Martial Arts News

Sherdog's live UFC on ESPN 40 “Santos vs. Hill” coverage will begin Saturday at 7 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: Silva (-110), Egger (-110)Round 1 Sherdog Scores Jay Pettry scores the round:Tristen Critchfield scores the round:Tyler Treese scores the round:Round 2 Sherdog Scores Jay Pettry scores the round:Tristen Critchfield scores the round:Tyler Treese scores the round: Round 3 Sherdog Scores Jay Pettry scores the round:Tristen Critchfield scores the round:Tyler Treese scores the round:The Official Result BETTING PREVIEW | SCOUTING REPORT | ODDS: McKenna (-225), Granger (+185)Round 1 Sherdog Scores Jay Pettry scores the round:Tristen Critchfield scores the round:Tyler Treese scores the round:Round 2 Sherdog Scores Jay Pettry scores the round:Tristen Critchfield scores the round:Tyler Treese scores the round:Round 3 Sherdog Scores Jay…

Josh Quinlan was not cleared to compete against Jason Witt after testing positive for a trace amount of a steroid metabolite prior to their welterweight bout at UFC on ESPN 40.

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The UFC announced the news in a statement prior to Saturday’s event:

UFC was notified by USADA that a recent urine sample from Josh Quinlan indicated the presence of a small amount of the M3 metabolite of dehydrochloromethyltestosterone (DHCMT). While not a violation under UFC anti-doping program rules, Nevada State Athletic Commission has ruled that Quinlan is not cleared to fight. As a result, his bout against Jason Witt has been canceled from tonight’s event.

Quinlan vs. Witt will now take place on week later at UFC on ESPN 41 in San Diego. According to USADA, a fighter can test positive for up to 100 picograms of the M3 metabolite before it is determined to be an anti-doping violation. The most famous instance occurred when former light heavweight champion Jon Jo…

A proposed flyweight clash between Ariane Lipski and Priscila Cachoeira has been pulled from Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 40 card after Lipski was not medically cleared to compete.

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Lipski missed weight by 2.5 pounds on Friday and was hospitalized due to complications from the cut. As a result, Lipski vs. Cachoeira has been rescheduled for UFC on ESPN 41 on Aug. 13 and will be contested at bantamweight instead of at 125 pounds, according to MMAFighting.com. News of the cancellation was initially reported by Combate.

UFC on ESPN 40 will move forward with 10 bouts. The card takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and is headlined by a light heavyweight duel between Jamahal Hill and Thiago Santos.

Lipski snapped a two-bout skid in her last outing, when she garnered a unanimous verdict over Mandy Bohm at UFC Fight Night 192 this past September.

Cachoeira has won three of her last four outings in the Octagon, including a three-round verdict ag…

Steven Ray had no time for those hoping for an Anthony Pettis renaissance.

Tactical takedowns, positional advances and suffocating control carried Ray to a unanimous decision over the former Ultimate Fighting Championship and World Extreme Cagefighting titleholder, as their Professional Fighters League lightweight semifinal headlined PFL 7 on Friday at Madison Square Garden in New York. Scores were 29-28, 29-28 and 29-28.

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Pettis (25-14, 1-4 PFL)—who had submitted to a modified twister from the Scotsman in June—once again struggled and ultimately failed to maintain a manageable distance. Ray set the tone with a strong first round, where he executed a takedown, passed to side control and threatened with a north-south choke. Pettis survived but conceded another takedown in the middle stanza, at which point his counterpart transitioned to the back and cemented his position with a body triangle. Ray slowed down across the final five minutes and allowed…

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Who will win at UFC 281?

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The 2022 Professional Fighters League Playoffs commence Friday at 6 p.m. ET.

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

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Round 1 The PFL playoffs are here, and the company built a card around them that contains both prelims – a pair of qualifiers for next year’s season – and the dreaded postlims. Before we get to the latter, six solid fights take the stage. The night begins with a qualifying contest at 205 pounds for a pair of fighters that failed to make the semifinals, in Syndicate MMA’s Hendricks (9-4, 3-1 PFL) and powerful Norwegian Hamlet (9-4, 3-3 PFL). The first assignment of the evening – a rematch, as these two battled last year and Hendricks notched a submission – goes to referee Kevin MacDonald, and the fighters touch gloves to seal the cage around them and begin the evening’s hostilities. Hendricks pushes off with a front kick as Hamlet advances immediately, and Hamlet swarms him with a loop…

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Who will win at UFC 281?

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First to the scales, @TMarretaMMA is in at 206 pounds 🔨

[ #UFCVegas59 | TOMORROW | Prelims 7pm ET | Main Card 10pm ET | Live on @ESPN ] pic.twitter.com/3UJtZVkEsS

— UFC (@ufc) August 5, 2022 Editor's Note: The article has been updated at 2:45 p.m. ET to reflect additional information.

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Ahead of the final fight on his Ultimate Fighting Championship contract, Sam Alvey needed the extra time but managed to make weight.

The UFC is all set to return to ESPN airwaves with UFC on ESPN 40, a card that features a light heavyweight headliner between former title challenger Thiago Santos and rising contender Jamahal Hill. While both main eventers and all four finalists of "The Ultimate Fighter" Season 30 had no trouble making weight, there was one notable miss. Ariane Lipski failed to hit the flyweight limit, weighing 128.5 pounds for her bout against Priscila Cachoeira (125.5). Additionally, Alvey (186) initially came in one p…

The Ultimate Fighting Championship on Friday announced that middleweight kingpin Israel Adesanya will seek to defend his crown against a familiar foe in kickboxer Alex Pereira on Nov. 12 at the world-famous Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Set to headline UFC 281, the pair has already met twice under kickboxing rules, with the Brazilian taking both contests. “Poatan” won via decision in 2016 and left the Nigerian-born New Zealander unconscious in 2017.

Adesanya is an impressive 12-1 in the UFC and 23-1 overall. He is undefeated at middleweight, with his lone blemish coming against former light heavyweight ace Jan Blachowicz in a 205-title match in March of last year. The 33 year-old last saw action in a unanimous decision victory over Jared Cannonier on July 2.

Pereira, 35, owns a relatively light resume for a title contender at 6-1 (3-0 UFC), but the match has intriguing potential due to the fighters’ previous meetings under different combat spor…

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship champion Cain Velasquez has entered a plea of not guilty for attempted murder and additional weapons-related charges.

On Friday, Velasquez attended his plea hearing at the Santa Clara County Hall of Justice in San Jose, Calif., entering his plea of not guilty on all charges. Judge Jessica Delgado presided over the hearing, and as a result, his next pre-trial hearing will take place on Sept. 26. Velasquez has been held without bail, after being denied release multiple times over the last few months. The ex-champ is facing charges of attempted murder and 10 additional charges related to firearms and assault with a deadly weapon. If convicted of the former, he could receive a sentence of 20 years to life, and the other charges carry additional time depending on their severities.

On Feb. 28, Velasquez allegedly fired a handgun at a truck that contained Harry Goularte, Goularte's stepfather Paul Bender and his mother Patricia Goularte…

Add one more chip to the overstacked pile that is the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s return trip to “Fight Island” in October.

The organization released on Friday news of the light heavyweight booking between Volkan Oezdemir (18-6) and Nikita Krylov (28-9), which will be set for UFC 280 on Oct. 22. This event will be held at the Etihad Arena on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. They were initially supposed to throw down in this locale two years ago, but Oezdemir suffered a knee injury. This will be a relatively quick turnaround for both men, as they each pulled off wins at UFC Fight Night 208 in London at the end of July.

Oezdemir put an end to a two-fight skid by handling Paul Craig across their three-round engagement. “No Time” had Craig hurt in multiple exchanges, and never fully engaged in the ground game that Craig excels greatly. Prior to that, the Swiss 205er had suffered a knockout to future champ Jiri Prochazka and then dropped a decision to Ma…

#Bellator284 Card Update:

Canada's @aajmma (12-3) has stepped in on short notice to face #2-ranked 185lb contender @austinv170mma (11-1) on the 8/12 @SHOSports main card.

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Jeffery will look keep up the mullet magic after a debut KO at #Bellator282. pic.twitter.com/xkiWV4qWLW — Bellator Public Relations (@BellatorPR) August 4, 2022 Bellator MMA will be rocking the mullet on Aug. 12.

At Bellator 284, Austin Vanderford (11-1) plans on coming back from his first career defeat, and he was expecting to face Anthony Adams. For currently unclosed reasons, Adams is out of their middleweight contest, and Bellator has already acquired and announced the replacement on Thursday: Aaron Jeffery (12-3). The two will square off inside the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D. on Aug. 12, and they will be competing on the main card.

In his last time out, Vanderford put his undefeated record on the line as he vied for the middle…