UFC Vet Kay Hansen Details Being Sexually Assaulted by Father in New Documentary

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UFC and Invicta FC veteran Kay Hansen shares some difficult details from her upbringing in a new documentary.

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On the latest edition of the Invicta “Diary” series, Hansen reveals a sexually abusive relationship with her father, who was also her longtime MMA coach. The approximately 23-minute film was created by Jorge Barbosa, Cynthia Vance and Mark Johnston and released on Tuesday.

“This documentary was a big step for me, not necessarily as a fighter, but as a person,” Hansen wrote on Instagram. “My successes and struggles have all been in the public eye for many years, but everyone has a story behind the scenes. I was raped/SA [sexually assaulted] by my father as a teenager for years. Fighting/training was my escape, and the only form of reality I really had control over.

“I never spoke up about the abuse I endured due to the fear of repercussions that may follow. I tell my story, not to ‘help people get to know me,’ but to …

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Raquel Pennington-Irene Aldana Rematch to Headline UFC Fight Night on May 20

A rematch between Raquel Pennington and Irene Aldana will serve as the main event for UFC Fight Night on May 20.

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The promotion on Tuesday announced the bantamweight pairing — which had initially been rumored for UFC on ESPN 43 in San Antonio. UFC Fight Night takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, and the card will air in its entirety on ESPN+. Pennington and Aldana initially squared off at UFC on ESPN 4 in July 2019, with Pennington prevailing via split decision.

Pennington is currently on a five-bout winning streak in UFC competition. The former bantamweight title challenger was successful in her first venture of 2023, as she garnered a split verdict against Ketlen Vieira at UFC Fight Night 217 on Jan. 14. Her current run also includes victories over the likes of Aspen Ladd, Macy Chiasson, Pannie Kianzad and Marion Reneau.

Aldana, meanwhile, has been victorious in four of her last five Octagon appearances. The Lobo Gym MMA representative…

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Ricky Simon vs. Yadong Song Shifted to UFC Fight Night 223 Main Event

A bantamweight clash pitting Ricky Simon against Yadong Song that was originally slated to be this Saturday’s co-headliner has been shifted one week later to serve as the UFC Fight Night 223 main event.

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The Las Vegas-based promotion announced the change on Monday evening. UFC Fight Night 223 was initially supposed to feature a lightweight clash between Renato Carneiro and Arman Tsarukyan before “Moicano” was forced to withdraw from the card due to injury. Tsarukyan will be removed from the event rather than receiving a replacement opponent.

UFC Fight Night 222, which takes place on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, will move forward with 12 fights, including the Sergei Pavlovich-Curtis Blaydes heavyweight headliner. Simon vs. Song will now be contested over five rounds at UFC Fight Night 223, which is also set for the UFC Apex.

Anchored at American Top Team Portland, Simon has been victorious in his last five Octagon appearances. Most r…

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UFC on ESPN 44 Medical Suspensions: Three Fighters Get 60-Day Terms

Three fighters from Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 44 card are facing 60-day medical suspensions following knockout defeats.

Billy Quarantillo, Matheus Nicolau and Ed Herman were all handed two-month terms by the Missouri Office of Athletics. Each of those suspensions also comes with a 45-day period of no contact. Those three were the longest terms from the event, but the exact nature of each’s fighters suspension was not disclosed.

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UFC on ESPN 44 took place at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo., and saw Max Holloway defeat Arnold Allen via unanimous decision in the evening’s main event. Both Holloway and Allen received 30-day sits following their bout.

UFC on ESPN 44 Medical Suspensions:

Max Holloway: suspended 30 days

Arnold Allen: suspended 30 days

Billy Quarantillo: suspended 60 days with 45 days no contact

Tanner Boser: suspended 45 days with 30 days no contact

Clay Guida: suspended 45 days with 30 days no contact

Mat…

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Charles Oliveira Releases Statement Regarding Withdrawal from UFC 288

Charles Oliveira isn’t taking any chances when it comes to his matchup with Beneil Dariush.

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The former lightweight champion revealed in a video on his Instagram stories Monday that a “small injury” kept him from preparing properly for what was originally supposed to be the UFC 288 co-main event on May 6. The bout has since been pulled from the card with plans to reschedule it for a future event.

“I wasn’t able to train, I got injured during wrestling practice,” Oliveira said in Portuguese (translation via MMAFighting.com). “I tried to train, I tried to do everything I could but we couldn’t, so we pulled out of the fight. [Fighting at UFC 288] would be great because I would be fighting on the same night of two teammates, ‘Willycat’ [Daniel Santos] and Rolando [Bedoya], but God knows all things. We’ll continue working and stay focused.”

Oliveira last appeared at UFC 280 in October, when he lost the lightweight belt to Islam Makhachev in a seco…

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Elite Eight Rise to the Top of the PFL Standings

Here are your Heavyweight standings after the first half of the season #PFLRegularSeason pic.twitter.com/aHnGoaHnGn

— PFL (@PFLMMA) April 17, 2023 Heavyweights Denis Goltsov and Bruno Cappelozza, light heavyweights Marthin Hamlet and Joshua Silveira, women’s featherweight Amber Leibrock and welterweights Magomed Magomedkerimov, Magomed Umalatov and Carlos Leal Miranda all banked the maximum six points in the first leg of the Professional Fighters League regular season. All eight have put themselves in prime position for a playoff push and a shot at a $1 million payday in their respective weight classes.

The PFL kicks off the second half of its 2023 campaign on June 8 in Atlanta. Only the Top 4 competitors in each division advance to the playoffs, which are scheduled to begin in September.

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An up-to-the-minute look at the standings at heavyweight, light heavyweight, welterweight, lightweight, featherweight and women’s fe…
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Bruno Silva’s Reversal of Fortune

[embedded content] Bruno Silva’s five-bout run in the Ultimate Fighting Championship has been something of a Jekyll-and-Hyde experience.

The former M-1 Global champion will attempt to snap a two-fight losing streak when he confronts Brad Tavares in a UFC Fight Night 222 middleweight showcase on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Silva’s recent struggles are made all the more maddening by the fact that he kickstarted his campaign inside the Octagon with consecutive finishes of Wellington Turman, Andrew Sanchez and Jordan Wright, with two of those victories resulting in $50,000 performance bonuses.

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“Those three fights in a row were unforgettable,” he told Sherdog.com. “The bonuses improved and changed my family’s life. I invested the money in our future. It was one of the most incredible periods of my career.”

Prosperity proved fleeting, however. Silva followed a decision defeat to Alex Pereira at UFC Fight Night 203 on March 12, 2022 with a sub…

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Ex-UFC Fighter Karl Roberson Arrested in Connection with Residential Burglary

Former UFC light heavyweight Karl Roberson was arrested in connection with a residential burglary resulting in the theft of more than $200,000 of jewelry and valuables, according to a release from the Howell Township Police Department.

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Roberson was arrested during a motor vehicle stop in Neptune, New Jersey, while driving a vehicle that was connected to the burglary. The vehicle was then searched and found to contain a defaced 9mm handgun with an extended magazine, several packages of suspected “crack cocaine,” marijuana and items related to the burglary. As a result, Roberson was charged with burglary, theft, criminal mischief, possession of controlled dangerous substance and several weapons offenses. MMAFighting.com confirmed Roberson’s identity with Detective Ryan Jackson, who revealed that the fighter was released on bail after being at the county jail for “two to three weeks.”

Roberson and another suspect, Dathan Thompson, were arrested for …

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Robert Drysdale’s New Book Portrays Carlson Gracie as Father of Modern BJJ, MMA

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— ROBERT DRYSDALE (@robertdrysdale) January 13, 2023

Following the success of his first book, “Opening Closed Guard,” multiple-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion Robert Drysdale has released its sequel, “The Rise and Evolution of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: From Vale-Tudo to Carlson Gracie to its Democratization.”

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The new book is divided into four parts —or four waves of practitioners (1930-1967; 1967-1993; 1993-2007 and 2007-present) — as these practitioners were exposed to different brands of jiu-jitsu as the art evolved over time, in both cultural and technical terms.

For this, the author takes a dive into the importance of vale-tudo (anglicized into “MMA”) in shaping the Gracie fighting system away from judo and into a more reality-based approach to combat. It also investigates jiu-jitsu’s continuous evolution inside its first federation as well as how the family feud between Helio and Carl…

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Movsar Evloev Replaces Jonathan Pearce, Meets Bryce Mitchell at UFC 288

Credit: Getty/UFC Credit: Getty/UFC Credit: Getty/UFC Credit: M-1

The undefeated Movsar Evloev will step in for the injured Jonathan Pearce and face Bryce Mitchell at UFC 288.

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The new featherweight booking was announced during the UFC on ESPN 44 broadcast on Saturday night. UFC 288 takes place on May 6 at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., and is headlined by a bantamweight title tilt pitting Aljamain Sterling against Henry Cejudo.

Evloev has kicked off his professional tenure with 16 consecutive triumphs. He is 6-0 in UFC competition and is coming off a unanimous verdict over Dan Ige at UFC Fight Night 207 on June 4. The former M-1 Global champ also owns wins over the likes of Hakeem Dawodu, Nik Lentz and Enrique Barzola.

Mitchell, meanwhile, suffered the first loss of his career at UFC 282, falling to Ilia Topuria via second-round submission this past December. Prior to that, “Thug Nasty” was victorious in his first six Octagon appear…

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Dana White Blames Arnold Allen Corner for Lack of Urgency at UFC on ESPN 44

For all intents and purposes, Arnold Allen performed well in his first five-round fight.

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It just wasn’t well enough to get the win, as the Englishman dropped a five-round verdict to ex-featherweight champ Max Holloway in the UFC on ESPN 44 headliner at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri on Saturday night. UFC president Dana White came away impressed with Allen’s performance but would have liked a little more urgency from “Almighty” down the stretch.

“I thought he looked good,” White said. “He kept the pace, kept the distance, controlled the tempo of the fight. I thought that Allen looked incredible. If you think about it, it’s his first big night ever in a main event, the whole crowd’s against him and he came on too late.

“If he’d have fought the way [he fought] in the fifth round [from] the third round on, he would have had a better chance of winning that fight. I’m not a cornerman or a coach, but I think there should have been a s…

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UFC Targeting Madison Square Garden for Jon Jones-Stipe Miocic Title Bout

It’s unlikely that Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic will square off this summer, but the heavyweight title bout could wind up at one of the most historic arenas in all of professional sports.

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Jones teased a potential booking at Madison Square Garden in New York on Twitter, and UFC president Dana White later confirmed that the venue is now the target for the fight.

“As far as I know everything is good and hopefully we have a fight with him and Stipe very soon,” White said at the UFC on ESPN 44 post-fight press conference. “That’s where we’d like to do it.”

Jones captured the vacant heavyweight strap with a first-round submission of Ciryl Gane at UFC 285 in March. It was the first Octagon appearance for “Bones” in more than three years. Jones signed an eight-fight UFC deal ahead of the bout, but it’s possible that his fighting career will end much sooner than that.

“How cool would it be to spend my retirement fight dominating the greatest heavyweight…

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