Martial Arts News

The Ultimate Fighting Championship will be putting on the Joe Pyfer show in February.

Currently unranked as a middleweight with the company, Pyfer (12-2) will be snagging a main event spot against Sherdog’s no. 15-ranked Jack Hermansson (23-8) on Feb. 10. The two 185ers will battle it out atop an evening scheduled at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on the currently unnamed UFC Fight Night card. News of this pairing was announced by the UFC on Thursday.

Since making his debut off of his second chance on Dana White's Contender Series, Pyfer has rattled off three straight stoppages in the Octagon. Pyfer introduced himself to the promotion by blasting Alen Amedovski in under four minutes. “Bodybagz” returned to the cage over six months later to lay waste to Gerald Meerschaert, and he earned win no. 3 in the UFC by rendering Abdul Razak Alhassan unconscious with an arm-triangle choke in October. As a pro, Pyfer has only gone the distance one time, in his second bout against Dere…

The time and place of Alexander Volkanovski vs. Ilia Topuria is now official.

Per the promotion on Thursday, UFC 298 will take place at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, on Feb. 17. The Ultimate Fighting Championship had previously announced that the featherweight championship clash of Volkanovski (26-3) vs. Topuria (14-0) would sit atop the billing, and its date of Feb. 17 had been discussed as well. However, the destination of California was not official until its announcement.

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This event will be the first at this venue since UFC 270 in early 2022, when Francis Ngannou beat Ciryl Gane for the heavyweight strap. The home to NHL team Anaheim Ducks has played host to a number of major UFC cards over the years, from UFC 76 titled “Knockout” which did not feature a single knockout to UFC 157 which brought women’s MMA to the organization. This fight card will feature the first men’s headliner in a division below light heavyweight for the building,…

Some Thanksgiving fight announcements. Happy Thanksgiving everybody! pic.twitter.com/wNDkaxQ0nB

— danawhite (@danawhite) November 23, 2023 Jalin Turner will be stepping in for the man who last beat him in a bit over a week.

At UFC 290 in July, Turner (13-7) fell short in a thrilling nailbiter by split decision to Hooker. The Kiwi, who was scheduled to take on Bobby Green (31-14-1, 1 NC) at UFC Austin, has since injured his arm and has withdrawn from the Green pairing. The damage was inflicted to the same arm that Hooker hurt in his fight with Turner. Now, Turner will be taking on Green on Dec. 2 at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas, according to the promotion on Thursday.

Making his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut in 2018 unsuccessfully against Vicente Luque, the 6-foot-3 Turner dropped down to lightweight and has competed in that weight class for the majority of his subsequent matches. “The Tarantula” is currently skidding, having…

In the eyes of champion Alex Pereira, Khamzat Chimaev is no Ricardo Arona.

“Poatan” made history in November by becoming the first fighter in Ultimate Fighting Championship history to win titles in both the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions. The former 185-pound king—who went 1-1 with a knockout victory and defeat to Israel Adesanya in 2022 and 2023—moved up in weight to take on former champ Jan Blachowicz in July. The triumph put Pereira in contention for 205-pound gold, and he claimed it by vanquishing Jiri Prochazka in the second round at UFC 295.

After picking up the strap, the 9-2 former kickboxer from Sao Bernardo do Campo, Sao Paulo, Brazil, had plenty of men calling his name as potential suitors for his first defense. Among those was Chimaev, who recently experienced high-level success at middleweight by topping former welterweight kingpin Kamaru Usman on the scorecards. The Chechen, who frequently calls out champions in various divisions, asked UFC …

Sean Strickland is confident that training partner Sadibou Sy could duplicate his Professional Fighters League success in the UFC.

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Sy will attempt to win the welterweight championship for a second consecutive year when he faces Magomed Magomedkerimov at the 2023 PFL Championships on Friday at the Anthem in Washington, D.C. The main card airs via pay-per-view on ESPN+ beginning at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

The 36-year-old Swede has won seven straight outings since 2022, showcasing a varied striking arsenal that includes a skilled jab, a toolbox of kicks and knees in close quarters. During the current PFL season, Sy has scored a pair of spectacular finishes against Jarrah Al-Silawi and Shane Mitchell. Strickland, the UFC's reigning middleweight king, has seen Sy’s skills firsthand.

“He would be the welterweight champion [in the UFC],” Strickland said on his YouTube channel. “Then I’d probably have to fight him for the middleweight belt. Sadi is the…

Now that he’s firmly entrenched on the Professional Fighters League roster, Bubba Jenkins is all for the organization’s recent acquisition of Bellator MMA.

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“I love it. It’s a beautiful thing,” Jenkins said during a PFL media day. “Anytime the PFL is doing anything and making news, making waves, I’m appreciative of the higher ups doing these things. Especially to strengthen the roster and get some other guys in here, some other pigs to hunt in the woods is a good thing for me, so I’m excited.”

Jenkins will lock horns with Chris Wade in a trilogy bout on the prelims of the PFL Championships card on Friday at The Anthem in Washington, D.C. The main card airs via pay-per-view on ESPN+ at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT, while prelims stream on ESPN+ beginning at 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT.

Jenkins has more than a passing familiarity with Bellator. The 35-year-old Californian went 8-3 during an 11-bout stint with the promotion from 2013 to 2016, but he wasn’t especi…

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Professional Fighters League talent Khai Wu has firsthand knowledge of what it’s like to train alongside Meta Platforms founder Mark Zuckerberg.

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Zuckerberg, who generated headlines for his interest in an MMA fight against fellow mogul Elon Musk, crossed paths with Wu when he went to train at Guerrilla Jiu-Jitsu in Pleasanton, California. While Zuckerberg won’t be reaching the pinnacle of the sport anytime soon, Wu believes it’s important to put his training into the proper perspective.

“People are going, ‘Well, how good is he?’ It’s like if you compare him to a UFC Fighter or PFL fighter, like what are you categorizing them as? But someone as successful as him at his age getting into martial arts, it’s like, man, he takes it very seriously,” Wu said during a PFL media day. “It’s not a gimmick. It’s not like an act where he’s doing this for fun and then you don’t expect to see him in the next couple weeks. No, he’s been doing it …

Jim Miller will make his 43rd walk to the Octagon when he squares off against Gabriel Benitez in a lightweight bout at UFC Fight Night 234.

The Las Vegas-based promotion confirmed the booking in a release on Wednesday. UFC Fight Night 234 takes place on Jan. 13 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and is headlined by a rematch between Magomed Ankalaev and Johnny Walker. Other bouts confirmed for the event include a flyweight clash pitting Manel Kape against Matheus Nicolau and a bantamweight scrap between Ricky Simon and Mario Bautista.

Miller, who also holds the UFC record for most wins (25), has been victorious in four of his last five promotional appearances. Most recently, the New Jersey native scored a 23-second knockout victory against Jesse Butler at UFC on ESPN 46 on June 3.

Benitez will return to active competition for the first time since August 2022, when he scored a first-round TKO victory against Charlie Ontiveros at UFC on ESPN 41. Prior to that tri…

Francisco Trinaldo seems to have found a new passion in the world of bare knuckle MMA.

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One of the most popular fighters on Season 1 of “The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil,” Trinaldo parted ways with the UFC in 2022, some 10 years after his debut. Thirteen months later he made his bare knuckle foray at Gamebred Fighting Championship 6, where he defeated Sasha Palatnikov via technical knockout 1:55 into Round 1 when his opponent suffered a knee injury.

“I love to fight MMA without gloves, but I have to recognize that, after 13 months without fighting, I was nervous in the beginning,” Trinaldo told Sherdog.com. “But as soon as my opponent hit me, I woke up and started to have fun. I was prepared for a bloody war, but it was not necessary. I loved the experience and I can't wait for [Jorge] Masvidal to decide who will be my next opponent.”

“Massaranduba” had no problem revealing a list of names he has targeted as potential adversaries.

“I'm 45 [years o…

Francisco Trinaldo seems to have found a new passion in the world of bare knuckle MMA.

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One of the most popular fighters on Season 1 of “The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil,” Trinaldo parted ways with the UFC in 2022, some 10 years after his debut. Thirteen months later he made his bare knuckle foray at Gamebred Fighting Championship 6, where he defeated Sasha Palatnikov via technical knockout 1:55 into Round 1 when his opponent suffered a knee injury.

“I love to fight MMA without gloves, but I have to recognize that, after 13 months without fighting, I was nervous in the beginning,” Trinaldo told Sherdog.com. “But as soon as my opponent hit me, I woke up and started to have fun. I was prepared for a bloody war, but it was not necessary. I loved the experience and I can't wait for [Jorge] Masvidal to decide who will be my next opponent.”

“Massaranduba” had no problem revealing a list of names he has targeted as potential adversaries.

“I'm 45 [years o…

What are we doing/what have we done to ensure this situation doesn’t happen again, Micheál? Since the heinous and horrific murder of an Irish citizen in broad daylight at the hands of a foreign criminal there has been a zero action response from the 3 parties in power. Nothing at… https://t.co/EZpu40Ql8R

— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) November 21, 2023

Conor McGregor recently went on a tirade against the Irish government regarding the murder of Ireland native Ashling Murphy at the hands of an immigrant.

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A 23-year-old high school teacher and musician, Murphy, was murdered by Slovakian immigrant Jozef Puska while walking alongside the Grand Canal in Tullamore, County Offaly, in January 2022. Puska, who was also a sex offender in his native country, was arrested earlier this month and sentenced to life by a unanimous jury in a Dublin court.

Puska was reportedly unemployed and living on welfare since arriving in Irela…

Jake Paul claims that a potential MMA rematch against Nate Diaz is nowhere close to coming to fruition.

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While Diaz exited the UFC with a stoppage win over Tony Ferguson in September 2022 ,his long-anticipated boxing clash against Paul only materialized this past August. Paul went on to earn a unanimous decision win over the Stockton, California, native and after the bout, both parties expressed interest in setting up a rematch under MMA rules.

However, “The Problem Child” claims there has been complete radio silence from Diaz’s camp after a bit of initial interest. One potential point of contention is Diaz not wanting to fight under the Professional Fighters League banner. Diaz is rallying for the bout to be organized by his own promotion, Real Fight Inc., which co-promoted his boxing clash with Paul so far. Paul signed with the PFL earlier this year and is also a minority owner of the organization.

Paul discussed the possibility of an MMA bout…