Martial Arts News

Jose Aldo’s return from retirement to help bolster the UFC 301 card in Rio de Janeiro was met with celebration by Brazilian fans.

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In addition to Aldo, the promotion’s return to Rio de Janeiro includes Brazilian standouts such as flyweight champ Alexandre Pantoja, Caio Borralho and Michel Pereira — making the card more appealing to fans in the country.

Aldo will face Jonathan Martinez in a bantamweight bout on May 4 at Rio Arena. In an interview with Sherdog.com, Nova Uniao coach Andre Pederneiras shared additional details regarding negotiations for Aldo’s UFC return.

“Since last year we were negotiating for the last fight of Aldo’s UFC contract. Since I started to negotiate with Sean Shelby, three months ago, many names were considered,” Pederneiras said. “Of course, we started from the top of the rankings, trying some names that would make sense for a last fight at home, but most of those names were not available.

Dominick [Cruz] needed more…

Herb Dean will be the third man in the cage for the light heavyweight title fight between Alex Pereira and Jamahal Hill in the UFC 300 main event.

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The Nevada State Athletic Commission announced the referee and judging assignments for the two championship bouts at UFC 300 during a Tuesday meeting. Derek Cleary, Sal D’Amato and Ron McCarthy will serve as cageside judges for the bout. This will be the first time that Dean has officiated a UFC fight involving Pereira, but he did oversee Hill’s victory against Thiago Santos in August 2022.

Jason Herzog will be the referee for the strawweight championship clash between Weili Zhang and Xiaonan Yan, and Mike Bell, Ben Cartlidge and Chris Lee will serve as the cageside judges. This will be Herzog’s first time reffing one of Zhang’s fights, but he did officate Yan’s decision win over Claudia Gadelha in November 2020.

UFC 300 takes place on April 13 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

One of the most intriguing storylines heading into UFC 300 is Kayla Harrison’s ability to make the cut to 135 pounds.

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According to her strength and conditioning coach, Jeremy Fedoruk, Harrison is currently “ahead of schedule” to make the bantamweight limit for her April 13 clash with Holly Holm. Fedroruk has been working with Harrison since the two-time Olympic gold medalist joined American Top Team in 2018. Fedoruk says Harrison made the decision to cut to 135 pounds after meeting with him and nutritionist Eric Pena.

“That decision was made by the team after we talked, and we didn’t see any issues for her to reach 135,” Fedoruk told Sherdog.com. “We already reached 145 pounds in the past, now we have to lose 10 more pounds.”

In the past, Harrison has relied on her power to impose her will on opponents, but Fedoruk doesn’t expect the former Professional Fighters League lightweight champ to lose strength with the drop in weight class.

“Our ca…

𝗢𝗙𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟: Updated PFL San Antonio Fight Card

•Bruno Cappelozza is OUT. Blagoy Ivanov steps in and will now face Sergei Bilostenniy

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•Denise Keilholtz is OUT. llara Joanne steps in and will now face Talia Santos

•Kaytlin Neil v Vega Arteaga off the cardNew Matchup:… pic.twitter.com/r9GzPJJotn

— PFL (@PFLMMA) March 26, 2024 The card for Week 1 of the upcoming Professional Fighters League season has undergone several changes, the organization announced Tuesday.

UFC and Bellator veteran Blagoy Ivanov will replace Bruno Cappelozza and face Sergey Bilostenniy in a preliminary heavyweight bout. Meanwhile, Ilara Joanne will step in for former Bellator title challenger Denise Kielholtz and lock horns with ex-UFC contender Taila Santos in a flyweight clash.

Finally, a proposed bout pitting Kaytlin Neil against Veta Arteaga has been removed from the event, while a bantamweight showcase fight between Bryce Meredith and T…

Anthony Hernandez will lock horns with Roman Dolidze in a middleweight bout at UFC 302.

MMAFighting.com was first to report the pairing. UFC 302 takes place at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, on June 2 and will also include a heavyweight scrap pitting Jailton Almeida against Alexander Volkov.

Hernandez will take a five-fight promotional winning streak into the matchup with Dolidze. Most recently, “Fluffy” secured a second-round submission triumph against Roman Kopylov at UFC 298 on Feb. 17. His current streak also includes victories over the likes of Edmen Shahbazyan, Marc-Andre Barriault, Josh Fremd and Rodolfo Vieira.

Dolidze, meanwhile, is coming off back-to-back defeats for the first time in his professional tenure. The skid began with a unanimous decision defeat against Marvin Vettori at UFC 286 and continued with a majority decision loss to Nassourdine Imavov in the UFC Fight Night 235 main event. Prior to that, the 35-year-old Georgian …

While he isn’t retiring, Brandon Moreno needs some time away from mixed martial arts.

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The former UFC flyweight champion announced via social media on Monday that he is taking a break to “rest” from the stresses of the sport. Moreno, a two-time title holder, is coming off a split-decision defeat to Brandon Royval in the UFC Fight Night 237 headliner on Feb. 24.

“I feel like I’m at a point in my life where I’m putting in the work, I’m dedicated, but the results just aren’t there, and it’s very frustrating,” Moreno said in Spanish on Instagram (translation via MMAjunkie.com). “This is something that makes me very sad, but something that makes me who I am is that I always find a way to come back.

“I think with all the technical aspect things aside, I think I’m just tired. I’m tired of the media, the same questions, the vibe, the constant pressure. I don’t even think it’s a single moment anymore. I think it’s everything I’ve piled on my shoulders …

Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight Khusein Askhabov has been suspended for two years due to anti-doping violations.

Combat Sports Anti-Doping (CSAD), which took over the UFC’s drug testing program from the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) in January, announced on Monday that Askhabov has been suspended for 24 months due to a failed drug test. Askhabov tested positive for metabolites of the anabolic steroid Methandienone (aka Dianabol or D-Bol) in an out-of-competition sample collected in Grozny, Chechen Republic on Feb. 6. Askhabov’s suspension became effective on Feb. 28, the day he was notified of a provisional suspension to the adverse findings.

“Lion” returned to competition after a three-year hiatus for his UFC debut in February 2023 against Jamall Emmers, where he suffered the lone professional loss of his career via unanimous decision. While Askhabov was scheduled to fight Daniel Pineda in October, the fight fell through after he was a…

A clash of top heavyweight contenders has been booked for UFC 302 on June 1, as Jailton Almeida (20-3) will take on Alexander Volkov (37-10) at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

Multiple outlets confirmed the booking following an initial report from Leo Guimaraes of the Brazilian outlet Super Lutas. Almeida also confirmed the bout on social media.

Almeida will look to bounce back from the first Ultimate Fighting Championship loss of his career when he takes on Volkov at UFC 302. “Malhadinho” was outwrestling Curtis Blaydes before getting knocked out by hammerfists in the second round of their UFC 299 encounter earlier this month, marking the end of a 15-fight winning streak.

Meanwhile, Volkov is riding a three-fight winning streak, which includes a submission win over Tai Tuivasa in his most recent outing at UFC 293 in September 2023. Notably, “Drago’s” only losses in recent years have come against reigning interim champ Tom Aspinall and forme…

Payton Talbott’s admitted insensitivity might have had something to do with him choosing a career in mixed martial arts over one in psychology.

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The undefeated Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight prospect had never trained in MMA until the age of 17 or 18, when he saw Conor McGregor’s highlights while sitting at a restaurant. Talbott was getting his bachelors in psychology from the University of Nevada when he started dabbling in the sport.

“I have a bachelor’s in it [psychology]… I did general but towards the later years I got super into the neuroscience courses because they were more interesting to me. But I started out wanting to do clinical…I got into that [MMA] when I was a senior in high school,” Talbott said during an appearance on "The MMA Hour.”

“When I just graduated, I like didn’t have sports anymore, I was just super bored. And I had always been interested in psychology, so I just did both of those. I was an amateur fighte…

Dana White has given his verdict on the MMA’s greatest of all time debate.

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Former lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and reigning heavyweight champion Jon Jones are arguably the two frontrunners in the race for the MMA GOAT along with others like Demetrious Johnson and Anderson Silva. For White, however, there is no question Jones holds the No. 1 spot. “Bones,” who made 13 successful defenses of the light heavyweight belt, returned from a lengthy hiatus to claim the heavyweight crown with a first-round submission of Ciryl Gane at UFC 285. Jones career record stands at 27-1 with one no contest, but his lone defeat was a controversial disqualification loss to Matt Hamill.

“He’s never been beat,” White told Lex Fridman. “He destroyed everyone at light heavyweight, which at the time was the toughest weight class in the company, in the sport. And then he moved up to heavyweight, won easily at heavyweight. And when you look at the guy and you look …

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It appears that Merab Dvalishvili will receive his long-awaited title shot.

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Dvalishvili was expected to be Sean O’Malley’s opponent for his first title defense before “Suga” called out Marlon Vera after claiming the belt with a knockout of Aljamain Sterling at UFC 292. In the meantime, “The Machine” went on beat Henry Cejudo at UFC 298 last month to extend his winning streak to 10. While most thought the Cejudo victory would have cemented Dvalishvili’s title shot, O’Malley shifted focus to featherweight champ Ilia Topuria after successfully defending his bantamweight strap against “Chito” at UFC 299 earlier this month.

While Dvalishvili couldn’t figure why O’Malley wasn’t interested in fighting him, he had faith in the UFC giving him the much-awaited gold bid. And it appears the Georgian was correct, as O’Malley recently confirmed him as his next opponent — albeit without a date and location. Dismissing allegations of ducking Dva…

A featherweight clash pitting Edson Barboza against Lerone Murphy will serve as the headliner for a UFC Fight Night event on May 18.

Multiple outlets confirmed the booking following an initial report from MMA journalist Laerte Viana. The card is expected to take place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and also includes a flyweight showdown between Tim Elliott and Tatsuro Taira.

Barboza is 4-3 in UFC competition since moving to 145 pounds from the lightweight division. The 38-year-old Brazilian is coming off a 2-0 campaign in 2023 in which he defeated Billy Quarantillo via first-round knockout at UFC on ESPN 44 and outpointed Sodiq Yusuff over five rounds in the UFC Fight Night 230 headliner.

A native of Stockport, England, the 32-year-old Murphy has yet to taste defeat in 14 professional outings. After battling Zubaira Tukhugov to a split draw in his Octagon debut at UFC 242, “The Miracle” has been victorious in his last five Octagon appearances. Most recently,…