Martial Arts News

She cut off her hair to make weight! 126 #UFCDenver pic.twitter.com/C01B7fYOTe

— Amy Kaplan (@PhotoAmy33) July 12, 2024 The UFC on ESPN 59 main event is now official, but there was some drama on the scales.

While former Ultimate Fighting Championship strawweight champion Rose Namajunas made flyweight easily, opponent Tracy Cortez did not. Cortez was initially overweight at 126.5 pounds but later weighed 126 on the dot after cutting off some of her hair. All other fighters made weight as well.

Advertisement

Namajunas (12-6) recently rebounded from a two-fight skid by winning a unanimous decision over Amanda Ribas. Now 1-1 at flyweight, "Thug" will look to become a title contender in a second division. The 32-year-old stepped on the scale at 124.75 pounds.

Meanwhile, Cortez (11-1) is riding an impressive 11-fight win streak. Cortez is undefeated inside the UFC, having gone 5-0 in the promotion. Most recently, the 30-year-old picked…

Gadzhimurad Amirzhanov knows how to impose his will, and ONE Championship stands to benefit from his exploits.

Dogged takedowns, suffocating top control and effective ground-and-pound carried the undefeated Russian prospect to a unanimous decision over Matheus Pereira in a three-round ONE Friday Fights 70 lightweight showcase on Friday at Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand. All three ringside judges scored it for Amirzhanov (6-0, 3-0 ONE), who was forced to go the distance for the first time since his December 2020 professional debut.

Pereira (7-3, 3-1 ONE) could not stay upright. Amirzhanov sat him down with an overhand left and threatened with a brabo choke in the first round, then settled into a rinse-and-repeat cycle across the final 10-plus minutes. Pereira did all he could from bottom position, even though he received a yellow card for repeated punches to the back of the head. Those efforts—they included a powerful upkick in the third round—proved futi…

. @Jon_Anik has to get a 337 tattoo if I win https://t.co/gzuBwZRWsR

— The Diamond (@DustinPoirier) July 9, 2024

While Dustin Poirier (30-9) appears interested in fighting Nate Diaz (21-13), he believes the Ultimate Fighting Championship won’t do business with the younger Diaz brother.

Advertisement

After parting ways with the UFC in 2022, Diaz (21-13) has been dabbling in boxing, dropping a controversial split decision against Jake Paul before bouncing back with a unanimous decision win over fellow UFC alum Jorge Masvidal last weekend. Meanwhile, Poirier (30-9) is at a crossroads in his career after having come up short in his third and likely final lightweight title bid against Islam Makhachev at UFC 302 last month.

While he has been contemplating retirement, Poirier admits that it’s difficult for him to stay away from fighting. UFC color commentator Jon Anik recently suggested Diaz as a potential opponent that would make sense …

Having shared the Octagon with Ian Garry, Michael Page believes the Irishman will never win an Ultimate Fighting Championship title.

Page (22-3) faced a steep step up in competition when he took on Garry (15-0) in his sophomore promotional clash at UFC 303 last month. Despite getting dominated by Garry on the ground, “MVP” put on a valiant effort in the striking exchanges en route to a unanimous decision loss. While he doesn’t want to make excuses, Page claims he wasn’t quite himself on fight night.

Advertisement

“There’s a lot of mistakes I made,” Page said on The MMA Hour. “Don’t want to make too many excuses but there was a bit of a weird build up as well. And I always tried to stay focused on what I need to get done. But I had a few issues I needed to overcome in the build up to the fight… Wasn’t quite myself.”

While Garry had vowed to outstrike Page, the former Bellator MMA star was evidently faster and landed the more damaging shots in the striking exchang…

YOUR CO-MAIN EVENT. Only one will make it through to the Playoffs.

Mohammed Alaqraa 🇰🇼 WEIGHED IN ✅ 170 LBS

Advertisement

Youcef Ouabbas 🇩🇿 WEIGHED IN ✅ 169 LBS

WHO’S READY FOR THE WELTERWEIGHT CLASH? 🔥🥊#PFLMENA | Friday, July 12 | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | Tickets via 🔗… pic.twitter.com/8PZx8lLu4c

— PFL MENA (@PFLMENA) July 11, 2024 Mohammad Alaqraa has traveled over 7,000 miles to train with the best. He’s sacrificed a ton for his opportunity to shine on a major stage, and it’s finally starting to pay off.

Despite the initial setback of not having sponsorship to travel to the United States, Alaqraa's determination was unwavering. He applied to multiple schools and was eventually accepted on scholarship at San Jose State University. But he didn’t settle for a major that couldn’t help him as an athlete. He chose industrial engineering, a field that would challenge his mind the same way training challenged his body.

“I thoug…

[embedded content]

Cody Brundage (10-6) might have to bear the wrath of Abdul Razak Alhassan (12-6) due to no fault of his own in their upcoming bout this weekend.

Advertisement

Both Alhassan (12-6) and Brundage (10-6) will be fighting in front of a home crowd at UFC on ESPN 59 at Ball Arena in Denver on July 13. Alhassan vented out a lot of pent-up anger at UFC Denver media day, promising to unleash the worst of it on Brundage come fight night.

“I have some demons in me that I’m trying to unleash on that motherfuc*er,” Alhassan said. “Of course, my word is going to make it sound like I hate him. I have nothing against him. I swear to God, I’m going to unleash some fuc*ing demons on that motherfuc*er.”

The anger in Alhassan stems from past sexual assault allegations which he was later acquitted of. Alhassan was working as a bouncer at a Fort Worth, Texas, bar in 2018 when two women, aged 20 and 22, accused him of raping them at one of their houses after a…

Jarrah Al-Silawi’s chance to regain his Professional Fighters League roster spot could rely on him winning the eight-man PFL MENA Welterweight Season. Despite his setbacks during the previous two years, Al-Silawi says he’s become a brand-new fighter.

“I feel that I’m one of the most experienced fighters in the field,” Al-Silawi told Sherdog.com. “This camp, however, gave me the chance to improve and work on new things to become Jarrah 2.0. With that comes the responsibility to perform and do well in this tournament.

Advertisement

“I’m very excited to fight in an Arab country again,” he added. “I think it gives me a chance to prove that I’m one of -- if not the best -- Middle Eastern fighters, and who knows, maybe this will lead to me fighting on the big show again.”

Al-Silawi (19-6) will face Algeria’s Rayan Atmani (4-2) at 2024 PFL MENA 2 Regular Season on Friday at The Green Halls in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Armani has never been outside the first round and coul…

[embedded content]

Sean Strickland’s back-and-forth with Navy SEALs has pulled David Goggins into the fray.

Advertisement

Since February, Strickland (29-6) has been trading barbs with Navy SEALs after he claimed that none of them could endure one week of training with him. While Strickland expectedly received severe backlash from SEALs, one even recently showed up to spar the former Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight champ. Strickland showed no mercy, putting an absolute beating on former Navy SEAL turned mixed martial arts fighter Mitch Aguiar.

Now Goggins, a former Navy SEAL turned fitness motivational influencer, has issued Strickland a challenge.

“Cause this is your opportunity to show the world that you can f*ck me up. I will have camera crews out there,” Goggins said in a video released on TalkSport. “You make sure you bring your f*cking camera crew out there because you’re going to want to get this on camera. Cause a 49-year-old, broke down …

Matt Frevola will lock horns with Fares Ziam in a lightweight bout at UFC Paris.

Both fighters confirmed the booking on social media following an initial report from Marcel Dorff. UFC Fight Night takes place at the Accor Arena in Paris on Sept. 28 and features a lightweight showdown pitting Benoit St. Denis against Renato Carneiro.

Frevola is coming off a first-round knockout loss against St. Denis at UFC 295 this past November. Prior to that, “The Steamrolla” had earned consecutive opening round stoppages against Genaro Valdez, Ottman Azaitar and Drew Dober in the Octagon.

Ziam, meanwhile, has been victorious in five of his last six UFC bouts. In his first appearance of 2024 Kill Cliff FC-trained Frenchman garnered a split-decision triumph over Claudio Puelles at UFC Fight Night 237 on Feb. 24.

Some prominent names have been confirmed for Bellator Champions Series San Diego.

Advertisement

The promotion announced on Wednesday that Douglas Lima, Lorenz Larkin and Raufeon Stots will all be competing on the card, which takes place at Pechanga Arena in San Diego on Sept. 7. Lima will face Aaron Jeffery at middleweight, while Larkin will lock horns with Levan Chokheli in a welterweight clash. Stots, meanwhile, will take on Marcos Breno at bantamweight in the evening’s co-main event.

Bellator Champions Series San Diego is headlined by a lightweight title tilt between Usman Nurmagomedov and Alexandr Shabliy. The card will air in its entirety on Max in the United States.

A former Bellator welterweight champion, Lima will return to action for the first time in more than a year. In his last outing, the 36-year-old Brazilian snapped a four-fight skid with a unanimous decison triumph over Costello van Steenis at Bellator 296 in May 2023.

Jeffery, meanwhile, …

🗓️ Coming 2025#PFLAfrica pic.twitter.com/oAWhQpCMwL

— PFL (@PFLMMA) July 10, 2024

The groundwork has been laid for Professional Fighters League to plant its flag in Africa.

Advertisement

The organization announced on Wednesday that PFL Africa will debut in the second quarter of 2025. Former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, who hails from Cameroon, will serve as chairman for the league. PFL Africa will follow a format similar to that of affiliate regional leagues PFL Europe and PFL MENA, with a regular season and postseason featuring fighters from throughout Africa.

“I am excited and honored to serve as Chairman of PFL Africa, a league that will shape the very foundation of African MMA,” Ngannou said in a release. “As we have seen there is a great wealth of talent in Africa just waiting to be given a global stage. I am so very proud to give back to my homeland and to provide great content to a region with such a passionate a…

Six contracts with the Ultimate Fighting Championship in seven appearances on Dana White's Contender Series. Twenty victories in 24 fights. Four bonuses in 2024.

Advertisement

Although The Fighting Nerds debuted in the Octagon less than two years ago, there is no doubt that the Brazilian team has made a significant impact in the sport in a short period of time. Captained by former boxer Pablo Sucupira, the team already has seven athletes in the UFC: Caio Borralho, Mauricio Ruffy, Bruna Brasil, Carlos Prates, Thiago Moises, Jean Silva and Kaynan Kruschewsky.

In an exclusive interview with Sherdog.com, Sucupira revealed that the team emerged from his frustration as a fighter.

“I always say that a good coach is a frustrated fighter, as frustration in the ring leads him to develop solutions for his athletes,” he said. “And it was like that with me. I started boxing when I was 29 years old. I achieved good results, but when I realized that I wouldn't be able…