Martial Arts News

The attention of the entire MMA world will be focused on the Octagon this Saturday when Conor McGregor faces Dustin Poirier in one of the most highly-anticipated rubber matches in UFC history.

The fact that Mcgregor beat Poirier via technical knockout in their first encounter in the featherweight division at UFC 178 in 2014 and the American have won the second encounter seven years later at UFC 257 has made that third fight even more intriguing.

Bellator featherweight champ Patricio Freire, who is in the midst of preparations to defend his belt against A.J. McKee on July 31, believes McGregor’s superior technique will be a key factor in the fight.

"McGregor is good at revenge. Actually, he was winning the first fight [before the finish],” Freire said. “Conor may talk a lot of s—t, but he is much more technical than Poirier. I think he will come more prepared this time and win decisively.

Meanwhile, UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira might have the m…

Bellator MMA has signed former Eagle Fighting Championships lightweight king Gadzhi Rabadanov to an exclusive, multi-fight contract.

Sherdog.com confirmed the deal with a promotion official following an initial report from MMAFighting.com. A date for Rabadanov’s Bellator debut was not revealed.

Rabadanov claimed the interim belt with a victory over Joao Paulo de Moura e Silva when the promotion was still known as Gorilla Fighting Championships. He was elevated to undisputed champion before dropping the title to Mehdi Dakaev in a five-round decision at Eagle Fighting Championship 30 this past December.

The Dagestani competed once for Professional Fighters League during the 2019 season, earning a unanimous verdict over Steven Siler in a featherweight matchup. Rabadanov missed the featherweight mark for two ensuing PFL appearances, however, and has since moved to 155 pounds. He enters his Bellator debut having won eight of his last nine professional outings, a run…

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Credit: © Jerry McCarthy/KO! Media © Credit: © Jerry McCarthy/KO! Media ©

The lineup for UFC on ESPN 26 continues to grow, as the promotion recently announced three more bouts for the July 17 event.

The three new matchups are as follows: Amanda Lemos vs. Montserrat Ruiz at strawweight; Rodrigo Nascimento Ferreira vs. Alan Baudot at heavyweight and Miles Johns vs. Anderson dos Santos at bantamweight.

UFC on ESPN 26 takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and is headlined by a lightweight tilt pitting Islam Makhachev against Thiago Moises. The main card airs on ESPN and ESPN+ at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, while prelims stream on ESPN and ESPN+ beginning at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.

After falling to Leslie Smith in her promotional debut, Lemos has won three straight bouts, including a first-round TKO of Livinha Souza in her last outing at UFC 259. Ruiz, meanwhile, outpointed Cheyanne Buys in her first Octagon foray at UFC on ESPN 21 to improve to 10-1 as a professional.

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One former Jon Jones training partner believes “Bones” will continue his extended run of success when he moves to the heavyweight division.

In an interview with TMZ Sports, former Jackson-Wink MMA teammate Rashad Evans discussed Jones’ potential at heavyweight. After Evans spit from the Albuquerque, N.M.-based camp, he faced Jones for the 205-pound title at UFC 145, losing a five-round verdict on April 21, 2012. While there was once bad blood between the two rivals, Evans still has plenty of respect for Jones.

“Jon moving up, it’s going to be a continuation of the legacy of Jon Jones,” Evans said. “Jon Jones is a phenomenal athlete. He’s a phenomenal fighter and his IQ inside the Octagon, it can’t be surpassed by anybody. So I expect him to carry that to the heavyweight division.

“The things that I think may give him some problems is the fact that these guys are big and they do hit harder. But for …

For Dustin Poirier, it was an easy decision to choose a trilogy with Conor McGregor over a lightweight title fight.

"If I am the best in the world, then I'm gonna beat Conor and fight for the belt. It's like doubling down on yourself,” Poirier told ESPN. “I’m a gambling man. I believe in my skills and fighting. So I just doubled down. That’s what it was.”

It seemed like a virtual certainty that “The Diamond” would be next in line to fight for the vacant lightweight crown after defeating McGregor via second-round technical knockout at UFC 257 in January. However, Poirier opted for the trilogy with the Irish star over a title bout, and Charles Oliveira claimed the throne with a stoppage of Michael Chandler at UFC 262.

“I don’t know how much you want to get into the actual contractual stuff with this, but me fighting for the belt, I wouldn’t have got pay-per-view [points]. I”d have got a base salary of probably not even a third of my base salary for this fight,” Po…

#BellatorFWGP finalist @ajmckee101 stopped by the desk to chop up #Bellator263 with @BCusterTV #ColbertNyambayar @BellatorMMA pic.twitter.com/qpAsth4XvE

— SHOWTIME SPORTS (@SHOsports) July 4, 2021

The Bellator 263 headliner between Patricio Freire and A.J. McKee may very well be the biggest fight in the history of the California-based promotion, but McKee is willing to take it one step further.

Not only does “The Mercenary” believe the featherweight grand prix final determines the No. 1 fighter under the Bellator banner, but he thinks the winner also deserves a spot at the top of all pound-for-pound lists, regardless of organization.

“Definitely. Hands down,” McKee said on Saturday’s Showtime Boxing broadcast. “This fight is for the pound-for-pound best, I feel, in the world. At 145 pounds, there’s not too many guys that can stop myself or ‘Pitbull.’”

McKee has kicked off his professional tenure with 17 consecutive triumphs in Be…

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Ludovit Klein puts Slovakia on the map!

[ Tune in LIVE on ESPN2 ] pic.twitter.com/0oj8dN5p1Y — UFC (@ufc) September 27, 2020

Nate Landwehr and Ludovit Klein will lock horns at an Ultimate Fighting Championship event on Oct. 16.

MMA DNA was first to report the booking. The event does not yet have an official location or headliner.

A former M-1 Global champion, Landwehr is 1-2 in his first three promotional appearances. In his last outing, “The Train” suffered a flying knee knockout loss to Julian Erosa 56 seconds into the opening round of their bout at UFC Fight Night 185. Landwehr was also knocked out by a knee from Herbert Burns in his Octagon debut but recovered to outpoint Darren Elkins in his next bout at UFC on ESPN 8.

Slovakia’s Klein has split his first two UFC bouts. After knocking out Shane Young in his first Octagon foray at UFC 253, “Mr. Highlight” dropped a decision to Michael Trizano at UFC o…

Former UFC flyweight contender John Dodson and his family were involved in a serious car accident over the weekend.

According to Dodson’s manager, Ricky Kottenstette, the fighter will no longer be able to compete in his scheduled bout against Cody Gibson at XMMA 2 on July 30 following the “near death” crash. A GoFundMe account has been started to help the New Mexico native and his family, and donations can be made here.

“We have started this go fund me to help John Dodson and family. The Dodson’s were headed to Texas on vacation to visit family when they were involved in a near death accident with the whole family inside the vehicle,” Kottenstette wrote.

“They were all released from the hospital this morning but will have a rough month of recovery and financial hardship ahead. They have totaled their family vehicle and unfortunately John will no longer be able to fight in his upcoming July 30th bout. We are asking for assistance to help them with their medical …

Saturday marks a year since Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, the father of former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomeodv, died due to COVID-19 related complications.

Abdulmanap was an integral figure in the MMA career of his son, serving as Khabib’s main coach during his rise to prominence. His death hastened Khabib’s departure from the sport, as the Dagestani grappler retired following a victory over Justin Gaethje at UFC 254 this past October, citing a promise he made to his mother to no longer compete without his father by his side.

Today is already a year since the Father is not with us,” Nurmagomedov wrote on Instagram. “This event increased my conviction that nothing in this world belongs to us, neither our children, nor our parents, nor our property. All we have is all temporary.”

“Everything belongs to Allah alone and to Him will be our return, tie your hearts to Allah, stay more alone with Him, because the time will come and we will all be put in a grave…

Nate Marquardt making his MMA return Aug 6th #TitanFC70 pic.twitter.com/LsPcnzoUb9

— Jim (@ItAlways420) July 3, 2021

Nate Marquardt will return to action for the first time since November 2017.

The former Strikeforce champion and UFC title challenger announced his comeback from retirement during Titan FC 70 on Friday. Marquardt plans to fight at the promotion’s Aug. 6 event. An opponent for the fight was not revealed.

“It’s 100 percent God,” Marquardt said of his motivation to return. “Honestly, I’ve been sent here to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and He’s the only way to be saved and our nation is in desperate need right now to turn back to the Lord. I believe that’s the message God has for me and I’m really excited to fight again.”

Marquardt initially revealed that in December 2019, but it wasn’t until now that “The Great” was able to make those plans concrete. The ex-King of Pancrase first announced his retirement at the en…

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Sean Soriano will square off against Octagon newcomer Fernando Padilla in a featherweight clash on Oct. 2.

ESPN was first to report the booking. The UFC Fight Night event takes place at an as yet to be announced location and is headling by a light heavyweight showdown pitting Thiago Santos against Johnny Walker.

After winning five of his last six bouts on the regional circuit, Soriano returned for a second promotional stint at UFC 262, where he suffered a second-round submission defeat to Christos Giagos on May 15. The 31-year-old Sanford MMA product is thus far winless in four UFC appearances.

A native of Chihuahau, Mexico, Padilla enters his first UFC foray having won four of his last five professional outings. Most recently, the 24-year-old Team Oyama representative knocked out Cameron Graves with an elbow in the second round of their featherweight title encounter at Fury Fighting Championship…