Martial Arts News

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Bellator MMA has signed Russian lightweight Alexandr Shabliy to an exclusive, multi-fight contract.

Sherdog.com confirmed the deal with a promotion official following a report from MMAjunkie.com. An opponent and debut date for Shabliy is currently unknown.

The 27-year-old will enter his promotional debut with a 19-3 record that includes 17 triumphs via submission. He has competed for organizations such as ProFC, Fight Nights Global and Absolute Championship Berkut over the course of a professional tenure that began in 2010.

Shabliy has won his last four outings, a run that includes triumphs over UFC veteran Adriano Martins and ex-Bellator talent Gleristone Santos. Shabliy has recently been training at American Top Team in Cocounut Creek, Florida.

Former featherweight title challenger Felicia Spencer will welcome Danyelle Wolf to the Octagon at a UFC event on May 22.

BJPenn.com was first to report that both Spencer and Wolf have verbally agreed to the bout. The UFC Fight Night card does not yet have an official headliner or location.

Spencer returns to action for the first time since losing a five-round decision to Amanda Nunes in a 145-pound championship clash at UFC 250 last June. A former Invicta FC title holder, Spencer is 2-2 in the Las Vegas-based promotion, with first-round finishes of Megan Anderson and Zarah Fairn dos Santos to her credit.

Wolf, 37, earned a UFC contract after taking a unanimous verdict against Taneisha Tennant in her professional MMA debut at Dana White’s Contender Series on Sept. 15. The Tiger Muay Thai export is a three-time U.S. National Boxing champion who has compiled an amateur record of 30-14, according to BoxRec.com.

Longtime mixed martial arts veteran Travis Fulton is facing multiple charges of child pornography, according to a report from The Courier.

The 43-year-old Fulton was indicted on Wednesday by a federal grand jury on charges of sexual exploitation of a child, possession of child porn and receipt of child porn. On Friday, Fulton pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He was detained pending a further hearing, with a trial date set tentatively for April.

According to court records, Fulton allegedly attempted to engage a minor in sexual conduct with hopes of taking photos of the encounter this past November. Additionally, Fulton is accused of possessing a flash drive with pornographic images of a child under 12 years of age between November 2018 and November 2020.

Prior to the most recent charges, Fulton was awaiting trial on domestic violence charges related to a 2019 incident in which he is accused of punching a woman in the back of the h…

Dan Ige will get to remain on the UFC Fight Night 187 card.

According to ESPN, Gavin Tucker will step up to face Ige after original foe Ryan Hall withdrew from the event due to an injury suffered in training. Ige wanted to make every effort to remain on the March 13 card because he has a baby coming in April. Tucker had previously been tabbed to face Cub Swanson on May 1.

UFC Fight Night 187 takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and is headlined by a welterweight showdown between Leon Edwards and Belal Muhammad. The event is expected to stream in its entirety on ESPN+.

Tucker enters the matchup on a three-bout winning streak within the Las Vegas-based promotion. The 34-year-old Titans MMA product last appeared at UFC 256, where he outpointed Billy Quarantillo on Dec. 12. Tucker is 13-1 as a professional, with 10 of those triumphs coming inside the distance.

Ige had a six-bout promotional winning streak snapped in his last outing, when he dropped a five…

Infelizmente testei positivo para o COVID 19 e estarei fora desse card do próximo dia 27 de fevereiro,em breve estarei em ação novamente!!#deussabedetodasascoisas @ufc @ufc_brasil pic.twitter.com/UVLw8cpwN6

— Raoni Barcelos (@BarcelosRaoni) February 22, 2021

Not long after officially receiving a new opponent for his scheduled appearance at UFC Fight Night 186, Raoni Barcelos has been forced to withdraw from Saturday’s event.

The Brazilian bantamweight announced via social media that he is off the card after testing positive for COVID-19. In a video statement (translation via MMAFighting.com), Barcelos revealed the he and is wife are not experiencing any symptoms and he hopes to fight soon.

Barcelos was originally booked against Raphael Assuncao before his opponent withdrew due to a positive COVID-19 test of his own. The promotion then announced over the weekend that Barcelos would instead square off against short-notice foe Marcelo Rojo…

Once considered to be among the Top 5 middleweights in the world between 2005 and 2008, former World Extreme Cage Fighting champion Paulo Filho analyzed the top of the UFC heavyweight and lightweight divisions in a recent interview with Sherdog.com.

"I dont see any need for Jon Jones to gain weight to enter in the heavyweight division. His technical level is so superior to [Francis] Ngannou and [Stipe] Miocic that I truly believe he can beat both, even weighing 205 pounds. Ngannou is a one-punch fighter and Miocic has less tools than Jones. I see clearly Jon Jones as future heavyweight champion at the end of 2021.”

As far as the lightweight division goes, the Carlson Gracie black belt believes that former Bellator champion Michael Chandler will eventually capture UFC gold.

"I was really impressed with this kid. He is such a solid fighter — wrestling, cardio, explosion and knockout power in one single package. Considering the Top 5 of that division, I see Charles…

Recent flyweight title challenger Alex Perez will return to action against Matt Schnell at UFC 262 on May 15.

MMA DNA was first to report the pairing. UFC 262 does not have an official location or headliner, but it is expected to include a women’s 125-pound matchup pitting Katlyn Chookagian against Viviane Araujo.

Perez had a three-fight winning streak halted at UFC 255, where he was submitted in the opening stanza by reigning flyweight king Deiveson Figueiredo on Nov. 21. Prior to that, the Team Oyama representative had scored successive triumphs over Jussier Formiga, Jordan Espinosa and Mark De La Rosa. The former Contender Series competitor is 6-2 during his promotional tenure and 24-6 as a professional overall.

Schnell, meanwhile, returned for the first time in more than a year at UFC on ESPN 20, as he rebounded from a knockout loss against Alexandre Pantoja in December 2019 to earn a split verdict against Tyson Nam in Abu Dhabi on Jan. 20. The 31-year-old …

The UFC Fight Night 185 co-main event came down to a battle of damage vs. positional control.

Ultimately, it was Yana Kunitskaya’s activity that won the day, as she captured a unanimous decision triumph against Ketlen Vieira in a matchup of ranked women’s bantamweights at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday night. The former Invicta FC champion was buoyed by a strong finish down the stretch in the final stanza, when she reversed from being mounted and bloodied her Brazilian foe with elbows before the horn.

Although Vieira controlled much of the contest through takedowns and grappling, her inability to land offense from above ultimately cost her. While all three judges submitted 29-28 tallies for Kunitskaya, media scorecards told a different story, with 14 of the 18 tracked by MMADecisions.com favoring Vieira. Kunitskaya admitted feeling some tension before the final verdict was announced.

“I feel I won the fight. I did more damage, but sometimes judges make v…

After a perfectly-timed uppercut sent Curtis Blaydes tumbling to the canvas like a sack of potatoes, Derrick Lewis punctuated his UFC Fight Night 185 victory with a little something extra.

With Blaydes already unconscious, “The Black Beast” dove in to land two brutal shots of ground-and-pound in a follow-up reminiscient of what Dan Henderson did to Michael Bisping at UFC 100 in July 2009. It was also a reminder of just how brutal this sport can be.

When asked about the final two punches, Lewis defended his actions in typical humorous fashion with a WWE reference, while also pointing out that it’s the referee’s job to say when the fight is over.

“I can’t just turn the switch off just like that,” Lewis said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “Some fighters can do that, but I can’t do it. I have to wait until the referee pulled me off because you never know what could happen. Anything could happen. He could’ve turned into the Undertaker and stood straight …

Credit: Getty/UFC Credit: Getty/UFC

Chris Daukaus earned the most significant victory of his career to date at UFC Fight Night 185, as he scored a first-round technical knockout of Alexey Oleynik in a featured heavyweight encounter at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday night.

With three first-round finishes to kick off his promotional tenure, the 31-year-old Philadelphia native is now a person of interest in the division.

“This is what careers are made of right now. The light is on the heavyweight division right now, especially with the amount of heavyweight headliners,” Daukaus said. “It’s definitely something I’m not taking for granted. I’m definitely capitalizing on it.

  “I’ve finally got a number next to my name. It’s something I’ve been striving for. It was definitely something I could grab and I did that.”

By putting Oleynik away 1:55 into the opening stanza, Daukaus was able to avoid going to the ground with the Russian submission speciali…

Credit: Getty/UFC Credit: Getty/UFC

Tom Aspinall’s latest Ultimate Fighting Championship victory came by different means than he anticipated it would.

After nearly finishing Andrei Arlovski with punches in the opening stanza, the Englishman landed a takedown early in Round 2, locking in a rear-naked choke for a submission victory at the 1:09 mark of the period.

“I didn’t expect to finish him with a submission. That’s the last thing I expected,” Aspinall said. “I thought it was going to be a quick knockout or I’m going to beat him on points. Very happy with it, but not very happy with the performance. I’ve got a lot to work on, but I’ve got a long time to work on it. It’s all good.”

Aspinall’s previous five triumphs — including two in UFC competition — had come via KO or TKO, but the Team Kaobon product points out that he has solid submission skills even if he doesn’t usually show them.

“I’ve been doing jiu-jitsu for a long time. My dad’s one of the first …

Derrick Lewis’ massive knockout of Curtis Blaydes halted the championship aspirations of his opponent, and it made “The Black Beast” $50,000 richer in the process.

Lewis received a “Performance of the Night” bonus thanks to a finish of Blaydes 1:26 into the second round of their heavyweight headliner at UFC Fight Night 185 on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. After getting outstruck for a round, Lewis timed a Blaydes’ takedown attempt and blasted his foe with an uppercut. The Houston native sealed his win with a pair of brutal ground strikes.

Elsewhere, Chris Daukaus garnered a $50,000 “Performance of the Night” award for making short work of Alexey Oleynik in a featured heavyweight matchup. Daukaus forced the submission specialist to remain standing and rocked the Russian with a right hand, then swarmed with punches and knees against the fence to secure a stoppage 1:55 into Round 1.

Tom Aspinall was the third heavyweight on the main card to take home a $50,000 “…