Martial Arts News

Defending Professional Fighters League lightweight champion Olivier Aubin-Mercier will get first crack at prized free-agent signing Shane Burgos.

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Aubin-Mercier vs. Burgos will serve as the featured bout for PFL 3: 2023 Regular Season at the Theater at Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas on Friday. The main card airs early on ESPN and ESPN+ beginning at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT. It will be Burgos’ PFL debut after compiling an 8-3 mark in the UFC.

While Aubin-Mercier is well aware of his opponent’s entertaining fighting style, he thinks that could work against Burgos during the grind of the PFL season, which requires more activity than a typical MMA schedule.

“I think it’s gonna be tough for him since he’s kind of a kamikazee in the ring,” Aubin-Mercier said during a PFL media day. “He’s a really fun fighter. He has a big heart. PFL is four fights in eight months, so I think it’s gonna be tough for his style. Everybody is gonna tune in to see the fight and se…

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Nate Diaz’s first venture since leaving the UFC figures to draw plenty of eyes.

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Most Valuable Promotions and Real Fight Inc., announced on Wednesday that Diaz will square off against Jake Paul in a boxing match on Aug. 5 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. The bout will be contested at 185 pounds over eight rounds, with both athletes wearing 10-ounce gloves, according to a release. The event will air live on pay-per-view via DAZN as well as all major cable and satellite providers.

Diaz ended his Octagon tenure last September following a fourth-round submission victory against Tony Ferguson at UFC 279. That fulfilled Diaz’s contract with the Las Vegas-based promotion. Diaz emerged as one of the UFC’s biggest stars over the course of promotional tenure that began in 2007 after he won “The Ultimate Fighter 5.” He compiled a 16-11 mark in the Octagon and reached the pinnacle of his star power when he submitted McGregor at UFC 1…

A heavyweight tilt pitting Daniel James against Gokhan Saricam is among several additions to the Bellator 297 bill.

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The California-based promotion announced multiple bouts for the event, including the James-Saricam clash that is set for the evening’s main draw. Additionally, the following seven contests were confirmed for the prelims: Roman Faraldo vs. Bobby Nash at welterweight; Gadzhi Rabadanov vs. Pieter Buist at lightweight; Jaleel Willis vs. Ramazan Kuramagomedov at welterweight; Alex Polizzi vs. Karl Moore at light heavyweight; Archie Colgan vs. Emmanuel Sanchez at lightweight; Norbert Novenyi Jr. vs. Kamil Oniszczuk at middleweight and Timur Khizriev vs. Richie Smullen at featherweight.

Bellator 297 takes place on June 16 at Wintrust Arena in Chicago and is headlined by a light heavyweight title clash between Vadim Nemkov and Yoel Romero. In the co-main event, Sergio Pettis will defend the bantamweight strap against reigning featherweight k…

A trilogy of sorts is on tap for UFC 290, as Brandon Moreno will defend his flyweight crown against Alexandre Pantoja on July 8 in Las Vegas.

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UFC chief business officer Hunter Campbell confirmed the booking to promotion broadcast partner ESPN on Wednesday. Freak MMA first reported the title bout. UFC 290 takes place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and also features a featherweight championship clash pitting Alexander Volkanovski against Yair Rodriguez. According to ESPN, Volkanovski vs. Rodriguez is expected to be the evening’s headliner, while Moreno vs. Pantoja will serve as the co-main event. That likely means that the rumored heavyweight championship showdown between Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic has now been targeted for another date.

Moreno and Pantoja have already squared off twice in MMA, though only one of those was an official bout. Both men were on Season 24 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” and Pantoja submitted Moreno via second-round submi…

Once a highly-touted prospect, Cynthia Calvillo has been released from the UFC roster.

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Twitter account UFC Roster Watch initially brought word of Calvillo’s release, and it was later confirmed by MMAFighting.com.

Calvillo suffered her fifth consecutive defeat at UFC 287 this past Saturday, as she dropped a split decision to Lupita Godinez in a preliminary strawweight bout. Based on a statement released on her Instagram, Calvillo seemed to be in good spirits following the setback.

“Hell of a fight. Physically and mentally this was the best I’ve felt in a long time,” she wrote. “Didn’t get the result we worked for but still gained a lot. It feels good to be back at strawweight and I can’t wait to see what’s next.”

Calvillo vacillated between strawweight and flyweight during a 13-bout UFC tenure. She made her promotional debut with just a 3-0 professional mark and proceeded to go 6-1-1 in her first eight UFC appearances. She fell on hard…

After winning $1 million and the lightweight championship in the 2021 PFL season, Raush Manfio was prevented from taking part in last year’s postseason due to a loss against eventual 155-pound winner Olivier Aubin-Mercier.

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Ten months have passed since that defeat, and now the Brazilian is ready to kick off his 2023 campaign against Alex Martinez as part of the PFL 3 card. PFL 3 takes place on Friday at The Theater at Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas. Manfio vs. Martinez is part of the “late card” that begins on ESPN+ at 9:30 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT. The main card airs earlier, on ESPN and ESPN+ at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.

"Since last year I’m working hard in all areas in order to evolve technically, and that’s what I’m bringing Friday, a much better version of myself for this season,” Manfio told Sherdog.com.

Even though close friend and two-time PFL champ Natan Schulte will face Steven Ray on the same night, Manfio says the American Top Team stablemates…

Taking this moment to apologize to @GamebredFighter and his team @mikebrownmma @AmericanTopTeam pic.twitter.com/jNZva97ugO

— GILBERT BURNS DURINHO (@GilbertDurinho) April 11, 2023 Gilbert Burns has walked back his claim that Jorge Masvidal was greasing during their UFC 287 matchup.

At Saturday’s post-fight press conference, “Durinho” said that Masvidal was especially slippery, which made grappling more difficult than usual. He then insinuated that his opponent might have applied lotion multiple times on Saturday before their co-main event bout.

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“I know those old tricks those guys do. You know what they do? They wake up on [Saturday] and they take the first shower and they put a lot of lotion on the body,” Burns said at the press conference. “The skin absorbs the lotion, and then after three hours, you do it again, and then after you do it again, and then after you do it again, and your body absorbs. Whenever you start swea…

It appears that Deiveson Figueiredo won’t be moving to the bantamweight division just yet.

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After his loss to Brandon Moreno at UFC 283 in January, it was expected that the former flyweight king would move to 135 pounds for his next promotional appearance. Case in point: On the heels of a victory against Adrian Yanez at UFC 287, Rob Font called for an opportunity to weclome the Brazilian to the bantamweight division.

Not so fast, says Figueiredo.

“That will not happen for now,” Figueiredo told Sherdog.com in response to Font. “After talking to my manager, Urijah Faber, and my trainer, I’ve decided to stay in flyweight division. I still have a story to write there. I want to have my three next fights at flyweight.”

According to the former champion, his initial plan is face the winner of the possible next title bout between Brandon Moreno and Alexandre Pantoja. Moreno vs. Pantoja has not been formally announced by the UFC, …

By most accounts, the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s first event in Miami since 2003 was a smashing success.

“There’s a new sheriff in town, ladies and gentlemen,” UFC president Dana White said at the UFC 287 post-fight press conference. “Miami beat [the last] Madison Square Garden [gate at UFC 281 in November] – last gate there was $11.5 [million] and it was the same [headliner]. Unbelievable. When you think that last time we came here, we did a gate of $446,000, and now we just beat Madison Square Garden.

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UFC 287 at the Kaseya Center in Miami marked the promotion’s first venture to the city since UFC 42 in April 2003, when Matt Hughes defeated Sean Sherk in a welterweight title bout in the evening’s main event. This time around, Israel Adesanya provided an electric ending to the festivities with a second-round knockout of Alex Pereira.

While the action in the Octagon was memorable, White praised the city for providing a great atmosphere througho…

After finally getting over the hump against Alex Pereira at UFC 287, Israel Adesanya admittedly had no issue with being petty.

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In the moments immediately after his second-round knockout of “Poatan” at the Kaseya Center in Miami on Saturday, Adesanya pointed to the Brazilian’s son in the crowd and collapsed to the canvas. The taunt was a response to a similar move Pereira’s son did in the ring some six years earlier after the Brazilian knocked out Adesanya in a kickboxing match.

“I’m petty,” Adesanya said at the UFC 287 post-fight press conference. “I remember. The first time he knocked me out in Brazil, his son came into the ring and then just started to lie dead next to me. I’m like, ‘You f—-ing little a—hole, I’ll whoop your ass if your dad don’t do it for you.’ I looked for his kid, I pointed at him, and I saw him and I was like, ‘Hey, hey, hey,’ just to remind him.”

Alex Peireira son learn a valuable lesson tonight …

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After breaking his right hand in a loss to Stephen Thompson this past December, Kevin Holland wasn’t exactly sure how he would feel against Santiago Ponzinibbio at UFC 287.

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Things turned out pretty well for Holland, as he knocked out Ponzinibbio 3:16 into the third round of their featured welterweight encounter on Saturday night in Miami.

“It felt pretty good, especially going in there against a knockout artist like Ponzinibbio. No excuses, but I really didn’t know how my right hand was gonna be playing into this fight,” Holland said in a backstage interview with the UFC. “[After I] had broken it the last time, as soon as I got cleared I was in here about a week or two later. I didn’t think it was gonna play out right, but thank God I’ve got a left hand as well.”

Indeed, it was a left hook from Holland that proved to be the decisive blow, as he evened his mark at 170 pounds to 2-2 in the UFC. “The Trailblazer” admitted to h…

Rob Font entered a firefight with Adrian Yanez at UFC 287, and after a little less than three minutes, emerged with an enthralling technical knockout victory.

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“I don’t know how not to get into something like that,” Font admitted at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “I believe he’s the same way. I like to say I want to stay calm, it just never happens. It felt good to be back. Big ‘W,’ just all smiles right now.”

Font entered the matchup with Yanez on the heels of back-to-back losses to Marlon Vera and Jose Aldo. To maintain his footing at bantamweight, he had to hold off a surging contender who was previously unbeaten in five UFC appearances.

“Obviously losing to Chito and Aldo sucked,” Font said. “I needed to bounce back for myself, for my team, for my family. To go out and do it on a big pay-per-view against a dangerous guy like Adrian, I’m all smiles. I can’t stop cheesing.”

More than anything, Font needed to prove to himself that he…