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. The Ultimate Fighting Championship grew its ranks by three during Week 9 of Dana White’s Contender Series, as the promotion signed Natan Levy, Nikolas Motta and Luana Pinheiro to contracts on Tuesday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Filipe de Sousa Outduels Ksiazkiewicz Former Max Fight champion Mario Filipe de Sousa connected with more consequential strikes, countered takedowns and ground-and-pound from Mariusz Ksiazkiewicz with a hyperactive bottom game and walked away with a unanimous decision in a three-round middleweight encounter. Scores were 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28, all for Filipe de Sousa.

Outgunned on the feet, Ksiazkiewicz (8-1) pursued takedowns with a gritty purpose but failed to consolidate many of them with meaningful offense. Filipe de Sousa (12-1) responded with punches, hammerfists, elbows and several submission at…

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 DWCS 2020 Week 9 coverage kicks off Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET. Check out the MMA Forums to discuss the card or enter your comments and predictions below. Round 1 Moore stalks Sabatello, who lands a kick to the body and then plants Moore on his back with a takedown less than 30 seconds into the fight. Sabatello works inside of his foe’s guard, landing short punches to the body and elbows to the head. Sabatello stands with Moore attached to him and slams him back down. Moore remains in closed guard, as Sabatello drops several more elbows from above. There’s two minutes to go and Sabatello has stayed busy enough with ground-and-pound to maintain his dominant position. Sabatello continues to do a nice job of vary his offense from above, mixing up punches to the head and body as the clock ticks down. The horn sounds with Moo…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKYRl29XJS8&w=560&h=315]

Magomed Magomedov will square off against Matheus Mattos in main card matchup at Bellator 254.

Sherdog.com confirmed the booking with a promotion official following an initial report from MMAjunkie.com. Additionally, a women’s featherweight fight pitting Marina Mokhnatkina against Jessica Borga is set for the prelims. Bellator 254 takes place on Dec. 12 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut and is headlined by a flyweight title tilt between Ilima-Lei Macfarlane and Juliana Velasquez.

A former ACB title holder, Magomedov enters his promotional debut with a 16-1 record. The 28-year-old Moscow native notably defeated current UFC 135-pound champ Petr Yan via split decision in a title bout at ACB 32 in March 2016 but lost to Yan in a rematch at ACB 57 approximately one year later.

Mattos, a former ACB title challenger, has lost just once in 14 professional outings. That defeat came at the han…

After some public posturing and haggling, it appears that Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier have finally agreed to square off in a lightweight bout at UFC 257.

MMAFighting.com reported that both sides came to terms late Monday night However, the report also states that McGregor is pushing to have the bout moved to UFC 256 on Dec. 12, since that card lost its original headliner of Amanda Nunes vs. Megan Anderson at the beginning of the week, and the Irish star has recently expressed a desire to compete before 2021.

The promotion was reportedly having difficulty getting Poirier to agree to a deal, but ESPN on Tuesday also confirmed that Poirier signed a bout agreement. McGregor already previously verbally agreed to the fight but has not yet signed a bout agreement, according to ESPN. In September, McGregor and Poirier struck an informal agreement over Twitter to lock horns in an exhibition match in Ireland on Dec. 12 for charity before the UFC stepped in and offered…

It’s one thing to accept a fight on short notice. It’s entirely another to do so less than one week before facing a former champion in a headlining bout in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

For Paul Felder, stepping up to face Rafael dos Anjos in the UFC Fight Night 182 headliner was an opportunity to do something positive in a what has been a dark period for so many people.

“I thought about it and I decided with everything going on in the world and all the sad things going on in people’s lives and losing their jobs and suffering and we just lost Alex freaking Trebek to pancreatic cancer, I was like, ‘Man, you know you’re still 36. You’re young. You’re in shape. Save the date. Let’s go get paid. Let’s have fun. You’re fighting a legend,’” Felder told ESPN. “What do I have to lose?”

Perhaps even more impressive than Felder’s willingness to step up was the fact that he agreed to compete at 155 pounds. After all, Dos Anjos is just coming off a stint at welterweig…

Former UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson will move up to 170 pounds to face Jason Jackson in the Bellator 253 co-main event.

Sherdog.com confirmed the booking with a promotion official following an initial report MMAFighting.com. Bellator 253 takes place on Nov. 19 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, and is headlined by a featherweight grand prix semifinal between Darrion Caldwell and A.J. McKee.

Henderson made his Bellator debut at welterweight in April 2016, when he dropped a five-round verdict to then champion Andrey Koreshkov. “Smooth” returned to 155 pounds after that and has since gone 5-3 in the California-based promotion. The 36-year-old MMA Lab stalwart is coming off a first-round KO loss to Michael Chandler at Bellator 243, his first stoppage loss since 2014.

A former competitor on Dana White’s Contender Series, Jackson enters the matchup with Henderson having won five of his last six professional outings. The Sanford MMA represe…

Former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping will play a lead role in the boxing-themed film “The Journeyman,” according to Deadline.

The film is an adaption of British author Mark Turley’s book entitled “The Journeymen: The Other Side of the Boxing Business, a New Perspective on the Noble Art.” Turley’s book spotlights “boxers who lose for a living” and features East London’s Johnny Greaves, who went 4-96 in his professional career. Greaves will serve as a technical advisor for the film.

Bisping will play Kenny “The Beast” Breen, “an alcoholic, drug-abusing, past-his-prime journeyman boxer with a record of 11-85-0 who, after being diagnosed with neurological damage, continues his career on the small-hall circuit at grave risk to himself.” The film will be directed by Dax Phelan and shot in the UK. A release date for the movie is currently unknown.

“For obvious reasons, Mike brings an authenticity and an X-factor to the role that no other actor ever could,…

Earlier this year, Paul Felder was contemplating retirement. Instead, he’ll make his next Octagon appearance on just five days’ notice.

Felder will step in for Islam Makhachev and face Rafael dos Anjos in the UFC Fight Night 182 main event on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Despite the short-notice nature of the matchup, it will remain a five-round fight and will still be contested at 155 pounds. ESPN was first to report the new pairing.

Felder last appeared at UFC Fight Night 168 on Feb. 23, when he lost a narrow split decision to Dan Hooker in the evening’s headliner. “The Irish Dragon” publicly mulled retirement in the aftermath of that defeat before ultimately reconsidering that decision. The 35-year-old Roufusport product is 9-5 in his UFC career, with noteworthy triumphs against the likes of Edson Barboza, Charles Oliveira and James Vick. Felder has also become a staple of UFC broadcasts as a commentator.

A former UFC lightweight champion, dos Anj…

Two-division champion Amanda Nunes has pulled out of her scheduled featherweight title defense at UFC 256 for undisclosed reasons, according to ESPN.

Nunes vs. Anderson was supposed to headline the UFC 256 card at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Dec. 12. According to Anderson, the promotion is working to reschedule the bout, though UFC officials have not officially announced the cancellation of the title fight. It is currently unclear if UFC 256 will get a new headliner. The card also features a bantamweight championship clash between Petr Yan and Aljamain Sterling.

Wishing Amanda a speedy recovery UFC are rescheduling the bout for a date early next year.

The goal remains the same We'll be ready.. https://t.co/APZt4zUkS0

— Megan Anderson (@MeganA_mma) November 9, 2020

"All I was told was she has a 'serious medical issue' and that they're working on rescheduling the bout currently," Anderson said in a statement released to ESPN. "Obviou…

A middleweight showdown between Brendan Allen and Sean Strickland has been added to the UFC Fight Night 182 lineup.

Allen initially announced the pairing on Instagram, and it has since been confirmed by multiple outlets. Allen was supposed to square off against Ian Heinsich at UFC on ESPN 17 last weekend before a positive COVID-19 test involving Heinisch resulted in the cancellation of that bout.

“It all happened super fast, but we got everything done and put together. Thank you SO much to the [UFC], [Dana White] and my guy [Mick Maynard] for working his tail off and taking super good care of me and getting me set up with a talented opponent,” Allen wrote.

UFC Fight Night 182 takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and was originally scheduled to feature a lightweight clash between Rafael dos Anjos and Islam Makhachev. Makhachev withdrew from the bout due to a staph infection, and the promotion is in the process of seeking a replacement opponent for dos Anjos.…

Week 9 of Dana White’s Contender Series is now official, as all 10 fighters slated for action made weight without issue on Monday.

The event did undergo one late change when Landon Quinones Stewart was forced to exit the event due to a positive COVID-19 test. As a result, Natan Levy will step in to face Shaheen Santana in a 160-pound catchweight affair. Levy tipped the scales at 159 pounds, while Santana checked in at 158.

The Contender Series takes place on Tuesday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and streams on UFC Fight Pass at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. ET. The card is headlined by a middleweight clash between Mariusz Ksiazkiewicz (184.5) and Mario Filipe de Sousa (185.5).

The Winnipeg-based Ksiazkiewicz is unbeaten in eight professional appearances thus far. He last competed in November 2019, when he scored a first-round submission of Guilherme Miranda. All but one of his victories have come inside the distance.

Sousa has lost just once in 12 career bouts. The 24-year-ol…

Raufeon Stots will square off against Keith Lee in a bantamweight affair at Bellator 253.

Sherdog.com confirmed the bout with a promotion official on Monday following an initial report from MMA journalist James Lynch. Bellator 253 takes place at on Nov. 19 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut and is headlined by a featherweight grand prix semifinal pitting Darrion Caldwell against A.J. McKee.

The promotion also confirmed four more bouts for Bellator 253 to MMAjunkie.comon Monday: Kevin Ferguson Jr. vs. Kaheem Murray at lightweight; Gaston Bolanos vs. Johnny Soto at a 140-pound catchweight; Jaleel Willis vs. Mark Lemminger at welterweight and Marcus Surin vs. Ricardo Seixas at lightweight.

Stots has gone 2-0 in his promotional tenure thus far, posting a unanimous verdict against Cheyden Leialoha at Bellator 236 and a third-round submission over Cass Bell at Bellator 242. The 31-year-old Roufusport product has lost just once in 15 professional out…