Martial Arts News

Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app. Sherdog's live UFC Fight Night 181 coverage will begin Saturday at 4 p.m. ET. Check out the MMA Forums to discuss the card or enter your comments and predictions below. Round 1 Kicking off this first-ever UFC card on Halloween is what could be a wild bantamweight scrap between two Legacy Fighting Alliance vets, as Johns (10-1, 1-1 UFC) welcomes “Quicksand” Natividad (9-1, 0-0 UFC) to the Octagon. There is an important rule change to clarify: the Nevada State Athletic Commission is implementing new replay rules, where a designated official outside of the cage can signal to the referee that the bout should be paused and something should be reviewed. This replay can be used any time throughout the bouts, and they can be restarted immediately after. That referee inside the cage will be Chris Tognoni for this one, and with no touch of g…

Uriah Hall sent his idol out on his shield.

The Fortis MMA standout overcame a slow start and perhaps some star-struck reverence, as he brought down former Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight titleholder Anderson Silva with punches in the fourth round of their UFC Fight Night 181 headliner on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Silva (34-11, 17-7 UFC) — who stopped short of announcing his retirement in the immediate aftermath — bowed out 1:24 into Round 4 in what may have been his final appearance inside the Octagon.

"You're the reason why I'm doing this. Thank you so much."

Incredible. #UFCVegas12 pic.twitter.com/764LPSdgiF

— UFC Canada (@UFC_CA) November 1, 2020 Hall (16-9, 9-7 UFC) let the Brazilian icon lead the dance for two-plus rounds, as “The Spider” leaned on lateral movement, a steady stream of leg kicks and occasional bursts of punches. Everything turned in the waning seconds of Round 3. There, Hall dropped the …

Absolute Championship Akhmat title contender Magomedrasul Khasbulayev, who was supposed to fight reigning featherweight king Felipe Froes at ACA 113 on Nov. 6 in Moscow, was injured during training and has withdrawn from the bout.

ACA President Alexey Yatsenko recently informed Sherdog.com of Khasbulaev’s withdrawal.

“Magomedrasul Khasbulaev was diagnosed with a tear in the muscle fibers of the gastrocnemius muscle of his left leg, and will not be able to fight until the end of this year. However, the featherweight championship fight will certainly take place at the December ACA event,” Yatsenko said. “Froes will fly to Russia [soon] and will stay to train for the bout. He will fight Marat Balaev in ACA 116 headliner on Dec. 18.

“We will announce later the city of this event. And Magomedrasul Khasbulaev will have a chance after he recovers to face the champion.”

For Felipe Froes, this will be the first defense of the championship belt, which he took away f…

What a fight! We are headed to the 5th and final round! #LFA94 pic.twitter.com/VIcmA3eToT

— UFC FIGHT PASS (@UFCFightPass) October 31, 2020 Inaugural Legacy Fighting Alliance strawweight champion Crystal Vanessa Demopoulos came up short in her first title defense against Lupita Godinez at LFA 94.

From the opening bell, Godinez (5-0) had a clear advantage on the feet against Demopoulos (5-3). "Loopy" continued landing at will in Round 2 and bloodied up the champion. "Lil Monster" showed tremendous heart as she never stopped coming forward. Godinez would drop Demopoulos in Round 4, but the champ would fire back for her best round of the fight to that point.

Thanks to Kansas using open scoring, it was known that the champion needed a finish if she wanted to retain the belt. Demopoulos hit a takedown mid-round, which gave her a clear path to victory. However, Godinez was able to hang on and reversed position. After five rounds of action, Go…

For the final time.

@SpiderAnderson hits the scales for one last dance. #UFCVegas12 pic.twitter.com/iDE2EhDGun

— UFC (@ufc) October 30, 2020 Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app. Editor's note: The article has been updated at 3:00 p.m. ET on Oct. 30 to reflect that Greg Hardy officially made weight.

A few Ultimate Fighting Championship fighters may have cracked into their Halloween candy a little early this weekend.

After another eventful stint on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, the UFC returns to Las Vegas. Headlining the first-ever UFC Halloween event is former middleweight king Anderson Silva taking on Uriah Hall. It’s been over seven years since Silva (34-10, 1 NC) has held UFC gold. He’s won only one fight in his last eight, having been awarded a decision over Derek Brunson. His last two fights saw “The Spider” lose a decisio…

Now that the #LFA94 weigh-in is in the books, which fight are you looking forward to the most tonight?

: https://t.co/kNlYKe9wVP

: https://t.co/tgI7oFbNCd@PsoRite@ShellsDotCom@AthleticCBD@GLCDirect2000@USENDmoney@IncaKolaUSA@FredLoyaIns@HartmanArena@UFCFightPass pic.twitter.com/XWsNTxZ42A — LFA (@LFAfighting) October 30, 2020 The Legacy Fighting Alliance ends the month and its third phase with a title fight on Halloween weekend.

LFA 94 is headlined by a women’s strawweight title tilt as Crystal Vanessa Demopoulos (113.4) returns from an unsuccessful outing on Dana White's Contender Series to defend her LFA 115-pound crown. Demopoulos won the title in a thrilling battle against Sam Hughes in July, where she put “Sampage” to sleep with an ultra-rare inverted triangle choke. Her opponent Lupita Godinez (114.6) has yet to lose as a professional, with most of her bouts going the distance including a victory at Combate Americas show in 2019.…

After the dust settled, two of four championship belts up for grabs changed hands at One ‘Inside the Matrix’ on Friday.

In the main event, Aung La N Sang (26-11) put his One middleweight title on the line against Reinier de Ridder. It took less than a round to "The Dutch Knight" to tame "The Burmese Python" and inflict Aung La his first loss in three years. The defending champion started the bout by landing an uppercut, to which De Ridder answered with a takedown. Once on the canvas, the unbeaten Dutchman took his opponent’s back in no time. Aung La attempted to get out of the sticky situation, even by grabbing the fence, but there was nothing he could do. At the 3:26 mark, Aung La was forced to tap after De Ridder’s neck crank slid under the chin into a rear-naked choke. In the process, De Ridder became the first Dutch champion in One history.

Christian Lee finishes undefeated phenom Iuri Lapicus with DEVASTATING ground and pound to retain the …

#AndNew | @Mousasi_MMA gets the W in tonight's main event bout and comes away with the world middleweight title.#Bellator250 pic.twitter.com/dPQKOknZU8

— BellatorMMA (@BellatorMMA) October 30, 2020 The Bellator MMA middleweight championship is no longer vacant. Fighting for the belt previously held by Rafael Lovato Jr. were former 185-pound champion Gegard Mousasi and current welterweight champion Douglas Lima. In the end, Mousasi's hands were raised at the end of Bellator 250.

The superior grappling of Mousasi (47-7-2) was the story early as he took Lima (32-8) down and easily controlled the first round. The next three frames were contested on the feet, which saw Mousasi show off his slick jab and Lima was uncharacteristically tentative. Round 5 saw Mousasi go back to his grappling to secure the fight in his favor. After five rounds, Mousasi was awarded a unanimous decision (48-47, 49-46 and 49-46) and became a two-time middleweight champion…

I have 15 minute interview with @ufc President @danawhite that will air tonight on @CBSSportsRadio at 8 PM Eastern/5 Pacific.

Dana told The Zach Gelb Show on CBS Sports Radio that he and @TeamKhabib have been talking & he expects Khabib to return & go for 30-0.

WOW! pic.twitter.com/UqAM19Y1SF — Zach Gelb (@ZachGelb) October 29, 2020 Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app. A retirement in the Ultimate Fighting Championship and a dollar can get you a cup of coffee in the morning.

Lightweight king Khabib Nurmagomedov (29-0) put Justin Gaethje to sleep with a triangle choke last Saturday at UFC 254, and he unexpectedly announced his retirement after the win. In his post-fight interview, “The Eagle” claimed that he made a promise to his mother to stop fighting after facing Gaethje, and that he could not continue competing without…

Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app. Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight contender Charles Oliveira wants to go old school to determine a new champ in his division. Oliveira, who has won his last seven bouts all by stoppage, spoke to Sherdog on Wednesday about his thoughts on the future of the UFC lightweight class. As Khabib Nurmagomedov defended his title against Justin Gaethje at UFC 254 and retired, the belt is presumably vacant. Like many fans, fighters and media members alike, Oliveira believes the best way to settle it is through a grand prix tournament.

“I [am a] guy who is coming from a sequence of seven wins, just beat the record of most submission wins in UFC history and never leaves the fights in judges’ hands. [I] should be at least respected [by] receiving some opponent placed above [me] in [the] ranking[s],” Oliviera stated firmly. “But I need…

Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app. Kevin Holland is still on track to have three Ultimate Fighting Championship fights in three months, no matter what. Late Wednesday night, MMA Fighting first reported that Holland (19-5) will no longer be facing Makhmud Muradov (24-6) at UFC Fight Night 181 on Saturday. Muradov’s removal was due to a positive COVID-19 test, the fighter announced this on Instagram shortly after the report came out. In Muradov’s stead will be newcomer Charlie Ontiveros (11-6), who will be stepping up a weight class to face Holland at middleweight on just a few days’ notice.

Ontiveros was previously tapped once before to step in and make his UFC debut in July, when he was planning on replacing Eric Spicely against Markus Perez. Ontiveros was not cleared for competition in time, so Perez had to wait several more months to compete. The former F…

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Bellator MMA has just seen its big event shaken up on fight day.

First reported by MMA Fighting on Thursday, two bouts have been scratched from Bellator 250. Both Veta Arteaga and Nick Newell have tested positive for COVID-19, and they have been pulled from their respective pairings against Desiree Yanez and Zach Zane. The news has since been confirmed by ESPN, and Yanez has since posted about the scrapped Oct. 29 fight on her Instagram.

Yanez, who was aiming to make her promotional debut, wrote the following:

“*sigh* well guys…my fight is unfortunately canceled tonight due to my opponent getting tested positive for COVID. I really don’t know what to say other than I was more than ready to battle and still am. Bellator MMA is going to get this matchup back as soon as they possibly can. I am beyond devastated, but everything happens for a reason. More time to prepare. I love you all and the sup…