Martial Arts News

Sherdog's live UFC Fight Night 226 coverage will begin Saturday at 12:30 p.m. ET. BETTING PREVIEW | SCOUTING REPORT | ODDS: Cavalcanti (-375), Fairn dos Santos (+295)Round 1 Sherdog Scores Jay Pettry scores the round:Brian Knapp scores the round:Tyler Treese scores the round:Round 2 Sherdog Scores Jay Pettry scores the round:Brian Knapp scores the round:Tyler Treese scores the round:

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Round 3 Sherdog Scores Jay Pettry scores the round:Brian Knapp scores the round:Tyler Treese scores the round:The Official Result BETTING PREVIEW | SCOUTING REPORT | ODDS: Basharat (-325), Rodrigues (+260)Round 1 Sherdog Scores Jay Pettry scores the round:Brian Knapp scores the round:Tyler Treese scores the round: Round 2 Sherdog Scores Jay Pettry scores the round:Brian Knapp scores the round:Tyler Treese scores the round:Round 3 Sherdog Scores Jay Pettry scores the round:Brian Knapp scores the round:Tyler Treese scores the round:The Official Result BETTING PREVIEW | SCOU…

Taylor Lapilus was not going to let anyone ruin his fairytale return to the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

A crisp jab, clean combinations and stout takedown defense carried the respected French bantamweight to a unanimous decision over the previously undefeated Caolan Loughran in the featured UFC Fight Night 226 prelim on Saturday at a raucous Accor Arena in Paris. In his first Octagon appearance since 2016, Lapilus (19-3, 4-1 UFC) carried all three cards with 29-28 scores.

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Loughran (8-1, 0-1 UFC) had considerable difficulty navigating a five-inch reach deficit. The former Cage Warriors Fighting Championship titleholder secured takedowns in the first and second rounds, only to see avenues to create offense dry up in a hurry. Lapilus stayed upright enough to handle business, firing away with jabs and surgical left hands to cruise to the checkered flag.

Meanwhile, Kill Cliff Fight Club rep Ange Loosa banked two rounds and held on for a unanimous …

[embedded content] No matter where he competes, Demetrious Johnson always seems to excel.

On Thursday in Las Vegas, the 2023 World Jiu-Jitsu IBJJF Championship kicked off, and Johnson was among its numerous competitors. The former Ultimate Fighting Championship great and current One Championship titleholder entered into the featherweight category of 154.6 pounds at the Master 2 division for brown belts. Four brackets needed to be established for the 38 men that took part in this specific tourney, and over the course of the day, Johnson won out to stand atop the pedestal.

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Johnson, who entered as a low 36 seed, started off his branch of the tournament by running the table in the second bracket. His first match came against Lukas Cherep, and the AMC Pankration fighter pulled off the win. A mere 15 minutes later, “Mighty Mouse” faced the overall no. 1 seed, Josue Lopez, and he was not denied the victory. A subsequent armbar over Walter Diaz propelled him…

[embedded content] The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to Paris with an intriguing heavyweight headliner.

The UFC Fight Night 226 main event will see former interim heavyweight champion Ciryl Gane return to the Octagon against Sergey Spivak. Spivak will be the heavier fighter by six pounds, while no fighters missed weight for the 11-fight card.

Gane (11-2) is looking to rebound from a one-sided defeat against Jon Jones that saw "Bon Gamin" submitted in just 2:04. The dangerous striker weighed 250 pounds. Meanwhile, Spivak (16-3) is on a three-fight win streak that saw him most recently submit Derrick Lewis with an arm-triangle choke. The Moldovan fighter weighed 256 pounds.

UFC Fight Night 226 will air on ESPN+ on Saturday. Prelims will begin at 12:30 p.m. ET/9:30 a.m. PT, with the main card starting at 3 p.m. ET/12 p.m. PT.

UFC Fight Night 226 Weigh-in Results: Ciryl Gane (250) vs. Sergey Spivak (256)Manon Fiorot (125) vs. Rose Namajunas (125)Thiago …

When it comes to main events involving Jon Jones, the Ultimate Fighting Championship is leaving nothing to chance.

Prior to UFC 285 this past March, the promotion made certain it had a top contender available to make weight and compete should Jones or Ciryl Gane fall out of their main attraction. That fighter was Sergei Pavlovich, and he hit his proper marks and ended up watching from the stands the next day. First reported by Igor Lazorin, the organization is doing this for Jones’ next title tilt atop UFC 295, and Pavlovich (18-1) is once again the man on standby. This news has since been confirmed by multiple outlets.

Russia’s Pavlovich last competed in April, where he decimated Curtis Blaydes in just over three minutes to put himself in the top echelon of the heavyweight division. Pavlovich’s lone career defeat came in his UFC debut to Alistair Overeem back in 2018. Since then, Pavlovich has crushed the competition, stringing together six consecutive first-round …

Dropping a quick excerpt from Monday’s @MMAOnSiriusXM podcast to give everyone an update on my 🦵.

If you want the full story (and all the 🫖), hit that link below and check out the full episode on @SiriusXM!🎧 https://t.co/OuEwonYM3z pic.twitter.com/TsBqm3tEfK

— Chris Weidman (@chrisweidman) August 30, 2023

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Chris Weidman didn’t emerge unscathed from his first mixed martial arts bout in more than two years — but it’s not as bad as initially expected.

The former middleweight champion revealed on his Sirius XM show that he suffered a fracture in his left leg during a unanimous decision loss to Brad Tavares at UFC 292 on Aug. 19. That comes on the heels a gruesomely broken right leg in a loss to Uriah Hall at UFC 261 in April 2021.

“I got MRIs done on my tibia and fibula on both legs, got MRIs on both of my knees, X-rays, and I’ve been waiting for a result – and I got the results back. There was no ligament tears at all…

After facing adaptation problems in Abu Dhabi for his fight against Israel Adesanya in September 2020, Paulo Costa has a different schedule for his upcoming bout against Khamzat Chimaev in the same city at UFC 294 on Oct. 21.

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In an interview on the Thunder Voice podcast, the Brazilian fighter stated that he intends to arrive in the United Arab Emirates almost two months prior to the fight for acclimatization and adjustment.

"We want to go to Abu Dhabi at the end of August or the beginning of September, nearly 50 days before the event. We'll be there with everything we need," said Costa, who in 2020 famously resorted to wine to help him sleep before the fight against Adesanya at UFC 253.

Always active on social media, “Borrachinha” fired back at Gilbert "Durinho" Burns, who had expressed doubts in an interview about whether his fellow Brazilian had signed an unprecedented million-dollar contract with the UFC.

"Durinho is limited! He doe…

Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 226 lineup has undergone some shuffling.

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The Las Vegas-based promotion announced on Wednesday that Muin Gafurov has withdrawn from a proposed clash with Taylor Lapilus due to visa issues, while Lucas Almeida has pulled out of a bout against William Gomis due to a “medical issue.”

As a result, Lapilus will now face Caolan Loughran at bantamweight, and Gomis will lock horns with Yanis Ghemmouri at featherweight. Loughran and Ghemmouri will originally slated to meet at 135 pounds at UFC Paris.

Lapilus, who previously won three of four Octagon appearances from 2015 to 2016, returns to the UFC riding the momentum of a five-bout winning streak. A four-time Cage Warriors veteran, Loughran enteres his first promotional foray with an 8-0 mark.

Gomis has won 10 straight outings, kicking off his UFC tenure with back-to-back triumphs against Jarno Errens and Francis Marshall. Ghemmouri, a veteran of the Brave Combat Fede…

A lightweight clash pitting Mansour Barnaoui against Jay-Jay Wilson is among six new additions to the Bellator 299 lineup.

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The California-based promotion announced the finalized card — up to a whopping 21 fights — on Wednesday. Bellator 299 takes place on Sept. 23 at the 3Arena in Dublin and is headlined by a middleweight championship tilt between Johnny Eblen and Fabian Edwards. The main card airs in the United States on Showtime at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT, while prelims stream on the Bellator YouTube channel and Pluto TV at 11 a.m. ET/8 p.m. PT.

The other five newly-announced bouts are as follows: Luca Poclit vs. Roman Faraldo at welterweight; Asael Adjoudj vs. Ibrahim Al-Faqih Hassan at featherweight; Khasan Magomedsharipov vs. Martin McDonough; Davy Gallon vs. Attila Korkmaz at lightweight and Sergei Bilostennyi vs. Kasim Aras at heavyweight.

A former lightweight champion in BAMMA, M-1 Global and Road FC, Barnaoui is 1-1 under the Bellator b…

𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗚𝗔𝗠𝗘 𝗧𝗢𝗚𝗘𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥 ⬆️🌎

𝙀𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 about the game changing deal between the PFL and @srjsports 👇 pic.twitter.com/P2osh5SFl7

— PFL (@PFLMMA) August 30, 2023

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Professional Fighters League has partnered with SRJ Sports Investments for an investment agreement that will assist with the organization’s goals of global expansion.

According to a release, SRJ has acquired a minority stake in PFL and will become an investor in a new regional league set to launch in 2024 — called PFL MENA (Middle East and North Africa). SRJ will also support the PFL’s expansion in the Middle East and collaborate with the league to host PFL pay-per-view events in Saudi Arabia.

“PFL’s mission is to become the global co-leader in MMA with our fighter-first mission and disruptive sport-season format,” said PFL Founder and Chairman Donn Davis. “This investment by SRJ continues the monumental growth that PFL has experienced t…

【DAZN × K-1】

K-1とQUINTETがスポーツ・チャンネル「DAZN」において、世界200以上の国と地域でライブ配信決定！配信第1弾は9.10『ReBOOT』

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世界を見据え動き出した、K-1の熱い戦いをぜひ『DAZN』でお楽しみください！

詳細▷https://t.co/m80GhCnJWNチケット▷https://t.co/oS4stLWkIp#k1wgp pic.twitter.com/6iaO17Ibs6

— K-1【Official Account】 (@k1wgp_pr) August 30, 2023 A joint event launched by fight promotion K-1 and grappling organization Quintet will stream via DAZN on Sept. 10.

According to a release: “M-1 Sports Media K.K. and Rabarland, Inc., the companies that respectively organize the striking martial arts event K-1 and the grappling tournament QUINTET, recently signed a capital and business alliance aimed at global expansion. As the first step in this ambitious initiative, the two companies have agreed to align with DAZN, the world's largest sports streaming service. With the strong backing of DAZN as a media partner, they ai…

Strawweight champion Weili Zhang was dominant at UFC 292, and she was also the event’s top earner.

Zhang took home a disclosed $520,000 for her unanimous decision over Amanda Lemos ($250,000) in the co-main event at the TD Garden in Boston on Aug. 19. Salary figures for the event were initially released through the Massachusetts Division of Occupational Licensure to MMAFighting.com.

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Sean O’Malley defeated Aljamain Sterling via first-round technical knockout to claim the bantamweight crown in the evening’s headliner. Both O'Malley and Sterling earned $500,000 apiece for the bout — second highest on the card behind Zhang.

Note: The disclosed purses reported by state athletic commissions do not include any performance-based or discretionary bonuses that may be awarded to a fighter by the promotion. Additionally, the reported figures do not reflect any deductions made by the commission for taxes, insurance, etc., and do not include any sponsorship mone…