Martial Arts News

Welterweight veterans Michael Chiesa and Court McGree will square off when the Ultimate Fighting Championship heads to Atlanta.

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The Las Vegas-based promotion on Tuesday confirmed that bout as well as the following additions to the June 14 card: Mansur Abdul-Malik vs. Cody Brundage at middleweight; Tereza Bleda vs. Jamey-Lyn Horth at flyweight; Edmen Shahbazyan vs. Andre Petroski at middleweight; Cody Durden vs. Jose Ochoa at flyweight and Alonzo Menifield vs. Oumar Sy at light heavyweight.

UFC Atlanta — also known as UFC on ESPN 69 — takes place at the State Farm Arena and is headlined by a welteweight showdown pitting Joaquin Buckley against Kamaru Usman.

The winner of “The Ultimate Fighter 15,” Chiesa is coming off a 2-0 campaign in 2024. After scoring a first-round submission of Tony Ferguson at UFC on ABC 7 in August, “Maverick” tapped Max Griffin in the third stanza at UFC 310 this past December. Prior to that, the 37-year-old Spokane, …

UFC Des Moines is down a fight following injuries to light heavyweights Junior Tafa and George Tokkos.

The promotion announced the news on Tuesday but did not disclose the nature of the ailments suffered by either athlete. UFC Des Moines — also known as UFC on ESPN 67 — will proceed with 12 bouts. The card takes place at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday and is headlined by a bantamweight scrap pitting Cory Sandhagen against Deiveson Figueiredo.

Tafa, the younger brother of Justin Tafa, is 2-3 thus far during his promotional tenure. He is coming off a second-round technical knockout victory against Sean Sharaf at UFC Fight Night 244 this past October.

England’s Tukkos began his UFC career with back-to-back losses against Oumar Sy and Navajo Stirling. “Tuco” also went 0-2 during a brief Bellator stint from 2019 to 2020.

“𝙎𝙀𝙉𝘿 𝙈𝙀 𝙇𝙊𝘾𝘼𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉”📍“𝙄 𝙒𝙄𝙇𝙇 𝙏𝙀𝘼𝘾𝙃 𝙔𝙊𝙐 𝙃𝙊𝙒 𝙏𝙊 𝙎𝙈𝘼𝙎𝙃 𝙋𝙀𝙊𝙋𝙇𝙀”💥

Khabib Nurmagomedov checks in with Patrice @Evra ahead of the former French football captain’s PFL MMA Debut on Friday 23rd May 👀

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LIMITED TICKETS REMAIN! 🫵… pic.twitter.com/G4xHBOmnvt — PFL Europe (@PFLEurope) April 28, 2025

Patrice Evra has the option to enlist some high-profile coaching for his Professional Fighters League debut.

The retired French soccer star will make his MMA debut at the PFL Europe 2 event scheduled for May 23 in Paris. In a recent phone conversation captured by the promotion, former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov offers his services to Evra as he prepares for his new endeavor.

“I’m here in Dubai. I told you many times, send me location, and I'm going to find you," Nurmagomedov said. "Send location, tell me where are you? When I see you, you have to be ready and that's it. Other things I'm going to take care of. I'm g…

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The first full trailer for “The Smashing Machine,” featuring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as Mark Kerr, is now available for public consumption.

Produced by A24 and directed by Benny Safdie (of “Uncut Gems” fame), the biopic chronicles the mixed martial arts journey of Kerr, who rose to fame while competing in the UFC and Pride Fighting Championships before being derailed by opoid addiction. The film is based on the 2002 documentary of the same name.

“The Smashing Machine” is scheduled for an Oct. 3 release in theaters and stars Emily Blunt as Kerr’s ex-wife, Dawn Staples. Ex-Bellator MMA champion Ryan Bader will play Mark Coleman, who helped Kerr turn his career around, and boxing heavyweight title holder Oleksandr Usyk stars as former Kerr opponent Igor Vovchanchyn. Meanwhile, Bas Rutten will play himself in the film. Other fighters such as Satoshi Ishii, James Moontasri and Roberto Abreu also make cameos in the movie.

After suffering his first defeat in the bantamweight division in his last fight against Petr Yan, former flyweight champion Deiveson "Daico" Figueiredo sought reinforcements from Eastern Europe.

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“A fighter can never be in his comfort zone,” Figueiredo told Sherdog ahead of his headlining bout with Cory Sandhagen at UFC Des Moines on Saturday. “I hired two ‘Russians’ to help me in this camp here at Pitbull Brothers. In fact, these two fighters brought by [Eric] Albarracin here to Natal are even taller than [Sandhagen]. Both are good at both striking and wrestling. These training sessions demanded a lot from me. And leaving my comfort zone made me evolve daily.”

The two fighters to which Figueiredo is referring are the Kazakh brothers, Idris Idrissov and Chingis Idrissov. They are part of the Broadstreet Global Combat Elite Athletes fighter exchange program promoted by Albarracin at Pitbull Brothers in Natal.

Figueiredo came from Belem, Brazil, …

👀🏆Dustin Poirier says Paddy Pimblett can be a UFC champion:

“Paddy’s legit, man."🤝

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🎥 @arielhelwani ▫️ pic.twitter.com/WBgHSvQJ6q — Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight) April 28, 2025

Dustin Poirier’s opinion of Paddy Pimblett has changed recently.

Pimblett scored the biggest win of his career so far by finishing Michael Chandler at UFC 314 earlier this month. Ahead of the fight, Poirier predicted that former foe Chandler would beat “The Baddy” and suggested bettors to go heavy.

Poirier was admittedly surprised as Pimblett completely outclassed “Iron” en route to a third round technical knockout. “The Diamond” believes Pimblett can be a UFC champ one day if he continues on his current path.

“Of course [I was surprised]. I really thought Chandler was gonna beat [Pimblett],” Chandler told Ariel Helwani. “But I was wrong. Paddy’s legit, man… Yeah, if he believes it and works hard enough and keeps doing what he’…

👀Ian Garry fires back at Joaquin Buckley:

"He can’t generate enough talk about himself… so he tries all this piggyback off other things. It’s okay. Let him be him."

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🎥 @arielhelwani ▫️ pic.twitter.com/QoYFWSViRL — Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight) April 28, 2025

Ian Garry and Joaquin Buckley seem to be developing a little bit of a beef.

Buckley was unimpressed by Garry’s unanimous decision win over Carlos Prates at UFC Kansas City last weekend. Garry maintained distance and put on a one-sided technical masterclass before surviving a last-round flurry from “The Nightmare.” Buckley accused Garry of playing it safe and running away from Prates throughout the fight. Buckley believes Garry could have produced a “Performance of the Night” kind of bout but was too scared to do it.

Garry dismissed Buckley’s comments as mere clout chasing. The Irishman claims “New Mansa” cannot generate enough hype by himself and tries t…

Dustin Poirier wants to walkout with Lil Wayne for his retirement fight in New Orleans at #UFC318 👀

🎥 @arielhelwani #UFC #MMApic.twitter.com/v7Xeb6sHd4

— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) April 28, 2025

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Dustin Poirier walking out with Lil’ Wayne for his last fight would be quite the spectacle.

Poirier will step into the Octagon for the last time in a trilogy against Max Holloway at UFC 318 on July 19 at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. Poirier had welcomed Holloway to the UFC in his debut in 2019, and now “Blessed” will be his last opponent.

Poirier also has a special wish for his walkout music at UFC 318. While Poirier usually walks out to “The Boss” by James Brown, he used a mashup with Willie Spence's cover of Rihanna's “Diamonds” for his last fight against Islam Makhachev. Poirier is considering the same track for UFC 318 but would like Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr., — aka Lil’ Wayne — to do h…

For the first time since June 20, 2019, Carlos Prates tasted defeat in a mixed martial arts bout.

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“The Nightmare” had an 11-fight professional winning streak snapped in the UFC Kansas City headliner on Saturday night, as he fell to Ian Garry via unanimous decision at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri. While Prates put together a late push, it wasn’t enough to offset the work Garry had done for much of the first four rounds.

Prates, who was originally supposed to face Geoff Neal at UFC 314 before his opponent withdrew from the event, posted a statement regarding the bout on social meda.

"Guys, this is crazy. Six years without losing, I had forgotten how much it hurts, how it hurts the heart, the soul, more than any other part of the body, all day thinking 'what if I had caught the back,' 'what if I knocked him down,' what if I touched him more" … and so on,” Prates wrote on Instagram (translation via Google Translate).

“Time t…

Vinc Pichel is calling it a career.

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The 42-year-old lightweight announced his retirement from MMA on Monday in a post on social media. “From Hell” competed on Season 15 of “The Ultimate Fighter” and went 7-5 over the course of a UFC stint that began in 2012. Pichel exits the sport with a 14-5 career mark.

“There is so much to say. The short version: At 42 years old, I’m officially retiring from competing in MMA,” Pichel wrote in an announcement that spanned multiple posts on X.

“The long version: I’m sad, I’m excited, I’m happy, I’m afraid. I’m grateful to everyone who was with me or part of my MMA career and there are too many to list….As I walk away I’ll leave you with this: Do what feels right, don’t apologize for being you, be yourself, learn what you can from who you can, no regret’s and most importantly, HAVE FUN.”

There is so much to say.The short version: At 42 years old, I’m officially retiring from compet…

Pudzian tu wyglada jak @MarcinNajman kilka lat temu 😉 #KSW105 pic.twitter.com/5UVp9A9Jdt

— Siemiński Tomek 🏊🚴 (@SieminskiTomek) April 26, 2025

One of the most buzzworthy fights of the past weekend took place under the Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki banner, when Eddie Hall dispatched longtime promotional favorite Mariusz Pudzianowski via technical knockout in just 30 seconds.

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Hall isn’t looking to climb to the top of the sport following a successful mixed martial arts debut at KSW 105, however. Instead, the 37-year-old former World’s Strongest Man is realistic about his future prospects going forward. (The bout is classified as an exhibition, per the Sherdog database).

“Jon Jones. Just kidding. No Jon Jones,” Hall said in a post-fight scrum. “I’ve got to step back. I’ve got to evaluate. If the rematch with Mariusz is there, I’d like to do the rematch with Mariusz. Two-minute rounds, like we agreed on the first time. But I’v…

𝗢𝗙𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟: Your Updated PFL World Tournament 4 Fight Card 👊

• Linton Vassell is out• 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵𝘂𝗽: Oleg Popov vs. Karl Williams

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[ #PFLWorldTournament | Thursday , May 1st | 📺 10PM EST | ESPN 2 ] pic.twitter.com/eyZJAwsaNI — PFL (@PFLMMA) April 28, 2025

Professional Fighters League’s heavyweight bracket has undergone a shakeup on the week of its next event.

The promotion announced on Monday that Karl Williams will replace Linton Vassell and face Oleg Popov in a heavyweight tournament matchup. A reason for Vassell’s exit was not announced. PFL World Tournament 4 takes place on Thursday at Universal Studios in Orlando and features first-round pairings at heavyweight and light heavyweight. The main card airs on ESPN2 and ESPN+ at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, while prelims begin on ESPN+ at 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT.

Fighters only get one shot! Watch the PFL World Tournament LIVE Thursday, May 1 at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN2 …