Martial Arts News

Patricio “Pitbull” Freire avenged a July 31 submission defeat and reclaimed the Bellator MMA featherweight throne for a third time, as he laid claim to a unanimous decision over A.J. McKee in the Bellator 277 headliner on Saturday at the SAP Center in San Jose, California. Scores were 49-46, 48-47 and 48-47.

McKee (18-1, 18-1 Bellator) struggled to find an offensive rhythm. The resourceful Freire (33-5, 21-5 Bellator) kept him off-balance with repeated kicks to the inside and outside of his lead leg, pieced together occasional punching combinations and threatened him with a guillotine choke in the third round. McKee did his best work in Round 5, where he executed multiple takedowns, stayed busy with his hands and zeroed in on the Brazilian’s midsection with kicks. Those efforts ultimately fell short in the eyes of the judiciary.

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Freire—who moved to a perfect 6-0 in rematches—has won eight of his past nine bouts.

Meanwhile, an inadvertent clash of h…

Sherdog's live Bellator 277 coverage kicks off 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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Round 1 Luna is making his pro debut against the 0-1 Hernandez, while the referee is Blake Grice. Both fighters begin trading hooks to start the fight. Hernandez mixes in his attack with body shots and leg kicks, but Luna is happy to throw right back. Luna temporarily loses his mouthpiece, but Hernandez is a gentleman and allows him to pick it up off the floor before going right back to punching him in the face. The pace is nonstop as both men exchange uppercuts in the clinch, displaying plenty of dirty boxing prowess. While Luna's face is now red and slightly bloodied, the featherweight is showing no signs of slowing and continues to fire back. Luna fires a kick to the body and lands a powerful right hand on the jaw of Hernandez to end the highly competitive round.Sherdog Scores Tyler Treese scores …

CORTES-ACOSTA LANDS BIG!!!

Can he close it out?!?!#LFA129 pic.twitter.com/UL01IcBUWp

— UFC FIGHT PASS (@UFCFightPass) April 16, 2022

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It was rough going for Waldo Cortes-Acosta in the main event of LFA 129 inside Mystic Lake Casino Hotel in Prior Lake, Minnesota, on Friday night, but he eventually scored a dramatic knockout in the third round to become the first ever Dominican champion in the organization’s history.

Thomas Petersen was defending his Legacy Fighting Alliance heavyweight title comfortably early on as he took Cortes-Acosta down multiple times and hammered him with punches to the head, arms and body. Even when the two were on their feet, Peterson was landing the cleaner punches, only to have the challenger talk trash and dare him to keep trying to hit him or take him down. But as the fight wore on, Peterson’s gas tank betrayed him and it allowed Cortes-Acosta to capitalize.

Peterson was gasping for…

#TeamIridium hammer @CodyStamann goes for his 6th @ufc win in June! #TheDarkside pic.twitter.com/Q63ANmQgxF

— Jason House (@JasonKHouse) April 15, 2022 The Ultimate Fighting Championship card in mid-June has just experienced a few changes.

On Friday morning, the management team of Cody Stamann (19-5-1), Iridium Sports Agency, announced that he would be fighting at the UFC Fight Night card on June 18. In his bantamweight battle, he will take on longtime veteran Eddie Wineland (24-15-1).

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Stamann will be looking to end a three-fight skid, where he fell short to Jimmie Rivera and Merab Dvalishvili on the scorecards, and was choked out by Said Nurmagomedov in less than a minute in January. Before the trio of setbacks, “The Spartan” had strung together an impressive ledger inside the Octagon, with five wins opposite a single defeat to current champ Aljamain Sterling, and a draw with Yadong Song up a division. Stamann has mov…

Alexander Volkov vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik will headline UFC Fight Night on June 4, per UFC officials. Nos. 7 and 8 in the division, respectively. Early predictions? pic.twitter.com/9KjskxEXQL

— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) April 15, 2022 Two Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweights looking to make a statement will get five rounds to do so at the beginning of June.

The UFC’s broadcast partner of ESPN released the news on Friday that Alexander Volkov (34-10) will be taking on Jairzinho Rozenstruik (12-3) to headline the upcoming UFC Fight Night event on June 4. The two heavyweights will like battle it out at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, although a location is not yet on the books.

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Volkov has alternated wins and losses in his last four, winning against Alistair Overeem and Marcin Tybura but dropping bouts to Ciryl Gane and Tom Aspinall. The Russian celebrates a finish rate of 74% as a pro, with the majority of his stopp…

1️⃣7️⃣1️⃣ for @VicenteLuqueMMA - we have a main event 🍿

[ #UFCVegas51 | TOMORROW | Main Card LIVE on @ESPN | Prelims LIVE on @ESPNPlus ] pic.twitter.com/Xs9oARE99x

— UFC (@ufc) April 15, 2022

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Editor's note: The article has been updated at 2:45 p.m. ET on April 15 to reflect that every fighter has now successfully made weight.

After today's weigh-ins, the Ultimate Fighting Championship is set to return back to ESPN airwaves and the UFC Apex for a 14-fight card.

The UFC on ESPN 34 main event will see welterweight contenders Vicente Luque and Belal Muhammad battle for the second time, as the Brazilian knocked out "Remember the Name" in just 79 seconds back in 2016. While both headliners and the majority of the card had no issue making weight, lightweight Drakkar Klose initially weighed in .75 pounds heavy for his bout against Brandon Jenkins. Klose returned nearly an hour later, and he successfully hit the mark of…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkXWycgxQcw&w=640&h=360] Rizin Fighting Federation's third cagefighting event is set, as all 14 mixed martial artists made weight for Rizin Trigger 3rd.

The main event will see a lightweight contest between Luiz Gustavo Felix dos Santos and Yusuke Yachi. The 10-2 Brazilian is looking to rebound after a disappointing TKO loss to Patricky Freire, and is 2-2 inside the Japanese promotion. Meanwhile, Yachi (23-12) most recently lost to Roberto de Souza via triangle armbar, but the Japanese veteran had put together back-to-back wins prior to the setback. Both fighters came in under the 71-kilogram limit.

The previously booked match between "Kintaro" Yuto Hokamura and Kazuma Kuramoto was canceled before the weigh-ins. Hokamura fell ill, and "was in a state where he could not move his body tightly," according to the organizer through a translation by Google.

The event will stream live on Rizin's website on Saturday, April 16, …

Per sources, Cynthia Calvillo vs. Nina Nunes is booked for July 9. It will be at flyweight, a 125-pound debut for Nunes in the UFC. pic.twitter.com/gLvstIOofn

— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) April 14, 2022 A notable Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight is changing her mind on moving back down to strawweight after all.

Per the UFC’s broadcast partner of ESPN on Thursday, Nina Nunes (10-7) will be moving up 10 pounds to flyweight, where she will face fellow strawweight ex-pat Cynthia Calvillo (9-4-1). Calvillo was previously booked against Brianna Fortino, but the latter was forced out of their 115-pound affair for undisclosed reasons, stemming from a report by Alex Behunin in March. Instead of remaining on that June 4 card at strawweight, she will stay at flyweight at the UFC Fight Night event on July 9, roughly one month later.

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Nunes has not gotten her hand raised since 2018, when she took home a decision over ex-tit…

Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight staple Neil Magny will not turn down any fight, no matter how risky.

MMA Junkie reported on Thursday that Magny (26-8) had accepted a high-stakes welterweight matchup against Shavkat Rakhmonov (15-0) on June 25. The UFC Fight Night card without a designation at this time is also currently without a location, although it might be held at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas depending on the status of the COVID-19 pandemic. Magny called for this fight nearly two weeks ago at the beginning of April, and he has since posted about this new matchup on his Instagram.

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Magny is currently riding a two-fight win streak, with decision victories over Geoff Neal and Max Griffin to cement his place as a top-15 welterweight. Throughout his last nine appearances since the end of 2017, Magny has pulled off seven wins opposite two defeats, beating the likes of Robbie Lawler, Carlos Condit, the aforementioned Neal and Anthony Rocco M…

#CES68 Main Event News

15-time #UFC vet @TonyRoccoMartin takes on @tvogel47 in the headlining bout of our #Fargo debut May 6, LIVE on @UFCFightPass

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at https://t.co/l9kxAKyGrw pic.twitter.com/VFgmfInyFO — CES MMA (@CESMMA) April 14, 2022 CES MMA has snatched up a noteworthy free agent, who will headline its first jaunt to North Dakota in May.

Ultimate Fighting Championship vet Anthony Rocco Martin parted ways with the promotion at the beginning of January 2021 after ending his contract. He has since signed with CES, and he will make his company debut at CES 68 on May 6. Sherdog was informed of this news from a promotional official on Thursday morning. Martin (17-6) will take on Tyler Vogel (8-5) in the middleweight division as the main event of this fight card in Fargo, N.D.

Martin last competed in June 2020, where he fell short to Neil Magny on the scorecards at UFC 250. While alternating decision wins in his l…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_dG4tJx2Cw&w=640&h=360] Bellator 277 is set after all fighters made weight ahead of its stacked card topped by two title fights.

The main event will be a championship rematch between A.J. McKee and Patricio Freire. McKee (18-0) stayed perfect in his mixed martial arts career by submitting Freire (32-5) in under two minutes to claim the Bellator MMA featherweight title. Now, "Pitbull" will look to reclaim the belt he once held. Both fighters easily made weight, with "Mercenary" weighing 144.4 pounds, while Freire stepped on the scale at 144.6 pounds.

The co-main event is equally important, as Vadim Nemkov will defend his light heavyweight throne against Corey Anderson to conclude the 205-pound tourney. The Russian is 14-2, and has been perfect inside the Bellator cage to date. Anderson (16-5) made his way to the light heavyweight grand prix final to earn a crack at gold, and is coming off a destructive 51-second TKO win over Ry…

The first of four quarterfinals for the Absolute Championship Akhmat lightweight tournament is official.

The promotion announced on Thursday that Davi Ramos (10-4) would be facing Artem Reznikov (22-6) in the first leg of the ACA's lightweight grand prix. The two will throw down in Sochi, Russia, at the Red Arena on June 17, at the event titled ACA 140. Ramos was recently released from the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and the 2015 ADCC champion celebrated his new fight on his Instagram immediately after the news broke. The Brazilian spoke to Sherdog about this matchup on Thursday, discussing his improved training camp and how he will ready himself for this kind of challenge.

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“I was prepared since I was nine to test myself against the best, and definitely Artem Reznikov is one of them,” Ramos explained. “I’m already training hard to face him on June 17 in Sochi in my first fight. I evolved a lot during all [the] time I kept training, making myse…