Martial Arts News

Professional Fighters League prospect Shanelle Dyer is following the wisdom of Fleetwood Mac: “Go your own way.”

Entering the 2024 PFL Europe semifinals, Shanelle Dyer (5-0) is aiming to establish herself as a new star, independent of fellow undefeated British talent Dakota Ditcheva. In 2023, Ditcheva ran through her flyweight bracket at PFL Europe, and Dyer plans to do the same. She faces Valentina Scatizzi (3-2) at the PFL Europe 3 Playoffs on Sept. 28 in her home country of the United Kingdom, and bettors have installed her as a massive favorite.

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Dyer, a muay thai practitioner who made the transition into MMA and turned pro in 2023, has already competed twice under the PFL banner. Her first appearance came in a non-tourney tilt against Luisa Fernanda Cifuentes, and her performance earned an invitation to the 2024 PFL Europe bracket. Speaking to the media before facing Scatizzi, Dyer was well aware of the comparison to Ditcheva. Paying respect to th…

The Ultimate Fighting Championship is putting together about as classic of a “striker vs. grappler” matchup as it gets.

Per MMA Fighting on Thursday, the promotion has set a welterweight collision of Michael Chiesa (17-7) vs. Max Griffin (20-10) for UFC 310. The two 170ers with drastically different styles will come to blows on Dec. 7 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Griffin has since confirmed the pairing on Instagram.

Chiesa bounced back from a career-long losing streak by tapping out Tony Ferguson in August. The victory snapped a skid that began in 2021, marking his first win since January of that year. In his rough patch, Chiesa succumbed to a brabo choke from Vicente Luque and fell short on the scorecards to Sean Brady. These back-to-back setbacks led to some time off for the Washington native. After about 20 months off, Chiesa returned, and Kevin Holland ended up tapping him with a brabo choke to set a record for the most losses via this submission in compan…

[embedded content] Unbeaten Polish standout Jakub Kaszuba is exactly where he wants to be right now.

Kaszuba (12-0), who won the 2023 lightweight season of Professional Fighters League Europe, is content in his training in Florida. Rather than moving to the global season of the tournament-based league, he returned to PFL Europe for the 2024 season, in hopes of snagging another $100,000 check. His campaign has gone well thus far, picking up a decision victory over Kane Mousah in March. The 29-year-old will stand across from the cage with Daniele Scatizzi in the semifinals in Glasgow, Scotland, on Sept. 28.

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Starting his career at 12-0, he knows that he is just now entering his prime as an athlete, so he focuses on his daily training. Using his circle of coaches that includes his wife, Kaszuba absorbs everything he is taught like a sponge. Speaking to Sherdog.com ahead of his semifinal pairing, Kaszuba discussed the patience in which he’s used in his car…

New UFC antitrust settlement explained in 90 seconds. pic.twitter.com/sXG0HIrozd

— Erik Magraken (@erikmagraken) September 26, 2024 The Ultimate Fighting Championship has offered more money to resolve one of two antitrust cases against it.

Former Bloody Elbow staff member John Nash first reported the news on Thursday of the new settlement plan, one that would increase the dollar amount offered by the UFC while concluding one of the two cases against it instead of both. This new offer, agreed to by both TKO Group Holdings—the new parent company of the UFC—and the parties involved, would be of the sum of $375 million. It is still subject to approval by Judge Richard Boulware, who has overseen the case thus far. If the Judge denies this settlement agreement, the parties will still have a chance to reach another before the trial currently scheduled for February 2025.

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A decade ago, the UFC’s former parent company of Zuffa w…

#UFCMacau is shaping up nicely 👀

Which fight are you most excited for?? pic.twitter.com/0qEawTiuEg

— UFC (@ufc) September 26, 2024 The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s trip back to the “Las Vegas of the East” is looking solid on paper.

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On Wednesday night, the organization released a swath of new matchups for UFC Macau, also known as UFC Fight Night 248. Earlier in the day, the promotion dropped the headliner of Petr Yan vs. Deiveson Figueiredo. To fill out much of the Nov. 23 slate, a whopping seven pairings were made official or announced for the first time.

The lineup of the Fight Night affair is currently not set, although two main card matchups of Volkan Oezdemir (20-7) vs. Carlos Ulberg (10-1) at light heavyweight and Xiaonan Yan (18-4, 1 NC) vs. Tabatha Ricci (11-2) at strawweight have been set in stone. In the latter bout, it will be Oezdemir attempting to string together a three-fight win streak, an achieve…

PFL unveils full card for Oct. 19’s ‘Battle Of

𝗢𝗙𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟: Your Battle Of The Giants Fight Card is set 🔐

The countdown to impact is 𝙊𝙉 ⏳💥#PFLSuperFights | #BraceForImpact | Oct 19th pic.twitter.com/npBUbpv6Bb

— PFL (@PFLMMA) September 26, 2024

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As anticipation continues to grow for Professional Fighters League’s “Battle of the Giants” pay-per-view event, fans now know the entire fight card for Oct. 19 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

PFL announced their full lineup Thursday morning, which features three title fights, including two massive welcomes to the organization, a Bellator MMA title fight rematch and two of the sport’s top young fighters locking horns.

In addition to the previously revealed bouts that top the marquee, the league announced all 10 fights that will take place on Oct. 19.

Joining Francis Ngannou vs. Renan Ferreira, Johnny Eblen vs. Fabian Edwards, Cris Cyborg vs. Larissa Pa…

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At this point in his career, Stephen Thompson isn’t a fighter who’s accustomed to being on the prelims.

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Barring a late change, that will be the case at UFC 307, when “Wonderboy” squares off against Joaquin Buckley in a welterweight bout at the Delta Center in Utah on Oct. 5. As it currently stands, Thompson vs. Buckley is slated to be the evening’s featured preliminary bout on ESPNEWS and ESPN+. For pay-per-view events, the promotion typically offers at least one marquee fight on the earlier portion of the card.

“I’m so used to being on the main card, but hey, wherever the UFC puts us, we’re going to go out there and put on a show no matter what. We’re going to show everybody that we deserved to be there,” Thompson recently told Bodog Canada. “We should have been on the main card. But yeah, a little weird at this point knowing what kind of a fight this is going to be. You would figure that they’d want to have all eyes on it.

UF…

Credit: Getty/UFC Credit: Getty/UFC Credit: Getty/UFC

Manel Kape will lock horns with Bruno Silva at UFC on ESPN 63.

Ag.Fight was first to report the flyweight pairing. UFC on ESPN 63 takes place on Dec. 14 at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, and also includes a strawweight rematch between Mackenzie Dern and Amanda Ribas. A headliner has not been confirmed for the card.

Kape last appeared at UFC 304, where he suffered a unanimous decison loss to Muhammad Mokaev on July 27. That snapped a four-bout promotional winning streak for the ex-Rizin Fighting Federation bantamweight king.

After going winless in his first three UFC bouts, Silva has emerged as a person of interest in the flyweight division thanks to a four-fight finishing streak. In his last outing, “Bulldog” scored a second-round TKO of Cody Durden at UFC on ESPN 60 on July 20.

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While Jamahal Hill believes Khalil Rountree possesses some traits that could give Alex Pereira problems, he ultimately expects the Brazilian to emerge victorious in the UFC 307 headliner.

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Pereira will defend his light heavyweight crown against Rountree on Oct. 5 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City Utah. Rountree will take a five-bout winning streak into his championship opportunity, but he has yet to fight beyond the third round during his promotional tenure.

“It’s gonna be a knockout, 100% it’s gonna be a knockout. Khalil doesn’t have a five-round gas tank and he’s gassed at paces that were much slower than the pace that he’s gonna have to fight with Alex,” Hill recently told Aljamain Sterling on the Weekly Scraps podcast.

“Alex is gonna come out slow. He’s gonna come out and take his time… Although he does look like he just wants to feel out, he’s a lot more forward-imposing than he looks.”

However, Hill says that Rountr…

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Ali Abdelaziz isn’t happy that Magomed Ankalaev was bypassed for a light heavyweight title shot at UFC 307.

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Ankalaev is 10-0-1 with one no contest in his last 12 Octagon appearances, but the Dagestani standout won’t be facing reigning champion Alex Pereira at UFC 307 on Oct. 5 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Instead, that opportunity went to Khalil Rountree, who has won five straight in UFC competition but also recently failed a drug test.

“Certain fighters have a long road to the title, like Khabib [Nurmagomedov], like Kamaru Usman, like Islam Makhachev. But when they get there, they become dominant,” Abdelaziz recently told ESPN. “Listen, the UFC has different views about what they want to do with Alex Pereira. They want him for Utah. Magomed Ankalaev will fight in Abu Dhabi, in his market he fights in. Magomed has a new deal he’s very happy with. He deserves a title shot.”

UFC 307: Pereira vs. Rountree Jr. Saturday at 10 ET on ESPN…

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According to John Wood, Khalil Rountree came pretty close to calling it quits before his career could really pick up momentum.

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“I think, it was you know, third or fourth fight, he was talking to me about wanting to retire and going to construction,” the Syndicate MMA coach recently said on Daniel Cormier’s YouTube channel. “He’s like, ‘Yeah, I think I got this good construction job. It’s gonna pay money.’ I said ‘Whoa, whoa, bro, no no no.’ I was like, ‘Just give me a year. Give me a year and I promise you do whatever I’ll support you after that. Just give me a hard year.’ And you know, through that process, ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ came.”

It was still a bumpy road for Rountree after appearing on Season 23 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” as he had inconsistent results for the first five years of his UFC tenure. That led to him considering retirement again in late 2019 before eventually having a change of heart and extending his contract…

Reinier de Ridder didn’t take long to get his first Ultimate Fighting Championship opponent.

The former ONE Championship two-division title holder will square off against Gerald Meerschaert in a middleweight bout at UFC Fight Night 247 on Nov. 9. UFC op Eurosport NL was first to report the booking. UFC Fight Night 247 takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and does not currently have a headliner in place.

De Ridder began his professional career with 17 consecutive triumphs, a run that included a 7-0 start to his ONE tenure. He bested Aung La N Sang on two different occasions to become a two-division champion but would lose both belts to Anatoly Malykhin in technical knockout defeats. “The Dutch Knight” fought outside the ONE banner for the first time since 2018 on July 27, when he defeated Magomedmurad Khasaev via first-round TKO at UAE Warriors 51.

A veteran of 54 professional outings, Meerschaert has finished 29 of his 37 career triumphs by way of sub…