Martial Arts News

Chidi Njokuani doesn’t mind the absence of a crowd once he enters the Octagon.

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Seven fights into his promotional tenure, Njokuani has mostly fought at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and has never been on a pay-per-view card. Njokuani is now scheduled to co-headline UFC Fight Night 254 against Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos on Saturday at the Apex.

Njokuani won’t miss the crowd. A major part of Njokuani’s preference of fighting in Vegas is because he lives there, which makes everything easier. And “Chidi Bang Bang” doesn’t really care who’s watching once he starts trading leather. While he doesn’t mind traveling, the rather reserved Njokuani just likes the ease of things while fighting at home.

“I don’t think that really matter to me,” Njokuani told MMAjunkie.com. “I like fighting at home because I get to cut weight here, I don’t have to travel, I get to sleep more a bit. I don’t see how people don’t like doing that. But I get it. The crowds don’t real…

Rafael Fiziev (12-4) is eyeing a move to featherweight.

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Fiziev suffered a unanimous decision loss against Justin Gaethje at UFC 313 last weekend. “Ataman” is now looking to move down to featherweight despite having competed at lightweight for the most part of his career.

Fiziev’s plan to move to 145 pounds is influenced by his weight cut for UFC 313, which he claims was really easy. Fiziev says his nutritionist was focused on making him gain weight during the cut, as he was shedding pounds too fast.

“I’m start to thinking right now about change weight divisions,” Fiziev told Ariel Helwani. “Because I really cut weight really easy this time, and this is short notice. Very easy bro. All this week, my nutritionist, Jason, he tried to gain my weight because my weight go low so fast. Yeah, right now I have to think about it.”

Fiziev also said that he weighed 170 pounds on fight night, while he thinks Gaethje was much heavier. When asked if t…

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The first-round matchups are in place for Professional Fighters League’s new tournament format.

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The promotion on Tuesday officially unveiled the pairings for the eight-fighter brackets at heavyweight, light heavyweight, middleweight, welterweight, lightweight, featherweight, bantamweight and women’s flyweight. Each first-round event includes a four-fight main card and prelims featuring additional tournament and alternate fights. The four events will all be held at Universal Studios Florida, Stage 19.

The tournament will kick off with welterweights and featherweights on April 3 with a card headlined by a 170-pound clash between former Bellator champions Jason Jackson and Andrey Koreshkov. In the co-main event, 2023 PFL featherweight champ Gabriel Braga will lock horns with former Bellator title challenger Adam Borics.

The next event takes place on April 11, with women’s flyweights and men’s bantamweights getting the tournamen…

The Professional Fighters League tournament semifinals now have locations and venues.

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The promotion will head outside of Florida for the next part of its bracket, with events at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, on June 12; the INTRUST Bank Arena in Wichita, Kansas, on June 20 and the Winstrust Arena in Chicago on June 27.

Matchups for these events will be determined by the winners of the four first-round events in April and May.

Meanwhile, the PFL tournament finals will be spread out over three dates: Aug. 1, Aug. 15 and Aug. 21. Locations and venues for those cards were not announced.

The 2025 PFL World Tournament will begin with events on April 3, April 11, April 18 and May 1 at the backlot of Universal Studios Florida in Orlando. The winner of each bracket will receive a $500,000 bonus, and the tournament as a whole will provide payouts of more than $20 million. Events will be broadcast on the family of …

After arriving in Curitiba, Brazil, to begin training for his Global Fight League debut, Fabricio Werdum learned that proposed opponent Frank Mir had recently undergone emergency spinal surgery.

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Mir is unlikely to be able to recover in time for their fight in April, when his team (Los Angeles) is set to face Werdum's Team São Paulo in the inaugural GFL event.

“I heard about this news from you. Now I'm waiting for the event to confirm who my opponent will be, [Alexei] Oleynik or [Andrei] Arlovski,” Werdum told Sherdog.com. “Both would be rematches, but since they have opposing styles, it would be important to know right at the start of the camp. I've stopped all my projects, podcasts and lectures to focus entirely on the camp for this fight. This will be a wonderful opportunity to return to my roots, when I used to come by bus from Porto Alegre and stay in Curitiba at the Chute Boxe dormitory. Master Rafael Cordeiro is on the plane from LA to lead …

Alexander Volkanovski believes he can beat Diego Lopes in all aspects of their upcoming fight.

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Lopes and Volkanovski will fight for the vacant featherweight title in the main event at UFC 314 on April 12 at the Kaseya Center in Miami. While Volkanovski acknowledges Lopes’ skill set, he believes he can hold his own against the Brazilian.

Although Lopes is known for his dangerous submission game, Volkanovski won’t hesitate to engage on the ground. According to Volkanovski, Lopes will be very uncomfortable realizing that he can’t put his opponent away even if things are going his way.

“I think I can beat Diego everywhere,” Volkanovski said in an interview with interview with fight gear brand Engage. “He is dangerous. He’s gonna be dangerous everywhere, so I need to sharpen everything. Even if I wanted to go the wrestling route, or grappling route, I think I would dominate there anyway. Everyone knows him for his jiu-jitsu, but trust me I ain’t w…

Magomed Ankalaev and Jiri Prochazka have been going at each other.

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It all started when Ankalaev dethroned Alex Pereira via unanimous decision in the main event at UFC 313 last Saturday. While Prochazka congratulated Ankalaev, he said most fans don’t like the Dagestani as a champ. Ankalaev responded by calling Prochazka a fraud.

Addressing Ankalaev’s comments, Prochazka claimed the only fraud between them is the champ. According to “BJP,” Ankalaev was cordial with him when they previously ran into each other at the UFC Performance Institute. Prochazka believes it’s the high of the title win that is making Ankalaev act “gangster” now. However, the former champ also claims that Ankalaev’s win came against the worst-ever version of “Poatan.”

“[Ankalaev] can think what he wants, but I know the only person who is a fraud is him,” Prochazka told Ariel Helwani. “Because when I met him in the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas, he was there, he wa…

Frank Mir’s proposed Global Fight League debut is likely in jeopardy after he recently underwent emergency spinal surgery.

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The Ultimate Fighting Championship and Bellator MMA veteran revealed details of the procedure in a recent Instagram post.

“I wanted to take a moment to update you on my health and share a bit about my recent journey. As many of you know, I’ve been dedicated to martial arts since I was just four years old. My love for hard training has driven me to push my limits as a professional athlete. However, this passion comes with its challenges,” Mir wrote. “Recently, I faced a significant hurdle: I underwent an emergency spinal fusion and laminectomy of my entire thoracic spine. Although it was a tough decision, I’m happy to report that the surgery was a complete success!

“Now, I’m diving into rehabilitation and focusing on my recovery. This is just another challenge that I intend to overcome, and I’m committed to coming back st…

Irish star Paul Hughes will be at the top of the card when Professional Fighters League heads to Belfast on May 10.

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Hughes will headline PFL Europe Belfast at the SSE Arena, which will also include the first set of PFL Europe tournament fights for 2025. An opponent for Hughes was not announced.

“All my career I’ve said I will main event The SSE Arena, and we’ve made my dream into a reality,” Hughes said in a release. “Belfast, I’m coming to put on a show for my people, and I will show you how much your support means to me. It’s time to get to work.”

A former Cage Warriors champion, Hughes was a prized free agent before signing with the PFL in 2024. He made his presence felt at PFL “Brace for Impact” last October, when he defeated ex-Bellator MMA featherweight champ A.J. McKee via split decision. “Big News” then challenged Usman Nurmagomedov for the lightweight belt at PFL Road to Dubai, losing a narrow majority decision in one of the best…

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A potential clash between Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall appears to be closer to becoming a reality.

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While Aspinall is the interim champ, Jones has long delayed a heavyweight title unification bout against the Englishman. There were even talks of former light heavyweight champ Alex Pereira surpassing Aspinall for a superfight against Jones.

However, that discussion seems to have ended after Pereira lost his title to Magomed Ankalaev via a unanimous decision at UFC 313 on Saturday. UFC CEO Dana White also acknowledged the same and confirmed that Jones will fight Aspinall. While hopes of the matchup were initially bleak, White now claims that Jones as agreed to the bout and the promotion is looking for a date and place. White also reiterated a previous statement that the plan is to hold Jones vs. Aspinall sometime in the summer.

“Jon Jones definitely wants the fight, just when and where is what we’re working on now,” White said at…

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Paddy Pimblett plans on chasing a big payday if he wins a UFC title.

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The Liverpudlian, who faces Michael Chandler at UFC 314, is targeting a Top 5 opponent next and hopes to earn a title shot with a win. Pimblett would then like to defend his title against Conor McGregor in front of his home fans at the Anfield Stadium, home of the Liverpool football club.

However, Pimblett also has his eyes on a latest addition to the lightweight roster, Ilia Topuria. Pimblett called Topuria “hand sanitizer boy,” referring to the their altercation ahead of UFC London in 2022.

“My plan is to fight with Top 5 opponents, then fight for the belt… And then my first title defense could be Conor McGregor in Anfield,” Pimblett told Shakiel Mahjouri. “That is perfect because that’s where the money is… But obviously I want to batter hand sanitizer boy. I want to show him how small he is and show him that he’s got little man syndrome.”

Pimblett…

Ignacio Bahamondes doesn’t want Jalin Turner to retire after their fight at UFC 313.

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Bahamondes made a statement by submitting Turner with a slick triangle in the first round of their UFC 313 clash on Saturday. Turner then hung up his gloves inside the Octagon and announced his retirement at just 29 years of age.

Turner’s loss against Bahamondes marked his return to action after nearly a year. It was also the fourth loss in his last five outings for “The Tarantula.” Turner elaborated on his retirement decision in an emotional post-fight interview. Turner revealed that he was contemplating retirement since his previous loss against Renato Carneiro at UFC 300 last year. The loss against Bahamondes was the last straw for Turner, who didn’t feel he was in it as much he expected he would be.

“You either gotta be all in or not,” Turner told Aaron Bronsteter. “And being in there wasn’t fully all in as I thought I would be. And the decision to stay o…