Martial Arts News

Kohei Wakabayashi prescribed a death-by-a-thousand-cuts treatment for Gexi Sanlang.

The Japanese judoka enjoyed a successful ONE Championship debut, as repeated takedowns and a crushing top game carried him to a split decision over Sanlang in their three-round ONE Friday Fights 68 strawweight showcase on Friday at Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand. Two of the three ringside judges gave the nod to Wakabayashi (8-1-1, 1-0 ONE), who was reduced to tears when the verdict was read.

Sanlang (14-3, 0-2 ONE) was far too content to play defense from the bottom. Wakabayashi tripped him to the canvas in all three rounds, set up shop in half guard, applied some mild ground-and-pound and flirted with a few arm-triangles. Sanlang answered with slashing elbow strikes from his back but not enough of them to make a real difference. He staged a late rally in Round 3, where he caught a Wakabayashi kick and dumped him to the floor before connecting with elbows to the head and …

⚖️Featherweight Main Event Bout is official!

Brendan Loughnane: 146 lbsJustin Gonzales: 145.6 lbs

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[#PFLRegularSeason | Fri, Jun 28th | 6:30pm ET on ESPN+ | 10pm ET on ESPN ] pic.twitter.com/fusmTAqyMh — PFL (@PFLMMA) June 27, 2024

The stage is set for the final Professional Fighters League event of the 2024 regular season.

Brendan Loughnane and Justin Gonzales hit their contracted marks for the PFL 6 headliner during Thursday’s weigh-ins. Loughnane tipped the scales at 146 pounds, while Gonzales weighed 145.6.

PFL 6 takes place on Friday at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and features regular season bouts at featherweight and welterweight. The evening’s main card airs on ESPN and ESPN+ beginning at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, while prelims stream on ESPN+ at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT.

Loughnane, who won the 2022 PFL title at 145 pounds, kicked off his current campaign with a first-round tech…

Charles Oliveira shuts down recent fight rumours ❌#UFC #MMA pic.twitter.com/KaQPd4LdFz

— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) June 27, 2024

Charles Oliveira dismissed Dan Hooker’s claims of a potential UFC 305 matchup between the pair.

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Hooker (34-10) recently claimed that he is gearing up for a return at UFC 305 on Aug. 17 in Perth, Australia. While Hooker was initially hesitant to name his opponent, he later hinted that it could potentially be Oliveira (23-12). While Hooker is “100%” ready to fight Oliveira, he clarified that “do Bronx” is yet to sign the contract.

“My body’s a 100 percent,” Hooker said on the Mainevent YouTube channel. “Everything’s all cleared. I’m training, I’m training hard, I’m training 100 percent, I’m in camp. Getting ready for Perth; not sure if I can really say [who I’m fighting]. Nothing’s official. But obviously I’m 100 percent in. And the old Charlie Olives, I think that’s a fight that the fa…

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Payton Talbott is oozing a different level of confidence going into his upcoming Ultimate Fighting Championship outing.

Talbott (8-0) will take on French prospect Yanis Ghemmouri (12-2) at UFC 303 on June 29 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Always portraying an aura of extremely stoic confidence, Talbott is no different going into Saturday. However, this time Talbott went as far as to actually lay down a gameplan for Ghemmouri to beat him.

Talbott advised Ghemmouri to chop his base with leg kicks and throw in volume to be able to land. Talbott also warned “The Desert Warrior” against making it a slow-paced affair.

“The key to success for Yanis Ghemmouri, if you're listening: the way for you to beat me is to take my legs away,” Talbott said on his YouTube channel. “Just kick me as much as you can. It will serve you well. Please throw more than two strikes at a time. Nobody likes watching a slow-paced fight. The counter will be hard to la…

𝗪𝗜𝗡 𝗢𝗥 𝗚𝗢 𝗛𝗢𝗠𝗘

There is no time to waste inside the SmartCage as @Gabrielbragab and @BubbaJenkinsMMA fight to keep their 2024 Million Dollar Dreams alive in Sioux Falls 💰🏆

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[#PFLRegularSeason | Fri, Jun 28th | 6:30pm ET on ESPN+ | 10pm ET on ESPN ] pic.twitter.com/5FMEkHy9FQ — PFL (@PFLMMA) June 26, 2024

Bubba Jenkins (21-8) is eyeing a first-round finish to make it to the 2024 Professional Fighters League Playoffs.

Jenkins is slated to face Brazilian prospect Gabriel Braga (13-1) in a featherweight clash at 2024 PFL 6 Regular Season on Friday, June 28 at Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Jenkins started his 2024 campaign with a unanimous decision loss against Kai Kamaka III this past April, a first for the PFL veteran in four years. Meanwhile, his opponent had an excellent start to the season, knocking out Justin Gonzales in a first-round buzzer-beater on the same card to secure six points.

…

Don Madge doesn’t dread fight week anymore.

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When he began his career as a lightweight, that wasn’t necessarily the case for the South Africa native, who will face Neiman Gracie at PFL 6 in a regular season bout at welterweight on Friday night. After scoring a first-round submission of Brennan Ward on April 19, Madge sits atop the 170-pound standings heading into the second regular season event.

“Ah man, the weight cuts to the lightweight were like savage,” Madge said during a PFL media day. “I've kind of spoken about it now that I've made the move up, but I would do maybe [26 to 28 pounds] in a week, you know, like, stupid amounts… But yeah man, the move up to welterweight [was] something that I've been like juggling with for a long time. I just never felt like I needed to do it because I was still winning at lightweight.

“Especially for this the season format, we fight so often that doing those gigantic weight cuts just don't make any sense. …

Flowing into the zone with music is the motto for @da_MONSOON 🎵🎵🎵

B2YB @Bose

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[#PFLRegularSeason | Fri, Jun 28th | 6:30pm ET on ESPN+ | 10pm ET on ESPN ] pic.twitter.com/KNcFHu5ItI — PFL (@PFLMMA) June 26, 2024

Lorenz Larkin has been here before.

“Monsoon” was building a name under the Strikeforce banner when Zuffa purchased the promotion and folded it into the Ultimate Fighting Championship in 2013. So seeing Bellator MMA where Larkin has been since 2017, merge with Professional Fighters League isn’t exactly a novel experience for the 37-year-old veteran.

“I guess [it’s] kind of bittersweet, you know — the whole merger and things like that,” Larkin said during a PFL media day. “Unfortunately, it's not my first rodeo in this whole thing. So, you know, I was with Strikeforce when Zuffa bought them, so it was kind of familiar.

“But it's been good so far. Other than the no elbows, but you know, what can you do…

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Dricus Du Plessis vows to put the middleweight division on notice with his upcoming title defense against Israel Adesanya.

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“Stillknocks” will look to defend his strap for the first time against Adesanya in the main event at UFC 305 on Aug. 17 in Perth, Australia. Adesanya has always been the benchmark of success for Du Plessis, who plans to put himself in middleweight GOAT conversations by besting “The Last Stylebender.”

“I’ve always looked at Israel Adesanya as the benchmark,” Du Plessis told Fox West Texas. “Now Izzy became a champion a long time ago and I’ve looked at him and always knew, ‘This is where I need to be if I ever wanna be the best in the world.’… He is one of the greatest to ever do it. And this fight for me is gonna put me in that position. This is where I take over as one of the greatest to ever do it.”

In addition to beating Adesanya, Du Plessis vows to do it in a manner which will have other middleweight …

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Alex Pereira seemingly hasn’t lost his touch when it comes to changing tires.

The UFC light heavyweight champion, who once used to work at a tire repair shop, just recently changed a flat tire with ease. Pereira defends his light heavyweight title against Jiri Prochazka in the main event at UFC 303 on Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Pereira got to test his tire-changing skills while on his way to the airport to fly to Vegas. The taxi carrying Pereira’s kids, which got a flat tire, didn’t have a jack. While the driver also appeared slightly clueless, “Poatan” took the jack from the car he was traveling in and got the job done.

“It’s just like riding a bicycle: Once you know, you know. Because I thought I didn’t know no more how to do it,” Pereira told ESPN through an interpreter. “But we were on the way to the airport, Melvin, my kids were [in] the other car. And then we saw the other car stopped, they had a flat tire. The guy kind…

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Leon Edwards believes the highly-anticipated clash between Ian Garry and Michael Page could turn out to be lackluster affair.

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Garry and Page are slated to clash at UFC 303 on Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. While Garry is known for his clean and precise striking, “MVP” has built a career off of highlight-reel knockouts in Bellator MMA.

However, Edwards wonders if Garry vs. Page might play out to be a lukewarm contest due to a clash of similar styles. Having sparred both Garry and Page, “Rocky” believes the lengthy strikers might just be hesitant to commit first and end up spending most of their time in finding the range.

“It’s interesting all right bcause I feel like it might be like a little fencing fight where they’re both like trying to find range… So don’t know whether or not to run a boring fight, so they’re both trying to find range and nobody wants to commit first,” Edwards told Red Corner MMA. “Or a nice…

Sean Strickland believes he has earned his stripes for the next title fight at middleweight.

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Dricus Du Plessis will put his middleweight title on the line against Israel Adesanya at UFC 305 on Aug. 17 in Perth, Australia. The winner of that match is expected to face either Strickland or Robert Whittaker, who are both coming off massive victories.

Strickland made his case for a title shot with a split decision win over Paulo Costa at UFC 302 on June 1. Meanwhile, Whittaker scored a first-round knockout win over unranked prospect Ikram Aliskerov, who replaced Khamzat Chimaev on short notice at UFC on ABC 6 last weekend. Many believe a fight between Strickland and Whittaker is the best way to decide the next rightful title contender.

However, Strickland believes he has already done enough to deserve the next middleweight title shot over Whittaker. Strickland argued that he already beat Adesanya and was robbed of a win against du Plessis. Meanwhil…

Jiri Prochazka has hurled a rather fascinating accusation at Alex Pereira.

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Prochazka and Pereira agreed to a short notice title rematch in the main event at UFC 303 on Saturday after Conor McGregor pulled out of his scheduled matchup against Michael Chandler due to a toe injury.

The two initially traded leather at UFC 295 in November 2023, when Pereira scored a second-round knockout over Prochazka, which could have been considered an early stoppage. Pereira has since defended strap with a brutal-first round KO win over Jamahal Hill at UFC 300 this past April. However, this stoppage was also marred with controversy due a unique sequence leading up to the finish. Pereira brushed off an accidental low blow from Hill and stopped referee Herb Dean from pausing the action moments before putting “Sweet Dreams” to sleep. Hill accused Pereira of capitalizing on the awkward sequence to set up his victory.

Judging by what Prochazka has seen of Pereira a…