Martial Arts News

UFC fighter Sedriques Dumas was arrested in Florida on a battery charge, according to Escambia County Jail inmate records.

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Dumas was booked at 6:13 a.m. local time on Tuesday. TMZ Sports was first to report the UFC middleweight’s arrest. A video on Dumas’ Facebook page depicts a tense confrontation between Dumas and two police officers in front of a home.

“I’m beyond f—-ing pissed,” Dumas can be heard saying in the video. “…How am I disturbing the peace when I was walking.”

One officer can be overheard saying that they responded to a call from a woman claiming “her boyfriend was banging on the door and ringing the doorbell.” Dumas responds that he is no longer in a relationship with the woman in question.

Dumas appears to be taken into custody as the video ends.

“What are you doing?” Dumas says in the video. “This is bulls—t.”

Dumas has a lengthy criminal history that was brought to light prior to his UFC debut. This includes al…

UFC 298 is down to 12 fights after Tresean Gore withdrew from a proposed middleweight clash against A.J. Dobson due to injury.

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The promotion announced the cancellation of the bout on Tuesday. The nature of Gore’s injury was not revealed. UFC 298 takes place on Saturday at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, and is headlined by a featherweight title tilt pitting Alexander Volkanovski against Ilia Topuria.

A finalist on Season 29 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” Gore picked up his first promotional triumph at UFC Fight Night 213 in October 2022, when he earned a second-round submission victory against Josh Fremd. Gore has not competed in the Octagon since then.

Dobson, meanwhile, is 1-2 in the Las Vegas-based promotion after appearing on Dana White’s Contender Series in September 2021. The Strong Style Fight Team member halted a two-bout skid in his last outing, as he outpointed Tafon Nchukwi at UFC on ESPN 51 this past August.

A showdown between James Gallagher and Jeremy Kennedy is one of several matchups that were recently made official for Bellator 302.

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The promotion also announced that Gallagher vs. Kennedy will be a No. 1 contender’s bout at featherweight. Meanwhile, a lightweight clash pitting Tim Wilde against former PFL Challengers Series competitor Manoel Sosa will round out the event’s five-fight main card.

Bellator 302 takes place at SSE Arena in Belfast on March 22 and is headlined by a light heavyweight title bout between Corey Anderson and Karl Moore. Three new preliminary bouts were also announced for the event: Ciaran Clarke vs. Darius Mafi at bantamweight; Nathan Kelly vs. Vikas Singh Ruhil at featherweight and Abraham Bably vs. Isaiah Pinson at heavyweight.

The 27-year-old Gallagher has been victorious in five of his last six appearances under the Bellator MMA banner. Most recently, the Irish fighter garnered a split-decision triumph against Jame…

Credit: Getty/UFC Credit: Getty/UFC Credit: Getty/UFC Credit: Getty/UFC

A lightweight clash between Austin Hubbard and Michal Figlak has been added to a UFC Fight Night event on April 27.

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The news was first reported by MMA Mania’s Alex Behunin and later confirmed by Hubbard on Instagram. The event is set to take place at UFC Apex in Las Vegas with no headliner announced yet.

Hubbard (15-7) will enter the Octagon on the heels of a Round 2 submission loss to Kurt Holobaugh in "The Ultimate Fighter” lightweight finals at UFC 292. Prior to his recent appearance on “TUF,” the Elevation Fight Team product racked up a two-fight win streak on the regional scene in 2022. Hubbard went 3-4 during his initial Ultimate Fighting Championship stint from 2019 to 2021.

Meanwhile, Poland’s Figlak (8-1) is coming off his first professional mixed martial arts loss to Fares Ziam in his promotional debut in September 2022. The lightweight prospect has not com…

ONE Championship has responded to Sage Northcutt’s claims that the Singapore-based promotion was responsible for the cancelation of his ONE 165 lightweight clash against Shinya Aoki on Jan. 28 in Tokyo, Japan.

While Northcutt was set to face “Tobikan Judan” in a highly-anticipated bout on the pay-per-view, the organization announced that the American had withdrawn from the card due to unforeseen circumstances.

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However, Northcutt shared a different version of events that led to his withdrawal in an Instagram post.

ONE Championship has now responded to Northcutt’s statement, describing the situation as a misunderstanding caused by “work visa processing issues.”

Furthermore, the promotion made it clear that it would like to alleviate all of Northcutt’s concerns and move to resolve the situation amicably.

“ONE Championship empathizes with Sage Northcutt in regards to the situation he faced at ONE 165, where two of his coaches were not allowed to …

A lightweight showdown pitting Terrance McKinney against Esteban Ribovics is on tap for an Ultimate Fighting Championship event on May 11.

Ribovics confirmed the booking on social media following an initial report from ESPN KnockOut commentator Gaston Reyno. The UFC Fight Night event doesn’t currently have an announced location or headliner.

McKinney is coming off back-to-back first-round technical knockout victories over Mike Breeden and Brendon Marotte in the second half of 2023. The Spokane, Washington, native is 5-3 during his tenure with the Las Vegas-based promotion, with all of his triumphs coming inside of a round.

Argentina’s Ribovics is 1-1 in the Octagon following a first-round knockout of Thomas Paull on Dana White’s Contender Series in August 2022. After dropping a decision against Loik Radzhabov in his promotional debut at UFC 285, “El Gringo” rebounded to outpoint Kamuela Kirk at UFC 290 in his most recent appearance.

The lineup for Bellator 302 continues to take shape, as a lightweight clash between Tofiq Musayev and Alfie Davis and a middleweight scrap pitting Fabian Edwards against Aaron Jeffrey have been added to the March 22 event in Belfast, Ireland.

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Sherdog.com confirmed the bouts with a promotion official following an intial report from MMAjunkie.com. Bellator 302 takes place at the SSE Arena and is headlined by a showdown between Corey Anderson and Karl Moore for the promotion’s vacant light heavyweight crown.

Musayev is 1-1 in Bellator MMA competition, with a 27-second stoppage of Sidney Outlaw and a third-round TKO defeat against Alexandr Shabliy on his ledger. More recently, the Azerbaijan native scored back-to-back knockout victories over Akira Okada and Koji Takeda under the Rizin Fighting Federation banner.

Anchored at London Shootfighters, Davis owns a 16-4-1 professional mark. He’ll enter the matchup with Musayev on a two-fight winning s…

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Alexander Volkanovski has no shortage of motivation heading into his latest title defense at UFC 298.

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Not only is the City Kickboxing standout coming off back-to-back losses to reigning lightweight king Islam Makhachev, but he will be facing a dangerous, undefeated challenger in Ilia Topuria. If he had gotten his way, Volkanovski would have faced Topuria even sooner.

“The good thing is about someone like that, I’m always trying to fight or find a No. 1 guy. A clear contender for me to face in this featherweight division and Ilia is it, right?” Volkanovski said on his YouTube channel. “He was the next, it’s clear. They signed the date. I actually wanted him straight after Yair [Rodriguez at UFC 290]. I told him come jump the fence and get a faceoff because he was undefeated. I didn’t want anyone else fighting him. I wanted to make sure I got a young, hungry undefeated guy that’s got hype around him.

“He likes to talk. So, i…

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Longtime coach Eric Albarracin was not a part of Henry Cejudo’s camp ahead of the former two-division champion’s fight with Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 298.

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Cejudo parted ways with Albarracin, who has been his coach since before his MMA career began, on an episode of the UFC “Countdown” show. It was unclear exactly when that particular episode was filmed.

“You were with me for my last Olympic trials, and you’ve been there for me, but as of right now, I just want to let you know that for this camp, dude, I’m getting rid of specific coaches – and that’s you included,” Cejudo said to Albarracin.

At least on camera, Albarracin seemed to take his dismissal in stride.

“The goal has always been the same, for you to be the greatest combat athlete of all-time,” Albarracin said. “To me, that was a dream come true.”

Cejudo, meanwhile, commended the coach for his classy response.

“This is why this man is the GOAT coach — the m…

Joe Pyfer’s response to his loss at #UFCVegas86 pic.twitter.com/krginPS7PH

— MMA Mania (@mmamania) February 11, 2024

Joe Pyfer has come a long way since badly dislocating his elbow on Dana White's Contender Series in August 2020.

Pyfer recovered from that injury to author a five-bout winning streak that included three finishes in UFC competition, a run that led to him to a headlining spot opposite Jack Hermansson at UFC Fight Night 236 on Saturday night. Relying on a stiff jab, increasingly effective leg kicks and a solid gas tank, Hermansson derailed Pyfer’s momentum with a unanimous decision triumph at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

The tide truly began to turn in Round 3, when “The Joker” rocked his opponent with a hard jab. Pyfer admitted that he was never able to fully recover from that point forward.

“I’m OK, despite how my face looks,” Pyfer said in a video on his Instagram stories. “I wasn’t rocked. I got punched in the…

Sometimes when two close friends square off in the cage, it makes for a less-than-stellar product on fight night.

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That wasn’t the case in the UFC Fight Night 236 co-main event, where Dan Ige authored a vicious knockout of friend and onetime training partner Andre Fili at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday night. Ige floored his opponent with a massive overhand right and then left no doubt with one final standing-to-ground shot to earn a knockout victory 2:43 into Round 1.

For Ige, it was just business.

“I love Andre, man. He’s like one of my most favorite people in this fight game,” Ige said on the ESPN+ post-fight show. “I couldn’t let that get in the way of the business. That’s just how it goes sometimes. You fight people you like. I knew if I went in there and was his friend in there, he would have had much more success. I had to go in there and have some mean intentions, and I got it done.”

While Ige and Fili have trained together in …

It can be painfully obvious when the Ultimate Fighting Championship elects to put its promotional muscle behind one of its up-and-coming athletes.

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That was the case heading into UFC Fight Night 236, when Dana White’s Contender Series alum Joe Pyfer appeared to be the focal point of the card. Jack Hermansson, Pyfer’s dance partner in Saturday’s middleweight headliner, was something of the forgotten man. That changed over the course of 25 minutes at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, as “The Joker” refused to play the role of gatekeeper in a unanimous decision triumph against the heavily-hyped Pyfer.

“It definitely motivated me,” Hermansson said on the ESPN+ post-fight show. “I thought to myself, yeah after this fight people are gonna see that I’m no pushover and you can’t just get one of those younger guys in there and think they are just gonna run through me. I definitely took notice of it. It didn’t bother me too much, but of course it was some motivati…