Martial Arts News

The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s return to Boston will feature two title fights at the top of the card.

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Dana White announced on Tuesday that UFC 292 will take place in Boston on Aug. 19 and will be headlined by a bantamweight championship clash between Aljamain Sterling and Sean O'Malley. In the co-main event, Weili Zhang will defend her strawweight crown against Amanda Lemos.

Sterling will make a relatively quick turnaround after taking a hard-fought split-decision triumph against Henry Cejudo in the UFC 288 main event on May 6. “The Funkmaster” has won his last nine promotional appearances, a run that includes successful title defenses against Cejudo, T.J. Dillashaw and Petr Yan.

O’Malley, meanwhile, is unbeaten in his last five bouts and is 8-1 in UFC competition overall. One of the biggest stars to emerge from Dana White’s Contender Series, “Sugar” Sean secured a title shot with a cotentious split-decision win against Yan at UFC 280 t…

Not only did Matt Brown set a knockout record at UFC on ABC 4, but he also walked away with the highest payday from the event.

Brown took home $250,000 for his first-round knockout of Court McGee ($60,000) on Saturday at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, N.C., according to salary figures released by the NC Boxing and Combat Sport Commission. Brown’s KO was his 13th, tying him with Derrick Lewis for No. 1 all-time in promotion history.

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UFC on ABC 4 was headlined by a heavyweight tilt between Jailton Almeida ($102,000) and Jairzinho Rozenstruik ($130,000), which Almeida won via first-round submission. All told, eight fighters garnered six-figure paychecks for their work in Charlotte.

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 …

Fabricio Werdum has entered the Francis Ngannou sweepstakes.

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After Ngannou confirmed his signing with the PFL, Werdum published a video on his Instagram account challenging “The Predator” to face him at a soccer stadium in Brazil. The video shows Werdum being cheered at Gremio Arena, where he was celebrated after winning the UFC heavyweight crown in 2015.

“We brought 48,000 to Curitiba to see my fight with [Stipe Miocic] in the UFC, which is already the national record for an MMA event in Brazil and one of the top five biggest audiences in UFC history. I have no doubt that if Ngannou accepts my challenge to fight at Gremio soccer stadium we will pack the arena with 60,000 people and beat that record,” Werdum said.

Werdum says he would relish the role of underdog in a hypothetical matchup against Ngannou. It’s a position with which he is quite familiar.

“I love to fight as underdog,” he said. “I was also huge underdog against Fedor [Emelianen…

Three fighters are no longer with the Ultimate Fighting Championship following losses at the promotion’s event this past Saturday.

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Twitter account UFC Roster Watch initially brought word that Jessica-Rose Clark, Chase Sherman and Ji Yeon Kim are no longer on the roster, and the news was later confirmed by MMAFighting.com. It is unclear if the athletes were released from their contracts or simply not re-signed. All three suffered defeats at UFC on ABC 4 in Charlotte.

Clark fell to Tainara Lisboa via third-round submission in the card’s opening bout. It was the third straight loss in UFC competition for the bantamweight known as “Jessy Jess.” The 35-year-old Australian went 4-5 during her promotional tenure.

Sherman, meanwhile, went 4-11 over two separate UFC stints. “The Vanilla Gorilla” lost six of his last seven Octagon appearances, including a decision setback against Karl Williams at UFC Charlotte on Saturday.

Finally, Kim exits th…

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Francis Ngannou wasn’t looking out for only himself when he signed with Professional Fighters League.

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The former UFC heavyweight champion took to YouTube to go over some of the details of his deal, which was initially announced early Tuesday morning. While Ngannou isn’t expected to fight for PFL until 2024, one of the most interesting aspects of the contract was the money it appears to have secured for his first opponent.

“This is the best business decision that I have ever done,” Ngannou said in the video. “At the beginning of my free agency I didn’t know that I could have a deal structure where I could have all this in one deal. I have myself a good guarantee, which is more important. And most importantly, I was even able to have a guarantee of $2 million for my opponent, [so] whomever I’m going to fight next is going to make money too.”

As previously reported, Ngannou will compete in PFL’s pay-per-view superfight division,…

After months of speculation, MMA’s biggest free agent has landed.

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Professional Fighters League (PFL) announced on Tuesday that former Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou has signed a mixed martial arts deal to fight in its Superfight Division. The news was first reported by the New York Times.

🚨 BREAKING 🚨"The Predator" @francis_ngannou is PFL bound!

He’s set to fight in the PFL’s PPV Superfight division https://t.co/Jal3clCZhW pic.twitter.com/5RRaG7oFwr

— PFL (@PFLMMA) May 16, 2023

PFL’s Superfight Division, which also includes celebrity boxer Jake Paul, will pay its fighters a 50% share of revenue generated by their fights. According to the NYT article, Ngannou will not fight for the organization until 2024 because it is expected that he will first compete in a boxing match this year. It is yet to be determined whether his opponent will be Tyson Fury, who has publicly embraced t…

Jailton Almeida announced his presence to the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s heavyweight division in a major way on Saturday.

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“Maladinho” made short work of Jairzinho Rozenstruik in the UFC on ABC 4 main event, winning via rear-naked choke 3:43 into the opening round of their encounter at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, N.C. It was a dominant performance that saw the Brazilian take his foe down with relative ease, advance position and lock in the fight-ending maneuver when the opportunity presented itself. Almeida has won 13 straight professional fights — including five within the Las Vegas-based promotion. It was exactly the type of showing that could help fast-track Almeida to the top of the division.

“This guy looks like he’s going to be a star in the heavyweight division….” UFC president Dana White said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference.

“His double leg is insane. When he gets that top position, he doesn’t screw around. He go…

Kron Gracie has broken his silence following a listless showing in a decision loss to Charles Jourdain at UFC 288.

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In his first bout since October 2019, Gracie attempted just 57 significant strikes over three rounds and repeatedly attempted to lure Jourdain into his guard. However, Gracie’s efforts to engage his foe in a grappling match were largely unsuccessful, as Jourdain outlanded him on the feet and neutralized him on the ground in a forgettable encounter.

Gracie addressed the performance in a post on his Instagram stories, blaming “bad advice” and a desire to please the jiu-jitsu community for his one-dimensional approach.

“In a lifetime of fighting, it’s always been a fight to the death,” Gracie wrote. “Understand the situation and willing to limit myself, even that being said I threw no punches because of bad advice and tried to please the jiu-jitsu community two days before my fight. First fight in my life I didn’t throw a punch, goi…

With a new Bellator deal in hand, it appears that Cristiane Justino has a target for her next title defense.

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During the Bellator 296 broadcast last Friday, “Cyborg” discussed her future plans with Combate commentator Ana Hissa. The reigning featherweight queen revealed that Cat Zigano will likely be her next opponent, and there’s a chance that the bout could take place in Brazil.

“Cat Zingano is next. She's been training a lot, and I believe it's going to be a great fight. I'm just waiting for her to sign the contract, because she should have been fighting for the belt for a while now,” Justino said.

According to “Cyborg,” Bellator president Scott Coker has expressed excitement regarding the possibility of holding the fight in her home country.

“In one of the conversations I had with Scott Coker, he said he really wants to take my fight against Cat to Brazil. It would be a pleasure to defend the belt in my country,” she said. “When I ha…

Fabian Edwards cemented his position as the No. 1 contender in Bellator’s middleweight division with his victory over Gegard Mousasi this past Friday. Now he has a date for his bout with reigning champion Johnny Eblen.

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Promotion officials on Monday announced that Eblen will defend his 185-pound belt against Edwards in the main event of a Bellator card at the 3Arena in Dublin on Sept. 23. Two other contests were announced for the event, as Brian Moore will face Otto Rodrigues at featherweight, while Mads Burnell will lock horns with Daniel Weichel in another 145-pound clash. Bellator Dublin will air in the United States at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT.

Eblen, 31, is undefeated in 13 professional appearances — nine of which have occurred under the Bellator banner. He claimed middleweight gold with a five-round verdict over Mousasi at Bellator 282 in July 2022 before defending the strap with a unanimous decision win over Anatoly Tokov in his most recent outin…

It is probably fair at this point to call Jailton Almeida a serious problem for the Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight division.

In the main event of UFC on ABC 4 on Saturday at Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, Almeida (19-2, 5-0 UFC) needed just 3:43 to overwhelm Jairzinho Rozenstruik on the ground. The chiseled Brazilian entered as an overwhelming favorite and the bout played out more or less as expected, with Almeida exploiting Rozenstruik’s porous wrestling and grappling on his way to an effortless-looking win. “Bigi Boy” managed to turn aside Almeida’s first takedown attempt, a double-leg from too far outside in the opening moments, but Almeida tried again seconds later and was successful, wrapping up Rozenstruik’s legs and tipping him over in the middle of the cage. “Malhadinho” immediately moved to half-guard and worked to advance, chipping away with short strikes and moving the bigger man to the fence. With under two minutes to go in Round 1, Al…

Sherdog's live UFC on ABC 4 coverage will begin Saturday at 12 p.m. ET. BETTING PREVIEW | SCOUTING REPORT | ODDS: Clark (-120), Lisboa (+100)Round 1 The world-famous Octagon sets down in the beautiful city of Charlotte, North Carolina, for an abbreviated fight card that should bring with it plenty of action. Needing no further introduction, this event staged on the ABC network will begin in the women’s bantamweight division, as company veteran Clark (11-8, 1 NC; 4-4 UFC) comes to blows with newcomer Lisboa (5-2, 0-0 UFC). While Clark’s UFC record sits at .500, she has more experience with the promotion alone than Lisboa holds in pro MMA bouts, so it remains to be seen how Lisboa’s muay thai tenure will bolster her resume. The combat begins under the watchful eye of referee Larry Carter, where it kicks off courtesy of a clap of hands. Lisboa backs off to find her space immediately, and she sticks out two hands to score on Clark early. Clark fires back, and short little skirm…