Martial Arts News

Ayaka Hamasaki will face Kanna Asakura for a second time with the atomweight championship on the line at Rizin Fighting Federation 27.

The Japanese promotion recently announced the pairing, which will headline its first event of 2021. Rizin 27 takes place on March 21 at Nippon Gaishi Hall in Nagoya, Japan. According to a release, 5,000 spectators will be allowed to attend.

Nine other bouts were also confirmed for the event: Roberto de Souza vs. Kazuki Tokudome at lightweight; Tsuyoshi Sudario vs. Kazushi Miyamoto at heavyweight; Kleber Koike Erbst vs. Kazumasa Majima at featherweight; Koji Takeda vs. Takasuke Kume at lightweight; Tetsuya Seki vs. Yoshinori Horie at featherweight; Shooto Watanabe vs. Takumi Tamaru at bantamweight; Kazuma Sone vs. Hiroki Yamashita at bantamweight; Yutaro Muramoto vs. Seigo Yamamoto at flyweight and Kohei Sugiyama vs. Yuki Ito at flyweight.

Hamasaki and Asakura initially squared off for the vacant atomweight belt at Rizin 14, with …

After one of the saddest nights of his life at UFC 258, the first thing Gilbert Burns did when he woke up on Sunday was text Dana White asking to return as soon as possible.

Burns shared the story with Brazilian journalist Renato Rebello on his Youtube channel, Sexto Round, while waiting for his return flight from Las Vegas to Florida. Burns lost to Kamaru Usman via third-round technical knockout in the UFC 258 headliner at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday.

"That´s fighter life. Winning and losing is part of the game. Of course, the fact that I had such a good first round and seeing the belt so close made me feel the weight of defeat even more. But I cried a lot, had a long talk with Vitor Belfort, Ronaldo [Souza] and my older brother and somehow it helped me to wake up really motivated, texting Dana to get me back as soon as possible,” Burns said. "I just want to spend two or three weeks 100 percent with my wife and kids and return 100 percen…

WHAT A RIGHT HAND! HUGE Win for @RaulianPaivaMMA!#UFCRioRancho pic.twitter.com/NvhiuG5kJ2

— UFC (@ufc) February 15, 2020

A matchup of surging flyweights is on tap for the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s May 22 event when David Dvorak locks horns with Raulian Paiva.

Multiple outlets confirmed the booking following an initial report from Ag Fight. UFC Fight Night does not have an official location or headliner as of this writing.

A 28-year-old native of the Czech Republic, Dvorak is currently on a 15-bout professional winning streak. The All Sports Academy product began his promotional tenure with back-to-back decision triumphs against Bruno Silva and Jordan Espinosa in 2020. Dvorak is 19-4 over the course of his career, with 15 victories coming inside the distance.

Paiva is 2-2 in the UFC after competing on the Brazilian edition of Dana White’s Contender Series in 2018. After falling to Kai Kara France and Rogerio Bontorin in his fi…

Georges St. Pierre remains the gold standard by which all welterweights are compared in mixed martial arts.

So when Kamaru Usman surpassed the former champion’s record for most consecutive wins at 170 pounds on Saturday not, it was only natural that talk turned to how the current title holder might fare against the division’s GOAT. Usman, for one, said he would welcome the challenge.

“Of course, I would like Georges. But I don’t want Georges because of money or anything like that. Like I said, I’m a competitor. I want Georges because Georges left on top. Georges can still do it. I see him training. Georges, I’m watching you. I see you training. Georges can still do it.

“So, if there’s potential for that big fight and Georges wants to come back, then of course, Georges can cut the line, absolutely.”

However, St. Pierre’s interest in such a pairing doesn’t seem to be high at the moment. The Canadian discussed the possibility during an appearance on SN590’s "…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIoglbpzpHU&w=560&h=315]

Polish strongman Mariusz Pudzianowski will square off against Senegalese heavyweight wrestling champion Serigne Ousmane Dia in the KSW 59 main event.

Promotion officials announced the pairing on Monday. KSW 59 takes place on March 20 and will also see bantamweight champion Antun Racic face an as yet to be determined opponent. The event can be viewed on pay-per-view via KSWTV.com.

The 44-year-old Pudzianowski hasn’t competed since November 2019, when he defeated Erko Jun by second-round technical knockout at KSW 51. The 43-year-old made his MMA debut in 2009 and has compiled a 13-7 record with one no contest. All but one of his professional appearances have come under the KSW banner. He has bested the likes of Rolles Gracie, Bob Sapp, Oli Thompson, Sean McCorkle and Jay Silva over the course of his tenure.

Known as “Bombardier,” Dia is listed at 6-foot-3, 330 pounds and is a two-time “King of the Ar…

Despite a 17-fight winning streak that includes 13 triumphs in the world’s largest mixed martial arts promotion, Kamaru Usman was feeling a little bit overlooked after UFC 258.

After defeating former teammate Gilbert Burns by third-round technical knockout in Saturday’s headliner at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, “The Nigerian Nightmare” issued a demand for respect that he feels he hasn’t received as of yet in his career. In particular, Usman pointed to pound-for-pound rankings, where he feels he has been slighted.

“That pound-for-pound list is not a popularity contest, you know? I haven’t really lost rounds in here – I control what goes on inside the cage,” he said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “Just because I’m not the loudest guy in the room, I’m not the most braggadocious, I don’t get in trouble outside [the cage], I’m not in headlines all the time.

“Let’s be honest, they kind of disrespect me in a sense. That pound-for-pound list is not a popularit…

Credit: Getty/UFC Credit: Getty/UFC

Maycee Barber emerged from a contract-winning performance on Dana White’s Contender Series with big ambitions for her Ultimate Fighting Championship career.

Ahead of her Octagon debut at UFC Fight Night 139 in November 2018, Barber announced her plans to break Jon Jones’ record by becoming the youngest champion in promotion history.

“I’ve always said it: I’m going to be the youngest UFC champion,” Barber said prior to the event. “But it’s better to just let your actions speak and talk a little less. We’re going to say less, do more. And, yeah, you guys know. You’ll see where I go.”

The hype began to build in earnest as Barber dispatched Hannah Cifers, J.J. Aldrich and Gillian Robertson via technical knockout in her first three promotional appearances. She hit a speed bump at UFC 246, however, suffering a torn ACL in an upset loss to Roxanne Modafferi in January 2020. After more than a year on the sidelines, “The Future” retu…

Stefan Struve announced his retirement on Monday after a 42-fight professional career that began in 2005.

The 7-foot Dutchman revealed his decision on social media, citing an ear condition that worsened when he was hit during a recent UFC bout. Struve has dealt with vertigo, hearing loss and a ringing noise in his ear as a result of the condition, which is permanent but doesn’t affect his day-to-day life when he’s not training for a fight. Struve said he elected to call it a career after the UFC recently reached out to offer him a fight.

“I was able to take my space and time the last couple of months to overthink this, so this time it really is for good,” Struve said. “I’ve had an inner ear issue I’ve been battling since May last year. I caught a viral infection that has damaged my vestibular system and the hearing nerve in my right ear. After new tests done recently we learned that the vestibular system is not working properly, the first conclusion in May was that it…

Former Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Wrestling World Championships gold medalist Rodolfo Vieira was one of the biggest favorites at UFC 258.

In the early moments of his bout with Anthony Hernandez, it looked like all would go as planned, as he took his foe down and hunted for submissions. Once Hernandez escaped, it was an entirely different matter. Vieira quickly fatigued, and Hernandez capitalized with a barrage of power punches.

Vieira made it to Round 2, but Hernandez remained on the offensive, rocking his foe with a head kick and a pair of standing elbows. With Vieira fading fast, Hernandez added a shocking punctuation to his victory by tapping the five-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion with an arm-in guillotine choke at the 1:53 mark of the period.

“That was one of the fights that we picked to be a great fight and it was,” UFC president Dana White said at the post-fight press conference. “Even the commentators were talking about, nobody wants to …

Sorry y’all. No performance of the night for me on Feb 27th @Cagesidepress @ufc pic.twitter.com/8giaZg4gy3

— Sam Hughes (@samhughesmma) February 14, 2021

UFC Fight Night 186 has lost a strawweight clash between Sam Hughes and Emily Whitmire.

Hughes confirmed the cancellation on social media following an initial report from Cageside Press. The bout was reportedly scrapped because Whitmire was forced off the card for undisclosed reasons.

It’s currently unknown if the bout will be rebooked for a future event or if Hughes will receive a replacement foe. UFC Fight Night 186 takes place on Feb. 27 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and is headlined by a heavyweight tilt pitting Jairzinho Rozenstruik against Ciryl Gane.

A three-time Legacy Fighting Alliance veteran, Hughes is coming off a first-round TKO loss to Tecia Torres in her promotional debut at UFC 256. Whitmire, meanwhile, is 2-3 in the Octagon and is coming off back-to-back submission…

Kamaru Usman showcased some different aspects to his game at UFC 258.

First, he displayed the ability to overcome adversity when he recovered from being rocked by an overhand right from Gilbert Burns in the opening stanza of Saturday’s welterweight championship headliner at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday night. Then, as the bout progressed, “The Nigerian Nightmare” utilized a powerful jab from both the southpaw and orthodox stance, and it was that very maneuver that floored Burns in the finishing sequence at the beginning of Round 3.

“I’ve been waiting for this fight for a year. I was excited for this fight,” UFC president Dana White said at the post-fight press conference. “I knew it was gonna be great. For all the attributes that Usman has, his chin is probably the best one. He’s got a chin from hell. He took some big shots tonight and just kept coming forward … He said he used to get hit with that punch when they used to spar. It basically just made him mad.…

Before she set foot in the UFC’s Octagon, Alexa Grasso was tabbed as a potential superstar who could make inroads for the Las Vegas-based promotion in the potentially lucrative Mexican market.

Grasso looked the part too, compiling an 8-0 mark that included four triumphs in Invicta Fighting Championships. Once she arrived in the UFC, Grasso struggled to find consistency as she alternated wins and losses through her first six appearances at 115 pounds.

It’s only recently that the Lobo Gym MMA representative has begun to deliver on that potential. After throttling Maycee Barber at UFC 258, Grasso has won consecutive fights in the UFC for the first time in her career. Both of those victories have come since she moved to 125 pounds. That the latest triumph came against Barber, who not long ago was one of the most highly-touted prospects in any women’s division, makes the achievement all the more impressive in the eyes of UFC president Dana White.

“She looked incredib…