Martial Arts News

One Championship will host its most stacked card since the COVID-19 pandemic hit with an event featuring four title fights on Oct. 30.

One “Inside the Matrix” will be headlined by a middleweight championship tilt between reigning titlist Aung La N Sang and Reinier de Ridder, while Christian Lee will defend his lightweight crown against Iuri Lapicus. Additionally, featherweight ruler Martin Nguyen will square off against Thanh Le, while strawweight queen Jingnan Xiong will face Tiffany Teo.

One Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong recently announced the event, though a location and venue were not revealed.

Sang is currently on a seven-bout winning streak within the Singapore-based promotion and is coming off a second-round TKO of heavyweight champion Brandon Vera in light heavyweight title defense at One Championship “Century” Part 2 last October. The Netherlands’ Reinier is unbeaten in 12 professional appearances, including three under the One banner.

Lee la…

The hands of @pezao011 sent Sosoli to the canvas facefirst #UFCAuckland pic.twitter.com/HJmHvVOpub

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) February 23, 2020

UFC heavyweight Ben Sosoli could be in Australian jail for up to 22 months after punching a man outside a Melbourne bar in September 2019.

According to the Australian Associated Press, Sosoli was working at Jacksons Lounge Bar as a bouncer when he punched a man in the jaw after the patron twice snuck in to the establishment upon being refused entry for being too intoxicated. The man suffered a broken jaw as a result and was forced to undergo surgery.

Sosoli told police that the man had been “threatening to f—k him up” prior to the incident. However, Judge Gavan Meredith on Monday did not excuse the fighter for his actions.

"You are expected not to respond to provocation in the way you did,” Meredith said.

Sosoli pleaded guilty to recklessly causing serious injury and must serve 11 months o…

A welterweight title bout between Kamaru Usman and Gilbert Burns will not take place at UFC 256 as originally anticipated.

According to ESPN, the fight has been postponed because Usman needs more time to recover from undisclosed injuries, and it is unclear when the bout might be rescheduled. According to the report, the promotion has looked into booking Stipe Miocic vs. Francis Ngannou or Jorge Masvidal vs. Colby Covington for the card, but neither fight is close to being finalized.

Usman and Burns were originally supposed to meet at UFC 251 in Abu Dhabi on July 11, but Burns was forced to pull out of the contest after testing positive for COVID-19. Instead, Usman made his second successful title defense with a clear-cut five-round verdict against Masvidal in the evening’s main event. “The Nigerian Nightmare” has won 16 straight professional bouts – including 12 in the UFC.

Burns experienced mixed results at lightweight but has rattled off four consecutive vict…

Alexander Hernandez will square off against Chris Gruetzemacher in a lightweight clash at UFC Fight Night 181 on Oct. 31.

BJPenn.com was first to report the booking. UFC Fight Night 181 takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and is headlined by a middleweight showdown pitting Anderson Silva against Uriah Hall.

After beginning his promotional tenure with back-to-back triumphs over Beneil Dariush and Olivier Aubin-Mercier, Hernandez has dropped two of his last three Octagon appearances. Most recently, the San Antonio, Texas, native suffered a second-round TKO defeat against Drew Dober at UFC Fight Night 171 on May 13.

Gruetzemacher, meanwhile, halted a two-bout skid with a TKO of Joe Lauzon at UFC 223 in April 2018. The 34-year-old WSOF and Strikeforce veteran has not competed since that victory.

Former UFC heavyweight champion Mark Coleman was one of numerous male athletes victimized by Dr. Richard Strauss at Ohio State University, according to a report from Sports Illustrated.

In a piece entitled Why Aren’t More People Talking About the Ohio State Sex Abuse Scandal, Coleman recalls undergoing what seemed to be an inappropriate physical examination from Strauss upon his arrival on campus in 1986.

“He examined me pretty good. It was an eye-opener,” Coleman said. “I don’t want to go further than that.”

At that time, Strauss was the OSU doctor for five sports programs and the consulting physician for at least 10 others. According to the report, Strauss would not only fondle male athletes’ genitals during examinations — whether it was necessary or not — but he was also known to be present at practices, in locker rooms and would even shower with the athletes. Strauss’ bizarre and inappropriate antics earned him monikers like “Dr. Feel Good” or “Dr. Drop-You…

Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Tony Ferguson might be the most cursed bout in Ultimate Fighting Championship history, but there’s an outside chance the two lightweights could still meet in the Octagon.

In an interview with Sports Illustrated, UFC president Dana White implied that the Nurmagomedov-Ferguson matchup might not be dead yet – provided a couple things happen. Nurmagomedov is currently slated to defend his lightweight crown against Justin Gaethje at UFC 254 on Oct. 24, while Ferguson has not fought since falling to Gaethje in an interim 155-pound title tilt at UFC 249 on May 9.

“If Khabib does beat Gaethe, you get Tony Ferguson another fight, which we’re working on right now,” White said. “And hopefully that fight with Khabib happens because I know people want to see it.”

The promotion has already tried to book Nurmagomedov vs. Ferguson on five different occasions, and each time the bout has fallen through for various reasons. Most recently, the COVID-19 pand…

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Irene Aldana could have positioned herself as a top contender in the UFC women’s bantamweight division with a victory over Holly Holm on Saturday night.

Instead, the Lobo Gym MMA representative faltered at UFC on ESPN 16, losing a clear-cut unanimous verdict to Holm at Flash Forum in Abu Dhabi. The former bantamweight queen kept Aldana off balance with movement, punching flurries, a variety of kicks and timely takedowns over the course of a frustrating 25 minutes.

Aldana reacted to the setback in a recent post on her Instagram account.

“Today things didn’t go my way,” she wrote. “First of all I want to apologize to my corner because we had a very specific fight plan that I could not execute. I felt that something was wrong with my left foot; it wasn’t responding since the beginning of the fight. No excuses, I s…

Five-time UFC veteran Jessica Aguilar has signed an exclusive deal with Xtreme Fighting Championships.

The promotion confirmed the signing following an initial report from MMAjunkie.com on Monday. Aguilar is expected to make her debut at XFC 43 on Nov. 11 in Atlanta. The card will be televised on NBC Sports Network, but Aguilar’s opponent was not revealed.

The 38-year-old American Top Team product last appeared at UFC on ESPN 2 in March 2019, when she suffered a unanimous decision loss against Marina Rodriguez. “Jag” entered the Las Vegas-based promotion on a 10-bout winning streak but was victorious in just one of her five UFC bouts.

Prior to that, she captured 115-pound gold in World Series of Fighting and also enjoyed a successful stint in Bellator MMA. Aguilar owns notable wins over the likes of Carla Esparza, Megumi Fuji (twice), Jodie Esquibel and Angela Magana.

It was a rough night at the office for Jordan Williams at UFC on ESPN 16.

Not only did the Dana White’s Contender Series alum drop a unanimous decision to Nassourdine Imavov in their preliminary middleweight bout, but he also suffered mutlple injuries in a contest that featured two headbutts and an accidental groin strike.

The first headbutt seemed to affect Imavov more than Williams, but the 25-year-old Frenchman was able to recover and pull away for a victory down the stretch. In additions to injuries suffered as a result of the fight, Williams also revealed that he entered the contest with a pre-existing neck ailment.

“Just got back from the hospital and the verdict is a broken nose, multiple fractures,” Williams said in a post-fight statement on Instagram. “I have a broken orbital bone from that illegal head butt — the second illegal head butt. This [cut on my head] is from the first illegal head butt. And, apparently, I broke my neck in the last fight. I…

Daniel Jubileu Oliveira defends his title! #andstill #ACA112 pic.twitter.com/vJoMPn9Ffl

— ACAMMA (@ACA_League) October 4, 2020

Deivi Daniel Oliveira de Almeida defended his 135-pound championship in spectacular fashion against Abdul-Rakhman Dudaev in the Absolute Championship Akhmat 112 headliner on Sunday.

It looked like Dudaev's time to shine in the early going, as the challenger put severe pressure on the champion in the opening stanza, scoring on multiple occasions with his notorious spinning shots. In the second round, Dudaev (25-5) continued to hit his opponent and nearly secured a finish after landing a left head kick. However, Oliveira (28-6-1) exploited his opponent's eagerness to end the fight and connected with a right overhand that dropped Dudaev in his tracks. The tune of the battle changed after that shot, even as Oliveira attempted unsuccessfully to close a rear-naked choke attempt.

Midway through the third round, the Br…

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Julianna Pena is taking her loss at UFC on ESPN 16 in stride.

“The Ultimate Fighter 18” winner released a statement via Instagram after being choked unconscious by Germaine de Randamie in the third round of their bantamweight clash in Abu Dhabi on Saturday night. In her post, Pena included a video of her daughter while expressing a desire to set a good example for her child.

“You win some, you learn some. Wasn’t my night! Massive Congratulations to [Germaine de Randamie] it was an honor to compete against you and thank you for your service of upholding the #thinblueline Thank you [Dana White] and [UFC]for the experience,” she wrote.

“I can’t wait to get back to this little love of mine!! I’ve missed her so much! Your kids don’t always follow your advice, a lot of times they follow your example. I’m uninjured an…

Not just a striker @IronLadyMMA #UFCFightIsland4 live on ESPN pic.twitter.com/kxea3rHfIf

— UFC (@ufc) October 4, 2020

Germaine de Randamie has always been known for her standup acumen.

In addition to her MMA bouts, the Dutchwoman owns an impressive 46-0 record in kickboxing, which means that most UFC opponents won’t want to stand and trade with her. That was again the case at UFC on ESPN 16, where Julianna Pena did her best to ground “The Iron Lady” at any opportunity.

While that worked well early in the bantamweight bout, Pena paid the price for her strategy in Round 3, when de Randamie trapped her in a guillotine following a takedown and choked “The Venezuelan Vixen” unconscious. It was the first submission victory of de Randamie’s 14-bout MMA career.

“I said before this fight to my coaches, either I’ll get this guillotine—because if you give me your neck, I’m going to put you to sleep—or I’m going to knock her out,” de Randamie s…