Martial Arts News

After finishing 2020 with a five-round war against Brandon Moreno that turned out to be one of the year’s best bouts, flyweight champ Deiveson Figueiredo is completely focused on his brother Francisco Figueiredo’s debut at UFC on ESPN 20 next week.

“My brother is entering in the biggest promotion in the world to make history,” Deiveson said. “He is really tough. He is the one who pushes me to train more every day [even after a bad session at the gym]. I´m sure he will neutralize Jerome Rivera wherever this fight goes, on the feet or on the ground.”

Deiveson eventually envisions a scenario in which his brother’s success at flyweight will force him to move to the bantamweight division.

“After two or three fights I have no doubt he will be on the top,” Deiveson said. “So I don’t have to fight my brother, I’ll go up to the bantamweight division as I planned.”

Figueiredo is so confident that he will beat Moreno in their rematch, which is tentatively planned …

A bantamweight clash pitting Umar Nurmagomedov against Sergey Morozov will take place three days earlier than expected, as it has been moved from UFC 257 on Jan. 23 to UFC on ESPN 20 on Jan. 20.

MMA journalist Igor Lazorin was first to report the change. UFC on ESPN 20 takes place at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi and is headlined by a welterweight scrap between Neil Magny and Michael Chiesa.

Nurmagomedov was scheduled to make his Octagon debut on three separate occasions — including against Morozov at UFC 254 — in 2020, but each time the bout was scrapped for various reasons. The Eagles MMA representative is 12-0 as a professional, with stints in the Professional Fighters League and Fight Nights Global promotions on his resume.

Morozov will enter his first promotional foray on a five-bout winning streak. The 31-year-old M-1 Global champion is coming off a title defense against Josh Rettinghouse at M-1 Challenge 105 in October 2019. A native of Kazakhstan, Morozov…

Former One Championship lightweight title holder Shinya Aoki will return to action to face James Nakashima in the co-main event of One “Unbreakable” on Jan. 22.

The Singapore-based promotion announced the booking on Tuesday. One “Unbreakable” takes place at Singapore Indoor Stadium and is topped by a showdown for the organization’s bantamweight kickboxing crown between Alaverdi Ramazanov and Capitan Petchyindee Academy. Three other MMA bouts were announced for the event: Zebaztian Kadestam vs. Gadzhimurad Abdulaev at welterweight; Meng Bo vs. Samara Santos Cunha at atomweight and Getu Hexi vs. Lito Adiwang at strawweight.

Aoki, 37, has won six of seven bouts since 2018 and is coming off a decision win against Kimihiro Eto under the Shooto banner in September.

A former Legacy Fighting Alliance champion, Nakashima is unbeeaten in 12 professional appearances — including a three-round verdict over Yushin Okami at One “Dawn of Heroes” in his most recent outing in Aug…

Credit: Mike Sloan/Sherdog.com Credit: Mike Sloan/Sherdog.com

The Ultimate Fighting Championship may have plans to move its events beyond Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi in 2020.

UFC president Dana White indicated as much when talking about the promotion’s plans for reigning strawweight queen Weili Zhang in an interview with ESPN.

“We’re working on her, too,” White said. “Obviously, the fight everybody wants to see is her and Rose [Namajunas]. Hopefully we can get that done. If not, the next one in line would probably be Carla Esparza. We’re looking to do that fight this year – and in Asia.”

Zhang last appeared at UFC 248, where retained her belt with a split-decision over Joanna Jedrzejczyk in a bout that was selected as Sherdog.com's "Fight of the Year” for 2020. She first claimed the 115-pound title with a first-round stoppage of Jessica Andrade in Shenzhen, China, in August 2019.

The UFC will have fans in a venue for the first time since Zhang vs. Jedrzejczyk…

Dana White and Conor McGregor weren’t on the best of terms for much of last year, but the UFC president and the former two-division champion seem to have repaired their relationship.

In a recent interview with ESPN, White discussed the rift that occurred when McGregor released a series of private messages regarding a fight with longtime UFC veteran Diego Sanchez. At the time, White called it “one of the dirtiest things you can do.”

"We were in a really bad place then, I was really upset," White said. "It wasn't because he put out private messages. We were talking about another fighter. And I like >Diego Sanchez. I have a lot of respect forDiego Sanchez. I care about Diego Sanchez. I talked to Diego face-to-face about it, and being the great human being he is, we're all good.

"I was really upset with Conor, but we fixed that and now we're all good."

McGregor will return to action for the first time in a year when he faces Dustin Poirier in a rematch in the UFC…

A middleweight clash between Trevin Giles and Dricus Du Plessis is in the works for an Ultimate Fighting Championship event on March 20.

MMAjunkie.com was first to report the booking. The card is headlined by a 185-pound tilt pitting Kevin Holland against Derek Brunson. A location for the event has yet to be announced.

Giles entered 2020 on a two-bout skid in the Octagon but turned things around with a split decision triumph over James Krause at UFC 247 and a third-round TKO of Bevon Lewis at UFC on ESPN 17. The 28-year-old is 4-2 during his promotional tenure and 13-2 as a professional overall.

South Africa’s Du Plessis enjoyed a successful promotional debut when he knocked out Markus Perez in the opening stanza at UFC Fight Night 179 on Oct. 10. The former Extreme Fighting Championship and KSW title holder is 15-2 over the course of his career, with all of his victories coming inside the distance.

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After losing to Israel Adesanya in a middleweight title bout last September, Paulo Costa has been staying in shape while he awaits word on his next opponent from the UFC.

According to Costa´s manager, Wallid Ismail, Robert Whittaker is the target. 

“No. 1 against No. 2, that's the fight to be made,” Ismail told Sherdog.com. “UFC wants it and we want it. We have a [preliminary] agreement about it.”

Alex Prates, Whittaker’s coach, also mentioned a preliminary agreement with the UFC to Sherdog, but he did not confirm the opponent.

"Robert never chooses opponents,” Prates said. “[It] doesn’t matter if it will be Adesanya, Costa or [Marvin] Vettori. The only thing Whitaker cares about is that UFC promised him a fight for the belt next. If it will be a linear or interim [belt], he doesn’t care. But it has to be for the title.”

In the meantime, Costa is training hard and ad…

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Absolute Championship Akhmat President Alexey Yatsenko has set the dates for the first two events of his promotion in the new year.

ACA 117 will take place on Feb. 12 and ACA 118 will take place on Feb. 26. Despite facing heavy sanctions from the United States Department of the Treasury, ACA is picking up the pace: nine events are planned for the first half of 2021 alone — ACA held 13 events during the entirety of 2020.

In December, U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) placed sanctions on Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadryov “for serious human rights abuses,” including kidnapping, torture and killing of those in the LGBTI community as well as journalists and political activists. As a result, ACA, which is owned by Kadryov, is blocked from doing business with anyone in the United States. “OFAC’s regulations generally prohibit all transactions by U.S. person or within (or t…

It appears that “Mystic Mac” has returned ahead of his headlining matchup with Dustin Poirier at UFC 257.

During a clip on the UFC 257 “Countdown” show, Conor McGregor predicts that he’ll make short work of Poirier when they square off at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi on Jan. 23.

“I like Dustin. I think he’s a good fighter,” McGregor said. “He’s even a great fighter. But great is still levels below me. I’ll knock Dustin out inside 60 seconds.”

Earlier in his UFC career, McGregor made a habit of predicting the demise of his opponents -- and was often surprisingly accurate. If this forecast proves true, it will be the second time McGregor has finished Poirier inside of a round: The SBG Ireland representative earned a technical knockout win 1:46 into Round 1 against “The Diamond” when they met at featherweight at UFC 178 in September 2014.

McGregor’s most recent Octagon appearance was abbreviated, as well. He stopped Donald Cerrone in just 40 seconds following…

The time for Dana White’s long-awaited meeting with Khabib Nurmagomedov is fast approaching, and the UFC president remains resolute that the lightweight champion will step into the Octagon one last time.

"I'm obviously meeting with him because I think that he should fight again," White told ESPN. "Look at what he did to Justin Gaethje [in October]. Look at what he's done to every opponent he has faced. ... I think he should fight again and I'm going to press him as hard as I can for one more."

Nurmagomedov announced his retirement in the cage following his victory over Gaethje at UFC 254, citing a promise he made to his mother before the bout. The Dagestani star endured a difficult 2020 that saw him lose his father and coach, Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, to complications related to COVID-19. The UFC has not vacated Nurmagomedov’s lightweight title, but “The Eagle” recently said that he expects the winner of the Conor McGregor-Dustin Poirier headliner at UFC 257 to be cr…

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.@UFC will host three events in just seven days, which will welcome a limited number of fans at Etihad Arena.

More information :https://t.co/KmrSbXmjF1

— UFC News (@UFCNews) January 8, 2021 For the first time since early 2020, fans will be allowed to attend Ultimate Fighting Championship events in a limited capacity.

The UFC will return to Abu Dhabi for three fight cards on Jan. 16, Jan. 20 and Jan. 23, and Etihad Arena, which has a normal capacity of 18,000 people, is expected to host approximately 2,000 spectators per event. With that in mind, the venue has revealed a list of enhanced protocols to combat the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

All those attending must adhere to the guidelines or they will not be granted entry to the events. Those safety measures, which can be viewed on the venue’s website, are as follows:

1. Upon arriving to the venue entrance, all spectators will undergo a check of their valid 48-hour PCR test, ther…