Martial Arts News

Even the undefeated, undisputed Chael Sonnen is man enough to shed tears at a powerful story.

On Thursday, Paramount+ released the documentary series of Ultimate Fighting Championship great Anderson Silva. The five-part series, currently out in Brazil and titled “Anderson ‘Spider’ Silva,” spans five episodes and chronicles much of Silva’s life. The show begins in his childhood and showcases his accolades in competition including winning and defending the UFC middleweight title.

To hype up the release of the docuseries, Paramount+ also posted a video of Silva and Sonnen getting together to watch it together. Sonnen famously posted on Tuesday a few photographs of a tattoo on his shoulder of former rival Silva, and the video took fans behind the scenes. As it turned out, this tattoo resulted from a bet between the two fighters.

“If [Sonnen] cried [while watching the series], he would have to tattoo my face on his arm,” Silva revealed. “If he didn’t, I would have…

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Brendan Allen doesn’t agree with Khamzat Chimaev being ranked in the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s middleweight division.

Chimaev (13-0) made his long-awaited permanent move to middleweight at UFC 294 last month against short-notice replacement Kamaru Usman (20-4), who also made his debut at 185 pounds. A -300 favorite on some sportsbooks going into the fight, “Borz” managed to eke out a majority decision.

While the fight was widely believed to be a middleweight title eliminator, Chimaev was allegedly not even discussed as a potential opponent while booking Sean Strickland’s upcoming defense against Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 297 on Jan. 20.

However, “Borz” landed directly at No. 8 on the middleweight ladder as per the newly updated UFC rankings.

No. 10 ranked middleweight Brendan Allen slammed the UFC ranking system for giving Chimaev a spot in the Top 10 of the division, despite him having not fought a true middleweight, let a…

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Bellator MMA bantamweight champion Sergio Pettis is finally coming into his own as a mixed martial arts star and out of the shadow of his elder brother Anthony Pettis.

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Despite making his professional debut back in 2011, Sergio for the longest time felt he was known solely as the younger brother of former World Extreme Cagefighting and Ultimate Fighting Championship king Anthony. It was back-to-back losses against Rob Font and Jussier Formiga in his UFC days that changed things for “The Phenom.”

After exiting the UFC with a win over Tyson Nam, Pettis went on to rack up five consecutive wins under the Bellator banner, which includes three title fights. Pettis returned to action in June after an 18-month layoff due to an ACL surgery and successfully defended his throne against featherweight champ Patricio “Pitbull” Freire.

Pettis is now scheduled to defend his throne at Bellator 301 on Nov. 17 against Patrick Mix (18-1), who …

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Feared knockout artist Patricky “Pitbull” Freire is extremely confident going into his clash against striking ace Alexandr Shabliy.

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Freire (25-11) and Shabliy (23-3) will meet in the semi-final of Bellator MMA’s lightweight grand prix, which will open the action at Bellator 301. The event will go down at Wintrust Arena in Chicago on Nov. 17.

One of the biggest fan favorites in the world of mixed martial arts, Pitbull is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt who has scored 17 of his 25 career wins via knockout or technical knockout.

Training out of Pitbull Brothers gym in Brazil alongside younger brother Patricio Freire, Patricky is confident of pulling off a first-round stoppage against Shabliy.

“Of course, I am ready. I have the best team in the world full of world champions,” said Patricky at the Bellator 301 pre-fight press conference. “I trained with this team for more than 10 years and I believe in my wrestling, my strikin…

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Welterweight contender Jason Jackson will draw from lessons learned by his teammate Logan Storley’s losses against Yaroslav Amosov when he challenges the reigning champ in the Bellator 301 headliner at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago on Nov. 17.

Storley has faced Amosov (27-0) twice so far, dropping a closely-contested split decision loss in 2020 before suffering a lopsided unanimous decision this past February. Nevertheless, Storley’s Kill Cliff FC teammate Jackson (16-4) is registering every bit of information from those losses as he goes into his title bid against the undefeated Ukrainian.

“Logan told me everything. He left nothing out. I have been studying Amosov for years because I have always wanted to fight him since he is the best in the division,” Jackson said at the Bellator 301 pre-fight press conference. “If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best.”

Currently riding a six-fight win streak with wins over the likes o…

A middleweight showdown pitting Gregory Rodrigues against Brad Tavares has been booked for UFC Fight Night on Feb. 10.

Rodrigues announced the pairing on social media. The UFC Fight Night event doesn’t currently have an official location or headliner.

The 31-year-old Rodrigues has won three of his last four Octagon appearances. Most recently, “Robocop” knocked out Denis Tiuliulin with elbows in the opening stanza of their encounter at UFC 292. The Kill Cliff FC representative is 5-2 during his tenure with the Las Vegas-based promotion, with all but one of those victories coming by knockout or technical knockout.

Tavares, meanwhile, is a 23-time Octagon veteran who made his first UFC appearance in 2010. Most recently, the 35-year-old Hawaiian snapped a two-fight skid with a unanimous decision triumph over former middleweight champ Chris Weidman at UFC 292.

It appears that UFC Fight Night 233 will be headed to the promotion’s home base.

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The card, which was originally supposed to be held in Shanghai, China, on Dec. 9, is changing locations to the UFC Apex in Las Vegas for reasons that are currently unknown. Multiple outlets confirmed the news following an initial announcement from MMA manager Shu Hirata on social media.

According to a report from MMAjunkie.com, the four Road to UFC bouts scheduled for UFC Fight NIght 233 will no longer take place on the card. Additionally, a light heavyweight bout pitting Brendon Ribeiro against Mingyang Zhang has been scrapped due to travel issues related to the change in location.

UFC Shanghai was slated to be the first event in China since 2019, when Weili Zhang defeated Jessica Andrade to capture the strawweight crown in the UFC Fight Night 157 main event.

Barring any further changes, UFC Fight Night 233 is expected to be headlined by a bantamweight cl…

In a somewhat controversial move, Francis Ngannou has been ranked by the World Boxing Council at heavyweight.

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As reported by Reuters, Ngannou has entered the WBC poll at No. 10 following a split-decision defeat to Tyson Fury on Oct. 28 in Saudia Arabia. The former UFC heavyweight champion scored a knockdown of Fury and was competitive throughout the fight, which allowed him to receive a 95-94 scorecard from one ringside judge. Fury, meanwhile, received tallies of 96-93 and 95-94 to get the split-decision nod.

While many observers believed Ngannou deserved to win the fight, it is rare for the WBC to rank an athlete with no professional wins on his record. “The Predator” was making his pro boxing debut after parting ways with the UFC earlier this year. Fury, meanwhile, will move on to an undisputed heavyweight championship fight against Oleksandr Usyk, which has been targeted for Feb. 17.

Ngannou is also signed to Professional Fighters League,…

Newly-crowned interim heavyweight champ Tom Aspinall caught Jamahal Hill’s attention with a first-round knockout win over Sergei Pavlovich in the co-main event at UFC 295.

Aspinall stepped up on less than three weeks’ notice, battled through crippling back pain and showed up to knock out the surging Russian, who was on a six-fight, first-round finishing streak. The Brit’s performance has Hill considering a move up to heavyweight in the future to test himself against the latest sensation.

“I think Tom is a stud, I think Tom is like the new prototype of what heavyweights are,” Hill told TNT Sports. “I definitely wanna do my thing at 205 and then go up and eventually see him too. So, Tom, get ready for me baby, someday. I think he has great movement. I think his coaches focus on a lot of good things, the right things to give him an edge in this game. A lot of them have the same philosophy as my coaches have and employ with me and things like that. I think he’s defi…

Contrary to popular belief, Khamzat Chimaev was reportedly not even considered as a potential opponent for Sean Strickland’s first title defense at UFC 297.

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After years of troublesome weight cuts and dominant finishes at welterweight, Chimaev (13-0) made a move to middleweight last month opposite Kamaru Usman, who also made his short notice debut at 185 pounds. “Borz” picked up a majority decision win over Usman in the co-main event at UFC 294. While the fight was believed to be a title eliminator, Chimaev’s victory wasn’t especially decisive.

Strickland (28-5) is now scheduled to defend his throne against South African standout Dricus Du Plessis (20-2) in the UFC 297 main event on Jan. 20 in Toronto. According to Strickland’s manager, Iridium Sports Agency’s Lance Spaude, Chimaev’s name didn’t come up during UFC 297 conversations.

“Never even brought up in the discussion,” Spaude said on the MMA Mania "Sound & Pound” podcast. “I don’t r…

Chase Hooper doesn’t want to rush his climb to the upper echelon of the Ultimate Fighting Championship's lightweight roster.

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Hooper (12-3) made his promotional debut in 2019 as an undefeated 10-0-1 prospect and went on to score a first-round stoppage win over Daniel Teymur. While “The Dream” continues to show flashes of brilliance, his career has since gone back and forth as he's encountered steeper competition.

Currently 4-3 in the UFC and coming off a decision win over Nick Fiore in May, Hooper is set to take on Jordan Leavitt (11-2) at UFC Fight Night 232 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday. Reflecting on his career so far, the 24-year-old from Enumclaw, Washington, recently detailed his career strategy to stay in the game for the long run.

“The Dream” believes a slow and steady approach is the way to ensure a lengthy successful career.

“My second fight in the UFC was against a 20-fight vet in [Alex] Caceres, and I felt like he …

Themba Gorimbo will return to action against Kiefer Crosbie on Feb. 3 at a yet-to-be-announced Ultimate Fighting Championship event.

Gorimbo confirmed the booking on social media following an initial report from MMA Mania. The card does have an official location or headliner.

Gorimbo (11-4) made headlines earlier this year due to his inspirational story, which came to light following his first promotional triumph against Takashi Sato at UFC Fight Night 223 on May 20. The South Africa native debuted in the Octagon with a loss to A.J. Fletcher at UFC Fight Night 219 after competing primarily on the African regional scene.

An SBG Ireland product, Crosbie will look to bounce back from a first-round submission loss against Kevin Jousset in his promtional debut at UFC 293. His 10-4 career mark notably includes a 3-3 stint in Bellator MMA.