Martial Arts News

Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream UFC 270 live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app. While the outcome was not necessarily a surprise, the same cannot be said of the path Francis Ngannou took to get there. “The Predator” leaned on takedowns, topside control and unwavering determination, as he unified the Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight title with a unanimous decision over Ciryl Gane in the UFC 270 headliner on Saturday at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Scores were 48-47, 48-47 and 49-46—all for Ngannou (17-3, 12-2 UFC), who put his sixth consecutive victory to bed by showing a resourceful side few knew he possessed.

Gane (10-1, 7-1 UFC) appeared to be on cruise control through the first 10 minutes. Then, quite suddenly, Ngannou changed gears. He caught a body kick from his former MMA Factory stablemate and turned it into a high-amplitude takedown in the third round. He settled in side control…

Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream UFC 270 live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app. Sherdog's live UFC 270 “Ngannou vs. Gane” 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. Round 1 Sherdog Scores Jay Pettry scores the round:Ben Duffy scores the round:Tyler Treese scores the round:Round 2 Sherdog Scores Jay Pettry scores the round:Ben Duffy scores the round:Tyler Treese scores the round:Round 3 Sherdog Scores Jay Pettry scores the round:Ben Duffy scores the round:Tyler Treese scores the round:The Official Result Round 1 Sherdog Scores Jay Pettry scores the round:Ben Duffy scores the round:Tyler Treese scores the round:Round 2 Sherdog Scores Jay Pettry scores the round:Ben Duffy scores the round:Tyler Treese scores the round:Round 3 Sherdog Scores Jay Pettry scores the round:Ben Duffy scores the round:Tyler Treese scores the roun…

Warriors until the very end! 👏 How'd you score it? #UFC270 pic.twitter.com/rQbNrk0IgN

— UFC (@ufc) January 23, 2022 Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream UFC 270 live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app. Victor Henry made quite the entrance. The longtime Josh Barnett protégé looked like a man at ease in his first Ultimate Fighting Championship assignment, as he took a unanimous decision from former Resurrection Fighting Alliance champion Raoni Barcelos in the featured UFC 270 bantamweight prelim on Saturday at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. All three judges struck 30-27 scorecards for Henry (22-5, 1-0 UFC).

Barcelos (16-3, 5-2 UFC) stood toe-to-toe with the onetime Deep champion for 15 minutes, and though he experienced occasional glimmers of hope, they were too few and far between. Henry leaned on overwhelming output, focusing on the body, the head and occasionally the leg…

Credit: Getty/UFC Credit: Getty/UFC Credit: Getty/UFC Credit: Getty/UFC

A women’s flyweight clash between Maycee Barber and Montana De La Rosa is on tap for an Ultimate Fighting Championship event on April 23.

MMAjunkie.com was first to report the booking. The event is expected to take place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, but a headliner has not been confirmed for the event.

Barber last appeared at UFC on ESPN 27, where she halted a two-bout skid with a split-decision triumph against Miranda Maverick last July. The former Dana White’s Contender Series alum began her promotional tenure with three straight wins before falling to Roxanne Modafferi and Alexa Grasso in successive outings.

De La Rosa, meanwhile is coming off a second-round TKO triumph over Ariane Lipski at UFC Fight Night 189 this past June. “The Ultimate Fighter 26” cast member is is 5-2-1 within the Las Vegas-based promotion and 12-6 as a professional overall.

Glover Teixeira’s first light heavyweight title defense will come against Jiri Prochazka at UFC 274.

The championship bout was first reported by ESPN. UFC 274 takes place at an as yet to be announced location on May 7 and airs on pay-per-view via ESPN+. It is currently unclear if Teixeira vs. Prochazka will serve as the event’s headliner.

The 42-year-old Teixiera is currently in the midst of a late-career resurgence that has seen him compile a six-fight winning streak dating back to Jan. 2019. That stretch culminated in a second-round submission of Jan Blachowicz to claim light heavyweight gold in the UFC 267 headliner on Oct. 30. The Brazilian initially challenged for the belt in his sixth Octagon appearance, falling to Jon Jones via unanimous decision at UFC 172 in April 2014.

Prochazka is a former Rizin Fighting Federation champion who enters the matchup with Teixeira on a 12-bout professional winning streak. The 29-year-old Czech Republic native has kicked …

One of the greatest championship fights ever on UFC FIGHT PASS! #LFA122

(C) Charles Johnson via KO in Round 5

[ @LFAFighting | 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆 𝗔𝘃𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 | 📲 on #UFCFIGHTPASS ] pic.twitter.com/SqdE9PVYrj — UFC FIGHT PASS (@UFCFightPass) January 22, 2022

Charles Johnson may have fought inside the Legacy Fighting Alliance cage for the last time as he defended his flyweight title for the third time and in spectacular fashion.

Johnson improved to 11-2 as he eventually wore down challenger Carlos Mota in what is easily an early candidate for Fight of the Year. Mota (6-1) took the fight to the champ, applying insane pressure and throwing punches and kicks virtually nonstop round after round. Johnson obliged, standing both in the pocket and on the outside with pinpoint kicks, jabs and hooks. But while the two tore into each other with a torrid pace from the start, neither man landed anything hard or clean until Johnson did so in the fifth.

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[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2mDuCbBLsg&w=560&h=315] 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. Former Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight champ Rafael dos Anjos may have a fight coming up in February, but that isn’t keeping him from paying attention to current events. Dos Anjos (30-13) will be taking on Rafael Fiziev (11-1) in an all-Rafael headliner on UFC Fight Night 201 on Feb. 19. The two will square off inside the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, and he had plenty of thoughts on that upcoming matchup. Before his fight card, however, will be UFC 270, which takes place on Saturday with a pair of championship bouts at heavyweight and flyweight. When asked by Sherdog to choose his favorites for those title fights, dos Anjos had no doubt pointing to two new undisputed champions.

“[Deiveson] Figueiredo is focused now like he was in the first fight,” dos Anjos no…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au6EhLFnoio&w=560&h=315] Rizin Fighting Federation enjoyed its caged event so much that it decided to stage another.

On Nov. 28, 2021, Rizin put on its first of a new series of fight cards called the “Trigger” series, in which fights would be contested inside of a cage instead of a ring. The rules were otherwise the same, permitting soccer kicks and stomps, just changing the enclosure to a more western setting. Rizin “Trigger 1st” went down with 10 MMA matches, and multiple bouts ended via spectacular soccer kicks, but one fighter was disqualified for grabbing the fence. The end result at the World Memorial Hall in Kobe, Japan, appeared to be a success, so much so that Rizin will be putting on its second Trigger show on Feb. 23.

The organization sent out a press release on Friday to officially announced that Rizin “Trigger 2nd” will be going down inside the Ecopa Arena in Fukuroi, Shizuoka, Japan, towards the end of February. Rizi…

Challenger Series: Week 2 Welterweights

February 25thPM ET@fuboSports pic.twitter.com/SIazxuVTY8

— PFL (@PFLMMA) January 21, 2022 The second edition of Professional Fighters League’s Challenger Series on Feb. 25 will bring welterweights to the table in search of a contract. Via a press release sent out on Friday, the organization has announced its second Challenger Series event that will take place on Feb. 25 at the Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla. In a similar vein to Dana White's Contender Series, the league plans on either issuing a PFL contract at the end of show or signing a victor to a developmental deal that will ultimately lead to another Challenger Series appearance or a PFL roster spot.

The first event on Feb. 18 was announced on Wednesday, in which it will bring in eight fighters to compete in four bouts in the light heavyweight division. This format will stay the same all season, where four fights will take place on each c…

145. I'm not allowed on the official scale cause the fight is off.9days. I did my part. pic.twitter.com/Vwy0N3ATEr

— CharlesAirJourdain (@JourdainAir) January 21, 2022 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. The first Ultimate Fighting Championship pay-per-view of 2022 took a pair of huge hits before weigh-ins began. Early on Friday morning, ESPN Deportes reported that Rodolfo Vieira had been forced out of his UFC 270 meeting with Wellington Turman due to medical reasons. Per MMA Fighting, Turman will be paid his show money, and it is not certain if the fight will be rebooked or if the two will face different opponents in the future. The promotion confirmed the loss of this fight shortly before the weigh-ins with an updated lineup excluding the middleweight matchup. The welterweight pairing between Trevin Giles and Michael Morales has since…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EUp-hhaIhY&w=640&h=360] The Ultimate Fighting Championship's first pay-per-view of 2022 is set with two title fights after the official UFC 270 weigh-ins took place.

Headlining the card is a heavyweight unification bout between champion Francis Ngannou and interim titleholder Ciryl Gane. The co-main event will see flyweight king Brandon Moreno face Deiveson Figueiredo for a third time. While all four fighters in the championship bouts made weight, two undercard bouts were canceled as Ilia Topuria was pulled from his featherweight bout against Charles Jourdain due to issues with his weight cut, and middleweight Rodolfo Vieira was pulled from his fight against Wellington Turman due to medical reasons.

This is the first bout for Ngannou (16-3) since claiming the title from Stipe Miocic last year. "The Predator" finished Miocic just 52 seconds into the second round of their rematch, and comes into this battle on a five-fight knocko…

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. The Ultimate Fighting Championship is stacking the deck for its first jaunt to Europe since 2019. Per the UFC’s broadcast partner of ESPN on Thursday night, UFC Fight Night 204 on March 19 in London now has a headliner. At heavyweight, Alexander Volkov (34-9) will square off with rising British talent Tom Aspinall (11-2) in a five-round affair. Additionally, MMA Latinoamerica Fight Club broke the news that Paddy Pimblett (17-3) will be returning to the Octagon as well on this fight card, but against Rodrigo Vargas (12-4) and not the recently announced Jared Gordon.

Volkov will be aiming to make it two in a row at the expense of Manchester’s Aspinall, as he pulled off a unanimous decision win over Marcin Tybura in October 2021 to get back in the win column. Before the Tybura performance, “Drago” fell short to future interim title…