Martial Arts News

Ultimate Fighting Championship Hall of Famer Anderson Silva still is not seeing eye-to-eye with his former boss.

Speaking to Rolling Stone recently, UFC President and CEO Dana White spoke about a myriad of issues. One included the end of the career of Silva, which White claimed did not go well. In addition to the number of losses that Silva accrued consecutively, White suggested that “The Spider” was difficult to deal with from a negotiating perspective.

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Consider it just another day for “The Spider,” who responded directly to a post by “Canal Punch” about Dana’s comments on Instagram. In Portuguese, Silva repeatedly referred to White as “the bald guy” while dismissing most of what White had to say.The bald guy “The bald guy saying s--t,” Silva remarked. “I’ve been out of the organization for many years, but it seems neither the current fighters nor the bald guy can forget my achievements. Deep down, the bald guy knows that with me there was no whinin…

Who will stay at the top? 🗣️@SongYadongLFG vs @Daico_Deiveson

[ #UFCMacau LIVE MAY 30 at 7amET on @ParamountPlus ] pic.twitter.com/8GyWM4ZgPl

— UFC (@ufc) May 29, 2026 The Ultimate Fighting Championship's return to China is officially set following the UFC Macau weigh-ins.

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The UFC Fight Night event will be headlined by a bantamweight clash between Yadong Song and former flyweight king Deiveson Figueiredo. Both men had no issue making weight, nor did the rest of the card. In total, all 26 fighters hit their marks for a professional weigh-in devoid of any drama.

The "Kung Fu Kid" hasn't fought in his home country since 2018. Since then, Song (22-9-1, 1 NC) has established himself among the top bantamweights, although he's fallen short to elite fighters like Sean O'Malley, Petr Yan and Cory Sandhagen. 3-2 in his last five fights, the 28-year-old will look to show he's still improving and weighed 136 pounds on the dot for…

One major voice inside of the Ultimate Fighting Championship is not a fan of the upcoming spectacle.

Speaking on his podcast of the “JRE MMA Show” on Wednesday with guests “Big” John McCarthy and Josh Thomson, color commentator Joe Rogan aired his thoughts about the UFC White House card coming up on June 14. The event is to be held on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., in an outdoor venue that will be subject to weather and more.

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Rogan has spoken up about the event in other contexts, namely that it will be going on during the U.S. war against Iran at the time. His observations and grievances this time around were largely focused on logistics and giving the fighters the best possible situation to perform for what will be the biggest fight of most of their lives.

“The ‘White House’ thing is odd,” Rogan offered. “I don’t like it. I don’t like the idea of fighting outside, at all. And then there’s June, and it’s D.C., and we looke…

Shavkat Rakhmonov is getting back to work.

A video posted by DAR PRO TEAM on Instagram shows the undefeated UFC welterweight in the gym, moving around and doing what appears to be some light sparring. While that wouldn’t normally be significant by itself, it is for Rakhmonov, who has been out of action since December 2024, when he took a five-round verdict over Ian Garry at UFC 310.

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A knee injury prevented “Nomad” from challenging then champion Belal Muhammad for welterweight gold in the first half of 2025, and he remained sidelined for the remainder of the year.

More bad news hit at the beginning of 2026, when it was revealed that Rakhmonov would be out for at least nine to 10 more months after reinjuring that same knee. While a timetable for the 31-year-old’s return is unknown, it likely wouldn’t occur until late this year at the earliest.

Rakhmonov’s 19-0 professional mark includes seven triumphs in UFC competition. Garry is the only oppon…

Colby Covington says he's on good terms with the UFC. | Getty/UFC

Colby Covington is excited about his future with Real American Freestyle, but he won’t completely rule out a UFC comeback before all is said and done.

The former welterweight contender informed the UFC of his retirement last week, potentially ending a 17-bout tenure with the Las Vegas-based promotion. While Covington appeared to be upset after missing out on the UFC White House, “Chaos” now claims the he’s on good terms with the organization.

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"I wasn't let go. I'm still a UFC fighter. I'll always be a UFC fighter,” Covington said on "The Ariel Helwani Show.” “If I come back to fight again, it will be in the UFC. I'm still under contract with the UFC. All is still good with the UFC. I'm thankful for everything they did for me.

"It's 50-50 [if I fight MMA again.] I know I have a lot left in the tank. I know there's a lot of good miles still left on the tread, but I don'…

In a span of three weeks this August, Brazilian MMA fans will have the oportunity to see four UFC champions in action in national soil — but under diferent rules.

Shortly after Spaten announced that a boxing match between ex-UFC champs Mauricio Rua and Glover Teixeira would headline its third event on Aug. 29, Rafael Cordeiro told Sherdog.com that former heavyweight title holders Fabricio Werdum and Junior dos Santos will square off in a grappling match in the featured attraction at Kings Championship 2 on Aug. 8.

According to Cordeiro, the event will be promoted in Florianópolis Santa Catarina with the full support of local governor. The Kings MMA leader plans to announce the full card, which will also include MMA fights, in the near future.

Finishing the TrilogyDos Santos and Werdum initially squared off at UFC 90 in October 2008, with “Cigano” winning via first-round TKO. Their paths crossed again at Gamebred Bareknuckle 5, where dos Santos defeated Werdu…

Bassil Hafez won't be able to fight until March 2027. | Getty/UFC

Bassil Hafez has been suspended for one year after failing an out-of-competition drug test earlier this year.

UFC anti-doping partner Combat Sports Anti-Doping announced the sanction on Wednesday. The welterweight fighter tested positive for ipamorelin, a prohibited peptide hormone, in a sample collected on March 20 in Las Vegas.

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“During CSAD’s investigation, Hafez provided full and complete cooperation as defined under the UFC ADP,” the statement read. “His cooperation included identifying and introducing CSAD to a wellness clinic he had used to obtain substances he believed were permitted for injury recovery purposes. Hafez has not competed since November 2024 due to injury and did not have a bout scheduled at the time the sample was collected. 

“Evidence gathered during the investigation indicated that, although Hafez claimed he was unaware that a product provi…

A.J. McKee will get top billing at PFL San Diego. | PFL MMA

The lineup is complete for Professional Fighters League’s upcoming trip to San Diego.

PFL San Diego takes place on June 27 at Pechanga Arena and is headlined by a featherweight clash pitting ex-Bellator champ A.J. McKee against Salamat Isbulaev. In the co-main event, 2025 tournament champion Liz Carmouche will meet Viviane Araujo at flyweight.

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Top notch featherweights headline PFL San Diego: Tune in Saturday, June 27 at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN.

The promotion confirmed four new preliminary bouts for the event on Wednesday: Justin Wetzell vs. Sarvarjon Khamidov at bantamweight; Gamid Khizriev vs. Lorenzo Parente at lightweight; Shannon Clark vs. Ilara Joanne at women’s flyweight and Cobey Fehr vs. Daniel Bzdigian at bantamweight.

The PFL San Diego main card airs on ESPN2 beginning at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, while prelims will be broadcast on the ESPN app at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.<…

Ex-UFC champ Glover Teixeira will lace up the boxing gloves on Aug. 29. | Getty/UFC

Spaten Fight Night is once again bringing the star power for its third event.

After having Chael Sonnen vs, Anderson Silva in the organization’s debut and Wanderlei Silva vs. Acelino Popo Freitas in its sophomore edition, Spaten Fight Night 3 will be headlined by a boxing match between former UFC light heavyweight champions Glover Teixeira and Mauricio Rua.

The first edition was heavily criticized for the excessive respect between Sonnen and “The Spider,” which resulted in a fight lacking both action and emotion. The second event made headlines for the opposite reason due to the excessive animosity between Wanderlei and Popo, which ended with the former Pride Fighting Championships standout being knocked out in a post-fight melee. In this third edition, the promoters took care to invite two champions who, while being extremely competitive, have a deep respect for each o…

Rico Verhoeven believes the scorecards were odd in his controversial loss against Oleksandr Usyk. 

Verhoeven challenged Usyk for the WBC heavyweight title last weekend in Giza, Egypt. Verhoeven dictated most of the fight before he was dropped by Usyk late in the 11th round. While Verhoeven got back up, Usyk followed up with a flurry, which was enough for the referee to stop the fight with a second left in the round. 

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Apart from the controversial stoppage, the scorecards also felt “fishy” to Verhoeven. The bout had open scoring, where the scorecards were revealed to the fighters after every four rounds. Despite evidently leading in the early rounds, Verhoeven was slightly surprised to find out that the scorecards were even after the first four rounds. When the scorecards read as even after eight rounds, Verhoeven felt something was off. Verhoeven believes the open scoring even affected his performance. With the scorecards being even after eig…

Tallison Teixeira returns to action at UFC Macau. | Getty/UFC

Tallison Teixeira will have a chance to make a significant move in the heavyweight divison is he defeat Sergei Pavlovich at UFC Macau on Saturday.

The 6-foot-7 Brazilian has won two of his first three appearances in the promotion, but he faces a tall task against Pavlovich, who is third in the UFC’s official heavyweight rankings. With 11 fights in the UFC and only three losses — to Alistair Overeem, Alexander Volkov and Tom Aspinall — Pavlovich is a strong betting favorite at -650. That underdog status does not worry the Brazilian, who did his entire camp with Glover Teixeira and Alex Pereira.

‘Thank God He Didn’t Connect’ “He is third in the heavyweight rankings, but I trained with Alex, who is one of the greatest in the sport, which gave me a lot of confidence for this fight,” “Xicão” said in an appearance on the "Overdogs Brasil” podcast. “Glover has always been a reference for me in grappli…

Ilia Topuria almost let the nerves get the better of him ahead of his first professional fight. 

Topuria (17-0) recently admitted that he was really scared going into his first professional fight in 2015. While “El Matador” started questioning his career choices, he was also motivated at the same time. Topuria claims that even the thought of not showing up to the fight at all crossed his mind. While Topuria was only 18 years old, his opponent was already a seven-fight veteran by then.

‘I Went Through Hell’ “I was so scared for my first professional fight,’ Topuria said on DeepCuts with VicBlends. “I was like, ‘Why didn’t I study? What am I doing here?’ I was so scared but at the same time so motivated… It was so weird. I went through hell, I remember, that day. I was about to stay in the backstage. I had that thought. And he had way more experience than me. I was 18 years old at that time.” 

Topuria won his first fight against Francisco Aspirilla in the first …