Martial Arts News

Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight king Islam Makhachev doubled down on his claims of having accepted a fight against Ilia Topuria.

Topuria is scheduled to defend his lightweight title against interim champion Justin Gaethje in the UFC White House: Freedom 250 main event on Sunday. According to reports, the original plan was for Topuria to challenge Makhachev for the welterweight title.

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Topuria (17-0) initially blamed Makhachev (28-1) for the matchup falling through. Even Dana White said that Makhachev was out with a hand injury. However, Makhachev has thoroughly denied being injured or turning down a fight against Topuria. Makhachev recently reiterated that he had accepted the offer without any hesitation. However, Makhachev’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, called him the very next day to inform that the booking was off. Makhachev claims negotiations failed when Topuria’s manager, Malki Kawa, demanded an insane fight purse. The Dagestani champ al…

Steve Garcia is hoping that an eight-fight win streak after prevailing at the White House will be enough to punch his ticket to gold.

Garcia opens the UFC White House card against two-time title challenger Diego Lopes on Sunday. Residing in the No. 3 and No. 12 spots at featherweight, respectively, on Sherdog’s Official Rankings, Garcia believes an upset over the top-ranked Brazilian immediately makes him relevant in the 145-pound title picture.

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Garcia plans to dominate Lopes from the opening bell. While “Mean Machine” doesn’t want to divulge much, he advises fans not to blink. Garcia said in an interview with the UFC:

“Having an opponent like Diego Lopes, knowing where his ranking is at. Having the opportunity to fight someone that high, challenging myself, but also being able to put myself in a position where I could challenge for the title… I’m just gonna go out there and dominate him. Dominate him from the start of the bell to the end of the b…

Josh Hokit believes he is not leaving the Ultimate Fighting Championship anytime soon.

Hokit (9-0) is scheduled to fight Derrick Lewis (29-13) in a heavyweight tilt at UFC White House: Freedom 250 on Sunday. Meanwhile, Alex Pereira (13-3) fights Ciryl Gane (13-2) for the interim heavyweight title in the co-main event.

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Hokit has launched an unprovoked tirade on Pereira, targeting “Poatan” verbally during press conferences and run-ins at the fighter hotel. Pereira recently said Hokit’s UFC career might be in jeopardy. According to Pereira, while it is too late to boot Hokit from the White House card, it could be his last fight in the UFC. However, Hokit has shut down Pereira’s claims. “The Incredible Hok” says he recently signed an eight-fight deal with the UFC. Hokit believes he is not going anywhere, and Pereira is just being hopeful, as is scared.

“Pereira can say whatever,” Hokit said on UFC Embedded. “When you put on a fight like I put on last …

Sherdog's live PFL Nigeria coverage will begin Saturday at 1 p.m. ET. Women’s Strawweight Showcase Bout:Shelda Chipito (116) vs. Haidy Ahmed (116) Round 1 Sherdog Scores Ben Duffy scores the round:Tudor Leonte scores the round:Mike Pendleton scores the round:

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Round 2 Sherdog Scores Ben Duffy scores the round:Tudor Leonte scores the round:Mike Pendleton scores the round:Round 3 Sherdog Scores Ben Duffy scores the round:Tudor Leonte scores the round:Mike Pendleton scores the round: The Official Result Round 1 Sherdog Scores Ben Duffy scores the round:Tudor Leonte scores the round:Mike Pendleton scores the round:Round 2 Sherdog Scores Ben Duffy scores the round:Tudor Leonte scores the round:Mike Pendleton scores the round:Round 3 Sherdog Scores Ben Duffy scores the round:Tudor Leonte scores the round:Mike Pendleton scores the round:The Official Result Bantamweight Tournament First Round Bout:Boule Godogo (133.6) vs. Dauda Rajabu (133) Round 1 Sherdog Scor…

Brendan Allen wants to avenge his loss against Sean Strickland.

Allen (27-7) was just 25 when he suffered his first loss in the Ultimate Fighting Championship against Strickland (31-7) in 2020. While Allen has since grown into a middleweight contender, Strickland has won the title twice, most recently against Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 328 last month.

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Allen now wants to avenge his loss against Strickland. Allen believes that while he has developed substantially since his loss against Strickland, the champion is still the same fighter he faced in 2020. “All In” recently earned a unanimous decision win over Strickland’s teammate, Edmen Shahbazyan. Allen considers Shahbazyan a better version of Strickland. According to Allen, Shahbazyan is technically more sound than Strickland, even though his resume might not reflect that.

“[Strickland] is the same guy that I fought then, and I’m not,” Allen told Home of Fight. “Not even close to the same guy. I’m more …

The Ultimate Fighting Championship could use a little more transparency.

In a backstage interview ahead of UFC Freedom 250, former two-division champ Alex Pereira spoke with fellow ex-two weight class kingpin Daniel Cormier, with Pereira’s coach Plinio Cruz translating. During their conversation, the subject of the World Cup came up, as Cruz was sporting the Brazilian national football team’s shirt. The most successful team in FIFA World Cup history, Brazil is matched in Group C against Morocco, Haiti and Scotland within the next few weeks.

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North America will play host to the World Cup this year, with Mexico and Canada sharing sites with the U.S. to run the matches. Taking advantage of the atmosphere, “DC” suggested a bet to the Brazilian on which team would go further in the competition: the U.S. or Brazil.How about $20KWhether swept up in the moment, overly enthusiastic to be leading up to the big tentpole show or genuinely filled with national p…

The last-ditch effort to stop the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s tentpole show at the White House has gone up in smoke.

Federal judge Amit Mehta from the District Court for the District of Columbia issued an opinion on the lawsuit filed by the Public Integrity Project to halt the UFC White House card. The memorandum was filed on Friday, which denied the motion to establish a temporary restraining order to halt the event until the court can fully rule on the matters. The court indicated that the plaintiffs had not fully demonstrated standing—that is, the right to bring a lawsuit—or that they have suffered a demonstrable, actual harm that they would suffer should this show carry on.

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In order to establish standing, the plaintiffs have to establish that they were or are about to be injured physically, financially, etc. They must also show a link between that injury and what they are suing about, to show the causal connection between the two. Finally…

⚖️ #PFLNigeria Official Weigh In Results:

Wasi Adeshina - 144.8 lbs ✅Nacho Campos - 145.8 lbs ✅

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The main event is on!#PFLNigeria | Saturday, June 13 | Live on SuperSport pic.twitter.com/v5em2pWyK7 — PFL Africa (@PFLAfrica) June 12, 2026 The Professional Fighters League Africa returns this week with the opening rounds of its lightweight and bantamweight tournament.

The main event of PFL Nigeria will see Wasi Adeshina take on Ignacio Campos in a featherweight showcase. Both men successfully made weight without issue for the three-round fight. All other fighters hit their marks, including the 16 tournament fighters and the lone bantamweight alternate.

"The Nigerian Jaguar" will look to make his home country proud in the headliner. Adeshina (10-3) is on a six-fight win streak that includes three straight victories inside the promotion. Meanwhile, Campos (7-2) is 1-1 inside the PFL, with his lone win coming over …

Elisandra Ferreira enjoys proving the doubters wrong. The diminutive Brazilian, a former Invicta Fighting Championships atomweight queen, makes her Professional Fighters League debut Saturday in Lagos, Nigeria.

Early on, due to a relatively late start in mixed martial arts, “Lili” fought her first professional bout on a wing and a prayer. A technical knockout win reinforced the idea that, despite still having much to learn, this was going to be her chosen path.

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“I’ve never been one to turn down a fight. I wanted to see how it would go,” she shared in her native Portuguese.

“I had competed in muay thai and jiu-jitsu, separately. I lost two bouts as an amateur, but it wasn't a bad thing. It was more of a wakeup call. I now knew I wanted to pursue this, and that I needed to improve. I wished I had had more fights as an amateur, but age counts for a lot in MMA. When the opportunity came for me to fight as a pro, now that I was training seriously, we d…

Two all-time great Ultimate Fighting Championship champs share their differing thoughts on how Sunday’s co-main event will go.

Despite sitting in the second-to-last slot on the UFC White House event on Sunday, the duel between Brazilian Alex Pereira and Frenchman Ciryl Gane for the interim UFC heavyweight title has generated as much if not more debate than the main event. between American Justin Gaethje and Spaniard Ilia Topuria. One of the reasons for this is Ilia Topuria’s status as a massive betting favorite over Justin Gaethje while ‘Poatan’ and Gane currently see odds that are dead even.

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In the opinion of former UFC heavyweight champions, Fabricio Werdum and Junior dos Santos, the confrontation could become a closely contested affair between two great strikers, but the Brazilian’s game plan will make the difference. With the experience of having faced Gane in his last UFC fight, at UFC 256 in 2020 when he was stopped with elbow strikes, dos Sa…

Montana is coming to New York.

The Professional Fighters League has announced another bout for their upcoming show in Long Island, New York, on July 31. A women’s flyweight contest between Montana De La Rosa (13-9-1) and Tatiana Postarnakova (5-0) is set for PFL New York at the UBS Arena, per sources close to the situation.

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

The fight will be the second of the year for Postarnakova, who made her PFL debut in March and picked up a unanimous decision victory over Elora Dana. The Russian spent the earlier stages of her career fighting in promotions in her home country. This includes a number of appearances with the quasi-MMA promotion Nashe Delo, one that for most of its existence, limited grappling to 30-second engagements and forced exhibition tags to be applied to the matches. In professional outings, she is perfect with five wins opposite zero defeats, …

Josh Hokit’s trash talk is foreign in Alex Pereira’s home country of Brazil.

Pereira (13-3) fights Ciryl Gane (13-2) for the interim heavyweight title in the co-headliner of UFC White House: Freedom 250 on June 14. Hokit (9-0) also takes on Derrick Lewis (29-13) in a heavyweight tilt on the same card.

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During a press conference for the card last month in New Jersey, Hokit went on an unprovoked rant on Pereira. Ilia Topuria, who was sitting next to Pereira, stood up in his defense and threw a glass of water at Hokit. The American heavyweight was escorted out of the presser before things could escalate. Pereira believes Hokit crossed a line when he said, “I will chama on your mama.’ While Pereira has heard a lot of trash talk over the years, he believes people rarely bring up their opponents’ mothers. In Pereira’s home country of Brazil, even between kids, all is fun and games until someone’s mother is mentioned.

Hokit has now been banned from the off…