Martial Arts News

Week 9 of Dana White’s Contender Series is now official, as all 10 fighters set to compete made weight without issue on Monday.

The Contender Series Takes place on Tuesday night at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and airs on ESPN+ at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. The evening’s featured bout is a middleweight showdown between Leon Aliu (186) and Brunno Ferreira (184).

Italy’s Aliu has been victorious in 10 of his first 11 professional appearances — with all of his victories coming inside the distance. In his last outing, the 33-year-old knocked out James Webb in the opening round at Cage Warriors 138 on May 28.

A native of Curitiba Brazil, Ferreira brings an 8-0 mark into the Contender Series. The 29-year-old Evolucao Thai product has six first-round finishes to his credit since beginning his professional tenure in 2019.

Contender Series Weigh-in Results:Leon Aliu (186) vs. Brunno Ferreira (184)Raul Rosas Jr. (134) vs. Mando Gutierrez (135.5)Austen Lane (240.5) vs. Richard J…

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A heavyweight bout pitting Jairzinho Rozenstruik against Chris Daukaus has been moved to UFC 282.

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The fight was originally scheduled for UFC Fight Night 211 on Oct. 1 but was shifted for undisclosed reasons. MMAjunkie.com was first to report the news. UFC 282 takes place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Dec. 10 and is expected to feature a light heavyweight championship rematch between Jiri Prochazka and Glover Teixeira.

Roze…

Rizin Fighting Federation featherweight champion Juntaro Ushiku will defend his crown against Kleber Koike Erbst in the Rizin 39 main event on Oct. 23.

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The Japanese promotion recently announced the booking, along with the following bouts: Koji Takeda vs. Zach Zane at lightweight; Motonobu Tezuka vs. Mehman Mamedov at bantamweight; Vugar Karamov vs. Yoshiki Nakahara at featherweight and Daichi Abe vs. Yukinari Tamura at welterweight.

Ushiku, who is also the reigning Deep champion, claimed Rizin gold with a second-round stoppage of Yutaka Saito at Rizin 31 this past October. He defended the crown with a unanimous verdict against Saito in a rematch at Rizin 35 on April 17. The 27-year-old Tokyo native has won 10 of his last 11 professional outings and is 20-6 over the course of his career.

A former KSW title holder, Erbst has kicked off his Rizin tenure with five consecutive submission triumphs. Most recently, he dispatched Kyohei Hagiwara in th…

Jose Aldo is retiring from mixed martial arts following a decorated career in the sport.

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Sherdog.com confirmed the news with sources close to the fighter following an initial report from Combate.com. The UFC has agreed to grant Aldo his release even though the former featherweight champion still had one fight remaining on his contract, which will allow him to puruse other combat sports endeavors if he so chooses.

Aldo was reportedly offered a fight at UFC 283 in Rio de Janeiro on Jan. 21, but he hadn’t made a decision about his career at that time.

The Nova Uniao standout exits the sport at 36 years old with a 31-8 mark following an 18-year career. He captured 145-pound gold in World Extreme Cagefighting and the UFC and was a top contender during his recent transition to bantamweight, falling short in a title bid against Petr Yan at UFC 251.

It’s likely that Aldo continues to test his skills in other combat sports going forward. There …

Gregory Rodrigues had to dig deep to earn victory at UFC Fight Night 210.

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The Brazilian absorbed a heavy knee early on in his co-main event encounter with Chidi Njokuani, and that blow opened a massive cut on his forehead. The man known as “Robocop” admitted that he needed a moment to regain his bearings.

“I know I was dizzy,” he said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “I was like, ‘Man what happened?’ The blood starting coming down. i was kind of blind, trying to figure out [what I was going to do] … After that cut, everybody is gonna be confident to try to finish the fight. Then I started to throw my hands to show him I’m still there.”

Rodrigues did exactly that. His rally began in the second half of Round 1, as he hurt and dropped the Bellator veteran. That set the stage for a relatively quick finish in the second frame, when he tripped Njokuani to the canvas and unloaded with ground strikes for a stoppage at the 1:27 mark of the pe…

Cory Sandhagen was mostly happy with his performance at UFC Fight Night 210, but he can also empathize with Yadong Song’s situation.

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Sandhagen emerged with a technical knockout win after four rounds when the cageside doctor determined Song couldn’t continue due to a significant cut over his left eye. Sandhagen caused the gash when he landed an elbow early in the fight, and the wound got progressively worse as time passed. Sandhagen was confident that he had already seized momentum and would’ve have continued to take control in a fifth round.

“It was definitely a step forward. Song’s a hell of a fighter. I knew that he was gonna be super tough. The guy hits really hard. He defended my takedowns really well,” Sandhagen said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “I think I was starting to figure him out as the fight went on, so I was really looking forward to a fifth round.

“That [stoppage] was kind of a bummer. These people that I’m fightin…

[SENSITIVE STOMACH WARNING]

These before and after pics of Greg Rodrigues' getting stitched up are WILD #UFCVegas60

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(via @danawhite) pic.twitter.com/6juxEbRZtj — Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) September 18, 2022

A nasty gash didn’t faze Gregory Rodrigues, but the wound isn’t for the faint of heart.

The Brazilian known as “Robocop” suffered a signficant cut on his forehead early in the opening round of his middleweight clash with Chidi Njokuani at UFC Fight Night 210 when his opponent connected flush with a knee. Rodrigues kept fighting and rallied to defeat Njokuani via second-round TKO in Saturday’s co-main event at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

After the bout, UFC president Dana White shared before-and-after photos of Rodrigues’ cut (via Bleacher Report), which was pretty gruesome until it was stitched up. The former Contender Series competitor has won four of five Octagon appearances, and he proved tha…

WHAT A COMEBACK #UFCVEGAS60 pic.twitter.com/lIrFPnZpq4

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) September 18, 2022

Gregory Rodrigues and Chidi Njokuani delivered on their pre-fight hype — and then some — in the UFC Fight Night 210 co-main event.

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The middleweights received “Fight of the Night” honors and $50,000 apiece for their slugfest at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday. Njokuani opened a nasty cut on Rodrigues forehead with a knee early, but the Brazilian known as “Robocop” rallied to drop his foe later in Round 1 before ending the fight with ground-and-pound at the 1:27 mark of Round 2.

Elsewhere, recent Dana White’s Contender Series winner Joseph Pyfer garnered a $50,000 “Performance of the Night” bonus for his quick finish of Alen Amedovski in a featured middleweight affair. Pyfer stalked his opponent near the fence, dropped him with a massive right and sealed his win with one follow-up strike 3:55 into the opening stanza. Read more

Yadong Song will likely bear the evidence of his encounter with Cory Sandhagen forever.

The 30-year-old Sandhagen kept his spot in the Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight line, as he prompted a cut stoppage against the fast-rising Team Alpha Male contender in their UFC Fight Night 210 headliner on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The end came between the fourth and fifth rounds, and it certainly seemed justified.

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The fight was competitive from start to finish. However, Sandhagen (15-4, 8-3 UFC) landed the signature blow in the second round, where he stepped into an elbow strike in the center of the cage and hacked open a ghastly diagonal gash above his counterpart’s left eye. Song (19-7-1, 8-2-1) fought through adversity initially, but the cut only widened and deepened as the bout progressed. By the time Round 4 was over, it became clear that he should go no further. Resilient Rodrigues Dismisses Njokuani Former Legacy Fighting Allian…

Sherdog's live UFC Fight Night 210 coverage will begin Saturday at 4 p.m. ET.

Check out the MMA Forums to discuss the card or enter your comments and predictions below.

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BETTING PREVIEW | SCOUTING REPORT | ODDS: Motta (-205), VanCamp (+175)Round 1 Sherdog Scores Jay Pettry scores the round:Brian Knapp scores the round:Tristen Critchfield scores the round:Round 2 Sherdog Scores Jay Pettry scores the round:Brian Knapp scores the round:Tristen Critchfield scores the round: Round 3 Sherdog Scores Jay Pettry scores the round:Brian Knapp scores the round:Tristen Critchfield scores the round:The Official Result BETTING PREVIEW | SCOUTING REPORT | ODDS: Basharat (-165), Gravely (+140)Round 1 Sherdog Scores Jay Pettry scores the round:Brian Knapp scores the round:Tristen Critchfield scores the round:Round 2 Sherdog Scores Jay Pettry scores the round:Brian Knapp scores the round:Tristen Critchfield scores the round:Round 3 Sherdog Scores Jay Pettry scores …

ACTION JACKSON WASTED NO TIME 👊 #UFCVegas60 pic.twitter.com/VV0lo2o06b

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) September 17, 2022

Neither grief nor Pat Sabatini could slow down Damon Jackson.

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Roughly a week after the sudden death of his older brother, the Fortis MMA representative strengthened his position in the Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight division and struck Pat Sabatini into submission in the first round of their featured UFC Fight Night 210 prelim on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The end came 69 seconds into Round 1.

Jackson (22-4-1, 5-2-1 UFC) unleashed a devastating front kick to the face that staggered the former Cage Fury Fighting Championships titleholder, then went to work. He sprawled on an attempted takedown and climbed to full mount before advancing to the back and flattening out a clearly compromised Sabatini (17-4, 4-1 UFC). Jackson uncorked a series of unanswered punches to the side of the …

Ultimate Fighting Championship great Anderson Silva believes his old boss should lace up the gloves and do some fighting for himself.

UFC head Dana White recently stated that Silva might be inducted to the UFC Hall of Fame in the future, and Silva had some thoughts about his former employer he wanted to get out. Silva is planning on boxing Jake Paul at the end of October, and White was not entirely sold on the whole endeavor while expressing his distaste for the YouTuber-turned-boxer. “The Spider” spoke with Brazilian outlet Combate this week, initially to promote his boxing match with Jake Paul, scheduled for Oct. 29 in Phoenix.

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“If the two of them have a problem, I think Dana should agree to fight Jake, that would end all this controversy,” Silva remarked. “Put [on] the gi, do MMA. Jake understands a lot about MMA, so I think it would be a nice MMA fight for the two of them.”

Getting the topic back on track to his own upcoming fight, Silva had som…