Martial Arts News

.@UFC announces updates to #UFCSeattle ⤵️https://t.co/ZiBGw71mlYhttps://t.co/ZiBGw71mlY

— UFC News (@UFCNews) February 13, 2025 Editor's note: The article was updated at 3:45 p.m. ET on Feb. 13 to add another fighter withdrawal.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s Seattle comeback is falling apart at the seams.

Over the last few days, rumors or reports have come up about numerous alterations to UFC Seattle, also known as UFC Fight Night 252, going down on Feb. 22. Most notably is the breaking of the news that Macy Chiasson suffered an injury and has been forced out of her bantamweight contest with Ketlen Vieira, without replacement planned for either woman.

The UFC announced on Thursday that fight’s cancelation along with two new pairings and the confirmation of one bout shifting to a later event. Curtis Blaydes and Rizvan Kuniev were expected to battle in this Seattle showdown, but they have been bumped to UFC 313 two weeks lat…

pic.twitter.com/vflbCX75a8

— Sean Strickland (@SStricklandMMA) February 12, 2025

Eric Nicksick’s very public critique of Sean Strickland could have consequences for the Xtreme Couture coach.

Nicksick, who has been Strickland’s main coach during his rise to becoming middleweight champion, wasn’t pleased with his charge’s performance against Dricus Du Plessis in the UFC 312 main event this past Saturday. Nicksick made that very clear when he referred to it as "uninspired fighting” during a recent interview on “The Ariel Helwani Show.”

Strickland, who lost a clear-cut unanimous decision in his rematch with Du Plessis, has responded to the criticism via social media. It appears that the ex-UFC champ will no longer have Nicksick in his corner going forward.

“I like Eric. He’s a friend of mine and he’s going to continue to be a friend of mine. Will he probably be in my corner? Probably not,” Strickland said in a video on X. “We have so …

The Good Guy vs The Bad Guy 👊@DC_MMA and @ChaelSonnen will coach Season 33 of #TUF! pic.twitter.com/x2Lo53ycx9

— UFC (@ufc) January 19, 2025

The cast for the 33rd season of “The Ultimate Fighter” is now official.

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The UFC on Wednesday unveiled the full 16-fighter roster for “TUF 33,” which will feature flyweights and welterweights. The new season will debut on May 27 via ESPN2 and ESPN+. Daniel Cormier and Chael Sonnen will serve as opposing coaches on the long-running reality show.

With three prior UFC appearances on his resume, Joseph Morales is a familiar face on the flyweight cast. He went 1-2 during that stint but has since put together three consecutive triumphs on the regional circuit.

“TUF” 33 will also feature a pair of Dana White's Contender Series alums: flyweight Roybert Echeverria, who suffered a third-round TKO defeat to Jafel Filho in September 2022, and welterweight Matt Dixon, who suffered a thir…

A featherweight clash pitting Josh Emmett against Lerone Murphy is expected to headline the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s event on April 5.

MMAFighting.com was first to report the bout. The UFC Fight Night event will take place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and also includes a 145-pound tilt between Giga Chikadze and David Onama.

Emmett will be back in action for the first time since December 2023, when he scored a brutal first-round knockout victory against Bryce Mitchell at UFC 296. Prior to that, the Team Alpha Male product had suffered back-to-back losses against current featherweight champ Ilia Topuria and former No. 1 contender Yair Rodriguez. Emmett owns notable victories over the likes of Calvin Kattar, Dan Ige, Shane Burgos, Michael Johnson and Ricardo Lamas during his Octagon tenure.

Murphy is unbeaten in 16 professional outings, with the lone blemish on his ledger coming via split draw against Zubaira Tukhugov in his Octagon debut at UFC 242.…

Professional Fighters League has officially revealed the fighters who will compete in the upcoming welterweight and featherweight tournaments.

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The welterweight division is highlighted by former Bellator MMA champion Jason Jackson, who won eight consecutive fights before relinquishing the belt to Ramazan Kuramagomedov in a unanimous decision defeat at Bellator Champions Series Dublin last year. Also part of the field is Magomed Umalatov, who reached the welterweight finals of the 2024 PFL season, where he suffered a third-round technical knockout loss to Shamil Musaev. Former Bellator 170-pound champion Andrey Koreshkov and ex-interim title holder Logan Storley will also be part of the bracket.

Meanwhile, the featherweight field features the return of 2023 PFL champion Jesus Pinedo, who did not compete at all in 2024. Pinedo’s opponent in the 2023 finals, Gabriel Braga, is also part of the 2024 lineup. Another featherweight favorite figures to be M…

Khamzat Chimaev recently cleared the air about his citizenship after acquiring a new passport.

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Chimaev became an official citizen of the United Arab Emirates last week. This is the third country that “Borz” can now call his home. Born in the Chechen Republic of Russia, Chimaev moved to Sweden at just 19 years of age and now most recently to the UAE. Chimaev says both Russia and the Emirates are dear to him and he would love to be an inspiration to the youth in both countries.

“I’m grateful to the people who trusted me and gave me the opportunity to live both here and there,” Chimaev recently told Ushatayka. “Russia is my motherland and I represent the UAE. They always help me when I have fights. Abu Dhabi became a sporting hub. There are always events here. I’ll be happy to help the youth in these countries.”

After having built up his MMA career at the All Stars Training Center in Stockholm, Sweden, Chimaev has been blamed for deserting the c…

Khabib Nurmagomedov’s kindness even extends to his fellow coaches.

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American Kickboxing Academy coach Javier Mendez recently revealed yet another benevolent gesture from the former Ultimate Fighting Championship champ. During a recent episode of Mendez’s podcast, his co-host congratulated him on his new apartment.

“Thank Khabib. He got me a new apartment,” Mendez replied.

The relationship between Nurmagomedov and Mendez goes back to 2012, when the Dagestani’s father first brought him to the U.S. Mendez played a key role in shaping Nurmagomedov’s career, their relationship transcending that of just a coach and pupil. While Nurmagomedov retired from the sport in 2020, he continues to coach his cousins and teammates from Dagestan alongside Mendez.

Mendez also shared a close bond with Khabib’s father, the legendary Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov. Abdulmanap had envisioned his son to become a world champion and for his other pupils like Islam Ma…

Belal Muhammad claims to have the strategy to beat Dricus Du Plessis.

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Muhammad is the latest of several UFC champs who are looking to move up a weight class to fulfil double-champ aspirations. “Remember the Name” is teasing a move up to middleweight to challenge Du Plessis, who recently defended his title with a dominant decision over Sean Strickland at UFC 312 last weekend.

According to Muhammad, he’ll beat “Stillknocks” in every aspect of the game for the first two rounds, leaving him frustrated by the third round. When Du Plessis attempts to implement his awkward style, Muhammad plans on taking his back and submitting him in the third frame.

“I'd come out him with a 1-2, then he'd wing an overhand. I'll duck it, change levels and take him down. Then he'd shrimp and get the underhook to get out, but he'll be too weak to get up, so then I'll hit him with ground-and-pound for the rest of Round 1,” Muhammad wrote on social media. “Round 2 start…

Xtreme Couture coach Eric Nicksick didn’t mince words while addressing Sean Strickland’s latest loss.

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Strickland faced Dricus Du Plessis in a title rematch at UFC 312 this past weekend in Sydney. Du Plessis dominated Strickland for 25 minutes to earn a unanimous decision win. While Strickland is typically known as a defensive striker, the output seemed to be below his usual standards. Nicksick could be seen visibly frustrated in the corner as he failed to motivate Strickland to go for broke even in the championship rounds.

Nicksick didn’t sugarcoat his disappointment with Strickland when speaking of the loss. According to Nicksick, it was just “uninspired fighting” on Strickland’s part on such a massive stage. Nicksick urges Strickland to decide whether he really wants to become a champ or is just in it for a payday.

“It was uninspired fighting,” Nicksick told Ariel Helwani. “It just seemed like he was sleepwalking. It was tough man. I was j…

MARK YOUR CALENDARS 🗓️

International Fight Week is BACK! See you in June! 👋#UFCFightWeek pic.twitter.com/1PoN8a4k3a

— UFC (@ufc) February 11, 2025

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The dates are set for one of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s signature offerings.

The promotion on Tuesday revealed that UFC 317 will take place on June 28 and will be preceded by International Fight Week festivities, including the UFC Hall of Fame induction ceremony on June 26 and the UFC X immersive fan experience on June 27-28.

A venue wasn’t announced for UFC 317, but it is likely that it will be held at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. It’s the second consecutive year that the promotion has moved up International Fight Week and the ensuing event to the end of June after traditionally holding it in early July. No fights were revealed for UFC 317, but it’s an event that the promotion usually tries to fill with a number of high-profile bouts.

With UFC 315 …

Bill Algeo is calling it a career at 35 years old.

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The 10-time Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran announced his retirement in an Instagram post on Tuesday. Algeo went 5-5 during his tenure with the Las Vegas-based promotion. “Senor Perfecto” went 18-9 over the course of a professional career that began in 2012.

“This game has been good to me and helped me develop and become a better person,” Algeo wrote. “It’s going to be strange not having a fight coming up (unless Fauci decides to man up), but I’ll be guiding the next generation over at Algeo MMA. I’ve met plenty of cool [people] along the way chasing their dreams and shared the cage with some rivals, friends and heroes of mine.

“Thank you to the UFC and the UFC staff for taking care of me and for having the balls to bring sports back safely in the pandemic. My gym was labeled non-essential for [three to four] months and the UFC helped provide income during that weird time.”

Alge…

Coming off three consecutive victories, Gregory Rodrigues has already arrived in Las Vegas to headline his first UFC card against Jared Cannonier at the UFC Apex.

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“The camp couldn't be better,” Rodrigues told Sherdog.com. “I arrived in Las Vegas Monday night with Vicente Luque and my boxing coach, Dietter Navarro. Tonight [Gilbert Burns] is coming and tomorrow, Henri [Hooft]. Now I´m 100% focused on the weight cut and recovering even better.”

The Brazilian known as “Robocop” theorized as to why he received such a prominent name despite not being in the UFC’s middleweight rankings.

“I think the UFC likes to recognize hard workers,” he said. “After I accepted a short-notice call to face Leroy Duncan in Manchester, they offered me Ikram Aliskerov in December. I said yes, but he refused. I asked for [Paulo Costa], but he didn’t want the fight. Then they offered Roman Dolidze. I accepted; he didn’t. When the UFC came up with Cannonier, who has alr…