Martial Arts News

Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC, PFL, Dana White’s Contender Series and “The Ultimate Fighter” live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app. Ignacio Bahamondes checked another box in the Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight division, as he submitted Zhu Rong with a brabo choke in the third round of their featured UFC Fight Night 202 prelim on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Rong (18-5, 1-2 UFC), who missed weight by four pounds, conceded defeat 1:40 into Round 3. Bahamondes (13-4, 2-1 UFC) chipped away with crisp jab-cross combinations, bruising leg kicks and sneaky body shots, slowly but surely taking the steam out of the former Wu Lin Feng champion. Rong executed a takedown early in the third round, only to be swept immediately in a demoralizing sequence. Bahamondes cut off his next attempt at a desperate double-leg takedown, clamped down on the neck and moved to a dominant topside position t…

That's now 5 in a row for @ArmanUFC. He's the TRUTH 💪 #UFCVegas49 pic.twitter.com/xZEmkgPwja

— UFC (@ufc) February 27, 2022 The Ultimate Fighting Championship awarded four fighters performance bonuses on the UFC Fight Night 202 card.

Lightweight standout Arman Tsarukyan secured a $50,000 bonus by bloodying up and dominating Joel Alvarez. After using elbows to open up a nasty cut on Alvarez, Tsarukyan finished the fight early in Round 2. The win moves "Ahalkalakets" to 18-2.

The other performance bonus went to co-main event winner, Wellington Turman. The Brazilian fought through adversity and managed to catch opponent Misha Cirkunov with a slick armbar in Round 2 of their middleweight bout. Turman advances to 18-5 with the win and has now won two straight inside the Octagon.

Finally, the fight of the night was awarded to women's flyweight fighters Priscila Cachoeira and Ji Yeon Kim. The two fighters went back-and-forth over thre…

The latest Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki event featured plenty of action as all but one contest ended inside the distance.

In the KSW 67 headliner, Philip De Fries put his heavyweight championship on the line against fellow Ultimate Fighting Championship alum Darko Stosic. Aware that his opponent featured remarkable knockout power, De Fries (21-6, 1NC; 7-0 KSW) immediately resorted to his grappling skills, dragging Stosic to the canvas and letting the Serbian taste leather throughout the fight. The British champion set effective takedowns that allowed him to control the challenger on the mat and score with ground-and-pound. Stosic (16-5, 3-1 KSW) struggled to contain his adversary's offense and was denied in many attempts to get back on the feet.

While De Fries manhandled his opponent on the canvas, the Englishman didn't quite look close to finishing Stosic. In the fifth stanza, things took an unexpected turn, where De Fries captured his opponent's back and unloaded some p…

Lando Vannata will square off against Charles Jourdain in a featherweight contest at UFC Fight Night 205.

Promotion officials recenty confirmed the bout. UFC Fight Night 205 is expected to take place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on April 23 and is headlined by a strawweight showdown between ex-champ Jessica Andrade and Amanda Lemos.

Vannata has won three of his last five Ocagon appearances dating back to 2019. In his last outing, “Groovy” earned a split-decision triumph over Mike Grundy at UFC 262.

Jourdain, meanwhile, was victorious in two of three UFC bouts in 2021. The 26-year-old Canadian last competed at UFC Fight Night 199, where he outpointed Andre Ewell on Dec. 18.

If all goes as planned, Gegard Mousasi will have an active 2022.

The Armenian-born Dutchman authored an emphatic middlweight title defense in the Bellator 275 headliner, defeating Austin Vanderford via technical knockout 1:25 into Round 1 at the 3Arena in Dublin on Friday. Mousasi has been victorious in seven of eight promotional appearances, with his only defeat coming via majority decision in a title bout at Bellator 223.

The former Strikeforce champion admitted at the Bellator 275 post-fight press conference that he entered the fight against Vanderford more confident than he has been in quite some time.

“I was hungry,” Mousasi said. “I was more determined than him and I’m in my prime. I feel I’m the best middleweight in the world right now. I never said that because I never thought that I was the best. But I told everyone this training camp, that this day, I was the best middleweight. I don’t know about tomorrow, but today I was the best.”

Now 36 years …

It sounds like Dillon Danis is getting closer to making his first mixed martial arts appearance since 2019.

Following Bellator 275, promotion president Scott Coker revealed that he has been in contact with the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, who notably served as a training partner for former two-division UFC champion Conor McGregor.

“He’s been texting me all weekend and saying he wants to get back in, he’s ready to get back in,” Coker said at the Bellator 275 post-fight press conference. “So as soon as I get back home, I’m going to call him, we’re going to see if we can put something together for him. But it’s going to be up to him. He’s going to have to really want it. He’s going to [have to] train and get in there.”

Danis’ signing with Bellator came with great fanfare, and he quickly established himself as one of the most outspoken fighters on the California-based promotion’s roster. The 28-year-old fought once in 2018 and 2019, earning first-round submission…

JARRAH AL SILAWI TIMES THE KNEE PERFECTLY!#PFLonFuboTV pic.twitter.com/IeisKHpxy0

— PFL (@PFLMMA) February 26, 2022

Jarrah Al-Silawi has a new home.

The two-division Brave Combat Federation champion knocked out Michael Lilly in the first round of their PFL Challenger Series 2 headliner on Friday at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. After Al-Silawi (17-3) drew the curtain 2:54 into Round 1 of their 177-pound catchweight clash, he was rewarded with a Professional Fighters League contract.

Lilly (7-7) was woefully outgunned. Al-Silawi probed for weakness with leg kicks, stuffed an attempted takedown and floated into open space. He approached Lilly from the outside, feinted and caught him with the knee as he ducked into a takedown. The MMA Masters product collapsed backward and fell to the canvas, and though Al-Silawi was in hot pursuit, referee Andrew Glenn had seen enough.

Meanwhile, Sanford MMA export Dilano Taylor was award…

Do not mess with Jaqueline Amorim on the ground!!! #AndNew#LFA125 pic.twitter.com/a1jrEe93X8

— UFC FIGHT PASS (@UFCFightPass) February 26, 2022

Not only did Jaqueline Amorim become the fourth women’s strawweight champion in Legacy Fighting Alliance history, she is now the first-ever Brazilian woman to win a title for the promotion.

Amorim (5-0) made quick work of Nigeria’s Lovethpatra Young in the main event of LFA 125 on Friday night in Nigara Falls, New York, but the fight wasn’t without some controversy. Amorim shot in for a double-leg takedown and she appeared to have been able to get it, but Young (3-2-1) grabbed a hold of the fence and refused to let go. Veteran referee John English yelled for Young to let go of the fence multiple times before having to physically pry her fingers loose. The third man called time and deducted a point from Young, but things only got worse for her.

When the fight was restarted on their feet, Young d…

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 Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight fight with top-10 implications has fallen off about a week before it was set to go down. According to Jessica Eye (15-10, 1 NC) on her Instagram on Friday night, she has been forced out of her UFC 272 pairing with Manon Fiorot (8-1) with an undisclosed injury. The two flyweights were going to throw down at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in March 5. There is no current indication as to whether the promotion will find a replacement for Eye, preserve the matchup for a later date or give Fiorot a different fight in the near future.

“Hey Believe’rs [sic], I’m sorry to report that I’m out of my fight at UFC 272 due to an injury I sustained last night,” Eye wrote. “I’m extremely disappointed as it was an incredible camp with my original team back at home in Cleveland at Strong Style MMA. My…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kLQsyBnNDY&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. With any luck, the commission will be on the lookout for any errant skateboards ahead of this big Ultimate Fighting Championship rematch. Friday brought news of a high-stakes light heavyweight rematch, courtesy of Ag. Fight and later confirmed by multiple outlets. At UFC 274, which will take place on May 7 at a currently undetermined location, Ovince St. Preux (25-16) will face Mauricio Rua (27-12-1) for a second time. They first met in the main event of UFC Fight Night 56 in 2014, and “OSP” knocked Rua out in 34 seconds after “Shogun” missed with a right hand that made him fall over.

St. Preux will be returning to the 205-pound division for this fight, as he has jumped back and forth between light heavyweight and heavyweight over the last two years. The Knoxville M…

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. It should come as a shock to absolutely no one that the coach of Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight champ expects his fighter will win impressively. The current lightweight king, Charles Oliveira, has won in each of his last 10 outings, including nine by finish. Fresh off of a December win over Dustin Poirier, Oliveira did not waste much time before preparing for his next challenge: Justin Gaethje. “Do Bronx” will face off against the vaunted striker at UFC 274, a card that was initially announced for Brazil, but was shifted to the U.S. due to the pandemic. Oliveira was not thrilled about this relocation, per his coach Diego Lima, who spoke to Sherdog this week about the matchup and much more.

“Definitely, it was a big disappointment,” Lima explained. “There is no bigger emotion for a champion than to fight [in front of t…

Heavyweight Title Fight

🇬🇧 @phildefriesmma 👑🇷🇸 @DarkoStosic92 ⚒️

Tomorrow night!! #KSW67 pic.twitter.com/fxOGLwl1KM — KSW (@KSW_MMA) February 25, 2022 Editor's note: The article has been updated at 8:30 p.m. ET to reflect the new, updated lineup.

Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki's latest KSW 67 card is limping its way to fight night after a disastrous weigh-in.

Thankfully, the headliner of KSW 67 is still intact as Philip De Fries will look to defend his heavyweight title against Darko Stosic. De Fries (20-6) will be the heavier fighter as he weighed 265 pounds, while Stosic (16-4) came in at 232 pounds.

Other fighters weren't as professional as Andrzej Grzebyk, Filip Pejic and Idris Amizhaev/a> all came in overweight for their respective bouts. Additionally, Caio Bitencourt fell ill during his weight cut, which caused his match against Ivan Erslan to be scratched. The card will continue with eight mixed martial arts bouts.

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