Martial Arts News

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The stage has been set for the atomweight title ematch between Alesha Zappitella and Jessica Correa Delboni in the Invicta Fighting Championships 45 headliner.

Zappitella and Delboni both made weight without issue on Tuesday ahead of their second meeting within the all-female promotion. Zappitella tipped the scales at 104.8 pounds, while Delboni checked in at 103.8 pounds. Invicta FC 45 takes place on Wednesday night at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kan., and airs on the Invicta YouTube channel beginning at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

The sailing wasn’t as smooth for the rest of the card, however. Shamir Peshewa weighed 153.4 pounds for her 150-pound catchweight clash with Ramona Pascual (150) and was fined 25 percent of her purse. Meanwhile, Maria Jose Garcia Favela missed weight by by 2.4 pounds for a bantamweight scrap against Sarah Kleczka (135) and was also fined 25 percent of her purse.

Zappitella …

Andre Fialho will step in on short notice and face Michel Pereira at UFC on ESPN 32 this Saturday.

Fialho is a replacement for Muslim Salikhov, who withdrew from the welterweight contest due to illness. ESPN was first to report the new bout. UFC on ESPN 32 takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and is headlined by a featherweight tilt pitting Calvin Kattar against Giga Chikadze. The main card airs on ESPN and ESPN+ at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT following prelims on ESPN+ at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT.

Anchored at Sanford MMA, Fialho has compiled a 14-3 record while competing for organizations such as Bellator, Professional Fighters League, Legacy Fighting Alliance and UAE Warriors. He enters his Octagon debut on a four-bout winning streak in which he has finished all of his victories by KO or TKO — including UFC veteran James Vick at an XMMA event last January.

Pereira is currently on a three-fight winning streak within the Las Vegas-based promotion, a run that includes a …

Andre Fialho will step in on short notice and face Michel Pereira at UFC 270.

The bout was originally slated for UFC on ESPN 32, but MMAFighting.com has reported that one of Pereira’s trainers tested positive for COVID-19, resulting in the postponement of the fight for one week.

Fialho is a replacement for Muslim Salikhov, who withdrew from the welterweight contest due to illness. ESPN was first to report the new bout. UFC 270 takes place at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., on Jan. 22 and is headlined by a heavyweight unification title clash between Francis Ngannou and Ciryl Gane.

Anchored at Sanford MMA, Fialho has compiled a 14-3 record while competing for organizations such as Bellator, Professional Fighters League, Legacy Fighting Alliance and UAE Warriors. He enters his Octagon debut on a four-bout winning streak in which he has finished all of his victories by KO or TKO — including UFC veteran James Vick at an XMMA event last January.

Pereira i…

It appears that the bantamweight title rematch between Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan will take place approximately one month later than originally anticipated.

The fight was recently announced for UFC 272 on March 5, but Sterling revealed on his “Weekly Scraps” podcast that the title unification bout will likely move to UFC 273 on April 9.

“Quick update, I know you guys probably seen some of the news but yes, they are talking about pushing our fight back to April,” Sterling said. “Not because of me. This is what I was told, that Yan isn’t vaccinated. Yan isn’t vaccinated so he can’t fight in March. ‘I’m Yan and I’m not vaccinated so I can’t fight in March.’ I actually respect his gangster. If this is the real reason, I actually respect his stance. I respect it but it doesn’t make any sense and I’m making fun of it because it’s like was he going to be vaccinated in April? I don’t think so.

“So what are we doing? I just want to know when we’re fighting because d…

Kevin Holland will make his welterweight debut against Alex Oliveira at UFC 272.

Multiple outlets confirmed the booking after Holland initially announced the bout on his Only Fans page. UFC 272 takes place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on March 5 and features a bantamweight championship rematch between Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan.

After a breakout 2020 in which he went 5-0, including a knockout of former Strikeforce champion Ronaldo Souza, Holland hit a rough stretch this past year. The 29-year-old known as “Trailblazer” dropped back-to-back headlining bouts against Derek Brunson and Marvin Vettori before an accidental clash of heads resulted in his UFC Fight Night 193 matchup with Kyle Daukaus being ruled a no contest. Holland is 8-4 during his tenure with the Las Vegas-based promotion.

A veteran of 21 Octagon appearances, Oliveira enters the clash with Holland on a three-bout skid. Most recently, the Brazilian “Cowboy” dropped a three-round verdict to…

Eduardo Dantas hasn’t fought on U.S. soil since a knockout loss to Juan Archuleta in Madison Square Garden at Bellator 222 in July 2019. That will change in the coming weeks.

"Actually, my return to America was scheduled for Fury FC 53 on Nov. 14, but with all the pandemic problems, I couldn't get a visa in time,” Dantas told Sherdog.com. “So now I’m [competing at] Fighting Alliance Championship on Feb. 6 in Kansas.”

The two-time Bellator bantamweight champion will face Combate Global veteran and former Contender Series competitor Jose Alday at the event.

"Jose is a good striker and also good on the ground, but I'm a sniper and I'm bringing a new version of myself,” Dantas said. “I trained a lot in the last two years and evolved everywhere. I never [tried to win on points], but now, more than ever, my focus is to not leave results in the judges’ hands.”

Dantas is well aware that UFC president Dana White is expected to be in attendance at FAC MMA Fight Nig…

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Former Rizing Fighting Federation lightweight grand prix winner Tofiq Musayev has signed a multi-fight contract with Bellator MMA.

Sherdog.com confirmed the deal with a promotion official following an initial report from Ariel Helwani. Musayev will compete at 155 pounds in Bellator, but a date for his promotional debut is currently unknown.

After a year-and-a-half hiatus, Musayev returned to action at Rizin 28 this past June, where he fell to Roberto de Souza via first-round submission in a lightweight title bout. That halted a 14-bout winning streak for the 32-year-old Azerbaijan native, who is 18-4 over the course of a professional tenure that began in 2013.

Musayev notably won Rizin’s grand prix in 2019, earning victories over UFC veteran Johnny Case and current Bellator lightweight champion Patricky Freire in the same night. His resume also includes triumphs against UFC veterans Damien Brown an…

Credit: Getty/UFC Credit: Getty/UFC

Alexander Gustafsson believes that Allstars Training Center teammate Khamzat Chimaev has the potential to be a legend in the sport.

“[Khabib Nurmagomedov], [Georges St. Pierre], that’s the level of potential, 100 percent,” Gustafsson said in an interview with ESPN. “If he does all the things, if he does it right from the start, if he just keeps doing what he’s doing now, he will be one of those guys one day. I’m 100 percent sure of that....

“I met a lot of MMA athletes and fighters and all that, and he stands out for sure, because of his dedication, because of how he out-trains everybody. There’s nobody that trains like him, nobody. I haven’t seen it and I have been around the world, seen fighters train and having their camps and training for a fight. This guy just doesn’t get tired. He doesn’t feel any pain, he just goes through it.”

Chimaev rose to promimence thanks to a trio of dominant victories within the Las Vegas-based…

Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Marcin Tybura will lock horns in a heavyweight matchup at the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s Feb. 26 card.

The booking was first reported by MMA journalist Marcel Dorff. UFC Fight Night takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and is headlined by a lightweight showdown between Beneil Dariush and Islam Makhachev.

Rozenstruik is coming off a rocky 2021 in which he lost two of his three Octagon appearances, dropping unanimous verdicts to current interim king Ciryl Gane and top contender Curtis Blaydes. In between, he scored a first-round TKO of Augusto Sakai in the UFC Fight Night 189 headliner. “Bigi Boy” is 6-3 in UFC competition overall, with other notable knockouts of Junior dos Santos, Alistair Overeem and Andrei Arlovski to his credit.

Tybura, meanwhile, saw a five-bout winning streak come to an end at UFC 267, where he dropped a three-round verdict to Alexander Volkov this past October. Tybura’s resurgence came on the heels of a s…

Former UFC competitor Justine Kish has signed with Bellator MMA.

Kish will compete in the women’s flyweight division, with a debut date yet to be determined. The deal was initially reported by journalist Shakiel Mahjouri.

The 33-year-old North Carolina native initially competed in the UFC’s strawweight division, where she went 2-1, earning a notable win over Nina Nunes. She went 1-3 after transitioning to flyweight, with her lone victory coming against Lucie Pudilova at UFC Fight Night 166.

Kish parted ways with the promotion following a split-decision setback to Tracy Cortez at UFC on ESPN 22 this past April. She is 7-4 over the course of a professional tenure that began in 2010.

Retired from mixed martial arts since a submission loss to Andre Muniz at UFC 262 last May, Ronaldo Souza is planning a return to combat sports – this time under boxing rules.

"I couldn't stay away from my training routine,” Souza told Sherdog.com. “I began to train boxing and I received a proposal to fight that I liked.”

Since he hasn’t signed the contract yet, “Jacare” was unable to reveal the event and potential opponent for his boxing debut, but he confirmed that the deal is close to being finalized.

"I cannot say the name of the event yet. What I can say is that my boxing is being sharpened already,” he said. “Even though I came from jiu-jitsu, I´ve always loved boxing, and if you see my MMA fights, I’ve always had strong hands.”

Considered one of the most respected jiu-jitsu champions of all-time, Souza was a two-time absolute jiu-jitsu champion (2004 and 2005) and one-time ADCC middleweight champion (2005) . In MMA, he compiled a 26-10 career mark,…

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UFC president Dana White and UFC commentator Joe Rogan were recently named to the Variety 500 as two of the “most influential business leaders shaping the global media industry.”

Both White and Rogan were mentioned in the Live Entertainment section of the list, joining the likes of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, NBA commissioner Adam Silver, WWE president Nick Khan, to name a few. The selection process for the overall list can be viewed here.

White’s entry focuses on his stance on vaccinations and the promotion’s approach to holding events during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“White declared the Ultimate Fighting Championship would never require its fighters to be vaccinated, continuing his controversially contrary approach to coronavirus safety,” the entry reads. “Under the UFC’s contract with ESPN, the league was required to stage 42 fights in 2020, and White did his best to deliver,…