Martial Arts News

It appears that Jon Jones’ return to combat sports won’t be in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

The former UFC light heavyweight champion on Saturday announced via Twitter that he will compete against Bellator heavyweight Jake Hager in a grappling match at a Fury Pro Grappling event in New Jersey on Dec. 9. Multiple outlets have since confirmed that the match is in the works. Fury Pro Grappling is run by MMA organization Cage Fury Fighting Championships and streams on UFC Fight Pass.

“Breaking News!! I’m excited to announce I’ll be competing for the number one grappling organization in the world, Fury Grappling!” Jones wrote on Twitter. “December 9th I’ll be in New Jersey competing against WWE superstar and undefeated Bellator heavyweight Jack Swagger.”

Breaking News!! I’m excited to announce I’ll be competing for the number one grappling organization in the world, Fury Grappling! December 9th I’ll be in New Jersey competing against WWE s…

Someone in my corner got Covid and they were forced to cancel my fight. I don’t have Covid, but they say due to risk exposure I can’t fight. Sorry y’all, I appreciate all the support and love. We’re workin hard to get the fight rescheduled ASAP

— Terrance McKinney (@twrecks155) November 20, 2021

An intriguing lightweight scrap between Terrance McKinney and Fares Ziam slated for UFC Fight Night 198 has been canceled due to COVID-19 protocols.

McKinney revealed that someone in his corner tested positive for the virus, which forced the promotion to remove the fight from Saturday’s card.

“Someone in my corner got Covid and they were forced to cancel my fight,” McKinney wrote. “I don’t have Covid, but they say due to risk exposure I can’t fight. Sorry y’all, I appreciate all the support and love. We’re workin hard to get the fight rescheduled ASAP.”

As a result, UFC Fight Night 198 will proceed with 11 fights. The card takes place at the…

@SB_RENA wins the main event against @MiyuuYamamoto with a knee in the nd round

Watch the VODs https://t.co/JhhgpzcDIT#RIZIN #MMA #RIZIN32 #格闘技 #RIZINFF pic.twitter.com/BoqW3OPF9P

— RIZIN FF English (@rizin_English) November 20, 2021 Some five years after their first bout took place, Rena Kubota still has Miyuu Yamamoto’s number.

In the Rizin 32 main event, Kubota (12-3, 11-2 Rizin) defeated Miyuu Yamamoto (6-6, 6-6 Rizin) via technical knockout in a super atomweight bout at Okinawa Arena in Okinawa, Japan, on Saturday. Kubota previously tapped Yamamoto with a first-round guillotine choke at Rizin 2 on Sept. 25, 2016.

Early on, Kubota kept her opponent at bay with strikes from afar, limiting Yamamoto’s wrestling as much as possible with jabs and calf kicks. The Krazy Bee representative looked for some lukewarm takedowns that served only to set up a heavy right hand that shook her opponent. Near the end of the firs…

A battle of BW elite awaits

@MieshaTate vs @KetlenVieiraUFC goes down TOMORROW

[ #UFCVegas43 | Tomorrow | Prelims 3| Main Card 6 | Live on @ESPNPlus ] pic.twitter.com/suOgIRHLkw — UFC (@ufc) November 19, 2021 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. Fighters were in and out on Friday for the weigh-ins, with all 24 competitors hitting the scales and making weight in under an hour.

A lengthy stretch of Ultimate Fighting Championship events comes to an end with UFC Fight Night 198. Every fighter on the card made weight in a drama-free weigh-in ceremony, which has become a rarity as of late. Headliners Ketlen Vieira and Miesha Tate both hit the bantamweight limit without trouble, and their five-round bout is official for Saturday.

Vieira (11-2) is looking to bounce back from a loss to Yana Kunitskaya, and is 1-2 in her last three…

Having fought one and trained with the other, that’s a tough one https://t.co/nvdan2zR54

— Nohelin Hernandez (@suave_135) November 18, 2021 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. A crucial battle between unbeaten Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight prospects has been booked for March. One fighter will suffer their first career defeat at the UFC Fight Night event on March 19. Cageside Press first broke the news of the booking between Jack Shore (15-0) and Umar Nurmagomedov (13-0) on Thursday. The matchup has since been confirmed by Nurmagomedov on his Instagram on Friday.

Wales’ Shore has won all four of his UFC appearances since debuting in 2019 against Nohelin Hernandez. The former Cage Warriors Fighting Championship bantamweight king made a statement by submitting Hernandez, and then going on to tap Aaron Phillips with the same…

Official Statement. pic.twitter.com/jfV1oG8Coo

— BYB Extreme Bare Knuckle Fighting Series (@bybextreme) November 19, 2021 A week before its first “Triad Combat” show, Triller Fight Club is facing a challenge in court based on the allegedly stolen design of its three-sided ring.

On Thursday, BYB Extreme Fighting Series, helmed in part by Dhafir Harris – also known as Dada 5000 – sent out a release announcing that it had filed a lawsuit against Triller, Triller Fight Club, Fite.TV and the owner of Triller, Ryan Kavanaugh. The claim, which was filed on Thursday in federal court in Florida, is that Triller, by using a three-sided ring design to stage its new series of fights under the “Triad Combat” banner, infringed on the intellectual property rights held by BYB. The BYB promoter, Mike Vazquez, alleged that Triller ignored any request to rectify the situation, which prompted the suit.

“We have, since 2015, invested a significant amount of cap…

Your MAIN EVENT is Official@SB_RENA and @MiyuuYamamoto both make weight to headline this weekend's Okinawa event!

[ PPV @livenowglobal ]https://t.co/vNqrSYFo1m#RIZIN #RIZIN32 #MMA pic.twitter.com/aGPpq8gUPJ

— RIZIN FF English (@rizin_English) November 19, 2021 Japan's Rizin Fighting Federation returns for its seventh event of the year. Headlining Rizin 32 is a women's super atomweight contest between former title challenger Miyuu Yamamoto and 2017 grand prix runner-up Rena Kubota. Both women made weight for the card, which features 10 mixed martial arts bouts. All fighters managed to hit their contracted marks.

Kubota (11-3) is currently on a three-fight win streak, but is coming back after a layoff of over a year. Her opponent Yamamoto (6-5) has seen mixed results recently, as she's 1-2 in her last three having lost to Seo Hee Ham and Ayaka Hamasaki for the Rizin belt. This matchup is a rematch over five years in the making, as Yamamot…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd-Qx5HLqYc&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. Two weeks before his event, Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight Brendan Allen is going from a ranked opponent to one that is unranked. The news first broke on Thursday from Fight Bananas that Brad Tavares has been forced out of his Dec. 4 match with Brendan Allen (17-4) for undisclosed reasons. When interviewed by Fight Bananas shortly after the news broke, Allen expressed his frustrations for losing his highly touted opponent at UFC on ESPN 31, and stated that Roman Dolidze (9-1) would be taking Tavares’ place. The two will middleweights will come to blows likely on the main card of the last ESPN show of the year, one that will take place inside the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

“Well man, honestly, the fight just changed, so no Brad,” Allen said in his interview.…

The rivalry between Miesha Tate and Ronda Rousey helped boost women’s mixed martial arts to a whole new level.

Some might even say that their first meeting under the Strikeforce banner on March 3, 2012 served as a lauching point to bring women into the UFC. Now, females are a part of virtually every card held by the Las Vegas-based promotion, including Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 198, which is headlined by a bantamweight tilt between Tate and Ketlen Vieira.

Tate returned from a nearly five-year hiatus at UFC on ESPN 26 on July 17, when she defeated Marion Reneau via third-round technical knockout. Rousey’s last MMA appearance came in 2016, when she was stopped in the opening round by Amanda Nunes in a 135-pound title bout at UFC 206. Unlike Tate, Rousey’s has shown no interest in a comeback, and she recently gave birth to her first child with former UFC heavyweight Travis Browne.

In an interview with ESPN, Tate said a “dream” scenario would be a third meeting w…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_fdeztF3Rk&w=560&h=315]

Undefeated Brave Combat Federation veteran Muhammad Mokaev has signed with the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

The Las Vegas-based promotion announced the signing on Wednesday. A date for Mokaev’s debut is unknown.

A former International Mixed Martial Arts Federation (IMMAF) champion, Mokaev brings a 6-0 professional record and a 23-0 amateur mark into his Octagon debut. Mokaev last appeared at Brave CF 54, where he submitted Blaine O’Driscoll with a rear-naked choke in the second round on Sept. 25. Known as “The Punisher,” Mokaev went 4-0 with one no contest under the Brave CF banner.

NEW SIGNING

Former @IMMAFed ChampUndefeated MMA Record

Welcome to the UFC @MuhammadMokaev

— UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) November 17, 2021

The 21-year-old Mokaev hails from Dagestan but is based in England and trains with KHK MMA Team.

Mike Sloan/Sherdog.com

Bob Bennett will step down from his role as Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director at the end of 2021.

Bennett announced his plans during an NSAC meeting, which was held via conference call, on Wednesday. Bennett recommended chief assistant Jeff Mullen as his replacement, and that recommendation was unanimously approved by the rest of the commission.

“I never said it would be easy,” Bennett said. “I only said it would be worth it. That captures my last seven-and-a-half years. It’s been a team effort. I’d like to thank the fighters, because without them, we wouldn’t be here. It’s been a privilege to serve in this capacity.”

A former FBI agent and boxing judge, Bennett was named NSAC executive director in 2014. Bennett took over for Keith Kizer, who served in the same position from 2006 to 2014. Mullen was one of the finalists to replace Kizer during the selection process before Bennett won the position in a unanimous vot…

Kevin Lee has been suspended for six months by the Nevada State Athletic Commission after testing positive for a banned amphetamine in relation to his UFC on ESPN 30 loss to Daniel Rodriguez on Aug. 28.

Lee reached a settlement with the NSAC during a Wednesday hearing in which he received a reduced suspension due to the circumstances of the positive test and his cooperation in the case. Normally a failed drug test of this nature would result in a sanction ranging from nine to 24 months. “The Motown Phenom” was also fined $19,526. He will be eligible to return to active competition on Feb. 28, 2022.

Lee received a temporary suspension last month when it was initially confirmed that he tested positive for Adderall. Lee apologized for his failed test, while revealing that the drug had been prescribed to him to deal with Adult ADHD. However, he did not apply for a therapeutic use exemption with the NSAC prior to UFC on ESPN 30.

“It was never my intention to gain an…