Martial Arts News

This featherweight affair is OFFICIAL!@BlessedMMA and @ArnoldBFA both hit the scale at 146lbs for tomorrow's #UFCKansasCity main event 💪 pic.twitter.com/RYArTp22Nd

— UFC (@ufc) April 14, 2023 The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to Kansas City, Missouri, for UFC on ESPN 44, which is headlined by an intriguing featherweight battle.

The five-round main event will see former featherweight king Max Holloway return to the Octagon against rising contender Arnold Allen. While both main eventers had no issue making weight, there was one notable miss on the lineup. Joselyne Edwards (136.5) came in heavy for her second fight in a row, checking in half a pound over the bantamweight limit for her fight against Lucie Pudilova (136). As a result, she has been fined 20% of her purse and the match will otherwise continue.

"Blessed" is looking to bounce back after once again suffering a defeat against Alexander Volkanovski. The fan-favorite Hawai…

Per sources: the scheduled lightweight fight between Charles Oliveira and Beneil Dariush for #UFC288 it's being pushed due to an undisclosed injury on Oliveira's side. The promotion is now working on a new date .

Via @ESPNDeporteshttps://t.co/M0j549OhGr

— Carlos Contreras Legaspi (@CCLegaspi) April 14, 2023

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Former Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight champion Charles Oliveira has been forced to pull out from his scheduled tilt against Beneil Dariush at UFC 288 on May 6 according to a report by ESPN Deportes’ Carlos Contreras Legaspi.

The nature of Oliveira’s injury, or its severity, is not yet known. The injury has thrown a wrench into the UFC’s plans, leaving Dariush without an opponent for the upcoming event at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Legaspi’s report stated that the UFC is looking to postpone the contest for a future card.

Oliveira, 33, saw an 11-fight winning streak smashed and his l…

Over the next 36 hours, one beloved coach from American Top Team will travel the country to corner fighters in both Professional Fighters League and Ultimate Fighting Championship events.

Coach Marcos “Parrumpa” DaMatta will be serving as one of the main cornermen for five different competitors this weekend, and he will have to fly from Las Vegas to Kansas City, Missouri, in the process. Despite the exhausting slate ahead of him, “Parrumpa” is extremely optimistic for all of his students. Speaking with Sherdog ahead of his fully loaded schedule, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu coach noted he had absolutely no complaints or regrets.

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“After being in the corner of Russians Magomed Magomedkerimov, Magomed Umalatov and Brazilians Raush Manfio and Natan Schulte [at PFL 3], I’ll try to sleep a few hours and fly to Kansas [City] to corner Edson Barboza in the co-main event of [the] UFC [card],” the coach explained.

In fact, merely being asked to corner by this…

👑 King 🆚 Challenger 👊

📺 Watch George Hardwick vs Yann Liasse in our #CW152 main event 𝗟𝗜𝗩𝗘 on @UFCFightPass tomorrow night! pic.twitter.com/FDwxExyjde

— Cage Warriors (@CageWarriors) April 14, 2023 George Hardwick's Cage Warriors lightweight championship is on the line in the main event of CW 152.

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The defending champion will look to keep the belt wrapped around his waist as he takes on Yann Liasse in the main event of the 13-fight card. Both title participants had no trouble making weight as both weighed in at 154.1 pounds. All other fighters made weight with the exception of Chris Bungard, who came in 2.1 pounds over for his lightweight fight against Gavin Hughes.

Fighting out of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, Hardwick (11-1) is on an impressive seven-fight win streak. He captured the title by defeating Kyle Driscoll and defended it against Bungard last year. Meanwhile, Liasse (9-1, 1 NC) is looking to extend his …

⚖️ Welterweight ESPN+ main event bout is official!

Sadibou Sy: 171 lbsJarrah Al Silawi: 170.8 lbs

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[ Friday, April 14th | 7pm ET on ESPN| #PFLRegularSeason | 🎟️ https://t.co/hxZi2fEbA9] pic.twitter.com/dBtzzkl0Q9 — PFL (@PFLMMA) April 13, 2023 Editor's note: The article has been updated at 2:10 p.m. ET to reflect a correction made for Schulte and Ray's weights following a PFL error.

The 2023 Professional Fighters League season will kick off for the men's welterweight and lightweight divisions.

PFL 3 is headlined by an intriguing welterweight fight between Sadibou Sy and Jarrah Al-Silawi. Both headliners made weight without a worry, as did the rest of the 12-fight card. Additionally, the promotion is dubbing the lightweight contest between Olivier Aubin-Mercier and Shane Burgos as the "ESPN main event" that takes place earlier in the evening.

Sy (13-6-2, 1 NC) is coming off winning the welterweight divisio…

About two weeks ahead of the Ultimate Fighting Championship card at the end of April, its headliner is in jeopardy.

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The news first broke from MMA Junkie on Thursday, where Renato Carneiro (17-5-1) has suffered an undisclosed injury. His lightweight match atop UFC Fight Night 223 against Arman Tsarukyan (19-3) is off, and there is no current word of a replacement. The co-headliner for this April 29 event at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas is currently Caio Borralho vs. Michal Oleksiejczuk at 185 pounds. The injury and subsequent withdrawal have since been confirmed by other outlets.

“Moicano” was looking to get back in the cage again for the first time since November 2022, when he tapped out Brad Riddell to bounce back from a one-sided defeat to Rafael dos Anjos earlier that year. Dating back the last five years, every victory inside the Octagon for Carneiro has come by rear-naked choke. The six performed by Carneiro in the UFC have him tied with Charl…

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight king Deiveson Figueiredo is not quite so eager to leave his old stomping ground just yet.

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Ex-champ Figueiredo (21-3-1) lost his title in his tetralogy match with Brandon Moreno at UFC 283 in January. and subsequently suggested he was planning on moving to bantamweight going forward. Those plans for the 35-year-old are currently on hold, as instead, he will be staying at flyweight to take on Manel Kape (18-6) this July. Per ESPN Deportes on Thursday, Figueiredo and Kape will battle it out at UFC 290, which is set to go down in the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on July 8.

This will be Figueiredo’s first opponent not named Moreno in over two and a half years – spanning the entirety of his upcoming foe’s UFC tenure thus far. The Brazilian embarked on the UFC’s first quadrilogy series when he first met Moreno at UFC 256 in 2020, and then encountered him three more times in 2021, 2022 and 2023. The fourth mat…

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Alex Pereira is headed to the light heavyweight division.

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“Poatan” announced the move on his YouTube channel on Wednesday night. Pereira is coming off a loss to Israel Adesanya in a middleweight championship rematch in the UFC 287 headliner this past Saturday.

I think I did my work [at] 185 and now I’m feeling good to go up to 205,” Pereira said. “Like I told you, when I’m feeling good — this will be something natural … and now I think it is.

“But as well I want to make one thing clear. This division 185 … I always made weight. A lot of people had doubts, but I always fulfilled my obligation. But not it’s the moment to go up to the next division. This will be better for me.”

It was the first victory for Adesanya against Pereira in a series spanning four bouts in kickboxing and MMA. Pereira had won his previous seven MMA appearances, a run that saw him claim middleweight gold with a fifth-round stoppage of his rival at UFC 28…

Cezar Ferreira hasn’t competed in MMA since a 13-second technical knockout loss to Marthin Hamlet in the 2021 Professional Fighters League playoffs.

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That will change on Friday night after “Mutante” received a short-notice offer to replace Patrick Brady against Denis Goltsov in a heavyweight bout at PFL 3.

"My manager called me Monday night offering a fight at heavyweight,” Ferreira told Sherdog.com. “And I didn’t think twice. The most difficult thing was doing all the medicals on time. It was such a marathon. But here I´m at the airport. The guy has two legs and two arms like myself. I love challenges and I’m going there to take that Russian’s place and get into the $1 million dollar [competition].”

Weighing 228 pounds compared to approximately 245 for Goltsov, “Mutante” thinks speed might be an advantage for him.

"He is heavier but I’m faster,” Ferreira said. “I’ve already fought at welterweight, middleweight, …

T.J. Dillashaw says that ongoing shoulder issues forced him to call it quits before he truly wanted to leave mixed martial arts.

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The former bantamweight champion announced his retirement late last year following a loss to Aljamain Sterling in a 135-pound title bout at UFC 280. Dillashaw admitted afterward that he entered the matchup with a shoulder injury and that it popped out during the fight. He also revealed that he dislocated the shoulder at least 20 times during training camp.

In a post on Instagram, Dillashaw lamented the injury that led to him exiting the sport while revealing that he will likely need a second shoulder surgery.

“This is retirement,” he wrote. “But in all honesty I’m pretty pissed that I didn’t get the chance to choose to retire. I feel that I’m [too] good to hang ‘em up. Haven’t told many people but I have to go under the knife again for surgery because my first surgery didn’t take. Being told that my shoulder will ne…

Defending Professional Fighters League lightweight champion Olivier Aubin-Mercier will get first crack at prized free-agent signing Shane Burgos.

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Aubin-Mercier vs. Burgos will serve as the featured bout for PFL 3: 2023 Regular Season at the Theater at Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas on Friday. The main card airs early on ESPN and ESPN+ beginning at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT. It will be Burgos’ PFL debut after compiling an 8-3 mark in the UFC.

While Aubin-Mercier is well aware of his opponent’s entertaining fighting style, he thinks that could work against Burgos during the grind of the PFL season, which requires more activity than a typical MMA schedule.

“I think it’s gonna be tough for him since he’s kind of a kamikazee in the ring,” Aubin-Mercier said during a PFL media day. “He’s a really fun fighter. He has a big heart. PFL is four fights in eight months, so I think it’s gonna be tough for his style. Everybody is gonna tune in to see the fight and se…

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Nate Diaz’s first venture since leaving the UFC figures to draw plenty of eyes.

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Most Valuable Promotions and Real Fight Inc., announced on Wednesday that Diaz will square off against Jake Paul in a boxing match on Aug. 5 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. The bout will be contested at 185 pounds over eight rounds, with both athletes wearing 10-ounce gloves, according to a release. The event will air live on pay-per-view via DAZN as well as all major cable and satellite providers.

Diaz ended his Octagon tenure last September following a fourth-round submission victory against Tony Ferguson at UFC 279. That fulfilled Diaz’s contract with the Las Vegas-based promotion. Diaz emerged as one of the UFC’s biggest stars over the course of promotional tenure that began in 2007 after he won “The Ultimate Fighter 5.” He compiled a 16-11 mark in the Octagon and reached the pinnacle of his star power when he submitted McGregor at UFC 1…