Martial Arts News

A former Ultimate Fighting Championship title challenger has joined Professional Fighters League in an executive capacity.

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The organization announced Wednesday that Dan Hardy will serve as director of fighter operations for PFL Europe, the new league that will launch on March 25. Hardy’s role will include identifying talent in the region and ensuring the well being and development of fighters. He will also working alongside global PFL president of fighter operations Ray Sefo on matchmaking decisions.

“I’m excited to be taking on the role of director of fighter operations for PFL Europe. This will allow me to bring together the best MMA prospects from around the region, and give each of them an opportunity to establish themselves as world class talent,” Hardy said in a release. “PFL Europe will bring stability to the opportunities available to European MMA athletes, and I’m honoured to be able to play a role in that process.”

A native of Not…

A women’s flyweight bout between Miranda Maverick and Jasmine Jasudavicius is in the works for UFC 289.

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Maverick announced the bout on Instagram, and MMAFighting.com later confirmed that the booking is expected to be finalized shortly. UFC 289 takes place on June 10 but doesn’t have a location or headliner at this tie.

Maverick went 2-0 in 2022. After submitting Sabina Mazo in the second round of their UFC Fight Night 203 encounter, the Easton Training Center product outpointed Shanna Young at UFC Fight Night 214. Maverick is 4-2 during her tenure with the Las Vegas-based promotion and 11-4 as a professional overall.

Jasudavicius has won two of three Octagon appearances since appearing on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2021. Most recently, the Ontario, Canada, native earned a unanimous decision against Gabriella Fernandes at UFC Fight Night 220 on Feb. 25.

A bantamweight clash between Danny Sabatello and Marcos Breno and a welterweight scrap pitting Levan Chokheli against Michael Lombardo will complete the Bellator 294 main card.

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The promotion announced the two new bouts on Tueday. Bellator 294 takes place at the Neil S. Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu, Hawaii, on April 21 and is headlined by a flyweight championship clash between Liz Carmouche and DeAnna Bennett. The main card airs on Showtime at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT.

Five bouts were confirmed for the Bellator 294 preliminary draw: Alex Polizzi vs. Karl Moore at light heavyweight; Killys Mota vs. Kenneth Cross at lightweight; Tyrell Fortune vs. Sergei Bilostennyi at heavyweight; Cris Lencioni vs. Blake Smith at featherweight and Anthony Adams vs. Sharaf Davlatmurodov at middleweight.

Sabatello had a seven-bout winning streak snapped in his last outing, when he dropped a split decision to Raufeon Stots in the semifinals of the promotion’s bantamwe…

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Former Jungle Fight welterweight champion Quemuel Ottoni will finally make his debut on U.S. soil when he faces Jackson-Wink MMA product Chris Brown at the PFL Challenger Series “Second Chance” event on Friday.

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“I should have made my debut in January, but unfortunately I had a spinal sprain so I postponed it to March,” Ottoni told Sherdog.com.

Ottoni is happy to make his PFL debut against a fellow striker.

“Brown likes to brawl just like myself and that will be good for the fans,” he said. “I hope to impose my game and get a contract signed. I’ve waited a long time to have my chance to fight in the U.S., where everything happens, and I'll not waste that.”

Ottoni is perhaps best known for a third-round submission victory over current UFC middleweight champion Alex Pereira at Jungle Fight 82 in 2015. Since that rear-naked choke win, Ottoni and Pereira have followed totally different career paths. While “Poatan” initially…

UFC veteran and former Strikeforce champion Alistair Overeem has been suspended for one year in relation to his Glory Kickboxing bout against Badr Hari this past October.

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The banned substance for which Overeem tested positive is currently unknown. The 42-year-old Dutchman tested positive on both his A and B samples. In addition to the suspension, Overeem’s victory against Hari has been overturned and he was fined a percentage of his purse. He was also removed from the Glory rankingsVechsportInfo was first to report the sanctions levied against Overeem.

Overeem has not issued a statement regarding the suspension. He will be eligible to return to active competition in October. There were recently rumors that KSW was in talks with Overeem to return to MMA for a clash with heavyweight champion Philip De Fries, but nothing has been confirmed regarding that matchup.

Overeem signed with Glory in 2021 after compiling a 12-8 mark with the UFC from 201…

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While the current narrative from the UFC is that Francis Ngannou ran away from a potential Jon Jones fight, the former heavyweight champion was the person who initially pursued that matchup.

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“Look, I wanted that fight as well. I’m the one that initiated that fight over two years ago,” Ngannou told TMZ Sports. “I wanted that fight, but where was Jon Jones at that time? I don’t know. Nobody seems interested, even Dana White. Nobody seems to be interested. They always find a way to go around it.

“Today, it’s not about that fight, it’s not that they wanted to give me that fight, it’s the price it was going to cost me to get that fight. I chased that fight for as long as I could and, listen, I learned in life that you have to let it go. You have to let things go, otherwise, they’ll cut your hand and take your hand away. I wanted that fight so bad, and I couldn’t have it at any cost. That’s what I will always say.”

When the two si…

Aaron Pico will return to action for the first time since injuring his shoulder this past October when he faces Otto Rodrigues at Bellator 295.

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MMAjunkie.com was first to report the featherweight booking. Additionally, MMFighting.com has confirmed that a 145-pound clash pitting Mads Burnell against Justin Gonzales is also set for the event. Bellator 295 takes place at the Neil S. Blaisdell Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, on April 22 and is headlined by a bantamweight grand prix final matchup between Raufeon Stots and Patrick Mix.

Pico suffered a first-round TKO loss to Jeremy Kennedy at Bellator 286 due to a shoulder injury suffered in the bout. That snapped a six-bout Bellator winning streak for the 26-year-old Jackson-Wink MMA product.

A 34-year-old native of Rio de Janeiro, Rodrigues has compiled a 13-1 mark since beginning his professional tenure in 2007. Most recently, Rodrigues outpointed Carlos Augusto Santos da Silva at LFA 112 in July …

Final Week of the 2023 PFL Challenger Series is HERE7⃣Weeks of Challenger Series7⃣PFL Contracts Awarded1⃣PFL Contract 𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐋𝐋 𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐀𝐁𝐋𝐄

Fights are 𝗟𝗜𝗩𝗘 & 𝗙𝗥𝗘𝗘 on @fuboSports

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[ #PFLonFubo | Second Chance Night | Fri, March 17th | 9pm ET] pic.twitter.com/zMOPsSooMA — PFL (@PFLMMA) March 13, 2023

The second season of PFL Challenger Series will conclude with its “Second Chance” event on Friday night.

The promotion on Tuesday announced the full lineup for the card, which features athletes who failed to earn PFL conracts on previous editions of the Challenger Series. PFL Challenger Series “Second Chance” will be headined by a lightweight showdown between Kendly St. Louis and Paulo Henrique Laia. In the co-main event, Jackie Cataline will face Evelyn Martins in a women’s featherweight contest.

Other bouts announced for the card are as follows: Denzel Freeman vs. Raiden Kovacs at heavyweight; Quemuel Ottoni vs…

A flyweight showdown pitting Kai Kara France against Amir Albazi is on tap for an Utimate Fighting Championship event on June 3.

MMAFighting.com confirmed the booking after Albazi announced it on social media. The UFC Fight Night card doesn’t yet have an official location or venue. It is also expected to include a women's bantamweight clash between Miesha Tate and Mayra Bueno Silva.

Kara France last appeared at UFC 277, where he suffered a third-round technical knockout loss to current flyweight king Brandon Moreno last July. He was supposed to face Alex Perez at UFC 284 but was forced to withdraw from the card due to injury.

Albazi, meanwhile, has lost just once in 17 professional outings. The Baghdad, Iraq, native has kicked off his promotional tenure with four straight triumphs, including a third-round KO of Alessandro Costa in his most recent appearance at UFC Fight Night 216.

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Stephen Thompson recently got to spend some time with Conor McGregor in Las Vegas, and it was an interesting experience, to say the least.

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The fighters share the same management, and “Wonderboy” was able to work with the former UFC two-division champion as he prepares to face Michael Chandler after coaching on “The Ultimate Fighter 31.” No date has been set for the fight, but it will be McGregor’s first appearance since breaking his leg against Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 in July 2021. When it happens, Thompson expects to see some familiar elements return to the Irish star’s game.

“For someone to come off of an injury like that, his mindset is like it didn’t even happen,” Thompson said in an interview with Submission Radio. “He’s getting back to his roots, his karate. He’s never trained in karate, but he’s trained with a lot of karate fighters and that’s where he gets a lot of his movement from. For instance, when he fought Jose Ald…

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While Jon Jones only just made his triumphant return to the Octagon at UFC 285, there’s plenty of mystery surrounding how long the newly-crowned heavyweight king will stick around the sport.

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So far, “Bones” has said he wants to face former heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic in a legacy-defining bout, but he hasn’t made his plans known beyond that. Jones vs. Miocic is rumored for UFC 290 on July 8, but the fight has not been made official at this point in time. Still, it seems all but guaranteed the matchup will happen — it’s just a matter of settling on a date and venue.

“Here’s the thing that makes this so awesome, you have the greatest mixed martial artist of all-time facing the greatest heavyweight of all-time,” UFC president Dana White recently told TMZ Sports. “It literally doesn’t get any better than that. These are the kinds of fights you dream about making.”

While it was recently revealed that Jones signed a new eight-f…

Raphael Assuncao was perhaps mere seconds away from winning a decision against Davey Grant at UFC Fight Night 221.

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That all changed when Grant rocked him with a spinning back fist, setting the stage for the Englishman to finish the contest with an inverted triangle at the 4:43 mark of Round 3. Prior to that finish, Assuncao had banked two rounds two of the three cageside judges scorecards. Instead, the Brazilian veteran left his gloves in the cage and announced his retirement following a heartbreaking defeat.

“This sport is so crazy, you know. Anything can turn around in a flick of a second,” Assuncao said in a backstage interview with the UFC. “It feels like it happened to me today. I have never been in that type of situation. Either I lose or win, or I control the fight. It’s a mix of emotions right now. Crazy job.

“I’ve had a great career. I don’t feel super accomplished. You can always do more. I’m very critical of myself. I was able to …