Martial Arts News

The Ultimate Fighting Championship loves heavyweight headliners, and fans will be getting one in mid-March.

Per the organization on Friday, Tai Tuivasa (14-6) will throw bombs for five rounds or less against Marcin Tybura (24-8) on March 16. The heavyweights will now headline the currently unnumbered Fight Night event on that date, likely to be coined UFC Fight Night 239 should the main card air on ESPN+. The two big men were booked against one another at UFC 298, but the promotion elected to slide them back a month to put on the marquee of this UFC Apex show.

Tuivasa will be looking to get out of a slump, as he has suffered three straight stoppage losses since September 2022. Those defeats came against the upper echelon of the division, as Ciryl Gane, Sergei Pavlovich and Alexander Volkov all dispatched him in a little over one year’s time. Before then, the boisterous Aussie slugged his way through the opposition, racking up five straight knockouts from 2020 to early…

🙏🏾 pic.twitter.com/TGReZ4W0Kq

— マネル・ケイプ Manel Kape (@ManelKape) January 12, 2024 The Ultimate Fighting Championship is down one huge fight ahead of its Saturday show.

At the UFC Fight Night 234 weigh-ins on Friday morning, Manel Kape hit the scales at 129.5 pounds. He was slated to rematch Matheus Nicolau (126), and when he came in heavy and decided to stop cutting, he was assessed a 25% fine of his purse. Before the fighters could square off for their faceoffs, the promotion canceled the fight altogether. According to Kape, Nicolau elected not to receive the fine and accept the match.

“Guys, I couldn’t make the weight this time,” Kape wrote, “two weeks ago I was extremely sick due to a virus that happened here in Las Vegas, and I had to stay out of training for five days and filling myself with antibiotics; [it] not only affected me but many of my training partners. My coaches and manager thought it was better for me to cancel …

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship champ Charles Oliveira is not buying into Islam Makhachev’s perceived bluster.

On Wednesday, Makhachev called his shots on social media, where he stated his preferred upcoming schedule. According to the champion, his first appearance would be on June 8 against Justin Gaethje, then he wanted to return in November in New York City against the winner of Charles Oliveira and Arman Tsarukyan. After that, he would make another defense in February 2025 against anyone. Count Oliveira among those that do not believe things will play out as Makhachev has planned.

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The reason for Makhachev’s late start to the year was two-fold: he sustained an injury, and Ramadan will be taking place from March 10 to April 9 in 2024. This meant that the Dagestan native would need some time to rehab his injuries and train properly, thus the June start time. Oliveira does not buy it, and on Thursday, he explained why to Ag. Fight.

“What came…

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship strawweight queen Rose Namajunas is taking another crack at flyweight.

On Wednesday, MMA Hoje first broke the story that Amanda Ribas (12-4) would be throwing down with Namajunas (11-6). The initial claim was that the two would headline a May 23 show—this would fall on a Thursday—and it was corrected to March 23. The two flyweights will serve as the headliner for the UFC Fight Night show on that date, which will post up in Las Vegas at the UFC Apex. This high-stakes pairing has since been confirmed by other outlets on Friday.

Brazil’s Ribas has alternated wins and losses in her last seven outings, switching back and forth from flyweight to strawweight. As a result, she currently holds the no. 12 spot at 125 pounds and the no. 14 place at strawweight on Sherdog’s Official Rankings. In her return to strawweight after three trips fighting up at flyweight, Ribas landed the first spinning wheel kick in UFC women’s divisional history…

First to the scale in 2024 👏@JohnnyWalker weighs in at 205.5 lbs for #UFCVegas84 pic.twitter.com/xhEx4PwtuV

— UFC (@ufc) January 12, 2024 Editor's note: The article has been updated at 3:30 p.m. ET on Jan. 12 to reflect a fight cancellation.

Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight Manel Kape is not putting his best foot forward as he hunts for an elusive title shot.

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The UFC Fight Night 234 card is now down to 11 fights, and is headlined by a light heavyweight clash between contenders Magomed Ankalaev and Johnny Walker. All fighters except for would-be flyweight Kape successfully made weight for the first card of the year. Kape checked in 3.5 pounds over the flyweight limit at 129.5 pounds for his fight against Matheus Nicolau, and the fight has been canceled, per MMA Fighting.

Both men in the main attraction have unfinished business, as their October 2023 fight ended in a no-contest after Ankalaev (17-1-1, 1 NC) la…

🚨🚨Featherweight Battle🚨🚨

Alexander Hernandez takes on Damon Jackson at #UFCVegas89 on April 6th in Las Vegas. pic.twitter.com/vN8BzUD4cj

— Marcel Dorff 🇳🇱🇮🇩 (@BigMarcel24) January 11, 2024

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A matchup pitting seasoned featherweights Alexander Hernandez and Damon Jackson into a three-round contest has been added to UFC Fight Night: Vettori vs. Allen.

The event is scheduled to take place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on April 6. The news was first reported by Eurosport’s Marcel Dorff in a social media post.

Hernandez (14-7) will make his way to the Octagon against Jackson coming off a unanimous decision loss to Bill Algeo at UFC 229 in October. Prior to his recent defeat, “The Great Ape” secured a unanimous decision victory against Jim Miller at UFC Fight Night 219 .

Meanwhile, Jackson (22-6) will look to return to the win column after suffering back-to-back losses against Billy Quarantillo and Dan Ige in A…

Randy Brown and Muslim Salikhov will still get to handle their business, just a few months later than they initially expected.

Ahead of UFC 296 at the end of 2023, Brown (17-5) and Salikhov (19-4) were planning on coming to blows at welterweight. A day before the event, Brown was hospitalized from an illness, and he was forced out of the pairing. The Ultimate Fighting Championship opted to preserve the matchup instead of giving them different opponents, and they will now square off on Feb. 3. ESPN revealed the bout on Thursday, and the organization announced shortly thereafter that they would be competing at UFC Fight Night 235 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

Brown is coming off a unanimous decision victory against Wellington Turman in June 2023, which put him back in the win column. Before then, he had a four-fight winning streak dragged to a halt courtesy of a first-round submission by Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 284. In that stretch, Brown defeated names including…

“The Ultimate Fighter 31” lightweight winner Kurt Holobaugh is hoping the third time is the charm.

Holobaugh (20-7, 1 NC), entering into his third stint with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, will be taking on Trey Ogden (16-6, 1 NC) at a UFC Fight Night event scheduled on March 23. The two lightweights will do battle inside of the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, as first reported by MMA Fighting on Thursday. The pairing has since been confirmed by both fighters in their respective Instagram pages.

The triangle choke Holobaugh hit on Team Chandler teammate Austin Hubbard in the finals of TUF 31 counted as his first UFC victory, which came in his fifth appearance with the promotion. The Louisiana native first introduced himself to the promotion following the merger with Strikeforce in 2013 with a one-and-done loss, and returned in 2018 after getting signed from the first season of Dana White's Contender Series. After leaving the league for the second time in 2019, “The Hurt”…

Khalim Nazrulloev made an immediate impact in ONE Championship.

The undefeated Russian dazzled in his promotional debut and kept his perfect professional record intact, as he buried Ilimbek Akylbek Uulu with punches in the second round of their ONE Friday Fights 47 flyweight showcase on Friday at Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand. Uulu (7-2, 1-1 ONE) succumbed to blows 1:59 into Round 2, his five-fight winning streak at an end.

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Nazrulloev (9-0, 1-0 ONE) was superior in all phases. He controlled tie-ups, stepped into power punching combinations and secured multiple takedowns, often consolidating them with bursts of knees to the head. Uulu eventually wore down. Nazrulloev bullied him to all fours in the second round, blasted him with a knee to the side of the head, forced him to turtle and cut loose with punches until the job was done.

The setback was Uulu’s first since Dec. 11, 2021.

Family Fight Team prospect Coopar Royal rallied t…

Breaking: Brandon Moreno confirms Amir Albazi is out of the Feb 24th. card in Mexico City, Brandon Royval will be his new opponent in the main event

More to come on @espnmma pic.twitter.com/L5HAYFHFlJ

— Carlos Contreras Legaspi 🦁 (@CCLegaspi) January 12, 2024 Editor's note: The article has been updated at 8:40 p.m. ET on Jan. 11 to include a statement from Albazi.

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When it comes to the Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight division, few fights in the top 10 will be disappointing.

According to the promotion’s broadcast partner of ESPN on Thursday, Amir Albazi (17-1) will no longer be competing in the headliner of UFC Mexico City on Feb. 24. In his place will be Brandon Royval (15-7), who will take on former foe Brandon Moreno (21-7-2) in the Mexico City Arena in Mexico City. Albazi has since posted on social media that he was forced out of the fight due to a neck injury. Moreno and Royval previously faced off in 2020…

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship beltholder Cody Garbrandt is getting what he asked for.

At UFC 296, Garbrandt (14-5) laid waste to Brian Kelleher with one punch, putting himself on his first win streak since starting his career undefeated which culminated in winning the bantamweight belt in 2016. The knockout was his first stoppage in three over three years, and he used his post-fight interview to call out former flyweight king Deiveson Figueiredo (22-3-1). The promotion has elected to put that together for UFC 300, according to Ag. Fight on Thursday. The two will collide on April 13 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, and it was subsequently confirmed by Figueiredo on his Instagram Stories on Thursday.

Garbrandt returned to his victorious ways in March 2023 when he captured a decision over Trevin Jones, and he followed that by wiping out Kelleher in December. Those two triumphs put a rough 1-5 stretch in the rear-view mirror, which saw him lose by knockout four …

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Chris Weidman will make a decision regarding his future in the Octagon as his next bout approaches.

Weidman (15-7) suffered a career-threatening leg break in a rematch against Uriah Hall at UFC 261 in April 2021. After two years of rehab, the former middleweight champion returned to action against Brad Tavares at UFC 292 in August 2023. Weidman suffered a unanimous decision loss, which made it 2-6 for “The All-American” since dropping the crown.

Weidman is now slated to face Bruno Silva (23-10) at UFC Atlantic City on March 30.

The Baldwin, New York, native recently revealed that he wasn’t sure if he would return to action after the bout with Tavares and will make a decision regarding his retirement as he approaches his upcoming Octagon outing.

“Honestly, I wasn’t sure. I’m setting myself up for the future, and I wasn’t sure,” Weidman told Daniel Cormier. “I was kind of listening to my body and trying to get healthy. Mentally and m…