Martial Arts News

ONE Championship has announced the two featured bouts for its return to the United States.

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Stamp Fairtex will challenge Jingnan Xiong for the strawweight (125-pound) title in an MMA bout, while Jonathan Haggerty will defend his ONE bantamweight (145-pound) muay thai belt against ONE flyweight kickboxing champ Superlek Kiatmoo9.

ONE on Prime Video 26 will take place on Sept. 6 at Ball Arena in Denver and will air on Prime Video in the United States. The Singapore-based promotion made its stateside debut last May with ONE on Prime Video 10, which was headlined by a trilogy bout between Demetrious Johnson and Adriano Moraes.

Fairtex, a three-sport champion under the ONE banner, is already scheduled to defend her atomweight (115-pound) MMA title against Denice Zamboanga at One Championship 166 in Thailand on June 7. The 26-year-old has been victorious in six of her last seven MMA bouts in ONE competition.

Xiong, the reigning 125-pound que…

Former UFC and Strikeforce middleweight champion Luke Rockhold will make his Karate Combat debut against Joe Schilling next month.

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Both fighters announced the booking on social media, and it was later confirmed by multiple outlets. Rockhold vs. Schilling will take place at Karate Combat 45 on April 20 in Dubai and will be contested at 195 pounds.

Rockhold’s last combat sports appearance came at BKFC 41, where he fell to Mike Perry via second round TKO in April 2023. Prior to that, he returned from a three-year hiatus in MMA to face Paulo Costa at UFC 278, where he dropped a unanimous decision to his Brazilian foe.

Schilling, meanwhile, hasn’t competed since October 2019, when he suffered a knockout loss to Tony Johnson at Bellator 229. The 40-year-old Schilling, who is also a veteran of Glory Kickboxing, compiled a 4-6 record in MMA.

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Charles Oliveira is certain that a win over Arman Tsarukyan should earn him the next lightweight title shot.

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Oliveira is scheduled to take on surging Armenian-Russian contender Arman Tsarukyan (21-3) at UFC 300 on April 13. Meanwhile, the same card features Justin Gaethje’s BMF title defense against Max Holloway.

While some believe the BMF title fight winner might create a stalemate in the lightweight title picture, Oliveira is certain that a win over Tsarukyan earns him the next gold bid.

“Not at all, I don’t even think about that,” Oliveira said in an interview with MMA Mania. “Everyone knows that I’m the next one in the line so I’m gonna be the next one to get the title, and I’m ready for it.”

While Oliveira acknowledged the skillset of both fighters, “do Bronx” expects Gaethje to best Holloway.

“Man, Holloway is a really nice guy, and he moves a lot,” Oliveira said. “He has a type of game that he moves a lot, but G…

While Corey Anderson has finally become a mixed martial arts world champion, the realization hasn’t completely dawned on him.

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Anderson won the vacant Bellator MMA light heavyweight title with a unanimous decision win over Karl Moore at the Bellator Champion Series Belfast on March 22. While most of Anderson’s career was spent in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, “Overtime” never got a gold bid in the promotion despite being perennially ranked. Anderson decided to part ways with the UFC following a first-round knockout loss to Jan Blachowicz in 2020, as the promotion allegedly refused to give him a pay raise and agreed in 20 seconds when he asked for his release.

Anderson signed with Bellator MMA and racked up a three-fight KO streak, including a finish of Ryan Bader in under a minute to earn an immediate title shot against Vadim Nemkov. While Anderson was outclassing Nemkov in their first clash at Bellator 277 in April 2022, the bout ended in …

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Dana White has high expectations for the upcoming UFC 300 card, which goes down at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on April 13.

With the promotion’s early struggles, White had imagined he would be in his 70s by the time UFC 100 came around. However, things took off and the Ultimate Fighting Championship emerged as an industry leader, hosting cards almost every weekend with its 300th event on the horizon.

“I’ll tell you a story, so me and Lorenzo [Fertitta] are at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City when we first started putting on these events,” White told TNT Sports. “And we’re walking down home and there are these two old men and they’re fighting, screaming at each other in the hallway. Lorenzo was like, ‘That’s gonna be me and you at UFC 100.’ This is UFC 31 or something, 100 seemed like it was gonna be – we’re doing five events a year – so we were figuring we’d be in our seventies when UFC 100 would come. Obviously, thing took off and we’re doi…

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…