightweight; Devonte Smith vs. Erick Gonzalez at lightweight; Nicolae Negumereanu vs. Ihor Potieria at light heavyweight and Dustin Jacoby vs. Michal Oleksiejczuk at light heavyeight.

UFC 272 takes place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and is headlined by a welterweight duel between Jorge Masvidal and Colby Covington. The main card airs via pay-per-view on ESPN+ beginning at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT. The prelims begin on ESPN+ at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT and then continue on ESPN and ESPN+ at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

Dagestan’s Ulanbekov has been victorious in 14 of his 15 professional outings, including a pair of victories in UFC competition. Elliott, meanwhile, is a former flyweight title challen…

After being released by UFC in December 2020, former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos is really motivated to return to combat sports.

Scheduled to face former European boxing champion, Kubrat Pulev, at Triad Combat 2 on Feb. 26 in Houston, “Cigano” praised the promotion’s hybrid rules at a recent press conference held for Brazilian media.

“The rules are even both for MMA and boxing. The ring in the format of a triangle will be beneficial for MMA guys, who like less space to move, which is definitely not my case,” said dos Santos, who is splitting his training between Cuban boxer Pedro Diaz and American Top Team wrestler Steve Mocco. “I think that format makes the fight more interesting. I also liked that they took out the boring part of boxing when fighters clinch, and fight is stopped by the judge. In the Triad we can keep fighting from the clinch, which makes it possible for these two worlds to collide.”

Dos Santos was critical of the performance of …

Getty/UFC

Former Dana White’s Contender Series competitor and four-time UFC veteran Impa Kasanganay has signed a contract to compete for Eagle FC.

MMAFighting.com was first to report the deal. Kasanganay is expected to make his debut with the Khabib Nurmagomedov-led promotion on March 11. An opponent for Kasanganay’s Eagle FC debut is currently unknown.

Kasanganay won a pair of bouts on the Contender Series, besting Kailan Hill and Anthony Adams before receiving a UFC contract. The 28-year-old Sanford MMA representative went 2-2 in the Octagon, most recently losing to Carlston Harris via first-round TKO at UFC Fight Night 192.

The March 11 event is expected to be Eagle FC 46 and is headlined by a 165-pound clash between Kevin Lee and Diego Sanchez.

After a knockout win over Evander Holyfield in an exhibition boxing match last September, Vitor Belfort is scheduled to make his combat sports return against another boxing champ, Chad Dawson, at Triad Combat 2 on Feb. 26 in Houston.

At recent press conference for Brazilian media, Belfort revealed that Oscar De La Hoya was the first opponent option, but “The Golden Boy” refused the bout.

“We were scheduled to fight when [De La Hoya] got sick, and Holyfield accepted the invitation. As soon as the invitation to Triad 2 came, we first tried Oscar, but there was no way to convince him, so we got Dawson,” Belfort said.

Triad MMA features a hybrid of boxing and MMA, but knees, kicks and elbows are not allowed in the fights. According to Belfort, Triad is the first event not to favor either side.

“We are not going to fight boxing with them and they are not coming to take kicks in the face from us,” he said. “And the format of the ring is good for both. They are m…

LONDON STAND UP!!!

We are finally coming back to #UFCLondon on March 19! Register now to get early access to tickets

https://t.co/7GRVaxHxnK pic.twitter.com/EJH3mVQyan — UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) January 19, 2022

For the first time since March 2019, the Ultimate Fighting Championship will hold an event in London.

The promotion announced on Wednesday that it will hold a card at the O2 arena in England’s capital city, with tickets going on sale Feb. 4. It will be the 12th time the Las Vegas-based organization has held an event in London.

“Every time we put on an event in London, it’s an unbelievable experience,” UFC president Dana White said. “The fans are incredible, and the fights are always off the charts. It’s a different kind of energy in England, and I can’t wait to get back there with a fight card on March 19.”

The promotion’s last visit to London occurred on March 16, 2019, where Jorge Masvidal knocked out Darren Til…

PFL Challenger Series kicks off at 205 ⚖

February 18th9 PM ET@fuboTV @fuboSports pic.twitter.com/SxUdlrvyQp

— PFL (@PFLMMA) January 19, 2022 The Professional Fighters League Challenger Series will debut on Feb. 18 with a group of light heavyweights vying to be part of the promotion’s season format.

Following a somewhat similar process to what Dana White’s Contender Series does for the UFC, the PFL Challenger Series will either hand fighters a PFL contract or “set them on a development path with the league in hopes of joining a future season.”

The lineup of 205-pound competitors, announced Wednesday in a release, is as follows: Legacy Fighting Alliance two-division champ Joshua Silveira, German kickboxer Alexander Poppeck, Sudan’s Mohamed Juma, Bellator veteran Taylor Johnson, undefeated British prospect Simeon Powell, Brazilian veteran Bruce Souto and Joao Paulo Fagundes.

Eight fighters will be selected over an eight-week span t…

Greg Hardy will square off against Sergey Spivak at UFC 272, promotion officials recently announced.

Hardy was initially slated to face Alexey Oleynik at UFC 270 this Saturday, before Spivak stepped in as a replacement for Oleynik. Shortly thereafter, a gruesome finger injury forced Hardy to withdraw from the card altogether.

UFC 272 takes place on March 5 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and is headlined by a welterweight grudge match pitting Colby Covington against Jorge Masvidal.

A former NFL Pro Bowler, Hardy is coming off back-to-back KO/TKO defeats inside the Octagon. Most recently, he suffered a 67-second knockout defeat at the hands of Tai Tuivasa at UFC 264 on July 10, which came on the heels of a second-round stoppage defeat to Marchin Tybura at UFC Fight Night 183. The “Prince of War” is 4-4 with one no contest during his tenure with the Las Vegas-based promotion.

Spivak, meanwhile, saw a three-bout winning streak come to an end at UFC Fight…