Martial Arts News

Khabib Nurmagomedov’s kindness even extends to his fellow coaches.

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American Kickboxing Academy coach Javier Mendez recently revealed yet another benevolent gesture from the former Ultimate Fighting Championship champ. During a recent episode of Mendez’s podcast, his co-host congratulated him on his new apartment.

“Thank Khabib. He got me a new apartment,” Mendez replied.

The relationship between Nurmagomedov and Mendez goes back to 2012, when the Dagestani’s father first brought him to the U.S. Mendez played a key role in shaping Nurmagomedov’s career, their relationship transcending that of just a coach and pupil. While Nurmagomedov retired from the sport in 2020, he continues to coach his cousins and teammates from Dagestan alongside Mendez.

Mendez also shared a close bond with Khabib’s father, the legendary Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov. Abdulmanap had envisioned his son to become a world champion and for his other pupils like Islam Ma…

Belal Muhammad claims to have the strategy to beat Dricus Du Plessis.

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Muhammad is the latest of several UFC champs who are looking to move up a weight class to fulfil double-champ aspirations. “Remember the Name” is teasing a move up to middleweight to challenge Du Plessis, who recently defended his title with a dominant decision over Sean Strickland at UFC 312 last weekend.

According to Muhammad, he’ll beat “Stillknocks” in every aspect of the game for the first two rounds, leaving him frustrated by the third round. When Du Plessis attempts to implement his awkward style, Muhammad plans on taking his back and submitting him in the third frame.

“I'd come out him with a 1-2, then he'd wing an overhand. I'll duck it, change levels and take him down. Then he'd shrimp and get the underhook to get out, but he'll be too weak to get up, so then I'll hit him with ground-and-pound for the rest of Round 1,” Muhammad wrote on social media. “Round 2 start…

Xtreme Couture coach Eric Nicksick didn’t mince words while addressing Sean Strickland’s latest loss.

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Strickland faced Dricus Du Plessis in a title rematch at UFC 312 this past weekend in Sydney. Du Plessis dominated Strickland for 25 minutes to earn a unanimous decision win. While Strickland is typically known as a defensive striker, the output seemed to be below his usual standards. Nicksick could be seen visibly frustrated in the corner as he failed to motivate Strickland to go for broke even in the championship rounds.

Nicksick didn’t sugarcoat his disappointment with Strickland when speaking of the loss. According to Nicksick, it was just “uninspired fighting” on Strickland’s part on such a massive stage. Nicksick urges Strickland to decide whether he really wants to become a champ or is just in it for a payday.

“It was uninspired fighting,” Nicksick told Ariel Helwani. “It just seemed like he was sleepwalking. It was tough man. I was j…

MARK YOUR CALENDARS 🗓️

International Fight Week is BACK! See you in June! 👋#UFCFightWeek pic.twitter.com/1PoN8a4k3a

— UFC (@ufc) February 11, 2025

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The dates are set for one of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s signature offerings.

The promotion on Tuesday revealed that UFC 317 will take place on June 28 and will be preceded by International Fight Week festivities, including the UFC Hall of Fame induction ceremony on June 26 and the UFC X immersive fan experience on June 27-28.

A venue wasn’t announced for UFC 317, but it is likely that it will be held at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. It’s the second consecutive year that the promotion has moved up International Fight Week and the ensuing event to the end of June after traditionally holding it in early July. No fights were revealed for UFC 317, but it’s an event that the promotion usually tries to fill with a number of high-profile bouts.

With UFC 315 …

Bill Algeo is calling it a career at 35 years old.

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The 10-time Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran announced his retirement in an Instagram post on Tuesday. Algeo went 5-5 during his tenure with the Las Vegas-based promotion. “Senor Perfecto” went 18-9 over the course of a professional career that began in 2012.

“This game has been good to me and helped me develop and become a better person,” Algeo wrote. “It’s going to be strange not having a fight coming up (unless Fauci decides to man up), but I’ll be guiding the next generation over at Algeo MMA. I’ve met plenty of cool [people] along the way chasing their dreams and shared the cage with some rivals, friends and heroes of mine.

“Thank you to the UFC and the UFC staff for taking care of me and for having the balls to bring sports back safely in the pandemic. My gym was labeled non-essential for [three to four] months and the UFC helped provide income during that weird time.”

Alge…

Coming off three consecutive victories, Gregory Rodrigues has already arrived in Las Vegas to headline his first UFC card against Jared Cannonier at the UFC Apex.

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“The camp couldn't be better,” Rodrigues told Sherdog.com. “I arrived in Las Vegas Monday night with Vicente Luque and my boxing coach, Dietter Navarro. Tonight [Gilbert Burns] is coming and tomorrow, Henri [Hooft]. Now I´m 100% focused on the weight cut and recovering even better.”

The Brazilian known as “Robocop” theorized as to why he received such a prominent name despite not being in the UFC’s middleweight rankings.

“I think the UFC likes to recognize hard workers,” he said. “After I accepted a short-notice call to face Leroy Duncan in Manchester, they offered me Ikram Aliskerov in December. I said yes, but he refused. I asked for [Paulo Costa], but he didn’t want the fight. Then they offered Roman Dolidze. I accepted; he didn’t. When the UFC came up with Cannonier, who has alr…

𝗢𝗥𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗗𝗢‼️ 𝗪𝗘 𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗕𝗔𝗖𝗞

All 2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣5️⃣ #PFLWorldTournament First Round Events will take place in Orlando!

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🎟️Tickets go on sale on 𝗪𝗘𝗗𝗡𝗘𝗦𝗗𝗔𝗬, 𝗙𝗘𝗕𝗥𝗨𝗔𝗥𝗬 𝟭𝟵𝘁𝗵

For more information 👇https://t.co/eCMG4faqPw pic.twitter.com/QP4VSKD8Wi

— PFL (@PFLMMA) February 11, 2025 PFL Reveals First Four Dates for 2025 World Tournament Professional Fighters League’s new format will begin in earnest this spring.

The organization on Tuesday revealed the first four dates and venue for the upcoming 2025 PFL World Tournament, which marks a departure from the promotion’s season format of past years. The first four events will take place on April 3, April 11, April 18 and May 1 on the backlot of Universal Studios Florida in Orlando, Florida.

The single-elimination tournament will feature brackets at heavyweight, light heavyweight, middleweight, welterweight, lightweight, featherweight, bantamweight and women’s flyweight. Athletes who …

Tatiana Suarez’s first title opportunity in the Ultimate Fighting Championship didn’t go as planned, but that won’t stop her from moving forward with her mixed martial arts career.

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Suarez suffered a surprisingly lopsided unanimous decision loss to reigning strawweight champion Weili Zhang in the UFC 312 co-main event this past Saturday at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia. While Suarez’s wrestling acumen was expected to give Zhang some difficulty, the Californian landed just one of 15 takedown attempts in the fight. After a promising opening stanza in which Suarez was able to ground her foe and rack up valuable control time, Zhang imposed her will over the course of the next 20 minutes.

Suarez addressed the defeat in a statement via Instagram on Tuesday.

“‘Champions don’t show up to get everything they want; they show up to give everything they have.’ And that’s what I’ll do every single time. No matter what,” Suarez wrote. “I love it al…

Joe Rogan wants to see Ilia Topuria vs Islam Makhachev for the 155 title, and Diego Lopes vs Alexander Volkanovski for the 145 title:

“I don’t care if [Ilia] only defended the title one time… who cares. Let’s go. Let’s f***ing go.”

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🎥 @joerogan #UFCpic.twitter.com/XvQsXVmzVw — Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) February 10, 2025

Joe Rogan doesn’t necessarily want to see Ilia Topuria defend his featherweight title again before moving up to lightweight.

Topuria dethroned Alexander Volkanovski via a vicious knockout at UFC 298 in Februrary 2024. The undefeated Georgian-Spaniard then defended his throne by knocking out Max Holloway for the first time in his career at UFC 308 in October. While rising contenders Diego Lopes and Movsar Evloev are in queue for title shots, Topuria has since been teasing a move up to lightweight while citing a lack of fresh contenders.

Rogan would love to see “El Matador” challenge light…

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Daniel Cormier recently revealed a conversation with Alex Pereira about fighting Dricus Du Plessis.

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Du Plessis made his second successful middleweight title defense with a dominant decision win over Sean Strickland at UFC 312 this past weekend in Sydney. In his post-fight Octagon interview, “Stillknocks” called out light heavyweight champ Alex Pereira, who was in Strickland’s corner. The South African did so by quoting the famous one liner from the movie Gladiator: “Is there no one left?”

Cormier, who was on the commentary team, subsequently made it clear to Pereira that Du Plessis called him out. Pereira allegedly dismissed Du Plessis as too small for 205 pounds. Regardless of whether the South African moves up at some point, “DC” notes that he first has to deal with at least Khamzat Chimaev at middleweight.

“Dricus Du Plessis is the man,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “In the Octagon, he called out Pereira. I told P…

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Brandon Royval had a good reason for withdrawing from his proposed main event clash against Manel Kape on March 1.

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In a video on his YouTube channel, the UFC flyweight revealed that he suffered two separate concussion in relatively close proximity. As a result, he decided that best move for his overall wellness would be to withdraw from the UFC Vegas 103 headliner. It wasn’t an easy call considering that his fight against Kape could have been a title eliminator.

“First and foremost, I’ve fought so many times injured. I’ve fought with broken hands, torn labrums, torn MCLs, all that, and for a lot less money and not as meaningful of events. Pulling out of a main event for the No. 1 spot was definitely a hard decision to make,” Royval said.

“Maybe a couple months back, I had a concussion. Nothing too crazy; I was just playing it safe, playing it smart. A couple weeks later, when I recovered, I accepted this fight, which was awe…

A flyweight clash pitting Brandon Moreno against Steve Erceg will serve as the main event for the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s upcoming card in Mexico City.

The bout was announced during the UFC 312 broadcast this past Saturday. UFC on ESPN 64 takes place on March 29 at Arena CDMX in Mexico City and is also expected to included a middleweight showdown between Kelvin Gastelum and Joe Pyfer. Erceg had originally been booked to face Alsu Almabayev at UFC Vegas 103 on March 1 before the promotion changed course.

A two-time flyweight champion, Moreno snapped a two-bout losing streak in his last outing at UFC Fight Night 246, when he defeated Amir Albazi via unanimous decision on Nov. 2. The 31-year-old Tijuana, Mexico, native owns other notable victories over the likes of Deiveson Figueiredo (twice), Kai Kara-France (twice), Brandon Royval and Jussier Formiga during his Octagon tenure.

Erceg, meanwhile, began his UFC career with successive triumphs over Da…