Martial Arts News

Bo Nickal has received a last-minute opponent change ahead of his sophomore Octagon appearance at UFC 290.

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The highly-touted middleweight prospect will face Valentine Woodburn on Saturday after Tresean Gore, Nickal’s original opponent, announced on his Instagram stories that a torn ligament in his wrist forced him out of the middleweight bout. Eurosport was first to report the new booking.

“Unfortunately, I am out of my fight for this weekend and I’m extremely sad about it, but the truth is I’m not healthy and I may have to get surgery that will have me out six months to a year,” Gore wrote. “Torn scafoid ligament in one of my wrists. I feel extremely bummed but I will still be champion and I will still prove I’m better than this dude and I’m an elite fighter, but I have to get healthy before anything.

“As of now, I’m avoiding the surgery but I have rounds of stem cell treatment I have to do until I heal up.”

Woodburn was expected to co…

Some unfortunate circumstances forced Sean Brady to withdraw from a proposed bout against Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 290.

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The Philadelphia-based welterweight recently revealed on Instagram that septic bursitis was the cause of his exit from Saturday’s card.

“Hey guys, as most of you know, I recently had to withdraw from my fight next weekend. I noticed a small blister on my left elbow after training on Monday night and woke up with pretty bad swelling and pain. As most of you know, I had a pretty serious staph infection in 2021, which resulted in surgery and [four] weeks of IV antibiotics through a picc line,” Brady wrote. “My wife, being a nurse, took a look at my arm on Tuesday morning and told me it would be the best idea to go to the hospital (for what we thought would be 1 dose of iv antibiotics) and get discharged and go about the rest of my camp and head to Vegas.

“Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. My arm continued to swell and wasn…

Josiah Harrell sends his opponent out of the cage with a takedown. Can’t say I have seen this happen before in the octagon #LFA160 pic.twitter.com/K7z4xgumzt

— Pierce (@bigbird_ph) June 17, 2023

Undefeated Ohio-based welterweight Josiah Harrell has agreed to replace the injured Sean Brady and meet Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 290.

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UFC fighter Matt Brown first brought word of the new booking and it was subsequently confirmed by multiple outlets, including BJPenn.com. UFC 290 takes place on Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and is headlined by a featherweight championship clash pitting Alexander Volkanovski against Yair Rodriguez.

Harrell, 24, has compiled a 7-0 record since making his professional debut in March 2020. Most recently, Harrell went viral for driving opponent Michael Roberts through the cage door while completing a takedown at LFA 160 on June 16. “The Muscle Hamster” won that lightweight bout via…

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According to Glover Teixeira, former UFC middleweight champion Alex Pereira made the right decision to move to 205 pounds.

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“I was like, ‘I love it that you’re going to light heavyweight,’ because I don’t want to see him cutting that much weight,” Teixeira said at a post-fight press conference following his victory over Anthony Smith in a grappling match at the UFC Fight Pass 4 Invitational. “You don’t know how much that guy cut. He’s 230 pounds right now, and he’s lean, he’s probably like eight percent body fat. For him to drop to 185 is crazy … As you get older it gets harder and harder. Eventually it gets bad for your health.

Pereira, who trains at Teixeira MMA & Fitness, will make his light heavyweight debut against Jan Blachowicz at UFC 291 on July 29 in Salt Lake City. “Poatan” is coming off a second-round KO loss to Israel Adesanya in a rematch at UFC 281 this past April.

“I think it’s a great matchup for Alex,” Te…

In the aftermath of his dominant win over Damir Ismagulov in the UFC on ESPN 48 co-main event, Grant Dawson found it difficult to find fault with his performance.

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“I am my harshest critic, but you can’t be upset with a win against a guy like Damir,” Dawson said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “It wasn’t about the performance. If you can get over a guy like Damir, that’s something to be proud of. That guy is not ranked No. 12 in the world. He’s so much better than that. They just put him at 12 for some weird reason. I’m very, very happy with the 30-27, 30-27, 30-26. I’m happy with it.”

The American Top Team product attached himself to Ismagulov’s back in each frame, hunting for chokes and landing ground-and-pound when the opportunity presented itself. About the only thing he didn’t do was secure a finish. That’s easier said than done against an opponent like Ismagulov, who once compiled a streak of 19 consecutive victories.

“I was ex…

At the very least, Sean Strickland knows he’s a fresh face in in the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s middleweight title picture.

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Given a high-risk, low-reward matchup in the UFC on ESPN 48 main event, Strickland delivered in a big way, as he defeated Abusupiyan Magomedov via second-round technical knockout on Saturday night at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. With back-to-back triumphs over Magomedov and Nassourdine Imavov in 2023, the 32-year-old pleaded his case for a 185-pound title shot against Israel Adesanya.

“F—k, man. It needs to happen, you guys. “We know Izzy is on f—king repeat, dude,” Strickland said at the post-fight press conference. “They try to bring Abus [in]. This is what the UFC said, ‘Man, the middleweight division is stagnant. Let’s get Abus in here. He might beat Sean.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah right, mother f—ker. Wait until you see what happens. Every time they’ve tried to bring new blood, [like] the Frenchie [Imavov] I fought before…

Two incredible finishes 🔥

💰 @SStricklandMMA & Nursultan Ruziboev earn tonight's POTN! #UFCVegas76 pic.twitter.com/lE7XF3XOGa

— UFC (@ufc) July 2, 2023 The Ultimate Fighting Championship awarded four fighters performance bonuses following the UFC on ESPN 48 card.

Sean Strickland made the most of his UFC main event slot as he finished off Abusupiyan Magomedov in the second round with an overwhelming display of punches. As a result of his impressive TKO finish, Strickland took home an extra $50,000 after being awarded a Performance of the Night bonus. The TKO win officially came at 4:20 of Round 2.

The other Performance of the Night bonus went to Nursulton Ruziboev. The Uzbekistan native quickly knocked out Brunno Ferreira with a right hand after catching a kick. Finally, Fight of the Night went to Guram Kutateladze and Elves Brener. While Kutateladze had the advantage early, Brener would put away his opponent in Round 3. The…

After a slow start, Sean Strickland turned Abusupiyan Magomedov into his personal punching bag.

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Strickland weathered his opponent’s sprint — along with a fairly deep eye poke — in Round 1, then turned up the heat for a technical knockout victory in the UFC on ESPN 48 headliner at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday night. “Tarzan” brought the show to a close behind a flurry of punches on the canvas 4:20 into the second period.

Magomedov (25-5-1, 1-1 UFC), who was widely viewed as a questionable choice of opponent when the fight was announced, came out firing in the opening stanza — though an inadvertent eye poke from the Russian in the opening moments almost ended the contest before it began. Strickland (27-5, 14-5 UFC) was able to recover, and he spent most of the frame on his heels as Magomedov attacked with low kicks, front kicks to the body and looping hooks to the head. The 2018 PFL finalist ended the stanza with a takedown, but the grappli…

Rinat Fakhretdinov puts Kevin Lee to sleep inside the first minute of the fight 😳 #UFCVegas76 pic.twitter.com/pno0kuqSvP

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) July 1, 2023

Rinat Fakhretdinov made sure it wasn’t a happy homecoming for Kevin Lee.

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The American Top Team-trained Russian made short work of the former interim lightweight title challenger, winning via technical submission 55 seconds into their 170-pound bout at UFC on ESPN 48 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday. Fakhretdinov (21-1, 3-0 UFC) has won 20 straight professional outings dating back to June 30, 2013.

Related Content: UFC on ESPN 48 ‘Strickland vs. Magomedov’ Play-by-Play, Results & Round Scoring Lee (19-8, 11-8 UFC), who was making his first Octagon appearance since August 2021, never had a chance to make his mark. Fakhretdinov dropped “The Motown Phenom” with a perfectly-placed right hand on the chin early in the opening stanza. From there, Lee attempted…

What a way to close out a three-round war 😅

📺 Watch #CW156 LIVE on @UFCFightPass! pic.twitter.com/9Hfz5dKG8A

— Cage Warriors (@CageWarriors) July 1, 2023

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Darren Stewart has Cage Warriors gold in his crosshairs.

Stewart staked his claim to a middleweight title shot with a unanimous decision triumph over Matthew Bonner in the Cage Warriors 156main event in Cardiff, Wales, on Saturday. It was the promotion’s first event in Wales since 2019.

Stewart, a 14-time UFC veteran, relied heavily on his wrestling skills and was relentless with his double-leg takedowns to move the action to the canvas whenever he felt the necessity. Former Cage Warriors titleholder Bonner looked to punish his adversary with punches, but “The Dentist” was elusive throughout the clash. “The Beast” heavily landed in the third frame and looked to have Stewart in serious difficulty before his opponent shot for another successful takedown, disrupting…

Sherdog's live UFC on ESPN 48 coverage will begin Saturday at 4 p.m. ET. BETTING PREVIEW | SCOUTING REPORT | ODDS: Romanov (-135), Ivanov (+115)Round 1 The UFC continues its regular Saturday schedule with a fight card posted up at the Apex with a dozen fights in the middle of the day. The action begins with a fight among ranked competitors – there will be no “unranked heavyweight slobberknocker” tossed high on the prelims. Instead, two big men on the UFC’s outer edge of its top 15 throw down, when Romanov (16-2, 5-2 UFC) tries to get back on track against Ivanov (19-5, 1 NC; 3-4 UFC). The former is riding the first losing streak of his career, while the latter has had his hand raised just once in the last four years. This 523-pound rumble will be overseen by referee Kerry Hatley, and the hostilities commence with a sporting glove touch. Romanov moves to the center of the cage, while Ivanov circles along the outside. Neither fighter engages for the first minute, with a few o…

The Ultimate Fighting Championship has lost part of a big fight on its upcoming pay-per-view, but the line of interested replacements seems to be growing longer by the hour.

Per Jack Della Maddalena (14-2) on his Instagram on Friday, his opponent Sean Brady for UFC 290 has pulled out of their welterweight bout. Around the same time, Brady posted on his own Instagram Stories with the caption of “Day 4” with a photograph of him receiving IV treatment with an elastic bandage wrapped around his elbow. It is not clear at this time if the promotion will replace Brady for this fight card, but multiple names have already lobbied publicly for a slot on the billing or against the Aussie at a later date.

Maddalena has strung together 14 consecutive victories since losing a pair of fights at the very beginning of his career. Along the way up, 13 of those 14 wins have come inside the distance, including four inside the Octagon. The 2022 campaign for the welterweight went swim…