Martial Arts News

It’s the end of an era in the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s heavyweight division.

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Former champion Andrei Arlovski will not return to the Las Vegas-based promotion following his split-decision defeat against Martin Buday at UFC 303 on Saturday night. Arlovski confirmed the news via social media following an initial report from Ariel Helwani. The 45-year-old Arlovski completed his UFC deal on Saturday and is expected to sign elsewhere. He lost his last four Octagon appearances.

UFC CEO Dana White also stated that it was Arlovski’s last fight with the organization during the UFC 303 post-fight press conference.

“My chapter in the UFC is closed, but my book is not finished yet,” Arlovski wrote on Instagram.

Arlovski initially rose to prominence during his first UFC stint from 2000 to 2008, when he captured heavyweight gold and had a memorable trilogy with Tim Sylvia. “The Pit Bull” claimed the title with a 47-second submission of Sylvia…

The latest season of Dana White's Contender Series is just around the corner.

The five-bout lineup for Week 1 of the Contender Series was announced during the UFC 303 broadcast on Saturday night. The card will be headlined by a middleweight clash between Mansur Abdul-Malik and Wesley Schultz and takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Aug. 13. The Contender Series airs on ESPN+ at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.

The other four bouts confirmed the the event are as follows: Meng Ding vs. Islam Dulatov at welterweight; Mikheil Sazhiniani vs. Bruno Lopes at light heavyweight; Icaro Brito vs. Ernie Juarez at featherweight and Lone'er Kavanagh vs. An Tuan Ho at flyweight.

The Contender Series debuted in 2017 and rewards fighters who impress Dana White with UFC contracts. The format has been popular and has become a talent pipeline for the promotion, with more contracts being awarded with each passing season.

Abdul-Malik is undefeated in five professional outing…

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The Ultimate Fighting Championship recently confirmed several bouts for its upcoming pay-per-view event in Perth, Australia, on Aug. 17.

The following contests, some of which were previously reported, are now official for UFC 305: Kai Kara-France vs. Steve Erceg at flyweight; Tai Tuivasa vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik at heavyweight; Casey O'Neill vs. Tereza Bleda at flyweight; Junior Tafa vs. Valt…

Kayla Harrison is threatening to take Henry Cejudo’s self-proclaimed title of the greatest combat sports athlete ever.

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Harrison made her promotional debut with a second-round submission win over former bantamweight champ Holly Holm at UFC 300 this past April. While Harrison subsequently called out Raquel Pennington, “Rocky” has been rumoured to be booked for a title fight against Julianna Pena at UFC 307 on Oct. 5 at Salt Lake City, Utah.

Harrison, who recently admitted that she is at least one more fight removed from a title shot, hopes to fight at UFC 307, as well. The former PFL lightweight champ’s eventual target remains Amanda Nunes, although she wants to win a title first to lure “The Lioness” out of retirement.

“In my perfect world I’d like to fight for the belt, then tell Amanda to get her ass off the couch and we’ll fight for the BMF belt,” Harrison recently told The Schmo. “And I’ll put my bantamweight title on the line at the same…

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Colby Covington recently went off on Ian Garry’s performance against Michael Page at UFC 303 on Saturday.

Garry and Page started off the UFC 303 main card action at the T-Mobile Arena with what turned out to be a lukewarm affair. While Page had his moments on the feet, Garry controlled “MVP” on the ground to rope in a unanimous decision win.

Covington believes Garry lost the fight. Garry had long rallied to share a card with Conor McGregor, who was originally scheduled to headline UFC 303 before pulling out due to a broken toe. Covington labeled Garry “Corner McGregor,” poking fun at “The Future” for being “left at the altar” by McGregor.

“I feel bad for the fans. The fans got robbed of a pay-per-view opener,” Covington told Submission Radio. “That’s supposed to be the opener [on] pay-per-view. So, that was pathetic. That guy [Garry] was fighting the No. 14 ranked guy [Page] in the world and barely scraping by. I think he lost the fight. So, I …

Kai Kara-France believes upcoming opponent Steve Erceg did enough to dethrone Alexandre Pantoja in their UFC 301 title fight.

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Kara-France is set to return to action against Erceg at UFC 305 on Aug. 17 in Perth, Australia. Erceg made his UFC debut in June 2023 and racked up a three-fight winning streak to earn a title shot against Pantoja within less than a year. The Australian dropped a hard-fought unanimous decision against “The Cannibal” in the main event at UFC 301 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this past May.

Kara-France is not only impressed by Erceg’s rapid rise up the rankings but also believes “Astro Boy” did enough to get his hand raised against Pantoja.

“I’m excited for Steve. He’s done a really great job while he’s been in the division,” Kara France told the New Zealand Herald. “It hasn’t been a long time, four fights, and he already had a title fight. It’s pretty impressive, and I thought he did enough to win that fight. It just goes to…

Magomed Ankalaev claims he doesn’t need wrestling to dethrone UFC light heavyweight champ Alex Pereira.

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Pereira stepped up on 11 days’ notice to save the UFC 303 card, putting his title on the line against Jiri Prochazka in the main event at the T-Mobile Arena on Saturday. “Poatan” almost knocked Prochazka out cold at the end of the first round before finishing him with a head kick at the beginning of the second round.

Ankalaev, who is the next expected title contender at 205 pounds, called out the champ immediately afterwards. An ace grappler, Ankalaev believes he doesn’t need his ground game to beat the former Glory Kickboxing champion.

“Congratulations champ, I’m very impressed but the boss [Dana White] always says this is the sport of opportunities and all I want is an opportunity,” Ankalaev wrote on social media. “And I don’t need wrestling, I have enough striking to test your chin. I believe I will knock you out.”

…

Alex Pereira is a champion who pays attention to the little things.

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“Poatan” made his second successful light heavyweight title defense at UFC 303 on Saturday, when he dropped Jiri Prochazka with a head kick and sealed his victory with follow-up punches 13 seconds into Round 2 of their rematch at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. As it turns out, Pereira saw an opening for the fight-ending maneuver while watching his footage of his opponent’s warmup.

“I was in the locker room talking to Plinio, one my coaches, and he showed me the video of Jiri warming up. I saw he was trying to counter attack the calf kick, defend and counter,” Pereira said through a translator at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “I told Plinio he was doing the wrong timing, the timing was not good. So I saw that he was too focused on not taking that kick and he was keeping his hands down and leaving the head exposed. So I told him, I’m going to explore the high kick.”

C…

Jiri Prochazka’s second opportunity against Alex Pereira didn’t bring many encouraging returns.

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After being dropped at the end of the opening stanza, Prochazka was vanquished by a head kick and follow-up punches from Pereira just 13 seconds into Round 2 of their UFC 303 headlining bout at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday night. While Prochazka was also finished in their first meeting at UFC 295, he performed fairly well in the opening stanza and also had a legitimate gripe that the bout might have been stopped prematurely by referee Marc Goddard in the second period.

There were no such questions on Saturday night, and now it appears that “BJP has to do some soul searching before his next Octagon appearance.

“Hello everyone, thank you for all your support. Thanks to you Alex for the fight. You [were] better,” Prochazka said in a video on social media. “And only one thing goes on my mind: that I need to evolve to the next level — or …

Payton Talbott claims skateboarding takes even more of a toll on the body than fighting.

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MMA and skateboarding appear to have a sort of connection, with fighters like Luke Rockhold, Kron Gracie, Andre Fili and several others having dabbled in the sport. Skateboarding is also one of Talbott’s talents.

UFC lightweight Jalin Turner, who is another skateboarding enthusiast, previously said that the sport takes a bigger toll on the body than fighting. Talbott agreed with that claim, explaining that a fall on concrete hits harder than any shot in a fight. Talbott also claimed to know of several MMA fighters’ careers jeopardized by skateboarding.

“Skateboarding [hurts the body more], for sure,” Talbott said during a post-fight media scrum following UFC 303. “Nobody hits harder than concrete. Skateboarding has derailed so many fighters’ careers.”

Talbott knocked out opponent Yanis Ghemmouri in 19 seconds at UFC 303 on Saturday to score his third con…

Vinicius Oliveira reignited his feud with Umar Nurmagomedov after a victory over Ricky Simon at UFC 303.

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Oliveira earned a unanimous decision win over Simon to start off the UFC 303 action at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday. “Lok Dog” subsequently called for a fight against Nurmagomedov, though he doesn’t expect the Dagestani to accept it.

Oliveira and Nurmagomedov have previously traded barbs on Instagram DMs following the Brazilian’s UFC debut back in March. Both fighters had claimed they would best each other in a street fight and expressed interest in a potential clash. However, Oliveira believes Nurmagomedov will be scared to fight him after watching his latest performance against Simon. Oliveira displayed excellent takedown defense against Simon, who is a seasoned grappler. Expecting Nurmagomedov to dodge him, Oliveira called for a clash against Dominick Cruz.

“I would like to fight so much against Umar Nurmagomedov. He was [u…

The commission explains how Ige/Lopes was put together.pic.twitter.com/N2OiP4iAtu

— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) June 30, 2024

A lot went into the making of the eventual matchup for the co-main event at UFC 303.

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Khalil Rountree and Jamahal Hill were the originally scheduled co-main event for UFC 303 at the T-Mobile Arena on Saturday before Rountree was forced out due to a failed drug test. Carlos Ulberg stepped in to replace Rountree but that matchup was eventually scrapped entirely when both Hill and Ulberg withdrew from the card. Eventually, Diego Lopes vs. Brian Ortega was booked as the featherweight co-main event. However, Lopes agreed to lightweight matchup against Ortega when he learned that “T-City” wouldn’t be able make the weight cut.

However, it was announced during the UFC 303 broadcast that the card was to have a new co-main event, as a fever forced Ortega out of the fight. Dan Ige, who trains in Las Vega…