Martial Arts News

Two heavyweight bouts have undergone changes heading into the second leg of Professional Fighters League’s 2024 season.

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Daniel James has withdrawn from a proposed bout against Tyrell Fortune at PFL 4 on June 13. As a result, Marcelo Golm will step in and face Fortune in a regular season bout at heavyweight. Meanwhile, Oleg Popov will now face Davion Franklin after original foe Marcelo Nunes pulled out of their clash on the same card. Sherdog.com confirmed the updated heavyweight bouts with a promotion official following an initial report from MMAjunkie.com.

PFL 4 takes place at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, and features regular season bouts at heavyweight and women’s flyweight. In the evening’s main event, Valentin Moldavsky will square off against Linton Vassell.

Fortune and James were supposed to meet at PFL 1 before Fortune withdrew from the event. Fortune was also previously slated to lock horns with Golm at Bellator 301…

After losing his first opponent, Sharabutdin Magomedov will now face Joilton Lutterbach at UFC Saudi Arabia.

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“Shara Bullet” was originally scheduled to meet Ihor Potieria at the June 22 event, but the Ukrainian middleweight accepted a short-notice bout against Michel Pereira at UFC 301 and would not have been cleared in time to compete again. The Las Vegas-based promotion recently announce the new booking in a release. UFC on ABC 6 takes place at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and is headlined by a middleweight clash between Robert Whittaker and Khamzat Chimaev.

Magomedov is unbeaten in 12 professional outings over the course of a professional tenure that began in 2017. He enjoyed a successful Octagon debut at UFC 294, as he outpointed Bruno Silva in Abu Dhabi on Oct. 21.

A veteran of 48 pro MMA bouts, Lutterbach will take a four-fight winning streak into his promotional debut. The 31-year-old German has compiled a 38-9 mark with one …

Former UFC and BKFC competitor Geane Herrera has died at 33 years old.

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Herrera was reportedly killed in a motorcycle accident in Tampa, Florida. A GoFundMe account has been started by Herrera’s family to help cover funeral expenses.

“Our family is devastated by the tragic loss of our beloved Geane Carlos Herrera, known in the professional fighting world as ‘La Pulga,’ whose life was cut way too short at only 33 years old,” reads the post written by Herrera’s family on GoFundMe. “Geane leaves behind a 16 year-old son, his 3-month pregnant girlfriend, mother, father, sisters, a brother and a family that loves him and will deeply miss him.

“Geane was full of life, always trying to live life to the fullest, he was a dedicated athlete with big dreams of making a difference and leaving his print in this world. He was such a happy go lucky person that left a mark in everyone that came into his life.”

Herrera most recently competed for BKFC, l…

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Justin Gaethje claims his fighting style has a lot to do with where he has made it as a fighter so far.

Arguably one of the biggest fan favorites in the history of the sport, Gaethje is known for going out on his shield every time he steps into the Octagon. Despite being a former NCAA Division I wrestler from the University of Northern Colorado, Gaethje is rarely seen using his grappling skills. The former BMF champ instead choses to engage in brutal slugfests that have produced some of the best highlights in the history of the promotion.

Gaethje recently explained his unwillingness to adopt a wrestling-heavy approach despite having the skillset. According to “The Highlight,” a big part of the purse he now makes is because of the way he fights.

"This is my job. I do this for the money. And if I was to take a heavy wrestling approach, they [UFC] would never be paying me what they're paying me now,” Gaethje told Title Sports Network. “I've had hu…

A potential barnburner of a bantamweight matchup appears to be in the making.

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Adrian Yanez scored a brutal first-round technical knockout win over Vinicius Salvador at UFC Fight Night 241 on Saturday. Yanez subsequently called out fellow prospect Daniel Santos for a bout at The Sphere in Las Vegas at Noche UFC. Yanez also expressed interest in a potential matchup with Victor Henry during Saturday’s post-fight media scrum.

“I had a couple of guys call me out,” Yanez said. “I know John Castaneda has a really tough fight in front of him, I think against Daniel Marcos. Daniel Santos, on the other hand, doesn’t have a fight booked. Me and him in The Sphere, I wouldn’t mind that at all. I think that would be fun. And also too man, f—-ing Victor Henry looked really good in his last fight. I think that is one for the fans as well, too.”

Santos didn’t waste time in accepting Yanez’s callout via social media.

“I want this fight [Sean Shelby]” San…

Colby Covington’s recent callout has Charles Oliveira’s attention.

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Covington recently turned down a potential matchup against welterweight up-and-comer Ian Garry, who has been chasing him for several months now. “Chaos” instead called for a “legacy fight” against former lightweight champ Oliveira, who has admittedly been contemplating a move up to welterweight for his next outing.

As long as the Ultimate Fighting Championship is on board with it, Oliveira is open to the possibility.

“Man, in reality it’s like I said, it’s sitting down and looking at legacy, history, values,” Oliveira recently told Ag.Fight “You have to sit down. When I woke up in the morning, thousands of people were sending me messages. I sent it to Diego [Lima] and Diego said it too, I see what you think. I said, ‘Diego, just sit down, talk, think, see what’s good, see what the UFC thinks about it. It’s not just what Charles thinks, it’s about what the UFC thinks about it.<…

Kalinn Williams taught Carlston Harris a valuable lesson on Saturday night: Don’t look too far ahead when a dangerous opponent is right in front of you.

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“Khaos the Ox Fighter” secured the fourth knockout victory of his promotional tenure in the UFC Fight Night 241 co-main event, putting Harris away with a massive right hand just 90 seconds into Round 1. After the bout, Williams admitted to finding motivation from Harris’ pre-fight talk of future opponents.

“He was looking past me. Don’t look past me,” Williams said in a backstage interview with the UFC. “You over here talking about who you want to fight after me. You’ve got to beat me. You’ve got to go through me first to even get to them. That’s just what it was.

“I don’t really pay attention to the interviews, but my team told me. It was like, ‘He said he wants to fight this person [and] this person.’ Come on, man. I’m a contender myself, so you’ve got to get through me. I just had to do what…

Piera Rodriguez believes Ariane Carnelossi was looking for a way out in their strawweight fight at UFC Fight Night 241.

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After rocking Carnelossi with a front kick and ending up in top position, Rodriguez landed what appeared to be an accidental headbutt. However, the Venezuelan fighter repeated the maneuver following a warning from referee Mark Smith, which resulted in a disqualification loss at the 3:16 mark of Round 2. Carnelossi took as long as she could to recover following the fouls, but it was ultimately determined that the Brazilian could not continue.

After the loss, Rodriguez’s questioned her opponent’s motives in a post on social media.

“I rather lose a fight because of a mistake I did, than go home calling myself a ‘winner’ knowing I am a coward,” Rodriguez wrote on Instagram. “I made a big mistake, maybe because of adrenaline.

“But you have to go to sleep with that lie in your head your entire life [Ariane Carnelossi]. And you cal…

It was a statement-making performance for Lerone Murphy at UFC Fight Night 241.

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The unbeaten Brit battered veteran foe Edson Barboza for the better part of five rounds, earning a lopsided unanimous decision triumph in Saturday’s headliner at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. About the only scare that Murphy had occurred at the end of Round 1, when his Brazilian opponent rocked him with an upkick. Fortunately for Murphy, the blow landed at the horn, and he was able to regain his bearings in the corner.

“To be honest, I didn’t even know what he hit me with,” Murphy said at the post-fight press conference. “I looked up at the screen during the round and he caught me with a good upkick. I think that is what busted my nose, along with a hundred million jabs. But yeah, good fight.”

When all was said and done, Murphy held a 220-to-79 advantage in significant strikes. It was the third largest striking differential for a featherweight fight in UFC history, and…

Adrian Yanez was genuinely concerned for Vinicius Salvador after securing a technical knockout victory over the Brazilian at UFC Fight Night 241.

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Yanez sat Salvador down with a massive right hand midway through the opening round and followed it up with vicious ground-and-pound to secure the finish. The amount of strikes that referee Chris Tognoni allowed Salvador to absorb before stepping in became a topic of debate among observers after the fight.

While some commended Tognoni for giving “Fenomeno” a chance to recover, others believed the referee could have stopped some of the devastating shots from Yanez by stepping in a little earlier. Yanez also admits that Salvador was making enough defensive moments initially for Tognoni to let the fight go on.

“Honestly, I don’t know. Because he was moving, he was doing all the right things,” Yanez said during the post-fight press conference. “I think when he pulled my base down from my hip, he did caus…

Credit: Getty/UFC Credit: Getty/UFC Credit: Getty/UFC

After missing weight on his first attempt, Oumar Sy was able to cut the 1.5 pounds necessary the second time around to make his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut official.

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Sy initially weighed in at 207 pounds for his light heavyweight matchup against George Tokkos at UFC Fight Night 241. However, the undefeated French prospect was able to make the non-title limit of 206 pounds on his second attempt after stripping down and weighing in behind a towel. Sy revealed that a major chunk of the 1.5 pounds that he lost was his watch.

“Actually, that was a mistake,” he said during a post-fight media scrum. “Because when I got weighed in yesterday, I had my watch on, and my watch weighs 700 [grams]. So that was part of the difference.”

Sy was originally scheduled to make his debut against Rodolfo Bellato, who was forced out of the event due to an injury. Bellato was then replaced by Antonio Tro…

Tom Nolan revealed that his UFC Fight Night 241 win over Victor Martinez was a really crucial one.

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Nolan earned his UFC contract with a knockout win over Bodgan Grad on Dana White's Contender Series last year — his sixth straight victory. The then undefeated prospect was massive favorite going into his UFC debut against Nikolas Motta this past February. However, “Big Train” went on to suffer his first career loss via first-round TKO.

Nolan admits that he had let some of the hype around him get to his head going into his UFC debut, and he felt pressure to make quick work of his opponent in dominant fashion.

“Different pressure to last time,” Nolan said in a post-fight media scrum. “Last time the pressure was, ‘Oh you’ve gotta finish this guy in 10 seconds, you’re so much better, so much better.’ And to be honest, I’ve never been dropped, I’ve never been knocked out, I’ve never even really been hurt, I’ve never been cut, nothing. So at my own…