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Yadong Song was impressive against Ricky Simon at UFC Fight Night 223, but he would have preferred to put his opponent away earlier than the fifth round.

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“I feel my performance was OK,” Song said at the post-fight press conference. “Not very good. I could’ve ended the fight in the earlier rounds. It was five rounds. He’s a very tough opponent. I wanted to be patient in the fight. I had a lot of chances to finish the fight earlier.”

The Team Alpha Male product has won four of his last five UFC appearances and has designs on moving up in the rankings. In the aftermath of his latest triumph, targeted matchups against the likes of Sean O’Malley, Petr Yan, Rob Font and Marlon Vera.

“I want to fight Top 5 fighters,” Song said. “Even Font – he’s No. 6. He’s OK. ‘Chito’ Vera and Sean O’Malley – but they probably won’t give me Sean O’Malley. They want to protect him. Whatever. Just top five. My goal is to fight top-five fighters this year.”

O’M…

Chad Mendes is stepping away from combat sports for good.

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The former UFC featherweight contender called it a career following a loss to Eddie Alvarez in the BKFC 41 co-main event on Saturday night. Mendes announced his retirement from mixed martial arts in 2019 but later signed with BKFC, where he split a pair of appearances.

“I’ve been going back and forth with this. Obviously I retired from the UFC back in 2018, and I was honestly done. I’ve been pouring my heart and soul into a few businesses and just spending the family quality time that I love doing,” Mendes said at the BKFC 41 post-fight press conference.

“I had no desire [to fight], but something like this came up, and obviously the pay is really good, and it’s something that’s new, which kind of excited me, so I did it. I was done after that first one, but then they dangled somebody like this dude [Alvarez] in front of me, so I was like, ‘All right, I’ll do one more. This could be …

Yadong Song punched his way back into the title discussion in the Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight division.

In the main event of UFC Fight Night 223 on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, the “Kung Fu Kid” stifled the vaunted wrestling of Ricky Simon and outstruck him in increasingly one-sided fashion for four rounds before putting things away with a blistering left hook early in Round 5. The first round found Simon largely neglecting his customary barrage of takedowns, and Song stuffed the few that did come his way, setting the tone for the remainder of the fight. Song found increasing success with his boxing as the fight went on, catching Simon cleanly on numerous occasions, though what appeared to be a knockdown by Song early in the second round turned out to have been caused by an inadvertent clash of heads. A second headbutt in Round 3 drew a protest from Simon, as both collisions had occurred while Song lunged forward with his head down. Nonetheless, Son…

Sherdog's live UFC Fight Night 223 coverage will begin Saturday at 4:30 p.m. ET. BETTING PREVIEW | SCOUTING REPORT | ODDS: Horth (-140), Cowan (+120)Round 1 Sherdog Scores Tristen Critchfield scores the round:Lev Pisarsky scores the round:Tyler Treese scores the round:

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Round 2 Sherdog Scores Tristen Critchfield scores the round:Lev Pisarsky scores the round:Tyler Treese scores the round:Round 3 Sherdog Scores Tristen Critchfield scores the round:Lev Pisarsky scores the round:Tyler Treese scores the round: The Official Result Round 1 Sherdog Scores Tristen Critchfield scores the round:Lev Pisarsky scores the round:Tyler Treese scores the round:Round 2 Sherdog Scores Tristen Critchfield scores the round:Lev Pisarsky scores the round:Tyler Treese scores the round:Round 3 Sherdog Scores Tristen Critchfield scores the round:Lev Pisarsky scores the round:Tyler Treese scores the round:The Official Result BETTING PREVIEW | SCOUTING REPORT | ODDS: Egger (-305…

Martin Buday is starting to loom large as a problem in the Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight division.

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In the featured preliminary bout of UFC Fight Night 223 on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, “Badys” took a hard-fought unanimous decision over Jake Collier. The hulking Slovakian towered over Collier but struggled with his opponent’s speed and aggression, at least in the first round, during which Collier came forward, landed numerous sharp boxing combinations and largely eluded Buday’s efforts to clinch or bring the fight to the fence. Collier’s advantages dissipated after the opening frame, however, as the Missouri native appeared to tire out, allowing Buday to take over the fight in increasingly dominant fashion over Rounds 2 and 3. Buday was able to force clinch exchanges, score with hard knees to the body, and generally have his way with Collier. The third round featured a brief reprieve for both men, as an accidentally eye poke l…

Congratulations are in order for these four POTN winners!!!

💵 @SongYadongLFG💵 @BorralhoCaio💵 Rodolfo Vieira💵 @ManiacMcGhee07 #UFCVegas72 pic.twitter.com/S06s7KwLlh

— UFC (@ufc) April 30, 2023 The Ultimate Fighting Championship awarded four fighters performance bonuses on the UFC Fight Night 223 card.

Main event winner Yadong Song took home $50,000 extra on top of his purse for his fantastic finish over Ricky Simon in the fifth and final round. The "Kung Fu Kid" was in control for most of the fight and didn't settle for a clear-cut decision win. Instead, Song forced the action and finished off his opponent with an impressive flurry of punches. The TKO win came at 1:10 of the fifth frame.

Three other fighters earned performance of the night bonuses with their own impressive submission victories. Co-main event winner Caio Borralho picked up 50 grand thanks to his rear-naked choke that forced Michal Oleksiejczuk to tap at 2:49 of th…

A welterweight showdown pitting Rafael dos Anjos against Vicente Luque will serve as the main event for UFC Fight Night on July 15.

MMAFighting.com was first to report that both fighters had verbally agreed to the contest. The event is expected to take place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and also includes a heavyweight bout between Walt Harris and Josh Parisian.

A former lightweight champion, dos Anjos owns a 5-4 UFC mark at 170 pounds. He returned to the welterweight division in his last outing, where he defeated Bryan Barberena via second-round submission at UFC on ESPN 42.

After winning 10 of 11 UFC bouts from 2017 to 2021, Luque will look to end a two-bout losing streak against dos Anjos. During his current skid, the Cerrado MMA representative dropped a five-round verdict to Belal Muhammad in the UFC on ESPN 34 headliner before suffering a third-round KO defeat at the hands of Geoff Neal at UFC on ESPN 40.

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Master Robson Gracie, who was the eldest living Gracie, has died at 88 years old.

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Robson passed away on Friday in Rio de Janeiro. The father of Charles, Flavia, Renzo, Ralph, Ryan (died 2007), Keila and Robson Jr., Robson was born in 1935. The second son of 21 born to the patriarch of the family, Carlos Gracie, Robson followed the footsteps of his uncle Hélio Gracie and his older brother, Carlson, and debuted in vale tudo with a victory over capoeira fighter Artur Emídio. Later, he would draw with Valdo Santana, brother of Valdemar Santana, in a battle where he would show his renowned courage.

“I was very hurt, so my father considered stopping the fight at [an intermission] and I said, ‘Father if you do that I'll lower my shorts and urinate in the middle of the ring,’” Robson said. The fight continued and Robson's bravery was rewarded with a draw.

Robson was also involved in politics. His notoriety in jiu-jitsu led him to be h…

Asakura wins a unanimous decision win over Ushiku in our main event!

[ #RIZIN_LANDMARK5 | @FiteTV | Watch the PPV here: https://t.co/0fE6L8rbwg ] pic.twitter.com/lFPG9dNfJ3

— RIZIN FF English (@rizin_English) April 29, 2023

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The caged environment seems to suit Mikuru Asakura just fine.

Asakura captured a unanimous decision against Juntaro Ushiku in the Rizin Landmark Vol. 5 featherweight headliner at Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo on Saturday. While Rizin typically holds its events in a ring, its Landmark series takes place in a cage.

Former Rings two-division champion Asakura (17-3, 1 NC; 11-2 Rizin) fired the most powerful shots in the opening round, mixing punches and kicks. In turn, Ushiku (20-8, 2-2 Rizin) looked to grapple against the fence, pulling guard once he felt comfortable. Asakura couldn’t do much damage due Ushiku’s strenuous guard, forcing the referee to stand them once the action stalled. The pa…

With a title shot against Leon Edwards on the horizon, Colby Covington was awarde his black belt by coach Daniel Valverde this past week.

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According to Valverde, Covington earned that status in the gym.

“He was giving a hard time to most of my black belts,” Valverde told Sherdog.com. “It's been four years training almost everyday with us at MMA Masters. Jiu-Jitsu with and without the gi [and] judo. He is highly technical and deserves it for sure.”

Valverde also revealed that he, Covington and MMA Masters co-owner Cesar Carneiro are launching a new combat sport dubbed Xtreme Dirty Boxing.

“Xtreme Dirty Boxing consists of boxing with elbows and muay thai clinches,” Valverde said. “Four rounds of three minutes with six-ounce gloves. Also it´s not permitted to go more than three seconds without action. Colby is our partner in that promotion.”

The plan is to hold the promotion’s first event in Bahia (Brazil), Puerto Rico or Miami.

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The first foreigner to win two editions of the Kings Cup (2007 and 2009), Cosmo Alexandre is one of the most respected muay thai fighters to make a successful transition to MMA.

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Despite having an MMA record of 8-1 following his knockout of Sage Northcutt at One Championship “Enter the Dragon” in 2019, Alexandre decided to retire at 40 years old with a combat sports record that features a combined 106 fights in MMA, muay thai and kickboxing.

With the experience of having trained with Kamaru Usman, Georges St. Pierre, Vitor Belfort, Alex Pereira and Anderson Silva, Alexandre told Sherdog that most important muay thai techniques are still underused in MMA.

"Boxing has reached a very high level in MMA, no doubt about that, but I still see a lot of muay thai techniques that are totally underused, like elbows, knees and clinches,” Alexandre said.

According to Alexandre, even someone like Jon Jones, who has long utilized elbows to his advantage…

Cody Garbrandt will look to put together his first winning streak since 2016 when he meets Mario Bautista at a UFC event on Aug. 19.

MMAFighting.com was first to report the bantamweight booking. The UFC Fight Night card doesn’t yet have a location or headliner.

A former bantamweight champion, “No Love” is just 2-5 in UFC competition since 2017 — and all but one of those defeats have come via knockout or technical knockout. After an unsuccesful one-bout stint at flyweight, Garbrandt returned to 135 pounds at UFC 285, where he took a three-round verdict over Trevin Jones on March 4.

Bautista, meanwhile, has won six of seven Octagon appearances since falling to Cory Sandhagen in his promotional debut. The 29-year-old MMA Lab representative was successful in his first outing of 2023, when he submitted Guido Cannetti in the opening stanza at UFC Fight Night 221.