Martial Arts News

Justin Gaethje has revealed that a showdown with Conor McGregor is his top choice for his next bout.

Gaethje, who won the Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight title by beating Ilia Topuria at UFC Freedom 250, prefers the McGregor matchup over getting revenge against Max Holloway and Charles Oliveira.

Justin Gaethje favors Conor McGregor over rematches with Max Holloway and Charles Oliveira In a recent interview, Gaethje explained why he has little interest in revisiting fights with Holloway and Oliveira, who previously finished him in title bouts. Holloway scored a buzzer-beater KO against Gaethje at UFC 300 to win the BMF title, while Oliveira submitted him in his second attempt at undisputed lightweight gold.

Nevertheless, with Topuria finishing both “Blessed” and “do Bronxs,” Gaethje isn’t interested in rematches. Rather, he’s eyeing a bout with former two-division champ McGregor.

“Damn, there’s really no one,” Gaethje said. “It would have been Oliveira…

Eddie Hearn is standing firm amid the ongoing Tyson Fury-Anthony Joshua saga.

Hearn has pushed back after Dana White recently addressed the ongoing discourse surrounding the heavyweight matchup. The head of Matchroom Boxing discussed the involvement of the Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO and Zuffa Boxing in putting together the fight and clarified Joshua’s stance on the same.

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Anthony Joshua's stance on Dana White and Zuffa Boxing complicates Tyson Fury fight talks Hearn was asked about the highly anticipated Fury-Joshua bout after the Katie Taylor vs. Flora Pili press conference in Dublin, Ireland, and reiterated that, as per Joshua’s contract, there’s no need for Zuffa to get involved.

“No, or else there will be no fight and we’ll just keep going,” Hearn said at a media scrum captured by Bloody Elbow. “You have to understand, right? AJ is one of my closest friends; AJ is a shareholder of Matchroom. So, I know the narrative run by Tyson Fury is,…

Salahdine Parnasse believes Dan Hooker is the “perfect” matchup for his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut.

Parnasse will make his Octagon debut against Hooker in the UFC Paris main event on Sept. 5. The former two-division KSW champion claims the UFC veteran is the ideal opponent to showcase his skills against.

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Salahdine Parnasse expects his aggressive style to mesh with Dan Hooker at UFC Paris Parnasse (23-2) enters the UFC with a ton of hype. While he sees his upcoming opponent as a “big challenge,” given Hooker’s 12-year run in the UFC, the French fighter likes the stylistic matchup, especially considering his Kiwi counterpart’s aggressive fighting style.

“Dan Hooker is very strong, very experienced,” Parnasse said at UFC Paris media day. “That's why he is at the top of the UFC and I think he is a big challenge and I love this challenge. I think he is a very explosive guy who likes to do a lot in his fights. And I think that with me, it's a…

Aline Pereira could join her brother, Alex Pereira, in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Pereira is reportedly set to face Smilla Sundell in a bantamweight matchup on the final episode of Dana White’s Contender Series Season 10 on Oct. 13 at Meta Apex in Las Vegas.

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Aline Pereira reportedly draws Smilla Sundell for DWCS Week 10 Aline, 35, is the younger sister of Alex, a former two-division UFC champion. In her last outing, she defeated Jade Masson-Wong at Most Valuable Promotions’ inaugural mixed martial arts event. Although Aline (3-2) has limited professional MMA experience, she has established herself in kickboxing (6-2) and Karate Combat (3-0).

Meanwhile, Sundell (2-0) has recorded both her pro MMA victories via technical knockout under the Tuff-N-Uff banner. The 21-year-old Swede was previously a standout in One Championship, where she won and defended the muay thai strawweight title.

The matchup, slated for Week 10 of DWCS 2026, wa…

Andre Lima has addressed Bilal Hasan’s callout, slamming the new Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight.

Hasan recently earned a UFC contract with a 45-second knockout win on Dana White’s Contender Series. He made an 18-day turnaround for his UFC debut in Shanghai, China, where he knocked out Nilson Rojas in the second round.

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Hasan then called out Lima, who picked up a third-round submission win over Namsrai Batbayar at UFC Shanghai, after beating Rojas.Andre Lima fires back at Bilal Hasan after their UFC Shanghai wins In his post-fight interview, Hasan said he wasn’t impressed with Lima’s performance while watching the fight in the locker room ahead of his bout. Responding to Hasan, Lima says the Indonesian-American only called him out once he had the microphone. Lima claims Hasan didn’t make eye contact with him whenever they crossed each other at the fighter hotel.

“Some clown called me out after his fight,” Lima wrote on X. “I responded, an…

Sean Sharaf questions the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s selective promotion of fighters.

Sharaf (4-2) is scheduled to fight Gable Steveson (4-0) at UFC 331 on Sept. 19 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Steveson recently did a collaboration on Instagram with UFC content creator Nina Marie Daniele, aka Nina Drama, drawing the ire of his upcoming foe.

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Sean Sharaf questions UFC treatment ahead of Gable Steveson fight Sharaf questioned the UFC over the influencer’s repeated collaborations with Steveson. Sharaf, an ex-Marine, wonders if he’s unworthy of promotion and slammed the organization for allegedly pushing Steveson, who has been accused of sexual assault.

“This is like the 4th collab they do with him, what’s up with that UFC guess Marines aren’t worthy of interviews just r**ists,” Sharaf wrote in the comments section of Nina Drama’s video.

Steveson and his teammate Dylan Martinez were arrested on charges of sexual assault in 2019. Howev…

The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s annual Madison Square Garden card is taking shape.

Nazim Sadykhov is set to square off against Jefferson Nascimento in a lightweight bout at UFC 334 on Nov. 14 at MSG in New York City. While the UFC has yet to officially announce the bout, Sadykhov took to Instagram to reveal the booking. They last competed on the same card earlier this year.

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Nazim Sadykhov says he will face Jefferson Nascimento at UFC 334 in New York Nascimento (13-1) was a highly touted undefeated prospect going into his UFC debut against fellow promotional debutant Tahir Abdullayev this past June at UFC Baku. However, he was booed in enemy territory for coasting throughout the first two rounds.

Abdullayev finally hurt Nascimento late in the third round and referee Jim Perdios called a highly questionable stop to the contest. While Nascimento made his UFC debut at welterweight, the former LFA lightweight champ will drop back down to 155 pound…

Chute Boxe is honoring Allan Nascimento.

Nascimento (22-7) died in his sleep in early August, reportedly due to a cardiac arrest. The Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight’s coach has now paid tribute to his late friend and pupil.

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Diego Lima renames his institute after longtime student and UFC flyweight Allan Nascimento Chute Boxe head coach Diego Lima recently revealed that the Diego Lima Institute has now been renamed the Allan Nascimento Institute in honor of “Puro Osso.”

“Allan has been my student since he was 14 years old,” Lima told MMA Fighting while tearing up. “So, we have been together for 20 years. It’s almost been a month. There hasn’t been a single day when I haven’t cried. Our institute today, the Diego Lima Institute, is not going to be called the Diego Lim Institute anymore. It’s going to be called the Allan Nascimento Institute. As long as I live, I will honor his name. As long as I live, I will say his name because he was my s…

Gregory Rodrigues has dismissed Anthony Hernandez’s cheating claims.

Rodrigues recently defeated Hernandez by decision in a five-round middleweight bout in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, which earned Fight of the Night honors. Hernandez later accused Rodrigues of grabbing his gloves during grappling exchanges in the UFC Sacramento headliner. Rodrigues, however, claims it was inadvertent and had no bearing on the outcome.

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Gregory Rodrigues says his glove grab against Anthony Hernandez was inadvertent and had no impact on the fight Rodrigues spoke to Sherdog about the cheating allegations that emerged in the aftermath of his last bout. While ‘Robocop’ admits that he mistakenly grabbed Hernandez’s glove in one instance in the heat of the moment, he says he immediately let it go when his opponent pointed it out.

“There was no cheating,” Rodrigues said. “It happened in the heat of the moment while we were against the fence and as soon as he pointe…

Michael Page grew tired of waiting around at welterweight.

The former Bellator star recently explained his reasoning for accepting fights at middleweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship ahead of his Octagon return against Nursulton Ruziboev at UFC Paris.

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Michael Page explains why UFC welterweight title-shot tactics pushed him toward middleweight Page is 4-1 in the UFC, with his lone defeat in the promotion coming against the last challenger for the 170-pound title, Ian Garry. However, odd bookings followed the loss to Garry, with the Englishman taking on middleweights Sharabutdin Magomedov and Jared Cannonier before dropping back down to welterweight to fight unranked compatriot Sam Patterson in a lackluster bout.

Page claims top-ranked welterweights would rather wait around for a title shot than fight him, prompting the move back up to 185 pounds.

“Everyone at welterweight is, I'm trying to be polite here,” Page said in a recent intervi…

Marlon Vera doesn’t want to live with regret, but admits his coaching change was a tough decision.

Vera (23-12-1) is scheduled to fight Charles Jourdain (18-8) on Sept. 19 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The former title challenger recently revealed that he is no longer working with his longtime striking coach Jason Parillo. He claims the split was amicable, but something had to change to halt his losing streak in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

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Marlon Vera explains why he left Jason Parillo before UFC 331 Vera says it was hard to part ways with Parillo as they didn’t have any problems with each other since initially linking up in 2018. “Chito” didn’t want to get to the end of his career and wonder whether it would've played out differently if he had made the change.

“I was trying to figure out what I need, what is not getting me to win these close decisions,” Vera told Ariel Helwani. “It was a pretty hard decision because we didn’t have a …

Dana White was quick to check on Bella Mir after she failed to secure an Ultimate Fighting Championship contract.

White shared details of his interaction with Mir during the latest Dana White’s Contender Series post-fight press conference, revealing that the heavily favored prospect was taking the defeat well and vowed to return stronger.

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Bella Mir told the UFC CEO she will “come back stronger” after losing to Alex Apodaca The UFC CEO revealed that he called Mir immediately after her loss to Alex Apodaca on Week 3 of DWCS Season 10.

“She was in a good place,” White said during the DWCS Week 4 post-fight press conference. “She's like, ‘Listen, I've lost before. I've lost jiu-jitsu matches. I've lost wrestling matches. You know, I've lost before; I know what it feels like to lose and I'm good. I'll be back and I'll come back stronger.’”

White was also asked whether Mir could return to DWCS later this season. He left the possibility open, say…