Martial Arts News

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…

UFC on ESPN 59 has a new main event.

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Maycee Barber has been forced out of a proposed flyweight clash against Rose Namajunas for undisclosed reasons. As a result, Tracy Cortez will face Namajunas in the card’s new main event. MMA Mania was first to report Barber’s withdrawal, and MMAFighting.com brought word of the new booking. UFC on ESPN 59 takes place on July 13 at Ball Arena in Denver.

Cortez was scheduled to face Miranda Maverick at on UFC on ESPN 60 on July 20, but will now fight one week earlier than expected. Maverick will reportedly remain on the July 20 card against a replacement opponent.

Cortez has won 11 consecutive professional outings — including her first five UFC bouts. Most recently, the Fight Ready product defeated Jasmine Jasudavicius via unanimous decision at UFC Fight Night 227 this past September.

A former strawweight champion, Namajunas will be making her third 125-pound appearance. After dropping a three-round ve…

Veteran official Herb Dean will be in charge when Alex Pereira and Jiri Prochazka square off in the UFC 303 main event.

Referee and judging assignments for the light heavyweight championship rematch were revealed during a Nevada State Athletic Commission meeting on Tuesday. Derek Cleary, Sal D’Amato and Ron McCarthy will score the contest from their cageside positions.

Dean was also the third man in the cage for Pereira’s most recent title defense, a first-round KO of Jamahal Hill at UFC 300 on April 13. On that same card, Dean officiated Prochazka’s second-round stoppage of Aleksandar Rakic.

Pereira and Prochazka initially squared off at UFC 295 this past November, when “Poatan” captured 205-pound gold with a second-round technical knockout of his opponent. Marc Goddard was the referee for that bout. The rematch is a short-notice replacement for the original UFC 303 main event between Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler.

Igor da Silva has been suspended nine months for biting Andre Lima during the bout at UFC on ESPN 53 on March 23.

The 21-year-old Brazilian was also fined $2,000. The sanctions were announced during a Nevada State Athletic Commission meeting on Tuesday. Da Silva’s suspension is retroactive to the date of his fight, which means he would be eligible to return on Dec. 23.

During a previous commission meeting, Nevada deputy attorney general Matthew Feeley proposed a six-month term for da Silva, who is commonly known as Igor Severino. However, the commision rejected that proposal out of concern that a relatively short term might set a bad precedent for future incidents. While it was initially recommended that da Silva’s suspension be extended to one year, the NSAC ultimately settled on nine months.

Da Silva was released from the UFC for the bite, which occurred at the 2:52 mark of Round 2 and left a visible mark on Lima’s arm. Silva began his professional car…

A highly-anticipated rematch will take place in the main event at UFC 303.

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Eight months after headlining UFC 295 at Madison Square Garden in New York, Jiri Prochazka and Alex Pereira return to the Octagon, this time at T- Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday night. The first time Prochazka arrived as the favorite, and after dominating the action in the first round, was knocked out in Round 2 by the Brazilian. This time, the Czech fighter will arrive as an underdog. Several noteworthy figures from the Brazilian MMA community weighed in on the UFC 303 main event with Sherdog.com.

Pedro Rizzo (former UFC heavyweight contender): If ‘Poatan’ were asked to take on a fighter with a style opposite to his, for example a wrestler like Daniel Cormier with a full camp, and he had less than a week of camp, it wouldn't be a smart decision for him to put his belt on the line, but this is not the case. Jiri is a kickboxer and despite having dangerous ground-and-p…

Arman Tsarukyan punched a fan during his walkout to fight Charles Oliveira 😅 pic.twitter.com/DMoX27o8H1

— Happy Punch (@HappyPunch) April 14, 2024

Arman Tsarukyan is facing sanctions for his altercation with a fan during his walkout at UFC 300.

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The Nevada State Athletic Commission announced during its monthly meeting on Tuesday that Tsarukyan has been fined $25,000 and suspended nine months for throwing a punch at a fan on his way to the Octagon at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on April 13. The suspension can be reduced to six months if Tsarukyan releases an anti-bullying message that is approved by the NSAC.

Tsarukyan defeated Charles Oliveira via split decision at UFC 300 to earn his fourth consecutive victory in what was deemed to be a title eliminator bout. Tsarukyan later claimed that he threw the punch because a fan flipped him the bird during his walkout.

“He showed me f—k you [flipped the bird] and wante…