Martial Arts News

[embedded content]

Benoit St. Denis is eyeing a who’s who of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s lightweight division after a spectacular knockout win over Matt Frevola.

Advertisement

Saint-Denis (13-1) took on Frevola (11-4) on the UFC 295 main card at Madison Square Garden in New York on Saturday. “God of War” floored the New York native 1:31 in the opening frame into with a shin-to-chin left head kick before following up with some ground-and-pound that was hardly necessary before referee Mike Beltran stepped in.

St. Denis claims he was on the lookout for striking opportunities while on the break from scrambles.

“I knew he was not going to exchange too much in the scrambles with me,” the Frenchman said in his post-fight Octagon interview. “… I knew that he doesn’t win the scrambles, there’s going to be opportunities after the scramble.”

St. Denis also put elite lightweight contenders on notice, which included cageside guests Dustin Poirier and Just…

[embedded content]

John Castaneda showed nothing but respect for Adrian Yanez while calling him out in his UFC 295 post-fight interview.

Advertisement

“Sexi Mexi” defeated South Korean veteran Kyung Ho Kang (19-10) via unanimous decision in a 138-pound catchweight bout on the UFC 295 preliminary card at Madison Square Garden in New York on Saturday night. Castaneda, 31, was almost too polite to call anyone out after his victory but ultimately issued a respectful challenge to Yanez (16-5). The Minnesota native believes a potential booking against Yanez is an intriguing stylistic matchup.

“I’m not gonna call people out but if I were to call somebody out, I really really would love a fight with Adrian Yanez,” Castaneda said during a post-fight media session. “Not because it’s like a disrespect thing, but stylistically I think we can put on a banger. Absolutely… A little hopeful callout.”

Castaneda improved his Ultimate Fighting Championship record to 4-2 with …

Julianna Pena claims the winner of the upcoming title fight between Raquel Pennington and Mayra Bueno Silva will only be “belt warming” until she returns to action.

Advertisement

Pennington (15-8) and Silva (10-2) will clash in the co-main event at UFC 297 on Jan. 20 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto with the vacant women’s bantamweight title on the line. For many, the booking came as a slight surprise due to the absence of Pena (11-5), who has been the only other woman besides Amanda Nunes to sit on the 135-pound throne in recent years.

Pena famously submitted Nunes at UFC 269 in 2021 in one of the greatest upsets in the history of the sport before losing the strap via a lopsided decision in a rematch the following year. “The Venezuelan Vixen” was then scheduled to face Nunes in a trilogy clash at UFC 289 this past June but had to pull out due to an undisclosed injury. “The Lioness” recorded yet another dominant decision win over short-notice replacement Irene…

Khabib Nurmagomedov claims he has never fought with money as his primary motivation.

Advertisement

Nurmagomedov, 35, hung up his gloves at his peak in 2020, retiring as a champ with a perfect 29-0 record. The former Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight king recently hinted that he has received multiple million-dollar payday offers to bring him out of retirement.

While Nurmagomedov admits it isn’t easy to turn down that kind of big money, “The Eagle” refuses to budge from his decision, one he claims he will never regret.

“When you’re the best fighter in the world, when you’re strong enough, when you have money, when you’re famous, it’s very hard to say no to all these things,” he told Daniel Cormier on UFC Fight Pass’ "Ultimate 30” countdown (transcription via MMAFighting.com). “It’s very hard. It’s not easy. It’s not easy [to] just say no to $20, $30, $40 million dollars. But for myself, it’s not everything. This is not most important. It was not an e…

UFC 295 was one of the most memorable events of the year, and its top performers were compensated accordingly.

The Las Vegas-based promotion handed out seven $50,000 bonuses following Saturday’s card at Madison Square Garden in New York. Of those, five main-card fighters received “Performance of the Night” honors: Alex Pereira, Tom Aspinall, Jessica Andrade, Benoit St. Denis and Diego Lopes.

Pereira became the ninth two-division champion in promotion history by virtue of his second-round knockout of Jiri Prochazka in the evening’s light heavyweight headliner, while Aspinall captured interim heavyweight gold with a 69-second shellacking of Sergei Pavlovich in the co-main event.

Earlier, Andrade set a UFC women’s record with four knockdowns in a second-round stoppage of Mackenzie Dern in a featured strawweight affair; St. Denis secured his fifth straight finish with a head-kick KO of Matt Frevola and Lopes knocked out Pat Sabatini 90 seconds into their main-card op…

Alex Pereira made certain history will remember him.

The surgical Brazilian kickboxer struck gold in a second Ultimate Fighting Championship weight class when he vanquished Jiri Prochazka with a volley of second-round elbows and walked away with the vacant light heavyweight title in the UFC 295 headliner on Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York. Prochazka (29-4-1, 3-1 UFC) checked out 4:08 into Round 2.

Advertisement

Now the first man to have won UFC championships at 185 and 205 pounds, Pereira weaved in and out of danger. Prochazka secured a takedown and enjoyed some significant control time in the second half of the first round, having chosen to move the action to the floor after the Brazilian tore into his lead leg with a series of punishing kicks. Pereira (9-2, 6-1 UFC) stayed calm under duress, eventually returned to an upright position and extended the fight. Prochazka appeared to have him reeling with a few overhand rights in Round 2, but his aggre…

Sherdog's live UFC 295 coverage will begin Saturday at 6 p.m. ET. BETTING PREVIEW | SCOUTING REPORT | ODDS: Emmers (-258), Buzukja (+210)Round 1 There’s not much like a live sporting event at Madison Square Garden. The UFC makes its annual pilgrimage to the world-famous arena with a show that took several huge hits but came back with a vengeance. The main card alone promises plenty of action, but before then, eight prelims play out on the various ESPN and streaming networks out there. The fights commence with a match scheduled at featherweight only to get a slight tweak on weigh-in day. Coming in one pound heavy, Emmers (19-7, 2-3 UFC) will hope that surrendering a percentage of purse is the only thing he loses today against New York’s own Buzukja (11-3, 0-1 UFC). Buzukja offers his hand outstretched, and the heavy fighter choose not to accept it under the nonsense-free gaze of referee Keith Peterson. It’s on with the show. Buzukja sticks out a few jabs early, and Emmers is …

John Brannigan/Sherdog.com illustration

Steve Erceg passed his first serious test in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Advertisement

The 28-year-old Australian operated behind efficient standup and a tactical clinch game, as he was awarded a unanimous verdict over Alessandro Costa in their featured UFC 295 flyweight prelim on Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York. All three cageside judges scored it the same: 29-28 for Erceg (11-1, 2-0 UFC), who has now strung together 10 straight victories.

Costa (13-4, 1-2 UFC) made his presence known in the middle stanza, where he mucked up the proceedings, turned it into a brawl and rocked the onetime Eternal MMA champion with a series of sweeping right hooks. Erceg withstood those efforts, lured him into the clinch in the third round, chewed up valuable time and piled up points while staying out of danger in tight spaces.

Meanwhile, former Legacy Fighting Alliance champion Lupita Godinez became t…

The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s first pay-per-view card of 2024 has been graced with a matchup of elite light heavyweights.

Former champ Jan Blachowicz (29-10) will take on contender Aleksandar Rakic in a rematch (14-3) at UFC 297 on Jan. 20 in Toronto. The booking was announced by the promotion during the UFC 295 broadcast on Saturday night.

Blachowicz and Rakic previously shared the Octagon in the main event of UFC on ESPN 36 in May 2022. It was an evenly-matched affair before Rakic blew out his knee in the third round, bringing the bout to an anti-climactic end. The Austrian has since undergone ACL surgery and has been rallying for this booking to settle unfinished business.

Meanwhile, Blachowicz missed out on a bid for the vacant title against Magomedov Ankalaev at UFC 282 in December with a split draw. The Pole then welcomed former middleweight champ Alex Pereira to the 205-pound weight class at UFC 291 in July. “Poatan” eked out a razor-thin spl…

Bellator lightweight champion Usman Nurmagomedov has been suspended six months by the California State Athletic Commission after testing positive for a banned substance in relation to his Bellator 300 bout against Brent Primus.

As a result, Nurmagomedov’s victory over Primus has been overturned to a no contest and he has been fined $50,000 in addition to his six-month sanction. He was also pulled from Bellator’s lightweight grand prix. Multiple outlets confirmed the news following an initial report from Ariel Helwani. According to ESPN, Nurmagomedov will not be stripped of his 155-pound title.

Nurmagomedov’s positive test reportedly came from a prescription medication, which resulted in a reduced suspension. CSAC executive officer Andy Foster declined to reveal the substance, while confirming that Nurmagomedov will enroll in Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency program as a condition of his settlement.

Nurmagomedov defeat Primus via unanimous decision at Bellator…

The Battle for Radom has been decided!

🇵🇱 @kaczmarczykmma jumps into the crowd to celebrate! XTB #KSW88 pic.twitter.com/tBzPrp0VqR

— KSW (@KSW_MMA) November 11, 2023

Advertisement

What promised to be a showdown between two of Poland’s favorite sons, No. 6 featherweight Patryk Kaczmarczyk upset No. 2 Daniel Rutkowski by narrow unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28) in the KSW 88 main event at the RCS Hall in Radom, Poland.

In a card that produced eight finishes, five in the first round, Kaczmarczyk (11-2) nearly produced the fastest finish of the night after dropping Rutkowski (16-4) in the first 10 seconds with a flush switch knee. Rutkowski played off his back for the rest of the round and recovered nicely.

Kaczmarczyk’s striking prowess continued into Round 2 as the 25-year-old once again floored Rutkowski with a rear roundhouse kick off the temple. Kaczmarczyk followed Rutkowski to the ground, squandering his opportunity…

[embedded content]

Welterweight contender Belal Muhammad is rooting for Leon Edwards to defeat Colby Covington in their UFC 296 title fight.  

Advertisement

Edwards (21-3) and Covington (17-3) are slated to compete for the welterweight title on Dec.16 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. While many fans were critical of the American receiving the title shot, UFC CEO Dana White was adamant that the former interim champion was worthy of a title shot despite his inactivity in the division.  

Muhammad, who is currently on a 10-fight unbeaten streak, was hoping to secure a title shot against Edwards before Covington. However, the promotion had other plans.  

Muhammad and Edwards faced each other in the Octagon back in 2021. The bout was ruled a no-contest after Edwards accidentally poked Muhammad's eye 18 seconds into the second frame, rendering "Remember The Name" unfit to continue.   

Considering his history w…