Martial Arts News

UFC Fight Night, Sept. 23 … per Dana White

No. 6 Rafael Fiziev vs. No. 6 Mateusz Gamrot

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No. 12 Bryce Mitchell vs. No. 13 Dan Ige pic.twitter.com/4UMaMUr2hR — Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) July 27, 2023 The Ultimate Fighting Championship appears to have locked in the main and co-main attractions for its late September Fight Night show.

Per the UFC’s broadcast partner of ESPN on Thursday, the promotion has established its top two fights for the UFC Fight Night card on Sept. 23. Atop the event likely staged inside of the UFC Apex in Las Vegas will be a lightweight affair between Rafael Fiziev (12-2) and Mateusz Gamrot (22-2, 1 NC). In the co-featured attraction, featherweights Bryce Mitchell (15-1) and Dan Ige (17-6) will get to finally settle a beef that has gone on for years.

Fiziev saw his six-fight win streak come to a screeching halt in March when Justin Gaethje outworked him over three thrilling rounds. That …

An all-action Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight rumble is coming to the cage in mid-October.

MMAJunkie first broke the news on Thursday that Sodiq Yusuff (13-2) and Edson Barboza (23-11) were planning on throwing down at the untitled UFC Fight Night event on Oct. 14. The fight card is expected to be held inside of the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, and there is no headliner or much of its billing announced as of yet. This featherweight matchup has since been confirmed by Yusuff on Twitter shortly after its announcement.

This will be Yusuff’s first appearance in 2023, after a successful 2022 campaign that saw him pick up a decision win over Alex Caceres and then tap out Don Shainis in 30 seconds almost seven months later. After seven outings in the Octagon thus far, Yusuff has lost just one time, taking top contender Arnold Allen to the scorecards and coming up short. On his way up the 145-pound ladder, he beat the likes of Andre Fili, Gabriel Benitez and Sheymon Mo…

Patricky Freire was not disappointed by the last-minute change to the Bellator MMA x Rizin 2 main event.

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On Tuesday night, it was announced that Rizin lightweight champion Roberto Satoshi de Souza would replace A.J. McKee in the grand prix bout, which will serve as the headliner for the Bellator portion of Saturday’s card at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

"The most important thing for me is to fight and advance in that grand prix and I’m glad Satoshi, the current Rizin champion, agreed to step in and face me on such short notice for both of us. I was told about A.J. McKee’s (medical issue) on Monday morning. He just told Bellator on Sunday. He was probably trying his best to recover until the last minute, but unfortunately it was not possible.”

Freire acknowledged that he will have to make some tactical changes against a new foe.

"Satoshi is a totally different opponent,” Freire said. “I did my whol…

Patricio Freire is a late addition to this weekend’s Super Rizin 2 event, as the Bellator featherweight champion will face Japanese kickboxing specialist Chihiro Suzuki in a 154-pound catchweight affair.

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The pairing was announced during a press conference late on Tuesday night. Super Rizin 2 is part of a joint event with Bellator, but in this case, both promotions will have separate cards under their respective rules. Freire vs. Suzuki will take place in a ring under Rizin rules.

Freire is making a quick turnaround following an unsuccessful foray to 135 pounds, where he dropped a five-round verdict to Sergio Pettis in a title bout at Bellator 297 on June 16. That snapped a three-bout winning streak for “Pitbull,” who was coming off successive victories over A.J. McKee, Adam Borics and Kleber Koike Erbst.

Suzuki owns a 10-3 record in MMA. He had been victorious in his last five appearances under the Rizin banner before suffering a submission l…

Bellator MMA’s lightweight grand prix has undergone a significant change-up just days before the final quarterfinal was set to take place.

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The promotion announced on Tuesday that Rizin Fighting Federation lightweight champion Roberto Satoshi de Souza will repace A.J. McKee and face Patricky Freire in the 155-pound bracket. McKee, the ex-Bellator featherweight king, was forced to withdraw from the event due to a medical issue.

“This is a situation where medically A.J. cannot continue into our quarterfinals,” Coker said at a press conference. “He will be our first alternate. You never know what’s going to happen in the future.”

Satoshi has won six of his last seven professional outings, most recently outpointing Spike Carlyle in a non-title bout at Rizin 42 on May 6. His lone defeat came via unanimous decision at the hands of McKee at the Bellator vs. Rizin event last December.

Freire, meanwhile, relinquished Bellator’s lightweight crown …

Vicente Luque’s headlining bout against Rafael dos Anjos at UFC on ESPN 51 will proceed as planned after the welterweight was cleared to compete at a Nevada State Athletic Commission hearing on Tuesday.

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During that meeting, the NSAC revealed that Luque suffered a brain hemorrhage in relation to a technical knockout loss to Geoff Neal at UFC on ESPN 40 in August 2022. NSAC executive Jeff Mullen initially confirmed the news to MMAjunkie.com.

“He suffered a brain bleed [a year ago],” Mullen said. “He had a suspension of one year. He had to bring before the commission clearance from a neurosurgeon and a neurologist independently who recommended he be licensed. We have that material. … I have faith in our doctors.”

Luque’s license was unanimously approved by the commission. If he fights again in Nevada after his Aug. 12 matchup with dos Anjos, he will likely have to submit to additional testing to confirm he is still healthy enough to compete. Read more

Charles Oliveira claims that he wasn’t in the right mindset heading into his lightweight title bout against Islam Makhachev at UFC 280.

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In an interview with Brazilian outlet AgFight, Oliveira admitted that his mentality was affected by the tension surrounding the fight, which Makhachev won via second-round submission in October 2022. Part of that was due to statements made by Khabib Nurmagomedov expressing extreme confidence in his protege. Those, Oliveira says, caused him to “get too involved” in wanting to make a statement against his opponent.

“Do Bronx” has vowed that he won’t get distracted by outside comments before his rematch with Makhachev at UFC 294.

“I said some things for that fight that I shouldn't have said. That wasn't me. I ended up getting too emotionally involved,” Oliveira said. “I’ll never say I'm going to kill someone, curse or anything like that. And at times I ended up saying this about Islam: 'Oh, I'm going to kill th…

It appears that Molly McCann’s time as a UFC flyweight has run its course.

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The popular English fighter indicated that a move to strawweight is imminent in a social media post on Monday. McCann is coming off a first-round submission loss to Julija Stoliarenko in the UFC Fight Night 224 co-main event on Saturday.

“If there’s one thing I know, it’s how to always overcome adversity and this is no different,” McCann wrote. “20 months ago I was sitting in this same position, [back to back] losses and ready to pack it in. Then a boss run and my world changed forever.

“We have one more adjustment to make and I believe that will make all the difference in the world, the smallest in the division makes it tough when the opponents are so much bigger. So for me it’s time to drop down and face the girls who are the same size!”

McCann has competed primarily at 125 pounds during her tenure with the Las Vegas-based promotion, compiling a 6-5 record alo…

And just like that... I get to smoke an insurrectionist. #TruthVsMiletichhttps://t.co/RZSSrWGFuN pic.twitter.com/V0jtYvX92E

— Mike Jackson, Esq. (@TheTruthJackson) July 24, 2023

UFC Hall of Famer Pat Miletich will return to mixed martial arts at 55 years old when he faces four-time Octagon vet Mike Jackson at a Caged Aggression event in October.

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The promotion recently announced the bout, which is part of a two-night event and takes place at the River Center in Davenport, Iowa. According to a release, “this confrontation between the two fighters encapsulates the broader societal divisions and political conflicts prevalent in today’s world.” The bad blood between the two apparently stems from Jackson’s reaction to Miletich’s participation during the now-infamous protests at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Miletich, a former UFC welterweight champion, hasn’t competed professionally in MMA since Dec. 11, 2008, when he d…

London has been a popular destination for the Ultimate Fighting Championship in recent months.

The latest visit occurred this past Saturday, as UFC Fight Night 224 took place at the O2 Arena and saw Tom Aspinall make a triumphant return with a first-round technical knockout of Marcin Tybura in the evening’s main event. According to UFC senior vice president Dave Shaw, the event was an all-around success — and maybe a little bit less hectic than the previous visit.

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“The trip was great. It feels like home. We’ve been here four times in the last 18 months,” Shaw said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “For us, coming off of [the UFC 286] pay-per-view in March, where it was a very intense week – big week, lots going on, big card, Dana [White] and the whole crew, everyone here – it felt a little bit more manageable. But it felt like home. We’ve been in The O2 so many times now. I think for our crews, for the teams, it was fairly straightforward. Re…

Tom Aspinall put the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s heavyweight division on notice Saturday.

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In his first fight in a year, the Englishman blitzed Marcin Tybura for a 73-second technical knockout victory in the UFC Fight Night 224 headliner at the O2 Arena in London. Aspinall’s blend of skill and athleticism was on full display, and he appears to be a difficult matchup for most anyone in the weight class. That includes Jon Jones, who Aspinall hasn’t been shy about mentioning as a desired opponent.

“I think I match up well,” Aspinall said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “It’s a dream fight of mine. I think I’m young and I’m fresh. I’ve not got loads of miles on the clock. I’m big. I can do everything well. I’m fast, I’m strong, I’m heavy, which is unlike a lot of his opponents who he’s fought in the past. I just think I bring something different to him, and I think he knows that, as well.”

Aspinall’s callout drew Jones’ attention, a…

EASY WORK for @AspinallMMA 👀

He gets the finish in the first round! #UFCLondon pic.twitter.com/TtKd6uUR3f

— UFC (@ufc) July 22, 2023 The Ultimate Fighting Championship awarded four fighters performance bonuses following the UFC Fight Night 224 card.

Tom Aspinall impressed in his return from injury as the heavyweight contender quickly ran through Marcin Tybura. Aspinall's slicing elbows and powerful punches put away Tybura in slightly over a minute. The impressive TKO win was enough for the British fighter to earn a Performance of the Night bonus and take home an extra $50,000. The fight was officially stopped at 1:13 of the first round.

The other Performance of the Night bonus went to Paul Craig. After a rough first round, "Bearjew" managed to put away Andre Muniz with a series of brutal elbows. Finally, Fight of the Night went to Danny Roberts and Jonny Parsons, which earned both fighters an extra $50,000. Parsons wound up fin…