Martial Arts News

A light heavyweight clash has been added to a UFC Fight Night event in March.

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Light heavyweight veteran Ovince St. Preux will make his 27th walk to the Octagon against an up-and-coming Kennedy Nzechukwu (on March 16 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The booking was first reported by MMAjunkie.com and subsequently confirmed by Nzechukwu on Instagram.

St. Preux, who has been with the promotion for over a decade now, has lessened his activity in recent times, only fighting once every year since 2021. “OSP” has gone 1-3 in his last four and is coming off a Round 1 knockout loss against Philipe Lins at UFC Fight Night 219 in February 2023.

Meanwhile, Nzechukwu will look to bounce back from a first-round technical knockout loss against Dustin Jacoby in August 2023. The 31-year-old also saw a three-fight win streak snapped by his loss to Jacoby.

The UFC Fight Night event on March 16 will be headlined by a heavyweight clash between Tai Tuivasa a…

UFC 300 has another marquee matchup, as Justin Gaethje will defend his “BMF” title against Max Holloway in a five-round lightweight bout.

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UFC CEO Dana White announced the pairing via social media on Tuesday. Additionally, Jim Miller will square off against Bobby Green in another 155-pound affair. UFC 300 takes place on April 13 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and will also include a strawweight championship showdown between Weili Zhang and Xioanan Yan.

A former World Series of Fighting champion, Gaethje has been victorious in three of his last four Octagon appearances. Most recently, he defeated Dustin Poirier via second-round knockout at UFC 291 to claim the “BMF” belt this past July. “The Highlight” has twice challenged for the UFC lightweight crown and was considered among the leaders to face reigning champ Islam Makhachev next before the fight against Holloway was revealed.

Holloway previously competed at 155 pounds at UFC 236, where…

Mackenzie Dern will step in for Tatiana Suarez and square off against Amanda Lemos at UFC 298.

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The Orange County Register was first to report the new strawweight booking. Suarez was forced to withdraw from the event due to an “unspecified injury,” according to the report. UFC 298 takes place on Feb. 17 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California and is headlined by a featherweight championship clash pitting Alexander Volkanovski against Ilia Topuria.

Dern, 30, split a pair of appearances in 2023. After taking a unanimous verdict over Angela Hill in the UFC Fight Night 223 headliner on May 20, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt suffered a second-round TKO defeat against Jessica Andrade in her last outing at UFC 295. Dern is 8-4 during her promotional tenure, with other notable wins over the likes of Tecia Torres, Nina Nunes and Virna Jandiroba.

Lemos, meanwhile, came up short in a championship bid at UFC 292 this past August, when she lost a u…

The first Professional Fighters League vs. Bellator MMA card is official for Feb. 24 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

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The event will feature four champion vs. champion bouts: PFL 2023 heavyweight king Renan Ferreira vs. Bellator champ Ryan Bader at heavyweight; 2023 PFL light heavyweight champ Impa Kasanganay vs. Bellator middleweight champion Johnny Eblen at 185 pounds; 2023 PFL featherweight champion Jesus Pinedo vs. Bellator featherweight title holder Patricio Freire and 2023 PFL welterweight champion Magomed Magomedkerimov vs. Bellator welterweight champion Jason Jackson.

A handful of other matchups were also confirmed for the event: Bruno Cappelozza vs. Vadim Nemkov at light heavyweight; Clay Collard vs. A.J. McKee at lightweight; Thiago Santos vs. Yoel Romero at light heavyweight and Gabriel Braga vs. Aaron Pico at featherweight. Boxing champion Claressa Shields is also expected to fight on the card against Kelsey DeSantis, while Biaggio Ali Walsh …

ONE Championship continues to stack the lineup for its Qatar debut with title fights.

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The Singapore-based promotion announced Tuesday that reigning atomweight (115-pound) queen Stamp Fairtex will defend her belt against Denice Zamboanga at ONE Championship 166 on March 1 at Lusail Sports Arena in Lusail, Qatar. Additionally, Tye Ruotolo will defend his welterweight (185-pound) submission grappling title against former IBJJF world champion Izaak Mitchell in another featured bout on the card.

ONE Championship 166 already featured three title rematches, all in MMA. In the main event, Anatoliy Malykhin will attempt to become a three-division champion when he challenges Reinier de Ridder for the middleweight (205-pound) strap. Additionally, Jarred Brooks will face Joshua Pacio for strawweight (125-pound) gold, while reigning featherweight (155-pound) champion Kai Tang takes on interim title holder Thanh Le.

ONE also announced that it will hold a …

Sean Strickland has warned Dricus Du Plessis of dire consequences if he crosses the line with his trash talk.

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Strickland is slated to defend his middleweight strap for the first time against Du Plessis at UFC 297 on Jan. 20 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

The two have developed serious bad blood since Du Plessis brought up Strickland’s abusive childhood during a seasonal press conference last month in response to the champ alleging a sexual relationship between the South African and his coach. Strickland went on to attack Du Plessis while attending UFC 296 the very next day.

Strickland subsequently went on a podcast with comedian Theo Von, opening up about his childhood trauma in detail . Du Plessis has since stated that he doesn’t harbor any ill will towards Strickland, although he doesn’t regret anything he said.

While Strickland also seemingly doesn’t want things to escalate further, he has a message for his upcoming opponent.…

Jiri Prochazka wasn’t at his best leading up to his gold bid against Alex Pereira at UFC 295 in November.

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Prochazka had to vacate his light heavyweight title leading up to his first title defense in December 2022 due to a severe shoulder injury.

It was nearly a year later that “BJP” got another shot at the vacant title against Pereira at UFC 295. Interestingly, the Czech claims he couldn’t train properly for his comeback, as he was battling a staph infection that started from his leg and went up to his ear.

“From the last weeks of preparation, I train just one week [because of] staph infection. After the fight, I fought with that for more than one month. I had antibiotics before the fight, so the last five weeks before the fight, [I couldn’t train properly]” the 31-year-old said on "The MMA Hour.”

However, Prochazka never considered pulling out of the fight as he believes there’s always a chance of victory.

“No. When I saw Jon J…

Dricus Du Plessis doesn’t believe he crossed the line by bringing up Sean Strickland’s traumatic childhood during their verbal back and forth.

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“Stillknocks” is scheduled to challenge Strickland for the middleweight title at UFC 297 on Jan. 20 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. The bad blood between the two started with a seasonal press conference last month where Du Plessis brought up Strickland’s abusive childhood. Du Plessis vowed to put on a worse beating on Strickland than his own father after the champ joked about a sexual relationship between the South African and his coach.

Strickland subsequently admitted that he was triggered by the comments, leading to him attacking Du Plessis while attending UFC 296 the next day. However, Du Plessis doesn’t regret anything he said to Strickland.

“I don’t regret anything. I said what I said. Listen, if you’re dishing it out, you’re going to get it. I’m not going to keep on hammering on it, but I…

PFL is saddened to learn about the passing of Diego Braga. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his friends and family during this tragic time. May he Rest In Peace. pic.twitter.com/kZ1rSskv9z

— PFL (@PFLMMA) January 16, 2024

Diego Braga, a veteran of 32 professional MMA bouts, is dead at the age of 44.

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Braga’s passing was confirmed by the Professional Fighters League in a social media post on Monday. Braga was the father of 2023 PFL featherweight finalist Gabriel Braga.

“PFL is saddened to learn about the passing of Diego Braga,” read a statement from the organization. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to his friends and family during this tragic time. May he rest in peace.”

According to a report from MMAFighting.com, Braga was allegedly killed in Rio de Janeiro by members of the criminal organization Comando Vermelho when he was mistaken for a member of a rival militia. Braga was had reportedly been looking for hi…

The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s debut in Saudi Arabia will likely come a little bit later than originally anticipated.

UFC Fight Night 238, which was originally scheduled for Boulevard Hall in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on March 2, is expected to be postponed with a new targeted date of June. The news was initially reported by Ariel Helwani on ”The MMA Hour,” who revealed that the postponement occurred because there was a lack of satisfaction from the “powers that be” in Saudi Arabia with the quality of the card.

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It’s currently unclear if the rescheduled event will remain a Fight Night or if it will become a pay-per-view card. As of Monday, UFC Fight Night 238 included fights such as Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs. Shamil Gaziev and Alex Perez vs. Muhammad Mokaev, but a headliner had not been announced. It’s not known if the bouts currently confirmed for the card will remain part of the new UFC Saudi Arabia event.

Saudi Arabia has become a significant …

While Magomed Ankalaev staked his claim to a light heavyweight title shot with a knockout victory on Saturday night, reigning champ Alex Pereira appears to have other plans.

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In a post on his Instagram account, “Poatan” targeted Jamahal Hill for his first title defense. Hill claimed the belt with a victory against Pereira mentor Glover Teixeira in January 2023 but had to vacate the title after suffering a ruptured Achilles tendon in a pickup basketball game this past summer. It is unclear when Hill might be cleared to compete again.

“People, let’s focus on what matters, which is Jamahal,” Pereira wrote in Portuguese, “and then I’ll focus on breaking another record and doing two title defenses in the least amount of time.”

Pereira appears to be alluding to the record for shortest time between title defense, which is held by Ronda Rousey. The Olympic judoka submitted Miesha Tate at UFC 168 and returned 56 days later for a stoppage win over Sara M…

Johnny Walker appears to be in good spirits following his knockout loss to Magomed Ankalaev in the UFC Fight Night 234 main event.

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After their first meeting at UFC 294 ended in a no contest, Ankalaev left no doubt in the rematch, rendering Walker unconscious with a right hook and follow-up right uppercut 2:42 into Round 2 of their light heavyweight bout at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday night.

Walker recently took to social media to release a statement on the defeat, offering support for his opponent’s title hopes in the process.

“I’m good, just a little scratch on my nose. I’m going to watch my fight and see what mistakes I did later on. … It is what it is,” Walker said. “We fight the best in the world. I’m one of the best in the world and I’m going to face the best in the world. It could be me, could be him. So he had a better night than me, and congratulations to him, Magomed Ankalaev. Hope he gets the belt now and I’m going to kee…