Martial Arts News

The fallout from the litany of failed drug tests during Professional Fighters League’s first leg of the regular season continued at a Nevada State Athletic Commission meeting on Tuesday.

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Defending light heavyweight champion Rob Wilkinson was one of seven fighters who received sanctions from the NSAC. Wilkinson, who defeated ex-UFC title challenger Thiago Santos via unanimous decision in the PFL 1 main event on April 1, tested positive for an elevated testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio resulting from the androgynous origin of testosterone in relation to that bout. As a result, he was suspended nine months and fined $7,500 along with $821 in legal feels. Additionally, Wilkinson’s victory was overturned to a no contest.

Santos, one of the organization’s high-profile free agent signings, did not emerge unscathed. “Marreta” tested positive for clomiphene, an estrogen receptor module, in relation to the bout and was suspended six months and fined $12,…

Herb Dean will be the third man in the cage when Alexander Volkanovski defends his featherweight crown against Yair Rodriguez in the UFC 290 main event.

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Meanwhile, Mike Bell, Ron McCarthy and Sal D’Amato will score the headliner from cageside. The Nevada Athletic Commission on Tuesday appointed the referees and judges for the two championships fights at UFC 290, which takes place on July 8 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Dean officiated Volkanoski title defenses against Max Holloway (UFC 251), Brian Ortega (UFC 266) and Chan Sung Jung (UFC 273) before Marc Goddard oversaw the City Kickboxing standout’s last two efforts.

In the evening’s co-feature, Jason Herzog will referee the flyweight title tilt between Brandon Moreno and Alexandre Pantoja, while Ben Cartlidge, Junichiro Kamijo and Derek Cleary will serve as judges. In recent bouts, Herzog was the third man in the cage for two of Moreno’s four championship meetings with Deiveson Figueiredo.

Kai Kara-France will square off against Manel Kape in a flyweight clash at UFC 293.

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ESPN was first to report the pairing, which is close to being finalized. UFC 293 takes place at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia on Sept. 9. While a headliner has not been announced for the card, reigning middleweight champ Israel Adesanya is expected to defend his title at the event.

Kara-France last appeared in the UFC on ESPN 46 main event, where he suffered a split-decision loss to Amir Albazi on June 3. It was the second consecutive defeat for the City Kickboxing representative, who suffered a third-round TKO defeat to Brandon Moreno in an interim title bout at UFC 277. “Don’t Blink” is is 7-4 in UFC competition, with wins over the likes of Askar Askarov, Cody Garbrandt and Rogerio Bontorin.

A former Rizin bantamweight champion, Kape has won three straight contests after dropping his first two Octagon appearances. Most recently, “Starboy” took a thr…

In approximately 15 months’ time, Jailton Almeida has made a name for himself by winning five consecutive UFC appearances — all inside the distance.

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That run of success resulted in a booking against Curttis Blaydes in the main event of UFC Sao Paolo on Nov. 4. It wasn’t Almeida’s first choice of opponent, but the Brazilian had no issues taking the fight.

"I asked for No. 6 ranked [Tai Tuivasa] anywhere. Hunter [Campbell] offered the No. 4 in Sao Paulo; we immediately accepted,” Almeida said. “He's been in the UFC for seven years. I arrived 15 months ago. He's the one who has all the pressure on his shoulders.”

Almedia looking forward to fighting in his home country and not having to adjust to different time zones for the first time in his UFC tenure.

“I’m used to traveling for up to 24 hours (including connections). It’s going to be great to be able to fight two hours away from Salvador with the support of my fans,” Almeida said.

A…

Bellator veteran Cris Lencioni is hospitalized in the intensive care unit (ICU) after suffering a cardiac arrest during training earlier this month.

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Lencioni’s wife, Marca, revealed the fighter’s condition in a post on Instagram.

“On Thursday 6/8 there was an incident while Cris was training, and he experienced a cardiac arrest. The athletes at the gym were great and immediately called 911 and did their best to address his needs until paramedics arrived,” she wrote.

“We are currently in another state. He has been under the care of excellent doctors with I and much of his family by his side. We are all hopeful for the progress we know he will continue to make … We are currently in uncharted territory and taking everything day by day.”

A GoFundMe page has also been started on Lencionci’s behalf to help with the costs of his medical care. Bellaor MMA released a statement on Lencioni’s condition.

"We are aware of Cris Lencioni's curr…

A pivotal bantamweight clash pitting Henry Cejudo against Marlon Vera has been added to the UFC 292 lineup.

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ESPN was first to report the booking. Both fighters have verbally agreed to the bout, which is expected to be finalized soon. UFC 292 takes place at the TD Garden Arena in Boston on Aug. 19 and is headlined by a bantamweight title tilt between Aljamain Sterling and Sean O’Malley.

Cejudo returned from a nearly three-year retirement at UFC 288, where he lost a closely contested split decision to Sterling on May 6. The Olympic gold medalist and former two-division champion had won six consecutive UFC appearances from 2017 to 2020, bestling the likes of Dominick Cruz, Marlon Moraes, T.J. Dillashaw, Demetrious Johnson and Sergio Pettis during that period.

Vera, meanwhile, had a four-bout winning streak snapped in his last outing, when he fell to Cory Sandhagen via split decision in the UFC on ESPN 43 headliner on March 25. “Chito” owns a re…

When it comes to the best light heavyweights in the world, Vadim Nemkov is at or near the top of most lists.

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According to Bellator president Scott Coker, Nemkov solidified his spot as the best 205-pound talent with his dominant title defense against Yoel Romero in the Bellator 297 headliner on Friday night in Chicago.

“Nemkov to me is the best 205-pounder on the planet in any MMA league, including better than the UFC 205-ers,” Coker said at the Bellator 297 post-fight press conference.

“I think what you saw [at Bellator 297] was his speed, agility, his combinations. He can kick, he can punch, he can take you down, he can defend. He can do it all. I think that’s what you saw tonight.”

Romero, a former middleweight title challenger in the UFC, absorbed a lot of damage from Nemkov over the course of the five-round fight. Other than a late takedown and some attempts to lull Nemkov to sleep with a drunken master style, Romero struggled to au…

Sergio Pettis wasn’t exactly the picture of confidence heading into his title defense against Patricio Freire.

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“I thought I was gonna lose this fight. I ain’t gonna lie,” Pettis said at the Bellator 297 post-fight press conference. “I was telling my girl, if I lose to anybody it’s OK to lose to Patricio ‘Pitbull. ‘He’s a legend.”

Pettis then stopped to clarify that statement.

“I didn’t think I was gonna lose. I was just having battles in my mind,” he added. “I was kind of nervous, scared — all of the above. 18 months off of competing. I kind of forgot how all this felt. It’s the opposite of Nate Diaz. I am surprised motherf—ers.”

In his first fight since recovering from knee surgery, Pettis proved the doubters — and himself — wrong in a complete performance, as he confounded Freire with his speed and striking in a clear-cut unanimous decision triumph on Friday night in Chicago. Ultimately, Pettis believes those battles might have helped him …

Shortly after Jared Cannonier outdueled Marvin Vettori in a wildly entertaining slugfest at UFC on ESPN 47, the “The Killa Gorilla” was presented with the prospect of facing Khamzat Chimaev in his next bout.

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While Chimaev is one of the promotion’s fastest rising stars, Cannonier is only interested in such a matchup if the terms make sense for his future goals in the UFC’s middleweight division. After all, Chimaev isn’t really established at 185 pounds, but his future could be in the division after missing weight badly ahead of his last appearance at UFC 279.

“Does that fight get me a title shot? You think so? I don’t know. He’s not even ranked at middleweight, is he?” Cannonier said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “I know he’s popular. Everybody wants to see him do his thing and stuff like that. If they called me and said, ‘Hey, Khamzat for contender’s match?’ That’s a yes.

“I’m trying to get to the title. I’m not just fighting to e…

Ante Delija and Larissa Pacheco were two of the five athletes from PFL 5 to earn six-figure paychecks.

The Georgia Athletic and Entertainment Commission released salaries from the event to MMAjunkie.com on Sunday. PFL 5 took place on Friday at Overtime Elite Arena in Atlanta and saw Delija ($100,000) take a unanimous decision over Maurice Greene ($21,000) in the main event, while Pacheco ($100,000) scored a 45-second TKO against Amber Leibrock ($11,000) in the evening’s co-headliner.

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Three other winners from PFL also took home $100,000 paydays: Denis Goltsov, Aspen Ladd and Julia Budd.

Note: The disclosed purses reported by state athletic commissions do not include any performance-based or discretionary bonuses that may be awarded to a fighter by the promotion. Additionally, the reported figures do not reflect any deductions made by the commission for taxes, insurance, etc., and do not include any sponsorship money that a fighter may acquire for t…

Count Arman Tsarukyan among those who are skeptical that Michael Chandler and Conor McGregor are ever going to square off in the Octagon.

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Tsarukyan called out Chandler following his third-round technical knockout victory against Joaquim Silva in the UFC on ESPN 47 co-main event on Saturday night. The 26-year-old Russian has been victorious in seven of eight UFC appearances since falling to reigning lightweight king Islam Makhachev in his promotional debut.

“If you want to ask me, for sure I want to fight with Michael Chandler,” Tsarukyan said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “Because it looks like his fight with Conor McGregor is over. He got to fight with someone, and I am here. I have good win streak and let’s do this fight, because I’m the youngest guy in top 15. He’s the older one. I think for fans it’s good when new generation fights with older generation.”

Hey @MikeChandlerMMA if you think the fight with …

A five round battle between two absolute warriors in tonight's main event 🤜🤛@MarvinVettori & Jared Cannonier take home tonight's FOTN 💰 #UFCVegas75

B2YB @ToyoTires pic.twitter.com/HHlanhXUBC

— UFC (@ufc) June 18, 2023 The Ultimate Fighting Championship awarded four fighters performance bonuses following the UFC on ESPN 47 card.

The main event took home fight of the night honors as the middleweight showcase was an early fight of the year contender. Jared Cannonier weathered an early storm to put on an incredible performance against Marvin Vettori, who showed a strong chin and much resilience as the fight continued. Cannonier would ultimately win a unanimous decision win with scores of 49-45, 49-45 and 48-46 in his favor.

Two other fighters earned performance of the night bonuses with impressive knockout wins. First was Alessandro Costa, whose brutal win over Jimmy Flick earned him an extra $50,000. Costa delivered brutal elbo…