Martial Arts News

Khamzat Chimaev believes he lost to Sean Strickland because of his nationality. 

Chimaev (15-1)was a massive favorite when he put his middleweight title on the line against Strickland (30-7) at UFC 328 earlier this month in Newark, New Jersey. However, Chimaev seemingly gassed out early and dropped a closely-contested split decision despite a valiant effort. 

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While Chimaev admits it was a close fight, he believes the scorecards swayed against him as he is not American.

“All judges are Americans, the organization is American, the opponent is American, and one is Chechen. It's a close fight. Who do you think will win?” Chimaev wrote in a since-deleted tweet.

“No excuses I [just want to] f—k him up. This s—t trying to run away.”

Khamzat Chimaev suggested in a now-deleted tweet that he was robbed against Sean Strickland because he’s not American

“No excuses I just wanna f*ck him up. This sh*t trying to run awa…

Nassourdine Imavov is adamant on avenging his loss against Sean Strickland. 

Imavov suffered his last UFC loss against Strickland in 2023. The Frenchman has since racked up a series of impressive wins to establish himself as the No.1 middleweight contender. Meanwhile, Strickland recently dethroned Khamzat Chimaev to win the middleweight title for the second time. Strickland has since acknowledged Imavov as the next deserving title contender. 

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Strickland on the Brain Imavov recently posted a skit of himself going to therapy to deal with his loss against Strickland. The therapist asks Imavov:“Are you okay, Nassourdine? It’s still him? Another bad dream recently?”

Imavov (17-4) says that everything is going well with him and he has been fishing and doing yoga for his mental well being. However, “The Sniper” simultaneously keeps texting Strickland (30-7), sending him emojis of coffins. Imavov refuses to answer when the therapist asks him who …

Conor McGregor returning at the White House was seemingly not financially viable for the UFC. 

McGregor (22-6) was originally rallying for a spot on the UFC White House card on June 14. However, “Notorious” is now set to return against Max Holloway (27-9) at UFC 329 on July 11 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. McGregor’s manager Audie Attar recently explained why McGregor’s return during International Fight Week made more sense for the UFC financially. 

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The UFC White House card will not have any tickets on sale for the general public. According to Dana White, 4,300 people, mostly members of the military, will be seated on the South Lawn. Meanwhile, 85,000 tickets will be made available for free to the public to watch the event at the nearby Ellipse Park. Attar notes that the UFC is sacrificing a huge amount of gate revenue at the White House event. With McGregor being arguably the biggest star in the history of the sport, the UFC would l…

According to Dana White, the announcement of the UFC 329 headliner had nothing to do with the Most Valuable Promotions "Rousey vs. Carano" main card.

The Conor McGregor-Max Holloway rematch was confirmed on July 16 — just as Francis Ngannou was making his walk to the cage to face Philipe Lins at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles. The announcement came during a relatively nondescript UFC Fight Night 276 card, which only fueled speculation that it was made at that time to take attention away from Most Valuable Promotion’s first-ever MMA card.

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Doing His Own Thing White claims the timing of the McGregor-Holloway announcement coincided with the bout being finalized.

"Not a coincidence," White told Fred Talks Fighting. "I had a f—king fight here that night. Anybody who thinks that I gave a s—t what was going on anywhere else is out of their f—ing minds.

"We announced it as soon as we got it done, and we were in the middle of our event. (I don't) give…

Sherdog's live PFL Dubai coverage will begin Sunday at 9 a.m. ET. Round 1 Abdullah Al Ali is the referee for this amateur contest. Osman is swinging wildly and missing the mark. Alameri closes the distance. Osman grabs the neck but is taken down. Alameri lands in side control. Osman refuses to let go of the neck despite being in no kind of position to secure a guillotine. Osman uses the cage to work back to his feet, but Alameri slams his man down emphatically. Alameri is content to control positioning from side control. Alameri looks to push off the cage. Alameri traps his foe’s right arm for a crucifix and he lands a few short shots from above. The round will end with Alameri in this dominant position. Sherdog Scores Tristen Critchfield scores the round: 10-9 AlameriTudor Leonte scores the round: 10-9 AlameriMike Pendleton scores the round: 10-9 Alameri

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Round 2 A right partially lands for Osman, but he’s still swinging wild overhands to start. Alameri b…

🔥🇹🇳 MEHDI SAADI L'EMPORTE À LA DÉCISION PARTAGÉE DANS CE MAIN EVENT !!

🤩 Grâce à cette victoire, il se qualifie en demi-finale du tournoi des -66kg du PFL MENA ! pic.twitter.com/cjeP7zXSXn

— RMC Sport Combat (@RMCSportCombat) May 24, 2026 The Professional Fighters League MENA returned on Sunday, as fights in the lightweight and featherweight tournaments took center stage.

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The PFL MENA 9 main event was a featherweight quarterfinal fight between Mohammad Yahya and Mehdi Saadi. Both men came out looking to strike, with Saadi (7-2) landing hard leg kicks and Yahya (12-7) using his longer reach to find success at distance. The legs of "The UAE Warrior" were heavily damaged as the fight went on, but Yahya never stopped coming forward and throwing punches. After 15 minutes of back-and-forth striking, the judges preferred the work of Saadi, who took a split decision with scores of 30-27, 27-30 and 29-28. With the victory, th…

Justin Gaethje doesn’t think Ilia Topuria’s defense is impenetrable. 

Gaethje will challenge Topuria for the lightweight title in the main event at UFC White House on June 14. Gaethje is a +385 underdog going into the fight against Topuria, a -500 favorite. 

Topuria is coming off three consecutive knockouts against Alexander Volkanovski, Max Holloway, and Charles Oliveira. However, Gaethje saw at least two of his fellow veterans find success against Topuria. While Topuria had dominant wins over all three, Gaethje, on closer inspection, saw Oliveira and Holloway winning some exchanges against “El Matador.” However, Gaethje believes Oliveira and Holloway even made some mistakes, which he knows he can’t afford against a precise technician like Topuria.

Upon Further Review“It’s very important for me to use my head for position and put my head in his chest, push him backwards, put him in a dog fight,” Gaethje told Grind City Media. “We’ve seen him getting hit…

Punahele Soriano’s plans for his next fight have been temporarily ruined due to an accident. 

Soriano recently revealed that he is currently recovering from a car accident. While Soriano originally planned to fight in July, the Hawaiian was involved in a car accident. Soriano claims his car was very slow when it was hit by an “old man” near a red light. Soriano suffered a mild concussion and injuries to his neck.

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‘I Was Kind of Embarrassed’ “I was like, I’m gonna look for a fight in July. I’m gonna start getting healthy; I’m gonna start training hard, but I got into a car accident,” Soriano told Home of Fight. “Some old man hit me. I got a mild concussion, my neck was jacked up. I was kind of embarrassed, actually because we were going slow, we were off a red light and just kind of T-bones me. I didn’t see it. I was so confused. It kind of messed me up.”

While Soriano (13-4) started his UFC journey as a highly-touted finisher, he dropped four …

Paulo Costa is no longer interested in fighting Khamzat Chimaev.

Chimaev lost his middleweight title to Sean Strickland in a massive upset at UFC 328 earlier this month. Costa had initially called for a matchup against Chimaev after he lost to Strickland. 

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However, Costa (16-4) has now changed his mind. “Borrachinha” believes Chimaev won’t be able to recover from the loss anytime soon. Meanwhile, Costa wants to be back in action as early as July or August. The Brazilian is willing to fight at middleweight, light heavyweight or even heavyweight. Costa gave his fans three potential opponents to choose from: Sean Strickland, Josh Hokit, or Mike Perry.Weighing His Options “I know many of you guys want to have me facing Gourmet Chen Chen Chimaev next,” Costa said in a since-deleted post on Instagram. “I don’t think it’s gonna happen. Why? Because he broke; I think he’s done, I don’t think he’ll be back. And even he can grow and be back, it will not be…

Rico Verhoeven believes the scorecards did the talking in his clash against Oleksandr Usyk.

Verhoeven challenged Usyk for the WBC heavyweight title in front of the Pyramids in Giza, Egypt, on Saturday. Going in as a +1400 underdog, Verhoeven shocked the world by dominating the early rounds against Usyk, even stunning the unified heavyweight champion. However, Usyk gradually started landing in the later rounds and dropped Verhoeven with an uppercut in the 11th. While Verhoeven returned to his feet, Usyk cornered him with another barrage of shots. Referee Mark Lyson then unexpectedly stopped the fight with a second left in the 11th round, declaring a stoppage win for Usyk. The controversial stoppage is facing widespread backlash in the world of combat sports. 

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Verhoeven says the lesson he learned from his fight is never to get comfortable and always stay focused.

“Never get comfortable,” Verhoeven told Boxing King Media. “Stay focused, stay switc…

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Francis Ngannou slightly disagree on Oleksandr Usyk’s win over Rico Verhoeven. 

Usyk put his WBC heavyweight title on the line against former kickboxing champion Verhoeven in front of the Pyramids in Egypt on Saturday. A +1400 underdog going into the fight, Verhoeven surprised everyone by dominating the early rounds. While Verhoeven appeared to be en route to one of the biggest upset wins in boxing history, Usyk dropped him with an uppercut in the 11th round. Verhoeven returned to his feet but immediately found himself on the receiving end of a flurry from Usyk. While Verhoeven was still on his feet, referee Mark Lyson bizarrely stopped the fight with a second left in the round. 

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Difference of Opinion While the stoppage is facing massive backlash from fans and pundits, Canelo thinks it was fair. The former multiple-division world champion believes the referee saved Verhoeven from a vicious knockout.

“Very good fig…

Patrick Habirora showed no respect to one of his most accomplished elders.

“The Belgian Bomber” stepped up his ascent in the Professional Fighters League and blew away onetime Ultimate Fighting Championship and World Extreme Cagefighting titleholder Benson Henderson with punches in the first round of their PFL Brussels welterweight main event on Saturday at ING Arena in Belgium. Henderson (30-13, 0-1 PFL) met his end just 20 seconds into Round 1.

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Habirora (9-0, 5-0 PFL) intercepted the MMA Lab cornerstone with a left hook and backed it up with a right hook that sent the John Crouch protégé into a nosedive. Prone and badly hurt, the 42-year-old Henderson ate a series of right hands before referee Mike Beltran could arrive on the scene to rescue him.

Meanwhile, former Ares Fighting Championship and TKO Major League MMA titleholder Taylor Lapilus cruised to a clear-cut unanimous decision over Dana White’s Contender Series alum Jake Hadley in their t…