Martial Arts News

Just like that, one of MMA’s greatest title reigns ends and a new era begins.

In the main event of UFC 298 on Saturday in Anaheim, Calif., Ilia Topuria (15-0, 7-0 UFC) navigated a round and half of nail-biting tension against Alexander Volkanovski (26-4) before shutting the lights off with a crushing right hand. The matchup of the undefeated 27-year-old phenom against one of the most dominant champions in the sport delivered on expectations, as Topuria got out to a fast start, stinging Volkanovski with heavy leg kicks and fast boxing combinations. “The Great” remained calm, made adjustments and seemed to have snatched back the momentum by the end of the frame.

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The second round was just as close as the first, with Volkanovski continuing to chip away at the Spaniard with crisp combinations and good lateral movement. That is, until “El Matador” followed up a pair of glancing hooks with a flush right hand that melted the champ at the base of the fence. …

Home of the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks is the vibrant backdrop for Saturday’s UFC 298 pay-per-view event, set to unfold on Feb. 17 at Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

The star of the show, featherweight king Alexander Volkanovski, returns to the featherweight division following a subpar outing in his second crack at lightweight gold against Islam Makhachev. He faces Ilia Topuria, a fiery European in overdrive. This is a classic matchup of a champion who has proved his mettle, yet is presented with a challenge that courts significant danger.

Don't miss live play-by-play coverage and virtual round scoring that brings the Octagon action to your screen with every punch, kick and submission attempt, starting at 6:30 p.m. ET. BETTING PREVIEW | SCOUTING REPORT | ODDS: Maverick (-192), Lee (+160)Round 1 The fans are out in Anaheim, California, where they will soon pack the Honda Center to watch a fight card that was built to last. After an odd weigh-in day switch of opponent, 12 …

Amanda Lemos came into UFC 298 looking to confirm her place as a top contender in the UFC strawweight division. Mission accomplished, though Mackenzie Dern made her earn it.

For the first several minutes it looked as though Lemos (14-3-1, 8-3 UFC) was in for a night of easy work, as she hobbled Dern (13-5, 8-5 UFC) with heavy leg kicks, stung her with punches and left Dern struggling to lay a hand on her. Everything turned in an instant, however, when Dern ducked under for a double-leg takedown near the midpoint of the round. From there, the multiple-time grappling champion controlled the remainder of the round, keeping Lemos under heavy pressure and constantly threatening to pass her guard. Lemos went right back to work on the feet in the second round, nailing Dern with a punch combination that left her on her back, face swelling up and wincing in obvious pain. Lemos followed up with standing-to-ground punches with referee Mike Beltran looking on, but Lemos followed her fo…

Welcome to the #UFCHOF, @WandFC 👏

He's the 2nd member of the UFC Hall of Fame Class of 2024! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/GOBf6ViHXS

— UFC (@ufc) February 18, 2024

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Former Pride Fighting Championship middleweight title holder Wanderlei Silva will be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame.

Silva will become the 19th member of the Pioneer Wing during a ceremony this summer in Las Vegas. The Pioneer Wing includes athletes who turned pro before Nov. 17, 2000, are at least 35 years old or who have been retired for at least one year.

“Wanderlei Silva is one of the true pioneers of the sport of MMA,” UFC CEO Dana White said. “Wanderlei was an absolute savage who left his mark by delivering some of the most memorable fights in combat sports history. He had legendary fights against Mirko Cro Crop, Chuck Liddell, Dan Henderson, Brian Stann, and his fights against Rich Franklin, as they were absolute wars. He was also one of the early supe…

Alô, Brasil! Estamos de volta! 🇧🇷

O UFC retorna ao Rio de Janeiro em maio para o #UFC301!

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Cadastre-se para a pré-venda em: https://t.co/DMSL3ghOZ8 pic.twitter.com/smRAATqJHA — UFC Brasil (@UFCBrasil) February 17, 2024

The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s return to Rio de Janeiro is now official.

The Las Vegas-based promotion announced on Saturday that UFC 301 will take place on March 4 at Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro. A headliner has not been confirmed for the event, although reigning flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja recently indicated that his next title defense would come at the event.

A handful of contests have already been reported for the card, including Paul Craig vs. Caio Borralho at light heavyweight; Joanderson Brito vs. Jack Shore at featherweight; Joaquim Silva vs. Drakkar Klose at lightweight and Alessandro Costa vs. Kevin Borjas at flyweight.

The promotion last traveled to Rio d…

WOW!! History made!! 🤩

🇲🇩 Valeriu Mircea submits Leo Brichta to become the first Moldovan champion in KSW history!!! #KSW91 pic.twitter.com/QxCF16Kx5h

— KSW (@KSW_MMA) February 17, 2024

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Valeriu Mircea took Leo Brichta into deep waters and drowned the Prague native with a rear-naked choke in the fourth round of the KSW 91 main event Saturday at Home Credit Arena in Liberec, Czech Republic.

With the win, Mircea claimed the vacant interim Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki lightweight title and set up an eventual title unification showdown with champion Salahdine Parnasse. Mircea (30-8-1) notched his fourth straight win, but it didn’t come easy.

The fight opened up like a chess match, with Britcha holding the edge on the feet. Mircea’s guard was held low at Brichta (12-4) and routinely made him pay for it. To even the odds, Mircea took the fight to the ground and had his way.

Soon the fight became a battle of wills. Whenev…

The PFL vs. Bellator main card has taken a hit, as Jesus Pinedo has withdrawn from a proposed featherweight clash against Patricio Freire for undisclosed reasons.

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As a result, the PFL announced Saturday that the fight is off the card. It is unclear if Pinedo vs. Freire will be rebooked at a later date. PFL vs. Bellator takes place on Feb. 24 at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudia Arabia, and is headlined by a heavyweight showdown between Renan Ferreira and Ryan Bader. The main card airs on pay-per-view via ESPN+.

Pinedo captured the 2023 PFL featherweight championship by ending his season with successive victories over Brendan Loughnane, Bubba Jenkins and Gabriel Braga. The two-time UFC veteran has complied a 23-6-1 career mark over the course of a professional tenure that began in 2013.

Freire, who is Bellator MMA’s reigning featherweight champion, is coming off back-to-back losses to Chihiro Suzuki and Sergio Pettis. Prior to that, “Pitbull” …

A strawweight clash pitting Stephanie Luciano (5-1) against Julia Polastri (12-3) has been added to UFC on ESPN 53.

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The news was first reported by Ag.Fight.Prior to the booking of this matchup, both women were set to face separate opponents in the same month. Luciano was initially slated to take on Shauna Bannon on the same card, while Polastri was gearing up for a meeting with undefeated prospect Josefine Lindgren Knutsson on March 2. However, with the other bouts falling apart due to undisclosed reasons, Luciano and Polastri are now set to battle inside the Octagon.

Both fighters will make their UFC debuts after earning their way into the promotion through Dana White's Contender Series. Luciano will enter the Octagon on the heels of a unanimous draw against Talita Alencar in their DWCS 2023 Week 7 clash in September last year. Prior to that, the Brazilian was on a two-fight winning streak in Jungle Fight.

On the other hand, Polastri will …

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The speculation surrounding the main event of UFC 300 has reached a fever pitch in the last few weeks. One of the matchups that has been on the radar is Israel Adesanya vs. Dricus Du Plessis for the middleweight title.

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Eugene Bareman, Adesanya’s longtime head trainer at City Kickboxing, told The MacLife that “The Last Stylebender” is already in camp for a possible clash at UFC 300.

“I can say that we are ready to fight. Israel is ready to fight.” Bareman said. “He is in camp, has been in camp, and we answered that call. ‘Can you be ready for this?’ And we assessed it because Israel is coming off an injury... And we decided as a team that, yeah, let's get into camp. Let’s come back a little earlier at, some risk, some proper risk. There is a strong possibility that this fight could happen on this date and let's act as if we are fighting on that date. So, we are ready to go.”

The City Kickboxing head also explained the reason…

━━━━＼ お知らせ／━━━━ONE Championshipとパートナーシップ契約締結━━━━━━━━━━━━━━𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐅𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭／𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐅𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬年間通して全大会を日英解説版で独占見放題ライブ配信詳細👉 https://t.co/oHfAITbpAn

重大発表、引き続きご期待下さい

— U-NEXT 格闘技 公式 (@UNEXT_fight) February 14, 2024

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ONE Championship has taken another step towards expanding its ever-growing audience by signing an exclusive deal with Japanese streaming platform U-Next.

The deal will provide Japanese viewers exclusive live and on-demand access to ONE Championship's events. What's more, all programming will be available with both English and Japanese commentary, undoubtedly enhancing accessibility to the cards presented by the Singapore-based promotion.

Discussing the implications of the deal, Tenshin Tsutsumi, President and CEO of U-Next, stated:

“We are delighted to announce that the world's largest martial arts organization, ONE Championship, with …

#ONEFridayFights19 highlight video: Jonathan Haggerty clobbers Felipe Lobo pic.twitter.com/ZZT4dKNwQe

— Sherdog (@sherdogdotcom) February 17, 2024 Kickboxing and muay thai champ Jonathan Haggerty is already looking to a new horizon: mixed martial arts.

One Championship made sure to put one of its stars on the marquee of ONE on Prime Video 19, allowing two-sport champion Haggerty (22-4, 8-2 ONE) to defend his 145-pound muay thai throne. Aggressive challenger Felipe Lobo (22-9, 3-2 ONE) was not remotely afraid of the man with the hefty gold belt, and gave Haggerty everything he had for two-plus rounds until Haggerty found the finishing blow in the form of a devastating right hand.

As Haggerty calmly fired off body kicks from a safe distance in the early going, Lobo grew tired of absorbing the blows and crashed the pocket with fiery fists. The Brazilian laid into the champ with a lengthy surge of punches, stringing body shots into more to th…

ONE Championship’s next Amazon Prime event is set to unfold at the iconic Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok for ONE Fight Night 19 “Haggerty vs. Lobo.” Sherdog will have live play-by-play coverage of every thrilling moment, ensuring you don't miss out on any of the excitement starting at 8 p.m. ET.

The event is built around two-sport king Jonathan Haggerty, who will put his skills to the test against Felipe Lobo for the promotion’s muay thai bantamweight world championship. The battle of wills has an exciting backstory scripted around the time Haggerty fought Fabricio Andrade at ONE Fight Night 16. Lobo was cornering Andrade in that fight and after “The General” had just dispatched his charge, Lobo seized the opportunity to challenge the champ.

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Round 1 Saenchai starts off strong with solid straights and leg kicks. Chuikov tries to back up Saenchai but can't land anything. They get back to the center, and Saenchai drops his opponent with a huge righ…