Martial Arts News

Salahdine Parnasse barely broke a sweat.

The Atch Academy cornerstone retained his Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki lightweight championship in style, as he stopped Wilson Varela with punches in the first round of their KSW 101 headliner on Friday at Paris La Defense Arena in Nanterre, France. Varela (12-6, 4-2 KSW) succumbed to blows 60 seconds into Round 1, his six-fight winning streak at an end.

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Parnasse (20-2, 12-2 KSW) dropped the Marseille Fight Club rep with a left cross, pounced with follow-up punches and forced the challenger to shield himself from contact. He then climbed to the back, flattened out Varela and closed the deal with a string of clubbing right hands to the side of the head.

Meanwhile, onetime Bellator MMA tournament winner Marcin Held cast aside Adrenaline Fight Team’s Davy Gallon with a guillotine choke in the first round of their lightweight co-main event. Gallon (21-10-2, 0-1 KSW) raised the white flag of surrender 2:24 into Roun…

The UFC 312 lineup continues to take shape with the addition of a lightweight clash between Tom Nolan and Viacheslav Borshchev and a featherweight tilt pitting Jack Jenkins against Gabriel Santos.

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The Las Vegas-based promotion confirmed the pairings on Tuesday. UFC 312 takes place on Feb. 8 at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Austraila, and is headlined by a middleweight title rematch between Dricus Du Plessis and Sean Strickland. In the co-main event, Weili Zhang will defend her strawweight belt against Tatiana Suarez.

After suffering his first career defeat in his Octagon debut, Nolan has rebounded with back-to-back triumphs over Victor Martinez and Alex -Reyes-24199">Alex -Reyes-427185">Alex Reyes. The 24-year-old Brisbane, Australia, native has won eight of his nine professional outings, with five of those coming via KO or TKO.

Borshchev has experienced mixed results in the promotion since earning a contract on Dana White’s Contender Ser…

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The Future of MMA is Here 🌍The Global Fight League launches in 2025. Revolutionizing MMA with the first global, team-based MMA League bringing you a roster of legends, contenders and rising stars.

Learn more from the link in bio 🔗#GFL #GlobalFightLeague #MMA #FutureOfMMA pic.twitter.com/cIvOmPjWx8

— Global Fight League (@mmagfl) December 13, 2024

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The official announcement regarding the launch of the Global Fight League shook up the mixed martial arts world last week.

Thus far, more than 50 fighters have reportedly been signed by the fledgling promotion, including ex-UFC champions. Sherdog recently spoke to three of those former title holders — Junior dos Santos, Renan Barao and Fabricio Werdum — all of whom confirmed their participation and expressed excitement about the potential of the new promotion.

The first Brazilian champion of the UFC’s bantamweight division, the now 37-year-old Barao left the promotio…

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Islam Makhachev thinks he can stop Arman Tsarukyan inside the distance in their upcoming matchup.

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Makhachev looks to defend his lightweight strap against Tsarukyan in the main event at UFC 311 on Jan. 18 at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, California. The two previously met in 2019 when Makhachev roped in a hard-fought unanimous decision win. Tsarukyan stepped in on short notice against Makhachev for his UFC debut and displayed impressive takedown defense against the Dagestani. While it is widely regarded by some as Makhachev’s toughest outing to date, the lightweight champ disagrees. Makhachev claims that although Tsarukyan was a tough matchup, his toughest outing was his unanimous decision win over Alexander Volkanovski in his first title defense. Makhachev also believes his initial clash with Tsarukyan was competitive because he might have underestimated “Ahalkalakets.”

“It was one of the hardest fights of course but it’s not to…

Conor McGregor SHUTS DOWN rumors of a fight against Ilia Topuria, and says he's accepted an offer to fight Logan Paul in India

Ilia Topuria responds: "I don't fight nor am I interested in fighting with a r*pist."#UFC #MMA pic.twitter.com/PqHqrGTMMN

— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) December 17, 2024

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Ilia Topuria took a dig at Conor McGregor after the Irishman mentioned his name.

McGregor recently dismissed rumors of a bout against Topuria. The Dubliner instead claims to have initial agreements with the billionaire Ambani family in India for a boxing match against YouTuber turned boxer Logan Paul. However, “Notorious” still plans to eventually return to the Octagon.

“The rumors of a bout with [Topuria] are false,” McGregor wrote on X. “I am in preliminary agreements with the Ambani family to face Logan Paul in a boxing exhibition in India. I have agreed. I will then seek my return to the Octagon.”

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The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s first card of 2025 is now official.

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The promotion confirmed the 14-bout lineup for UFC Vegas 101 — also known as UFC Fight Night 249 — in a release on Tuesday. The card takes place on Jan. 11 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and is headlined by a strawweight rematch between Amanda Ribas and Mackenzie Dern, while Chris Curtis will square off against Roman Kopylov in the evening’s co-main event at middleweight.

Ribas, who defeated Dern via unanimous decision in their first meeting at UFC Fight Night 161 on Oct. 12, 2019, has competed at both strawweight and flyweight in the UFC. The Brazilian is coming off a five-round defeat to Rose Namajunas at 125 pounds in the UFC on ESPN 53 headliner this past March.

A Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, Dern snapped a two-bout skid in her last outing, when she took a three-round verdict over Lupita Godinez at UFC on ABC 7 on Aug. 3. The 31-year-old RVCA representative owns v…

The Vadim Nemkov-Corey Anderson trilogy bout won’t be happening at Professional Fighters League’s Road to Dubai event as originally planned.

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A promotion official confirmed the cancellation to Sherdog.com on Tuesday following an initial report from MMAFighting.com. The PFL is seeking a new co-main event for the card. Nemkov was originally booked to meet 2022 PFL heavyweight champion Ante Delija at Road to Dubai, but the 34-year-old Croatian withdrew from the event.

Road to Dubai takes place on Jan. 25 at Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai and appears to be a rebranded version of Bellator Champions Series. In the main event, Usman Nurmagomedov will defend his lightweight strap against Paul Hughes.

While a reason for the cancellation wasn’t given, Anderson recently took to social media to blame Nemkov for backing out of the fight.

“Woke up to a text this morning from PFL and Bellator saying ‘Vadim refuses to fight you,’” Anderson said in video on Instag…

A pair of competitors on the most recent season of Dana White's Contender Series have been suspended after testing positive for banned substances.

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During a Nevada State Athletic Commission meeting on Tuesday, Francesco Mazzeo and Abdelah Er-Ramy were handed sanctions after failing drug tests in relation to their respective bouts.

Mazzeo was suspended nine months due to a positive test for the metabolic modulator GW1516 and its metabolites. He was also fined $750 and ordered to pay $157.04 in prosecution fees. Mazzeo, who suffered a second-round submission loss to Kevin Christian on Sept. 24, will be eligible to return to active competition on June 23.

Er-Ramy, meanwhile, tested positive for the anabolic steroid drostanolone and was suspended nine months. He was fined $750 as well as $157.04 in prosecution fees. Er-Ramy, who lost to Torrez Finney via first-round knockout on Oct. 1, will be eligible to return on June 30.

Finally, Quemuel…

UFC Tampa was, at least in part, a showcase for the old guys.

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While 41-year-old Cub Swanson’s knockout of Billy Quarantillo in the co-main event deservedly garnered the lion’s share of the attention, 38-year-old Michael Johnson had a spectacular finish of his own, scoring a vicious KO of Ottman Azaitar on the evening’s uncard at Amalie Arena on Saturday night.

Johnson, who was a finalist on “The Ultimate Fighter 12” in 2010, never envisioned his career lasting as long as it has.

“I did not think I would be fighting til I was 38,” he said at the UFC Tampa post-fight press conference (video via MMAjunkie.com). “My plan was to get in the UFC, fight the best guys, win, get a title, be financially able to retire around 30….so eight years past that, and I’m still going. It feels great. I have no problem with missing my first goal. Now I’m on to my second goal and that’s what keeps me motivated.”

While Johnson hasn’t seriously approached championshi…

Khabib Nurmagomedov is confident in cousin Umar Nurmagomedov leading up to the latter’s upcoming title fight against Merab Dvalishvili.

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Umar challenges Dvalishvili for the bantamweight title in the co-main event at UFC 311 on Jan. 18 at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, California. Dvalishvili was initially loathe to fight Umar, deeming him undeserving of a title shot.

While Umar didn’t seem to say anything inflammatory about the bantamweight champion, Dvalishvili claims he felt disrespected by the Dagestani. While announcing the UFC 311 matchup, Dana White revealed that Dvalishvili agreed to the matchup because he was done feeling disrespected by his opponent. While “The Machine” continues to voice his respect for Umar’s teammates leading up to UFC 311, he hasn’t stopped taking shots at his upcoming foe.

Khabib believes Dvalishvili was initially pretending to be nice guy but couldn’t handle his championship status very well. Dvalishvili has re…

Khabib blames DJ for making his cousin Abubakr lose a fight 😭

Khabib: “Because of you, you take him all the time to game, he lose one fight.”

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DJ: “I haven’t seen him play in a long time.”

Khabib: “Because we break his computer.” 😭😭

🎥 @MightyMousepic.twitter.com/WSmRLU3wCl — Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) December 16, 2024

Khabib Nurmagomedov claims his cousin Abubakar Nurmagomedov lost a fight because of Demetrious Johnson.

“Mighty Mouse” is currently helping coach Khabib prepare Islam Makhachev and Umar Nurmagomedov prepare for their upcoming title fights. While Makhachev will defend his lightweight title against Arman Tsarukyan in the main event, Umar challenges Merab Dvalishvili for the bantamweight strap in the co-main event at UFC 311 on Jan. 18 at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles.

Johnson recently uploaded footage from the Dagestani camp where he can be seen spending some quality time with the tea…