Martial Arts News

Elijah Johns is the LFA featherweight champion! #AndNew 🏆 pic.twitter.com/CQCzAV4Vmz

— UFC FIGHT PASS (@UFCFightPass) February 10, 2024

Legacy Fighting Alliance now has a new featherweight champion.  

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Dallas, Texas, native Elijah Johns fought his way to a dominant unanimous decision victory against Alfred Walker in the LFA 176 main event for the vacant featherweight title on Friday at the Arizona Financial Theatre in Phoenix.  

While the second round was arguably close with Walker (11-7) managing to land a solid head kick-knee combo on his adversary, Johns’ (10-3) relentless takedowns and back control ultimately proved to be too much for “Freight Train” to handle.  

As the fight progressed, an exhausted Walker found himself on the canvas for the majority of the last three rounds, unable to land any offense on Johns. In the end, Johns walked away with the vacant featherweight title tha…

A bantamweight meeting between Joanderson Brito and Jack Shore has been added to UFC 301.

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The news was first reported by Octagon Update and later confirmed by Brito on Instagram.

Brito will look to add to his four-fight winning streak in the promotion against Shore. The Brazilian dropped his UFC debut against Bill Algeo in January 2022 but has looked incredible since then, having recorded finishes against the likes of Andre Fili, Lucas Alexander, and most recently, Jonathan Pearce at UFC Fight Night 232.

Meanwhile, Shore entered the UFC with an 11-0 record — including 10 finishes — and the Cage Warriors bantamweight championship to his name. The Welshman has gone 6-1 in the Las Vegas-based promotion and is coming off a Round 2 submission victory over Makwan Amirkhani at UFC 286 in March.

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Vanessa Demopoulos (10-5) is set to make her seventh Octagon walk against Emily Ducote (13-8) at a UFC Fight Night Event scheduled to go down on May 18 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

The strawweight bout was first reported by MMAjunkie.com. Other matchups for the Fight Night card are yet to be announced.

Demopoulos will enter the bout on the heels of a unanimous decis…

First to the scale this morning 💪@JackTheJokerMMA weighs in at 185lbs ahead of #UFCVegas86

[ LIVE on @ESPNPlus | 7pmET/4pmPT ] pic.twitter.com/XiFySaPCo6

— UFC (@ufc) February 9, 2024 The Ultimate Fighting Championship continues its busy February with UFC Fight Night 236, which is now set after the official weigh-ins took place.

Headlining the 14-fight card is a middleweight fight between Jack Hermansson and Joseph Pyfer. Both men successfully made weight for the five-round affair. As for the rest of the card, all fighters made weight except for Ihor Potieria, who came in over the middleweight limit at 187.5 pounds Potieria will be fined a percentage of his purse, which will go to opponent Robert Bryczek.

Hermansson (23-8) enters his fifth UFC main event having gone 2-2 in his last four fights. "The Joker" is looking to rebound from a TKO defeat to Roman Dolidze. The Swedish fighter holds key wins over Chris Curtis, Kelvin Gastel…

Jason Jackson is the type of guy to make lemonade when handed lemons.

While most fighters would be annoyed by a late change in opponent, Bellator MMA welterweight champion Jackson was ecstatic to hear that he’d be facing Professional Fighters League star Ray Cooper III in place of the injured Magomed Magomedkerimov at PFL vs. Bellator on Feb. 24.

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“The reason I got excited is because I believe [Cooper] is a way more complete fighter than Magomedkerimov,” Jackson said on the PFL vs. Bellator Media Call on Friday. “I strive on adversity, and I know what this guy can do. I look at him like a young Mike Tyson, so it makes me work even harder.”

Jackson is on the best run of his career, having won his last seven fights that culminated with the capture of the Bellator 170-pound crown. Jackson topped the likes of Benson Henderson, Paul Daley and Douglas Lima to get a crack at Yaroslav Amosov’s belt, and he unseated the unbeaten Ukrainian to win the throne a…

We've got a heavyweight battle headlining #UFCVegas87 😤@JairRozenstruik vs Shamil Gaziev

Get your VIP tickets here: https://t.co/cAUu6s8BsQ pic.twitter.com/hWp1kYNAw1

— UFC (@ufc) February 9, 2024 Heavyweight headliners are back on the menu for the Ultimate Fighting Championship in 2024.

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Ahead of UFC Fight Night 238 on March 2, an event famously moved from Saudi Arabia to Las Vegas due to a perceived lack of star power, a top matchup was on the docket between Jairzinho Rozenstruik (13-5) and Shamil Gaziev (12-0). The show did not have a main attraction Thursday when Eurosport NL reported that this heavyweight contest had been elevated to the main event. The promotion confirmed this booking would be on the top marquee on Friday.

Rozenstruik has struggled the last couple years, only managing one win—a 23-second knockout of Chris Daukaus—while suffering three defeats to Curtis Blaydes, Alexander Volkov, and most recentl…

[embedded content] A flyweight clash featuring two Dana White’s Contender Series alums is now a part of UFC Fight Night 240.

Brazil’s Lucas Rocha (17-1) is set to make his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut against Jose Johnson (16-8) on April 6 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. News of the flyweight scrap was first reported by Super Lutas on Wednesday and later confirmed by Rocha on his Instagram Stories.

Currently on a six-fight win streak, “Fenomeno” earned a UFC contract by starching Davi Bittencourt with a knee and follow-up punches in an appearance on the 2023 season of DWCS. The 23-year-old has performed 14 of his 17 professional wins via stoppage, including 10 knockouts on his ledger.

Meanwhile, Johnson will drop to 135 pounds after a submission win over Chad Anheliger in late 2023. The triumph put him back in the win column after Da'Mon Blackshear hit a twister on him at UFC on ESPN 51 earlier in the year. “No Way Jose” made his way to the organization …

An intriguing clash pitting two veteran featherweights has been added to the UFC Atlantic City card next month.

Bill Algeo (18-7) is gearing up to face Canada’s Kyle Nelson (15-5-1) on the UFC on ESPN 54 lineup that will mark the Las Vegas-based promotion’s return to New Jersey. The bout on March 30 was first reported by MMA Junkie on Thursday, and it has since been confirmed by both fighters on their respective Instagram pages.

Algeo has gone 4-1 in his last five outings, only losing a hotly contested split decision against another grizzled vet in Andre Fili in September 2022. The American has won two straight, which includes a submission victory over T.J. Brown in April last year, followed by a unanimous decision over Alexander Hernandez in October.

Meanwhile, Nelson will look to add to his two-fight winning streak when facing Algeo. The Canadian finally seems to be gaining momentum after going 1-4 in his first five outings in the UFC. “The Monster” will enter…

Mark it down as an impressive first impression for Kazakbai Tilenov.

The Tiger Muay Thai rep excelled in his ONE Championship debut and disposed of Ivan Parshikov with punches in the third round of their 148-pound ONE Friday Fights 51 catchweight showcase on Friday at Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand. Tilenov (6-1, 1-0 ONE) drew the curtain 2:07 into Round 3, as he rebounded from a June 24 submission defeat to Sundet Aitkulov.

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Parshikov (11-5, 3-2 ONE) controlled the first round with repeated takedowns, steady ground-and-pound and bulletproof submission defense. However, his gas tank could not withstand the workload. Tilenov worked in concert with fatigue in Round 2, connected with a few spinning back elbows on the feet, sprawled into top position and eventually mounted the fading Russian twice. Parshikov survived but had nothing left for the third round. Tilenov followed an uppercut into half guard and unleashed punches, hammerfists and …

[embedded content] Former Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter-turned-commentator Carlos Barreto believes Khabib Nurmagomedov could be a threat in multiple divisions if he came back.

On Jan. 30, manager Ali Abdelaziz posted on social media claiming that if Nurmagomedov (29-0) decided to come back to the UFC, he could rule the roost in three different weight classes. The renowned manager did mistake Israel Adesanya as the beltholder at 185 pounds instead of Dricus Du Plessis, but he pitched a 2024 schedule for Nurmagomedov to win in three divisions. First, Abdelaziz stated that Nurmagomedov would start at middleweight in April, move up to light heavyweight in July and then drop to 170 pounds in December to become the first simultaneous three-division champ in a major organization.

This fantasy matchmaking against Adesanya, Alex Pereira and Leon Edwards, the manager claimed his fighter would be a “statistically bad nightmare for all these guys.”

UFC Fight Pass Br…

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The trend of last-minute fight cancellations continues in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

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UFC Fight Night 236, which goes down at the promotion’s Apex facility on Feb. 10, has lost its third fight within a span of 24 hours.

As per a UFC announcement, Bosnia’s Damir Hadzovic (14-7) is out of a booking against Belgian debutant Bolaji Oki (8-1) due to visa issues and will be replaced by Dana White’s Conteder Series 2023 competitor Timothy Cuamba (8-1). “Twilight Timmy” is riding a five-fight win streak topped off by a stoppage win under the Tuff N Uff banner last week. On the other hand, Oki hasn’t lost a fight since his professional debut in 2018.

Meanwhile, a shoulder injury has forced middleweight prospect Tresean Gore (4-2) out of his booking against A.J. Dobson (7-2), which was scheduled for the prelims card of UFC 298 on Feb. 17 in Anaheim, California. While Dobson teased new fight news soon, he is yet to find an…

Benoit St. Denis claims he had nothing to do with confusion regarding his upcoming Octagon clash with Dustin Poirier.

St. Denis (13-1) is scheduled to fight Poirier (29-8) for five rounds in the co-main event at UFC 299 on March 9 in Miami.

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The booking suddenly appeared to be jeopardized when Poirier announced on social media that the fight was off. The drama ended with the promotion confirming that the fight was on within hours. Notably, “The Diamond” also confirmed the booking on X (formerly known as Twitter), blaming the confusion on “miscommunication.”

Poirier did not divulge much about what went on behind the scenes in a subsequent interview. Regardless, “The Diamond” was quick to express his happiness at finally getting the deal done.

St. Denis has now shared his side of things, which seemed to be a mixture of confusion and hope. “God of War” was aiming for a top-tier opponent but couldn’t be sure that it would be Poirier until the fight w…