Martial Arts News

Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app. Ultimate Fighting Championship strawweight contender Marina Rodriguez has her eye on the prize, but she is not taking anyone lightly on her way up. Coming from an impressive sequence of three straight wins in UFC, top-ranked strawweight Rodriguez is aware that a win over Xiaonan Yan at UFC 272 on March 5 would be huge. An impressive performance could thrust her into title contention, which would give her a chance to realize her dream of fighting for a UFC title. Should she get that far, she expects that she would face the winner between the champion Rose Namajunas and former foe and challenger Carla Esparza. The Brazilian spoke with Sherdog this week about her upcoming battle and what lies ahead in her division.

“That was not officially decided by UFC, but the fact that Esparza already defeated Namajunas shows that it must be the…

The fighters face off one last time until they meet again inside the SmartCage tomorrow night!#PFLonFuboTV Friday, Feb 25th at 9pm ET pic.twitter.com/zSwiZqrMOl

— PFL (@PFLMMA) February 24, 2022 The Professional Fighters League's Challenger Series 2 card was supposed to spotlight welterweights, but Friday's card now features two catchweight bouts.

Topping the bill is a 177-pound catchweight affair between Jarrah Al-Silawi and Michael Lilly. The three other fights are all at welterweight, although Nathan Pierce missed weight by 2.6 pounds and forced a 174-pound catchweight for opponent Chris Mixan. Other bouts include Dilano Taylor vs. Mark Martin, and Carlos Leal Miranda taking on late replacement Korey Kuppe, who steps in for Socrates Pierre.

Al-Silawi (16-3) comes in as a two-division Brave CF champion, and will look to make his mark in North America with the PFL. "The Jordanian Lion" is riding a three-fight win streak and is a heavy fa…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7YOZhDcUn8&w=640&h=360] Bellator MMA returns to Dublin for Bellator 275.

Headlining the card is a middleweight title fight between champion Gegard Mousasi and challenger Austin Vanderford, who both had no issue making weight. The weigh-ins were mostly uneventful, as only prelims curtain-raiser Jamie Hay missed weight, coming in less than a pound heavy for his featherweight bout against Lee Hammond.

Mousasi (48-7-2) has only lost once since joining the promotion in 2017, and successfully won back the title he lost to Rafael Lovato Jr. in 2020. "The Dreamcatcher" was last seen knocking out John Salter last year, and will look to continue his momentum. Mousasi officially weighed 184.6 pounds for his latest title defense.

An undefeated prospect looking to stake his claim as one of the best in the world, this is the biggest fight in the career of Vanderford (11-0). Having proved he was a contender by winning a decision over Fabian …

Shinya Aoki will square off against Yoshihiro Akiyama in a matchup of Japanese MMA legends at One Championship “X.”

A promotion official confirmed the 170-pound pairing with Sherdog.com on Wednesday. One “X” takes place at Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang, Singapore on March 26 and will see ex-UFC champion Demetrious Johnson face muay Thai king Rodtang Jitmuangnon in a bout featuring both MMA and muay Thai rule sets. Additionally, Angela Lee will meet Nong Stamp in a strawweight title clash, while Adriano Moraes will take on Yuya Wakamatsu in a bantamweight championship tilt.

A former One lightweight title holder, Aoki is currently on a four-bout winning streak that includes three triumphs within the Singapore-based promotion. Most recently, the 38-year-old submitted Eduard Folayang 4:20 into the opening round of their clash at One on TNT 4 last April.

After a seven-bout stint in the UFC from 2009 to 2015, Akiyama has gone 1-1 under the One Championship banne…

Zviad Lazishvili Accepts Sanction for Violation of UFC Anti-Doping Policy https://t.co/Lcv7AweQ4F

— USADA (@usantidoping) February 23, 2022

One-time Ultimate Fighting Championship competitor Zviad Lazishvili has been suspended 10 months by USADA for an anti-doping violation.

The UFC’s anti-doping partner announced the sanction Wednesday. The bantamweight tested positive for clomiphene and its metabolites in an in-competition sample related to his bout at UFC Fight Night 196 on Oct. 23 and on out-of-competition sample collected on Nov. 5.

Lazishvili was previously suspended nine months by the Nevada State Athletic Commission and was fined $1,800 — 15 percent of his fight purse. The Georgian fighter lost a unanimous decision to Jonathan Martinez at UFC Fight Night 196.

The full USADA statement regarding Lazishvili is as follows:

USADA announced today that Zviad Lazishvili, of Alexandria, Va., has accepted a 10-month sanction for…

A women’s strawweight bout pitting Jinh Yu Frey against Hannah Goldy has been pulled from Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 202 card.

Promotion officials announced on Wednesday that an illness forced Goldy to withdraw from the event, and a replacement opponent will not be sought for Frey. As a result, UFC Fight Night 202 will move forward with 11 bouts. It is unclear if Frey vs. Goldy will be rebooked at a later date.

UFC Fight Night 202 takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and is headlined by a lightweight showdown between Islam Makhachev and Bobby Green. The main card airs on ESPN+ beginning at 7 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT following prelims on ESPN+ at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT.

Goldy snapped a two-bout skid in her last appearance, when she submitted Emily Whitmire in the opening stanza at UFC Fight Night 192 this past September. The 29-year-old Dana White’s Contender Series alum began her pro tenure with five consecutive triumphs before dropping back-to-back decisions agains…

BKFC x @triller pic.twitter.com/UhYi2SAL1D

— Bare Knuckle FC (@bareknucklefc) February 23, 2022

Two promotions that have helped alter the landscape of combat sports in recent months are forming a partnership.

Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship president David Feldman announced Wednesday during an interview on "The MMA Hour" that Triller, the social media company that has expanded into combat sports promotion, has acquired a majority stake in BKFC.

“We grew this thing to a point where we thought that we got it as far as we could take it by ourselves right now,” Feldman said. “We’ve overcome so many obstacles and so many people telling us no and, ‘this will never happen, you’ll never make it work.’ And we got to a point where we’re pretty well accepted among the combat sports community right now, and we needed to make a partnership that was going to take us to the next level, create more opportunities, more resources, more funding, more thin…

Adam Piccolotti has been suspended by the Association of Boxing Commissions after posting a weight-cutting video that was deemed “unneccesarily dangerous,” according to a report from MMAjunkie.com.

Piccolotti defeated Georgi Karakhanyan via unanimous decision at Bellator 274 in a featured lightweight clash at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., this past Saturday. Later, Piccolotti posted a video on social media — that has since been deleted — of himself crawling out of a portable sauna and vomiting on a towel. Piccolotti added in the post that he continued to throw up “20-plus times throughout the night.”

As a result of that post, ABC president Mike Mazzulli revealed that Piccolotti has been suspended from four to six months and must receive clearance from a nephrologist, a doctor who treats conditions involving the kidneys, before he can return to active competition.

“I reviewed the video and determined the process was unnecessarily dangerous,” Mazzu…

Although he made short work of Johnny Walker in the UFC Fight Night 201 main event, Jamahal Hill did not escape Saturday’s light heavyweight bout unscathed.

Hill, who defeated Walker via knockout 2:55 into Round 1 on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, must have X-rays on his left elbow and right forearm and an MRI on his left knee. If any of those results are positive, he must receive clearance from an orthopedic doctor or he will be out until Aug. 19. At a minimum, Hill is out until March 13 with no contact until March 6.

Walker, meanwhile, is suspended until April 21 with no contact until April 6. The Nevada State Athletic Commmission released a full list of medical suspensions from UFC Fight Night 201 to mixedmartialarts.com.

Nine other fighters from the card are facing possible six-month terms pending doctor clearance: Nikolas Motta (left knee), Abdul Razak Alhassan (right hand, right wrist, left rib, left foot, right hip), Gabriel Benitez (left knee),…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ejDXG4OcjY&w=560&h=315]

Newly-released body cam footage shows Jon Jones headbutting a police vehicle and yelling obscenties at officers on the night of his arrest for battery domestic violence and vehicle tampering this past September.

The video, which was obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, shows an agitated and emotional Jones handcuffed against a police vehicle on the Las Vegas strip. The former UFC light heavyweight champion was arrested due to an alleged domestic violence incident with his fiancee, Jessie Moses. Jones was in town for a UFC Hall of Fame induction for his 2013 fight with Alexander Gustafsson.

“Humiliating me [on] my Hall of Fame night,” Jones can be heard saying on the video to officers. “You f—ing nerd. I hate you. I hate you! I hate you! You f—ing nerd. I hate you so much.

“Say your name publicly. ... You turned me in my Hall of Fame night, just because I’m big and Black. And what did I do? ..…

Although UFC Fight Night 202 lost its originally scheduled main event, the promotion still came through with a pretty decent backup plan.

After Beneil Dariush withdrew from the lightweight headliner against Islam Makhachev on short notice, Bobby Green agreed to step in against the Khabib Nurmagomedov protege on short notice. Though not as highly regarded as Dariush, Green enters with positive momentum after a first-round TKO of Al Iaquinta at UFC 268 and a convincing decision victory against Nasrat Haqparast at UFC 271. Overall, “King” has won five of his last seven Octagon appearances dating back to 2020.

In a recent interview with Submission Radio, Javier Mendez, who helps coach Makhachev at American Kickboxing Academy, discussed Saturday’s fight against Green.

“Bobby Green, he’s an incredible guy,” Mendez said. “I love the fact that he’s a great entertainer. I love the fact that he comes to fight, gives the fans a great fight. I’m a fan. He’s a great fighter…

The MW division just got put on NOTICE

[ #UFC268 | Prelims are LIVE on ESPNews & ESPN+ ] pic.twitter.com/wZbuaYuLal

— UFC (@ufc) November 7, 2021 The training relationship between reigning UFC light heavyweight champion Glover Teixeira and former Glory Kickboxing title holder Alex Pereira has been beneficial to both parties.

Jorge “Joinha” Guimaraes, who manages Teixeira and Pereira, discussed how the two fighters have been helping each other ahead of their upcoming bouts.

"Glover will face Jiri Prochazka, one of the most dangerous strikers of the division, in his first title defense at UFC 274 on May 7, and of course the daily support of a top striker like ‘Poatan’ is great for him,” Guimaraes told Sherdog.com.

According to Guimaraes, Teixeira’s help with Pereira’s camp is even more evident. The 34-year-old Brazilian will make his second Octagon appearance against Bruno Silva at UFC Fight Night 203 on March 12.

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