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It is The Underdog Story of Sloppy Balboa 👊 facing The Greatest Siamese Twin Fighter of All Time.

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🎪 Fight Circus Vol.6: The Rise or Fall of Sloppy Balboa

🗓️ March 31st📍 Illuzion Phuket🎫 Tickets on SALE SOON!!! pic.twitter.com/atAJlvS1fj

— FMD ☣️ (@FullMetalDojo) March 16, 2023 Their whole lives have been million-to-one shots…now, “Sloppy Balboa” is about to show the world that they’re one-in-a-million. Courtesy of Full Metal Dojo head Jon Nutt on Thursday, the preliminary bout listing for Fight Circus 6: “The Rise or Fall of Sloppy Balboa” on April 1 has been made public. The Thailand-based league will be running its sixth iteration of the “Fight Circus” series on March 31 in Thailand, airing the first of April in the United States, at the Illuzion Nightclub in Phuket. Capping off the evening’s festivities will be a two-on-two “Siamese boxing” match pitting Bob Sapp and Quinton Jackson against Nutt …

SBG Ireland’s Walter Cogliandro was coming off a two-fight skid and needed to overcome an Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran in Mark Striegl to return to the win column. Striegl, who has a win over former UAE Warriors featherweight king Do Gyeom Lee, last saw action at UFC Fight Night 201 in a losing bid to Chas Skelly.

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Striegl’s stifling grappling was on display in Round 1, taking down the Italian less than 20 seconds into the fight. But likewise present was Cogliandro’s resilience, even ending the stanza with elbows off his back to open up the Filipino as the bell sounded.

In the second period, a game Cogliandro answered the bell with heightened activity on the feet, utilizing his dirty boxing with a few elbows and knees from the inside. Even when Striegl was able to hold him against the cage, Cogliandro was still throwing punches.

Striegl was able to take him down for some time in the final stage, but as soon as Cogliandro stood u…

👇👇👇 pic.twitter.com/zho13QHXeT

— Jeff Molina (@jmolina_125) March 17, 2023 Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight Jeff Molina is the victim of extremely unfortunate circumstances.

On Thursday, an intimate video leaked involving Molina. As rumor spread, on Friday morning, Molina released a statement on Twitter where he came out as bisexual, while expressing his disappointment that he was forced out against his will. While there are openly gay and LGBTQ women on the UFC roster, Molina is the first male UFC fighter to publicly come out. Molina (11-2) was a top-15 flyweight with the promotion, who is currently under suspension for his involvement with the James Krause betting scandal.

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Molina’s statement reads as follows:

“Welp.. this f---ing sucks

“TLDR: im bi

“Not the way I wanted to do this but the chance to do it when I was ready was taken from me. I’ve tried to keep my dating life private from social media. I’…

Top 15 Incoming 💣 👊🏻🩸 #UFC288 #Frevola #Dober #DirtyJersey #MyTime #Top15 #Steamrolla #TeamSteam #GigaChad #Gfuel pic.twitter.com/WmhI4zCTDu

— Matt “The Steamrolla”Frevola (@SteamRollaa) March 16, 2023 The Ultimate Fighting Championship has put together an absolute banger at 155 pounds for May.

On Thursday, Matt Frevola (10-3-1) broke the news on Twitter that he will be fighting Drew Dober (26-11, 1 NC) at UFC 288. The two lightweights will toe the line at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, on May 6. Dober confirmed their pairing shortly after Frevola’s announcement, doing so on his Instagram.

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The two 155ers combine with momentum at their respective backs, with five straight knockouts between them. Dober has rattled off three straight, with a triumphant 2022 campaign that began with a wild collision with Terrance McKinney, led to a battle against Rafael Alves and concluded with a thrashing of Bobby Gr…

[embedded content] The coach of recent Bellator MMA victor Alexandr Shabliy broke down the controversial kick that earned his fighter the win.

At Bellator 292, Shabliy scored a front kick to the lower midsection, and his foot slid down to strike the cup of Tofiq Musayev in one fluid motion. Referee Jason Herzog intervened and determined that the incidental contact with the groin was not significant enough to merit a foul call, and Shabliy earned the win by technical knockout. As it turned out, the specific kick the Russian threw was a technique heavily practiced at American Top Team, as ATT striking coach Katel Kubis informed Sherdog of this in an interview on Thursday.

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“It’s a very technical kick that requires timing and precision, and is normally applied between two punches,” Kubis explained. “You can see Tofiq was throwing an overhand, and when Tofiq turned his body, he opened the space Shabliy needed to apply that frontal kick to the abdomen, on…

The final week of this year's Professional Fighters League Challenger Series will feature eight fighters being given a second chance at gaining a contract.

Nearly all of the PFL Challenger Series Week 7 fighters made weight for the four-fight card. The lone miss was Kendly St. Louis, who came in at 156.8 pounds for his lightweight headliner against Paulo Henrique Laia. The rest of the card stayed contract eligible by making weight.

St. Louis (8-4) is coming off a rear-naked choke win over Nick Alley in the first week of the 2023 Challenger Series. The win extended the current win streak for "The Highlander" to five. Meanwhile, Laia (14-6) lost a split decision to Manoel Sousa and will get a chance to put on a more impressive performance.

PFL Challenger Series Week 8: 2nd Chance Fights will air live on FuboTV on Friday at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT.

PFL Challenger Series Week 8 Weigh-in Results:Kendly St. Louis (156.8)* vs. Paulo Henrique Laia (156)Jackie Cataline …

Leading Polish mixed martial arts organization Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki's third card of 2023 will feature an interim featherweight title fight.

The KSW 80</> main event will see featherweights Lom-Ali Eskiev and Robert Ruchala battle for the interim title as two-weight champion Salahdine Parnasse focuses on his upcoming lightweight title unification bout. Both men easily made weight as they both came in at 145 pounds on the dot. All other fighters on the card also made weight.

Eskiev (20-6, 1 NC) is actually coming off a split-decision loss to Daniel Rutkowski in his last outing but had previously won five straight fights. Ruchala is a perfect 8-0 as a professional and is 5-0 within the promotion. The Polish prospect is coming off a split-decision win over Damian Stasiak and will look to claim his first title.

KSW you 80 will stream live on the promotion's website starting at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT on Friday.

KSW 80 Weigh-in Results:Lom-Ali Eskiev (145) …

[embedded content] Setbacks tend to lead to self-examination—a truth to which former Invicta Fighting Championships titleholder Jennifer Maia can certainly relate.

The 34-year-old Maia stumbled out of the gate in 2022 with back-to-back decision defeats to Katlyn Chookagian and Manon Fiorot in the Ultimate Fighting Championship women’s flyweight division, then rebounded by outpointing Maryna Moroz at UFC Fight Night 215 on Nov. 19. In hindsight, it all worked together, from recalibration to redemption.

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“Not much has changed regarding my training,” Maia told Sherdog.com. “We’re still covering all areas. Nothing is skipped. The biggest change was my mindset. I gained mental toughness knowing that I’ve already faced the best in our weight class. The two losses were part of my growth as an athlete. I went into my last fight with a stronger mind. I was more focused on what was necessary to walk away with a victory.”

Maia will carry a 5-5 promotional rec…

If Conor McGregor is to be believed, the originally proposed coaching matchup for “The Ultimate Fighter 31” would have renewed one of the UFC’s great rivalries.

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During an appearance on "The MMA Hour" on Wednesday, McGregor revealed that he was initally expected to coach opposite Nate Diaz on the long-running reality show. That never came to fruition, though, and McGregor instead matched wits with Michael Chandler on “TUF 31.” A date for McGregor vs. Chandler has not been set.

“‘The Ultimate Fighter’ just kind of presented itself. It was originally for me to be against Nate. It was me vs. Nate,” McGregor said. “I did not mind who it was against, to be honest. Nor do I mind who I compete against, that’s widely known.

“I had agreed to it, it was Nate. It was a day or two before and now it’s Chandler. I’m not sure what went down on that end. It was me vs. Chandler and I have no problem with it, I’m happy with it. It’s gonna be a good bout for sure.…

Kamaru Usman had won 19 straight professional fights before Leon Edwards shocked the world with a head kick knockout late in the fifth round of their title clash at UFC 278 this past August.

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For that, Usman doesn’t hesitate to give Edwards his props.

“It’s a beautiful kick … I”m a fan of it,” Usman said during a recent media day appearance.

However, while others — Edwards included — have speculated that Usman might not be the same after suffering his first KO defeat, the man himself points out that he has lost plenty of times in his athletic career. That has him uniquely prepared to rebound in his trilogy bout with Edwards at UFC 286 on Saturday.

“Leon hasn’t wrestled in over 300 wrestling matches like I have,” Usman said. “He hasn’t competed as many times as I have. When you get pinned, I’ve been in the situation where I lost the first wrestling match of the day and now you’re in the consolation bracket and it’s a dogfight to get back up on …

While Kamaru Usman may have been moments away from retaining the welterweight title against Leon Edwards at UFC 278, those waning moments of their August bout turned out to be quite significant indeed.

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Edwards authored one of the biggest upsets of 2022 when he knocked Usman out with a head kick 4:04 into the fifth round of their headlining bout in Salt Lake City, Utah, saving himself from a decision defeat in the process. Since then, Usman has been somewhat dismissive of Edwards while pointing to the fact that he was well ahead on the scorecards prior to the finish.

Edwards understands the logic, but it still doesn’t take away the end result.

“I think when you get knocked out like that, he has to find something to clutch on to,” Edwards said during a media day ahead of UFC 286. “He needs to build the confidence back up because going into it, he thought he could never be taken down, he could never be hurt or knocked out.

“He was winning the fi…

One on Prime Video 8 will have a new main event after the heavyweight title unfication bout between Arjan Singh Bhullar and Anatoliy Malykhin was pulled from the card.

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The Singapore-based promotion announced the news on Wednesday, citing a “shift in broadcaster commitments” as the reason for the cancellation. Bhullar vs. Malykin is expected to be rescheduled for a future One event. As a result, a flyweight kickboxing title bout pitting Superlek Kiatmoo9 against Rodtang Jitmuangnon will serve as the new One on Prime Video 8 headliner.

One on Prime Video 8 takes place on March 24 at Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang, Singapore. The main card airs on Prime Video in the United States at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. ET, while prelims begin at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.

A four-time UFC veteran, Bhullar claimed the undisputed heavyweight crown with a second-round technical knockout victory against Brandon Vera at One Championship “Dangal” in April 2021. Bhullar has…