Martial Arts News

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 surging Ultimate Fighting Championship strawweight is getting her wish of a top contender, even if it is one that is on a bit of a skid. On Thursday, Combate first reported that Nina Nunes (10-7) has her next fight booked against Amanda Lemos (10-1). The two strawweights will toe the line at a previously unannounced UFC event on Dec. 18, at a currently undetermined location. Even without a venue tagged, the show will likely take place inside the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, as the promotion has stated that fight night cards will be held in the Apex until the end of 2021 at minimum. The news has since been confirmed by other outlets.

Nunes returned from nearly a two-year layoff after having a daughter with two-division champ Amanda Nunes to face Mackenzie Dern in April. The Floridian succumbed to an armbar in the first round, thereby…

#BELLATOR265 Weigh-in Results: Jay-Jay Wilson (@TheMaoriKid1) - 150.4 lbs. pic.twitter.com/6CbPRWh8ak

— Bellator Public Relations (@BellatorPR) August 19, 2021 Only one fighter on the Bellator 265 card missed weight, but it was a costly miss as the planned co-main event was nixed as a result.

The now nine-fight card is headlined by Bellator MMA heavyweight contenders Cheick Kongo and Sergei Kharitonov. The co-main event was originally supposed to pit Adam Borics against Jay-Jay Wilson, but Wilson missed weight significantly and came in at 150.4 pounds for the featherweight bout. As a result, the fight is off, and Dante Schiro vs. Logan Storley will now serve as the penultimate bout.

Kongo (30-11-2, 1 NC) is coming off a split-decision defeat to Timothy Johnson. Prior to the setback, Kongo was undefeated in nine outings. The 46-year-old will look to show he still has more left in the tank. The French fighter officially weighed 247 pounds.<…

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The middleweight finals of “The Ultimate Fighter 29” have a new pairing after Tresean Gore suffered a knee injury that forced him to pull out of a clash with Bryan Battle.

As a result, Battle will now square off against Gilbert Urbina with a UFC contract on the line. UFC president Dana White revealed the new pairing to TMZ Sports.

“Brutal for this poor kid, you know,” White said. “But, what we’ll do is when Tresean Gore is healthy, does he fight Bryan Battle if Bryan wins the fight? You know, I don’t know. We’ll see how this thing plays out. But, yeah, Gore is out.”

The “TUF 29” finals, which take place as part of the UFC on ESPN 30 card on Aug. 28, will also see Ricky Turcios square off against Brady Hiestand at bantamweight with a promotional deal on the line. The event takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and is headlined by a featherweight duel between Edson Barboza and Giga Chikadze.

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The women’s lightweight bracket of the Professional Fighters League playoffs will look a little different than originally anticipated after Larissa Pacheco missed weight on Wednesday.

Pacheco, who was the top seed at 155 pounds, tipped the scales at 158 pounds for her proposed semifinal clash against Taylor Guardado (155.6). As a result, Pacheco has been replaced by No. 5 Mariana Morais, who checked in a 153.6 pounds. The other half of the lightweight semifinals are official, as defending champ Kayla Harrison (155.6) and opponent Genah Fabian (156) made weight for Thursday’s headlining bout.

Meanwhile, Bruno Henrique Cappelozza (235.6) will square off against Jamelle Jones (250.8) in one heavyweight semifinal, while Denis Goltsov (250) locks horns with Ante Delija (244.4) in the other half of the bracket.

The winners of their respective matchups will advance to the PFL championships on Oct. 27 for…

Shortly after he authored perhaps his best performance since moving to bantamweight in a unanimous decision triumph over Pedro Munhoz at UFC 265, Jose Aldo set his sights on a fellow former champion.

“It would be great for me to fight with [T.J.] Dillashaw,” Aldo said after his UFC 265 win. “Hopefully by December. I think it would be a great fight and that’s what we expect. That’s what I’m expecting right now.”

Dillashaw returned from more than a two-year absence at UFC on ESPN 27, where he captured a contentious split-decision triumph over Cory Sandhagen on July 24. While the ex-bantamweight king is open to a future clash with Aldo, he has some unfinished business he’d like to handle first.

“Yeah, I like the callout,” Dillashaw said in a recent interview with Submission Radio. “I would like to fight Jose Aldo. He’s a legend of our sport, and we can do it after I get my belt back.”

That means Dillashaw will have to wait for the winner of the rematch betwe…

Leah McCourt will lock horns with Jessica Borga in the Bellator 267 co-main event on Oct. 1.

Promotion officials announced the featherweight booking on Wednesday. Bellator 267 takes place at the SSE Arena in London and is headlined by a welterweight rematch between Douglas Lima and Michael Page. The main card airs on Showtime at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT, while prelims begin at 12:30 p.m. ET/9:30 a.m. PT.

McCourt enters the matchup with Borga on a five-bout winning streak, with four of those victories coming within the California-based promotion. Most recently, the 29-year-old Belfast native submitted Janay Harding in the second round at Bellator 259 on May 21.

Borga, meanwhile, had a two-fight winning streak snapped in a unanimous decision loss to Talita Nogueira at Bellator 256 on April 9. The Champions MMA export began her promotional tenure with a first-round submission win over Amber Leibrock at Bellator 226.

FIGHT CARD for ONE: Revolution! pic.twitter.com/AdUwBiBPne

— Chatri Sityodtong (@yodchatri) August 18, 2021

Three title bouts will top the card for One Championship “Revolution” on Sept. 24, the Singapore -based promotion announced Tuesday.

In the main event, Christian Lee will defend his lightweight (170-pound) crown against Rae Yoon Ok. Additionally, reigning strawweight (125-pound) king Joshua Pacio will meet Yosuke Saruta in a trilogy bout, while bantamweight kickboxing title holder Capitan Petchyindee Academy will lock horns with Mehdi Zatout.

One “Revolution” takes place at Singapore Indoor Stadium in Singapore and airs on the One Super App. Three other contests were confirmed for the evening’s main card: Martin Nguyen vs. Kim Jae Woong at featherweight (155 pounds); Amir Aliakbar vs. Anatoly Malykhin at heavyweight and Victoria Lee vs. Victoria Souza at atomweight (115 pounds).

The 23-year-old Lee is currently on a six-bout wi…

The UFC on ESPN 30 card has lost a few fights after multiple fighters were forced to withdraw from the Aug. 28 event.

The most prominent exit involves Olympic silver medalist and former bantamweight title challenger Sara McMann, who announced that she is pulling out of a proposed matchup with Ketlen Vieira due to injury.

“Ugh, I have crappy news to share. I am out of the August 28 fight because of a reinjury,” McMann wrote. “I’m hoping like hell it’s a quick healing process but I’ll have to wait until I get the final prognosis to know. The worst part is that I was so healthy and having a really great camp.

“I know I’ll keep the gains I’ve made but I was really hoping to get the reward for all of the work I’ve put in the last few months. If [Ketlen Vieira] is able to wait and push our fight date back, I’m happy to do that. I’ll be back to the [UFC] as quickly as possible.”

It’s currently unclear if Vieira will remain on the card against a replacement oppon…

Two days after celebrating the gold-medal winning performance of his student, Herbert Conceicao, following his knockout of Oleksandr Khyzhniak at the Tokyo Olympics, boxing coach Luiz Dorea learned of Anderson Silva’s scheduled booking against Tito Ortiz under the Triller Fight Club banner on Sept. 11.

“I was already in L.A. at Anderson´s gym training my student, (2016 Olympic gold medalist) Robson Conceicao, for his first world title dispute against (WBC super featherweight champion) Oscar Valdez, when Anderson informed me about the fight against Ortiz,” Dorea told Sherdog.com.

“Actually I got really excited when Anderson told me about that fight. It will be a clash of MMA legends, two former champions under boxing rules.”  

Dorea has experience preparing for Ortiz after training Antonio Rogerio Nogueira for his matchup with “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” at UFC 140 nearly a decade ago. Nogueira would win that fight via first-round technical knockout.…

We're very saddened by the tragic news of Saul Soliz's passing. Saul will be remembered fondly as a world-class coach, leader and, more importantly, a world-class man. Sending our sincere condolences to those who had the privilege of knowing Saul. pic.twitter.com/klzvKDGgJE

— IridiumSportsAgency (@TeamIridiumISA) August 17, 2021

Saul Soliz, the leader of Metro Fight Club in Houston and a prominent coach in the MMA community for years, has died at age 55.

Soliz’s friend, John Gomez, revealed in a Facebook post that the cause of death was COVID-19. Soliz’s passing has since been confirmed by multiple outlets.

“He fought a long hard fight, anyone that knew JR knows he was a UFC trainer, he loved training his fighters and showing them how to become winners, not only in fighting but also how to live life -- he mentor so many , I’ll never know how many , I know it’s a long list,” Gomez wrote. “He really loved training his fighters- they all have…

Fifteen-time Octagon veteran Yancy Medeiros is no longer on the Ultimate Fighting Championship roster.

MMAFighting.com reported on Tuesday that Medeiros and Justin Jaynes have been released by the Las Vegas-based promotion. It is unclear if Medeiros and Jaynes were cut with existing fights on their deals or if their contracts were simply not renewed.

Medeiros has been with the UFC since 2013, compiling a 6-8 record with one no contest over the course of his tenure. He earned notable wins over the likes of Alex Oliveira, Erick Silva and John Makdessi. Medeiros exits the organization on a four-bout skid, including a decision loss to Damir Hadzovic in his most recent outing at UFC Fight Night 190 on June 26. The Strikeforce veteran earned five performance bonuses during his time with the UFC.

Jaynes exits the UFC on a four-bout skid after scoring a 41-second technical knockout win over Frank Camacho in his debut in June 2020. In his last outing, Jaynes dropped a s…

Credit: Pro Fight League

Saidyokub Kakhramonov will replace Leomana Martinez and lock horns with Trevin Jones at UFC on ESPN 29.

MMA Island was first to report the new bantamweight bout. UFC on ESPN 29 takes place Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and is headlined by a middleweight bout between Jared Cannonier and Kelvin Gastelum. The main card airs on ESPN and ESPN+ at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT following prelims at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.

The 25-year-old Kakhramonov enters his Octagon debut on a two-bout winning streak after back-to-back knockout victories on the regional scene. Most recently, he stopped Tycen Lynn 45 seconds into the second round at Cage Fury Fighting Championships 92 on March 11. He also notably fought once under the Professional Fighters League banner, falling to Umar Nurmagomedov via unanimous decision in 2018. The Team Top Notch representative is 8-2 over the course of a career that began in 2017.

Jones last appeared at UFC 259, where he scor…