Martial Arts News

Very tough to be ruled out of my scheduled return bout. I picked up an injury prior to the press conference that required more time to heal than was available to me. The decision to postpone the fight was not made lightly, but one made in consultation with my doctors, the UFC,… pic.twitter.com/ACNnbvr27p

— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) June 15, 2024

While Conor McGregor’s absence from mixed martial arts will now extend beyond three years, the Irishman remains optimistic regarding his future.

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The former two-division champion released a statement on Saturday addressing his withdrawal from the UFC 303 headliner against Michael Chandler. The June 29 welterweight bout was expected to be McGregor’s first Octagon appearance since breaking his leg in a loss to Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 in July 2021.

“Very tough to be ruled out of my scheduled return bout,” McGregor wrote on social media. “I picked up an injury prior to the …

A number of ailments will keep Jamahal Hill from competing at UFC 303.

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The former light heavyweight champion recently revealed on social media that two tears in his meniscus, a sprained ACL and a Baker’s cyst — which leaked fluid into the back of his knee — led to him withdrawing from a proposed clash against Carlos Ulberg on June 29.

“This is only making me hungrier,” Hill added on Instagram. “Be back soon!!!”

Hill captured the vacant 205-pound belt with a unanimous decision triumph over Glover Teixeira at UFC 283 in January 2023. However, a ruptured Achilles tendon suffered in a pickup basketball game sidelined him for more than a year, forcing him to vacate the belt. His bid to regain the title at UFC 300 came up short, as he suffered a first-round knockout loss to reigning champion Alex Pereira on April 13.

Hill was initially slated to face Khalil Rountree in the UFC 303 co-main event before Rountree was removed from the event due t…

Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight Brunno Ferreira has learned that there is a certain value to making yourself available.

Brazil’s Ferreira (12-1) is coming off his third win in the Octagon, where he blasted Dustin Stoltzfus with a spinning back elbow to claim a “Performance of the Night” bonus along with his show and win money. “The Hulk” revealed to Sherdog that he decided to stay in Las Vegas to attend Wanderlei Silva’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony on June 27.

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“Besides being a friend and a longtime training partner of my master Dida [Andre Amado], Wanderlei is an idol to all Brazilian fighters. So, I wouldn't lose the opportunity to stay two more weeks in Vegas and testify to such an important moment of his career,” Ferreira said gleefully.

Ferreira’s team has already informed the promotion that he is available to serve as a late replacement in a fight in the middleweight division falls through in the next few weeks. While one oppor…

The sky might be the limit for grappling great Beatriz Mesquita as she crosses over into MMA this weekend.

A 10-time jiu-jitsu world champion, Mesquita is joining the ranks of MMA on Saturday at Spaten Fight Night. She faces fellow debutant Jorgina Ramos, in a matchup highly anticipated by the BJJ community as well as a litany of fans in Brazil. Considered one of the greatest female champions in the history of jiu-jitsu, the IBJJF Hall of Famer has been training MMA at American Top Team for nearly a year with coach “Parrumpinha” Marcos da Matta.

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“She arrived raw but her evolution is impressive,” Da Matta told Sherdog. “She helped Kayla [Harrison], ‘Sheetara’ [Mayra Bueno Silva]. She started getting beaten up a lot, and today she’s already making girls like Michelle [Montague], who has five MMA fights, look like [a] white belt training with her.”

According to the Carlson Gracie black belt, while training at ATT, Mesquita took matches at various …

PFL @MoheganSun ✅🔥

The second half of the 2024 #PFLRegularSeason started with a 𝗕𝗔𝗡𝗚#PFLRegularSeason | B2YB @Join_AFReserve pic.twitter.com/egtY2zBpKc

— PFL (@PFLMMA) June 14, 2024 Forget the third. Denis Goltsov hopes the fifth time’s the charm.

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The well-traveled Russian sambo practitioner nailed down the No. 1 seed in the Professional Fighters League playoffs, as he swiped aside Thiago Santos—a short-notice replacement for Sergey Bilostenniy—with punches in the first round of their PFL 4 heavyweight showcase on Thursday at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. Goltsov drew the curtain 2:22 into Round 1.

“Like they say in our country, you prepare for the worst and you go from there,” he said. “He didn’t really feel that strong. Once I was like a backpack on him and I was really controlling him, I was able to maul him. I was always in a good position.”

It marks the fifth time Goltsov has qualified f…

Kaito Oda looks like a potential problem for the rest of the ONE Championship flyweight division.

Repeated takedowns, torturous control and sustained ground-and-pound carried the 26-year-old Japanese prospect to a unanimous decision over the previously unbeaten Ngoc Luong Tran in their ONE Friday Fights 67 showcase on Friday at Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangok, Thailand. All three ringside judges turned in scorecards for Oda (5-1, 2-0 ONE), who has rattled off four consecutive victories.

Tran (4-1, 0-1 ONE) found danger wherever he turned. Oda floored him with a clean one-two in the first round, powered into top position and piled up points with punches and hammerfists. When Tran escaped to his feet and pursued the clinch, he was greeted with short-range elbows and shoulder strikes. Oda flexed his superiority in the wrestling and grappling departments as time wore on. The Carpe Diem Fukuoka representative executed multiple takedowns, explored the Tran guard fearlessl…

First to the scale this morning ☀️@AlexPerezMMA weighs-in at 126lbs!

[ #UFCVegas93 | TOMORROW on @ESPNPlus | 10pmET/7pmPT ] pic.twitter.com/WdZn4tU0wH

— UFC (@ufc) June 14, 2024 After a turbulent week of high-profile fight cancellations, the Ultimate Fighting Championship is hoping for some better headlines coming out of UFC on ESPN 58.

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The 11-fight card is headlined by a fight between flyweight contenders Alex Perez and Tatsuro Taira. Both fighters successfully made weight for the five-round affair, which will pit a former title challenger against an undefeated contender. As for the rest of the card, everyone made weight with the exception of Tagir Ulanbekov, who came in 3.5 pounds over the flyweight limit for his fight against Joshua Van. As a result, the bout has been canceled.

This marks the third UFC main event for Perez (25-8), who recently snapped a three-fight losing streak by knocking out Matheus Nicolau in…

UFC 303 International Fight Week June 29th pic.twitter.com/P47PSsKcg0

— danawhite (@danawhite) June 14, 2024 Any fight fan that purchased tickets to this Ultimate Fighting Championship show can receive a full refund if requested.

News of the cancelation of UFC 303’s main event—and co-headlining match as well—was announced by the UFC on Thursday, stating that Conor McGregor suffered an injury and his match with Michael Chandler has been canceled. Additionally, Jamahal Hill suffered an injury and was forced out of his second-to-last pairing against Carlos Ulberg. Due to these changes, the promotion has booked three fights on about two weeks’ notice for this blockbuster event. The new main attraction for this June 29 card will be Alex Pereira (10-2) defending his 205-pound strap against Jiri Prochazka (30-4-1) atop the billing at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

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Pereira, who suffered multiple broken toes during his UFC 30…

Linton Vassell managed to dig just a little bit deeper.

In his first headlining assignment with the Professional Fighters League, the Kill Cliff Fight Club standout scratched, clawed and willed his way to a split decision over Valentin Moldavsky atop PFL 4 on Thursday at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. All three cageside judges struck 29-28 scorecards: Eric Colon for Moldavsky, Sal D’Amato and Bryan Miner for Vassell (24-9, 1-1 PFL).

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Moldavsky (13-4, 1-1 PFL) leaned on takedowns, intermittent ground-and-pound and positional control but ultimately failed to establish a sense of superiority in the trilogy bout between the two rivals. Vassell connected with the most significant strike of the match late in the second round, where he broke free from a clinch and decked the Fedor Emelianenko protege with a perfectly timed knee strike on the break. Otherwise, the two combatants struggled to separate themselves in a grimy back-and-forth af…

The Professional Fighters League’s regular season marches on with 2024 PFL 4 Regular Season at 5:30 p.m. ET. Round 1 Sherdog Scores Brian Knapp scores the round:Jay Pettry scores the round:Scottie Smith scores the round:

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Round 2 Sherdog Scores Brian Knapp scores the round:Jay Pettry scores the round:Scottie Smith scores the round:Round 3 Sherdog Scores Brian Knapp scores the round:Jay Pettry scores the round:Scottie Smith scores the round: The Official Result Round 1 Sherdog Scores Brian Knapp scores the round:Jay Pettry scores the round:Scottie Smith scores the round:Round 2 Sherdog Scores Brian Knapp scores the round:Jay Pettry scores the round:Scottie Smith scores the round:Round 3 Sherdog Scores Brian Knapp scores the round:Jay Pettry scores the round:Scottie Smith scores the round:The Official Result Round 1 Sherdog Scores Brian Knapp scores the round:Jay Pettry scores the round:Scottie Smith scores the round:Round 2 Sherdog Scores Brian Knapp sc…

The timing was right for Ikram Aliskerov.

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Originally scheduled to face Antonio Trocoli at UFC on ESPN 58 on Saturday, Aliskerov will instead get a much more high-profile booking when he faces Robert Whittaker at UFC on ABC 6 in Saudi Arabia on June 22. The change was necessitated when Khamzat Chimaev was forced to withdraw from the event. UFC CEO Dana White announced the new headliner —while adding that Chimaev was “violently ill” — on Thursday.

UFC on ABC 6 takes place at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and will also see Sergei Pavlovich square off against Alexander Volkov in the heavyweight co-main event.

Aliskerov’s lone defeat in 16 professional outings came against Chimaev at Brave Combat Federation 23 in April 2019. He has won seven consecutive fights since then — including two within the Las Vegas-based promotion. Most recently, the 31-year-old Dagestani stopped Warlley Alves in the opening stanza of their encounter at UFC 294. …

Tony Ferguson claims Khabib Nurmagomedov intentionally pulled out of their scheduled UFC 209 outing in 2017.

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Ferguson (25-10) and Nurmagomedov (29-0) share one of the more interesting rivalries in Ultimate Fighting Championship history that never got settled inside the Octagon. Ferguson and Nurmagomedov were initially set to meet on the finale of “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 22 in December 2015, but “Eagle” pulled out due to a rib injury.

While the two were rebooked for a UFC on Fox event in February 2016, Ferguson pulled out due to a lung issue. After overcoming several complications, the promotion booked them for the third time as the co-main event at UFC 209 on March 4, 2017, this time with the interim lightweight title on the line.

However, Nurmagomedov pulled out just before the weigh-ins, citing weight cut issues.

While Dana White blasted Nurmagomedov’s team for not relying on the UFC to deal with the issue, Ferguson was more empa…