Martial Arts News

The winner of this upcoming Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight tilt could crack the top 10 with a solid performance.

On Thursday, MMA Junkie first broke the news that Damir Ismagulov (24-2) and Grant Dawson (19-1-1) would be meeting at UFC on ESPN 48 on July 1. The event will take place inside of the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, and the lightweight duel is expected to be placed on the main card. Both fighters confirmed the pairing shortly after its announcement.

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Ismagulov was excited about the fight, stating on his Instagram, “Back to UFC Fight Night – July 1, 2023. Top 15 opponent. Another challenge. All or nothing, as we say, debts must be repaid. Fighting for my future. All or nothing! Chance to prove what I can do to wrestlers when I’m 100% Let’s go!”

The Orenburg, Russia, native suffered his first loss since 2015 when he came up short against Arman Tsarukyan at the final UFC card of 2022. That unanimous decision loss snapped a 19-fight …

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Tom Aspinall’s return from a horrific knee injury is set to take place in the same venue where it was inflicted last year.

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On Wednesday, the Ultimate Fighting Championship announced that Aspinall (12-3, 5-1 UFC) will headline UFC on ESPN 49 on July 22 in London against Marcin Tybura. Aspinall was vocal about his intentions to return in July after a year on the sidelines as he called out Tybura during the UFC 286 fight week in March. The Nevada-based promotion granted his wish, offering Aspinall his third main event booking, all of which have taken place in his native U.K.

BREAKING: Your #UFCLondon heavyweight main event is signed!!

@AspinallMMA vs @MarcinTybura

Get your tickets EARLY https://t.co/slZM2gosSA pic.twitter.com/6uFPMHzW8D

— UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) May 10, 2023

Aspinall’s last outing ended in misery, as he suffered a freak knee injury 15 seconds into his clash with Curtis Blaydes in the UFC Fig…

- 2x Glory Kickboxing Welterweight Champion- 2016 A1 WGP Final Tournament Champion- World Kickboxing Association World Champion

"The Best" 𝗛𝗔𝗦 𝗔𝗥𝗥𝗜𝗩𝗘𝗗. Welcome to the Professional Fighters League @CedricDoumbe pic.twitter.com/MuStGGGyNR

— PFL (@PFLMMA) May 10, 2023

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Newly-signed Cedric Doumbe will make his Professional Fighters League debut this summer.

On Wednesday, the PFL announced Doumbe as the latest addition to its 170-pound division. The fighter took to his social accounts to unveil he would fight for the first time under the PFL banner in Atlanta on June 23.

“Cedric Doumbe is one of the greatest athletes in the world and a tremendous addition to the Professional Fighters League global roster,” said PFL President of Fighter Operations Ray Sefo in a press release. “Cedric dominated the sport of kickboxing and is poised to do the same in MMA. He is one of the most talented fighters in the world and will mak…

Our #UFC290 main event is OFFICIAL!

Dana White just dropped the entire main card for International Fight Week and it's HUGE 🔥 pic.twitter.com/aoNWRRiJvb

— UFC (@ufc) May 10, 2023

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The featherweight division will have an undisputed champion again as Alexander Volkanovski and Yair Rodriguez have been booked to headline UFC 290.

The main attraction of the upcoming pay-per-view event in Las Vegas is the unification bout between 145-pound linear champion Volkanovski and interim titleholder Rodriguez. In the UFC 290 co-headliner, Brandon Moreno will face Alexandre Pantoja. “International Fight Week” will also feature the induction of former Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight king Robbie Lawler’s UFC 189 clash with Rory MacDonald in the Hall of Fame, with “Ruthless” then set to compete against Niko Price in a bout that has been promoted as Lawler’s final contest.

Volkanovski (25-2, 12-1 UFC) is looking to bo…

The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s upcoming visit to the UK has gained an important women’s bantamweight clash.

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Ketlen Vieira and Pannie Kianzad will attempt to climb the 135-pound rankings when they meet at UFC on ESPN 49 in July in London. The news was first reported by MaximumSports and was confirmed by the UFC on Tuesday.

Bantamweights on deck!

🇧🇷 @KetlenVieiraUFC vs @PannieKianzad 🇸🇪 is official for #UFCLondon

🎟️ https://t.co/wg9VkLrok2 pic.twitter.com/EYlQx8iHcU

— UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) May 9, 2023

Vieira (13-3, 7-3 UFC) is looking to get back on track after finding herself on the wrong side of a split decision in her UFC Fight Night 217 affair with Raquel Pennington. Prior to that, “Fenomeno” overcame former divisional queens Miesha Tate and Holly Holm at UFC Fight Night 198 and UFC Fight Night 206, respectively. The Nova Uniao representative is looking for her first UFC title shot, and a victo…

Professional Fighters League’s 2023 season appears in danger of losing several of its top contenders and biggest names.

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On Tuesday, MMA Fighting reported that Thiago Santos, Krzysztof Jotko, Bruno Cappelozza and Rizvan Kuniev had tested positive for undisclosed banned substances after their fights in the PFL light heavyweight and heavyweight divisions. The fighters have been temporarily suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission pending full hearings in the next few days.

The The promotion addressed the situation in a statement that acknowledged the suspensions and announced significant changes to the 2023 Regular Season without mentioning names.

“PFL has been notified by the Nevada State Athletic Commission that several fighters who competed in two PFL 2023 Regular Season events this past April have been temporarily suspended until further review by the Commission. The PFL has a zero-tolerance policy related to the usage of banned su…

Arman Tsarukyan has finally received his next Ultimate Fighting Championship assignment.

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Tsarukyan (19-3, 6-2 UFC) had been attached to a bout with Renato Carneiro scheduled for the UFC on ESPN 45 card on April 29 before “Moicano” pulled out due to injury. A replacement opponent did not materialize in time for that event, but on Tuesday, ESPN reported Tsarukyan and Joaquim Silva would collide in a lightweight clash at UFC on ESPN 47 on June 17. The matchup was then confirmed by Silva’s team on their social media accounts.

The surging Tsarukyan appeared most recently in December, a dominant unanimous decision victory over Damir Ismagulov which allowed him to bounce back from a loss at the hands of former KSW two-division champion Mateusz Gamrot in the UFC on ESPN 38 headliner. Prior, “Ahalkalakets” went on a five-bout winning streak with victories over Joel Alvarez and Matt Frevola, among others. Tsarukyan's only other loss under the UFC banner cam…

Photo: Getty Images/UFC

A white belt enrolled as “Mark Elliot” in the Featherweight Master 1 category stole the show last week in a Silicon Valley BJJ event. When “Mr. Elliot” stepped onto the tatame for his first match, the audience found out his surname: Zuckerberg.

The creator of Facebook competed a total of three times in the event: two with gi and one without. In the no-gi competition he won his lone bout, netting the gold medal, while in the gi he won his first match before losing in the final via Ezekiel choke, earning silver. Zuckerberg, who made MMA headlines in October by attending a closed to the public UFC Fight Night 211 at the Apex in Las Vegas, had already declared his passion for jiu-jitsu on Ep. 267 of the Lex Fridman podcast, saying, “In my first class, in the first five minutes I thought: Where has this been, my whole life? Definitely jiu-jitsu is the best sport.” What most couldn't imagine is that he would show up in a competition.

…

It wasn’t the night Gilbert Burns was hoping for at UFC 288, who suffered an injury in addition to losing his fight.

Last Saturday, Burns (22-6, 15-6 UFC) dropped a unanimous decision to Belal Muhammad in the UFC 288 co-headliner while fighting with a left shoulder injury that prevented him from fully expressing his fighting skills. On Monday, the New Jersey Athletic Control Board suspended “Durinho” indefinitely, pending clearance from an orthopedist after getting an X-ray of his left shoulder. Thanks to his victory, Muhammad has been promised a matchup with the Leon Edwards-Colby Covington welterweight championship clash winner.

Joseph Holmes and Kalinn Williams have also been suspended indefinitely pending the doctor’s clearance to fight again. Overall, 14 fighters received medical suspensions, including former two-division titleholder Henry Cejudo, who appeared opposite Aljamain Sterling in the UFC 288 headliner.

UFC 288 Medical Suspensions: Henry Cejudo: suspen…

The upcoming UFC Fight Night 223 has an interesting women’s strawweight clash as its new main event.

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Mackenzie Dern and Angela Hill will now collide one week later than initially scheduled. The pair was supposed to fight on the UFC on ABC 4 main card this weekend, but the Ultimate Fighting Championship has opted to promote the matchup as the new UFC Fight Night 224 headliner on May 20. The Nevada-based promotion had to deal with several last-minute changes as the initially targeted main event between Irene Aldana vs. Raquel Pennington was canceled after Aldana agreed to replace the injured Julianna Pena against two-division titleholder Amanda Nunes for the women’s 135-pound gold at UFC 289 next month. The change was first reported by MMA Fighting and has already been confirmed by Hill on her social accounts.

Hill (15-12, 9-10 UFC) is riding a two-bout winning streak after overcoming Lupita Godinez and Emily Ducote via unanimous decision at UFC on …

The rumors of Henry Cejudo’s second retirement were apparently premature, according to the man himself.

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This s*** is far from over! @danawhite I want @MerabDvalishvil head on a plate! #ufcboston pic.twitter.com/ME9ygzPaJG

— Henry Cejudo (@HenryCejudo) May 8, 2023 Things didn’t go according to plan for former Ultimate Fighting Championship two-division champ Cejudo (16-3, 10-3 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC 288 headliner as “The Messenger” dropped a narrow split decision to bantamweight titleholder Aljamain Sterling. In the immediate aftermath of the fight, Cejudo removed his gloves in the cage and teased that he might be done with MMA once again. A few hours later, however, Cejudo announced via Twitter that he wanted to don the four-ounce gloves at least once more, against Sterling’s teammate and good friend Merab Dvalishvili.

“This s—t is far from over,” Cejudo wrote. “Dana White, I want [Dvalishvili’s] head on a plate.”

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