Martial Arts News

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLefGn4y_4g&w=640&h=360] A new Bellator MMA lightweight champion will be crowned at Bellator 270.

After Patricio Freire vacated the 155-pound title, Peter Queally and Patricky Freire will battle for that lightweight belt. Both fighters successfully made championship weight, as Queally (13-5-1) weighed in at 155 pounds on the dot and Freire (23-10) came in at 153.6 pounds. The only fighter on the card that missed weight was bantamweight Patrick Mix, who came in 1.8 pounds over the 136-pound limit. The bout against James Gallagher will continue, although Mix has been fined a percentage of his purse.

Ireland's Queally is on a two-fight win streak and most recently defeated Patricky after their Bellator 258 bout was controversially stopped by the doctor due to a cut. Queally will get a chance to settle the score and add some gold to his waist in the rematch.

"Pitbull" will look to keep the lightweight title within the Freire famil…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmidOdybSQo&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. Rising Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight Bruno Silva plans on ending his 2021 campaign with one more knockout. After impressively recording two knockouts in UFC since his debut in June, Brazilian “Blindado” is scheduled to face another tough out in the middleweight division. At UFC 269 on Dec. 11, Silva (21-6) will take on Jackson-Wink fighter Jordan Wright (12-1). Silva spoke to Sherdog on Thursday shortly after news of the bout surfaced.

“This fight was closed 24 hours after my win over Andrew Sanchez and I’m really excited about that,” Silva admitted. “When I heard he never fought more than six minutes, and saw just one video of him, I immediately said yes.”

Fresh off his Oct. 16 demolition of Andrew Sanchez, the Evolucao Thai fighter has already …

Vicente Luque will be on standby in case anything goes wrong with the UFC 268 main event.

According to a report from ESPN, Luque will weigh in on Friday and serve as a backup for the welterweight championship main event between Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington. Top welterweight contender Leon Edwards was reportedly offered the backup role over Luque, but the Englishman elected to remain home to train for his matchup with Jorge Masvidal scheduled for UFC 269 on Dec. 12.

UFC 268 takes place at Madison Square Garden and is will also see Rose Namajunas square off against Weili Zhang in a strawweight title bout in the evening’s co-headliner. The main card airs on pay-per-view via ESPN+ at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, while prelims stream on ESPN+ at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT and on ESPN and ESPN+ at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

The 29-year-old Luque has won 10 of his last 11 UFC appearances and is coming off back-to-back first-round submission victories over Tyron Woodley and Michael Ch…

A potential all-action lightweight clash with championship implications will kick off the pay-per-view portion of the UFC 268 card.

Justin Gaethje and Michael Chandler will be the opening act for Saturday’s main card at Madison Square Garden, it was announced during "The MMA Hour” on Wednesday. It was generally expected that Gaethje vs. Chandler would be the third bout on the pay-per-view draw just ahead of the strawweight championship co-main event between Rose Namajunas and Weili Zhang and the welterweight title headliner pitting Kamaru Usman against Colby Covington.

Instead, Gaethje vs. Chandler will precede Shane Burgos vs. Billy Quarantillo and Frankie Edgar vs. Marlon Vera.

Gaethje hasn’t competed since falling to Khabib Nurmagomedov in a title bout at UFC 254 in October 2020. During media day on Wednesday, “The Highlight” was adamant that he will deserve another opportunity at lightweight gold if he defeats Chandler.

"If I win Saturday and I don't…

After a week in which four Brazilian fighters captured belts in a span of four days – Glover Teixeira in the UFC and Raush Manfio, Bruno Henrique Cappelozza and Antonio Carlos Jr. in Professional Fighters League – Patricky Freire will attempt to add to that collection on Friday when he faces Peter Queally for the vacant lightweight crown at Bellator 270.

Patricio Freire, who recently vacated the 155-pound title, spoke with Sherdog.com about his brother’s upcoming bout shortly after arriving in Dublin with kickboxing coach Thiago Tourão and boxing coach Everton Lopes.

“We arrived on Sunday here in Dublin and as far as we could see around the hotel area there was a lot of excitement for the event. But they won’t have good memories after this weekend. I can guarantee Patricky is in the best shape ever. For the first time, he did a complete camp for a title fight. In the past, he stepped in as a replacement on short notice.”

According to the former champion, a raucous pro-…

Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream UFC 268 live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app. Two Ultimate Fighting Championship contracts were handed out during the final Dana White's Contender Series event of Season 5. Joining the leading mixed martial arts promotion is lightweight Maheshate and the undefeated welterweight Yohan Lainesse, who both impressed UFC head honcho Dana White. The card was headlined by a lightweight battle between Maheshate and Achilles Estremadura, who walked in with an undefeated record seven bouts into his career. Both men came out firing and it was Maheshate (6-1) that rocked his unbeaten opponent just seconds into the bout. However, Estremadura stayed composed and was able to land damaging combinations for the rest of the round. However, Maheshate landed a huge jumping knee in the second frame that hurt the Canadian and stole the round. The third round was back-and-forth with both men having…

Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream UFC 268 live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app. Sherdog's live DWCS 2021 Week 10 coverage kicks off Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET. Check out the MMA Forums to discuss the card or enter your comments and predictions below. Round 1 Kicking off the final installment of Dana White's Tuesday Night Contender Series for season 5, we have perhaps the most experienced match-up in the history of the series, as 35 year-old Zhifa Shang, with a glossy record of 32-7, battles 33 year-old Juan Puerta, who is 22-6. Puerta has an 11 fight winning streak and Shang has won 20 in a row. However, Puerta is a solid favorite since he has fought the much better opposition. Referee Mike Beltran presides. Puerta starts out dancing around on the outside, looking very light. He misses an early leg kick. They are both cautious early, not engaging. Puerta throws a testing head kick that is blocked by Shang. Another P…

A flyweight showdown between Roxanne Modafferi and Casey O’Neill is in the works for UFC 271.

MMA Ideas was first to report the contest. UFC 271 takes place on Feb. 12 at an as yet to be determined location. The event does not yet have a headliner.

A veteran of 46 professional bouts over the course of a career that began in 2003, Modafferi has lost three of her last four Octagon appearances. “The Happy Warrior” is coming off back-to-back decision losses to Viviane Araujo and Taila Santos in 2021.

Australia’s O’Neill is emerging as a top prospect at 125 pounds after victories in her first three outings within the Las Vegas-based promotion. The 24-year-old Tiger Muay Thai product has scored successive finishes of Shana Dobson, Lara Procopio and Antonina Shevchenko in UFC competition thus far to run her professional mark to 8-0.

Glover Teixeira’s light heavyweight championship victory over Jan Blachowicz at UFC 267 was big not only in Brazil, but also in his adopted hometown.

The newly-crowned title holder received a hero’s welcome upon returning to Dansbury, Conn., after submitting Blachowicz in this past Saturday’s headliner at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. Watch the video above to see the reception Teixeira received.

UFC 267 was an important event regarding the status of the light heavyweight divison.

After Glover Teixeira took 205-pound gold from Jan Blachowicz and Magomed Ankalaev secured a dominant win against Volkan Oezdemir in Abu Dhabi, the weight class appears to be wide open for contenders like Thiago Santos, who is coming off a win over Johnny Walker at UFC Fight Night 193. For now, “Marreta” is simply waiting for the promotion to call with a name and date.

"I would love to face [Jiri] Prochaska, He is the only Top 5 opponent I haven’t faced yet, but since the UFC announced that he is the next No. 1 contender, I’m open to a few rematches,” Santos said. “I’ve already defeated Blachowicz and Anthony Smith via TKO, but it happened in 2018 and 2019, and I’m sure they are totally different fighters today. Aleksandar Rakic said I was an easy matchup, so I challenged him and he did not answer back.”

Santos plans to return to action sometime between February and March, and…

A heavyweight tilt pitting Tom Aspinall against Shamil Abdurakhimov is on tap for an Ultimate Fighting Championship event on March 19.

ESPN was first to report the booking. The card does not yet have an official location or headliner.

Aspinall is currently on a seven-bout winning streak that includes four triumphs within the Las Vegas-based promotion. In his last outing, the Team Kaobon representative scored a first-round TKO of Sergey Spivak at UFC Fight Night 191 on Sept. 4. Aspinall has also finished Andre Arlovski, Alan Baudot and Jake Collier in UFC competition.

After a two-year hiatus, Abdurakhimov returned at UFC 266, where he suffered a second-round technical knockout loss to Chris Daukaus on Sept. 25. After winning six of seven UFC bouts from February 2016 to April 2019, the 40-year-old Dagestani has dropped back-to-back contests in the Octagon.

Dustin Jacoby will replace the injured Aleksa Camur and square off against John Allan at UFC 268.

MMA DNA was first to report the new light heavyweight booking. The nature of Camur’s injury was not revealed. UFC 268 takes place at Madison Square Garden in New York on Saturday and is headlined by a welterweight title rematch between Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington.

Jacoby is unbeaten in his last six professional outings, which includes a 3-0-1 mark in the Octagon and victory on Dana White’s Contender Series. Most recently, the Glory Kickboxing veteran defeated Darren Stewart via first-round TKO at UFC on ESPN 30.

Allan, meanwhile, is still looking for his first promotional triumph. A victory over Mike Rodriguez at UFC Fight Night 155 was overturned to a no contest after Allan failed a post-fight drug test, and in his most recent outing, the Brazilian dropped a split verdict to Roman Dolidze at UFC on ESPN 19.