Martial Arts News

A heavyweight clash between Ilir Latifi and Alexander Romanov is set for UFC Fight Night on Feb. 19.

The Las Vegas-based promotion announced the booking on Tuesday. The event does not currently have a location or headliner.

Latifi snapped a three-bout skid in his last Octagon appearance, when he defeated Tanner Boser via split decision at UFC Fight Night 189. The 38-year-old Swede compiled a 7-5 UFC mark at 205 pounds before transitioning to heavyweight, where he dropped a unanimous decision in his debut against Derrick Lewis at UFC 247 before rebounding to best Boser.

Romanov is undefeated in 15 professional appearances, a streak that includes four triumphs in UFC competition. Most recently, the 31-year-old Moldovan defeated Jared Vanderaa via second-round TKO at UFC Fight Night 194 on Oct. 9. “King Kong” has finished all but one of his fights inside the distance.

A lightweight showdown between Benson Henderson and Islam Mamedov will serve as the co-main event for Bellator 273, promotion officials announced Tuesday.

Bellator 273 takes place at the Footprint Center in Phoenix and is headlined by a heavyweight title unification bout between reigning champ Ryan Bader and interim king Valentin Moldavsky. The main card airs on Showtime at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, while the prelims stream at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT on the Showtime Sports YouTube channel, the Bellator YouTube channel and Pluto TV.

Two other bouts were confirmed for the main card: Henry Corrales vs. Aiden Lee at featherweight and Sabah Homasi vs. Jaleel Willis at welterweight. Meanwhile, the preliminary draw has three new additions: Saad Awad vs. Christopher Gonzalez at lightweight; Romero Cotton vs. Dalton Rosta at middleweight and Sullivan Cauley vs. Ben Parrish at light heavyweight.

A former UFC lightweight champion, Henderson enters the matchup with Mamedov on a th…

Getty/UFC

Another UFC veteran is headed to Eagle Fighting Championship.

Four-time Octagon competitor Yorgan De Castro is expected to face Shaun Asher in a heavyweight bout at Eagle FC 44 on Jan. 28. Cageside Press was first to report the booking. Eagle FC 44 takes place at FLXcast Arena in Miami and is headlined by a heavyweight tilt between Tyrone Spong and Sergei Kharitonov. De Castro has reportedly signed a multi-fight deal with Eagle FC.

De Castro earned a UFC contract on Season 3 of Dana White’s Contender Series before going 1-3 within the Las Vegas-based promotion. He returned to the win column this past November, when he outpointed Danyelle Williams at CES 65 to run his career mark to 7-3.

Asher, 42, will bring a 13-4-1 record into the matchup with De Castro. Most recently, the Cincinnati, Ohio, native suffered a 55-second TKO defeat to Steve Mowry at Bellator 257.

After their fight, @DustinPoirier pledges $20K to a charity of @CharlesDoBronxs’ choice #UFC269 pic.twitter.com/hcj8Cu1lTj

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) December 12, 2021

The concept of an “Octagon donation” after a fight doesn’t seem so great in hindsight.

First, there was a public dispute between Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor after the latter promised to donate money to Poirier’s charity, The Good Fight Foundation, following their second fight at UFC 257. Now, it’s Poirier who is promising to deliver a donation of $20,000 to a cause of Oliveira’s choosing in his hometown following their lightweight title fight at UFC 269 on Dec. 12.

Poirier made his offer in the Octagon shortly after Oliveira defended his belt with a submission win in the UFC 269 main event. “The Diamond” further clarified his donation during the post-fight press conference.

“I saw a video this week of him [Oliveira] showing where he grew up, and where is mom cooked …

Anatoliy Malykhin and Kirill Grishenko will vie for the interim heavyweight crown when they square off in the main event of One Championship “Only the Brave” on Jan. 28.

The Singapore-based promotion announced the pairing on Monday. One “Only the Brave” takes place at Singapore Indoor Stadium. No further bouts were announced for the card. The winner of the fight will presumably face reigning heavyweight king Arjan Singh Bhullar at a later date.

A native of Kemerov, Russia, Malykhin is undefeated in nine professional outings. The former Fight Nights Global competitor kicked of his One tenure with first-round finishes of Alexandre Machado and Amir Aliakbari in 2021. He has finished all nine of his triumphs inside the distance.

Grishenko, who hails from Belarus, brings a 5-0 mark into his matchup with Malykin. The 30-year-old is 2-0 under the One banner, with victories against Oumar Kane and Dustin Joynson to his credit.

Two former teammates on a collision course.

Will we see Ciryl Gane and Francis Ngannou going at it for real in the Octagon? pic.twitter.com/3EUOQG7vHJ

— UFC on BT Sport (@btsportufc) June 28, 2021 Francis Ngannou says the footage of him and Ciryl Gane sparring that was released earlier this year was edited with a specific goal in mind.

According to Ngannou, the clips don’t accurate depict what happened during the session, which occurred in January 2019. Ngannou and Gane will meet in a heavyweight title unification bout at UFC 270 at the Honda Center in Anaheim on Jan. 22. According to Ngannou, he and Gane sparred no more than six to eight times total.

“When I saw that footage, my first reaction was laughing – because I know exactly what happened at those training sessions,” Ngannou said on his YouTube channel. “But this is the thing: When they want do some highlight, they always choose the part of the video that they use and they have…

Timur Valiev will step in for Umar Nurmagomedov and lock horns with Jack Shore at a UFC event on March 19.

Both Valiev and Shore confirmed the new bantamweight booking on social media following an initial report from MMA Fight Universe. The UFC Fight Night event does not have an official location or headliner.

Shore is undefeated through 15 professional appearances. The former Cage Warriors champion is 4-0 in UFC competition, with victories over Nohelin Hernandez, Aaron Phillips, Hunter Azure and Liudvik Sholinian to his credit/

Valiev enters the matchup on a nine-bout professional unbeaten streak, though an upset loss to Trevin Jones in August 2020 was changed to a no contest when his opponent failed a drug test. Most recently, the former Professional Fighters League competitor to a majority verdict over Raoni Barcelos at UFC Fight Night 190 on June 26.

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

A potential flyweight title eliminator is on tap for March 26, when Kai Kara France and Askar Askarov are expected to lock horns at an Ultimate Fighting Championship event.

MMAjunkie.com first reported the booking. The UFC card is currently slated for Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, on March 26 and is headlined by a light heavyweight showdown between Jan Blachowicz and Aleksandar Rakic.

Kara France is coming off the most high-profile victory of his career to date, when defeated ex-bantamweight king Cody Garbrandt via technical knockout 3:21 into the opening stanza of their encounter at UFC 269. The City Kickboxing representative has won two in a row in the Octagon and six of his eight UFC appearances overall.

Askarov is thus far unbeaten in 15 professional outings, with the lone blemish on his ledger coming in a split draw against current 125-pound king Brandon Moreno at UFC Fight Night 159. He has since…

Another fight has been added to the Rizin Fighting Federation 33 lineup, as former Pride Fighting Championships standout Takanori Gomi will meet kickboxing star Tenshin Nasukawa under “special standing bout rules” on New Year’s Eve.

The Japanese promotion recently announced the pairing, which does not have a formally announced weight class but will reportedly be a two-round exhibition under boxing rules. Rizin 33 takes place at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, and features a lightweight title bout between Roberto de Souza and Yusuke Yachi as well as the semifinals and finals of the bantamweight grand prix. The event is available via pay-per-view here.

Gomi, 43, last appeared at Rizin 26, where he bested Koji Tanaka in a special rules bout in December 2020. His most recent MMA appearance came in July 2018, when he snapped a six-fight losing streak with a first-round knockout of fellow UFC veteran Melvin Guillard.

The bout is expected to be Nasukawa’s last under t…

A 165-pound matchup between Kevin Lee and Diego Sanchez is in the works for an Eagle Fighting Championship card on March 11.

Multiple outlets confirmed the booking has been targeted, while Sanchez announced the pairing on social media. The fighters have verbally agreed to the contest, but contracts have not yet been signed. The Eagle FC event is expected to take place in Miami, though a venue has not been formally announced.

Lee was a high-profile signing by the Khabib Nurmagomedov-led promotion following his UFC release. The former interim lightweight title challenger lost four of his last five Octagon appearances, including a unanimous decision loss to Daniel Rodriguez in his first welterweight foray at UFC on ESPN 30 on Aug. 28.

Sanchez, meanwhile, is coming off a serious case of COVID-19 in which he was hospitalized due to complications from the virus. Prior to that, he was released from the UFC following a dispute with the promotion and his former coach, …

Michel Prazeres Accepts Sanction for Second Violation of UFC Anti-Doping Policy https://t.co/gWqyGG6EtI

— USADA (@usantidoping) December 23, 2021

Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight Michel Prazeres has waived the white flag on a four-year suspension for a second violation of UFC Anti-Doping Policy.

Prazere, 40, tested positive for multiple prohibited substances -- clomiphene and its metabolites (desethyl-clomiphene, clomiphene M1, and clomiphene M2), oxandrolone metabolites, and the exogenous administration of testosterone and/or its precursors via urine samples -- and will be banned from competition until Aug. 27, 2025. Prazeres previously tested positive for boldenone in March of 2019 and served a two-year ban.

The United States Anti-Doping Agency on Thursday revealed the suspension and issued the following statement:

Prazeres’ urine sample was analyzed using a specialized test, known as Carbon Isotope Ratio (CIR) testin…

Ex-UFC champion Vitor Belfort will square off against ex-multi-division boxing title holder Chad Dawson at Triad Combat 2.

Triller Fight Club, which promotes the event, recently confirmed the booking to multiple outlets. Triad Combat 2 is expected to take place in February and is headlined by a clash between Junior dos Santos and Kubrat Pulev. The rule set is presented as a hybrid of boxing and MMA, but knees, kicks and elbows are not allowed in fights. Shannon Briggs and Quinton Jackson will serve as team captains for the card, which follows a boxing vs. MMA theme.

Belfort’s most recent combat sports appearance came in September, when he defeated a 58-year-old Evander Holyfield via first-round technical knockout in an exhibition boxing match. The 44-year-old Brazilian hasn’t competed in MMA since May 2018, when he suffered a second-round KO loss to Lyoto Machida at UFC 224.

Dawson owns a 36-5 mark in professional boxing, a record that includes notable triumphs …