Martial Arts News

𝗢𝗥𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗗𝗢‼️ 𝗪𝗘 𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗕𝗔𝗖𝗞

All 2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣5️⃣ #PFLWorldTournament First Round Events will take place in Orlando!

Advertisement

🎟️Tickets go on sale on 𝗪𝗘𝗗𝗡𝗘𝗦𝗗𝗔𝗬, 𝗙𝗘𝗕𝗥𝗨𝗔𝗥𝗬 𝟭𝟵𝘁𝗵

For more information 👇https://t.co/eCMG4faqPw pic.twitter.com/QP4VSKD8Wi

— PFL (@PFLMMA) February 11, 2025 PFL Reveals First Four Dates for 2025 World Tournament Professional Fighters League’s new format will begin in earnest this spring.

The organization on Tuesday revealed the first four dates and venue for the upcoming 2025 PFL World Tournament, which marks a departure from the promotion’s season format of past years. The first four events will take place on April 3, April 11, April 18 and May 1 on the backlot of Universal Studios Florida in Orlando, Florida.

The single-elimination tournament will feature brackets at heavyweight, light heavyweight, middleweight, welterweight, lightweight, featherweight, bantamweight and women’s flyweight. Athletes who …

Tatiana Suarez’s first title opportunity in the Ultimate Fighting Championship didn’t go as planned, but that won’t stop her from moving forward with her mixed martial arts career.

Advertisement

Suarez suffered a surprisingly lopsided unanimous decision loss to reigning strawweight champion Weili Zhang in the UFC 312 co-main event this past Saturday at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia. While Suarez’s wrestling acumen was expected to give Zhang some difficulty, the Californian landed just one of 15 takedown attempts in the fight. After a promising opening stanza in which Suarez was able to ground her foe and rack up valuable control time, Zhang imposed her will over the course of the next 20 minutes.

Suarez addressed the defeat in a statement via Instagram on Tuesday.

“‘Champions don’t show up to get everything they want; they show up to give everything they have.’ And that’s what I’ll do every single time. No matter what,” Suarez wrote. “I love it al…

Joe Rogan wants to see Ilia Topuria vs Islam Makhachev for the 155 title, and Diego Lopes vs Alexander Volkanovski for the 145 title:

“I don’t care if [Ilia] only defended the title one time… who cares. Let’s go. Let’s f***ing go.”

Advertisement

🎥 @joerogan #UFCpic.twitter.com/XvQsXVmzVw — Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) February 10, 2025

Joe Rogan doesn’t necessarily want to see Ilia Topuria defend his featherweight title again before moving up to lightweight.

Topuria dethroned Alexander Volkanovski via a vicious knockout at UFC 298 in Februrary 2024. The undefeated Georgian-Spaniard then defended his throne by knocking out Max Holloway for the first time in his career at UFC 308 in October. While rising contenders Diego Lopes and Movsar Evloev are in queue for title shots, Topuria has since been teasing a move up to lightweight while citing a lack of fresh contenders.

Rogan would love to see “El Matador” challenge light…

[embedded content]

Daniel Cormier recently revealed a conversation with Alex Pereira about fighting Dricus Du Plessis.

Advertisement

Du Plessis made his second successful middleweight title defense with a dominant decision win over Sean Strickland at UFC 312 this past weekend in Sydney. In his post-fight Octagon interview, “Stillknocks” called out light heavyweight champ Alex Pereira, who was in Strickland’s corner. The South African did so by quoting the famous one liner from the movie Gladiator: “Is there no one left?”

Cormier, who was on the commentary team, subsequently made it clear to Pereira that Du Plessis called him out. Pereira allegedly dismissed Du Plessis as too small for 205 pounds. Regardless of whether the South African moves up at some point, “DC” notes that he first has to deal with at least Khamzat Chimaev at middleweight.

“Dricus Du Plessis is the man,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “In the Octagon, he called out Pereira. I told P…

[embedded content]

Brandon Royval had a good reason for withdrawing from his proposed main event clash against Manel Kape on March 1.

Advertisement

In a video on his YouTube channel, the UFC flyweight revealed that he suffered two separate concussion in relatively close proximity. As a result, he decided that best move for his overall wellness would be to withdraw from the UFC Vegas 103 headliner. It wasn’t an easy call considering that his fight against Kape could have been a title eliminator.

“First and foremost, I’ve fought so many times injured. I’ve fought with broken hands, torn labrums, torn MCLs, all that, and for a lot less money and not as meaningful of events. Pulling out of a main event for the No. 1 spot was definitely a hard decision to make,” Royval said.

“Maybe a couple months back, I had a concussion. Nothing too crazy; I was just playing it safe, playing it smart. A couple weeks later, when I recovered, I accepted this fight, which was awe…

A flyweight clash pitting Brandon Moreno against Steve Erceg will serve as the main event for the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s upcoming card in Mexico City.

The bout was announced during the UFC 312 broadcast this past Saturday. UFC on ESPN 64 takes place on March 29 at Arena CDMX in Mexico City and is also expected to included a middleweight showdown between Kelvin Gastelum and Joe Pyfer. Erceg had originally been booked to face Alsu Almabayev at UFC Vegas 103 on March 1 before the promotion changed course.

A two-time flyweight champion, Moreno snapped a two-bout losing streak in his last outing at UFC Fight Night 246, when he defeated Amir Albazi via unanimous decision on Nov. 2. The 31-year-old Tijuana, Mexico, native owns other notable victories over the likes of Deiveson Figueiredo (twice), Kai Kara-France (twice), Brandon Royval and Jussier Formiga during his Octagon tenure.

Erceg, meanwhile, began his UFC career with successive triumphs over Da…

Taking our talents BACK to South Beach 🌴#UFC314 is coming to Miami on April 12!

Learn more 👉 https://t.co/bQgsUaur3q pic.twitter.com/3M5NUEqCXH

— UFC (@ufc) February 9, 2025

Advertisement

As expected, UFC 314 is headed to South Florida.

During the UFC 312 broadcast on Saturday night, the Las Vegas-based promotion confirmed that UFC 314 will take place on April 12 at the Kasey Center in Miami. A headliner was not announced for the card.

This will mark the third consecutive year the Octagon has touched down in Miami for a pay-per-view event. In 2023, UFC 287 saw Israel Adesanya reclaim middleweight gold with a knockout of Alex Pereira and last year, Sean O'Malley defended the bantamweight crown with a dominant victory against Marlon Vera in the UFC 299 headliner.

While no fights have been officially revealed for the event, a few pairings have been reported by various outlets, including: Virna Jandiroba vs. Xiaonan Yan at st…

Sean Strickland is taking his loss against Dricus Du Plessis in stride.

Advertisement

Strickland challenged Du Plessis in a middleweight title rematch at UFC 312 this past weekend in Australia. Du Plessis defended his title via a lopsided unanimous decision, also leaving Strickland with a shattered nose. Addressing his injury, Strickland said that his nose is so badly broken that it was easy to reset.

“Hey, what up, guys? We’ve been here once or twice. I’m so grateful for you guys’ support. You guys are so awesome, win or lose, you guys always ride and I appreciate you,” Strickland said on Instagram. “Dricus, f—king hats off, hell of a fight, broke my nose in six places. The silver lining is my nose is so broken it’s really easy to reset, so that was a new experience.”

Strickland further thanked his fans who continue to support him while urging them to take inspiration from him during difficult times.

“I’ll be quick. I get so many messages from fans,…

Belal Muhammad reacts to "racist clown" Sean Strickland's loss to Dricus du Plessis:

"He wants people to say that 'he's crazy, he's nuts'. He's not. He's just a racist little clown that's hiding in the body of a fighter. He's a coward."

Advertisement

🎥 @bullyb170 #UFC #MMA pic.twitter.com/MfjDlhTHQP — Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) February 9, 2025

Belal Muhammad has no sympathy for Sean Strickland after his loss against Dricus Du Plessis.

Strickland tried to reclaim the middleweight title in a rematch against Du Plessis at UFC 312 in Sydney this past weekend. While Strickland lost his title via split decision in their initial encounter, he suffered a lopsided unanimous decision loss in their rematch at UFC 312.

Known for expressing his unhinged opinions, Strickland was already beefing with Muhammad over Islamophobic comments. The welterweight champ repeatedly called Strickland undeserving of a rematch against Du Plessis. And …

Weili Zhang currently has no peers when it comes to the strawweight division.

Advertisement

“Magnum” proved that yet again in the UFC 312 co-headliner, as she dominated Tatiana Suarez en route to a clear-cut unanimous decision triumph in Sydney on Saturday night. Heading into the bout, Suarez was tabbed as a favorite by oddsmakers in large part due to her wrestling prowess. Someone forget to tell Zhang, as she stuffed 14 of her opponent’s 15 takedowns while also outstriking Suarez by a considerable margin on the feet.

To hear her tell it, the Chinese standout will never grow tired of cleaning out her division — perhaps because there’s always more to learn.

“I think the biggest opponent to me is myself, so [even] if I stay in strawweight, if I fight different styles of opponent, I can still learn a lot from that,” Zhang said. “Eventually, to improve myself, that’s my ultimate goal. I see all my opponents as my teachers. I will learn from them and just make my…

In the moments after closing the book on his rivalry with Sean Strickland for good, Dricus Du Plessis grabbed the microphone and stared across the Octagon.

Advertisement

“Is there no one else?” he yelled. “Is there no one else?”

The message was clear: The reigning middleweight champion hadn’t forgotten about Alex Pereira’s callout following his victory over Israel Adesanya last year. Since Pereira was in Strickland’s corner in the UFC 312 main event in Sydney on Saturday night, the timing couldn’t have been better.

Despite that intriguing bit of theater, Du Plessis realizes there’s a natural order to things, and that means clearing out the remaining challenges in his own division. That includes a future showdown with Khamzat Chimaev, who is the No. 1 contender in waiting following his brutal submission of Robert Whittaker this past August. Pereira, meanwhile, has business of his own to attend to — a UFC 313 title defense against Magomed Ankalaev.

“I have t…

Khamzat Chimaev has an ongoing million rubles (approximately $10,000) challenge at his gym.

Advertisement

The middleweight contender claims he hasn’t been submitted for a long time, even in practice. While he admittedly offers some vulnerable positions while training with youngsters, Chimaev takes it to another level during serious sessions. “Borz” has an open challenge offering a million rubles to anyone who can submit him in the gym.

Chimaev also said that his teammate Abubakar Vagaev is the one who has come the closest to submitting him in recent times. The Chechen-born Swede was in Vagaev’s corner when he dethroned Albert Tumenov via unanimous decision to win the welterweight title at ACA 183 on Saturday.

“Anyone who submits me during training gets a million rubles from me,” Chimaev told media at the post-fight press conference after ACA 183 via Home of Fight). “It hasn’t happened in a long time. When I’m fooling around with young guys, I give up my ne…